alder24

That's correct. Spren would still be present on Roshar, those were created by Adonalsium and predate the Shattering, so it's possible their invested arts would include spren in one way or another. Or not at all. All is possible. That's right. But Shard's are also a factor in this. You can't have Endowment's magic without the idea of giving, you can't have Preservation's magic without preserving, you can't have Ruin's one without damaging or Honor's without bonds. Shards' intent filters the way invested arts are distributed, while Shards interactions with themselves, people and the planet shape the way invested arts manifest. At least that's my understanding. There might be a spoiler stream coming up soon (Brandon's birthday???), watch out for announcements on YT or Brandon's social media. When they appear, Brandon's team will provide a link to a reddit thread where people can ask questions. Make this into some shorter question and you might get lucky.

Bamboo? Really??? It can be cut by a sword... Why would you want this as armor? Awakened metal armor. Just putting Breaths in a piece of metal with "my Breath to yours" should be enough to resist a Shardblade. There isn't any better material than stone or metal. It's mostly invulnerable to normal attacks and with proper investment it would resist Shardblade attacks. Thick wooden shield would work well too.

That's a really hard topic. It depends. How many Shards are in the system, perception of its human population (!!!), the world they've invested in and stuff like that. We don't truly know how this works, but there are also some limits on what is possible or why metal on Scadrial etc (defined by natural laws that predate the Shattering). A magic system appears and isn't created by a Shard - that's important. I don't think so. In Endowment also invested on Nalthis? Nalthis is a bad example it's very likely to be created or at least populated by Endowment. If Preservation just invested on Nalthis with Endowment there, I don't think he would fuel Awakening, instead there would be several magic systems that would pop into existence - based on the number of Shards present. Look at Roshar - Radiants can't use Voidlight to power their Surges, nor Lifelight. It takes something special - Lift uses Lifelight but can't use Stormlight, while Venli, who is bonded to both Radiant spren and Voidspren, can use both Stormlight and Voidlight. Awakening is binded to Endowment. It's manifestation of Endowment in the Physical Realm. It works the way it works, because that's the nature of Endowment crossed with some other factors (like the world she invested, perception of people etc). If Preservation were to be invested in Nalthis instead of Endowment, there would be no Awakening on Nalthis, and likely no Allomancy as well, at least not in the form that we know. Invested arts are more connected to the Shard, but can differ from place to place. If Endowment were to invest and create Scadrial instead of Ruin&Preservation, there would be no Awakening in the form we know, and no Metallic Arts as well. Tbf we don't know, it's really hard to say. If Endowment were to invest on Scadrial right now, with Harmony there, it's very likely another Metallic Arts would spawn, something that would embody the nature of the world and the nature of Endowment as well. Invested Arts aren't tied to the world, they're tied to the Shards but worlds, other Shard's presence, perception and other factors affects the way they manifest. There was a WoB asking if Metallic Arts are affected by perception of people, the answer was no, but invested arts in general are affected by it. I can't find it however. The source for the "much of the system is dictated by the planet itself" is the first WoB I've posted, which doesn't say that at all. Shards have influence over their invested arts, like Honor binding Surges making them less powerful, Preservation Snapping people with Mists, or Harmony subconsciously affecting Hemalurgy. Shards however can't deny their people the use and access to invested arts - Preservation can't stop fueling Allomancy, nor Odium can stop fueling Fused powers. They have... an influence. How does that sound? Honor can limit the power of Surges but can't deny people access to them, nor can he create a new Surge just because he wants. Invested Arts are manifestations of the power of creation itself, filtered by Shardic intent. Invested Arts are manifestations of Shards themselves. This would be a great question for Brandon. I would love to hear his answer to that. All I can give you is that.

Khalad's Phantoms worked because it wasn't just bones in stone that were Awakened, but the stone itself was Awakened and Breaths served as sinew that enabled movement. You need a lot of Breaths to Awaken something that can't move, that is stiff like stone or cheese. Cheese is organic. We don't know. We only know aluminum can't be Awakened, but it's possible that aluminum's field effect would disturb the entire Awakened object. Not really. Breaths are damaged when cut by a Shardblade. An object that was cut in half will usually cease to function partially or entirely, depending on the damage it took. Not to mention that wax is like stone, it can't move on its own, Breaths won't help here unless you create a specific shape that enables movement and push lots of Breaths into it - but that wouldn't be a wall anymore, would it? Instead of some weird cheese or wax ideas, how about a simple Awakened shield? Not even type 4, just enough Breaths to resist Shardblade cuts. Much cheaper, much simpler and more reasonable.

