alder24

Jasnah later said she was "running away", possibly from Highspren (she was talking with them), so that's likely was the "disturbance" Wit mentioned, and that's why he said what he said. But he located her using Fortune, just like with everything. Also keep in mind that not every spren is interacting regularly with humans. Cryptics, while they travel through Shadesmar, stay closely to other Cryptics (they have a reputation), Honorspren don't allow any humans on their ship and limit the amount of people that can enter their cities (since RoW, but likely they aren't that welcoming). I don't even remember if we've ever seen a Highspren in CS, except for a page from Shallan's Sketchbook I don't remember them being present in CR (I've checked OB and RoW, only 2 of them were mentioned as possibly merchants in RoW not much). They might be isolated and that's why Wit said "It’s been a long time since the spren had to deal with someone alive".

Taravangian knew, Gavilar told him directly, I think it was mentioned in one of his chapters. Other than him, and the Sons of Honor, I don't think anyone else knew about Gavilar's visions, certainly not his family. Of course Stormfather knows, but he never shared to Dalinar that he gave visions to Gavilar.

Again, that can't be the case. He knew that living Feruchemist can pass his Feruchemy onto his children - that's why he turned them all into Mistwraiths. He knew from the power of the Well that Allomancy is genetic too. And he was both a living Feruchemist and a Mistborn, both of which he could pass onto his kids, possibly creating another Fullborn among his childrens. It's not about hidden genes about all Terris population, it's about him being both Feruchemist and Mistborn, which can directly make another Fullborn. That's why it doesn't make sense. It doesn't matter if he tought Feruchamy was eradicated, because it was him who was the father, it was him that passed his Feruchemy and Allomancy onto his children. Well, that's maybe a little too much? He was able to make Kandra with spikes using the power of Well, so he for sure was able to create both Inquisitors and Koloss with spikes as well (16 Inquisitors I think). Inquisitors would likely live for around 100 years, and their spikes with Allomancy would possibly be reused, because that Allomancy was so strong at that time, and even after some decay, powers would still be strong (making new spikes would be troublesome, because all Allomancers were nobles at that time). F-gold spikes would likely be reused too, untill Rashek realised Feruchemy prevailed. He was a terrible person, but using his kids as a spike factory for his inquisitors isn't something I would accuss him of doing. But who knows.

That can't be the case. We know Rashek gained detailed understanding of Allomancy and Feruchemy while holding the power of the Well, we know he spoke directly to his friends mind and offered them immortality in exchange for their Feruchemy, a decision which they made for every Feruchemist alive - he knew they will be a threat to him, he turned every Feruchemist alive to prevent them from mixing with Allomancy. That's why it doesn't make sense why he as both Feruchemist and Mistborn would want to have kids without taking any steps to suppress his genetics. HoA ch 68: That's also unlikely. He gained the understanding of both Feruchemy and Allomancy by holding the power of the Well. He knew that combining those powers will allow one to compound, that's why he turned all Feruchemist into mistwraiths, because he planned to use compounding to stay alive - he knew what Atium would do for him. HoA ch 9: Yes, that can't work, because Malwish would have strong Allomantic and Feruchemical genes, resulting in having almost as many Metalborn as in the North. That isn't the case, Metalborn there are very rare. They only have the seed of metallic arts in them.

Storms! My cover is blown! Who spilled the beans? I'm gonna make their life a True Desolation!

There are more of them. If you want to read my theory about it here it is: https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/113735-loophole-in-the-contract/?do=findComment&comment=1419241 Future visions can be wrong, yes, but for now we have no Death Rattle that was proven to be wrong - even more, at least one was fulfilled at the end of RoW (Kal swearing the 4th Ideal). He doesn't but if his actions led to destruction of Kharbranth, while he wasn't aiming for that, it should still count as a broken oath.

Since when does a spear reproduce sexually and therefore needs a gender? Yes. Humans personify things a lot. Nature is a woman, oceans and seas too, boats are women, thunder in history was associated with male gods (like polytheistic religions have gods for so many different aspects of nature - there's your personification). On Roshar, they don't have invisible gods, they have visible spren, appearing in the proper environment or due to some emotions. I see no reason why people would personify all those very visible spren and associate genders to them. And again, Syl calls spren not just spren, but also souls of things "everything has a spren".

Tough combo to start with. F-electrum always causes problems. At best it can help you go through a literal hell just to leech one guy. Not that cool.

