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I have to agree. Even with the most optimistic capabilities of Yelig-Nar, that his gem carapace is shardbalde resistant and also considered Himself enough to be Healed by ReGrowth, he'd still only be able to reach for a stalemate while hoping for a lucky shot. And give him even a dead shardblade and it basically becomes a coin-flip.

You had me at Non-Zero Chance.

Hmm, It could work if it's being plane shifted over from an AntiMatter Universe instead of an Antimatter Star surviving here. This does sound like something the Qward Weaponers would try. Or possibly have already done, the silver age of comics was a weird time.

Hmm, excellent points. The Honorblades are uniformly shorter than the average Shardblade, closer to normal length (by rosharan standards), and they dont change shape. This limits the advantage but not by munch unless it's gem-mutations are also resistant to the shardblade cuts. But that is still a superior Attack that Regrowth alone cant counter, and Yelig-Nar can't replicate. Amaram had shardblades to level things, but for this conversation it's just what the UnMade offers the host. What would Yelig-Nar's primary attack mode be, do you think? We saw some fun Division capabilities, and I still think Stormform Lighting is a Division effect that could be within reach. Distance Soulcasting could be possible if that's not an elsecaller resonance and if it can be done to somebody holding Stormlight. Aluminum Shrapnel is one of the harder things for any Cosmere healing to overcome since it needs to be surgically removed first, maybe soulcast plus gravitation attacks? Almost any fight is likely to eventually move to the air, so a lot of mobility and/or environmental tactics are out.

Good point. It's a little weaker than radiant healing, but for these purposes should be perfectly effective (and likely comparable to the also weaker Honorblade healing).

I was trying to get to a level field of "The Same Surges" from opposite sources, and some random equivalent to the effectively unlimited Stormlight present in the Battle of Thaylen Field without having actual plot events nearby. So for the sake of argument lets assume that Yelig Nar does grant all Ten Radiant Surges, and since it's problematic let's just assume neither have the Bondsmith version of those surges. The way I see it, The surges arent likely to be the deciding factor. The Honorblader would have the advantage in offense, with the ability to wield (and even throw) up to five shardblades. Yelig-Nar seems to grant Plate-like physical enhancement, and some amount of carapace, though I dont recall if it was Invested enough to block a Shardblade. Both can Soulcast Aluminum for a physically weak counter to the other, but it'll be a soft metal. If the Gem Carapace offers comparable defense to Plate and/or an equivalent to Stormlight healing, that might be enough advantage to take the Honorblader in a 1:1 fight. The honorblader cannot heal as well as a Radiant (per WOB) and is otherwise unprotected. But they arent bloated out with Gem growths, so they are likely to take the lead in mobility. That could move the fight to a mid- to Long range contest, which would counteract a lot of the advantage of the shardblades that require close combat.

Well, that chart refers to making Inquisitors, specifically, so I was just idly speculating on what such a set of God-blessings might do for a Kandra. Even then, the chart says it can "Steal All Attributes" but doesnt go into how those Abilities might be accessed later. Steelsight is a good example of the hemalurgic usage not matching what it was stolen from, as an example. Since WOB says Kandra can do more than most with Hemalurgy because they can reshuffle their Bind Points, a set of Lerasium Blessings would be the only way to charge a single spike set with the Abilities of multiple Blessings without taking on the Spiritweb instability issues that would come with 8 or more spikes. Inquisitors had to sleep more than normal, I suspect that's to supplement Investiture going to support the ongoing effects like that permanent steel-sight.

Ive seen so many variants on the "Fullborn Vs 5th Ideal Radiant" or other similar top-end comparisons, and I wanted to try something a little more focused and as close to an Apples-to-Apples fight as I could come up with that was still interesting : Who wins: Yelig-nar with a compatible host, or the same host's identical clone that has bonded 5 Honorblades. Assume both have all Ten Surges, and a 1:1 fight to the death, with an Bondsmith perpendicularity open on the gem covered beaches of Aimia offering as much Stormlight as they can handle. Name any mortal host or discount the difference at your choice, and assume both have had time to train with their powers. Annnnnd...FIGHT! EDIT: I'm trying to get to a level field of "The Same Surges" from opposite sources, and some random equivalent to the effectively unlimited Stormlight present in the Battle of Thaylen Field without having actual plot events nearby. So for the sake of argument lets assume that Yelig Nar does grant all Ten Radiant Surges, and since it's problematic let's just assume neither have the Bondsmith version of those surges.

