Corax

Okay, it's very possible that this has already been answered or addressed elsewhere and I missed it (in which case, please point me there), but I'm a little unclear about who exactly, the Returned are. What I mean is that the other Splinters we've seen in the Cosmere are sapient, whereas the Divine Breath is referred to as a Splinter, but not the Returned. The Returned themselves are almost entirely tabula rasa, so are their souls still there, but somehow cut off from their Identity, or are the bodies simply vessels/meat suits for the Divine Breaths? Personally, I'd suspect that they are more the former, but Bonded so tightly with their partnering Divine Breath as to be functionally indistinguishable. I know a lot of that is very much the citation-needed sort of speculation, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.

I took it to mean that though she had partly thrown it off by overcoming her Calamity-tied fear, she still considered her powers as being of Calamity. Every time she used them, it was via that tie to Calamity and that refreshed his corruption effect. When she claimed the powers as her own, she stopped using Calamity as her sort of "focus," so was no longer subject to his influence. (Posting from my phone, sorry for brevity and any typos.)

One thing to consider is that the potential Vessel doesn't have to be similar to the Intent of the Shard they take up. Certainly, it would be easier the more Connected they are, but there are other shenanigans that can interfere. Plus, once the person has well and truly ascended, they'll be molded by the Intent of their Shard. ("Ati was once a kind and generous man, and you saw what became of him.") I guess some of it comes down to what Hoid wants to do, and whether it wold better fit his end-goal for Honor to be strong, weak, or continue to be splintered. ...and then whether or not Hoid gets his way.

It was due to the wording VenDell used when explaining the why of it. I'll add it on here when I'm at a computer.

This is related to the kandra post below, but I thought it might warrant a separate thread. (Apologies if it's been said elsewhere and I missed it). We know that Harmony changed how koloss work in some ways, and the nature of Allomantic snapping. I can't help but wonder if he changed how kandra Blessings work as well, or perhaps, did something when he remade Scadrial that reestablished the kandra people's *connection* with their *identities.* This would especially make sense if part of what the Lord Ruler did to the Worldbringers of his time was to sever or significantly weaken that connection. It would mean that the bulk of Terris culture was lost with them and another layer of impossibility for them ever reclaiming it. It would also have the side effect of anteverdant kandra being able to swap spikes out. If later Harmony 'fixed' that, at least in part, it could account for why Blessings are no longer swappable. ...or VenDell is lying his antique butt off. What do you think? (Apologies for poor formatting and asterisks for italics; I'm posting from my phone like a chump).

Didn't the Lord Ruler try out having a family at some point, at least once, as per WoB? (Posting from my phone, so finding the link a is a pain). I wonder if the Band's of Mourning aren't for the Lord Ruler’s use, but for his presumably failed attempt at some sort of family. (Anything more specific, even theories, and I think it's supposed to go on the Bands of Mourning spoiler board, but please correct me if I'm wrong!)

Thank you, O Mighty Moogle! I'm a bit surprised there isn't more mentioned on the subject. Maybe we'll see some in Bands, etc.

Hey, lovely people. Perhaps I've missed something obvious, but do we know how Feruchemists come into their power? Do we have even hints if it's similar to how Allomancers Snap, or entirely different, or something Brandon's being intentionally silent about?

Ooh, perhaps a trifle!

It’s Hoid. He *was* talking about Adonalsium. And about Dalinar and about Aimians and possibly about himself as well. He's a layered man, our Hoid.

I was literally just about to begin composing a post on this exact topic! I was thinking that perhaps chasmfiends and other greatshells, heck, maybe even chulls, have a similar and strange life-cycle. Specifically, an alternation of generations, maybe like by-the-wind sailors or Portuguese man o'wars. I haven't really pressed into possible nitty gritty bits, but, well, what do you think?

