hoser

@Natans - Thanks for hearing my concern and taking it graciously. As I am not of the racial minority being referenced, I would say I was more bothered or distracted than offended.

@Natans - I generally appreciate your posts. They seem very insightful to me. That said, I hope that I will not offend with a complaint. We have a character with a nickname: Darkness. Every time I see another name used that is close to an identifier for a racial minority in the somewhat racist culture I grew up in, it bothers me. This is my problem, and I am not saying you have done anything wrong. I don't see the point of another nickname with no in-book use and I would enjoy your exceptional posts even more if you used the canonical nickname. If my complaint seems offensive, please accept my apology. Baxil's mistress has light eyes, whereas Taln doesn't. It suggests to me that she already has a history with ex-Radiantblades. Can one even have more than one Shardblade? If the part of the SDNA that retrieves the blade is overwritten when you pick up the second blade, would you still be able to retrieve the first blade?

Good catch! One other thing comes to mind for me. The Azish officials clearly know that Darkness has a Shardblade, so there is the basis for a followup if Brandon wants to tie that in.

Welcome! Upvote for first post! Please pardon me if I'm being presumptuous. I like the way you are putting things together, but It seemed that there was some discussion on the titles in the first two pages of this thread that you might have missed. A very good post by Natans makes a case for Eshonai as the Explorer and Aether came up with a quote about the Radiants being human (Bondsmiths being the name of a Radiant order). There are two quotes in the Eshonai POV that point toward her being the explorer. Some people seem to find Dalinar as a better fit for Bondsmith.

I agree. He was exemplary in the courtesan episode (except for "bridgeboy") and has shown the ability to grow and change. Furthermore, for me, Gawyn was absolutely miserable to read in the Wheel of Time series. Please spare me another jealous fool that consistently makes all the wrong choices.

Not saying, just guessing. The bonds might not be exclusively physical. Part of the bonding and building could be connections between groups and people. It certainly seems that way w/Dalinar. Transportation would absolutely help bonds between people and groups.

Actually, we know she did once:

At http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/ I ran gibberish and gibletish. It found 40 matches for "gibberish". None seemed very good. My favorites were: "bribe sigh" and "herb is big" It found 99 matches for "gibletish". It was slightly more interesting, but not that good: favorites are "Glib Heist" and "Glib Hes It"

Yes! My first downvotes. If I feel bad, does that prove that I'm neurotic? <-200, but hit "You have reached your quota of negative votes for the day"

Welcome! Upvote for starting a thread with your first post! Very creative idea you have. I have no idea. It isn't physical, as bridge 4 is keeping watch and they don't see anything. But they don't see Syl or the deathspren either, so I wonder what realm Kaladin is seeing. It seems ironic since she seems to hate shardblades. IIRC it doesn't resemble other Shardblades, but it wouldn't have to as it would be a different type.

You're very welcome. Glad to hear that it is helpful. Technically you wrote "Voidbrinders". I mis-corrected the spelling, for which I apologize. It is awkward to change or delete once others have taken a position. TBH, I am quite unclear about what voidbinders and voidbringers are, so it may be hard to verify these assertions. I think I will try to just fudge it up a little, and hope it works for everybody. Edit: I just decided to remove you from the list of supporters of the assertion. It seems cleaner than editing an assertion that has both supporters and detracters.

Given the rarity and expense of using the soulcasters, I imagine factories to produce the spheres. Depending on the level of technology, I see either multiple glass-blowers or a process of molds and polishing.

It's very interesting that we can all carefully read the same selections and come up with such different interpretations. I thought that the "curse of kind" was the bad luck. When he leaves the begger, he says that he didn't want to bring any bad luck on him. He says that the curse of kind helps one be philosophical. The urchins stealing his wrap seems unlucky. The law being present seems even more unlucky.

What an amazing observation. An interesting case is in Elantris described below. May I offer some potential grist for the theoretical mill? Elantris spoiler: Warbreaker spoiler

@Ookla I am trying to understand the nature of our disagreement. A setup like the one in Mistborn described by Ookla provides various ways for invested Radiants to have some resistance to invested attacks. The difference between interference and immunity seems significant to me. In one post you posit that the difference in attacks is in the method of administration (no resistance to touch attack), whereas in the other you suggest that the effect of the attack is significant (Transformation's effect is internal). I guess your system then is dependent upon both method of application and effect. It seems that we agree that surgebinders should be able to have some resistance to Jasnah autokills. Would an invested Kaladin have some ability to resist surprise attacks from other surgebinders? I am not clear that we really disagree, as we may believe that the magic system should work similarly in all real cases (albeit maybe for different reasons). I believe that Shardplate's ability to resist Shardblades is based on both it's investiture and it's nature. As for the Ookla thing, I am all for honoring people and having in-jokes. The evil part of me also enjoys counting coup on people by getting them to complain about me using the name they have chosen. Please forgive me.

