Djarskublar

I'm in the 'no Awakener savants' camp. Or at least, they are extremely rare if they are possible. You would probably have to reach the agelessness point (5th?) to be able to awaken enough. I think Vasher is just extremely experienced. He can suppress his divine breath, after all. I think that if you have the mental power to do that, you should be fine with complex commands. His intent component is just bigger and better than everybody else we see. I would bet Returned are somewhat immune to the effect. I also think that the breath is somewhat external to the person. It is certainly firmly attached to them, but I don't think it fully suffuses them, so having a lot of them wouldn't affect your web. Plus, as has been mentioned, breath is passive until you use it. If we say savantism is kind of like a short on a circuit, then having lots of breath is like having a large battery that is switched off. I think Hemalurgic people are by definition somewhere on the savant scale. They had their soul cracked and warped by having the spike rammed into them. That is basically what savantism is.

Actually, my thought is that it would be completely possible, and perhaps even easy for her to soulcast bullets. She attempted to soulcast jam after all. Even though she failed terribly, she implies that if it was a less complex, non-organic substance that she knows well, she could have done it. She also had never tasted strawberries, let alone jam made with them, so she had no frame of reference, but if she saw exactly what went into gunpowder, primer, etc. I think she could figure it out. You might have trouble getting a fabrial to do it, but a Radiant shouldn't have much trouble once they are experienced. On the other hand, I highly doubt Roshar would even invent gunpowder weapons on their own. Ever. As Khriss mentions, it is a high oxygen environment, so that doesn't sound particularly safe when dealing with explosives. I don't know a lot about the chemistry of explosives, though, so I could be completely wrong about that. I think they will import the idea, but they wouldn't come up with it on their own.

Shin: the people who live on a planet whose landmass is mostly rock, and also worship said rock. Live on the one spot with soil because they don't want to walk on rock. That sounds like meme material to me. That is actually a really good point. We were discussing some stuff in another thread and I mentioned the possibility that there are a lot of junctions you could use to Elsecall into the physical realm like If the Storm is what is weakening the line between realms, which I think is a totally reasonable proposition, then that could be what causes junctions to form. It would also be what allows spren to manifest when something draws them into the physical. This is really getting those mental gears turning. I'm going to make a separate thread on this to discuss all my thoughts with this, since I don't want to completely derail this one. On topic, I agree that there may be more to stone worship than there seems, but I don't even have a guess to hazard as to what it would be.

I really liked this analysis, but there is some stuff I differ slightly in my thoughts on. I wouldn't say Susebron was innocent. A little naive, yes. Ignorant? Definitely, but he caught on to how the world actually works far too quickly for me to think of him as innocent. He actively and curiously thought about his surroundings too much for innocence. Other than that, I would say that this was a truly excellent analysis. It put some of the thoughts I already had into words, and quite well. There were also some things I hadn't considered and now agree with.

Well, Brandon implied that there are some of them from both before and after the events of Elantris. Someone asked if they were from before or after and he said something to the effect of who said it had to be one or the other. As for the other thing, they have that leyline-esque power line at their fort, so I assume they are using some Aon(s) to channel power through the CR to the fort. They were also drinking potions that appeared to be pure Investiture. Presumably they are performing like Returned and consuming some Investiture periodically to maintain their Elantrian form.

Is there an afterlife for Selish people? I mean, Brandon constantly comments on how dangerous the CR is on Sel, and we saw with Ruin beating up Kelsier that a cognitive entity could possibly be destroyed without moving Beyond... So does the Dor destroy the cognitive self of anyone that dies on Sel before they can move Beyond? This question has been wiggling around in the back of my mind for a long time now, and I have some theories about the Ire that could be confirmed/denied by this information.

Hmmm, you're right about that, forgot that tidbit... Maybe that is just by the in-world definition. Perhaps because they still have their original connection to the physical realm? They aren't a ghost yet, so maybe they are effectively shadows, but not technically. A good question to ask would be if they become shadows once they die. I still really like my explanation, so maybe just rewording all of the instances of shadow to something else would make it sound better. It was definitely an ease of use thing, since I can't think of a term for them that we already have, and I don't feel like making new terms tonight.

