cometaryorbit

Is "Being an Awakener" a spiritweb trait that can be separated from "having Breaths"? Or is Awakening a technique that anyone with Breaths can learn? If Hoid or Vivenna gave 50 Breaths to a random person native to Roshar, would they be able to learn to Awaken, or would they just get the "passive" benefits of the First Heightening and need some other magical hack to gain the ability to Awaken?

Yeah, I think it is probably really the Stormfather, just the Stormfather is less benign than we generally assumed. Looking back at his initial bond with Dalinar, he was pretty hostile then. And we know the bond gives spren more humanity. And Gavilar wasn't far along the process. I think the Stormfather probably can lie (absent a specific oath or other commitment not to) but can't deceive in oaths or falsely commit to things. But I think he lied less than it sounds like, a lot of it was Gavilar's false assumptions. (Did the Stormfather actually say the Heralds were currently on Braize, or did he just explain how the Oathpact works in a way that made Gavilar *assume* that since a Desolation isn't happening now they must therefore be on Braize?) I do think the Stormfather probably really intended for Gavilar to become a Herald, sort of - Bondsmith powers over Connection are probably sufficient to Connect oneself to the Oathpact. And the Stormfather does say "a ...Herald" implying some hesitation - he probably wouldn't get the exact same effects as the original Heralds - but I do think reinforcing the Oathpact by Gavilar's participation was genuinely intended. He didn't try this afterwards because once the Everstorm was in force it couldn't do any good.

I wonder if the Ire really count as 'on Roshar'. I doubt the Set is involved on Roshar, but mostly for out-of-story reasons: they seem Shard backed (most likely Autonomy) and we already have three Shards involved. While the Set might be active on other (less cosmere relevant) planets, I think they're going to be a Mistborn storyline and not seen on Roshar or Nalthis or Sel. (I also actually think "the Set" per se - as opposed to "agents of Autonomy" more generally- is a Scadrial-only organization, not a worldhopping one. They have off-world backers - those red eyed "Faceless Immortals" - but I think the actual Set hierarchy is all Scadrian. The names- Set, Sequence, Array etc. - sound rather mathematical and modern.)

Honor created honorspren before his death. Honor wasn't Splintered then - the Shard was intact- but an intact/living Shard can voluntarily give away bits of its power. Cultivationspren (like Wyndle) are Splinters of Cultivation even though Cultivation is very much alive and active. They're called Splinters because they are separated from the Shard in the sense that they have minds & wills of their own - cultivationspren aren't puppets or 'fingers' of Cultivation. In general, giving away power in one way or another - or its bleeding into the environment - is a normal thing for Shards. Raysium is pieces of Odium's essence in solid form, and Odium is alive. Stormlight, Lifelight, and Voidlight are the three Shards' essences in gaseous form. But these don't have minds of their own so aren't really Splinters. The same thing happens in the Mistborn series: The Stormfather is weirder. We know that some version of the Stormfather was around in Dawnsinger times, called the Rider of Storms. But Honor changed things before his death (including setting up the Stormfather's visions and starting the Stormfather creating honorspren. But apparently there was more to the changes: the Stormfather tells Dalinar he was 'less awake' before).

Yeah, Hoid unleashed would be crazy. He's a Lerasium Mistborn, a Lightweaver Radiant*, has Breath (at least 2nd Heightening-- at least pre RoW), has healing abilities at least as good as the best we've seen (preceding being a Radiant), and has access to various Invested objects apparently including S. Scadrian medallions (which along with being Mistborn means he can presumably Compound). He now probably has access to basically any fabrial currently known on Roshar, given that he's working with Jasnah against Odium. And he probably has other powers from planets we haven't seen yet. *With some possible compounding-like effects from being a Yolish Lightweaver as well- there's a WoB saying this combination is specifically dangerous).

I agree there is less character development and depth than Era 1, but I am not sure I see that as necessarily a bad thing - they're shorter books in a more pulp/action-driven style. But then this is from the perspective of someone who genuinely enjoys, and re-reads, a lot of old pulp writing which was generally much more action over character development than Era 2 is. I can totally see that it could be a letdown after Era 1 Mistborn, though I didn't see it that way. Actually when I first read the first Mistborn book, part of what really hooked me was that the main plot of the first book was actually resolved in the first book. I knew it was going to be a trilogy so I really didn't expect the Lord Ruler to die in book 1.

I think "mind of its own" might be a bit of an overstatement - at least if by "mind" one means a sapient mind - but Odium-the-power as distinct from Rayse was definitely developing a will or at least desires of its own to some degree. It might be more like an animal-level mentality, emotion without reason or language ... perhaps something like the Thrill, Nergaoul's drive to fight... but there is something there. The Dor 'wanting to be used' (attacks on Raoden) might also be similar? Or that could just be pressure buildup...

