alder24

Yeah, it's kind of all over the place. You said "storing memories won't remove Connection" and that it should work the same with Intent, I replied "intent isn't like Connection, it's not spiritual, it's mental thing, it's your understanding, so removing your understanding removes your Intent." Then you brought up the Feruchemical Table, which I didn't mean by saying "spiritual/mental." And that's what I am claiming - storing proper memories would remove your intent because intent is in your mind, not in your spirit web. But your understanding is just one part of intent, the other is your will - that's determination. We can agree to disagree in the end.

It draws his attention. He doesn't always pay enough attention, but he likes when others have to rely on him. The moment he realized someone who isn't his is stealing Voidlight from him, he would block them off from accessing Voidlight: I've never really thought about it. Yeah, A-bendalloy would make sense, but that's not enough. I think Hoid sneakily broke into Odium's vision, just like Odium broke into Dalinar's vision a few times, and hijacked it (using Connection). Using also A-bendalloy to avoid detection makes a lot of sense. They both weren't on Braize, this was happening in the same place where Dalinar's visions takes place (SR?), that's why I think this is the same thing Odium (and Lift) did. I highly doubt it's something happening to them physically - PR of Braize is inhospitable as we know, it makes little sense for Heralds to be there physically, especially if there are no bodies for Fused to take over, no Singers for Voidspren to inhabit. They are on Braize as souls and souls only, so Heralds would also be bodiless in their Cognitive form in CR. Mistborn Secret History spoilers: I don't think this would happen in visions like with Kaladin. The Stormfather said they were able to hide for some time before they were caught and tortured and they most likely lack a strong Connection to Odium for him to bring them into visions. That leaves their minds and souls being tortured directly in CR.

While SotD2 fits the criteria, it's not very secret in my opinion. We know about it, many have read the early chapter, we're waiting for it. I guess it's something that has never been published or mentioned earlier - that excludes books from State of the Sanderson 2023: "The Night Brigade, Dragonsteel, the Silence Divine, the Grand Apparatus, Mythos, the Aether World book series." Nightblood is obviously out of the question (also "no movement" reported in SotS2023). Looking at previous Secret Projects I think guessing is futile - he will knock our socks off with some totally new story and impossible world. I hope we will get the name of the last Shard in this book. Pretty please Brandon!

I love this guy! There's always another Secret Project!

Probably anyone can sing it, but not everyone would get Voidlight. The song draws Odium's attention, I doubt he would give others Voidlight. RoW ch 67: As you noticed, Kaladin experienced a vision, so we don't really know what conditions are on Braize's surface. From Wit we know that Braize barely has any atmosphere and that means any winds there wouldn't be that strong (Martian winds can reach up to 150 km/h but Mars has only 1% of Earth's atmosphere, such winds would be comparable to a light breeze on Earth). I'm guessing this was something Odium added to Kaladin's vision. WoR ch 80: Heralds were tortured in more "conventional" way, WoK Prelude:

This theory holds merit. But to do that, BAM has to be able to manipulate any type of Connections, like Bondsmiths can. I'm not sure she would be able to do that much. Allomancy is just a strong Connection to Preservation, Feruchemy is probably similar. BAM Connected herself to Singers, granting them all forms of powers, acting like a Voidspren for every Singer. If she just Connect herself to every Scadrian, I think she can give them some forms of Odium powers - not Metallic Arts. That's because she is of Odium, her soul is of Odium, powers she grants are of Odium as well. That's why she has to be able to manipulate Connections directly, I don't know if she can do it, but that's possible. However, I don't think this is the case. Radiants were very surprised that Mishram Connected herself to Singers, they didn't know how she did that. It seems that Mishram's ability to Connect is something she had learned shortly before the False Desolation. Maybe she can learn to do more, but her Connection abilities are limited in some way. OB ch 80 epigraphs: Another reason why Ghostbloods are so interested with BAM is that she can provide Voidlight - they don't have to rely on Highstorms and Oathgates, they can have Voidlight on Scadrial whenever they need it. And if she can do with Connection more than just Connect herself to others, then she might be able to unkey Voidlight she provides.

