The One Who Connects

Not so much on armor, but you'd be surprised what people can get away with on certain career paths. (Non-athletic career, no mandatory physical, you can keep your shirt on, etc..). A little careful planning, and you'd have no problems at all The level of plain and reserved is so out of place it hurts. Haven't you met the people on here? Everything needs to be flashy, awesome powers Take the upvote anyway, it's nice to see someone who isn't on a theoretical power-trip for once.

Murphy's Spikes?

In fairness, my reasons for thinking Dustbringers could've been killing machines had nothing to do with "bravery," and everything to do with our limited understanding of their surges and powers at the time. It's not a far cry to assume an Edgedancer or Truthwatcher would become a field medic or doctor because they have Progression, which is an assumption made by many people who don't remember the Divine Attributes off-hand. Google doesn't appear to like "make to use." No matter what I try, it only brings up search results related to "make use of." (Or some vague things regarding makefiles and C programming.. ) If you or someone else can provide some manner of english source on "make to use," that would be greatly appreciated, as I can't find anything.

I can see Cultivation as a combination of Ruin and something else, not the other way around. Going from Cultivation to Ruin completely removes half of what Cultivation is(break something down to build it better). It feels like taking a step sideways or even backwards, rather than going forwards. Going from Ruin to Cultivation adds something to what Ruin is, which feels more reasonable, as you are adding another Shard to Ruin. Explain this one please. I simply don't see the connection that either Ambition or Odium have to Dominion, and I'm curious what I'm missing here. Fixed. Even though I don't think it's gonna be a Shard, I can at least see where you are going with Guidance. But Trickery? Learning and Development make my case. One learns by finding the answers, be it through experiences, study, or teachers. Silverlight is a scholarly community, and scholars know what they're talking about because they've studied, they've searched and found answers. Scholars are generally inquisitive minds, people who want answers and are willing to seek them out. Enlightenment doesn't have to be the Shard of Knowledge. Brandon can very easily make Enlightenment be the Shard of "the pursuit of knowledge." As the moral of most all stories about seeking enlightenment; the real value is in seeking the knowledge, rather than the knowledge itself. Brandon might even draw from Athena, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom(among other things), who largely provided hints and suggestions, rarely providing direct answers to mortals. She gave answers to Odysseus, but only after he impressed her with his resolve and cunning. Mraize is cunning... Either way, my point is that just because Khriss hasn't figured out how/where to find Yolen, that doesn't mean there's nobody there to tell her. A Shard of Wisdom and Knowledge probably has proficient skill in future sight, so maybe there's a reason why Khriss doesn't know and Mraize does.

Forgot about yet another thing, did I? You're right(unless something changes in future books), they should disappear when their respective Herald dies. Guess I'll support your "Chana doesn't want to fight" logic, as it makes the most sense. While it wouldn't surprise me if they already knew the basics of the Surges, Brandon said swapping Honorblades was "not common," so I made the assumption that they might not have actually spent much time learning the others. I'd liken it to factory equipment(of all things). An employee might know what a particular piece of equipment does, but not necessarily know how to make the equipment function. Kaladin had that moment of understanding when he first lashed himself to a wall, I see no reason why a Herald shouldn't have to reach that moment too in order to make the powers work, even if they already know what they are trying to do.

I was thinking more along the lines of when Spren pop into existence around people (moments of fear, glory, anger, etc..). That seemed more like an... "action," for lack of a better word, so it felt like something that might qualify. I can see why it wouldn't, but I can also see a case for why it would count. I hadn't even considered that. Brandon made a very wise decision making this an ability you can activate rather than having it be a passive trait.

I guess we'll have to ask Brandon at some point if a Seeker like Marsh could detect a "Nahel Bond" specifically when the KR is just wandering around without Light or Blade. This makes me curious if a Seeker could detect Stormlight leaking from Spheres and/or if Stormlight leaking from a Radiant would "sound" any different. hrmm... with Spheres and Spren all around, Roshar has the potential to wreak havoc with a Seeker's senses. Could make for an interesting perspective chapter if/when Era 4 takes to Space.

I think they're mutually exclusive in the way Listener Forms are mutually exclusive. The bonded Spren fills the Spiritweb cracks, preventing another Spren from bonding.

Another thing to consider is the time-factor with regards to "Eras". Roshar started by rebuilding from almost nothing, practically sent back to the stone age. Getting from Stone Age to Medieval Era in under 5,000 years is pretty reasonable, considering human history on Earth. On Earth, archeologists classify a three-part system: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, with the Iron Age leading into the Middle Ages. The Stone Age ends(and Bronze Age starts) around 3,300 BC, and the Middle Ages start around 700 AD. That's 4,000 years. Roshar started at some period within the Stone Age, so if you tack on an extra thousand years... Roshar's tech development seems normal to me. The Final Empire era was created from a world that almost had the steam engine. TLR kept things pretty stagnant in the meanwhile. Scadrial started at a pre-industrial era and has advanced a lot in 300 years. The Industrial Revolution on Earth started somewhere between 1,760 and 1,840 AD, or roughly 200 years ago. Consider how far we have advanced in those 200 years and I'd say Scadrial is actually falling behind(Something Harmony also believes). Sel(to round out this example) is a world where the Shards aren't involved at all. Barring a major change to that statement, Sel should advance on a similar time-table to Earth, only with magical advancements instead of, or augmenting, mechanical advancements. And on the subject of magitech replacing science-tech, have these two threads

