Argel

IIRC, there are three races native to Yolen -- humans, dragons, and one he hasn't revealed yet.

I missed that one. Very interesting. It does suggest something is up. Could Autonomy be the 4th shard that Odium killed? White Sand was not out in an official capacity yet, so not sure if Autonomy counts as one we have or haven't seen.

That suggests TLM is not tied too heavily to SA5 events, so it could be tied to when Hoid or another worldhopper is out and about doing things.

Maybe TLR considered that to be too good.

I just re-read Ym's Interlude and the similarities are strikingly close. Maybe it's possible to see it better if further along? Also, Ym had jsut started to see it. It was just learning to speak, so maybe it becomes more visible as it adapts to the PR? Anyway, I'm incined to agree with Yata that they are the same type of spren.

It's also online for free. http://brandonsanderson.com/books/warbreaker/warbreaker/warbreaker-rights-and-downloads/

Those were all from WoBs from the touring and conventions from earlier this year. The 10-20 years may not be exact, but I remember reading the one where he indicated it could be closer to 5. And then later on he talked about a possible overlap. I do not think it has been nailed down, but as I said, the trending is pretty clear. It could just come down to when and where Hoid needs to be to do certain things. Ot it could be a lot more. Do we know if The Last Metal (final metal?) is supposed to come out? After SA5?

Well, that would be preserving his creations though, right? Or at least giving them the best shot he could. Yeah, survival instinct doesn't explain a lot of things, but I think if shard is attacked directly they could respond despite their intent. I could be wrong, but I just have hard time believing that a vessel/shard could be coup de gras'd because its intent prevented it from defending itself. Seems anti-climatic....

Have you read Warbreaker?

The way Frost mentions it n the letter made me think Hoid became immortal after the shattering, which would Yolen less likely but not impossible. Also, he has Yolish Lightweaving, though I don't know if that helps or hurts the theory.

IIRC, The Final Metal started off being say 10-20 years afterward SA5 to closer to 5 years, to possibly even overlapping. So not sure if it has been nailed down yet but the trending is pretty clear. So some good chance for some overlap.

"Intent" is a great example of for lack of a better term, group head canon, or maybe just group canon? Anyway, a Sharder came up with that word, but pretty much everyone on here talks about it as if it's 10000000% canon. Anyway, I suspect one reason a shard can act contrary to its Intent is survival instinct. That doesn't explain everything, but may offer some insight. Speaking of insight (maybe), what if the Intent is the trick to defeating a shard? Preservation had to Ruin himself to take out Ruin. And we know D&D were lovers, so Devotion would in theory be in play naturally. Not quite as sure about Dominion. Honor on Roshar seems obvious without knowing the details.

If the only way you can see is Steelsight, you will obviously get better at it faster and maybe just be better at it period than if it's a tool you take out from time to time. Along those lines, there is a lot of metal to look at, at least in urban areas. So if they have to use it all the time, they will get much better are discerning things, how to fight using it (i.e. it's gotta be really disconcerting at first), etc. It also makes it harder to infiltrate the organization. Speaking of tools, that's what the Inquisitors were to the TLR. If he thought they were more effective that way.... But with all of that said, we probably shouldn't rule out the badass/coolness factor either. Brandon may have come up with an explanation after the fact. Or maybe he's still working on it....

