alder24

Theoretically they can (except for the Sibling as they are the Tower), but it's highly improbable and would probably have some consequences. They had squires, just with no powers: Because it wasn't the Stormfather who accepted those words, that's why he was surprised. They just got accepted, possibly by Dalinar himself, just like he accepted Kaladin's 4th Ideal. At this moment Dalinar was Ascending to Unity and Adonalsium only knows what this even meant. That's an interesting theory. Yeah, I can buy this. However it would also mean that she didn't get any powers (just like traditional Bondsmith squires) - only her increased Connection to Dalinar allowed her to see into SR/CR when Dalinar was opening a perpendicularity. However Rushu felt something, a tone - just like Navani did, so I think this isn't the case. RoW ch 6:

There definitely was a discussion about this in the Chana topic, but If Chana was to be immediately transported to Braize, got caught and broken, Heralds and Voidspren would have returned to Roshar 6 years before WoR. This didn't happen so Chana didn't break immediately after getting killed. But I doubt Fused and Voidspren could have inhabited Parshmen with a broken mind, as they have to be willing and open to a new form. Without their mind being restored Odium might have been incapable of even starting this Desolation, even if he had an earlier opportunity.

She could have done it to herself subconsciously, but that's why I brought up Kaladin. He was surrounded by the Bridge Four after climbing out of the chasms just a few hours after killing a Chasmfiend and Dalinar looked directly into his eyes from very close - they would have spotted a change in his eyes color. He became Truthless around 2 years before Gavilar's assassination and Shallan's mother died around the same time as Gavilar. It's always fun to discuss new theories Don't be scared of being wrong, it's part of the fun and learning experience and with theories like this it's quite hard to say with 100% certainty that it's true or false, yet it always provides a new insight and perspective, which can spark a new idea.

Not trying to argue, as I mostly agree, but I want to provide some context. Cultivation would have been really stupid to try to intervene after Recreance to save Singers, because direct intervention exposes Shards and with Odium literally breathing down her neck, right after he killed Honor, such action would have brought death to her. Not to mention that we don't know in what circumstances did Singers turned to Odium and humans to Honor and Cultivation. You suggest it was just a whim of Honor and Cultivation to betray Singers, yet the text seems to suggest otherwise. Leshwi's words upon discovering that Venli is a Radiant strongly suggest that it was ancient Dawnsigners who first betrayed Spren, which in consequence turned Spren towards humans. This later forced Singers to turn towards Odium for power (as the Song of Secrets said). At the time of Recreance, Singers had been a sworn enemy of Cultivation for more than 2500 years - she had no obligation to help them. And no, Cultivation didn't create Dawnsingers, they were made before the Shattering by Adonalsium himself. With the recent revelation about the ancient Old Magic spren, we also had even less idea what gods did Dawnsingers worship and if they worship Shards at all. The Eila Stele said that "for their betrayal extended even to our gods: to spren, stone, and wind," which we are now quite certain that those are all ancient Old Magic spren, not Honor and Cultivation. We have no idea what happened around the very first Desolation, what caused gods to switch sides, therefore it's really hard to judge Honor and Cultivation actions towards Dawnsingers, if we lack any context. TLM ch 66: RoW ch 109: The Song of Secrets: Shards are stuck in an infinite trolley problem. They all know that their action or inaction will always cause death and suffering for someone else. For them it's the matter of choosing the path where the least amount of people suffer. That's what Harmony did with Wax. He could have left Wax alone, but that would end up with the total annihilation of Elendel and 5 million people living there - then everybody would have asked questions why Harmony didn't do anything to save them. Is Taravangian right about blaming Shards for this - yes, they should take responsibility for the misfortune they create, even if they can't avoid it (which Taravangian even admitted). Is Taravangian right about his solution to this problem - absolutely not, restricting free will is not a solution, it's a dictatorship which sooner or later has to collapse causing even more suffering. So then is there any good solution to this? I don't know, but I don't think Brandon is chickening out of this thread. No, he's only starting to explore it. We still are waiting to learn what happened around the First Desolation, how Odium got stuck on Roshar, what was the whole deal with Heralds and the Oathpact (which was Heralds' idea, not Honor's) etc. Harmony is growing into Discord and who knows what that will bring to Cosmere. Autonomy is regrouping and there is already a sizable opposition against her. Shards are meddling with human affairs everywhere and this dilemma of them taking responsibility for their actions will only grow. Is there even such a thing as a good Shard? No, Brandon said it multiple times. Honor might seem like a good guy, but Nomad realized that's a lie to make people kill each other - the groundbreaking revelations are only ahead of us. The whole concept of Shards is that people with flaws can hold near infinite power, so the questioning of their responsibility will play a big role in the future - and Taravangian's words are only a foreshadowing of this.

