alder24

I disagree. This new discovery was already made - Navani realized that ancient Fabrials are spren manifesting in the Physical Realm. Not to mention her bond with the Sibling, who still has many fabrials unknown to her (the Suppressor Fabrial was only recently discovered, there is a whole 20 ft column full of fabrials). The fabrial tech will progress quickly in the near future, specifically in between SA 5 and SA 6, which would provide a necessary refreshment of the world.

I know almost nothing about DID but I have to point out that Shallan did experience some memory loss - in OB she drifts off with thoughts (or without them, just staring blankly) without knowing for how long was she absent on multiple occasions, she's finding sketches in her sketchbook that she doesn't remember drawing, and RoW:

Location doesn't matter. If their religion requires them to travel to a specific place, they will do it even if that means crossing 50 subastrals. Yes. I do wonder how the hell the entire nation just disappeared overnight. Like the logistics of it. Do they all suddenly feel they need to go, do their leaders decide it and send messengers to everyone to gather all on a certain day? What if someone was ill, in coma or just slept through it. If that was like a normal gathering and travel I find it improbable to believe that everyone just did their part as their should without spreading rumors about incoming departure. Boosted "Elsecalling" like Ashynites did seems far more plausible, especially if that can just target every individual needed, without them being near the Elsecaller. I think it's possible that Iriali themself will just disappear from Roshar one day, and people from neighboring countries, who might have mixed ancestry, like from Rira (where Evi came from, she had golden hair), might be the one looking for them all over Cosmere - and those were the people spotted on Scadrial. Possible but unlikely, I do believe those were Iriali. It's possible. We need more information on that.

We don't know any of this. We don't know how snappings works now - almost nothing is known to us except that Harmony changed it because he didn't like how brutal it was. But it's likely happening at some specific age, after which kids parents likely give them a vial of metal, with traces amounts of metals there, and test them for Allomancy. With Feruchemy they likely do the same, making them try to store in every metal. It might be even done in medical centers, as a standard procedure, or paid one. That's the simplest explanation in my opinion. Toxicity of metals isn't a problem after a small, singulair dose or can be negated with vomiting or some laxatives. We don't know at what age they snap or know about their powers. Wayne was aware of his abilities by the time he was sixteen. Wax knew of them by the time he was in the Village at the age of 15, but at the bank flashback, when he was 12, nothing was said about his powers, as well there was no mention of Wayne's power in TLM prologue (possibly less than 10 years old). Max as a 5 year old is very likely too young for him to get snapped. Snapping likely happens when people enter their teenage years.

Very cool worldbuilding, but I have to nitpick here (which I love to do)! Are all three stars equally distant from the center of the solar system with the planet locked in the very center of it? That ain't possible. This isn't stable. Not to mention the atmosphere of such a planet would be blown away by solar winds of tree stars quite fast. I don't think a planet can orbit inside orbits of two or three stars. All observed stable triple stars are hierarchical systems - a binary system orbited by a third star from far away, like the Alpha Centauri system. Planets then would either orbit both binary stars or one of binary stars (or normal orbits around a far away star), but won't be inside orbits of those stars (they won't be "orbited" by their stars). Of course, magic would fix those problems. End-negative doesn't mean high investiture cost, it means investiture in the system is lost in the process. I was thinking if that really would be classified as an end-negative system, but if color is the only source of investiture, which is lost (returns to SR) when performing this art, it probably would be. But converting a physical aspect of objects (color) into investiture would require so much color - objects aren't invented that much, and you're taking only their color, that's even less investiture. It's probably better to make colors naturally suck investiture in (dyes are made out of vegetation, which in your world already exists by sucking investiture in, make them just keep part of this investiture, and in the process of making colors it is kept in a dye), and Mindgrappling uses investiture trapped in colors instead of just colors. But that would make this invested art end-positive as now investiture comes from the external source - the environment itself (which would get its investiture by leakage from SR). And I really love your invested art. That's how you make it. Invested arts aren't always about intent of a Shard - Surgebinding was locked with Ideals by Ishar, not Honor, Honorblades aren't locked by oaths, Allomancy has nothing to do with Preservation's intent, nor Sand Mastery has anything to do with Autonomy's intent, not to mention Elantrians etc. Just because Honor + Devotion = Loyalty, doesn't mean it has to rely strictly on oaths or loyalty. Go crazy with a magic system, and make their Shard influence it only tangentially. Odium isn't red, he's gold or violet. Even the Voidlight isn't red. Fused and some Voidspren (not all) are red, but if you look at their origin, you'll understand why - they were made by Adonalsium, later mostly associated with Cultivation and Honor's investiture, then Odium came and infused them with his investiture, changing them. He basically corrupted them, thus they're red. But Odium isn't red.

