Spoolofwhool

Right. And by this timeline, you don't think the spren decided to create the KR to give humanity a helping hand during the Desolations, unaware that it would cause things to become worse? I mean yes, there is no direct proof, but from what I recall of the sprens now, Pattern, Wyndle, and Syl, they all said something along the lines of coming to help in what was coming, the True Desolation. That seems to be as a result of a precedent, because the spren helped humanity during the previous Desolations as well, by forming the KR.

I mean, it was the act of attempted genocide which pushed them to stormform, along with Kaladin, who wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for the Vengeance Pact.

That makes sense. I just had another thought actually regarding the Divine Breaths are splinters conundrum. Fairly unrelated. Anyhow. We know that something can be both a cognitive shadow and a splinter, as that essentially seems to be what the Stormfather is. As such, I'm guessing that Returned are the same, where the Divine Breath is merged with their cognitive shadow to hold it into their body. As such the Divine Breath is a splinter, and therefore sentient, by virtue of the fact that it is also a sapient cognitive shadow. If this is the case, then maybe the idea of Vasher being bonded to his Divine Breath to gain abilities on Roshar doesn't actually work, so he needs some other way to gain stormlight.

The Desolations are definitely tied to the appearance of the Heralds. There's a WoB that if the Heralds remain on Roshar too long, then another Desolation would start immediately. I don't think the timer clock theory is correct as I believe that they didn't follow a set interval, and it had been implied that the 4500 has been because of the will of Taln.

What does it mean by Awakened? Any Awakened object or sentient biochromatic entities?

What clues have indicated of their ties to Sel? I don't recall any. Also, there are two shards on Sel, just splintered and not held by a vessel.

Yeah, you can't heal around aluminum, so as long as the aluminum is in the wound, the wound wouldn't heal. However, any other part of the body could still be maintained with gold feruchemy, so you would really only get somewhere once it starts burning holes in the muscle and the aluminum gets in there, otherwise the burns would still heal since it would be heat doing damage, and the aluminum would just be on the surface. Also, there is the issue that it assumes that one bucket would incapacitate him and somehow lock him down from doing anything, which I honestly doubt happening. The moment he realizes that there's an attack with aluminum all he has to do is a massive soothing to just deaden everyone or a massive fear riot to clear the people away, then he'll get time to recover. Ultimately, the procession idea wouldn't work. That leaves the bucket in the ceiling idea, but I doubt it as well. Consider. Assuming you somehow manage to make it work, and you somehow manage to lure TLR to your trap, chances are that he's going to have some number of Steel Inquistors with him. So you would have to somehow distract or incapacitate a number, probably at least four, steel inquisitors to carry through the attack.

Yes, he did lash the balcony towards the ground. I guess it really has to with how objects view themselves cognitively. The balcony saw itself separately enough from the main building. Someone's head... I doubt it could be separately lashed. Too much cognitive identity connecting the two, making them one.

I get it. So your opinion is that the Desolations began because the spren began bonding? Interesting thought. I've never really thought of it that way. I disagree with that honestly, because in a WoB indicates that the start of a Desolation is tied to the Heralds. That indicates to me that everything started as a result of the Heralds and the Knight Radiants are added on. It's still possible that the KRs existed before the Desolations began, but I don't see why the spren would do what they did unless there was some serious incentive.

Yes, you could probably steal all powers if you managed to keep them alive. Full feruchemists or giving someone a spike for feruchemical gold as well would work, as they could prevent their death from the spiking, as well as regenerate the lost spiritual. Once again though, it would require someone to be in agreement with though if you found a mistborn sympathetic to your cause, you could just use them.

I don't understand. The spren were trying to help humanity survive weren't they? Regardless of what they did, the Desolations, by all accounts, would have happened anyways. Maybe that's what Hoid meant when he said that the man called Taln was too late. He broke years ago, yet something slowed his arrival to Roshar, so he didn't arrive as soon as events began in preparation for the Desolation, but only months before the Final Desolation.

This is true. But chances are that they are also better at Elsecalling in general, so that they can access Shadesmare more easily, and therefore be effective liaisons.

Honor isn't the Vorin religion though. He clearly cares for humanity and wants to protect them. Also, the idea of sacrificing them isn't connected to the idea that they would fight in the afterlife, it's sacrificing them to protect his self-interests.

Probably not. The investiture creating the perpendicularity would be noticeable, and we don't see any sign of that around her. Her being closer to the CR is likely as a result of the Old Magic.

Few points. Kaladin was unconsciously performing surgebinding of the surge of gravity for a awhile before we saw him use full lashings. He was using reverse lashings on the bridge so that the arrows would miss him. In any case, he learned both concurrently, but it seems fairly clear that he favours gravity surgebinding. There's an unreleased chapter about Jasnah and elsecalling. Also, there's the fact that Elsecaller were referenced as being the better liaisons for the spren than the adjacent orders, in the in-Roshar book Words of Radiance.

Stormlight Archive spoilers Probably should keep SA discussion in spoilers.

Interesting thought. I'll have to think about it a bit. I'm not sure that being a cognitive shadow glued back into a physical body is necessary, since either way they're being sustained directly by investiture, so being partly dead isn't that worrisome. It would probably be like if a bloodmaker ferring with infinitely charged metalminds had something rammed into their chest cavity, destroying their heart, and left there. They don't have a heart anymore, but as long as they keep tapping, the feruchemy will continuously refresh their body, like it did when Miles held his breath, so I can see the same thing happening to Reod-afflicted Elantrians. The only other thought is that if there are cognitive shadows, it would be a lot harder for them to worldhop, yet we see a number of Elantrian worldhoppers.

Additional hemalurgic spikes for physical strength would probably just increase their physical strength while twisting their form and intelligence even further.

It seems to me that the line is referring to the Listeners creating the bridge and there isn't any reference to KRs in general. Also, I'm still slightly in favour that Ishar was lying and that Nale is wrong about the KRs causing a Desolation to occur, since it still seems to me that spren didn't start forming Nahel Bonds until after the Unmade became active again, which likely indicated the start of the True Desolation.

This would make sense as we have a WoB that Hoid avoids hemalurgy because he doesn't want undue external influences affecting him.

It might also have been easier for Wyndle to cross because Lift is more in the Cognitive Realm than normal though, so we can't say for certain.

Nightblood might not have made a Nahel Bond yet, and if it has, it may not even grant surgebinding powers. It would be interesting to see exactly what powers Szeth does gain as a result of being bonded to Nightblood on Roshar. Hopefully more in Oathbringer.

Theoretically, yes. Practically, I doubt it. The amount of stormlight require to infuse probably exceeds the amount a surgebinding can hold at once.

There is a scene, though I'm not sure how released it is since it isn't in the books, so I'll put it in spoilers.

damnation. Brandon managed to put so much more character into than me. However, did anyone catch the reversal I slipped in?