alder24

Hemalurgy is like Lightweaving, which is an illusion-based magic that many different magic systems develop on their own via different means. Lightweaving is present on Roshar, Sel, Yolen and potentially Ashyn - they aren't exactly the same as the Rosharan one, but they are all similar. Hemalurgy is something like that too. You can steal pieces of soul and grant powers to others via spikes, but different places might manifest it a bit differently. On Scadrial metal is used as spikes and it looks like that on Roshar polestones have the same role as metals. With spikes replacing eyes on Scadrial, Marsh can see traces of metal everywhere, on Roshar, Moash can see investiture everywhere (while holding the Bands, Wax was also able to see investiture everywhere) - similar, related, but not the same, yet it's still Hemalurgy.

We don't know. The best way to serve Taravangian would have been to refuse to join the new Oathpact and because of that I think she partially still takes up her responsibility of a Herald seriously, but it doesn't mean she's all good now. However, much of her insanity came from Ishar and the power of Odium corrupting him. Once Kaladin cleansed him, the madness of every Herald was lessened greatly - it's not fully gone, it's not healed yet, but it's better now. She should not be as greedy as she was when making that deal with Taravangian, but if that deal was a binding Oath, this means she has to work for Taraangian now even if she doesn't want to, otherwise it would mean breaking her Oath, which would allow Taravangian to destroy her. WaT ch 140:

They all are a sort of Cognitive Shadows now, they will all age as long as they perceive themselves as aging. And that's a problem. I'm pretty sure Taravangian will be forced to delete their memories periodically, or even worse, make them relive the same day over and over again, to prevent them from realizing that something is wrong. Yumi spoilers:

If you get to hit him. He is fast enough to catch a dart midair, Nale avoided every Kaladin's strike effortlessly (and Kaladin is better than Szeth) and caught an arrow from a Shardbow - avoiding Nightblood wouldn't be a problem for Taln. And as a Herald, he draws investiture directly from Honor, which means he won't run out of it.

Yes, he did. Before he bonded Dalinar he couldn't understand why would Radiatnts and Heralds broke their Oaths. That's the Honor part of him - all Oaths are important and binding, you can't break them. As their bond progressed he started to see why they did that, he started to see from a different point of view. But this doesn't mean that previously he didn't understand the intent behind Radiant Oaths because he has to look at them with Cultivation in mind. Radiants have to nail a very specific intent for their words to be accepted and the Stormfather can't just accept any words they say. That's how the system works. It's the opposite.

Because he is and has been a part of the larger system of Knights Radiants since the very beginning of it. He's obligated to accept it if a Radiant says the correct words with the Intent. The Stormfather does understand intent and meaning, but as an Avatar of Honor and Tanavast's Cognitive Shadow, he normally doesn't care about it. He cares about those things when it comes to Radiants because he must do it as that's part of the system shared with Cultivation.

This is a Stormlight only forum, you should edit your post and hide non-Stormlight content inside a spoiler box. Cosmere spoilers:

Burning metals have nothing to do with storing in nicrosil. You don't need to burn anything to be able to store powers, you just have to have them and think "I want to store A-copper" and it will happen. Then you can tap it back. We still don't know how to use these words, we mostly speculate. I believe that by tapping it you could increase your strength of Allomancy. You store 50% of your Allomantic strength, you can tap it and gain that on top of what you already have to have 150% of strength - just like you can do with speed or weight. But that's just speculation. We don't know anything more about F-nicrosil except for those WoBs I've posted earlier. No. There are three types of investiture - static investiture, kinetic investiture and innate investiture. Static investiture is investiture that isn't doing anything - investiture in metalminds, Stormlight in gemstones, Dor in the jar. Kinetic investiture is investiture that is doing some work - that's investiture detectable by Seekers, that's investiture you get when you burn metals, like when you steelpushing or making a coppercloud, drawing Aons uses kinetic investiture to power it, Stormlight is used as kinetic investiture to power Surges etc. Innate investiture is investiture that's a part of your soul - a part of it responsible for giving you magical powers. Your Allomancy and Feruchemy is contained in the Preservation's fragment in your soul, which is innate investiture. Breaths are innate investiture. Invested Arts are usually innate investiture. Static investiture is investiture that can be used as a fuel but now is doing nothing, kinetic is investiture that is actively fueling your abilities (when you burn metals), innate is your abilities. We don't know what type of investiture can be stored in F-nicrosil. From WoBs and what we saw in Era 2, we know that Innate investiture is stored, but we don't know if you can store static or kinetic investiture. I think you can only store your innate investiture, only parts of your spirit web that can give you abilities. You can store your ability to burn copper, but you can't store anything that could be used to replace your copper reserves, like the Dor, nor you can't just store a coppercloud. No, identity is something different. A Spirit Web is a mix of raw investiture, Connections and identity that makes up a soul of a person. Preservation's fragment in every Scadrial gives them Metallic Arts, if it's strong enough. That's raw investiture and Connection to Preservation. We don't fully understand what Identity is, but it's mainly a pointer inside investiture that tells it to whom it belong. Identity doesn't give you powers, your powers are keyed to your Identity, just like all investiture used by you is. That's why a Feruchemist can't use another Feruchemist's metalmind, because it's not keyed to his identity. If you store your identity away, you still have your powers, all our spirit web etc, but you can now create a metalmind with no identity, thus other Feruchemists could use it. It's like using an account with no password protection. Identity does more than that, but as I said we don't fully understand it yet.

