Storyspren

Wait, wait, wait. Is this for sure? I expected somebody to thrash back with some obscure WOB. So you're telling me... what I thought was the sand (with lichen) is actually something used to repel mold (and lichen) by absorbing water? Either way, isn't there's potential relevance in a universe where the presence or absence of particular species lichen substrates is pretty important?

Well the sand has to be there right? Since there are little piles of sand at the end of each library shelf in Kharbranth?

Kelsier is not now and never was a sociopath. His disregard for the laws of his society are for a good reasons, some related to his upbringing and societal station, but also to the hideousness of the laws themselves. Not only doesn't he lack empathy, but he resolves to get himself killed, on purpose at least to some extent OUT of empathy. Vin's question to him at the end of Secret History is a fair question, but doesn't imply that even Vin thinks Kelsier doesn't care about others. He spared Elend man. And not just once. OK that out of the way. His connection to Ruin is the best argument against some kind of interference by another shard. However, I'd argue that prior to the Pits, his connection wasn't actually that strong. It was only after that that Kelsier began tearing apart society wholesale. Doing Ruin's work for real as it were. So it's not a case of an all but immovable object (Kelsier's connection to Ruin and low allomantic potential) being moved by an almost unstoppable force (the horror of the Pits). Indeed. There's a world of space between Kelsier's pre-pit connection and post-Pit connection. And low allomantic potential I think we can rule out due to the simple face that Brandon acknowledges the mystery in the footnotes.

Hi, I tried looking for this theory somewhere but I only saw one half joking mention of it, which I therefore upvoted. Theory: There is a shard of Hope. It had something to do with Kelsier snapping into a mistborn, which is not fully explained by preservation commanding him to survive. I take it Kelsier should have already snapped but hadn't and was made to snap by some external force. We've seen preservation make someone a mistborn, Elend, via feeding him lerasium. We've also seen Kelsier command Spook to survive and Spook not becoming mistborn at that time. It seems like you need both ruin to make the cracks and preservation to rush in with power to make a misting/mistborn in the typical case, else feed lerasium. Kelsier never gives up. And when he distills his message down to one word to get through to Spook, the word is Hope. Also obviously "I am that thing you cannot kill." Hope. Also a good candidate for a shard that is just trying to survive but whose intent isn't strictly speaking survival per se. Hope... Just the kind of thing that you can't kill even if you think you did. OK apologies for the abbreviated defense of theory. Got a bum arm atm. Also apologies if I missed this particular permutation of Kelsier is/will be/take up a shard.

The only issue is that there are infinitely many Hoid theories and only a finite amount of internet and time.

Thanks! (And sorry!)

Ooooo... excellent question.

OK. I don't understand you people. Adolin is clearly the best. Dalinar: We literally know he would have ended up an even worse brutal murdering dictator in the future if a God hadn't intervened. Even if he's older than we think, whatever else we discover about him, left to his own devices in the world we know him, it literally took divine intervention to make him potentially cooler than Adolin. Part of what makes him cool is that he knows he's not as cool as what Adolin aspires to be. It's almost part of his character that he's not as cool as Adolin. Gavilar: Wanted to bring back the old gods of the Parshendi. Total ends over means guy. And by this I mean that even assuming his end was benevolent, he focused so much on that end that he was blinded to the possibility of achieving it morally. Jasnah: Gavilar with a chest, powers, and a much bigger brain. I love Jasnah. Elhokar: His being inferior to Adolin is part of the point of his existence. Renarin: Potentially has the opportunity to prove himself as cool or cooler than Adolin by successfully overcoming his difficulties. It's possible he's on the road to being as cool or cooler than Adolin. Currently not cooler. Navani: Navani is the only other legitimate contender here. That's all I'll say. Aesudan: Evil. Evi: You have to choose good to be really good and awesome. Evi was brought up good. So she never had a chance to be evil. And she's not powerful or smart. So she's infinitely lovable but not cooler than Adolin. Gavinor: Insufficient information.

Googled the basilisk. Hoid is a one boxer.

@Cyanic Thanks for clearing that up and also for the rabbit hole. About to Google roko's basilisk. Blaming you in advance. Also, do you play "the game."

It's the theory that would be a memetic hazard to folks in the real universe. I.e. This universe. Nothing to do with realmatics in the cosmere. In any case I think that's what the first commenter was getting at.

It's the unnamed theory itself which could arguably be a memetic hazard in the "please don't let it be true" way. Though personally I would be happy if it were true, I think many wouldn't be. The theory is meta with respect to the cosmere. The memetic hazard I'd meta with regard to this thread itself.

Good guess but nope. I am trying to come up with more specific predictions but it's tough since the theory is so meta.

Now that you mention it, 4 probably does rely on some sketchy assumptions about the nature of reality on my part.

I don't know what you have in kind exactly but a memetic hazard effect is the concern. Thanks for the post. From googling infohazard/memetic hazard etc, I went down an SCP Google rabbit hole. Had never heard of SCP before.

Yes. On thIs theory, the cosmere would probably be more scifi.

