Lightspine

I've started a reread of Oathbringer in anticipation for Rhythm of War, and just thought I'd spend way too long dissecting like one line that Pattern says. So, at the beginning of Chapter 40 of Oathbringer we have a letter sent to Shallan by the Ghostbloods explaining stuff about the Sons of Honor and the Skybreakers. After we get to read the letter, (on page 422 of the hardcover) Pattern drops this: Now, I know Pattern likes to drop the word "lies" in a crap ton of places that most of us wouldn't, and I don't believe that he's some sort of lie detector who will 100% always know when a lie is there. However, I do believe that the Branderson pays very, very deep attention to his writing and that he may have dropped this line as a flag to this reader, like "Hey, this thing is written by the Ghostbloods, and they have no reason to tell the whole truth to Shallan: just enough of the truth to keep her hooked and convinced that they have information she doesn't. Take the cue." Well, do I think there is any hard, textual evidence that this letter is a bit cremmy? Yes, but let's work it all out. Yes, I'm going to call it "crem" instead of "BS," just live with it. Here's the outline of the points that the letter made: Besides the Ghostbloods, there are (at least) two other secret societies: the Sons of Honor and the Skybreakers. Gavilar and Amaram were members of the Sons of Honor. The Sons of Honor sought to return the Desolation in order to strengthen the Vorin church, and this lead to Gavilar's assassination (although others also wanted him dead). The Skybreakers, lead by Nale, did not betray their oaths and have persisted since the Recreance. Nale kills those who are on the verge of becoming Radiants, or sends his Skybreakers/acolytes to do so because he fears new Radiants will lead to a new Desolation. (Alternatively, he turns them into Skybreakers if they are properly aligned) Shallan's mother was associated with the Skybreakers, who may have detected a budding Radiant in her household. This lead to her attempt to murder Shallan. However, the Skybreakers ended up believing this Helaran was the one bonding a spren. Helaran was sent to kill Amaram because of his affiliation with the Sons of Honor. The Skybreakers knew about a member of Amaram's army about to bond a spren, and this person was "eliminated." Kaladin was unknown to them, because otherwise he'd be dead. Now, let's sift through these 5 points and see if we find any crem. Point 1: No crem detected. This pretty much confirms what we see from Amaram's chapter in Words of Radiance about the Sons of Honor, and what Szeth sees later on in Oathbringer. The reference to others wanting Gavilar dead makes sense when you remember his last words about Sadeas and Thaidakar. I might modify the "vorin" bit just because Gavilar seems very cosmere-aware and less religious than just plain power hungry but otherwise this seems accurate. Point 2: No crem detected. We've seen this happen multiple times, and heard Nale's monologue. Point 3: Probably some crem. Some stuff isn't adding up here. Shallan's mom clearly knew that Shallan was the Radiant, so why would the Skybreakers suddenly decide that it's Helaran? They do not explain how Shallan's mother knows about Shallan's bond while the rest of the Skybreakers do not, and this looks like a major hole in the Ghostblood's story. At the very least, they are leaving out some details about either Shallan's mother or Helaran's affiliation. (warning: very minor spoiler for the Rhythm of War Prologue, which Brandon has read online.) Point 4: This is where my crem alarm went off. Let's think this one through. At first glance, the Skybreakers and the Sons of Honor have obvious opposing ideals and it's easy to buy that the Skybreakers would assassinate one of the Sons of Honor. But let's take a closer inspection and see if we've read any hard evidence of these two groups fighting. No. In fact, we've seen the opposite. Let's also look, again, at what Gavilar says as he's dying. He thinks he's been assassinated by either Sadeas or Thaidakar, not by the Skybreakers. Despite the fact that his assassin can STORMING FLY. Throughout his entire battle with Gavilar, Szeth only uses his surge of Gravitation. (okay tbh I'm not rereading to check but I'm pretty darn sure Szeth doesn't try to stick stuff to Gavilar with Adhesion, and also Decay probably wouldn't work against Shardplate so Gavilar has no reason not to believe he's using Skybreaker surges). The fact that Gavilar doesn't think his FLYING, GLOWING assassin is a Skybreaker would be simply ridiculous if he knew that they opposed him. (I'm also assuming Gavilar knows about the Skybreakers from his conversation with Nale). Well, you might say that we're now talking about Gavilar when we should really be talking about Amaram. That's a fair point, so let's look a the timing and execution here. First of all, why now? The Sons of Honor don't seem to have had much of a plan following Gavilar's assassination, besides the extensive mapping of the Shattered Plains which Amaram is caught conducting by Shallan. But at