ReaderAt2046

Nightblood also burns Investiture like a blast furnace to keep running. I always thought the differences between the Blades was deliberate, that the creators of Vivenna's Blade accepted a much lower level of power in exchange for 1) not requiring a constant influx of Investiture to fuel its abilities, and 2) not making something which is intelligent and capable of mind-controlling people if its containment is even slightly relaxed.

Alternately, it occurs to me that this could be a reflection of her non-feminine role (at least by modern Vorin standards). Chanarach is associated with Guards and Bravery, and is probably second only to Taln in how closely her legend is tied to soldiers and warfare (Notably, she's shown holding her Blade, while Shalash and Vedel don't have theirs visible). So perhaps the exposed safehand is meant to signify that Chanarach does not fit the Vorin feminine ideal, the same way that female ardents are not required to cover their safehand because they are outside the regular gender roles.

So I was looking at the endpaper portraits for the Heralds (the ones that are supposed to be the in-world equivalent of the Sistine Chapel paintings), and I noticed something very odd about Chanarach's portrait. As you can see below, Chanarach is shown with both her hands exposed (Battar and Vedel are shown wearing gloves on their safehands, and Shallash has a modesty sleeve). This seems a highly unusual artistic choice for a Vorin artist depicting one of the Heralds, and I can't help feeling that there must be a reason for it. Anyone have any ideas for what this could signify?

This is my theory as well. Taln was stubborn and determined enough that his mind broke before his will.

Why can't this be explained as one of the Surges? I always thought that what Renarin was still using Illumination to conjure those visions, just using it in a different way than Lightweavers. Just like nex-im use Transportation differently than Elsecallers do, or like Bondsmiths and Windrunners use Adhesion in different ways.

We've definitely seen in RoW that the Surge of Adhesion is the Surge most closely aligned with Honor, which is why Kaladin could still use it in Urithiru. And there's a lot of speculation that Progression is Cultivation's True Surge in the same way, which would explain why Lift could use her Lifelight to bind it in Urithiru. But what of the third god? If there is a Surge specially tied to Honor and a Surge specially tied to Cultivation, then logically there should also be a Surge specially tied to Odium. And of the ten Surges, I think Division is the one that most aligns with Odium. Odium is fundamentally a force that turns men against each other, that divides them where Honor would unite them. It is a fundementally destructive force, and Division is the most destructive of all the Surges. And note that the highspren and ashspren, the two truespren races who bind Division, are also the only spren races to have members who work with Odium willingly, without first being corrupted by Sja-Anat's touch. Thoughts?

There are a few kinda-sorta bits: the scene where Dalinar catches the chasmfiend claw and seems to be glowing, the scene where the surgeon comments that Dalinar shouldn't be able to use his shoulder given how many scars he has, stuff like that.

That was when he had a deadblade, actually. With Jezrien's Blade, his eyes are dark brown when he doesn't have it out, and light blue when it's summoned.

Actually... I'm wondering if this might actually be what TOdium is thinking. I can't remember where I initially saw this theory, but someone pointed out that the agreement between Dalinar and Odium sets terms for what would happen if Dalinar (or his champion) wins, and for what happens if Odium's champion wins, but it doesn't set terms for what happens if neither champion wins, if the contest ends in a draw. So that might be the loophole TOdium is planning on exploiting: send in Gavinor as his champion, he can't possibly hurt Dalinar and Dalinar refuses to kill him, and the contest ends in a draw, invalidating the pact and giving TOdium freedom to act.

