CaptainRyan

Ooooo, another good question! If he was in an full cocoon made of Syl's Shardform would he be able to do lashings? Hmmm, I would say he could lash himself in directions but not do much of anything else. So, in my mind, he could become a flying Shardcocoon!

That is a good point. Though Sanderson has been cryptic about a live spren replicating a bow & arrow so it is possible there is some method of the spren creating a flexible Shardblade material. Even if she could only turn into a cocoon type bubble that could surround him, there are a lot of possibilities for an unbreakable shape-shifting material eh?

First of all, I apologize for talking about a lady's size. On topic, We have seen Syl assume a "normal" sized human form. We have also seen Syl act as various Shardweapons of differing size (from a knife to a spear to a 2-handed hammer) and even as a Shardshield during the fight with Szeth. Could Syl expand her "Shardform" to Kaladin's size and somehow coat him in armor. Note I am NOT talking about shardplate. I am talking about how Shardblades cannot be broken even by other Shardblades. If Syl took the form of some kind of clothing, or armor, and covered Kaladin head-to-toe in her "Shardform" would he be completely/nearly immune to damage? If she edged the clothing/armor around the hands could he cut through anything with a punch/chop?

If we assume that Harmony is using the Pits and Well still then Kelsier could just use the Well eh? If we assume Harmony has his own shardpool then I think, and this is just a guess, that the pool would form either when Sazed Ascended or very soon thereafter. The Pits were, I think, a special case with Ruin being trapped and his "essence" slowly leaking into the Pits. I think this would be a good question for Brandon: Does Harmony only have a single shardpool or two? If only one, when did it form and become usable as a Perpendicularity?

Yata, why not just use Harmony's Shardpool? Harmony has to have one somewhere on the planet eh? If it is in Southern Scadrial then that makes even more sense for the Sovereign to have been there, right?

The scene where Kaladin fights the Shardbearer while protecting Amaram has a moment where Kaladin lands a solid, full strength hit with the butt of his spear (shatters the spear with no damage to the spear), where his squad lands multiple hits with spears (no damage) and another moment where Kaladin lands a solid, full strength hit with the tip of his spear and it merely scratches the paint of the Shardplate. Another scene, in the early middle section of the book, where Adolin and Dalinar go on a plateau run has Adolin straight punching Parshendi in the face hard enough to kill them, shatter their bones etc. but there is no mention of the gauntlets taking any damage from smashing into the hardened armor/bones of the Warform Parshendi. I dunno if any of these help but they are what came to mind when I read your reply. It does not mention the draw weight of the Grandbows (sorry, Adolin dislikes the name Shardbows) but it does mention that the draw weight is so high that the steel itself would be warped and unusable without the gemstome fabrial enhancing the strength of the steel. So, the draw weight literally exceeds the strength of the steel.

If a KR could somehow end up with two live "blades" (i.e. two Nahel bonds - which I think Brandon has suggested is extremely rare but possible) then using a Shardweapon and a Shardshield would be pretty op.

@hwiles The scene where Dalinar digs a latrine trench in the Way of Kings might be instructive. It has two decent "comparisons" - the first is two men struggling to lift the warhammer that Dalinar easily lifts with one hand and the other is when Dalinar removes a chunk of rock that would take 4-5 men to move and he tosses it aside one handed. It is in Chapter 28 if that helps. Btw, I think this idea is AWESOME! I applaud your efforts!

Storms @Argent, I knew about GA but that cover art! Wow! I love it! It really captures the essence of the books. Time to start saving my spheres so I can start supporting this wonderful company. Anyone seen a chasmfiend around lately? I could really use a gemheart right about now...

I found two more quotes that relate to the topic and to some of the discussion. The first quote comes from Kaladin's flashback to the day he battled a Shardbearer as a member of Amaram's army. page 673 of 1008 of the kindle version of the Way of Kings (emphasis mine): Another quote that helps highlight the fact that Shardplate is not just a strength enhancer but that it affects the speed of the user to levels above that of a normal person. The second quote comes from Szeth's Interlude where he attacks the King of Jah Keved during a feast: page 719 of 1008 of the kindle version of the Way of Kings (emphasis mine): This quote provides another example of why Shardbearers are oftentimes not the best or most well trained of fighters. They are so powerful they do not have to be the best; their weapons make them so strong they become complacent. As I continue my reread of the Way of Kings I will continue to look for more quotes. Edit: page 822 of 1008 of the Kindle version of the Way of Kings:

Belated welcome to you Blightsong! I've noticed you are particularly active on the site and I always get excited to see new posts from you! Cheers!

Welcome Noel! Always great to have another Sanderfan around!

I know this does not solve the problem entirely but I make a habit of writing what my spoiler is about. e.g. This will spoil how tall I am. I will now spoil something about Mistborn And so forth. Perhaps we could add that to the list of guidelines for using the site? Warn people that if they don't spoil their spoiler tag we will force them to read aloud the Twilight series to prisoners in their free time?

Welcome Calthis! School is overrated, Sanderson is underrated!