Zahel might hold more Breaths thus his Lifesense is stronger and he can sense Syl unlike Azure. But I doubt this would apply with something as invested as a spren, both should be able to sense Syl if they have enough Breaths to Awaken. Zahel suppresses his Divine Breath so he doesn't have access to Divine Breath granted 4th Heightening and perfect Lifesense. Zahel might be simply paranoiac and that's why he reacts to Syl, while Azure is able to sense her but isn't concerned. It may be that Azure put her Breaths into clothes, like her cape, to be always ready to fight or to hide her invested presence from Fused. Or Azure sensed her and that made her worry - she did dance around Kaladin when he confronted her in ch 78 and she thought Kaladin was chasing after her: She wasn't surprised when Kaladin revealed himself as Knight Radiant, she smiled, ch 79: She clearly knew Kaladin is hiding something and this might be because she sensed a very invested being sticking always close to him. Moreover she had bigger worries on her head - the army of Voidbringers outside of city walls. Whatever was the thing floating around Kaladin, wasn't that big of a problem compared to keeping the city from collapsing. Overall we don't know why but there are multiple possible explanations.

Can you read it? It's on the Arcanum now. I've provided the link to the WoB like 5 posts above:

I'm quite sure it was never said that the CR sun is the PR sun - it wouldn't make sense, there is an area in CR where the PR sun is represented and that's on the same plane that the ground in Shadesmare is. The sun is a physical, cosmic body, it would be like a moon or other planets - they all have a presence in CR (like a land or designated area), but they aren't hovering on the sky. Edit: The sun is SR, SH ch 2-1:

There are many theories on that. One is that Ruin's power, which earlier was trapped in the Atium cycle, is returning after the Pits were destroyed by Kelsier. Kelsier said that destruction of the Pits will cease the Atium production for around 300 years, which fits with the timeline. Another one is that Sazed didn't truly merged both Shards, because he kept them separate, thus they both are pressing on him more and more, combining it with favoring Preservation over Ruin and Ruin's subservient position compared to Preservation, you have Sazed that is unable to keep his Shard as Harmony, and is switching to Discord. Or other theories. Lots of things are happening but years have passed slowly worsening his ability to act. It didn’t happen in a single day. Rashek was making very bad decisions one after another. Each of his actions caused several problems to arise, which he had to fix only to make several other smaller problems. Even with some Shardic knowledge, Rashek didn't do well. Sazed might have been too fresh to get a full grasp of his future vision, he still didn't get the full knowledge both Shards had - it takes some time, he was overwhelmed by all of it, he could easily miss the long term consequences for the South. Rashek didn't change their DNA. Really? Shifting the location of their continent might have changed the global climate, local climate, wind direction, rain intensity, humidity, weather patterns, heat exchange, ocean currents and so on and so on. The scale of changes is incomprehensible. Malwish suffer from cold even in warm Basin temperature and the equator runs very close to Elendel (WoB). There is no geographical position on the planet where Malwish would feel comfortably warm. Geothermal hotspots don't provide much heat (look at Iceland temperatures) and are really small. Not to mention the danger of tectonic and volcanic activities - which would also affect bigger regions. That is true now. Immediately after Catacendre it might not be that big of a problem. That's why Leras needed Vin to kill Ruin, because she was fresh and she could act against Shard's intent. Sazed should have been able to act back then as well. But he didn’t for some reason.

Source? We don't know what the Sun in the Shadesmare is. I agree, not being known for having the whole city burned to the ground, or being drunk all the time after that is a weird thing. But he was honorable even as Blackthorn - when he recruited Teleb he promised him not to pillage his hometown, which he kept even if Sadeas and their troops weren't so happy about it. Bridgecrews also have different priorities, for them it's important he doesn't use people to carry bridges.

