Brightlord M. Alhstrom

Now that the book is out, can I revive this ship? I mean, Venli is now a Knight Radiant, and Kaladin's connection with the Listeners/Singers just makes this seem all the more likely.

How about this? What we know (or at least, can assume): The Listeners predate the Shattering and are of Adonalsium. Honor and Cultivation arrive. Eventually, Mankind arrives with Odium. Mankind starts conquering (as it always does) and the listeners start dying off. Here is what I suspect: Around this time humans have been around enough that spren figure out how to bond with them. Due to the bonds being tied to oaths, this attracts Honor's attention and approval (thus the "Children of Honor" comment.) Odium starts to relate to the Listener's frustration and hate. Since the Listeners tend to use investiture throughout their lives, they might linger a little in the Cognitive Realm. So Odium starts to approach some of them giving them a bargain: becoming Voidspren. Essentially, they get to stick around as Cognitive Shadows, and they can now bond with the living Listeners, allowing them to make them stronger. The downside is that they have to be imbued with Odium's power. At least some of them accept. Thus the Fuzed come into existence, and the Listeners stop losing ground. At this point, it becomes a war between Mankind and the Listeners to see who will survive. Humankind starts losing. Honor is on the side of Mankind because of their use of Oaths (unlike the Listeners) and as such decides to create the Oathpact and the Heralds to counter the Fuzed. Odium creates the Unmade to counter the Heralds. The Spren learn how to become blades and give mankind surges in imitation of the Herald's Honorblades and the Fuzed's Surges. Odium learns how to create spren that will give the Listeners the forms of power. This eventually leads to the end of the first Desolation. All of the Voidspren are locked away, and the dying Listeners have stopped accepting Odium's offer after seeing how much his influence has twisted the Voidspren's minds. Thus we move on to the Cycle of the Desolations, as described in Oathbringer. The reason the Fuzed and the Forms of Power have Red eyes is that Odium corrupted the Listeners, who weren't of Honor at all, but of Adonalsium.

What I think is happening here is that the Spirits/Voidspren/Dead_Listeners have to find their way through from Braize to Roshar. So far only a couple hundred have done so, but you will eventually have thousands. The reason they seem so OP right now, and wouldn't have in the past is that in the past the Heralds started refounding the Knights Radiant much sooner. By this part of the Desolation, you would already have dozens (if not hundreds) of Knights Radiants and potentially hundreds (if not thousands) of Squires. Not only that, but the Kingdoms of the World would have been united under the leadership of the Heralds and thus you would have a whole lot more resistance by the humans than you do in this one. I agree with the gemhearts being part of why they can hold it for so much longer. And it might be that while the Voidsurges are less powerful, they also don't use up Investiture quite as fast. This might explain why none of them have run out yet. As for the Everstorm being the source of Voidlight, I doubt it. For one thing, the Everstorm wasn't there in the past desolations. Unless Ba-Ado-Mishram somehow started imitating the Stormfather, thus creating the Everstorm. That would be cool, if Ba-Ado-Mishram became the Everstorm's equivalent of the Stormfather, thus explaining why the Everstorm exists this time, and why that is the new source of Voidlight. Otherwise, I assume that Ba-Ado-Mishram just goes around refilling Fused with Voidlight. Her being the Everstorm would make her much more mobile though.

Actually, if you are following Latin forms, I'm fairly sure that would be Cephandrium. The "-ius" becomes "-ium" not "-iusium". And yea, it's based on the name of the Vessel, not the name of the Shard. The exception being Harmonium, and just because no one wants to argue with the guy who is literally the most powerful being (raw power wise) in the Cosmere (to our knowledge.)

That would make a lot more sense.

OK, here are my thoughts. A. Not everything has a spren. Everything has a cognitive element. Like the flames of mankind. How do we know this? Because we see those in MBSH. However, remember that Spren are Splinters of Honor, Cultivation, and Odium. If a world doesn't have Splinters in the CR, then it can't have spren. So I doubt Vivenna's sword would have a spren. B. Without any doubt Azure is Vivenna. She is wielding a Type IV awakened object. She fits the description. Her hair changes color. She is a Worldhopper. She recognized Zahel's description. She knew Zahel's Kata. Which means that she was trained by Zahel. She is looking for both Nightblood and Zahel. She spoke of turning down power and not being Queen. C. Who made the sword depends on how and why Vivenna and Vasher split up. Did they get in a fight? Did Nightblood get stolen and they split up to cover more ground? Maybe Nightblood got stolen and then Vivenna and Vasher worked together to make this new blade? Maybe Vivenna started working against Vasher and got Yesteel to help her, then backstabbed him for the sword. Or maybe they made two more swords, and she got to keep one while Yesteel got the other. We don't really know. And I doubt we'll know until after Nightblood comes out. D. Do we know if using Nightblood 2.0 drains you of Investiture? E. Do we know how much time has elapsed between Warbreaker and SA1?

