The One Who Connects

Outside of them possibly being heirlooms, they would gain them the same way Kaladin would've in Book 1. Kill a Shardbearer and take their Plate/Blade.

You should reread the WoB that you keep posting. Consider that Adonalsium's power permeates everything, while a Shard specifically permeates a single world. As Yata said: "Investiture available to Mortal" is not the same as "Total Investiture." Additionally, Brandon states that current systems are "DIRECTLY" powered by Shards, which implies that other systems are not directly powered by Adonalsium. Were they "directly powered by Adonalsium" then they should have ceased functioning. Since they didn't, their source of Investiture still exists, whereas the only source of Adonalsium's Investiture that still exists after the Shattering would've been somewhat separate from him to begin with, else it would have become part of a Shard.

I can add onto that idea actually. In Civ IV, the world has 3 wrapping layouts it can have: Flat, Cylindrical and Toroidal. They are fairly self-explanatory, but just in case.. Flat: All sides have edges, like sheets of paper. Cylindrical: East/West wraparound in a circle, North/South have edges. Toroidal: All sides wrap, like a globe. So in your friends idea if you want to explore Roshar's Cognitive only, you've got a toroidal map. If you want to wander the worlds, each world is a piece of paper, placed next to each other. And now that I've got a headcanon that seems to make sense, I really want your friend to be right

It's not so much that it's a given, but that it was expected. The Thrill(Of Odium) makes for a lot of violence, which is often tied with hate/anger, so it fits. He isn't directly influencing the story, but his influence permeates the story. Ruin and Endowment are a bit more direct, with the Returned's visions and Ruin's meddling in prophecies, but his whispers to Vin and controlling Marsh is the only direct meddling in the plot we've seen. Edit: Their magic systems are often built around their Intent (Honorspren, Hemalurgy) so magic users are forced to act in ways that seem influenced by their Shard's Intent.

All this time, I thought that was in Book 2. Well then. I don't think she'd know he returned unless she was in Kholinar that night, so we agree that we don't think she has it, albeit for different reasons.

@strumienpola Fair enough for Wisdom/Enlightenment, I still feel like it'd be Wisdom, but now it's just semantics, so I'll drop the debate. I realized that you might've meant trust that way, but I took that as something along the lines of God tests man's faith in him. And then I lumped faith with Devotion, and here we are. "Testing your trust" just sounded... dishonorable to me. I know you mean he is testing whether or not they trust him, but the shorthand reminded me of "testing my patience" which has negative connotation. Fault lies on my preconceived notions of small phrases As for Ingenuity: Ah, that makes more sense. I might've taken the definition Brandon accepted for Odium too far and assumed it was the only one. I never really saw Odium as the direct opposite of Devotion either, but I also see Devotion in the semi-religious light of faith and belief, so who knows? My point was that I only knew what Divestiture meant because Brandon has used Invest/Divest before. I only knew what Bereavement meant because you said what it meant. It just felt odd for 1-2 of your 16 to be words people probably wouldn't know, when the other 14 were really common/straightforward. But hey, maybe Brandon couldn't find a good 6th-8th Grade word for "takes away." (Not like I've got any ideas either, so don't take this as condescending.) Perhaps I can offer a way out of the Ambition problem. There was a recent thread called "A Shard influences Plots." Honorable people being cultivated to survive in a world of hate, people who want to preserve the world fighting people who want to ruin it, etc... It got glazed over by the logic that "of course they influence people/this isn't news/etc.." But consider this: Wherever Ambition settled down would produce a race of highly ambitious beings. The IRE tried to take a dying Shard probably of their own accord. With Ambition still in the picture, how long before someone else became ambitious enough to kill a live one, following in the footsteps of what they did to Adonalsium? I feel like the only reason the main villain is Odium is because he decided to "be the only shard" and Ambition didn't.

