Shaggai

Herdazian food, I think.

Definitely. 75% of the characters in the Cosmere will turn out to be time-traveling Hoid in disguise.

All on page 666, at least in the editions of the second and third that I have.

I agree. I don't think that story has many implications for the Cosmere. The whole "spiritually blind" thing, maybe, but not the story.

If he's anyone's pawn, it's Cultivation, not Odium. As per Moogle's post above, he doesn't seem to hate anyone. But he's certainly cultivating things.

Well, one out of three's not bad. Yes it is, it's 33 percent!

The difference between passing on Breath and Hemalurgically gifting powers to your heirs is that one of them requires that you say a few words that everyone knows, and the other one requires stabbing yourself with a spike and then stabbing your heir in a very specific spot. Maybe Vivenna would have noticed it, but if it was considered taboo the Idrians might not know, or perhaps they would dismiss it as legend.

The Heralds were not all lighteyes. However, the Honorblade makes Szeth's eyes change color, which is why Taln's eye color matters.

You will be noticed. Your brainwashing techniques, at the least, will be pretty damnation visible. Other world governments will do everything they can to overthrow you. It is in nobody's interests to see the US ruled by a totalitarian dictator who nobody knows anything about. You're not going to be able to successfully confine it to North America.

Yeah, but... swimming all the way to Kholinar... it just seems like it would be so much easier to walk. And it all depends on how Heralds move from world to world. Shadesmar does seem the most likely, but it's possible that there's some sort of other teleportation thing. Jasnah's teleportation is basically just walking through Shadesmar. The Heralds probably do it differently, since they disappear and go back to Braize when they die. Maybe there's someone with a Regrowth fabrial who takes them into Shadesmar and heals them or something, but that seems kind of unlikely. Surely there would be some mention of that sort of thing.

Perhaps whatever methods he used to travel to or from Braize broke the bond? His death apparently teleported him back to Braize, which might have broken the bond in the process. Or perhaps it happened on the way back. I don't think that he swam, though. If he came from the Origin (or any of the seas, really) surely he would have dried off by the time he reached Kholinar. We know that inhaling Stormlight creates frost, so perhaps the water was melted frost. That would fit with a more direct and magical method of travel.

Definitely. He'll probably only get one appearance per book, though.

We tried that once. It got... bad. Anyway, I think Syl will end up with Wyndle. Pattern is too analytical to ship, so I think he'll end up working with Jasnah on scholarship stuff.

If the Unmade count, buy. If not, sell. We will see a non-evil equivalent of a Thunderclast.

The spheres they found in the chasm, that they wanted to take but knew they wouldn't be able to spend!

Sell. For various reasons, I think that the humans will lose the first set. If that happens, they won't really have time to farm chasmfiends. There is a Shard of Humor.

Problems with the first paragraph: 1. How do you manage this without a vast, probably horribly corrupt bureaucracy? 2. If everything still works, how does it work towards the brainwashing techniques you posted? 3. What probability do you assign to "this all fails horribly about halfway through, resulting in massive devastation across the globe"? 4. What probability do you assign to "when people realize that your successor has no magic powers, they revolt, resulting in massive devastation across the globe"? Problems with the second paragraph: 1. You're managing seven billion people. You can't do that with a small group of people. You can have a small group of people to manage the managers who manage the managers who manage the managers who manage the actual people doing the work, sure. But if there's corruption on any of those other levels you're not going to notice. 2. The suffering caused by the brainwashing techniques (isolation, etc.) seems to outweigh the benefits of your rule. This is seven billion people being brainwashed. Far fewer than 100% of them would have, in your absence, suffered to the same extent as a result of crime, war, etc. Problems with the third paragraph: 1. If they attack in a crowded city, you won't be able to sense them in all the clamor. Also, bombs and a remote detonator. Or drones. If they get desperate enough to ignore collateral damage, there's very little you can do. 2. I think you're vastly underestimating the difficulty of changing your appearance. 3. There are a lot of governments in the world. It'll take a while to get hold of them all. General comments: Sanity. Yours and the kid's. The kid will have to be actively puppeting thousands of people at a time, at the least. Staying sane in the face of that would be a very, very impressive achievement.

Well, of course it's not his fault. He's been in Damnation for over 4500 years. Anyone would be insane after that. Of course it won't sail. Marasi is going to end up with Wayne. (Incidentally, that's what I'm selling.)

Shouldn't that be a "Y", not an "E"?

It can't be Shardblades, can it? I was going to say spheres, or specifically the Stormlight within them, but I don't remember Moash and Kaladin disagreeing about that.

Until you die and the magic powers that held your empire together are gone. At which point your successor will likely have to deal with massive revolts all across the world. Brainwashing works to an extent, but you won't be able to brainwash everyone. Furthermore, you've now gone so far as to have lost sight of your original point. The benefits of eradicating crime are vastly outweighed by the detriments of the "global demoralization and destabilization" tactics that you're proposing to use. Besides, even if you manage to brainwash everyone without harming them, even while you're alive this won't work. You can't micromanage everything, so you'll need a massive bureaucracy. You think that's not going to be corrupt? The world will likely end up in an even worse state than it is now. Of course, all of this is assuming that you manage to get to this point without being assassinated. You can't use your magic powers against someone if you don't know that they're there. Hide a couple snipers in buildings in a crowded city you'll be passing through, and you're dead. You can't use telepathy on them, because you don't know they're there (and if you tried using it on everybody in the vicinity, it still wouldn't work because there are too many people). Or set up a bomb in your vehicle while you're sleeping and detonate it remotely when you get in. There are countless ways to manage it, especially with the resources of a major government.

You can brainwash them all, at a rate of 40 per minute? That's how fast you would need to do it to get it done in around 70 years.

No way you'll have time to do that to the entire planet in a single human lifetime. Even assuming that 80% of people will cooperate willingly and continue to be good afterwards, without brainwashing, that's still nearly a billion and a half people. At a rate of one brainwashing per minute on average, with 24/7 brainwashing, it'll take more than 2600 years to brainwash them all. You aren't immortal. Basically, this is scope insensitivity. It's difficult for human brains to comprehend such vast numbers. So when you picture yourself doing this, you're imagining doing it to one person (or maybe a few), and imagining that working. But there are so many people that it will never work.

Maybe the Heralds, being appointed directly by Honor, have some sort of other connection to their Honorblades, that other people don't have? Or maybe the Honorblade has to be rebonded each time it arrives on Roshar, and Taln didn't have time. Ah, okay. I guess I've just never seen the second WoB.

Too many white people as Alethi.