alder24

Shardplates, like Shardblades, are a mixture of Honor and Cultivation's investiture, in the form of a god metal alloy. They are not purely of Honor, but still partially, so there shouldn't be any problem with that, as Honor and Cultivation work together forming spren, Nahel Bond etc.

The blue one is Harmonium, the yellow one is Malatium (the 11th metal).

This is a good and well written theory, even if based mostly on speculations, but hey, you need to start somewhere. I like it, but I don't think it's true. It has already been established that the gem type corresponds with the Order of Knight who recorded the message. I invite all to look at the final message, recorded in "a particularly small emerald." Obviously, whoever recorded it must have felt a need to record their foresight. Now, this can be taken two ways. The Truthwatcher had an uncannily acute sense of foresight, and very accurately judged the eventual findings and conclusions of a group of scholars, tacticians, and warriors. The word "foresaw" was used in a more literal sense. I'm inclined to believe the latter, for the fact that the gem was "particularly small" as well as the Truthwatcher's evident need for secrecy. Let's start with the gem archive. Do we know that they were all made by the same Truthwatcher? There are 7 emeralds here, all could be made by different Truthwatchers, or at least by a group of them. But even if they are all made by one Truthwatcher, only the small emerald is suspicious. Why? Because Truthwatechrs see the Truth. I think they just see glimpses of SR, yes, but in relation to the events happening right now or in the past. But like Renarin, who sees often just unclear hints about things that will happen, Truthwatchers would also often see hints pointing them towards truth, without giving them a clear answer. All of the big emeralds are based on clear logical reasoning. New Desolation had started, but there were no Fused, Parsh could change forms to the forms of power, which had to be fueled by Voidlight. This meant that there was some other entity granting them this ability, that wasn't forced to travel back on Braize, when Last Desolation ended, but stayed on Roshar instead. So those forms of powers couldn't be granted by Voidspren, they have to be granted only by Unmade, because they alone stayed on Roshar. And because they were familiar with Ba-Ado-Mishram, they concluded it has to be her doing. So this reasoning explains 3/6 emeralds. Truthwatchers likely could see hints of this in their visions, but they were all about past, or present events, not future. After all, SR is timeless, so someone with access to it might be able to see not just the future, but also the past and present. Truthwachers could be limited and forbade by looking into the future by Honor or Ishar. Then there are 2 emeralds talking about a speculative way of trapping Unmade in a gemstone. Keep in mind that this was concluded among "coalition of scholars among Radiants", and Truthwachers would be part of this, as they are scholars, and this idea didn't come just from Truthwatchers. And emeralds are recorded in the plural form, so they were likely recorded by those scholars from that "coalition". And their conclusions aren't really hard to come up with, Dalinar did it in OB, Unmades are spren, and if lesser spren can be trapped then why not Unmades? So it's another logical leap. They also were uncertain about the after effects of BAM imprisonment, but none foresaw them. The final emerald is just about hope. If there would be no entity capable of granting forms of powers, there would be no more Desolations. Logical conclusion. So the only emerald that is weird is the small one. We don't even know what it is talking about. Likely about Radiants leaving Urithiru, because that's why they started to record those messages. If the power to see glimpses of Future was common among Truthwatchers, then this particular Truthwatcher wouldn't have to be afraid so much that he had to "whisper". But he was. He couldn't talk about it. He didn't want anyone to know this. This for me clearly means that even when Radiants were at their prime, future vision was still viewed as coming from Odium and Radiants didn't have that power. If they had, they wouldn't have to hide it. I do think that this particular Truthwatcher might have something more going on than the others, and really did see the future, which he shouldn't be able to do, if he was a regular Truthwacher. I do suspect that his spren might be the very first higher spren that Sja-anat was able to corrupt, and thus he was able to see the future. Who knows, maybe this was Glys? But that's wild speculation on my part. That's why I don't think that Truthwatchers of the past were able to see the future, like Renarin. And we already have an example of Renarin's surges working differently than in normal Truthwachers - Illumination, Renarin can only create light, while others can do normal illusions. And Visions do look like a combination of both surges, mostly illumination, so it's not weird that he can see the future.

