Lightspine

I had not thought of it in that way. Thanks for pointing it out. I'm not sure about that now.

Right now I'm going to try and combine several cosmere religions and 2 theories recently proposed. The theories found are here: and here: First, the God Beyond. I believe he isn't Adonalsium, but rather the force that opposed Adonalsium and is still around. This is because of the word Beyond. The Beyond is the afterlife, the only place the shards of Adonalsium can't touch. If Adonalsium couldn't touch it either, it would be the only place where opposition to Adonalsium wouldn't be silenced. The theories above say, respectively, that the sun of the Cognitive Realm is the Great Beyond and Adonalsium's cognitive shadow. However, I am now combining those theories with Trelagism: where the sun is the eye of Nalt, Trell's brother, who opposed him. Nalt is the God Beyond, and Trell is Adonalsium. The sun is both the God Beyond and the Great Beyond (I'll explain why I think it's both shortly) Trelagism is a perversion of the truth where the sun of the Cognitive Realm has become the actual sun, and Adonalsium is worshiped, when I believe he was in fact evil. In his letter to Hoid, Frost says that bringing the touch and design of Adonalsium to the worlds Hoid visited brought pain. This could also explain why the Mistborn Era 2 Trellists were evil to some extent. In addition, the God Beyond is also who the Iriali call the One, who split himself so he/she (technically both?) could experience all things. Although this sounds like Adonalsium at first, the Iriali believe that he split himself into all the people alive, not 16 Shards. In Iriali belief, all experiences become the One's in the end. The end; death. Upon death, people's souls go to the Beyond. They re-join and become part of the One, the God Beyond, who is the same as the Great Beyond. People appear as flames in the Cognitive Realm because they are a small part of the God Beyond, who is the sun. The Vorin people believe that the afterlife is a battle, and it is, between the God Beyond and Adonalsium.

I know. That's why I said I was assuming it was a funeral.

Actually, in the graphic novel Kenton says that sand creatures who try to eat the watery vines don't die, their teeth dissolve. Though perhaps swallowing a human would cause a sandling to die, most sandlings might take a bite and realize their mistake.

I found some new facts that may support my theory while rereading Elantris. There is a sideways picture on the wall of the building leading to Devotion's shardpool depicting an Elantrian falling into the Pool. The other side of the pool was described as being dark, except for a "large white sphere." The Pool is a perpendicularity into the Cognitive Realm, and the Elantrian was (supposedly) being thrown in as part of a funeral. That means the depicted sphere is the sun of the Cognitive Realm, and it may represent the afterlife. (Assuming of course that the picture showed a funeral). Remember that even the pre-Reod Elantrians likely had a grasp of realmatics.

The wavelength depends on the amount of heat. Room temperature objects glow in the infrared, yes.

Wait, if Shallan can manipulate any wave-particle dualities then she can also manipulate electrons. Which means... MAGNETO! Jk manipulating electrons would allow you to control waayyyy more than just metal. For example, you could literally tear apart any chemical bonds, turning anything into a mush of atoms. In fact, if you were enough of a chemist, you could reform those bonds into anything you like. You could turn a human into a tree.

As mentioned above, using an unkeyed nicrosil metalmind seems as if it can convert between forms of investure. A radiant could fill it with stormlight and a Nalthisian would draw Breaths from it. On a side note, it doesn't seem that Breaths use their own investure to awaken things, as they are never used up. It seems that they are more similar to an allomantic metal, as a focus that allows energy to be drawn from the Endowment. Unlike metal though, it still contains investure so I find that confusing. Also, would an Elantrian have to draw an Aon to be able to draw investure from an unkeyed nicromind?

A joule is defined to be a kilogram times meter squared per second squared, aka the amount of energy to accelerate a one kilogram object at one meter per second squared over a distance of one meter. So all you need is a windrunner or skybreaker to lash an object of a known mass at a known constant of acceleration (one lashing would have a constant of 0.7 x 9.8 = 6.86 meters per second squared) with a known amount of stormlight, measure how far the object goes before the stormlight runs out and it stops accelerating, and bam you can calculate joules.

Elantrians can disguise themselves and others in what is basically lightweaving. And the excerpt is read aloud here:

So an earlier theory said that Dalinar's wife could be Vivenna, but her description doesn't match at all. I thought a bit about people who could match her description, and came up with Sarene, from Elantris. Both Dalinar's wife and Sarene are described as tall and blonde haired. Both Navani and Ialai say that she is dull-witted, and playing dumb is one of Sarene's favorite tricks. In addition, Dalinar's wife is left handed, and while I couldn't find anything about Sarene's preferred hand in the text, the french cover for Elantris shows Sarene holding her syre in her left hand. I found this more credible than the fanart I also found with the syre in her right hand. Though this theory is still obviously far-fetched, I feel Sarene matches the descriptions much better than anybody else. This next thought, however, might seem even more crazy: Dalinar sees an Elantrian in the highstorm, not a voidbringer. I am referring to the chapter that Brandon read aloud, the same one where Dalinar's wife is introduced. While in the highstorm, Dalinar sees a "gargantuan" figure from a distance, striding on "spindly, luminous legs." It seems to attack Dalinar by throwing a gust of wind and a boulder at him. Dalinar gives it a rude gesture and steps back inside. This seems to clearly be a stormform Parshendi, right? Except it doesn't make any sense chronologically. This happened twenty years before the Parshendi were found by the Alethi, and Gavilar hadn't started receiving visions yet. It completely defies reason for an actual Parshendi to be in the middle of Gavilar's army camp at that time. Unless it wasn't a Parshendi. Look at the description again. There is no mention of what color the light is, so that is no indication. However, it seems to be glowing too brightly to be a Stormform. Though some parts of its description match what Kaladin sees during the highstorm with Shallan, it is described as far more bright. (Kaladin says he sees shadowy figures in the storm). Stormform Parshendi glow along lines on there bodies, but the aren't exactly luminous, like the Elantrians are. What's more, it doesn't seem interested in attacking Dalinar. After the boulder is tossed, it does no more, and doesn't try to throw lightning, allowing Dalinar to go back inside peacefully. A voidbringer wouldn't allow somebody to see it and live. You're probably wondering why, if the being was a peaceful Elantrian, it seemed to attack Dalinar in the first place, and how it did so. However, we have seen Elantrians create blasts of wind. When they teleport using Aon Tia. The "attack" was a total accident, caused when the Elantrian appeared there. The wind coming from it also picked up and threw the boulder. I get that the second part seems extremely far-fetched, but I believe there was something fishy with the "voidbringer" Dalinar saw, even though I don't buy the theory completely myself.

Cool! Didn't know that.

This entire post is based on the assumption that Sanderson is extremely thorough when it comes to the science and mechanics of his world. It is based off of two discrepancies: 1). the skin color of the Taldainians and 2). sandlings eat people. 1). Skin color is typically determined by exposure to sunlight. So why is it that daysiders are light skinned while darksiders have dark skin? It seems as though some time in recent geological history, recent enough that the genes of the Taldainian's haven't adapted to their exposure to sunlight, the sides of Taldain that were day and night were suddenly swapped, there was a mass migration where humans from one side moved to the other, or Autonomy created/brought humans to Taldain and placed the humans the way they are as of the time of the graphic novel. I find the last one most likely because of: 2). Sandlings and other sand creatures have carapace that dissolves in contact with water. Because of this, they can't eat vines in the ground which store it, because it melts there mouths. However, the deep sandling in the Mastrell's path tries to eat the people who come near, even though people aren't exactly dry. This must mean that the sandlings haven't learned not to eat people yet. Sandlings live extremely long lives, as the Mastrells say the one on the Path has been there for centuries. Animals can learn behaviors from prior generations, such as avoiding places or food. This shouldn't take nearly as long as genetic adaptations, but it will still take a few generations. That means the humans of Taldain haven't been in contact with the sandlings for more than a few of a sandling's life cycles. Even if those are hundreds of years, humans have only been on Taldain for at most a couple thousand.

Wait, doesn't that support my theory? Only the mind goes to the Beyond- upon death all bonds are broken (as happened to Szeth) so it would make sense that the Beyond is only visible from the cognitive realm.

Okay, that description makes sense. I hadn't read secret history yet.

Not exactly. The spheres in the cognitive realm are the cognitive aspects of the physical objects. They're part of the cognitive realm. Are you talking about something else j don't know of?

So far, we know almost nothing about the spiritual realm. Some people speculate that it appears as the sun in the cognitive realm, and we know that the Shards exist mainly in the spiritual realm. We also know people have "spiritwebs" and "spiritual DNA" which exist in the spiritual realm. Anyway, I was just reading the Way of Kings for what is maybe the fourth or fith time, when I reached the second to last chapter and actually gave thought about the place described by Dalinar at the start of his vision: "The sky was dark and he stood on a field of dull, bone-white rock, jagged and rough, extending in all directions. Off into eternity. Amorphous shapes made of curling grey smoke rose from the ground. Like smoke rings, only in other shapes. Here a chair. There a rockbud, with vines extended, curling to the skies and vanishing. Beside him appeared the figure of a man in a uniform, silent and vaporous, rising lethargically toward the sky, mouth open. The shapes melted and distorted as they climbed higher, though they seemed to hold their forms longer than they should." I haven't been on this site for that long, so this may have been pointed out before, but what if that was the spiritual realm? It seems completely different from any place previously described, and the figure in the uniform seems to be Dalinar. The smokey shapes may be the spiritwebs of nearby objects. In addition, Tanavast speaks to Dalinar and his voice comes from all directions. That could mean that Dalinar is surrounded by Tanavast, and we know that Shards exist mainly in the spiritual realm. I know there is barely any evidence for this but it seems like the best thing we have so far that could be the spiritual realm.

Wouldn't the cognitive realm be visible from the physical too then?

I feel that the "sparks of life" would be located with the minds of the people, not way up in the sky. The Cognitive Realm's appearance is based off its perception, after all, and I don't see why people would imagine the energy that gives them life high up there. It wouldn't be a bad location for the afterlife, however. (Forgot to make that point earlier).

