PantsForSquares

Odium makes a point to not exert influence on Shardworlds, though. On Sel, he explicitly doesn't leave behind any Splinters or any form of his influence beyond Splintering Aona and Skai. The only world that we know he's exerted his influence on is Roshar, and he's been imprisoned in the Greater Roshar system for quite a long time. Odium's goal is to explicitly become the most powerful individual in the Cosmere (Harmony's thrown a wrench in that). Putting his own Investiture on a Shardworld means breaking down his own power. This, surprisingly, has some interesting implications (speculation time!). I suspect that Honor and Cultivation laid a trap for Odium in the Greater Roshar system. Initially, this involved the Heralds, Dawnsingers and Dawnshards. Odium counteracts with his Unmade, which leads to an escalation (by the creation of the Knights Radiant on the part of Honor and Cultivation and the creation of the Thunderclasts and Voidspren on Odium's part). The three of them are stuck in a stalemate, which changes when either Honor is Splintered or when the Oathpact is weakened.

OUR OVERLORD SHALL REIGN, AND WE SHALL SPREAD HIS TERRIFYING NAME STICK x5 I AM A STICK I AM A STICK I AM A STICK

Rayse's goal seems to not become the ruler of the Cosmere; Instead, he wishes to be the most powerful being in it. If he wanted to rule the Cosmere, he would have kept some presence on Sel after killing Aona and Skai, and Splintering their Shards . Bavadin might want to work with Rayse to be free from the influence of other Shardholders (although the possibility of Rayse turning on him further down the line is very, very real), for instance, or because he wishes for the people of the Cosmere to be free of Shardic influence. Or, Bavadin could no longer be working with Rayse, and Hoid just simply happens to still have a grudge against him. Without knowing much else about Bavadin, we can't really say much.

We also don't know what other powers the Heralds have aside from their Honorblades. But I do agree with the assessment that there's bound to be something else going on with the Heralds and the Honorblades; otherwise, it wouldn't make any sense to have people who can't process Stormlight as efficiently to lead the Orders.

This post made me realize something: A Shardbow that can shoot raw bolts of Stormlight would be absolutely awesome.

Aw, thanks! I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned something like this before, but I wouldn't want to steal their thunder in this case. The idea sort of came after reading a couple of comments on the fact that Stormlight isn't sticky. It didn't immediately occur to me, but I eventually realized that Stormlight is basically the Investiture equivalent of electricity. From there, a look at the minor spren Shardplate theory (which has been tossed around a few times), made me think of conductors. I figured that Sanderson would have some real world analogue that he'd base the mechanics of Plate on, and it just built from there. Shout out to @Jondesu for the idea that live Shardplate would also allow the Radiant to hold more Stormlight. That's an interesting thought that I really like.

For any intellectual task, Allomantic Bendalloy and Feruchemical Copper or Zinc would be really strong. Copper essentially allows you to create copper metalminds similar to what Sazed used for history, and burning bendalloy means you don't spend nearly as much time doing so. A diver would benefit from Feruchemic Cadmium and Allomantic Pewter. Their bodies, while burning Pewter, would be able to withstand greater pressures, and tapping a cadmiummind would let them breathe underwater. A Tin Compounder would make an excellent scout; being able to both compound tin, as well as burn it regularly, means that they would be able to vastly increase their sensory capabilities. Becoming a savant might be a very likely possibility here. A bodyguard with Allomantic Tin and Feruchemical Bronze would allow him to stay awake and alert for extended periods of time - which is a good thing when your job is protecting someone.

Lift's spren is Wyndle. Glys is Renarin's spren.

Stick x2 The Lopen x3

Dalinar's expression is amazing.

Creationspren seems the most likely one, as they're the ones that a Lightweaver could easily attract. If we go by that guideline, then lifespren make sense for Edgedancers, as does flamespren for Dustbringers and the spren of stone for Stonewards. It's fairly easy to pick out the spren for the obvious elementally-affiliated Orders, but stuff like Elsecallers is a bit more difficult to figure out.

