scyron

5 hours ago, TheCremling said:

In Words of Radiance, in the response to the Letter, it says something about Hoid using his masters name. We call him Hoid but is that his masters name?

Well, in LoP, there is someone named Hoid and someone named Midius. Midius is the apprentice of Hoid and basically at the very beginning of the story

I'm not sure if it is confirmed or canon at this point, but its generally thought that sometime after previously said event occurs, Midius takes on the name of Hoid, his master, and eventually becomes the witty, meddling worldhopper we know in the books.

Hoid has gone by many names, I don't think anyone knows his original one. Cephandrius is what Preservation refers to him as in SH, so I suppose its possible thats his real name, but I doubt it. The Liar of Partinel also gives us some possibilities, as its his backstory. Although I wouldn't be surprised if Midius isn't his real name either. 

My friend went to a signing and asked how Vasher got to Roshar. Brandon said that he worldhops in the same way Hoid does. I assume this just means that he jumps into shardpools and travels through the cognitive realm since we see Hoid do that in SH. Rock also recounts a story of seeing Hoid  jump out of one in the Horneater peaks. I'm pretty sure that is the only currently known method of worldhopping, so Vasher worldhops the same way everyone else does. Unfortunately, I can't provide a source because I don't think its an official WoB.

Lift:

The Arbiters inspect Shai's forgeries: 

Kelsier and the crew start planning:

4 minutes ago, Sunbird said:

Actually, Brandon purposely gave them those names as a tongue-in-cheek joke about the fact that Scadrial has no moon.

Huh, well I guess you learn something new everyday!

23 minutes ago, Extesian said:

A related WoBs (though we're getting away from the OP, I hope @TheCremling doesn't mind).

There is debate about whether Hoid uses feruchemy to store fortune. We know he uses an analgous power to be in the right place at the right time but I believe there is no definitive WoB on whether it's feruchemy or another system. There is an old one that says it's feruchemy but it's paraphrased and still up for debate. We know he at least has access to unkeyed metalminds so his feruchemy may be limited to that. He may not actually be a feruchemist.

Ok, that's what I thought.

1 hour ago, TheCremling said:

I thought Hoid was Mistborn because he ate that piece of metal in Mistborn Secret History.

 

Well, its unclear whether or not he actually ate it, he may still have it. However, he does appear to to ingest some metal during one of Shallan's flashbacks in WoR.

Also, according to the coppermind and some WoBs, Hoid has feruchemy (supposedly able to tap fortune), which is how he always knows where to be. But I feel like I remember reading somewhere that that was changed (maybe I'm just imagining things).

When your teacher is talking about how certain genres of film wax and wane in popularity but you just burst out laughing at the unintentional misuse of Wax and Wayne. 

14 hours ago, strumienpola said:

And the Evil fits. In fact it fits so well, I'm shocked I haven't noticed that myself! 

I felt the same way!

@Extesian Thanks for both of those WoBs. That first one is awesome, I had thought about something along those lines, but chose not to include it. I like your explanation that the Evil came when a shard not only died, but gained partial sentience and somehow becomes corrupted. I still wonder if through their corruption they could cause fain. Although, it was not all of Ambition that died, just a piece, so that could certainly change the outcome or it could have something to do with it. I also like the your thoughts on the time gap, good job. As for your second WoB, I had seen that one before and I'm wondering if that is the one @The One Who Connects is referring to. Both of them together do seem to make it very likely the Evil is a semi-sentient cognitive shadow type thing. However I still think that fainlife could be involved. The descriptions may not be perfect matches, but we don't really know enough about the Evil to say for sure.

10 hours ago, Figberts said:

They are similar enough that they can be compared, but I don't think they are the same thing. The Gods of Yolen, as I understand, are not shards. 

Welcome to the Shard! 

You bring up a good point. While I think that you're right about the Yolish gods not being shards of Adonalsium, I think they are still made up of investiture and would therefore behave under the same cosmere mechanics similar to shards. 

Yes, I actually mentioned that 

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Now I know Ambition didn't actually die in the Threnodite System, but was only mortally wounded. However, Khriss says that

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"the waves of destruction—carrying ripped-off chunks of Ambition’s power—twisted both the people and the planet of Threnody."

So it seems fair to say at least a part of Ambition died there and that it definitely had some harmful consequences for Threnody.

Hello, this is my first theory, so try not to tear it apart too fast . I've looked around and am fairly certain there's not a topic on this, although if there is, kindly point me to it. I do not have a ton of evidence for it, but essentially, I believe that the Evil from Threnody is really just fainlife and I'll explain why. (By the way, there are a few AU spoilers ahead, specifically for the Threnody essay, so beware)

I first made the connection when I noticed they were both described as creeping. From LoP:

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And then, the Gods died,” he said, softening his voice as Hoid had taught him, his illusion showed a tempest in the sky, followed by a wave of creeping white covering the landscape.  “And with their death was born the Skullmoss, crawling from their corpses, slinking across the land.  Men tried to fight it, to burn it away.  And yet, fain creatures began to grow from it.  Strange, twisted creatures.
“Men fought, and men lost.  The skullmoss grew too quickly, and it fed off of the fallen corpses of the dead, sprouting on them even when no fainlife was near.  Men fled back, and humans were pushed further and further to the west.  All was despair, for they knew fain would soon claim all.  And when it did, their families would die.

And from the Threnodite System essay in AU: 

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The planet is home to two separate continents. The larger of the two has been abandoned to something known as “the Evil,” a force that even Nazh can speak of only in vague terms. A creeping darkness, a terrible force that consumed the entirety of the continent, feasting upon the souls of men.