I was rereading the passage in RoW c34 when Adolin was talking about his relationship with Dalinar, and something jumped out at me. Adolin talks about how Dalinar "has this misguided notion that I’ve always been better than him. To Father, I’m some pristine remnant of my mother—this noble little statue who got all of her goodness and none of his coarseness." And it occurred to me that, based on what we've seen of Dalinar's PoV, there's a lot of truth to this. Dalinar believes in Adolin's honor, more even than he does in his own. And we've seen more than once that Dalinar expects and wants Adolin to join the Radiants. Now on the flip side, there's also the consideration of Dalinar's contest with Odium. If Dalinar loses the fight, his soul will belong to Odium, to join the Fused and serve as Odium's general. And Dalinar holds the remnants of Honor's name and power, that would give Odium the key to escape his trap. But there is a way for Dalinar to prevent this. We've seen that with Ishar's Blade, with the powers of a Bondsmith unchained, the Radiant bond can be transferred, stolen or moved from one to another. If Dalinar can acquire Ishar's Blade, he could give Adolin his bond to the Stormfather, make Adolin the Stormfather's Bondsmith. Then, even should Dalinar or his champion be defeated, the power of Honor will remain outside Odium's reach and his trap will be completed. This would make for a perfect exploitation of Odium's fatal flaw. Both Rayse and Taravangian share the desire to grasp power for themselves, to seize control of events at any cost, and it would be appropriate for their joint scheme to be checkmated by Dalinar giving up power. Similarly, this would develop Adolin's character in an interesting new direction. A central part of Adolin's character arc through the past several books has been him dealing with being merely a mortal in what is becoming an era of demigods, and for Adolin to suddenly be thrust into the position of the mightiest of all the Radiants and the leader of the Orders would be an intriguing reversal. Similarly, a keynote of Adolin's character has been his unwillingness to "give up" Maya, and it would be interesting to see how Adolin deals with having these two very unusual bonds and how they relate to each other. Not to mention that the two grant complementary boons: the Stormfather grants Surgebinding and Plate at the appropriate Oath but will not become a Blade, while Maya will serve as a Blade for Adolin but (as far as we know) doesn't grant Surgebinding. So that's my theory: near the end of KoW, Dalinar is going to use Connection to transfer his bond with the Stormfather to Adolin and make him the new Bondsmith. Thoughts?

I'm torn between "I will not protect others from the trials they need to grow strong" and Factfinder's suggestion of "I will accept the protection of my allies when I cannot protect myself". I feel like either one could make a logical capstone for the Windrunner ideals we have seen.

The third quote would make sense of the first two. If Tanavast and Koravellium had mortal children before the former's death, then perhaps Kaladin is descended from those children.

I thought it was just the Fused that were banished to Braize by the Oathpact. Non-sapient Voidspren would still be available.

So you're saying Shallan killed Chana, who was then yoinked back to Braize by the more-active-than-the-Heralds-would-like Oathpact, almost instantly broke, and triggered the Last Desolation? That is a really brilliant idea, would explain a lot.

As the title says, what happens in Shadesmar when a spren manifests in the Physical? For example, you have a fearspren wandering around Shadesmar, when it detects some tasty fear and manifests in the Physical. We know that in Shadesmar, the spren looks like a many-legged centipede-thing with antennae tipped with blobs of purple goo, and that in the Physical it looks like just that blob of purple goo. So when the blob of purple goo pops up in the Physical, what would an observer in Shadesmar see? Would it see the entire fearspren, with the purple antenna-tips existing in both Realms at once? Would the whole fearspren vanish, popping into the Physical where it appears as the blob of goo? Would just that blob vanish in Shadesmar as it pokes through into the Physical? Is it different for different spren? Have we ever actually seen what this looks like from the Shadesmar side?

Sanderson talks here about how one of the things he likes is to take a classic story arc, isolate the essential nature of that arc, and then rebuild it in a different context: Skyward is a "boy and his dragon" story done in a science-fiction setting with starfighters, Bridge 4 is an "underdog sports team" story done in a fantasy war setting, and so on. So it occurred to me that the singer awakening in the early Stormlight books has all the hallmarks of a classic "robot uprising" plot arc. At the start of this story, you have this labor force that society has come to depend on. They are completely obedient and harmless, do the jobs nobody else wants to do, are just intelligent enough to take orders and perform complex tasks, and best of all they have no desire for freedom so there is no ethical quandary about using them. And then, suddenly, these obedient servants rise up all at once across society. Infrastructure is thrown into chaos, innocents are butchered at the hands of remorseless killers, and you have to try and defend yourself from enemies that are suddenly everywhere, inside your defenses and ubiquitous throughout your cities. And you know that things will never again be the same, because now that your former servants have developed motives and desires beyond service to you using them as slaves becomes both perilous and unethical. Thoughts?

