Extesian

This doesn't help much, but

Alternatively (and I just thought of this so I haven't researched) - could he be a Sliver? We know he doesn't hold a Shard but I don't think I've seen anything saying he's NEVER held a Shard. Dragons don't age but a dragon sliver would be pretty invincible.

Nice work @Calderis. Yeah that WoB is utterly intriguing, but I hadn't thought of that implication. I was already reasonably comfortable with the realmatic and circumstantial reasons why you wouldn't have Awakening savants but you're right, that does add an element of certainty. I hadn't fully thought out the implications of Breath being 'physical' before. And of coursethat WoB generally shows there is a qualitative difference with Divine Breath, it's not just one large packet of Breath. Btw the link is this one https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r4u4t0SH_O-uEkaMwE9Iqjbrzem2e9xXRjFLvGWd7HI/mobilebasic It's at the 12 minute mark, Shadows of Self London signing Oct 9, 2005

On my Unmaking the Canon thread. Basically can probably get a Divine Breath because they're in the spiritual realm, can probably not get a normal one coz they're in the Physical Realm, but its not canonized. Belief that you cannot use hemalurgy to steal Breath Apparently it was once believed (widely or not, I'm not sure) that you could not spike out Breath. We have conflicting WoBs it seems. Herr is one that indicates it can be, but Here is one that indicates (I think more strongly) that it cannot, due to it being Physical rather than Spiritual (but noting that a Divine Breath may be different as it affixes to the soul).

The latest hit movie from Dr Lift. Soundtrack classics include: "Foodicide" "It's All in Me" "Darkness/Gone" "Loose Pancakes" "One Shot One Voidbringer" "Just Another Bite" "For the Love of Muffin" "Talking to My Vine"

So a few WoBs below. I don't think it can be forcing the Shard to go against their own intent, as it's like a small scale version of the Shattering, and how could you make a god with blended intents go against his intent? It's a nice idea but I don't think it matches what we know. I like the idea that it's somehow severing the Spiritual Connections that hold together the various dispersed parts of the Shard's power. I also think it can't truly cost Odium investiture or he'd be getting too weak from splintering everyone he can find. But I think it's certainly an action and one that is quite complex for other Shards, who were probably involved in the initial Shattering, to not understand it properly.

Isn't he brilliantly repulsive. Btw we're on exactly the same post count. Though I fear neither of will do quite the 1000th post that @Pagerunner did. I'd better get theorizin'

So my belief is this (posted on the Sydney signing thread). Seems like nice confirmation that Shallan can see a bit into the cognitive realm. My belief is that pattern couldn't be seen by others at first. Shallan, as a proto/lapsed transformation surgebinder, could already see investiture (just kinetic investiture?). Makes me think that is how she could see Pattern initially. She then used her Lightweaver powers to draw him, which let her pull him partially into the physical realm.

Woah I'd forgotten about this one, I saw it long ago but the transcript wasn't good so I'd forgotten, and it's hard to search. But it's brilliant. Are you able to even 'complete' the WoB, below? This impacts on my thread about the mechanics of Elantris and AonDor.

Too few people have heard the sad tale of the Power Rangers after filming finished. Red marrying Pink, Blue’s sibling. Pink creating a weapon of untold power. Red killing Pink to protect the world. Blue hating Red. Yellow joining Blue to try and make peace, Red misunderstanding and killing Yellow. Black hiding out in the forest waiting to throw the world into turmoil.. Red escaping to another planet. It’s exactly what you would expect from the Nalthywood.

These three WoBs also indicate there is a limit. And if a full one can block a shardblade I'd be surprised if out can be Pushed. None of it's decisive though. Spool's is probably the best I've seen.

Gaius. Boltar. seriously though, Tonk is a sociopath who then went completely destructive after Denth. As a society we don't forgive sociopaths because they know society's rules. There are plenty of integrated sociopaths. The ones who use their lack of empathy as an excuse to cause pain have a mental illness but it's no excuse. Denth tried to start a war for money, and wanted to kill Vasher for understandable revenge. But he did restrain Tonk and he dud deliberately avoid killing people yay didn't need killing. And he's has a pretty traumatic life. I don't hate him that much. Especially when you read the annotations. But seriously. Dilaf.

Yeah I can only compare to chromium which does take time, but not much I expect aluminum would work the same way, very fast but not instantly. But that's all I could find.

Vasher can suppress his Divine Breath by 'believing' he isn't Returned. Now I personally believe this is within limits. That he can't change his facial structure and so on but can affect hair, size, height, maybe skin tone, things like that. I see it (and this is not canon) as comparable to a soulstamp, where you can cognitively think of yourself as with a different history but not as literally a different person. So I don't think he would look Alethi, just unexceptional. But Roshar has so much variation in races people would just assume he's a 'foreigner'.

