alder24

It's bound to Roshar. And they would be able to be reborn, but only on Roshar. It was very difficult for the old Odium to move his Everstorm from Braize to Roshar, moving it to Scadrial is impossible. The light situation is now all messed up because there are no Highstorms, no Bondsmiths, you have to pray once a day to get Warlight. Not ideal. Moreover, time dilation makes everything into a nightmare for Rosharans as supplying anything to Scadrial can take years from a Scadrian perspective. A month on Roshar is a few years on Scadrial now. And yeah, Scadrians have guns - swords and numbers don't matter much against machine guns and artillery. I don't think it would be very effective. Reverse Lashing works against small projectals, planes are gigantic compared to arrows. You would need way too much investiture to affect a plane. Yes. I doubt it because it's the belts on the outside that are doing the shooting and force stuff, bullets might break them (even if that's the only thing they could penetrate). Oh yeah, I wonder how silver bullets would affect healing. That's an interesting question to ask Brandon. Let me introduce you to a beautiful art - artillery!

A very old and powerful ancient spren made by Adonalsium. No, Szeth and Kaladin were the Knights of Wind and Truth. Kaladin was Wind's champion, Szeth was on a mission to serve the Truth that his people abandoned (the Shins Truth was knowledge that Voidbringers will return and Shins must be ready to fight them). Which core? The core (the center) of the planet Braize is made out of weird metal which had soul attracting properties. There is also the core of Honor's power, the main power of Honor, the very essence that makes Honor Honor, which started to develop sentience on its own. There is also Kor who is Koravellium Avast, a dragon and the Vessel of Cultivation, Tanavast's lover. WaT ch 16: WaT ch 100: Retribution doesn't have time because of time dilation. On Roshar 1 month is several years outside. Time dilation makes his situation very complicated. Hoid is happy precisaly because other Shards now know that Retribution is the main danger in Cosmere and all are terrified of him - they have to unite to fight against him. They can't remain passive like they did till this moment because Retribution would just kill them alone.

This makes a lot of sense, but Dawnshards make their bearers ageless and immortal - Sigzil is a prime example of this. Taln specifically said "no, thank you" to Honor's offer of immortality, claiming it's not a good thing. I doubt he would have said it like this if he already was immortal. WaT ch 65:

We don't know. It looks like they are just normal crystal spikes made out of polestones. Hemalurgy is like Lightweaving - different magic systems develop the same effect via different means. Moash's spikes contained Voidlight, but we don't know if they did contain stolen pieces of soul. We also don't know if they decay outside of the body. Lots of unknowns unfortunately.

Yes, most of them, Steris and TenSoon included. TLM ch 48:

I think that if they were to somehow learn that Nale rejoined the Oathpact, they would abandon retribution. Many might join Urithiru or some other neutral party, but I think most might search for the dissenters just like Szeth. The dissenters will become a bigger faction in the future either way.

Maybe. Dalinar was tormented by Odium who was showing him his past self - the Blackthorn, the Darkened Twin - and his past might be the wall of grief. He eventually overcame this and was able to Connect himself to the Stormfather, whom he found crying in a monastery cell where they kept insane patients - the Captive. But what is the light? Honor's life maybe? Some kind of truth about himself? No idea. It still seems too far-fetched and way too vague.

It's possible, but I think that an aluminum primer cube would still allow you to feel the reserve, but prevent you from accessing it (just like when Vin tried to burn Sazed metalminds). They would have felt the power inside the Bands, instead they felt nothing.

That's not possible because Kelsier is not a Feruchemist - his Spirit Web doesn't contain Feruchemy. Spren grants Surges to Radiants because they are living Surges, those Surges are coded inside their Spirit Web and the Nahel Bond allows them to share it with their knights. Theoretically Kelsier can bond like a spren (but it would require unlikely sets of events) but he won't be able to give Feruchemy, at most Allomancy (just like Syl can't give Division because it's not a part of her Spirit Web, Gravitation and Adhesion is). Spook already was a full Mistborn so this wouldn't make any difference. Moreover, we know that Rashek was the first and last Fullborn and Sazed is very scared of another one like that - he wouldn't have allowed Spook to become a Fullborn. Kelsier's Spirit Web is most definitely stampled with that spike to a Mistwraith who ate his bones, but that spike is not made out of Lerasium - which would be a case if Kelsier somehow was able to manifest a Shardspike. He's a Cognitive Shadow infused with Preservation's investiture and that would manifest as Lerasium, just like spren create an alloy of Tanavastium and Koravellium because they are made out of Honor and Cultivation's investiture. Actually, you can. We don't know, but you just need to make a medallion with 16 Feruchemical powers and normally store all Allomantic powers in a Nicrosilmind. The Bands are probably a bit different than medallions and it's possible that the nicrosil portion that stores all Feruchemical powers can run out, unlike in medallions where it acts like a Coppermind. It's possible that they are just a nicrosil medallion, granting only F-nicrosil and the rest of powers are stored in a Nicrosilmind like a normal Feruchemist would be able to store them (nicrosil in medallions works differently than the one used by Feruchemists).