Maybe that's just a side effect of being so invested? Yumi spoilers:

Disagree that Raboniel suggests Fused/Voidspren are in PR - she talks about PR Braize with Navani, but they are souls. They might have been in both PR and CR, like spren on Roshar. We know also that Fused are asleep while on Braize, awaiting a new Desolation. RoW ch 14: Those would have no need for any city. Mindless Voidspren like Stormspren would need no city as well. Many of Voidspren/Fused souls are so twisted that they don't have a sharply defined form, they don't resemble Singers anymore, they are just vague masses of energy, rather than a form like Pattern or Syl have in CR. I doubt those kinds of Spren/Fused would want to have a city, I doubt they want anything at this point, they're insane. OB ch 116: Only Ulim-like Voidspren might want it, if they weren't slumbering as well. But another reason why they wouldn't want to build anything on Braize is that the planet is their prison. They don't want to be there, they want to be on Roshar. Building homes in their prison would make them less willing to actually fight for Roshar and every time they could even consider Braize as their home. Neither them or Odium wants this to happen. And if most is already mindless, asleep, or busy torturing Heralds on Braize, why bother with building anything at all?

I just add those two WoBs about Atium Savants: So at least Atium (Atium-electrum alloy) you won't have the same consequences as with Lerasium. Lerasium grants you Connection to Preservation, that's why I think you can Ascend.

Because it doesn't really make any sense to store "50% of your memory." What does it mean? It's too arbitrary. Storing all of it makes sense and we've only seen this with Copperminds. You decide which parts of your memories to store. We have the answer: I imagine a Coppermind working like a hard drive - your memory is fragmented and fitted into empty axi. They can be stored all around the metalmind, or in one place close together. Investiture per the amount of metal. 200h of 10% is less investiture than 200h of 80%. I believe he would either stop tapping or start tapping 30%. Good question. No idea. Those two things give you a bit different kind of Wakefulness, you would have control with a proper intent. If you just want to stay awake, you tap what you can, if you want to use your sleep to stay awake, you won't tap coffee Wakefulness. It's more similar to storing senses in tin - it's possible you have to even store them separately. I agree, there are certain ramifications for this idea that I haven't thought about, but there are also ramifications for the opposite, If you can tap at rates lower than you stored, then this is no different than compressing an attribute to higher rates. If compressing requires you to use up investiture, then decompressing would require this as well. There would have to be a loss associated with decompression to lower rates.

Just by using logic. Something happened during Nohadon's times, a Surgebinder used his powers to rage war just before another Desolation started. This reminded others that Surgebinding powers can be devastating, that they had already destroyed one planet and if those new Surgebinders won't be restricted, they would destroy Roshar as well. The very same reason that causes Recreance. If during Recreance spren were willing to commit a potential mass suicide, then being restricted by noble Ideals isn't that bad. Yes. Disagree. WoK ch 35: It doesn't say Radiants discussed, just people. It could have been kings and leaders who wanted to have Urithiru close to their lands. In WoR Shallan discussed that every map places Urithiru close to the borders of a country the map originated from. One of the maps was made during Nohadon's times. Non-Radiant Surgebinders fit too. Or Fused always had the ability to Surgebind, they just hadn’t learned it before. HoA spoilers: Or maybe Honor had no time to react as spren started to bond with people before he could have done anything. Or maybe he tried to do something but it failed. Or maybe he thought Heralds are enough. There are too many possibilities.

OR the First Desolation with Fused, before Heralds were made, was so devastating that Heralds' purpose was to fight with people and for people, helping them recover. Heralds were made during a war time, humanity was losing to an enemy that kept being reborn. And so they fought, then when humanity was rising back on their feet, they left for Braize to lock Fused and Voidspren for good. I do believe that Honor indeed didn't predict that Heralds could break their Oath and let Fused back on Roshar. Still I think that Honor chose lesser evil by allowing Odium to settle on Roshar in the first place and imprisoning him there. He had to know that Odium wanted to kill him and Cultivation and he would use everything to achieve that. Honor risked sacrificing humanity and Dawnsingers to achieve his goal but it didn't really work.

This!!! That's a great question. Is it ok to basically give a divine mandate to rule only to mentally damaged individuals with dangerous powers, who were just extremely lucky to bond a Spren? If their basis for the rule is a divine mandate, you’re creating a government that's prone to abusing its power.

