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Two discussions on Cosmere originating from Calamity in one day... He-he.... The Reckoners is a very recent development, while Cosmere is something Brandon has been working on pretty much since his first/second novels (that are unpublished). To that extent, the best case scenario is that Brandon might be thinking of some sort of Asimov's Robots and Empire trick of bringing this all together, but personally, I am inclined to take it at his word that the series that feature Earth are not related to Cosmere.

I disagree with this theory on several grounds. First, WoBs from Brandon that any book with Earth is NOT a Cosmere book. Next: There is a third explanation, probably more likely (and it actually gives me a good question for Brandon). The relationship between Shardic powers and their vessels is VERY similar to that (and I am sorry I have to bring Pierce Anthony into this, but bear with me) of the offices of War, Time, Fate, Nature (?), Death, Evil and Go(o)d in Anthony's Incantations of Immortality series: these are offices that require a human officeholder to perform the duties. We know this to be the case for the 16 Shards in post-Shattering Cosmere. We also, I believe, have a WoB that Adonalsium had a Vessel too. So, a pretty sound theory is that Adonalsium's Vessel is from Yolen, and another aspect of that theory is that while Adonalsium may have existed forever (since the whatever beginning of time/big bang Brandon postulates for Cosmere), the Vessels might have changed. Which brings me to my question to Brandon: "Has Adonalsium always had the same Vessel pre-Shattering?". More: I am a big fan of Ym's religion being important. It was pointed out to me that Ym's religion is in fact an old Irali religion of "the One". There is a confirmation of that in "The Thrill" (albeit an off-hand one, so, not treating it as a major spoiler). But the other thing mentioned in Irali's religious associations is The Long Trail. To me, it is MUCH MORE LIKELY that Irali remember the Shattering (First there was one, then there were many - the first time I read it I was like "Holy COW! Ym's divined the history of Cosmere!!!") I mean, just read this again: This is a textbook definition of a Shard, for crying out loud! I believe, the religion of One is extremely important for us, because, outside of Hoid and a certain dragon, this may be the only memory of Yolen and pre-Shattering that there is (and the first such memory we get to see), and if it is, it may contain an explanation, even if corrupted by time, lack of understanding and misinterpretation, of the reasons behind the Shattering. But it is important not for the reasons you posit. Now, this on the other hand, is a really good simile: . I agree with a LOT of it, but I think that one does not have to believe that (a) Adonalsium was reprimanded by someone/something, and (b) Adonalsium's Vessel is not a Cosmere native in order to support your core observation: that Adonalsium may have chosen a policy of non-interference. Let me cite two works for you that deal EXACTLY with this type of God: the above-mentioned Incarnations of Immortality (..And Eternity, and for the most part the preceding For the Love of Evil are essentially ALL about a GOD who is NO LONGER listening), and of course Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. However, in order to believe that Adonalsium may have exhibited similar behavior: no longer being able/wanting to act to protect humans from fainlife or other dangers, and effectively standing in their way of defending themselves, I do not need to create theories that Adonalsium is related to Philip Pullman's God. The non-interference bit can be surmised from purely in-Cosmere evidence and WoB's in which Brandon keeps stressing how hard it is for Sazed to act (and how Rayse does NOT want to take other Shards for himself, but wants to evaporate them).

Is it something you cannot divulge right now because reasons.... or is it more like you don't have the time to organize the thoughts?

You took the words out of my mouth.... I agree here. While Adonalsium was whole, the 16 Intents did not exist as specific well-defined entities inside him. My theory is that there are some sorts of atomic SubIntents, and each Shard's Intent as wee see them consists of multiple of such SubIntents (i.e., the Shattering could've reassigned the SubIntents to different Vessels). However, it might have been more fluid than that. The question is, where does it leave us. I still think that the new WoB basically equates Harmony (as Vessel-less Shard) with Dor in terms of structure. This does not, as has been wisely pointed out, negate prior aspects of the Investiture of a single component: Seons, Skaze, atium, Hemalurgic spikes - they all still exist. Neither does it mean that, e.g., Sazed could not spin off a piece of atium or lerasium on demand. But when it comes to holding the power or using it, it seems like you are dealing with a single entity.

I think the new piece here is that if someone were to try taking up Devotion's or Dominion's Intent, they would not be even able to do it, as no separate Investiture for each exists anymore. There is now only Dor. Which brings up a question: what's Dor's Intent? Ruin+Preservation = Harmony. Devotion+Dominion = ? Patronage?

I agree, these are suspicious. In fact, we also have an MO now. Any character with throwing things at a cremiling. To add: these might not actually signify Dysian Aimians being around, but they may signify the awareness of Mraize and Teft of who Dysian Aimians are and their desire to keep the proceedings private.

