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Per WOB it was not actual hemalurgy but it operates on similar principles. My own interpretation of this WOB is that the similarity he is referencing is from the fact one of the fundamentals of Hemalurgy is that by stabbing a person you are able to transcend the realms to access their Spirit-web directly. The difference being that Hemalurgy can be any pointy bit of metal (of the correct alloys), but very specifically requires Intent to perform Hemalurgy to make it happen or else it's just a stabbing, whereas Moash didnt have any such knowledge, and I think the dagger that was used was more along the lines of a specialty Fabrial to accomplish similar spiritweb shenanigans.

Yup, Some (but not all) Horneaters can see partially into the Cognitive Realm, letting them see more of the Spren's true forms and see Spren like Syl even when they arent trying to be seen; The horneaters call those that have that ability "alaii'ik". It's because they are part Singer. The Herdanzian's are too, though I dont think we've had any indication that any of them can see spren the way alaii'ik can. In fact, on Roshar anyone with Red Hair has distant Singer blood. Horneaters can also literally eat shells and metabolize it in a way other humans cannot. They also have somethign called "throat teeth", so have that little bit of nightmare fuel...

Setting aside the morality of letting 10 people bear all the weight of the responsibility, and torture, to protect the rest (which Im not innately opposed to, if they gave fully Informed consent it would become a very Noble Self-Sacrifice in my eyes, so the actual circumstances will decide) it proved fundamentally flawed because Tanavast had forgotten too much about Human Nature by the time he built it. The Heralds simply Changed Their Minds, which was a possibility Tanavast had (apparently) forgotten existed. The same model will not work again, even assuming it could still hold up against all of Odium's various new and/or future tactics. Though while we're on the subject, even though it seems like a very reasonable blind spot for the God of Oaths, Id have thought that the various ways Mortals can Change would have been at the forefront of Cultivation's perspective. Maybe she didnt have much of a hand in the initial Oathpact, but she'll be able to come up with something better? Even as simple Change as adding some Mechanism for replacements to Offer themselves (again, Informed Consent is key here) would prevent the same issue from happening, as broken Heralds would know that they have an Out, some sort of torture free Retirement. Though from a Doyistic perspective I think any attempts to trap a Shards will ultimately prove futile in the Long Run.

Blast, you're right. Could have sworn it was the end of WoR after the Everstorm hit. So at best I had the cause and effect reversed, at worst they are entirely unrelated. It does make a certain amount of sense that the heralds wouldnt be stuck on Braize anymore since the Fused no longer are, but I guess there isnt much actual evidence to connect the two.

Ya, my memory of the actual quote was incorrect, I thought he'd said Slivers

We know they (and the Oathpact) are in some way linchpins to his being imprisoned, and in his conversation with Daliar he said "In fact, I cannot leave behind the Splinters of Honor, as I once thought I could." Which I took to be a reference to the Heralds given that he then found a way to Kill one. Though in looking back at the passage it could also have been simply that he doesnt want to leave behind any significant accumulations of Honor's Investiture, and "Slivers" in that context could also have referred to Spren of Honor in general, especially the big ones like the Stormfather. EDIT: Agreed, it might have been technically workable at one point, but no longer. Though honestly it probably would have made things worse rather than better. She thought it would kick the Desolation can down the road enough to gain them significant time, based on how long it had been since the last one, but it only lasted that long because only the strongest went back. Towards the end of the historic Desolation cycles, it was only a few years between them, and sending the heralds back would just increase the odds that one of them would break. Though arguably it's just that Talanal broke along a more useful line than the rest: I think his mind broke hard, but unlike the rest his madness didnt allow him to actually Give Up, which is why he lasted so long. I think he got back because of the Everstorm, on the same mechanism that lets the Fused return each Storm rather than being trapped on Braize. Meaning even killing the Heralds now (normally, not Super-Dead like Jezerin) would only last to the next Everstorm.

By the sound of things, especially the words of Odium himself, Killing the Heralds permanently would essentially be taking direct steps to Free Odium, which if nothing else would make him less likely to agree to a Contest of Champions. I dont think it's a sound strategy. He's said he plans to then attack Cultivation and leave, which would require that he rip his increasingly Invested essence from the world, with major fallout.