"Used to be" is not the same as "is be." (which I'm fairly certain is grammatically correct, by the way ) It's perception. They used to rule Hallandren, but they were exiled and now run Idris. So the perception has shifted to them ruling Idris, thus the Locks only follow the ruler of Idris. The ruler of Hallandren has no perceptual ties to Idris anymore. Siri being made queen was a result of an arranged marriage/treaty, not some tradition.

Reasonable enough. It might be the Order we learn "the most about" in the Book, but not necessarily the only time we learn about them. That'd probably still work with "focus on an Order" wording. No worries

To quote myself: Go read up on "people's thoughts." Come back tomorrow and tell us what you think.

Dilaf and Hrathen disagree. They hid it rather well, all things considered.

Santhids, at the very least, aren't based on anything from Earth Also, I'm not sure what you are actually asking here. If you could clarify, that could be quite helpful.

Warbreaker Spoilers That is not even remotely similar to what happened to Dalinar.

Aether the story is not exactly canon, but we have a WoP that Aethers themselves might be canon when Brandon writes Dragonsteel.

I'll throw out the possibility that Syl saw a different Spren. It's unlikely, but still possible. Glad this confused someone else. This bothered me nearly as much as Tezim's "Final Storm" comment.

I felt that option was implied in my 2, "allowing us to learn about Dustbringers in her book without her being a Dustbringer." I simply took the liberty of assuming that if we learned about Dustbringers in her book, she'd probably be around them during the normal chapters. Granted, Brandon could easily pull a "WoK Kaladin/Shallan" again, allowing us to learn a little about an order from someone who is completely separate from the flashback character, but then we'd have no tenuous connections to theorize about

So... a few things to note. That WoB vanished from public memory until I hunted it down recently for Maxal. Almost every theory involving Shalash into Dustbringer has been created either through a vague recollection of another WoB, or was developed separately. If you want the WoBs most likely to have led to the Shalash is Dustbringer theory, have the two of these: On a side-note, these WoB's provide us with several possibilities: Shalash bonds a Spren and becomes a Dustbringer, allowing us to learn about the Dustbringers in her book. Chana is indisposed(or dead) at the time of Shalash's book, so she takes command of the Dustbringers in the interim, allowing us to learn about Dustbringers in her book without her being a Dustbringer. Shalash takes up Chana's Honorblade(for reasons), allowing us to learn different stuff about Dustbringer powers from her, and learning about the Order itself from some minor character like say.. Redin. Additionally, under the first WoB, Eshonai doesn't even have to be a Radiant for us to learn about whichever Order in her book. She still might be, since Brandon always answers those questions with "in the past..."

The Prelude for Stormlight Archives is currently 6000 years after the Shattering.[2] The Modern Story is 4,500 Rosharan years(just about 5K Earth years) after the Prelude. Modern Stormlight Archives Story is about 11,000 years after the Shattering. As for Warbreaker, it's between Mistborn Era 1 and Stormlight Archive. The only additional detail I can give you is that the timegap between Warbreaker and Stormlight is big enough for Brandon to consider the Warbreaker Sequel as "closer to Warbreaker than to Stormlight."

Unless we learn of an entirely new form that can have children, you would be correct that these are the only two capable of mating.

So... you've misquoted the epigraphs. The Nightform entry is from the Song of Secrets, Stanza 17. This is the 9th and 10th Stanza of the Song of Spren. —9th stanza[1] But it is not impossible to blend Their Surges to ours in the end. It has been promised and it can come. Or do we understand the sum? We questioned not if they can have us then, But if we dare to have them again. —10th stanza[2]

Pretty sure it just said "Spren," rather than specifically Nahel Spren. Granted, that doesn't rule out Radiant Spren... It'd be an interesting idea either way

Question for me is whether the healing is 100% serialized. Does it focus on healing each particles in order, or would it heal multiple parts of the same wounds simultaneously? And regardless of "worst wounds first" it is not sequential. It fixes the things that make you dead first yes, but it also splits focus, as shown by the split between Shallan's drunkenness, and her hand. Neither of which were fully healed in the morning I'd like to throw in the concept of "Perception" again. Wayne has had his fair share of injuries, and probably knows full-well what injuries are "higher priority" by now. Could it be as simple as his healing heals the graver wounds first because he perceives them as needing to be healed first? It's not that different from Kaladin preventing his brands from healing. Wayne prevents it from healing the non-serious injuries because, at the time, he's willing to live with the minor injuries. Does this potential explanation satisfy the parties involved in this discussion?

Not exactly a slogan, but it's definitely becoming a theme around here.