Stark

Good to know. I do not see Stump playing a huge role in the Cosmere. I think we are seeing Worldhoppers everywhere, and she is a red herring. With all the new info we received in this collection, having her be a Worldhopper seems to be a step too far. I could see her having a cameo in the second arc of Stormlight, or a mention, in a Lift section, but I see Gawx as being far more relevant.

True. Adolin and Kaladin make a better Kirk/Bones duo. I tried to keep Jasnah as Kirk though as she is leading the charge in active research into Radiants.

You now have me hoping that she'll find a grumpy surgeon to be one of her close friends in her adventures, who will constantly complain about the unnatural way her means of transportation breaks them down and re-assembles them. "Can't we just use a carriage? They're safe, and reliable? No need to break down and re-assemble the occupants. damnation it Jasnah, I'm a Doctor, not a stick!" And of course, her team will be rounded out by a Parshendi in Logic-form.

I like this option as well. That could make Reya's Tear the Star system where Ambition was finally Splintered. Another option, still in the vein of Reya being related to Rayse, she is not one of the 16, but someone who was important to him who died before the shattering. Her death marked him enough that his grief turned to rage, then to rage, and finally to hatred and drove him to take on Adonalsium's Hatred to seek some form of vengeance for her death. Reya's tear was named for her by other's of the 16 who knew her before the shattering, as a memory for her, and the tear she would have shed, had she known what Rayse would become after being twisted by his own hatred and his shard?

I agree, I do not think that Stormlight actively makes someone younger. Heal some of the aging infirmities? Absolutely. But I was thinking along the lines of the person who never grows up, who we see often in comedy media as the obvious humour, who refuses to acknowledge that they are no longer 18, 20, 25, whatever. If your mental perception of yourself is as a much younger person, would Stormlight reverse the aging and return the Knight's youth? Or, in a more direct case, if you desire to never change and remain 10 forever to the point that you asked the Nightwatcher for that boon, will stormlight keep you constantly at 10 years of age (or 13 by the time you start actively using it) Now that Lift is at her third Oath, will her aging stop if she maintains her conviction that she will remain the same?

I agree, if you have the imagination to create a gladiatorial style net weapon with your Shard, it would be very effective. Especially if you had 3-4 four people doing the same, all fighting back to back to cover all angles. But two, on their own, likely fighting as individuals, not expecting what they were facing? They never stood a chance. I apply Starcraft logic to this. Two protoss Zealots, or Terran Firebats are more than a match for 3 or four zerglings. But against the entire swarm, pouring in from every direction, coming down from above? Without shardplate they had no chance of surviving at all. Even if we modify the analogy to make them a pair of protoss Colossi cutting swathes of Cremlings down with every sweep, eventually the numbers win because you cannot defend/attack every direction simultaneously. I firmly believe that to win that fight, they would have needed shardplate with no openings for even the smallest cut to get through. No death of a thousand cuts, mountain of dead cremlings, two very tired shard bearers with no vulnerable points. As for network vs Queen. It could easily go either way. Biologically, Queen makes more sense, I can't think of any naturally occurring networked intelligences. But, this is High Fantasy. Brandon can do as he pleases. They could easily be a network like the Geth or the Cylons. But I think for the scouring of this intelligent a hive species to have been remotely effective, to me it makes sense that they would have a weakness like a queen. Or at least provided the illusion of that weakness to better allow them to escape and retreat into the shadows. Actually, illusion of the queen makes more sense with the name Sleepless. Arclo even says it (cue bad paraphrase): They are the Sleepless because they never sleep as a whole. There is always a part that is sleeping, but never the whole. So parts of the network go through sleep/restart cycles, but never the whole network at once, allowing the whole to continue, seemingly never asleep. I'm converted, Hive network, no Queens.