I said "as for right now" Health is one of the most loosely defined attributes. But the fact it can be focused on specific wounds doesn't really tell us anything about rate of tapping compared to rate of storing. And I disagree, it's quite a standard mechanism. Cosmere spoilers: The metallion held blanked Connection, which means it wasn't connected to anything. But Connection has to be tied to something so it snaps to the nearest place. BoM ch 22: That's because of loss to diminishing returns - he can heal more being slower, because he doesn't lose investiture to compression. It's a good point, but it might be just an intent thing. He wants to get 10x heavier - his intent will compress any rate into 1000%, one will need more compressions, other will need less. There is no fluctuation because his intent is to be 10x heavier. Outcome matters too. I see no reason why the attribute can't "move around" in the metalmind - having the right intent fixes the glass of water, you pull what you want no matter in how many fragments it's stored, or where it's stored. And Investiture is in SR, distance has no meaning there. Feruchemy is magic. That's it. While the investiture takes up physical/spiritual "space," you can touch a metalmind wherever you want and you can tap/store from the entire volume of the metalmind. It's probably because this is happening more in SR not in PR, or investiture can just freely flow through the metalmind into you (still in SR). Either way it's happening in the SR, not PR. Because you don't store memories in percentages, you just store it and it's gone from your mind. Yes, some of this is assumptions. It's based on examples from books, WoBs or current understanding of the mechanics involved - it can change in the future with new information. We've been always told that you can tap what you stored at the same rate and compress it to get it at greater rate - but we've never seen it being decompressed. That may be possible, but it would still require energy to do, thus loss of attribute in the process.

I doubt it's the same thing. TSM spoilers: Nightblood doesn't feed on what's evil, he just feeds on any investiture he gets.

Well, not really: I'm not saying I don't want him to be a Radiant, I say he's valuable because he isn't Radiant. His story with Maya is aiming to end with some kind of bond - it may be a traditional Nahel Bond or a new, reverse Nahel Bond. I believe they are forming a reverse Nahel Bond - It's Maya who's a knight with a broken spirit and it's Adolin who fills those holes in her spirit with his soul, giving her strength and cognition. He already gave her strength and breath during the trial. This will be a new form of bond that may give them different abilities rather than standard Radiant powers. Adolin fits as a Windrunner, but he fits as a Edgedancer better, that's true. He doesn't want to be any Radiant because that means abandoning Maya. He doesn't want to do that no matter the order offered.

Sure, they came from various backgrounds and professions, like all Radiants, but he didn't swear Oaths to make better furniture, but to protect people. He died fighting. No, the parliament is meant to be made out of representatives of all, the cabinet should be made out of the most qualified and best fitted. Sure, certain cabinets can be associated with certain Orders (not permanently!), for example the minister of transportation a Elsecaller, the minister of health an Edgedancer - but again, that should not be permanent. An Edgedancer would be a good minister of health - not Lift - but Kaladin would be good too. Who would be a good minister of defense - Kaladin? I don't think so. Dalinar would be great - he's a Bondsmith not a Windrunner. Jasnah, or some other Elsecaller, could be good in times of peace - she has a potential of creating an excellent supply and logistical background and a well working system for mobilization and training of soldiers. While a certain Orders can serve a specified role in the society, the parliament and the cabinet should be fluid, open to all Orders to give their opinion and unique point of view that others can miss. Ministers should be appointed according to the needs of the country and based on individual qualifications - not just to which Order they belong to.

Disagree. Leras used Preservation in a perfect way. He had to stop Ruin from destroying the world - that would kill everyone on the planet, he imprisoned him, seeded Terris prophecies that had layers of hidden messages to device Ruin, set up Mist to work without him and all other stuff he did. He saw he needed someone with both Ruin and Preservation to pick up Preservation and kill Ruin and another person like this to combine them together. And he achieved this. Leras was excellent at using Preservation. Ruin killed like 99.9% of the Northern Scadrial population, that's quite a lot of damage. Yes, he did fine, but he wasn't kind or generous anymore in Era 1. He had lost the struggle of wills. We don't know if Ati was content after his death. The effects of Shard's intent over its Vessel fade over time if they are separated, but in this case Ati left immediately, he gave no time for Ruin's influence to fade. He would not have been content.

You mean refusing to bond and then agreeing to bond a moment later isn't an example of actively changing his mind? It's his choice. He can refuse to bond if he doesn’t want to. The Highstorm wasn't meant to stop them, it was meant to wash away their bodies and hide him from his failure. WoR ch 83: In the case of Dalinar it's his choice. He can refuse, if he doesn't want to. He has free will. In Syl's case he didn't have a choice, but he still lied to Kaladin about her being dead. WoR ch 74: He didn't fully kill her, he didn't break his Oaths, he didn't take Syl from the Stormfather, it could have been fixed, he wasn't like the one that killed so many of others. Lies. Syl was almost dead, but not fully, his Oaths weren't broken yet, Syl was kept away from Kal by the Stormfather, he forced her to be obedient. Well, Dalinar did ask and he tried to avoid answering it, when he was confronted he "rumbled in discontent." The exact situation happened when Dalinar questioned him if he could see Heralds.

