Lightspine

While I'm not convinced that the omission of Ishar's name means that he isn't a Bondsmith that Syl is referring to, I really like the idea that Tanavast was the original Bondsmith! I think that some of the times Syl says "a Bondsmith" might refer to Ishar, and some other times to Tanavast. Connecting the Heralds to Braize, giving them immortality, locking away the Fused sounds like Tanavast. Creating/discovering the Nahel bond sounds like Ishar.

I think the phrasing was a little weird, but it seems that Pewter is necessary for all Augmenter fabrials. Like, the painrial from Oathbringer used Pewter to cause pain and probably Tin (Pewter's counterpart) to suppress the pain of the wearer. Zinc and Brass control expression strength while Pewter determines what attribute is expressed. At least, that's my interpretation. Edit: @The_Truthwatcher seems to have the same idea and beat me to it by a minute.

So, something interesting popped out to me here about the fabrials. While this is mostly as we expected, one part of it is not—the unresponsiveness. At least, I had not expected it because the Oathgate spren we see in Oathbringer are very responsive. There are two things this unresponsiveness brings to mind: The Sibling, who is currently "asleep" Syl after she lost her first Radiant This brings up an interesting possibility. What if the unresponsiveness of the Soulcaster spren isn't a necessary part of their function? Perhaps more powerful fabrials, like the Oathgates and the one at the heart of Urithiru actually require that their spren are "awake," and the "sleeping" state of the Soulcaster spren is voluntary. Syl cannot be the only spren who went asleep after losing their Radiant. How does spren society handle these spren? Maybe these spren decide to "volunteer" to serve as fabrials. This could explain why the ancient Radiants didn't consider them unethical. (or at least, they used the Progression fabrial. That said, it's also possible that they did consider it unethical but the life-saving potential of this particular fabrial outweighed that for some of the Orders). (Edit: just realized that my reputation is now "Artifabrian". How timely!)

Seems possible, but a little out of left field. However, there's a few WoB's that you need to wrangle with: These two WoBs together seem to directly contradict your theory. There's a couple of other WoBs surrounding this subject that don't seem to point either way, however: That last one is interesting because he's contradicting his statement that Odium is on Roshar. However, I think that in the 2014 WoB he really meant the Rosharan system. If you really want to, I can see the argument that the 1st WoB is some sort of misdirection and Brandon is simply saying that Odium is the 3rd one at the present, not necessarily in the "3 of 16" from the past. If you then decide that his 2010 WoB refers to the planet Roshar and not the system then that opens the door to another shard. However, I think Honor, Cultivation, and Odium being the Three is the most reasonable interpretation of this. Edit: Also, not to criticize, but I find your grouping of the orders rather curious. Why aren't Elsecallers grouped with Ingenuity? Are Stonewards there just because the Sibling is probably a stone/mountain god spren? If we sort by ideology, I would have chosen Elsecaller, Willshaper, and Lightweaver to be the 3 associated with Ingenuity. Also, I think that the magic system of fabrials is something independent of the Shards. Spren seem to be the Focus for magic on Roshar, and we know that metals have their own spiritual properties cosmere-wide (WoB). Fabrials could be a natural consequence of these things colliding, which explains why they can be fueled by both stormlight and voidlight. If they were made by a Shard, I suspect they would require that Shard's investure to run.

Fair point! Trying to uplift Moash certainly seems to destroy his security instead. Ah, my bad, I should have checked. Thanks for the correction! I too am hoping to learn more in this department.

Heliodor's Essence is sinew, and it soulcasts meat and flesh, so maybe that's why it's good for an alerter fabrial that seeks out people? I mean, people are mostly flesh. For the others though, uhhh no idea.

For some reason, brain went directly to the spheres Lirin stole from Wistiow when I read the description of Renarin's light as diamond-like. Just spent a while flipping through Way of Kings to find this. Chapter 31 Kaladin flashback: (the townfolk confront Lirin asking for Wistiow's spheres) Note: the goblet is full of diamond broams. And from today's chapter: While there's a few parallels in how the light is described in these scenes, what I find most interesting is the contrast between the cold light of Lirin and the warm light of Renarin. I think this is at least partially intentional, especially since they both take place in Hearthstone. Brandon is making a literary comparison between how Lirin and Renarin ward away Kaladin's fears. Lirin's light is the cold confidence of the surgeon. He sees the truth with brutal objectivity, and it is his voice that tells Kaladin "Move on to someone you can help, his father seemed to say. This one is dead." There's nothing wrong with this worldview, but it's not what Kaladin needs. He's been hearing these words his whole life, but he's never been able to accept things the way that Lirin does. And that is because of how cold Lirin is, bordering on dispassionate—something that the parshwoman running Hearthstone notes as well. Lirin's cool composure is a turn-off for Kaladin, who sees his philosophy as uncaring. Lirin's light shines on the people of Hearthstone and makes them look foolish. It scolds them. What Kaladin needs is warmth and comfort. Where Lirin would chastise Kaladin for failing to "let go" and move on from failure, Kaladin needs somebody to hug him and tell him that it's okay to mess up. Renarin's light shines on Moash and Kaladin and reveals their stronger selves. It uplifts them.

