Turos

Ah that's an interesting take on it for sure! I never thought about it that way. Definitely could be the case, but I find one thing that doesn't seem to fit. I can't see Honor breaking an oath. I know Shards have acted out of their intent's way to a degree in the past, but for me to see Honor breaking an oath, if this is what the oathpact is all about, I could only see him do so to fulfill a greater sense of honor, something that if he ignored would truly ruin what he is about. Honor is the Broken One? Wow, that is really a great point! I could see this working very well.

Good theory, but Brandon said a little something about this in the recent Q&A on this site:

Ya it would! It seems like the Heralds oaths were made in response to the Desolation happening, or knowing they would happen. But technically, if the people of Roshar see a Herald, they can be pretty certain a Desolation has come with him, and also the other way. At least until that Herald gave up on his commitment. Here's my question: If the Herald's supposedly created the Orders of the Knights Radiant, how in hell, literally in hell, could they do this if every time they are cast out of Damnation they are too busy fighting the Voidbringers, and after the battle they are sent right back to Damnation? Did they have a period of time allotted before they had to return? Or did they found the Orders before they first went to Damnation?

Good question, although 'heart' can also be taken to mean 'core', and as they have to kill the creature to dig it out of its body, my opinion is that gemheart is more like a gem-at-the-core idea, but who knows. If it does surve a purpose and isn't something like an oyster's pearl where a grain of sand gets inside and happens to collect the same material that is produced to line the oyster's shells' inside, then the 'heart-as-an-organ-like-thing' idea could have some merit. EDIT: Windrunning Chasmfiends

Remember, though, that each Order of the Knights Radiant had two Surges. So technically to qualify for an Order by this theory, would you need to meet two required attributes? If so, this could limit who became a Radiant. I think the main reason for the Orders returning is that the next Desolation is about to come, as who seems to be Herald Talenelat claims at the end of the book. As far as Elohkar, him seeing what are likely Truthspren is entirely possible without him being in the same Order, but it would likely mean he is going to end up in an Order that shares one of the two Surges Shallan's Order possesses. Other than that, I have no idea how Elohkar would be considered 'excellent', heh. Maybe Odium is messin' with him. Additional note: I just realized something. Isn't Bridge Four member Rock, the Horneater, able to see Syl, the spren who follows Kaladin? Oooo... possible Knight-to-be?

An idea just came to me: what if the three realms are tied to the three Shards of Roshar. I bet some of you have already thought about this. What do you think? The Tranquiline Halls seem to be of Honor, Roshar being the place of Cultivation, and Damnation of Odium. The world of Roshar is like a place of sorting humans out after being cast from the Tranquiline Halls. Did they do something that made them unworthy of honor? Shallan's studies claim the Voidbringers cast mankind out of the Halls and to Roshar. The Heralds made an oath, seemingly to Honor or about honor. They made a sacrifice by tying themselves willingly to Damnation. They resurface to Roshar whenever a Desolation happens. They fight and defeat the Voidbringers. Desolation is pushed back for thousands of years or so it seems. When the Heralds are in Damnation, they suffer the pains of having their flesh scorched off of their bones. It seems this suffering lasts until the following Desolation. Sounds like Odium's intent is either punishing them for being his enemies, for entering his realm, or perhaps their ways or honor make them unable to survive their without harm. Who knows, but this I bet this has been discussed before, huh?

Interesting that dark eyes, even those of high standing, are forbidden to wield swords. Thanks for posting this Havoc! This is really useful stuff to have handy! The note of the three gods is also interesting. I can see how you mean 'the Almighty' references one, and it could be that way, but this could also be plural as in 'the Almighty (Three)', but you may be on to something.

