Pathfinder

So got a bunch to reply on. here we go! Personally I lean towards what Calyx quoted. I think there is more depth to releasers than just "blowing stuff up". I will elaborate further in the later responses below I agree! Just because their abilities may lend to combat does not preclude members who do not wish to fight. Edgedancers were quoted in the book to be amongst the most deadly, yet their surges lend towards combat medics (getting in, healing, and getting out). Wyndle wanted to bond an elderly gardener. That is not very combat inclined to me. Lift out of respect to Wyndle who doesn't want to cut people, turned him into a pole resulting in her not killing enemies despite her order supposedly being doing deadly. Syl had last bonded an elderly man as well that died soon after in combat because he was unable to fight effectively due to his age. Elsecallers that find members primarily amongst scholars (though brandon has confirmed a general that plans out tactics could join) have shown Jasnah who is quite effective on the battle field with surges one would not have thought originally would lend towards combat. Brandon has even confirmed a member of the windrunners could be afraid of heights. (WoB below) so Lirin could totally use his burning powers to cauterize wounds while healing people. it doesn't preclude him Questioner (paraphrased) Are there Windrunners who are afraid of heights? Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) Yes there are. You can see with Kaladin that a lot of them would see the sky as their domain, but there are some with a fear of heights. It's like being a left-handed woman in Alethkar, there are some things you just could end up with. I believe it was bigmikey? The one with the black panther face on it. That was at least the first time I saw it. Either way, I agree the herdazian general would be great as a releaser And honorspren do not trust Cryptics. And inkspren dislike honorspren as conquerors. So I do not think we should take what Pattern says as indicative of a whole order. Malata is also unique in that her spren wants revenge on the humans yet bonds a human, while Timbre does not want revenge, but won't bond a human, and instead bonds a parsh. The reason why I think more releasers are important, is to show there is a spectrum of members even among orders themselves. Kaladin, Teft and Lopen are all rather different personality wise. How many times have we seen Lopen "leading"? Yet he is a confirmed radiant. I think Lirin would be a good counter point and develop the order further. It would also be interesting to me to see the interplay between father and son as Lirin progresses as a radiant. Finally I am trying to type this quick so I can't check but I think someone wrote that Lirin is against violence so it wouldn't make sense to be a releaser. Lirin didn't want that life for kaladin because he saw what it did to soldiers on the battlefield or returning to war. He even admits it is necessary, but he didn't want kaladin to know how it feels. He is a father that just wanted to spare his son pain. So I do not think that precludes Lirin from being willing to do what needs to be done.

Thanks! Yeah, I would really like to see a counterpoint to Malata for the Releasers to show the good sides to the order. Thank you! I believe it was revealed that that person mis-remembered. Though I do think the herdazian could be a releaser, and I love that theory too! Actually with the way the WoB was worded, we could be seeing multiple releasers, so it could even be both of them! Questioner Any new Dustbringers in Stormlight Four? Brandon Sanderson Yes, there will be.

I believe it was a WoB with Yata. Give me a few minutes to find it. edit: not having luck finding WoB today it seems. I will keep digging but if it helps, from what I recall it was to balance/prevent soulcasters from just soulcasting more gemstones instead of having to hunt chasmfiends. Why kill chasmfiends when soulcasters could just produce their own gemstones to use? The response was that if you soulcasted a polestone, it wouldn't work for soulcasting, but finding the wording is proving difficult. edit 2: so far found a reddit post where someone says soulcasters cannot make "true gemstones", another person mentioning that shallan says soulcasters cannot make actual gemstones (way of kings page 501), and a WoB that says synthetic gemstones for soulcasters are possible. Still trying to find the smoking gun that I am thinking of.

So this is a crackpot theory that just popped into my head, and curious people's thoughts on it. Lirin is brave (standing up to Roshone and the townspeople), and also obedient (holds to the rosharan version of the Hippocratic oath of do no harm even when it could have saved his family by letting Roshone die). Releaser spren like seeing inside of things, which a surgeon frequently does. Brandon has said there will be a new dustbringer in the next book, and we have two scenes of Lirin released that will be in book 4. All very loose evidence, but I am really beginning to wonder. Thoughts?

Hey who knows. I am still convinced she would be a dustbringer because their spren like looking inside things, and I could see an engineer fitting that. The only thing that sucks is that a WoB says we have not gotten a PoV of a dustbringer yet (this was as of words of radiance I think), and by that time we have gotten a PoV of Navani. I had a random thought though, what if Lirin ends up a dustbringer? I will post a new thread on that.