Quite a lot. They're dull gray, all of their body not just skin, from hair to eyes. It's easy to recognise them even if you've never seen them. Not to mention that they're dead - they don't blink, don't breathe, don't move, shake, twist or anything unless Commanded. They can stand in the corner motionless like a statue. Warbreaker ch 4: Really? A blue, red-eyed Koloss with bloody red tears and rips on his skin, turned fully gray into Lifeless? Lifeless Koloss would stick out like a sore thumb. Yes. Gray isn't white. Not well. Ryshadium have a spren bond, so all they get from it would be lost for a Lifeless Ryshadium. Colorwise they would be also very noticeable. He died while being Invested, which helps if you want to make a Lifeless out of him. But their former skills are passed onto Lifeless - more or less. Yes. They would be able to coordinate (if you include that in your Commands), just like any Lifeless are able to do that. "Attack those who have different colors than yours". "Attack Idrians". "Don't attack Hallandren Lifeless". You put into them several Commands ahead, you basically program how they should act in any situation - most of this would be done by proper visualization instead of vocal Commands. The bigger the brain the more Commands it can follow. The better the Awakener is at visualization during the very first Awakening, the better the Lifeless is at following later Commands. I doubt it. This either comes from their spren bond or from their spirit web. But if this is something in their physical body, independent from their spirit web, then yes. Their insides aren't gray. There is enough color in animals to be easily Awakened. Vasher Awakens gray squirrel without any problem, he didn't note that it lacks color, no. It's visualization that determines how good Lifeless is. Warbreaker ch 21:

Yes, this might be the case, unless he can change appearance or his watery body is Cognitive in nature and doesn't interact that much with PR. However if he was a one time guide then who was their guide from Lumar? Xisis? There is a connection between his appearance and Iriali departure. What if he traveled to Lumar to first guide them towards the new Land and then returned and settled on Lumar permanently?

I have just one question, what? Make the dust obey his command? Exaggeration to emphasize what so many Breaths made him feel, plus poison, drugs and pre-death state of his mind. While technically you might be able to Awaken dust, the one which came from human skin, fabric, wooden furniture etc, it would do nothing at all. It can't move, it can't act, it doesn't have any solid, consolidated form. For this reason it might be impossible to Awaken as you can't find any command or visualization that would fit to dust. Not to mention what does it mean to Awaken dust - are you Awakening an area of dust or each individual dust grain separately? It doesn't make much sense, because every grain is independent from each other, not connected, interchangeable. Dust is more like water in this case and water is practically impossible to Awaken. A dust from human skin might act very well as a focus for Awakening, similar to human hair, but it's much harder to make it stick to your Awaken object. You can weave the hair in between fabrics, you can even make a full voodoo doll out of human hair, but with dust you can't do anything like that. A dust particle is too tiny for you to include it as a focus in most cases.

Well, Urteau and Fadrex caverns were filled much earlier than the final hour of Ascension - Urteau hid in the cavern when Vin Ascended, while Fadrex shortly after the night of Vin's Ascension. In Luthadel people hid in Kredik Shaw cavern after the House War, which means they hid there a few days earlier. The time between Vin and Sazed Ascension was less than a day, around 14-16 hours (my estimates discussed here), so they definitely spent hours in caverns waiting and from the epilogue we know they felt nothing what was happening above, no indication that it was save now or not - they just decided to walked out (maybe Sazed encouraged them to do that). Spook got healed and that picked up the attention of people. For all we know they left as soon as Sazed finished his work. He did a lot, probably much quicker than a few minutes - he moved the planet several times, he moved people as well, he talked to his friends and Kwaan (but Shardic time dilation might have made this conversation much faster). Judging from descriptions of Sazed Ascension, I doubt there was any tension during or shortly after Catacendre, Sazed was able to combine both Shards but keep them separated, he was able to use both powers seemingly with no problems. I think he didn't realize how changes to the world, made to recreate pre-Rashek Scadrial, would affect Southern Scadrial, and how big was genetic adaptation of those people - something that wouldn't be obvious immediately after Catacendre, it might have take several years for the Ice Death to fully unfold. Knowing how Rashak's sudden changes created an avalanche of problems and how Vin's actions worsen the end of the world, he very likely came up with the conclusion that it's better not to use his Shardic powers to fix Southern Scadrian problems, as that would inevitably cause a butterfly effect and create more disasters somewhere else - it's better to help them in more classical way, sending a person to help them adapt.