That's why I stopped thinking Xisis is Foil, as it was said he arrived on Lumar (long after RoW), but in RoW Foil is said to study Aethers in oceans - how many Aether oceans are there in Cosmere? Lumar's Aethers are meant to be unique, not like other Aethers in Cosmere, I don't think there is another planet like Lumar. Xisis might not be Foil. I highly doubt it. Iriali's religion is about traveling the Long Trail. Having 2 separate groups traveling on 2 different Long Trails isn't likely. And it just complicates things unnecessarily. What's likely is that those people spotted on Scadrial aren't Iriali. We only have one sentence describing some golden haired fairy people, which isn't that much.

Yes, it takes place very late in the space era Cosmere, confirmed by Brandon. From our observation it is probably happening at least 300 years after RoW (Iriali currently are on Roshar, yet in TLM they might be on Scadrial, and 300 years before Tress happened they have left Lumar, they likely spend a few generations both on Scadrial and Lumar). Scadrial isn't the only one to reach the space era - as you could see Riina from Ire, Elantrian from Sel, had a spacecraft herself. At this point either Sel has spaceships, or Ire has them or they are so common that anyone rich enough can afford one (but it's most likely because of Ire). Rosharans also are a spacefaring planet in late Cosmere (confirmed by chapter of SotD sequel), as the surge of Gravitation allows them to easily travel between planets. The expansion into space likely happened simultaneously on different planets and thus Cosmere in general entered into the space era rather than just one planet. It would be a huge deal. The story is most likely being told somewhere on the First of the Sun, from the Sixth of the Dusk. There were several references to this place, there was a mention of a sailor with an appropriate name who sailed around the world without an Aviar, and of course spaceships that talk. Question for mods: @Chaos shouldn't this Tress subforum not exist anymore in the Spoiler Zone?

Firstly, this is Devotion's perpendicularity, which is pure Devotion's investiture because of that. Secondly the human body is an imperfect vessel for investiture (Stormlight, Mists etc), it would eventually leak out of his body and we have no reason to believe that despite his state, his body is different in that regard. Possibly, because it's a liquid not gas, it would take longer to leak, but liquids are still getting out of a human body as sweat, tears or urine, Hoid would still lose it all after presumably thousands of years which had passed since Elantris till Tress. As @Underwater_Worldhopper said, you need two things to become Elantris. One is a Connection to Arelon, the other is to undergo transformation. Riina can just hack his body to grant him both of those things with AonDor and provide Dor for this transformation, or because of the nature of Elantiran, she had to just "invite" him to become one. But it can be possibly fueled by other types of investiture, just like healing - Hoid can heal due to Dawnshard's torment, he is Yelenish Lightwaver, a Mistborn and a Rosharan Lightweavers - he has access to at least 4 types of investiture, which could be use to fuel his transformation if Riina didn't provide it herself (which she should do because of the bet). Can it? I don't think so. It's the opposite, you need a Connection to use Dor, that's why Dor needs to be unkeyed to be used by others, like in TLM. There is, tapping Connection to Elantris with F-duralumin can strengthen it and allow to use Dor all around Cosmere. That Connection is just very, very weak far away from Elantris. But it always exists. I believe that by the time of Tress, Dor was restored back to SR. While we saw a map of Lumar on Riina's spaceship, it wasn’t glowing with Dor like the one made by Shai in TLM. That's why I believe Dor is fixed now.

This doesn't disprove it. Yolen is hidden from CR, but stories or ancient star maps might be available to them and this could be a copy of that. There isn't much more to it. In space there are no minds, therefore no place exists in CR. SH spoilers:

A-gold has nothing to do with Shards being good with looking into the past. That would look very similar to what Elend did Well, SH: Visions yes, memories I don't think so. No, she was smart, and found a flaw. Instead of reacting to Zane, she reacted to her Atium-shadow Zane saw - so she reacted to her future. They both can fuel all 3 metallic arts directly if they wanted:

Era 2 takes place in between SA 5 and SA 6, but there is around 10 years of break between those two, and at least 6 years between AoL and TLM - so I just round it up to around 10 years after SA 5. I'm pretty sure she knows it - Harmony realized it very fast, RoW letter: But also it looks like one of Autonomy's Avatar, Patji, admire Odium's actions, Autonomy might have similar goals to Odium's and that's why they worked together in the past. OB 2nd letter: No. Avatars are different, Avatars are hers, Avatars are made out of Autonomy's power and are still part of Shard's power. That's part of it. Odium also argued they had broken the pact made by Shards in early days (to not settle together) as a justification for his action (it wasn't as binding as an oath). It's a good theory, but it's a bit different - Autonomy doesn't really invest herself in other planets (she can't that much, she is binded to Taldain), she gets aware of her investiture being in another system, and uses it to create Avatars. Shards' investiture is all around Cosmere, their mind just isn't vast enough to be aware of it. Welcome to the Greatshell Roshar society, a place for truth seekers who believes Roshar is a giant Greatshell! joke It's going to be answered soonish: Nothing on that. Oh wow, that's smart. I've never thought of it. Nice one. It works, I had to try. Now I wonder if the star chart is a constellation map visible from Yolen.

No really: My point was simple - it ends where the Vessel ends. If there is no Vessel, there is no Shard, only Splinters (after some time).

"Worrying that a Shard will run out of investiture to give is like worrying that Earth will run out of carbon because people are being born" - Shards are basically infinite, Splinters aren't. A Shard is a power controlled by a Vessel, while Splinters are autonomous, outside of Vessel's control. A Splinter is no longer a part of a Shard and is self-aware. That's the difference. Splintering of a Shard that actually kills it is about fracturing of the mind (Vessel), also said in SH: I think there is no core, there is a Vessel holding that Shard together - we know Shard's power left alone can be a very dangerous thing (Sel), a Vesselless Shard isn't a good thing and might end up Splintering itself or do something worse:

I think it's easier to get aluminum than make a room full of bugs. And more sane. You would need ants - I've never seen a bee or wasp colony large enough to cover the entire room - and I don't want to see if there is one! Ants will soon eat their way out too (even through concrete). If you know this much about Hoid it's far easier to go to Scadrial and buy a lot of aluminum, than doing this thing. Or just spread rumors you want to kill Hoid and Kelsier would invite you to Ghostbloods and give aluminum for free. Braise isn't habitable at all, and I don't remember if Roshar has normal Earth-sized bugs. Do you want just a bunch of bugs or Sleepless, because there is a huge difference between those two? He can move very gently, scoop bugs with his hand to place his feet and coins in specific places and then just A-steel out of there. If that's a Sleepless he can use emotional Allomancy which would work very well (to make them fear him, possibly with duralumin and the whole room would clear up within seconds). Lightweaving would work quite well too - blinding light or cover the entire room in darkness (bees drop to the ground when dark), or create a bright spot on one side of the room to attract bugs there. Soulcast meat or another tasty food. If Hoid can already make Soulcasted illusions, then he can make illusions of walls Soulcasted into physical things and set up a huge labyrinth with a tasty meat in the very center of it, attracting all of the bugs inside and sealing it off. He can Awaken clothes to gently push bugs out of his way. Or just soulcast walls of this room into smoke... The simplest way to get out is to make the room disappear. And having Breaths makes dogs and animals friendly to the Awakener, Hoid with his Breaths might be just fine as bugs would simply avoid him and give him a bit of space - and not fly into his mouth.

Tress:

When Brandon talks about people he often means sapient species in general, Kadnra, Singers, Sho Del etc should all count in this. Whether this extends to all living organisms, or all intelligent species is unknown, but because he can't eat meat, it's very likely he can't hurt any living being. But he can't also hurt himself: Oh, right, that might be problematic. What if a fly flies into his mouth? I need Brandon to answer this question! Nah, that's not a problem. You can move around by dragging your feet on the floor, pushing those cute balls of fluffiness aside. Not likely. They have a body now. Also not likely. Spren can be hurt and this isn't just their perception like with CS. We saw this happening in OB and RoW. Yes? It matters what he knows. Those questions are really hard to answer, you know that? Really? HOW?

