Bigmikey357

Crazy thing is, if Wax went alone or if Marasi went alone, neither succeeds without Wayne. Wayne is the linchpin. He does the dirty, in the trenches work for Wax and provides the street smarts and experience for Marasi. Marasi/Wayne is a good squad for subtle work, Wax/MeLaan is a good squad for heavy work, all 4 together is a dream team scenario. Steris is the ultimate supporter. And it took all 5 to cripple the Set.

Shadesmarch. The act of travelling exclusively through the Cognitive Realm.

Big C Connection is a foundational part of the Cosmere. It just makes sense to me that Shards would not be immune to the effects of connection even when it comes to their interactions with each other. Endowment is connected to every instance of endowment Cosmere wide through the SR, even though Edgli doesn't have access to all of it because she's cannot be aware of all of it (expanded but still finite consciousness). Same with Ruin, Dominion, Odium, any of the shards. The implications for these connections is that if there's a thread then that thread can be manipulated. Shards are an incomplete whole, so they're likely only able to manipulate that thread in a specific way related to their Intent. You know, it occurs to me that a whole person would be far more capable of manipulating the connections between Shards than the Shards themselves, far less restrictive in what they could do. If only regular people could gain the type of power necessary to get into the Shard manipulation game without actually becoming a Vessel. Who knows? Maybe it was possible when Uncle Addie was whole, and why a group would decide to shatter him, maybe Hoid is trying to gain that type of power right now. Really there's so many possibilities.

This is a very good post considering how much some of them anger me by reflex. Let me try my hand at one. The Case Against: Honor He betrayed the Shards Sure it wasn't a true binding agreement when the original 16 decided to go their separate ways after the Shattering, but they did agree and he immediately ignored it, taking his wife to Roshar. This becomes an established pattern for the supposed God of Oaths. He Betrayed the Singers So he goes to Roshar to be worshipped by Singers, yet as soon as humanity comes along he abandoned his first loyalty, not defending the rightful owners of the land when the humans overstepped their boundaries. He even directed his spren to stop bonds with those who worshipped him first. He Betrayed the Heralds Sure they asked for the Oathpact originally, but Honor was human once. He knew what they'd be subjected to when caught by Odium's forces, he knew or should have known that they'd never be able to hold out forever, and yet he allowed the Heralds to go through with their foolish plan and not even make contingencies for when they would inevitably fail. He Betrayed Humanity and the Spren His second set of worshippers, Humans, were granted many gifts in the fight against his first set of worshippers. But when they are in the fight of their lives he suddenly gets the sick notion to tell these same humans that they've been doing everything wrong all along and that they're destined to destroy another world like they did to Ashyn. He frightens his own side so bad that he led these same humans to lobotomize an entire sapient race and kill thousands of spren allies. Conclusion Honor isn't the best boss to work for. His track record is littered with betrayal after betrayal. The God of Oaths seems to break his word shockingly much more often than his Intent should allow for. At this point even Odium keeps his word more. Why are we rooting for this guy? He will not answer loyalty with loyalty, only more betrayal of his staunchest supporters. Plus he sucks at Futuresight. Get him outta here!

I'm thinking there may be something to this theory, although the actual mechanics may be wrong simply based on the amount of times Brandon has veered left of many people's thoughts in the fandom. We've all been more wrong than right when it comes to theory craft. Anyway, given that caveat I think the OP has stumbled on to something. Look at the Heralds. These ten individuals entered into a contract with a God and are somehow connected to each other regardless of distance or time. Each of these people held a specific role in the agreement and that role granted them certain powers, both powers they all share and power specific to their position. This may just be how magic works in the Cosmere. Another factor in this is that Shards, for all their power and so called wisdom, are terrible at unique creation. When Ati and Leras decided to create a world from scratch they used a Yolish blueprint. When Rayse got the Singers to summon the Everstorm, it was new but of old design. Chances are high that the agreement between the Heralds and Tanavast mirrors something that he'd already seen, mainly the agreement they live under. And if that's the case it would not be unreasonable to assume that each of the 16 have greater roles in relation to each other. It would also help explain why Shards aren't really all that creative. We've yet to see the Ingenuity Shard on screen so far. The closest we get is Cultivation, though that's mostly about modifying something that already exists other than coming up with something without precedent. I can agree to a certain extent that different Shards have something that makes them able to manipulate their peers along certain defined lines. But I can't believe that the effect is all that strong.

Or love me and I will enslave you.

