Trellium

Interesting point about getting the investiture to interface with the object's soul. That's the part where I think he would need the knowledge of a Rosharan Artifabrian. We don't know enough about how Fabrials are constructed, but they do channel the effects of the spren / investiture they contain into physical objects they are built onto. For example, Veden Half Shards. Another interesting analogue is the Soulcaster Fabrial. These utilize infused gemstones and fabrial construction to allow any user to interface with the souls of objects around them. So in a way, Rosharan scholars are already working on this whole other set of issues. Vasher and Navani should collaborate. It can't go as poorly as his last collaboration.

Well you would only need two perfect gemstones for what I proposed. And we've already seen the King's Drop in Thaylen City. Plus per the Gemstone Archive in Urithiru "As the duly appointed keepers of the perfect gems, we of the Elsecallers have taken the burden of protecting the ruby nicknamed Honor's Drop. Let it be recorded." So they are out there, and will probably be hunted down over the next two books to capture Unmade. As for my other suggestion, just like Shardplate is powered by Stormlight from replaceable / rechargeable gemstones, a fabrial construction / awakened garment like Vasher's Cloak wouldn't require perfect stones. My main takeaway is just that the thing that Vasher is missing is a way to make the Stormlight stick in place when he tries to awaken something. Typically, on Roshar, the way to do that is stick a gemstone in or on something.

@RShara and @Spoolofwhool brought up the following WOB on discord earlier, which got me thinking: Vasher can't awaken with Stormlight, only surivive on it for now. But Brandon implies it can be figured out. We know that Breath and Stormlight are both investiture, and should both be able to power the same abilities if properly hacked. The difference seems to be that Breath is sticky, and will stay put in any object indefinitely. In fact it's so sticky that it can't be recovered from lifeless at all. Stormlight on the other hand leaks out of people and can only be absorbed by individuals with a nahel bond or honorblade. It can, however, be infused in gemstones, which is the main way to store investiture in Roshar. Fabrials are made of gemstones with captured spren inside. Spren are investiture. "Perfect Gemstones" hold investiture indefinitely, and have been shown capable of trapping even large spren made of significant amounts of investiture (unmade). If Vasher took infused gemstones, and placed them in a fabrial construct made of organic material with a lowered threshold for awakening, for example, by studding his extra long tasseled sleeves on his person shaped cloak with infused rubies in the right locations, he should be able to form the right Intent and vocalize the right command to awaken and animate the garment. Anything but a perfect gemstone would of course slowly leak out the power, but the stones could be replaced or reinfused as needed. A perfect gemstone filled to the brim with stormlight and placed in the pommel of a sword may be able to be awakened into a Type IV sentient object with a single powerful command. Using anything less than a perfect stone would be cruel though, as the entity would need to feed constantly like a Returned to stay infused enough to retain sapience. It may even be possible to place an infused gemstone into a corpse and create a Lifeless who will function until it runs out of stormlight. This combined with soulcasting and the knowledge that went into creating Kalad's Phantoms could be used to create a super soldier. Take the body of a warrior who is killed in battle. Embed a perfect gemstone fully infused with stormlight in the chest of the corpse. Soulcast many thin layers of graphine over the body to create layers of essentially kevlar, soulcast a layer of Kalad's Phantom style armor of thick Stone or Metal on top of that. Awaken the corpse with the most efficient lifeless commands. Use a second infused perfect gemstone in the pommel of a sword as described above to create a sentient Type IV entity with the command "Vex Odium". Give the sword to the super soulcast lifeless soldier. Command the lifeless to obey the sword. Sit back and sip on the color wine of your choosing while Odium gets vexed

I think this is connected to the fact that their bond is based in their Spiritual DNA, which operates independently of time.

Great episode guys. Now I can't stop imagining variations of Hoid going through Nalthian Customs in progressively more over the top disguises, some of which involve lightweaving, none of which actually fool Endowment

Just finished this up. The Dalinar flashbacks are awesome in graphic audio.

