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I think that the existing examples in the books somewhat contradict the idea of bonding being a form of a contract the way you are describing. It seems that this more about the specific people choosing to live their life in a specific way that causes the bond. That is - their decision is not based on the future rewards in the form of a shining fork made out of a god metal, or their ability to fly/travel/hide/heal/punch/lead/jump/glide/grow/see/whatever. So, what we are seeing is the case of a conscious choice to do what is "right" (from a specific perspective) and being rewarded postfactum by the appropriate spren.

Not certain if I can formulate it well, but where else but on this board can we come with a good one... The short version of the question is "Have we seen it all?" A slightly more verbose version is this: Cosmere magic is based on a set of laws, and in the Cosmere books we get to see some of these laws applied and we get to observe some of the implications. In the more recent books and through Q&As we start seeing connections between different aspects of magic on different planets: relationships between spren and Seons, or between Kelsier and Vasher... So "have we seen it all?" is basically a question of whether or not there are some features of Cosmere magic (or, "the rules guiding the works of Investiture and the Realmic theory") that we have not yet seen in action? If someone has a better way of rephrasing this, I'd appreciate it, because I understand that in the form stated above, this is not yet a question.

Dalinar, for the majority of his time in TWoK and WoR uses deadsprenblades, and in fact bonds one just before the sh** hit the fan. The nature of the Bondsmith bond, as far as I can tell is that they do not necessarily get a LiveSprenBlade out of their bond.

Uhm... irony much?

Darkside of Taldain. Right past Bavadin....

Well, have we seen VenDell and Kelsier in the same room at any moment of time?

This is very plausible. Truthwatchers are secretive by the nature of their talents, and what we have seen so far of the actual truthwatching side of things suggests that they had valid reasons for that.

Given the WoB you cite, it looks more like a basketball and a baseball team wanting to recruit the same player. In some very rare cases one would attempt such a thing, but everyone winds up being unhappy.

Still leaves us with the why? question.

This. That is to say, for this very reason, I am certain that the Ghostbloods are not part of the 17th Shard. So far, folks we have seen representing the 17ths Shard use terms like "dule" and "friend" when talking to people. Ghostbloods try to kill Jasnah. Doesn't look like the same MO.

Here is how I can describe Brandon's approach to writing Wayne. Imagine a person with a completely consistent internal view of things. Imagine them narrating every other thing that goes on around, and acting on their internal monologue. Imagine that this completely consistent internal view appears as being TOTALLY OUT OF WACK for an objective observer. Dalinar circa dinnertime was described in EXACTLY THE SAME way. To him, everything he did was completely natural and internally consistent. To everyone else though....

Stick in a bubble.

I am assuming that with spoiler tag in the title, The Thrill is fair game on this forum? At any rate, this is less about the actual things we learn from the flashbacks, and more about Brandon's writing. Has anyone else read the flashback at the dinner party and thought that Dalinar sounded like he was separated at birth from Wayne?

A beautiful woman walks into a bar, downs three vodkas [*] and leaves. A few minutes later, a big burly dude walks into a bar and asks for a vodka. Barkeep says: Bavadin, the establishment's three drink limit still applies to you. [*] First law of me: every sufficiently advanced civilization has discovered vodka.

Arcanium 2: The Electric Boogaloo. Speaking of which, I am still not over the fact that Stick was not included in the original volume.

Stormlight Archive volume 8 flashbacks?

There is a distinct societal deficit on bondable humans. @DSC01: . "Ym is not Edgedancer.... 'E's not pinin', E's' passed on. He is no more. He has ceased to be. Expired and gone to meet his maker. Bereft of life. Off the twig, shuffled off his mortal coil. Kicked the bucket! He is an EX-EDEGEDANCER!" . (with apologies to Monty Python). This is a particularly cruel way for Brandon to split hairs in the face of communal interest. Given that he's been much more forthcoming with these sorts of tidbits as of recent, I hope this is not what he was doing.

Excellent scene. Did not realize it was deleted - thought it'd be a small flashback in Oathbringer (given that we were promised some details of her journey). "Ivory" always made sense as a name of Jasnah's spren due to the obvious "Ivory Tower" connotations. Those do not exist in Cosmere (I would think), or at least, they do not exist on Roshar, so there must've been an in-universe reason. But for the English-speaking reader, Jasnah's personality and pursuits match the name of the spren perfectly.

What entire culture? It looks like things were going in that direction, so it makes total sense.

Oh. It was just me tuning out for a while.... Good news either way.

Anyone willing to ask if Ym's religious views can be attributed to him having Cosmere awareness and/or his Truthwatcher ability (he sees!)?

Just now on reddit: (linky)

Truthwatcher.

As you correctly point out, we can indeed observe two things: * Yolish-style Lightweaving is a plausible mechanism for someone who wants to present multiple personas. * it is not all that clear that a Vessel needs Yolish-style Lightweaving for the purpose of presenting multiple personas, because they have Investiture! Oodles of it! to do what they wish with it. But... she could have been a Yolish-style Lightweaver on Yolen prior to the Shattering, and he propensity for the use of Lightweaving to advance her goals (before she became a Vessel) could have affected her MO as a Vessel.

Well, it has now been officially confirmed that Silverlight is in Cognitive Realm. Not my first preference, but not my place to call shots on this either (-: