Corax

I would expect that even if it were possible it would be extremely hard for a surgebinder and impossible for a fabriel soulcaster, as they deal in transmuting things to pure essences. Even if a surgebinder could pull it off, I suspect the result would be the Rosharan equivalent of a Lifeless. That being said, the human origin and shape might make it relatively easy to Awaken if you were an Awakener. (I was just thinking about this the other day, lol. Glad I'm not the only one.)

This is a fantastic thread, and thank you for creating it! My ideas range from serious to whimsical, in no particular order. (Erm... no pun intended.) 1) The Releasers are the only Order who can unmake a dead Shardblade. They can honorably release men or spren from their oaths. They can also "release" spren from Parshendi, which is how humanity got so many parshmen (formless, rather than Dullform.) Additionally, they are KRs who turned down their first bond or otherwise started out as another Order. 2) Listeners don't touch their dead because they desperately avoid rotspren for fear of decayform. This death taboo contributes to the potential for thunderclasts. 3) Jasnah has had the literary equivalent of Shallan's experience drawing current events (i.e. Wind's Pleasure survivors, Ash's vandalism.) The "visions" involved Tien's gifts for Kal: shiny rocks and a carved horse. 4) Odium has been keeping all the dead KRs for himself on Braize because they were unwittingly loopholed into the Oathpact by their own oaths. He's doing this with a similar to trick to the one he used on Sel, messing with how dense the liminality between Realms is. This was the wicked thing of eminence. - (I'll add more later, and update with strike-throughs, etc, like the cool kids are doing.)

Man, it would be pretty awful if they went to all sorts of trouble to warn the world about the dangers of the parshmen only to be decimated by suddenly malevolent mutant chulls. >.<

It was, indeed. Additionally, [AU image spoiler?] A clever hint as to why the stick had the, dare I say, Autonomy to resist Soulcasting!

My autocorrect changed the meaning. The quote is "sacrificing his son." I'll edit the above as well. (Stupid phone).

So listening to WoK again and the following passage stood out to me. I took its implication as a given the first time I read the book, but maybe it's a.. we'll say some sort of purelake fish, perhaps of a crimson color. ;P Aaaanyway... - Chapter 49 (Emphasis mine) Now compare that with the prelude. (emphasis again mine) So, yeah. That doesn't seem like a coincidence to me. It's likely already been discussed, but just in case it hasn't, I thought I'd pipe up. Thoughts? Prognostications? Cookies?

I only have the digital version, so I can't speak for the differences in the hard copy. That being said, the images are all available on Brandon Sanderson's website in the Artwork > Arcanum Unbounded section.

Granted! They appear sugared and toasty, and you can summon them like a Shardblade. They are, however, all your body is now able to metabolize. I hope you reeeeally like them. I want to be able to turn into an awesome dragon. (I'm in the mood to collect riches and maybe burninate the countryside... You know, just a little.)

So, is it just me, or do the lyrics for Leonard Cohen's Anthem totally remind you of the Stormlight Archive? See, I told you it was a silly question.

I agree, that's a fascinating angle. I have had a pet theory that some of the people on the west of Roshar are from Dayside, mostly because 'shin' seems to roughly translate as 'people' in Lossandin (and maybe Kerztian). And while we know now that the Shin people have a different language family than the Iri, the vocabulary could be from either (or a completely different) language.

The simplest interpretation seems to be the one already mentioned regarding Kaladin, Elokhar, and Moash. Strangely, when I first read it I imagined it to foreshadow the end of the series, with Kaladin ending up as Odium’s champion and all the awfulness that would entail. Alternately, it sort of feels like it could plausibly be from Eshonai’s perspective (I raise my hand. The storm responds.) In the end, it seems most likely to be the first of these.

In the last sentence of this part of the Diagram, there seems to be two ways to interpret it. First, as already mentioned, the "power" that "this one" is predicted to obtain. Second, though, is the Alethi "push [...] to destroy them outright." What if it's the Alethi act of genocide that is actually being predicted to form the bridge?