Yeah, the hints of Breath memory manipulation (Vasher's forgetfulness Commands in Warbreaker and Hoid's memory storage in RoW) suggest that Awakening can do much more than the standard "animate corpse/object" effect. I'm not sure it would necessarily be as broad as Feruchemy though. There's a theory (which IIRC Brandon said was at least in the right direction) that Awakening copies a part of the Awakener's Cognitive Aspect based on the Command/Intent into the object when Breath is transferred. (Thus giving Vasher's doll the understanding of what keys are, etc.) If that theory is correct, the memory manipulation may work on the same principle (copying your memories into a Breath - just in this case doing it in a way that deletes it from your brain in the process). If so, Breath might only be able to store Cognitive things. And memories in Feruchemy are discrete, where other attributes aren't ... so you might be able to store mental speed or wakefulness in Breath, but depending on how the "tapping" equivalent works it might be less useful. (If you get it all in one jolt, for example.) Hmm, or maybe it could only store discrete things? So maybe someone could transfer an Allomantic power using Breath - "Endowing" it to another? I can't see that being very widely used, at least without something like Nicrosil Compounding to copy multiple 'instances' of a power... but there would still be niche applications. (EG giving up not-very-useful Gold Allomancy to let your Feruchemist friend have Gold Compounding.)

I agree that lighteyes and darkeyes are very hereditary, I think weirdness only arises if one parent is each (or maybe grandparents etc). It does not seem to work like Earth eye colors- heterochromatic eyes being "the most common thing that's probably going to happen" from a lighteye/darkeye couple is very different from our eye color genetics. Given that dark violet, and I think green, eyes are mentioned, I think it's very possible that lighteyed eyes are something we don't see on Earth, of specifically magical origin. As for wealth... it's complicated... the full WOB linked gives more detail. Buying up a rank is definitely a possibility in the lower dahns, but political appointments, military promotions and such seem to be a big part of it too. It's actually not really clear to me how the system works for the middle levels (low dahn lighteyes and high to mid nahn darkeyes) live since our major characters tend to be either nobility/royalty or bridgemen/slaves. I kind of get the feeling from comments about "tenners", the possibility of Kaladin marrying up discussed in his flashbacks, Hesina having lighteyed ancestry, etc. that the social stratification for many if not most people isn't as strict as our main viewpoint characters imply. That WOB also implies the same; Brandon says that it's easier to move between ranks than the historical British or Indian class systems. On the other hand there's also a WoB where Brandon says most of the characters would really be more prejudiced than he lets come out in the books since it would be off-putting to readers. So I'm not really sure how to reconcile those ideas... Unless maybe the possibility of mobility (in theory even from darkeye to lighteyed, through winning a Shardblade) creates 'justification' for looking down on the lower levels of society?

I think "currently" means "as of WoR" though since the WOB is from 2014.

Its definitely weird. I am generally on the side of "it's the real Stormfather and he changed his approach after Gavilar", though, especially since there's WoB confirmation that Gavilar was on the path to becoming a Bondsmith. I think the main concern is the Stormfather lying- but even though he's a Splinter and Sliver of Honor, he's not Honor himself, and anyway "oaths and bonds" isn't the same as "truth". And actually his not wanting to be involved with the Kholin family again could explain why he's so mad at the end of WoR when Dalinar bonds him (I think Honor gave him criteria of who to send the visions to; I don't think he could just choose to bypass Dalinar).

I'd be surprised if they do... Fused swap bodies, I doubt they see the body as important in the way mortals do. I think all Singers' gemhearts hold Voidlight (possibly/likely not Stormlight) near perfectly. We're told that Venli as a Regal has a small amount of Voidlight inflaming her emotions, and I don't think she's being resupplied continuously with it - she's not even consciously aware it's there until she's told. Yeah, "milky white" could suggest milky quartz - but that's still not a Polestone. Smokestone might be smoky quartz(?) but since color is pretty defining for Rosharan gems, milky quartz shouldn't count.

Squires don't require a spren of their own, so I don't think Renarin's Squires would necessarily act differently than those of any other Radiant. (Assuming Truthwatchers even get Squires? Is that confirmed? They are a weird Order.)

The likeliest outcome is one eye light/one dark, and yes, social rank depends on actual eye color; tenth dahn is a likely result (Part of an even longer WoB about the nahn/dahn system)

I've seen it argued (and pretty much agree) that given Venli's observation that Odium-the-power wants conflict and disagreement even when Rayse wants to be obeyed without question, Odium is ultimately the Shard of Conflict the way Honor is of Oaths/Bonds. I like that idea specifically because it helps distinguish Odium from Ruin... an urge to destroy is shared by Ruin, but Ruin would be happier unopposed, whereas what Odium really wants is the fight. Yeah, the Void/taking away emotions vs the burning hate/fury dichotomy is weird. I do wonder if he can do that for emotion in general though... in both Moash's case, and his offer to Dalinar, it was guilt being removed. Maybe that's not against his Intent since being without guilt makes someone better at conflict? IDK.

Yeah, "milky white" doesn't fit any of the Polestones, does it?

But wasn't it Taravangian's raw/extreme emotion (on his low intelligence day) that let him Connect so well to the Shard? I agree Rayse was trying to sell (even to himself) Odium as something it isn't (all emotion) - but I do think it's broader than hatred, from Dalinar and Venli's experiences and Taravangian taking it up. I think Odium represents aggressive/conflict-driving emotions, anger and hate and probably fear too, but not "gentle" emotions like love or humor or happiness or contentment.

