Extesian

Yeah I've just put it up as a Q&A rather than a theory to see if anyone can blow it out of the water. If it seems to be right I'll put it on my realmatic misunderstanding thread. Edit - Oversleep answered my question here. As for the investiture in spikes, this So i think the answer is that a spike is invested but not as invested as you'd think. For something that messes with your soul so much it doesn't take a lot of investiture as it's a short circuit. I'll spoiler that whole WoB as it's informative for anyone who hasn't seen it.

I think this is the first Q&A I've done, but I don't have enough to make a theory on it, or to add to my realmatic misunderstanding list. I've seen people say that a stamp will fail if an object is taken off Sel. Do we know this? Yeah the Dor is location dependent. But a stamp infuses the target with investiture and then (I believe in the case of living things) wears out and must be replaced. I agree that the stamp won't take if it's not applied on Sel. But if it's applied on Sel then the target goes offworld do we have any knowledge that it would fail immediately? Or just once the stamp wears out? Does it make a difference if it's non-living? That is, if a stamped non-living object doesn't need re-stamping, would it fail at all off-world? And in the case of a living thing, would you need to return to Sel each time you need to re-stamp? Realmatically, if a stamp needs a constant influx of investiture to maintain the change, a stamp should only continue to work on Sel. But it feels to me like a stamp gives a one off influx or investiture, which should mean that once you stamp something on Sel, the stamp will hold even off Sel. Does anyone have canon or WoB material that answers this one way or the other?

Sometimes I realize I've missed some basic realmatic fundamentals, usually when it's something in a book that I haven't reread in a long time. You're right about living vs non-living @Calderis, I think. I can't believe I hadn't realized that. Cheers! But yeah I've been wondering about this soulstamp location-dependence for a while. I'll put it on Q&A.

From WoR chapter 48 I mean that may be in-world wrong, but that's the original source. I'm not aware of a WoB confirming it.

Really? In Australia we usually call it an elevator and as we get most words from the Brits I assumed... Well, of several poor jokes that was the poorest anyway

Oh this will end badly What do you call the night of a full moon? A Night Radiant. What did the Purelake used to be called? The Purepond. Why did Odium invest in Roshar? He was worried about the yield on government bonds. Why aren't Rosharan names symmetrical any more? Hipsters. What did Lift used to be called? Elevator. But when she got her green card, noone in America understood the word. That'll do I think.

The Dawnsingers are just Shin roosters.

Yeah the object itself is invested Also I've seen people say that a stamp will fail off Sel. Do we know this? Yeah the Dor is location dependent. But a stamp infuses the target with investiture and then wears out and must be replaced. I agree that the stamp won't take if it's not applied on Sel. But if it's applied on Sel then the target goes offworld do we have any knowledge that it would fail immediately? Or just once the stamp wears out? Realmatically, if it needs a constant influx of investiture it should. But it feels to me like a stamp gives a one off influx or investiture that wears out. I may be off the mark but this is a question I've had for a bit.

I suspect he's just tracking surgebinders. And in the case of Navani, a fabrial expert. Basically grabbing evidence of Rosharan magic systems. That's basically what Khriss does, studies magic systems. An interesting question is how they find them.

Thanks for the input so far folks, I’ll be glad if this ends up being a good resource. @Oversleep, this Hoid WoB collection sounds like a magnificent idea! You’re of course completely right about my comment that WoBs confirmed Hoid uses the lerasium bead for allomancy. I was careless there (as I was drafting that theory at lunch, at work, before a meeting J). What I meant to say (and will edit in the OP) is that there have been multiple WoBs confirming he is an allomancer. You’re right that the WoBs are cagey on whether he became one by lerasium bead, but that’s still overwhelmingly my head-canon. But the long-discussed idea that he is a feruchemist, and that he stores fortune to get where he needs to be, is clearly not supported by WoBs. It’s not ruled out by it but the strong indications are that isn’t the case, he uses a different, but related mechanism from, presumably, a different magic system. I will add the Breath-spiking belief to the list (though I had never heard a theory that you couldn’t, such a theory surprises me, but you’ve been around longer than me). @Blightsong thanks for the info on the Discord. I did think it was all audio. I really should check it out, I have this unsettling feeling I’m now missing a lot of the real discussion on Cosmere theories and realmatics by not being on it. The problem is I’m almost exclusively on this site on my phone, and usually only for 5 minutes at a time. But thanks I will check it out. And thanks @cometaryorbit I've added in the Hoid continuity one. I won't put in the Vin/TenSoon one simply because I don't think the WoB is misleading, only the implication. The WoB doesn't say TenSoon can/did/will communicate with Vin, it only implied it by saying that someone spiked can communicate more easily with someone on 'the other side'. That sounds a bit like the Beyond, which would be wrong, but I think it's just a cagey way of diverting the question, the other side meaning the Cognitive Realm (which is true), and yes, Vin didn't stick around in the Cognitive Realm, but the WoB doesn't say she does. I think it was just Brandon pulling an Aes Sedai and letting people believe what they want. Thanks for both pieces of input though!

We're nominating people each week to fill out a questionnaire on themselves, as was apparently done in the past. I nominated you. But looks like Chaos is the pick, so you have a reprieve mate (I should note that I'm very happy with Chaos).