Actually, Szeth's blade didn't glow because it's one of the Honorblades. Jezrien's, to be precise. Anyways, here's a crazy idea: Going with the idea that Shardplate is made of minor spren (windspren for honorspren, for example), maybe the reason that dead Plate interferes with Surgebinding is because there's a bunch of pooled Investiture in the Plate. I'm imagining that live Plate is like the Stormlight analogue to conductors: where it's a lattice of minor spren, with Investiture freely flowing. The Nahel spren acts as a control switch, turning the minor spren from spren to Plate, and vice versa. There's Stormlight flowing in a feedback loop, which allows the Surgebinder to not waste a significant amount of Stormlight while they keep Plate up. Now, with the Nahel spren dead, the Plate is "locked" in, and the Stormlight that was supposed to be in the feedback loop is now stuck in the Plate, and can only be replenished through external supplies like gemstones. Thoughts?

Granted, but you can only use it once, and you don't know when you can use it. Your bane is that you now see inverted colors. I wish for infinite ice cream.

It's the tournament! I'm kinda glad I'm not lurking 'round these parts anymore! Anyways Lift x1 The Lopen x1 Vasher x1 Renarin x1 Sazed x1

Doing a quick trendline based off the numbers in the wiki, there's definitely an exponential relationship at work here. It's hard to gauge what the exact numbers are for the formula without knowing the precise values for each Heightening. But I'll agree with the fact that the Heightenings are a human made benchmark. I'm curious to see if the categorization of Heightening is incorrect, at least from Endowment's own model. I'm also somewhat curious if all Breaths have the same amount of Investiture.

I'm jealous that your GenChem class has a metallurgy section. You know you're a Sanderfan when Words of Radiance is used to test load bearing capacities of scale models.

With that WoB up above, Sliver is definitely not the right term. It's obvious that the Heralds are different, but we lack a term for Invested people that isn't Sliver. If anything, the Heralds are like what Elend was after burning lerasium: Powerful, and with an altered Spiritweb, but not Splinters. There probably is a term for it, but we haven't seen it.

While we're on the topic of Nightblood, has anyone else wondered what the sheath is made from? I'm willing to bet it's aluminum, but I can't find any WoB to verify this.

I'm actually curious if the number of Breaths required to attain a specific Heightening are based on some function involving 5^n, or maybe an asymptotic function with 5 somewhere (approaching the total number of Breaths ever made).

Kinda off-topic, but Actually, pure bismuth is only colored when you create crystals with it, and you need high purity bismuth (>99%) in order to actually get the cool colors. The exterior of the crystals is actually bismuth oxide, and I believe that the temperature that the bismuth is at when it oxidizes influences its color. I'm not 100% sure if temperature influences the color, but that's an educated guess based on what I understand about electrons and the like.

Granted, but their musical prowess becomes the stuff of legend, and they eventually find a new manager, and go on a worldwide tour in Roshar, becoming a smashing success. Your bane is that you always hear C, D# and G as weird shshsh noises. I wish for the ability to tap-dance.

You know you're a materials science fan when you started reading Mistborn because METALS!!!!! You know you're a Sanderfan when someone asks you to name an alloy of a metal, and you give an Allomantic alloy.

You know you're a Sanderfan when you draw Aons with condiments. I've had an Aon Rao burger and an Aon Mai bowl of ramen already.

Vasher is actually surprisingly restrained, when it comes to using Investiture. Remember that he gave up an immense stockpile of Breaths, killed Shashara to prevent a spread of the knowledge behind Awakened steel, and has made a point of not using his Returned form. If there ever was any Cosmere character I'd expect to not do much on another planet, it would certainly be Vasher. He could let loose, sure, but it just isn't in his character. Also, Vasher traveled to Roshar 300 years or so before the time of Warbreaker, so when he first saw a Shardblade, it would have been after the Heirocracy, at the very latest. We'd need more chronological information, though.

So that means that the Honorblades' ability to freely grant Surgebinding to any user is more of an unintended side effect. They were initially meant to just be the Heralds' weapons, as they were Spiritually attached in such a way that they wouldn't reappear upon "death." But once willingly given up, they could be used by any potential wielder. I'll definitely agree that there's something else going on with the Heralds, though. Syl comments that the Honorblades use a "dangerous amount" of Stormlight. If this is the case, then there's no way someone with an Honorblade alone would be able to keep up with the Radiants. I suspect that one of the Heralds' powers increases the efficiency of the Honorblades, allowing them to be used on the same level as Radiants who had sworn their fourth or fifth Ideal. I can definitely get behind the idea that the Heralds and Honorblades were designed as a set, but I'm not entirely sure if the Heralds are Splinters (I'd imagine that being a cognitively-aware Splinter, and therefore having an Intent, would prevent them from breaking the Oathpact). I'd call them Slivers, but I don't feel that it's the right term.