I do know that it is possible to soulcast gemstones/polestones, but that they cannot then be used for soulcasting (in other words, soulcast a emerald, then use that emerald to soulcast food. this does not work). However I am not sure if it was ever confirmed whether or not soulcasted gemstones could hold stormlight or not. If they could hold stormlight, then it would be a simple matter to shape copper wiring into what you want, and then soulcast them into gemstone versions which could theoretically accomplish what you posit. Have no clue if it could actually work, but maybe that is where things are going?

This is not canon yet because Brandon is still working out the kinks, but he wants powers like the oathgates to work using the spiritual realm which is all times and all places at once, so that would solve the whole "being in two places at once" issue you bring up. WoB below: Questioner Did humans come to Roshar through Shadesmar? Brandon Sanderson It is technology or magic closer to how the Oathgates work. But it was like that. It's not canon but right now that's what I have. It's not canon because there are certain things I have to work out before that can work... By the way I'll just say to the tape recording that I haven't canonized, like for instance if they traveled to Shadesmar to get to Shinovar from Ashyn. Right now I have that not being via Shadesmar, but the mechanics of that might not work out, and I might have to default to Shadesmar. So there's certain things, you'll see, where I say, "This isn't the canon answer, it's where I have things right now." Overlord Jebus So Urithiru might end up being a spaceship after all. Brandon Sanderson It's not that. Right now I have them using something closer to Oathgating, but it opens up a huge can of worms, when I'm not requiring direct-- When I'm sending through Spiritual Realm it opens up cans of worms, and I have to just make sure the mechanics on that are tight before I do it. Questioner Uh, before you split The Rithmatist from the Cosmere, did the Shadowblazes come from the Cognitive realm? Brandon Sanderson Yeah. Yeah, the Shadowblazes were in the Cognitive realm, they’re--you know, well, they’re more Spiritual realm. They were Spiritual realm, sorry. They were Spiritual realm entities that got pulled in, uh, to the Physical realm. And the Spiritual realm has no time, um, it exists independent of time and location, all times and all places are one, and so, uh, when something that’s from the Spiritual realm got pulled into the Physical realm, it was like, “This is so weird!” Um, and there are very few things in the Cosmere that exist only on the Spiritual realm, which was a really fun thing I could do with this book, was show that. Cause most things exist on all three realms. Um, so, yeah. So, yeah, I mean if you’ve got, if you’re a Cosmere, uh, theologian--not theologian, magic, uh, what do you call it? Uh, they call that, uh, I have a word for it in-world. But anyway, if you’re a realmatic theorist, you can kind of pick out how the Spiritual realm beings were related, originally, to the realmatic theory.

I could have sworn there was explicit confirmation but that the wording was a bit wonky. I will keep on digging, but until I find it, I guess the one I was thinking of is included in the spoiler below which coincides with your statement.

Will need to remember the proper wording to locate the WoB, but it is confirmed that:

Having Rlain as a bondsmith, trying to unite his people with the humans instead of divide would be an interesting plot development for him. I could see Venli teaching other singers how to bond radiant spren, so more singers going radiant I could totally see happening.

So I readily acknowledge there is a whooooole lot of grey area in here, but I think there could be a way to transition to the cognitive realm without your native powers having to be geared towards it or have to use a perpendicularity. Spoilers for white sand below:

Brandon has said Dalinar would come back to the same level of presence in prior books in book 5 after he steps back in book 4, so I agree. Potentially it could even be the result of a second bondsmith popping up to show more of what bondsmiths can do. I have no information whatsoever to back that up (the part about a second bondsmith), but it would be pretty cool to me for it to play out that way.

An Alcubierre Drive seems to theoretically at least be going in the right direction. Steeldancer (paraphrased) Have you ever heard of the Alcubierre Drive? Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) Yes, I know about the Alcubierre drive. Steeldancer (paraphrased) So, if we took two speed bubbles--mechanized, because Allomancers aren't powerful enough to pull it off--could we create a functioning Alcubierre drive? Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) You are theorizing in the right direction.

True. We have seen certain "strains" of spren tending to hang out in some areas, so I see no reason why they may exclude bonding in certain areas.