My thought on the Legacy thing is the juxtaposition. For instance, say Lift was born into the family of a war hero. Her mom was a soldier in the Reshii army. She would have been raised in a military background with all that entails. Her talents would be put to use and she'd look much like the woman Spensa has become. She likely wouldn't be as aggressive but otherwise they map pretty closely. Now do the reverse. Put Spensa in a world where the only person who ever cared for her died when she was very young and she was forced to fend for herself as an orphan. Her resourcefulness comes to the fore. We've already seen something of this in the early events of Skyward. She's much more intense than Lift is, likely more focused, but she still thrives in an urchin role using much of the same skillset as Lift. On the instinctive thing, I'm just guessing, but maybe the ladies look different to you because their instincts are influenced by different circumstances. What I mean is they have drastically different jobs. Lift is a thief, at least until she gets that pesky Edgedancer role down. Spensa is, and was always destined to be a fighter pilot. Their instincts in both cases work very well for them even though they apply those instincts differently. Say instead they are both talented and their instinctive natures blend well with that talent. Then again that's just my opinion, YMMV.

Some of the superficial things that fit Shallan to Spensa also apply to Lift (quirky sidekick, strange sense of humor ect.). Because they're both action oriented. They're both natural explorers as well. Self sufficiency also. Plus, Spensa is totally instinctive. Lift hasn't been focused on training, but who is looking to train an orphan? The difference between Lift and Spensa lies in Legacy. Spensa had an infamous father to measure herself against, an important job vital to her planet. Lift had none of this. But given even a little bit of purpose and she'll grit her teeth and fight it out with as much of a warrior mentality as Spensa shows. Healing Gawx, standing up to Nale, staying behind in TC when her coalition left the alliance. When the chips are down Lift stands up.

I don't see the Shallan/Spensa similarities in personality as much as the OP. I see two young women new to a world and responding to outside stimuli in a similar manner albeit with wildly differing skillsets. The disconnect, at least for me lies in how they approach knowledge. This gets lost in the shuffle because of the DID thing, but Shallan is a pure scholar, studying things for the sake of study, experimentation for its own sake. She's had to try and learn new skills by necessity and apply her research to the war effort, but left to her own devices she's probably be drawing something and cracking dirty jokes and bad puns. Spensa though? She's an all action type of person. She seems to abhor book learning and only learns enough to serve whatever purpose she has. She's much more task oriented, straightforward, focused than Shallan. And if their origins were reversed (Shallan grows up with a loving family of outcasts, Spensa with an abusive father and brothers she felt responsible for) I don't for a second believe that they'd turn out the same. To each their own but I'm not seeing it really. Actually, if we're talking similar characters, I think she matches much better to Lift than Shallan.

Humans do tend to personify all manner of things it's true. Most spring can tie their birth to human or at least sapient personification of ideals. However, a megastorm hitting your planet every couple weeks tends to blot out other weather systems. I was under the impression that there wasn't much of a microclimate on Roshar anyway. It's Highstorms semi regular with a 2 week weeping around Christmas every year. The Weeping may have a spren but I kinda doubt that too. I do like the idea of the Everstorm being a prominent part of Braize's climate brought to Roshar though. Probably gives the Heralds nightmares when they hear the howl of the wind and some such. Guess we'll see.

Something fishy is going on here... We've been told that the Orders that form the Knights Radiant are all a blend of Honor and Cultivation. Some lean more toward Honor, others Cultivation, but a blend nonetheless. But I'm beginning to see a pattern along the more Cultivation based orders. We have two instances where a bond was formed with actual children, Lift and Shallan. Our normal Truthwatcher, Stump, ran an orphanage and our other Edgedancer candidate, Ym, made shoes for children. I think these instances are indicative of a larger pattern. I think Cultivation prefers kids and nurturers and looks for people like that for her Knight candidates. If we are to believe Jasnah's childhood troubles were related to an attempt by spren to recruit her then we have yet another example. Renarin and Elkohar don't fit the pattern sure, but of those 2 Renarin is a special case and won't play by many of the rules. Elkohar is an exception in that not everyone Cultivation agents pick will meet the criteria. But I see it strange that while Honor's Knights are mostly fully formed people with issues, but most certainly are at the point in life where they can form an oath and hold it, Cultivation people are those that either can potentially grow into their oaths or people who help others grow. Could we be getting some clues into the shark's nature? Thoughts?

The high concentration of oxygen is a huge hindrance to technological advancements as we know them. We did it by first harnessing fire, and that is not going to be easy on Roshar. Rapid transit is also a problem on a world that catches a worldwide hurricane roughly every 2 weeks. Harnessing magic is how they've progressed but spren are largely resistant to change. The tools humans would use to foster technology on Roshar are poor in comparison to Scadrial. The thing is, Odium influences are not required to explain Rosharan lack of tech progress though he did help.

So that poses a question that I had. Is trellium the same as badvadium the same as patjium?