Well, it hasn't appeared in any book yet, but Brandon is quite consistent in his description of this magic system. And yes, the destruction of Ashyn affected the magic system in some way, but we don't know in what way - we know however that this system existed before the destruction of Ashyn. This magic system is also related to the Old Magic, it is a Cultivation-based system and it is made by a symbiotic bond between investiture and microbes. While we don't know the details yet, I don't think that the very fundamentals of this system changed (but everything is possible considering that Dawnsingers were able to use Surges without the Radiant Nahel Bond).

Hello, welcome to the Shard. No need for spoiler boxes in this part of the forum. Check out Sharder FAQ for some useful tips. Testament is still bonded to Shallan. She already started to re-bond Testament. In WoK 46 she swore the Truth "I'm terrified" to Testament. This is because she started to summon Testament (without which she would be unable to Soulcast) and then she heard the voice - that wasn't Pattern, that was Testament. This also means that somewhere in the past Shallan started to recreate her broken oaths and resworn the First Ideal to Testament. Moreover, despite breaking her bond with Testament, Shallan never abandoned it. There must have been some left over of Nahel Bond, connecting them together, allowing Shallan to use Testament as a deadeye blade, or maybe even possibly access some Surges. WoK ch 46: Yes, she said this in RoW ch 115: This is because she had Testament with her all the time and a deadblade with their original knight might function a little differently (after all, an original knight who broke their bond can revive his deadblade after reswearing their Oaths). Somewhere before WoK, she started to reconstruct her Oaths with Testament and that allowed her to regain some of her former Radiant powers. Unlikely, because of your point 4. Chana didn't have her Honorblade with her. She had broken her bond with it and abandoned it during Recreance. She would have to reclaim it and rebond it to have it with her and because Szeth knew it was still in Shinovar when he was named Truthless, it's highly unlikely that she did it, especially considering the fact that Shins didn’t plan to return Honorblades to Heralds at all. Also, you can't inherit an Honorblade, you need to bond it. And because this Honorblade was in Shinovar, it's almost impossible for Chana, or Shallan to have it. The simplest explanation is that it was just because of Testament, which Kalak confirmed (quoted above). There is also another problem with Shallan having an Honorblade. Whenever she would have summoned it, her eyes should have changed to pale reddish (ruby), just as the Dustbringer glyph color. Honorblades change their owner's eye color when held. Szeth's eyes were changed to pale sapphire whenever he summoned Jezrien's blade. Shallan's should have changed as well, yet nobody ever noticed this and her eyes remained blue. The same would go for Kaladin's eyes in the chasms, if he was given an Honorblade. Just holding it changes your eye color. Someone would have spotted that Kaladin's eyes turned to bright red after returning from chasms. OB ch 64: Most likely, every time when Shallan summoned her Shardblade in WoK and WoR, she summoned Testament - that includes the Oathgate scene. All other Radiants can summon their blades after swearing the 3rd Ideal and while Brandon stated long years ago in a WoB that "it differs from Order to Order," except for Shallan, we haven't seen anyone gaining the blade before the 3rd Ideal. So most likely this WoB was a red herring, to turn away our attention from the fact that Shallan shouldn't be able to summon her Shardblade before saying that she killed her mother. There are two proposed reasons why it didn't scream in Kaladin's hands. First one is that by this point, Kaladin's bond with Syl was nearly broken and it's the bond that allows a Radiant to hear deadeye scream. Secondly is that Testament was most likely content with his state. That's a weird statement to make, but that's the reason why dead Shardplate don't scream - they are content, not in pain (RoW I-1). Why would Testament be content with her death? Because she knew what she's getting herself into. She knew she would be most likely killed by Shallan at some point - just like Pattern knew this. Cryptics were willing to send new spren to Shallan no matter how many of them Shallan would have killed - and that says a lot. If they were willing to die trying and keep trying even more, Testament would most likely not hold any grudge and not scream. She knew very well what she was risking and she accepted that price when she decided to bond Shallan. And the Testamentblade might be able to open an Oathgate because Shallan already started to reconstruct her Ideals with her - I'm terrified. Because of that Testament would function differently than a normal deadblade. It's fine here, but you can just report your first post and ask mods in the message box that will appear to move this thread to the Stormlight section (three dots menu in the upper right corner of your post).