There have been plenty of detailed theories based on faulty premises that at first glance appeared to be everything you stated. And thanks to e.g. head canon biases, what you or the OP may think is well thought out may not actually be the case. There are also the collective biases that creep in over time. For example, it's not hard to find posts that assume Autonomy and Odium are working together in the forums these days. And every now and then someone new shows up with a completely different but valid interpretation of something, showing that the 17thShard has developed it's own biases/subcluture/views on the Cosmere that may not be entirely correct. It's also possible no one has taken the time to post a detailed counter-theory. Arguably the OP is the first (at least in a long time) effort to "prove" that whoever is interfering with Scadrial is one of the shards we have not seen yet. Does that mean that up till that post we were supposed to assume the shard is Odium or Autonomy because those were the only theories with in-depth analysis up till that point?! And many of the theories are really hypothesis, because there is not enough information to prove them right or wrong. And because of that, the hard work put into the analysis does not mean the theory is right or has a better chance of being right. If Brandon's plan for something is X, and there is a novella length, highly convincing theory attempting to prove Y, the odds of that theory being correct are still 0%. Similarly, the odds of a hastily written couple sentence theory for is X is still 100%. That's the problem with speculation -- a well thought out theory can be wrong and a shot in the dark can be right. Quality can matter, but it's not a given.

Given that Brandon was saying corrupted investiture was mixed investiture (I can't recall if he said that was always the case), but that would fit the above theory about mixed investiture.

Yeah, there's a WOB on it, though it's hard to find like most of them seem to be these days. I like the direction you are going with the new theory. So, maybe if shards intentionally mix stuff, it works like "normal". But if some mad scientist scholar forces them to work together, then maybe that's when your theory kicks in. It's a very interesting idea.

If we want to run with a Nightwatcher theory, maybe the bane/curse is the second type of Amians that I do not think we have seen yet. They are supposed to look very different (maybe not even humanoid). However, I do not think someone can ask for a boon on someone else's behalf. I think you have to ask for yourself. So every Amian would have to ask, and if that happened the boon and banes would vary widely.

@PallonianFire, I think the problem is you talk about it as if it is confirmed, so people feel obligated to address that. We've also seen a lot of theories recently with poor foundations, so I think several of us are even more inclined to focus on that. Note that I specifically asked if the ancient Trell and the current Trell are the same, so I was paying attention.

Sorry, there have been a lot of weak posts and weak threads lately, so my tolerance level has dropped. Yeah, you could be right. so, take out the "permanent" part. So, what if Nightblood is trapping (somehow) Invesiture in the Beyond. If even the shards have trouble accessing the Beyond then that could explain why it's unavailable. There may still be a way to access it -- e.g. maybe the powwer level of a pre-shattering Adonalsium could tap into it somehow. If not there, then it has to be going somewhere.

We know Hoid was alive before the shattering of Adonalsium (and was somehow involved in the plot but was not one of the 16). Kandra were createred by TLR, which was much later than the creation of Scadrial, and Scadrial was created by Ruin and Preservation after the shattering. So unless a Kandra assassinated Hoid, which would be very difficult and not make sense given what Brandon is doing with the character, it is impossible for Hoid to be a Kandra. Note also that we also know from a WoB that he is avoiding Hemalurgy. The run of Hoid theories we've had of late all fail to account for soem knowledge in the books (the letters between Hoid and Frost in SA being the most obvious) and the vast body of WoBs out there. For newcomers it is probably not as obvious and those of us that have been here a while (including lurking) we probably take it for granted. It's worth noting that Hoid is one of Brandon's favorite characters. As in one he likes to have fun with. The kind that a writer has to be careful not to have too much fun with. Also, try and track down Liars of Partinel. It's an unpublished work that is not canon, but is Hoid's origin story, and aspects of it have become canon, such as his real name and taking the name of his master. It's canon "in spirit" but not in all of the details, if that makes sense. Good effort though!

Well, we know Marsh was added to the ranks....

There is also WoB about black being the color of mixed Investitures. And ditto about asking for votes.

That's not necessarily true. For example, they could have both independently voted for Hoid for the Worst Jesk of the Year award. Or they were dating to the two hottest women in Jesk school and he was jealous. Or they both bought lottery tickets for the Jesk raffle and won the top prizes. So there is an implied connection, but it doesn't prove they were in league together.

Imagine what this forum would be like if every time someone posted a theory half the responses were "I do not agree with your theory but that is just my personal opinion" with nothing else? Not even an "I think Brandon mean X when he said Y. Just, "but that's my personal opinion". How is that not insulting?