1stBondsmith

A couple more notes... Spren is the plural of spren. (like deer are deer). "I see many spren". Thus, grammatically, "Their spren..." is likely referring to multiple spren. "Their spren was an ugly type" can refer to many ugly spren possessed by people, as long as it is referring to a type together, which the quote is. Secondly, yes, it must be that there could be more than three. It may be seditious, harmful, or even referring to bonding to spren that they shouldn't (we don't know which), but there could be more than three according to that quote. Third, confirmation of an unspecified number is obviously intentional in the quote from Brandon. Three or less was common, but not a ceiling.

Long term prediction... Hoid, known intimately by all the original Shardholders, had a more active role than we think in the Shattering of Adonalsium. His original involvement was to join them and become one of the shards to bring more power into the Cosmere, and to create new and better worlds than the dying Yolen they inhabited. But his friendship for Adonalsium and his blind trust in what was viewed by the others as too restrained an influence on the people of the Cosmere, caused him to back out of the actual deed of simultaneously spiking Adonalsium. He swore that he would not interfere, but would not do the deed himself. He did however, use his skills as a "Liar" to weave a scene of life outside of Yolen, and existing through the experience's of all his creations (see Ym's religious explanation) to his all-powerful friend. Adonalsium, knowing full well what was going on around him, allowed Himself to drift into the story, becoming vulnerable to the other 16, and was spiked by blades. These 16, with their blades (that will become important at the end of Dragonsteel) became Shards, while Hoid's body was destroyed in the release of power and the storm of Investiture as the 16 Ascended. He did not move on to the Beyond, like Kelsier, but remained cognitive until he found help gaining enough power to slip into the Physical realm along one of the 16 perpendicularities left by the Shards. Hoid now sees the havoc wrought by an unbalanced power let loose, and seeing the special characteristics of his friend separated and the Intents becoming radicalized, seeks to reunite them, even if only a small bit of each, to restore a little of the divine that was his friend.

@Jondesu, I upvoted you for your idea and for the integrity you gave the Genius thread you mentioned. That is exactly what I hoped would happen with peoples theories. I like the idea too, but I picture Kelsier being overt and Hoid covert. A direct interplay would get hot really quickly, like last time. I do like the idea of Kelsier being part of the 17th shard. But what would his connection to Frost be, (who seems to have the power to call them off)?

Well thought out @Demiandre. I had a couple thoughts I might add 1. Since stormlight is a great deal of investiture, there could be many reasons that there are vision during the storms (Cultivation's power near- "since She sees the future more clearly", one of the Unmade or Voidbringers' influence nearby- ala death rattles, message left by Honor, etc.) Perhaps this is not only an indication of Bondsmith bonding. 2. Yes, there will likely be more Bondsmiths, since some are needed at Urithiru and some in the field according to the quote. 3. I think that there are other "very specific spren" which are not Cognitive Shadows of the Shard. I think that is unique to the Stormfather because of Honor's death. IIRC, it happened long after there were Radiants, so Bondsmiths would have been bonded to spren without this addition. 4. A Bondsmith's role SEEMS to include uniting the Radiants and creating or breaking bonds with them or the Voidbringers (or both). With that mission, I can see needing a few of them, but not too many, as they could decimate the other Knight orders. That would be seditious.

An excellent 1st post @Pyromie! Have a welcome upvote. And, in neighborly advice, avoid the baked goods offered you here. Your freedom is not worth the temporary pleasure. Keep your armor on! I too am very interested in the nature of the Bondsmith's powers. I got a hint in my signed book from Sanderson. He welcomed me to the Knight's radiant order of Bondsmiths and assigned me to "keep the peace for All". And then he said, "That should be a big enough assignment for you!" From that I glean that Bondsmiths are charged in some way with keeping the peace among the Radiants. Like your theory, I believe that it is directly related to being able to affect the Bonds with Spren. Unlike the rest of your theory though, I do not think he revives spren. I think he can make a bond stronger or weaker, possibly granting advancement or removal of some powers based on the keeping of oaths. There re a lot of other possibilities, but this is my favorite today.

Agreed. Honorblades are a technology spren copied according to Brandon. They are not spren.

