nervousnerd

Something I found interesting is that Jezrien mentions that Ishar believes that Taln will allow the Oathpact to continue with his torture alone. It makes me wonder if he was the one who kind of persuaded the rest to lay down their swords. He seems to be the one that the others go to for a plan (even if he is not their leader outright).

Do we know if the Scouring happened after the Recreance or not? I remember people wondering if the Scouring was the battle in which the Radiants began to lay down their arms but I don't remember anything specifically stating if that was true or false. I'm not sure I would believe that second part but if Radiants were around, I am sure there were enough of them to cause some real damage.

These are all the references I could find for what the land looked like at the breaking of the Oathpact. I don't necessarily see anything that stands out specifically as Shinovar but we do not know much about it yet. Shinovar does look like a good place for a final stand with the mountains on two sides and a small northern passage that might be more defendable (where Taln died?). I am assuming that whenever we see Szeth go home, we will also learn more about how it looks and also about the honorblades. The Sea of Regret seems to reach past Shinovar and possibly to Azir though (hard to tell without borders). Is it only Shinovar that has an absence of spren?

I believe TenSoon has stated that he still has Kelsier's bones but I could be wrong. I also believe that hemalurgy is more about contact with the blood so I don't know that bones would really be very helpful. I suppose there may be another way a spike might work though. If spikes allow for Ruin to control people directly then there may be a way to use that to sort of possess a person. I am aware that Ruin has more power than a dead Kelsier but I'm just spitballing here.

And don't forget, after killing their spren many of these Radiants were also killed by the men who saw them lay down their weapons. They must have guessed this could happen with such a public 'betrayal' and seemingly let themselves be killed rather than fight or explain themselves (because If anyone could fight off a person with a shardblade it would have been a Radiant).

Hmm, I guess I was thinking about an unkeyed aluminum metalmind then. I suppose that might be impossible if you have to store your identity to make it.

No no, you are right about that. Aluminum stores identity in feruchemy. If you are able to spike yourself with that ability you can therefore store and change identities with it. I will admit that it confuses me how much tapping that identity actually makes you become that person and what happens to your sense of self. That is more what I was getting at. If Spook gave up his own to use Kelsier's identity, would that not essentially be the same as Kelsier returning from the grave? I am also saying that I think more than that could have happened if they figured out how to contain more than just identity in a spike. They were likely trying to attach Kelsier's entire cognitive and spiritual self to a new physical body.

Yeah, Nightblood may not be able to move around by himself like some spren but he is rediculously more powerful in many other ways. He may even be able to 'weild' himself more easily than other spren in terms of using that power without someone to direct him (just think about how you might use him). There may even be other spren that have a similar inability to move themselves as we have not really met many of the other radiant order spren. It might be possible to create something more similar to Rosharan spren we know through awakening but Vasher isn't likely to want to try it.

I don't really see how they would be angry enough to essentially kill their spren for that though. The majority of them would come to love their spren over time. I suppose they might be angry that they don't go to the Tranquiline Halls to fight or something but if they become bondspren then they are essentially still helping in that fight and are given near eternal life.

Night blood is already awoken. That is how he has sentience (although it is somewhat limited). It may be possible to somehow grow his ability to understand like Nahel bonded spren but maybe not. Reviving shardblades is different because by severing the Nahel bond during the Recreance, those spren seemingly lost their sentience (like Syl was beginning to near the end) but were then also locked in the form of their blades. They were therefore unable to interact and also unable to return to the Cognitive Realm.

I'm not really sure I understand why his identity would be in the spike though. Do you mean that Spook is going around with Kelsier's identity instead of his own? I don't think many people think Kelsier came back in his own body. That was sort of digested. I think most people who believe it is Kelsier believe that he and Spook spiked his soul into a new body (that could have been but is unlikely to have been Spook) and that this new body essentially becomes Kelsier. The reappearance of the scars is then explained by Kelsier's spiritweb changing the body to appear how he believes himself to look (like Kaladin's slave brand).

Well Roshar is sort of the area of the cognitive realm that would be mapped best, no? A whole lot of travellers there at least but also some spren who are sentient there. If the spren didn't name it then it was possibly the Elsecallers, Lightweavers or their Heralds.

Yeah. Worldhoppers from Ashyn are likely the equivalent of daycare kids. Walking disease factories. You would think the 17th Shard would be more mindful of that possibility though with their whole non-interference thing. I would hate to think of what germs Hoid might have.

