Extesian

Keep an eye out for the items in Mraize's collection, if you've read the other books and been on this site for a while many of them should jump out at you immediately as things of significance Keep an eye out for any surgebinders displaying characteristics that could be regarded as an 'extra' power (and if you don't know about 'resonance' search on this site). And with this, when Shallan is doing her thing, think about exactly what she's doing, and particularly what she may be doing on each realm (physical, cognitive, spiritual). Keep an eye out for random characters that could be Heralds. We know we've seen almost all of them in the books but sometimes they're hard to identify. Have a special think about the story of Fleet (not that we know its significance, but it probably has some). Watch for odd things Renarin does (if you've already read WoR you'll understand why). I'm sure there are many, many other things, and I'm sure you're already aware of many of these as I've seen you post on here a bit. But they're the things that come to mind

So we know that the blurbs on the inside covers (that talk about the "four we watch" are written by the Aimians. We also know that larkins are from Aimia, and probably important to them in some way. My theory is simply that the endpage you posted, like the blurb, is written by Aimians and it's simply an artistic thing, including one of their native, probably significant fauna as the backdrop to the diagram. There may be much more to it than that, but maybe there isn't.

Yolen lightweaving would do it as it effectively creates independent illusions that have sentience (or a level of it I guess). I don't necessarily think that's what's going on, but if Hoid did want to have decoys (and assuming he can still use full Yolen lightweaving) that could probably work without the need for an actual stooge.

For sure Calderis, I hope you didn't take it as any criticism or rejection of your views. I think both arguments have the same validity, I enjoy the debate, it's how we get things solved here As for resonance I believe the resonance has to do with the nozzles themselves rather than the Knight or bond out spren specifically. If you have your body constantly filtering investiture according to two specific patterns, over time they blend to also form one hybrid pattern that becomes a new use of that investiture. But yeah I also think that just like spren symbiotically bond all sorts of things in Roshar that you can have a spren focus that can still then filter through the bond (Connection) that the Windrunner then forms with his /her squires. But either way I'm not disagreeing with you, it would be hubris to simply disagree with either the bond or spren argument and with the no necro rule it's good you opened up this debate!

Healing in the Cosmere is based on using Investiture to restore your physical self to the form your spiritual self is in. Your cognitive self can affect this but i don't think it can transform it utterly. So in the case of a character who grows an arm back, that's because he never stopped thinking of himself as two armed so his spiritual self Bennett changed to become one armed, it was always two armed and given acres 3 to investiture he healed his physical self. In the case of a placebo however, i think no matter how much you cognitively think it's true it won't change your spiritual self to match that without something more. It's the reason i think (though i don't know) that someone born with one arm would grow a second, because their spiritual self never had two arms.

Calderis, I used to very much be of the view that the focus is the bonds, rather than the spren. I’ve changed this while slowly developing a theory of investiture and the realms (which I won’t develop or post for some time). There are a lot of WoBs on this, including a superb list that Moogle put together in 2015 here. I'll include some choice lines below. But my biggest basis is what I still consider the best description of how investiture is funnelled (or at least the most readable), the play-dough machine and nozzles. So, we know on Scadrial that the ability to use investiture is determined by your genetics - if you have the right sDNA you can access Preservation through the metal that matches up to the part of your sDNA that has this, I suppose, pattern. You then still need to burn the right metal to channel the investiture. But sDNA gives access, the metal (to paraphrase Khriss) starts an investiture and keeps it running. Hence on Scadrial the metal is the focus, because the molecular structure of it provides the right pattern, the right 'nozzle' to channel the investiture and tell it what form to become. On planets like Nalthis the focus is will. You don't do or draw or consume anything special, you provide the focus with your own intent. On Roshar, part of it is will, but mostly it's form (like on Scadrial and Sel). Roshar is already a planet of bonds. The relevant bonds for surgebinding are, firstly, the Nahel bond, and secondly, the bonds the surgebinder forms between things in using the magic. The Nahel bond, I feel strongly, is simply the means by which you acquire the ability in the first place to access investiture. The Nahel bond is simply the equivalent of having the right hereditary part of your sDNA (that, for alomancy, flowed down the generations of descendents of the first lerasium-munchers). On both planets you need to snap, have a 'hole' in you sufficient for the investiture to fill. But on Scadrial that doesn't do anything unless you have the right sDNA already. On Roshar it doesn't do anything unless a sapient spren (a sapient piece of investiture) chooses to bond you and fill that hole. What is the thing that determines the shape of the investiture on Roshar? It's which of the 10 types of Nahel-bond spren you are bonded to. Sure, you can argue that the Nahel bond is different for each one and it's that bond that determines the shape. But I feel the spren is more likely, especially when you consider things like fabrials. The other bonds are of course in the use of the magic. But that's the result of how your body uses the investiture, it's not the instruction of how to use it (ie it's not the 'nozzle', it's the bit of dough that comes out at the very end). For me, the most sensible 'nozzle' in all of this has to be the spren itself. Hmm and I'm not sold by the squire argument, it's definitely an interesting argument against it but not particularly troubling for me. There's no reason why the spren can't be the nozzle (the focus), and for Windrunners that focus tells the power to be used in a way that doesn't only let the surgebinder utilise it but also lets the investiture flow through him/her to the people he/she has intense spiritual connections with. But either way I agree this isn't at all settled, and I could surely be wrong. This has been an ongoing debate for some years, that I can see. But for me, I've become a convert of the spren-focus side now. Very open to be converted back though

