zeppomarks

The bullets would still be slower in time with the cadmium bubble down, but so would the folks shooting at you. It's a minor difference, but one I would make.

I meant drop the cadmium bubble after the bullets hit them. Either way, the deflections seem random in the books so I wouldn't trust them to deflect 100% away from me. I'd rather know which angle they are coming in at.

That's true, I forgot that he mentioned the effect of sound in time bubbles. I also forgot how sound works temporarily. lol Though, that would be pretty funny. Even if they shot at you, you could still be safe. Just drop the cadmium bubble then step out of the way with your sped up time.

A Cadmium bubble was said to be about the size of a room, so say, roughly 20x20x20 feet. It's also known to be larger than a Bendalloy which in the novels. And since Wayne can easily pick out one person in a group to trap in the time bubble, but still have enough room to fight, lets say they're about 10x10x10 feet. If one were to put up both at the same time... they cancel each other out, I know, but what if they instead created a large bubble of slow time with a smaller bubble of real time. I could see this being useful in some cases. You could safely parlay with a dangerous enemy, knowing that they can't attack you in any way cause they would get stuck in the field of slow time around you. You could trap someone in with you. Not sure why you would want to do this in this way since Cadmium does that pretty good anyway. But you could. Really it would just be cool to have what is essentially a force field around you. One you can't move, sure, but... y'know, whatever. lol

Interesting. And I don't believe Cultivation has given up. That seems to go against her Intent. But along with that intent, she probably doesn't have much direct recourse against Odium. How can something that cultivates act against something that hates? Or anything, for that matter. Yeah, I don't think she's given up, I just don't think she has many options.

@Yata Ah, ok. I seriously need to read M:SH. The amount of times folks have brought up stuff in that one here, I'm obviously missing some very big pieces of this puzzle. I'm waiting for Arcanum Unbound though. Any thoughts on what Hoid is planning?

Lol! Oh, that would be so creepy. Just this shard hiding in nebulae and peeking around planets all stalker-like. lol But now that you're here do you have any thoughts? No one had anything to say about the possible Shard-level Atium-esque duel that I think Odium and Cultivation are having, so that's still fresh.

Then what? It seems unlikely that he would be powerful enough to challenge a Shard. And he doesn't seem super interested in taking active measures against Shards yet. The only thing I can think of is that he's trying to reunite the power of Adonalsium and only those who took a Shard during the Shattering or someone who's invested in that Shard can hold a Shard. Like, Vin was able to take Preservation because she was an Allomancer and thereby is of Preservation and Sazed could hold both Ruin and Preservation because he's a Feruchemist which is of both. Granted, there's also the obvious benefit that each person just so happened to be around at the time. I don't know, two incidences does not a pattern make. Whatever, I'm not curious about that as much as what people think Hoid's end game might be.

I don't know... When Harm is talking to Wax in BoM, and there is all that evil mojo trying to get at Scadrial there was like a bubble around the planet as if said evil mojo was trying to get into Harm's sphere of influence. But that's probably meaning less. Leras leaves Scadrial for a time in M:SH though, I think. Either way, with no evidence to the contrary, I think it's a little premature to discount the possibility.

I'm definitely extrapolating and assuming a ton in this theory. But that's the point for me To discover potential connections hidden within the text, as baseless as they may be. I figure it like this, if someone had gotten on here and explained every twist in HoA correctly using what we knew in TFE, they would have been accused of looking into it way too deeply as well, despite there being actual evidence (tenuous evidence but evidence nonetheless) for all those twists. To be fair, I know I'm most likely way off base with my theories, but it's just so fun to consider... lol Yeah, you lost me. lol I have no idea off the top of my head what most of this means. I could understand if it was ELI5'd to me, but I haven't taken a Geometry class in almost 15 years. Not my strong suit. lol I'm a language/history person, so if we ever get to a theory that takes into account the role of the American newspapers in causing the Spanish-American war or the etymology of the word "defenestration" then I'll be all over it. I think, from now on, I'll leave the mathing up to folks like you.

So, I'm going through SA for the second time and I came across this: "The cool stones of the soulcast chamber seemed to hold the chill of the spring weather. It continued to refuse to slip into summer. But at least it hadn’t slid into winter, either." It was in one of Dalinar or Adolin's POVs, I think. Early in Part IV, I also think. This came off as very strange to me. What kind of orbit would make seasons so unpredictable that they could go forward or backward at unknown intervals? The first thought I had was that Odium and Cultivation were having a tug of war competition with Roshar, but that would just be weird. Do we have any information on this?