Hmm, interesting about the blood loss causing the heart to beat faster, and also about the heart slowing before cardiac arrest. Also, it's not likely every death quote comes from a death of loss of blood. Not enough information to know, though. Still, the idea was not based in evidence, just looking for patterns. I actually think the ten heartbeats are necessary, and not just a period to know the blade will be around by then. I'm rereading WoK one character at a time, and can't remember half of it, but still, after listening to Brandon's reading of Stormlight 2: Shallan's Flashback chapter #1, he specifically says at the end of the recording: "Those who have read the first book know that there are some things going on in Shallan's past. She mentions one of them near the end of the book, if you'll remember, and there is supposition about something with Shallan mentioning several times the phrase: 'ten heartbeats', which is a somewhat important measure in this world."

Ten heralds, ten orders of magic per division, ten everything. Why ten heartbeats? Is it like the summoning of a Shardblade requires your body to pulse for each of its focuses? Or is it simply the number ten? Here's an unbased guess: Are the phrases people seem to say when dying, that aren't their own words, but from someone perhaps in Damnation, spoken in the last ten heartbeats of that life?

Here's that quote. It seems this is the only place in the book where the word 'lanceryn' is used, as well. I wonder what they were like, but it sounds like they were only found in Aimia. I wonder if their gemhearts looked different. Now this makes me think, would the creatures with gemhearts use the stormlight collected in them during the highstorms? If so, for what? Maybe they depend on stormlight somehow in their later stages of development. Here's a crazy idea, maybe gems that can store stormlight are actually concentrated versions of it.

I wouldn't call this a theory as much as I would an observation and a guess based on that, but with some further observations, it may work its way to that point. As those of you whom have read the Ars Arcanum in the Way of Kings may know, there are three Lashings associated with the Windrunner order of the Knights Radiant. It has been explained/suggested elsewhere that this order uses two Surges tied to gravity and atmospheric pressure. These are evident in the Lashings. While the Basic and Reverse Lashings are tied to gravity, the remaining Full Lashing is based on the principles of atmospheric pressure. Now what do we know about windspren? Tricky little guys, they like to mess with people sometimes, often binding objects together, or people to objects. So windspren seem to be able to perform something similar to a Full Lashing. I wonder what other evidences we have of spren being able to mimic the ablities of the Knights Randiant, or perhaps we should think of it as the Knights who are mimicking the spren... Now for the 'theory-ish' part. I believe Syl is indeed a windspren who has evolved further into honorspren status. My opinion is that honorspren can be made from any spren, or at least spren that are related to a surge the one they bind with is blessed with the ability to use. I am one who thinks all spren are of Honor, and that each can become a link to that Shard's power. In this case, it is technically the spren who does the surgebinding, binding the surge power to their symbiote.

Welcome

If only!

They better be adding Hoid for it to be taking so long

Guiltyspren - They show up when someone feels guilty and is trying to hide it or lie about it. Distractionspren - They distract you from the distraction that just distracted you. Censorspren - They hover around tv's in the shape of black rectangles whilst emitting well-timed beeping noises. Spellingerrorspren - Look like wobbly red lines that float under mis-spelled words. Appspren - Appear when there is an app for that. Look like Steve Job's head. Yougotmailspren - Ya. Footprintspren - Conveniently look like black footprints that appear where you step. They remain for a while. Studfinderspren - They follow me relentlessly. Radiantspren - Appear when someone is using a Surge. Ghostspren - Look like dark silhouettes of people and stay in the shadows just where you can barely see them. They only appear at night and when you thought you heard something. RickRollspren - Give you a heads up of when you are getting RickRolled.

Tap breath so I can sing with my head underwater. Awaken a glass of water to drink itself. Awaken some object with all my Breaths and order it to tear itself apart. Some actual cool things to do: A diminishing fabrial that makes you deaf while sleeping. An augmenter fabrial for improving sight. Ironpull while tapping weight to make cool metal sculptures or buildings. Poison all of your food when you find a rodent infestation, then burn gold while eating and digesting. Storing your breath so you can sing opera songs and make that last note REALLY long. Also good for burping competitions. Tap memories to 'cheat' on a test. Store weight so you can sit on an uncomfortable chair comfortably.

