teknopathetic

I was doing a re-listen of Oathbringer and noticed something I haven’t seen spoken of on the forums yet. When the special ops team storms the palace of Kholinar, they free some guards who had been locked away in a room. The guard claim that only a few days had passed and that they had only been fed around three times. However, the guards had been in there for weeks, had grown large beards, and by all accounts should have starved to death or become sick from their living conditions. The guards were in fighting condition, seemed lucid and sane, and were shocked to discover how much time had passed. So what gives? The weirdest thing is that the men reached down and were shocked to discover that they now had long beards (proving how much time had occurred). What isn't clear is if these men were simply unaware of their beard while in the dark room (seems odd but okay), or if those beard grew quickly once the door was opened. A connected oddity is Shallan seeing healthy looking food swarming in rot spren. The food should have wasted away but it had remained in tact. I assumed the food was tainted in some other way, but what if time was acting oddly and the food had not yet realized it was rotten in the physical realm quite yet? Similar to how the men hadn't realized they'd grown beards while trapped in the room? I wonder if the Heart of the Revel has the ability to preserve and protect anything within a certain radius. It might accomplish this by slowing down time in a unique way, or at least the perception of time in the cognitive realm? I am not sure how to consolidate the experience of 3 days with the growth of a beard for three weeks. Anyone have any thoughts?

I can't find the quote on reddit but someone in another thread has, but Feruchemy was given to the Terris as a gift. We don't know how it was given or by who, but that is an interesting fact even if it leads to more questions than it answers. At least it scratches off the "random mutation" possibility.

The dawn shards are the Unmade. Each time one was used to win a desolation, an unmade was created. Some seem to think the heralds caused the unmade and the unmade stole a part of them; maybe these things are both true or maybe not. The last Dawnshard could be used to win, but then a Bondsmith Unmade would be created, and that is no es buenos.

Nalthis seems to have been pretty magically inert for a long while, so maybe all this returning business has something to do with a rare intersection of that cognitive anomaly? Would make sense someone might "pull a you know who" and do a "you know what" if there was a large amount of investiture to work with. Vo cheats death by using this source, and then unlocks the ability for other to do it?

Ambition is reforming or has reformed using necromancy unique to that shard. Brandon has said Ambition would be Mono Black in MtG, so it makes sense Ambition would have some control of necromancy. We have a book about a world where things don’t really die, but leave a shadow. Anything ambitious (murder, fire, speed) wakes up that spell and causes issues. The evil is likely to do with ambition’s spell. I think it likely that Ambition made a plan after she was injured that would insure her resurrection. Whatever is happening on Threnody is due to her revival attempt. And not only did Ambition have a lot of time between her injury and her death, but she also got to see Odium kill Devotion and Dominion. Ambition would have learned a lot from those deaths of her peers. Apparently Odium couldn’t find Ambition, but then suddenly did? Did Ambition get discovered, or did Ambition WANT to be discovered. Ambition was mortally wounded, but maybe resurrection could fix what had occurred. A shard like Ambition wouldn’t go down without a plan, especially after learning so much. I’m sure Ambition is back.

I don't know if this helps, but I had a DM WOB from reddit that Feruchemy was given to the Terris as a gift. Brandon didn't say by who or why, but thats how they got it.

If Autonomy ever turns off the magic sunlight, may we please call it Bava-dimming the lights?

Spoilers All Series, but I am POSITIVE I know the fate of Roshar

This could explain why the returned are so new; maybe this magic system started when something major happened on the planet just as the planet went through the anomaly. Maybe Vo had been doing something at the exact moment the planet went through the anomaly.

My guess is that it’s literally an endowment of investiture. The shard is storing a large amount that could eventually be used by someone for a great purpose.

I was pretty sure people were reading this wrong. Brandon did not confirm prudence or wisdom.

I was surprised to see the podcast treating the Iriali migrations as either flights of fancy. They seem more like forced dispersal on a global scale I think they leave after a huge global disaster. I also think they are a hint that Roshar gets completely destroyed at some point in the Stormlighy Achieve. I’d bet my left shoe that Warbreaker is a prequel to Way of Kings because Nalthis is the 5th land. I mean, Brandon spent time developing a Nalthian customs office of all things....

