Wandering Investor

At that time, Ruin was both free and more powerful. So a physical avatar isn't impossible, but would require Ruin to be focusing on other things.

Not sure how Preservation would have communicated it. We know he told them the prophecies and also how to get feruchemy, but no world on the method of communication that I'm aware of. Might just be really dedicated mind whispering, similar to what Vin did.

Good question, hard to answer though without some spoilers, but I'll try to avoid them. So we know that the transformation surge and illumination surge can affect at range, and I think the prologue to book one hints that the division surge might be ranged or at least area of effect. Either this is due to uniqueness in the surges, or the other surges are wielded by radiants that either don't know how, or are too low level to use their surges at range. My guess is unique abilities to the individual surges, but it's hard to prove one way or another at this point.

In Allomancy, Preservation provides the power, so the power of the user is preserved. In Feruchemy power gain is neutral, the user must use their own strength, but they get out exactly how much they put in. And in Hemalurgy, power is lost(ruined) between the transfer, the longer the spike is out in the air, the worse it is, that's why it is best to smash the spikes directly from one person to another, and even then your ability will be slightly weaker than that of the original user.

Didn't Ba-Ado-Mishram provide forms of power during the false desolation? And Syl saw minor voidspren before Taln returned, although the timing on when exactly Taln cracked is questionable there, but some forms of power may be possible without a desolation.

So there is a postal service, but Hoid may not be using them. I thought I saw another WoB that said he was using the postal service to talk to the shards, but I can't find it, I'll edit it in if I do. I imagine the letters are written on paper, but that's just a guess, might depend on who the recipient is and the world in question.

@robardin By that point in the book, from "Many Rosharans.." onwards, that entire bottom part might be a spoiler.. Don't worry! You missed a clue, or maybe a bunch, but so did everyone else! Have fun finding them all

Brandon's books tend to use curse words based on some notable from that world, so that he doesn't actually have to curse. The highstorms are destructive, so they make convenient curses, but I wouldn't really read to much into them being evil if that makes sense. Its more about finding a more Innocent way for people to curse, since it would go against their personalities to not curse. As for the rest, just keep reading.

The quote for reference: I would guess the "shard" is either referencing the Almighty, or its a radiant referring to their lost spren. Personally, I doubt its the Almighty, as there's no evidence so far that the radiants were aware of the greater context of the shards. Not impossible though. I lean towards it being a radiant asking after their spren, since the start references the orders. Could also be someone addressing their love/husband/wife, although that would be odd considering the first part.

Actually, there were developments in the story between the two. For instance, while writing the trilogy, Brandon had Hoid looking for the well of ascension, that's why he was up north in Terris, he was fooled by the LR same as everyone else. But in Secret History, the Well is how he entered the planet, so he knew where it was. So its not impossible that a detail like him taking the bead could have been added later.

Actually, there is some evidence that there are different varieties of shades. At one point there is mention of the "deepest ones" by Silence. Its never revealed what they are, but its possible they're a different, more dangerous, variety of Shades.

Cohesion temporarily weakens the bonds between molecules and can then manipulate their arragnement, before their bond strength returns to normal. And example would be turning a stone wall into a stairway, the stone softens, changes shape, and then re hardens. Tension on the other hand seems to temporarily strengthen the bonds between molecules, allowing them to take more strain before breaking, and an additional power to restore, and maybe even create, bonds, holding things together even after the stormlight fades. Examples of these include Dalinar strengthening his skin in his vision, and also Dalinar sticking statues back together. The exact mechanics aren't fully know, but the post Pagerunner linked seems like a pretty plausable explanation.

I'm sure they could, as it was a shard that stuffed the Dor into the cognitive realm in the first place. As for how hard it would be, how much time and effort it would take, as well as how invested the shard would have to be, that I wouldn't know.

It wasn't, those were stated as two different things that could potentially impact the bond, but neither had any apparent effect. The shard itself is located mostly in the spiritual realm, so you're not going to find it lying on the ground physically. Plus Odium took steps to ensure the shard couldn't be connected to again, at least not easily.

Honor is not a spren, so I doubt it could form a nahel bond. Now, Honor is capable of granting powers in a manner that is somewhat similar to nahel bonds. That's what he did with the Heralds, he granted a portion of him power to them, forming a connection/bond sortaish, granting the honorblades, immortality, and maybe some other stuff. The spren copied what Honor did with the Heralds, which is why their default form is a sword, they're copying the honorblades. Its not the same, as Honor doesn't need to be near the Heralds for it to work, plus the Heralds can go back on their oaths and Honor can die, but the bond doesn't appear to break, at least the immortality and honorblades are still in play.

The fused strike me as slightly more sprenish than the heralds, plus they don't don't seem to resurrect the same way. While they seem similar in that they're both cognitive shadows, I'm not sure they're mechanically in the same category.

@Calderis Where is it stated that the deaths of the Dev and Dom were pre-humanity on Sel? That said, the religions are definitely came after their deaths. However, their essence still permeates the world and is a big influencer, so the creater's of the religion were likely influenced by what remained of the shards, possibly by the magic systems that exist. Entry into AonDor appears to require devotion, and the Dakhor monks requires domination. The central areas of the two child religions correlate to where these magic systems exist.

The heralds are cognitive shadows, similar to the fused, so they might also be able to form a spren bond. Or at least, the more coherent ones may be able to. The issue is one of connection, the fused are full of Odium's investiture, so I'm not sure if they'd be able to attract any spren. The releaser spren are the only ones I'd consider possible.

The wording Notum uses, plus Syl's title as the "Ancient Daughter" makes me think she is unique in her age, and the last surviving pre- recreance Honorspren. But I don't think there is anything in the books or any wob's that actually confirm that is the case.

I would be very very surprised if Hoid has never killed anyone at some point or another.

Listen guys, we can't hold the artist responsible for the brutalization of some of the artwork(so long as said artwork is not alive, or at least not aware/sentient) in the scheme of the greater art! Their sacrifice is necessary for the story to succeed, as light is defined by darkness, so too does their pain give way to beauty.... *reads what the sentence for the crime is........* Mr. Sanderson must be held fully accountable for his crimes, and his sentence carried out post haste!!

The spren were still aware of the greater conflict with Odium, and understood that the war would, or at least might, resume eventually. They noticed signs that the next desolation was approaching, as various void spren were becoming active in both the physical world and shadesmar, and potentially even other signs that readers are unaware of. So even with the memories of what happened, desperation drove at least some of the spren to resume the bonding process. Of course, others rejected that idea and pursued other options, like the listener's.

@supersmith I was assuming this theft went down after the recreance. For it to happen before that would be very unlikely as the radiants would have an interest in keeping the oathgates spread out.

I like it. I do not think it is right, as I lean more towards Cusicesh being either unique or related to the sibling, not an unmade or anything. But its not impossible, and would definately make for an interesting story. You wouldn't have to attract the oath gate spren. When Odium tried to steal the Oathgate in OB, he targeted the gemstones, which the spren reside in. So while difficult to steal the entire gate, you could steal the gemstones and rebuild the gate. That said, I very much doubt the people at the time would have the knowledge to know to tear the gate apart for the gemstones, or the knowledge of how to rebuild the gate, in which case why bother?

An atium spike for only four hundred boxing? I'll take 20. Do you also sell bindpoint manuals?