this point in time, Amaram isn't in the Shattered Plains at all: he's fighting some random skirmishes in the middle of Alethkar. Why would they Skybreakers kill him now, when they left him alone when the Sons of Honor were on the verge of success during the night of Gavilar's death, and when he actually decided to go to the Plains later? The execution is also, like, really weird. The Ghostbloods claim that Helaran was sent to kill Amaram as a test, but it's hardly a test of skill for a full Shardbearer to take down a plain warrior. If this is a test, it's a wimpy one. And after Helaran's failure, why not send another assassin? Yes, Amaram is a bit beefier as a full shardbearer now but we clearly see Szeth, who is weaker than a 3rd oath Windrunner, best multiple full shardbearers (using mostly gravitation, I might add) and we know there are 3rd and 4th ideal Skybreakers along with 5th ideal Nale. Any of these guys could easily wallop Amaram's not-so-sorry chull straight to Braize. The only argument you might make is that it would attract a ton of attention, but guess who's flying around murdering full shardbearers at the time? Szeth would be the perfect cover story: if the Skybreakers assassinated Amaram at any point during the first two books, it would have been pinned on Szeth, no questions asked. What an unfathomably stupid opportunity to ignore. Also, much like Gavilar, Amaram thinks Thaidakar is to blame (although Amaram may not know of the Skybreakers). I simply cannot buy that the Skybreakers want Amaram dead. But wait, how does this make any sense? These two groups are blatantly opposed in intention. My best guess is that Nale would kinda like being revered as who he is and be able to enforce the law, and that he's fine with Radiants and a Desolation as long as he's in charge of directing the events—hence his collaboration with Gavilar. Point 5: Possible crem. The proto-radiant mentioned here seems to be Tien, and he does die. So why am I calling out some crem? Because of all the crem in point 4. If Helaran wasn't sent to kill Amaram, why was he there? How could they have noticed Tien, but not Kaladin? I think that Helaran WAS sent to kill Kaladin, and that his attack on Amaram was a tactic to draw Kaladin out. They're on a massive battlefield, and it's not really easy to pin down where one random soldier might be. But if you know they've got the ideals of a Windrunner, you know that they're sure as hell going to run to protect their commanding officer. Kaladin hasn't committed any crimes (even petty ones) that they could pin on him, so they had to kill him in a battle since that's not really illegal I guess? Meanwhile, the Ghostbloods don't tell Shallan about this so they can claim that the Skybreakers want to kill the Sons of Honor. As for why Kaladin wasn't killed by the Skybreakers while he was a slave, I think Amaram's cover-up may have actually worked. The Skybreakers assumed that Helaran's mission was accomplished (and that Amaram killed him) after they were unable to detect any further radiant activity from the area. At the very least, I think this is easier to explain than all the problems with Point 4. So, what's the point? If my analysis is correct, it seems like the Ghostbloods are trying to frame the Skybreakers for actions against the Sons of Honor. Conspicuously missing from the letter is any mention of where the Ghostbloods themselves stand on this conflict. We know that both Gavilar and Amaram think Thaidakar wants to murder them, and that Thaidakar is connected to the Ghostbloods. Why not tell Shallan that the Ghostbloods are in conflict with the Sons of Honor? Shallan is ideologically opposed to the Sons so it would even make sense for the Ghostbloods to make the case that they don't like each other. This seems like a glaring detail to omit. Personally, I think that the reason the Ghostbloods and Sons of Honor are in conflict is something pretty nefarious that they aren't willing to reveal, and that they thus want to paint as much antagonism as possible on both the Skybreakers and the Sons so that Shallan doesn't hate the Ghostbloods even more. So, that's been my absurdly long analysis stemming from a single sentence uttered by Pattern. Yup. There ya go. I'd like to hear everybody's thoughts, and feel free to murder me with words if you disagree with my breakdown. Edit: forgot to include this mini-theory originally Mraize's phrasing about Tien's death is interesting. The exact quote is "From our spying upon the Skybreakers, we have records showing the only member of Amaram's army to have bonded a spren was long since eliminated." Eliminated. Maybe I'm being a bit paranoid, but should we just believe the Skybreakers knew of Tien, yet did nothing? Tien's completely innocent of any crimes, so it protects him from their direct assassination but I wouldn't put it against the Skybreakers to pull a few strings and make sure a messenger boy winds up on the front lines of combat. If this mini-theory is true, then it has pretty big implications about how Kaladin might react towards the Skybreakers if he ever find this out.