Welcome to the Shard Good catch. However they have only 10 years to get modern automatic weapons and futuristic armor, I think this is very unlikely to happen. Plus they are from Roshar, not Taldain, the man of gold and red were Autonomy's army for a long time, unleashed on multiple planets before. They can't be from Roshar. Have you read Tress of the Emerald See? Spoilers: No. Red is the color of corrupted investiture, not Autonomy. Gold and red are colors associated with Odium on Roshar The problem with that is that Odium wants to be the only god in Cosmere. You can create a new thread for every theory or just one big post for all of them. Whatever you like more. You have all freedom you need in this case If you don't know if the person has read this book, it's better to put it in a spoiler box

There is still a lot we don't know about Heralds and Oathpact. It will be hard to figure out those questions right now. Even Brandon isn't sure on the mechanics of this yet: It didn't. Heralds fight for some time, some will die, but until they return to Braize Fused can go back to Roshar. Heralds don't need to kill all Fused, they just need to be on Roshar long enough for people to unite, learn and fight on their own well enough so Heralds aren't needed anymore. Once Heralds return, they lock Fused and Voidspren on Braize, but many are still on Roshar fighting - those would eventually get killed by humans and Radiants, and won't be able to return back on Roshar. However Heralds were on a running clock - they couldn't stay on Roshar forever as if they tried another Desolation would start - they had to go back to Braize after some time had passed. It's likely that was the case. Tbf I can't see it working any other way, as Fused return to Roshar gradually, new individuals were being wake up and sent to Roshar over years after Desolation had started (as it's currently), so Oathpact can't just lock Braize on its own as soon as Heralds were sent back to Roshar, and I don't think any arbitrary number of years that had to pass before it would work like that would make sense. I personally think a Herald has to die for that locking mechanism to be turned on. However the WoB above talks that if Heralds decided not to return, a new Desolation would start - this makes no sense if a Herald needs to died to lock Fused on Braize, it makes a lot of sense if there is a time period after which Oathpact automatically locks them on Braize without any need for a Herald to die, and thus not returning would start Desolation again. But it must not be immediate as Fused were able to Return multiple times during a single Desolation (Pursuer was able to always come back after death and kill his killer). Yes, they had to, see the WoB above. Per OB ch 38, they had to agree to let Fused back on Roshar. One of them had to allow them to return. They were tortured horribly (said even in prelude) by Voidspren or Fused OB ch 38: WoK prelude: It was said either in AU or in RoW by Raboniel that nothing lives on the surface of Braize, only Splinters like Voidspren and Fused are there - this very likely means that Heralds weren't physical on Braize, they didn't have their body, or they were in CR of Braize - likely something very similar to what Kaladin experience in RoW, he wasn't on Braize with his body, but with his mind, which will still think it should feel pain. Also we know that Fused on Braize are supposed to be sleeping there awaiting new Return, and some, like Heavenly-ones, respect Heralds a lot - I don't think Fused were the one who tortured them. No. Yes, or at least their Honorblades being bound to them, are with their soul, not physically there (if they didn't go there physically would they be able to use their blades there?). 10 against thousands of Fused and tens of thousands of Voidspren doesn't sound like a fair fight. It was said in books that Fused can just decide to leave the body they're in and Return to Braize to get a new body. You can't imprison them on Roshar. That would leave Roshar in a state of permanent war. Keep in mind, Singers were the bodies needed for Fused to Return. Heralds would have to imprison every Singer alive to keep track of them all - and there were possibly tens of millions of them. This is simply impossible. Plus Voidspren and forms of power are also a huge problem. Not to mention Unmades. We just don't know enough of it for now. It would be better explained in books 6-10, possible 8 or 9, in Ash and Taln book. We have to wait a lot for it.

It was explained in books somewhere, at least partially (RoW ch 15). What books have you read? It's because of perception. Shards Splinter their power (separate part of their power willingly from themselves), this power wants to be alive and is shaped by people's perception and manifest as living spren of emotions or nature. But why is it happening only on Roshar? What we know is that Roshar was created by Adonalsium himself and spren existed before the Shattering, he set up this system to work like that, and most importantly he Splintered himself and created sprens. Later spren became Splinters of Honor, Cultivation and Odium who all created new spren directly. A power left alone will develop sentience eventually, and because they are very susceptible to perception, spren took forms of what people were talking and thinking about a lot - forces of nature and emotions. A Shard has to give up part of their power to create spren, which doesn't happen to that extent at different places (Shards can do it, but it would make them weaker). Elantris spoilers:

I haven't read Elantris in a while but I think they can't just do it because now it's an Aon conducting investiture, they can't just erase this line. I said a grain of truth not whole bag of it