Yes, but as I said planes don't have to fight with Fused/Skybreakers (Windrunners are stuck in Urithiru). With modern industry they can outproduce their losses and send hundreds or thousands of planes while there is only a very limited amount of Rosharan flying units that simply can't be everywhere at once. Sending planes where there are no Fused/Skybreakers will guarantee no losses. EDIT: Considering that at first planes were made mostly out of wood and cloth, it seems that they would indeed be susceptible to Lashings. However aluminum was still a main metal used in airplane construction and as soon as in 1915, Germany made a first full metal plane with its fuselage made out of aluminum - they would be fully immune not only to Lashings but also to Shardblades. The big one didn't work (because it was a decoy), smaller did but were not capable of delivering such a gigantic payload to Elendel. Smaller tactical bombs would fit on smaller rockets. The Basin now has all of Set's notes and scientists, they can improve them. TLM ch 55: The Everstorm is spreaded too far and that makes it weak, it's basically just a rain with some wind now. Not ideal conditions for flying but not terrible either. WaT ch 147: Oh, you need it very much. Agreed. Yes, healing can't be done around aluminum.

Yes, Blackthorn is a separate individual with many memories that Dalinar gave him.

There are two different ways of explaining what Cognitive Shadows are, both are valid - the first one is that they are a copy made out of investiture while their soul passed into the Beyond, the other is that their soul becomes invested enough to prevent them from passing into the Beyond. Which one is true, we don't know, different characters would have different opinions. It seems to me that on Komashi the second explanation is more in line with what was said in the book. When the Father Machine was turned on, everyone was consumed by it and their souls were spit out as a Cognitive Shadows (the Shroud) that was anchored by the Machine. Yumi and Yoki-Hijo were the same, the difference is they were invested so highly that they broke free of the Father Machine. Yumi already was a Cognitive Shadow when the Painter brought her back, but she didn't pass into the Beyond yet. She stopped herself before that was completed - she wasn't a copy (or a copy of a copy), it was the same Yumi who defeated the Machine. Blackthorn lives on, because Dalinar interacted with a simulated Blackthorn and made him self-aware. That version of him is not a Cognitive Shadow, it's a self-aware piece of investiture that took the form of Blackthorn. Dalinar on the other hand passed into the Beyond, where Shards can't reach him and he can't be made into a Cognitive Shadow anymore - it has to be done before passing, you have to invest the soul before it goes to the Beyond. Now Dalinar can't return. I don't think Yumi's situation is comparable to that of Dalinar and Blackthorn.

Taravangian said in earlier books that he visited the Nightwatcher after Gavilar's assassination and they wanted to use Szeth because of how he killed Gavilar.

He broke his Oaths. TSM ch 45: By asking if he said Oaths, they ask if he's a Radiant, if he's bound by Oaths. He broke them, so this no longer applies to him.

