The One Who Connects

It's not that far removed from what Odium does, funnily enough.

I had an idea about that. (And I'm probably wrong, but opinion pieces usually are) The Desolation is starting to get into full swing, Shadesmar seems to be in a battle for control between Spren and Fused, etc.. I think some of the Spren are willing to take what they can get when they can get it. Elhokar's shown that he can change, and the Spren may have seen more of that while they've been watching him. He'd be surrounded by Radiants in Urithiru, and fellow KR can have a positive influence on those around them. I think that Cryptic took a risk that a different Spren might not have taken in that situation.

It shouldn't be able to go any higher though. Once one platform hits the ground, the other stops rising.

Oh I agree, I was just pointing out that the Stormfather's word is not the absolute truth. I don't know. He's got PTSD on top of the depression and the internal conflict. That's a heck of a cognitive concoction to be dealing with in a warzone.

Only if that metal is in the form of a book/Coppermind on the subject. Otherwise, I agree with Calderis. By technicality, spiking the power out of someone would make them no longer Metalborn. But if you mean via Allomancy, more than likely not. Elaborate.

I'll just quote myself from the other topic. Oh hi Calderis ::wave::

In addition to what Calderis said, all of the Shards can travel wherever they want. However, there's fine print to that... Once they're Invested in a planet, they have two options(that we know about): 1) Rip themselves away from the tied-down chunk of their power and leave immediately. Unknown consequences for the world, and it's not a pleasant experience for the Shards to go through. It also weakens them, as they are operating with say.. 75% of their total power. This is why Odium took great care never to get tied to a planet. 2) Spend time and effort collecting that power, so they can leave whole. This would have big consequences for anything on the planet using their Investiture, among other things. It would also divide the Shard's focus, and make them temporarily weaker(they are using some of their power to collect the rest). This is one reason why Odium hasn't just done this and left Roshar.

The Metallic Arts will work anywhere in the Cosmere, with metal from anywhere in the Cosmere. The first world to make synthetic gemstones will make a fortune on Roshar for this exact reason. And the Singers use Spren for their transformations, created by Adonalsium. Like you said, it's complex. It's literally all the same magic system in Brandon's eyes. There's no reason for the focus to differ within subsets of a magic system. All of the magic on Sel is Form-based, and always has been. The innate investiture is more than likely just a power source. Brandon, through Chaos, Circa 2011.

Killing a Shard isn't always an instantaneous event. Honor's "madness" was a side-effect of the protracted process. If you've read MB:Secret History, there's a good example of this there. Considering the Stormfather's comment about "coaxing out forces that could hurt [Odium]," there might have been some manner of Shardic conflict to the Desolations too. Odium certainly seems out and about enough this time around, so if he was similarly active in the past, him and Honor could have exchanged blows.

I extended the time-frame to 9 months in my edit to reflect that earlier start. Additionally, many of those topics are from when we had preview chapters out, which is discussion directly stemming from (part of) the book, so that would count.

Stormlight Archives Forum: 189 Pages. Oathbringer Subforum: 57 Pages. Each have a theory under a day old in them, so that's current for you. 189+57=246. 246/4=61.5 Of all the Stormlight topics made in the past 6&1/2 years, the Oathbringer Subforum has generated just under 1/4th of them. I'd say that's a good bit of activity for 9 months. Even I've come up with a theory, and I've only read the preview chapters.

Be that as it may, Dalinar is technically capable of both. Granted, the Stormfather probably has enough power and authority to prevent minor Spren from forming him plate, and he's refusing to become a blade, so Dalinar still might not, but he could.

Riino was on Sel way after Odium left it. He's a character in Elantris. Who's the second Worldhopper? I don't have a name off the top of my head.

