Bigmikey357

The limiting factor with the soulcasters are gems. The Alethi army on the Shattered Plains would not be able to maintain their strength in numbers without the chasmfiend hunts. Those hunts provide the Emerald needed to soulcast food in a quantity that sufficiently feeds an army. However, the effects of the Vengeance Pact seems to be hunting the beasts to extinction. The gemhearts being found are much smaller than what the army encounters upon their arrival at SP. So where do the gems come from? What are the other sources of gems on Roshar? Are the mines in Azir a source of minerals used in soulcasters?

You get an upvote from me. I don't know if that's what Brandon intends but it certainly sounds awesome. The two women Wax is closest to being polar opposites.

Brandon consults with the people who do his audiobooks right? To give this theory even more credence, all the people from SoScad sound like they have a Scandinavian accent.

Can Kaladin and Jasnah have the type of platonic friendship that was postulated at the start of this thread and still be married for Politics sake? Is it possible for those two states to not be mutually exclusive? Just spitballing on that. Anyway, some thoughts. One, I doubt that Jasnah is asexual. I think she's driven and focused. I believe that she determined the life she wanted to lead from an early age; that life wasn't compatible with the role a princess typically occupies in a patriarchal monarchy. I assume that the men she was pressured to marry would not have allowed her to persue her passion if Amaram is anything to judge by. I have to note that Alethi nobility expects much more from their females than broodmares and homekeepers, yet I don't see any Alethi male of rank high enough to court Jasnah being in any way able to see her intelligence and focus as anything but a threat. They would seek to lessen her. Even if this is not strictly true I can imagine her coming to believe this. She may have felt it far better to avoid the issue altogether. And at 35, she is well set in her ways. As far as Jasnah and Kaladin together I can see possibilities from romance to outright hostility and everything in between. But I believe the most likely result is friendship and bff status. Looking at it from Jasnah's POV, look at what she values in people. Intelligence is obvious, probably due to what she believes to be her strongest attribute. It defines her and allows her to defy convention. She could not live in the manner she chooses to without being smart. So she looks for intelligence in those she chooses to associate with and does not suffer foolishness. Another thing she values is honesty and sincerity. I think we can attribute this to her unknown childhood trauma and growing up at court. Deception everywhere and on every side, she fervently wished and wishes for something in her life to be true. Her life mission became to persue truth. She rejected religion because she saw little truth in what the ardents taught. Finally, that's why she likes Dalinar despite him not being a genius, he's the most sincere person she knows. It's a large part of why she hates Amaram; she saw through his golden reputation and despised his deceptive nature. It's clear to me why Kaladin comes up in shipping conversations regarding Jasnah. He is the only character we've seen on-screen that possesses the traits Jasnah would value in a mate, currently unattached and not family. The May-December aspect trips up some readers; for others that doesn't raise an eyebrow. However, friendship or more is entirely plausible given that Kaladin is as intelligent as Shallan albeit with a different specialty and as sincere and honest as Dalinar.

Ok, I might be missing something so tell me if I am, but no where in the Cosmere do I recall seeing any water-based magic. Come to think of it, no fire based magics either. Metal is ever present of course, earth-type magics have been used extensively, wind is used more than a few times, but not fire or water. Is this intentional? Is investiture naturally hydro-/pyro-phobic? Or are there Cosmere novels on the horizon that will deal with the lack of elemental magic systems?

The Cognitive Realm is a weird place, often reflecting the Physical Realm interesting ways. Shadow points towards light, the sea is as solid as stone, Land is a bunch of beads you cannot swim in, Stormlight itself is currency and sustenance. Doesn't it make sense that the both surges that heavily rely on Cognitive Realm to work would have a Spren that mostly relies on thought? Inkspren are cousins to Logicspren after all.

Beings mostly of the CR have shadows pointing the wrong way. Inkspren are the Elsecaller spren, elsecallers are the main CR interactors as both their surges interact most strongly with CR, ergo Inkspren will have opposite facing shadows.

Becoming an Awakener and mastering the skill is indeed difficult. But the highest level can indeed be reached. My argument is that the highest level anyone can achieve in SA will only let a person master 2 surges out of 10. No one can master all 10 surges and use them at once. No one has access to the full magic system nor is it possible. I know of only 2 ways in which it might work and I'm not even sure it's possible. You could bind all the Nahel spren (or I guess 5 out of 10 as long as you bind the ones where the surges don't overlap), or you bind all the honorblades. The reason the first may not work is that the Spren would oppose an action like that. The second could be because there may be a cancellation effect, much like the harmonium medallions on Scadrial Era 2. Either way, even if it is possible, one could not use all the abilities at the same time. Like, a person that achieved the impossible wouldn't be able to Lightweave and fly at the same time for instance.

I have another Greater Cosmere Comparison. Most Limited Magic System: Surgebinding, Roshar edition. This is for a couple reasons. First, the magic is highly subjective. It depends on drawing a spren that corresponds to your core personality traits. And if something fundamentally changes about that personality you lose your powers. Second and most telling, in every magic system we've seen so far there are ways to gain everything that system has to offer. On Scadrial Rashek was a Fullborn. Nalthis, the Godking is at the highest Heightening and can do everything. On Sel, once you are granted power you are already at the highest level that system has to offer. Practice and study is the way to boost your abilities there. But Surgebinding is different. While you can do awesome things with the magic and you become a Compounder from the very first, the thing is, no matter how high you level up you can only master 2 of 10 abilities. Brandon has mentioned that it's not impossible to bond multiple spren but it doesn't seem possible for a person to encompass enough personality traits to bond all 10 Nahel spren, especially since some Orders contradict each other, and also because the Spren would reject that sort of soul splitting as a matter of course. Maybe some person with true multiple personality disorder could in theory accomplish this, but even in that scenario they would only be able to use one set of their abilities at a time.