Another questions would be: is the silver chain from Thenody special in some way? What I mean is, would a silver chain from Roshar or Scadrial not be as valuable for some reason?

While this isn't about divine breath exactly, Vasher does help that kidnapped girl forget her trauma in some way. So we don't know how he aided her but he certainly did something to her memory so that she wasn't a traumatized wreck. We have no idea what he did, but whatever he did likely could be done with divine breath as well, right?

I wonder if the Nightwatchet was always of cultivation. For example, we know that the storms existed before Honour showed up, so was there a Stormfathery spren before Honour? i think the Nightwatcher was something else before Cultivation’s influence began changing her. What was “the old magic”, and how has the Nightwatchet changed over time? Is this a similar process to how the Unmade were formed?

What did Ambition plan before she was shattered? She had plenty of time, was known to be dangerous, and had the opportunity to see Devotion and Dominion splintered. Ambition is associated with undeath shades, so I am pretty sure she had some undeath planned for herself.

I like to think Autonomy was murdered by Trell, and Trell is autonomy 2.0 but that Trell isn't the big bad of the series. I agree Trell is Autonomy, but I think Trell isn't the the original holder of Autonomy (wob that other shards have had multiple holders) AND that Trell isn't the big bad of the series. We met Trell in Whitesand, and I think somehow that man gets offered a shard. Taldain has undergone a massive political and policy shift from isolationism to open borders, and this bespeaks an obvious change in governance. Trell is Autonomy 2.0, but I think there is more to how this happened, and I think another Shard is behind it. ---- I just don't think Autonomy makes a good villain for the series and I have serious meta-doubts concerning this plot idea. I'd bet my last sphere that this whole Trell business has something to do with Ambition, even if Trell is now the holder of the Autonomy shard. Ambition has been set up as a potential villain despite her death. Why? Her entire vibe involves undeath. Shades are undead. Brandon has called her mono-black for magic the gathering. Odium was worried about her. Endowment was worried about her. She is ShoDell. And she had the opportunity to see Devotion and Dominion go down before she herself was killed. This reeks of resurrection. AMBITION WOULD HAVE A PLAN. She just would. I think Threnody as the important (sorta) shard world makes more sense based on which worlds Brandon is focusing on with novels and novellas. I can't imagine he would make Whitesand an important planet since the treatment of that world was left so open to artistic interpretation. If Autonomy was the big bad, we would have heard of some novel set in Taldain. As it stands, that world is shunted off to the side and given unimportant side-projects. From a writer's perspective, Threnody and Ambition make a much better pick for Big Bad than Trell-tonomy.

After re-reading the series again recently, I have gotten the impression that regular Truthwatchers see visions of the Present; that is, they see what is happening in the now and can deliver that information to others. They "see" the truth of the moment (perhaps using illumination). A corrupted Truthwatcher sees The Future(s) and no longer sees truth but instead sees possibility. This is dangerous since now an order based on objective fact is making decisions based on possibility and conjecture. ------- It is also interesting to notice that Truthwatchers share a location with Bondsmiths. Perhaps both orders can manipulate the spiritual and cognitive realm more readily than other orders. As well, this may give some hint as to how/why the enemy chose to target Truthwatcher spren as opposed to the spren of another order. The truthwatcher order may have been a top priority to expunge due to there spiritual-realm manipulation

Wow. Toxic much?

A parallel race is capturing Unmade in gemstones: 9 Heralds and 8 Unmade remain (possibly 7). It would be so interesting if Unmade could be ReMade somehow, and join Cultivation side. At least one unmade wishes to do so.

That Tien was developing Dawnsinger abilities.

Could anyone post the letter? I am an audiobook listener so I don't have a copt to reference.

Her mother likely knew for a long time, or at least the father did. It seems odd this would be the first time Shallan's mother had heard of this. There must be more to what happened there, and Envisager makes more sense than anything else. Sure, she already was a Radiant, but the group had had some success already and was trying to increase Shallan's power/ prove what she could do. I do admit the manner in which they did it seems weird, but I still think blambing the other the other secret societies makes much sense either.

I wonder if the mother could have been an Envisager? Perhaps they could have been intentionally introducing trauma and NDEs.

Sure, but she can soulcast the air infant of him into fire, or into a wall, or into a box filled with spikes and blood.