Just for fun: Lerasium can be Any Blessing, but only one at a time and requires enough understanding for an Act of Intent to change between known effects: thematically a "Shapechanging" Blessing.

Fascinating on two fronts: the description of dissolving the organs and reforming them around the spike, rather than forming them and still physically inserting into a Bind Point. And the idea that any Kandra with the Blessing of Presence is innately more resistant to Shardic Influence. I wonder if that's what MeLaan has (or any others we've seen, for that matter), could be useful.

Or it could be something he's only heard spoken (in family songs or something) but never seen written, so it's familiar and easier to pick up but still fundamentally alien at first glance. I knew a girl in High School that was 2nd generation french immigrant, so she Spoke fluent Conversational French, but was taking French classes to learn how to a) speak formally, and b.) spell any of it at all.

Interesting! Is he still Illiterate in that case? That might work if the magic knowledge is more of a Glyph & Diagram sort of thing than long scholarly texts.

Under normal circumstances I'd say he needs a Rosetta Stone of some kind to bridge the gap to the dead language. But if the MC has no written language basis to connect to and/or build on, the options are limited. At that point it's either Oral Tradition or Magic. You could Download the knowledge directly but that raises all kinds of education questions when he has to learn later a less than instant rates. He could have a magic item that Bypasses the Language barrier, which has the plot benefit of being immovable, destructible, etc if if becomes problematic (but then could feel a bit cheaty if not handled with grace). Or he can have a mentor, living or magic spirit, that can teach him the old fashioned way and up to their own limitations, but this can be the classic Talking Head problem if overdone, but Jim Butcher turned into a literal talking head named Bob that people loved, so it can be done well.

I could be wrong but I didnt think he ever had both sets "plugged in" to his spiritweb at the same time. Yes and no. Per WOB, Kandra are harder to control by virtue of typically having only the Two Blessing spikes (we've never seen a normal one use additional blessing pairs), while Koloss and Inquisitors by definition have at least 4, so it's a weird example. But (at the level of Era2 understanding) it takes four Spikes for a human to be controlled, but is proven to only take two for a Kandra. Inquisitors and Koloss are both considered physiologically distinct from Human, but both by definition have at least that 4-spike threshold. No, or at least I think it would create a whole new Hemalurgic Construct that is just Also made from a Mistwraith. We dont know if they'd need a Lynchpin spike at 4 or some other level since they dont start human, but they'd need one. And it wouldnt be internally moveable like Kandra spikes normally are, since they couldnt survive any transition blimp from moving it. But if you could pull it off, you'd make some Uber-Kandra with a whole weird grab-bag of powers and abilities. It just would be a whole new classification of Construct with some combination of traits and limitations. It may or may not even be capable of Kandra Shapeshifting. And we could be talking several variants: an overdeveloped Koloss made from a Mistwraith, as well as a Kandra-Inquisitor with a Lynchpin, etc. Only if both are plugged in at the same time, but then definitely yes. Per This WOB it's having only two spikes that makes them harder to control than other constructs

Ooh, good call. I figured there had to be some other ingrediant for the more centipede-like cremmlings, but it could just be that they've branched more significantly since arriving on Roshar. I now also want to know how many legs the "Spider-like" First Swarm had, and if the Sleepless's interbreeding to get custom hordelings had any outward genetic effect on rosharan life. If they had a few failed attempts that bred but werent controlled, for example.