I would like to say that I think these descriptions are pretty subjective. I, for one, am excited for when/if I reach most of those levels. Why? Because some of them are powerful/cool (Steel Inquisitor), Gyorn is the title of one of the best characters ever written (Hrathen), etc etc. While I respect the idea that someone could be offended by these titles I am not sold on the idea that, therefore, they should not be allowed. I think we can all just live and let live eh?

Excellent introduction @Wychmire! Welcome to the forums; it sounds like you will fit right in.

Could you do a mouseover thing? Mouseover someone's title to see what rep the person has? Or even just show the minimum rep to trigger that title? Or click on the title to expand to show the rep/minimum rep? I, personally, loved the reputation system - especially as someone who lurked for a long-time without making an account. I see these God Beyond's and Lerasium Mistborn's and the numbers and ohhh what a system! Oh well, I know you are in a tough position trying to appease everyone. Do whatever you think is best! I am mainly here to learn, share and occasionally annoy @Pathfinder and @Blightsong

Yeah, you are absolutely right. There are definitely a few rare substances that resist lightsaber strikes but, in general, they cut through pretty much anything. I would say it is similar to shardblades; they technically don't cut through everything. Other shardblades, shardplate, half-shard shields, heavily invested objects etc. but, in general, they cut through pretty much anything.

@feldi That is a great way of phrasing it! When non-Cosmere stuff is brought in to the Cosmere it requires considering not just the material but what special abilities the item had in its universe and then trying to match those special abilities to known Cosmere powers. I would probably guess that Cap's shield would count as heavily invest and would repel shardblades and it would also be much harder to push/pull on using Allomancy. As always, in a hypothetical scenario such as this there are many interpretations. I would not even argue that Brandon's interpretation is "more right" because, hey, this is all make-believe eh? If someone wants to believe a shardblade would straight cut the Cap's shield then who am I to disagree?

Even at that time Kaladin had proto-Radiant status and was definitely not just a regular-level human. As to shardbearers being expertly trained, I submit this line from page 30/1008 from the kindle edition of the Way of Kings: I believe this is mentioned a few other times in the books but many shardbearers neglect their training due to the advantages provided by their plate and blade. We are never given any information one way or the other with Helaran - he could have been incredibly skilled or he could have been relatively novice. Statistically, he was a novice haha. I think there will be few fighters, especially non-Radiants/magically enhanced ones, in the Stormlight Archive that approach the level of Kaladin or Szeth. Adolin is, in my opinion, the pinnacle of a non-Radiant fighter and even he was no match for Szeth and, presumably, Kaladin. Also, as a side note, I did find the scene where Sadeas is shooting the Grandbow at the chasmfiend and he was being handed arrows by an attendant. There would be no speed increase in his rate of fire if he is waiting for a soldier to hand him arrows haha.

Shardplate requires training whereas Allomancy is instinctive. IIRC, there was no mention of the rate of Sadeas' shots. Szeth was using Stormlight and, therefore, was faster than normal. Not to mention that Szeth is an expertly trained fighter. Kaladin was also using Stormlight and his bond was perfectly fine at that point because he was able to heal two broken legs in a matter of moments. Not to mention that Kaladin is also an expertly trained fighter. Sadeas is the only example we have of a plate wearer with no blade and he was only able to be overwhelmed by massive numbers. One-on-one a regular human is completely outclassed by a shardplate wearer.

Exactly! If it wasn't for the eye slits I would argue that shardplate also protects you from poison gas haha! I would be more willing to say the speed does not affect a wearer's reflexes except the first quote I supplied has Adolin specifically mentioning dexterity. It is hard for me to equate muscular strength to dexterity.

My interpretation of Brandon's response was is that any item/character/whatever from an outside work that is placed in the Cosmere is treated as close to its original function in its universe as possible. E.g. a lightsaber is a weapon that cuts through anything. Well hey, a shardblade just happens to be a weapon that cuts through anything. What happens when two lightsabers collide? Bouncy things! Ergo, when a shardblade and a lightsaber collide? BOUNCY THINGS! Obviously, I do not think Brandon would try and enforce his personal viewpoint on anyone who wants to write fan-fics involving outside material but, if this thread is looking for some sort of "canon" answer, then I humbly present Brandon's response to a similar situation as evidence of why Captain America's shield would block a shardblade.

@King Krooked As I mentioned in my first reply above, this is, as far as I and many other members of this forum are aware, something that cannot be answered without a WoB or a new book. Honestly, I think if we asked him this it would be a RAFO.

@Chaos First, please get some sleep! The site will survive for 8 (or 10, or 20!) hours while you get some well-deserved rest! As to the Allomantic symbols, I do not think the circle/star options are any more intuitive to be honest. When I first joined the 17S it took me a bit to understand what the symbols meant but, after a few days, I could glance at a forum and know exactly which topics I had only read and which I had posted in. Now, obviously, the same thing will occur as I adjust to the circle/star design. My point, as I ramble on, is that neither design, in my opinion, is necessarily more intuitive to a new user but one design brings Cosmere flavor whereas the other does not. As always, you, and the rest of the staff, are super awesome amazing in my eyes. I am merely providing some feedback and will be happy regardless of what symbols you use.