Naurock

Your argument has a lot of good points in your favor. But in OB Odium's Everstorm was explicitly destructive to Taln's temple. That seems to imply that Taln did hold Odium back or thwart him in some way.

I really want to echo how crazy smart Dalinar is. Granted, it's Roshar and they don't have weird stuff like us that we have to memorize. But he can memorize nearly a whole book, word for word. He's listened to it told over and over, and now can recite it. That's impressive, to me. Kinda like when a work friend recited the whole "Battle of Wits with a Sicilian" from Princess Bride to me. I was super impressed.

This is mostly what has formed my thought process. But here's more from my thought process: I can attempt to learn many stances to swing a gigantic, clunky sword, that will mostly be useless fighting flying, frictionless, and regrowing monsters. OR I can put on a suit that turns me into the Hulk that resists being lashed. One lucky punch to the chest may crush their gemheart. I could stand away from them hucking basketball sized rocks at over MLB pitcher speeds. I would easily take Shardplate.

@Edonidd I am pretty aware of how well leather works. I ride a motorcycle and went down once going about 15 mph (idiot in front of me hit their brakes for no reason and my front brake locked up). My leg was torn up, but my leather jacket still works great and my arm, ribs and shoulder were fine, not even a bruise. It will protect from some cuts but a direct stab won't be stopped. I can't imagine it would do so well being clubbed with a carapace weapon wielded by a Fused. If I had the option of Shardplate or a Blade I'd personally take the Shardplate. Especially if fighting a Fused. From what we've seen so far, I thought this for a moment. But we haven't seen Ba-Ado-Mishram and her "General like" abilities, or seen what Chemoarish or Dai-Gonarthis does. A small group of Skybreakers, which know division, is bad news for the Humans. In previous desolations when it was a known enemy and tactics, I agree with you. But at that time also, Odium was perfectly happy wearing down the Heralds, thinning the number of humans and playing the long game.

Minor quibbles here. I wouldn't double it here. Untrained people given better weapons isn't a huge step up. I think most of the men in Amaram's army wore leather. Thick leather will help pad you, but a direct blow with anything sharp will cut through. I'd separate shard holders here into two steps. A Shardblade is useful, but a squad of archers could drop them. Shardplate alone requires constant heavy damage to break. The second sentence is key. We don't know what the other Unmade do, and supposedly the best fighters in Odium's army have yet to awaken. Also, as it's been brought up before. It used to be a Fused died and they went back to Braize. Now they die and just reinhabit a new Singer body during the Everstorm. The function limiting their army is broken. So if following your scale it allows members of their army to jump from 4 to 10 at will. I don't think any Heralds during a desolation would ever hand their weapon to some random person and said "Hey, go try it out." And when they die their blade goes with them to Braize. The first desolation was probably one of the worst, because Spren didn't bond humans until later. They also never had dead shards during the previous desolations. Spren saw and mimicked the Honorblade bond. We haven't seen the abilities of a Full Radiant yet. We haven't seen the full abilities of a Herald, either. But if you're familiar with Mistborn Era 1: The Heralds, if they choose to fight, understand what their enemies abilities, and have a tons of battle experience on their side. The Kaladin vs Fused fight was him constantly getting blindsided by abilities. Roshar needs more Radiants fast. They need to be coordinated. They're also currently being undermined. Think of the conversation between Taravangian and Dalinar. Taravangian is willing to do anything with full conviction as long as he believes it will provide the outcome he desires. Dalinar is trying to inspire, despite decades of a poor track record, and rumors attempting to ruin his reputation.

This is the first time I've seen it unfortunately. But considering Eric said you've become a meme and you're running theory on Shards has been "if we don't know enough about it, it's a dragon to me until proven otherwise", I used the meme I was familiar with. I thought it was fitting under the circumstances.

@Calderis you're gonna give me a big head. That's the second time recently that you've quoted me and agreed with me.

I'd also bet Odium started playing both sides sometime. Probably what caused the humans to go to Honor.

I'm not sure this supports your thoughts. Because at the Battle of Thaylen Fields he appeared to the Singer army as a Singer. Maybe he really was showing his true Vessel form to Dalinar. Maybe he's seeding in Dalinar distrust and hate for the Shin.

Fair point, but does that still hold considering everything is covered in ash? Cobblestone would be more dangerous, wouldn't it? Or would the friction again hold it in place?

My question has always been, say you have an Allomancer using clips to bound over an open field. They're arcing, right? When approaching the next clip, how come it never skids when they push on it?