Good one, I didn't notice that. But there are a lot of them. The way he talks a lot about "boring" stuff, him talking about his rat family sounded very similar to Charlie's family, him explaining how Hoid's curse works in a way that it was obvious he was cursed as well ("I can talk about my friend's curse, but not mine"). Those little hints were there, hidden openly on pages, so when you suspect that Charlie is Huck, they are very visible, but if not, and you realized that when Tress did, it all makes so much sense. And one little thing. Could you edit the title of this topic? It's visible from the main page and it might spoil the surprise for others. Juse delete Charlie's name from the title.

That could be a very likely scenario.

Did you read RoW? She was on the 2nd Oath during the entire WoR up until speaking that she'd killed her mother. And here is this WoB saying that the numbers of Ideals for Radiants to get their Shardblades depends on the Order they're in, so Lightweavers might be the lucky one who got their Shardblade at 2nd Oath (1st Truth): If you read RoW, look into spoiler box below:

Depending on the size of an arrow, Shardbows are massive compared to even Earth's biggest bows, they’re more like a ballista or scorpion. Arrows they use would be more similar to a small spear than regular arrow. So the arrowhead would be bigger and wider. If it hits a limp, like arm or leg, it's very likely it would cut it through its entire diameter, making it dead. But for a lethal shot you would need to hit the spine, heart or brain, which is much harder with such an arrow. Shardarrow piercing a body through guts or chest won't stop the opponent, it won't even hurt him much or immobilize him at all, so you need that precision to kill, making it much less effective. Piercing a lung, or any other organ, won't make the entire lung dead, it would make just that pierced fragment of a lung dead, nothing more. If a limb isn't cut across its entire diameter, then it likely won't be dead, especially if nerves weren't cut.

That's the same man that gave Szeth the Black Sword at the end of WoR, ch 88: And you yourself recognised that was the same man who hunted Lift: So you didn't miss any hints, you just forgot them. Congrats! Yesterday I finished my fresh copy of Tress and I'm still in awe. Did you enjoy it (just without any spoilers here)?

17. Be a Sleepless, develop a specific, small type of hungry Larkin-parasites Hordlings, layed in small eggs, make him drink/eat them with a drink/food spiked with thousands of them, they move in blood to many organs of his, hatch, attach to his insides and slowly starts to feed on his investiture while growing, up to the point when he can’t compound anymore, then they just eat him alive from the inside to satisfy his hunger.

You know guys that Fleet was able to run faster than a Highstorm (like near 400 mph), and Hoid didn't tell us he had any form of invested art. So Fleet wins every race. Kaladin won't be even close to him.

Avoid. Don't show up to a fight with him. Be on a different planet. Achieve agelessness and outlive him. Be the Chosen One, draw from the Mists while pulling his metalminds out of his body. Be in Cognitive Realm while he's in Physical Realm (be aware, he can open perpendicularity on his own) 6.1. Be a Soulcaster and Soulcast his metalminds into smoke. Ascend and use Shard's power to smite him. Be a Windrunner with lots of Stormlight and drop a huge asteroid on the planet he resides on. Nuke him, preferably with Tsar Bomb hidden in a truck. 9.1. Use big Anti-investiture bomb on him. Be an Elscaller, boosted by a Bondsmith and use the Surge of Transportation to teleport him in the middle of the vacuum of space, far away from any star system. Be a Bondsmith with medallion granting F-steel, with a lot of stored speed, use that speed to touch him first and take away his Connections and powers. Have access to F-steel again, with a lot of speed, and aluminum spike, spike him with aluminum spike in the correct binding point, which would remove all his powers. Stab him with Nightblood, if possible from Cognitive Realm. Have access to some invested art and be a Dawnshard. Drop a primar cube where he stands, charged with powerful Allomantic aluminum, and shoot him in the head. Or use a powerful enough suppressor fabrial. That's hard. He's god. God cannot be killed. God cannot be overthrown. Your rebellion—you think he hasn't seen its like before? 16.1. While he's monologuing, tap lots of speed, put a shotgun with aluminum pellets to his head, shoot and pray to gods it works, before he kills you in return. I have nothing more for now. Fullborn with F-steel is just ridiculously overpowered.

Maybe, Sho Del has 4 arms, he didn't have them, they had reptilianeyes, and his eyes were like that. Maybe he is some hybrid of humans and Sho Del?

