ZenBossanova

OK, read EdgeDancer, and the essays, but none of the rest of AU. Which story should I pay attention to? You didn't mean that That certainly isn't what he was talking about.

At the end of Words of Radiance, Hoid says, I once spent the better part of a year in a giant stomach being digested. It could be there is a shard of Hunger or Consumption. Such a shard would not want to either consume the world, nor stay where there is not enough to eat. The shard may have made its perpendicularity here, and then moved on to richer buffets. Notice, that the animals on the islands are very, very good at eating

Just in case you wanted to know where the rest of the shards are, the webcomic XKCD has finally revealed it. http://xkcd.com/1762/

Logically, it would seem it must temper the climate, or the Dayside would burn. But while I thought I remembered reading it, I don't know where.

You might enjoy this.

Considering it is an unstable point, that just means the Shard will have to occasionally nudge it back into place. We put satellites in unstable Lagrange points all the time. You just have to keep a little closer eye on them. And considering how much the Shard modifies the climate, this is probably a lessor worry anyway!

Brandon did a reading from book 3 that, without giving any spoilers, you might find interesting.

I am really not sure what is going on with Renarin. I want it to be awesome, but right now, I wouldn't rule anything out.

9 fools currently

It seems unlikely, but perhaps the afterimage is the spren associated with SkyBreakers.

I don't have an astronomy background, but I do have physics. And yes, a lot of stars, including our own, die by entering a red giant phase. Red is cooler in color than the blue end of the spectrum. So, are those just old stars (possible, Yolen is probably really old) or is something really killing them? In Liar of Partinel, there was an aether (which is kind of a spren/crystal?) that said it was possible to defeat the fain-life, but nobody had any idea how. That suggests it was not created by Adonalsium.

I really wanted it to be Self-Preservation. That would have been a good shard.

Then why would Hoid be interested in recreating Adonalsium? (assuming that is what he is doing) That would be suicide for the entire cosmere. The fain-life left humanity on Yolen hanging on the edge of survival.

I think it is important to notice The Red Rip / Taln's Scar or simply, The Scar on the star chart. We know Yolen has (or had) dragons and that the Scar constellation was a dragon. I think Yolen is in the Scar. We know that the fain-life on Yolen withstood even Adonalsium, pre-shattering. We know that the fain-life had killed gods (Hoid referred to Yolen as a place where gods died) and had killed most of the population, life and land. Perhaps it has even spread to the stars themselves. After all, if it can withstand Adonalsium, then what is really so hard about a solar inferno? I think the fain life is killing those stars, and whatever planets they have. It is spreading outward and Hoid knows it is just a matter of time. That is why he would even let a planet like Roshar die, because he thinks they are all dead, if he fails. I am not sure that chronologically earlier stories mention the Scar, or they don't make it sound as big. This is admittedly an argument from ignorance because there are very few references to the Scar. But the references we have are mostly later ones. This could also be a reason that Autonomy is acting so isolationist. The Scar is the fain-life killing stars, and expanding outward.

If the scar is where Yolen is, then the reason those stars are red might be the fain life. In other words, it isn't just infesting Yolen. It has over-taken an entire constellation, stars included. After all, if the fain life was sufficient to withstand Adolosium, then a solar inferno is easy. That really would give Hoid motivation to do what he must, because he knows it is a matter of time before it gets the rest of them as well.

A black hole does fit the data much better. For most stars, if they are putting off a significant amount of UV, then they are large, but that makes them easier to see.

Keep in mind, Splintered does not mean immediate death. We don't know how long they were around.

Book 5 will end with Odium being splintered... And madder than ever before. And if he is going to die, he is certainly planning on taking Roshar with him. And/or Book 10 will end with the man called Taln taking the shards of Honor & Odium and making a new composite shard. He may help out Harmony.

Oversleep - that tells us nothing. We know that Parshendi were not Radiants in the past, but we know they have a lot to do with spren. But we don't know anything about the Aimians one way or the other yet.

But where do the Aimians fit into all of this, and how do they, (besides just Axies the Collector) interact with or care about spren? What can they offer spren?

I was really hoping that shard would be Self-preservation. But just because if has a shardpool on the planet doesn't mean that it lives there, just that it visited here. It might be partly to keep people off its tail.

Perhaps it is a result of the investiture that he holds from the Shards he has collected. But if he has some Ruin or some Odium, then he could, because those things are consistent with that particular investiture.

Yata, that is a good question. I remember seeing it, but now that I try to put my finger on it, I don't remember exactly where. I am 99% certain it was the AU. And as for the light, investiture in Taldain is possible (you are correct), but it works much more naturally and elegantly if it is the sun.

I have wondered if Cultivation could help Nightblood either grow, or mature or be a little less dangerous. I would be interesting to have some character growth for the sword.

Considering clues from Arcanium this makes a lot of sense for the shard to be in the sun. That is really a brilliant place, if you are immortal and have more power than you know what to do with. It gives you maximum reach to other worlds as well, because you are a freaking star, as well as the ability to influence life on your world. It is where I would have picked. The magic seems tied to either sunlight or aurora, both would be solar in origin. It also explains why the sun hasn't killed them yet. A gravitationally locked planet is very hard to sustain life on, on the sunward side. The problem Harmony is having could also be an extended solar wind, provided the stars are probably less than a few hundred light years apart. It just takes the solar wind a while to get there. Or perhaps it is all the sunlight. Either way, entirely solar.