Kelek

Ok, so I am going to redirect the focus of the focus thread here. Everyone here keeps focusing on the stormlight and spren, but a new idea came to me as I read the first desscription of soulcasting. Quoting from the ebook - "Jasnah closed her eyes, pressing her hand against the fallen boulder. She raised her head, inhaling slowly. The stones on the back of her hand began to glow more fiercely, the smokestone in particular growing so bright it was difficult to look at." This paragraph is from when Jasnah was saving Taravangian's granddaughter, just for context. So, step by step from what we know of soulcasting, we will say that when Jasnah breathes in and closes her eyes, she is entering Shadesmar. The gemstones glowing is where she is accessing the power and telling the stone or stonespren to change into smoke. My theory is this. Gemstones are the focus. The gem is where the stormlight is held. Much like metal in Mistborn, the gem is the access to the power. The metal unlocks the sDNA action related to the metal's spiritual attribute. The gem unlocks the stormlight for use in soulcasting. Kaladin and Szeth both pull stormlight from gems in order to use "Lashings". Fabrials are similar to this as well, using stormlight. Off tangent, but could stormlight be spren without a cognative presence? Stormlight has not been used without being first put into a gem. So, the magical power is in the physical realm as stormlight. It must be put into a container in order to be used. The type of spren bound to a person determines what the stormlight will unlock, but essentially, the gem is where the power is coming from. This is different from Scadrial as the sDNA determines the power and the metal unlocks it. On Roshar, the spren determines the powers and the infused gemstone unlocks the power. Well, another crazy theory from Kelek. Enjoy. Edited for spelling

"Knowledge is worth the time. Wisdom is worth the wait." - Me So, welcome to the 17th Shard.

tin foil hat

I also believe it is the Spiritual Realm where the blades are when not in the physical realm. I have one unfounded and opinionated reason. First part is this will be the series to deal more with the spiritual realm and unmask some of the mysteries. The worldhoppers, magics that involve visiting Shadesmar, and the action/choice related - for lack of a better word - snapping is all involved with the spirit realm. I will have to compare it with religion because that is the best I have, but here goes. If you look at Christianity, it is based on actions to gain favor with God. It looks as if the magic systems on Roshar are based the same way. I could go deeper with the religion comparison, but I don't want to get into a theological discussion. Second part is the mist that appears on a blade after being summoned. Mist is commmonly associated with spirits and their appearances are usually compared to mists. Just opinions that I hope will make sense to someone.

17th Shard forums! and going through a re-read of WoK. Next on the list is The Misenchanted Sword.

4 more hour of work! 6AM can't get here fast enough!! I hate Graveyard shifts! Gahhh! *shakes fist

Upvote for a Star Wars fan!

Ok, I was trying to clarify before going further with this. The Tears are used to make the best dyes. The using of breath consumes color. Essentially, the Tears are a more efficient focus for the magic. So, the only way I can see is to "dye" the metals using a "metallic lacquer" and hold an obscene ammount of breath. Essentially you will be pulling color from your Hemalurgic spikes, while commanding your clothes to strengthen, like Vasher, and pulling on a random metal object to fly. An inter-magical pewterarm/lurcher! Yay! I hope it makes sense, because I like it!

That is EPIC!!!!

The champion is human. Even with the magic being powered by the shard, there are still vulnerabilities. See Misborn trilogy since I dont feel like dealing with spoiler tags.

Atium is a "god metal" not one of the normal 16, so it is the metal itself "burning" and giving the power from the physical aspect - the body of a god is how it was referenced if I remember correctly. Normal metals are like putting in a passcode to access power, whereas atium's power comes from the metal itself. Am I understanding this correctly?

Takes me back to the interview quote from Chaos... Is Hoid evil? Brandon/Hoid - What do you think? Muahahaha I bet he hides Mr. Whiskers - The High Caton Inquisitor - on his lap while signing books!

How about the Misenchanted Sword by by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Happy New Year!

Even better... Feeding off the "Hoid is a bad guy" thread, Hoid is Brandon's escaped evil super-villian alter ego who is jealous of not recieving a shard and is now trying to gather all shard based magics to hold the cosmere hostage for 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 dollars! *pinky to mouth

Another thing to factor in when comparing Shardblades to fabrials is that a fabrial is constantly in the physical realm, while the blades disappear to wherever when not in use.

Aons are limited by time/skill/modifiers and the risk of the unknown/mistake. Distance from the city Elantris is also a factor during book time, but presumably dealt with by the Aon tatoo later.

The biggest question marks are here: 1) Is Odium currently on Roshar when we refer to the three shards. We know he travels, so it is possible that he has not yet visited Roshar, only sent his minions - the voidbringers, causing the Desolations. A point against this, though, is that Odium killed Honor, correct? 2) If he has been on Roshar, he could be the one responsible for the increasingly severe highstorms. The blades were corrupted by humanity using them on each other instead of holding them honorably against the forces of the Desolation. This is not an effect from Odium, just a dishonorable affect from murder. Just my opinion. 3) If Odium is not the shard referenced as the third, then who/what is? This is possibly the Nightwatcher. Could the Nightwatcher be a shard named Balance? Think of the blessing/curse system from visiting te Nightwatcher, the even number of magic systems and orders, and also the blade and plate. Everything on the planet has a balance or symmetry. This is possibly not from Honor. Here is another crazy and half-baseless theory from Kelek. Bash away.

My lame superpowers: Intense Consentration: I can "zone in" on a book, movie or video game and completely ignore the world. It gets me into trouble with the wife a lot... For example, I have two dogs. Note to self: Be careful when you say yes. Speed Reading: If a book is good, I can finish it in hours. I read the entire WoT series in about 2 weeks, also, went to the midnight release of Harry Potter: the Deathly Hallows and finished it by 9am. Video Game Mediocrity: No matter how much I play, I am never better than good at video games.

Due to new information from a recent interview, I would like to get this question put in. It might need revised for a specific answer. Almost guaranteed RAFO right there. Mostly due to if there are three shards on Roshar and Odium isn't here yet, who is? This is totally based on theories, BTW. What are the Shard's names/intents on Roshar?

I don't believe all of the shard magic systems are based on DNA. tWoK magic, or at least shardbinding, is based more on actions. Mostly, I agree with you. Also, I believe that humans were not created by the shards on every shardworld.

Awesome! I can't wait to read it. I would really like to see how the question/answer was worded. Authors are trixy, my precious. Yes, trixy.

Do we have the interview posted up? I haven't seen this in the signings. (possible overlook from overload of awesome interview info)

He blocked out the sun ( he thought he had won) (Story jumping like the 17th shard)

Another idea here... It looks like the awards column is unused for most. Why not put up small pics for those. you could send an admin an email and get the book covers thrown in there. Might go back to coding being difficult, but it might also be easeir. Another thought. Make completed books a signature thing similar to Espoused theories... I am doing this now. I like the second idea. It is easily self managed and no worries for admins.