Pathfinder

Brandon has confirmed that the windrunner resonance is the number of squires and the power of said squires. I think he said the lightweavers resonance is their mnemonic memory ability, though that I can not recall if it was expressly confirmed. I will need to check.

Thank you. I think it provides the radiant surges from what little we see, though I admit it is far from conclusive. Cohesion seems to work the way we saw the stoneward use it in Dalinar's vision. Division seems to work in the manner alluded to in the past writings. Abrasion allows Amaram to skate forward on one leg. I think he also reduces his gravity to jump up and catch Kaladin at one point. People theorize that Jasnah can soulcast at range due to the combination of transportation and transformation while Shallan theoretically can not. Others theorize that Shallan can make her illusions solid with a combination of transformation and illumination while Renarin theoretically would not (if he had been a normal truthwatcher). Some theorize that what Shallan did to inspire the soldiers that deserted by combining illusion and transformation. Renarin seems to be more natural at his use of regrowth than Lift. That is kind of the point being made. A Bondsmith thing regarding adhesion is spiritual and brings people together. A windrunner thing may be more physical.

Personally I think based on the descriptions that Aesudan and Amaram reached the same point of transformation. If we are led to believe Aesudan could not control Yelig-nar, then I think the crystals forming and actually consuming the person's body is an indication of loss of control. I feel the progression of each individual supports this. Aesudan swallowed the crystal just prior to Elhokar walking up. Right after that the crystallization progressed rather quickly. In Amaram's case the crystallization started slow, but then started to accelerate. That indicates to me that he barely had more control than Aesudan, and over the course of the battle was quickly losing it. I posit that had Amaram not been killed, he too would have been consumed. But that is my opinion based on the reading. Got nothing completely conclusive to back it up. I think that would be a competition on who could consume who first lol. Or it could be an endless loop like the snake that eats its own tail. Yelig-nar consumes Nightblood, as Nightblood consumes Yelig-nar, thus making the perfect host! I will need to pull up the scene again, but I feel I recall as Elhokar and Kaladin run up, they notice it appears as if she had just swallowed something. So that says to me it is a similar time frame to Amaram, just he seems to last a bit longer than her. Multiple powers of a certain threshhold no longer produce resonances. So mistborn do not get resonances. As per WoB. So Yelig-nar would not produce resonances. edit:correction, we may be thinking in the wrong direction. Aesudan may have been better at it than Amaram. I re-read the scene, and it showed she had already bonded with Yelig-nar. In fact she implies she had bonded with him awhile ago. When they first walk in she seems fine, and speaks of turning her men into her own radiants. It wasn't till Kaladin and Elhokar arrived and they talk for a bit before her eyes start to glow red and she begins to change. Conversely, the moment Amaram swallowed the gem he started to change. So potentially Aesudan controlled it better for longer. The only other possibility I can think of, is as you use the surges, or tap into Yelig-nar he starts to actively consume you. Since Amaram was using the abilities from the get go, he got consumed in a short period of time, while Aesudan didn't start really using Yelig-nar till Kaladin and Elhokar showed up.

So just finished posting the quotes from both scenes (please refer to my last post). There is no difference between Aesudan and Amaram in those scenes. So if there ultimately would be any difference, it would have happened after Kaladin and co left, or had Amaram lived longer, but from the scenes we are able to see, they reach the same stage. Both have their chest cavity being full of gemstones, both lucid, and able to speak as themselves. So I do not think from what little we see, that we can say Amaram had any more control than Aesudan. edit: little follow up tidbit. The way Aesudan talks about Yelig-nar implies to me that it does have intelligence. Otherwise why make a point of saying Ashertman is mindless? I feel the juxtaposition is intentional, but that is just my reading of the below scene: Oathbringer page 813 She laughed "Yelig-nar serves me. Or do you speak of the Heart of the Revel? Ashertmarn has no will; he is merely a force of consumptions, mindless, to be harnessed.

