Extesian

Yeah there is That said Ambition was fought in the Threnodite system and was mortally wounded before finally being splintered elsewhere. So it is conceivable he/she went to Sel in between. I have my doubts though. I think most of what goes on in Sel is explainable by the two Shards being stuffed into the cognitive realm there.

Yeah this'll be the one.

Aah so you're saying it can store purely the innate investiture required to access the magic system but not the investiture that comes from it? That makes sense. There is still the RAFO (rather than outright no) on the specific question on compounding breath, so it could be possible, but I think I get the difference.

Agreed on the random Nalthian point, you need to have innate investiture capable of tapping metalminds. But the first WoB I posted does seem to confirm that you can storebreath in a nicrosilmind. Whether you can compound it who knows, but I suspect if you're a nicrosil allomancer and you get a nicrosilmind filled with Breath, you should be able to burn it. Problem is you then couldn't keep filling another one with Breath, hence you can't actually compound.

A couple of relevant WoBs My take generally is that you can use other types of investiture to fuel the magic system you already have access to and you can store something like Breath if you already have it. I'm not convinced that Breath applies in the same way though, being able to literally convert to it so you get additional heightenings. You can prevent yourself losing heightenings through use of something that costs breath, like a Returned prolonging their life or using Nightblood. But I suspect you can't actually gain Breaths by using other investiture.

Just for the relevant WoB, where it definitely sounds like Silverlight has no perpendicularity (it COULD but the strong implication is that it doesn't) I too assume there must be a Shard, the remnants of a Shard or some large source of investiture, but as Brandon says it's weird so there could be another explanation.

Ha Oh I post all the time with inaccuracies I get called on but I'm glad for it because sometimes it can make a difference, and also because there are times thatdiscussions on here about Cosmere theories latch onto a bit of information, make it into truth and for ages noone realizes it was a misunderstanding. I'm sure that humans on other planets pre-dated the Shattering But just in case, and until I see a WoB otherwise, I need to have in my mind that all we know iit's that it's pre-Shard just in case there's an important timeline difference.

We know that the power of a Shard, whole or splintered, will gain sentience either by finding a sentient host (in the case of a Shard with no vessel) or will gain sentience itself. I imagine if that's the case, Odium either knew it because a Shard knows a LOT, or he saw it as we did in the case of Roshar and Sel. But yeah the guy totally had a plan.

I only think that coz of the Unmade theoretically 'corrupting' normal spren and coz Parshendi were not originally of Odium but are now But no solid basis beyond those points I don't think it's necessarily Odium spren mixing but something about his investiture flowing through to corrupt the investiture (kind of like presumably happens with Trell-based hemalurgy on Scadrial).

I've wondered if this rattle has to do with whoever will be the (likely) champion of Odium.

I've had a thorough search myself and haven't found anything extra. But this WoB makes me think that the spren corrupted by Sja-Anat are exactly that - corrupted by the mixing of Odium's power with that of Honor/Cultivation (depending on the spren), and that's what makes them creepy and corrupted. The one possible exception I can think of is Threnody which was invested prior to the battle between Odium and Ambition but the fallout is thought to have corrupted it. That said, a So even there it sounds like it was Ambition's investiture mixing in that corrupted it. I'm leaning towards investiture being uncorruptable except by Shardic influence. Which would make sense - what could be powerful enough to alter something as fundamental as investiture except other investiture.

Just a clarification. Arcanum Unbounded says there was only two planets that had no humans prior to Shards arriving, not prior to the Shattering. It's possible humans came to other planets post-Shattering but prior to Shards getting there. I don't believe we know how much of a gap there was. There could have been an exodus of humans after the Shattering but before Shards arrived.

Good references! I've suspected (from many discussions) that the Parshendi were designed to bond with Adonalsium spren, that Odium then hijacked that to make them instead bond with voidspren (add they weren't originally of Odium or Cultivation, but now are) and that the way to stop the Desolations is to make them now be of Honor and enable bonding with Nahel bond spren. So I think they can't, but need to.

All good @jofwu I didn't even notice I'd quoted my much earlier post, I was posting in a hurry. It wasn't a particularly helpful way to do it! I'm still new enough that I don't try to give a decisive answer my simply quoting myself

Agreed. You're a fountain of knowledge Spool but not everyone has been able to look through everything in the past. I've read pretty much every Cosmere theory for a year now but I still often ask things that were covered by more knowledgeable people long ago. Have some mercy on the newbs looking for knowledge, we're all here for the love of Brandon and to figure out more. Thanks for the contributions @garlick

I don't think it's much of a debate any more. The WoB says a future book, and as has been pointed out, if there was one saying the next book someone would have found it by now. I don't think it'll be in Oathbringer, I think he'll be introducing us to orders one member at a time and multiples will only start to come out later. Doesn't stop me hoping it's Shen

Here I think the next Windrunner will be Shen (Rlain).

Excellent, the theory sound much better with the right terminology The idea makes the most sense to me with Brandon saying about a theoretical flawless gem and the references to the color changing with voidlight make a lot of sense.

Poor guy, he lost his divinity virginity and now he's got a devil and angel sitting on his shoulder who are really loud and really convincing. I suspect he is exercising as much of his own will as possible and I wonder if that's what makes a vessel more resistant to its Shard's intent - going against the instincts that come from the Shard.

Physics would tend to agree with them being visible anyway, as the three inhabited planets have to be close enough to the sun to be hot enough to support life (though Braize could be an exception depending on how cold), just like from Earth we can see Venus and Mars easily. Past that we can only see Jupiter and Saturn without a telescope because they're so big. But chances are Ashyn and Braize, and probably some of the 10 gas giants, are visible with the naked eye. Whether Rosharans know they're planets add distinct from stars probably depends on how closely they watch the movements of the planets compared to the stars.

I guess it's a cognitive thing. Sentient life has its own cognitive image of itself whereas non-sentient life only had the cognitive presence that sentient life gives it. And perhaps sapient life can then alter its own cognitive image? I have no idea then what level is needed for spiritweb, sentience or sapience. And which category Stick falls into.

God explanation @maxal I'm firmly in the camp of living Kaladin because I always love the natural but broken hero. I mean Kvothe is my favorite character in fiction! But yeah I see that appeal with Adolin and undoubtedly his story is getting more interesting. He's probably actually more realistic than a lot of characters in fantasy. I just often love the fantasy of Fantasy. On my next reread I'll have to watch him more closely as a character rather than a plot-point!

I've always found the fascination with Adolin fascinating. I get it, I just don't share it. He usually seems to me like the most one-dimensional character in Stormlight, good but not great, likeable but not loveable, brave but not crazy, stubborn but not, well, crazy Maybe it's because he's not broken. Or weird. But boy do Sharders love him!

We recently got confirmation that even after death the Spiritweb lingers in the spiritual realm (reddit I think). Could this be the difference between a dead living thing and inanimate material shaped like a living thing? Just a thought, no time right now to find the WoB. Edit: found the WoB I was thinking of, from the Reddit Stormlight update recently Basically I'm thinking the difference is that a dead thing once had a spiritweb and that's still floating around out there whereas something inanimate never did, and awakening latches onto the spiritweb record, which is why it's easier to awaken something that was once alive. Happy to be corrected.

You've come to the right place! There are a lot of spoilers on the Cosmere Theories subforum so stick to the series-specific fora if you want to avoid them. But once you've covered the Cosmere series you can learn so much that's only very subtly hinted in the books. And once you've done that, rereading the books is even better! Welcome