Jace21

"loosely dangling off his arms"? Did we read the same book? Pretty sure they were spiked tight onto his arms precisely so they couldn't be pushed/pulled on. There was no reason for him to believe it would ever possible to push/pull them that way so having them in his body would have been redundant. What Vin did was unprecedented. Was Rashek arrogant? Sure, but understandably so. Only when in Elantris are they so powerful. Access to the Dor wouldn't be enough, the dome would need Elantris inside of it. Not to mention that that even with inscribed Elantris-strength aons they would be too slow for Rashek and lack the firepower to kill him. Compounded gold too. Even mach 6 into a wall probably wouldn't give you a long enough window to do anything considering how fast he recovers. Fullborn are OP.

And? Willing to see it burn and "I will burn it down" are very different things. If we include the possibility for metaphor then it means even less.

No he didnt. He was wiping the floor with a mistborn until she drew directly on the power of a shard to do something that would otherwise be impossible. Cut the guy some slack. As for Elantrians, access to the dor or no, there is no world in which they beat a fullborn or prepared feruchemist in an arena style situation. They're just not fast enough. The f-steel is the issue. Mistborn, awakeners, surgebinders, elantrians, none of them are fast enough to kill or survive against someone with enough f-steel. If Elantrians have access to the Dor and Dalinar has honorblades then the Lord Ruler and Mistborn have atium, which gives them a huge advantage. Atium falls in the same category as F-steel, it breaks games.

Fullborn, followed by a full feruchemist. After that it depends on access to magic and the layout of the dome.

I think it is a pre-shattering phenomenon, probably related to his immortality and other pre-shattering powers. I also believe that Shards are unable to break promises and it is possible that Hoid is restricted in the same way and promised not to harm others a long time ago.

Unfortunately we are not allowed to discuss Dragonsteel on the forums and it will be so heavily reworked before it is published that it's of limited use anyway. I agree, I doubt the evil is that important. It could be that it doesn't need a novel because it has been upgraded to the big bad, but I doubt it same as you.

Kelsier as we knew him sure. While we know very little about the Sovreign, it can be assumed Kel got to the point where he was able to successfuly build a resociety and government, not just tear one down. I need to repeat that the OP asked who was the best leader, not best ruler. In that respect Kel is no more limited than Dalinar or Kaladin, they are just limited in different ways.

Interesting, especially since I have read Dragonsteel. I can guess what he's alluding too but it's hardly something obvious, the fact the cause of Hoid's immortality is linked to the weapon (in current continuity) that shattered Adonalsium is huge. I'm even more desperate for Dragonsteel to be rewritten and released now. Thanks for that though, it gives me plenty to think about.

Can you provide a source for this? To the best of my knowledge we have no idea how Hoid got his immortality.

Ruling =/= Leading Thats where the ambiguity come in. While Kel may not make a good ruler (though he seems to do ok based on what little we know of the Sovreign), that was not the question. Put Kel in a situation where he needs to inspire and lead a small group of people to achieve a specific goal and he would excel, as much or more than the other options. Could any of Brandons other characters have organised the overthrow of the Final Empire? Probably not. The fact that he does makes an argument for Kel > Rashek when it comes to leadership too.

There's no definitive answer here, it depends what they're doing and who they are leading. To a certain degree it depends on when in their lives we're talking about to. Dalinar, Kaladin, Raoden, Kelsier, Elend could all take it depending on the situation.

All investiture in the Cosmere is already assigned to a Shard. I am not sure if you could create a new one by stuffing them full of investiture as it already has an intent.

You're right, we have multiple WoBs that if a shard's consiousness remains too long in one area then they will begin to invest, willingly or not. That has no bearing on whether or not they move the moon or planet they have invested on to travel between solar systems though. Shard's exist in the Spiritual Realm as everyonr above has stated. The geographic part then seems to be where they are focussed on. They exist independent of distance but their awareness can only be in one place at one time as they are limited by finite minds. So the main ways of moving between systems would be to never settle to begin with and move as you wish, invest then divest (likely a long process) when you want to move or, as you suggest, simply move the invested moon/planet. I believe we have WoB that pre-Roshar Odium was the first type, with the shard that wants to survive being another candidate for a wandering Shard. Invest/Divest is possible by WoB even if it can result in power left behind, though it may never have been done. All Shards other than Odium (and maybe Ambition) that we know of seem to have arrived at a planet without bringing a moon tow (unless you think Yolen had 16 moons). Your previous comments about the Roshar moons only prove that something is weird and while the other points you make, such as Scadrial's lack of moon, don't disprove the theory, they don't support it either. So I doubt it has happened yet, but I hope Brandon uses it in the future, it sounds awesome.