The descriptions here are pretty similar in both wording and feel. They are both portrayed as catastrophic, death-bringing forces laying waste to entire continets. For those who haven't read the Liar of Partinel, as far as I understand, fainlife came as a result of the death of Yolen's gods. It says that the fainlife came from the gods' corpse, implying that it came directly from them, and not that the gods were simply holding it back and when they died, it was left to ravage the land. We know Ambition, a shard, which can be considered a god,  died in the Threnodite system. So, assuming LoP is mostly still canon, I think that the Evil is fainlife born from the death of Ambition. Now I know Ambition didn't actually die in the Threnodite System, but was only mortally wounded. However, Khriss says that

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"the waves of destruction—carrying ripped-off chunks of Ambition’s power—twisted both the people and the planet of Threnody."

So it seems fair to say at least a part of Ambition died there and that it definitely had some harmful consequences for Threnody. I know thats not a perfect argument, but it makes sense to me that fainlife could be something that causes the inhabitants of the Fallen World to flee. The fainlife we see in LoP drove the people to the brink of extinction. It pushed mankind into very small pockets of civilization where space was extremely limited and growing food was difficult. And I mean, consuming continents, feasting on the souls of men, that seems pretty reminiscent of fain. I can see how the destructive power of fainlife could cause a contintent wide evacuation in Threnody considering what we've seen of it in LoP. It just seems to fit.

There are also a couple holes I'd like to address. First of all the biggest issue I see is of the timing of it. The battle between Ambition and Odium occurred relatively soon after the Shattering, however the arrival of The Evil appears to be much more recent, like within a 100 years of Shadows for Silence, which occurs later in the sequence of cosmere books. The only explanation I can think of is that the effect on Threnody of the battle was somehow delayed. Maybe it took time for the pieces of Ambition to reach the planet, or they somehow lay dormant for a long time, I don't know, I'm just speculating on this part. If anyone does know anything about that, please share.

The second thing is why Nazh, being from Threnody, did not explain the Evil to Khriss. The most likely explanation is that Nazh was born long before the Evil started wrecking havoc on the Fallen World. This seems to make sense due to his worldhopping history. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Shadows for Silence takes place after Era 1 of Mistborn. And since we see him in SH, its likely he was around before the events of SfS and the Evil. He also talks about the rituals of becoming a shade, which do not line up at all with what we see of shades in SfS. They seem much more dangerous than the way he describes them, suggesting he comes from a different time period when the shades were not quite so evil. Khriss says he could only talk about the Evil vaguely, and I think thats because he didn't actually know what it was since he was not on Threnody at the time.

Anyway, there's my theory, I hoped you liked it. Remember, all of this could be completely invalid if in the canon, fainlife is not the same. Feel free to share your thoughts, comments, ideas, criticisms, and any relevant WoBs. Have fun speculating!

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Clayton Phillips 

Before Adonalsium shattered, was it consciously opposed by something, be it people or another cosmic force? Is whatever opposed it still around?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yes. Yes.

There is this WoB, although its a rather vague answer. This could mean there was indeed another god,  or it could simply refer to the 16 who shattered Adonalsium, or it could be something else entirely. 

There is also the God Beyond. We don't know much about it other than it is worshipped on multiple worlds. Silence Montane worships it, Wayne, Shai, and Hoid have all mentioned it as well. I believe it is generally thought that the God Beyond is a similar force to Adonalsium, possibly even an opposing force, although its hard to be certain of anything.

Hope that answers your question.

When you seriously wish that Brandon was a bendalloy misting so he could write all his books much faster.

Although I suppose a simple time machine would work too...

I would think that they would each recieve their own breath because they are seperate people.

15 minutes ago, Extesian said:

Interesting idea. To me they're two separate people just with the same DNA so they should both have a Breath. What does interest me is identity. Do they have an identical identity? If one awakens an object, could the other take that Breath from it?

I would say that even though twins are often very similar, (I myself am a twin) they are still distinct people. They may have different friends, relationships, hobbies, interests, personalities, behaviors, etc. All of which will influence their connection and identity. So, they would not be able to use each other's breath since their identities will be similar, but not exactly the same.

When your teacher's name is Mr. Wax and you can't help but imagine how much cooler your engineering class would be if you had a twinborn lawman as a teacher. 

And a student teacher with certain affinity for hats...

2 hours ago, Windrunner said:

I've read Shadows for Silence several different times and actually wrote the article for the Evil on the Coppermind. As far as I am aware, there is no mention that the Evil came from the sky in the story itself or in any interview questions.

Ok, thanks for the info!

Looking at old theories, I found this

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The people on Threnody talk about how "the evil" fell from the sky and destroyed "homeland."

from last year. I was wondering if there is a quote from a book, WoB, or other source for this. I couldn't find anything else about the Evil falling from the sky, and I wasn't sure if it a real thing or not, so figured I'd ask you guys.

Thanks!

Hey, welcome to the shard and have an upvote. I actually use your app and I enjoy it a lot, well done.

The tale of Sarene's rather misfortunate love life (Elantris spoilers):

When you misread Converse as Cosmere... repeatedly. Then wonder if there is a secret line of Brandon Sanderson footwear which only other sanderfans can recognize.

Thanks for the welcome. I have a question I was hoping somebody would be able to answer, do we know all of the bind points that can be used to access hemalurgy? 

(P.S. I see no one noticed my hidden message )

I like to use white text by the way