@Blackhoof I might have to reread every Vin/Elend vs Koloss scene in HoA for this, but the details will be important. I feel like despite the fact that there are at least a few thousand Koloss in each battle, our main protagonists only seemed to be dodging 1-2 swings at a time, and only 2-3 consecutive swings. This should give us a definitive number for "how many Koloss can realistically clump around a single foe." Which is what we really need because it puts things into perspective again. The other thing you don't seem to be taking into account in your "5 die, 5 more jump straight in" thing is bodies. Koloss bodies will hinder both party's movements, but if a vastly outnumbered Shardbearer lets the enemy come to him (Dalinar & Adolin on the Tower) then his odds of survival greatly increase. As shown with the aforementioned Kholin's, they still nearly fell, but Koloss don't swarm as tightly as Parahendi so there is a small amount more breathing room. On the tangent of corpses, this might've just been Sazed's musing, but when the first few Koloss scaled the wall, he felt that there were enough bodies down below. I'd have to look at the exact words, but it felt like he was implying they used a pile of bodies as a hill next to the wall. I only bring this up because it puts manmade fortifications in a slightly more positive light if Koloss couldn't free-climb the Wall of Luthadel.

@Radiant_Jaeger Per Shalash herself, her "work" would be easier if she had a Shardblade. This means that she does not have a Shardblade of any type, be it deadblade, Sprenblade or Honorblade.

@strumienpola Fairly certain that Brandon has said that not all of them have an opposite. (If he only aid "not all perfect opposites," then the story could change) You say that Gods are omniscient, without ignorance. That directly supports an Intent like Wisdom, for the exact same reason you say it's unlikely later on. Cognitive Set: I don't see the push/pull relationship with Enlightenment and Ingenuity. Trust and Evaluation are a bit clearer, even though Trust could be covered by Honor. If you're going the "trust in God route," then it falls to faith and Devotion. I could also argue that "seeking innovation" bleeds into the "take it apart and build it better" approach that we often equate with Cultivation, but that's more of a venn diagram than them being the same. Spiritual/Emotional Set: Brandon hasn't equated Odium to "discrediting morals." Odium is hatred, and Kaladin's Third Ideal even allows for him to hate, so long as he still does the right thing. Physical Set: No philosophical debate here, but the word Bereavement just seems too uncommon, while all the other Shard Names so far have been very commonly known words. Temporal Set: I disagree with your mini-definition of Ambition. Working on yourself could be rewritten as self-improvement. Self-improvement is cultivating your skills, thus Cultivation. Your Ambition can be considered your Drive, your want to do something, including but in no way limited to "on yourself." This is separate, but related to my pick of Wisdom. I formally support Kaladin Zahel's positive-negative-positive sets of 3 idea, with Wisdom being number 16 by itself.

This might be my limited experience talking, but every time that I've used it to be about one person, something else in the sentence makes it clear that it's singular, so I haven't had any clunkiness issues with "they." Granted, if I can't tell who/what I'm talking about, then I deem the sentence to be too vague and make it more specific. Never considered that "they" could've been causing the vagueness, so I always changed something else...

You could create a Koloss dog using Hemalurgy if you knew what you were doing. Link (works this time)

@Blackhoof I had somehow assumed it was some reasonable Coalition vs the Final Empire. I feel like Clubs' perfect win record with Koloss has some small bias in his opinion on what seems like a reasonable K/D for Koloss, but he is the most authoritative source we have. Never really found(or at least never seen) a decent explanation of whether it was 16% naturally or mist-snapped. Skaa are by far the largest portion of the population, and per (Kelsier?) they can't even be Mistings if they don't have Noble blood in the last 5 generations. 16% with that kind of negative skew seems too high in my opinion. Fair enough on situational timeframe, but I don't think it's his very first keep raid. He may have only hit minor nobles in the plantations/other cities, so the standard guard sounds good. Ok, so I reread the scene again. The first group of Hazekillers she and Zane fight is the "looked to be perhaps fifty" group. They take out a total of 50 together at that time. Zane then goes to the second floor and does unknown stuff. Vin heads straight up to the third floor and is attacked by "dozens more coming out of a secret stairwell" There was a fifty to one mention, so we'll call it 4 dozen. The fourth floor is bypassed with a casual mention of Zane jumping out the window and that making it "clear." The Fifth floor is where they find Cett, after Vin fight "soldiers" not Hazekillers. She thinks they were probably trained against Allomancers, but they are noted differently than the HK's were. Floor 1: 50 HK \\ Floor 3: 48 HK Floor's 2 and 4 are cleared by Zane in the time it takes for Vin to clear Floor 3 via Two Duralumin moves, so I imagine if Zane faced any HK's, there were much less. Floor 5 didn't have any at all. So anywhere from 100-120 HK's in total.

