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The popular theory is that Dalinar is showing the first hints of a path that will lead to him UnShattering (ReForging? I dont think there's a term yet) the Honor Shard, but where Tanavast interpreted the Shard with a heavy focus on Oaths and Bonds between individuals, Dalinar will see it through a more wholistic Community lens and rebrand it as Unity. Not everyone buys into this explanation but Im not aware of a competing theory. Another corollary theory is that Cultivation has specifically prepared replacement vessels for each of the three Shards in Dalinar, Lift, and MrT.

That's the theory, more or less. Ruin cant really get stronger through a being using it's Investiture, any more than Endowment has to worry about giving away too many Breaths. Nightblood is getting stronger over time, and the black smoke is confirmed to be Investiture leaking out because he's overstuffed (but any such leakage returns to the Spiritual realm and one or more shards). Personally Im not really sure there's actual metal (even godmetal) in there so much as very hostile Perpendicularity, a black hole scar in reality with a handle attached.

Steel (per Warbreaker ch 53) with an aluminum sheath. And yes, per WOB the type of metal would "most likely" affect the manifestation of it's awakening. And he now has a bunch of Ruin in him, which we think is due to the "Destroy" part of his core Command.

For me that hold true until Rhythm of War when Venli's story really got moving with current events. Before that the Parshendi chapters were either flashbacks, cultural peaks, or teases of big twists to come. Compared to the big Three pov's Venli and Eshonai were simply not carrying a big chunk of the plot progression for those novels.

Agreed, but that's still the post-shattering era. We don't know what if any roll the Storm had in the Investiture ecosystem before that, or whether Adonalsium used a spren for any piece instead of handling it personally. That's one in-world theory. The competing one is that spren are attracted and then Connected to their namesakes rather than being a literal incarnation of the bead-objects that anchor them more like the human radiant in a Nahel bond.

The Storm existed. It may or may not have had a spren incarnation at all, we just dont know.

Splinters, like spren, are little pieces of shards that have been broken off, but there are several ways that can happen. The Shard can voluntarily break them off and mold it for some purpose, or they can be broken off in the process of the shard being Shattered. The Honorblades are Splinters that Honor pulled off by choice as a way to empower the Heralds, for example, but they arent as "awake" as a full spren. Minor Elantris Spoiler: Spren are Investiture that has gain a level of sentience (as distinct from 'Sapience' which is the term he uses for those with human-level intelligence) that existed on Roshar as part of it's ecosystem before the Honor was even created in the Shattering of Adonalsium (who in turn created the very artificial and/or unnatural planetary system of roshar). Honor and Cultivation sort of inherited them and settled the world (not sure which came first, honestly). In Adonalsium's time there werent any Sapient ones allowed to exist, but the animal-ish ones were around, as was the Highstorm (but maybe not the Stormfaher, I dont think we know). Now they are all a blend of Honor and Cultivation, with some Odium being added to the mix for Voidspren, but Odium seems to like to take existing raw materials and work from there (as with the Fused).

Allomancy has no way to let you do this, you cannot apply a force in any direction other than directly toward or away from you. To achieve an orbital effect around yourself, you'd need three different forces at 90° of each other: One Pushing upward to counter gravity, one Pulling horizontally toward you to mimic a gravitational field, and a third (stronger) one pushing tangent to the plane of rotation so that the object keeps trying to fall toward you and missing. Those last two forces would need a delicate balance to maintain the orbit and not sling it inward or out after a couple orbits. At best you might be able to make it orbit in a small circle in front of you and between your hands, if you are good enough to Push and Pull toward them and not just your center of mass (like Marsh).

He was kinda low (for him) in Warbreaker but we really don't know how many he took with him on Roshar. If it's a ton he might just accept the yearly attrition for the weeping. If not he's probably taking extra steps to bridge the time. That's a good point! One Breath is the smallest unit on Nalthis, but it will take a whole divine breath too if that's what's available. It would be funny if it really only needs a tiny bit. Dark thought: what if he's not feeding it stormlight, but is feeding it spren?

Fwiw, assuming he still has the sufficient Heightening to affect minerals, I thought he was using some abstract Command to put in a breath and pull out the breath plus the stormlight Investiture. That wouldnt be counter to the WOB that Szeth could use the same method. The biggest hangup for any of these idea's is that he has to survive the 4 week stretch of the weeping, when only perfect gems will still be infused by the end of it. Whatever his method, it has to provide some sort of storage/containment against the innate stormlight leakiness. .

Same.

Honestly Ive always thought it was pronounced "Saw-Zed".

think

I haven't gotten into any of the more recent stuff that seems to have gone off the rails, but the first three or so arcs are definitely worth it.