This mostly makes sense, but you missed one thing. The Elantrians that were already there turned into the zombie like state when the Chasm formed. The way you presented it would suggest that wouldn't happen. My alternate explanation would be that when they are initiated, it happens as you say. In the vicinity of Elantris, they also have modifications made to them that dramatically change them. I think they were turned into Cognitive Shadows. They had a massive influx of investiture that replaced important parts of them, and when Elantris broke, the flow of power from the Dor vastly diminished and their form was corrupted since it didn't have the necessary power to maintain it. They were immortal because of their state as shadows, but they still had their original connection to the physical plane. The fact that they had their original connection made it so that they don't die like a Returned, but they still have the woes of the flesh. The form of Elantrians requires power to sustain, and suddenly mostly losing it caused that dramatic change. Just leaving the area might not do that, or you could somehow take precautions. Also, access to the Dor didn't completely disappear for them. They should still have the basic level of access they would have without Elantris, even if all the Aons are wrong. This allowed them to stay alive, if only barely. I think that covers all of the necessary points. Basically, I think you were essentially right, and I'm adding some information that could explain the events we saw. Edit: Also, if someone initiated on the extreme edge of where you can be initiated, could they perhaps be far enough outside the sphere of influence of the city to become like the AonDor users of old without a transformation (and then presumably change if they moved too close to the city)? That also makes me think, if that is the case, then perhaps the initiation always occurs at night, but the transformation occurs when you enter the Elantris Field. That could potentially explain why some people transformed during the day, they were on their way to the capital.

A more pressing question is whether they can bond in the first place. My initial thought is no, but maybe they have some other sort of bond. They do say the old magics can become theirs again, so maybe all the spren hanging out in the CR made it so they didn't have access to bonds either and lost their brand of magic. That line can be read multiple ways, though, so I wouldn't put much stock in that thought.

So leaving aside meta comments, I want to address your misunderstanding of that WoB. The thing with it is that it uses powers to describe everything... from Shards to manifestations of Investiture to Investiture itself. It is almost a decade old, so we didn't have a lot of terminology to rely on, and Brandon was probably wary of using what is essentially cosmere jargon in his answer. It was talking about why Preservation couldn't give Atium to Elend. The short answer is that Atium is from Ati, so it wasn't possible, but she could have maybe figured out a way to give him that power by mimicking it some other way. I think restating it in the context of Roshar with proper terms will clear it up. How you gain access to Surges is related to the Shard, but the Surges aren't related to the Shards themselves. The powers of Allomancy don't come from Preservation. They are tools that Preservation grants access to. The second one is saying that it doesn't matter what the power does. Any Shard could theoretically grant any power. The difference is how the power is obtained. The Surges are forces, not powers. Manipulating the Surges in certain ways are the powers. The way you gain access to a way to manipulate them is related to the Shard, but not to how you can manipulate them. Depending on the world, the way you gain access to Investiture can also be related to the Shard.

Yep, I understood you. I just meant that since they can bond, I don't think there is necessarily a reason spren would be scared off. Now, if they have some spikes, they almost certainly will, but that is a separate issue. I admit it could easily go either way. @Obnoxiousspren I too noticed the girl Shallan impersonates. It is important to note that she would have access to Amaram's stuff too, so there is a reason for her to be there if she is someone interesting. She may be a worldhopper, but I doubt it. She may be a member of one of the societies though. Based on what we now know about using Connection to speak a local language, I don't think people not having accents is a good reason to think they are a worldhopper. In fact, it could be taken as weak evidence against it. You have an accent when you tap Connection (does that accent maybe get weaker when you tap more?).

I suspect that isn't the case since off-worlders can supposedly bond spren. It's up to the spren in the end. On the other hand, if it is the case, it could be part of the explanation for Shinovar not having spren.

