Ciridae

I am mostly curious about what it was exactly that made Szeth claim that the voidbringers had returned. Do the Shin even have parshmen? Alternatively he could have seen some kind of animated rock monster, but I feel like other people would have noticed that. Maybe, since the Shin revere the spren of the stones, the Shamans misinterpreted what they were seeing. But then again why would Szeth be the only one to realize that something was fishy? The theory I like the most is that a spren began bonding Szeth and he deduced that if the spren are returning, then so will the voidbringer. In this case the stone shamans could have given him the honorblade to tempt his masters to order Szeth to commit violent crimes, which would have most likely gotten rid of the spren. But nothing in Szeth's interludes indicates that he has had experiences with strange spren.

My memory is hazy on LoP but I thought it only said that gods had died on Yolen, not what actually killed them. But even if I am misremembering, Yolanese gods may not be what cosmere aware people might call gods, i. e. shards, but maybe a mortal with godlike powers like TLR. Most of the religions we have seen in the cosmere have an origin in mortals that have gained extraordinary power. Returned, TLR, Kelsier, Elantrians and the Heralds were all regular humans once. (Granted the heralds are not considered gods everywhere on Roshar and many actually worship the shards, but still). And in a world before the Shattering I would imagine that religions would have an even more mundane origin, as the shardic powers were presumably not as spread as they are in the modern cosmere. In addition we know that the closest thing to modern shards, Adonalsium, was killed by humans, not the skullmoss.

This, and followup fainlife/Yolen speculation I do think that the connection of destroyed shard, or at least massive releases of investiture, and red stars is super interesting and props to whoever first noticed it

I don't think we've seen all the heralds, I think the WoB said that they have all been mentioned, but I'm not exactly sure. It's been proposed that the old and seemingly drunk man who asks Szeth at the beginning of WoK "have you seen me?" is a Herald, maybe Jezrien, based on the statues of heralds behind him and Nales comment on Jezrien "if he ever stops drooling". Another common theory is that the ardent in the Palanaeum is Paliah, I think Shallan describes her as she would imagine a herald to look like. The last one I can remember is the nervous man Nale was talking to in the prologue, who many believe to be Kalak.

That's really interesting. I thought that this is the less likely of the two options, what could be bigger and scarier than a chasmfiend after all? But it looks like you're right, I just checked the Coppermind and it said that what they turn into is unknown. Maybe the adult chasmfiends turn out to be semi aquatic and end up in, or close to, the ocean. I think I remember Shallan talking about how they had aquatic ancestors, or something allong thise lines. But then again most things on Roshar seem to have an aquatic history and do just fine on land.

I have a small question about the process that chasmfiends undergo when transforming. We know the exact stages in the life-cycle of chulls, I assume other creatures on Roshar undergo a similar cycle. So when we see the chasmfiend chrysalises, is that a chasmfiend like we see hunting Shallan and Kaladin inside, transforming into something even bigger and scarier, or is it a larva turning into a full grown chasmfiend? I assume it is a larva pupating into what we know as chasmfiends, but how come nobody has ever seen a chasmfiend larva in that case? Is it just because nobody ever goes far enough into the chasms? And a small follow-up, on the page describing the chull life-cycle, the final stage is senescence. I was not familiar with the term, but most of what I looked up related to the aging of cells. Does anybody know what happens in the final phase of a chull's life? The final image is of a closed chrysalis. I could imagine that the adult chull dies to provide a food source for the following generation, that is also protected in the chull's chrysalis. Also small crustaceans on earth lay hundreds if not thousands of eggs at a time, but I find it hard to immagine that larger species like greatshells on Roshar would have that many offspring. If anybody actually knows what happens to the chull and chasmfienda, I would love to hear it I really love all of the ecology on Roshar and understanding a little better how some of these creatures live, makes the story that much more enjoyable.

Transportation is the surge of motion, so Jasnah has telekinetic abilities Edit: I thought I remembered her levitating a piece of paper and then burning it, but I may be misremembering. I'm looking for the passage now. Either way, I do think telekinesis is part of the surge of Transportation and I do agree that it is one of the more powerful surges. If telekinesis really is part of it, it is bound to have some limitations in range or other ways.

Never have I been more excited for Shallan's illustrations. One of these giants in detail and some of the new listener forms would be amazing.

Why wouldn't Jezrien have squires? Granted they wouldn't be squires like the KR squires, in the very hierarchical structure of Knights, but Jezrien was a leader, a king. If the resonance of his two powers is endowing some lesser grasp on to those powers onto a limited numbers of his followers, why would being a Herald stop that? The only reason I can think of is that the other powers the heralds get mess with the resonance, like how a Mistborn wont develop any due to too many powers. On topic of the thread, I would really like to know if an allomancer who bonded a spren would lose the ability to burn metals, since the cracks in their soul would be patched up by the spren.

I really like the idea of most of the Vessels being connected in some way other than shattering Adonalsium. Just to provide an alternative motive for Odium going after D&D is that he may have been afraid of the two combining. Others have speculated that the combination could have been quite natural, as both shards seem to strive towards unity, albeit in different ways. We do see that Odium continued to target bishardic planets, maybe for a similar reason. Still, I really think its a great theory even if we can only speculate at this point.

