Shaggai

Perhaps the gems are used to semibond the Plate to the wearer, enabling the "perfect fit" and all that. For the rest, I agree with sprensquires theory. Do we have anything that says whether or not ancient Plate had gems?

Could a Nicrosil Twinborn who got ahold of another form of Investiture, would they be able to use their compounding abilities to drain unlimited amounts of power from the Shard whose Investiture they're using (assuming unlimited amounts of Nicrosil around)? If they drained enough, would they become the Shardholder? Could this be used to deSplinter a Shard?

You missed a vital detail there.

I assume being Truthless is the ultimate punishment: not just execution, but damnation. Being Truthless almost guarantees that you'll have to kill people, walk on stone, and use Stormlight. As for the specific nature of being Truthless: We know you have to follow the orders of whoever has your Oathstone. How Truthless are kept in line is another thing. Szeth would have done what he was supposed to anyway, because of his dedication to the laws of his people, but surely there have been (or could have been) other Truthless who weren't as dedicated. It's not some sort of Stone Shaman mind control, because Szeth says that "he could have stopped the killing at any time". Perhaps there's some sort of bond with the Oathstone? Some form of oath, the phrasing of which says that you have to follow orders if you lie about Desolations, or some such. If you break the oath, you kill the spren of the stone, which would be a worse sin than killing a human. But if you were telling the truth, you haven't broken the oath and you don't have to follow orders. Give me a few minutes, I'll develop this further. Edit: Okay, here goes. Each Shin has an Oathstone. They form some sort of bond with the spren of the stone (hey, maybe the spren of the stones are highspren, and this bond is why Szeth becomes a Skybreaker at the end! Stone spren being highspren would also explain why they're worshiped as gods), for which the oath is something along the lines of "I will obey whoever holds the stone." The Shamen hold the stones for most Shin, and one of the orders they give is "Do not lie about Desolations." If you are perceived to have lied, you are declared Truthless, and cast out. You must obey whoever holds the stone, or do even more damage to your bond with the spren of the stone. If you disobey enough, you kill the spren, and are then guilty of murdering a god. Edit2: Just found this: So stone spren are not, in this theory, highspren. Disregard that. Stone spren are still gods, though, so the theory works. Especially since Brandon implies that Szeth is bonded to some sort of spren.

Perhaps placement within the Double Eye of the Almighty? http://coppermind.net/w/images/TWoK_Front_Endsheet.jpg Presumably, this is dependent on which Essence each is associated with. On the other hand, why they would have to argue about that I don't know.

Brandon has confirmed that the color is what matters. We don't know whether that has something do to with the Cognitive perception, or simply is related to the color as an attribute (similar to how Awakening feeds on color. AFAIK, Cognitive perceptions of color don't affect its use as an Awakening fuel. Maybe someone should ask Brandon about that at some point).

I thought that Shardblades severed the soul from the body, but it can be regenerated as long as the brain is in good enough condition. I might have been misinterpreting that though.

Being soulless would mean you couldn't use it. And when Shardblades sever the soul, it kills whatever they sever. Lack of soul kills. Cognitive healing can regenerate the soul, which is what happened to Szeth. Kaladin managed it earlier.

I think that's it's less a perversion of the future and more a trade-off. If you want the information to stop Odium, you have to kill a bunch of people, which presumably corrupts you in some way. These Death Rattles may refer to something like it: Taravangian, by killing these people, is choosing to reject Honor, and as such his efforts will probably end up being futile or even harmful. We've seen that already, with his attempts to assassinate Dalinar.

Well, he can't heal when he's dead. Assuming he compounds gold continuously while you swing, it all depends on how quick Shardblade kills are, and how quick Feruchemical gold works. The question is if the Blade could effectively "sever" the spine before Feruchemical gold can repair the damage.

Taln was almost certainly still being tortured in the prologue. Even if it's not Taln in the warcamps in WoR, we know that the Voidbringers can return once Taln escapes. We may not know where he is in WoR, but if he had escaped back in the prologue why would the Voidbringers wait ten years to show up?

Not really. There are other Rattles that refer to the breaking of the Oathpact besides that one.

Or a Hoed mantra, because he was just in Damnation for more than four thousand years (presumably several times longer than he's ever been in one stretch before), carrying the burden of all ten Heralds.

If you've cut his neck with a Shardblade, his soul's gone. If his soul's been burned out through his eyes I doubt he'd be able to use any sort of Investiture to heal himself.

Perhaps the only manipulation of it that's been found is the Full Lashing?

The Alethi hair and how it always breeds true seems relevant to this.

There are references to the breaking of the Oathpact in at least one of them.

The Nightwatcher is also apparently associated with death. Someone, I think Dalinar, says at one point "Everyone must dine with the Nightwatcher." I wonder how that might fit in.

Soulcasting is basically bribing a spren with Stormlight to become something different. The famous stick is an example of this, except it failed in that case.

But what about the second paragraph?

If they were going to Stormseat, that would explain why their influence is still in the Shattered Plains. I was assuming that they were just traveling with the highstorm, in which case they could go much farther. I wonder what Shallan saw in the highstorm in chapter 49, if the Unmade were moving in chapter 74.

Blades don't need a gem, but the gem forms a minor version of the Nahel bond with the wielder. That's how it can be summoned and dismissed.

Got it. Using Chrome.

Has that been confirmed? And if so, why is Nergaoul still having an effect in the Shattered Plains?

I agree on the spren thing, but perhaps the gems were used for some of the other features of Plate, like adapting to whoever wears it. The gems were likely used to form a minor version of the Nahel bond (similar to modern Blades) with the wearer, so anyone could wear it. And since the spren never full-bonded, they wouldn't scream in the minds of Surgebinders. On the other hand, that theory fails to account for the glow seen in Dalinar's visions. Perhaps each set of Plate was designed for a specific order, and would glow when worn by a member of that order? The spren involved in the Plate would be different for each order, like windspren for Windrunners. The lesser versions of the bonding spren.