"Colors, Nightblood! How many times do I have to tell you, YOU ARE NOT A SLAMMER!! I have to go buy more Pogs now..." - "I'm better than any slammer you can find, none can DESTROY as I can! Go find me more, I like this game. Think Vasher will join anytime soon? I can show him how great I am too..."

Most important note, IMO. I honestly feel this turns into a 2 on 1 match real quick: Nale and Eshonai chasing Kelsier. Nale lives through a shotgun blast to the chest to kill Wax. Not to mention Elend can push/pull his guns to shake his aim. A wildcard is how much Vivenna is able to harness the offspring of Returned super abilities. Denth used his Returned ability so he could swing a sword so fast nobody can see him draw or sheath it. Can Vivenna do similar feats of ability or can she only slightly change her image? But this may all be a moot point, because Awakening will be only a mild hindrance to a super suit and a Surgebinder. She's fought for 25-300 years, Nale's fought for thousands. Even if you gave her a few of Kalad's Phantoms, Eshonai would handle them well, I'd bet. I'll take Team Nale. IMO, Wayne would have been more useful than Wax is here. Bendalloy FTW! Give Kelsier time to plan and Wayne just soaks up attention and damage. Also, we get a encore of "The Rotten Tomato".

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say no. The Investiture isn't keyed to Odium and he would have had to pick up the Shard (which we know he wasn't going to do) to access it. The Investiture left around the Cosmere by Adonalsium can have his signature in it that he can use and he can access that. But another Shard's is off limits to him. It's just free floating Investiture that may or may not have gained sentience by now or waiting to be harnessed for the local magic system. Unless if he wants to Invest in the local area and co-opt it somehow, which may not even be possible. As to viewing the locals, the Unmade are very useful to him in that regard. Why spy when he can invoke rage or distract them with their addictions and pleasures? Also, his future sight has been very useful up until now.

Wow. [OB stuff] What was she doing for so long? Playing Pogs?

This person has plans for an Elsecaller blade. Maybe they could point you in the right direction?

He's been taken on as a Squire for the Skybreakers. Just like Bridge Four they can practice lashings.

One thing I'd like to point out: Kelsier is an idiot with pewter. Ham specifically warned Vin how to avoid a drag by not flaring it. She tries to follow his advice and Kelsier tells her she must flare it. He's much better with Iron and Steel. But I'd stick with the professional's advice.

Thanks @Calderis for the thread and WoB at the end!

Why would she stamp a tree? Is she reforging it after it was struck by lightning and she was trying to reattach a fallen branch? It has to be believable, and the change has to be wanted. As per the Oathbringer stuff These beings are all of different magic systems that doing similar things but slightly differently.

Yes, but this is where it gets very sketchy. We have not seen the CR on Nalthis or Sel. We don't know when a body changes from a vessel for a soul and when it changes to an inanimate object. Sel's CR is very dangerous, and we don't know what a Lifeless (or Returned for that matter) looks like in the CR. These are things we would have to ask Brandon and I would expect a complicated answer.

From what I understood, his soul is gone. He died and his soul moved to the beyond. The sealers came and fixed his body. She didn't fix a damaged soul. She created a facsimile as best she could with the information she had (sans her tweaks). She created a more sentient Lifeless.

Seeing this made me just realize Nohadon is almost perfectly symmetrical. IMO, that adds to your thought. This is why I had posed a question in Q&A of who is Fleet. I believe that Fleet joined the Stormfather as a Cognitive Shadow, essentially as a compartmentalized Spren. Perfectly placed to watch and guide the first budding Bondsmith in their most dire moments of need.

Make $80K from HOME by commenting on 17th Shard and specifically Shardcast! The Shardcast crew (specifically the generous @Chaos) will pay your salary! You will not believe the opportunities! Click here for more details!!!! Lots of fun and interesting things in the episode! I'm with @Child of Hodor that the Gem that Hoid wears may be the missing piece alluded to. Aluminum the "dead metal". Makes me think it was was Adonalsium's God Metal, and now that he's dead and no longer has an insanely infinite amount of Investiture flowing through him it cannot live. That WoB you read, make me thing Brandon was trying to hint that the weapon was THE Dawnshard (the answer is always Dawnshards, right?) But once combined to be one massive weapon, now shattered into the Dawnshards making them components. Probably wrong, but fun to think. Thanks for the weekly fill of Cosmere talk!