I have a theory I think is true, but if so can never be spoken. I dare not speak it, and neither dare you, for if so, the spell will be broken. So, I have a theory I won't articulate for reasons that would be clear if you adhered to the same theory. If my theory is correct, I hope we'll never find out. The theory does have the following implications: 1 Adonalsium, and any other beings of his/her/its kind which may ever have existed in the cosmere are a very very different kind of being than literally every other kind of being in the cosmere. Even if you cloned Adolnalsium in-cosmere somehow. The resulting clone would be equally as different from the original Adonalsium, and not just in a "well technically Adolnalsium created all this stuff and Adolnalsium-clone isn't directly causally connected to the rest of the cosmere" kind of way. 2 Adonalsium and the page on which Hoid started his life have a lot in common. 3 It's possible that Hoid isn't just weird but very, VERY weird. And if Hoid isn't that weird, then we have/will almost certainly meet/have met someone or something not Adonalsium but even weirder than Hoid. 4 50 stars is actually a large number of stars for the Cosmere to have. Quite impressive. 5 We'll never, ever find out about the Beyond, and if we did, it almost certainly wouldn't be the correct Beyond. 6 Earth could have been Cosmere, but that wouldn't have been nearly as cool. 7 It was probably monumentally stupid to shatter Adonalsium even if that's what he/she/it wanted. I highly doubt big A would have wanted that though because if so, he/she/it could have made the shattering a heck of a lot easier. 8 If the shattering really happened against the will of Adonalsium it wasn't what killed him/her/it. If it didn't happen completely against his/her/its will, then I'd be kind of angry at Adonalsium for allowing it, if I lived in the cosmere. 9 There's a tiny chance that Adonalsium died but the shattering didn't kill him. 10 Whether big A is dead or not, he/she/it could come back. 11 There's a sense in which, from a Cosmeric perspective, some cognitive shadows could be more real than the normal humans. From there is gets more speculative or give-away. I just wanted to put this out there in case anyone has the same theory. If you have it, you should immediately recognize it. And I would recommend not saying anything. If you don't recognize it, feel free to guess.

Yes. I like this very very much. The responsiveness of the visions is so high. It's like you're really there, except that... I THINK you can't influence the past. But if time really is meaningless in the spiritual realm, then it CAN'T be true that you can't influence the past. Many it's the smearing of the cognitive and physical INTO the spiritual that limits or even eliminates any influence on the past. But in any case, they aren't just visions. Maybe folks from the past can quite literally talk to the future even. But if that were true why wouldn't honor be doing it? So I think that can't be true. No wonky time stuff.

Here are a few ideas on this: A Dalinar can't lose if he somehow is able to name another shard. On the Adolin is a budding megagod theory, Dalinar can name future Adolin. Or maybe Lift? B Dalinar names someone whose very naming might upset Odium's in world plans. I.e. Rlain. C Dalinar makes use of Renarin's foresight to name someone Odium's champion wouldn't fight. D Dalinar takes up Odium's power. E Dalinar can't lose if it's a three champion fight between cultivation, honor and odium champions and Dalinar backs Lift (only current candidate really for cultivation's champion). OK that's all I got for now. Battle of champions seems so not Brandon. I'm against it in principle. No Belgariad ending of any kind.

I searched for this I promise. Apologies if I just didn't find it, as I suspect. During Dalinar and Navani's wedding the Stormfather mentions that Navani has broken oaths before. Um.... What oath? Is this supposed to be obvious? Did she cheat on Gavilar? Leave the ardentia? Leave the ghostbloods? Break a previous engagement? Is she older than we the think and abandoned either the oathpact or a spren bond? Did she promise not to bear another child? Something even weirder? I feel like I missed something here.

Rlain for certain. And an aimian. Then you'd have bondsmiths from all the colors of blood right?

Proofs: 1) We have never seen Brandon and Shallan in the same place 2) Hoid seems to respect her even though she has the "I just heard of this" kind of cleverness of a freshman in college sometimes. 3) her spren pattern is part of everything in the cosmere by his own admission. Spren and their radiants become one thing by bonding. Thus Shallan is pattern. Thus Shallan is part of everything. But everything doesn't appear the same. Thus differences must be imagined. The only thing is Shallan. Thus Shallan imagined everything. Theory: the stormfather is actually odium

Still think we're going to see some radiants from the past regrown from their leftover plate at some point. Sticking to my guns on this one for the record. Radiants become sprenish and plate is just part of that. Head cannon for life.

Adolin has to die. He's too perfect. No way he becomes Odium's champion. His whole job is to be perfect, then die.

So to me, obviously Odium doesn't care at all for the parsh people, their half dead ancestors or any of that. And also someone wanted another desolation to happen when it's actually happening. The sons of honor were totally being manipulated by someone or thing. Something obviously bad-ish at least. So I definitely like the idea that odium was timing things/ holding off on Taln's torture. What could the timing be about? A) actually bringing taln to his side B] honor to die C) Gavilar or someone suitable to receive the visions and release the kraken spren D) spren to bring back the radiants for some reason E) something to do with cultivation F) something to do with hoid. G) something off screen H) fabrial science to advance to a certain point Oh god. Too many possibilities.