Nyali

Ah right, thank you, forgot about that.

When did Moash save his life?

What you said is exactly correct and it has been pointed out before. Someone in another thread at one point was trying to use it to suggest the "friends before" referred to the Parshendi, but I strongly agree with you that it's Dalinar's army, not the Parshendi. There are a few death rattles that refer to specific scenes that happen in the books that I'm certain of, this being one of them. The other ones are: tWoK ch61: "In the storm I awaken, falling, spinning, grieving." That one's about Kaladin awakening in a highstorm after being hung out to dry by SadeastWoK ch64: "They come from the pit, two dead men, a heart in their hands, and I know that I have seen true glory." (Spoiler tagged in case someone hasn't read WoR since this is about tWoK) tWoK ch69: "All is withdrawn for me. I stand against the one who saved my life. I protect the one who killed my promises. I raise my hand. The storm responds." tWoK ch3: "A man stood on a cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust. The waters surged beneath, so far beneath. And he heard a child crying. They were his own tears." The final vision Dalinar gets in tWoK, where he watches Kholinar turn to dust. Dalinar is the child mentioned since Tanavast is there, and he is a child of Tanavast.tWoK ch55: "A woman sits and scratches out her own eyes. Daughter of kings and winds, the vandal." "He must pick it up, the fallen title! The tower, the crown, and the spear!" might refer to Kaladin at the end of tWoK needing to go back and help Dalinar. He needs to accept the fallen title of Knight Radiant, needs to go back to the Tower (that plateau), take up the spear again, and use it to save Dalinar (whose glyph looks like a crown). I want to know what this one refers to: "I'm standing over the body of a brother. I'm weeping. Is that his blood or mine? What have we done?" There are scenes that have happened that I could think it refers to, but I'm not certain it's already happened.

What, you don't think those exist on Roshar? I'd imagine it's fairly common in any major city that uses Soulcasters for food to have at least one Ardent trained exclusively in "cooking" with Soulcasting. I do have to say though that if they had access to Soulcasters, Iron Chef and other cooking contest shows would be infinitely more interesting to watch! "Today's mystery ingredient: scrap metal!"

And if that's not enough to convince you, listen to these moving testimonials! Dalanar: "This book has changed my life. I once met a blind and destitute man who never spoke. He could not find any words worth sharing. And then he found this book, and from that day forth, he could speak only in parables. That man is me." Teft: "This book led to everyone I ever loved killing themselves. Or me killing them." Rock: "This thing, he is good tinder. Wait, he was a book? Why would you give me a book? Airsick lowlanders." Sadeas: "Ha. Haha. Ahahahahaha" walks away, shaking his head Szeth son son Vallano: "This book is lies. I am Truthless. This book is lies. I am Truthless...." Kaladin: silent glare Shallan: "Oh, err, what spren? I don't know what you're talking about. Oh! Look over there! runs away and hides behind a rock Order now, and we'll throw in a Pattern plushie. Each impossible curve and spiral reproduced faithfully by our friends at Artifabrians and Friends!

Blame Brandon - I didn't consider it until he implied it in a WoB!

Good to know, thank you! I still feel that changing an earlier post so it completely hides who you voted for (or that you had even voted at all) is super suspicious, so my vote for Strawman stands.

Okay, I actually read through the entire thread instead of skimming it. I even made a chart of who is suspicious of who for later reference. Reading through everything, Strawman comes across as being extremely suspicious. As far as I can tell, Strawman voted "randomly" for LUNA in his first post. The only other person at the time to have a vote was LUNA. When someone pointed out that he voted "randomly" for someone who already had a vote, he then said that he voted randomly with dice from among the people who had already been voted for. .... which was only LUNA at the time. Then, later, he appears to have edited his first post to completely remove the vote for LUNA, rather than posting LUNA in green in a later post. Is editing the contents of earlier posts (ie: edits for anything other than grammar/spelling/formating) allowed? I thought that was against the rules as it deletes or changes valuable historical information like a forum-trolling Ruin. In any case, though I normally prefer to vote for someone who hasn't spoken (instead of the person with the most posts so far), I'm going to have to votes for Strawman unless someone convinces me otherwise. EDIT: Here's a list of the people who have not yet posted anything. Please let me know if I somehow missed someone posting earlier - some of the player list names don't match the forum names perfectly, so be nice to the new girl ^^; Phattemer Master_Elodin Alvron AliasSheep Macen Yafeshan Seonid Burnt Spaghetti Trelagist Silver Dragon

