Three1415

You listed the ten planets you believed were 'core worlds,' including Braize, which will probably not be the focus of a book/series by itself (outside of Stormlight, at least) like the others; I imagine jofwu interpreted that to be the main criterion you were judging "coreness" on (it holds true for the other nine, at least), although Braize may still be of great enough relevance to the Cosmere to merit that distinction independent of having a series set there specifically. I could be mistaken, however.

If the mountain range were circular, yes, due to the increased elevation of the center the ocean would effectively be far shallower (of course, it would be rather inconsistent, with peaks yielding far shallower sections and the valleys between them far deeper). The only problem I see is obtaining a circular mountain range in the first place; as mountain ranges are created by the linear collisions between tectonic plates they tend to form in roughly straight bands rather than closed arcs, as shown on the cool mountain range map/chart thing I found. The primary exception to this on Earth are the Himalayas; some weird geology (specifically the weakness of the Indian and Asian plates) resulted in their mutual collision causing both to be accordioned upwards rather than one subducting under the other, so if you want similar features on your planet, it's not at all unreasonable (although it will be more of a plateau than a true mountain range, though that might actually work better for your purposes).

Spoilers for Stormlight 3 Kaladin chapter:

On that note, does anyone know what spren warform/nimbleform/dullform etc. are bonded with? We've only actually seen the bonding process for stormform, so it would be interesting to know what non-voidspren are used normally.

Ah, you make an excellent point. I am prone to jumping to conclusions, I fear, and I completely missed the alternate and probably more rational explanation for that quote. The agelessness, if it exists, would probably be lost with the breaking of one's oaths, but in any event the Heralds themselves are still around and no one realizes it, so it's not inconceivable that, even if immortality were retained, the former Radiants would still be in hiding. But as per Green Hoodie Mistborn's comment, it is far less likely this theory is viable anyway.

Recently, there has been much discussion about what potential benefits--beyond the Surges--KR might obtain as a result of the Nahel bond, motivated in part by the snippet of Edgedancer Brandon released in the newsletter, where Lift's request to the Nightwatcher is revealed almost verbatim: This sparked significant discussion as to whether she would receive as her boon an extended lifespan, or whether her cognitive aspect had simply been frozen in the state it was in as she made that request. I, however, had another hypothesis--that the KR were simply immortal (or at least very long-lived) merely by the nature of their bond-- based on relevant information in the form of a single line in one of Dalinar's visions, where he is conversing with a (presumably) Stoneward: This single line to me offers the most compelling evidence for a Radiant gaining some form of immortality from the Nahel bond. We know the Desolations could not have occurred more than once every century or so, both from the minimum time required to regenerate the lost population and forget metalworking, as well as another comment made during the vision, this one by Heb's (the man whom Dalinar is possessing) wife: This suggests that a person could reasonably expect to live their entire life without ever once experiencing a Desolation, which fits the minimum amount of time I posited before--about a century (though I suspect that the interval was often significantly longer). Therefore, Harkaylain--who has gained a reputation for successfully predicting Desolations enough times to be known for usually being correct--must be centuries old, if not millennia, in order to have a number of positive results sufficient for that purpose, and in the context of that quote he is fairly strongly implied to be a Radiant himself. There are a number of other, unknown factors that could contribute to this quote, such as Harkaylain being an Aimian (strongly suspected of being immortal as a race), but overall I find it more compelling to believe that the KR as a whole gain significant life extension. After all, by forming the Nahel bond, the spren seek to emulate the Heralds; we know this happens with Blade and with Surges, so stretching that to accommodate 'lifespan' does not seem infeasible to me. Likewise, it would fit with Lift's request--in this way, her boon would be to become a Radiant herself, which, though she probably did not expect it, would nonetheless fulfill her wish, as well as explain Wyndle's confusion as to why she was selected over the other candidates for Radianthood: Because it was the most expedient and in line with Cultivation's goals manner of granting her boon. If there is anything glaring I have overlooked, or a flaw in my reasoning, I would be glad to be notified of it; I figure this is likely so, as it seems that if it were this simple many of you would have already reached the same conclusion as I--that Radiants are granted a significant life extension, if not true immortality from their bond--but perhaps it has merely been overlooked.

