mattstocum

I'm not sure if we should take that as 100% settled. Todium managed to hide an entire city population in the Spiritual Realm when Cultivation was distracted. It's possible someone snuck Nohadon away while Honor was moping.

My pet theory is that Honor's power was trapped in a gemstone similar to how BAM was trapped, which is why it hasn't gone destroying things yet. Maybe Tanavast figured out how to release the Shard and trap it. He abdicated his position and just lived the rest of his life as a mortal, having kids eventually leading to Kaladin's birth. Tanavast knew that the power would only be safe with someone who didn't want it. Someone who was honorable before ascending. Someone who wants to help but understands their limits. Someone like Kaladin. I think Dalinar and Navani are going to find Honor's power, learn the truth, and see that Kaladin is who the power is meant for with Syl dying in the process because Brandon.

I've had the same basic idea. Instead of Adolin bonding Maya, Maya is going to bond Adolin. He's going to fill in the cracks in her spiritweb. He's otherwise not a great Radiant candidate, as he's not really broken, but if he were to become a Radiant, Edgedancer seems like a good order for him for the reasons posted above.

The impression I got from some, admittedly old, WoBs is that epicanthic folds are kinda Cosmere standard, and the absence is something of note. Have any worldhoppers other than those from Sel or Scadrial been mentioned as looking Shin-like in Stormlight Archive? I don't recall Kaladin noting Azure as looking like she was Shin, or Zahel for that matter. That might not mean much for him due to [Warbreaker spoilers] Of course Odium looking Shin-like presents another option...could the Shin have been the original Voidbringers from Ashyn, and the rest of the humans on Roshar came at a later date? Perhaps the Shin came, did their conquest thing, and then reformed their ways, leading to the religious prohibition of walking on stone.

Had a thought occur to me while reading [OB] Theory: The Shin have the most , the Shin, as we know them in the time of OB, aren't from Ashyn like the rest of humanity on Roshar. My only evidence for this is their eyes. The Shin are the only people on Roshar who do not have epicanthic folds (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/131-general-reddit-2016/#e3932). I think the only people from other worlds who we have confirmed also do not have epicanthic folds are from Scadrial (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/190-rfantasy-ama-2013/#e4079), and from Sel (the fortune teller Kaladin meets at the lighthouse). I feel like we haven't seen a whole lot of world hoppers from Scadrial, but we certainly have from Sel. The Selish people also seem far more Cosmerically aware in general. So, my basic theory, with out that much to support it, the current Shin are world hoppers from another planet, likely Sel, who came to Roshar at some point after the First Desolation, when the humans invaded the rest of Roshar. I feel like this could tie in very well with the Shin Invasion referenced in the linked thread. I'm thinking the Shin scout in the vision might be someone from Sel, who reports back to his people what happened, and they show up to grab the Honorblades, knowing what they represent, and thus begins the "Shin" invasion.

Was Stones Unhallowed still going to be book 3 at the time?

I forgot about the dullform spies, this helps with my overall theory of what's going on with the parshmen and Parshendi. I think the Parshendi are descended from a group of Listeners who voluntarily gave up their forms and chose dullform and mateform. The parshmen are the Listeners who did not, and were changed to slaveform when the spren that Galivar was talking about in the prologue was captured, denying them their ability to become voidbringers. I think the Everstorm is changing Parshendi into stormform, but the parshmen just become effectively nimbleform. The dullform spies among the parshmen would explain why some became stormform, but most didn't. The voidspren with Kaldin's Listeners seems to be trying to get them somewhere quickly. My guess is something needs to happen for them to become proper voidbringers, and the longer they stay in their current state, the greater chance there is that they will ally themselves with the humans against Odium.

I was always under the impression that eye color on Roshar is no different than eye color on earth (other than the additional shades of eye color that don't occur here). Some people have blue eyes, some have brown, some have violet, etc. I took the association with lighteyes being chosen for leadership as a cultural memory of the Radients having glowing eyes of various shades, e.g. blue. Eventually "glowing blue eyes" becomes just "blue eyes." The association becomes part of the religion, and sticks. The fact that if someone bonds a blade, their eye color changes re-inforces this, but people having different color eyes was a thing before the Knights Radient, and is just part of the normal DNA of humans.

