Farnsworth

In the pdf I got from Sanderson, the title is dragonsteel. You can see it, but if you hover over it with your mouse, you see it. Is this just me? Is this a hint?

This whole thing does seem like a classic Honor vs Cultivation thing. Cultivation wants to preserve things in the long run, and honor wants to do some grandiose thing.

First of all, welcome to the forums! Tezim is certainly powerful, but I think its more likely that he's an unmade. He doesn't seem to have any attributes that are known to be the attributes of a particular herald, and he seems a little to evil to be a herald. But then, he doesn't seem quite evil enough to be an unmade, so I'm not sure what he is.

Okay, here's a weird theory: In the Stormlight archives, the chapter headings are super complicated. There is an arch, four pictures of two different heralds, a character symbol, etc. The Roshar system also has three shards in it (Cultivation, Odium, Honor), and therefore the most investiture. Sel and Scadrial both have two shards, and they have slightly less complicated chapter headings. Elantris has an Aon, and Scadrial has an Allomantic metal. Simpler than Roshar, but they can also be used as a code to interpret what happens in each chapter. Nalthis has only one shard, and therefore very little investiture. It's chapters have weird pictures of light-colored stripes, which are super simple, but still something. The two novellas have no chapter headings, and also no shards in their planets. Could the chapter headings have anything to do with the amount of shards in the planet?

Lift is awesome, but how long is she going to be the featured article? Shouldn't somebody (preferably an admin) pick a different feature article?

Also agree! I don't think that the cognitive realm is water though. I am actually starting to think that it's sand. Comparing it to Roshar, stormlight seems like sunlight, and so spheres would become sand.

There is definitely something going on with the sun for sure. I think the perpendicularity river too. Maybe it's a shardpool? Usually people can feel if something is a shardpool, but it could be that daysiders are so overwhelmed by whatever force is coming from the sun that the investiture coming out of the river just isn't noticed.

Could this have anything to do with how Blunt/Baon got through the Dynastic border? Maybe he was born in the Dynasty, but then worldhopped to Roshar, probably some other places in between, and then to the other side of the planet? There is one problem with this though: I don't see how there could be any perpendicularities in the Darkside, with so little investiture.

Since the sun is what makes the sand white, and when power is taken out of the sand it turns black, I would think that sand is the focus of the shard, but sunlight has something to do with it all. Maybe the cognitive realm is very bright, but I think it's more likely that it has something to do with rays.

Have any of you read Dune? I think a many of the themes are similar. The hoods are like Stillsuits, the Sandlings are like Worms, and water is scarce. Maybe this is inevitable in a desert themed book?

I think that the faces seen have more to do with most of the glyphs being symmetrical. But why are not the small circles symmetrical?

Other questions: What power do the circles represent? Voidbrining? Parshendi forms? Something else entirely? It's probably the opposite of the surges and knight radiant powers. Also, in WoK, there was a dull colored thing of Roshar, and on the back there was a more colorful picture of Shadesmar. If the Radiants exist in the physical realm, maybe whatever is represented on the back exists in Shadesmar? The Parshendi are closer to the cognitive realm.

On the back of Words of Radiance, there is this picture: http://coppermind.net/wiki/File:TWoK_Rear_Endsheet.jpg It's similar to the one on the front, which we know is the 10 types of surgebinding, the 10 orders, and the 10 heralds, so it's probably the parshendi's equivilant. My questions are: Who is the lady? She is where the heralds are on the front cover picture, but who is she? Is she Odium? Cultivation? A spren? What is the gem in the center? It it similar to the gems that Parshendi have in their beard? Could this be all of the Parshendi forms, and their spren?

How about this: The Forescouts are other inhabitants of Hell are tough, and probably would do what Kelsier did and refuse to die, becoming a shade. However, Kelsier is even tougher than the Forescouts, so it's easy for him to become a shade. Threnody is full of Shades, and they all live in the forest, making the forest a 'predator', like Silence says. When somebody is killed by a shade, their spiritual aspect goes away for some reason, and they are visible, etc. Nazh is shocked that it took Kelsier less time, effort, and ceremony than the Forescouts, who he thought where to toughest people he knew.

So the femalen probably have it somewhere outside their body, like their clothes. Or, they have something that serves the same function as gemstones

Two possibilities: 1: The gemstones don't do anything that is physically visible. Maybe the femalan loses something, but because we've only seen Parshendi die in battle, almost exclusively from the Alethi perspective, we only see what physcially happens. 2: The females have the gems somewhere else. Maybe their clothes?

Yes, so they don't have gemhearts. But, that doesn't change the odd connection between the parshendi beard gems and warform carapace, and the chamfiends gemhearts and shell.

I don't think the beard gemstones mean much. I might be wrong, but I think that since only the males can wear them, and the males don't have any powers that the females don't, it's probably just for appearance.

First, welcome to the forums! I think that the warform carapace is probably similar to the chasmfiend carapace. The Parshendi point out at in a quote at the beginning of a chapter that their minds are closer to the realm of the spren - the cognitive realm - and that is why they get their forms. The Chasmfiends have gravityspren around them, which might have something to do with their connection with the spren. Maybe Chamfiends are closer to he cognitive realm? Also, the gemstones tied into the Parshendi beards might be related to the gemhearts, although it's kind of a long shot.

Maybe this could be more symbolic? He is refering to his teacher as the flame, and he is the last student of the flame? He is smoke, so he is not as good as his teacher, but almost as good?

That's what I heard too about the "he". I think that Adonalsium is a being, because that way, his soul in the Spiritual Realm could be the God Beyond.

I don't think Steris is capable of any of that sort of thing. Remember how she told Wax that she interviewed prostitutes? On chapter 5 (page 104 of the hardback), she says that she isn't sure she will be able to provide an heir, and that she interviewed some prostitutes on how, but they wouldn't tell her. If she has to interview people, then she clearly won't be doing it on her own. As for Wax, that just doesn't really seem like his style. Wayne, sure. But not Wax. Back to the luck thing, there is not much hard evidence, but she is always saying that she makes lists because if something terrible happens to her, at least she tried. I don't think that she would have this idea if she wasn't unlucky. Also a giant water tower crashed on her wedding.

Weird idea: Steris is very unlucky, or at least, she thinks she is. All of her lists can't just come out of nowhere. Is is possible that she is a Fortune Ferring, and somehow stored all of her luck somewhere as a baby, but doesn't know it? Kind of like Vin getting bronze hemalurgy that affected her powers a lot, but not knowing it?

When Kelsier saw Khriss in Secret History, I don't think she was described as dark skinned. It does seem more Khriss like to be interested with science rather than history, but would Khriss already know the answers to all the questions she was asking? She knows a lot already. Also, would it make sense for Jasnah to be off Roshar, because of what she was talking to Wit about during the epilogue?

In chapter 12 of BoM, There is this lady who is dancing with Wax. She seems super curious about Wax's abilites, and whether his Skimmer abilities make him actually storing more mass, or just have the planet recognize him more. Could she be Jasnah? Her physical appearance matches. She also mentions the mortality rate on Scadrial as compared to other planets.