Generally and mathematically speaking, Day One Lynches strongly favor the townies. Lynching at random is actually perfectly reasonable. Since the mafia (err, ghostbloods) know who each other are, their votes will be non-random and they can/will try to steer a vote away from one of their number toward an arbitrary other person. So, by deciding a vote randomly, you ignore the only truly informed influence on the table. You also ignore any hints people in their posts, of course, so it's not like I'm advocating the practice. I'm just saying, it's not a bad idea, and if the person is honestly voting randomly with dice and not a ghostblood lying about it, then it's a reasonable decision. Personally, I prefer voting at random from among the people who haven't posted by the end of the first Day. They have the same probability of being ghostblood as anyone else, but they're less likely to post the following day either. ------ Brightness Arisia held her Shardblade in one hand, facing down her opponent. Oh storms, she thought, not this dream again! The two circled one another in a haze of light, Stormlight leaking from small cracks that crawled all over each duelist's armor. She would have to end this fight soon - fighting one-handed (her safehand, of course, held against her chest under the breastplate) was getting truly exhausting. With a great bellow (okay, more like a loud squeak), she suddenly charged across the dueling ground, switching her grip from Smokestance to Flamestance as she closed the distance. With a great flourish, she swept her large sword toward her foe's chest. As he moved his own blade to parry, she suddenly shifted her attack, turning it toward her foe's helmet. The Shardplate helm shattered, revealing the stunned face of her eldest brother. The man sunk to his knees, then grinned. "You have finally bested me, little light. I guess it wasn't silly to train you after all!" But no, this was wrong, that never... The crowd roared as the judge announced her victory. After a moment, King Naladar rose to his feet, quieting them. "For winning this duel one-handed, I shall grant you a boon!" he declared. Wait, wasn't the king...? She bowed before him. "I thank you, your majesty, and I request as my boon, a meal of chouta." The crowd fell still. "CHOUTA?" the king bellowed. "How dare you mock me and this kingdom! How dare you request Herdazian food! I expected something proper, something Alethi. I am disappointed." He made a gesture. "Guards!" he said, "Seize this woman! Throw her in the dungeons, where she shall be fed nothing but spiced flatbread for the rest of her life!" Why do my dreams always involve food? she wondered. Maybe I should start snacking before bed. Before the guards could reach her, Berenal rose to his feet, his long hair freed of the Shardplate waving in the wind as he started toward Arisia. Oh no, not this part, anything but this part, she thought, growing frantic. I need to wake up. I need to wake up... And then the blood started to flow. A gash slowly opened in her brother's forehead, blood pouring free as if under pressure. He stumbled, his expression growing vague, and his eyes... She woke up, her heavy breathing almost causing her to faint as she bolted upright. That dream... Her brother never taught her to fight, of course. He would always joke about it, then ruffle her hair and tell her she was far too short for such training, pretending as if that was all that held him back. Once, she thought he had been serious, but she had been six at the time and seriously believed that becoming a soldier was possible for an Alethi noblewoman. He had died years ago, before the Vengeance Pact, before the Shattered Plains, before all of this. An "accident" during a duel claimed him. With his head exposed, he had fallen and cracked his head on the ground. Dazed and confused, he was unable to dodge his opponent's thrust, and the sword... His eyes... Her mind struggling to shake off the dream and he memories, she sat there for far longer than she should have. When she came to, she saw the sun, now well over the horizon. Storms! She was going to be late! Again! She hurriedly threw on her dress, doing the buttons herself since her family no longer had servants to help with such things. They had fallen on rather hard times since the loss of their family's Shards along with the house's heir all those years ago. She did stop to paint her face before leaving of course, despite having little time. After all, she was twenty-five - one of these days she's have to attract a husband. On her way out, she grabbed a book from her nightstand, the one she had been reading when she fell asleep the night before. She stuffed the book, whose spine read "Famous Duels of Alethkar" in the woman's script, into her safepouch before buttoning up her sleeve. There was much work to be done, with what happened the night before. Lord Sebarial would have plenty for her to do. It was time to face the day.