I agree with @Tsidqiyah This is evidence a shard was here, but left, and now the perpendicularity is still there and working. Except for fear or disgust, what could make a Shard leave once invested? Was there only partial investment? To the more exciting point, if a perpendicularity is left when a Shard crosses between realms, this would make them really interesting to those who track them, or their history. A large amount of investiture is needed to allow the Shard to travel, but must it remain there when they leave? Could be that it was left open for a purpose. Can there be many perpendicularities left by the same shard? I have theorized about perpendicularities being left when a Shard travels, but I always thought they remained to maintain them. This would suggest it is possible to do otherwise.

First, I had to reorient, leap a hurdle, and I finally came to rest here, upside down, feeling Syl-ly. I've been glowing here since you walked in. Just how long will it be till I fall?

Mistborn; 1980's tech; instead of drug lords and gang warfare being the news topics of the day, territorial bands of Allomancers, now bred with Ferruchemists, present an all out collision of powers. Skirmishes, not unlike the Avengers (or more correctly, like Epics in Newcago), lay waste to heavily populated areas, driving most residents from Elendel to other areas. The Southern peoples, revering, but having learned to mistrust Allomancers, keep a firm border with the infighting Northerners. But, because this is Brandon's story, the powers they have coveted come within their grasp, thanks to Trell's minions. Giddy with the new power, the Set feeds the Hunters more capabilities till an all out war ensues. Now, more than ever, the use of unlocked metalminds and stores of power are needed, and commercial industries are established to mine attributes from hordes of people, usable by individuals of incredible power. The Thin Blue Line must decide to use the confiscated powers to counter the warlords, or wait to be overwhelmed by them. The moral dilemma creates factions within the police characters, with one party winning out as the last hero of the civilized people.

Greetings, and well posted! It is interesting that Bavadin (with whatever shard) was involved at all with Sel. I wonder if this was by motive, affiliation or more directly. I hope we find out in the near future. Tracking Shardholders with timelines is currently an incredibly tricky pastime.

PLEASE, All My Friends, this threads integrity depends on NOT responding to previous posts (Please see original thread rules). I realize that you may have only read the last few posts, but we need to have no comments on other posts to give posters the confidence to post plot ideas without fear of critique. That is the goal of this thread. Don't make me bring out the Blackthorn!!! Thank you.

@Pagerunner, and @Yata, those are some nice ideas, but if you cannot get into the system- because there is only one perpendicularity, and no one returns -and you cannot access the other worlds directly because of the way you must observe in Shadesmar, (like the water of the oceans, there is just no one thinking about them), then you have only the sketchiest of information. I can't see a way to tell distances, moon counts, habitation, planet type, or anything else about the other planets UNLESS there is sentient life. Because if things are not being thought about expressly, they do not exist in Shadesmar (by definition). And then, you would have to be able to communicate with beings that know these astronomical facts and have numbers, and knowledge. You can't just ask anyone from any system about inhabitants they haven't communicated with. There has to be more here.

How do you have expeditions to worlds without perpendicularities, and not inhabited (thus invisible in the Cognitive Realm)?

Only places with sentient life have existence in the Cognitive Realm. That would imply that all these worlds have sentient life, (or there would be no space for them in the Cognitive Realm). Yet only three of them have Human life, and one other could. That leaves a lot of information gathered by some other means.

Has anyone pondered on the question:"How does Kriss or anyone else know the star system's makeup in such detail, if every Silverlight expedition never returned? How would anything but First of the Sun and First of the First ever be known about at this time? How do they know about other worlds inhabited by people with no perpendicularity? There must be interplanetary travel already (at the time of her writing) or this could not be known. What does that imply? Is one of the other inhabited worlds or both able to travel in space, and if so, how did Khriss or other Worldhoppers run into them? There is another story here...

On Taldain, Kenton does indeed find Khriss, but not until she has gained the attention and Hatred of the Ruler who employed Baon (his name escapes me). Baon, remaining loyal to his master is charged with watching, and eventually killing her. Since the two are exclusive, he uses the out of following the first to not kill her. She discovers that the ruler is very Cosmere aware, and controls access to Taldain's Perpendicular. Kenyon (guided by a more intrusive Hoid) and Khriss meet at an opportune time for her rescue, but in the battle that ensues, Hoid ticks off Baon, as he helped Khriss take strong advantage of the ruler's magical Achilles Heel. Baon, and Khriss all flee through the perpendicular to the Cognitive Realm on Hoid's heels. Kriss, ever the scientist, seeks to learn all she can with boldness. Baon, ever seeking to keep his word, searches for Hoid and eventually joins the 17th Shard. Kenton,meantime, has remained behind to stop the ruler and the Kertian revolution, and in doing so, has a magic battle that draws power from the perpendicularity that Autonomy left. the pool is effectively destroyed and Khriss and Baon cannot return to Taldain. Kenton, full of power and attitude goes back to Dayside to deal with the Kertians.