This is an awesome little tidbit, thanks! It's my understanding that Axies was a Siah Aimian. Hoid's "Giblitish" speech implies that Dysian Aimians are the ones that can rearrange themselves "bloody chunk by bloody chunk." I'm not sure which ones have which blood, though. Axies is described as being very pale, to the point that his skin seems bluish to Rysn. Since we know one sort of Aimians have orange blood and the others have violet, I thought Axies looked like he would have violet blood. Additionally, we see chasm fiends bleed violet and Listeners bleed orange. Could it be that most native Rosharan animal life bleeds violet blood, while Braizians bleed orange?

I really like the idea of exploring Breath-to-money comparisons. It seems like there would be an interesting sort of economy to include both things. We know that a lot of poor people are more or less forced to sell off their Breaths as children, but we don't know exactly where that poverty line lies. How often would one see a Drab in the middle class? Does selling your Breath to the Court of Gods get you more or less money than selling it elsewhere? (I realize that we don't have answers for this, but it's fun to play with!) I guess the interesting part is that it's transferable Investiture that is distinct from money, but valuable, as opposed to Roharan spheres, where the two are much more intertwined. (But... Investiture literally falls from the sky there, and sphere value should appreciate with the return of KR and surgebinders.... And now I feel like someone should offer a class on comparative Cosmere economics... O.o) On the flipside, it would be interesting to see how someone might run a Breath bank, like Tarion said. How much would you allow your various 'bankers' to hold? What protections to you supply, and what incentives against theft? How much do you pay them not to risk their cache by Awakening? As was mentioned above, the idea of Breath inheritance seems likely to happen, especially among the upper class. And that's another thing... how bit is the disparity in Breaths among the classes, compared to basic money? Right, I'm gonna go pin yarn to maps, or something equally conspiracy-nutty now...

If it were possible, I'd say that the method by which they were able to regain their ability to reproduce would effect how their kids would turn out. If Harmony had a hand in it directly, I'd say the effect would be more like the koloss; a mostly humanish kid that could choose later to go full kandra. If, however, the ability to sexually reproduce was gained in some other way, that might differ. For instance, if a kandra went to Roshar and asked for that as a Boon of the Nightwatcher, I'd imagine the resultant children would be different from those of a kandra who somehow managed to spike-hack it. ...That made more sense in my head, but does that make any sense?

Hi, and welcome. Have an upvote, because they're cool. Voidus beat me to the punch, so yeah. What he said. As for kandra, I was rolling this idea around today, myself. I don't think they'd be able to. The entire point of them being created was to remove them from being able to reproduce. The Lord Ruler had to remove them from the gene pool, and he did it in an admittedly really odd way. Nevertheless, it's possible that Harmony could have undone that, similarly to how he allowed koloss to have children naturally. That seems unlikely, though, given how kandra society seems to behave. All that being said, there are various ways to hack Investiture, and Hemalurgy is one of the best ways to do that.

I think you might be onto something with the point about eyes, but I'm not sure exactly what. I just keep thinking about how the the Ardents who regularly handle Soulcasters are gradually changed. I think there's something there. Meanwhile, it's not a huge change in human anatomy to seed in an itty bitty gemheart somewhere into the physical body, enough for a spren to get a hold of. Particularly if the gemheart's presence is seeded on purpose, by a Shard or at least a significant splinter. (I suspect that a physical vector for this may be crem). Additionally, the theoretical Listener gemhearts would be similarly small. They don't use Stormlight, because they're bonding non-sapient spren. (Though "Forms of Power," like Smokeform and/or Stormform might be different). This would be similar, but probably not the same as the way that greatshells and sky-eels have symbiotic spren. I wonder if copying that process is how Rosharans developed Rhyshadiums.