I think you may be on to something. As for the comparison to Returned; while we know they are Endowed with a whole Splinter's-worth of Investiture which pushes them into Cognitive Shadow status, we don't know which part of the process results in memory loss. As @Khyrindor said. As for the Elantrians, we don't know whether or not they died as part of the Shaod. As was mentioned in the Anniversary edition of Elantris, we (well, Khriss et al) don't know what triggers Initiation on Sel. It could well be that they're people who were killed by micro-explosions of Dor, for all we know. (Intentional random example, there.) However, given the state of Devotion and Dominion, the transformation is probably automatic, a function of rules previously established. If that's the case, it seems plausible that there wouldn't be any time spent in the Cognitive Realm for them to remember, because the triggered reaction happened too quickly. In fact, as I write this it occurs to me that given how most of the Investiture on Sel is trapped in the Cognitive Realm, that people who fit the mysterious criteria or are just cool enough to have the potential to leave a Cognitive Shadow (and would on another world) are instead blasted back by the force of the Dor, using the moment of death as another pressure valve. Okay, maybe I got sidetracked there. Still, thanks for sharing the concept!

So, apologies if this was already discussed elsewhere and I missed it, but... In Edgedancer, Wyndle mentions 'Keenspren' briefly, with the implication that they are difficult to understand. I was wondering if anyone who read a non-English version might know if the concept for them is keen as in clever, keen as in literally sharp, or keen as in the sound (a wail).

And his name will be Gibletish. >.>

Planting pretty flowers? I think she was probably performing quiet miracles on her own. /begin wild speculation: Then people from a distant place show up and she gets wind of some dirty tricks brewing in Odium’s neck of the woods. She decides that she'll need some more powerful boots on the ground for whatever is coming, and she knows some things about Honor's shenanigans, so she makes her own version of Heralds. (Okay, that's mostly just going off of the similar increased size described in one of the epigraphs...) Back on topic though, I keep thinking about Denth's assertion that the culture he's from is dead and gone. Can't put my finger on it just now, but it seems important.

Ack, realized after the fact that this was a necro. Sorry!

The first time I saw the name, I immediately thought it was evocative of the words for "head" and "man" and was possibly a sort of reference to him being tied to the Cognitive Realm. Obviously Greek, etc, don't exist in the Cosmere, but Brandon often chooses names that are evocative of things that are similar real-world concepts, like Adonalsium resembles Adonai, or Moelach is very close to Moloch. It seems likely (or at least possible) that the meaning is intentional.

As far as I know, it's simply the Superman symbol, as Superman is the most iconic super hero that exists.

@Argent: that's awesome! I'll try to listen to the audio myself, if I can. @King's Twit: that does seem to ring a bell. I've just started going through the annotations in order, so I'll keep an eye out for that.

I hadn’t thought of them in a supernatural angle, but it's interesting they’re mentioned like you say. I'm gonna have to go back and reread it, paying them special attention (oh noes!) Mink have been introduced into various locations in the real world and can be invasive. They're pretty hardy and likely to be brought along with humans for their pelts. I'm also reminded of the mongooses that are all over Hawaii. They're not native, but rather a very invasive species that was introduced in a vain attempt to control the (also invasive) rats that were drawn to the sugar cane crops. The mongooses ended up preferring the eggs of the native birds instead. My point was... I sort of wondered if the minks of Kharbranth are there with a similar history.

Ah, thank you, Argent. I was just about to look for that WoB. About their names, I know the priests name them and that Lightsong thinks they're dumb, but I think he might be a little off with his theory of... was it drunken monkeys? If someone is taking the religion seriously, there would be at least something that influences the names of Hallandren Returned. It might be unconnected to anything significant to the Cosmere, but it's probably beyond pulling adjectives and nouns out of their respective hats. (Or I'm being silly and there's info out there that says that's exactly what they're doing.)

I sort of think that Nightblood is something like a... frankensplinter. Shove a buttload of Investature into something and give it an Intent; that seems like how one would go about making a synthetic Splinter. There could be other worlds' practices in play, though, because he sure seems to bleed power like (Mistborn Era One Spoiler)

Hehehe, thank you. *bow* I agree with you, and for that reason, too. The only reason I fielded the other option was due to Vasher's description in chapter 46 wherein he refers to them by his own (and presumably the Five Scholars') nomenclature: Type One BioChromatic Entity; Spontaneous Sentient BioChromatic Manifestation in a Deceased Host. I fully expect that Vasher, while old and well-traveled, may not have a huge understanding of Realmistic Theory, and the name may be intentionally or unintentionally misleading with the word "Host." I wonder, though, where are the minds of the Splinters that are the Divine Breaths. Maybe not all Splinters are fully sapient? Maybe they exist in a state similar to (Stormlight spoiler) But that doesn't quite feel like it fits. All the other Splinters we've met have been intelligent: Skaze, Seons, (Stormlight spoiler) and I suspect even (Bands of Mourning/Secret History spoiler) So where are the minds of the Divine Breaths? (And that makes me wonder if each Splinter is part of how Hallandren Returned are named?)