Good question. I remember reading that taking Lerasium to become a mistborn alters or rearranges your spirtual dna. This seems more like its 'spiritually exclusive' however, and the body doesn't sound like it's involved, at least to me.

From the things I've read Mr. Sanderson saying, it seems to me he is more into taking several views of different ideas that do or could exist and putting them into his worlds' settings, then letting them all work around the plot. He seems like the kind of guy who is more interested in making an involved story without letting any character's bias be the 'right one'. When the story of the cosmere is all said and done, I believe the religious qualities of who or whatever created the universe will still be unanswered and people will still be enjoying contemplating it from whatever angles they like. Each book is a microcosm of the big picture, and all that I've read (all cosmere books to date ) leave things up in the air, but the protagonist learns and develops, the antagonist provides an obstacle that is overcome triumphantly to allow for that growth, and I a put down my copy of the book drooling for any news of the next one.

Wow, I can see some Real-time strategy games made from it. I am excited to read both of them.

What kind of spren would be interesting if they existed on Roshar? I'd say: Paranoidspren-Can only be seen if you are being paranoid, and only seen in your peripheral vision ^^ Cavityspren-Like rotspren, but specific to cavities Messagespren-wherever a message is written or drawn, messagespren will hover. Let's say you wrote down a bunch of random letters. No messagespren are attracted, but let say your random letters are a code that you can understand, BAM!, messagespren show up. They would also hover around pictures that the artist specifically made to portray a specific message. Dizzyspren-Appear to be little birds that circle the victim's head xD Ideaspren-These look like little bulbs of glass with light inside and they show up above someone's head when they have an epiphany. Quantumspren-They specifically appear when a cat is in a box... Slangspren-These spren are unique in that they show up when slang words are used, but only as long as the slang hasn't been accepted into society as an official word. They look like disembodied mouths with tongues that try to mimic the vocal movements of the slang word. Pop-upspren-For a more modern Roshar, the spren pop up in front of your computer screen whenever you get a pop-up while browsing the web. They are brightly colored and annoying. Pop-up-blockerspren-These guys appear when your pop-up blocker stops a pop-up from appearing or automatically closes a pop-up. They look like needles that will interact with pop-upspren by stabbing them and making them wither away. Insidejokespren-These are very useful in conversation, allowing someone who is not privvy to the joke to not have to wonder what on earth the others were talking about. Echospren-When sound echoes, echospren fly along the vibrations and bounce off surfaces where the echo is loudest. They look like vibrating sheets of translucent yellow goo. Antisprenspren-These spren appear all around people who are currently annoyed by any spren or spren in general. The more annoyed you are at spren, the more show up. Its not too rare a sight to see someone running down the street recklessly and in a raging fury, covered in a cloud of antisprenspren. Also incorrectly known as passiveagressivespren or shadenfreudespren.

Gasp indeed, sir. Gasp indeed.

That's the key then, the mortal's disposition. A Shard is only part of the bigger picture of the Power of Creation. Power isn't inherently morale or immorale. The actor using the power makes the choice on how it is used. And Plus for Raistlin mention xD

So, there are three hulking creatures sitting alongside a shipping canal. One's a Koloss, another's an Inquisitor and the third's a Lifeless. The Koloss turns over to the other two and says, "I'm so strong, I'm going to kill both of you with my powerful fists, because I'm so strong!" The other two don't respond at first. After a minute of thought, the Inquisitor turns to the Koloss and says, "I'm so fast, I'm going to decapitate both of you before you can move, I'm so fast!" The Lifeless grunts and watches as a barge comes down the canal. The other's follow his gaze. "Well," the others ask, "what are you going to do to destroy us?" The Lifeless starts laughing. "What's so funny?" They demand as the barge pulls right behind them. The Lifeless gives them a creepy, emotionless stare and points at the barge. "Magnets."