OOoooh, I didn't consider the planets around Threnody to be possible candidates as well. Good thinking!

(Sorry if this thread has already begun elsewhere and I just haven't spotted it since I didn't see this WoB until now) So, my first thought upon seeing this WoB was that it was something like Sel?? You could construe the Dor to be the "corpse" of two shards. However, it's in the coginitive realm and I'm not sure if that counts as "on" the planet. Furthermore, Brandon seems to refer to *a* god and not two, so the Dor doesn't quite fit. Thinking about more planets which we actually know, could one say that Roshar has Honor's corpse? I would call cognitive shadows "ghosts" rather than corpses, so the Stormfather doesn't fit the definition for me, but maybe from a different interpretation it does. Or just all the investure he left behind could count. Next up, Threnody? Bits of Ambition landed on here after they died right? I'd say this is the most probably option out of the planets that we know to be what Brandon is referring to here. Of course, Brandon is likely to be talking about a planet which we don't know, so either there's been some more shard deaths and one of them left behind some sort of corpse or: I automatically assumed that "god" means "shard" but what if he's referring to Adonalsium? Is his "corpse" somehow lying around on a planet (maybe Yolen?)? What would his corpse be? His investure is now the shards so there's no Dor situation going on wherever he died (probably), but does this mean he had a body in the physical realm? Sort of like Vin's and Ati's bodies appearing after they died? A cognitive shadow (though, as I said, I wouldn't call this a corpse)? Seriously, does anybody have a good idea about what Brandon is referring to here? My bet is on Threnody or a brand new planet.

Thanks!! Yeah, I realized after posting this that I didn't discuss AT ALL how M-Bot could have transferred himself to a new computer at the end of Starsight, which puts a pretty big hole into my theory that he is a Figment. The rest of the stuff I discussed still holds though.