Great episode! Re: Edglium Discussion God Metals are just the physical form of a Shard's investiture. All physical investiture is metal. Breaths are Endowment's investiture in the physical realm in a vapor form, just like the Mists are Preservastion's investiture in the same state. Lerasium would be the product of something condensing and freezing* the Mists. So Edglium would just be frozen condensed breaths. *I doubt that the phase changing processes of physical investiture are governed by pressure and temperature. The returned are cognitive shadows stapled back to their own dead body with a splinter of Endowment. That stapeling, and therefore splintering, takes place on the Spiritual Realm, and so is a bad place to look for an analogy to what physically possessing / using Edglium should do. A better thing to look at would be Peacegiver's Treasure, The Light of Peace. With over 50k breaths the Hallendran God Kings gain absolutely ridiculous power levels along with the ability to endow that power along with an Intent to everything around them. I expect that the ability Edglium provides would be similar, requiring the user of the power to endow it to another person or object by the very nature of its use. To me the more interesting question is if the holder of randomly found Edglium can access the power, and the ability to endow it to others (awaken), since it hasn't been willingly endowed to them in the same way breaths and divine breaths by Edgli at birth / return and exclusively transferred by their owners thereafter.

Nightblood being made out of Atium simply doesn't make any sense. Atium is the condensed physical form of the pure investiture that makes up Ruin. A shardblade is the condensed physical form of the pure sentient investiture that are Spren. Nightblood was an effort to recreate a shardblade. Nightblood has been referred to as an artificial shardblade, a zombie spren. We know his creation was a secret Vasher killed his wife to protect, and that is required 1000 breaths. There is no danger in a planet full of Awakeners learning that they too can create Type 4 Biochromatic Entities of awesome power if they first acquire Ruin's God Metal. It is clear that the risk involves the use of awakening and resources present on Nalthis. If we are looking to figure out how to imitate physically condensed investiture in the form of metal using awakening, a system of placing quanta of investiture, called breaths, inside physical objects, and we know the starting ingredients include an unknown metal as well as significant sticky investiture, why leap to assuming the metal was pre-invested? To me, the hard part of Nightblood isn't solving how Awakening + Metal + Breaths = invested metal, but how the intent and command are utilized to give the invested object spontaneous sentience.

I have a very strong feeling that First of the Sun is "These Waters." And that "The Young" is "The Reciever" on Obrodai, an insignificant well hidden world recently seeded by Bavadin with a new autonomous aspect who was approached by Hoid. "You have spoken to one who cannot respond." Hoid's communication went to an aspect that can't respond. Maybe because they are young and not yet sufficiently developed. "We, instead, will take your communication to us—though we know not how you located us upon this world.We are indeed intrigued, for we thought it well hidden. Insignificant among our many realms... But we stand in the sea, pleased with our domains " This could mean that Bavadin will take the communication received by the young aspect on the well hidden insignificant world and receive it for reply with this other aspect writing the letter. Not necessarily that Hoid also managed to find the writer in "the seas". "We also instruct that you should not return to Obrodai. We have claimed that world, and a new avatar of our being is beginning to manifest there." Even though Obrodai is being named here for the first time, it still is most likely the insignificant world. She is surprised he found the world and and doesn't want him returning. "She is young yet, and—as a precaution—she has been instilled with an intense and overpowering dislike of you. This is all we will say at this time. If you wish more, seek these waters in person and overcome the tests we have created." This is the more mature aspect on First of the Sun telling Hoid to come speak to her, passing the many dangerous trials of the Pantheon / Patji and stay away from the young aspect he initially approached on Obrodai.

Agreed. Pure Investiture can take many physical forms, we have seen Atium beads, lerasium beads, the mists, shardblades, and shardpools on Scadrial, Roshar, and Sel as examples of this. All of those are really just the physical manifestation of the investiture of a shard of Adonalseum. The investiture in Nightblood, however, is in the form of breaths, which just happen to be stuck to a steel sword, a physical object present in the physical realm. That much investiture all stuck together in one place forms a sentient consciousness, but the physical steel still serves as it's "vessel". I think a more interesting question would be what form Nightblood takes in the cognitive realm.

You're right, my assumption that Hoid's limitations to harming others don't apply to cognitive shadows may be false. It could be more about the precise definition of what constitutes harm than the nature of the entity upon which the "harm" was inflicted.