I'm guessing it's in the Spiritual Realm. The gemstone already contains part of the Shardbearer spirit web or his innate investiture, so it's not a stretch to suggest that because of this, the gemstone would be pulled into SR, sticking to spren's spirit web, when dismissed.

Well, not exactly. Spren grants access to Surges. But Spren ARE living Surges, they are manifestations of those Surges in living bodies. Each spren type has a different makeup of investiture, that's true, but how does this correspond to Surges? We don't know. Even Surges aren't of Honor or Cultivation. Surges are fundamental forces which exist in the entire Cosmere. Surgebinding just filters them through the Shardic intent, but any Shard can access any Surge - Surges don't belong to Shards, just like gravity doesn't belong to Honor. For example Glys most likely is accessing Surges through the filter of Odium, but it's still the same fundamental power he's using. God Spren are simply different from True Spren. They are massively invested and are strongly tied to their Shards. They represent something greater than Surges and ideals, yet they all give access to the same Surges. There is nothing that would prevent Nightwatcher from accessing Adhesion through Cultivation's filter.

A Shardbearer with no Radiant powers? Just with dead Shards? Well, it depends who's the Inquisitor? Kar? Maybe with some luck. Marsh? A Shardbearer stands no chance against Death himself. Having magical and healing powers is a huge advantage during a fight with a normal person, even in a mech suit. A Shardbearer has only his blade and plate - once he runs out of Stormlight in his plate, he's basically a sitting duck. A single coin shot into his visor can kill him. A smart inquisitor is faster than a Shardbearer and wouldn't engage in melee combat because of the Shardblade - he would try to exhaust a Shardbearer and constantly shower him with coins and metal objects, cracking his plate and allowing his Stormlight to run out faster. And it's quite easy to keep your distance when you can fly. And this is all without considering Atium. Any inquisitor with Atium will win a fight with any Shardbearer. Seeing the future is such a massive advantage that not even a Shardplate and Shardblade can equalize this. With Atium inquisitor can fight in close hand to hand combat, avoid any Shardblade swings, or Shardplate punches and stab his opponent in the eye. And Atium is generally a standard power of inquisitors.

Yes, we know that all Bondsmith have access to only Adhesion and Tension, but their application may or may not differ depending on the god spren. We know this because of the Surgebinding table from WoK. Navani was able to create Towerlight, while Dalinar can create Stormlight - we have one example of differences between Bondsmiths. But Navani, just like Dalinar, can open her own perpendicularity - that's the Bondsmith power.

There is no evidence that Sazed directly "left" Harmonium and his perpendicularity in the south. Physical manifestations of investiture are leakage from the Spiritual Realm into the Physical Realm - something that can just happen on its own, with no action taken by the Shard. A perpendicularity will appear in any place where there is enough investiture - that was the case for Ruin's perpendicularities under the Pits. They appeared there on their own because there was a lot of Atium in the area, which created a region where all three Realms could be pierced. The Shard can control where his perpendicularity appears, but he doesn't have to - it will appear anyway. There isn't any evidence to suggest that Sazed deliberately gave his perpendicularity and Harmonium to the Malwish - it might have just appeared there naturally without Sazed intervention. You need to provide some evidence that Sazed knew about people living on the southern pole and that he was aware how his transformation of Scadrial would affect them. There is no such evidence. It's possible he did, but the situation on the northern pole was so drastic that just the sunrise alone would have killed everyone remaining there. He needed to act to save them and for that he needed to fix Rashek's problems. He might not have enough time to realize that there are other people living on Scadrial and how his actions would affect them. Yes, Sazed saving the north accidentally doomed the south, but we have nothing that would suggest he knew about it during the Catacendre - and we had his PoV in HoA. We saw his thoughts when he Ascended, at no point did he realize there were people on the southern pole. Once he might have realized this, the damage was already done. Calling it a genocide is too much, by UN definition a genocide must be a deliberate act with the intention to destroy a specific group of people (source). Where did that come from? I don't see this at all in Sazed. Even the Path doctrine clearly states to "not waste time on worshiping Harmony."