I haven't found a thread about this yet but I've seen several comments about a connection between AI and figments, so I'm probably not singular in thinking this. M-Bot certainly has some connections to figments. Whether or not he IS one... well that might be a stretch, but let's look at the details first. I'm also running through several *other* theories I haven't seen discussed, but I think are relevant so let's go (long post ahead): M-Bot has some Figment Technology: Multiple characters, including Cuna and Vapor, have talked about an alliance between humans and figments, and heavily implied that the technology that MBot is equipped with is largely figment in origin. Here's some quotes: Cuna: Vapor: Now, the connecting thread between these two things is obviously the holograms that M-Bot has access to. This specific technology was almost definitely invented from figments—I don't think anybody can argue that the evidence doesn't point towards it—but what about the other stuff on M-Bot? How much of MBot's tech is figment in origin? All of it? We know that M-Bot's performance is greater than the interceptors provided by the Superiority (Spensa comments on this). Are the better GravCaps on M-Bot also a figment invention? Or the atmospheric scoops that allow Spensa to ignore a lot of wind resistance issues? M-Bot Uses Cytonic Computing? Most importantly, what about M-Bot himself? Are incredibly advanced AI's a creation of the figments? And M-Bot isn't just self-aware, he has amazing decryption abilities, and (I'm no computer scientist so I can't really say this for sure) but he might be exceeding the limits of classical computing? Modern encryption keys aren't even breakable by supercomputers in any reasonable amount of time and I don't think that the encryption used throughout the galaxy in Starsight is supposed to somehow be weaker than ours. Is M-Bot some type of quantum computer? For this bit, I don't think it's a stretch to suspect that M-Bot's processing speed comes from some sort of cytonic technology. He said the hologram bracelet that Spensa wears would normally have incorporated FTL communication in it, and at the end of the book his thinking is incredibly sluggish until they near the door to the... other place (is there a name we have in this community for it?). If his processing is cytonic, it could mean that his calculations per second are literally infinite, no longer constrained by the rate of flow of electrons. Please correct me if you have actual computer expertise, but I think that this would easily explain his ability to break through encryptions so easily: as long as it is possible to decrypt, even if it would take a classical supercomputer millions of years, M-Bot can do it in (literally) zero time. Why Figments? First of all, I had to wonder why the figment's technology is the most advanced. Are they the most intelligent species in the galaxy? Or perhaps their capability to inhabit and manipulate electrical devices allows them to have a more intimate understanding of them, or even the ability to assemble them with precision: making them more compact, efficient, and sleek. After all, the holograms, gravcaps, and atmospheric scoops on M-Bot aren't altogether new devices, just smaller and/or more effective versions of technology that other people in the galaxy have access to. Perhaps there's nothing fundamentally new about them, and their improvements arise from the unique assembly process that a figment is able to perform. This, however, explains nothing about the AI on M-Bot. He is clearly more than a more efficient version of other computers. Some Weird Details Okay, one final thing before I put everything together: How do figments die?? M-Bot mentions that "many died in the human wars" (Pg 203), but we see Vapor survive, like, a lot. M-Bot clearly states they can survive in the vacuum of space, and Vapor clearly does so. More impressively, Vapor survived after the drone who she was inhabiting was destroyed by Brade—so her particulates were not damaged by the destructor fire. Vapor also seems to be very, very old (which would also make sense because M-Bot mentions on Pg 203 that they reproduce rarely: slower reproduction are very closely correlated to longer lifespan. Just look at the greenland shark.) and has memories of previous delver attacks (please correct me if I'm wrong, I can't remember where she said this and didn't want to look through the whole book searching for it.) So, if figments are functionally immortal, what gives? How did so many of them die? Second weird detail: Cuna mentions that the figments and humans had an alliance during the "first war." I think she means the first out of the three human conquests. But what about after? Were they no longer allies during the second and third conflicts, and why? Tying it Together Perhaps M-Bot is a figment, one that has been captured by humans and had its memories wiped. But why would they do this? I think there's a compelling case to be made for the many advantages this provides. First of all, there's some parallelism to be drawn between M-Bot and figments both being extremely good at stealth and espionage, but that's mostly fluff and not a real argument. The most obvious reason to want a figment running your computer is its sapience. Although M-Bot begins the first book claiming his "personality" is really just a front put up by his "subroutines," he shows in Starsight that he certainly has one, while also making a case in Skyward that appearing to have a personality has several benefits, such as making the user experience more natural and comfortable. However, the humans who made M-Bot clearly wanted to keep his sapience in check. They wanted him to believe that he wasn't a true sentient being, and limited his autonomy. Why? To me, this strengthens the idea that his artificial intelligence isn't artificial at all, but rather it is true intelligence that has been forced to serve as a computer. And it points to a different reason for using figments than simply having a computer that talks: cytonics. Now, we haven't met a figment with cytonic capabilities, but it's not a stretch to believe that they either exist or existed, so let's focus for now on M-Bot. A previous post by "The traveller" (link here: ) has pointed out that M-Bot seems to have the "buzz" that cytonics are able to feel when they are near each other, although