@Thanatos That WoB that Spool cited above heavily implies that Stormlight is of Honor, Cultivation, or a mix of the two. I effectively asked if you could make a Surgebinding spren of a type we had already seen by using Preservation's power. The answer was no, since it didn't have the right Intent. On the other hand, Stormlight could potentially be used to do that. Spren that are involved in Surgebinding are composed of Honor/Cultivation, so if Light has the right Intent to make them, it stands to reason that Light is of them. Now, that's not a guarantee, but it makes it highly likely. I seem to recall a WoB that the Storm was always Invested, but it is more so now than it was before H/C moved in. And I went and listened to that audio several times about creating a perpendicularity, and it seems like he was saying that they are easier to make if attuned to one Shard. It can still be taken either way easily, but I felt that it could be taken that way slightly (seriously, it's slight) more easily. Also, shortly thereafter he hems and haws over whether the Storm is Honor's perpendicularity. He didn't directly RAFO it, so that suggests to me that it's close, but not quite on the money and he didn't want to say more. In other words, something That gave me the immediate idea that maybe the Stormfather is it. It makes a kind of sense, but I'm not sure if it is entirely reasonable. So saying that it is the highstorm is close, but not technically correct. We also don't know if the Stormfather is always in the storm or not, but I don't think it's a silly presumption.