Which is why this WoB to me is important. Brandon confirmed it was Dalinar's powers/presence that did it to Taln. So whether it is the perpendicularity or not, we know it is a power Dalinar can use. To me if it was a one off ability that happened because Dalinar leveled up, or for "reasons", then Brandon wouldn't confirm that it is a power of Dalinar's. Maybe I am over reading into it, but that is how I interpret it at least.

I think it would depend on who the hemalurgy was being done to. So for instance if the people in the society were ok with it, but the spren were not, and the hemalurgy done resulted in the spren's death, then I believe the skybreakers would act on the spren's laws as they were the aggrieved party technically. Then again, a tourist in a foreign land is held to that land's laws, so potentially the spren by coming further into the physical realm via radiant bond in a particular region, may be subject to that region's laws, and thereby it be legal for hemalurgy to have been done to it. Interesting conundrum.

So my response will cover the both of you so I will do it in one go. First of all, we know the stormlight recharging portion of least can be replicated because Dalinar does exactly that for Kaladin so he can search for the surviving bridgemen. It specifically mentions that Dalinar did it again, just that it is very draining. Second, we have a WoB regarding Dalinar's powers I have included below (I know the full situation of the WoB, and will cover that after the WoB, so please read the rest before responding to my mention of this particular WoB) Questioner Dalinar Ascends, right? Like, right then, there. Brandon Sanderson I have RAFO'd that. Whether he is Ascending or not is a RAFO. Questioner Okay, because I know he kind of mentions from that, I don't know how to say his name but the older guy who has the Diagram-- Brandon Sanderson Taravangian, yeah. Whether that deserves to be a capital "A" or not is a matter of argument. It can be disputed. Questioner I guess my main question would just be Dalinar's now able to pull Stormlight and give it to people now. Brandon Sanderson He definitely can. That is a Bondsmith power, so. Questioner That is a Bondsmith power, okay. Brandon Sanderson That is specifically a Bondsmith power. Questioner Because my roommate was saying well, the Stormfather was surprised he could do that or was the Stormfather surprised that he was able to bridge-- Brandon Sanderson He was surprised by what was happening to Dalinar as a whole. Questioner Oh okay, that's what I thought because I was like, because I felt like the Stormlight, that power would be a Bondsmith power. Brandon Sanderson Let's say that the Stormfather and Odium were seeing something in Dalinar that, perhaps, the average person watching even who is knowledgeable about Surges would not completely understand... But he will be able to use that power and Bondsmiths in the past have used that same power. Now Brandon later said he may have been misleading regarding Dalinar's powers. The implication potentially being whether or not the uniting of the three realms/perpendicularity/recharging stormlight is a bondsmith power or a function of Dalinar being bonded with the stormfather that is currently bonded with the cognitive shadow of Tanavast. That is why to me this WoB is great. It is confirming that what happened to Taln is directly related to Dalinar's powers. So it doesn't matter whether or not it comes from being a bondsmith, or being linked up to a shard's cognitive shadow, either way it is a power Dalinar can use. We do not know however that it is due to the perpendicularity. We know perpendicularities are large amounts of investiture that result in the three realms being pierced. We know a by product of that piercing is being able to travel between realms. Just like you do not have to be a shard, or have a shard pool to create a perpendicularity (elsecallers can make mini ones to travel, and perpendicularities can be created without the intention of traveling), so too for all we know something unrelated to the perpendicularity but occurred when the realms were united resulted in Taln becoming lucid. For all we know when Dalinar used his powers to unite the realms, he had an area of effect that resulted in "united" everything in the area that had been "divided". Thereby Taln was lucid, but not because of the perpendicularity. Or it could be directly because of the perpendicularity. We at this stage do not know for sure. What we now know for sure is Dalinar is the source of it, and it is his powers/presence (as per the WoB) that did it. That says to me it can be done again, and that to me is important. If it feels self evident to you Calderis, then I respect that, but it doesn't change that I think it is an important thing to define and get a concrete answer on like we got, which is why I thought it would have fostered more discussion. Now understanding why I made the statement I did, I will continue to discuss the subject. Thank you! I feel it would allow Dalinar and Adolin to bond and work through their issues. Adolin could still work towards teaching others to help awaken their blades, and it would also give the spren a reason to ally with the new incarnation of radiants under Dalinar as he can help with the final step of bringing them back. I think Adolin and Maya are as connected as they can be, but what was torn out of Maya I think still needs to be fixed before a true nahel bond could form. Since spren are made of investiture, and stormlight brings them "back to life" to a small degree when first placing an infused gemstone in the hilt to help form the "faux" bond, I think a large dose of investiture that only a bondsmith could provide, would bridge the final gap in restoration.