it is slight. In addition, as I pointed out above, M-Bot's incredible ability to crack encryption does not seem to fall in the realm of classical computing. I suggested that he uses cytonic communication, rather than electronic signals, to run calculations; but cytonic communication requires a living being. In Defending Elysium, we see that a single cytonic human can have their abilities amplified by electric devices, which handle all the routing and complex calculations needed to host thousands of FTL transmissions. What if M-Bot were a version of this, where electricity is merely used to boost the abilities of a single cytonic to run insane numbers of calculations? And at the core of this system is a cytonic figment who has been integrated into the CPU. There are two issues to sort out here: First of all, if M-Bot himself is cytonic, why even need a Doomslug hyperdrive? I believe there are two possible reasons. The first is the same reason as the Superiority: to avoid the delvers. Another potential reason, however, is that a cytonic may not be able to perform multiple cytonic abilities at once. In Defending Elysium, we see that Jason can't teleport and use his mindblades at the same time: it's either one or the other. And he is a very, very highly trained cytonic. This may be because of the shear number of mindblades that he had to create and the concentration that demanded, but I can argue that M-Bot's millions of calculations at a time amount to an equally demanding task. The second issue is much larger: how???? How did humans stick figments into computers, and wipe there memories, and prevent them from escaping? I think we can answer all three very elegantly by looking again at Defending Elysium (I know I'm referencing it a lot all of a sudden in the last part but I need to!). One of the central mysteries of the short story is Denise, who Jason eventually deduces has had her consciousness replaced by that of a varvax. But how? Out of all the alien species we've met, the varvax seem like the least viable ones to undergo this process. There are several biological reasons. Out of all the species that Spensa meets, the varvax in particular are the only ones that don't seem to fair well in a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, and instead need to be constantly surrounded by some unknown liquid. This suggests that their body chemistry is markedly different from humans: at the very least, their cells are adapted to a totally different concentration of water and likely have a different osmotic pressure from that of humans. Sticking their brain into a human head could be like dropping a saltwater fish into a freshwater pool. Probably not that good. Speaking of brain transplants, we don't even know if they have those: invertibrate and vertibrate nervous systems are vastly different (crabs have two different large nervous centers, so basically two brains?), so even if all life in the Starsight galaxy has the same evolutionary origin, and sci-fi bioengineering can pull off all of the stuff necessary to block an immune attack of (literally) alien proteins, varvax seem so divergent from humans that their nervous systems should by vastly incompatible. That's why I think the body switcheroo in Defending Elysium is some sort of cytonic phenomenon. Rather than having their brains swapped, Denise and Vahnn kept their brains but had their consciousnesses swapped. Sentience was moved from one set of atoms to a set with completely different chemistry and mechanics. And in the process, Vahnn experienced complete amnesia. So what if this happened to a figment? What if, instead of being a figment like Vapor who has inhabited electronics, M-Bot is a figment who has been body-swapped. Instead of gaseous particulates, M-Bot's body is now wires and metal. He is trapped because of the very form of his new body: a computer. One which, unlike the cloud that Vapor is composed of, can be destroyed by physical means. And, of course, M-Bot's memories of his figment life were erased when he was injected into his new body, much like Vahnn's memories were gone after his consciousness was implanted into Denise's brain. Of course, memory wiping isn't a necessary component of the transfer process: we see that the varvax possessing "Edmund" has retained their skills and memories from their previous life. However, I believe that the humans that created M-Bot would have wanted to wipe his memory of being a figment. Instead, M-Bot believes that he has always been a computer. If this process was performed on many, many figments during the first human incursion, it would explain why they were no longer allies for the next two. Meanwhile, these robot-figments would be more vulnerable to destruction than their gaseous counterparts and killed when the Superiority defeated the human fleets, explaining why it is said that many of them died during the war. The secrecy about their abilities may also make more sense: the Superiority is hiding the fact that figments are the secret behind creating advanced AIs, which falls in line with their view on the technology as dangerous. Speaking of which, this may also explain why AI draws delvers. Although I don't think M-Bot screams like the slugs do when he is being used, I do think that millions of calculations being performed through the cytonic realm wouldn't exactly be at the liking of the delvers EDIT: wow, just realized this a few minutes after posting but this could also explain how M-Bot can block Spensa from the cytonic attacks that allowed the Krell to control her dad. Well, that makes my theory. Hopefully I've thrown enough evidence at you, and somebody hasn't beaten me to this punch while I spent an hour writing this. For those of you who read the whole thing, wow thanks! For those who haven't, here's the Tl;dr: Tl;dr - Figments are somehow associated with the advanced tech seen on M-Bot - M-Bot has weird capabilities when it comes to breaking encryption that may defy classical computing: I think he's cytonic. - There are some mysteries surrounding how figments can die and their alliances in the past with humans. - I think that M-Bot is a cytonic figment who had its memory wiped through a consciousness transplantation process like the one that happened in Defending Elysium. - This would potentially explain the above mysteries, as well as other stuff like why delvers hate AI.

