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There's at least one WOB that implies even Jasnah's shadesmar travel involves Perpendicularities, and as I understand it their whole point is that the distinction between the Realms start to go away entirely as they all get crushed into each other. In that sense, it might be less that Transportation takes you to one Realm or the other so much as it makes the distinctions between realms cease to exist entirely and blends the lower two with the Omnipresent Spiritual, then you get to choose your exit point from there which can be in either realm. I dont know, given that the quote is painting the Willshapers and Lightweavers with the same brush and the Lightweaver's bit is relatively unique, I dont think we can assume the Willshapers and Elscallers are going to match any more directly. It also implies that only the Elsecallers were known to bring others with them to Shadesmar as if the others could not, thought that could be a simply cultural choice rather than a power limitation on the Willshaper's part.

The way I understand it is that the healing happens based on the Ideal platonic self in the Spiritual realm, which moment to moment is not much affected by the mental state of the person. Long-term that Platonic Self can change, and that is evident in several places: People and Objects have a time period where they can be broken and still remember their "whole" self, but in both cases as time passes it will become harder to revert. Sapient Creatures can further affect this with their own conscious and subconscious self-image, as with Kaladin who had decided to define himself as a slave while Lopen had never really accepted his missing arm. So in that sense a person with a strong enough self-image can re-write an awful lot of themselves, though there is a real and increasing energy requirement involved so it's not as easy as simply healing a wound or Infection. Now, if you wanted to try to force that sort of thing, in theory you certainly could as that's more or less what happens with Kolos: you use investiture to manipulate their Spiritweb via their physical aspect (specifically their flowing Blood) and the changes are forced to manifest back in the physical realm. The question this really points me toward is: assuming adequate power sources to overcome affecting something Invested, could a Radiant Heal away the changes of a Soul-stamp? I dont think you could fix Soulcasting, since it's a permanent Change to the Aspect (same way you cannot use Gold Feruchemy to Heal a Snapping), but I think there's a very real possibility that a Radiant (or target of Regrowth, F-Gold, etc) could shake off a hostile Soulstamp.

Im of two minds on this. On the one hand it makes sense in general, the Dor is a big ol' ball of Power in the Cognitive realm, and all the various Selish magics are different ways to form channels for that power via some use of Symbols, so the area that used a geographic Symbol is going to be more Geographically limited than the ones who use a symbol language of Bodily Motion or Bone carvings. On the other hand, I dont know if you can really talk about Elantrian before and after the City was built, in that I dont think Elantrians could have existed at all before the city was built, so to try and quantify how much of the Dor they could have accessed without the city seems like a fallacy. It would be different if the region of the city had more direct and measurable effect on how much the Dor other Sel Magics could access while equidistant from their own center of power.

At the end of the day Oathgates are Fabrials, and they all have more functional limitations than a Radiant with the equivalent Surge, so Im not sure we can assume that Radiant's would need the same sort of two-sided Gate and/or Landing Platform type of setup. At this point I have more questions that ideas about Transportation, to be honest. We only have a couple examples of Surges in Two Orders, and they arent entirely consistent. Gravitation seems to work more or less the same for Windrunners and Skybreakers, while Bondsmiths have a tendency to manifest the same concept in a different Realm (as was the case with his "Spiritual Adhesion". I could see it being as simple as them also being able to access Shademar (fitting with their typical love of travel and adventure), but I could also see it operating in a different Realm, and their being a more Spiritual than the Cognitive focus of the Elsecallers like Jasnah would thematically fit rather nicely. If true it would mean that Elsecallers are the ones with the best access to the Cognitive Realm for worldhopping and the Soulcasting mechanics, while Willshapers would excel at interfacing with the Spiritual Realm for the Instantaneous Point-to-point Transport that the Oathgate's use. This especially appeals to me because Id look forward to seeing what new things a Singer Willshaper could do with that and her own innate Connection to the Spiritual realm via the Rhythms.

