Vortaan

I'd be more inclined to believe this if Dalinar's final vision wasn't of essentially a giant void, with Tanavast saying that this is what Odium wants. I'd also note that Odium seems to be playing a longer game than any Shard we've seen so far. The Desolations were probably to kill Honor and took a couple millenia, and in the meantime he rolled around the Cosmere, taking out two Shards (and it seems like he did that quickly, hence a brief visit), and probably checking on two more. I think something people seem to take for granted is that Odium is more short term, since hatred in most people tends to have a short attention span. But if the very core of your being was hatred, wouldn't you take the very long view to assure the destruction of all that you hated? It's this thought that makes me think Odium has Invested himself in something in the past, briefly, for a longer-term gain.

This makes me think of Harmony, for some reason. Like Cultivation is a mixture of Preservation and Ruin.

They could just have a localized effect where their words are translated for them. Taln could be speaking Dawnchant, and it's being translated to the guards as Alethi, much like Dalinar in his visions is speaking Alethi to himself, but is actually speaking Dawnchant to Navani and company.

This seems unwieldy when you are one of ten people chosen to lead basically a whole world to war. "For battle directions in Alethi, please press one. For Horneater, please press two. For Makabi, please press three. If you do not hear your language of choice, please charge headfirst at the enemy. Thank you, and have a nice Desolation"

I suppose the interesting question is if it's a conscious decision, and what would happen if multiple people with different languages were placed in front of the Heralds. For example, would Kaladin and Rock hear their own language, or would Taln need to consciously decide to speak to each?

Seems unlikely. If it was, shouldn't it disappear now that he's not being tortured any longer?

Actually, this seems like a very important thing that I think we've glossed over a little. Syl is fighting the deathspren. Why? If they are just drawn to the dead and dying, then what good does fighting them do? It shouldn't have any effect on saving Kaladin. Syl is a spren, and knows more about their nature than anyone. Maybe it's not simple a case of spren being attracted to something, but the observation of spren cementing something into existence. Fits with the measurement test those two ardents were doing as well.

I hadn't thought of taking Investiture, but that is interesting. We can also speculate that the Essences that Dalinar fights in his vision are the product of Voidbinding. So, theory: All humans on Roshar contain some mixture of the Ten Essences. Voidbinding possibly removes some of these essences, either from the Voidbinder or from others, to create it's effects. This lack of balance allows Stormlight to be held perfectly by Voidbringers, as they are no longer quite human and the Stormlight serves to fill the gap.

Or Shallan could get Renarim's Plate. That would be interesting.

I still think that the rules Tanavast talks about are more just the nature of their Shards. I doubt Honor can do much to empower slumlords, for example. Odium's true strength may be the flexibility of his Shard. You can use hatred to motivate a surprisingly large amount of actions.

Hrm. Interesting other question. If a previous God King had an actual daughter, why didn't she have the Royal Locks or similar? Brandon seems to be saying that Vo was the first Returned, but not particularly special in his fathering abilities.

Random speculation: what if the beads are created by the previous users of the Well? I mean, each time you need to get rid of the Deepness aspect of Preservation, and you need to use the power of the Well. Maybe the others came up with the more elegant solution of solidifying the excess power in the Deepness mists into Lerasium. Side note about Lerasium: Does anyone else find it odd that the power of this metal stays inside the populace, but atium vanishes to the Pits? Shouldn't both metals do their thing and then return to the power that creates them?

To 1.1, I always figured that Elithanathile was actually another Shard, that was somehow damaged by not Splintered by Odium, leading to the whole "The Broken One reigns" quote. Perhaps Cultivation, the name does seem feminine to me. It does seem odd that Odium would Splinter Honor but leave Cultivation undamaged...