Points to consider: He's noted to have an obsession with escaping and disappearing, in line with the Willshaper emphasis on freedom and independence. He leads a resistance group against an oppressive and invading government, again in line with Willshaper principles. We several times see him vanish or appear without any sign of him actually arriving/departing, almost as though he's teleporting somehow. While the majority of the Reachers are obviously choosing to back the listeners this time around, we've seen that spren aren't monolithic, so the idea of a rogue Reacher deciding to bond a human is not improbable.

Or possibly Testament was Pattern's mother, or daughter.

IIRC, the Dustbringers are the only order that need to swear higher Ideals to unlock Surgebindings. I'm pretty sure that swearing the higher Ideals just makes Navani's powers more efficient, it doesn't unlock anything new. (though she might be able to manifest Plate at her Fourth Ideal).

Actually, I have a theory on this: I think Pattern took this binding because of Testament's death. I think he felt that if he could bond Shallan, if he could make her a Radiant as Testament tried to, it would mean that Testament's death was not in vain.

Could you please elaborate in a spoiler box? I have read RoW, and I'm not sure how it is incompatible. IIRC, in Warbreaker, after drawing Nightblood and going on his rampage Vasher manages to fling it aside, at which point it cuts a gouge in the ground and then goes inert. So at least for the moment it can't execute its Command unless someone is actually holding it. This is how I understand it to work as well.

I have read RoW, but I was trying to avoid spoilers in this forum. And the exchange I linked certainly sounds to me as though Brandon were saying Nightblood gets permanently stronger over time.

Ok, so as I'm sure we'll all agree, Nightblood is freaking terrifying. A weapon that destroys anything it touches, that devours the soul and kills the unkillable, bound around a single Command to Destroy Evil and with no clear idea what evil is. It's also been a moderate plot element in both Warbreaker and the Stormlight books, suggesting that it has Cosmere-scale plot relevance. And finally, there is a critical quote here, where Brandon hints that Nightblood is getting stronger over time, that as it devours Investiture it gradually grows in strength. So my theory is that, eventually, Nightblood will reach the point where it holds so much power that its power can no longer be contained by the physical sword, and it will ascend as a kind of pseudo-Shard, a Shard of Destroying Evil. In its new unbound state, Nightblood will spread across the Cosmere, devouring everything it encounters to fuel its Command. And that will be the mainspring plot of the final Cosmere cycle, how the different civilizations react to Nightblood's expansion. I imagine geniuses coming together to try and find a way to unravel Nightblood's command, or craft barriers that it cannot devour. I see hordes of invading refugees fleeing before Nightblood, trying to escape to planets it hasn't devoured, and the inhabitants of those planets trying to fend off the onslaught. I see individuals trying to find ways to hide from it, shelters that it will overlook and where they can wait out the storm until Nightblood, having destroyed all evil everywhere it can reach, comes undone and ceases to be. So that's my guess on the plot arc for the final Cosmere books, which I think will be the "space opera" Mistborn trilogy. Thoughts?

I was looking over the sphere ranks on the Coppermind, and I noticed something odd. Why is it that Heliodor is listed in the lesser tier? If emeralds are the most valuable gem because they can be used to Soulcast grain, then shouldn't heliodors, which can Soulcast edible meat, be in at least the Prime tier with sapphire and amethyst? The rest of the ranks make sense, gems that are rarer or have useful soulcasting properties are high while more common and less useful gems are low, but why is something so useful as meat-creation in the same tier as blood and stone? Is this ever explained?

Is it possible that lavis grain comes pre-nixtamalized, that the lavis polyps infuse the relevant minerals into the grain while it's growing? I have no idea what nixtamalization does, so that may not be feasible, but it would fit with the way other Rosharan life naturally incorporates minerals.