It is confirming the link between Taln's lucidity and Dalinar's presence/powers, which was only theorized before. It also confirms it was the powers/Dalinar himself that caused it, not a tangential effect of a whole list of things going on around that time as well, which means it can be replicated. If it can be replicated, then it could potentially be done in such a way to have the effect on Taln be permanent. If you don't want to discuss it, then good on you. Personally I thought it was a good WoB.

Thank you! I am surprised not more people are commenting on this thread. This could have all sorts of implications on what Dalinar's powers can do.

Yep, but WoB say that at least some of the process requires both parties. This way it doesn't matter what level the radiant is, nor whether the radiant agrees or not. Now it would involve killing the radiant, but if such individual was intending to kill the spren for whatever reason, it could potentially save the spren.

You mean how Dalinar claimed he was seeing visions from the almighty that stated he was dead? All of these things already occurred. Not sure how it could create much issue now with Taln. To me it would only provide them with additional info. Also don't think Dalinar would use Taln to substantiate his rule. He is already in charge of Urithiru. Jasnah is already queen of Alethkar. They finally have the coalition. So I do not think Taln would even be needed as a function politically. He would be an invaluable information resource, and additional "radiant" to count among their numbers.

Just adding a few tidbits for thoughts Spren do have rules to prohibit "spren fishing" mentioned on the map of shadesmar. WoB confirmed that spren fishing involves presenting something to attract the spren (i.e. emotion, etc) to then capture it. That prohibition is enforced by the spren. Spren had enough problem with what happened with the recreance, seeing it as death of their people enough to enforce a prohibition on bonding radiants. Syl was apprehended and jailed in an attempt to break the bond with Kaladin to prevent her ending up like the dead eyes. Just because some spren got through and bonded despite this, does not change that many spren societies did have rules in place to try and prevent it. Though as pointed out by Calderis, not all the spren societies felt the same on this. The crytics as well as The Circle actively still sought to bond. Finally, as I believe was pointed out, they potentially do not know what hemalurgy is, and it is still possible to maintain the bond with the spren after stealing them, so long as you maintain the oaths, and can convince them to stick around. So hemalurgy isn't an auto death for the spren, so I could see the various spren societies viewing it in different ways. edit: follow up thought I just had! Could some of the spren societies actually look upon hemalurgy favorably? For instance, what if a radiant looks like they are about to break their oaths intentionally. The bond could be torn away from the person preserving the spren before the spren is "killed".

Thank you! To elaborate, my theory is that Adolin has strengthened his Connection with Maya much like Dalinar did with Oathbringer (they both felt the blade urging them to fight, in Dalinar's case the chasmfiend, in Adolin's case the thunderclast. They both experienced their respective shardblades recognizing them and expressing a greater degree of sapiance, Oathbringer consciously hating Dalinar less because of his oaths, and Maya moving to save Adolin). I think with Dalina's entire schtick being about bonds, and manipulating investiture, Dalinar can use the "scaffolding" of Adolin's strengthened connection, to push a massive amount of investiture into the faux bond, regrowing what was torn out of Maya, and restoring the bond in full resulting in Maya being healed. If what happened with Taln being restored to lucidity has to do with Dalinar's powers, then potentially that can lend credence to Dalinar using those powers to restore Maya. Though again I acknowledge that there are those that view what occurred with Taln as completely separate and different than what is occurring with Maya. So guess gotta wait and see!

Thank you! This causes me to believe my theory regarding Dalinar helping Adolin restore Maya is even more likely, though I acknowledge the connection between what happened with Maya and Taln is tenuous. Great WoB!

Yep, yep. Jasnah is queen fully, not just a regent, but she also respected Elhokar's rulership so I do not see her trying to usurp it from Gavinor. Jasnah went so far as leaving the kingdom to give Elhokar one less shadow (Galivar) to live under. Had her research required her to stay, she would have, but she wanted to give Elhokar the space he needed to rule. So considering the time gap, I think by the end of stormlight, Gavinor will be in the start of his 20s and if trained well, I could see him taking over. Then Jasnah can travel the cosmere, run into Khriss, and geek out.