(Sorry to necro this thread, but I wanted to talk about this subject and thought it'd be better than starting a new topic.) I've been trying to pay careful attention to characters who seem "off," looking for Worldhoppers and Heralds. Having just re-read the Lhan interlude, I can't shake the feeling that "Pai" is very much not what she claims. She's described as decidedly non-Alethi, especially her name, which wasn't necessarily "Pai." It was "something like Pai" (the drunk Lhan couldn't really recall). She isn't afraid of physical harm and she cares about very, very different things than the rest of Alethkar. She's only been an Ardent for a year, but she knows quite a lot about how things were in Kholinar long before despite not being native to the region. And then these's this quote: "But what do they do? Do they change their lives, do they listen to the Arguments, do they transform, recasting their souls into something greater, something better?" Does anyone else get the feeling that: 1) "Pai" is actually Shai (aka Wan ShaiLu, a confirmed Worldhopper), and 2) She's not actually dead? She's found kneeling on the floor, not moving and she isn't shown saying anything. Sounds like it could have been a Soulforged body double to me! ... but then I found this WoB, while looking for the one where I recall her being described as able to Worldhop: QUESTION Is Shai on Roshar? BRANDON SANDERSON Hehehe, good question! QUESTIONHas she already popped up? BRANDON SANDERSONShe has not already popped up. QUESTIONSo she's not a Radiant. Or is she? BRANDON SANDERSONYou have not seen her on screen yet, other than in her story. So, I guess I'm proven totally wrong. But I'll post this anyway! Because reasons!

What I want to know is, why doesn't Lift's shadow point in the wrong direction at all times?

Yeah, as far as I can tell, it isn't about what the trauma teaches you (though that aspect does help on Roshar due to how bondspren work). It's about needing to damage your projection into the spiritual realm to allow investiture in. It's the same on most worlds, though some forms of investiture sidestep this need. On Nalthis, you can Awaken without having a damaged soul because the investiture is literally passed from person to person rather than being pulled from elsewhere. Sel may be similar because the investiture is handled and managed by the land (well, the Dor, which is accessed through a specific qualities and visual representations of a nation), which has a soul that has already been broken beyond recognition by the splintering of two Shards. On Scadrial, the investiture comes from within, so your soul needs cracks in order for it to be able to filter and process investiture (hence, "snapping"). On Roshar, while the Stormlight is external investiture, in order to wield it, you have to hold it literally inside of you. Nalthan Breaths seem like they sit on the surface rather than inside because you use them by giving them away and they drain color from non-invested objects to fuel the transition. They don't use anything that's actually inside of you. But with Stormlight, you need a properly cracked soul in order to pull the Stormlight in, and then you can use it to make your physical aspect more like your cognitive aspect (aka heal) or use it to manipulate a Surge. Even if you are just giving it away (like, for Soulcasting), you have to have first held it inside of you. I suspect Soulcaster fabrials work by having the spren in the gems take care of the gritty details of the Soulcasting, which the Soulcaster forms a weak bond with in order to communicate. But, the spren (and/or gemstone the spren is trapped inside of) is holding the Stormlight in that case, not the person, so they don't need a cracked soul. On a side note, I suspect that Returned on Nalthis do have cracked souls, which is how their Breaths are able to change their physical appearance in a similar manner to healing with Stormlight. I also suspect that the aspect of having a "cracked" soul (a manifestation in the spiritual realm that has breaks in it which allow investiture to leak in) is somehow hereditary, at least to some extent. Like, some aspect of the effects of cracking your soul carry on to your children. Or, maybe, if your soul is cracked, your children's souls can inherit the capacity to crack, with that capacity weakening over time unless an external force alters it. That's why Mistborn tend to be the children of Mistborn and Mistings the children of Mistborn and Mistings. Same with Feruchemy. I'd hazard a guess that this is also why Dalinar, Renarin, and Jasnah, three of the seven natural Surgebinders we've seen on screen so far (Szeth being a special case and not counting), are all close relatives. I'd guess that Elhokar has the potential as well, which is why he sees Cryptics in the mirror, and I wouldn't be surprised if Gavilar was in the process of bonding with the Stormfather when he died. But I'm totally off topic here! So, on topic, recall what Jasnah wrote in one of her books that Shallan reads in a flashback scene. In her book, Jasnah is offended by the whole idea that women need to conform to some specific ideal just because they're women, that half of the population of Roshar should be limited in such a fashion by conventions binding them to specific tasks. To quote Jasnah's book: "[...] They ignore the greater assumption, that a place for women must be defined and set forth to begin with. Half of the population must somehow be reduced to the role arrived at by a single conversation. No matter how broad that role is, it will be, by nature, a reduction from the infinite variety that is womanhood. I say that there is no role for women. There is instead a role for each woman, and she must make it for herself. For some, it will be the role of scholar. For others, it will be the role of wife. For others it will be both. For yet others, it will be neither. Do not mistake me in assuming I value one woman's role above another. My point is not to stratify our society, we have done that far too well already. My point is to diversify our discourse. A woman's strength should not be in her role, whatever she chooses it to be, but in the power to choose that role. It is amazing to me that I even have to make this point, as I see it as the very foundation of our conversation." In other words, stop trying to put labels on Jasnah and define her role for her. She'll define it for herself when she chooses to and if she chooses to. So there!

The counterargument to that is that people wear padded clothing under the shardplate and it still melds just fine over the clothing. So, if that is fine, why not full armor under there? I actually think that you could meld full plate under the shardplate if you really wanted to, but that's pointless, heavy, and ineffective (blows could still deform your full plate underneath the shardplate from the force that translates through the plate (despite that force being severely dampened), eventually causing the plate to become a detriment over time. Also, why wear flimsy, heavy, crappy plate under the best armor ever made?). Wearing a full suit of shardplate underneath though, I think the problem there is really with the investiture blocking aspects of the plate. Like, the outer suit of plate won't be able to sense and bond with the human under the inner plate because the inner plate interferes.

There's no "over time" to it. Recall Kaladin sticking his arm into a Shardplate helmet and having it mold itself to his hand like a weirdly shaped glove. The Shardplate melds automatically to people. But, I'd expect that Shardplate, which interferes with and blocks investiture, would block the second Shardplate from melding properly. I'd imagine that, even if it succeeded in molding itself around the other suit, it would just fall off.

My theory on the pipe and on Nakomi is that Nakomi was the last "creator" before Rand, from the last revolution of the Wheel of Time. She's checking in on the most important event in a Wheel revolution and seeing how the next person does it. She appears in Aiel Wise One garb because she's been watching the world all this time and she's developed a fondness for the Aiel and how they do things. Maybe it reminds her of her strongest followers back when she was in Rand's position? After all, if Rand had been born a woman, instead of becoming an Aiel Clan Chief, he(/she) would have become an Aiel Wise One. (Sure, the story doesn't work with just that genderswap, but if you change a bunch of other things too, it could, and we know each Revolution of the Wheel is slightly different because of free will.) So, my theory is that Rand has special powers now because he IS the Creator. Each Revolution of the Wheel, one human gains full control of the Pattern, sees the entirety of history by reading it, decides not to destroy the Dark One because taking the most fundamental choice away from humanity takes all choice away from humanity and ends the concept of free will, and reforges the Dark One's prison. Then, because he or she had touched the Pattern and shaped it, he or she can continue to reshape it however he or she wishes. Pattern weaving, so to speak. The other really cool theory is that Rand, by touching the Pattern, realizes that the world really is just a dream of the Creator, like the Aiel keep saying. The world exists within a meta-tel'aran'rhiod, so he can shape it as if he's in tel'aran'rhiod. In other words, he's "seen the matrix." As for the future, we actually know quite a lot about it from prophecies, visions, and viewings. We know that the Aiel are destroyed, leaving only a remnant of a remnant. In other words, the Aiel become something different (the enforcers of the Dragon's Peace), making them no longer Aiel, and the only remaining Aiel (the Shaido, who are a remnant (the relatively few who survived the massacre at Dumai's Wells and the Battle of Malden) of a remnant (the one remaining clan when once there were twelve)) are hunted to extinction the way Aviendha sees in her dream. The rest of the Aiel are spared by being "destroyed" and made into something new at her insistence. Nikola's foretelling ("The lion sword, the dedicated spear, she who sees beyond. Three on the boat, and he who is dead yet lives. The great battle done, but the world not done with battle. The land divided by the Return, and the Guardians balance the Servants. The future teeters on the edge of a blade.") tells us that Rand does wind up getting a boat and sailing around like he mused about doing, and his lovers visit him there. We can infer that the Asha'man rise to power to rival the Aes Sedai, and the Seanchan continue to be a point of consternation for everyone. However, we also know from Aviendha's vision that the Seanchan do hold to the Dragon's Peace, and without the Aiel to provoke war, we can assume that the Peace continues to hold instead of being broken by Aviendha's granddaughter's lies. We can trust some of Rand's projection of what the future might be like since he was weaving fairly accurate projections of the future using the entirety of the Pattern as a pattern. So, it's very likely that the Two Rivers is eventually ruled by Perrin and Faile's daughter, though we do know that they become the rulers of Saldea. It can be inferred that Tam al'Thor acts as steward at first, but since he doesn't have any heirs, one of Perrin and Faile's children becomes "next in line" for the throne, so to speak. We know that, eventually, there are male Aes Sedai again, but only very far into the future, possibly after the Asha'man collapse for whatever reason. We know that the Asha'man do cease to exist eventually because there was nothing similar at the end of the last Age of Legends (and I think there's a WoB stating this too, along with the fact that they are not male Aes Sedai, but male Aes Sedai do become a thing again at some point in the distant future). We know that the Sea Folk eventually appoint that one Sailmistress as the Mistress of the Ships. We know that Cadsuane becomes the new Amrylin. We can guess that, eventually, someone manages to convince Rodel Ituralde to become King of Arad Doman. We know that Birgitte is reborn and is the right age to fall in love with Gaidal Cain again. We know that Min becomes Fortuona's Truthspeaker and therefore joins the Mat and Tuon adventures in Seanchan (along with, one can assume Furyk Karede as her captain of the guard). We know that Perrin and Faile rule Saldea. We know that Gregorin goes back to ruling Illian. We know