Can't be that, Hoid's surprise at being able to hurt Kelsier at the well of ascension in Scadrial's Cognitive Realm in MSH rules out it being a strategic decision on Hoid's own part, and implies a more binding restraint. One that's conditions were not met by harming a cognitive shadow.

Then just pick Elantrian, catch up to Hoid, steal back the moon scepter, and then you can Forge to your hearts content. The Dor is the Dor.

I like the theory, and this may be a viable method for remotely seeding a world with Autonomy's investiture, but whoever Trell is, and I agree it is almost certainly Autonomy, she appears to be making more of an in person appearance than you suggest.

Mraize has an Aviar, and is looking forward to utilizing voidbinding. Oathbringer is written post Dalinar Remembering. We have a Dustbringer! Great chapters.

That's awesome, and it would definitely work. Just alternate who is storing weight and who is tapping, with the storer lurching upwards at and past/above the tapper. Then at the storer's vertical appex, they swap roles.

That's true... unless the material is either aluminum or significantly invested. I agree an army of lifeless would be torn to shreds by shardbearers, but that's why I suggested Type IV biochromatic entities made of metal statues soulcast from corpses. This is not a lifeless at all, and should be invested enough to block a shardblade. I guess we will know for sure once Nightblood gets drawn and clashes with one.

Awesome plan! But the Dor makes getting in and out of Sel hard, plus the Selish have no breath anyway- they have more than drabs, but only those born on Nalthis are Endowed with a breath. I say take your breaths to Roshar. The trip is easier, the investiture more readily available, and they would have any awakaners new best friend: soulcasters. You can make all kinds of custom awakened objects through soulcasting. When important light eyes die, they are soulcast into metal statues. Drag a bunch out in a highstorm and awaken an elite squad of type 4 entities with 1000 breaths equivalent of stormlight each and a command to "obey me".

I have begun working on something similar. Take a look at my thoughts so far for the game and specifically my card proposals for Scadrial. I have the systems in mind for the other planets as well, but those notes aren't organized enough to be worth sharing yet. I would love to work together with anyone interested. My priority is keeping the mechanics of each magic system accurately represented in gameplay mechanics over anything else. Let me know what you all think. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17LPQ0HTUt0czTYnqTBRgh-l7I84LnHodYl29pYc_HIw/edit?usp=drivesdk

Trell has got to be Bavadin. Between the WOB stating that she is worshipped in many names by many peoples, and has even been a full pantheon, and the outrage Miles and Bleeder express towards Harmony's heavy hand. This is the exact hypocrisy Kriss was pointing out in Autonomy.

I'm sure that the Amians would disagree that anything that happened during Dalinar's life was THAT long ago. With respect to the other proto-radiants, it makes sense to assume they could have been watched from the time they became objects of consideration for a nahel bond from their respective class of spren. Dalinar was likely not being actively considered by the Stormfather at this time, and even then I doubt it would be known to the Amians, even if their hoardlings can see and hear everything on the continent. However, given the historical significance of Gavilar's reunification campaign, as well as the existence of Hoidsense and feruchemical luck, I guess it is possible they could have known to watch the Kholin brothers before they even began. Regardless, that's a cool parallel you caught.

Has there been any announcement or comment I missed about a 10th anniversary edition of Well of Ascension? I know Brandon had mentioned wanting to do it in 2017 if the prior books were well received, which they certainly seem to have been. I'm sure I'm not the only one looking forward to filling my bookshelves with a complete Dragonsteel Cosmere collection.

Brilliant, Flash. Assuming sufficient Stormlight, you should be able to negate the effects of air resistance while selectively allowing just enough friction on your feet to allow continuous acceleration. The inherit limits to steel compounding would be negated, but this may take an impractical amount of Stormlight. So unless you want to limit your super speed to Roshar during highstorms, it seems like we probably also need to figure out a good hack to allow you to fuel your surgebinding with internally renewable reservoir of investiture already being produced through compounding.

It is the Mandate that the shard imposes on the a Vessel, though they can resist to some extent. Regardless, if Kriss uses the word Mandate to describe what we call a shard's Intent, then it is a perfectly reasonable term to use. It would only be problematic if we were using mandate in another context.

This could be fun. It would probably be better based on who would win a battle, since that could launch some fun discussions about the interactions of various magic systems, as opposed to simple statements of preference.