I like the idea, maybe also spike the mistborn with F-gold just to be safe and have them constantly tapping while they attempt to burn the ettmetal.

Some spren were left behind intentionally after Adonalsium created Roshar and naturally developed symbiotic relationships with the local flora and fauna. Its true that the KR spren, and probably most other spren we see in the books, are pieces of Honor or Cultivation, but there were spren on Roshar even before the shattering.

I'm a little confused, I thought the thing about Nightblood was that the amount of investiture needed to power it outside of its sheath increased exponentially along with its power output?

I was thinking about possible uses for Adhesion other than sticking things together. Others have pointed out that since Adhesion is the surge of atmospheric pressure, it may be the reason why we see a force wave when Kal speaks new oaths, that throws people close to him around. I agree with the theory that that's an accidental use of Adhesion on Kal's part and that there is definitely more to Adhesion than meets the eye. I was thinking that if Adhesion works in the way that we see the pressure waves, it could be a wonderful way to make falling-flying a lot more maneuverable. Think of Kal creating small bursts of pressure from his hands and feet, kind of like the Ironman suits. I could see a Windrunner making himself weightless and then using little bursts of pressure to maneuver and get around in tight spaces. It would complement the Gravitation surge perfectly. My knowledge of physics is limited, I have no idea if 'bursts of pressure' can really work like that, it's just an idea I wanted to put out there. What do you guys think? Unrelated to Ironman-flying, cool WoB on the use of Windrunner's abilities:

I think Brandon has said that he needed to implement some in-world mechanic to explain why Roshar hasn't been eroded away by the highstorms. Hence crem sedimentation.

There has been discussion of Tien being a Proto-Lightweaver, based on the fact that Tien was a great sculptor and how he was Kaladin's 'light' not unlike Shallan in her own family. Shallan was first bonded when she was very young, as well. I'm not sure if I buy the connections, they can be explained through non-magical means as well, but they are interesting either way.

I agree. The way Shallan described what she saw behind the stormwall seemed like there is a connection specifically to the highstorms. My best guess is that they are members of the same spren class that Brandon said that Cusicesh belongs to, a step below spren like the Stormfather and Nightwatcher.

If the above theory of measuring, recording and trapping Cusicesh is correct, and I think there is a very good chance it is, then you couldn't simply write down that the spren is somewhere out in the ocean where it can't hurt anyone. If you remember the two ardents recording flamespren, when writing down fake numbers for the measurements nothing happened and the spren wasn't locked. So I assume you would have to use the actual time and place of the appearance, maybe size and other defining characteristics of Cusicesh, to actually trap him at all.

Not too long, maybe half an hour. I just looked at the illustration in the book and carved a similarly looking design with a needle. Making it close to spherical and polishing took the longest, I wanted it shiny

Thanks! I'm thinking of making more, maybe with differently colored stone as well as the handle and a flatter look, less spherical. Ill try to find a way to make the pattern more visible too, if I can.

I wasn't sure where to post this, so I apologize if this is the wrong place. I am re-reading the Emperor's Soul right now and decided to make a Soulstamp: (Spoiler for size) I used soapstone because it seemed similar enough to the way Soulstone is described in the book (and it was easiest to work with ). It's soft and I had a stone that resembled the grey-red coloring of Soulstone. I based the design of the stamp off of the chapter headings in the book and I changed the overall shape (it doesnt have the handle like in the illustration of Shai). Still, I'm happy the way it turned out, hope you guys like it Edit: Reuploaded the images, hope theyre visible now Edit 2: Just came across a passage where Shai directly compares Soulstone to soapstone on page 98 in AU, so it looks like I chose the right stone

I thought it was foreshadowing that the guard was a surgebinder using division accidentally. I assumed that she was a proto-Skybreaker from the scene where she immediately calls out the smuggler and later when Nalan is suspicious about the spheres in her room.

I think the most likely new Windrunner is Teft. We know the Windrunners were a hierarchical order. It would make semse if Kal's second in comand would eventually become a Windrunner. I know all the bridgemen are squires right now but from Dalinar's vision we know that squires under a Radiant have a good chance of being chosen by spren themselves. Additionally Kal suspects that Teft used to be a squadleader in the army, he's the most capable of the bridgemen to lead on his own. I think with time many of the bridgemen could become Radiants, as it becomes evident that a desolation has started I think more spren will cross over into the physical realm and will naturally be attracted to those already familiar with the mentality and powers of Windrunners. But I dont think this will happen for a longer time (with maybe the exception of Teft) because Brandon will likely want to show off what squires can do, etc.

I really like this theory too, but from the parts highlighted in the OP it almost sounds like the stars winking out are representations of the shards Odium has already destroyed. I dont know about lead, but uniting and protecting the rest of the shards could definitely be a long term goal for Honor. I'm not a fan of the 'reassembled Adonalsium' theory for how the cosmere's story will pan out but I do like the idea of Honor's unsplintering.

You're right, I forgot about those earlier, I was only thinking of regrowth fabrials like Nales, sorry!