Since we have been told of a certain someone appearing from a lake in Horneater Peaks, it is seems reasonable that that's a perpendicularity. We did not know whether it was Honor's or Cultivation's. It appears that since the lakes on the peaks are not really mobile, that they are Cultivation's perpindicularities.

He is either the last remaining Mistborn, or close to being one, so that alone is enough.

Joining others in thanking @Argent. These are awesome. Well, I guess we know where Cultivation's perpindicularity(ies) is/are.... Wow. This is some really good insight there on the part of @Zmann966 . So, at least one Dysian Aimian knows where Jasnah is. Also, this is probably inevitable, but are we going to comb the books for every occurrence of a cremling now?

Mine too. Edit: Ir spooked Brandon too.

DALINAR: Dear Nightwatcher, I just want a bright future for my kid...

Meanwhile on reddit real Herdazians are very upset.

This would certainly explain the Kaladin out in the storm scene.

I think he must have said at least one Oath beyond the First one (which is generic to everyone). His "I see" at the end of WoR is very terse, but also packs a lot of punch. As such I want to believe that he actually has a good understanding of what Truthwatching is. Let us recall that we do not get to be in his head, and time is actively passing. During the time of observation Shallan found a way to speak a number of Truths, Kaladin took a level in basassery - so there is no reason to believe that Renarin circa battle on the arena and Renarin circa "major meltdown at ground zero" is the same person. Also, that major meltdown or the immediate aftermath may be when he said the next Oath. Given what we know of his Order, I suspect that his Oaths are "I will see what no one will", and "I will see even if this is something no one wants to see/believe". It seems to be quite consistent that Renarin accepted who he is (to a certain point) after that major meltdown he had and internalized the "I will see what no one will" Oath.

Would be. Not "is". That's a huge difference in my book. I would prefer to think of this as "coopting some great Spren". Wonder what Nightwatcher was like before.

Well, aren't you going to a signing or something tonight? (-:

More or less. Yes, the core of futuresight is looking into the Spiritual Realm (where space and time are virtually non-existent) and somehow interpreting what you see. My belief (somewhat supported by Secret History, I think) is that it's all about seeing and interpreting Connections. I think I'll put my thoughts in a thread sometime... That's what I thought. As I point out above, the historic quote makes me suspect that Renarin is, by far, not the first person in the order of Truthwatchers who is receiving these visions... Perhaps someone can ask Brandon how many Oaths Renarin swore (probably a literal RAFO), how many Oaths Ym swore (may get an answer), whether Renarin is further in his development than Ym (very likely, Renarin is in the company of three people who are past two Oaths/Truths), and whether Ym has had anything that could constitute a "vision" (this might get a "yes" or a "no"). A good parallel might actually come from Wheel Of Time. The Forsaken spent more time trying to kick each other in the shins (or directly offing each other) than directly conveying the will of their master.

This is suspicious to me. We have a WoB (in fact a few of them) about how VERY SPECIAL Sel is, because (as we learned later) on Sel, the power of the Splintered Shards resides in Cognitive Realm. It wouldn't be THAT SPECIAL if Roshar had the same thing going. Separately from this, while we still do not know which parts of Roshar as we see it now Honor was responsible for vs which parts Cultivation was responsible for, but given certain subtle hints (prevalence of honor-based cults out West, where highstorms are the strongest; Stormfather being a cognitive shadow of Honor) suggest that Stormlight is at least in part of Honor.

Non-intervention is a policy of the 17th Shard, which may or may not use Silverlight as its headquarters. (We know of at least one 17th Sharder who is NOT in Silverlight). Silverlight is NOT a group. It is a location. New WoBs suggest that it is not a singular entity from the point of view of Cosmere politics/policy. It is also located in Cognitive Realm. How does one launch a spaceship from Cognitive Realm? Khriss mentions expeditions to First of The Sun. The context of her mentions and some of the text in Sixth of the Dusk suggest that

So, it is reasonable to assume that it wouldn't glow.

We can approach this from two perspectives. In-world, the constellations are visualization conventions that denizens of Silverlight applied to the star map as they see it. Not too different from how Earth got Big Dipper and Orion. This times the artwork. The assumption is that Silverlight did not exist before the Shattering. Hence, the map is relatively new and depicts the perceptions of Silverlight denizens in the post-shattering era. It is therefore not unreasonable for them to try to connect the imagery with what they know about the Shardworlds in specific constellations. Out-of-story, Brandon commissioned the artwork. We have two possibilities: (a) the artist had complete creative control over the images, and (b) Brandon gave instructions. We know that he had a prototype map drawn somewhere, so, presumably the start arrangement is his. So (b) is more likely. Next question: does he want to convey anything with the imagery, or we are in the "sometimes a dream is just a dream" situation. As much as I hate to admit it (because I, at first simply gazed at the constellations without trying to make connections), the knight for Roshar, and Breath for Nalthis are rather dead giveaways. Boat for First of The Sun and a mourning lady for Threnody are also pretty telling. So, much as I hate the implications, I have to think that all constellations are intended to mean something. But going back to the original thought - they are supposed to mean something to Silverlight folk. Lamp as a symbol of Devotion is an interesting thought though. I like it.