Yeah, in the case of Dalinar and Taravangian it seems like the supposed boon and bane are actually one thing (removed memories of Evi; changing intelligence vs compassion). So Cultivation concealing her involvement, but not actually being limited to the boon and bane model, seems very plausible. But it's still totally unclear to me how turning food into Lifelight and being able to "back-door" into Dalinar's Stormfather visions/being partly in the Cognitive Realm connect to Lift's request to stay the same/remain herself. (I tend to think Cultivation - being about controlled growth by her very nature - interpreted Lift's request as "retain my core identity through change" rather than "don't change", but that doesn't really help much.)

At least according to the Stormfather, the Heralds were a response to the Fused's immortality, rather than vice versa. The Stormfather does say that the first Desolation was "before the Fused learned to command the Surges" - which really us very strange, and another of the unexplained bits of the early history. Currently the Fused are divided into Brands based on Surges, and they keep the same Brand/Surge across reincarnations, so it seems core to their nature... I wonder if Voidspren were an intentional creation, or a "natural" result of Odium spending enough time in the Rosharan System.

I think each Era 2 book so far is pulp inspired, but a slightly different genre/subgenre: AoL is a western, SoS is a thriller, and BoM is an Indiana Jones style adventure.

I figured Ishar decided Radiants would bring the next Desolation (and told Nale this) because of Honor's raving that they would 'destroy Roshar' - Ishar interpreted 'destroy Roshar' as 'cause a Desolation' (not being terribly sane, and probably being unwilling to remember the destruction of Ashyn since his role in it doesn't really fit his whole 'I'm a god' madness). -- This fits really well. I agree we don't have the full False Desolation/Recreance story yet; I expect we'll learn the full story in book 5 with the Ba-Ado-Mishram plot line.

There's a lot of the early timeline that is unclear and likely to be further revealed in later books. I expect another big reveal to fully explain the Recreance/False Desolation/etc situation, and probably learning more about the deep past from the Fused in book 5, and Herald flashbacks to explain the rest. I still am not clear why the Heralds even have Honorblades if the plan for the Oathpact was for them to be dead and permanently bind the Fused to Braize - the Stormfather specifically says that Honor didn't consider the possibility that the Heralds could break/"bend their oath", so cyclic Desolations were not part of the original plan. There also seems to be too much happening in a pretty short time... all the Heralds except possibly Shalash were born on Ashyn, and according to the Stormfather the Heralds started the Oathpact in response to the Fused being repeatedly reborn and humanity's inability to deal with that. Thus, the Heralds only became Heralds after humans had already broken the pact to stay in Shinovar and started a conflict that killed those singers who became Fused, those singers' Cognitive Shadows became Fused and were reborn, and that war lasted long enough for it to become clearly unwinnable. So I don't think they became Heralds shortly after the initial expansion out of Shinovar. (I have a theory on this in my signature, but it's probably wrong).

It is... those who use Soulcaster Fabrials too long can start turning into the relevant Essence. It's in Kaza's Interlude in OB, and also in the part of OB where Azure has two people Soulcasting in an aluminum lined room to provide food supplies. There's a WoB that Radiant Soulcasters don't suffer this as severely. But in general I think being imbued with Investiture changes people, whether it's called savantism or not. Some effects are temporary and go away when you lose the Investiture (Stormlight's impulse to act, Voidlight's inflamed emotions, Breath's enriched perceptions) but others are permanent. Even after losing a Shard, a Sliver is permanently altered in some ways. Hoid's inability to harm living beings or eat meat is a result of formerly holding/being a Dawnshard. Even the effects of being a Drab might be related - the Warbreaker Annotations say that Vivenna gets sick because her immune system was previously 'warded' by Breath and thus didn't develop the immunities it should have; that seems analogous to Spook's senses decreasing below normal human when he stops burning tin.

Yeah, I think that is where Roshar got its antiseptics etc. The ability to see rotspren makes it easier to tell what helps than it was on Earth. But I don't think they actually know what germs *are*, even though their medical care is more effective than what we had pre-germ-theory. Raboniel makes a reference in RoW that sounds like the Fused know what antimatter is, but by being told by one of the Shards, not by discovering it on their own. So there may be bits of out-of-context knowledge around, well beyond what the society even in the days of the established Radiant Orders had the theoretical basis to understand.

There are local plants, but they seem to have a part-of-one-local-day life cycle. I meant no native population of humans or near-humanoid Physical sapient beings (like the Singers on Roshar). I'd imagine there is native animal life, but it probably either has very short life cycles (eg some insects) or is deep underground for most of the day. Oh, yeah, most planets and at least some Investiture on them (Scadrial being the prime exception) predates the Shattering. My question is whether: 1. the Cosmere was created by Adonalsium complete with humans/Sho Del/dragons/singers comparatively shortly (thousands of years or so) before the Shattering; 2. The Cosmere was created by Adonalsium billions of years ago, and humans/Sho Del/dragons/Singers evolved; 3. The universe containing the Cosmere is billions of years old, but Adonalsium created the Cosmere star cluster and its original sapient beings comparatively shortly before the Shattering.