that Loial finishes and publishes his book, "The Dragon Reborn" (we get a quote from it at the start of aMoL). We know that fighting continues in Shara. We know that Lan and Nyneave recreate Malkier. We know that technology continues to advance toward the next Age of Legends. We can take some things from Aviendha's vision that are likely unchanged by the Aiel's change in purpose. The "Pact of the Griffin" and the "Court of the Sun" are two different alliances and Andor is a member of both. From the names, we can try to figure out what these alliances are. A "griffin" is a creature that's part eagle, part lion, so the "Pact of the Griffin" has to be Andor, the Two Rivers, and the nations tied to the Two Rivers - Ghealdan, Saldea, and maybe Mayene. The "Court of the Sun" must include Cairhien of course, showing that Cairhien and Andor remain very close into the foreseeable future. I honestly have no idea what other nations are in the Court of the Sun - Aviendha's vision implies more than just Cairhien, but it might have just been Cairhien. However, King Darlin of Tear marries Caraline Damodred, giving Tear a tie to Cairhien, so maybe the Court of the Sun is Andor, Cairhien, and Tear. The Dragon's Peace prevents nations from merging together, so the nations that become extremely close by the start of Tarmon Gaidon have to use alliances like these to formalize their closeness. We know that the Seanchan do not stop using the damane, and when Artur Hawkwing spoke with Fortuona, he was like, "Captive Aes Sedai? Awesome! I wish I thought of that!" With Egwene dead, it's unlikely there's anyone strong enough to change that (Cadsuane wishes she was as strong as Egwene <.<), and Aviendha's vision showed that they were still a thing, but one can assume the rules Rand wrote into the Dragon's Peace stand (no damane taken from any land except Seanchan). The Seanchan do not topple the White Tower like they did in Aviendha's vision because that only happened because Aviendha's granddaughter broke the Dragon's Peace. We know that the Aes Sedai, the Wise Ones (of the former Aiel enforcers, not the Shaido Aiel), and the Windfinders cross-train their apprentices, tying the three organizations together and making the future generations of each have the cunning and knowledge of the Aes Sedai, the strength and discipline of the Windfinders, and the determination and honor of the Wise Ones. We know that all channelers of any skill will be accepted into their collective ranks (the Windfinders and Wise Ones already took everyone of all skill levels, and Egwene changes the Aes Sedai to do so as well). We know that Aes Sedai will start retiring into the Kin where precedence is determined by age rather than strength. When they retire, they will remove the Three Oaths, which will remove the Binder's adverse affects on their longevity and double their natural lifespans. We know that the Red Ajah becomes the Ajah that works closely with the Asha'man, and we can guess that the new Red Sitters include Pevara and Rubinda. Pevara, obviously, will be marrying Androl and help tie the Asha'man and the Red Ajah together. I have a theory that the Warders become the next Cycle's "Da'shain Aiel" once the world progresses to the point of the Age of Legends where there is no war and nearly no crime, but there's no proof of that. But, with the Warder "glass ceiling" broken by Birgitte, and with all those "Maidens of the Sword" from Cairhien and Tear, I think it's safe to assume that women start becoming Warders in the near future. So, at first, I really found the ending unsatisfying with how little it said about the future of the world. I wanted Tarmon Gaidon to end early in Book 14, making the rest of the book into a story of what comes after the Dark One is dealt with and showing us how the future will unfold for all the characters. When that didn't happen, it made me really sad (almost as sad as I was that Bela died and did not get called back by the Horn of Valere. Hey, wolves can be Heroes of the Horn, why can't the best horse ever?? What makes the original Jeade'en so special that he comes back with Jain Farstrider, but Bela doesn't come back to kick Trolloc butt with her ghostly hooves and become Olver's steed as long as the Heroes are around? But I digress). But, then I thought about all the information we've been given about the future from the various visions and such, and realized that we know nearly everything about how things will unfold. There are a bunch of specifics we don't know that I would love to have known, true, but we do get a ton of it, as shown above. I'd love soooo much though to have seen even just a single scene with the former Aiel in their new role as enforcers of the Dragon's Peace, with some cool new Old Tongue name to describe them in their new capacity. But, really, I feel like the ending is pretty solid as is. Not the best ending of a story ever, but after thinking about it for a while, there aren't THAT many unanswered questions that you can't at least think up a plausible theory for. From what I recall of what Brandon Sanderson said about Robert Jordan's notes, Jordan didn't want to tell his fans exactly what the future held. He wanted his fans to decide for themselves how they feel the future would go, as far as details are concerned. He wanted to leave things fairly open post-Tarmon Gaidon. I don't like that at all. I feel like it's a cop-out to say "and then the audience can decide the rest of the story for themselves." But, it's what he wanted, and that's what Brandon wrote from his notes. His notes, by the way, specifically said not to explain anything at all about Nakomi or the lighting of the pipe, just include those scenes verbatim as he had already written them. He didn't want people to know for sure what the "true" answer was to either of those mysteries. So, we can theorize and guess, but the actual, true answer is that those things happened because Robert Jordan wanted his story to end with at least some specific unanswered questions that can never be answered.