Nice catch. Hadn't seen that one yet. And yes, Trell being Autonomy is one of the most popular theories here.

Am I the only one who is confused here? Also, for the general conversation: I suspect that here Renarin is using both the standard Stormlight healing as well as Regrowth. Again, the Ideals difference between him and Lift, as well as her limited access to stormlight explain why there is so much difference. Experience would also play a part. Plus, if anything, I suspect that the corrupted spren would be more likely to be less effective than more effective. I mean, it twisted the scrying abilities to make them prophetic. Maybe it also ends up twisting his other abilities? If so, it won't be in positive ways (being stronger) so much as in different ways (not behaving normally.)

What makes you say that?

So, Willshapers are suspected to have been explorers, which is largely supported by the Amethyst entries in the Epigraphs from Part 3 of Oathbringer. Combine this with Azure's statement that Lightspren are usually guides, and that the boat she used was piloted by Lightspren, as well as how the Reachers are Lightspren, and the most explorative of the Spren.

Oathbringer Spoilers: PS: What is the spoiler policy on this thread? Are all spoilers allowed? Or do we need to add spoiler warnings for questions related to Oathbringer? Edit: Thanks.

Wow, hadn't caught that. Not sure why he didn't put it in an object he was planning on holding on to, like a jacket or something. But then, breath might interfere not only with creating the bond but surgebinding as well, in which case Hoid might have decided to give up Awakening altogether to become a Surgebinder. Though that still begs the question: Did he put all of his breath in the doll? Or does he have some left?

Well, not exactly. See, when you are storing that part of the spirit-web, it is actually investiture being stored in the Spike. Not sure how it works, but the limitations with pulling and pushing on invested metal apply to Hemalurgic spikes as well as Feruchemic Metalminds, so we can assume that the spike contains investiture. But yea, it doesn't so much expend investiture (like burning metal, or using the surges) as stealing it and tranfering it elsewhere.

OK, why exactly do you guys believe this? Bondsmith have the ability to use Adhesion (Full Lashings) and Tension (In their case, repairing stone). It also looks like all of the Orders have a special power or ability that comes from the combination of their surges. Take the scrying abilities of Truthwatchers for example. It sounds like you guys are saying that the Bondsmith ability has to do with manipulating Connection. While I think it might do so, I don't think it does so directly. I personally suspect that Bondsmith have the ability to enforce oaths and bonds. For example, if you swear to protect someone, the Bondsmith could bind you, forcing you to follow through with your oath. Does that make sense? That, or something else around forcing people or work with each other. Still, if it is literally full control over Connection, then that is way too powerful. Like, I can't really grasp the full potential. For one thing, you would dwarf any Shard, almost instantly. Why? Because you could break the Connection between the Shardholder and the Shard, and replace it with a connection between you and the Shard.

@teknopathetic, Please use Spoilers tags. Also, what makes you think that? I'm not saying you're wrong, I just didn't see it.

I am. Might have read it twice by then.

Yea... Considering she learned the Kata, as well as swords, from Vasher, is looking for Nightblood, and has a sword with the same properties, it's Vivenna. Oh, and don't forget the hair changing color and her use of color based sayings.

