Spoolofwhool

It wasn't a history work that said they were becoming corrupt; it was a personal autobiography.

@Jondesu Good point there. Reminds of the novel series Fate of the Jedi where they touched on that point a bit in places. Really is a lot more about mentality towards the force than feelings.

Haven't they been confirmed to be from the Stormfather? It's indicative that someone is undergoing to process to becoming a bondsmith.

Wouldn't you need whatever method the Southerners had to unseal the metalminds in order to sell metalminds to regular people?

I'll point out that the Radiants were noted to have become more corrupt and less helpful overy the course of time following the Last Desolation. Also, I would've thoughthe that the Listeners became sprenless at the end of the Last Desolation, not centuries later.

Spiritual realm doesn't really matter, but I think since you're involving a physical body, distance starts mattering. In addition, looking at the other cases of binding a shadow to a body, in both known cases, the Investiture to perform the binding is taken up by the physical body, in order to maintain I presume. Therefore, it seems more likely to me that the Honorblades are not the source of the binding, as the Investiture for the binding should be within the physical body of the Heralds. Furthermore, I don't think the Heralds are bound to their Honorblades anymore, with the exception of Taln and Nale, and Nale's connection is mire artificial compared to what it was. Primary reason is that other people are able to bond them, and additionally they aren't exhibiting the power they allegedly had.

With regards to the premise that the Honorblades must have some other function because they don't seem to exhibit much power, I would like to point out that we probably don't know the full scope of the Honorblades' power. My opinion is that the Honorblades were designed for Heraldic use, and therefore cannot be properly wielded unless by a Herald under the constraints of the Oathpact. In addition, we know that the Heralds did possesses greater strength than they are exhibiting now, and it would stand to somega reason that that was because they had their Honorblades. So overall, what I'm saying is that while I agree that the Honorblades are bound to the Heralds, I disagree that they are the cause of them being bound to physical bodies as cognitive shadows. The reason being is that first, only one Herald, that we know of, is holding his Honorblade, and the others are still bound to their bodies. (I'll admit that the Cognitive issues they're encountering could be a point towards themail not having their blades, save that Nale is still fairly unstable with it.) They aren't bound to their Honorblades anymore as they cannot surgebind. Also, if the Honorblades are the source of their binding, they probably know that they would be and would've been a lot more hesitant to abandon them. Their mentality at the Last Desolation pointed more towards the blades of being a connection to the Oathpact than maintaining their existence. I think it's the Oathpact keeping them bound to physical bodies. Edit: @teknopathetic we have at least one WoB that Ambition has been killed, plus a statement in AU. As such, I don't think it's likely that Ambition is pretending to be dead, but a cognitive shadow is not impossible.

Hoid probably isn't bonded to a spren. If he were, it would impact his ability to worldhop somewhat. In any case, I don't recall a moment when he is using stormlight, so I'm not sure what you are referring to. That would be pretty amazing. I imagine it would be like his conversation with the cognitive entity in Secret History, except a bit more two-sided.

They can, but as Brandon's answer regarding cognitive entities shows, it's really difficult and requires some workarounds. It's not a matter of just wanting to.

Not really. All Brandon does is respond that the possibility raised will occur. It in no way eliminates the other possibilities from being possible, and does not imply that that is the only method at all.

Good observation. Never noticed it personally.

One thing I'm unsure of is the spark of life. What is it exactly? I guess investiture so that it can replenish systems of investiture?

Can you quote the passage where this happened? I don't remember it happening either.

I see, yeah, I misinterpreted things. My bad. Plus forgot how entropy works.

Interesting thought, however I don't think investiture actually has entropy. I think Brandon's comment on investiture having its own laws of thermodynamics principally applied to the idea of investiture not being created or destroyed. Most other observations we've observed regarding systems of investiture observes this to be true, such as the Well of Ascension replenishing and Preservation's power returning to Preservation every time. While the possible agent of entropy, Nightblood, could be an example of there be entropy, I just found a WoB that states that Nightblood is not actually removing investiture from the system, and is not gone forever.

Preservation destroyed his own mind, which is most definitely not preserving himself. Ruin didn't take the direct actions to ruin himself like he did Scadrial and had been trying to win the whole time, so I don't see where your argument is coming from. He ruined himself because of choices, not because he actually wished ruin on himself, which would be the case if his intent was actually be directed against himself as you claim. The ruin of the good man Ati was once again wasn't anything he intentionally did, it was the natural product if holding the shard Ruin. I couldn't find any WoB that Odium hates himself, only that he hated others and invoked hatred in others. Expanding further, we can see that Endowment doesn't seek to endow herself as at least one of her actions, the creation of Returned, is self-weakening.

Spoilers, and where has that been stated?

Shard intents don't twist them against themselves. Ruin didn't want to ruin himself and Preservation didn't preserve himself so I don't think Odium would hate himself.

I thought that in AU it had said something different.

Where has it been said there are cognitive shadows on Braize? I thoughthink it had just been said that it was inhabited by spren.

It would chemically react with the saliva in your mouth though, and I doubt that that would be enough inside to be considered burnable.

Yeah, my opinion it's a result of the transition. Did you mean Cognitive-Physical transition at the end though, or is there something more with Cognitive-Spiritual that you think is going on?

I think when Brandon said that Nightblood is the equivalent of a spren, he meant that Nightblood is holding a splinter and that bonding it could grant enhancements to the person. There is no need to awaken Nightblood, nor do I think any parallels can be drawn to awakening it. It is already a splinter with a degree of sentience and possibly sapience.

Yes this is true. Even though the Desolations were believed to be over, the KRs were still expected to protect and guide humankind, which they did for the centuries following the Last Desolation until the Recreance. Therefore, it was an abandonment since they were expected to remain and protect. Also, another point to keep in mind is that it was noted that the KRs were becoming more corrupt over time.