@Fcrate I know you! Good to see you again, Friend

I reread the Szeth training scenes and some of the bits with Syl talking of her process, and I really think it comes down to the Highspren having a more structures order to theirs, though there's also a lot of indication that Syl has always bonded early and/or more deeply than typical. Syl was following Kaladin way back in Amaram's Army, long before he swore any Ideals; but she also went comatose when her first Radiant died, which she said was unusual among Bonded spren (though it did save her from the Recreance). The Skybreakers are very specific about their process: They swear the First Ideal and are absolved all past sins (I wonder if they have the legal authority to do that everywhere?), but cannot at that point move under their own stormlight. After proper testing they are chosen by a specific Skybreaker to become their Squire (the master fought over Szeth), which is what they call those of the Second Ideal, and they can use Gravitation at that point but not Division. Also, if the Masters are to be believed they have not attracted their own Spren at that point. As squires they attract a specific Highspren and form their own bond, becoming a full Skybreaker and gaining the full Surges. I think that all really comes down to simply concept that Highspren simply will not consider candidates that have not first served "properly" as a Master's Squire, whereas Honorspren are a little less Lawful Neutral about that whole thing. Good thing they never gave up their Oaths, they'd have had a harder time re-establishing themselves from scratch.

Most but not all of Brandons works are in a shared Universe called the "Cosmere". His other works, and most especially Wheel of Time are not part of that (easiest way to tell the difference now that you are here is the sub-forums which are grouped along that divide). I say especially because he has on occasion wanted to be very specific that he did not insert any of his own worlds/characters/elements/etc into the Robert Jordan's epic. As far as where to start, there are a couple schools of thought but mostly I think you can start anywhere as long as you avoid a couple spoiler pitfalls. Definitely do NOT read Mistborn Era 2 before first reading Era1, as all the mysteries and huge reveals are common knowledge in the next era so it would spoil the crap out of an amazing trilogy. I would recommend that you read Warbreaker before Oathbringer or you maybe confused about bits, and I know people that regretted not also reading Edgedancer (short story) before Oathbringer because of new characters introduced there. Other than that they dont really interact enough to spoil anything, though the more Cosmere you read overall the more easter-egg's you will spot in all of them. Outside of the Cosmere and the Wheel of Time conclusion, the only other work of his Ive read was the Reckoners series, and I HIGHLY recommend it. It's the story of the modern emergence of people with comic book style superpowers, only its the first truly realistic take on it in that government and society completely collapse in the face of uncontrollable demigods, so it's basically a post-apocalyptic tale.

I think a lot of this is indirect: the differences in how Windrunners vs Skybreakers come from the personality differences between their respective spren. The skybreaker speaking the First and Second Ideals are only needing to Satisfy the Spren, but is is the Spren that wont accept it unless it is first approved by the hopeful's proper authorities, and with a much higher emphasis on Ritual and Ceremony. So they seem to culturally have more specific regulations regarding the stages and the abilities granted at each level. I wouldnt be surprised if they were simply Uninterested in anyone who had not first been approved by the skybreaker Organization. But I do believe there is at least a small and weak bond right at the first Ideal, else there would be no Bond at all to be granting the abilities. I simply think the Highspren keep intentionally silent and restricting Surge access until their prospective Radiant has proven themselves with the organized Trials and Ceremonies of the Order. Also, there will always be the overriding caveat that the radiant and spren in question can and will sometimes do it differently from their own order; Teft for example seemed to be in Denial about being a Windrunner in his own right, until he swore his own 3rd. And also, it could always be the case that the progression is going to be different if you take the path of squire first, vs becoming a full radiant in your own right like Kaladin did.

Epic Circular Hurricane with the Eye centered on the Horneater Mountains.

Personally, I believe the Returned are able to augment their Fortune Aspect the same general way the can alter their physical attributes. Given that the prophetic ability of Atium is a Fortune effect per WOB, it would make logical sense for an augmented Fortune aspect in the Returned to manifest with them able to subconsciously select the Right Painting that will be at the Right Place at the Right Time to serve prophetic functions. I even would not be surprised to find out that Endowment is manipulating things intentionally to make that possible.