My idea has always been a group of singers, back when they had whatever forms called them the Dawnsingers, working together (like the stormform regals do to summon the Everstorm). This is because the Dawncities were said to have been made by the Dawnsingers, and also the Listener songs about the Shattered Plains.

She didn't have to if the poisoned wine was the last one that Ialai drank, which she didn't offer to Shallan. But this means she wasn't trying to take down Shallan with her, so I'm not sure. The purpose of the other wines is a bit unclear, but the deep blue one which Ialai drinks before proffering the Horneater White to Shallan is clearly meant to represent Ialai herself or the Sadeas line as a whole. Having poison in it could mesh with the symbolism there.

True. Amaram wasn't my initial guess because of this, and I also think it's just straight up more interesting if she's talking about something that hasn't happened yet. Also, I somehow avoided writing anything about what Ialai calls the "rarest vintage." My gut reaction was that this is the blue at the end—since it's the last of its kind—but I'm reasonably certain that it represents Ialai and thus wouldn't make a lot of sense. Ialai says that the vintage is "exotic." I think she might mean it comes from off-world, and it represents Mraize. This is because Ialai seems to be trying to tell Shallan a secret about what the Ghostbloods are rather than the Sons of Honor: I'm not sure what the point would be of having a vintage from another world though. How would Shallan even identify it?

That's a great point! I hadn't considered Restares for the orange because I thought Ialai had a high opinion of him, but he certainly fits being "weak" and "powerless" better than Dalinar. Another idea I just had is that this is applying to Amaram. He's the best example we've seen yet of somebody who wants "to maintain appearances before others" but is eventually "revealed as a fraud." Ialai could be referring to herself as the more noble person who takes up Amaram's role.

So probably the most mystery-packed section of this chapter (beyond the fabrial stuff) is Ialai's wine talk. Let's see how it can be broken down. I'm going to start off a bit backwards and look at the last one first, just because of the implications it has: Because of this quote, I think each of Ialai's wines is supposed to represent a person. In my initial read, I thought that Ialai was trying to hint at Shallan's disguise with her clear and orange wines, but now I'm not so sure. I think it's valuable to consider other possibilities. So, let's start from the beginning now with the clear: Is this supposed to represent a person who was rescued from Alethkar? It is also somebody who Ialai admires as "sweet" and reminds her of Gavilar. My first thought is Gavinor, but I don't know how he fits the "Revealing what was truly inside" part. This is a person whose secrets have already been exposed, somebody who has become transparent. Could this apply to Restares? I believe that Ialai is taking a jab at Dalinar here, largely because of the phrase "his creation will be discarded in favor of a truly strong or noble vintage." This could fit really will if the previous wine represents Gavinor, who Ialai is claiming to support. This one is clear to me: the wine is Ialai herself. Or perhaps more broadly, the Sadeas family line. In this chapter, Ialai is clearly resigned to die. She sees it coming, even telling Shallan that “I won’t get to answer. They won’t let me.” This parallels the "After today, even this bit will be gone." Uh, not quite sure if I actually uncovered anything here. I just want to present the idea that each wine might be representing somebody.

We've been talking a lot about Allomantic connections but what popped out to me was this: I think it's strongly hinted that this fabrial is using brass somehow.

That's a really convincing idea that I didn't think of!. Even though we haven't seen any evidence pointing towards it, I won't be surprised if it's true. Nice theory!

I know of that WoB, but I don't think it means anything concrete since it also says "Investiture, matter, and energy are all the same thing in the cosmere." Just because it's investure doesn't mean it can't be matter too. So, if a bit of investure looks like obsidian and acts like obsidian, what's the difference between it and obsidian? I'm not saying there's no difference at all, I just don't think we know what that difference could be at the moment. That's why I said it's "debatable."

Hmmm, that's a little debatable. You're saying glassy stuff that makes up the ground in Shadesmar isn't obsidian, just something that looks like it? But what's the difference, really? I don't think we know for sure. But you have a good point, it's a bit of a leap to assume anything in Shadesmar is something so physical. I guess all we can say with confidence is that those crystals bear a resemblance to bismuth.

I'm almost positive those are supposed to be bismuth crystals: They've got the right kind of square shape and iridescence, but they normally don't get nearly that large. Bismuth forms larger crystals if it's cooled down more slowly. I'm pretty sure they can't get as big as we see on the cover naturally, perhaps it could be soulcast? Not sure if there's any significance to it.

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure. I just don't think the visual evidence points towards voidlight usage here, so I always assumed they have some sort of innate investure from the spren. In addition, we see both Eshonai and Venli's perspectives and they never seem to notice anything of that sort. But you make a good point that this might be adding unnecessary complexity. Fair enough, this definitely makes it possible.

Those guys are described as using a glowing red light. Not sure where they get the investure, but I suspect that each stormform singer is only weakly invested by the stormspren or whatever it is. Their red glow certainly isn't that of voidlight. As for forms of power mimicking surges, I believe that was specifically smokeform: I think it is heavily implied by the mention of the Unmade that this was the form granted to the Listeners by Ba Ado Mishram. We know from the Oathbringer epigraphs that: So, by my interpretation, Smokeform requires voidlight to produce surge-like powers and it is granted by Connection with Ba Ado Mishram. This Connection was also necessary to access voidlight. This also implies that either Odium or one of the Unmade must Connect with the singers in order to provide them with voidlight. The only part of this which confuses me is the "as Odium once did." This was written during the False Desolation, so it could mean that Odium provides voidlight for singers during true Desolations. Perhaps some forms of power do require voidlight. Stormform, however, seems not to.

I agree with you here, I just don't think this description matches up with hemalurgy. I'm a little confused by your theory now. Are you saying that the nicrosil allows storage of stormlight/voidlight because it can be used as a metalmind for investure, and that's how it blocks shardblades? Wouldn't that require a feruchemist? That makes a lot of sense! Seems achievable with a little soulcasting. That painrial idea is really frightening. Also, since you're not relying on the hemalurgy idea, they could be using an alloy of aluminum that's more physically robust. That could explain why it's not identified. Even if the tip gets damaged, it would still work since the "conducting" metal spans the length of the spear. Unless the tip is deformed in such a way that none of the conducting metal is at the surface, it should be fine.

Stormlight and voidlight are a little unique because, when an object is invested with one of them, there is a visible sign (glowing or sucking in light, respectively). In addition, I don't think an object that's invested enough to resist a shardblade would be viable as a hemalurgic spike. There might be a better WoB out there than this one, but it stands to reason that a sufficiently invested object would resist the investure of a hemalurgic charge and prevent a spiking from working right. I stand by what I said in the prior comment: if there's any hemalurgy going on here, then the metal must be either allomantically pure aluminum or duralumin. If we move away from the hemalurgy idea though, there's certainly plenty of other options.

Alright, that reddit comment I referenced yesterday actually got a reply! The Fused aren't supposed to bleed after being cut by shardblades, turns out it was just a couple of typos: I guess this is a little anticlimactic haha.

Maybe metal pressed against a gemstone as part of a fabrial is invested? We've never seen anybody try and destroy a fabrial using a shardblade. However, I'm just throwing that in as a possibility. Personally, I think that the metal is acting much like it does on Scadrial—as a focus, determining how the investure (stormlight or voidlight held in the fabrial) behaves without itself having investure. So I doubt that any fabrial could stop a shardblade, but it's definitely debatable. Aluminum alloys are certainly a candidate that can't be ruled out. However, unless it's duralumin, it won't actually work hemallurgically. All the metals required for the Metallic Arts need very specific composition. If your brass has the wrong ratios of copper and zinc, it won't even function properly. A nicrosil/aluminum alloy wouldn't have both the allomantic/feruchemical/hemallurgic properties of aluminum and nicrosil, but instead have neither property. But it would still block investure since it has aluminum. So, if we're trying to make it fit with hemalurgy, it has to be pure aluminum or duralumin. We haven't seen either of their hemalurgic uses in text, but the Coppermind says that aluminum "removes all powers" while duralumin "steels Connection and Identity." You could make an argument for either of these somehow interfering with the powers of a Radiant (since Nahel bonds function on Connection), but it's hard to see how they would drain the stormlight into the gemstone.

From what the Radiant was saying in that vision, I think the little spren was something corrupted by Sja-anat? But there could definitely be a connection. Your idea seems solid to me.

He used those in Chapter 4, but they aren't mentioned in Chapter 6. That's a neat idea!