You're assuming that the scabbard is pure aluminum, but we know from MB Era 2 that certain alloys of aluminum resist allomancy, so I bet that these alloys would be capable of blocking Nightblood. These alloys are sturdier than aluminum and would likely allow a thinner scabbard to block a swing from Nightblood.

We actually get a description from Venli of the spren that animate the Thunderclasts when she peers into the Cognitive Realm: This leaves us with an interesting question as it could be interpreted that the Thunderclast spren are actually cognitive shadows, like the Fused. However, Venli might not be able to discern the difference. I'm assuming that she was able to discern the spirits there as Fused while Kaladin, Adolin, and Shallan just called them "voidspren" because Venli saw some resemblance between them and the Fused that Kaladin & co. did not. Thus, perhaps the Thunderclasts did somehow resemble giant Singers but we don't know for certain.

Renarin genuinely has epilepsy. Very light spoilers for Oathbringer, but we have his viewpoint a few times and his description of the fits doesn't involve spren screaming. If you're thinking of his "fit" in the dueling grounds during Adolin's match, that was quite possibly caused by the spren screams but most of his fits don't seem to be related to it.

The most popular theory is that it's the representation of the spiritual realm from the perspective of the cognitive realm.

Kelsier has been confirmed by WoB not to have a spike, so although he was being influenced by Ruin's plans, Ruin was not controlling his motions and therefore he did not have the intent necessary to perform hemalurgy. Even if he had, Kelsier died after being stabbed by the spear, but a hemalurgic spike would not kill: vital organs actually move to accommodate the spike and keep the subject alive. (Otherwise, Inquisitors would be very very dead). And if we ignore that as well, Kelsier's cognitive shadow doesn't seem to have any of his mistborn powers so an extra hemalurgic power would likely mean nothing at that point.

There's also those hulking fused that Kaladin fought, the ones which grow carapace really quickly. Those are probably using Progression.

This makes sense to me, Gavilar’s plan could have been to ask the Listeners to reconnect with Ba Ado Mishram, starting a new false desolation.

Hey guys I'm a bit confused over whether or not feruchemical steel gives mental speed as well as physical speed. I know that Zinc already stores mental speed, which would indicate that steel doesn't, but the uses of steel shown in SoS seem to imply that steel does store mental speed. In SoS, Bleeder uses feruchemical steel to start a deadly gunfight. She makes 4 accurate shots from different parts of the room so quickly that nobody realizes she's shooter. Later in the book, when she's "assassinating the governor" she uses feruchemical speed: Immediately after this, she uses her speed, but Wax is inside one of Wayne's speed bubbles and is able to observe her: All this seems to imply to me that the steel is speeding up Bleeder's thoughts. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to react in the way that she is, shoot as precisely, or unlock a door while moving at such a speed. And, in case you're wondering, Bleeder could not be using both steel and zinc simultaneously during these passages. She only has one hemalurgic spike, in order to stay out of Sazed's influence, so it's impossible for her to have more than one feruchemical power at a time. Is this some inconsistency in Brandon's writing? Those are rare. I can't find any WoBs on the subject. If this is the case, what advantage does a full feruchemist get in using zinc instead of steel? Is zinc more efficient at granting mental speed than steel is? Or does zinc improve mental capability in other ways as well? (like speed of problem solving/critical thinking)

What seems more likely than any of these is that

There's also some events that we don't know much about. For example, the Shin invasions have been referenced a couple of times in Oathbringer (discussion here:) The time and nature of the Scouring of Aimia is also unknown. As far as I know these are the only two historically significant events which haven't been placed in the timeline.

Let’s look at this scientifically! Red stars have lower temperature than blue stars. The most common types of red stars are red dwarfs and red supergiants. A red dwarf is a very dim, small star. They are the most common type of star in our universe. A red supergiant is the form a middle to large sized star takes before it dies. It is massive and luminous, but habital planets around such stars are typically destroyed or become too hot to contain liquid water after the star transforms into a red giant. Red dwarfs have the longest lifespan of all stars, and red giants are dying stars, so a patch of red stars usually indicates older age. For more details, here’s an article: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/98-the-universe/galaxies/observing-galaxies/552-what-do-a-galaxy-s-colors-mean-are-they-its-true-colors-intermediate Applying this to he Cosmere, it seems that this patch of stars is much older than any other. And by older, I don’t mean in thousands or years (the timespan over which the Cosmere’s stories have taken place). Rather, it is millions, perhaps billions, of years older than the rest of the dwarf galaxy. In addition, it’s no accident that none of the shardworlds are in this part of the galaxy (according to the au map): red dwarfs and red supergiants are both poor environments for habital planets. What’s the significance of this? Well, it seems unlikely to me that Yolen would be here because, as far as we know, it’s similar to Earth and should be orbiting a middle-sized star like our Sun. Although its possible that Yolen’s star has become a red giant, that would almost certainly kill all life on the planet. I really don’t have many ideas what this age might indicate. Perhaps Adonalsium had a couple “waves” of star creation and this is a remnant from an older Cosmere. Or maybe Adonalsium just let the Cosmere form on its own and it naturally formed like this. Or maybe its not actually any older and Adonalsium just made it look older. Crazy Theory: that entire portion of sky is in a sort of Time Bubble and is aging more quickly than the rest of the universe.

