cometaryorbit

Instant noodles are the secret to getting Stormlight off of Roshar, which is why Hoid is so interested in them. (The noodles act as wires to conduct the Stormlight from a gem to a metalmind, white sand, or another world's Investiture storage mechanism.)

Wait, is either of those confirmed? I thought we didn't know which side Mercy fought on (helping Ambition, helping Odium, or trying to stop the fight/protect mortals without directly helping either side) or what exactly was done on Sel (the Devotion/Dominion fighting thing I think is a very plausible theory but unconfirmed).

It totally could be. I don't know, just something about the wording of that Jasnah/Ivory exchange struck me as Ivory implying that Jasnah actually approaches things in a radically different way than most people - a qualitative difference rather than a quantitative one.

Hmm. A Shardblade 'cuts the Spiritual' from a person, apparently disconnecting their Physical self from their soul - the limb remains Physically attached but is unusable and gray (similar to an object or Lifeless whose color has been used for Awakening). So maybe a "wound upon the Spiritual Realm" on a planetary scale is something similar, or like Hemalurgy - ripping away a part of the Spiritual Aspect? Maybe it's not just that Threnody's Cognitive is too close to its Physical, but also too disconnected from its Spiritual?

She does seem to be going supersonic for a moment there - "She slowed her speed, and for some reason the people beside her jumped, holding their ears." Probably implies a sonic boom. Yep, it specifically says Marasi "tapped everything" immediately before the "pocket of vacuum" paragraph. So incredibly high levels of Gold healing would have been holding her together, and Pewter strength (and possibly even a bit of Iron weight???) to keep her footing. The footing aspect might actually be the stronger wind-resistance limitation on Steel speed: a normal person can't stand/walk against a wind above about 120mph, so the limit with no other powers might be around there.

So we know Nightblood is an attempt to replicate a Shardblade from another magic system (Awakening). I wonder if the same could be done with the Metallic Arts? It seems that a sufficiently invested metalmind could block a Shardblade, at least for a bit: So the Metallic Arts could at least produce something functional as a half-shard shield. But what about the other-Realm destructive function of a Shardblade? Nightblood is a Shardblade, but its turn-to-smoke effect isn't identical to the deadening-limbs/burn-out-eyes effect of Rosharan Blades. The Bands aren't enough: But the Bands are only a spearhead. A Nightblood-sized sword blade made like the Bands, 100% full of investiture, should be able to hold more than a spearhead, and if the Bands are "close", it would be enough to qualify. That would block a Shardblade, but would it actually give the other-Realm destructive function of a Shardblade, or would it just qualify since it is "a heavily invested magical weapon"?

I'd actually say Jasnah's ethics are probably much more consistent than most people's*, but they are rather unusual, and so it's not easy to say how she'd come down on an issue like this - especially since what I'd expect to be the key issue (what exactly does Jasnah think 'soul damage' means) is unknown. *Jasnah comes across as having thought her beliefs and actions through much more than most people do, and there's a WoB backing this up - so I think this is actually true, not just how she wishes to present herself. Her small number of POVs makes it kind of hard to tell how much of her hyper-rational approach is really who she internally is vs. how she wants people to see her. the way she reacts to the truth about the Heralds in Oathbringer implies a deep-seated fear of mental instability, but on the other hand Ivory's comment about how she wasn't bothered by the truth about the Recreance but it might still break most Radiants implies she really is very exceptionally far to the rational side of a rational/emotional divide.

All Shards are - at least originally - equal in power. And direct conflict between two Shards at least can be fatal to both (as seen in Hero of Ages - though this result might be due to Ruin and Preservation being directly opposed). Ruin and Preservation made a deal which allowed Ruin to eventually destroy Scadrial; Preservation broke that deal, stole some of Ruin's power, and imprisoned Ruin in the Well. So Ruin (since he was imprisoned) needed a human agent to free him at the Well of Ascension, and then again to find the atium that contained his stolen power (since he was blinded by the 'light' of metal, just as Kelsier was in Mistborn: Secret History). Preservation needed someone to take up his power so that they could kill Ati/Ruin - Leras/Preservation was too thoroughly shaped by his Shard, and couldn't destroy someone else, even to preserve a whole world. Odium's case is less clear, since that story isn't finished. But given that Odium has attacked two planets with two Shards - Sel (Devotion + Dominion) and Roshar (Honor + Cultivation) it does seem clear that a direct contest of power wouldn't work in his favor.