"You could argue that the aethers, the actual core aethers, are as ancient and potentially powerful. I wouldn't put them by raw power at Shard level, but they would claim that they are." Parasites provide no benefit to the host. That's why they are parasitic, not mutually symbiotic. In the case of Primar Aethers and Aetherbound, they are mutually symbiotic, not parasitic. Both of them have benefits and while some harm is done, Aetherbound can control how much harm is allowed. Prime Aethers gain water, Aetherbound can grow Aethers - that's not parasitic. Yes, mutualism then.

A spear has gender, why not lesser spren? It's just not recognizable at all. Syl was talking about "spren" as cognitive manifestation, like spear's one, not literal spren - some spren might have 4 genders, but things can too. True spren existed before all of that. Long enough for Dawnsingers to befriend them. Song of Secrets: "the betrayal of spren has brought us here; they gave their surges for human hairs; but not to those who know them most well - before us" (written from memory). True Spren exist long enough for Dawnsingers to consider their actions as betrayal (and for Leshwi to consider her action as betrayal). I don't understand.

"resist a Shardblade by slowing it down" in the same way that a human soul pushes a noticeable big against a Shardblade - in the case of Aethers it might be something similar or a bit stronger, depending on how much investiture flows through Aethers. That's not the same. Aethers require investiture to exist - without it, without water and connection, they fall apart and decompose. Aethers aren't permanent. Scadrial is. Aethers are still part of Prime Aethers, Prime Aethers can sense through Aethers (which technically is something that Ruin and Preservation can do, but different - because Scadrial was made by their investiture they can do more with matter there than other Shards on their planets: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/80/#e5293). We need more WoBs on Aethers to confirm which theory is the most likely or more Aethers in books. Until then it's just speculations. Yyyy, thank you? I'm here!

Hey, welcome to the Shard. Rhythms aren't really a physical sound - they are Spiritual connections to the Spiritual Realm, something they hear with their soul rather than ears:

Heat is a property of matter. I don't think Aethers are literally a physical investiture in the same way as god metals are. I think they are normal matter. An Aetherbound gives water to his Prime Aether, he in return gives him investiture which turns into physical regular matter, forming Aethers under Aetherbound command. Then as long as the Aether is connected to the Aetherbound, investiture flows through it feeding, preventing it from dying. But that's not a lot of investiture. An Aetherbound can outsource Aether's investiture by using Shardic investiture, like unkeyed Dor. So in my opinion Aethers are invested (because investiture is flowing through them from Aetherbound to feed the Aether), but not a lot, maybe something comparable to not fully filled metalmind - it might stop a cut from a Shardblade, but once at most, or it might not be invested enough and just resist a Shardblade by slowing it down. This can also explain why Aethers react to metals as it's the investiture flowing in Aethers that react to it, focusing in specific direction, encouraging growth in that direction. And I don't think the WoB directly contradicts it - god metals are Shardic investiture turned into non-existing (in our world), invested, physical matter - Aethers are Prime Aethers' investiture turned into existing, non-invested, physical matter. In both instances investiture creates matter - just different one.

Context matters, he was talking about Aethers, that's why they wouldn't be on the same power level as a Shard. All of the core Prime Aethers combined. Parasites give nothing in return. Parasites harm their host. Aethers aren't parasites. They are the definition of symbiotic relationship.

It doesn't matter, he was a Feruchemist and a Mistborn. He knew he had to turn all living Feruchemists into Mistwraiths, because he knew they pass this ability onto their children - the same would be in his case but worse. He could just pass those genes to his children and make a Fullborn almost equally as strong as he was, a Fullborn that could rival him. And he had known since the Ascension that he as a living Feruchemist would pass Feruchemy and Allomancy onto his kids. And by the WoB he didn't suppress his powers so they wouldn't be given to his children. This doesn't make any sense. The only way I can see it making sense is to tie his children into the idea of ending the Final Empire - if he gave up, he might make kids hoping to partition his empire and give parts of it to his kids, who he might or might not want them to be Fullborn. Not just end the Final Empire, but divide it. But he withdrew from this plan or it didn't work. Actually Ferings did appear before the Catacendre, but they were very very rare. I wouldn't be surprised if his children became Twinborn or Ferrings because of Allomantic genes breaking down Feruchemy genes (but Rashek wouldn't know how hard it was for a Fullborn to be born naturally, otherwise he wouldn't turn all Feruchemists into Mistwraiths).

Yes, "Because humans didn’t imagine those ones, silly". But True Spren were imagined by a human, they were created by Honor and Cultivation. Lesser spren might just spontaneously manifest when Dawnsingers thought about some aspect of nature, emotions or things.

