WeiryWriter

@Arook I would definitely argue that the bonds are Spiritual in nature as it definitely seems to fall under the category of "Connection", which is a Spiritual thing. Also on the whole squire discussion, I'm still sorting through all of the WoB from the Firefight tour (and from before... le sigh) but trust me when I say you are wrong about the nature of squires. They are different from proto-Radiants. Take this quote for example: (source) If a squire is "somebody on the path of becoming a Radiant" like you are arguing then it would be really hard for some Orders to exist, don't you think?

So far the only excerpts that have been released are the Kaladin chapter and a Jasnah chapter (which may or may not end up in the final version). As far as we know the current plan is for it to be released late 2016, however that can't be finalized until Brandon finishes drafting the book. Which he hasn't started yet. He's still working on finishing up Calamity, but he does plan on wrapping that up over the next few weeks. Then he can start on Stormlight 3, which will take pretty much the rest of the year (and probably run into 2016 at this point). Edit: @Redbird There is no Shallan one.

@LabRat We have this WoB on gem colors, which is probably what Moogle is basing his argument on: (source) My personal thought on the matter however is that it would be hard to drain the color from an infused gemstone. It's one of the cardinal rules of the cosmere that Investiture interferes with other Investiture. It is harder to Push and Pull on Invested metal. It is harder to Push and Pull on metal piercing someone. You can't (usually) drain the color of a person for Awakening. The way I see it, it's totally possible that the Stormlight in a gem would interfere with the Awakening and not let the gem be used as color-fuel.

They don't: (source)

Here ya go.

To be clear I'm not trying to argue the sheath is made of aluminum, I just mentioned that it was a theory. What I'm arguing is that the sheath isn't as important in discussing Nightblood's weight as you are making it. Yes Nightblood's sheath is entirely made of metal instead of wood or leather. Metal is also a far more rugged/durable material so it can provide the same function with less material. I would strongly disagree with you about the sheath doubling Nightblood's weight as while it does stretch the same length they would be made of very different amounts of metal. And as has been previously established Nightblood is unnaturally heavy, the sheath would not be contributing severely as you seem to be arguing.

The only thing I can think of would be if the metal were alloyed in some way. We know that metalminds loose their charge if alloyed so I think it would follow that the same would apply to a Hemalurgic spike.

Okay here's the verbatim: Which I don't think sheds to much more light on the issue. The main issue I have with what you are arguing is that when one talks about the weight of a sword and it's sheath, /most/ of that weight is coming from the sword, that's just logic. Even with the sheath being made of metal most of the weight is still going to be coming from the blade. And shardblades /are/ described as being lighter than people think they should be:

I think we are talking at cross purposes vis a vis weight. There is "Nightblood" and there is "Nightblood's sheath", the indication is that "Nightblood" is the thing that is unnaturally heavy, not "Nightblood's sheath". Also here is the (paraphrased) WoB (there's a transcribed version coming eventually): (source)

Well the weight is magical in nature, Nightblood is unnaturally for the same (or rather the opposite) reason that shardblades are unnaturally light. But even still most of the weight would be coming from Nightblood itself, not the sheath. It's the sheath that is described as being silvery, Nightblood itself is black.

Brandon talks a little about the silver/tin thing in the TFE annotations: (source) ("Silvereye" is still stuck in his mind as well, he used it a couple of times in the upcoming Mistborn books without realizing it. Peter yelled at him for it "It's been ten years Brandon get over it") Also keep in mind that Allomantic pewter is 91% tin and 9% lead. As for the rest of the stuff, I'm highly skeptical. We don't technically have confirmation that Nightblood's sheath is actually made of silver, just that it is silver in color. I know there's a theory floating around that it is actually aluminum, which is actually confirmed to interact in interesting ways with Investiture. I don't buy the fact that it being used as a component in electrum is evidence for it being special, there are plenty of metals that aren't base metals but are used in the alloys (like lead). (Oh and silver is not mentioned in any significant way in Elantris, only as decoration or in reference to the skin of the Elantrians)

So yeah, congrats for figuring this out. Kelsier does stick around after his death as a Cognitive shadow. The mist spirit and the Stormfather are also both Cognitive shadows (though I don't think we have /explicit/ confirmation on the first but there's enough circumstantial evidence) as are the Shades on Threnody (the Shadows for Silence world). We don't really understand how they are formed at this point in time, but Kelsier does, as Voidus said, hold Preservation between Leras' death and Vin's Ascension. We actually see him speak twice in HoA, in the scene with Spook that you mention and in the moments before Vin ascends (the whole "giving you power" voice she hears is actually Kelsier).

Ah, okay then. Your last post kind of implied that you did... Would you mind putting it into a question/answer format though, as that makes it a whole lot easier to add them to the database? (Like answers aren't nearly as helpful without the questions to go with them?)

Shards are able to voluntarily create Splinters while remaining whole. I've added a citation for the divine Breath being Splinters of Endowment.

Hey where exactly is the thread you reported these in?

Do you have a citation for that?