The "any Invested metal" quote may be using the word 'Hemalurgy' in a wider sense than the specific sixteen+god metals powers. There's a WoB that what is done to capture Jezrien's soul/cognitive shadow on Roshar is arguably Hemalurgy (some in-world cosmere scholars would classify it that way, it's at least using a similar cosmere mechanic). That might also explain Ruin's influence on the Lord Ruler. The WOB says that his metalminds were his spikes. Perhaps that means they weren't actually Hemalurgically charged in the usual "kill someone and steal part of their soul" sense - TLR didn't really need to add more powers to himself - but simply that Invested metalminds stuck into him (to protect them from Allomantic Pushes/Pulls) 'opened up' his soul to Ruin's influence in a Hemalurgy-type way.

Yes, I was not questioning whether Stormlight can help plants, just whether that happens 'naturally' since I think we always see it due to singer or human intervention. Plants are generally closed up during Highstorms. But I think it is a normal part of the Rosharan ecosystem. Makes sense- Vin was chosen by (the remnant of) Leras-Preservation, and Sazed/Harmony suggests in the HoA epigraphs that the Well of Ascension further attuned her to take up the Mists. Leras-Preservation wouldn't have wanted the Mists to be used by just anyone.

True. They're more so than a "normal" spren which is visible but immaterial. I just meant that they are not 100% solid in the Physical like the spren destroyed by Ishar's experiments in RoW, or spren manifested as Shardblades, Shardplate, or Soulcasters.

I fixed the original post, adding the WOB I'd meant to include. OK, cool, thanks. Hmm, I wonder if that 'no Shard in residence' issue means that more Investiture could fix the Shades' lack of awareness/intelligence in the Physical Realm?

TL;DR: The Physical and Cognitive Realms are very close together on Threnody; Threnody's Shades seem to be nearly mindless because they are pulled partly into the Physical Realm. I noticed this interesting WOB: This was kind of the last piece to complete an idea I was developing about Threnody. Threnody's Shades are Cognitive Shadows, but not very cognizant. Elsewhere, cognitive shadows either seem to retain full intelligence (Returned on Nalthis, Kelsier in Scadrial's Cognitive Realm) or lose it only very slowly through progressive damage and rebirths (Fused and Heralds on Roshar). But Cognitive Shadows are repeatedly compared to spren in the Stormlight books, and we know that sapient spren need a Nahel bond to retain their intelligence in the Physical Realm. And the Shade of Silence's grandmother seems to retain a bit more memory than the usual Shade... perhaps because of Connection to Silence? Not anything like as strong as a real bond, which is why she's still mostly a mindless Shade, but still... So I'm thinking that Threnody's Shades are Cognitive Shadows pulled partly or mostly into the Physical Realm (not completely, I think, since they're not solid). If they could form a bond with a Physical person as strong as a Rosharan Nahel bond, they might be able to be cognizant. And if Threnody's Cognitive Realm is kind of "squashed" into its Physical Realm, perhaps that is why people become Cognitive Shadows much more easily there. The Realms are probably also closer together at night, as Shades are more active/aggressive then. -- Much more speculatively... Corruption: Ambition + Odium Shades are "contagious", and the Evil on Threnody is described as consuming souls. Perhaps this is a general Intent of magic on Threnody, deriving from bits of Ambition's Investiture tainted by Odium - the combination becoming something like an Intent of Corruption, hate constantly spreading, expanding, contaminating, consuming. The Simple Rules The Simple Rules may also be tied to these Shards. To spill blood is an act of violence, linked to Odium; fire is the keystone of human achievement, linked to Ambition. I am not sure about the "running at night" thing though...

I doubt any random uninvolved bystander can add the Intent. Ruin can, and did in the Spook case, but Ruin is present in everything on Scadrial and it's his magic system - he's not an uninvolved bystander. Except in the case of Ruin (or now Harmony) I think the spike user needs the Intent.

IMO, excisors are Hemalurgic spikes, or some technological derivation of Hemalurgy (possibly a non-fatal one). "Excise" means "to cut out", which fits Hemalurgy "cutting out" powers/abilities/Investiture from others. Compounding doesn't cut anything out.

Combining all Shards might not recreate Adonalsium exactly, no. For one thing, we don't know that Adonalsium had a Vessel - merging all Shards in one Vessel would possibly create something distinct from the original Adonalsium. Splintering is reversible per WoB, so I think you could return a splintered Shard to its original Intent, though that might not be the only option (likely depending on the new Vessel, just as how Preservation+Ruin could have become Discord instead of Harmony). Harmony would either have to get the other 14 Shards, or die, or willingly give up his Shard(s).

Yeah, probably - Allomancers aren't bonded to Splinters of Preservation. Stormlight might be just easier to absorb, too.The natural ecosystem of Roshar uses Stormlight (via gemhearts - and maybe Rosharan plants benefit from it?) Humans can't absorb Stormlight without some sort of bond, either a direct Nahel bond or indirectly as Squires or through use of a Honorblade ... but then, humans aren't Rosharan natives. Of course, Vasher/Zahel isn't a Rosharan native, and he can absorb Stormlight and use it to live, though he can't use it to Awaken or Surgebind - and he doesn't seem to have any Rosharan bond to let him do that. But maybe being a Returned gives him an extra-broken soul, or maybe he found a way to fix his Connection?