Rasarr and Oversleep are right, Chasmfiends are too big to exist under normal circumstances, Brandon needed both Roshar's lower gravity AND symbiosis to overcome this limitation. However, I see this as a natural evolutionary limitation. I see no reason a Kandra couldn't in theory get a super-strong skeleton, sufficient muscles to move it and be the size of a Chasmfiend. It would just take a lot of toughness to stop its bones collapsing and a lot of strength to move with that much weight. There is a limitation here though, they cannot duplicate carapace. They can presumably still use it like Kandra use hair, actually taking it and attaching it to themselves, but they can't replicate it.

Here's a recent one, from the Boskone signing.

I've tried to reconcile this myself, if (Nahel bond) surgebinding is of Honor and Cultivation, and Honorblades are purely of Honor (we know Honor basically let them access his investiture directly), then what is Cultivation's magic system (to continue the Ruin/Preservation comparison)? It could be the Old Magic but Khriss at least thinks that is a different (and older) thing altogether. My problem is that the number of spren are based on Honor being splintered (they act as a 'release valve' for his splintered power), so why would spren that exist because of Honor's scattered investiture access Cultivation's power? And exactly where do fabrials fit into this (Brandon has basically said, if my memory is right, that there are three distinct magic systems - Surgebinding, Voidbinding and Fabrials)? Bonds (in the form of symbiosis) are already natural to Roshar so it's not as easy as just saying that where there is bond-based magic, Honor would be involved. My best guess is that when Honor died, Cultivation used her power to 'cultivate' the spren that formed from Honor's scattered investiture, made them 'grow' to be able to form self-awareness not just in the random way that unheld investiture does, but in a deliberate way to differentiate some of them into the sapient spren that now form Nahel bonds. But as others have said, I think it remains a pretty big mystery.

Thanks for the input all. With the Highstorm creating a thinness between the realms (and nb they're already thin on Roshar to begin with) maybe the Highstorm would be another 'junction' they could get through, though if so I think it would just be for thinness, I expect you couldn't get investiture from it because otherwise spren wouldn't be so starved of Investiture - they'd just all drink their fill each Highstorm. Brandon has referred to Stormlight being a 'lightbulb', to the Spiritual Realm. Perhaps if there was a Highstorm at the time they could have used that but the need to get to Honor's Perpendicularity indicates there wasn't one available, and I think supports the idea Honor's Perpendicularity isn't in the Highstorm. @Argent thanks for the feedback. I would have come to the same conclusion during the signing. It was only because I freshly read the Jasnah scene I realized the wording and context doesn't fit well. And my conclusion was the only part that was pure speculation so I agree that I don't like it so much myself. It was just an attempt to reconcile the information that was new to me, and I think it has flaws. But I'm glad it's promoting discussion of other places the Highstorm could be, and why it's there. I think the most important idea I had is that the Highstorm moves, but not constantly (or at least not quickly). And @Pagerunner I was a fan of the idea of it being on a moon or planet, but I think Ivory would struggle to recommend that as an option if that's the case. It would take a long time to get there if it was (if it was even possible to get there). @Bcknight2 that's a really interesting idea about Highstorms picking up investiture from Origin. It's made me think of something. Jasnah was in the Cognitive Realm on land ie where it is water in the Physical Realm. So it would be a lot harder for them to get to somewhere that is land in the Physical Realm. That gives some credibility to the idea that the Perpendicularity was not in land at the time. They could have gotten through it there normally then elsecalled to the Unclaimed Hills. My problem with this is the same reason I figured that the Perpendicularity was near the Unclaimed Hills at the time - she was in a rush to escape, which shouldn't have been the case if she'd already gotten out of the Cognitive Realm and just trying to elsecall home. I got to the idea of it gravitating towards kinetic investiture by figuring it was near the Unclaimed Hills but maybe the idea has relevance even if it wasn't. But some interesting things to deal with there. How did they get to the Perpendicularity without Stormlight if it was on land? What exactly makes the walls between the realms thin at the Highstorm if not a Perpendicularity? (Though the Highstorm sucking up investiture at origin could do that). Hopefully more insights will help us iron this out.