I think in general there might be some dangers to using Sazed and Rashek as the examples for two Reasons: "Copperminds" and "Preservation" itself. The very nature of Preservation is to retain a sense of what was before, so that shard's perspective within the Spiritual Realm is going to be a lot more focused on what came before than others, which as shardic levels is likely enough to gain some tiny amount of awareness of the origins of the Shard (and certainly the ability to peer backwards in Time and find out themselves) and without really getting any "download" of the previous owner. The other thing is that I would not be at all surprised to find that Rashek kept a lot of that sort of information in Copperminds and that Preservation (and especially Harmony) are able to brute force their way into copperminds, similar to how you can brute force your way past the Command phrases. All that to say that there are several plausible ways for Sazed to have gained the knowledge he has that wouldnt imply all Shards pass suck knoweldge along by default. Of course, I assume all shards could take willful steps to preserve something and pass it along, like Tanavast if nothing else.

I was scrolling through WOB's and came across this one. This is probably the saddest thing Ive heard in a long time, Nightblood was the story I was most anxiously anticipating, second only to Dragonsteel itself. Not that I can actually blame anyone for having to prioritize, He's already more robotically prolific than Ive ever seen. I just loves me some Awakening so much, I was really looking forward to seeing those other cultural uses of it.

For no particular reason I think the representative Ten POV characters are going to all be Bonded to spren, and since we know Nale did it the Herald POV's can too. I do agree with the guesses on the remaining ones.

That's what I meant, sorry I wasnt clear: All they get is a general ability to consciously manipulate their physical traits, but the Locks cannot grant Immortality and do not get any of the other more dramatic (and more Investiture Intensive) abilities of the Returned. I figure if that is the case for Returned-blooded, it's reasonable that Dragon-blooded might also get some limited form-changing mechanisms like their progenitor dragons but would not become Immortal (or even unusually long-lived) or gain any other racial traits that would require more than feruchemist-levels of Investiture. And all that fits pretty well with the Parshendi, especially if I am right and Dragonsteel is a crystallized Investiture like a godmetal, which would out it in a much higher tier of ability.

The issue with a bunch of these Terms in general is that they are intentionally In-World terms, offered up by actual characters with limited and fallible perspectives, and so Brandon has been intentionally vague about their absolute definitions and/or nature. Meaning we can offer our best interpretations but there are some aspects that we just dont have the data to know. So with that said, couple things: All things that exist in the physical realm exist in all three, even inanimate Objects. In the Cognitive Realm they'd look like those beads (which is a local effect on Roshar), but they still exist in all three as that's how the Dalinar's surge was restoring broken objects, and is the same mechanism as most Cosmere healing. "Spren" is a Rosharan term for "sentient Investiture", which is why they'd probably apply it to Seons, Shards, and even Adonalsium; but WE know that part to be fundamentally inaccurate as the Shards were and are still full Multirealmic beings, even if they have enough Investiture that they've been crushed down to a Perpendicular state. Think of "spren" as a term like "spirits" or "kami" from older cultures, were it's a catchall term that applies to all scales of immaterial/magic being. A Cognitive Shadow is, best I can tell with the examples we have, an instance where Investiture has been used (one way or another) to mimic some or all of the functionality of a previously Sentient Living Being's Spiritweb (as in all 3 realms). This can be an intellectual 'ghost' of a being that has moved Beyond, or it can be a being that was given enough Investiture at the time of Death to persist in the Cosmere and NOT move on (Heralds or Returned). And there are other more confusing things too like the Shades. The whole "Robot Spren" statement from Brandon is, I think, an indication that there is a fundamental different between things brought about by Nature (ie spren) and things that are Created by people (TypeIV awakened Objects), but I think the distinction is going to be the Cosmere equivalent of the philosophic AI question of whether it is possible to build a Robot with a Soul. The closest analogy I can come up with (as part of a larger Investiture Waveform model) is the general idea that Investiture used to be the equivalent of White Light, and somehow the Shattering managed to pour all Adonalsium's Investiture (which per WOB is ALL investiture in the whole Cosmere) through the Investiture equivalent of a prism, irrevocably "breaking" it into the component "colors" that are changed in quality from the original and where then picked up by 16 of the people responsible. Im guessing that the "Gem" that keeps being mentioned was basically this. Likely it was Adonalsium's Solid Investiture (ala a godmetal) or even a Gemheart from the pre-shattering Rosharan ecosystem (given that gemhearts are themselves distilled Investiture).