Kaladin fought back? Kaladin got absolutely wrecked when Nale started to use his Herald's powers. In that fight Nale was winning, he lost only because Lift got to his mind and made him realize that he had failed. Chana didn't expect Shallan to have a Shardblade, and Chana hesitated to kill her daughter. It's not a fair comparison because that wasn't even a fight. When they are aligned with their Oaths and the Oathpact, they are one of the most invested people on Roshar. It doesn't mean they can get stabbed by Nightblood and walk it off (not even the Vessel can do that), but that gives them other advantages. In terms or raw investiture Heralds are more invested than Fused, Returned or Ishar's Fused. Full Cosmere spoiler WoB: After slaughtering hundreds of Odium's soldiers including dozens of Fused and Regals. And he was at his worst, when he's at his best he would be unbeatable by the Five Scholars. The new Nightblood himself isn't really that different from Yelig-Nar, who also grants all Surges. He was defeated in OB, he was defeated in the past by Radiants and Heralds, they would do fine against all Surges granted by Nightblood. Heralds have Surges themselves and they have even more than that. They have unrivaled experience in fighting, unnatural physical enhancements that allows them to avoid Nightblood with ease, access to unlimited investiture drawn directly from Honor and there are 10 of them. Heralds are now all aware of what Nightblood is and how dangerous he is. If you want to discuss it more, I would advise you to continue it in the topic about Heralds vs Scholars. Yelig-Nar. Just no. Agreed. I'm super excited to see more of him.

You should be, they are quite confusing as we don't know a lot about them. There is a difference between how nicrosil works in Malwish medallions and how it works normally for a Feruchemist. In medallions it works like a Coppermind and is more restrictive. We don't know how it works normally unfortunately, I believe it works just like other metalminds - you store a percentage of your investiture, not all of it, and you can tap it later. What does nicrosil store? It stores investiture. However, it's important to know that Investiture can mean both the raw fuel that feeds the power (like the Mists, or the Dor - that's static and kinetic investiture) and the abilities (Invested Arts, which is innate investiture - investiture that's part of your soul). Brandon has confirmed that F-nicrosil stores invested abilities like Allomancy, Feruchemy, Surgebinding etc, but he didn't confirm if it can store raw investiture like Breaths or the Dor. I believe it can store only powers, innate investiture that grants you Invested Arts, not raw investiture that can fuel those powers.

Neither. Unfortunately, Taravangian used his agents in the Shin government to subjugate Shinovar while Ishar was distracted with his D&D campaign. WaT ch 145:

This Stormlight came from Kaladin, who just swore the 5th Ideal and was Connected to Nightblood. Yes, he said he knows them all. Definitely terrifying Well, he can't grant them but without Stormlight they won't be able to use them. He still needs an external source of investiture for all of that. However, I wonder, one of Bondsmith's powers is the ability to form a perpendicularity and draw in Stormlight directly from the Spiritual Realm - his wielder could use that, open a perpendicularity and with its power feed Nightblood, which is insane if you ask me. I know Szeth is cool and powerful, but fighting against hundreds of Radiants, thousands of soldiers and the Sibling themselves is probably a bit too much for Szeth. Not to mention he doesn't want to fight anymore. Let him live in peace with his family, he deserved it. Sorry, I still think they have no chance. Heralds don't just have powers from their Honorblades, they have powers from being a Herald. Taln has shown why you shouldn't mess with him - and that was without the clarity of his mind and without his Honorblade. Not even close. The Heralds are one of the most invested people in Cosmere. More than Fused, who have more than Ishar's Honorbearers. Nope. Taln is the best fighter in the entire Cosmere. Period.