Let me just say, I have only disagreed with someone more completely once in my entire life than I have with you over this whole thing. It has been an enlightening experience. You do realize this is what we are telling you? Adonalsium had thoughts and personality, and you did not address my highly specific deconstruction of that WoB, which literally everything I have seen you theorize to date is based on in the end. If you are wrong about your reading of that WoB, then your theory of how magic works falls apart, and all your other theories based on that fall apart as well. If Adonalsium did have personality, then it is likely that the Shards Mandate's came from there. If Mandates come from a source other than the Vessel, then Investiture has a different nature than you describe. If Investiture is different from what you describe, then all of your theorizing about specific and general magic systems largely gets thrown out. That is what I meant when I described your theories as a house of cards in the past. Your interpretations are largely based on 'well maybe he actually meant it this way,' and if even one or two of those maybes aren't right, then the rest of them are pretty much shoe-ins for not being right either. The nature of your theory is that it is either all right or mostly wrong. What you likely forgot or overlooked while thinking about how the Shattering went down is that it could have shattered in different ways. Not that the Shards could have ended up different, that it could have broken different ways. Now, I'm not precluding the possibility that the 16 present could have had some influence on how it broke in one way or another, but it had to do directly with Adonalsium his/her/itself. In fact, I think it likely that they influenced how it Shattered because of your point that they aren't likely to match up to the 16 Shards like they did. There are other possible explanations that I like as well, such as that their Connection to Adonalsium gave them a free pass to take any of the pieces of him. What I was trying to say with some of what I said is that I think it unlikely that there would be 16 different Shards under your model because I don't think the Vessels were that diverse. I am fine with them being diverse, but not perfectly so. Especially since your theory is that it is the dominant characteristic that determines Mandate, of which there can only be so many. Put it this way, the number of people necessary to have a 50% chance of at least one pair having the same birthday is something like 23. Each successive person you add to the group has to be different from all the other members you have already added, so it quickly becomes unlikely that there won't be a pair. I don't think you could name 365 potential dominant character traits. I would be surprised if you could reach 100 without entering very close synonym territory. If you could come up with 100 traits, given 16 people, you only have ~24% chance of there not being an exact duplicate, let alone something highly similar. This also assumes that the trait they mainly exhibit is completely random. If they are a group working together to achieve the same thing, I would bet it is more likely that you would get repeat traits. It isn't necessarily the case, but it should be more likely. I also think that things you see as similar like Odium and Ruin aren't really similar. Ruin is just entropy incarnate, there is no emotion attached. Odium is pure hatred-- an extremely powerful emotion. As we see with how Allomancy works, you can't associate a Mandate with its effects, but its method, so just because they both destroy things doesn't make them similar. Another example is Cultivation and Endowment. The end result for both is similar, but they are completely different concepts. Cultivation is about growth and nurturing, while endowment is essentially generosity and giving. One occurs over time, the other is immediate. Their methods are also completely different. I think it is safe to say that we haven't seen any overlap with the Shards we know about, and I have no reason to believe we will. Could you explain your reasoning that Mandate is a cognitive filter more clearly? I don't see how the Shards not changing means that they didn't come from one personality. I think that Mandate is a Spiritual aspect of Investiture, and then the mind of the Vessel tries to direct it in some way. I also theorize that individual quanta of Investiture have individual, slightly varying Mandates that sum to the Mandate we see, but I'm not terribly attached to it since it's pretty speculative. They Shards are all still pure power, they just 'want' to be used a certain way or for a certain purpose. I compare Investiture to electricity. Mandate is what determines the path of least resistance for Investiture, in other words, how the power can be used. Preservation's power is used to Preserve the user's strength while causing some effect. It is like saying electricity flows better through things that conduct it well. When you burn metals, you Preserve yourself and close a circuit to power. You can use different Investiture to power other magics, just like you can use different voltage batteries to power things, you just have to jump through some hoops first. Agreed that they are magical. On the other hand, you can't confuse the God Beyond with anything we are discussing. That's the real afterlife, which he leaves to the interpretation of the reader so he doesn't step on any toes. It is still a cosmere truth. He has said that he does know what is Beyond, but he will never tell us. He may not impose theological meaning, but he is definitely imposing moralistic meaning. And Mandates tie in nicely to that. They may not be good or evil, but they can certainly act morally or immorally. Also, the previous paragraph about not understanding God isn't evidence for any case except that we don't fully understand God. As for the second paragraph, well... Yes, of course all the Mandates are separate from a virtuous context because you need 15 others to make a complete balanced personality. On the other hand, I absolutely disagree that Frost isn't referring to Adonalsium. He wouldn't see them as Gods. As Hoid said, Tanavast was a decent enough fellow, but he was not God. Frost almost certainly knows what was going on with the Shattering and subsequent Ascensions. He may even have participated in some manner, so I find it doubtful at best that he would think of the Shards as Gods. I could maybe see him thinking of them as little 'g' gods, but that isn't what is in the Letter. If, as you state, each Shard was a God to Frost and he was referring to them, then he would have said 'a God's own divine hatred' or 'the God of hatred.' Considering that it is singular and that Frost knows about Adonalsium, it is clearly referring to Mr A, not the Shards. If Odium was actually Anxiety (which incidentally could be extremely amusing/interesting), then with it being separated from context, it would literally be the god of general anxiety disorder. They are both potent emotions, so they are fairly similar for my purposes. On the other hand, with all of the other Mandates as part of you, it gives context to the anxiety, and instead of general anxiety you are anxious about those pesky people that aren't doing what you want them to. This can clearly be seen with Ruin/Preservation. Individually they aren't very useful, but with the context and balancing that they give each other they allow constructive action. Some things need to be preserved and others need to reach an end. They are both aspects of a person. It makes complete sense that you can mix the exact divided personality traits of a balanced person and get a similar balanced person. This is where the theory of reconstructing Adonalsium comes from (even though I personally dislike it). Because the CR is a collective filter, with everything influencing everything around it. Forging is proof of this. How regular folks see an object affects how it thinks of itself, and therefor how it can be affected magically. And I would argue that all things are magical to an extent, since everything is composed of Investiture, and people have innate Investiture on top of that. Awakening is another good example. How precise and clear the mental component of your Commands are directly affects how an awakened object physically acts. Perception is reality, so to speak. Now, the following stuff is comments on your theory writing itself. It may come across as pretty harsh, I'm not sure, but I think it needs to be said before I can let this whole thing go. It could also be informative for others when reading your other theories, so I'll put it here rather than a PM. Plus I'm too lazy since I already wrote it here. In the end, the vibe I get from your series of posts is that you are trying to force facts to fit your interpretations. Like, you have your interpretations and ideas on a few things, and try to explain away other stuff that doesn't quite fit (which I feel there is a lot of), rather than analyzing the facts and drawing conclusions. Very similar how heliocentrism almost fits what you can observe, but not quite. Now, this isn't to say that's what you have done, but that is how it came across to me, which is part of why I keep coming back to it. The feeling irks me. Your posts seem to read 1. Sources (props for including them, btw) 2. Interpretations of sources (3. Defense against attacks we have made on interpretations if relevant) 4. Predictions/models based on interpretations. 5. Predictions/models based on predictions/models. 6. Repeat 5 as much as you like. I feel like my arguments are structured more like 1 Sources (sometimes ) 2. Note similarities and interactions with other stuff 3. Interpretations. 4. Present a model that fits those interpretations and can hopefully bear up with only minor changes if particular aspects are wrong. 5. Note how it fits with previous models. 6. Make predictions based on that model. Now, some of my posts are speculation on speculation on speculation, but I try to present them as such. Particularly things where I speculate on goofy hacks with magic, like a gold/gold twinborn being able to manufacture spren (wrong, but apparently they potentially could with the help of a Surgebinder). Even then, Spool yells at me for being too out there sometimes . I try to base my ideas on a variety of input and sources and modify them heavily based on further input. I build on rigorously discussed and modified theories, which is really all we have to go on for many things. On the other hand, your further theories beyond the nature of Adonalsium are based on themselves in a chain. That is why I agree that your theories are valid, but I refuse to espouse them. This particular theory in the OP, for example, is completely pointless if you are incorrect about the nature of Investiture, which is practically guaranteed if you are wrong about Adonalsium. Your theory on how Selish magic works is based on your general model for how magic works, which is based on your theory on the nature of Investiture, etc. The theories don't have disclaimers on them that they are based on a whole bunch of speculation that you haven't gotten direct WoB on. I wouldn't mind it as much if you had a whole bunch of completely separate theories and brought them together to make another theory. Like maybe a, maybe b, and maybe c, therefor maybe d. Where a, b, and c don't reference each other. If you have multiple theory 'd's, then it might be justified making theory e based on them. The trend of the site has been to have that, and as we get a, b, and c confirmed or denied by WoB, we change d. Over the years it has moved beyond that to confirming 'd' theories and 'e' theories, and on and on. Basically, it boils down to your presentation. Each of your theories takes for granted that everything that it's based on is true, rather than saying 'given that all this other stuff is right, this also might be the case.' That bothers me on a fundamental level, and I have to admit I've gotten really wordy about why. I've had a terrible week and I'm really touchy right now, so if this comes across badly, I'm really sorry. I really like that you are trying so hard, since not many do. Peace. This turned out really long. Ugh.