I sort of automatically assumed that Nazh's knife is made of silver, because of the obvious: Nazh is from Threnody, silver knives are a thing on Threnody, if he were to carry a knife, what kind of knife would it be? Silver is allomantically weird, so who knows whether it is even supposed to glow. Looking at the other side of things. I agree that K & N are certainly looking for Awakened objects on Scadrial. Given how the ad is constructed ("do your tools talk to you?"), and with a talking hammer being the illustration, I very much doubt that they are looking for Nightblood. (Recall the timeline - this is after Stormlight Archive 5. In Stormlight archive 3 Nightblood should be safe and sound in the hands of Szeth. Now, it is possible that a twist of plot sends it to Scadrial, but it does not look like a very likely occurrence to me). I do think that K&N have good reasons to believe that there are Awakened objects (or, at least, heavily Invested objects) on Scadrial, but I think they are of local origin. We know the Scadrial mechanism for making Invested objects "talk" to people: it involves Identity "management". Perhaps K&N know that there were some test runs before Bands of Mourning, and perhaps they suspect that those test runs were scrapped, but still are Invested. I have absolutely no grounds for these speculations, but our reasons to believe that Nightblood is on Scadrial at the moment are about as strong as our reasons to believe that it is in any other corner of Cosmere not called Roshar.

I think we are missing the most important quote of all in discussing Truthwatchers: the only actual "solid evidence" of what they did in the days of yore: In combination to Renarin's "I see", and the observed behavior related to his visions, the quote above makes perfect sense. If Truthwatchers have visions (voluntary or not) that show (possible or inevitable) future, they have much more to gain from not letting anyone in on those secrets. To put it in other way: we have seen the individual uses of their powers. They can heal people - which by itself does not really give us enough of a reason for "never spoke or wrote of what they did" (and that they heal people without hesitation we know on the examples of Ym, at the very least). They can use Illumination, which we have seen used a lot by Lightweavers. Now, the uses of Illumination to hide/conceal/misdirect are a bit more on the side of things one must hide, but because another order has the same power it is not like the uses of Lightweaving are a particular secret to everyone in the KR brotherhood (and sisterhood). So the reason for secretiveness must be something else. Being prone to visions would do the trick. Now, are the visions caused by Surgebinding and is every Truthwatcher a subject to them? It seems like Brandon is hinting quite a bit that this might not be the case. What is the Cosmere explanation for seeing the future? If I remember my Realmic Theory correctly, a person gets to peak into the Spiritual Realm where there is no time, and therefore, there is an opportunity to "observe" things that have not happened in one's linear timeline.

As much as this might be the case, this is not what spren are doing in the few examples of Surbinders taking Oaths (or speaking Truths) that we actually get to see in the books. Kaladin is saying the Second Oath not because he has a Stormlight craving he cannot resist, but because he is placed in a situation where he recognizes what he must do and that happens to be the Second Oath of Windrunners. Syl did not dangle the prospect of Stormlight in front of him if he figures out the words. So, based on this I am not certain that "bribing" is how I would describe it. To put it in other words: if your motives for saying the Oaths are to get access to the all-powerful drug of Stromlight, you have the wrong Intent, and therefore, you are not going to bond a spren. I do not disagree with you on this. The issue is not whether Stormlight is habit-forming (it is), but whether spren behave in the way you ascribe to them. I posit that nothing in the text supports the latter. I think, a better way to look at it is in the framework of "a boon and a curse". Knights Radiant get a boon: Stromlight! and a curse: it's addictive! and will change them.

So you are using the fact that everyone dies and Kaladin survives as support for Kaladin being cursed and Knights Radiant being plagued by horrible things happening to them? I mean, as of the end of WoR the main curse incurred by the new Knights Radiant is that Nalan is hell-bent on offing them, and in that sense they are effectively cursed. To be completely honest, the fact that different "powers" seem to be attracted to people who can become powerful Surgebinders is not really all that strange. We have evidence that certain people attracted multiple types of spren. So, it is not that much of a stretch to assume that they might attract Odium. Looking at it in another way, if you are an all-powerful evil, and there are some strong proponents of the all-powerful good that emerge, wouldn't you want to off them ASAP? So, yeah, of course all KRs have a target painted on them - and in more ways than one (at least until Nale subsides).