I have to check the scene to be sure (will do in like 10 minutes), but didn't Aesudan also start growing crystals? If so, then Amaram may not necessarily have been in control. We also do not know how long Aesudan lasted after they had left. The crystal growing could be an indication of losing control, and consumption being not far behind. edit: found it! Oathbringer page 819 "The queen descended the stairs, wreathed in blak smoke, eyes glowing red. She'd transformed, strange crystal formations having pierced her skin like carapace. Her chest was glowing bright with a gemstone, as if it had replaced her heart. it shone through her dress." Amaram takes longer to get to that extent, but he definitely looks the same. I am pulling up that scene now. Will get it posted shortly. Oathbringer page 1176 "The highprince's entire chest had collapsed inwards. There was no sign of ribs or internal organs. Instead, a large violet crystal pulsed inside his chest cavity, overgrown with dark veins. If he'd been wearing a uniform or padding beneath his armor, it had been consumed. "

Brandon considers heralds as members of their orders. However, Nale swearing 5 oaths is separate from wielding an honorblade. So Nale is a Herald and a fully oathed skybreaker radiant.

Can you confirm where it says that in the book, or WoB? Not suggesting you are wrong. Just I do not recall that stated, so always open to learning something new.

Lol, refresh the page, I kinda beat you to it. Cognitive Shadows are investiture. Moash's dagger trapped the cognitive shadow, and the body was then dead. I speculate that Yelig-nar would consume the investiture that is the cognitive shadow of the herald or the fused, and thereby not be a perfect host. Speculate away. I just speculate differently.

I would need to pull up the WoBs associated with each but we do know for a fact that: 1. the heralds bodies are "grown"/created 2. their cognitive shadow is inhabiting the body, as Moash's dagger took it away to prevent it from being reborn edit: found the WoB for the second one, but it is not exactly how I recall. please give me a few moments to dig further to be sure edit 2: i slightly tweaked my response. relevant WoBs shown below Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] Moash killed a god? One of the Heralds? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] He did. One of the Heralds. And trapped his soul so he couldn't be reborn. Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] That's what it is. Trapped his soul, didn't actually kill him? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] It's killed him...It was like, extra killed. The Heralds are bound to a cycle of rebirth that happens...that they wanted to make sure didn't happen that time. Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] How do the Heralds come back? How do they a physical body? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] That system will be explained in the coming books, so that is a RAFO. I'm gonna dig into it pretty deeply. It's relevant for multiple reasons. In the original version, Taln ended up in someone else, like they would get a body from someone else, which was part of fueling the "Is he crazy, is he not," because people were like, "I recognize this guy!" I don't use that system anymore. Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] That's what I was wondering, because the Fused... Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] They use something kind of more like the Fused in the original draft, it's not that process anymore. Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] Is that gonna give us lead-ins to how it worked with Kelsier? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] Maybe. Maybe. You shall see. Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] Can a Returned be made from Stormlight? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] How would you count the Heralds? Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] I haven't read much, so I don't really know what you're talking about. Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] In the Stormlight books, there is a set of people who are constantly reborn, into full sized grown bodies that are being created for them. Would you count that as being Returned? Or do you count Returned...What's your definition, right? You can create something that is Returned-like. But your definition of what is Returned and what is not, is going to be involved in that.

For all we know Yelig-nar would end up consuming the investiture keeping the herald in his created body, which would run into the potential same problem as using the fused. Though I say this not to say I am right you are wrong. This is completely conjecture on my own part.