There are so many possible answers to this. One of my favorites is that they are the ten essences because everything considers them to be the ten essences. I think this is the only world so far to have a sort of "atomic theory" going on. I wonder what people on other worlds would find are the building blocks of matter on their worlds? The science of Roshar is actually super interesting - you have chemistry (the Ten Essences), physics (the Ten Surges), electrical engineering (Fabrial Science), biology (germ theory and such explained via observations of spren behavior), meteorology (the Stormwardens), and academia (the Ardentia). They have modern plumbing, lightbulbs, motion detectors, artificial temperature control, dehumidifiers, germ theory ("water repels rotspren"), and so on. It's really interesting! They're totally at the cusp of an industrial revolution. (I'm waiting for them to start using spanreeds as rudimentary printing presses - link a bunch of spanreeds to a single spanreed by putting tons of rubies in that "master" spanreed, then go scribe a book, writing multiple at once.)

Though, it isn't clear if this phonetic glyph thing is exclusive to Amaram's notes or if all Stormwardens do it.

Oh! I just realized I was missing something. It sounds like the "chasmfiends" are what they look like after pupating. Before pupating, they're something smaller. Shallan talks about juveniles pupating into adults at one point (during the infamous defecation conversation with Adolin).

Speaking of "voidlight," I wonder if this Death Rattle is relevant: "I can see a distant sun, dark and cold, shining in a black sky.” That gives me an impression of dark light, a reverse sun. Maybe light from Braize as it draws close to Roshar, assuming that's how Desolations come? Or maybe that's just someone seeing the Greater Roshar sun from the planet Braize?