Do you know the details? I heard he's at supanova but I can't find a schedule to know when he's on or what further details. I'm not interested in the rest of the con, and I live in Canberra but maybe I can make it work

This 'un Not sure about the heightening one though Edit - Nope found it

This is a tenuous theory, but here goes... We know that Honor's perpendicularity moves. (and I'll spoiler quotes for size reasons) So understandably a possible theory is that it's in the Highstorms. But I just read something I'd never seen before, a scene from between WoR and Oathbringer that Brandon published on the Tor website back in 2014. So the Highstorm containing the perpendicularity doesn't make sense to me. The Highstorms sweep across Roshar pretty fast, so there's no way they could catch up with it, there's no reason to go north or south because it covers the continent. For it to be very distant, and them to walk to it, it must be in a relatively set location at the time of these events, not sweeping across the continent. So to me that largely rules out the Highstorm. Now, we know from here that Jasnah, after escaping the Cognitive Realm, ended up in the Unclaimed Hills. So I know Jasnah elsecalled to that location, that's made clear by her means of arrival, Hoid and WoBs. We know that Jasnah could not Elsecall directly out of the Cognitive Realm without getting to a 'juncture' (a perpendicularity). Perhaps that just as she didn't have enough Stormlight (it would surprise me if one can only Elsecall near a perpendicularity as that would make it a pretty useless power). So to me, the reason they need to find a juncture is presumably to either access more Stormlight (as we know the Cognitive Realms is Stormlight-poor), or more likely because with the amount she has she needs to be much closer to a place where the boundaries between the realms are particularly thin. We also know from WoR that she didn't mean to Elsecall to exactly where she was, because she was trying to escape. But as she's in the Unclaimed Hills, which are between Alethkar and the Shattered Plains (well, part of them anyway), I'm assuming she didn't Elsecall to somewhere completely random on Roshar, but just to somewhere pretty near the point that she left the Cognitive Realm. This would also make sense given the Unclaimed Hills are a kind-of appropriate distance from where she entered the Cognitive Realm, given Ivory said the perpendicularity is very distant, and given we know it took her a long time from entering the Cognitive Realm before arriving back in the Physical Realm - but it's not like she's on the other side of Roshar. For reference, here's the Roshar map. So, on these bases, and admitting there are quite a few assumptions there, I think at the time of her escape, she needed to get to Honor's perpendicularity, which was in or near (relative to Roshar) the Unclaimed Hills. Add to that the idea that Honor's perpendicularity was in that location for long enough for Ivory to say they needed to get there (I think that would be difficult if it was moving constantly over a large distance). The question is then why would it be there, as opposed to anywhere else in Roshar, at that time. Which brings me to my idea. Part of the Unclaimed Hills is wedged right between Alethkar and the Shattered Plains. Basically it's all largely north, but part is north-west, between the two regions. What is going on in the Shattered Plains at the time, that is going on a lot less everywhere else in Roshar? The active use of investiture, through both some live-spren surgebinding and of course through quite a bit trapped-spren surgebinding (in the form of many of the world's Shardblades in use there). So my theory is that Honor's perpendicularity moves around Roshar towards the place that has the most active use of investiture. Not in the form of spren, they are everywhere (except Shinovar) but their investiture is not being used, nothing is being drawn from the Spiritual Realm. Same with the Highstorms, where investiture can be trapped by spheres but is not actually being drawn on. I think when Stormlight is being drawn from the Spiritual Realm, Honor's perpendicularity basically gravitates towards it. The reason the perpendicularity isn't in the Shattered Plains is because that's not the only place investiture is being used. Most of it is there, but there is still some Shardblades and Shardplate being used, and drawing investiture through the Stormlight trapped in Spheres, in other parts of Roshar, particularly Alethkar. Which drags the perpendicularity slightly further west, and a little north. Into the Unclaimed Hills (or thereabouts). So that's that. I simply couldn't find enough evidence on this subject to be at all confident about this theory. And there are a number of assumptions. But I feel it has some backing and I wanted to put it out there for thoughts, corrections, dismantling or perhaps support.

