Oversleep

We should start a topic and compile everything we know about "Taln". I missed the part the Pulse mentioned:

Well, of course Taln recognizes Shallan as "one of Ishar Knights". That's evidence for him being Talenelat. But why Brandon keeps calling him this way? He may twist his words as much as he likes, but he never lied, correct? Still, the image of Herald getting fed up with everything and fighting Odium one on one is epic

And your point is...? If you are trying to say that Rayse didn't give up Odium, fine. I listed other possibilities. Maybe Rayse went insane. Maybe Talenel defeated him. Maybe he wanted to hate himself too (it matches the Intent) and tortured himself and as a result broke. And he's still Odium, but insane and now wanders Roshar as Taln and is managing Desolation subconsciously

Radiant spren are different from those regular spren we have seen. Also, Skybreakers' spren aren't justicespren, but highspren.

Thanks! That's true and that's false. There is a difference between Shardholder and the Shard itself, even if the Shardholder is entirely warped by the Intent.

Much like Lift named her Stormlight 'awesomeness', I propose the term "Awesomeborn".

I don't mean a person who is both a full Allomancer (Mistborn) and full Feruchemist. I mean somebody who has all the metals, but only one of the magics. Mistborn xor full Feruchemist.

It's rather unnerving that Brandon refuses to call the man who showed up at the end of the Way Of Kings 'Talenel'. He talks about him "the man who calls himself Taln". One theory is that Talenel is so broken that he is not the man he was anymore. So he used to be Talenel, but that man is dead. Simple explanation, could be probable, but I am not sure Brandon actually would have gone with that. Here is some ungrounded theorising without (almost) any proof. Since this "Taln" (from now on I will simply call him Taln and the "real" Herald Talenel'Elin) thinks about constant torture and fire and his mantra is something a Herald could definitely say, then I suppose he really was in Damnation (on Braize). Since Talenel was there for 4500 years, somebody who was there with him could definitely have his words ingrained (is this good word?) in his mind. Even if he does not know the language it is spoken in (but I suppose Shardholder would know). Well, of course there could be another inhabitant of Braize, nobody said that Heralds are the only ones tortured by Odium. But Hoid seems to know him - well, I suppose he knows Heralds, but that is not what we're talking about here - and Hoid knew Rayse. So it could be him. Now, how the hell Rayse ended up in this situation? Maybe he got sick of being force of evil, maybe his mind broke from this constant hatred, maybe he couldn't cope with being responsible for so many genocides and death of his fellow Shardholders. Maybe he gave up Odium and switched with someone, then went to atone for his deeds in place of Talenel. Maybe the person he switched with was Talenel and Talenel took up Odium. Or maybe Talenel soloed him and won. Well, he already was in place which he couldn't die in, no matter the damage done to him. He was effectively immortal and even had his Honorblade! Who could stop him from going against Odium? Of course, the Oathpact and mechanism of Desolations may be grounded on him being tortured, but Talenel could have finally broken after thousand or two of torture meant for ten people and gone rampage. And killed defeated Rayse, but was forced to take his place. Or maybe someone entirely different took up Odium. But before Odium changed holders, he activated the time-trigger and the Desolation still was started eventually (remember, the start is when voidspren are released, the rest is just matter of time). The important bit is that Rayse was exposed to Heralds' Torture, broke, and was finally released to Roshar, and anything that was left in his mind was the words that Talenel repeated for thousands of years. Yeah, yeah, I know it's far fetched, but this whole thing with "Taln" is boiling my mind Disclaimer: I don't really believe that Taln is Rayse. I just thought "hey, what if... the man we thought was Herald is in fact the person who held the power which is a Big Bad?"

I had this theory that there is a mechanism which changes heat to Investiture. Maybe Nightblood sends absorbed Investiture to pararell cosmere?

What if that is his plan? Of course, first he needs just to wipe out population of Roshar, but that's a detail.

Actually, if they aren't gonna show up, then a name isn't needed. And if they show up, they would be so rare that maybe one at time would exist and in that case... Well, if you're unique, why bother making up a name for what you are?

