Emerald101

My thoughts, before reading comments. Chapter 13: So Shallan learned to make sounds, huh? Interesting, and she's working on not needing sketches either. Good to see her progressing. I was laughing so hard reading pattern. "such as . . . dividing by zero?". Men's food is indeed spicy (to Shallan, at least). NO MATING. Finally from chapter 13, Shalladin takes quite a hit. Whatever ground it gained last week has more than been reversed by this chapter. Chapter 14: More evidence for Voidbringers not being as evil as we expected. The end of the world is looking surprisingly calm, so far. The parshmen just seem sad and lonely. Strange yellow spren maybe a voidspren? We will see. Chapter 15: Adolin obviously trying to figure out what's going on with the copycat killer, Shallan immediately assuming that one person killed both. I'm super curious to hear if there were more killings, of darkeyes, that we haven't heard about yet. Also, nobody has found Oathbringer yet. The really intriguing thing though, is what Shallan does in shifting persona. I'm not 100% sure if this is just a psychological shift, but her heart rate slows down as she does it, I think it may be a specialized use of transformation, in addition to the lightweaving she does. The way Adolin talks about respecting the blade and things is definitely a point in favor of Blade revival.

I doubt it. Identity comes into play when investiture comes from or moves through a particular individual, becoming keyed to that individual in the process. It applies to things like awakened objects and metalminds, not suits of armor drawing investiture from a container.

Brandon was asked about this. He RAFO'd, but said it's very difficult to draw stormlight from active shardplate. (source)

Exactly. The things that remain to be explained are how It's formed, and how exactly it's bonded to the user. In my head I've got a glorious image of Kaladin saying another oath and bursting with stormlight which then sort of swirls back in and solidifies around him, forming shardplate.

I'm rather sure that shardplate is not a fabrial, for reasons already stated and also because of this WoB (source) Shardplate didn't always have gems in it, and both kinds of fabrials we've encountered (old and new) are powered by gems.

This makes a lot of sense. I see it working a lot like fossilization. Brandon has described CS's as having their soul replaced by investiture, which really echoes how bone is replaced by minerals over a long period of time.

I don't follow you. First off, it's generally incorrect to treat the cognitive aspect of objects as equivalent to spren. Yes they're called the same thing locally, but by that logic we should be considering if the shards and Adonalsium are/were visible in the physical since WoB says the people on Roshar would call those spren. The stick Shallan interacts with in WoR is just a stick like any other. All objects have a cognitive aspect. Properly, spren are splinters of investiture that have gained a measure of sentience. The two are very different. In any case, I don't see how what you said is any sort of argument against what I said. Perhaps one of us is misinterpreting what the other said, so I'll clarify: I was saying that I believe (as Calderis does) that invisibility is the natural state of spren. They only become visible to humans when something attracts them into the physical realm.

How would we know if it were happening? It's not like we're getting POVs from random spren. IIRC during one of Eshonai's interludes we see another parshendi attract some angerspren, and Eshonai describes them as speeding toward them instead of boiling out of the ground. IMO this implies that the angerspren are only visible to humans after they've been attracted.

I'll just drop these here (source) (source) (source)

This. Adolin fits very well with the first Edgedancer oath. IMO he has the beginnings of the second oath and a lot of potential. The thing is that we can't expect someone to perfectly fit for an order when considering potential radiants. Kaladin shows very little adherence to the second Windrunner oath between his time in the army and the end of WoK, but that doesn't stop Syl from bonding him. Nahel bonds are organic not static, and you can definitely have the seed of one without a full-grown plant, so to speak. edit: Maybe the organic nature of the bond is because of Cultivation's influence. I will think on this more.

When you reach your 500th post on the shard!

And considering the current lack of stormlight, it would be quite the waste the keep Adolin hidden by illumination 24/7, and also pretty inconvenient if he had to stick near Shallan or Renarin all the time.

It is, unfortunately, still a work in progress.

When you decide to emulate David, and put a profanity filter on your phone, except you have it replace curse words with "storming", "colors" etc.

1. The cognitive realm is used for worldhopping because distances are compressed where there isn't sentient thought. Distances are expanded where sentient beings are common. So this would not be efficient. Also, Shallan's transportation only allows here to see into the cognitive, not transform into investiture (speculation) and visit it. That requires transportation. Brandon describes what Shallan does as more spectral projection-like. 2. Possible, though during the Negotiations with the Azish they mention certain parshendi which sound a lot like they have various voidforms. I doubt any of the ones from the battle of Narak could've made it there in time. 3. WoB says Honorblades can work the Oathgates, and that they'll try it in this book. 4. If Adolin's actions go public, I expect banishment at the least. Like Calderis said, the remaining Highprinces are not going to take something like that sitting down.

Except in WoR, when Kaladin asks Syl about her not needing ten seconds she responds, "Not as long as I'm here with you" or something similar, implying that it would be different if she weren't there.

Well, Dalinar is Highking, and while he gave up any authority over the particulars of Alethkar, the crime was committed in Urithiru, where Dalinar does have jurisdiction.

When you laugh out loud on public transportation because of the sample chapters. When you see someone reading WoR on the train, hear them mention it's their second time, and can't resist telling them about the sample chapters.

I think the numerous discussions over the morality of Adolin's actions have given us an unreal view of the Alethi legal system. If highprinces were immune purely by virtue of the title, then why didn't Sadeas just walk up to Dalinar during a feast, summon his blade, and burn his eyes out? It's more complicated than that. Sadeas got away with what he did because it was indirect, and allowed him to maintain a base level deniability. This was not the case with Adolin. Take heart, @maxal, I doubt Adolin becoming nominally highprince will just mitigate the consequences of him being found out. Even if it does, we still have to consider how Dalinar will react, which has potential for an interesting story.

When getting on the shard is more important than the lab report due tomorrow.

Some of you have seen this, I think, but I'll drop it here anyway. At the Arcanum Unbounded signing I asked Brandon about what the units of investiture would be (maybe something Khriss would use). He responded (without canonizing the in-world name) that it would be based around the breath. I think this would work at as being something like one Khriss, defined as 1/100 the amount of investiture required to reach the first heightening, or alternatively the minimum amount of investiture required to sustain a Returned for a week. Maybe the breath per week requirement of Returned could be used as a means of measuring other systems' investiture in terms of breath? Assuming they all require the same amount of investiture.

Oh I was.

When your parents see that you're on your laptop, and automatically assume you're on the shard.

When you refuse to restart you're computer for updates because you need to keep the sample chapter discussion for Oathbringer open 24/7.

When you read this and immediately wonder if it's a mistborn lama.