Well, I kind of head-canoned it that with the line between the Realms being so thin on Roshar, she just had to find somewhere where it was thin enough she could get out. The way Ivory was wording it implied to me that there are other 'junctions' than just 'perpendicularities.' I thought Ivory was saying 'we need to get somewhere you can get out of here, maybe Honor's Perpendicularity would be a good option, though it is far away.' My thought was that maybe there are other junctions, but they are like natural springs, and aren't always there when you need it. So Ivory was suggesting Honor's because it is at least stable, even though it is distant. Something I would like clarification on @Argent. In that WoB is this sentence: "What happens with a Perpendicularity is large concentrations of Investiture, particularly purely attuned to one of the Shards, will create an access point." When he said that about creating perpendicularities, did his tone convey that he meant that they are all purely attuned to a Shard, or that it is easier to create one that is attuned purely? It can be read both ways, and you were obviously there to hear it. And another note, this WoB was specifically talking about creating a perpendicularity. I don't think we need to just focus on Honor's perpendicularity. I think we need to figure out why there was one there at that time. It wasn't necessarily Honor's. It could have just been something natural, something some spren helped make, or something else entirely. On the other hand, this thread is supposed to be about Honor's perp, so maybe we just need to broaden the discussion on where/what it could be. I subscribed to the Highstorm = Honor's theory, but you all have convinced me otherwise, so now I need to figure this out! My first idea is that the Origin is it, and it functions similarly to the Well, except that instead of just pooling, the power is dispersed into the Storm. That provides a pretty good outlet for the power broken-Honor is leaking, since I don't see how the spren actually tone down that power. There has to be a reason for the power entering the Storm, and that could explain it. That's the problem on Sel, no good outlet. I have some other ideas for where it could be, but they are more or less formless at the moment.