@Halyo_Alex, I like the Raysium theory. I don't know if it's plausible but then again I don't know if anything we are theorizing is plausible. I do think it fits and that's why I like it. Since I did Honor's Godmetal it's only fair that I take a stab at his companion's. Cultivation's Godmetel stores skills, or rather the ability to learn skills rapidly. Say I want to be a champion spear fighter a la Kaladin or maybe a master duelist like Adolin. I strap my metal mind on and practice. I'm horrible at it of course, but even moreso than I would be naturally. I'm storing that skill, and when I go to tap it all of a sudden I'm a master. I'm kinda basing this off on how Kaladin at 12 woke up his spearman ability briefly. That would mean Hemalurgy steals skill. So I capture Kal, spike out his spear skill and grant it to my inquisitor. Allomantically, I guess burning enhances acquisition of muscle memory.

I would have thought Tanavastium stored connection but base Feruchemy already allows for this. Both connection to people and to magic. But what about realms? Could be that Burning or storing Tanavastium makes one a planeswalker, able to stitch a perpendicularly at will or travel to any of the 3 realms regardless of the investiture fuel used? Ok, if one stores Tanavastium it makes them insubstantial in the realm they reside in at the time, thus making it easier to slip between them. Tapping it anchors one to that realm more strongly. Not much use in the Physical realm where things tend to stay out but in the Cognitive? Or the Spiritual? An anchor could be vital there.

We know there are more sapient spren than the 10 types the KR bond. We have the voidspren of course, but we also have those mistspren that were on the honorspren's ship. Problem is the surges themselves. The 10 surges represent the 10 fundamental forces according to the understanding of the people of Roshar. The KR surges map to one of the ten, the voidish surges map to one of the 10, all the singer forms we've seen can likely be shoehorned to fit one of the ten, even the Unmade can be looked at in terms of what surges they most closely map to. So the spren don't matter, I could be persuaded to buy that, but all that would mean is that any bond between a physical being and a Cognitive one will Express itself as one of the 10 surges. So the question becomes, once they realize they can bond any spren at all and gain power, why would they ever go for the Nahel bond with its sometimes restrictive guidelines or a void bond with all the inherent dangers of service to the void? I'd probably prefer to grab a mistspren and gain one power and no restrictive rules or crappy deal with Rayse. Since it's a higher level spren I'd likely have much of the same power output as the other options. We've seen the burdens these bonds place on those bonded, there must be a reason the ancients chose it.

It's a question of application. Khriss is like the head researcher of the company while Hoid is the product salesman. Researchers need data to perfectly understand how their products will work in real time conditions. Salespeople need to know enough about their products to sell them effectively. The salespeople won't know as much as the researchers but the salespeople will be better able to apply that knowledge.

I like the idea of external progression based healing being different than internal stormlight based healing. It would make sense and gives me hope for Rysn and her legs. Like if she picks up a Nahel bond or something. It seems that perception matters far more in internal healing than in external. It also seems that emotional or psychological 'disorders' are largely exempted from the healing. Teft's addiction, Kaladin and his depression, Dalinar and his PTSD. It almost seems like spren are as much attracted to a bond mates' flaws as they are to his or her values.

There are some alcohol based gels iirc.

Harmonium jello shots.

Naw I read it @Karger and accept it as fact. I was just describing why I thought the way I did. I meant that I'm using everything else in my theory as headcanon, and the fact that they leak accounted for.

I think I was getting the leakage thing from WOK when they spoke of legends, about how it was said that voidbringers could hold stormlight perfectly. Since humans are the OG voidbringers...well you get my point. Anyway that's my headcanon until proven otherwise.

Personally I believe 5th Oath represents a complete soul merge with the spren. This is because the reference I think Syl makes when talking bonds with Kaladin. Syl says that the bond can be voluntarily dissolved without harm to man or spren up until the final Oath. So upon Oath 5 spren are fully mortal and their bonded human can see into the Cognitive at will. As far as power, 5 oath Radiants don't leak Stormlight, they gain an instinctive understanding of both their surges and can do things with a teaspoon of stormlight that it would take a lower Oath Radiant a full pouch of gemstones to achieve. My opinion only.

I don't think Vyre is getting a direct feed from his stolen Honorblade unless he dies first. The human body alone is a poor vessel for stormlight based investiture. The Heralds and Fused can handle it because they're Cognitive Shadows. Singers could likely handle it better because they have a built in receptacle but I think a direct feed would eventually kill them too. Radiants aren't fully human by the time they've completed their oath cycle so they are likely to be able to accept a direct feed as well, albeit at the lowest trickle possible. A direct feed for a human means you either drown (Amaram) or you Ascend (Vin).

We'll surely get more information about the Honorblades at least in SA4 and more on the Heralds at the start of the back 5. Will we get the complete picture? Likely not. But I expect to have much more to chew on soon.