It's interesting. Very. But (of course there is a but) I don't think Aethers are like that. All WoBs on this matter say "Aethers claim to predate Adonalsium" or "rival Adonalsium'' etc, it's always about what Aethers claim to be, not what they really are - but that doesn't mean they are right in their claims. But that's the minor nitpick. I certainly don't think Aethers stood against Adonalsium nor that they are behind creation of Fain Life and Dragons, because those are nothing like Aethers themself. Aethers don't have power like that. Aethers also aren't parasitic, they're symbiotic Tress spoilers: There is also this WoB where Brandon said that he wouldn't put Prime Aethers combined as equal to a Shard in terms of power, so there is no way for them to rival Adonalsium himself. Another thing is that there are WoBs about a "force opposing Adonalsium" which turned out to be just the people that Shattered him - no Aethers were counted as such force. So while Aethers claim to be outside of Adonalsium's power and creation, they were not opposing him. And there is more of a philosophical question. What is alien in Cosmere? If Adonalsium created the whole universe, where did Aethers come from if there was nothing before? People in Cosmere believe it to be the case, but Brandon don't want to answer the question if Adonalsium created the whole universe or just Cosmere dwarf galaxy (or star cluster), because that would answer the question if Adonalsium is the God in Cosmere, which is not something Brandon wants to answer. So if the only thing we have is people's beliefs, then it's likely Adonalsium created everything and Aethers had no place to came from to be "alien" in Cosmere.

I don't think ANY True Spren has genders like Singers, because they are direct Splinters of Honor and Cultivation, and those two were a human and a dragon. All True Spren would therefore have only 2 genders, male and female. True Spren's self perception would limit the influence of perception of others on them.

I don't think that's the case. While most WoBs on this matter are dodgy, there are still some that directly contradict this idea, and even specify that some of his children were Mistborn who died 900 years ago, and also that his children had something to do with his idea to give up the Final Empire. This means that Rahsek had children as the Lord Ruler (which yes, for a person who was obsessed with keeping Allomancy separate from Feruchemy it doesn't make any sense). But his descendants aren't important, nor Cosmere-relevant, there is no secret group or something like that.

I don't think so.

There are likely multiple factors that contributed to the lessening of the spread of plague, like increased immunity, improvement in sanitation and nutrition, rats developing immunity or reduced number of rats or even dominant rat species changing etc. Not just one single factor. Quarantine was used by Venetians since the early days of the Black Death, they enforced 40 days of quarantine (since the name, it means forty days) for incoming ships, which was precisely what was needed as bubonic plague has a 37 days period from infection to death. But quarantine similar to this was practiced even earlier, in muslim world since the 11th century or for people with leprosy far longer (the Bible even teaches to isolate people suffering like that). Of course, it's not like quarantine was used everywhere to prevent spread of black death, or was always effective - it wasn't like that. You would need to educate people to enforce already existing methods of quarantine and social isolation in the event of disease outbreak. There is a lot to do but you have solid foundations (depending on the time period). That was bubonic plague, confirmed DNA samples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_of_Justinian#Genetics_of_the_Justinian_plague_strain Early gunpowder weapons weren't that accurate. They still rely mostly on melee combat and pike formations. But it doesn't matter, they still won't stand any chance. Mesoamerican empires wouldn't be even founded, and even in our times when conquistadores came, they had stone tools and weapons, no metal at all (which makes their architecture so much more impressive). Only Incas had copper and bronze tools but that was in the 15th century. They stand no chance against a simple chainmail. But after introducing proper hygiene culture, smallpox vaccines and other methods of preventing the spread of illnesses, you will limit the spread of disease to native population, which was the main killer of the colonization era (by a loooot). And because first contacts were "mostly" peaceful, you can trade this knowledge to natives as fast as possible, so they can also develop necessary hygiene culture. And going even further, after your medical revolution is proven to be extremely effective and saving lives, people will start to listen to you. You can slowly start social engineering and introduce some basic human rights - which might bear fruits in the period of colonization, as natives would be treated as conquered humans, not some primitive barbarians or heathens. They will be conquered, but at least treated as peasants and citizens.