146 mph seems to fit with how the storms are described in the book. Off in the distance, then almost on top of you a few minutes later. Yeah, right now we don't have anywhere near enough information to deal with that guy, seeing as we've only seen it once. I think it does move slower than the highstorms, but we don't know how regular it will be.

Oh yeah, it'd have to be fixed with respect to the sun. So...yeah, absurdly fast winds. But I think this still works, assuming the sun rises in the east on Roshar... Well, the storms can toss boulders, right?

It may not be perfect, but I think at this point, it's the best information we have. Khriss had some reason to draw the orbits like that, and she's probably the best non-Shard source of information in universe. Also, Brandon's words, "the fact that Roshar has three moons in a very specific orbit is a hint about things," makes me think it's at least pretty accurate. Am I remembering correctly that each moon rises and sets each night, with no overlap? I feel like the only way that could work is if their orbital period is half the length of Roshar's day, and that they would have to rise and set during the day too, but I guess be overwhelmed by the light of the sun so they're not visible. I'm pretty sure the Stormfather is at least somewhat omnipresent on Roshar. SH spoilers: The brightness with which the moons glow, and the different colors of light they produce, makes me think that they're Invested in someway, or they interact with Investiture. I think gravity is a good real world analog, but probably not the actual mechanism. Basically, I think the highstorms are Investiture tides. I think the storm might move WITH the planet's rotation, not counter to it. If a storm happens at sunset across all of Roshar, that would mean that it's traveling in the same direction is the rotation, essentially in a geosynchronous orbit, right? If so, this eliminates the wind problem, as now we're just dealing with winds generated within the storm itself, and don't need to also deal with winds being compounded by the speed of the storm itself.

I didn't mean to imply that there are 3 separate highstorms, each with their own godspren. Just that some interaction of the three moons is what triggers a highstorm, but it's always the same Stormfather in the highstorm. I also would think that the Stormfather is less bound by physical location than a spren like Syl. He may be omnipresent on Roshar, but concentrated in the highstorms.

Another thought I just had. Are more than one moon ever visible at the same time? I feel like each moon is visible for a few hours each night, but never at the same time. They must all orbit in different planes...That could explain how the orbits overlap without the moons colliding.

This quote: got me thinking a bit about the predictable nature of the highstorms. From what I recall, there's some in-world debate as to whether the highstorms are a single storm that continuously circles the planet, or if they are actually multiple storms. Now it seems obvious that it can't actually be just one storm, otherwise they'd be super easy to predict, but they're not. But they are mostly predictable, possible perfectly predictable with enough information. I think there's also at least one reference where people in two separate locations experience a highstorm happening at the same time relative to sunset, implying that the storm travels the planet at the speed of its rotation. So...what if the highstorms are actually an Investiture wave that's circling the planet, at the same speed as its rotation? Now maybe the moons cause an interference pattern in that Investiture, so that when the amplitude gets above a certain threshold, a highstorm happens, possibly as a release valve. This would also assume that all three orbits synchronize along a 1000 day cycle, with notable alignments happening at day 500, and 1000. This would certainly explain why it would be possible to predict highstorms using math, but it would require some complex calculations. The influence of other planets in the system could explain why the Storm Wardens aren't always entirely accurate in their predictions, since there are variables that have a small influence on the system. The biggest thing working against my theory that I can come up with is that the highstorms supposedly pre-date Honor and Cultivation, yet someone has been keeping the moons in a stable orbit, otherwise they would have collided with something by now. Maybe Adonalsium was doing it before, or maybe the moons didn't exist, and the highstorms were more regular, but less intense.

Wyndle outright states that Lift should not be able to interact with him physically in WoR. He speculates that she must be partially in the Cognitive Realm to allow it.

The vision is happening in Dawnchant, though, and Dalinar is able to understand it. It could just be that Dawnshard is the name Dalinar knows, so that's what he hears, even if that's not how Honor would have referred to them.