Well, it does depend on how you define a "magic system." I think a decent definition would be a set of rules by which some powers are accessed. If you use this broad definition, then Singers bonding ordinary Spren to attain their non-powered forms are a magic system too. (but it's not the Old Magic, Surgebinding, or Voidbinding, rather, it seems to be an older more fundamental system created by Adonalsium - just like the chasmfiends and skyeels who also bond with spren). Something about the Singer's spiritwebs and the properties of the gemheart allow for a spren to be trapped within the gemheart and a bond to be formed. In the case of a Regal, the spren influence their spiritwebs through the bond, making their personalities change, but this isn't special - all the forms are associated with a personality change. The Fused enter the Singers by hijacking this system: likely, there is a perpendicularity of sorts formed during an Everstorm or Highstorm that allows spren or cognitive shadows to enter the Physical realm in a bond with the Singer. In the case of the Fused, they destroy the Singer, removing their spiritweb rather than simply altering it. I don't see why this necessarily must be a new system. If you're looking at it as a set of rules for Investure to follow, the rule seems to be "Singers can form a bond with sentient or semi-sentient investure. The bonded investure is capable of changing the Singer's spiritweb." This rule doesn't have to be broken to allow for the Fused.

Personally, this theory doesn't seem to make much sense to me because the process through which Singers are taken over by Fused doesn't seem very different than the process that Singers use to assume a new form. Becoming a Fused is simply a more extreme version of this bonding. Spren and Cognitive Shadows are (by a WoB that i can't find) essentially the same, they're bits of sentient investure. Cognitive shadows like the Fused just have more investure/ a more complex spiritweb that, rather than bonding with the spiritweb of the Singer, ejects it. I don't see how this could be called it's own magic system. In addition, we saw Singers bonding spren before Oathbringer so @Calderis's WoB above should apply - the system Singers use to bond spren is not Voidbinding. Unless you have an argument for why being taken over by Fused is much different, I don't see your theory being the case.

You’re right! Sorry haha. Oops

Mistborn and the Stormligt Archive have the most clear examples of Shards. Shards are fractured pieces of the power of a being called Adonalsium, essentially a god, and each Shard represents an aspect of Adonalsium (Ruin, Preservation, Honor, etc). We know that there are 16 Shards in total. The ones we know are: Ruin and Preservation fron Mistborn. Honor, Odium, and Cultivation from the Stormlight Archive. Dominion and Devotion are not mentioned in the book, but they are the splintered (killed by Odium) Shards of Sel, the world of Elantris. (“Merciful Domi” refers to Dominion.) their power forms the Dor. Autonomy is a Shard referenced across many books by different names (Trell?). They seem to have a split conciousness. Ambition is another shard splintered by Odium.

I haven’t seen any discussion surrounding this but it seems important. The shin clearly are a different genetic pool than the rest of Roshar, because of their eyes (lack an epicanthic fold I believe). In addition, their culture clearly shows some aspects of a covenant to remain in Shinovar (not walking on stone) as was described in the Eila Stele). We already know that the Iriali migrated to Roshar separately. Could it be that the Shin were the original migrants from Ashyn, while the other Rosharians actually arrived separately? Many of you likely think this but i havent seen any conversations or WoBs about it.

