GildedBear

Perhaps it was simply that he learned what happened on Sel because of Odium and decided that he agreed with the non-interference policy of the Shard?

So, I find myself satisfied by the wob which said that the attacks were because of his practicing. However, he is a sensible person for the Dor to "pick". In AU Khriss talks about how she thinks the land is somehow/sort-of gaining sentience because of all of the investature in the CR. (I don't have the specific quote right now) Well Raoden is both an Elantrian (the former rulers of Arelon), the son of King Iadon (the current ruler of Arelon), and beloved of the people who live in Arelon. Who else would the country pick if it had a mind to pick somebody? As for how various magics and peoples of Sel being either Devotion or Dominion. Remember that AU says that Odium shattered them in the prehistory of the world, almost certainly before things like Aondor (which is location based) existed. It seems to me that the magics and religions of Sel are all mixes of both Dominion and Devotion. Shu Dereth is currently being used by Fjordell to dominate other countries, but the structure of the faith is centered around being devoted to the person who is above you in the hierarchy. Not to mention the fact that Shu Dereth rejects the Skaze, who we speculate to be splinters of Dominion, as demons. (though I admit my memory of the book is fuzzy on the skaze; I am currently rereading) Shu Korath, on the other hand, use the phrase Merciful Domi" where 'Domi' comes from the Aon 'omi' which means love but also happens to be the first few letters of 'dominion'. (which could be a coincidence, but it's Brandon so it could be intentional as well or a happy accident) Similarly, while the Seons, which I believe we know to be splinters of Devotion, have/are Aons, old Elantris itself was, in some ways, quite dominating of Arelon. (Benevolently surely, but still dominating) Sorry for the wall of text. Was really just trying to point out that at the point in the Cosmere where Elantris (and most of the rest of the published stories so far) happens it is probably kind of pointless to try to piece apart which magics/people are devotion and which are dominion. (of course, we also know that some things, Seons and the pool, are still more one than the other so maybe I should just not post while tired heh)

No see, it's fine, realmatics only works in the Cosmere dwarf galaxy around Milkyway 16 (the number is of course coincidental) because they are a result of the epic Adonalsium Smedry's Talent for complicating things interfering with his epic gifting powers. See? total sense. (again, humor. don't quote me unless you include that is was joking)

Okay, new goofy quasiheadcanon. Alcatraz is confirmed to not be in the Cosmere. However, we also know that the Cosmere is a dwarf galaxy. On the other hand, Alcatraz takes place on an alternate Earth which resides within a galaxy which is orbited by dwarf galaxies. Therefore the Cosmere is contained within the Alcatrazverse. It all makes sense now! (warning, this post contained humor.any statement of fact should be laughed off as false unless WoBed otherwise)

This is my head canon as well. The idea that death by Shade is about the same as accidental death for us amuses me since the simple rules mean that there will be fewer accidental deaths from things like tripping and falling, fire, and fighting. As a side thought, is it kindling a fire that enrages shades or is it just fire in general? I assume that it's fire in general but it amuses me to think that you just can't light new fires.

Keep in mind that dangerous and difficult are not the same thing as impossible. An example from the real world: putting yourself in the middle of a shark feeding frenzy is both difficult and dangerous, but with scuba gear and a shark cage it is very possible to do. We know that there are people who know how to make it through the Sel CR (Hoid and the Ire at the very least). (some of?) The Ire are even elantrians so perhaps some of them left notes of their experiments. But if not, Galladon and Raoden had been actively researching the Dor and Aondor at the end of Elantris I see little reason to think that they stopped.

There's another wob out there that says that sazed's body still has his feruchemy. My guess is that if they can manifest their body then they could reproduce by conventional means but their body would need to remain manifested for the entire process; which makes it much easier for males. That being said, manifesting their physical bodies seems very close to giving up shard entirely to me.

Perhaps it's a matter of sequence? Give the thing Stomlight as a gift with a request that it changes vs offering stormlight as payment for agreeing to change? I.e. shallan gave the light to the cup and it offered to change. shallan offered light to the ship and it resisted but it was convinced by it's Connection to the crew shallan offered light to the stick but it had no reason to change jasnah shoved light into the ropes' "faces" and then ordered them to change lastly, jasnah dumped so much light into the thieves and commanded them to become the essence of the light that she gave that their bodies said "oh, okay, sure, we can do that yeah" it's also possible that the cup was itself soulcast before since it said it had slept for so long, or perhaps it's just that nobody thought of it. where-as the stick had it's own existence separate from humans so was harder to convince? shrug. speculating is fun and I look forward to more soulcasting in oathbringer? heh

At the AU signing in Chigago I asked about the timing between the IRE entering the cognitive realm and the breaking of Aondor because of the chasm (I was thinking that they may have accidentally caused the chasm and been stuck). Brandon answered by asking "who says they all entered at the same time" and then further clarified by saying that some of the IRE were from before the chasm and some after. Since then I feel like the the name IRE was picked to represent their intent rather than their history. So, "we intend to continue forever" rather than "we are really old." Also, I have realised that the non-elantrian guards are probably also considered part of the IRE so they had to come from somewhere as well. To answer the actual question, I think they were trying to get a shard simply to give themselves power, in this case to Preserve themselves.

It's not what I would actually want, but it's a fun combo that it thought of that hadn't been mentioned. Thug Steelrunner, you are basically an agent from the matrix. And bonus, allomantic pewter doesn't make you all hulky so it even has the right visuals.

was he vanishing, or just zipping out of her line of sight? I'm not sure and don't want to try to look it up. I always thought it sounded like he was just zipping away. However, I do like the idea that her drawing him forced him to stay visible. On the other hand, didn't she draw him before the ship "wreck" so she would have lost the drawing but it might not count as destroyed so that would keep him stuck...

I've always felt that his gift was the intelligent and compassion (together the capacity if you will) to allow humanity to survive and his curse is that he doesn't have them at the same time so his ability to use that capacity is limited.