Another interesting question: We've seen a few systems where an invested person can become functionally immortal. We have also seen Stormlight healing injuries years old (Lopen's arm) and modifying a person to their self image. What will access to constant Stormlight do with Stump? Will her age related problems get better (Eyesight, joints, walking, hearing etc)? Or, if she still views herself as the woman she was in her prime (30s to 40s) will her Stormlight reverse her aging? Can the combination of Stormlight and the right mental image of self lead to functional immortality?

Fair point. Though Brandon has been known to Aes Sedai his way through some answers, Khriss doesn't lie to us. I am going to stick by my belief that by her saying Roshar is the main continent, that means something else is out there. I'm not saying that the planet has an Americas hidden accross the Ocean, but there is something smaller than the main continent out there. Maybe several somethings, currently undiscovered. @Kythis That is terrible. My scanner is crap, but I will see if I can get a decent photo on my phone to post once I get home from work. Hopefully someone will be able to follow up with a higher quality scan. If I get there first, I will most likely use the topic "Stargazing [AU Spoilers]" or something similar. Give me two hours?

Are you sure we can assume that they did not increase the amount of breath they produce? All we know for certain is that at the end of Warbreaker, both had about the first Heightening. A lot of things could change between "now" and then. And I can see both wanting to get back to about the third Heightening to make defensive awakening simpler. And Zahel can suppress the divine breath, right? Though you are right that the colour auras may not appear on Roshar. But I cannot think of any instance of Stump using Nalthian idioms or expressions like Zahel does.

Ooooh... @Jondesu, I really like that idea. I don't think so. I think there've been enough years between Warbreaker and Stormlight that Vivenna would have passed from old age. Unless she had enough breath to be immortal, but I can't think of any mention of an aura around her, or any mention of her hair changing colour. Can anyone confirm? Other than the kids playing the Nalthis game, is there any more evidence that Stump is Vivenna? Odd phrases, appearance issues, anything?

Is it the only time we've seen this game? Or is it the game Lightsong was playing with the other Gods without knowing the rules? Granted, his board was of deific proportions because they were Returned, but it was still a game involving throwing coloured balls at markings on the floor. Seems to me to be a pretty solid link between Nalthis/Vasher-Zahel/Stump.

I think it comes down to a number of things. For one, the Journeyman Skybreakers went into a fight, they thought, against a proto-Radiant with less knowledge and training than themselves. Instead they found Oogie-Boogie and his swarm of crabs. Vastly under-prepared. Nale most likely would not have made that mistake. For another, I don't think that a Shardblade would be a really effective weapon against a hive mind. I see two options for how Arclo functions, either with a "Queen" telepathically controlling the "workers" at range. At which point, no matter how many of the cremlings you kill, they keep coming, as the central intelligence is still directing the living workers. The other option is that they have a networked conciousness, where each cremling contains a part of the mind, and when added together in a swarm, create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. I find this option less likely, but regardless, there is still no central nervous system to shear with the blade. Severed limbs will either reattach after shedding the dead cremlings, or continue to attack on its own. You know, if it doesn't just zergling rush you and give you the death of a thousand cuts via cremling claws. No matter how you look at it, a Shardblade is not the right weapon to face a swarm of thousands of tiny opponents. Even one full shardbearer against a thousand human opponents would eventually be crushed under the weight of the dead and the combined fatigue of all that combat. With these, it happens faster. Try to have a sword fight with a wasp nest. Even if your sword is a shardblade, one hit one kill, you have hundreds of enemies who can all engage you simultaneously. You lose. the loss of 100 cremlings is nothing to a hive, workers can be replaced, where as you cannot. And that is if the Queen is anywhere near the fight. I assume that the Dysian Aimians have a queen, hidden away, rather than a networked intelligence. So I don't think it really matters if you've spoken one Oath, all the Oaths, are a herald, have Nightblood, or are a Gold Compounder. When you bring a sword to a fight you can only win with a flame-thrower, you are going to lose. Thoughts on the scouring: It probably probably involved a destruction of their homeland, where the central hives/queens were. The revelation of a queen weakness likely forced them "underground" as it were, and to become better at hiding and blending in. And seeing as we saw in the essay (and mentioned obliquely in Edgedancer), Roshar has an above average Oxygen content in its atmosphere, so fire is super effective and hard to put out. The scouring was likely accomplished with fire Soulcasters, or flame emitting fabrials, not Radiants.