Taravangian's Interlude Chapter was technically confirmed via a Reddit WoB, but Brandon said that he might make it an actual chapter

To add to what Spool has said, Brandon has stayed two things, and given clues about the other. The Last Desolation: 4,500 yrs ago. The Hierocracy: 600-700 yrs ago The Recreance has not been given an exact date, but best estimates put it at 2,200-2,500 yrs ago. The time gaps between these three events are rather long. My point stands @Iron Eyes: All signs point towards the Unmade, but without a direct confirmation, it remains the most believable theory on this site. Disclaimer: I don't actually think there are enough unanswered questions for their gods to not be the Unmade, but Brandon practically teaches at the "Is that what you know, or what you believe?" School of Giving Information. It's still doable, but unlikely. This paragraph is only for the purposes of making references I come up with 45 seconds prior.

Two things to argue. 1) We know the gods the Parshendi abandoned are "of Odium." It's a minor nitpick, but unless he's expressly stated that they are the Unmade, it's still technically a theory. 2) I know he was Cosmere-aware in some respect, but I'm not sure Gavilar was "educated on the matter of Shards" as you suggest. The Sons of Honor might know things they normally shouldn't, but I doubt they have knowledge of the Shards in any grand capacity.

@Rasha 8 actually. Nalan took his blade back so they can only give out the remaining 8 Blades. You make a fair point about when they discover his death, but Szeth is very certain that it will be recovered by the Stone Shamans after his death. They must have something to guarantee its recovery, and Szeth believes it will work. I think this means that Szeth is not the first Truthless, and has seen this recovery method in action. I cannot even remotely prove this, but I feel like it's feasible.

@Blackhoof (mobile quoting is bad, so I do this) Hazekillers shouldn't have any metal to get duralumin pushed. It's their whole MO. Additionally, Vin assumes that "there looked to be about fifty," when she and Zane break into Cett's tower. I trust the 50 number as the total amount because it was given before the fight started. Fair point on the Misting/Hazekiller inverse relation. I assumed that specialized troops would cost a real shiny coin, so I equated their appearance with influence rather than purpose. I don't think they could get that many Mistings, but until either of us have solid proof, it's just an argument of semantics at this point. I brought up how Breeze had to work in waves and his "packed close enough together" statement for a reason. Combining a range limit with a max-target limit could prevent lines from breaking as easily as we think. The front rows of troops will get affected first, because they are the first to get in range. But where can they run that isn't forward? The lines behind them keep moving forward b/c they haven't been soothed into fear yet, so the front lines have no choice but to keep marching anyway. The formation will be more fragile once the lines do start to break, but until then your soothing might not do too much good if the formation is a deep one. Oh.. I see what you meant now. He probably had his armies moving inwards already, as the outer dominances had probably been picked clean by then. It doesn't limit how far they had to walk by that much, but when you need an all out charge, it makes a difference. Well, there is the fact that Cett's forces weren't exactly expecting to fight their own Koloss. Sure they were wary of them, but the Koloss had a slight advantage via a pseudo-surprise attack. It's even more in the Koloss' favor if they were marching at the time, making the human forces worn out and in disarray, carrying supplies and whatever else. A days march would probably account for 1/4 of the casualties, but we don't know enough details to accurately hypothesize that. I don't think the Alethi would go the way of throwing rocks (if they have catapults, then I rescind this statement). The Parshendi would, but that depends on if we are allowing them to be part of the Rosharan Coalition.

Make of this how you wish.