This came up in another topic, and I wanted to examine the idea a little further to see if this might actually be true. The TL;DR is that a recent WOB says 6 limbs is Brandon's hint that a creature is Fainlife (ie the non-Earth Sho Dal Ecosystem). This now is confirmed to include Dragons. At least some of Rosharan crustacean Life has six Limbs, which might now imply that they are Fain Life, or at least a Rosharan sub-set of them. Granted a lot of the crustaceans have significantly more limbs that six, so it cant be all of them. Side note is that I still think Gemhearts could be a uniquely Rosharan thing, something that immigrants can eventually develop, rather than all Fain planets needing/having a spren population and abundant Investiture ecosystem like Roshar. Thoughts?

Oh, I agree entirely, "Scientific Terms" will only ever cover half the equation in the Cosmere (space age notwithstanding). And I would not be at all surprised to learn that the crossbreeding was only possible because of supernatural assistance inherent to Mateform. EDIT: I think you're right, there, and we are known to be a bit self-centered when it comes to our Scientific Assumptions. Honestly if I were going to make a Tree of Life in the Cosmere, even for just the physical creatures with literal atom-based DNA, I'd still probably have a huge break split Naturally Invested Creatures like Dragons and Larkin right at the top, for those who's life/reproductive cycle naturally require Investiture. But of course then Id confuse myself trying to classify Ryshadium who seem to have evolved/mutated that change recently.

Fair point on the "Nursing". That might start to become a rabbit-hole of taxonomy, unless they Nurse something that is literally chemical milk from mammary glands. "Nursing" is an action that a lot of non-Mammals technically do, they just arent providing it through nipples. A few types of birds, "notably pigeons, flamingos, and penguins, produce a substance from the lining of their crops (the muscular pouch near the throat where food is temporarily stored) known as crop milk." And it seems Discus fish are considered pretty decent parents and a Nursing one after they were found to sustain their young on a specially nutritious skin mucus for the first several weeks of life. https://daily.jstor.org/how-non-mammals-nurse-their-young/#:~:text=Yes%2C even non-mammals nurse,from the world of birds. And I should really say that Im not in any way a Biologist, this was just a really fun google-fu exercise.

Oh, ok cool. Ive made mistakes before so I try really hard not to spoil things for anyone. So far everything that has been actual mammals was imported with the Humans, and set up in their own bottle ecosystem. Axehound fit the ecological niche of dogs but that wouldnt make them mammals, caring for Young is far from exclusive to Mammals (even some reptiles do it). As far as Why there doesnt seem to be any native Mammals to Roshar, based on this WOB and a lot of Shallan's Art, I think it's because Roshar has Fain Life. Six-limbs is supposed to be the hallmark: Axehound By Shallan:

My concern was more about us spoiling the big reveal before you'd read OB. Just so I dont accidentally ruin anything for you, how far have you read?

Umm, I feel like the spoiler tag for this thread might be wrong, if you are asking this question. We should probably stop talking....

Excellent! This is the answer, I believe. And in scientific terms, I think the fact that they can successfully interbreed with viable, fertile offspring pushes them all the way into a shared Species, making Humans and Singers Subspecies.

Nope. It's set on the same planet but a completely different country with a wildly different magic system and no cross-over characters or anything.

RoW is one of the most Cosmere-dense books released so far, and with more overlap to all the other series (and it might be literally ALL, now that I think about it). It doesnt make anything else make more sense, but there is a whole lot to miss if you havent read the broader cosmere first. And No, Seriously: Warbreaker should be next. It's one of the only cosmere books that has a fairly specific "You Should Read X before Y" slots, and the OP has already passed it by. Enjoyable is always subjective, but for me it was a very big Yes. RoW is where the Cosmere interconnections felt like they moved past hints and similarities and background cameo's and into real plot relevance.

Sooo, if you managed to be in a place where a shard had a Body (like that Time in that Place with those Folks...) and you stabbed a Shard with a massive aluminum spike, would it shut down "All [their] Powers"? Would it overload and collapse into a perpendicularity? Would it be entirely unable to touch their still very much Inflated Spiritweb?