KSub

I just finished the Lord of Scars Shardcast and it got me thinking. We know the Ghostbloods want stormlight, but why? And what else could they be doing? Let's consider that Ghostblood management is based out of Scadrial. Scadrians have access to allomancy, feruchemy and hemalurgy. -Allomancy uses metals to access a fairly powerful magic system. It only requires a small amount of metal but after being used it is exhausted so more metal is required. It's a fairly difficult source to obtain investiture - Feruchemy uses metal. It allows one to store their own attributes for later use. It's very versatile and since you are the source of investiture, its very easy to access. However since their is no outside source of power its not terribly convenient. So, Ghostbloods theoretically have access to two magics that are powerful and versatile but the energy source is inconvenient. Of course they want to transport stormlight offworld, right? If they can figure out how to use it to power their own magic that makes for an easy source of investiture. But when you think about it, it's not that convenient either. But Nalthis would like stormlight since its much more ethical than breaths. Ghostbloods would like access to the heightenings provided by breaths. We know that Scadrial was already involved in interplanetary trade during the lord rulers time. They were sending canned food off world. What if they reestablished the trade network to exchange canned food in exchange for breaths?

Excellent topic. I've been theorizing on a lot of these in different threads. Ie voidbinding and how we are missing magic systems. One of the things from your list that I have a hint at is the Bondsmiths. The Heralds became the Heralds after coming to Roshar but Ishar had powers before coming to Roshar as did others. This is what caused the destruction of Ashyn. We also know that Ishar is the binder of God's, and that the humans did something that convinced Honor to bring them to Roshar. I think the bondsmiths are splinters of Honor responsible for uniting humanity just as Dalinar has been tasked to do. They are equivalent to Endowments Returned.

It's not uniquely different but it's no longer the same thing. Just as actual matter is energy but it's not energy. Matter has different properties. What is true for energy is not inherently true for matter. I don't see why anti investiture should destroy matter Edit: Ok! So I think we are all in agreement after that torrent of responses. @basement_boi I'll give you an up vote for uniting the 17th shard on this point.

Can there be a spren of a spren? It's like an idea of an idea.

You missed aluminIUM. I only recently accepted that Adonalsium was a being. Dont make me change my mind again.

I don't think we know if the Nightwatcher is bound to the valley but her description is quite ephemeral. It seems likely she can move freely.

There certainly doesn't need to be 3 bondsmiths. However it seems odd for Brandon to set up this mysterious spren and almost never show it. Lift is definitely near the top of the list of candidates to bond her. I would also say Rock and Rysn are high on my list.

Who doesn't like pancakes? Except that tenth kind. Esoteric tastes awful. I honestly have no idea what would happen if Lift ate metal. She might convert anything she eats into investiture. I don't think she could 'burn' the metals the way allomancers do since each metal is keyed to a specific ability. Lift is weird, as Brandon would say.

I've seen suggestions that Shallan is Chanarach. I don't buy that, but Shallan could definitely have modeled radiant after her.

I wonder if Lift could get supercharged by eating gems

Farewell Eshonai, Child of Honor.

Hmm. That's interesting since metals burned by mistings presumably are exchanged for investiture. If not then there should be a whole lot of heavy metal poisoning on Scadrial. I wonder what the mechanism by which gemhearts are broken down to investiture could be. Some kind of cremling, or maybe the highstorm?

Sorry I wasn't very clear. I posted that in a hurry. I was trying to say that gems are usually formed under heat and pressure. An organically grown gem would not have much heat and pressure driving the crystals together. Those salt crystals I referred to are quite brittle. It wouldn't be unreasonable to think that gemhearts are also not very strong. That could be why they are embedded in glass when used for currency.

I had considered growth, but much like the others it's similar to change. The problem is when you consider change to be so fundamental as to include creation and destruction as aspects of change it becomes difficult to come up with 4 categories of divine commands.

Thanks so much @Malim. Like I said in the intro, it was made as a response to a thread. I do have some other ideas though. Maybe I'll write them out and see if they are worth adding.

I mean the Skybreakers are an order of the Knights Radiant. By all reason they should be good. Unfortunately, their leader happens to be Nale who has lost his mind.

It could just be that they are grown organically. Gems are usually formed under heat and pressure. You can make crystals by boiling water with salt. It does seem odd that they are so easy to break though. There's probably something else.

We do. Brandon talks about it on the latest Shardcast. The fact that he is on another planet is at least part of the reason he has that independence. If he were working on Scadrial I think he would be reigned in.

It's possible. I wonder if the Heralds breaking an oath could be enough to open Honor to attack though.

I'm not sure that he is accumulating more over time or not but Vasher used Nightblood to kill Shashara so he consumed all of her breaths including her divine breath. And that black smoke. It seems like Nightblood turns everything into ruins investiture. I can't wait for some answers to Nightblood... or anything. I feel like RoW created questions then answered some of them but left us with all our previous questions.

Thats what I was trying to say. Although by the end of my post I had talked myself into believing Ishar had created another one before the Heralds.

We also know that Mraize is something of an independent contractor, so everything that happens on Roshar doesn't necessarily reflect the Ghostbloods as a whole.

Great research @mdross81 I think when Syl says the original oathpact she is referring to the time before they abandoned Taln. It is a little suspicious though. You're right. Ishar is always differentiated from the Heralds. The Binder of God's, Herald of Heralds, Founder of the Oathpact. If I interpret what I've read correctly, he may have created the oathpact with Honors help on Ashyn, it may even be the reason humans were allowed to come to Roshar. Then after humans came to Roshar and the Singers became the Fused the other Heralds joined. So maybe it was a second oathpact. In RoW, we see Ishar take Dalinars bonds to . It's possible he may have given the Heralds bonds to the Oathpact to Taln.

I suppose it would be similar to what happened to the Elantrians. The power was suddenly removed from them and they withered.

This makes sense. It's like how drabs on Nalthis are weaker than normal humans. The investiture is replacing something and when it's removed it leaves a hole.