Odium's_Shard

A big question that I want definitively answered is: 1) Does anybody know all the affects of duralumin on all of the basic and higher metals (not the God Metals), such as cadium, bendalloy, gold, chronium, etc. because for things like chronium (dissipates all currently burned metals in another person, interesting ability) there seems to either be an ON or OFF, ie, burning it a tiny bit seems to have the same effectiveness as burning it all at once. 2) Does anybody know ANYTHING about what Lerasium does if burned and not just ingested. Could there be a Lerasium Mistings, like the Seer is for Atium? And here's my point: if simply ingesting the lerasium bead made Elend a Mistborn in tWoA, then surely it was still in his stomach, waiting to be burned by a Mistborn with all the abilities, or just a Lerasium Misting, of which he was the former, then isn't it possible he could have burned it, or at least had the possibility to (if so its a real shame he didn't)? 3) And finally the effect of duralumin on lerasium, and any alloys thereof. We saw Elend use duralumin on atium just before his death, and I think Brandon explained that this allowed him to see ALL of the future, not just a few seconds of it, and expanded his mind to be able to understand it, at which point he realised Preservation's plan and allowed himself to be killed so that Vin would tackle Ati and allow Sazed, the Hero of Ages, to pick up the Shards of Preservation and Ruin... but what of Lerasium?

I've heard that some aspects of a Spiritweb are Spiritually genetic, ie Allomancy, and are implanted on your Spiritweb either directly or indirectly by an aspect of a Shard, lerasium being a good example. Maybe the method of transgression of as magical system depends on the Shards intent? Ie: Allomancy: Genetic, to promote preservation of humanity? Feruchemy: Genetic, and also cannot access another's stores however (has anyone ever put a theory on this yet?) so while genetic, Ruin is determined to make it inefficient? Or maybe it isn't Ruin, and just to do with the Spiritweb of the individual or the nature of Feruchemical stores. Hemalurgy: Clearly destructive, gained only from (inefficiently, some is lost save in Atium, a god metal) killing another person using metal. Is this how Vin got hers (I can't remember. Was it her Seeker sister's death by the earring?)? If so, it could be implanted on the Spiritweb in this fashion. Maybe implying that Hemalurgic traits could be hereditary (if someone ever got that close to a Hemalurgical "construct" in such a manner without being ingested, crushed or Pushed out of the window by the tip of their breast implant..)?

I am going to theorize, in line with this, that it is the Shard's Intent that decides what sort of magic system is thrown up by their presence, whether is is hereditary or caused by interactions with spren. In my opinion, Allomancy developed this system of genetics because of it's Shard's Intent: Preservation. So obviously the 'condition' would have to be genetics, whether through your sDNA or otherwise, because Preservation wanted the human race to continue, and to force it to do so, it made the only access point: reproduction. Ruin's system, Hemalurgy, is even more clear in it's Intent: to break the world into smaller and smaller pieces. So, thus, the 'condition' is to kill someone with the desired Feruchemical/Allomantic powers and a spike to that effect, and in the Spiritual Realm (I think this has been confirmed) that person's ability is both partially released and partially stored in the spike. So the power has been diluted not through genetics but through efficiency of Hemalurgy. Also, I think that spikes lose their 'charge' the longer they are without a Host. This would also be explained by the Intent of the Shard. And so in tWoK, if we assume Honor is behind Surgebinding, then it is fair to anticipate that you must make an oath, like Kaladin, in his case to an honorspren, in order to bind two things. I'm sure Voidbinding and Old Magic work in much the same way. This would also apply to the Breath system, created by Endowment, which works if you think about it. Instead of garnering Breaths, you could instead word it diffirently, and state that a Breath as magic can be endowed to heal someone or create sentience/contructs.

Actually, my theory on the matter is that Brandon, as is typical of him, placed the clue (or perhaps some intelligent, witty joke I have failed as yet to see) in naming Vin's koloss "Human". Seemingly, this Koloss, who is nearing the end of its lifespan, has reasonable shards of intelligence. Again, forgive the pun, but perhaps these spikes are Splinters of Ruin, just like the ability to Snap (from Lerasium or genetics) is the Splinter of Preservation placed within humanity. Perhaps Ruin placed his Splinters in "constructs"? Again, this is all out of the box, but it raises the question: Can Shards purposefully Split themselves into smaller parts? It seems very possible, if not likely, because this is exactly what Preservation does with both the Mists, and the Well of Ascension. And Ruin perhaps does this with Atium? And Lerasium from Preservation. If these are Splinters of Ruin, it would very well explain his more direct control over them the more spikes placed within a single "construct", as well as the benefits of Atium in Hemalurgy as the "wild card" spike, able to steal any attribute. Then this would suggest that there is still as 'subdued' humanity within them. When Human attempts to 'recycle' the spike when he tries to make a new Koloss, is he following directions from Vin's Allomancy when she "Pushes" his feelings with the Riot metal (brass, is it?), or a natural reaction to Preservation's Splinter by a Ruin Splinter (inside the Koloss)? This would make them simple, seemingly mindless, Slivers of Ruin? Are the Kandra and Inquisitors so as well? That would also make Vin (from the Well) a Sliver, and perhaps Elend from consuming the lerasium (and perhaps the oringinal Allomancers too). Maybe every single Allomancer?

