teknopathetic

I would love to know if the Nightwatcher was around before Cultivation's arrival, or if Cultivation's worship caused the Nightwatcher to show-up? Part of me thinks there were 12 splinters of Adonalsium on Roshar to begin with. Odium showed up and unmade 9, while Cultivation and Honor managed to save 3 (or perhaps Odium didn't want some of the other 3). The Night-watcher now seems like Cultivation, but how many Millennia of education did it take for the Night-watcher to become what she is? The Nightwatcher and Stormfather seem to be learning just in the same way that the Re-Shephir, Sja-anat and Bao-ado-Misham seem to be learning.

Oh, creepy. It almost sounds like she can use a corrupted Nahel Bond to Awaken living things or objects, or influence them like they are spiked.

Oh, i wasn't disagreeing. I meant more that I think Odium has been lying to the people of Roshar about how good his Shardic-foresight is in comparison to someone like Preservation who was EXCEPTIONALLY good at predicting Vin and Sazed.

Moelach of the Death Rattles also seems fairly useless. He can see a tiny bit of the future by waiting for a soul to die? And then ....? Uh?Cool? I mean, maybe he can give false visions, or he can make people want to kill each other to get those visions? My current theory is that Odium has no special access to future sight (beyond being a smart shard), and that Moelach is simply a propaganda aide that convinces the Rosharan Public never to use foresight because it is spooky.

I fully disbelieve that Odium himself can grant future-sight, though his corruption of The Made may give him some access to oracles. Here is a quote from the diagram: "There is one you will watch. Though all of them have some relevance to precognition, Moelach is one of the most powerful in this regard. His touch seeps deep into the soul as it breaks apart from the body, creating manifestations powered by the spark of death itself. But no, this is a distraction..." Moleach doesn't even have future-sight himself, but instead uses soul-fission to glean a random fact about the future. Can we assume Moelach The Made also had this ability? Odium doesn't even seem involved in this process. Heck, Moelech is barely involved. Are we impressed by this? Are we spooked by the unbelievable power of Moelach's future sight? I certainly am not. Moleach seems more "spooky" than "useful". Odium seems ... overly obsessed with proving that seeing the future is of Odium, and that Odium himself is super good at it. Secret History Spoilers Odium sucks at seeing the future. I mean, just look at his situation: he has been stuck in the Roshar System forever due to a wooops. He has lost who knows how many desolation. Even more interestingly, it seems like Odium is completely blind to others who can see the future (Renarin in the diagram, Kaladin using the Dor Orb, Cultivation and her pruning of Dalinar, and possibly Smart Mr.T's plan). I think Odium is bluffing about being able to see the future, and Odium uses The Death Rattles as either a corrupted way of seeing bits of the future, or as a big red-herring that convinces the masses not to utilize future-sight against their enemy. If Odium has bluffed his way into convincing Roshar to essentially never plan for the future, then Odium is more genius than Ruin.

On a side-note: what do the death-rattles actually do for Odium? It seems like that Unmade isn't anywhere as useful as the others? I guess if the Rattles fully manifest, then people might be overcome by despair seeing their (true or false) wretched futures?

Exactly, it seemed like the Thrill was way stronger than usual, but the Vedens were fully aware of how the Thrill usually manifests.

True, but the soldiers knew what the Thrill felt like, and they also had the convention of not speaking of the Trill in public. They say to hell with convention and speak to Dalinar exactly about how strong the Thrill was this time.

I thought the Vedens and the Alethi both experienced The Thrill. The Vedens were not unaware of it when the Veden Cival War occurred? The Vedens Dalinar spoke to were very aware of the edge it gave in battle.

It could also be The Thrill, maybe? Maybe the rages her father went into were Thrilly?

That "one of them is certainly a traitor" referred to the Unmade more than the heralds or the radiants (though it could still be applicable to something else). I thought the Unmade would realize that Odium's victory meant their ultimate demise.

Gold - Autonomy makes sense, as being "hurt" or "disabled" could be the opposite of being autonomous. Copper -> Cultivation makes sens with Fer, because you plant your memories and then use them when they are needed.

We also learn that there was another proto-radiant in Amaram's army, but "he is long since dead". Maybe Tien's death wasn't so much a tragedy as much as it was an assassination. It would make sense if Helloran (and his friends) were sent to kill Tien since that is the exact sort of mission undertaken by new Skybreakers. How people detect radiants and proto-radiants from a distance is still a mystery.

I thought, way back when we only had TWoK, the fact women wrote with sound-waves instead of letters was a clue, but it turns out they use soundwaves for an entirely different reason haha.

It could also be a useful backstory device to explain how your character developed another skill. They kept using determination whenever they felt they couldn't finish a marathon or become a surgeon etc etc. They also have a lot of rubics cubes they ignore when they are storing Determination.

I did ask this waaaaay back and he said you can have a lifelong-mute radiant. This actually surprised me because i thought sound and rhythm was necessary in the magic of Roshar, but I was wrong.

"Also, I married Amaram's nephew somehow!"

There is a scene where Jasnah is frantically reading Way of Kings outloud because she is grieving over her father. Dalinar hears the words and says something like "is it possible for words to give off light? (or something like that. I am an audiobook listener). The spoken words in Way of Kings, or maybe their rhythm, "glowed" when Dalinar heard them. There is something about that book, or the connection he has/will have with that book, that was invested. Later on in the series the book glows again (the final fight). Dalinar also has has a real dream-quest with the author of the book. One more weird thing is that the book glows faintly when Dalinar is confronting Odium. It even culminated to a lightening bolt cracking into the book. That book is weeeeeiiiiird.

These still make it seem like silver might actually have a use in allomancy, but that use isn't something anyone, even Brandon himself, is quite sure of yet. The fact that silver makes an alloy seems to hint that silver has some sort of property, but maybe it has to do with some arcane attribute of allomancy (amplification, cognitive-realm usage, etc etc). Brandon wants silver to be important in the cosmere for some reason. My guess is that silver is a metal heavely associated with ambition, and that associated means that silver was less able to be a vessel for allomancy and feruchemy. However, Silver is not completely off the table, and can be used in some bizarre and roundabout ways (almost like a magic-hack)

I wonder what silver can do eventually? Edit: What it can do with allomancy.

He is very tight-lipped n the matter.

I think the 12 of them (unmade plus 3 bondsmith-spren) might have all been "made" together, but 9 were "unmade" by Odium. All seem capable of learning and changing over time, and all seem capable of changing allegiance. We know the Storm predated the shards, and the Nightwatcher is literally called Old Magic. The evidence seems there to support this idea.

I was specifically referring to this. All investiture is associated with a shard, but certain shards have lost their consciousnesses. Since all investiture seeks consciousness, it makes sense that someone like a bondsmith might be able to bend the unmanned-power in some way. We now have at least 4 (or 5) shards that lack a consciousness behind their intent. What does that mean? Who can take-the-wheel and drive that energy? Can that energy be "United"? Is this energy being grabbed by autonomy? What gives? Also, this whole unite them business speaks to me of Ambition. Just saying...

I have felt that we overlook how weird in-word The Way of Kings has been acting.In a flashback, Dalinar says he could see the words as if the words were glowing when he eavesdropped on Jasnah reading the book. At other times the book physically gives him strength, or gets zapped by a lightening strike. Dalinar is also having dream-visions with the author of the book, and these visions are unknown to The Stormfather. Unite-them, to me, means to unite all the past bondsmiths. I think the bondsmiths are still connected to each other in a way that might be meaningful and useful. In any regard, it seems that something has been using The Way of Kings to talk to Dalinar, and I have a hard time believing that something is different than the "unite them" voice. I also think Odium saw the author of The Way of Kings when Dalinar took up Unity, or perhaps another bondsmith that Odium had been connected to. As to why Unity might be a proto-shard? I think bondsmiths have control of spiritual connection, and might be able to manipulate and control energy that is no longer associated with any one shard. Now that Honour is dead, the bondsmiths have an easier time grabbing that ambient, non-sentient energy associated with that shard. Danilar is beginning to pull the power of the bondmsiths so that he can pull the power of the ambient shardic energy. Just a hunch.

I really dont think the Unmade are originally of Odium. Roshar, and at least the Stormfather, existed BEFORE shards ever came to the system. Likely the 10+ gigaspren were of Adolnaslium, but were befriended by Cultivation and Honour. Then some of the gigaspren turned their back on the Singers and joined Odium and the humans. Somehow the sibling and the Nightwatcher were spared. Keep in mind that WoB describe the Old Magic as something “entirely different” from the other magic systems. I think Cultivation is shaping leftover Adonalsium magic the way Honor changed the Stormfather and Autonomy changed Patji. The way Cultivation talks about The Nightwatcher is very similar to how Autonomy talked about her new aspect : “she is young and still learning”. The unmade seem to be learning in a similar way from what we have read about them. Why do we have 11 Gigaspen? im not sure. 10 is of Roshar, but does that number belong to the planet or to the shards that reside there? Maybe there are 16, but not all of them are equally viable candidatea to be bonded in the same way. Perhaps Odium took 9 and Cuktivation protected 3? Who can know this early in the story. i dont know. We can be pretty sure The Sibling is a sibling to the Unmade, just based on the name alone.