As Yata aptly put it, there are too many ifs to make that theory likely. Then again, most theories about Helaran have a lot of ifs. I personally think that my theory that he was hunting the Skybreakers down, probably as a member of the Ghostbloods, has the fewest ifs and explains pretty much everything that is inconsistent in other theories. Aside from the physical evidence that it was Helaran, there is another reason I don't see mentioned much for why Helaran probably didn't have a spren. Why would he give up the Shardblade, and where did he get it? I personally don't think it is terribly likely that actual Skybreakers would be willing to associate with people in their organization with dead Blades. I doubt the Skybreaker order keeps around any dead Blades unless they hold on to them just to keep them out of circulation. For those reasons, I think it its unlikely that he got the Blade from the Skybreakers, and I don't see him getting one from another source if he was trying to join them. Then, once you have the Blade, it should be harder to bond a spren, so I don't think he could have become a Skybreaker while he owned the Blade. Giving up Blades is an extremely rare event, usually only to pass one on to your heir. What Dalinar did was an extreme exception. I don't see Helaran giving up concrete power and influence from having a Blade for a mere chance at getting mystical powers that would grant him only a little more political influence (at the time). He is too sensible, and game theory would tell me to keep the Blade.

Except Shallan recognized the Blade that Amaram had as Helaran's Blade from then. So unless someone else got the Blade from Helaran and then he bonded a spren (which I think is highly unlikely for a few reasons that have mostly been discussed), he had a dead Blade.

I was reading the scene at the start of WoR where Jasnah's shadow pointed the wrong way, and noticed something interesting. She doesn't dismiss the idea that she may be cursed because she knows some superstitions are rooted in fact based on her own experiences. She didn't know about the Nahel bond yet, and she hadn't even started her research on the Listeners being the Voidbringers. So what could she be talking about? My first thought was that she visited the Nightwatcher, but I don't know if she would call that a superstition since so many of the Alethi elite visit her and she is fairly well documented as being real. It probably isn't some super rare spren, that is Axies' shtick. So what could she be talking about? I suppose you could stretch what she was talking about and say she knows some superstitions are real because Dalinar visited the Nightwatcher, but that isn't really her own experience unless she went with him and saw her, which I doubt. I honestly have no solid idea about what she is talking about here. Does anyone else have two cents to chip in?

I thought that WoB was talking about when Helaran visited the manor and showed off his Blade to threaten his father. Now I need to look up that scene and see if it had a gem. That would put the debate on if he had a spren to rest completely, since it was the same Blade then as the one Amaram has.