That's a great point. I fully agree. But I think you underestimate what people of medieval time already knew or already did in terms of hygiene (which was addressed in the book). Before the germ theory, the common knowledge was that illnesses are caused by "bad air", the miasma theory, developed in ancient Greece. Quarantine has also been practiced since ancient times and was very effectively used since the beginning of the 1300s plague pandemics (that's the origin of the name quarantine). They weren't that far behind, they just needed more basics to make the difference. Clean water is one of those basics. Proper waste management. Isolating ill people for healthy ones, or even covering face and mouth with simple masks. Soap and water were already used back then, mostly water alone. While better soap was more of a luxury item, there is a way to make a cheap soap from wood ashes, that can be easily made in every household - teach them to always have this soap and use them all the time. Moreover, just telling people to clean hands with soap before delivering a baby will make a huge difference for child and mother survival, just like in our times. About scurvy I was under the impression that they knew they needed fruits but the problem was fruits spoil very fast. In a multi week journey they just couldn't have citrus every day, fruits and vegetables would just rot and spoil, and that was the problem. You can even develop a vaccine against smallpox - the first vaccine was just infecting people with far less deadly cowpox which made them immune to smallpox. And smallpox was an extremely deadly and common illness, eradicating it as early as medieval times would save countless lives. Also the first plaque was the Justinian Plague in 540 AD, and there were many more localized outbreaks of plague before the Black Death of 1347. Some of us might be able to create electricity, it's just a spinning magnet in a coil, but what's next? How many of us know how to make a simple lightbulb? Not to mention something more. We can make electricity but we won’t be able to make use of it. At best an electric motor could be made - it's a lot already. Some might help with constructing better buildings, use of concrete (used in ancient Rome) with reinforcement and stuff like that. Just our knowledge that something was made like gunpowder, might help inventors introduce some technology earlier. But you're right, all of us can help and improve the hygiene of their time, saving lifes on an unimaginable scale. Edit: Or you can push vikings to colonize America in the 6th century or so. They did it around the year 1000. Tell them that there is Iceland, Greenland and from there America. With the simple knowledge of how Earth's continents look, you can start the era of exploration thousand years earlier. Many of us know some large distances, like British isles length or how wide is America, or our country dimensions, many of us know radius of Earth - with this we can easily create more or less accurate map of Earth and drive exploration and colonization forward.

Strong evidence, no. But in my opinion they suggest that Vessels knew Adonalsium will be split into Shards and were somewhat prepared to pick up one of them specifically, more or less. They had enough time to choose a person most fitted for every Shard, to control its power - and that in my opinion means they were prepared for that. And the second to last WoB almost confirms that Vessels were expecting Shards. Oh, yes, they for sure didn't know how Shards work. Not fully. Well, and what happened to Ambition? She was Splintered, and Endowment approved this. Ati was once a good person, maybe they thought a good person would be the best to control Ruin. Rayse on the other hand wanted to be Odium. I think they knew if they would be successful, Adonalsium will be split into 16 Shards, they knew into what Shards, they knew someone fitted is needed to control that power, and maybe they knew Shard's intent would fight against its Vessel. Mistborn spoilers:

I don't think Heralds need Breath to make a child, but this might work in a similar way as with Returned, Warbreaker spoilers: Heralds likely can do the same, they split part of their soul, part of their innate investiture and pass it into their child. This would make Shallan more invested than normal Rosharan, with more innate investiture than normally, manifesting similar to Heightening-like effects (which we know aren't exclusive to Breaths but that’s the nature of investiture). But searching for more WoBs I stumbled upon this one. Different CS have different ways to procreate, Breaths are for sure not needed for Heralds (and likely it's not like I described it): It's possible. Shallan's mother or Shallan having Breaths or originating from Nalthis is another theory, which seems quite possible. However I don't think "the world ended, and Shallan was to blade" sounds like something somebody would say if they just left their home world. I don't remember that at all. Do you remember where in books those drawings were? Ghostbloods were involved in Shallan's past, but also keep in mind that Ghostbloods are a worldhoping organization, many of their members aren't native to Roshar. Shallan was getting deeper in their ranks, and Mraize wanted to intrigue her enough so Shallan would finally join them fully. And the best way to do that was to tell her about Cosmere and other planets. Very minor Warbreaker spoiilers:

Welcome to the Shard if you're interested you can read/listen to SA 5 prologue here on on Brandon's YT channel: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/495-prologue-to-stormlight-book-five/ Those are very good observations that you've made. There is this very popular theory a about Shallan's mother, which I highly recommend you reading it, you've already noticed some important details: Possible, but unlikely. The novella in between RoW and SA 5 is meant to be from Rock's PoV and set on Horneater Peaks. I don't think we will get the same again in SA 5. We also know Kaladin is going to Shinovar with Szeth. Yup, I feel the same way.