There are some topics about Rysn in the WaT Cosmere spoiler section. If you read other Cosmere books, you should check it out. We don't, but it seems it would have been very destructive and both current holders of Dawnshards would die in the process. For several reasons. The main one is that she would be able to utilize her Dawnshard to its full potential. With access to Surges, she could supercharge her Surgebinding and release a massive amount of power - a power that could destroy even a planet. Ashyn was destroyed by using a Dawnshard together with Surgebinding. There are also other reasons, explained in the Sunlit Man. The Sunlit Man spoilers: Hoid has much, much more experience than anyone else in Cosmere at almost everything. He held a Dawnshard for a very long time, he knows how to control it, he knows how to hide it and knows how to not use it. He knows a lot about realmatics, Intent and investiture so his control over his Invested Arts is much greater than others. Moreover, Hoids Dawnshard has a side effect that prevents its holder from hurting others, which is a little safety factor (not that reliable if you ask me). Seems like Rosharan Sleepless took upon themselves the duty to protect the Change Dawnshard after its ancient guardians (Lanceryn/Larkins) went extinct. They didn't know about Hoid because they mistook Dawnshard's effects on him as after-effects of holding and giving up a Dawnshard, just like Hoid intended. We don't know if they are aware of location of all Dawnshards, nor if they are involved in their protection.

Stormlight and Voidlight are just a fuel to them and they have about the same potency. You can have a Radiant being fueled by Voidlight and they would use the same amount of investiture for the same effect as with Stormlight - in fact, Venli is able to use both lights to fuel her Surges and there is no difference between them. The differences came from their Bonds and their nature. Fused are Cognitive Shadows Connected to Odium. Heralds aren't just Cognitive Shadows, they are the bearers of the Oathpact first and foremost, they hold pieces of Honor within themselves and their Connection to Honor is much greater due to the Bond and the Oathpact that binds them to him. Honor gave them Splinters that became Honorblades - pieces of Honor manifested in the Physical Realm that grants direct access to his power - and later Heralds also started to gain access to even more powers from Roshar itself, not just from Honor, but Honor let them do it more fully (WaT ch 120). Fused aren't like that. They have Connection to Odium and this Connection allows them to use Surges, but they can only use one Surge, not two. Because they gain Surges from Odium through a different type of Connection, their abilities are slightly different than those of Radiants (but this is still the same Surgebinding). Radiants bond with spren, Splinters of Honor and Cultivation, who are living manifestations of Surges. Each spren embodies two Surges and that's why Radiants can access two of them. Spren also mimicked Honorblades and are able to manifest as Shardblades and because of the structuralization created by Ishar (Orders of Knights Radiants were created by him), they can access more powers and a Shardplate with the Ideal system. The nature of the Nahel Bond and Radiants Ideals gives them more than Fused have.

It's not really made out of Stormlight (not the physical one), the Sibling draws power directly from the Spiritual Realm, from both Honor and Cultivation and creates the Towerlight by combining those powers. They still have Connection to Honor, even if it's a part of Retribution, they can draw power from him. The same goes for Heralds, but Heralds are also holding Splinters of Honor in themselves. WaT ch 144: The Cognitive Realm around the Tower is not blocked, there are even people travelling there for the Towerlight to create food and water. Leaving through the Spiritual Realm is possible via Elsecalling, doing it like Dalinar and Navani did is probably not the best option (unless you want to be stuck there for decades).

But those are Radiant Oaths, they are structured to work like this, bound in this way by Ishar. The Stormfather is accepting them according to rules of Knights Radiants, which are a shared system of both Honor and Cultivation. Honor is the Oath aspect of this system, Cultivation is the progression, but they combine together and the Stormfather has to accept Oaths that express progression according to the paths set in stone for every Order. This is how it works for every single order. It doesn't matter that Windrunner are closer to Honor and their Ideals are accepted by the Stormfather, the Cultivation part of the system must be fulfilled and the Stormfather is bound to accept those Oath based on Intent and self-improvement. Pure Honor's aspect doesn't matter here because it has to be used together with Cultivation's aspect at every single instance. You can't just keep focusing on Honor alone when you're talking about Knights Radiant because they are a magic system encompassing two Shards, not just one. As for Eshonai, it's not just about saying the Words, it's about living them. She became the embodiment of the second Ideal of Willshapers during her death, she chose freedom, she said it in her mind and that was enough for the Stormfather to accept her Ideal. All in line with how Radiant Ideals work. Edit: But outside of the Radiant structure, when Dalinar and Navani asked the Stormfather to accept their marriage Oaths, he said that there are no foolish oaths, because he can now just think of pure Honor, without filtering it through Cultivation's aspect. The meaning of Oaths doesn't matter for Honor on its own, Knights Radiant combine the Oaths with the meaning because it’s a shared system. The Wind accepted Kaladin's 5th Ideal. WaT ch 140:

At first I thought it's related to Adonalsium, but after the ending I think he was searching for a way to survive being vaporized by Odium or other higher powers. He found it and used it.

Not really, compared to the amount of Stormlight needed to lash yourself. Full plate armor does weigh around 20 kg, but they don't have to wear this much. There are a lot of armor types weighing 5-10 kg, which is not that big an expense when you have to Lash 80 kg of flesh anyway. Wearing any armor would be a great improvement.