We have seen that it is possible for one vessel to Hold two shards. Is it possible for one shard to be shared between two people?

Well that... that's... that's just logical. Odd, but logical. If I really want to push it, held like that the pancakes would slide right of, due to the angling of the stabby-pass-through-all-matter bits. If I want to get truly ridiculous, that puts her nose at risk.

@shadowwisp Ah, I misunderstood your comparison. I am not convinced that Nightblood is the cause of the after-images. True, we have not witnessed colour deepening around him as part of his aura, so it is possible that instead of a colour aura he is making a Stormlight after-image-aura for his bearer. But if that were the case, I think we would have seen Nale have after-images in WoR as he handed Nightblood to Szeth. (Obvious counter-argument to my point, Nale was not bonded to Nightblood, so no after-image, but I think that is weak. He did not need to be bonded to anyone on Nalthis to have an aura) Seeing as Nale had no afterimages, I'd be more willing to believe that whatever healed Szeth from his near-death experience is what caused him to have after-images. ' Also of note, we have not seen anyone else other than Lift react to the after images, so it may be something only she can see. (counter: We only saw Szeth interact with Lift and Skybreakers who could have gotten used to his after-images by now) Finally, I think it is Nightblood that noticed Lift hiding in the shadows, using his life sense and telepathy, not Szeth...

I think you are wrong about the singular Highstorm, if it was a single storm sweeping over the world at a steady pace, or even an unsteady pace, the intervals would be more regular. It would be far more predictable, and the Weeping would not happen - there would be some form of Highstorm interrupting it. We also have the Stormfather that created a Highstorm mid-weeping to try to cleanse the planet of humanity, which almost destroyed the shattered plains when it clashed with the Everstorm going in the opposite direction. I am pretty sure it is only the everstorm that continues without end, over and over and over. Its in the name. The Highstorms may have originally been a naturally occurring phenomena, but are know invested, and I think, unnatural. But there are more of them than one, and they brew (for lack of a better term) somewhere off the main continent. So maybe the referenced lesser landmass is the Origin? @Kythis The Constellations are printed inside the cover. If you remove the dust jacket and open just the cover, without turning any pages, you'll see a star map of the Cosmere. I do not know if this exists on kindle, if that is how you are reading. The star map includes a bunch of constellations made using the star systems containing shard worlds.

@shadowwisp I think I need to disagree with you on two counts. First is your afterimages quote. I think that is a different kind of after image. The ones you quote are from lightning. Any Retinal exposure to intense light in a dark space (like a storm) will leave an afterimage "burned" onto your retina, as they take a few seconds for the massive excitation of going from a low light to a high light environment wears off. That's as far as I'm going to go into the activation of Rods and cones, but I'm pretty sure the quote you've used described refers to the same afterimages we get from staring at the highbeams of a car at night, or that one annoying relative who never turns the flash off on their camera (you all know that one relative, right?). Where as Szeth is leaving an afterimage of himself every time he moves, regardless of ambient light levels or their change. Two completely different phenomena. Szeth is like when your computer is bugging and it leaves afterimages of your cursor as you move it, or a window that is open. Something is lagging trying to keep his image in place with his physical location. The battle with darkness is optics interacting with the light receptors in her eyes. At least the way I read it. Please correct me if I'm wrong. The second point is a bit more nit-picky. The "normal humans" part. I don't think we can justify classifying Aimians (whether Dysian or Siah) as abnormal humans. I think they are most definitely non-humans. I don't think they ever were humans (like Kandra), but are beings that learned to imitate humans, however imperfectly, in order to survive and study humans.