This is along the lines of what I was thinking, too. While we, as crazed superfans might be more or less familiar with the events of White Sand, I suspect it doesn't really count, since it's not a published work. Odium seems more likely, because he's crafty and would be wise to be worried about Harmony as things stand. Using one of Harmony's own creatures against him seems like it would be right of Rayse's street. Even better if he can frame another Shard for it in the process. If not him, then, heck, maybe she went and got a Boon from the Nightwatcher. ;P This next bit is aluminum foil hat stuff: The creature that we see in the broadsheet story looks like a stylized parshendi to me, and it strikes me that while it could have been a Listener hopping over to Scadrial, it also might have been someone who recently ate a Listener on her way back to her home planet. And I want to go back and reread the important bit, but I swear there was something about Brightness Danlan that made me think 'kandra,' even in addition to her work with Graves.

So, this is silly, but I can't help but wonder... In Vorin cultures, is the safehand always the left hand, or can it be just the off-hand? I think I recall a brief WoB about it simply being the left hand, but then what's a Vorin leftie to do? I wonder if the Vorin culture has any superstitions about left-handed people. ...Thoughts?

I expect that they might, actually. Sure, some might simply die again without bestowing their Breath due to their religious prohibitions against transferring Breaths, but I think it's more likely that they do give up their Divine Breath to perform a miracle, they simply don't draw attention to themselves in doing so. It would be in keeping with Austre's teachings to work even the greatest of miracles with humility, and never draw attention to oneself in doing so.

Aha! Thank you. I thought I remembered that!

Ah, thank you, Kurkistan! Man, it's been too long since I've read the first Mistborn trilogy. I wonder, can they double up? They way MeLaan and TenSoon talk, as well as Harmony's phrasing makes it seem like two is a minimum, and adding on more is possible, at the expense of being more and more easily influenced/controlled by Harmony.

Forgive me if this has been addressed elsewhere, (and please point me there!) but do we know if both typical kandra spikes are supposed to bestow the same Blessing? (I've just begun rereading the first trilogy and it's been a while, so perhaps I'm missing something obvious). Or can a kandra have, say, both the Blessing of Presence and the Blessing of Awareness together? I know that it's more of a whole-of-Scadrial question, but since SoS deals so much with spiky kandra, it seemed more appropriate to post here.

I like this parallel! Though, if the Purelakers have the right of it and the younger was more powerful in the literal sense, that points to him not being a shard, since they all started off at the same power level. Of course, this is on the Timeline of gods, so there could be plenty of time for one to gain power. On the other hand (and this aluminum foil hat is extra silly) The Purelakers are of sELAy ethnicity, and the religion of Trell is called trELAgism... should we be turning our focus (har har) on Aon Ela?

Oh, wow! I have two cents to add. If jumpy, sweary, or actiony anime aren't what a person is looking for, I'd recommend these three (They're all fantasy settings): Kino's Journey: The main character moves through various societies, learning their ways, triumphs, and foibles. It's like a series of world-building exercises. This has the most action of the three posted here, because Kino has some serious gun-fu, while at the same time having a strong moral awareness of their use. I only wish there were more episodes. Haibane Renmei: This is more of a character study. It's a bit slice-of-life, and ambient, and very introspective with a strange little closed-system community and some world-building around it. The series is often purposely vague, without obvious force-fed conclusions, but satisfying nonetheless. It uses some angelic imagery, but more for the visual feel than anything else. Of the three of these, it would be the slowest, but also the one with the most definite story arc. Mushi-Shi: Of these three, this is the most well-known and has the most episodes, with two series that are both good. Again, it's ambient and slow if you prefer mecha fights, but i really like it. The main character, Ginko, travels the land and is something of a hands-on scholar of the spirit-world. Most episodes can stand alone, and there is an overall theme of living in harmony with the things in one's environment and not bearing ill will to those things that simply because they are hard to undersand. It probably been touted before here (I haven't read the entire thread) but it's my go-to recommendation to anyone who wants a quietly engaging anime. I'd certainly recommend it to Sanderfans, et al. As an additional bonus, the background art (the still art in the background of scenes) is really, very lovely.