They were there. WaT ch 70:

It was said that the well was empty and was being refilled. We don't know the rate of filling, we know it's currently empty, which is what I said. WaT ch 146: I covered it later in my post how time dilation would help Scadial deliver supplies to Roshar. This won't win the war for them, but they can spend much more time manufacturing supplies that would be delivered daily to Roshar. Dealing with time dilation is hugely important and new strategies have to be developed for that. You can't ignore it and just state that Roshar would win, while time dilation is the single most difficult obstacle for Rosharans to overcome. There is no indication that the Song of Prayer still works as it worked before. Contrary, it seems that the prayer Retribution requires is the Song of Prayer. There is no Odium anymore, there is no Voidlight, things have changed. The Song of Prayer shouldn't work anymore. Venli, Leshwi and other Listener Fused can't produce their own Warlight by singing the Song of Prayer, their only source of light is the one given to them by Retribution following his instructions. If the Song of Prayer still worked, Venli wouldn't have had to do this, WaT ch 146: I said they had and through those contacts they've gathered knowledge, knowledge that would be now in Kelsier's hands. Ala is a Ghostblood. She can even communicate with other Seons present on Roshar. A troop concentration for an interplanetary invasion around one singular point of passage between the Cognitive and Physical Realm would be noticeable in both Shadesmar and the Physical Realm. It's hard to miss the entire continent mobilizing for war against another planet. Air superiority is not the same as air supremacy. Even with Rosharan air superiority I believe that Scadrial would be able to effectively fight against Rosharan flying units as I've discussed in my previous posts. The same goes for the Husk Ones. I honestly don't know why you keep thinking that they would be using only aluminum bullets. You know they can use both? They can have magazines with either aluminum or normal bullets, they can have magazines with both of them mixed, they can have dedicated positions for just aluminum bullets etc. You're nitpicking over something that was already shown to us in books - in Era 2 there were situations where Wax started flying and his opponents switched their bullets to aluminum ones. Generally armor needs to be tightly fitted to the body, Singers' irregular carapace prevents them from using it. They can't put an armor on carapace that has spikes everywhere: Do they Lash their clothes separately? Their spears? No. Perception and Intent matters here. The armor would have been automatically Lashed with them.

The difference was actually explained a bit later in the book by Nohadon, WaT ch 142: Both Tanavast and the power of Honor wanted to destroy Odium. Even when Dalinar Ascended he wanted to just destory Odium for good. There was no though about protecting the world, just destrouction. The Fourth Moon was a factor, but even without it when Dalinar and Taravangian clashed, their powers threaten to destroy Roshar.

It's very definite to me. WaT clearly proves that there was no Stormfaker. Gavilar showed his true self to the Stormfather and he was an arrogant, deceiving, power hungry and selfish man - that's the reason why the Stormfather said to dying Gavilar that he won't trust his family again. And the Stormfather didn't trust Dalinar, they kept fighting and arguing, the Stormfather was lying to him and hiding information from him. The way the Stormfather behaved in WaT matches perfectly how he behaved with Gavilar. They are the same people. The Stormfather gave a lot to Gavilar, they'd spent years together, he gave them vision, lots of information and most importantly he gave him the chance to become his champion. Gavilar failed him and was exposed himself as a crem. Just like he made Jasnah confront Shallan for joining Ghostbloods or made Shallan confront Kaladin for killing Helaran, or how Adolin was forced to face the consequences of killing Sadeas, or how he used Moash or El to their full potential in WaT - oh wait, he didn't. Brandon doesn't always fully explore all opportunities he sets up, it's nothing new that Gavilar and Dalinar were another wasted opportunity. It happens, there is only so much he can fit into the book, unfortunately some things had to be skipped.

Let the Stormfaker theory die, Ishar was an Unmade-faker, who chose Szeth as a new Herald around 2 decades before Gavilar was assassinated. It was the Stormfather and he confirmed it. He also confirmed that he lied to Dalinar and that he had his own plans and Dalinar Ascending to Honor was not a part of it. In Gavilar's prologue the Stormfather noticed that Dalinar has a potential so this explains why the Stormfather went back on his words. He couldn't find anyone else who would fit better and once he saw that Dalinar wanted to change and become more than he was by visiting the Nightwacher, he started giving him visions the night before he went to the Valley. WaT prologue: WaT ch 22: WaT ch 49:

It's not that he wouldn't be able to do this, but right now he doesn't know how to do it as not even Hoid who knows almost everything doesn't know how to convert Stormlight to Breaths. Vasher obviously can learn how to do it so it's possible.

Correction, rejecting eternity is rational. But Ishar was not rational, he was insane so he can say whatever he wants.