Zas678

I believe that she is taking intelligence. She wasn't intelligent before she met him, and now she is. Does this mean that Kaladin is less intelligent? I don't think so. I think it's a little bit like a candle. When you have a lit candle, and you touch it to a unlit candle, the combined flame is bigger than one candle alone. Syl has all of the structuring- a personality, some memories-she just lacks the spark of awareness- that's what Kaladin gives her. What does this mean for the Turthspren? Are they intelligent on their own? Or perhaps they have the spark of awareness, but they lack a personality. I don't know. We'll probably get more answers about them next book. As for the measuring... I'm not sure. Perhaps when the measuring occurs, the Cognitive aspect of the human ends up "reinforcing" the limited cognitive aspect of the Spren, thus confining it to the shape defined. I would guess that this applies to many things. Perhaps it is helping to define the spren. I don't know. I don't think that this is what they do for fabrials, because these ardents are researchers, and would probably already know how fabrials are made.

My theory? The sphere that Shallan talks to is the Cognitive aspect of the Goblet that is Soulcast. So she goes into Shadesmar, "talks" with the goblet, gives it some Stormlight, than it changes. I would believe that this would be pretty similar across the landscape. From the Barnes and Nobles Q&A

Nope, I was misremembering. That's what I get for not looking at the quote! I'll make a note on my post.

Ok, this post convinced me. I finally wrote up my Spren theory.

I think this might be helpful in helping to describe a lot of the things that the Spren are, and what they do, and how they function. There are three sorts of spren that are talked about. There's the Spren that Hesina (Kaladin's Mom) talks about, there's the spren that appear with certain cognitive/physical triggers, and then there's the Nahel Bond Spren that "bond" to receive intelligence from a human, and the human receives the ability to process Stormlight. Hesina's Spren These Spren that Hesina describes (probably in layman's terms), seem to be similar to what Shallan sees when she travels to Shadesmar, the Cognitive Realm. The spheres that Shallan sees are the spren that Hesina describes- the cognitive aspect of all things. In fact, Brandon has talked about these aspects before. The flames that Shallan sees are the objects (human and spren) that have a presence in the Cognitive Realm, or, in other words, are intelligent. Everyday Spren I believe (and after digging through the text and not really finding anything), that Everyday Spren are things that appear when certain cognitive or physical triggers occur. This can vary, from purely physical things, such as flamespren, which are thus more common and predictable, to more cognitive things, such as confidence spren. We see that Syl (probably) believes this about every day spren (as well as herself). These Everyday Spren can be captured and utilized, if Navani's notes are right, if they are put in the proper gemstones and fed Stormlight, creating what are called fabrials. Another thing- these Spren, require Stormlight. For example, in Shinovar, where there are no Highstorms (and thus no Stormlight), no Spren are noticed. Nahel Spren Nahel Spren are a subcategory of Everyday Spren. They have purely cognitive triggers. These include Honorspren, like Syl, who was attracted to Kaladin because of he "Protected those who couldn't protect themselves" and thus acted honorably. See this quote, from when Kaladin almost committed suicide: A note here- it's not the gratitude that drew her. It's the fact that he helped them. The young, untrained who couldn't protect themselves. In other words, Syl was attracted to Kaladin because he was already following the Second Ideal of the Knight Radiants. They also include Symbolspren/Truthspren (I personally prefer the second, because it describes when it appears, rather than a description of the spren), who give Shallan an experience to interact with Shadesmar, the Cognitive Realm whenever she says a truth about herself. A subnote- The Nahel Bond. This bond is two part. In exchange for helping the Spren gain intelligence, the Human gains the ability to process stormlight- in being able to manipulate the Surges of Pressure and Gravity for Kaladin, and the Surge of Transformation (and something else?) for Shallan. We see the give and take of the bond in this quote from Syl: And I believe that it's clear, throughout the course of the book, that Syl is the one that is giving Kaladin his abilities. Another note- the Trigger of a spren, and the ability it allows its Human to have aren't unrelated. When the Truthspren talk to Shallan the first two times, they ask not for a truth, but for her identity. They ask "What are you?" when she does Soulcast the goblet, my belief is that she helps the cognitive self of the goblet to become something else than what it is. So this still leaves a bunch of questions left unanswered. Why do the spren only appear sometimes? What about individual spren, like the one Axial the Collector collects? And why is Shallan able to feel the Truthsprenfor a brief moment? If there's something I missed, or something you think doesn't make sense, let me know. EDIT 2/13/12 Ah! I knew I forgot a quote. This quote is very important. First off, it says that Alakavish was a Surgebinders, where Surgebinders end up being Knight Radiants. Second, we can assume from this that at least some Surgebinders had Nahel Bond Spren. From this quote from Jasnah: We can amend that to all Surgebinders having Spren (presumably Nahel Bond Spren). Third: Not all Nahel Bond Spren are Honorspren. There's a difference, otherwise Nohaden wouldn't make the distinction. From this, I think we can say that since not all Surgebinder spren are Honorspren, and thus the Symbolspren that Shallan sees are (probably) not Honorspren.