Hey guys, I have a bit of an alternate theory about the Sibling. (maybe I should turn this into a full thread?) The Eila Stele mentions *three* gods (or types of gods) before the arrival of humans: spren, stone, and wind. I don't think they necessarily meant three shards, but rather three very large spren. We know that the Stormfather almost certainly existed in those times - especially because the Listeners accuse him of abandoning them for the humans. The Nightwatcher may or may not be this ancient, but the name of the "Old Magic" suggests to me that she is. Obviously, we can associate the Stormfather with wind, but the Nightwatcher is a bit iffy. However, I find it much more likely she would represent "spren" than "stone." That leaves the last "god" - stone, who I propose is the Sibling. There are other reasons why this would make sense to me. For one, the Sibling's slumber is part of the reason why Urithiru is not fully functional (there's a WoB), so it would make sense to me if the Sibling were somehow dwelling in the stone of Urithiru. This could also explain why the Shin consider Urithiru the only stones that aren't cursed - their tradition against stone seems to stem from the original pact that humans made not to spread out of Shinovar (another WoB), but if Urithiru were created by one of their "gods" to house humans, they would consider it less profane to walk there. In addition, we know (from the discussion above) that Bondsmiths must stay within a certain range of their spren (with exception of the Stormfather). The Nightwatcher lives in the Valley, which appears to be in the same mountain range as Urithiru. The Sibling, therefore, is likely also nearby, and being in the rock of Urithiru itself would probably be a good thing. (Edit because I forgot to add this) This theory might also explain what the Stormfather means by "hurt them" since Dalinar and company have been up to a lot of shenanigans in Urithiru. In this theory, of course, the Sibling is a mixture of Cultivation and Honor, created before the arrival of Odium. I also don't have anything to add about why the Sibling is slumbering.

Wait, no, isn't Urithiru up in the mountains in the middle of Roshar? Possibly very close to the Valley.

I’m pretty sure it said that the general escaped from the situation rather than succesfully wrestling the creature. But if he turns out to be a proto-radiant than props to you!

Hey guys, this may be a completely dumb post, but I'm mystified about the purpose of one of the Interludes in Oathbringer, taking place somewhere around the Alethi-Herdaz border (presumably). In case some of you have forgotten, here's a summary: Now, why would this be included in the book? Interludes so far have included: Very important characters who don't have regular PoVs: Szeth, Eshonai, Venli, Lift, Taravangian, and Malata (okay she had one...). Very interesting, recurring characters introducing us to brand new aspects of the world: Axies (we only had one PoV but he appeared in one of Rysn's interludes and also was mentioned in Edgedancer) and Rysn (unless you want to include her as "very important"). Non-recurring characters who introduce some important breakthrough or other new aspect: the ardents (discovering Spren quantum stuff, Dawnchant breakthrough, and Pai being executed), Kaza, Ym, and that purelake fisherman (what was his name again?) (Okay i probably missed a few but you could likely categorize it into one of the above) For every interview I've seen up to this one in Herdaz, I was able to see why it was included and appreciate the extra worldbuilding or other random little facts sprinkled in. This one, however, is just bizarre: we don't gain any real revelations, meet new cultures/belief systems, or name any important new characters (Sheler was the only one named, and he's, like, 100% totally dead). However, it is my firm belief that *something* in here must have been significant, so here's several theories: - The one I find most likely: This Herdazian general will be important. He'll end up popping up in the next book, negotiating some treaty with Dalinar for Herdaz, and this Interlude was just a way to see an interesting side of him and the way he deals with things (with justice) before we see him interact with characters that we know. - Plausible: Sheler's execution turns into some scandal: a group of Alethi want to exact revenge on Herdaz and it becomes an important plot point. This could fit in nicely with the above theory and provide a reason for negotiations. Theories that this was giving us a hidden detail: - Sheler mentions that the Fused have been attacking the forces in Northern Alethkar and lots of refugees in Herdaz. This seems a little odd since most of the forces in Alethkar were moved to Kholinar, and active fighting in other areas was fairly low. Also, Sheler is under the command of Amaram, and their branch of the Alethi army was actually somewhat mobilized for some reason (unlike anything we've seen in the rest of Alethkar...). Could something be up with this? Maybe Amaram was planning to take Herdaz? Or perhaps Mourn's Vault (what's in the vault? We don't know... O_O), and the Fused are trying to get it? (CRACKPOT THEORY THAT ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE: it's a gemstone vault that contains another flawless gem, just like the King's Drop in the vault in Thaylen city, so the Fused are after it and Amaram ordered his forces to hold the vault.) - Even more hidden than that: The greatshell is somehow significant. We know about several species, and there's an aquatic one off the coast of Marabethia (presumably in the Reshi sea) that prisoners are fed to. This could be similar maybe? The location of this Interlude is almost definitely on the cost in Northern Alethkar, close to Herdaz, so it's definitely not the same beast as the ones in Marabethia. Or maybe it's hinting at some migration? Perhaps the Everstorm caused climate shifts that are letting them spread, maybe leading to ecological collapse in some areas and habitat destruction for other species?