Hmmm... so I guess this is an atium-electrum alloy heavily biased toward atium? That makes the "must be refined" comment on the Hemalurgy chart for atium make way more sense. But clearly Era 1 impure atium/atium-electrum was Allomantically and Feruchemically viable. So it ought to have its own Hemalurgic effect... ...Hmm, maybe "steals Allomantic Temporal powers" is actually the atium-electrum alloy effect, rather than just a misunderstanding of the true atium effect? Hmm, so the "expansive vision" of pure atium - would that just be the impure atium/atium-electrum effect, but better, or a different future sight/Spiritual Realm sight effect? (Like @Inquisitor #5's suggestion of Renarin's visions, or Elend's effect from burning impure atium/atium-electrum with duralumin?)

Re spren free will and ability/inability to break oaths:

Some people view Jasnah as a near "perfect" character, even unrealistically so. Others see her as a very dark/flawed even possibly evil character who happens to be on the heroes' side, like Kelsier in the first Mistborn book. (I am somewhere in between. I think Jasnah is well intentioned but dangerously ready to harm others for an apparent greater good. She thinks things through thoroughly enough as a habit that I don't think she will end up going the dark way that path generally leads to, ending up harming others for less and less reason -- but her being a queen is *really* dangerous because other people trying to emulate her probably would.)

There *is* no Bondsmith equivalent, absolutely. That doesn't mean there *won't* be in the future. And anyway, if Sja-anat bonded a Bondsmith I am not sure she would really be considered one of the Unmade any longer. (Remade???) (Also, I think that WoB is actually talking about a less direct and more symbolic correspondence between the nine Unmade and the nine non-Bondsmith orders or nine non-Adhesion Surges-- it does say the correspondence is "not as one to one").

Maybe Cultivation + Preservation would be something like Restoration or (lacking a single word for it) Progress toward an Ideal, whereas Cultivation + Preservation + Ruin would be more like Evolution (new things appear, old things die out, but always directly connected to what they were in the past). I think Progression is too much just the change aspect.

I don't think we know enough about what makes a spren a Bondsmith spren to say that. What do the Stormfather, the Sibling, and the Nightwatcher share with each other that they don't share with Cusicesh? There's a WoB that it's more than just quantity of Investiture, but what? It seems the KR orders were mostly set up by the spren and humans themselves, not the Shards, so I don't think it was Honor's decision. Ishar was involved in creating the KR Orders, so maybe he used the Bondsmith Honorblade to create the right Connections, in which case Sja-anat couldn't do it on her own, but Navani or Dalinar to set it up. Maybe it's kind of just a natural result of those Shards being Invested in the world and those spren being their 'representatives', in which case Odium becoming Invested in Roshar might have opened up new Bondsmith Spren "jobs" that no appropriate spren has tried to fill yet. But the Unmade might not fit, if they are just corrupted "native " spren vs Odium or Odium + Honor and/or Cultivation spren.

I agree she wouldn't do it "cavalierly" or often. She thinks pretty much all actions through heavily. And she'd only use it in limited circumstances- she'd definitely be against creating koloss or Inquisitors, which involves a ton of death and pain. But doing something like what was done to Jezrien in reverse- using Hemalurgy to keep Fused from reincarnating - or preserving Invested abilities* from dangerous criminals would probably seem worth it. *besides Surgebinding, because that probably wouldn't work -- Would her Cognitive Realm view show Hemalurgic damage that others can't see? I'm not sure - the Cognitive aspect of a koloss after death is that of a normal, cognizant human.

I agree the Alethi have lots of weapon training. But if they don't emphasize the bare handed stuff as the Shin do, some throws etc might seem pretty freaky to them. Holding Stormlight also makes you more graceful etc., so the strength you have is being used with greater efficiency. So even if actual raw strength (measured by a bench press or whatever) is not increased that much, effective use of it in combat may be. Yeah, "only so much at a time" combined with their less efficient use of Stormlight + limits on Honorblade healing would keep them at a point where a thunderclast could kill them. (I don't think any purely physical damage could kill a Radiant or Gold Compounder with unlimited Investiture resupply, you'd have to cut off the Investiture or use anti Investiture or other-Realm damage like Nightblood. But Honorblade healing is much more limited.) I would argue that 10%, or 1%, of a Shard is already enough to be "infinite for most practical purposes", so I think the capacity limit or some equivalent is needed.