Did I say immune? I said interfere, IIRC. And I meant investiture beyond the base human/creature investiture. I think that is why Shardplate can block Shardblades. I also think the interference will be subject to great differences in investiture mistborn spoiler . I agree that one's own investiture doesn't interfere, but that was not the scenario being discussed. The question is whether an invested surgebinder has some level of resistance to direct surgebinding of another surgebinder. There are three cases based on distance: not touching, surface and internal. We haven't discussed whether there is resistance to non-contact surgebinding. You claim that a surgebinder should have no resistance to surface applied surgebinding. It seems that we agree that a surgebinder has some level of resistance to internal effects of others' surgebinding. Your model, Ookla, if I understand it correctly, is interesting, and I can't disprove it. I would prefer a system where surgebinders have some resistance to each others' effects at any range. I prefer that partly because of my internal Occam, but mostly because if Jasnah can autokill other surgebinders like she did the thieves, I think it would be lame. I want a system where if Kaladin keeps some stormlight going, he will be able to react to surgebinder ambushes. There is evidence by analogy that suggests I'm wrong. Elantris spoiler

Investiture interferes w/other investiture. For a Windrunner to lash an edgedancer, they would have to touch the edgedancer, the edgedancer would have to be in contact with the desired surface and the edgedancer couldn't be invested. So I see surgebinder conflicts as tending toward inconclusive, as investiture conflicts will become unpredictable. Effects like what Szeth tries to do with the knife that he sends toward the king of Jah Keved at multiples of normal gravitational acceleration will be more effective than direct actions. The net effect will allow Brandon to tell the stories he wants, rather than predictable wargame outcomes.

The idea below seems like a very good solution to the problem (upvote!). It also inspired me to think of an alternate solution. The one fly in the ointment that I see is that it would be logical for the salvage crews to be searched by more than one person for security and corruption issues. A classic in the blackmail genre is the drop-message for protection. So Lamaril left the information he was using to blackmail Gaz with someone with instructions to reveal it to the most dangerous person in the event something untoward happened to him. Something untoward happened to him that Gaz was involved in. The information was revealed to the people Gaz least wanted it revealed to and some consequence befell Gaz. This is also purely conjecture and involves too many loose ends to feel satisfying.

Welcome! Have an upvote for poking your head above the rim of the foxhole. Certainly seems possible. The main difference that I am aware of about Shinovar is that it is said to be sheltered from the highstorms. I've been assuming that spren need stormlight (or that they are stormlight, sort of), but, as I have amply demonstrated, my ignorance is pronounced. Would the observation that there are generally no spren in Shinovar, rather than just a section of Shinovar, be a problem for this theory? Syl does hate Dalinar's shardblade, but she seems to remember the Radiants positively and wants Kaladin to develop that way.

I agree, the voidbringers seem totally different . I think it is partly for pacing and interest that Brandon has paired the curious and depressive Kaladin with the spirited and ignorant Syl, while providing the irrepressible and incurious Lift with the more stolid and didactic Wyndle.

I know nothing. Here are some of my baseless speculations offered in hopes that they might advance the discussion. I think that when a Shard invests on a planet (or in a race), they create a base of investiture for all relevant beings. This base causes certain effects that don't necessarily require investiture to use. On Roshar, we see the Vorin talent concept. This could be a magical effect from either Honor or Cultivation that increases Shallan's artistic abilities, Kaladin, Adolin and Dalinar's fighting abilities and others. The Thrill could be a similar effect of Odium's investment. Other series spoilers: Then there are the magic systems on top of the base investiture. I believe the various magical creatures are a Cultivation linked magic system that do (as the OP suggests) utilize investiture which includes Parshmen, Larkin, Aimians, greatshells and maybe even Purelake fish. Cheers

At a recent Seattle signing, Brandon answered a question about larkin thusly: Hope this helps.

This is what not ninja-ing looks like.

Just when I was hoping it would Wayne.

While I also disagree with the idea that Szeth has an Honorblade, but I like the other association you made. It would be very pleasing to me to have Szeth redeemed, maybe even immediately following the attempt on Dalinar's life. He could then start to become a Radiant of a non-windrunner order. It does not seem like a given, though. Although Brandon has said that each book will focus on one character and one order, I can imagine the featured character not being of the featured order or even not a Radiant at all.