I'll check. But the thing is, he's already mentioned by name is almost all of the books (save Alloy and WoA, where he his name isn't even mentioned). But that is definitely something to remember for future books.

Err.. Just so you know, the Wiki is not entirely canon. It's our current interpretation of canon, but it's not always right. Because, after all, there seems to be two definitions of Honor that apply here.. There's upholding your word, keeping to your agreements no matter what, and then there's the acting Honorable as in doing the right thing, no matter what the cost. Certainly, with what Syl says, and with her being an Honorspren, it makes sense that her explanation of what she is, and what Honor is would be similar. But we don't know.

Not connected to spren? The spren feed off the stuff! Or at least need it to interact with the Physical Realm. First off, we don't see spren in Shinovar, where there aren't any Highstorms, and thus no Stormlight. Second, we know that the Nahel Bond between a Person and their Spren (Kaladin and Syl), gives Syl intelligence, and it gives Kaladin the ability to use Stormlight (to strengthen himself, as well as to manipulate the Surges of Pressure and Gravity). Kaladin couldn't give Syl the ability to think if he wasn't sentient, so Syl couldn't give Kaladin the ability to process Stormlight if she didn't have it. It is possible that Surgebinding (the general name for the magic the Knights Radiants use) is a power that comes out of both Cultivation and Honor (much like Feruchemy is a power that comes out of Preservation and Ruin).

I would like to announce that I'm an idiot. You don't take a girl up to a tower on a date when you're in a tux and she's in a dress and then do NOTHING romantic at the top.

I downloaded it recently and am going to give it a whirl. I'd be up for a 17S fleet.

Dalinar notices that he doesn't ever see nay spren either. I think it's because Nahel spren rarely show themselves to people other than the person they are bonded with, and whatever event that created the normal spren that everyone sees hasn't happened yet. (Honor's death?)

kept on going

Hey guys, I need some tech help. I am making a website for a friend, (and I've made websites in the past using Dreamweaver/HTML and other Adobe things for images) and I was wondering what I could use so that they can edit the text without needing to know html, and without having Dreamweaver. Any suggestions?

This is just a quick announcement about LTUE, a conference Brandon's going to be at tomorrow and Saturday at Utah Valley University in Orem. Is anyone planning on going? I'm thinking about going tomorrow night to the signing. Venue: Sorensen Student Center Utah Valley University 800 W University Pkwy Orem, UT 84058 FRIDAY 1:00–3:00 p.m., Center Stage Writing Excuses Podcast (2 hours) Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, James A. Owen (1–1:30), James Dashner (1:30–2:00), Larry Correia (2–2:30), Michael R. Collings & Michaelbrent Collings (2:30–3:00) 4:25–4:55 p.m., SC213A Reading Brandon Sanderson 8:00–10:00 p.m., Center Stage Mass Signing (UVU Bookstore closes at 6:00. There will be NO books for sale during the signing. There is also no guarantee that the bookstore will have the books available, so check early.) See here for the list of every author signing at this time. SATURDAY 11:00 a.m.–12:00 noon, Center Stage Writers on Writing: Four bestselling authors talk about writing. Dave Wolverton (M), Brandon Sanderson, Tracy Hickman, L. E. Modesitt, Jr. 2:00–3:00 p.m., SC206 ABC Plots, Subplots, and Foreshadowing Bree DeSpain (M), J. Scott Savage, Brandon Sanderson, James A. Owen, Stacy Whitman