Ah, I think Grump/Galladon mentioned that Hoid dyes his hair, but the lightweaving could be too. Grump/Galladon probably just said that Hoid dyed his hair, because Ishikk wouldn't have any idea what Lightweaving was. Either way, do you have the Elantris 10th Anniversary Edition with the Epilogue? This seems like the only time we'd see him without a disguise on, so if it mentions his hair...

@Spoolofwhool Hm. Good points. It makes sense that, while Odium has refused to become invested in a planet in the past due to not wanting to get stuck there, since he's stuck in Greater Roshar already... Though, with him like stuck on Braize, presumably... Could a shard invest in a planet they're not on? Also... Do you think there is a possibility that Desolations have something to do with the proximity of Braize to Roshar? Like we know that a Rosharan year is 500 days. But if a Braize year is, say, 501 Rosharan days long, then (as long as my math isn't wrong, which it usually is) then the two planets would be their closest every 500 years, right? That means that there would be a lot more distance between the two planets for many of those of those 500 years. Plus a sun for several of them. I know that Desolations have to do with the Oathpact and the Heralds and all, but which so few specific details, the distance between the two planets could still have something to do with it.

Not canon, but still WoB. We can assume it's a solid estimate. As for the amount of desolations, Brandon did say there were way less than 99. With the prevalence of the number 10 on Roshar and Brandon's past with assigning heavy importance to numbers, it makes sense to me that the Last Desolation would be the tenth one. I'm a fan of wild theories though, as evidenced by all of the ones I've submitted in the last couple of days. lol Yeah, it would be nice if Brandon would release more information, but it totally makes sense why he doesn't. It would be interesting if someone created a story like this but, instead of a standard narrative, it was told purely through Q&A sessions and the like allowing the followers of the story to uncover it piece by piece. Almost like a team of investigators and anthropologists excavating a historical site in a fantasy world. Slowly uncovering the truth. It's kind of how I feel being on this forum, but with many questioned RAFO'd, increasing both my frustration and anticipation.

@Jondesu Finally found that Nine Desolations theory. Seems very plausible to me.

Random thought: I know I've read (I think in I-1: Ishikk of WoK) that Hoid has white hair, like an Elantrian, but dyes it often. I only have audio books so I can't easily check but in any of his pre-WoA appearances is his white hair mentioned? If not, it may at least hint at him having already used it to become an Elantrian. It's a weak hint, sure, since he could have had his hair dyed in those few appearances, but it's something. And easily refuted, which is always a bonus. The while hair has always struck me as odd, since it's so attached to Elantrians. Ati and Leras didn't have white hair. But Tanavast did. Doubt it's meaningful though. Probably just a coincidence.

@The One Who Connects "...leave his power behind" suggests that he left someone's power behind, just not any of his own, right? It may have been Dominion or Devotion, but since we know he's killed "at least" one other shard that we don't know about, he could have left some other unnamed shard's power behind as well. We know because of Rashek and Vin that one can acquire a shard, use it for a little bit, and then give it up... And if Odium had just left behind the power of Dominion and Devotion, I would think that Brandon would have just said it instead of obfuscating like that. I don't know, maybe @Blightsong is right. The emphasis does seem to do more damage to my hypothesis than I thought it did. It is drawing-board-going-back time.

Hm. I just realized what this could imply... I was assuming it was implying that Odium left behind the power of Dominion and Devotion, but this WoB creates further possibilities. Not sure how this aligns with this WoB however. Interesting stuff, either way.

Lol. Aye. One happens in Chapter 52 and the other in Chapter 75.

Oh, ok, I see where I goofed up. I didn't mean "gifted with precognition" as in "given precognition" but more like "really good at". Like a gifted child. Though, not a child given as a gift... I did it again... lol I see what you're saying about the Secret History quote. The context and characters (one of them at least) does make a huge difference. I think that all this requires is a slight adjustment to the hypothesis, however. I'll have to think on it and see how much damage this comment does to my idea, though I'm not expecting anything permanent.

I may be wrong, but I somewhat remember the Recreance vision as being when Honor mentioned that Cultivation was better at foresight than he was. Oh! No, the Recreance vision I'm talking about is the one where all the Knights drop their Shardblades and Plates. You're right about the vision you describe though. Honor pretty much explicitly states that what Dalinar is seeing is foresight, at least the best that Honor can provide.