Maybe it's not as vague as all that. All the Shards are bound by rules, but that doesn't mean they are all the same. Honor's shard deals more with connections and people, the now. Cultivation, by necessity, needs to plan for the future. Perhaps it's just as simple as Tanavast is unable to use his Shard to see much of the future because of the nature of his Intent. Note that both Ruin and Preservation require some forward planning, as does Endowment. The lack of prophecies on Sel (that we're aware of) could very well stem from the lack of whole Shards.

Random speculation: Voidbinding apparently looks towards the future, the dying see the future, and death is commonly described as a void... is it possible that the power of Voidbinding requires death to work? If so, it puts it in line with Hemalurgy as an end-negative art.

I'd find it more likely that Bridge Four becomes the equivalent of the soldiers that were waiting for the Radiants in Dalinar's vision.

Probably would have been easier to suppress knowledge of atium and Hemalurgy. Admittedly that creates a huge economic gap, but the whole suppressing Feruchemy thing doesn't seem to have worked too well, since even some of Elend's books make mention of metalminds. However, make atium mythical and suddenly your immortality is mythical and your Inquisitors are pretty damnation unstoppable. The flaw in this is Seekers sensing atium, I suppose, but making sure your Inquistors burn copper before they use atium seems reasonable. Secondary thought: the economic factor had to have come AFTER the Empire was pretty much established. During the conquest/building years, the Great Houses are probably not powerful enough to be major economic clout, plus there's no deathcamp at the Pits to mine the atium. So why did the Lord Ruler base his economy on atium?

Ah ha! That makes a lot more sense. It seems like full Feruchemists would have slowly died out then, with Ferrings become more predominant as more Allomancer/Feruchemist genes mingled. This also seems to indicate the Lord Ruler's breeding program was tragically unnecessary, as there would never have been another full Mistborn/Feruchemist. Allomancy genes being introduced into the Terris population could have actually given him a lot less trouble, since there would have been less Keepers (although probably no Sazed, so that would have ended poorly)

Rare, yes. Non-existent? Seems very unlikely that they couldn't bounce back at all... but maybe we'll find out there are a few full Feruchemists, hiding away somewhere.

This doesn't seem to jive. A thousand year breeding program still didn't remove full Feruchemists from the Terris people. While I'm sure that there was some intermarrying right after Harmony reshaped the world, the Terris people still tend to keep to themselves, and I'd imagine that some families are probably still pretty purebred.

Something to note: Taravangian's bad days make him, according to the other lighteyes, less intelligent than them... but he may well be at the level of a clever darkeyes with no education. You have to keep in mind that opinions expressed on his intelligence are given by the ruling elite of a city with the largest library in the world, Jasnah, and Shallan. Not exactly the dimmest people ever.

My fault. In that case... I'm guessing not as things stand right now on Scadrial. There don't seem to be any full Mistborn or Feruchemists. In fact... we don't know what caused full Feruchemists to begin with, since there haven't been any since Harmony appeared. It seems odd that he'd change Feruchemy so much when he knows it's limits. And I'd still go with Steel Ferring/Mistborn. That unlimited speed just seems to trump everything else.

Misting/Feruchemists exist by the time of Alloy of Law. They are called Twinborn, and the main character is a Coinshot/Iron Ferring. As for me? Probably double steel, Coinshot plus unlimited physical speed sounds handy on a daily basis.

That I understand, I'm curious as to why. I'll check the link, but what do the visions do that disconnect a Shardbearer from their connection to their Blade? You'd expect him to be thrashing about, Blade in hand. EDIT: Read the post. Interesting ideas. It's odd though that he's connected enough to talk, but not connected enough to summon his Blade. Or do you need to hold your hand out to summon a Blade? I remember them tying Dalinar down. EDIT OF EDIT!: Also I'd provide quotes but I'm reading on my Iphone at the moment and pages be all weird.

Rereading WoK again, and something about Dalinar's visions struck me as odd. We know his physical body doesn't go anywhere, and that he is connected enough to it to be speaking and thrashing around. So the question I have is, when he summons his Shardblade in the visions, why doesn't it translate to summoning it in the real world? Might mean nothing, but it's an oddity.