Spoolofwhool

This probably wouldn't actually work. The mass of the metalminds would likely be greater than the mass of the bullet, therefore resulting in the lurcher pulling the bullet back towards them. I'll also point out that feruchemical zinc mainly changes mental intuition, leaps in thought. It doesn't just generally speed up all thought process as much.

Stormwardens are more mathematicians than meteorologists. It's been pointed out a few times that predicting upcoming highstorms was largely mathematical, and they don't predict weather in general, just highstorms. You're correct there, but my point still stands, which is that nothing is indicating that the planets have some sort of deeper connection to the Heralds. All that you have cited is just circumstantial association. As far as I can tell, each Herald was associated with an essence, just like they are associated with a number, a gemstone and a body focus. They do not represent those attributes. In the same regard, those symbols which are also the symbols of the orders of the Knight Radiants were not created for those purposes. They were originally just ten fundamental glyphs which were adopted into the symbols of the orders. Finally, the Heralds did not found the orders; they were simply the patrons of the orders. The only Herald who, as far as we know, had anything to do with the formation of the orders was Ishar. It's even said that Nale refused to be the patron of the Skybreakers for some time.

I think two premises are incorrect in this theory. The first one, and main one, is that the gas giants are not named after the Heralds. The names of the gas giants are just the Vorin numbers from one to ten, derived from the Vorin names for the Heralds. I'm assuming that the colouration and symbology are just the ones linked to the numbers as well. Secondly, as Blightsong says, there's no reason why thinking about something would automatically have you assigning cognitive thought towards anything named after them. So the premise that they should have cognitive aspect because people are thinking about the thing they're named after, which really is the numbers, not the Heralds, seems flimsy to me. Additional point: I have a feeling that the gas giants are obscured by the asteroid belt for the most part, and as such are not visible from Roshar. This is reinforced by Khriss' observation that they cannot be observed. Therefore, the chart and the names on it were likely given by Silverlight scholars or whichever external organization drew it, using the Rosharan systems for the symbols and naming. Furthermore, I'm slightly skeptical that the gas giants will play much of a part in the greater Stormlight Archive. Khriss' comments seem to be indicating that they won't be that important, and as far as I can tell, we have had no reference to them in WoK or WoR. Since we're moving past the setup of the first arc and into the meat already, it seems strange he would start introducing that critical at this stage.

Except non-canonically, Hoid is revealed to have originated as a normal human being on Yolen. Could change I suppose, but I don't think that at that time the power to create fully sapient cognitive entities existed. Also, saying something started out as a cognitive shadow is technically impossible, since cognitive shadows are a cognitive entity which has lost its connection to its physical body, literally the imprint of the physical body into the cognitive realm. You can't start as a shadow.

True. Still, it's mainly the noble families which trace to him, so they're probably the ones who feel his heritage the most, as noted by Wax in AoL.

They have bauxite refining in Era 2. VenDell references it when they're talking about the feruchemical powers at the start of BoM.

Yes, this is correct. Are you confirming what I'm saying or contesting it? Nothing in my topic was regarding Vasher's reason for being on Roshar.

Stormlight isn't a magic system. It's investiture. He might be able to use it because he's a Returned. We don't actually know. The theory I ascribe to is that he is bonded to his Divine Breath in some sense, which is a splinter. As such, according to the nature of Roshar, he is grant some sort of enhancement, which gives him the ability to hold stormlight.

You can tap Preservation's power anywhere in the Cosmere. The power is located in the Spiritual Realm which is space-independent so distance has no effect.

Vin could probably burn shavings of shardplate assuming it isn't so invested that it's allomantically inert. Kaladin wouldn't be able to do anything with mists or metal since that's completely unrelated to the magic system he is able to use. Magic systems are defined by the world the shard is invested into, and remains constant in the Cosmere. It doesn't change on every world.

That was fast.

Well, the song seems to be implying at their gods and the Unmade are separate, since it uses both terms. That stanza seems to be saying that the gods originally made the smokeform, but the Unmade changed it to be a force.

The strength of metal lines is a function of mass and distance from the metal. Since the pieces of gold in stream are fairly small, you would have to be pretty close to them to get much effectiveness. I'm not sure it would work that well, though maybe it would to a certain degree. I can't remember how small those pieces are. This is in fact assuming gold prospecting in streams is even possible on Scadrial, to which I have my doubts. Consider: the surface of the world, at least in the Basin, is only 300 years old. Gold arrives in streams due to erosion, and I believe that that process takes far longer than 300 years. So, the job of gold prospecting may not even be possible in Scadrial.

You are correct. In fact, I'll go further and correct myself. I reviewed what Brandon said about bonding Nightblood, and it appears that it actually requires wielding Nightblood and allowing it to feed off of investiture you possesses. Since I doubt Szeth has done that, chances are that he is not bonded to the weapon and can just resist the nausea. In any case, that doesn't matter too much since he will still possesses the innate physical enhancements Nightblood on its own grants, so he's probably still extremely effective as a fighter, even without whatever enhancement Roshar grants him.

Most magics will give slight enhancements in other areas so that you can properly use them. Same as with atium giving you increased mental processing so you can adequately use the foresight, steelrunning gives you a slight boost so you don't just run into walls. You aren't storing the edge, it's just a feature of the magic.

We have a WoB that what is happening to Taravangian is an increase in multiple types of intelligence. While it doesn't completely eliminate the theory of foresight, it does seem to put the mathematical probability theory more in favor.

If Szeth can partially draw Nightblood without feeling any effects then he is bonded to it. We have a WoB that implies that being bonded to a splinter on Roshar will give you some sort of powers, so chances are that he is receiving some sort of enhancements.

My point was that the spren are not in the physical realm when they're binding to people. They're still mainly in the Cognitive Realm but are slightly visible from the physical, depending on how connected someone is to Shadesmar and how strongly they are manifesting.

A straight, perfectly level racetrack? I'd bet on the steelrunner every time. The Edgedancer wouldn't be able to get up to speeds in the first place in order to compare. Down a level slope, I might be more inclined to bet on the Edgedancer, since they would be able to accelerate to a higher speed, assuming the race is long enough.

I feel like a lot of spren don't transition from Shadesmare to the Physical Realm. Sure, they can manifest to some degree so that they're visible and can interact with people, but true transition, which we've principally seen as spren turning into shardblades, probably doesn't happen.

I don't think even tying his cognitive shadow back to a physical body would allow him to leave since at his base he's still a cognitive shadow connected to Scadrial. Warbreaker spoilers

Brandon has confirmed that dragons can take on human avatars.

Brandon has strongly and implicitly stated that the Nightwatcher is sentient entity composed of investiture.

Yes, I know what you're saying. I was just pointing out that you were nitpicking something which hadn't been referred to.

Possibly, except we already have a fairly good basis for what Brandon means when he says interfere in conjuction with magics. "Investiture interferes with investiture," has been used to describe why it is harder to steelpush a metalmind, and unless we're given some basis for a different definition of interfere in this case, I'm using the one we've been given already in similar cases.