I was very tired and not thinking when I wrote that. The Recreance happened before Honor was Splintered anyway

Thanks Calderis I'll put the source for them both being canon in the OP (it's a WoP)

I want to set up a new topic for one purpose (though with several dimensions) - material that is falsely believed to be authoritative. If people find this useful I hope it will be a general resource for people researching WoBs and theories, as others add to it. This can also be used to propose ideas you think are wrong, but please try to research thoroughly first so we mainly deal with likely problems here. I can think of four categories to include. I've spoilered each summary for length. 1. Terminology that is widely used but is no longer, or not yet, canon Fullborn Intent (/Mandate) Mistpoint Shardpool Shardholder 2. Matters that people keep referring to as according to WoB, but no one can ever find the WoB they're thinking of and, after extensive research, the community decides it was a mistaken belief. Does a Shard automatically splinter when its Vessel dies Belief that you cannot use hemalurgy to steal Breath Lerasium is green We will see a new Windrunner in Oathbringer 3. WoBs that turn out (either by subsequent WoB, canon material or general agreement) to be wrong - either because of a misunderstanding or the old WoB was misleading (e.g. paraphrased) "It will form a bridge" - is the Diagram reference in WoR Ch 89 epigraph, to a Parshedi forming a bridge, metaphorical or magical? Does Hoid use Feruchemical luck to be where he needs to be 4. Canon material or WoBs that Brandon has consciously, publicly changed Savants Szeth at the end of WoR The location of the Well of Ascension, and Hoid Conclusion If people find this useful, I'd love for any posts here on WoBs, theories or canon material that seem to be wrong, particularly things that Sharders repeat as canon but where there doesn't seem to be an actual source for that. As we find new ones I will update this post accordingly, hopefully we can come up with a little database. And hopefully this can be useful for Cosmere researchers to quickly check in on, to make sure they're not relying on incorrect material. I'm certain there's been one or two more recent ones in category 1, things that people believe are WoB but turn out not to be, if I remember them I'll add them. I may not use Discord, which I think shuts me out of some of these debates, but hopefully anything coming up here can be talked through there and people can report back. over to you

I like it @Jace21. Great first theory. I'm not convinced but only because with existing evidence it's hard to be convinced. I still have other possibilities in my head but it's well thought through.

Skaa merchant Would you rather: hold one (and only one) Shard, be a maxed out user of any one magic system of your choice (10th heightening plus/fullborn (without atium)/access to every Surge, or have access to one 'type' of magic/the lowest level of magic from every Shard (eg one pair of surges, one metal, first Heightening, any Sel magic except Elantris-boosted Elantrian, etc)

I agree with your analysis of the Honorblades @Jondesu and I like the idea of one of them reconnecting to Honor's investiture directly, but I feel the problem is that Honor's splintering manifested on the formation of vast numbers of new spren and that Honor's power can't be accessed like that without the investiture in those spren being absorbed back. Basically recombining the Shard. I've even wondered of the Recreance was designed to do that in part. But that's all highly speculative. edit - realized the last sentence is flat out wrong

The WoB @Kinolee is thinking of could be this one I personally believe this is an error, and either dawnshards aren't mentioned or brandon knew the person meant Honorbladesand didn't correct. It is an argument for them being the Honorblades but I don't believe it myself, because of Tanavast's words. One thing I've been thinking of doing a theory on, but I'll throw out for discussion now as it's being widely considered, is the larkins/lanceryn. I can't see it matching up, but I am a obsessed with Aimia right now. We know that dawnshards are important, can bond any creature "voidish or mortal" (unless that's myth), we know lanceryn are greatshells and larkins are their larvae, we know they eat investiture, we know they have been thought extinct since the scouring of Aimia, and (Oathbringer Spoilers) In light of these things, and Honor believing the Dawnshards are gone, I wonder if lanceryn gemhearts could be Dawnshards. I don't think they are, and I think lanceryn (or larkins) have huge significance, as does Aimia and Akinah in particular, but not that significance. But there are some commonalities there. Oh and @Calderis the formatting when you copy search results from theoryland (where the searched term is emphasised) messes up. When you're copying it just 'remove formatting' below.

I'll just add this, from Arcanum Unbounded, to the excellent answers, on how early D&D were splintered. So it was during the days of human prehistory, that's pretty old given the advanced state of civilization at the time of Elantris.

Yeah the annotations are a weak spot in my canon knowledge and I've never found a good way to search them. I think my task will be to read and flag the annotations of every book, something I haven't done properly.

It was one of the annotations @Calderis, @Andy92 posted it here. I'd never seen it so it was good to read.

Thanks for the info as well @Blightsong, that one was bothering me.

Cool answers @Mestiv I vote for @Argent if he hasn't been previously.

I'm no physicist, but isn't the sky blue because blue is a shorter wavelength and blue light gets scattered, making the sky around us blue (and it's less blue directly in the path of the sun because the blue is scattered away from the path of the white light)? And then the sea is blue on a sunny day because it reflects the blue light from the atmosphere. You can have a sky of a different color with a higher density of particles in the atmosphere, like we get at sunset. I think Venus has an orange sky? But them they've got crazy greenhouse gas effect so it's unliveable. How you can do it with a liveable planet I have no idea.

Here's the two best I know