No need for any apologizing, nothing happened. I like discussions and I was overly dramatic, for the same reason you wanted to pick on my "they were perfect" - I meant it to be controversial.

I was tempted to start a discussion with you, considering the lack of those reasons which you've mentioned are in this thread, but this is pointless now. It has been decided and my whining on the internet won't change that. I hope Brandon will provide us some reasons why he chose them in KoWT.

The Scadrian ash was ferromagnetic, it was stuck in the magnetic north pole while the geographic north pole was said to be unprotected and warmer - WoB in my first post here. Therefore the majority of ash would be only above the Final Empire, only a small amount of it would travel south (because ash from large volcanic eruptions generally spreads over the entire world). It wouldn't be visible, but it would still be there. Yes, BoM ch 21: Yes, I wish TLM gave us more about Malwish. That's for sure, moreover they had wooden towns and buildings on rocky, windy ground (per BoM epilogue) which suggest they didn't live in caves but out in the open. Rocky ground and winds suggests high altitude. They had some "bunkerlike stone dwellings" but that would not protect them from the heat of the sun. Ture. It could be that he didn't even need to protect them at all - the book said he first returned the shape of continents to their original state then he changed the orbit, but he might just throw his power which would slowly shift the land, while in the meantime he move the entire planet back to its correct place - the sun would not kill anyone outside of those who died right before his Ascension. Moreover the time perception is another aspect worth considering. For Sazed it might seem like a long time, while mere seconds passed on Scadrial. Shards experience time differently.

Both Devotion and Dominion were not involved much in human affairs on Sel, humans developed and discovered Invested Arts on their own. Coppermind: The opposite of Elantrians seems to be Dakhor monks. Gold isn't associated with Dominion (it's Odium's color), dark/black is (Skaze are dark/black) or red (WoB). Iriali don't possess any attribute associated with him - they aren't thirsty for power or control, nor do they spread their religion among non-believers like other Dominion associated groups. Both Iriali on Roshar and Lumar (and potentially on Scadrial) seem to keep close to each other and don't spread over the world. That's completely opposite to Dominion, accepting that everyone is different and can decide on their own, accepting that people won't worship or follow Dominion. This is more in line with Autonomy, but there is no direct connection between Iriali and Autonomy per WoB.

No, I don't think their religion was corrupted by Odium (they are split if Fused are part of the one or not). It might be older than the Shattering of Adonalsium - for some reason they believe that Hoid is the Trickster Aspect of the One, with capitalized letters, they have a name specifically for Hoid, which is weird. This looks awfully like Terris' prophecies, which were seeded among Terris directly by Preservation, before he imprisoned Ruin. Could Adonalsium do the same to seed the idea that Shards should be recombined?

I don't like this at all! Starspren were perfect. WoB for anyone who wants to read it (Edit: hints will be in future books, not are in the in books):

I think the spren instead of being Connected to a Shard/land, is Connected to the people, to Iriali directly, thus wherever they go, he can go as well - he always traveled with them. That's one option. Second option is that Iriali arrived on Roshar without Cusicesh, who manifested later as Iriali's spren of the Long Trail from raw investiture available on Roshar, and now is their guide. If Cusicesh went with Iriali to Lumar, which is likely in my opinion, he supposed to be their guide, leading them to the 5th Land (which I believe is Scadrial but anyway) then the same would happen on Lumar and any other Land - Cusicesh would gather investiture from Iriali until he has enough to open many perpendicularities or until something happens. However I doubt that people on Lumar would miss the presence of a giant water spren on a planet where water is especially dangerous, which means either Cusicesh adapts his appearance to each Land and he was hidden on Lumar like Xisis was, or he is the one time guide - he didn't settle on the next Land with Iriali, he just lead them there and went back to Roshar. The latter would mean Iriali have another way to mass-open perpendicularities.

