The One Who Connects

The Listeners are closer to the Cognitive Realm than humans are. The reason Nahel Spren don't like that is because Nahel Spren like to be pulled into the Physical Realm, and humans are much better anchors for that. Have you considered the possibility of them having "Radiant-Form(s)"? IIRC, Parshendi are able to bond with any Spren, but only some have proper forms associated with them. The connection might be a little different than a normal KR bond, but the possibility doesn't seem that unthinkable

Elend peered into the Spiritual Realm by burning Atium+Duralumin. This distinction gives us three possibilities: He saw a great many things in the SR, and only remembered some of it(in this case, Preservation's plan) He only saw a small portion of events(Preservation's plan), and as such didn't have need to forget things to prevent mental overflow. Peering into the SR expanded his mind(the way ascension does) so that he could process all that extra information. I don't think TLR just suddenly forgot most of the things he learned during his ascension, so it stands to reason that Elend might not.

There are multiple reasons why he only made 9 Mistborn. Worthy Recipients: He gave 9 of the beads to the Foreign Kings that supported him when he conquered the world. He had more than 9 beads, but he only had 9 kings that supported him. He gave them power as a gift, not as a right. Loyalty: Some of those people he gifted power to betrayed him("I was even flayed once.. near the beginning"). Remember his fury at Marsh's betrayal, his anger that someone would dare use the powers he gave them against him? After the flaying fiasco, I imagine there were quite a few executions and a crackdown on the Mistborn community. Any inclinations he might have for wanting more Mistborn went out the window real fast. Control: Having them be rare makes them more afraid of risking death, especially in the wake of the failed coup against TLR. Realizing just how quickly your Great House's Legacy can be wiped out if you are the only Allomancer in it will do a number on people, especially former (prideful)Kings. Only having 9 of them also makes it much easier for TLR to clean house and start over if he chose to.

I brought it up as a loss of cognitive thought screws up the cognitive realm itself. I don't think Spren in general(Nahel or normal) could exist on Roshar if there was no thinking life on Roshar. That was my point there. You are right that having more humans around does not necessarily make life better for Nahel Spren, but having much less humans around could make life worse for Spren in general. Oh certainly. It's just that the Sons of Honor have a more.. skewed view of things than I would imagine the Spren do. Thus I felt the the poor decisions Spren make would be on a lesser scale than the SoH. I'm sure there's a sweet spot to maximize it, but that's a boatload of variables to keep track of. I have my doubts about even a Shard influencing events of that scale with that level of precision. Doesn't mean nobody tried, but they'd have limited success. You are correct about the origin of his uncertainty, but I still don't think this information would've reached the ears of the Spren. The Heralds don't have the same relationship with the Spren that the KR do, and (for some reason) I feel that the Oathpact was not really known about beyond the Heralds. I mixed up my thoughts with the fact that they're kinda-immortal, and immortals should be thinking long(er) term. You can disregard that point. Guess I considered the sense of emotion in the wake of the bond-breaking as the pain of the dead/dying Spren rather than anything specific. What gave you the sense that they were upset at their Spren in the vision? I vaguely remember a pained expression on one of their faces, but I believe I remember Dalinar pointing out that it was a determined expression too. If there was both determination and pain, I felt the expression was with regards to the KR understanding what they were about to do to their Spren. Odds are I'm underestimating how hard it is to get over things because I've fared pretty well at moving on from the past, but I feel like after a decade or so, a lot of the KR would reach a point where they've mostly moved past whatever broke them. Beatings were enough to snap people on Scadrial, so we know that not everyone's trauma will have to be someone's death.

Unmade can bond. What that bond would do is.. unknown. Whether you can bond more than one is.. uncertain, but likely.

Who says it isn't? Bonding Spren and taking Forms are part of the Parshendi Life Cycle. That's symbiosis, not a magic system. Things Voidform Parshendi do with magic would be up for grabs as being Voidbinding. The WoB says we haven't seen Voidbinding. So the real question is why calling in the Everstorm is not considered Voidbinding.

That I mentioned? All I said was "mental health isn't something F-Gold covers." The big self-quote was from another topic about Bronze Compounding. From. "..of disillusionment: an effect that isn't directly from the power, but from having the power."

I've gotten into the bad habit of glossing over the earlier conversation from before the post I'm replying to. Especially when it was from nearly a year ago.

Barnes and Noble... Forgot there was even a signing there, so that's on me. It's also the entry I was searching for in your WoB Stack Exchange topic, so that's that settled too

I pulled the second WoB out of the WoBinator 4000, so you know... In the meantime, you could just link the transcript document itself like the rest of us plebs. Orem Signing: Page 6 - [1:20:04] Entry. Also, I'm gonna laugh so hard if The Project is actually called the WoBinator 4000...

There's a theory that Harmonium is imbalanced towards Ruin on a subatomic level, and I personally like that better than harmony risking people having Atium again. Cesium(and Alkali Metals in general) have an odd number of electrons. An odd number would mean that one Shard would have more, making it unbalanced.

Brandon has been asked, and we've been RAFO'd. We'll just have to wait and see. The workshop comment is a metaphor. Basically, the writer of the second letter is implying that they(Hoid and himself) are like children wandering around the adult world, and that they shouldn't be messing with things beyond their understanding.

Well you see, Brandon uses he because it's faster(same reason we abbreviate Taravangian to Mr. T and Adonalsium to Andy on here) He doesn't seem to use "they" as an all-purpose gender neutral term like I do, so he had to clarify that his usage of "he" meant absolutely nothing regarding vessels or gender, Spren are investiture that has gained sentience yes. That's Nahel Spren in general(not just Bondsmiths) due to their nature as Splinters. Seons and Skaze would count as well. Investiture that has gained sentience.