You can just go through the form on his website: http://brandonsanderson.com/contact/

Oh wow, completely missed this... (FYI reports should really go in the Events & Signings forum) There's some interesting stuff here, thanks for getting it. Where was this signing exactly?

Actually Vasher is a better swordsman than Warbreaker makes him out to be: (source)

That is correct. Though the Braize equivalency is more from process of elimination than any actual reasoning. We do know that Ahsyn does not "currently" have a Shard (whether it ever had one has been RAFO'd), and from what we understand of the magic system it sounds like the magic matches the description of minor shardworlds. However Brandon has given zero indication of this having the sort of effect on the Cognitive Realm as you describe here. The Cognitive Realm is simply another way of viewing reality in the cosmere. Everything has a Cognitive aspect, and that is what forms the basis of the Cognitive Realm, not whether there are Shards present. Thanks! As for the map, I guess that's a possibility. Though I'd point out that we will be getting two maps, a star chart (for the Physical Realm) and a map of the Cognitive Realm. Well you weren't alone in that thought. Scadrial was probably the leading guess for the "Densities" up until Brandon revealed it was actually "Vapors". I don't know if I would go so far as to say "Vapors" is a translation of "mists" but it's definitely a reference to them. Eh, at this point I don't think we know enough about Braize to say why its Expanse would be "of the Broken Sky". This is my understanding of things as well. The existence of things like spren has more to do with the world itself (after all worlds have an impact on the magic in the same way that the Shards do). Spren could even exist on a "minor" shardworld, though not sentient ones like Syl. I'm confused by the first sentence of this as I don't think anyone is saying that the Expanse of the Broken Sky is both Braize and Ashyn? As for the rest the impression I've got from the WoBs is that an Expanse equals a Shardworld, not a star system. That said I could potentially see an argument that the "Expanse" actually refers to the space between the world analogues (i.e. the Expanse of the Vapors lies between Shadesmar and the analogue of Scadrial) since Brandon does say that it would take weeks or months of walking to get to Scadrial from Shadesmar. Well in the Physical Realm the cosmere is structurally the same as our own universe, so interstellar space is mostly empty space. What that translates to in the Cognitive is not exactly clear (though we do know it contracts a great deal, due to the whole expanding/shrinking nature of the Cognitive) but Brandon does refer to walking across the Expanse, so there has to be some sort of solid ground. As for the Nexuses, I haven't the slightest idea.

Well calling things like this "Random Speculations" is kind of a thing for me now...

So at this point we are all pretty aware of the map of Shadesmar found in the endpages of The Way of Kings: As we can see it is bordered by four "expanses": the Expanse of the Densities, the Expanse of the Broken Sky, the Expanse of the Vapors, and the Expanse of Vibrance (the name of which does not appear on the map because it is beneath the "Shadesmar" label). We also know that these expanses correspond to different Shardworlds, if one were to walk in the direction of the Expanse of the Vapors for example they would eventually reach Scadrial. We've also long known that the Expanse of the Densities corresponds to "a world [we] know". The conventional thought on this was that Brandon is referring to one of the currently published worlds, Sel, Scadrial, Nalthis, or Roshar. Roshar was obviously out as Shadesmar itself is its analogue. As we know know Scadrial is also out. Another common consensus is that the Expanse of Vibrance corresponds to Nalthis (what with its focus on "vibrant" color and sound "vibrations"). Which would just leave Sel, right? Well not necessarily. My current Random Speculation du jour is that it instead corresponds to Ashyn, the setting of The Silence Divine and one of the other two inhabited planets in Roshar's system (the other being Braize of course). "But wait," you might say, "didn't Brandon say it was a world we knew? We haven't seen Ashyn yet!" Well, yes you are correct. However I'm going to cry technicality. Brandon said that it was a world we know, but he did not say it is a world we've seen. And at that point in time we did "know" a little about Ashyn (specifically that it had a disease-based magic system, it was the setting of The Silence Divine, and that it was in the same system as Roshar). Could I be wrong on this? Definitely, but for now it's enough for me to continue in this line of thought. So what exactly is my thought process here? Well in reality it is a synthesis of two things. One, Ashyn, as a planet, is mostly barren with a few fertile patches. And two, distance in the Cognitive Realm reflects the amount of "thought" going on in the Physical (which does not necessarily have to be sentient thought). I believe that this would result in a region of the Cognitive Realm that is mostly empty with localized "dense" spots (corresponding to the fertile bits). In mind it makes a sort of poetic sense to call it the Expanse of "the Densities". It also fits with my personal belief that two of the Expanses should correspond to Ashyn and Braize, since they are Physically close to Roshar and have been an influence on it in the past. Granted that could mean Ashyn corresponds to the Expanse of the Broken Sky. I could see that working, as we learn in the reading from The Silence Divine that Brandon did a while back that (putting this in a spoiler tag for people who don't like reading stuff like this):

If you signed up for the newsletter after it went out, you missed it. Sorry.

It was an April Fool's day joke, trust me. Chaos' comment is not meant to be taken seriously.

I wrote a theory that kind of deals with this a while back, you might find it interesting. (Though I should really get around to updating it...)