Nowhere in that moment was a machine gun mentioned. The golem was able to withstand the gun fire because it had half a jar of pure Dor to immediately heal every bits of roseite that were chopped off. TLM ch 51: Spheres of light won't provide the same amount of investiture as a jar full of liquid Dor. That's not true, Set did it all and now with Set being wiped out, their notes and scientific documents would fall into the Basin hands. Plus Wax also has a little knowledge which would help. In TLM epilogue 7 it was said that the Basin was considering building nukes: Things in the Basin are changing now. The cold war is starting, the arms race is beginning. Planes will be developed very soon. Just a reminder, the first plane was invented in 1903, not even 11 years later they were used in WW 1. But yes, they would be inferior to Fused/Radiants. The thing is, they don’t have to compete with them. They can still be used for scouting or bombing missions and they will certainly quickly outnumber flying units of Roshar. How many Heavenly Ones and Skybreakers are there? A few hundreds at best? They can’t be everywhere at once a a few thousands of plane created via modern industry can easily stretched Rosharan air units too thin. That's not true, it was a tiniest sliver of Trellium, not a whole spike. Less than a gram considering he used only half a gram of Harmonium. TLM ch 15&16: Thankfully, Set once again did all the work for them and Wax took their notes. They can build rockets. Some do. The Set, Kandra, Ghostbloods, even Wax and Marasi - there are enough people on Scadrial that have a deep understanding of Hemalurgy that can use it to be dangerous. Plus this knowledge can be easily shared with more people as the only thing needed for Hemalurgy to work is a piece of metal and a bit of insight. Future sight abilities can help with accurate placement of spikes - well, Kandra started to manufacture Atium and there are of course Oracles who can burn electrum. And how do you do it mid-fight? Dalinar did it. It's not that big of a deal. You can always set up a trap like Melishi did. You can't ignore time dilation as that's a key component of Roshar at this moment. It's a massive problem that Rosharans have to face in their fight against Scadrians that favors Scadrial on both attack and defense. I think it’s one of the most important things in this discussion. No, a normal sword. WaT ch 11: True, but on the other hand guns are faster than thoughts. One bullet is enough to kill them. It's a risky strategy. Thanks for the correction, no idea how I missed that 0 at the end of Sig's energy. As my excuse I say only that it was past midnight and I was a bit sleepy. Still, missing that 0 is embarrassing. As for the bullet weight, I assume it’s 0.03 kg after a very quick google search - again it was late. You're right then, most bullets probably won't harm them, maybe some lucky shots into eyes. However I would say they will penetrate them but not very deep. They could slowly drain them out of Voidlight, but to kill them explosives or a bigger caliber is a must. Aluminum bullets however might hurt them even more - they will dig only into their skin, but prevent healing and break their belts held by tension. Do we? All three of those things are invested and Awakened clothes or ropes do not resist being cut by a normal knife at all. You'll be surprised, artillery in WW 1 was quite accurate. A single gun can fire several rounds per minute, there are dozens or hundreds of guns firing at one area - it guarantees hitting the Fused with that amount of fire. A single artillery piece can zero in on a moving target, that's not impossible at all. That's irrelevant, my single point here was air superiority is not everything, you need ground forces to press that advantage. Not that different, planes turn and accelerate as well. The strength of AA guns is that they cover the entire sky in explosive bullets. In urban combat Mistings can also move in any direction, the difference is that Radiants/Fused can't use their superior speed because they would smash into a building. They also have to move slower to avoid g-forces due to constant twists and turns of streets (g-forces are canon in books, not in physics I know). Kaladin's fight with Leshwi at the beginning of RoW showed us that even Kaladin considered fighting low to the ground and near the people as too fast, too risky. That's precisely why they have to go down and engage Mistings. They can stay high in the air, but by doing this Allomancers would be killing their ground troops. They need to fight them and to do that they need to go lower, where they lose many advantages of their Lashings. How many Thunderclasts are there? Only two? And they need weeks to regenerate? Not impressive. Artillery says they're obsolete. They are a threat indeed, but they have a limited amount of jumps and are moving as a visible light. Just aim and shoot when they are appearing. Kandra can do the same. Seekers can be used as guards. War pairs with swords against machine guns and artillery fires? Well? Not possible. Only Fused are posing a real threat here, not even Regals can compete with guns. Good thing he's dead and others of his kind are not nearly as impressive as he was. In WaT it was also said that they are rare, a few, maybe tens at best. They can't be everywhere. One Fused is not a whole command chain, you can't expect a single person to micro-manage everything. Humans would do better but still not that good as their mindset is set in medieval tactics. They would also struggle to adapt. Our history is full of examples of tactics not adapting to technology. No, it didn't. WaT ch 34: They would be just mowed down by machine guns. While they don't have experience, they do have an army and strategists and they have shown adaptability by developing means to defend the Basin against the Malwish. They've been arming themselves for 6 years now. They have a much better idea on how to use guns in war than Rosharans do. I don't consider Malwish as a part of the war, just as I don't consider Urithiru as well. They aren't idiotic, but those are the same mistakes generals at the beginning of WW 1 did. They didn't realize how machine guns and artillery changed everything and were sending waves of people straight into a dense gun fire. The same will happen here.