You are perfectly entitled to that opinion. For myself, when there is a WoB that describes breaking the bond as having a wetware jack forcefully yanked out of the skull, chunky and all, I feel that means something is now missing. To extend the example, if I have a lamp that I plug into the wall, and I yank out the plug with the entire socket, I am left with a hole in the wall. If I later take another lamp, and try to plug it into the gaping hole, nothing happens. I can then take the hanging electrical wires from the gaping hole and wrap them directly around the plug's prongs to power the lamp, but I am going to lose a lot of the power transfer and also risk setting the house on fire. I can then wrap electrical tape around the wires to reduce the chance of fire, and maybe lose less electrical power, but still it isn't going to work the same way as if there was a socket installed. So for me, until a new socket is installed, no matter how you jury rig that connection, you are not going to get the same connection as you would with a socket. I do not feel the bond between Adolin and Maya by itself is enough to reform the "socket". If that was in fact the case, then I do not see why it has not already been accomplished by any number of past shardbearers due to 1. the number of shardbearers we have had over the years, and 2. the number of years in which people experimented with said shardblades. So for me by the law of averages, multiple people would have had to have figured that out long before Adolin. Bondsmiths's entire schitck is about bonds, reuniting, and bringing people together, so that would by definition not be a deus ex machina. It would be well documented over the course of the books, and be plausible. But as I said, that is my own reading of the information we have at hand.

Like I said, comes down to personal preference. That information still does not preclude Odium from giving his own troops a try. It does not preclude him from taking chickens and seeing if they would hold Yelig-nar. We have not seen anyone successfully house him, nor truly know what it means to successfully house him. The Mythica could mention that only because those sources were concerned with the human portion. As far as we know humans always fail, but the dawnsingers always succeed. So long story short, I feel we got nothing lol.

Swordnimi already made the excellent point that Jasnah soulcasted Shallan's blood. If Jasnah can exclude the rest of Shallan's body and only soulcast the blood (keeping in mind that is a circulatory system throughout the body) , then there should be no reason why other parts of the body could not be soulcasted excluding the rest of the body. My theory is the limitation is skill and stormlight. You would need more stormlight to convince a part of a person is separate, and you would have to be skilled enough at soulcasting to manipulate it as such. As to an awakener using stormlight to awaken, we know is possible. Just no one has figured it out yet. All systems can be hacked to power others, just some are easier to do than others.

I think since we do not have a verified metric on what makes a successful host for Yelig-nar, it is hard to judge what was done at all in the past vs now, so this is entirely my own opinion. Yes Odium is trying new things, but Yelig-nar is definitely an "old" thing. I do not see why Odium would not have already used Yelig-nar to try to bond his existing troops (singers and fused) in the ages past. They are the most readily available. If anything I think offering him up to humans is the new experimentation.

They sorta do and don't at the same time? WoB below Questioner What is axial interconnection? Brandon Sanderson You'll find out <a little bit> eventually. So here's a RAFO. Axi is the Cosmere term for *inaudible* <atoms>. They didn't have a guy named <atom>. They have a different word for it. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they're referencing a real-world science when they talk about them.

What would be different about past desolations that they would not have tried it already? Fused were already a thing back then. I wouldn't imagine they would have any problem sacrificing singer lives before vs now.

You get no disagreement from me. Was only commenting on Turash the fused.

My one disagreement with Turash, is he is a fused which means he is already "inhabiting" the body after kicking someone else out. I feel like if he bonded with Yelig-nar, he would have to then get kicked out since his hold on his current body would be relatively tenuous (by not being the original owner). But that is all just me theorizing. Got nothing definitive to say "it won't work because of X"

Dalinar I feel is currently an agnostic. He believes in a "higher power" but he does not know yet exactly what form it takes. Jasnah on the other hand in my opinion, even if she received the same visions as Dalinar, would have no evidence to cause her to believe this could not be yet another fallible entity that simply has access to power she does not yet have access to or knowledge of. So I think its cool that Dalinar and Jasnah could co-exist, with the exact same level of information, and still hold to their own rationale/beliefs without conflict.

