Satsuoni

To CrazyRioter - You are right, of course. Might just be my poor understanding of English language, in that "skeletal" to me means "something similar to a body plan suggesting internal skeleton, usually with mammalian/reptile body plan" To Argent: IMO, the stormlight is a kind of light/radiation, so to infuse the gem it must reach it through a medium transparent to the stormlight-specific "wavelength". Apparently, a glass coating does not stop spheres from infusing. Maybe a glass wall, thick enough to withstand the storm, will allow charging too. And the basket usually have enough small openings to let some light through. Your point about going out of chasms is entirely valid, though.

I still think that jumping orders is a little too much of the transformation, even for a pupation. After all, the chasmfiends are arthropods, and have exoskeleton (from descriptions, i think so). And thunderclasts are described as "vaguely skeletal", suggesting internal bones similar to mammalian structure, including "riblike protrusions" on its chest: Also, unless the chasmfiends has changed their habits recently, they have pupated there for the last 4000 years or so, but not a single thunderclast has been seen. (Of course, it may be that they actually burrowed somewhere, waiting the Desolation to awaken. But I don't think so). And the last question : I had an impression that the gem should be exposed to the storm (at least visually) to infuse/charge properly. Are you sure it can charge from inside the beast? Doesn't the pupa shell work as a kind of house, to stop the gem from charging?

Um.. Two things against that theory: One - size. Both the picture and the Dalinar's description show that chasmfiends are much bigger than just 5-6 times the person: Its claws alone constitute 5-6 human sizes. he picture also shows them towering over the houses. So, unless they shrink - a lot - they should be different creatures. 2nd thing - it is mentioned that thunderclast has hands, not claws: But the chasmfiends are also mentioned to have claws. The eyes are different, too (not stalked, and not even properly formed). Of course, they can possible transform into something completely different while pupating, but I think they were two separate creatures, both oth the Voidbringer side during the wars, along with night essence.

@Xavien: You may be onto something here. Maybe they are spren bound by Voidbinders and gaining a kind of body and sentience from it. Hm..

@Argent: No. I think, of them , only Cabine is ever mentioned by name. The unmade are probably creatures created by voidbinding out of raw materials. I think the Thunderclast are also of the same type (made out of rock infused with Void/Darklight).

Yes. I just thought he needed an object for lashing, but apparently direction is just as good. Also, yeah, she may have summoned the beads or floated to them. Either way, I think it is the same surge she shares with Shallan, Transformation or whatever its proper name is, not a separate ability. So, anyway, I don't know about opposites being, well, directly opposite. I still have the feeling that Radiants sharing a surge use it differently, so while the surge is the same, the abilities may not be fully overlapping. (A more general form of the above).

To CrazyRioter: Ok. Could you please find the reference? Also, Pressure in general or Air Pressure? To ulyssessword: I stand corrected. It appears that he can lash to any point, not just objects. The other points (about strengthening/redirecting) still stand though.

To ulyssesword: I don't know, he always seemed to refer to his lashings as "lashing to something", not just direction. I may be wrong though. To Silius: Not enough info to go on. The atmospheric pressure is the theory of the writer. How it can hold the door in it's frame is unclear, though. Also, I always thought that Stormlightning was just remote Soulcast. I mean the body does no necessary move when in Shadesmar. So you could just swim to target bead, touch and change it. No idea how it would look like from the side. But maybe it it another ability altogether. Also, there are enhancing and diminishing fabrials, and fabrials do not seem to be of Voidbinding. Still, maybe Voidbinding does hold opposites. This is mainly to promote discussion anyway.

Well, that is the point. He changes the direction of the pull, so that half of his weight goes upward, and half still goes downward, so he becomes weightless. Or a quarter upwards, so he becomes half-weight. So, redirection and strengthening only - he does not unlash himself from earth, or cancel the pull. As for the flying abilities of windrunners - two possible explanations: 1. They somehow lash to the shardplate (from inside, as it does not work from the outside), becoming weightless in respect to the earth, and then jump and lash in the general direction of flight. 2. they lash to the celestial objects (does lashing has distance limit?) Roshar has three moons, so by balancing the pull they may choose direction somewhat. Still, this theory does have many holes. That is why I am not sure about it.