Yes, he was a Bondsmith on Ashyn. However it's really hard to say if he still had those powers on Roshar, but I doubt he did, especially after becoming a Herald. Powers on Ashyn are given by diseases (which Cognitive Shadows are immune to) and he wouldn't have needed to recover his Honorblade if he still had his old Bondsmithing powers. That of course is true. It's a magical consequence of being a Cognitive Shadow who has lived for way too long. Heralds are Cognitive Shadows and that makes them susceptible to people's perception - they will change based on how people view them. Ten Fools are connected to Heralds - they are the reversal of Heralds. This must have affected them, combined with how different people on Roshar view them manifested as this kind of madness. Ishar was not free of the same fate, he was affected by it just like others.

Well, that's the very same thing Fused are doing. Maybe Fused don't shapeshift a lot, but they do steal bodies of people they inhabit. And I think that's more similar to what is happening with Trell's faceless immortals. I reason this because the Suit was "allowed to serve in another Realm.” We don't know what it meant, but becoming some sort of Cognitive Shadow that can possess other people's bodies sounds like a plausible faceless immortal candidate for me. Except for needing two spikes to gain sentience, a newly formed Kandra also needs to spend years, or even decades to develop skills necessary to properly form human body parts. It's a long and complicated process. Moreover, the explosion that killed the Suit in BoM epilogue would have also killed that faceless immortal, which sounds like a big waste if it was a mistwraith. And one or two Trellium spikes would have been found in the rubble, yet there was no mention of this anywhere and because of its significance I doubt Wax would have just omitted this, so I think they aren't mistwraiths with Trellium spikes. It's still possible though. Paalm created a new Trellium Blessing and a new Hemalurgic construct. It's possible she created a new type of Kandra, or at least inspired the Set to make them. However those faceless immortals aren't Set's servants (which they most likely would be if made by the Set), they are above and outside the Set's hierarchy - they are directly under Autonomy control. I just find it less likely than some other options (but still very probable). And if they are Kandra, they are doing a really bad job at it - they can be easily recognized by the way they walk, not to mention those glowing red eyes. It's hard to miss them. BoM epilogue: So this: isn't a problem for us Rocket technology was given to them by Autonomy - she directly ordered the Set to figure out ballistics. I wouldn't be surprised if radio, film and other technology we saw the Set had was also given to them by Autonomy, or at least was hinted to them. Autonomy has a history of directly contributing to the technological progress of her people and it makes sense that she would do it with the Set because of how important it was to claim this world for her. TLM ch 66:

I don't think those are Kandra. Paalm was the only one to betray Harmony and that's known because of the binding contract that Connects them all. If any other Kandra had done what Paalm did, Harmony would have been aware of this. Moreover, Paalm was forced to wear only one Trellium spike at a time and yet Harmony could still catch glimpses of her - two spikes, even made out of Trellium, would have opened her to Harmony's direct action. This means those immortals can't be Kandra. I doubt those were Mistwraiths because you still need two spikes to create them and that would expose them to Harmony. I think they aren't from Scadrial, they came off-world. Some kind of invested shapeshifters created via one of Autonomy's invested art from another world, who serve her goals. And it's supported by the fact that shapeshifting is fairly common throughout Cosmere:

We don't know a lot about Ishar. We know that Nale was often visiting and talking to him, with Ishar convincing him to ignore the Everstorm and continue to hunt down other Radiants, but I don't think we know if any other Herald did the same. Heralds madness is a consequence of their unnaturally long lifespan combined with a ton of trauma gained from millenia of torture on Braize - it's not something that could be caused by Ishar. Every Cognitive Shadow that lived long enough suffers the same fate - including Fused. It awaits even Kelsier, if he doesn't do anything to fix this (that's why he wants to get Kalak in his hands). What's more likely is that Ishar found a way to mitigate the effects of this madness and helped others in some way. With this new information in mind, a quote that Kalak said in WoR prologue now makes a lot of sense: Whatever Ishar was doing, it clearly had some limitations and only slowed down the progression of their insanity, not stop it completely. Maybe it even ceased to work at some point, or Ishar stopped doing this judging by what Kalak said in WaT. And looking at Ishar himself, it probably wasn't a good idea to allow another insane Herald to help you with your own insanity - that's probably why Nale ended up killing Radiants, his trust to Ishar blinded him and prevented him from seeing that Ishar is also insane. Maybe even Ishar was more affected by this and his own madness got worse? There is even a Death Rattle that in the context of what Kalak said might suggest it: As for quotes about Ishar, there isn't much to show, only what Nale told us.

While this might differently for splitting a Shard into smaller pieces, when merging two into one, previous deals are still in effect, or their consequences still apply to new merged Shard and their Vessel: I think the same would apply for Odium splitting into two smaller ones - both of the new Shards would be still bound by the same deals and rules that held Odium before.

Possible, but I don't think so. In the context of their whole discussion, Jez's words are too coherent and too intentional to be just a bunch of nonsense. They were talking about voices, pain and torment they both shared and Jezrien liked that Dalinar is feeling this too, that's why he asked which one got him. I think Jezrien honestly tried to explain to Dalinar what he meant, but didn’t do a good job with it - that Dalinar was under Unmade's influence. An Unmade touch doesn't have to lead directly to madness, but to pain, suffering and mental trauma that may turn into true madness. A form of pressure exerted on one's mind that can bend or even break it.

I think more than one Unmade makes people mad, judging from Jez's statement. Ashertmarn makes people lose their mind in lust, the Thrill makes them lose it in a battle rage, Moelach might do something like that too. There must be a reason for why Jezrien listed him as an Unmade causing some kind of madness or mental problems. And whatever it means that Moelach is scratching - probably trying to reach people's souls.