I understand your interpretation. Mine was more mundane. That is why I said I think. I think it is purely practical. He says men to me in a generic form, but that there is an exception due to Kaladin's surge of gravitation. For me sometimes the butler really did do it and there is no hidden meaning of more. But you are entitled to think more of it. edit: to clarify the exact quote goes like this: Oathbringer page 497 "I'm thinking of how you treat ships" Dalinar whispered, his physical voice lost to the winds - yet his meaning carried, unhampered, to the Stormfather. Men should not be upon the waters during a storm, he repied, Men are not of the waves. "And the sky? Are men of the sky?" Some are. He said this grudgingly Dalinar could only imagine how terrible it must be to be a sailor out at sea during a storm. He had taken only short coastwise trips by ship

I think the point is at sea there is no way to hide from the full brunt of the storm unless you decide to submerge yourself deep under water and grow gills lol. That is why any sea travel involves hugging the coast, and at the first side of a storm, seeking a cove to shelter in.

I am still of the personal opinion that there is absolutely no problem with Jasnah having knowledge of the Shards and still be an atheist. The Shards are simply beings with just as much faults as everyone else, with a greater metric of power. That does not make them a god that should be worshiped. Anyone with the right knowledge and resources can take the power away and become one. edit: Also Cultivation is unconnected to the Vorin religion. The Old Magic is seen as a heresy/blasphemy so it would have no bearing on Jasnah's heresy regarding the Vorin religion. Though I see what you are getting at lol.

I would have to dig for the WoB, but the moon scepter looks more like the chinese scepter, where it has a flat founded bulb on one hand, with a flat long piece, and then another bump on the other end. I think it was Jofwu who asked about it, but I could be messing up who the questioner was. Give me like 10 minutes and I will pull it up with coinciding picture edit: It was Botanica. WoB below Botanica How does the Moon Scepter actually look like? In what shape is it? Now we have two understandings of the word "scepter" based on different ways of translation: 1) 杖: It shapes like a common wand/staff/rod/cane/stick, usually seen in Western countries. [Mainland translation] 2) 笏: It's kind of a flat scepter of Chinese origin, shaped like a tablet, usually held before the breast by officials when received in audience by the emperor. (Very rarely, the emperor himself holds it.) The officials can take notes on it. [Taiwan translation (I believe the translator once showed you around the Taipei Palace Museum.)] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaku_(ritual_baton) Could you tell us which one is closer to the original design? Thanks! Brandon Sanderson It's not a Shaku, it's a Ruyi, actually. That's an excellent question, though. It does actually come from my visit to the museam, and while I'm aware of shakus, I hadn't heard them called scepters. But I guess they are! Either way, I imagined it as the wavy shape of a Ruyi. (如意) Botanica Whoa what an amazing answer! Thanks so much for the explanation! I once thought of Ruyi when flipping through some reference materials and now it becomes canon! Hooray! Another question if you don't mind: (Someone just asked this a moment ago.) Why is it called Moon Scepter? Does (perhaps) one side/end of it resemble moon? [Full moon or crescent?] Or is it colored like moon? Or does it contain some moon pattern? (Also a fan art question, sorry ;P) Brandon Sanderson It has to do with the differences in religion between Shai's people and the Rose Empire. It is colored like the moon, but there's a little more to it than that. Botanica Ah, I see. Thank you! So what color is Selish moon when we look at it? (I suppose there's only one moon?) Didn't find any specific descriptions about its color in books. Can we assume it is similar to our moon? Brandon Sanderson I didn't say it was the color of Sel's moon... Just kidding. It is, and there is only one. It's a pale white blue, a little more blue than ours, but similar.

I feel like the reverse would be true. You would need more stormlight to convince the finger it is a separate entity from the rest of the person in order to soulcast only that. Now I say that qualifying it that the only definitive thing I have to go on is that Jasnah says it is more difficult to soulcast air, because it is used to being seen as one great whole rather than individual "parts". My instinct says that means it would require more stormlight, but difficulty does not always mean it requires more stormlight. All I know is I can't wait till we learn more about soulcasting! lol

Personally I do feel Adolin is reviving Maya bit by bit, and will end up an edgedancer, but I do not think a typical bond will bring her fully back. I am still on that WoB that describes breaking a radant bond to ripping out a data jack from the spren's skull, leaving a gaping hole. I think something extra needs to be done (bondsmith help, or what have you), to help heal the damage, for a new bond to be made.