First off, this is pretty cool. Second off, you had better write fast before Brandon takes all the remaining good ideas... As for my suggestions, just based off your limited description: How about some kind of shadow manipulation? E.g., step into one shadow and appear somewhere else, bend them around you to cloak your form in darkness and increase your strength, etc. It would be interesting to see the usually sinister shadow-related powers be used for good for once, but could also help foster mistrust and intra-faction conflict to make your world more interesting. How about some kind of telepathy and/or limited mind control/reading ability? Long-distance communication, some form of control over others' actions or at least the ability to gauge their intentions, or perhaps to command semi-sentient automatons that this faction makes (think koloss)??? In any event, something mind-based seems appropriate here, and could also feed into the intra-faction conflict thing if you want to go that route. I don't know how attached you are to the storm-based thing, but it seems like a perception enhancement of some kind would fit best with the archetypes you mentioned...Perhaps it could be cloud-related somehow (store data in the cloud, literally)? This one definitely seems the hardest to fit specific power to such a diverse group.

As does having some ability to interpret questions. I was skeptical of a surprising claim that was made, and wished to see the source; none of the information in your previous post addresses mine directly, nor does it clarify the very issue I wished to resolve--indeed, I raised my question due to that information, rather than in spite of it, as you presumed. For the purposes of additional clarification, as well as to defend the legitimacy of my question, I would like to note that the Stormfather, to whom Dalinar is bonded, is actually Honor (or, at least, as close as one is going to get after his Splintering), not just a little piece of him (as Syl is), which throws some confusion into who exactly the god orders are. Without explicit confirmation from Brandon, I am still inclined to believe the Bondsmiths are the closest in that regard, considering they both utilize Adhesion and have an even more direct link to Honor, as well as their central position in the KR diagram. Likewise with the Truthwatchers, although we lack enough perspective from Renarin to truly make a determination in that respect, and indeed there has been some speculation as to whether he is actually a Truthwatcher or not, due to a number of oddities regarding his bond.

Can someone find the WoB that says the Edgedancers and the Windrunners are the 'god orders?' I haven't been able to locate it myself, and given the Bondsmith's and the Truthwatcher's central position in the diagram, and the fact that the Bondsmiths at least bond with the remainder of Honor himself, I find it unlikely the first two are the god orders, and would like to see confirmation...

Agreed on all accounts. I really feel like Nightblood should've been Invested with many more Breaths (say, 50,000 or 100,000) to have the power level and manufacturing difficulties that he is stated to have; with only 1,000, it's rather underwhelming and seems at odds with his capabilities. Likewise, Brandon has said the Bands don't even have a Shardblade's level of Investiture, yet with them you could massacre an army by yourself; it is strange power imbalances like this that I find disconcerting. (Although to speak of terrifying things: Nightblood in a highstorm....)

There's also the small, totally-not-world-breaking problem that the Bands can be duplicated infinitely. All you need is a copy of the Bands and a vial of all 16 metals, and you can Compound everything to form a new set, meaning that every person in the Cosmere could potentially become Fullborn. Next time, on 'Compounding breaks all the magic systems'....

Well, this makes sense. It's pretty widely accepted that the Heralds/Stormlight/KR are all born from a fusion of Honor and Cultivation's power, and therefore the 'God Surges' would be those that express a 'pure' aspect of each: Progression for Cultivation, as it is directly aligned with her Intent (growth and advancement), and in the same vein Adhesion for Honor (binding things together). Likewise, the KR can be thought of as existing on a sliding scale between expressions of Honor's or Cultivation's power; Bondsmiths, farthest towards the former, necessarily use Adhesion (as, again, it is the closest Surge to Honor's Intent), and Truthwatchers, closest towards the latter, utilize Progression.

