Extesian

Cool, I couldn't find any definitive WoB but if there's one I'll certainly defer to that and dash that theory If that is the case, could it be that an Honorblade is not integrated properly with the bearer's spiritweb in the same way a spren is and this prevents healing the soul?

Recent WoB says blades (so nothing about plate). An Honorblade is different, I think the main thing is that superspren don't want to limit themselves somehow by physically manifesting as a sword, and of course 'dead' Shardblades are repugnant to all spren.

So i think this is cognitive, Szeth doesn't believe an Honorblade can heal it which is why it doesn't work, but he's wrong. That theory is based on these WoBs. So I believe they can heal Shardblade wounds but only if the bearer believes they can. Happy for anyone to point out evidence against that though.

It's not a bad thought, but..

We do have an answer on this, about self-awareness.

I think this one. . @Moogle, who would count as brilliant, talks about likely colors of the Shards and moons. Just search for 'color' on the page, it's a third of the way down.

I think it's simply that naming champions is an old tradition that relies on each leader abiding by the terms, but because Honor's thing is bonds he (well, the Shard) can bind even another Shard to such an agreement. A named champion would surely need to draw on Honor's power, and how that works post splintering I'm not sure. But Preservation picked an individual to give direct access to his essence (if very occasionally) and otherwise to guide. I think the difference with SA is that it's not a powerful individual, it's that Honor's intent can actually magically force Odium to abide by the wager once he's manipulated into it. I suspect it's the same mechanism by which Odium was tricked into investing into Roshar in the first place.

I like to think it was deliberate on his part. Or is that...inconceivable

A couple of relevant WoBs So it's possible but no one knows how to do it. The only question is whether it's possible without healing but I suspect it is. @skaa recently did an interesting post proposing there could be a secondary part of the body that could have things spiked out in addition to the heart.

Yeah my girlfriend is Czech and her friends are Polish and they understand each other, though the Poles seem to understand the Czechs better than the other way. The Slavic languages fascinate me now after living in Prague for a couple of years! But Lord of Colors I found Czech hard to learn. Too hard in fact. Though I do know dva

Yeah I didn't understand that either, when you have statements like this But I assume it means he used hemalurgy but just that the bracers themselves were not spikes (which would make sense as why would you use the one piece of metal for two different purposes, surely you'd have separate spikes and metalminds).

I was thinking of that one as well but there's a subsequent clarification

This is just a guess, but I think spren have a choice about bonding, but once they're bonded I'm not sure they can just tell the KR not to do something. The threshold is simply whether it breaks the oaths. So even if the Stormfather doesn't like it maybe he can't do much about it? I'm open to any corrections of that though.

There's a few mentions, searching the ebook gives me 6 One of the times ebooks are useful! eg

What a beautiful thought out theory Skaa. The medallions have always been one of my weaker realmatic topics so I'll leave it to others to pick apart the details (and I hope they do, this is something that deserves the scientific method being thoroughly applied to it). The analysis of internal and external spiritual connections and identity is intriguing, and makes sense to me, but I'm curious to see any differences of opinion on that. But it's one of the better descriptions of how medallions work (or may work). I feel like the biggest 'if' is the idea that religious devotion (in combination with spirit web cracks) leads to the level of connection you're talking about, but it's also one of the most intriguing ideas here and you've supported it well. And it made me immediately think of Bavadin creating or hijacking religions, something I was always looking for a compelling reason for - this would be just that. The ability to control, or have your priests tap the powers of, religious devotees. And whether or not you're right, you've given me a fresh level of interest in Southern Scadrian magic-tech and wanting to delve into some serious research on it. Nice work.

In terms of terken, the option I like the best is that they incorporate aluminum into their shells from the ground around them. There's a good thread discussing that here. If so I don't think they would be similar, though the mechanism by which Dilaf can block aons may be similar to the way aluminum blocks investiture. It's certainly an interesting question though.

I imagine her as the Oracle from the Matrix.

Arcanum Unbounded. Yata is right, the reason for a terminal velocity is that air resistance cancels out further acceleration. You'd be limited firstly by the impact and secondly by friction limiting you. Further lashings will only get you to that speed faster. But think of Lift with the Windrunner blade...no friction=unlimited speed with just one lashing (after how ever many seconds).

I like this theory. Not because I think it's right but because it's interesting and made me consider some questions I'd never considered considering before I think the above questions about why the point towards the light irrespective of time or Highstorm location are valid. But also because of the limited WoBs I could find (and I'm surprised to not find more, though maybe someone else knows of more). The first one doesn't seem to help much. The second one makes it sound like it's to do with the Beyond. In my mind I picture that as the cognitive realm having backwards shadows because investiture (which comes up as light and includes souls) is kind of flowing towards the Beyond, leaving a shadow in that direction, and connection to the Cognitive Realm let's that investiture shadow creep into the Physical Realm. But that's speculation on my part. Maybe @Blightsong can add something to that in terms of the question or answer

My call for someone who may not commit to a long read is always TES or Warbreaker, depending on whether they prefer something serious or something fun and funny. I think TES is a masterpiece. But Warbreaker is just wonderful. I don't enjoy the 'main' story line hugely but Lightsong is just wonderful, the magic is intriguing, Vasher is completely intriguing and then awesome, and it's free!

Your thinking on tension is on track

The rhythms are something that exist Cosmere-wide but manifest that way on Roshar. It doesn't answer the rest of the questions but it's something worth further analysis (which I haven't had time to do).

It's hinted at at the end of WoR but here are some WoBs you can find on theoryland And @Yata I'm definitely not suggesting that explanation I was just saying they're theories I've seen. The Nightwatcher mystifies me as she's supposed to be analogous to the Stormfather in some ways, related to Cultivation somehow, Khriss thinks the Old Magic may be completely different to the other Shard magics on Roshar - there are too many conflicting indications (unless I've missed some very useful WoB). I don't think she's any of the options I gave, they're just theories I've seen that mostly don't work

So the Stormfather was the spren of the highstorms, which occurred before Honor and Cultivation came. When Honor died, Tanavast (the vessel) left behind a Cognitive Shadow which then merged with the already-existing Stormfather. So its the Stormfather that is the epic-level spren, he just merged with Tanavast's cognitive shadow

Firstly I like this because it's where my profile name comes from Secondly I feel it's unlikely that the Heralds were evil, they seem to have taken an extraordinary level of punishment to hold off and stop desolations. It's not impossible but I would be very surprised. Thirdly we don't know what the Nightwatcher is though we should find out much more in Oathbringer. But we do know she is sentient investiture, what Rosharans would call a spren (which could include Shards). Popular ideas are Cultivation, Cultivation's vessel, Cultivation's vessel's cognitive shadow merged with a previously existing epic-level spren (like the Stormfather now) or just a spren of Adonalsium.