Yeah. I really doubt Radiants will be invincible. The point may be to make it seem that way in order to show them being overconfident and then being shown the strength of their enemies. I also felt that until the final Szeth fight, none of them really were invincible yet. Even in that fight, the storm might have killed Kaladin easily even if Szeth could not. I don't really worry about resurrections too much. Reading the FAQ and stuff made me realize how concious Brandon generally is about using common fantasy tropes. If he does use a trope, it is generally because he believes it is the direction the story naturally had to go or it was specifically always planned that way in order to tell a certain story. I don't think it really happens just because he realizes that he didn't want to kill the character after the fact or for the shock value. As mentioned above, Jasnah was important in order for Shallan to really progress and I believe to give us a source about the spren (even if her part of that story isn't going to be told in canon). I also think we are going to need dead or at least non-physical characters in order to understand all of the Realms.

I feel like that is not necessarily the case. Obviously there are no children to inherit but we don't really know the order of succession there. It may be him automatically as you say or it may be up someone to pick (Ialai or much more likely Elhokar). I am also not entirely sure about the position of high marshal. I really thought Amaram seemed more powerful than he really should have been due to high birth, important friendships, and celebrity. I may be wrong. Another thought is that Amaram may not want to be in such a high position yet.

I don't really see a connection. I believe I have read some theories that either the heralds or the first humans may have come from Nalthis but there are just as many theories that talk about Yolen or other planets in the same regard. From what I recall. Vorin has really only been used to describe the group of kingdoms that practice Vorinism and the religion itself. We don't have any context to believe it refers to the name of someone important to the religion (where it would most likely be another name for the Almighty I guess). Vo also wasn't really around long enough to do much more than lay the seeds for his own religion on Nalthis in my opinion.

Even if spikes were not a problem, I think plate would be more likely to be useful as a skeleton depending on how malleable its forms are. The thing is: why would you use a shard skeleton when you could just use it as armor and protect yourself better? I suppose in that sense you would use it as some sort of exoskeleton,

Well honestly, I figure most animals would have naturally adapted to the presence of shades by now. I think the only particular use for most would be to get shades to go after them instead by making them run (or somehow shed blood). I don't particularly recall if it was mentioned how animals have adapted to the shades though. It could be that they are more like animals in Sixth of the Dusk with their own investiture to protect them or something but I think some things are just going to end up being superstition.

Well, another thought that I had (which I don't necessarily believe myself) is that it could be the name of his god. It has been a while since I've read it and I am aware that they knew what Adonalsium was but that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone thought it was god. I wonder if any of the Shards believe in something like the God Beyond still.

Yeah, and it is also mentioned that only fort people would be crass enough to eat a pig. I do wonder if it is actually true though. It is said specifically that they are "said to ward of Shades" not that it has been proven.

Yeah that is the important bit. He never had a problem with shardblades until after. That is also why some people believe that until Dalinar asked the stormfather to make him a Radiant (so that he could lead them), he was not one. Whether that is true or matters is another question.

I've thought that also since Listeners are more hive minded and close to the cognitive realm, they may rely more on spren to define who they are or how the feel while humans seem to have distinct ideas that are then common enough to take spren form (or at least change spren even without a Nahel bond).

Yes some shards have invested themselves in their planets and beyond but remember that Adonalsium had already invested in some planets before being shattered, so some spren, animals, humans, and other races already existed. It is possible that by investing power some of the shards are slightly weaker but I don't think it is necessarily enough to prevent reforming Adonalsium itself. Investing may have been a natural think that Adonalsium did before the shattering that is not done in a less natural and more decisive way but is still being done. If they were going to take the power from every invested object in the cosmere though, I suppose that might even make the new combination of shards even more powerful technically. I think like others said this would likely end up creating smaller "evil shards" and probably not remove the opposing force if it existed. Also, we can obviously see that with Odium's creation there are technically more "evil shards" now that there were then. I believe there are WoBs stating that shattering is possibly reversible but I can't think of or find any specifics right now. It does make sense that if you can combine shards then you can also somehow combine their component parts. It just likely isn't something that is easy.

I think what was trying to be stated was that gold healing will extend your lifespan compared to others in the same way modern medicine has for us. Dying of old age is kind of a pointless saying in that it tells you very little about how someone actually died. Years ago people probably died of old age at 30 because half the deseases were unknown or untreatable. I find it unlikely that almost everyone in Era 2 is making it to the near maximum of their lifespan yet (meaning spiritual lifespan I guess, unless spiritual lifespan means how long you think you should live instead of how long the Shards created you to live). Also, I was under the impression that gold compounding gave you more than you put in. While you cannot really heal up to more than your normal level (I'm ignoring the foot stuff), you will essentially be able to avoid most common illnesses that are know to cause death to old people provided you have a reserve. Your body will still deteriorate and likely experience other problems due to your basline level of health naturally decreasing over time but you will still live longer.

Yeah. There does seem to be some benefit for copper. There are going to be seemingly useless combinations though. There have to be.