They're invested while having Stormlight or burning metals - first WoB in my previous point supports this and that's how Savants are made. But compared to a soul this isn't that much. Spikes are worse: That wasn't because of noticeable aura of effect around him, but because he touch the Fortune sphere of Riino (he's an Elantrian), which works only for people who are invested - at that point in time the most common invested individuals were from Nalthis, because of Breaths, but he quickly realized that Kaladin is a Radiant and a new Desolation has started. OB: Auras of people below 5th Heightening aren't that easily noticeable, you must know what to look for to see them. People on Roshar just don't know about it, don't look for it, and are generally in less color intense areas (everything is made out of boring stone). But you can hide regular Breaths just like Divine Breaths: Warbreaker ch 40: Treledees was most likely at least at 3rd Heightening and it only manifested as a very slight, barely noticeable color change. It is however very noticeable when Nightblood was used - OB: No. Who said she is ageless? There are different ways to achieve agelessness, some very common among worldhoppers.

Yes, that's a good idea. If Jaddeth really made the earthquake, he should do it below the sea - which would cause a massive tsunami, changing the shape of the entire shoreline, at least for some time. Or building a dam on a river wouldn't be that hard to do. There are many ways to accomplish that. But likely Jaddeth can't do so much at once, there might be a grain of truth to the whole waiting for Sel to be united and so on.

Not really. Yes, they're invested because they're Ferrings (that connection invests them a lot), but Scadrial is a low invested world, there isn't a lot of investiture in a metalmind (a full metalmind is only moderately invested, while Shardblade/Shardplates are highly invested). Kaladin, as a Radiant, is as invested as Mistborn and that's without additional Stormlight in his body - Kaladin was still Lashed by Fused in OB with almost no resistance. IIRC Kaladin Lashed Fused as well if not Lashing other Radiants can be done with no problems. Skimmer's metalmind would provide almost no investiture compared to what he already has - not enough to resist Lashing or Soulcasting noticeably more, and definitely not even near 1st Heightening (I doubt tapping everything at once from a full metalmind would be worth more than a single Breath - diminishing returns). Just think, high Heightenings produce a noticeable aura around that person (even for somebody with only a single Breath - Siri was able to see the aura of the leading priest) - if tapping metalminds would invested that much, Wax, Wayne or Sazed doing that would also create noticeable effects - they don't, Rysn does but she is a Dawnshard (which kind of suggest that even a Dawnshard is less invested than 50000 Breaths, as she isn't a walking prism like Susebron).

Why would he mention it to the people? He didn't tell them anything about Ruin and Preservation and instead created a new religion with him as a god - telling people about Ruin would only undermine his position. And he did tell them on the plate in one of the caves how to control Koloss. He knew Hemalurgy was from Ruin, because of the way he created Kandra and set up the whole plan with Resolution. He also created all hemalurgic constructs with deadly flaws - Inquisitors with a linchpin, Koloss with rage so they would kill themselves, and Kandra with only 2 spikes, making them harder to control for Ruin (and the First Contract).

We do know he likely existed before the Shattering (as Highstorms predates the Shattering), was later infused with Honor's investiture and changed over time and with Honor's death he became his Cognitive Shadow. He can't be Awakened because Awakening didn't exist when he was created, he is invested with different type of investiture and investiture resist investiture. Technically he is already Awakened, not by Awakening magic system and Breaths, but by broader Cosmere standards, he's invested and is type 1 invested entity - power that came alive on its own. Not by Breaths. I don't even know if a spren can recive Breaths. Breaths are very physical, and spren don't have a physical body. It could be just impossible for Stormfather to recive Breaths. Yes, they were a part of WoKPrime - but the magic system evolved. Awakening still makes sense in a broader Cosmere way - not everything invested is Awakened, but from a broader Cosmere point of view it means the same. Awakening invests an object, but you can invest something without using Awakening - Endowment does that by creating Returned, she invests them with Divine Breath turning them into CS. But Honor did the same with Heralds, he invested them turning them into CS, just like Odium did with Fused. All of them are the same type of BioChromatic entity, but created in a different way. Nightblood is basically a spren, a robot spren, created in their image, rather than just investiture coming alive on its own. Stormfather and every spren is so similar to Awakening because they work by the same broader Cosmere principles as Awakening. Nightblood had no major impact in SA? Excuse me? He killed Rayse. He had one of the biggest impacts on the SA series so far. Vasher was an introduction to Cosmere, to the idea of other words, and worldhopping. For us, who have already known this for years it's easy to overlook this right now, but it blew our minds when we realized that it's all connected. Vasher also trained Adolin, Renarin and Kaladin. There is certainly more to Vasher's presence on Roshar, but I can't see any connections between him, Nightblood and Stormfather.