I could've sworn Shardblades cut in the Cognitive, not the Spiritual--they're made from spren (Cognitive entities), are referred to as "severing the soul from the body" (in-Cosmere, the mind connects the soul to the body, so that's what would be cut), and Brandon has stated that the Spiritual Realm is hard to damage, so I find it unlikely that Shardblades would destroy the most essential part of one's Investiture without being far more Invested themselves.

Yeah, I imagine Inquisitor Steelsight is incredibly precise compared to a normal Allomancer's (indeed, I believe Marsh mentions this at some point in WoA), probably due in large part to the eye spikes. As Ari said, this would be optimal for hunting down Allomancers, which is what the Inquisitors were designed for in the first place, so it makes sense that they'd have them.

Not to mention the fact that he feels an only very mild relief that he could move his toes, implying that his back had been broken and healed from probably numerous times in the past (not to mention that his drinking companions had beaten him to what they likely presumed was death, though he showed no signs of injury after); I find it quite likely that, similar to kandra, Aimians are very hard to kill.

Presumably, yes, although I don't think this specific scenario is mentioned in the books; in any event, Vorinism would almost certainly mandate that the safehand remain the same. EDIT: It appears I was ninja'ed by WeiryWriter, but I agree with that assessment--the fully enclosed safehands are restricted to at most all lighteyes, and probably just fairly high-dahn ones (5-6 or higher, I imagine). This appears to be true with hair; however, the mixture of eye color is rare, the only instance we've seen of it being Redin, Highprince Valam's bastard son. Kaladin implies when pondering the results of his possible match with Laral that some of his children would be fully lighteyed and outrank him, while others would be fully darkeyed and would not, meaning that heterochromia is very unusual on Roshar as it is on Earth. Likewise, there's no real reason to expect that handedness would blend in such a predictable manner.

I personally support the idea that the metal is a lerasium/atium alloy (I'm uncertain if that would be equivalent to Harmonium or not); such a mixing of two opposite Investitures would be both quite volatile and would fit with the Allomancy-related tech the Southern Scadrians have. I find it unlikely some Allomantically-unassociated metal would be used in the manner described for that reason; additionally, it's implied by the pseudo-kandra guy and Edwarn that it has some magical component, and the next book in the series is, after all, called The Lost Metal, which implies a godmetal of some sort.

When you hear someone mention "Hearthstone" and you think of Kaladin's hometown before the Warcraft-themed virtual card game.

Stars create little to no metals unless they are very massive and very old. Main-sequence stars turn hydrogen into helium; more massive/older ones fuse helium into carbon, and carbon into oxygen (still no metals); only the most massive actually burn neon and create magnesium (but still very, very little compared to the total size of the star), or create iron moments before going supernova--all other metals in the universe are created by those stars in their final instants, as loose neutrons flood the core and transmute iron into heavier elements. Likewise, all of the current generation of stars contain some trace metals (mostly lithium from primordial nucleosynthesis), but still vanishingly small amounts respective to their mass (e.g., 0.1-0.3% is considered a high enough concentration to mark the star as fairly unique). Given stars' low metallicity and the fact that interstellar distances are mind-bogglingly vast, it would be incredibly impractical to push or pull on them; you could sooner deorbit planets, moons, or comets than touch other stars.

From my perspective, the Beyond is similar to most current religions' idea of the afterlife, and the God Beyond comparable to a truly omniscient/omnipotent deity (Adonalsium was evidently neither because he was Shattered). As such, I highly doubt we'll see anything of it, because doing so would violate the sanctity with which such "true" afterlives are invested, and would spark controversy; when left undescribed, it is up to the reader to decide exactly what kind of heaven/hell/etc. they want to imagine.