I gotta confess, I don't see the point firstly even if a spren can replicate the parts, the parts are pointless without gunpowder and bullets. Secondly, if you know the tech, it seems a waste of a spren when it feels (I may be wrong) easier to carve one out of wood and soulcast it into metal. You actually get no magic advantages because I don't believe the spren could form part of themselves into a bullet while the rest of them is the gun. And if the spren can do that its a missile anyway And you don't need a gun. And if it's a normal bullet you may as well have a normal gun. I think a Nahel- bonded spren can only be in one fixed shape and can't change or move it's fixed shape. Otherwise they would already be self-guiding, invincible missiles. That most of all is why I don't think it's possible. And if it is, need gunpowder, and probably there's easier ways to make guns. Or maybe it's possible, but I'm just not convinced it would be that exciting Edit - and @Storming Radiant, I believe the deciphering was done from the post below, well before my time but the third most popular ever on this site Edit - and I agree that fabrial technology is more likely to achieve that, I'm sure some engineer can create a device to launch projectiles with the various surges, as they discover how to make fabrials for different surges. A gravity fabrial could have it's uses...

So, he ascends. Basically when you take the power of a Shard, the flow of investiture is too much for your body to take and the body vaporizes. You then ascend to the spiritual realm. So his body ‘died’. But death means different things in the Cosmere. But of course the bodies of Leras and Ati fell at the end. However they hadn’t been ‘alive’ for thousands of years, they’d been in a different realm with their physical body dead. Like a Cognitive Shadow. When they no longer have the Shard, part of that power is used to restore their original physical bodies into the physical realm. So yeah, he died. But forever? Certainly not. If he chose to simply relinquish the two (or one blended) Shards now I assume he’d get his old body back and live a long, depressing life. Sorry, I’m in a rush or I’d quote sources, and my realmatic explanation is not quite on point, but it gives you an idea. Here's a free WoB or two

This was a thing people discussed when SH first came out, so good eye. But yeah the general consensus was the reference to Fortune was to the realmatic attribute (which is probably in more than just feruchemy) of someone drawing on luck, or fortune. See the WoB which indicates that the IRE are aware of this general realmatic ability, even if they're not thinking of it necessarily feruchemically.

Merciful Austre! That dude's spiritweb must be a total dumpster fire.

Yeah I was thinking biological asexuality as well (and I assume they don't mate with themselves). But @Oversleep it is possible you're right, he could just be talking about desire. I just don't think so from the way Eshonai refers to the forms. But your comment does make more sense now.

Hmmm. Maybe I can get him to sign a copy of Kvothebringer.

I don't agree with this Oversleep. That WoB says that mateform is not the only form that can reproduce, but it doesn't say every form can. More than that it explicitly says that "most listener forms are asexual". And there's this older one

@Sam Script I’ll try help this with an analogy I like. So firstly, investiture in the Cosmere is simply another state. In our universe we have energy and matter, which are interchangeable and convertible, though with huge effort. In the Cosmere it’s energy, matter and investiture. So imagine the ways we harness energy. We mostly do it through heat, whether that’s the heat generated by combusting petrol, or to turn a turbine in a gas/coal/nuclear generator. But you can’t just put a lump of uranium into a gas plant. Or coal into a nuclear plant. You have to use the fuel it’s designed for. That fuel still comes from the same thing, stored up energy that self-releases or is artificially released. But you can’t interchange the fuel. I see magic systems in the Cosmere the same way. All investiture is investiture. But when Shards invested in planets, that gave rise to natural magic systems from the combination of the Shard’s flavour of investiture and the planet itself. So a surgebinder cannot just use Preservation’s investiture, because the system is not ‘designed’ to do that, like using coal in a nuclear plant. You have to do something to hack the system to allow the different fuel. BUT something like Nightblood, or a Returned, isn’t using a flavour of investiture, a ‘fuel’ to use my analogy (and don’t mistake this with the Cosmere term ‘fuel’). They simply need ANY investiture to, in the case of a Returned, survive, and in the case of Nightblood, to eat and expend power. So you’re completely right that investiture from different Shards is different. But to some things in the Cosmere it’s all just universally usable fuel. For most magic systems though, they are attuned to a particular flavour of investiture, a particular fuel, and they are not interchangeable without a hack.

Thanks Calderis I've corrected. Which is good because I love that WoB.

@Oversleep, @Calderis here is the WoB about it being a rosetta stone for Sel symbols (ie translation) It was asked by @ParadoxicalZen And here's an interesting one indicating that its not just about translating, but proximity. So I think it's basically that if you have access to love Sel magic system, with that 'translation' you can access your system in other parts of Sel. Or you can access other systems (though I doubt that more).

Ah thanks Maxal. I was on the verge of going back and searching for every Renarin appearance so I'm glad to hear that. Personally I think the reason for silence would be to prevent exactly what we're doing. While I don't subscribe to the idea that Glys is voidish, I think Brandon does want to keep us in suspense about Reanarin and Glys and to give away renarin's eye color could spoil whatever surprise, or at least mystery, he has planned.