When Huck first appeared I thought he might be a Kandra, because there are no talking animals in Cosmere. But I quickly realized that a rat won't fit 2 metal spikes in his small body. And then I soon started to suspect that Huck is Charlie, the more they talked, the more I knew it was true. And in ch 24, when Huck started to talk about his rat family and home, it just seemed too similar to Charlie's backstory. Since then I was just 100% sure it was Charlie. And to add more, I predicted that the Sorceress will give Tress fake-Charlie instead, and Tress will see through it. Which surprisingly happened. But that was because I recently got fooled in another cosmic related series of Brandon. I told myself never again will I trust weird strangers suddenly becoming companions of a main character!

I agree

We don't know, that's a big RAFO from Brandon. But Sazed proved two Shards can be held together, and create a new Shard, so it's almost certain that one person can hold all 16 Shards. Would it bring Adonalsium back? We don't know. It Might create some other entity. And you likely don't need to fuse all Splinters (like sprens) to remake a Shard, they are a very small fraction of Shard's power. You need to worry about big chunks of Splintered Shard, like what have happened with Honor - e.g. Stormfather holds the biggest part of Splintered Honor. But we don't know it either. It's possible to bring Honor back, but how and what it would look like, we don't know.

@Heilven @Faceless.Immortal Touche, very good points.

They kind of have? Kaladin and his way of using lesser Windspren on OB and RoW. Maybe this will be increased even further.

Oh wow. I finally got TotES yesterday, and consumed it like TenSoon consumes a new dog body. It was just wow. I don't know where to start. The story was amazing and beautiful, the characters were fun and intriguing, the worldbuilding was just brilliant, and writing was cheerful, light - I didn’t even feel the passage of time. I like so much that Tress went through her story without getting into physical fights, without wounding and killing anybody. The way she resolved her problems was with intelligence, innovation and planning. Her empathy and friendliness were her main weapon and it was so great to read how she slowly became a part of the crew, part of the ship and part of the family that didn’t want to become bloodthirsty pirates. The way she developed through the story was just perfect. I have to admit, that this time I wasn’t fooled by Brandon, and quickly started to suspect the true identity of rat Huck (not like in the other recent book of his), and later since ch 24, where he talked about his past and family, I was 100% sure it was Charlie. And I did predict that the Sorceress will give Tress a “fake-Charlie” but Tress will see through it. I’m very proud of myself. I’m getting better at connecting dots. Now worldbuilding. The idea of oceans of fluidized spores, falling from moons, violently reacting with water, is just mesmerizing. This world is just beautiful to imagine. For me the most exciting part of the book was the ways in which you can utilize spores to replicate Earth’s technology. Ship repair, replacing gunpowder, and inventing new types of ammunition. That was just so fun to read and think about it. So many new possibilities to explore. Aethers are so cool. The art of the ship being pulled by vines growing from the ocean looks just like a kraken consuming a ship. And I love how the spores are growing around chapter numbers, that’s little detail but so satisfying. And the Cosmere stuff, being shamelessly thrown at our faces. Ulaam is a free Kandra! Corrupted, sentient Lifeless Kendra?? Looks like that to me - red eyes. That’s crazy. If that’s true it has so many implications. And I like how obsessed his character is with collecting body parts. Awakening technology! Awakened circuitry, robots, computers - that opens so many new possibilities. I simply adore it! More Awakening please! Hoid spoiling us with so much new information. Especially Hoid and sixteen telling Adonalsium that killing him was for his own good. That was depressing. DRAGON Xisis! He looks and acts so cool. Granting wishes! That was great. Did he use Awakened fabric around columns or he has the power to control them naturally? And he did say that he feared only one entity on this planet - the Sorceress? But Hoid also mentioned that Riina is threatened by Xisis. Death with spikes in his eyes. Oh Marsh, what have you become? The Sorceress being Elantrian - I got this spoiled, but it still was a cool thing. Was the planet’s map on the flood a simple decoration or was it something like Elantris on Sel, which allowed her to use Aons on this planet? But it wasn’t glowing. But there must be a trick to how both her and Hoid could draw powerful Aons so far away from Elantris! Maybe Dor got picked up and put back into SR? And the Aons on the art did look like old Aons, I expected them to look like Lumar, not Arleon. And her army was Awakened. Golden robots. Interesting. But no red eyes. hmmm. Hoid becoming Elantrian was also spoiled to me, by my own fault, but that was still crazy. And the details of how it works were important. But Elantrians powers became so much more powerful after this book. Transforming people into rats and blocking their memory? Changing their behavior, even Hoid’s? That’s just mad! I wonder what was that creature that pretended to be fake-Charlie, who apparently was so powerful that was able to deal with Hoid for good. It had golden eyes. Intriguing. So now I was wondering to whom Hoid was telling this story. It quickly became obvious that it's somewhere in the modern period, and during the last chapters he did mention to listeners that Riina’s talking tower was like “talking” spaceships that landed on their planet - so it’s likely First of the Sun. That’s the only planet we know of which has talking spaceships landing on it, while people don’t understand how they talk. I did also wonder how close Lumar’s moon had to be to the planet to cover 1/3 of the sky constantly. That’s a lot. I do have to do proper math, but right now doing it - Earth’s Moon at Roche limit (18470 km) would be ~20 times closer to the Earth, so it would be 20 times bigger on the sky, now its apparent size is 0.5 degree, 20 times more it’s 10 degree, but it needs to be 60 degree (1/3 of 180 degrees)! So Earth’s Moon would have to be 6x closer than its Roche limit, so it would have to orbit around 3000 km from the surface of the Earth. Earth’s geostationary orbit is 42164 km. So yeah, Lumar’s moons are in impossible orbits. Who would have guessed?. But maybe Aethers are doing some weird magic stuff that sustain those orbits? Headcanon - Hoid hates the name Doug because that is his real name, which he hates so much. I did miss the connection between Midnight Essence and Re-Shephir. How could I? The same name was used! Not so proud anymore. The only downside that I can think of is that Hoid was sometimes to full of himself, too cocky, and that he focused too much on himself instead on Tress on some pages. There were too many long moments of “at that time I was thinking about licking my toes” or something like that - I can't even describe it. But that was a minor problem thankfully. That was a bit of a long and chaotic post. But that book was so good. So many thoughts to collect now. So many theories to think of. And so many posts to read - exciting! Edit: Now I will be listening to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack for whole next week. It has already been playing in my mind since I started reading this book! Curse you Hans Zimmer!

The 5th spike is Trellium spike and that's how they can get more from Hemalurgy without falling under the control of Harmony. Likely, Dumad might be a natural Seeker, because he could detect Wax's Feruchemy.

Yes, the Universe is now expanding, acceleration is increasing, but in some time it would start to decrease, then gravity would win, the Universe would start to contract into smaller and denser regions, until everything would collapse into singularity, and something there would happen, which would cause another Big Bang, expansion, contraction, and another Big Bang, and so on. Edit: so in every new cycle the Universe would be "transformed", who knows, maybe even with different laws of physics?

Lerasium alloys can be burned by anybody

That's steelsight, that's how Kelsier and Inquisitors see, and this is something all Iron/Steel Allomancers can learn to do. So that's not Atium-iron/steel alloys or Ire orb. The Bands were just so invested and granted him such strong Allomantic powers, that he could see to the very Axi of the world, see investiture all around him. But the ability to push on non-metal objects maybe could be achieved by the Bands (because like Wax said, everything is made out of the same stuff, and Wax could see it, and he had enormous power, however I still doubt Bands would be that powerful). And here is the WoB talking about steelsight moving into direction of detecting electromagnetic forces and Strong Forces: So strong Allomancy could affect non-metals, and that's likely what he had in mind when he said "There are ways to steelpush on non-metal objects, but that's not the method."

Ah, I see you're more on the side of the Big Bounce hypothesis

Possible, but unlikely. Clod was Arsteel, he was Returned, one of the Five Schoolars. So he couldn't be Awaken with his own Breath, as his Breath was the Divine Breath (unless he give his own Breath before Returning, and then reclaimed it and give it to somebody before being killed by Vasher, but that's just so complicated ). His increased level of self-awarenes likely comes from Breaths Vasher gave him right before killing him.

The WoB clearly states that a Shardblade would cut Kandra's soul, like in other people. So it's likely that Kandra's soul changes its "shape" to match current physical body, or it doesn't matter, because soul exist in Spiritual Realm, and Spiritual Realm is spaceless, so there is simply no shape that soul has, it's just attached to Kandra's body, and shape has no meaning in Spiritual Realm.