I suspect it could He directly compares the hole in some spren with that in koloss, so maybe it's a threshold thing but if Vin could do it to Koloss i can't see why someone with that level of power couldn't with the Parshendi.

Hmmm perhaps I misunderstood what you're saying here? Lekal City was very much in era 1 (Hero of Ages). Or did you mean the location is wrong? I feel a bit silly questioning you on something like this Chaos

I usually find these things silly but I quite like the design, questions and wording. And I got willshaper, which I think fits me.

Szeth makes friends with a Larkin, is spiked with chromium allomancy and, wielding Nightblood, travels to Braize where he and Larky drain all of Odium's investiture, sacrificing themselves and returning the investiture to the Cosmere.

Novels Way of Kings Warbreaker Words of Radiance The Final Empire Hero of Ages Bands of Mourning Elantris Alloy of Law Well of Ascension Shadows of Self White Sand prose Aether of Night Novellas The Emperor's Soul Secret History Edgedancer Sixth of the Dusk Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell Short Stories The Eleventh Metal Hope of Elantris Allomancer Jak chapters

Here's what I could find. That first one was also, from memory, read out at the recent ad astra event with a summary on another thread. Axies, Ash, Rysn? Though it's unclear on second view that he's saying they'll all be in Oathbringer?

I really like this Skaa. As someone who has only been lurking for a year and a member for 5 months, I've read basically everything Cosmere-related on here over that time, but I've found it hard to triage what old threads I go back and read (and as a mobile-only user I don't see people's signature blocks unless I click on their profile, so maybe I've simply been missing other Cosmerologists doing this). I think I'll start stalking the significant Cosmere-posters for this reason now. You've given me some good reading material!

Coppermind is useful for these things. http://coppermind.net/wiki/Shalash

It's a really good question I'd never considered. I seriously doubt they change, so I think the real question is why swords? I mean they are one of the most versatile weapons so it makes sense. I suspect it comes from life on Yolen where (pure speculation) perhaps swords were considered the gentleman's weapon or similar, like they have been in some Earth cultures. We know Hoid has a sword that has personal meaning to him. But yep try as I might I can find nothing establishing whether the HonorBlades have fixed form other than the implication from spren mimicking them.

Yeah I basically incorporated all the signing transcripts I could find this year (as theoryland hasn't been updated since Dec16) into a single document for easy searching. That, theoryland and now hopefully @Pagerunner's genius reddit archive make searching for WoBs so much easier

I'm not the fan of Adolin that @maxal is (I don't think anyone in the Cosmere or in real life is ) but I'm not particularly worried about Adolin remaining an important character in the series even though he's not a primary character and has limited viewpoints. We've learnt so much about him already without him being a primary or major viewpoint character and Brandon has said that will continue So he certainly won't become a primary character and probably won't become a big viewpoint character. But part of the appeal, for me, of Adolin is that we learn about him more through his actions and words than through his thoughts. I don't think that's diminishing his character growth, I think in some ways that adds to it. It leaves more mystery but it lets us judge him on the effect he has on others rather than on his own internal mind-thinkings.

For reference here's the WoB about too many powers preventing resonances So others are right, a resonance us effectively a magical interaction giving rise to a new, specific power, rather than just using multiple powers simultaneously to have cool effects. The debate about Wax seems to be that his steel bubble (to my mind) is more about him being a savant (or probably something short of that) in what you can do with two powers simultaneously rather than it being an actual resonance. But we really don't know, or seems brandon hasnt even decided.