Good Luck! I hope the recipient is grateful for all the work. My experience is that they typically don't have any idea how long it takes, and how hard it is. Cheers to you for the work - from me!

If you have a lot of obsidian, and it is very pure, (no swirls turned back or sharp folds in the glass), A long sheer makes the sharpest blades. If you can't break a lot of obsidian trying the long sheer, then small edge knapping is best. It is not as sharp or elegant, but it gets the job done. If you are able, typical glass cutters to shape the stone and chipping the edge with the cutter to rough it out will work, Then you start the knapping. Obviously, this depends on the thickness. For strength, you will need a thick center of the blade. Single piece knives are very hard, and I would be tickled to see what you make. The best and most elegant were those made from a large native shard that was broken in big pieces, then cut and thinned without knapping. Very beautiful, but requires a lot of lot or trial and error. Usually lots of error. Single blade is much easier than two edged, but you can sharpen both sides of the tip for better penetration and still keep the blade strength.

If you cut thinner tangs (into the haft) for the knives, you severely increase the chance of breaking at the transition. I would go for a straight blade and tang into an epoxied split bone. It is not as slippery when bloody.If you do decide to thin out the tang, have the bone go up over the transition. It will help the strength a lot, but ir can also expose the user to cuts at the end of the blade. Some kind of thin guard would get rid of that problem, but now you have a different design. I picture Mistborn knives as elegant and fast, and not as a stone-age weapon as must of us who were taught knapping have learned. What is your method of cutting the obsidian?

When Dalinar pulled the shardblade on Amaram, no mention of 10 was given. Its reads very well at that point. I've been in battle a few times. When things go kinetic, they slow down for an experienced warior, but I'm here to tell you, your heart speeds up. PARTICULARLY in a hand to hand fight. He took a surprise hit. deflected the next, stepped back, took a stance and observed her standing in the rain and had time to remember her name and be grateful for a challenge and smile. Quite easily 10 heartbeats. Gratitude of the challenge was written in here very well. I do not dispute the future of Adolin as a radiant, (we shall see), but I do not see here proof of such from this scene.

Bondsmith powers. What they are and what they are not. What did Dalinar just trade for the blade he had? Can't wait to see what he has to do to bring very disparate knights into some kind of order. I want to hear what he does to fight the Everstorm, Voidbringers and Taravangian, all without claiming a rulers title.

He dropped it intentionally. He threw it at other times. He let it go. You can do this to a dead Shrdblade. Look at all that time from falling and seeing Eshoni till the blade appeared. Plenty of time for 10 heartbeats. (particularly in battle). It just wasn't added to make it read smoothly. Finally, Adolin was thanking Eshoni for attacking. It focused him and got rid of the revulsion to the carnage. A duel, not a slaughter. He was thanking her.

Hoid has seen many names in the books. Among these are: Midius on Yolen, followed by Hoid, his Master Liar's name in "The Liar of Partinel. Also named that by Hoid in WoK to two people. Topaz- referenced by WoB, "The Letter" with Frost, and by Hoid himself "named for a stone made worthless for my having worn it". Wit- WoK and WoR Various other roles as seen in Elantris and head of the beggars, beggar informant in Mistborn and other small cameos including coach driver. Lots to name. But the main thrust of the thread was if Hoid is a shell that could have been Adonalsium. I think he was not. But I think he knows or knows about Adonalsium as well as any shard, as he was part of the conspiracy to shatter it, but decided not to and swore not to interfere. (The Letter from Frost). He is now interfering. My guess is that he is not the shell of Adonalsium, but that he knows or is learning what is needed to reassemble the shards. My other guess is that he has not been "Quite Human" since the shattering, but he is doing the best he can in the state he was left in. I don't have any clue what that state is. Kelsier's path seems to indicate that there are many ways to exist and get connection, healing, immortality and power.

I am afraid this is too realistic NOT to happen. I have been waiting to see what internal politics mess things up.

What!? That is what you replied to Peter when, lurking and laughing to himself about the clues left and yet to be revealed, he states that canon is not changed. What was Hoid changed into and what caused the change? How does a human become not quite human and still heal spirit, physical and cognitive body parts? Let us have a little information Peter, before we die of old age and the Hoid backstpry remains unwritten!