Doesn't physical distance not really mean a lot in the Spiritual Realm—where I'm assuming Soul Stapling would actually occur? If a Herald were to die, and not have physical position of his/her Honorblade, would the blade still vanish? I'm assuming yes.

Soul Stapling, I like it!

It also doesn't mean Honor didn't kill them at the end of the process. We know that the Heralds do die, and that at the end of a Desolation they're supposed to either die, or voluntarily return to Damnation. This actually makes me think that the Heralds did have to die before becoming Heralds, since Brandon brought death up without the questioner asking. (side note: good to Agreed. From later in the reddit thread you posted: I feel like this kind of supports my idea if you work backwards through it, or at least doesn't disprove it. If a person who has their soul stapled to a body via Hemalurgy is a Cognitive Shadow, and Heralds are a form of Cognitive Shadows, it's at least possible that the Heralds have their souls stapled to their bodies via a process similar to Hemalurgy. I think what may be happening with Hemalurgy is that it's not the spike specifically that's important, just the fact that it's Invested, and that it manages to pierce the soul of the person. What I think is happening with the Heralds and the Honorblades is the same principle. The Honorblades are Investiture and that they're attached to the soul of the Heralds through some means.

Not hemalurgy as we've seen it in Mistborn. I don't think that Honor used a spike to pierce either himself or someone else, but I think he did something similar to what Kelsier did to come back from the dead. I think Honor took the Heralds, and either killed them, or perhaps they were already dead, and used his Investiture to bring them back. I believe this is similar to what Endowment does with the Returned, instead of the Heralds having a Divine Breath keeping them alive, they have the Honorblade. I think the Honorblade is what is actually keeping their soul bound to their physical bodies. Using an Honorblade consumes Stormlight at a faster rate than a Shardblade, but doesn't seem to grant any strength beyond a Shardblade. This implies to me that there's something else going on than just granting Surges to the wielder. The Returned (and possibly the Elantrians if you believe they are also Cognitive Shadows) seem to provide evidence that keeping a Cognitive Shadow alive in the Physical Realm requires a constant supply of Investiture. We've already seen that Stormlight can be used as a substitute for Breath, at least for the purpose of keeping a Returned alive. As far as the Spren are concerned, I don't think they followed the exact method Honor used, but copied to the best of their ability. The Knights Radient can heal themselves with Investiture, for example, but they can't return from the dead. The Spren also have to fully bond to the KR, where Honor doesn't seem like he had to fully Invest himself in the Heralds. Maybe a better way of looking at this is, "does Hemalurgy hijack the method by which a Shard can Invest itself in a human?" In other words, Honorblades aren't a form of hemalurgy, but hemalurgy is a form of whatever process Honor used with the Heralds, and that Endowment used with the Returned, and that Devotion/Dominion used with the Elantrians.

Based on the recent WoB that the Heralds are a form of Cognitive Shadow, is it possible that their Honorblades are a form of Hemalurgic spike? Not in the sense we've seen before in Mistborn, but something using similar principals to reattach their thread to the Physical Realm? My basic thought is that when the Heralds die, they actually die, but because they're so Invested, they don't vanish into the Beyond, or whatever it's called, but stick around in the Cognitive Realm on Braize. Here their Cognitive Shadows are tortured, but they suffer no physical damage, similar to when Hoid beat up Kel in SH. Eventually, they all return to Roshar using their Honorblades to re-attach themselves to a physical body. This might explain why the Honorblades vanish when the Herald dies, since it's bound to their soul.

The Aonic people found Elantris pre-built and abandoned (http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=768#2). Is it possible that the Ire are the builders of Elantris* (maybe not the specific people we met in SH, but they could be part of the same people)? If so, it's possible they left Sel at some point after the Splintering of Devotion and Dominion, but before the Reod (perhaps long before). That might explain why they didn't run back to Elantris to fix the city. * Of course the use of the phrase, "merciful Domi," by one of the Ire suggests that at least some members joined after the Aonic occupation of Elantris, since Domi seems to be a combination of Dashu and Omi after Korath encountered the Elantrians. Alonoe's name, however, suggests that she may be really really really old, if we assume the lake was named after her, and not the other way around.