Its an interesting theory but I don't think I buy it. Following your points here is my reasoning: 1. We don't know if there is anything special about soulstone at all. Solid investiture tends to manifest as a metal when solid so stone would be strange. It may well have strange properties, it may not, but if it does I imagine it would have related to the Splintering of Dominion and Devotion which wouldnt have required destroying anythig physical. 2. Shards can't feel power further away because they are limited by a finite mind. The Spiritual Realm is independent if location so it isn't a distance thing as such, just a "more of me is there so I'll focus there kind of thing". 3. Vin didn't move a planet? If yoy nean Sazed then he didn't need to move. He was in the Spiritual Realm and so while the planet moved he was merely aware of it in its new location, he didn't move himself. 4. Investing a portable moon/planet is interesting but until we see it, not evidence. We don't know how Odium does it but he is currently heavily invested on both planets which may be helping him appear on either. 5. I think the power woukd warp the cognitive only when they invested somewhere, such as perpendicularities. If they divesf from a planet their fo us is wherever they want it to be until they invest again, willingly or not. They don't need a physical planet to move about. The moon things are interesting but as I am not sold on the theory I would say it's not realmatically significant. Though it's worth noting that as Scadrial was created entirely by Preservation and Ruin the simplest explanation for the lack of moon is that they just didnt make one.

I imagine it was due to not being posessed. After all, feeling the Thrill doesn't give you red eyes, it seems to require full possession. I think anything that consists of the investiture of two or more shards will be red unless the Shards agreed to work together ala Scadrial. So possessed Alethi? Red eyes. Fused-possessed Singers? Red eyes. Glys? Red crystal. Everyone/everything on Scadrial? Not red unless it would be anyway.

I imagine by Era 4 most magic systems will have been mechanized to a large degree. We have already seen the Ire's Dor pipeline, Bands of Morning/Unkeyed metalminds and fabrial tech. It's not difficult to imagine these things being common by Era 4.

I dont think that would necessarily be needed thinking about it. His confirmed combat abilities are just soulcasting, lightweaving and being mistborn. The issue is just killing him, which needs (probably) hemalurgy or nightblood. So if we assume either Nightblood and/or knowledge+spike then a fullborn, more skilled mist/twinborn, prepared feruchemist, Elantrian or some orders of KR later in oaths could probably do it. Once he hits 4 oaths or more of his power is clarified, things change.

Souls I'll give you. Cognitive shadows he is usually ok on except when asked to explain what one is, which requires ambiguous terms like soul. While I dont see it as purely his fault as it is vague in real life, it is definitely confusing in the WoBs. I have no issue him using multiple terms on the book myself. Syl and Nightblood I buy. The Fused are the odd one out, which realmatically, thay are. He does love playing with people and the terms they use though, I see how it could be a bit much.

Generally he doesn't. He either acknowledges terms don't fit, just doesn't tell us the full definition so we make incorrect assumptions, or uses imperfect narrators to mess with us. But Brandon himself is pretty good. Take "Spren" for example, could be the flame representing someone in Shadesmare, a Shadesmar bead, or a sapient manifestation of Investiture. But that's not Brandon, it's the people of Roshar you need to be mad at. Now if you don't like that Brandon messes with us, that makes sense, but it is at least intentional.

Wax was inside a speed bubble when he did that. Not saying he isn't accurate, he is, but he isn't hitting a target that small moving that fast under normal circumstances.

Give Szeth the Bands. Nightblood with f-steel is probably the best bit. Hoid almost certainly doesnt have a Blade or Plate yet so he would be relying on his innate invulnerabity. If Nightblood cant kill him I doubt any non-Shard could.

My issue with the boon and curse thing is the lack of information we have. On Roshar both boon and curse are supernaturally imposed, whereas the deafness on Ashyn seems likely to be a side effect of tbe disease, with the "boon" being the only magical part. Aside from that I like the theory and it certainly seems likely that two nearby Shards would do something to Ashyn's magic system.

The only one of these I am certain of is that Voidbinding is Odium's magic system. Outside of that we only have educated guesses. I fall in the "Odium had nothing to do with Ashyn" camp, but if he was there, something like this being the cause of the destruction/exodus could make sense.

This is my assumption. As you say, the recreance as it is currently explained to us doesn't make sense on multiple levels. Knowing how much Brandon plans his books and how logically everything else in the cosmere is, it's a fairly safe bet that we simply don't know the truth yet.

You've seen this specific theory multiple times? We all know Scadrial will achieve FTL, but I have never seen the OP's theory on the "how" here before. I like it though, I can't believe I hadn't thought of it before, it seems exactly something Brandon would do and the physics seems to work.