I recently read this post about the "sun" in the Cognitive Realm and it got me thinking about what it could be: As far as I know, it has been proposed to be the cognitive shadow of Adonalsium (as explained in the above link) and the Spiritual Realm (not sure where this got started, but a commenter on the post above mentioned it). For those who don't know this topic, minds in the Cognitive Realm appear as flames, and smaller ones are weaker flames (as shown when Shallan visits Shadesmar to soulcast her ship). The "sun" of Shadesmar has been theorized to be an extremely large mind, but it could also be a massive collection of smaller minds. My theory is that the "sun" is actually the Beyond: the place souls go after they die, viewed from the Cognitive Realm. Upon death, it is known that a person's spirit visits the Cognitive Realm before moving on to the Beyond. That seems strange, unless the path to the Beyond is in the Cognitive Realm (this is also nicely illustrated by the "corridor" of clouds). This would make the "sun" a mind-numbingly huge collection of souls, the spirits of every thinking creature to have ever died, which would manifest as an enormous gathering of flame in the Cognitive Realm. Another thing backing this up is that Harmony can't touch the Beyond. In a released chapter from Jasnah's point of view after faking her death (read it here http://www.tor.com/2014/08/06/stormlight-archive-scene-after-words-of-radiance/) she can't touch the flames around her: they resist her, and block her influence. The Beyond, with it's colossal number of souls, might have enough resistance to block even the power of Harmony.

Not exactly the same. A cognitive shadow is sort of like the cosmere version of a ghost, a spirit that stays in the cognitive realm instead of moving on to the Great Beyond. Splinters are small pieces of a Shard's energy (but is different from investure, splinters are more a part of the shard. On Nalthis, for example, Divine breaths are splinters but normal breaths are a form of investure). Spren are splinters.

Thanks for the input! I appreciate you explaining the philosophies, I wrote my post based almost entirely on memory. I agree that not all of them conflict with the first ideal, but ones following it are suspiciously lacking. I just assumed they were Vorin as well. It wasn't a far fetched assumption, but I thought there was evidence behind it, thanks for clarifying there isn't. And also for clarifying that bit about the stormlight.

Strategically, giving two different shardblades to two different people would be more effective than giving them both to a single person.

Thanks for the correction! I also forgot to point out that stormlight being the power source for the Heralds and Radiants also makes sense. Honor made his Heralds completely immune to Odium's influence, and the spren copied him and made his knights the same.

I have a theory that I believe is new about the Hierocracy and how stormlight ties into the story. The theory about the Hierocracy arose when I noticed a discrepancy in Dalinar's visions. In them, Honor shows Dalinar the Radiants, the Recreance, and a few of the ancient threats: the Midnight Essence and Thunderclasts. But, he doesn't show Dalinar the Voidbringers. The Voidbringers were likely the largest threat to humanity, as they were remembered while other threats, such as Thunderclasts and especially the Midnight Essence, were forgotten. It seemed baffling at first that Honor would leave them out of the visions. (This is a discrepancy that I want to fix with my theory. If you disagree with my theory, that's fine, but I want you to fix this another way) There seemed to only be one reason why Honor would leave out the Voidbringers, and it's that he expected them to be remembered much better than they were. He believed that the modern Rosharians would know that the Parshmen were Voidbringers. However, he knew that information would be lost, which was why he made the visions. I can't bring up the quote, but in the final vision to Dalinar in WoK Honor makes it plain that he knows the Rosharians had began fighting among themselves, and they's forgotten who the real enemy is. Honor had anticipated this. What type of event could have caused information to be lost much quiker than expected?... oh wait. I believe that Odium brought the Hierocracy to foil Honor's preparations. Odium is likely able to whisper into people's minds, and could have used this power to make the priests take over. He guided them to destroy and change information about the Shadowdays. He also made them alter the Vorin philosophies. The one time these Philosophies have been analyzed in detail is after Jasnah kills the 4 thugs in the alley, and asks Shallan to decide if it was justified. Shallan lists the Philosophies, and explains how all of them in some way support the notion that one can perform ill deeds if they have good intentions. The Vorin teachings seem to be the exact opposite of the philosphies of the Knights Radiant. I'd now like to tie in stormlight to all this. It seems and odd choice for Honor. The Stormfather is a cognitive shadow of Honor (I think that was a WoB), so it seems that Honor's dying act was to perpetually distribute stormlight throughout the land. However, that may serve a purpose. On Scadrial, Ruin couldn't see metal, because it was a focus for energy. It might not be far fetched to say that Odium cannot see or influence things with Stormlight. By distributing it to the people of Roshar, Honor may have shielded them from Odium's influence. This was likely not enough, gemstones to hold stormlight were probably uncommon immediately after the Shadowdays, seeing how destitute the people seemed after Aharietiam. It seems unlikely that they were used as currency that far back. My theory is that Sunmaker was the one who introduced that. Perhaps he was an agent of Cultivation, and she used him to end the Hierocracy and make gemstones so widespread nothing like it could happen again.