As mentioned by John203, unless something was revealed in Oathbringer, this one is still under debate afaik. But it's not really the point of your theory, so I'll leave it at that. Kinda, but not..? I'd consider Matter, Energy, and Investiture as distinct things. You can convert from one to the other, but I'd call them separate things. Semantics, I know, but you know how we are on here. You do make a very nice point about the Metal/Form focus similarities. They're pretty much exactly the same thing, it's just that the pattern for metals are on the atomic/molecular level, while Aons are visible to the human eye(I think we've asked about using the molecular pattern for bronze as a "Soothing Aon" before too). Too bad we can't make that same comparison to the other magic systems... And then there's Soulcasting. Jasnah/Shallan are KR, so that should fall under the Spren/Bond debate, but they are also limited by what gemstone they get their Stormlight from, which would be a point in the "color" category like Fabrials. Soulcasting Fabrials don't have Spren in them(near as I can tell), which would be a point against both Spren and Bonds, but the gemstone type restriction doesn't apply to most of the KR.. Roshar is just weird in general. Nalthis Sidenote: Per Brandon, Commands are the focus. But we know that commands are just words, and they need a mental visualization too in order for the magic to have any affect. Had Brandon not told us, we'd probably be assuming the Visualization were the focus(or just be confused, always an option) Could something similar be happening here, where we're seeing those other aspects, and underplaying something crucial? Have you met the Dakhor? We've got two examples of it in Elantris. Hrathen recounts when Dilaf used an Acolyte's life-force to power a teleportation. And Dilaf internally mentions having a power to resist attacks from the Dor that required the deaths of 50 men to achieve. Per Brandon, granting that power required a certain amount of investiture, and it stand to reason the teleportation did too. If not drawn from/through the people, where else would it have come from? Your theory as it stands in intriguing, I felt a slight sense of disagreement at times, but I'm not certain with which aspects yet. Not sure if I have any real comment on it beyond what I've already said.

Alright. Bit further east than Northern Jah Keved, but in the grand scheme of things... as Calderis/Rainier mentioned, the continent only fills a quarter of the planet. Could still be a Yu-Nerig, but it's far enough that I could see it being something else. I don't know how many of the "islands" are Tai-Na vs actual land, but the Reshi Isles do have smaller landmasses near Herdaz... maybe you're right.

It's like you people forget copy/paste exists (Honestly, I don't care. You made one post, so it's only one notification, no matter how many quote bubbles you did. Over and done with already)

He's been told to come here from another topic, so here's his post from that topic as a starter: Edit: (I figure he's offline, and he'd end up saying most of this anyway, so why not jumpstart the discussion?)

Rshara (more than likely)knew what you meant, and was making a counter-example of the Shin not getting involved "while a major threat to them approaches and takes over the continent, if they have a way to oppose it." They seem to be sitting at home during this threat, so them sitting pretty during the hypothetical Alethi Shardblade expansion wouldn't be that out of place. Additionally, the rumors that Szeth heard are just that: rumors. And eventual rumors that they've cracked the code might be more of the same. The rumors would only start so solidify once people start attacking with Shardblades en masse, at which point it may be too late.

As one who no longer cares, I get to play devil's advocate all I want. Think of someone who is completely devoured by their passion for a project. The lengths and calculations and steps they will figure out and go through to achieve that goal. Time, effort, money and emotion are all devoured by that obsession and the singular focus on that goal leaves no room for any other emotion, even anger. But I agree with you that, regardless of which he ends up as, his future sight would always be better. Yes, actually. Hate =/= Anger/Rage If you want an example of rage, look no further than the Thrill, with anger as Thrill Lite. Rage clouds your mind, but hate clears your mind, and passion is no different. With rage, you can't think about much of anything because the anger distracts you, keeps you in the moment. With hate/passion, you can't think about much of anything else because you are too focused on a singular thing. The effect looks similar from the outside, but from a Realmatic perspective, it's very different. Ruin is rage in this example. His future-sight is bad because he can't maintain focus on anything. Preservation is hate/passion in the example. His future-sight is rather good because he has no distractions to divide his focus.

If they can make new ones, they can give Shardblades to literally everyone. That's how teching up goes. Nowadays everybody's got a iPhone, before that it was computers, before that it was... and soon it'll be robots, or self-driving cars. The same can be said of Ettmetal Medallions in MB, and probably Fabrials as the decades go by on Roshar. Large stash of trained soldiers they may have, but japan didn't invade america for fear of a "gun hiding behind every blade of grass." Shards can be hidden, and can't be stolen like guns. For the Shin to fight back, they'd have to literally kill everyone, because anyone could be hiding a Shardblade at that point. Even if the Shin succeeded in doing that, would you really call that a victory?

Your disagreement has been noted.

It's an example. Memories can fade away the normal way just as easily as the magical way, and if you don't have them anymore, they don't affect who you are anymore. The fact of the matter is those memories were taken away. He is the man he is because of it, yes. But that doesn't make the man he was a lie. For it to be a lie, he'd have to be putting up a persona and denying the truth, like Shallan and Amaram. He physically did not have the memories that would have made him the Blackthorn. He has no way to be who he was before, and his only choice is to become who he became. It was physically impossible for that man to be a lie, because it's the only truth he had at the time. This is just as irrelevant as you felt my example was, if not more. The only reason you were able to make this example in the first place is because you aren't seeing what I'm saying. This was never what we were arguing about, which makes it irrelevant. Hitler knows what he did, and any attempt on his part to deny that would be putting up a false persona. That would be living a lie, like Shallan did for the longest time. But Dalinar did not remember what he did. There is nothing for him to deny, no lie for him to live. That's the difference here. I'm going to assume something important/life-defining happened to you in recent years for this bit. If you got struck by lightning(or somesuch other trauma) and lost many of your memories from the past 20+ years, lived a changed life without those memories during the next 7 years, and then started regaining those memories. Does that make who you were during that 7 year gap a lie? I wouldn't consider it as such. Would the experiences you had during that time-gap have any affect on who you become after regaining your lost memories? I'd say they would, because they are still part of who you are. You still lived through those years, you still have those memories, they should continue to affect you. This is what we're actually arguing about. Not whether you are still responsible for any events that you've forgotten, but whether the man you were during that 7 year gap without memories was really you.

You recall right, although this is not the WoB I was thinking of Edit: This was the WoB I was thinking of:

The only things I remember from Middle School are that I started growing in 6th grade while everyone else grew during 8th grade, I knew a girl named Danielle, and I had a conversation with ... someone about Star Wars at some point. If something else happened during those 3 years that made me who I was during High School, I don't remember it anymore. And in about a decade, the influence of such unknown events wont hold any sway over who I am. What if someone has head trauma or nerve damage and forgets a defining chunk of their past? Or if those memories fade naturally, like mine did? Those events wont hold as much sway over who they become in the future as they did when they remembered them. Imagine if someone re-watches home videos of events from their past, or revisits their old hometown, and that helps faded memories to bloom. How is Dalinar any different? Just because Dalinar lost those memories through magical methods, does not mean that the man he forged himself into without those memories is a lie. Infinity Blade Spoilers(haven't done this in a while) Dalinar regained his past memories, but that didn't suddenly make him the bloodthirsty Blackthorn again did it? You talk about it as if the things he did while missing memories mean nothing. Those experiences still happened, and they affect who he is just as much as those stolen memories do when he regains them.

We've seen the last stage of their life-cycle already though. And in the first two books, that'd mean "on land" This doesn't mean that Chasmfiends can't migrate into the water later, but I'd personally kinda like this to be something new. Out of curiosity, where does this interlude take place? The Reshi Sea isn't too big of a place, so seeing a Yu-Nerig around the shores of Rira or Northern Jah Keved wouldn't be too unreasonable. His "options" also seem similar to the Marabethian story, which seems interesting.