Yes, it was one of them agreeing to let Voidbringers return to Roshar that made everyone return as well. OB ch 38:

Considering that Sig speared that Focused one right though his head and towed him to the ground, a bullet with only 3x less energy than Sigzil's entire body had (I did the math, assuming he weighs 80 kg) would still penetrate their skin. Maybe it won't pass right through their body, but it will dig deep into their flesh and damage vital organs, like the brain, heart or a gemstone for example. Guns are still a threat to them. Seems like it's a matter of density. A normal Shardblade strike did cut a little bit into their skin but was stopped. I don't think it's because of investiture resistance, I think it's because their body is super-dense. My first reaction to them was "Brandon made Fused into cheese." Agreed. I would say Fused commanders might be a disadvantage because of their long spanning experience. They are like spren, hyper-focused on their own thing, their own intent and that leaves them unwilling to change and adapt (just ask Lezian). Confronted with modern military tactics they would struggle to reorganize and improve their methods - just look at how Singers were fighting during the Final Desolation, in war pairs not in proper large scale formations. They've already shown that they can't adapt to modern standards of war, which leaves them extremely vulnerable to Scadrians who can implement modern weaponry together with modern tactics. It would be like early days of WW 1, Fused would be sending tens of thousands to die under concentrated artillery and machine gun fire in general assaults that have no chance of success.

The Basin has some Trellium confiscated from the Set, they can create a few warheads with that. If you spike out Fused Connection to Odium, I think they won't be unkillable anymore. But even beside that, they will respawn on Roshar, where time dilation will prevent them from joining the fight immediately. They would have to waste days, weeks, or even months to get back to the front lines. Fused are of course a force to be recon with, but time dilation screws them massively if the fight is happening on Scadrial. And we now know that cracking their gemhearts will take away most of their powers and Scadrians have a lot of explosive devices that can do just that. Rain of bullets will kill them too. Guns basically nullify their 7,000 years of fighting experience because they fight mostly hand to hand. They aren't that unkillable. Good thing that you've mentioned it because the book provided us with all necessary information to determine if Scadrians can kill them. WaT ch 63: Rosharan g is 6.86 m/s^2, times 4 it's 27.44, 300 feet is 91.44 meters, times 1.1 to convert from Rosharan feet gives 101 meters. From this we can calculate using free fall equations that when Sig speared the Focused One, he was moving at the speed of 74.45 m/s, which is like 10% of WW1 weapons' muzzle velocity . Even revolvers from the mid XiX century reach at least 3 times that speed. I think Scadrians will be more than well equipped to kill the Focused Ones with their guns. There were a few wars lost despite having air superiority, most notably the Chinese Civil War, Vietnam War, or wars in Afghanistan for example. You need more than that to win. Scadrians have AA guns which would certainly give Radiants and Fused more than a headache, but more importantly Rosharans would be forced to engage on Scadrian terms. By this I mean they won't be able to fully utilize their maneuverability, altitude and speed because Lurchers and Coinshots would dominate the lower altitudes and from there they would harass ground forces causing heavy casualties. Rosharan air forces would have to come down and fight for lower altitudes with Allomancers, where they would be vulnerable to all kinds of guns and Metalborns would be able to utilize buildings and cramped twisty streets to force their enemies to move much slower than they could move in the open air. Scadrians can use terrain and tactics to their advantage and with this nullify most advantages the Surge of Gravitation have, equalizing the fight between them.

Towerlight is still available even in the Shadesmare side of Urithiru. WaT ch 147: If he can use Stormlight, he can use any light - it's the same method. As a Returned, he can feed on any available investiture.

Oh no, what have you done? That's the most insane theory I've ever read on this forum! I can't believe this But investiture and Honor knows this:

I think this is just because they are highly invested and investiture enhances them. Returned has a similar set of skills, they are faster and stronger than normal people and they got those abilities even without living for such a long time.

I would guess it's simply not worth the effort. They are really good at hiding and even Taravangian, with all his godly powers, might struggle spotting them, while his Fused would be totally unable to do that. Moreover, they are mostly neutral, they aren't allied with Urithiru, they aren't participating in the war, they aren't hurting Odium's war effort so why even bother with killing them? He doesn't know they are protecting a Dawnshard, he is oblivious to their importance on Roshar. From his perspective they are just those weird bug creatures that want to blend in human society and do nothing else. Why make an enemy of something that's really hard to kill? If Taravangian was fine with losing Reshi Isles, then he's fine with allowing Sleepless doing their things as from his perspective they don't have anything - no country, no resources, no army. There are just 20 of them anyway.