Nightblood could conceivably destroy Blade and Plate when unsheathed (although Brandon RAFOed this question when asked directly), considering that when activated he simply consumes Investiture he comes into contact with, and is probably far more Invested than a Shardblade. The spren within the Blade would probably be likewise consumed, like Breaths as we see in Warbreaker; Stormlight is likely a comparable fuel as well. This is of particular relevance, as of course Szeth seems to have come into possession of Nightblood courtesy of Nale, so it's something we'll probably see eventually.

It's an interesting idea, but you must remember bows are much more velocity-limited weapons than modern rifles or grenades; it's unlikely such lead balls would be traveling fast enough to inflict more than minor wounds on those they impacted, unless one were to get a comparatively lucky hit (e.g., to the eyes or throat). More effective would probably be just launching a cluster of normal arrows in a single draw (though the practicality of this idea is up for debate) or perhaps a plethora of sharpened metal slivers, but neither would really replace more than a few standard archers. Personally, I see the greatest use for grandbows in attacking entrenched positions with siege weapons (and fairly heavy Shardbearer support) on each side: A Shardbearer, largely immune to the effects of said weapons, could use his superior assault power to briefly cleave a path through enemy lines, whip out a grandbow, loose a few shots at said siege weapons (probably destroying or crippling them), and pull out before the opposing force's Shardbearers could move to intercept. Thus, hit and run tactics against much heavier targets become a possibility. Writing this, I realize we really haven't seen Alethi battle strategy when it comes to engagements deploying a significant amount of Shardbearers on each side, or when attacking fortified positions for extended durations; indeed, I don't recall siege weapons of any kind being mentioned in SA at all, though I would be shocked if the Alethi didn't have at least something resembling trebuchets or catapults (this lack of reference is no doubt due to the fact that the Shattered Plains are not a typical combat environment, and the Parshendi are not typical foes). Hopefully we see more of this kind of thing in Dalinar's flashback chapters in OB.

As far as I'm aware, none of the Allomantic metals are by themselves invested--e.g., you can burn pewter, but it is not itself invested. As Brandon has said multiple times, both in the books and in WoBs, the metals are a key to access Investiture, not a source of it by themselves; thus, it makes sense for Atium to be a gateway to pure Ruinous Investiture by virtue of having been made from it, rather than being a source of that Investiture on its own (if it was, one couldn't burn it properly anyway).

If her spatial extent in weapon-form isn't limited, there are a number of amusing but entirely overpowered exploits Kaladin could perform: e.g., Syl would turn into a very, very long and thin Blade which he would then rotate horizontally and Lash across the battlefield, essentially killing a large portion of the enemy army immediately. Likewise, he could just have an "extendable Shardspear," where he simply points her at the enemy and she morphs to cross the distance basically instantaneously, causing unavoidable death to anyone not in Shardplate. For these reasons I imagine she is largely limited to a reasonable-sized weapon form, and probably can't be Lashed either (still, imagine a Shard-boomerang, or a true Shardbow...)

Personally, I think there's a progression among the Orders from being more aligned with Honor to more aligned with Cultivation; those with more of the progression-themed Surges (e.g., Regrowth and Illumination) are more Cultivation-oriented, whereas those with more of the binding-themed Surges (e.g., Tension, Adhesion) are more Honor-oriented. While we haven't really seen enough of the intermediate orders to determine their precise location, I believe this scale looks something like this: Honor<--Bondsmiths--Windrunners--Skybreakers--???--Edgedancers--???--Lightweavers--Truthwatchers-->Cultivation In my mind, Edgedancers are pretty much in the middle because they A: Have oaths; and B: Have one "Honor" surge and one "Cultivation" surge. Likewise, the honor-side order appears fairly set, with the Bondsmiths having very two Honor-themed surges, the Windrunners slightly less so, etc; in the same way the Truthwatchers appear to be the most Cultivation-themed, having both Illumination and Progression, although it's possible Lightweavers should be beyond them.