Olm

It was a close call for me between Windrunner (75%) and Truthwatcher (73%), but reading the descriptions i think Truthwatcher is the better match for me.

Is it confirmed, that the structures on Detritus are if human origin?They are described as „ancient“ and I always attributed them to some race that vanished millenia ago.

No, Freeman Dyson has no connection to the Dyson company. He is a british/american physicist who, amongst other things, worked with Feynman on Quantum Electro Dynamics. At 94 he is probably the last leading physicist of a golden age of quantum field theories, who still lives.

But which shards intent would be more compatible to splintering (=destroying) another shard than Ruins? I would say he's even more compatible than Odium. So I don't think his intent stood in his way. I don't know why he couldn't do it, but I guess splintering a shard is not an easy feat. I would for example bet some money that Odium could not just go to Scadrial and splinter Harmony, even if he in principle knows how to do it.

I am sure it refers to the splinterings done bei Odium. If Ruin knew how to do this and had the strength for it, he could have splintered Preservation instead of "choking him slowly to death".

Indeed, thats an interesting idea which I never considered. On the other hand I always wondered why everyone is so sure Dalinars amnesia is his curse. In that case I am more inclined to think this is actually his boon and we don't know the curse yet. Taravangian being manipulated by Odium is also quite an interesting idea, which downright frightens me.

But Zinc stores mental speed, not mental capacity. I guess a rather stupid person could think as fast as he likes, he would never ever come up with the equations of general relativity. Being able to bestow that much mental capacity upon an individual bothers me, because why do the shards not create truly genius leaders to their people. This would very much help in the struggles they go through (and in which some shards like Honor or Harmony try to help as best they can, it seems). I agree that Lifts ability is not so far off what others can do, Allomancers burn metal, Lift burns food, why not. What bothers me there is that the general rules of the existing magic on Roshar is completely altered. I always thought the magic systems are something that "happens" out of the combination of shard and world. Not so much something the shard shapes. But perhaps I am wrong there. The interaction between Old Magic and Hemalurgy could be interesting, if it really was possible. One could perhaps get rid of the curse just by spiking oneself (and properly invested persons could probably just heal the physical damage and be happy with it). Or are boon and curse connected on the spiritweb and can only be manipulated together? Is it confirmed that there is no other source of magic in the Cosmere than Adonalsium?

Is it possible to Soulcast someone to be a magic user? So could Shae make an Essence Mark that made her an Elantrian? And Forgery and Soulcasting seem to be very similar in manipulating the soul of things. Do you think a soulcaster could reproduce the effect of Essence Marks, not altering things or materials but persons?

Hi. After some time of just reading I registered to the forum because I have some questions I couldn't find answers to. First there is the Nightwatcher. She seems to be able to do some very powerful stuff that to me seem even beyond the power of shards. Could a shard hack a magic system at will? Could it just so create creatures who are able to metabolize food directly into stormlight, like Lift does? Seems to me this removes a lot of restrictions to the magic systems we know. Similarly: Could Sazed just give an intellect like Taravangians on his best day to all of the people on Scadrial? Does he even have this amount of genius himself? To me it seems that the Old Magic could be something totally different, something that has nothing to do with shards. If so, if it is something that predates the shards, perhaps Cultivation cultivated this ancient magic system and so made it something that now is attached to herself? (Though the intent of "Preservation" would fit this behaviour better). Now what has Hemalurgy to do with it? Has anyone ever asked Brandon, if Hemalurgy could steal a boon granted by the nightwatcher? If the answer is yes, its clear that Old Magic works quite similarly as the other magic systems (and Lift is in quite some danger if knowledge of Hemalurgy gets widely spread), if the answer is no, we'd know it's something special. My bet: No, it could not be transfered.