Or maybe Radiants decided to leave behind weapons capable of fighting thunderclasts. Shardknives wouldn't do much against them.

Realmatically, to Invest something with Stormlight you have to touch it. So you can Lash only things you touch. Therefore with Basic Lashing you change the object to object which is pulled into specific direction. Now, it may seem that Reverse Lashing contradicts this because it pulls everything else to it, but in reality you create a field with strenghtened gravitation with this object being a source. ... I just realised that Reverse Lashing somehow makes gravity one-sided, because the Lashed should be pulled to massive things in proximity. We need WoB on this.

I personally love Magicians. I loved this "reality crushes into magic school trope" - I actually wrote a paper for my exams about how fantasy tends to get more and more realistic (I analysed heroes, worldbuilding and magic), from fairy-tale magic and archetypical heroes of Tolkien and Le Guin to Name of The Wind and Magicians magic schools which resemble actual school (I love passages of Kvothe and friends going out to taverns and getting drunk - it just feels so natural) and law-of-physics based magic... I didn't know about Sanderson then, of course. Fortunately, because if I did, I am not sure If I could manage to get my paper short enough. With Sanderson I could go on and on and on...

I corrected my post. We need a term for Mistborn/Full feruchemist. Full Metalborn? Sazed un-savanted him and made him a Mistborn after his Ascension. I am not sure about Spook being weaker, though...

I believe Rayse was satisfied with taking up Odium - "what he wished to become". I imagine Ati wasn't happy about turning into godlike force of destruction, but Rayse was more than glad about being God Of Hatred. "He is what we made him to be" may refer to the fact that there was a plan to Shatter Adonalsium or they chose Rayse as possible Shardholder. Or maybe it just means that it's a consequence of their deeds, which caused Shattering and ultimately Rayse taking up Odium. Well...

I think he is convinced that Surgebinders are one of the causes of Desolation. He says something like that to Lift. So he hunts Surgebinders down. ... Argh, when will we learn the details of the mechanism of Desolation?

Yeah, I also speculated that here. But if he really were to uphold his word, he should have sent himself back to Damnation. Probably taking as many Heralds with him as he could. So that's an argument towards Heralds being broken and their values reversed. But I understand that. Who wouldn't be broken after thousands years of torture with eternity more in perspective?

As for Szeth catching a break - remember, if he asked for it, Nalan would have killed him. But Szeth chose to stay alive. The way I see it, you can always die, but not always you have chance to throw truth in the faces of those who made you a slave and banished you. I think the reason Nalan is targetting Shinovar is because he wants to reclaim the Honorblades and return them to Heralds, since Desolation comes upon the sky for Roshar and they have job to ... ... How, in the tenth name of Almighty, the almost-personification of law, Herald of Justice, could decide to broke the Oathpact?

Maybe Aona named it after Ati, since she wanted to have hope about him. If your friend's personality is molded to seek only destruction, well, the best you can do is to have hope. EDIT: Just Theoryweaving here, random thought.

I saw some theory that the ultimate battle for cosmere will take place in all three realms - Spiritual, all of those who died (Vin, Elend, Leras, Ati, Tanavast and so on), Cognitive those who died but didn't pass on (Kelsier...erm, cannot recall more Cognitive Shadows but the Stormfather. Maybe some Radiants can fight in Cognitive, like Elsecallers and Lightweavers. Maybe Shardholders?) and Physical the rest of heroes.

Since Damnation is Braize, aren't Tranquiline Halls the other planet?

This is a really long wait to Fourth Scadrial Era, isn't it?

I am not sure what you mean. What I meant was that Keepers were just an organization. We don't even know if all Keepers were Feruchemists. There may have been some Feruchemists not being a member of Keepers, therefore they wouldn't call themselves a 'Keeper'. If some Mistborn started an organization, we wouldn't apply its name as term for Mistborn, would we?

Try it anyway. Dating, I mean. First few relationships are probably going down in flames, but better now than in few years when people get more serious.