Truthfully, I don't fully understand the role of Braize in the new Oathpact, however returning to Roshar won't open the lock, simply because previously they agreed to open it after torture, now they are immune to torture and they won't agree, but they can still return to Roshar which is separate from agreeing to open the lock. Fused were torturing Heralds and made them agree to open the lock, which caused another Return, but this time they won't do it. That's how I understand it. We definitely need Brandon to explain this to us.

Oh no, I don't know if I'm ready for this. Without Frustration it's not the same I think everything changed because Radiants are essentially out of the equation now. No Bondsmiths, most Radiants are stuck in Urithiru, unable to get out, or use any light other than the Towerlight, which can't be transported out of the Tower. The only Radiants that can participate are Listener's Willshapers (which are a neutral faction), Retribution's Dustbringer, Skybreakers and potentially a few Enlightened Radiants working for Retribution (which I don't know any if any were said to be on his side. Sja-Anat switched sides and works for Ghostbloods now). Those will have access to Warlight directly from Retribution. However, I think Skybreaker's allegiance is uncertain. They've joined Odum only because of Nale and now he is thinking more clearly and he's rejoined the Oathpact, standing strongly in opposition to Retribution. I wouldn't be surprised that if this news ever reaches Skybreakers, they will abandon Retribution en masse, probably choosing neutrality or joining dissenters. But that's speculative so let's assume they remain loyal to Retribution. This means Taravangian can right now muster around 2000 Fused (out of 4000 in total, the rest is too insane to participate in war as stated somewhere in the book), a few hundred Radiants (mainly from two Orders), and thousands of Regals. That's not impressive when you remember that Sigzil and Adolin with their limited forces were able to hold against the overwhelming forces of Odium for so long. However, his aces are Unmades who now can leave Roshar and they can cause significant havoc - but Mishram is probably against Taravangian now, Sja-Anat might work for Scadrial, Thrill is making new friends at the bottom of the ocean - that's 3/9 out of the game, including his most powerful Unmades. Considering that there are at least 20,000 Metalborn in the Basin alone and they all have modern weaponry at their disposition - guns, machine guns, tnt, artillery, trains and dreadnoughts - regular foot soldiers from Roshar stand no chance against Scadrial, Rosharan Invested troops look extremely weak compared to what we had after the release of TLM. And that's not mentioning logistics as Rosharans quite literally lost all access to the Cognitive Realm and are unable to even leave their planet, unless Odium and Listeners grant them access to the only perpendicularity left on the planet (which was empty, it's not working yet, it's only just begun to fill and it will take years before it gets full). Fortunately for Taravangian, Dai-Gonarthis can create Elsegates in places of massive concentration of investiture (which don't exist anymore on Roshar until Retribution's perpendicularity becomes full), but the cost is apparently so high that even Rayse was not willing to pay it (destruction of Roshar???) So they can create a perpendicularity in a close proximity of an already existing perpendicularity on Scadrial (which doesn't really make any difference, it's almost the same place anyway). And then there is the time dilation. This means no supply trains can be reasonably established from Roshar, even providing a steady supply of Warlight from Roshar is impossible because of massive time differences between those two words. The logistics of this war are a real nightmare now. This all makes me think that Scadrians might have a much better chance at launching an invasion on Roshar than Rosharan would have at invading Scadrial. Still it doesn't mean Scadrians would have won invading Roshar, but I think in defence Scadrial would probably win after a brutal conflict against Retribution's forces as they are right now (that's scenario 1 I think). In scenario 2 I think it would be even worse for Roshar. 80 years of technological progress on Scadrial compared to 10 on Roshar. Even if Taravangian gives them tech comparable to Era 2, Scadrial will have 80s tech (which is M1 Abrams tank and F16 jets and many other things that are still used by US today!!). They would be blasted into oblivion by Scadrial without even using their Metalborn. I even believe Scadrial would be able to successfully conquer Roshar. If Urithiru, Azir, Narak and Taravangian were to unite, then I think they would win even without Bondsmiths. But that's unrealistic for now.

Infinite Stormlight? Ishar Bondsmith boosting all Surges of every other Herald and they just annihilate all lions in massive waves. Lions won't even be able to see Heralds at all. There are only so many lions that can engage 10 people standing in a circle, numbers don't matter with infinite Stormlight.