@Blackhoof and a few others. Ok, so Elend killed that Koloss with an Obsidian knife to the eye. This means that we don't have any definitive account of how easily a non-pewter user fared against Koloss skin. We do know that they can die from a blow to the eye(likely the brain behind it) so that's something to aim for. Additionally, there is an element of the Battle of Luthadel that has been slightly overlooked. The defenders threw/dropped rocks onto the Koloss. Surviving Koloss threw them back with greater force and accuracy, killing many. If they hadn't done that, there would've been more soldiers alive(hardly enough to win, but it's not something Koloss are usually armed with) As for what 50,000 Koloss could do, are there any assumptions about how large Cett and Straff's armies were in WoA? Clubs thinks that Jastes' 20K could take either army, while Ham and Breeze both think that Jastes would have trouble taking on both of them if they united against the Koloss. I imagine the Koloss would still end up on top, but it wouldn't be an easy victory. Just a thing to consider going forward. "Didn't have much notice" Isn't there a year between his release in WoA and the final battle in HoA? On a separate note to that, they were always under his control. He basically lent them to Elend, Vin and his Inquisitors. No notice was needed, as he was aware of all of them at any given time since his release. Fair enough about the Garrisons. They are better trained than the average Skaa, but I believe that as the capitol city, Luthadel had the largest garrison at 20,000. Limits the size of the trained core, but it's a good start. I also have Breeze's accounts on Soothing large groups: he states that 1,000 men is too many for a single soother. He himself can only manage a few hundred at once if they are "packed closely together and he was only focusing on simple emotions." He had to go through his 1,000 men in sets, and the fear of impending Koloss was coming back to the first sets when he was finishing up the last ones. Soothers will make a difference, but they can't turn the tide of an entire army by themselves. Lastly for now, a question. House Venture had about.. 2 dozen Hazekillers in TFE. I used that low number to assume they were a more recent occupation. However in WoA, Cett has nearly 50. Cett had hardly any Allomancers or Influence before TLR died. Anyone have opinions of this? We also saw them using Obsidian Swords in that scene, so perhaps Hazekillers are the better choice to give a captured Shardblade to, as they have used a sword before.

1. You can burn someone else's Metalmind. Vin does just that with one of Sazed's Rings. It's how we know they can "feel the power in it, but couldn't access it." 2. If you mean burning a Metalmind for the purpose of compounding, Brandon has said that burning another's Mind will only give the Allomantic power, so it most likely won't work. I don't think Identity comes into play with Allomancy(since burning the Mind is now Allomancy, rather than Feruchemy) but we don't know. 3. For Nightblood specifically, this will not work. Removing Identity doesn't make other's Minds usable, you would also have to have the requisite power. Nightblood would have to be Allomantically viable in the first place, which is an unknown. You would then have to swallow the sword without cutting yourself and dying instantly. Assuming that you can't swallow both sword and sheathe, you'd have to do this quickly before it drained your essence as well.

I'd have to scour the AMA again, but there was definitely a question about this. I don't think there was anything notable about Kandra DNA, but I can't be certain. Pretty sure it's mostly what you have assumed. It'd still require a second person like it does in real life, even if indirectly through IVF or something

This was actually covered in the Roshar vs Era 1 Scadrial Thread before they decided to bypass the gravity issue and just have it be a military theoretical idea. Fair warning about image size, as I cannot edit the size while on mobile. But they explained it better than I could, so here you go. In essence: you'd be stronger on a lower grab world, but only for a while as you adapt to it. And vice versa for a higher gravity world.

Not sure about popular consensus, but there was a thing somewhere about the Heralds being able to draw in Investiture from Honor, kinda like Vin and the Mists. Now that Honor is dead... Who knows?

1: this thread was specifically about the Metallic Arts, so bypassing the issue with something else is technically cheating 2: Without friction against the ground, you cannot speed up. It's like trying to speed up on something far more slippery than ice. 3: Friction isn't the only thing putting a speed limit on you. Remember how mass works when approaching the speed of light? 4: TLR can still push the metals in your stomach. Have fun trying to get near him, since his double Steel negates yours.

@Left Fairly certain that Brandon has RAFO'd or straight up said no about Heralds and Unmade being counterparts. We know that there are not 10 Unmade, so they are less than perfect counterparts already. As for the OP, "They(the unmade) are a deviation, a flair. Kingship, you must focus on kingship." End of the prior statement from the Second Desk Drawer. And as was pointed out to me, there are more than enough paragraphs for the subject to have vastly changed by the time we get to the traitor line.