Im just going to dive in, I scanned the other thread but I apologize if I missed something you've already covered. Keep in mind that he's a secret Returned, he might have been juicing from other sources than pure Awakening. From a physics standpoint the cloth just has to establish it's own base support that bypasses the skeleton, so a onesie with attached legs and feet would actually be tactically superior. That's static weight (plus a bunch of factor of unadvertised safety), but the stress on the rope will start increasing pretty dramatically once it's getting swung around at any speed (see all the online spiderman swing math). That being said, it wouldnt be the first time the Cosmere had natural non-earth materials for dramatic effect, and super-rope is downright traditional. But even within those material burst limits, there's still a lot of force that could be brought to bear for crushing things, etc. especially if it's layering up. Then it's down to whether the shardplate strength increases would let them hulk-flex out of the ropes. I'd probably attack the cracks, snake the ropes inside, and go after the gems. Agreed, though that's Vasher, the immortal swordmaster and secret Returned, not just any old awakener. EDIT: Frankly I think he could have defeated most of those yahoo's without needing much awakening, based purely on that WOB placing all the immortal swordsman above even Adolin as one of the best of the current generation. And he knows every tiny strength and weakness of all the Forms those boys used. And he can tap some of his Returned capabilities without fully revealing his Returned height glory**. The question isnt whether he'd win, it's how much he'd have to show the crowd to do it. I dont think he'd have needed awakening any more than Kaladin needed his own blade and plate. **So, The Returned are all big and tall, but that was a Nalthian 7ft. Size-wise, would they even stand out around Alethi? I dont disagree, but now that we have memory storage confirmed, I have to wonder what other Cognitive and/or Spiritual effects it can pull off. Nightblood's Connection to Ruin (or at least that theory on his function) implies Commands can be used to forge Connections, and that alone opens a boatload of diverse possibilities. If they can also be Commanded to modify exisitng Connections, that's big chunk of the Bondsmith's concerning power-suite.

And you think that makes him Less Dangerous? If "Dangerous" is the largest disparity between Power and Experience or Understanding, I think Dalinar or Rysn are leading the pack. Honorable mention to whomever made Azure's blade and thus could theoretically make a rival to Nightblood, not knowing anything else about them. Imagine a more overtly antagonistic Command, "UnRavel Everything" or something.

SO, in this case there's Friction drag (surface interaction with heat conversion) and then there's the vacuum drag; both could be "air drag" but they come from different sources. Think of it this way, even if you coated an object in an idealized Perfect Grease that eliminated all shear forces at the surface, there's is still a person sized (by volume) mass of air that is being shoved a shoulder-width sideways at a high acceleration (causing all kinds of compression, vacuum, and usually phase change effects on the air). That's a force that has done work on a Mass, and it bleeds energy out of the system relative to the velocity it's slamming into the air. Because of that, the object will eventually reach an equilibrium point and stop accelerating. The larger or the fast the object, the more the balance shifts from surface effect to the inertial effects. And that happens even if both you and the fluid itself has no friction (ie zero viscocity) still has mass to be moved. Here's a far more detailed breakdown than I can pull together off the top of my head. It's a kinda long lecture but the relevant bit is: https://www2.gwu.edu/~phy21bio/Reading/McKayRealFluids.pdf

This last part isnt true, there is still a terminal velocity even without friction. Friction is relevant to the surface drag force, but even if you reduce it to zero there is still a force required to shove the mass of the air out of the way as you pass through the space, and a vacuum forming behind you pulling you back. At lower speeds surface effects can pull the airflow around more to reduce that vacuum drag (ie dimples on golf-balls), but it has to be slow enough that air is able to move and respond for those effects to work. As you approach the Speed of Sounds you start outrunning the wave propagation of the gas entirely and the air can no longer respond fast enough to move out of the way. So in Surge terms, I think you'd be better off using Adhesion, and/or Transformation, to entirely remove the air in front of you and create a moving vacuum bubble. Or convince Nightblood that the Atmosphere is Evil. But No Air means both No Air Friction and also No Terminal Velocity. EDIT: Or think really far outside the box and see if Lightweaving can Change the Speed of Sound of a medium. It could fall into the category of Wave Manipulation, and we've seen how Physics can and will bend over backwards to adjust for magic effects (like driving chemical changes by draining color with awakening).

Hello and Welcome! What's your favorite so far? (Im leaving that intentionally non-specific).

hahah, yah. It was probably intended to be "Is Brandon Sanderson Religious"

It's a sub dedicated to aspiring writers and discussions about writing and storytelling itself.

Yah, I'd only ever seen FreedomLight, from that line of Venli's. But I think I like WildLight better (mostly because it doesnt sound like an overly patriotic light beer).

Ooh, that's glorious! Of all things that that they cant Sooth, and it's a baby! Per this WOB, it's effecting a person sort of like silent/spiritual Music. So I think it's Intelligence in the context of Intellectual and Emotional Complexity, enough to be affected by things like Art or sensory Beauty.

Fantasy (classic)

I've enjoyed what's coming out for Scion 2e. My gaming group when on hold after only a few sessions though, so I didn't get as much playtime as I'd like.