No, it's a "theory." It's one possible, speculative explanation. It's not confirmed or said in books or WoBs, it only uses the tradition of young girls not covering their safehands to reach this speculation. Depicted as or represent underage. She clearly looks adult so she might represent them rather than being depicted as underage. Ash is potentially the only Herald that was born on Roshar, rest was born on Ashyn. They look the same as when they stopped aging.

I don't think so. This is a little wild theory, there isn't much to support it, just as there isn't much to prove it's wrong. One possible explanation for the lack of cover on Chana's safehand is that she is meant to represent underage people or is depicted as an underage girl for some reason - young girls don't have to wear them. But it's weird because she isn't the youngest of all Heralds, Ash is. Those images are meant to depict Heralds as they are somewhat currently viewed by the Vorin church - so even if she was a transgender, they would still depict her with a covered hand, especially if they misgendered Chana for symmetry's sake. If they view Chana as a woman, they should still cover her safehand. Therefore I think the fact that Chana is depicted without her safehand covered isn't related to her being trans. No, aluminum has a Cosmere-wide property of blocking investiture. You've seen Azure using the room with aluminum layered walls to hide Soulcasting from Odium spren. You've seen Rushu in Dawnshard and RoW using this discovery to create fabrials with aluminum, stopping them from working in that direction. You've seen Fused using aluminum spears to block Shardblades, you've seen Nightblood's sheath blocking Nightblood. Aluminum in general in Cosmere blocks investiture and that's outside of Metallic Arts. Yes, that's true. But the images are as Vorinism currently views Heralds, so an explose safehand is out of norm. That's an interesting and possible explanation. However even by Vorin teaching, all heralds were fighters.

I think you're missing an obvious solution - no Oathpact and no new Heralds. The Oathpact was proven to be ineffective, it failed spectacularly. We need a different way to stop Desolations for good, something that doesn't involve locking people away for eternity of torture. That's my opinion, there will be no Oathpact and no new Heralds. Honor already WAS on Braize 7000 years ago, just like he was on Ashyn and Roshar. Those three Shards are present in the entire system. Honor/Tanavast was with Heralds on Braize back when they were tortured and it didn't help them at all.

Nah, I've just spent too much time reading Arcanum There is no evidence for the Nightwatcher being bonded - it might have been confirmed by someone in the book. But there is a theory that Lift is bonded with her - you can read it here and here.

Trauma. Admitting it doesn't mean accepting responsibility and being strong enough to withstand emotional pressure those truths put on her. She said those Truths, but she wasn't emotionally strong enough so she kept suppressing them. Actually Brandon doesn't kill his characters that often. He delivers phenomenal character arcs. She has two ties - Pattern and Testament. And she literally said wants to go out there. I don't see any circumstances that would put her in position to kill Adolin for "the greater good." Adolin isn't evil, Adolin isn't working for Odium and is highly unlikely to do that. They are married, they support each other. Now Adolin is there for Shallan in her struggles with Ghostbloods. No matter the reason, the emotional impact it would have on Shallan would break her down back to as she was at the beginning of WoK - nullifying her entire character arc. They can always worldhop together.

Highly disagree. They are soldiers, they are frontline troops, they are shields for people. They would form a terrible parliament. They generally know nothing and don't focus on economy, resources, commodities, public services etc - they would be focused on security mostly. The ideal parliament should be formed from representatives of every single order, with a Bondsmith as a prime minister or something like that. Every Order provides a unique and important view on different aspects of the state, they are each focused on different goals, they all represent different groups of people. Who would better represent and know internal security issues than Skybreakers? Who would better know about conditions and needs of prisoners than Willshapers? Who would be better to raise awareness of inadequate social services, healthcare problems or homelessness than Edgedancers? All of this is needed in your parliament, every different point of view is beneficial, every different representation brings insight that Windrunners simply lack because they don't focus on those things. They are focused on protecting and fighting - that's not good enough. Sure, Windrunners follow moral values, but their morality is self-defined, their Oaths aren't oriented towards governing. Their Oaths provide no checks you are speaking of. Except for their role as a kind of constitutional court (definitely a part of the system), they would be excellent educators - teaching only what's true. Truthwatchers already are often scientists.