Hi! I'm pretty new to these forums. Would it be okay if I joined this game? It's been about a decade since I last played forum Mafia, but the rules look similar to what I used to play way back when. If it's okay - Character: Brightness Arisia, just an ordinary scribe for Highprince Sebarial. Honest! And no, that isn't a vial of darkeye drops that I just hid in my safepouch. It's, uhh, medicine. Yes. Medicine.

Well, I believe the answer to your first question is "the type and cut of the gem," but that isn't a very useful answer xD It's the only one we seem to get in WoR. I'm hoping SA3 will explain what about the type and the cut makes it do those things.

But for it to work, you have to trap a spren. My understanding is that you then feed the spren stormlight and get an effect. The trapping of a specific spren in a specific gemstone is definitely an active thing, but once it's there, the effect is passive, true.

Yeah, remember how Jasnah failed miserably at transmuting bread into bread, and jam into jam, but was totally fine transmuting blood of one of the eight specific blood types on Roshar into blood of the exact same blood type? Pure essences are just that much easier to transmute perfectly. The further from a pure essence, the harder it is. Grain is kinda similar to wood, but not really. The ardents doing the transmutations are very skilled, but it's not going to be precise. I think I see what you're saying though, that if you're just telling a soul of a thing to transform into a specific other thing, why don't they get it perfectly right always? Like, everyone knows what "lavis grain" is. It's something very specific. So, when you ask a stone to become "lavis grain," you're asking it to be a very specific thing, and it should know what that thing is like because humans have a collective, specific cognitive vision of what "lavis grain" is. My understanding is that all spren do NOT know exactly what all other things are like. Like, a stone doesn't know what lavis grain is, it relies on the soulcaster to give it a cognitive image of the grain, and it transforms into what the caster is imagining. So, if you don't have a truly perfect view of what lavis grain is (like, knowing the exact molecular structure of the lavis grain, or at least the cognitive equivalent of that), you're just telling the stone to become something that looks sorta like this and tastes sorta like that. So, when it's baked into bread, it doesn't taste right, because your view of it wasn't exactly right. I have a theory that all spren innately know all ten Essences perfectly, like they're the ten elements that make up all other matter or something. And, when a Soulcaster tells a spren what an object is like, they are telling the spren how the object differs from one or more of the essences. Like, for grain, "It's like wood, but thinner and more delicious." For steel, "it's kinda like foil, but hard like stone, as if it spent a lot of time in close proximity to fire." But for blood, it's like, "it's exactly like blood. In fact, it IS blood."

I wonder if the Listeners are actually Fabrials... Meaning, their bond with the spren is more like the bond between a spren in a fabrial and the gem it's trapped in. It'll be interesting to see more of the rules guiding Fabrial Science and more of the Listeners' bonding - we don't have enough information right not to really say. But, that said, I'm kinda wondering about Fabrial Science. Are we certain that "Fabrial Science" is the branch of magic, rather than there being a more generalized and fundamental third branch of magic that Fabrial Science taps into and utilizes? Fabrial Science is a modern construction. Back in the day, so to speak, did they have or know of a third branch of magic, something involving bonding spren to objects? It just feels like Fabrial Science is extrapolating and expanding on something else. Like, in the real world, we have cars with combustion engines, but when you get down to the fundamentals, combustion engines are just really creative applications of the "magic" we call fire, something people knew about in the distant past. Our ancestors could tap this "fire" for useful tasks, like providing heat and warmth. But, with modern techniques, we tap it for other applications as well, including travel, something not directly related to fire in any way. Could spren merged with gemstones be utilized to various effects outside of a machine (fabrial)? Could spren merge with other creatures for the same effects they have when merged with gemstones, only different because the nature of the object is different (ie: a Listener)?

If foretelling isn't of Honor, that doesn't mean all foretelling on Roshar has to be done with Odium's power. There's also Cultivation. We know that the spren are part Honor, part Cultivation. We also know that Truthwatchers have bondspren that take the form of a light that growths come out of. That could mean that Truthwatchers draw their powers from Cultivation more than from Honor, or at least, from the spren that are more of Cultivation than of Honor. It makes sense that they can see the future, even if Honor can't.