Brgst13

WoB from the Houston signing should end the debate over Parshendi as human descendents: I think this makes things pretty clear that the Listeners were here and then the humans arrived,

My argument against: The "most ancient spren" had 4 genders because they were "not thought of by humans". In order for the Listeners to be human descendants, there would have to be humans first. Given that spren are the physical manifestations of the Cognitive personification of forces, elements, and concepts, this suggests that either the humans did indeed come later (as the stele suggests) or that the proto-humanoids were so cognitively deficient compared to modern humans that they could not possibly have been imagining spren.

Usually when a metal is being used like that it's aluminum.

These daggers don't kill the Heralds. They trap them in the gem on the handle. I discount the hemalurgic spike theory because Moash was not given specific directions on how or where to stab Jezrien, which argues against hemalurgy, unless Odium'so god metal works VERY differently from anything we have seen so far.

I had another thought (spoiler for Liar of Partinel): Also could this be related to Threnody?

We do know that Shinovar contains grass, chickens, and strawberries.

While perusing artwork in the Coppermind, I noticed something interesting about the void glyphs. Each one of them was a normal surge with one half rotated. At first I thought only the left side was rotated and was trying to connect that to the safehand. Then I noticed that this was not consistent. The glyphs are rotated thusly: Left: adhesion, tension, transformation. Right: transportation, progression, illumination, gravitation, division, cohesion, abrasion. Is thereally a reason that three have the left half rotated while the other 7 have the right rotated?

Greatest. Thread. Ever.

It is of course a significant word! The Parshendi were first created by the shard Vibration, which was shattered by Odium and its planet broken to pieces. Many years later, one of these pieces fell to Earth, where it was mined for metal. Included in this asteroid was a large amount of Vibration's god-metal, Vibranium, renowed for its unusual strength and used by Tony Stark to create Captain America's shield. This word tells us that the Cosmere will end when The incredible Hulk punches Odium in the face so hard he shatters, and the sixteen shards are combined with the Infinity Gems to make Super-Adonalsium!

Akinah in my opinion is the pathway that connects Roshar to Braize. Look at the structure of the city. There is a round circle in the center (the pathway, similar to an Oathgate, through the Cognitive Realm). Outside of that are nine boxes (9 is Odium's number, so one box for each Unmade?). The outermost section has 10 coffin-shaped objects. My theory is that this is where the Heralds' physical bodies are kept while their souls are sent to Braize.

I think the fabrials are in fact a separate magic system, and the ancient fabrials (or the means of their production) are what Khriss describes in the Ars Arcanum as "another magic system, even more esoteric than Voidbinding".

I think the red color results when a being is controlled by a Shard they are not Connected to. For example, the Parshendi (connected to Honor) get red eyes when Odium influences them.

I think that everyone is making the same mistake trying to visualize the layout of the Cognitive Realm. We are all picturing it "overlaying" the Physical. I see it as more like an onion. The center of the onion is the Spiritual Realm. The Cognitive Realm is several "onion layers" out from the Spiritual. The Physical Realm would be the outside of the onion. A line drawn from the Spiritual to the Physical on Roshar would pass through the section of the Cognitive that represents Roshar,

I've been kicking this theory of how Investiture actually works, and I think it is time to unleash it. This theory grew out of the discussion on Awakening with Stormlight, and I was trying to figure out how this could work. First, we know that the Cosmere has mass, energy, and Investiture. Given that mass and energy are each composed of fundamental particles, and Investiture is given equal standing, it must also have a fundamental particle. I will refer to this as the investon. For this theory I will be considering investors to behave in a similar method to photons, where they can have both a wave and particle nature, allowing them to have discrete wavelengths. Second, Cosmere humans have a spiritweb (sDNA) that is essential to accessing Investiture. In order to allow an individual to access investons, this sDNA must be damaged (cracked). Importantly, the birth planet (or planet currently Connected to, to allow for Hemalurgy and hacking) determines the method of accessing Investiture. For example, when a Scadrian snaps, they become an Allomancer. When a Selian turns to an Elantran they can access the Dor. If these powers are all manifestations of Investiture, and use the same fundamental particle, why are they specific? I propose that Connection determines where in the sDNA the rupture occurs. This in turn then determines which wavelength of investons the individual can access. Thirdly, it is not enough that have ruptured sDNA for an individual to be able to utilize Investiture. There must also be something that fills in the space in the sDNA and modifies the investon wave in a way to allow it to do work. On Roshan this would be a spren bond. The particular type of spren will modify the investon wave in a certain way in order to allow the powers for that order. On Scadrial metals will fill this role. On Nalthis it would be Breaths. This theory can explain a couple of puzzling facts. For example, why are Sel's magics so much weaker away from their home area? First, we can assume that investons radiate from Shards. Generally Shards exist primarily in the Spiritual realm. Investons then flow through the Cognitive realm to the Physical realm, where they can be stored in physical objects (gemstones, algae, metals, colors, etc.). On Sel, however, investons begin in the Cognitive realm, which is location based. This means that certain Physical realm areas areally more heavily invested at a specific wavelength than other areas. Therefore, away from the home area, there are less available investons to power AonDor, which makes it weaker. So how could one power Awakening with Stormlight? You would need to pass Stormlight through a medium of different density in order to change the investon wavelength. Once the wavelength matched that for Awakening, it would be usable.

damnation, thanks for the info! Should double checked the rules on that one. Now I gotta go read Liar. I missed that reference from Khriss, that does indeed canonize it.

What is your source that this is canon? To the best of my knowledge, Brandon has not commented on this, and I am certain that it has not appeared in any Cosmere work released to date. Also I would modify your spoiler tags to include the reference to fain life, as Liar is not generally available.

Very much so. 50 Shades of Cosmere anyone?

First, we know that they did NOT have access to the surges: "The betrayal of spren has brought us here. / They gave their Surges to human heirs, / But not to those who know them most dear, before us. / ’Tis no surprise we turned away / Unto the gods we spent our days / And to become their molding clay, they changed us." (Ch. 28 epigraph) Rereading the second quote, I agree with your idea of blending surges. I wonder if this possibly means that they have to have the Voidbinding forms first before they could bond human spren.

One issue...you describe the Radiant spren as granting forms to the Listeners. How does that square with the idea that the Listeners were never able to Surgebind in the past? One of the epigraphs describes that "it should be possible to blend their surge to ours in the end." I am assuming that the same spren that grant surges to humans currently would then bind with the Listeners to grant them surges. If these spren had previously bonded with the Listeners, why would that bonding now be different?

I could see sandmasters in the future slatrifying to make trade goods or rare resources

My theory is that slatrification changes the Identity of the sand into water, similar to what we see with Soulcasting. The sandmaster term uses the Investiture from the sands to cause this change. I wonder if it is possible to slatrify the sand into other substances.

I agree with scyron. They might have identical DNA, but their SDNA is different, and Investiture int r races with sDNA.

This is based on the publisher's schedule. They set this schedule years in advance to avoid conflicts between similar books of the same genre. Brandon has stated himself that he is not at the GRRM level where the schedule gets changed for him, so November it is.

Parshendi harvest gemhearts from the greatshells in the Shattered Plains. This suggests that the reference to gemhearts may not refer to their own gemhearts.

Crem is just dirt, except that it falls during Highstorms.