I feel like this has been asked in a WOB, but I cant find it. Im sure it's been discussed before around here. I think it would create something like a Lifeless, though there are some specific issues with Breaths and Identity, so it might have restrictions on doing it yourself vs somebody doing it for you. The easy test would be that if a second cut of a shardblade treats it like meat (the way it does when it kills the entire person) then likely it has become severed enough to receive a Breath of its own. It also might only work after enough time has passed that Stormlight and/or Regrowth do not work to repair it, after the point were the new cognitive identity has been established. If I recall correctly there was mention in Stormlight that the severed limbs stick around useless but do not actually go necrotic, Im thinking more akin to permanent nerve damage. They are still attached to the original circulatory system and all that, and at least on the short term it wasnt threatening the bridgeman that lost his legs to Szeth.

For what it's worth, Ive started to wonder if Regrowth could be used to heal a Deadeye, if applied to their actual form in the Cognitive Realm. It's stated in WOB (or at least strongly implied) that you can use Hemalurgy on them if you can access their form in Shadesmar, which makes me wonder if they'd be more susceptible to other things there as well. Pattern indicated at one point that Spren dont heal but can be healed, saying that it takes outside intervention (he was fascinated by mortal's ability to "self-repair").

Hehe, more or less what got Rock sent to the bridge crew in the first place...

It might be as simple as which Essences the Soulcaster in question is attuned to, as I think to cross the Essences you need a Soulcaster that is attuned to both sides of the transformation. It would make logistic sense if they have one with Garnet&SmokeStone and one with Emerald&Topaz available, but they did not have any with the Emerald&Garnet combo. Or maybe Emerald&Zircon? Would a giant pit of Feces&Urine be more Tallow, or Blood?

True Spren seem to require specific Intent to Create by an empowered entity, and I "Empowered" because we've been told that this was an ability (and responsibility) Given to the Stormfather by Honor (as a change from how it had been before) some time before the Recreance, and before Honor's death, as part of the preparations Honor was making (creating the visions being another). The Stormfather did this with Syl and some other's way back in the day but if I recall correctly not again after the Recreance killed so many. The lesser, Sub-spren are something that I think can naturally evolve a lot easier (though we have WOB that any relatively large bit of Investiture can spontaneously gain sentience), because in many cases these sub-spren are, for example, spren of physical objects that can be modified. A bolder will have a Spren, but break it in half (and give it enough time to adjust to the idea) and you'll have two different Spren made from the pieces. That's the most simplistic example I can think of but the rest (both phyical and more abstract) seem to follow the same general idea.

I doubt it, the gem is facilitating the Connection, but among other things it seems to be tricking the deadeye spren into thinking they are still bonded, and the original bond was very individual. On a practical side, you'd have the issues with whose Heartbeats would summon it, who could Will it to remain manifested, and eventually whose Bond would be the primary and could override the commands of the other when they issued conflicting Orders. The fact that Blades get loaned out from their Family owners (or the Kings Blade tradition) would lead me to believe it would have been tried, as the original owns would be highly motivated to find a way to forcibly take it back if the need arose. The closest I think you could get is to Destroy the Gem of a Bonded blade so that it would loose the ability to be summoned or dismissed entirely, and then share it from there in a purely physical way.

You know, Im curious if the additional involvement from Endowment could be the involvement of a Divine Breath, either the fact that he's eaten one (assuming Shashara was indeed a Returned like the other Scholars) or even a more direct instance of Endowment granting one to Nightblood directly in a similar process.

Nice! So between that mention of actual flying insects and the fact that there are other small flyers like the Larkin, we know they exist in some form. They may not actually look like earth-norm insects, as most of Roshar's native ecology doesnt, but it means they are able to avoid the Highstorms, Im guessing they can burrow down when they feel the air-pressure change of the stormfront, unless they have some more supernatural/spren-based mechanism. The Purelake itself retracts down into the rocks when the Highstorm approaches, so bugs knowing to duck and cover makes sense.

Honestly, in terms of both ethical questions and practical, logistic issues, I think they advent of Medallions would make it mostly irrelevant, at least for the basic sharing of Powers, to the point where it would become more of a black-market thing. I highly doubt it would even be as commonplace as swapping spikes out after a work-shift, or even at the end of a Tour of Duty, so far the implication has been that even with Gold Healing there are going to be spiritual scars. The only thing that Spike can do that Medallions cannot is the sharing of the non-metallic arts things, your Strength, senses, or Mental Fortitude sort of things. It might still find niche use on the official side in the case of Stealing Identity to be able to forcibly access Metalminds, Copper in particular, and I would not be at all surprised to see Aluminum Spikes used on empowered Criminals. I also have absolutely NO idea what sort of Pandora's Box Chronium "Destiny" stealing might be. Beyond that, I could see Spikes becoming a sort of Inheritance that you could willingly leave to your heirs (after your will is witnessed and recorded in UnKeyed Copper, to avoid forgeries), where you have a Donor Card/Tattoo that lets them know you want to be spiked if you become terminal and on Life Support. It could culturally become a very personal memento, leaving an actual, empowering Piece of your Soul to your loved ones. And all that is assuming they dont become broadly aware of the fact that Hemalurgy makes one vulnerable to Shardic Influence, which will become more and more relevant as the Trell issue plays out, and then once they become Space-fairing.

Out of curiosity, do we know anything about Evi's parents, beyond that they had a set of Plate to pass on? Adolin could have been pointing to similarities without implying it was a genetic thing. I've known several people that have had personal experience with dementia who start to see that particular shadow in others just as an observational bias, without there being any direct connection.

I agree with most of what's been said as equally reasonable possibilities. I personally like to lean to her consciously if secretly meddling via the 5 Scholars and Nightblood, perhaps even having a hand in Spren reverse-engineering the Honorblades (Five Ideals being the cluebat there), it's also possible that she's simply a touch...Touched. There are two different WOB that indicate say she's erratic, so she might not be a mastermind so much as just a bit crazy, explaining why she seems content to just leave Rayse doing his thing (or at least locked up and somebody else's problem).

That was Ishar according to the Stormfather, not Nohadon. But either way, the Heralds existed as heralds before the spren figured out how to mimic what they were doing (and the Honorblades) and create Radiants, regardless of the actual secular organization of the Orders.

Oh, You're considering what the folks of Ashyn did to also be Surgebinding. Sorry, I misunderstood. I tend to consider Surgebinding to be specifically the Radiants, and distinct from both Fabrial tech and Voidbinding even though they are all based on the same underlying Surges. The disease-based magic of Ashyn is something else, Id think.

Yup. They definitely were not heralds at the time of the migration, but were present. And Yes, they predate the Orders according to the Stormfather.

Ya, I think if one of the oaths became unatainable, particularly the Oaths of Dedication or Crusade, the they would regress (the way Shallan did) and have to speak new Words. Certainly with Szeth, if his Crusade is not approved by Dalinar he'd have to find a new one before he could proceed. If Dalinar were to die, I think it might depend on whether Dalinar had left him with any standing Orders or some such uncompleted Task, but I could see it playing out where Szeth would be Bound to fulfill Dalinar's Dying wish/command before he could Re-swear the 3rd, and then have to find a 4th that wasnt specifically worded to require Dalinar's approval.

The order is off. We recently learned that the Heralds were alive and part of the initial migration from Ashyn, and we know from the Stormfather that the Heralds predate the Humans getting access to surges, and also that the herald Ishar was the one that created/founded the Oathpact (the Stormfather implied that this was due to his Bondsmith powers, but it may have been a single event that Bond them all and granted them the powers, so maybe it was just his Idea in some way). We also know (from the visions I think) that the Heralds and the Oathpact were in response to the emergence of the Fused. Which really means those first few years/decades after the Migration were all kinds of eventful. I personally dont think the humans ever "conquered" Urithiru so much as built it along with the other Dawncities (there's a decent theory that it was done via a massive act of Soulcasting combined with Lightweaver wave-form shaping to propagate out the fractal patterns).

This is similar to a thought I had about Nightblood's impact on a Radiant, and for Yelig-nar I think it might depend on how much control he has over the Bond in question, and whether he can sever it at will the way a Spren can the Nahel Bond. When Nightblood has no other sources of power he begins feeding on the investiture that comprises their own Spiritweb. The Nahel Bond is literally merging/Connecting the spiritwebs of the Radiant and their Spren, which I would think puts the Spren at risk of getting sucked in by Nightblood if it came to that, though they can consciously End the bond at any time (and so have the option to break it in self-preservation). For Yelig-Nar, if the Gem is facilitating a similar Bond, he might be able to sever it and run away before he got caught up in Nightblood's feeding frenzy. Buuut, if it works more like a Gemheart and Singer Form, then he's actually contained within the Gem&crystal growth on the physical plane (the way the Spren of Singer Forms are, or the Spren in Fabrials), then when the Host went Poof the Unmade would as well.