Similar, but not synonymous. In my mind, Cultivation requires a force to apply it and has to do with the growth of personality, abilities, and life. More Spiritual aspects. Progress simply occurs as time moves forward. Not so much, technological progress, but simply the progression of the universe through time. Honestly, I'm not sure which Shard, if any, might hold sway over technological advancement. Arguments could be made for a few of them, but the world experiencing the most technological advancement... Well, neither Preservation nor Ruin seem predisposed to feature technology as a part of their Intents. Perhaps scientific discovery is inherent in humans and not motivated by any shard. That could explain why every planet experiences this to varying degrees. Hm...

Yeah, Decay is really redundant, and doesn't really work for me either. Decay and Torpor were the last two I did and caused me the most headache. I didn't really decide on those two as much as I settled on them. Decay is too Temporal, and Torpor is too Cognitive. All suggestions are welcome.

The logic I had differentiating between "active" and "inactive" (perhaps "passive" would be a better term) wasn't actually based on the activity of the Shard or holder themselves, but rather whether or not the Shard's Intent requires active manipulation in order to be fulfilled. So in regards to the Cognitive four, in my mind we're dealing with emotion and rationality. Autonomy requires one to be able to both change and make an active decision. Honor requires active implementation of it's intent, but due to it's focus on obligations and adherence to codes, it's more resistant to change. Justice is just as rigorous as Honor, however Justice simply exists. Justice doesn't need to actively apply itself, in order to fulfil it's intent. As for Odium, I figured that Odium is definitely all about change. Hatred cannot exist without the desire for something to be different than it is. However, Odium also doesn't need active implementation to fulfill it's Intent. Odium could easily sit in a hole for millennia pouting and it's intent would still be fulfilled.

I disagree. I already knew that Odium didn't leave any power behind and took that into consideration. I never said that he left power, but that he left traces of his influence. Back to... regular font! Reading back on my hypothesis, I feel an alteration is necessary. I don't believe that Odium's infection of other shards is an active thing that Odium is doing. I don't think that he is reaching out with his power and poisoning others. Rather, I believe that by his mere presence, he poisons other Shards, and the Shard's intent regulates to some extent how effective that corruption is. Take this line of questioning and WoB. Especially number 3 and to a much lesser extent 2. Odium has not only something to do with having intense hatred for things, but being a focal point for the intense hatred of others. I believe that just by being around other Shards, their hatred for Odium grows and grows until they, essentially, corrupt and splinter themselves trying to get at Odium. He expends no energy and allows the other shards to destroy themselves trying to get at him. Dominion would, naturally, be very territorial, so he wouldn't like it when Odium shows up. He would be far more susceptible to corrupting himself in an attempt to destroy Odium than Devotion. I can't speculate completely as to why Devotion would splinter herself in this scenario, except to simply avoid eventually becoming corrupted like Dominion and allowing her splinters to be as true to her interpretation of Devotion's Intent as possible. Of course, and I've been hesitant to say this cause it's just so hokey, but if Aona and Skai were romantically involved like Cultivation and Tanavast, Aona's Devotion to Skai might have drove her to get all Romeo & Juliet all over the place. Needless to say, I really, really hope this isn't the case. It might fit her intent and all but it would be incredibly melodramatic. As for Odium's affect on Honor and Cultivation, I believe a similar thing occurred as on Sel, only with different motivations. When Odium arrives at Greater Roshar, Honor feels that he is obligated to protect Roshar and so does the right honourable thing and sallies forth to meet the enemy on the field of battle! Harumph, harumph! Ahem... Sorry. Got a little bit of British Empire stuck in my throat. Sun never sets! Pip pip! *cough cough* Wanna wrastle? I'll see you at high noon, pardner. *spittoon* Ah, there we go. American as ever. Moving on! Honor expends himself, twisting and turning his Intent in an attempt to destroy Odium, but ends up destroying himself in the end. This would explain why the Knights Radiant seem to blame Honor for abandoning them, as implied by a few of the Death Rattles in WoK. It might also explain why Honor keep apologizing for dying. Of course, this could easily be because he feels guilty for failing in his obligation to protect Roshar, too. His apologies could be interpreted either way. Cultivation's intent, as far as I know, hasn't been canonized, but I think it's safe to say that she probably strives to develop and better things; such as land, culture, or abilities. This would leave her little reason to act against Odium directly. But instead, simply work against his effect on Roshar. Obviously there's way more to whats going on here that we'll learn in future books in regards to motivations and restrictions of these shards, but that's why I'm being so vague about the interaction between Cultivation and Odium. Not enough information to speculate yet.