I would argue that Truth's are going to be some of the most potent Powers around

braaiiiiiiiinnnnnnssss.......

"Council" implies far more cooperation than I would expect. I was more expecting a shardic Battle Royale

The forms come from what amounts to a gross alteration of their Spiritweb, that then manifests with physical changes to their body. Nearest equivalent I can think of off-hand are the Koloss, with the spren in their Gemheart providing the additional Investiture similar to the Hemalurgic Spikes.

I dont think that's necessarily the case, in that I could easily see that being an ability that comes with a pure-blooded dragon's higher (presumed) Investiture levels, more along the lines of the Heightening. I also tend to think they will be a species that eats Investiture directly like the Larkin (aka Dragon Bugs), and so the Parshendi with their more normal diets would have far less dramatic Investiture abilities. Looking at the Royal Locks as the example, the Returned have Investiture-fed Immortality and full conscious control over their physical (and I believe Spiritual) Aspects, but the genetic Hybrid of that race is a normal human with mood-ring hair; they didnt retain any of the other more dramatic abilities because connection or not they dont have any particular Power Source beyond the norm. The Royal Locks still took a lot of calories, for example. Personally, and with zero evidence, I fully suspect that Dragons will have Gemhearts, and likely Dragonsteel is going to be a literal though non-shardic) god-metal substance of pure Investiture. They dont necessarily Exist more in the Spiritual realm so much as they have a natural Racial connection to it, which is both the way they can perceive the Rhythms and also the how they (and all such Rosharan natives) create a Gemheart via leakage from the Spiritual Realm. And in general I think that the entirely ecosystem of Roshar is going to prove convergently more similar to sea-life, simply because of all the ways that the Highstorms make for an oceanic patterns, with plant-life acting more coral-like, etc. But in the same way they call any and all feathered creatures "Chickens", I think they'll be linguistically ill-equipped to describe the difference between crustacean style exoskeletons vs Reptile, Insect, or even Metal-scaled Dragons (confirmed to be literal in the Dragonsteel sample chapters, Im given to understand).

Powerful beings with multiple stacked sets of eyes, Im having Denarian flashbacks...

I think swearing by Adonalsium indicated a certain level of Cosmere awareness, if not actual world hopping, and I'd expect no less from beings as old and powerful as the Heralds. Hoid named-dropped Adonalsium with it to test him for similar secret knowledge.

Ambition. It's the system Odium first found and battled her, though the coppermind is saying she then escaped and was finished off elsewhere. There are four planets and one moon, all of which are named after songs of mourning/funerals. As to the Ire being the Evil, I dont get that sense but I dont think I can disprove it. It seemed that they were trying to guard and contain things coming from the larger continent that the Evil is supposed to live on.

No, sorry for any false hope, that one was the best one I had. It says he was making a lot of Intentional Splinters (Spren large and small, Honorblades, etc), and if you combine that with how according to the text (unless Im misremembering) it was stated that Tanavast-Honor prepared the Stormfather to be his heir/Cognitive Shadow in preparation of his death at the hands of odium, specifically and as a post-desolation development, I took it to be a solid indication. But it doesnt outright state it that way in the WOB.

My vaguely defined theory is that they've already taken a shard or a large chunk of one, which is both why they are familiar with (or close to?) Threnody and also how they knew enough to have such a well-prepared plan for capturing a shard whole.