Maybe I'm seeing too far into puddles, but if we're trying to theorize the magic systematics, then I have come up with a theory. It'll probably contain spoilers simply because I am just trying to draw from as many sources as possible. I'm sure that somewhere Brandon has confirmed or at least mention that, like in the Mistborn series, where the symbols stood for the different metals (and, coincidentally, while this doesn't quite correlate, had two systems in Pushing and Pulling), the glyphs that were on the front cover each stood for a Surgebinding, or perhaps just a system of magic. He said that the top-right one (I think?) was the one we have already seen; Windrunning. I don't believe he clarified whether if this itself is a single magic system, or the two disciplines (as I will call them) of Basic and Full Lashings are each a system in their own right. As there were, as we know, Ten Orders of the KR, this would imply that the Windrunners operated just as single outlet of this kind. Implying that there are nine other sets of dual abilities? On this cord, we can safely assume that a Reverse Lashing is the discipline of a Stoneward? If so, what is the other one? This obvious suggests there are further uses for Surgebinding we do not know, as neither do Szeth, Teft or Kaladin (although he does not know of the Reverse Lashing, as he is surprised when he draws the Parshendi arrows to his shield, as is Teft). This also leads onto the possibility that the glowing marks that Dalinar saw on the early Radiants in his visions could be this other ability of Stonewards. Or another ability. This then is clearly contradicted by the fact that one of the Radiants makes a jump that "is so much more that a Plate-assisted leap", probably half- or quarter-Lashing their weight upto leap further, which raises the question: Can the KR use abilities of other Orders? Then how can Kaladin do so? I think it has been mentioned that one of the Orders handled Soulcasting, which must be one of two dual disciplines under a set Order title, of which I cannot speculate. Or perhaps there is just two abilities under Soulcasting. Clearly, the link to Shadesmar isn't coincidental, and so, in essence, I am going to theorize that accessing Shadesmar was the ability of this seperate Order, and that under that, within Shadesmar, there were two options: Soulcasting, that is changing the object's essence (or combination of essences), into another (combination, perhaps) of the Ten Essences, and Hoid's method to travelling the Shardworlds (and his pursuers, Seventeenth Shard, if his is the author of the Letter), which Brandon confirmed was linked to Shadesmar. Also, moving onto the number of magic systems, there were said to be 30. Making assumptions, I will dole out 10 to each Shard(holder) currently present in Roshar as their direct influences. This is also, maybe, evidence to suggest that Ten is a special number in Roshar, like 16 in Scandrial. Obviously, of the 10 they each hold, some will be variations of the other. However, this leaves a tangible confusion, with the KR possibly practicing what we think of as different magics, Soulcasting (Shadesmar Access, at least) and Surgebinding (maybe even Voidbinding, if you are so inclined about the KR). The following is my views on distributions of the magics: Soulcasting: I am going to call Cultivation. I surprised myself with this one. But to me, at least it makes sense. Probably not to you. But isn't it the intent of Cultivation to grow? Then, isn't it reasonable that, rephrased, evolving one substance to another could be considered growth? However, the problems with this is whether or not Soulcasting could be classed as an independant Shard's domain. After all, how can ten other powers spring from Soulcasting to fill the quota (if there is one)? And then there is the question of it being included in the Orders (if it is) which would suggest it is a Surgebinding. I will even go so far as to suggest that, as an access point to Shadesmar, the Cognitive Realm, then Soulcasting as Cultivation's domain implies that Cultivation resides over the Cognitive Realm. I would then place Honor over the Spiritual Realm, as his Shards (perhaps Splinters of Honor after Odium kills him) disappear to this Realm when not in use. That would imply Odium, bringer of Physical destruction, resides over the Physical Realm. This falls apart if Surgebinding though. Voidbinding: Odium. In my opinion, however it is most likely to mix with the others at points. To little is known about it to make full assumptions. Surgebinding: Honor. Again my opinion, but it makes sense. Following the Shards as Splinters theory, then it is entirely possible, if not likely, that the users of Surgebinding could wear or would wear these Splinters of the governing Shard of their power. However, in line with a spren being responsible for all magics (or just Surgebinding, I'm not sure?) then this would suggest that the symbolspren related to Shadesmar Access would too be a part of the Surgebinding, like honorspren and bindspren, form a bond with certain people, aka Shallan and Jasnah, maybe even Dalinar and certainly Kaladin, in order to give them these base powers. Clearly associating Soulcasting with the Orders, and thus placing it under Surgebinding and Honor's domain. Old Magic: In line with spren causing all change, and thus magic, I would assume this would make the Nightwatcher (sometimes described as a spren) the source for this. However, not sure whether to place it under Cultivation or not. Could fit, but this is a long enough post save that. However, I do think that the Aimian man who collects notation on spren around the world, can't remember his name, could be very important to discovering or giving to us how all these magic systems work around one another. Long post. Sorry.

Forgive my odd intrusion of your theory but, despite the fact that I can offer very little reason on the matter, I am hellbent on the odd thought that Thaidakar is more important than is given out in all of this area of theorizing around the conflict between Amaram and the Ghostbloods. I'm sure the fact that both Gavilar lists him pre-death, (perhaps simply because he is a petty Highprince and nothing more) along with these other important figures, for example Sadeas and this new 'Restares', who is clearly involved behind-the-scenes with Amaram's decision to claim the Shards and enslave Kaladin, as well as (I believe this has been quoted, correct me otherwise please) Amaram's direct notation of him in the exact same scene as Restares is mentioned, while Amaram is Sadeas' marshal, may be a new sort of grouping technique Brandon has used to subtly hint at Thaidakar's importance. Also, another out of the box theory (maybe this has already been suggested, if so, I'm looking extremely stupid by this point, and so might as well bull on), I am going to suggest Thaidakar is a Ghostblood, or maybe this is too much of a leap and he is simply another political opponent for Sadeas and thus Amaram. However, I just thought this a valid point. Does Thaidakar appear anywhere else in the story that I have forgotten? Please tell me.