Basically more of what @Pagerunner said. I fully subscribe to the Mandates being pieces of a full personality of a deity. The main issue with the idea of the original Vessels imprinting the Shards is that then you would expect duplicates, or at least more overlap. I don't buy the idea that 16 completely different people got together and killed Mr A. There had to be some of them with similar ideologies and/or personalities. At least close enough that their 'dominant characteristics' would match up closely enough to have the same or very similar Shards. Now, that doesn't mean I'm excluding the possibility of the original Vessels affecting how Mr A broke. Perhaps the way he/she/it broke was partially determined to be closer to the people who were breaking he/she/it. This could be completely unintentional on the part of the Vessels, just a residual effect of destroying a god. I still disagree that Mr A didn't have thoughts or personality. How could something like that create worlds? I think that epigraph isn't the best evidence in the first place, since it is coming from someone in world who is frankly new to it all at the time. Sazed presumably didn't know anything about Adonalsium. He just knows there are 16 Shards, and that they (the Shards) didn't originally have minds attached to them. Which is of course the case after the Vessels killed Adonalsium regardless of the nature of Adonalsium. I could accept Adonalsium not having a Vessel and just being a super massive spren, but there is no way I can accept it being just a chunk of raw power that far exceeds the threshold for gaining sentience on its own without it actually doing so. I guess I really need to state explicitly how I parsed this epigraph that you reference, which I quoted for convenience. 'Their minds were independent of their power (their Shard). I don't know how the minds got attached to the Shards in the first place, but they can be separated.' That is how I read it. Semantically and grammatically, it makes sense. It makes even more sense if you ignore one of the Shards and consequently make some things in the paragraph singular. That way, it might read something like, 'Preservation's mind was, of course, independent of the raw force of its power. Actually, I am uncertain of how thoughts and personality came to be attached to the power in the first place—but I believe they were not there originally. For the power could be detached from the mind that ruled it.' That reads according to my understanding much more smoothly, and all I had to do was remove some plurals. I don't see a good reason to think that Sazed switched from talking about the Shards in the first sentence and then about Adonalsium in the second sentence, especially since he is clearly talking about the Shards again in the third sentence. That would be pretty bad writing. Also, he uses the same word "powers" in the sentences, which should imply that he is still talking about the same thing. I'm no linguist, so if one of you sees this and groans at my terminology (or lack thereof), sorry, I don't know the right words. Those things combine to make me think your interpretation is stretching, which we have discussed before. It feels good to finally explain why I feel that way on that particular point so explicitly >.> Words are hard. Putting them together is harder. You also give no explanation for why the Mandate impression would be permanent, and Pagerunner made the excellent point about future conflict. I see no reason for it to be permanent if it came from the Vessels other than hand waving it. If they come from aspects of a deity, I would fully expect them to be permanent. And as for Preservation's explanation of the Realms, I understood that to mean that the minds of everything, not just the Shards, affects how thing manifest in the Physical Realm. We know that the way humans think about stuff affects what types of spren there are. We know that cognitive intent makes a big difference in certain magics like awakening. I do like the idea though, and can easily compromise and say that the Shards have more influence than your average Joe on how the PR manifests, they just aren't the only filter. As usual, I mostly disagree with you, but there really isn't anything wrong with that. You did bring up some good things for me to consider.

I guess that makes sense too. Ambiguous wording. Still, I don't know a lot about astrophysics, but isn't everything red shifting? Maybe it's just moving really fast for some reason. I'm not sure how that would work into the 3D aspect of it all with different viewpoint planets.

It is. Just under different names. For example, the Red Rip. Lol. Breeze is the final boss of era 2 confirmed Seriously though, that's an interesting point.

Well speaking of Obi-Wan... Which Star Wars character is the best at delivering babies? Obi-GYN Kenobi. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was good. I also almost cried too, and it's pretty hard to do that to me under any circumstance. I'm stone cold at funerals. Now I'm wondering if Star Lord is going to stay an interesting character without that stuff. (heh no spoilers there) I will say that, as a movie, it was extremely well made. Personally, I thought there was a bit too much innuendo, but it wasn't outrageous, just a bit distasteful. It was really good overall. There were constantly different villains, like in Elantris with their goal constantly changing. It kept me on my toes. Good news: nothing much to add, unfortunately.

I would just like to point out a few things. Many spren are composed of Honor/Cultivation Investiture. They are therefore corrupted by Brandon's definition. They don't have red eyes. Or any red that we've seen. I personally think red is insignificant to the general Cosmere. There may be a Shard or three that associate red with 'evil' but that doesn't mean red is important overall. It's the same with numbers. It's just good imagery for us readers. I would feel really bad if I was the Returned with a red palace if this was the case. I am the Returned Djar the Evil! No thanks. This makes me wonder, though. Are certain colors better for awakening than others? Say, some shade of green vs blue? Assuming the same intensity of color. I really feel we are looking too close into the color red.

My new bet on what happens that I just came up with is that they force a champion fight in the first five, and it buys them time to prep for the back five. Now, how that champ fight will turn out is anybody's guess. My bet is they both die, so it's a draw. This of course assumes they even choose champions. Knowing Brandon, that'll end up as a red herring, just like all those marriages in Elantris XD