True, Sazed changed human DNA to fix Rashek's changes, buuuuuuut: The book said he was keeping only the caverns safe, not for ever humans on Scadrial. It's still possible, but there wouldn't be many people left anyways. I don't think they had a large layer of ash shielding them from the sky - Catacendre in Southern Scadrial would therefore start after Sazed Ascension, because before conditions didn't change that much. No volcanoes, no ash, no deadly sun (as it already was as intense as it used to be). My personal guess is that they lived in high altitudes. They've adapted to warmer temperatures over time but Rashek did leave them something that helped them survive, whatever it was. Maybe Rashek placed them directly on the geographic south pole, then they would experience polar night and day and the sun would always stay very low over the horizon, not delivering as much heat as up north. That's the best I can think of.

I believe Nightblood passed through Lasting Integrity while being in PR, not CR - it was Nightblood's Cognitive manifestation that passed through the fortress, while Nightblood was traveling in PR and spren just never seen something like that, thus Borea couldn't be sure if that was what Vivenna was after or not. Additionally, Nightblood physically looks nothing like Rosharan Shardblades, it looks like a regular sword as long as you don't remove his sheath. If Nighblood was physically in CR in Lasting Integrity, spren wouldn't even bother to look at him for more than one second, not to mention remember him. Nightblood doesn't talk to everybody around him, he talks mostly to his wielder and people close to him. That's why I believe it was Nightblood's Cognitive manifestation that passed through Lasting Integrity, not his physical form, because that should look weird and confusing to spren. And why would Borea think it was Nightblood not knowing it? Several reasons. First, she might not be there to witness it, but she only heard the story of it. Secondly Vivenna might not know what Nightblood's Cognitive manifestation looks like, thus she relies on some vague descriptions or she collects some weird events happening in CR that might be Nightblood. Thirdly, Nightblood wasn’t nice enough to introduce himself, thus Borea didn’t know for sure that whatever passed through Lasting Integrity was Nightblood and not something else. For all we know Borea/Honorspren saw an UFO passing through, and after hearing Vivenna describing Nightblood, she only thinks that it was him, because she can’t be certain of it.

Actually that's the reason they've survived. Some Koloss, like the Human, entered Kandra Homeland and were underground when the sun rose. Ruin rushed every Koloss of his first towards Luthadel to stop Vin from Ascending, then towards the Pits after one Kandra left the Homeland with a bag of Atium. From the HoA epilogue we see that there were 6 places which people used to hide - 5 storage caverns, including undergrounds of Kredik Shaw, and Kandra Homeland with the Pits nearby. All 6 locations were shifted by Sazed to be next to each other, at the very center of the future Elendel city. If there was any other larger place where humans hid during Catacendre, I see no reason why Sazed wouldn't move them as well - however nothing in the epilogue suggests that there were more than 6 of them. Edit: @Treamayne

Yes, of course Shades were known, that doesn't make them less dangerous. Cosmere spoilers:

I love the idea that Canticle is a megastructure made by Invention. It fits well both with the intent and the WoB presented. I wonder what's its purpose, what kind of giant megastructure it is. If Invention made Canticle it may mean that Invention doesn't care about people, they didn't do that to make people invent or anything like that, but they have some big futuristic plans for all of their structures, and Threnodites landing and settling on Canticle was just an accident they didn't plan for. Not every Shard might want to include people in their plans. They are just pawns, why bother with them when you can replace them with giant machines? And I don't get what he meant at the end, he worded it weirdly. Was he referencing Ati and Vax, or did somebody from the audience shouted "Vax" or "a future Cosmere planet" or something like that and Brandon was responding to that person? If he's talking about Ati and Vax then I find it very weird that he calls him "a voice" not a person or a character. If Vax is a giant megastructure then why would Ati be familiar with it? He was stuck on Scadrial with his mind imprisoned for most of the time since the Shattering. And if Vax is related to Invention, then is Senna the name of Invention's Vessel? Leras said her name. Maybe they're all connected? Lastly, what the hell is the Grand Apparatus??? It's the most vague name possible! What if Canticle is some sort of giant battery that collects investiture for the Grand Apparatus? Otherwise I see no purpose for what's happening on Canticle and why it would collect investiture in its core.