Don't feel too bad, I thought they had been sick 16 days, and that was the "16 Clue" (they were sick longer than normal, so it seemed reasonable) Edit: Apparently, I was right about that. Gosh, Preservation got pretty obsessed near the end. Wait, Scadrian weeks are 8 days? When did we learn this?

The problem with this is that the Atium forming was related to Preservation's actions and the Ruin's Shardpool in the Pits. The Lerasium was right by the Well after all. After the Ascension of Harmony, he reclaimed both the Well and the Pits. Both Shardpools and their respective God Metals are no more unless Harmony specifically produces more Atium/Lerasium. Harmony's Pool would produce Harmonium(and that stuff seems to be concentrated on another continent.

There's a WoB(that I am still struggling to find) saying that an Elantrian would have to physically swing Nightblood through a drawn Aon in order for them to use it to fuel Nightblood. Based on that, I imagine that just having spheres nearby isn't good enough. I.. really don't know if "capacity to draw in Stormlight" is something that Hemalurgy is capable of stealing. Never thought about that before.

@Generalbacon74 Regarding the "infinite mind" thing and the Spiritual Raelm that Hwiles mentioned: The Spiritual Realm is everywhere and nowhere at once, a place where there is no time or place, where one can glimpse the future and possibly the past. When a person takes up a Shard, their mind is expanded to be able to handle all that extra information. Us normal humans can't take that, which is why Kelsier started to burn up when Leras allowed him a glimpse into the SR.

Sure. It's come up from multiple people across multiple threads, so there's some new info for me too. A Line from the Kaza Interlude that started the discussion. From Blightsong back in May(after the Kaza Interlude was read at a signing) From Kimni back in August. From Calderis in September.

Have the Flow-Chart of just how royally screwed Roshar(the planet) would be. As Extesian said, I don't believe there are any threads specifically about those two lines. However, there have been several threads about the WoK/WoR/Oathbringer Endpapers, and those lines have been brought up in most all of them. Check out any threads about the back cover blurbs and you'll see snippets about those lines here and there.

Not sure where I picked it up.....it says I uploaded it to onedrive December 2016.... Considering all the links in it are in-site links to Coppermind articles, I'd say he got it from the Coppermind. I even found what page he got it from too(not that that page properly exists anymore. "Chronology," before it became a redirect to the "chronological order" subsection of the Cosmere page. Perusing the Edit History of pages is far more useful than one would think.

Aons in their current form did not exist pre-Splintering. While true, the magic was still Programming-based. I could see one of the pre-Splintering magic systems having forms like Aons, but after the power was thrown into the CR, the necessary shapes changed. I don't think they'd still be functional after the Splintering. So the answer to your question is still no, but for an extension of Landis's reason.

I also think we have a WoB that Odium can't really affect things the way Ruin did, but I'd have to hunt it. It's something that Odium can do, but pulling a Ruin is not really "his thing." Of note in that epigraph is "As the gods did leave, the nightform whispered." The Parshendi Gods are "of Odium," so I'd imagine that nightform was something separate. We'll have to wait until we learn what Spren a Listener has to bond to enter nightform. I've seen a theory around somewhere that Moelach is using the Death Rattles as a source of information, rather than corrupting them. When a person gets close to death, the barriers between realms weaken, and they can see into them. A glimpse into the SR would show some manner of information they couldn't get normally, maybe even a hint of the future. I think the Rattles are legit, but maybe not a good idea to use either way. Pattern said something too? Forgot about that.. Anyway, Syl said "He's coming. The one who hates." I felt like the "One who Hates" would be Odium, as it appears you believe as well. However, I think that's literally about Odium, rather than Szeth. Bringing up Ruin, he could appear before people, he could focus his gaze on a specific portion of the world. Perhaps Odium was doing the same. The Spren would probably sense his presence in a similar way to how Vin could sense Ruin via bronze pulses. Spren are primarily Cognitive, so Odium's presence would probably rattle them a lot more than Ruin did to Vin. That could explain their erratic behavior. The sudden realization of "We need to leave. NOW", the panic and the fear, that stuff makes humans act rather crazed, why wouldn't a Spren follow suit?

Personally, I don't think you can heal your cognitive aspect anyways. You can heal physical and spiritual damage, but is there anything in the Cosmere that inflicts cognitive damage? Memories are a "connection" to a past event in a sense, so I'd technically classify them as a spiritual thing. i also wouldn't consider a memory fading as "damage" so much as a weakening connection. Brandon might consider these things a bit differently, so take it with a grain of salt In the Spiritual Realm, there is a . . . Template, a Spiritual Ideal of Healing, of what a "Human" should be. Healing in the Cosmere tries to align your Physical Aspect to match that SR Template. That healing gets filtered through your Cognitive Aspect, preventing it from healing the differences that you see as part of yourself. (if it didn't, any and all healed humans would be a cookie cutter copy of that template)

I suppose that's a fair comparison. I could throw around Fabrial-Tech as the Rosharan Magic most conducive to the scientific method if you wanted, but that's another discussion. Although.. Fabrials can replicate all 10 Surges, so that's still kinda Surgebinding. It's just Surgebinding+ But yea, I don't think either of us explained ourselves that well the first time.

I'd imagine that any flame that touched Nightblood would disappear, but I'm not sure about all of it. Gases, Liquids and other Non-Solids are.. interesting cases. For instance, if you swung Nightblood into a lake, would he destroy the water drop by drop or all at once? We view a wall as one object, but we also sorta view a lake as one object. He doesn't destroy open air(that we know of), so gases might be safe. We really don't know.