Note: When looking at thread titles, thread titles for threads whose last post you haven't read will be in bold. So first off, I'm going to refer to Odium by using his Shardholder's name: Rayse. So, I doubt Rayse is the final protagonist of the Cosmere, for a couple of reasons. For one thing, he has seen enough action to retire soon, and it looks like that retirement will happen in Stormlight Archives. For another, a dual-shard like Harmony would probably beat Rayse in a straight fight. Make that a triple-shard, and it's a bloodbath. So the Hoidonalsium vs Rayse theory falls apart, as a 15-shard being would simply swat a single shard like Rayse. And Rayse has avoided picking up shards in the past. If it ends up being a fight scenario, then I assume that it will be two multi-shards, or their people, fighting each other, and that means it can't be Rayse. As for the main characters all being dead, you have to realize that somehow Worldhoppers don't really seem to age. Elantris happens significantly before SA. MB1 takes place 300 years before, and as far as I can tell, Warbreaker is also significantly before. Also, I doubt White Sands happens just before SA, since Khriss is still there in White Sands. And yet you have characters from all of these stories showing up and getting cameos in SA. So, it sounds like for the overall Cosmere plot we are actually likely to see a ton of our favorite characters, like Kelsier, Hoid, Demoux, Galadon, Vasher, Vivenna, Nightblood, Khriss, Jasnah (if anyone goes worldhopper after SA, it's Jasnah, if she survives,) and many other SA characters. As for the final conflict, I hope it's more complex than a couple shards dueling it out. A couple ideas: - The fainlife seeps into the CR, then starts invading the Cosmere. (Disclaimer: I've heard of the fainlife, but haven't read any of the unpublished works where it exists). - SA culminates in a Triple shard of Honor-Odium-Cultivation, held by one of the Knights Radiant (or Voidbringers), and Roshar starts conquering the rest of the Cosmere. - Variant of the above where the other shards we haven't seen happen to all have been merged, and that Megashard's planet goes conquering. - Nightblood touches one of the Shards, killing it and eating all of its investiture. Hoid, or someone else, then starts using Nightblood to systematically destroy every Shard. - Unbeknownst to the Shards, Adonalsium cannot stay shattered, and the Investiture in the SR has slowly been siphoned off to the largest of the Shards, kinda like how if you are feeding Stormlight to all of the pieces of Shardplate, eventually the biggest piece will grow into a full set and the rest will disappear. Point is, I don't see another Vin-Ati showdown being the climax of the Cosmere. It's going to be more complex than that

Having 200 breaths doesn't seem like a lot, Realmatically. We are actually starting to get more and more understanding of how Sel works. I have my theories. Hoid and Demoux, who is an Atium misting, but still an Allomancer. And Brandon has confirmed that we've seen Hoid use Allomancy. As for Allomancy working off-world: the Metals are what we call a Focus. Burning the metal allows you to channel investiture from the Spiritual Realm. And so, since the SR doesn't care about location, Allomancy would work anywhere. There isn't a location barrier at all. Well, to me one of the biggest problems has to do with fueling Surgebinders with Stormlight. The larger gems only hold Stormlight up to a month, and so any Surgebinder would need to jerry-rig some way to use other investiture for Surgebinding, so have his gems refilled on Roshar pretty regularly. Hemalurgy is the magic system that is most portable. More so than Awakening even. Anyone with a metal spike who is aware of Hemalurgy can use it. And it works by ripping part of someone's spirit-web by ramming it into their heart, then using that part of the spiritweb and attaching it to someone else's spiritweb.

The concept is that because they were opposites, they would be forces in conflict, which would make it impossible, or at least extremely hard, for them to develop a consciousness. It might be worth mentioning that this is a huge amount of investiture, that it covers the entire CR of Sel, that the investiture is extremely hot, and that it has pretty much become a single thing: the Dor.

Um, with that WoB, you have to realize that the level with which Returned are invested is very different from the level with which an average Awakener is invested. You have to get to the 5th or 6th heightening through normal breath gain to be quite that invested. On the other hand, Hoid isn't a Returned, and I don't think he has quite that many breaths. Plus, unlike Returned, if he needed to he could always store his wealth of Breaths into an object, form the bond, then take the breaths back. So, he has Yolish Lightweaving, which we don't understand, and thus can't theorize off of. He has Allomancy, and we also suspect that he might have some medallion-style metalminds. However, with the exception of the Lerasium investing into his body to make him an Allomancer, none of this is going to permeate him with large amounts of investiture. You have to realize that with the exception of Awakening and Surgebinding, the investiture used in the magic isn't stored in the user's body, but in the SR. So, other than the breaths (which I've addressed above) and the Lerasuim (which shouldn't be enough to be a concern) there isn't anything that we know of that would interfere with a bond. Though I suspect that you might have interesting results if you are holding both breaths and stormlight. The breaths might limit how much stormlight you can hold, depending on how much investiture a body can hold.

Yes, though I'm gone till the end of the week.

Also remember, that the metals in an Allomancer's stomach aren't actually Investure, so much as a focus that allows you to access Investiture in the Spiritual Realm. As far as we can tell, especially since it can feed Nightblood, stormlight is investiture, not a focus. As such, we aren't sure how it would interact with Bronze (It's bronze, right?). However, all things considered, I would hold that holding Stormlight would output a kinetic investiture signature since it isn't in a stable state. It's constantly leaking out, glowing, and improving the KR's strength, agility, etc., even if he isn't actively surgebinding. If he is holding it, then it is active.

On that subject, here are some Mistborn Spoiler based ideas:

Well, using HoA Spoilers, as well as Oathbringer Spoilers: