Lightspine

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!

On a serious note, maybe he actually is subconsciously unwilling to kill in general—not just because it's Leshwi, but the same reason he spared that other Fused. He's tired of violence that goes nowhere. So it's causing Syl to behave like Wyndle when she becomes a weapon. Because of how the fight is described, I think this is less likely than the dull-blade theory. But not impossible.

Possible, it's a good idea and it could certainly explain what we see. Just seems... like a really weird decision. All the Kaleshwi shipping is making me tempted to suggest that Kaladin subconciously doesn't want to kill Leshwi and is dulling his weapon on accident.

Uh, in the quote I just gave, "the cut" and the "slice" are both referring to the same wound. But about the heart of your point, I agree that a shardblade doesn't disable a limb unless it goes deep enough to sever the center of the limb. (or the nerves? Since severing the spine kills you. But how much is it anatomy and how much is it shaped by perception?) But a shardblade injury that only scrapes the surface of a limb shouldn't leave a cut there, just limp flesh. Anyway, most of my confusion comes from the blood in chapter 6. Nobody spoke up about anything weird in this department last week because last week's chapters didn't give any real evidence that the shardblades were leaving physical wounds, just some vague language. I wouldn't have been discussing this at all if those passages were all we had to go off of. But I think Leshwi's bleeding is pretty much inarguably caused by Syl. The only conclusions I can come to is that either: The less skilled Fused wasn't bleeding but Leshwi is. (I don't like this idea) Somehow the shardblades both leave bleeding wounds (like we see with Leshwi) and will disable if they hit the core of the limb (like the other Fused from Chapter 4). Edit: Anyway, I went over to reddit in hopes that somebody had asked Brandon about this already. Turns out someone has, but he hasn't responded yet, so will be keeping tabs on this comment:

I took a look back at chapters 4&5 to see if I could spot anything about shardblade cuts bleeding. When Kaladin's fighting the less skilled Fused, he mentions this at the end of the battle: So, sounds like it's behaving like normal right? Except that before this moment, a lot of the language about how Syl is effecting the Fused is kind of odd. For example: Kaladin keeps referring to the injuries as cuts throughout these passages (there's some other instances beyond this quote), and also says he scores a slice. That's not language that's often associated with shardblades, is it? I honestly have no idea what's going on anymore. I think @Karger is being a little swift to dismiss the bleeding in chapter 6 given how it is framed in the text, but I completely understand his skepticism.

I don't think that's what the text implies here. Kaladin doesn't notice any injuries on her before this, and the last quote comes right after he cut her twice. It would be a very weird choice on Brandon's part if he wasn't referring to the wounds that Kaladin had just inflicted. Plus, Sigzil was also using a shardspear in this chapter, so if you're correct then it was a different windrunner who did it. I doubt it.

Turns out I actually missed this, but she was bleeding before that too: This is very, very strange. Since it's been written twice, I'm lead to believe that it isn't an error. Maybe the fact that the Singer who originally owned the body is dead means the shardblade treats the Fused's body like a dead body?

Wait, was this a small mistake? Why is Leshwi bleeding when all her wounds were inflicted by Syl? Do shardblades interact differently with Fused?

From the new chapter this week: I think this heavily implies that the Fused are doing this same thing all the time, exactly in line with my theory! Got me really excited.

I agree that the grapple could be pretty risky. A weighted net would be kind of unwieldy, especially if it's heavy enough to drag down on a Fused. The Windrunner would have to lash the weights of the net with them as they fly. Not impossible, just very inconvenient. Maybe instead of relying on weight, this would be a great place to apply adhesion? I'm pretty sure Szeth was able to put a full lashing and a basic lashing on the same table while he was killing the king of Jah Keved, so it should be possible to make the net sticky as well as lashing it at an enemy. That would basically make the net behave more like a spiderweb, sticking to the Fused whenever it makes contact and probably getting them hopelessly tangled.

I saw somebody on a different post say that darts probably won't be much more than a nuisance for Fused, since they can heal. So I have an alternative idea: grappling hooks! Have some sort of a hook attached to a rope. If you can snag a Fused, you get a massive advantage, especially since their only edge is their mobility. If you have them on a leash, you can reel them in and make that advantage void (hehe). Also, this might sound ridiculous but maybe something like a wingsuit? Kaladin describes how changing course by using wind resistance allows for more elegance and precision flying. Exactly what a wingsuit could enhance. Having some sort of flaps to catch the wind might slow you down, but it would also make it easier to turn sharply/control the direction of your flight. In short, it could help them move more like the Fused. Edit: just noticed another commenter thought of wingsuits first.

I was about to make a post about this very same theory until I saw this post, so I have a variation on it that I hope you find welcome: While abandoning the tower and talking about the withdrawal of the Sibling, a Radiant records this in a Zircon: I was going to propose in my post that the Stormfather was responsible for the increased pressure of Urithiru. After all, he's sort of a "wind god" and it doesn't make sense for a "stone god" to be able to do this. This could explain why the pressure is still there even if the Sibling has withdrawn. In the Horneater Peak's story, the spren of the mountains specifically aids the Horneaters by providing heat to the mountaintops, so I believe the Sibling specifically had responsibility for keeping the tower warm. As for the Nightwatcher, I would like to point to the map. For some reason, I haven't seen any discussion about this, but the map at the front of Oathbringer includes the location of Urithiru and it is right above the Valley of the Nightwatcher. We know that the Valley is absolutely overgrown and fertile, so I think that this effect extends to the tower. The only reason it's not bursting with plants right now is that it's too cold for them—I believe this is specifically what the characters in the book say about why they can't get stuff to grow—so once the Sibling's heating is back, I think the Nightwatcher's proximity is going to make those gardens extra productive.

You've brought up similar points about Chemoarish as I did in this theory several weeks back. I would have assumed you'd seen my post already, but if you have, you missed the edit I made at the end: Basically, I postulated that the "Dustmother" title could come from confusion between the names "Chemoarish" and "Chanarach," the patron Herald of the Dustbringers—and also the most misunderstood/dislike order of Radiants. When I read the start of your theory, I was completely expecting you to point the finger at Chanarach as the Herald you believed to have become Chemoarish. Even though I'm not entirely sold on this theory, I just realized that Chanarach is also one of the Heralds that is most absent, so I'll do a breakdown for the whereabouts of the Heralds similar to the one I previously gave the Unmade: Jezrien: the begger Ahu, seen multiple times by multiple characters (Szeth, Dalinar, Moash) and killed by Moash. Nale: leading the Skybreakers, killing Radiants, just defected to Odium. Chanarach: status unknown Vedel: status unknown Pailiah: appeared once in the Palaneum (WoB) Shalash: destroying depictions of herself. Captured by Jasnah at end of Oathbringer Battar: Taravangian thinks she is Dova, one of the Diagramists. Kalak: talking with Nale the night of Gavilar's assassination. Talenel: came to Kholinar at the end of WoK, currently captured with Shalash by Jasnah. Ishar: God-Priest of Tukar Wow, Chanarach and Vedel do both seem to be conspicuously missing, much as Chemoarish is (as I said, my post linked above has a similar list of what we know about each Unmade).