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Fair enough, I only mentioned it because I dont think it's an example of the Radiant themselves having multiple Spren bonds in the way this thread is discussing, rather that it's an example similar to squires where the one of the two beings involved in the primary Nahel Bond having a secondary/surrogate bond. Back on track: With little to no evidence whatsoever, I think the most likely combination of Orders that might find the right circumstances to bond multiple spren of different Orders would be the Bondsmiths and whatever order is most closely associated with their individual Godspren. This is mostly because the two godspren we know have more differences than similarities. But I think the Godspren would have to either REALLY like the pre-existing radiant for some reason, or have a particular attachment to the Spren, otherwise it would seem so very impolite to horn in on this sort of Soul-blending relationship

The short answer is Yes there is almost certainly a Connection effect at play, but I tend to think of it as the Plate is formed from the Radiant spren's Squire-spren, in much the same way the Radiant's Nahel bond gets extended to their Squires

This. We know she told Hoid that she was uninterested in interfering, but that could just as easily mean that she didnt want to put statements of obvious support of Hoid in writing. My tinfoil theory on this topic is that she's encouraged Nalthis to have such established Cognitive Realm trade precisely because she is trying to subltely influence the other shardworlds without being liable for it. But a prophetic painting here, a handful of Scholars there, maybe a nudge to let the Spren reverse engineer the Honorblades... Note that the Radiant Oaths come in Fives, and Five is Endowment's magic Number.

Seeing the Future changes the Future, so just like two Atium burners fighting, Future Sight offers no definitive advantage in Shard-Vs-Shard conflicts. They all have it to some extent by virtue of existing primarily in the Spiritual Realm.

It would certainly be a powerful combination and offer a lot of combat advantage, but Id say it wouldnt get you all teh way to Atium. Atium allows actual precognition via a fortune effect that is tapping the Spiritual Realm, so at the end of the day it would always be limited by the quality and accuracy of the compounder's data input. It wouldnt be able to predict things that the compounder cannot sense coming (with ordinary senses absent spikes, medallions, or being Full-born). Atium also gives you an expanded mind sufficient to process all that data real-time which Im not sure Mental Speed alone is actually mimicking? Dont forget Atium's own Immortality Compounding

This doesnt have to be the case, logically speaking. Just because those creatures naturally attract a given type of Spren and swarm around them doesnt meant they cannot also have a spren in their Gemheart. Spren show up and swarm around anything they are attracted to regardless of their actual involvement in the phenomena, in the same way Windrunners can attract Windspren, use of adhesion can attract Bindspren, etc. even though the source of those powers are something else. For that matter, there's no proof yet that a Gemheart of the sizes we see in Chasmfiends cannot have multiple lesser spren inhabiting them, and that might explain how lesser spren are responsible for keeping creatures of such widely varying sizes aloft.

I think the Shards with the best Future Sight would be those who's Intent is fundamentally characterized by a concern with the Future and how things develop, so of the list of Shards we know the top two are (to my mind) Ambition and Cultivation. I voted Cultivation by virtue of still being alive.

If it happens, and I agree it definitely could, it would be a development of this Desolation, rather than anything with history precedent. Odium doesnt like to Invest in planets any more than he has to, which is what it would take for him actual Odiumspren to be in the mix. I think this is why he's been so careful thus far to take existing things and corrupt them into voidspren (souls of Singers, existing Spren, whatever was Unmade, etc). Now, we know (because the Stormfather told us) that three historic Bondsmith godspren where the Stormfather, the Nightwatcher and the third we've been calling the Sibling (which we know nothing about other than that it's "slumbering"). I personally fully expect the number of Bondsmiths to increase if only because I fully expect to see an example of every flavor of true Voidbinder (Renarin being the first we've seen) and that would theoretically include at least one Voidbinding Bondsmith. Pretty much any of the Unmade would probably qualify from a power/Investment standpoint (Sja-Anat being an interesting choice from a narrative standpoint) and I would honestly be very suprised if the creation of the Everstorm had not birthed a contemporary of the Stormfather, which almost by definition should be Bondsmith tier.

Per WOB all of them are a mix, some just lean stronger to one or the other:

This is pure speculation on my part, but I dont think that is entirely the case. Gravitation is described as manipulating your Connection to the planet to redirect Gravity, and Adhesion (at least Spiritual Adhesion) is also an example of manipulating Connection. I think the reason that Windrunners get augmented Squires is because their Gravitation and Adhesion are working together in the Spiritual domain to forge stronger Connections to their Squires.

That was my interpretation. I figure Atium can steal any (single) form of Investiture, which likely includes metallic arts as well as all the off-world options we've heard about. Meanwhile Lerasium "Steal[ing] all Abilities" means that it would steal Strength, and Senses, and Fortitude and Memories, but grab some amount of all of them. But if that list includes Memory, Fortune, Identity, etc then you may well be talking about a spike that imparts of forced Possession, giving you a second Self. Sounds suspiciously like a Nahel Bond to a Cognitive Shadow created by the spike's victim. Any thoughts one what Atium's "Must Be Refined" could mean?

Im curious about Shallan. She was a Radiant before the events that she Blocked, since she had a Blade at the time. Did she have some other hang-up prior to that? We also have WOB that there was a supernatural influence driving her brothers to their various forms of instability, Im curious if it was affecting her in some way too (prior to the events with her mother)?

I dont think so. He only has the Slave Brands because he thinks he should have them, they've become part of his personal identity. But the Returned loose all their previous memories and transform into whatever they think a god should look like (usually huge and beautify and physically imposing, once old and wise, and I believe just extremely Lucky in Lightsong's case), not a perfected version of themselves. If the new Returned (is it too on the nose to call him WindRunner?) thought that a god should have that sort of mark then maybe, but I dont think Kaladin's personal history and/or slavery baggage would dictate it the way it does with his Radiant Healing. Unless his bond with Syl remained and was interacting with his Returned status in some unusual way.

Im not actually going that far. I still think Lightweavers get normal Plate like all the other Orders, and I personally am in the camp that believes they are formed from the Order's associated lesser spren (Creationspren for Lightweavers, Windspren for Windrunners, Gloryspren for Bondsmiths, etc). All I meant to say was that we might see a Lightweaver wearing a Plate illusion that could be superficially indistinguishable. It would be able to stop physical blows, would potentially be invested enough to stop Shardblades, and would sure /Look/ like Shardplate. It would still require an active Surge like any other Illusion (and all the limitations that involves with Stormlight fuel, Seeker spren, Aluminum, etc); it would still be disrupt-able in the way actual godmetal plate is not. It also would not offer any of the other benefits that Plate does, like the Strength enhancement. It would be more along the lines of a dismissable Half-Shard plate armor, to my mind.

I would argue that Veil isnt Fake in any of the ways that really matter to the Spren. Shallan cannot invent a new persona with any skills, knowledge, or actual experience that she herself does not possess (that would take Forgery). But she can (and has) wildly changed her balance of personality traits, and I think she could do so enough to appeal to a different race of spren, in theory. Certainly some spren would probably be more open to the Bond than others (but hell, that's the case even with spren of the same race, taking both Ivory and Syl as examples). As far as the likelihood of actually gaining Spren approval, I wouldnt go so far as to call it a Wisdom issue so much as a personal (and racial) preference issue, but yes it's not going to be common by any stretch. So far Brandon has always been very specific to say it's only "theoretically" possible to bond multiple types of Spren. I dont think spren are innately any more Wise than people, in fact they are arguably less by virtue of being far more polarized and invariable in their personalities. But they are presented basically as people, with all the prejudices and fallibility that comes with it. They hold grudges, go to war over ideology, misunderstand other viewpoints, etc. I do think that Cryptics specifically are likely to be more open to it than some of the others, if Pattern is any indication. They seem to be all about Experimentation, so they might like the idea of running the experiment and gaining new experience. Also one of the bigger limitations I see is the fact that you'd have to uphold multiple sets of Oaths, but the Truths model of Lightweavers is going to have the least potential for conflict with another.

Oh, yes, it is absolutely a damaging, psychologically unhealthy process, which is why Shallan has chosen to cap herself at three (and even that probably wasnt great for her). It's probably as unhealthy as Hemalurgy, in many ways. As far as the difference between "making personalities" and just "using bits of your own, I think it's debatable whether there is any difference at all. Shallan made two different personalities that were very confident because she believed that was a quality she lacked. Was she right, or was she simply not giving herself enough credit? That's something she'll have to figure out for herself. But we have seen her take what were at best small or underdeveloped parts of her personality and highlight them to a much greater degree, making them so fundamental that a new personality emerged. That should certainly work to a degree that the new personality could appeal to a different race of spren. Shallan is entirely capable of being honorable and selfless at times, if she chose to focus a personality on those qualities enough she might well be able to attract an Honorspren and become a Windrunner. Radiant is already basically just Shallan trying to be as much like Jasnah as possible, if she committed to that enough she might impress an Inkspren. Now, if she managed to attract a second spren and speak the oaths, I do think she'd be required to uphold both sets of oaths at all times (regardless of which personality is dominant) or risk damaging the Nahel bonds.

Per WOB Hemalurgic charge decays very rapidly over time, but it's not linear. It works like half-life, in that there is theoretically a lot of loss in the first moments (which is why they minimize the time it's out of the body as much as possible when first created) but it never looses 100% of the charge. And for the purposes of communicating to Ruin/Harmony, non-zero is all you need.

Im not sure I understand you here. It's a huge leap from saying a lightweaver can create solid automatons or armor and saying they can mimic other forms of Investiture. Though since we do know by WOB that a single person could theoretically bond multiple spren and be of two orders (with both spren's approval) then I could see a Lightweaver creating a splinter personality that was better suited to a different order and having two Radiants that basically just share a host's body.

Id argue that we've seen Shallan do both those things in OB. Not a full army of sentient beings, but she whipped up a solid, if slightly robotic soldier force, and separately there were three variant Shallan's holding hands. The limitations seem to be just about stormlight supply, and the personal fallout of fragmenting the lightweaver's own psyche (which seems to be the route to invented sentient beings).

On the bridges, it's not just the lower gravity of the world, they also invented a super-strong, super-light soulcast wood for it:

If we are talking about the Solid Illusions that Shallan was performing in OB, I really think the difference is going to be slim to none. It's solid for all mundane puirposes, and Invested so it would potentially block Shardblades and Surges in a similar way (I guessing weaker but couldn't say for sure), and assuming the Lightweaver has enough Stormlight available you could renew the illusion a lot easier and faster than you could heal a broken set of plate.

Fair point, illusion magic forces us to question everything. Though at the point where you are mimicking magic armor with solid illusions, the difference might become entirely academic

So, we know the Honorblades dont technically grant all the same abilities as the Nahel Bond of their Order. For example the Honorblades dont provide Squires. Tactically speaking they also cannot change shape. What they do is provide access to the same Surges, specifically, thought they are less efficient with Stormlight because the Bond to the Honorblade is so much weaker than a full Nahel Bond. As far as Bondsmith's go, there are as many as 5 beings at a time that could potentially wield that Power: Three spren-Bonded Smiths, One Wielder of Ishar's Blade, and potentially Yelig-nar's host since they get all ten Surges (though we dont know if they get all the various versions of a given Surge that differs from Order to Order). Ive also seen a good argument be made that there could potentially be more Bondsmiths: the WOR quote stated that it was considered "seditious" to increase their Order beyond three. That implies that there were more spren that could Serve, but that they were on the Other Side of the war. So perhaps there's a Bondsmith-level Gospren on the Void side of things (possibly one or more of the Unmade). Since the theme with both the various Listener characters and Renarin/Glys seems to be the blurring of the previously assumed "Sides" of this whole war, it wouldnt surprise me if we eventually see a Void-side Godspren bond somebody and create a Bondsmith. For example, f Sja-Anat is sincere about defecting, I could easily see her becoming the forth Godspren for that Order.

WOB has it that Shalan was further along in her Oaths but then regressed due to all the PTSD and denial and whatnot, which is why she had a blade as a child but had to re-speak some Truths before getting it back. Kaladin did something similar in WoR. As far as her Armor goes, I seem to recall a passage in OB that hinted at her Radiant persona having access to it. I want to say there was a moment with lights swirling around her like she'd just dismissed it (there was a similar moment for Jasnah, for what its worth).

As further evidence that a squire stage isnt a requirement: Nale apparently thought Szeth might be able to skip straight to the Third Ideal. Szeth only went through the Squire stages because Nale wasnt present at the time and the other masters didnt think they could judge that, so they had Szeth follow their standard procedure and be tested with the other squires.