Ok, so I am really unsure of this theory, too little evidence. But it have to be said. So, we know that Windrunners have two Surges: gravity and adhesion. What I have noticed is that they can only create and/or strengthen both forces. For example, Szeth cannot unstick objects, reducing adhesion, or weaken the gravity pull -just compensate for it with the opposite one. We also know that other Radiants share a surge with with windrunners. So my theory is this - other orders have the second half of ability, that is, they can for example, weaken gravity and reduce adhesion or intramolecular bondsor whatever that is. That would explain why some radiant would prefer running on walls, and some flying for example - although windrunners can fly (somehow), it apparently is not very natural for them, since their ability is to stick to stuff. It is a little like push and pull in Allomancy. In case of Jasnah and Shallan, it can be like Shallan changing stuff FROM and Jasnah INTO other essences, or something like that. Very subjective... So I am not sure, but if true, i called it.

TO Musicspren - probably that is how all fabrials work. That would possibly explain why there are so few of these fabrials around - maybe you have to actually see/detect one to trap it, and these are the kind of spren largely invisible to most people

Yes, that is the one. Thank you.

Unknown. There is, however a theory (not mine, sorry, cannot find a proper reference for attribution now), that it is related to I-7, Baxil POV interlude: It has been theorized that the mistress is a Herald, and she destroys all references to herself (i think).

From the books I infer that shards, essentially, want to propagate their intent in the world. That is, Ruin want to increase ruin in the world, Preservation wants to leave thing unchanged - preserve them, and Odium - well here is the quote Unworldy mentioned: So, Odium wants to increase hatred and amorality in the world. Wars help - you hate your enemy and do atrocious things to them, but end world would probably be where one would eat his hated neighbour's child raw, and hate the taste. Which will eventually lead to self-destruction. So, something close to AAshyma's point of view, actually.

Ok, I was looking at the chart today. I could not find anything more than fragmentary descriptions of it, so I have assigned the stones by their colors as well as I could: on this chart. Sorry about readability, I am bad at this kind of thing. Corrections welcome! Also, after rereading this: as well as this parts: I retract the theory that Regrowth was related to love/healing (diamond). As shown on my chart, the woman is most likely a Stoneward, and the color of her armor suggests either Topaz or Heliodor (not sure about Topaz color, btw, but the associated Element is Stone, so..). Also, sorry about spreading out. That is a single theory in my head, but it is really hard to write down without going off the tangent. It has ever been so for me. Still, I think the above is relevant. Also relevant : spren names/ virtues (pure guesswork!), in order of Ars Arcanum Essences: Honrspren, Knowledgespren, Braveryspren, Lovespren, Justicespren, Truthspren, Wisdomspren, Decisivenessspren, Trustspren, Faithspren. Heh.

Brandonothology says: So, Returned's Breath is splinter, glowing balls in Elantris are possibly splinters, etc. Also, to those who ask whether splintering makes the Shard unusable - have you ever considered that you can get a splinter off a tree without destroying the whole tree? On the other hand, if you do reduce a tree to splinters, nobody will be able to climb it anymore. As to the glowing plates: I think that the Radiants were originally named that way because they glowed (by themselves and in the shardplate), when using Stormlight. So, only a Radiant may make the plate glow, by somehow fusing to it, and maybe there are different kinds of shardplates (different glyphs?) for different Surgebinders - note that Szeth can't use Shardplate effectively: As a possibility, it may be that the plates served as a house for the spren bound to Surgebinder (see my theory), creating the link. As an aside, a shardblade does have some sort of gem in it, although it does not seem to need infusion:

To Zas678 - Thank you! I must learn how to espouse theories.. and how to use quotes. Since I only have the ebook, I cannot tell the page numbers, sorry. To LightReader: Regarding the truthspren, the following quote: suggest that they want, and so may be drawn to personal, hidden truths, in other word, secrets, not truthfulness per se. It may be that all spren need something personal to form a bond. It is easier in case of honor -honor is originally a very personal thing. But truth is diluted each time somebody else learns it. That may explain why there were several of the truthspren in Palaneum, given what the king is hiding there. I think that the essences, and the corresponding attributes from Ars Arcanum are related to surgebinders and corresponding spren, although not directly. For example, in such case Shallan would be "creative/honest", but honestly is only required towards the spren, Kaladin would be a windwalker (Zephyr), associated with "protecting/leading", which he does, but that are just qualities associated with honorable man, etc. Maybe Jasnah is "learned/giving" then, as you suggest. Hm. That is also related to the kind of soulcasting they specify in : the only thing Shallan has soulcast was blood, and the first thing we saw Jasnah soulcast was smoke. Maybe that was a hint. Also, there was another kind of surgebinder mentioned: and a little lower If my essence association is correct, that would be "loving/healing", so a Lovespren, maybe? No idea what others are though. And yes, probably there other spren that become non-sentient without bond. Probably the spren that are not connected to Shadesmar (Cognitive realm), but that is just speculation rising from the name.

Hm.. Ok. Could you specify which parts need clarification/quotes? Nahel bond is from the Dalinar's vision before last, as well as information about honorspren preferences and the existence of other bound spren. Navani's note book is from Coppermind wiki, etc...

First of all, sorry if this topic was already covered, but I could not find a thread to post it in, so I am making a new one. Ok, what follows is a summary of known facts and my commonsense interpretations of them. First, about surgebinders. These are people that have an ability to utilize stormlight in some ways. Apparently, these abilities come when one forms the Nahel bond with a Spren. It is unknown if any person can form a bond or if this is an inborn condition. Also unknown if whether any Spren can form bond or not. My theory is that Spren are first attracted and then bonded by their aspect. That is, I.e , honorspren are attracted to honor, and the bond is reinforced by doing something honorable, or by swearing and upholding an oath. This is why Kaladin got stronger when he swore the second oath. That does not to be a good thing, as in case of Szeth the oath seems to be "obey all orders of your master". Also, the symbolheads (from here on referred to as truthspren) appear to form bonds when given a personal truth. So far, the only Spren shown with the ability to form bond are those attracted to some positive personality trait, but I wonder if other Spren can also be bonded with. If my theory holds, however, binding the deathspren would require dying. Repeatedly. Ahem. Now, the bond works both ways. To Spren, it gives humanity, possibly sentience, if it does not have one before. Human, on the other hand, gains some of the abilities of the Spren. This is also my speculation, but it seems that Spren draw sustenance, and possibly essence, from Stormlight. That is why there are none visible in Shinovar, just as I think ( not confirmed) that you can not charge a sphere there. So, the human gains ability to draw in stormlight, or manipulate it, and also gains ability specific to the bound Spren, which is related to the Spren aspect. The honorspren, for example, binds stuff, so it's abilities are to strengthen or redirect the bonds , either in material or gravity bonds. The truthspren give ability to change truth of an object, transforming it, and also give you perception of underlying truth (cognitive realm). Also, the personalities in the table probably reflect the kind of Spren bound ( not sure). The Fabrials, as inferred from the Navani's notes, are made by capturing Spren in a gem, and then feeding it stormlight and directing it's powers in some way. That would imply that one can make more kinds of fabrial than there can be Surgebinders(not any Spren can be bound to human) but that the control and strength is usually less. I also think that glyphs originally served as circuit boards for fibrils, helping to direct the power. Now, about voidbinding. This is pure speculation on my part, but it would seem that the black light in a sphere was void, as opposed to the surge ( stormlight), and that it was taken from the parshendi somehow. So maybe there exists a complementing set of abilities that utilizes void as a power source. It is possible that it is associated with Spren with opposite personalities ( the liesspren?) or some other things entirely. It also seem obvious that stormlight comes from Honor, and void from Odium. Also, I think that part of the voidbinding powers was creation of rock monsters/ night essences. So, what do you think? P.S. A noob here. Please be gentle.

I am very intereseted in the Alloy of Law ARC, and so content to be a runner up. So um.. Gimme?