It looks good. I can already answer the last question - not a lot of animals. That's because of your first rule, mass conservation. It's a rule I don't know what you want to do with, but personally I think it's way too restrictive. The mass problem can be easily overcome with investiture and spiritual handweaving. My personal take on the mass conservation is to get rid of it partially, turn it into a skill based ability. A beginner Shifter can transform mainly into animals of the same mass that's because changing mass requires addition of new symbols to the mask - the bigger the change, the more complicated the symbols are needed, but they also require detailed anatomical knowledge of both human and animal body to place them in correct combination and correct places on the mask. More skilled Shifters can change into a mammal of any mass with no problems, as long as they have that knowledge. Investiture and Spiritual Realm is dealing with all mass weirdness. Tress spoilers: Now, having this mass problem behind us, let's talk about animal types. I think the explanation for why mammals only can be as simple as Connection. It's easier to shift into animals that live closely to humans and resemble humans in their anatomy because you share a stronger Connection with them. A cow or a dog would be fairly easy to transform into, while a wolf or a bison a bit harder but still doable with some training. On the other hand a bird would be much more difficult because even though it lives close to humans, it's mostly a wild animal, with its body built totally differently. A fish is even more difficult as it shares little similarities with the human body and lives in a totally different environment. The more differences there are and the further away they live from humans (and less dependent they are frum us - the more wild they are), the smaller the Connection, the harder it is to shift into that animal and the more investiture it requires (because there is more changes you need to make to your body, plus the Connection too weak so your body resist those changes a lot - more resistance, more investiture needed to overcome that). Definitely a great rule that has some nice foundation in Cosmere rules. Now mask creation. Personally, just my thought and nothing more, I would make the entirety of the mask out of the skull of the killed animal. But that's just me (insert innocent face here). The skull would have to be reshaped into a one primary shape that's based on the land from where the magic originate - just like every Aon is based on Aon Aon, the skull/mask has to be shaped into a one symbol and later more smaller symbols and modifiers can be engraved on the mask to make the mask work. That's the most important part of Selish magic, the symbols have to be based on the shape of the land the magic comes from. There is also the issue of distance. On Sel, the further away you are from your homeworld, the weaker the magic becomes. Some are more susceptible to this, like Elantrians, others are less like Dakhor Monks. To which category your system belongs to? And how is this weakening manifested in your magic? I think the most obvious way is that it's even harder to transform into animals that are less human-like and live further away from them, to the point that you could transform only into domesticated animals. TLM spoilers: The last rule can be of course bypassed by messing identity - if a Shifter creates a mask with no identity, any Shifter can use it. Maybe a Shifter that has no identity can use another's mask, although for a much shorter period of time. Mistborn spoilers: Anyway, it's not like manipulating identity would be easily possible for Shifters, at least not with the magic you've presented. So this just has implications for wider Comsere and worldhopping. Question for you. Do you want to incorporate modifiers that would actually change and "mutate" some characteristic of an animal, or you just want your Shifters to turn into realistic animals? Like turning into a wolf and nothing else? Do you allow yourself to turn into a wolf with echolocation if a Shifter is extremely skillful and can create a very complicated mask full of complicated symbols? That sounds like an extreme high tier ability with a lot of potential, but also is quite close to what Kandra can do. Overall I find this idea to be a very Selish magic system. It fits nicely, has some good rules and is definitely interesting - I would want to turn into a totally normal and innocent platypus, but I don't know if I could bear the weight of their blood on my hands and their skull on my face. That's a huge price to pay

The very first death rattle he heard, the one of his dying mother, which set him on this path that ended with Ascension. WaT prologue: I think Taravangian was collecting death rattles out of desperation, not practicality, trying to find anything that would help him better understand the Diagram. This one death rattle was useful and precious to him so he just hoped he would find another one of those - I don't think he did. I also don't think death rattles are the only thing Moelach does - causing madness is probably his main job. Not to mention that just like other Unmades, he has the aura of wrongfulness around him that twists people's mind and soul. Death rattles might be a side effect. OB ch 88:

He locked it in his house, the most secure location in the Lasting Integrity Kalak can imagine. Of course he would have left it there. He didn't happen to find it, he knew where it was (likely because he heard Shallan and Adolin talking about it) and searched for it there. Yes, he dared to do that when Kalak wasn't at home - ideal time to search his place and find the dagger. Plus he can easily deal with Kalak via Awakening, so the dagger isn't even needed for protection. How would they know? Even Fused didn't fully understand what happened with Jezrien's soul and they still planned to capture Ash and Taln after conquering the Tower. Ghostbloods' tech and science won't help them if there are only 10 test subjects and only one of them was captured with the dagger. Only Fused could have disclosed this information to them and I highly doubt they did it if they themselves didn't know what happened. Even Kalak needed to investigate this further to know for sure that Jez died - and he felt it. They did, they talked about it. RoW ch 82: She knew she's trying to collect Kalak's soul and she was still willing to do that - blasphemy had no impact on Shallan's decision. If only you could put that brightly glowing gemstone into a hidden compartment of the box from where you get it and carry it out of the Lasting Integrity without raising any suspicion. The same box that holds a brightly glowing Seon that's impossible to see from the outside. The box that nobody cared about when Shallan brought into the city. Not like it's the first time she killed somebody. She killed Tyn and was fine, she killed several other people and was fine. For Ghostbloods it would be only a benefit. Shallan knew that once she stabs Kalak there is no turning back for her, she had to join Ghostbloods for good - Mraize knew that too. Mraize was constantly pushing her more and more towards making this decision, he gave her more and more daring quests and fed her more and more tasty information. He was training her to be full Ghostbloods and Mraize enjoys the danger. He already knew how to treat Shallan's DID and was even using it to his advantage, manipulating all three of Shallan's persona. Well, they wouldn't have known about it until Shallan and others would have left, or even at all. The plan was for Shallan to impersonate Kalak at the trial and leave with them. RoW ch 82: They let them IN without thoroughly searching them... Letting them go after Herald himself judged them worthy of Honorspren bonds and plans to go with them to Urithiru would be done with no questions asked. RoW ch 82 has many answers to problems you have with this dagger. The situation would be much, much worse for Ghostbloods if Shallan were to kill Kalak with the knife, but instead of capturing his soul, the dagger would just stab him. How would they explain to Shallan this? How would they regain Shallan's trust after she trusted them and they broke her trust like this? How would they capture Kalak later if his soul went to Braize, beyond their reach and worse into Fused hands? Mraize would have made a really bad decision if he were to not give Shallan the real dagger - and he wasn't expecting Shallan to turn against him, he was sure she will do as ordered, judging by his reaction in RoW ch 115: Look at this? Is that what a person who predicted all of this looks like? That's a person who miscalculated and now desperately tries to convince Shallan to stay with them, because he knows that she knows too much and she will be a threat to Ghostbloods now. Mraize was outplayed and he knows this, he knows this so painfully that he even tried to threaten her with his master, like a kid whose sibling took their toy and he threatens to snitch on them to their mother. The dagger was real. There is a common way for worldhoppers to slow down their aging:

This is the same dagger, isn't it? Shallan gave it to Kalak in RoW and that's the dagger Felt has now. Ghostbloods didn't know that Jezrien had faded from the gemstone, so they would have no reason to believe that the dagger wouldn't work. Now Felt knows the truth so he doesn't want to use it anymore because Kalak is more useful alive than dead. For Mraize it was a win-win situation. Either Shallan uses the dagger on Kalak and joins Ghostbloods, or Felt finishes the job with the same dagger.

I think so. Rayse wasn't in control anymore, he was overwhelmed by Odium's intent. But he still had his personality that wanted to do things the power didn't like, which created inner conflict with himself. RoW letter: I don't think it's about suppressing passion of others, which he clearly didn't do with Leshwi, but he was just with conflict with himself. The power likes being challenged but, it didn't served Rayse's plans - Rayse was fighting against his intent. On the other hand Taravangian allowed himself to feel, while not being overwhelmed by it and the power. Taravangian weeps, but it doesn't control him, nor does he fight against it - he accept those passions and plans in line with them. It's still a mess in my head, I don't know what's going on, so I can't really describe it right now. I just don't think it matters Rayse suppresses other people passion, just that he acts against his intent in general. I don't think any approval of other Shards is needed, just that a person must be willing to give themselves fully to Odium, like Moash. However Taravaingian said: "Assuming these were fully mine, and I were allowed" which indicates that he doesn't just have to have them, he must be also allowed to do it by others (Shards). So it can mean both things.

Welcome to the Shard Well, here is a problem with the number 10 - the Nightwacher was originally one of those ancient, pre-Shattering spren, changed by Cultivation. It doesn't add up with 10 being 9 Unmades + 1 Wind. WaT ch 3: It's also likely that Surges in the current state didn't exist on Roshar before the Shattering as those are influenced by Shards inhabiting the system. Number 10 is specifically associated with Honor, which is also a post Shattering development - there isn't any reason for why there had to be 10 ancient spren created by Adonalsium and not 22 or 16. Just people invading and destroying Aimia, possibly under Unmade influence. No reports of any earthquakes. Coppermind: Shins also worship the Sun and Stars too. Horneaters also worship gods of the mountain. There is also the mountain of Ur whose stone spoke to Venli. It's not like Shinovar is the only place for a spren of stone to be of significance.

I'm not so sure, he allowed Leshwi to live in the end because he recognized that she was an agent of the Passion. I think it's rather that he tried to suppress Passion in favor of his plans. The Vessel and the power had different goals and the Vessel was trying to suppress the power. RoW I-2: Edit: I'm not sure how to put this in words but I feel like the difference is that Taravangian allows himself to feel, while not allowing the power to rule over him, while Rayse was ruled over by the power at this point, yet still tried to act against it, doing what he wanted to do against power's own will - which put Rayse in conflict with himself.