Yeah, those two theories don't reflect any of the questions that have been asked. There's a couple that clarify Chaos's Principle into pretty much what you said above (the mind of the Shard, and the method of the magic system, rather than the intention of the magic user), and I'm the only one that has used Human Power. One of the reasons why the Principle of Intent seems so obvious know is because a lot of the stuff that has been done since is because of the Principle. Chaos pointed out that Allomancy preserves the power of the person, Hemalurgy ruins it, Awakening lets us give it to someone else, and that let us speculate which Shards have been powering magic in Way of Kings, and (sort of) helped us get the Intents for the Elantrian Shards. And I agree with you. The HoA Q&A is probably our basis for most of the Cosmere. It's partially because it was on the TWG forum, which was where many of the users who are here came from, it's partially because HoA deals with Shards much more so than any of the other books, partially because it's just as Brandon was getting really popular so he had more time to spend on our thread, and it's partially because it was the end of a MASSIVE amount of theorizing about HoA. (A good example is Chaos's beastly Hemalurgy thread. One of the users said about it "Good Lord, Chaos! It'll be faster to read the book!") I think that we need a better definition of Investiture, and what Nicrosil Twinborns can do before declaring it broken. So far, we only have the RPG, which we know has tweaked with the magic a little bit so it works for gameplay.

As far as I know, there are two different theories on power of magic. One is Chaos's, seen a little in his Principle of Intent. One is my Power of Creation. In the Principle of Intent, Chaos talks about how the energy comes from the Shard, and that this power ends up being pretty similar from shard to shard, which is why it's called Power of Creation. In the Power of Creation, I talk about how there's this one source of massive power called the Power of Creation (presumably left over from Adonalsium) that some of the magic systems (like Allomancy and AonDor) draw their powers from. They both are a little outdated, but they're both pretty good.

Honor actually hasn't been dead for a Millenia. When he speaks to Dalinar, he says that he must "Restore the Knight Radiants", which seems to mean that they had already fallen when Honor "recorded" his messages.

Here's the current understanding of Spren in layman's terms. I've always assumed that the tiny spheres we see in Shadesmar are the cognitive aspects of the objects around them, which the Rosharians interpret as spren. Here's what Brandon has to say about objects in Shadesmar:

How is this going? Out of curiosity.

I'm quite enjoying my starter edition of Starcraft 2, especially since my roommate (who's Diamond) and I beat two Very Hard computers. (I know, not that big of a deal, but hey! I did good.)

Maybe that's WHY he's not leader anymore- he helped Mi'chelle marry the man she loved while the Big Bad Organization wanted her to "not interfere". Hoid was like "Psh, screw this!" and smuggled her in to Scadrial- where she then had the wedding/gunfight of the year.

I'm trying to remember a quote about pupating, where Brandon denies it, but I don't remember if it is from Parshendi to Chasmfiend or from Chasmfiend to Thundercast. EDIT- Or if it's my mind making up things I think should be there.

I'm not sure about the sanity, but it could explain why this Desolation took so long to come. How 'bout this for the Oathpact- Odium would withhold his hand from the affairs of the world, instead punishing the Heralds the amount of pain he would inflict on the world (Or simply x amount of torturing- it doesn't have to be equivalent to what he would do for the world). When that has been met, then the Heralds return to the Earth, and Odium is free to affect the world, ending up in Desolations, until the Heralds return to Him. In exchange for Odium's limited interference, Honor can't influence the world except through information. No Vin-like-fuelling, no moving the planet, or anything like that. Instead, he trusts in the Heralds (and later the Radiants and Ardents) to act correctly, and gives them visions from time to time. Why would Honor want to do this? Because it protects the people, plus it gives them some opposition, which (as we see know) is a good thing. Plus he probably believes that the people will do the right thing. Why would the Heralds do it? They want to help protect the land, plus they get to live forever. Why would Odium do it? Because he's a little more cynical about the human race than Honor is. He thinks that the Heralds will eventually break (as they do), and then, he's free to go about laying waste to people. Plus the fact that Honor is now dead. Maybe that was in the deal- that if the deal was broken, the Shard who broke his promise would die. Honor may have even made the clause, thinking that Odium wouldn't be able to handle it.

It's going to be a LONG time. As in if we're doing one a week, for the 20ish chapters or so plus title pages and acknowledgments and two annotations per chapter, that comes out to about 25-30 annotations each for the four books. That means about 2 years till we get to Alloy of Law and then another half year till we get to Way of Kings. So there's a good chance we'll get the second Way of Kings book before the Way of Kings annotations. As to the rest, the Constable is TenSoon, the Faceless that gives Miles Wax the earring is MeLaan, insta-poison usually tastes horrible, Brandon has said some things about Alloy of Law before. I'll edit this post to put down what he said after school. EDIT- changed Miles to Wax.