Fair point @shadowwisp, though if I wanted to be really argumentative, I could point out that it is like saying the Alpha-radiation from polonium is only dangerous if you swallow it, so its okay to play with it in your mouth. I know I am exaggerating greatly, and the healing abilities of Radiants are almost broken - Even Nale pointed out how long it take to ensure Lift was truly dead. I guess I'm mostly looking to see if there is some form of safety mechanism in place to protect clumsy or reckless Radiants from sharding themselves.

@Mason Wheeler Very true, that could be. If they are real, and if they are actually from Roshar (though I do believe there was mention of Highstorms in that story). I only hesitate to agree completely because we know that Hoid is a liar. It may more likely be the fabled Origin of Storms that is mentioned every now and then, but never seen as all expeditions to find it never return, and are assumed to have died by Highstorm.

What really caught my eye on the Rosharan essay may be a minor thing, but after SH and BoM, the offhand mention that Roshar is the name of the main continent on the planet is what has me most inquisitive. Can't give the exact quote right away, but to me it certainly implied that there is another continent somewhere on Roshar that we know nothing about other than it is there.

@Kanrei Also a good point, though I think that may be more of a flat-of-the-blade-vs-cutting-edge-of-the-blade thing. Most people won't rest the sharp edge of any implement on their own flesh, even if it is just steel or glass, not soul-cutting-magic metal. But you (usually) put a fork in your mouth stabby bits first, and while most people 99.999% of the time manage to not hit their teeth, tongue or spinal column with the stabby bits of the fork, using a fork that can pass through things with no (or barely any) resistance, as if they were not there, seems like the height of recklessness. Unless there is a built in safety mechanism that prevents accidental self-injury. Intentional self-injury is a non-issue I think, as it violates the "Life before Death" part of the first Oath quite thoroughly. If ever it got to that point, I think both the Spren and bond Holder would have much bigger issues to worry about.

I'm not convinced. We have seen in WoR when Shallan interacts with both the ship and the stick, that the items have cognitive aspects, and I believe that it has been confirmed that everything exists in all three realms. But Spren are different. The are sentient splinters of Honor, similar to the Seons. The stick, the ship, the brick and the wall all have souls and cognitive identities, but I think to have a sentient cognitive aspect, you need a splinter. Just being on an invested planet is not enough. If it was, we would have seen Spren, and other Spren like beings everywhere already. I think you have the right idea. The cognitive realm is *everywhere*. But manifestations of it in the physical realm are very limited, and seem to be limited to locations where Shards were splintered and the splinters interacted uniquely the local investiture. Everywhere else, you can find Cognitive representations of your everyday items in Shadesmar. (Check out the Secret Histories for more examples?)

@Kanrei That is exactly what I meant. What if she slipped while eating the pancake? She could have shardkilled her tongue (minor inconvenience for a Radiant), or actually shardkilled herself if she slipped or got jostled with a Shardfork in her mouth... Which has me wondering, is just that she did not think of the risks before using Wyndle as a fork, or does the Nahel bond and Spren's sentience make it difficult, if not impossible, to injure yourself with your own living Shard-item?

I agree, there is no way they can all be Sleepless. Otherwise, they'd eventually learn to stay away from people like Nan-Balat, who delight in pulling them apart, piece by piece. Unless, they are a telepathic hive mind, at which point losing one cremling every now and then to a disturbed individual would be no more traumatic than losing a fingernail clipping in return for being able to spy. Or if there is a limited range of effectiveness for the hive mind, and once a part of the collective is beyond that range, they revert to being a simple crustacean. Regardless, seeing as he mentioned how closely they are watching all the principle players, I am going to watching all future cremlings a lot more closely.

Is it just be, or was using the fork one of single most dangerous, and possibly stupid things that could be done? I mean the stabby-bits of the fork went clear through the table, what could it have done if she slipped? Unless you cannot be injured by your own utensils, as long as they are constructed using the proper bonding-agent. Which would be all kinds of interesting.