So Rand vs Rashek then. Mat v Kelsier is hard because Mat has so much metal on his person he literally could not come close to Kelsier. Forewarned, give Mat Obsidian and a non-metal staff and the fight gets much closer.

So where are those memories when they don't have access to them? Are they stored in the SR, to be regained as their Connection is restored through their Nahel bond? Do they have the memories in their heads and transfer into the PR locks them behind a wall? OB Spoilers

Count me as one who likes Shard-as-Railgun. Accelerated projectiles to ridiculous rates, incredible rate of fire and if one runs out of ammunition they still will not be disarmed. If they can project surges then one can have guns with different effects.

Ok something just occurred to me. There have been Spren that have bonded multiple Radients including Stormfather. We know that unless precautions are taken the Spren lose themselves when inhabiting the Physical Realm until bonded. My question is, are they completely blank slated to the point where they permanently forget their former bondmates and the experiences they had? Are their memories kept in trust until they can access them again or do their fellow Spren sort of fill them in once they regain the capacity to remember again? I know that Connection tells them a lot of things about their Bondmates but does it tell them about themselves as well?

Sounds like Odium's theme song.

I agree that the subjective arguments are fun too. This thread is an attempt to supplement those arguments and kinda set some ground rules. Basically, this is what to expect were I a normal user in a given system. The protagonists of these stories are often outside the normal range of practitioners, doing things thought to be impossible by the standards of their time.

I can see where you are coming from re: versatility. The same things that make it difficult to gain access to the systems of Sel make it easy to do anything for the practitioner. Shattered Shards equal very little limits. Roshar's magic is bound up in Oaths, the Metallic Arts are quite structured, and Awakening, though awesome, is pretty much only one power. The rest of the benefits basically involves upgrading the person with the Breaths (hence Endowment). Perfect pitch. Super color differentiation. Health. Now with Sel, what are the rules? Where are the limiting factors? If you can draw the symbols you can make the magic. So, knowledge.

Haven't re-read Elantris in a couple years so it was kinda hard for me to come up with much. My inclination would be to say it's the most limited of the 4 from a Cosmere perspective. 1, heavily location-dependant, so much so that a landscape change broke the magic. 2. User limited. With Nalthis everyone can become a magic user, economics is the limiting factor. Roshar, attract 1 of 10 Spren and boom. Access granted. Scadrial has genetic factors that limit access so you may not be in that 'lucky' 1%. But Sel? Becoming a Reod seems to me like a random process with absolutely no oversight. No skills involved. Granted there may be a choice with the Dakhor or Soul Forgery but I'm not sure enough about either to compare them with the others. Stands to reason that they will have similar problems to Aon Dor manipulation because they're fueled by Shattered Shards.

Most Mobile for me means most easily refueled. That's Metallic Arts. On the other hand Roshar has the largest gas station. As far as anywhere usage, yeah you can Awaken anywhere in the Cosmere but Breath is a finite resource. And at this point there's only 2 places to fuel Awakening, Nalthis for regular unleaded and Roshar for a bio diesel substitute.

In the Greater Cosmere there are 4 major magic systems I'd like to discuss and make comparisons. My purpose is not to theorize who'd win a fight between magic users of different systems, more a comparison of the nature of the magics themselves. Note that I'm not including White Sand, Aether of Night or Shadows of Threnody. The first isn't fully published, the 2nd may not quite be canon yet and the third we don't know nearly enough to evaluate. So, first the Planet and the systems. Sel-AonDor/Dakhor Scadrial-Metallic Arts Nalthis-Awakening/Chromatics Roshar-Surgebinding/Voidbinding Granted this list is of course incomplete. As Brandon writes more books and opens up more of the Cosmere we will potentially see more planetary systems and more magic. Up to this point the 4 major magic systems of the Cosmere are the ones listed above. Easiest Entry Point: That title goes to Awakening. Everybody in the system is born with a seed of the magic in Breath. It's not terribly difficult to get more, at least in comparison to the other systems. And if one gets enough Breath you get the magic handbook. In fact the only restrictions come when you make it to Cognitive Shadow territory and even that's not onerous. 1 Breath a week, substituted for any raw Investiture if breath isn't available. Most Mobile: The Metallic Arts take the cake on this one. If your sDNA allows for metal manipulation then you can do it anywhere in the Cosmere. It's not location dependant like on the other Shard worlds because the doorway to the power is already incorporated into your spiritweb. Most Investiture: This is obviously Roshar. Two living Vessels and a shattered third are all in system. Raw Power circles the globe on a semi-regular basis. That raw power can be harnessed by practitioners of different magic systems with a simple hack. Probably a different hack for each system but it's probably not terribly difficult. Unlike say Scadrial where the hack into their system involves material that no longer exists (lerassium) or finding someone with the appropriate spiritweb and ripping a piece from their soul. On Roshar all you gotta do is stand out in a storm with a kite. I'm sure there are more but that's all I could come up with for now. I'm sure there are others. I tried to stay away from the more subjective comparisons like Most Useful or Most OP but feel free to explore.

So basically Odium was Adonolasium's id before they split up.

Vin at Kredick Shaw. 13 Inquisitors. Completely badass. The hotel scene in era 2. Steris with the list. Everybody being themselves completely freaking out anyone with a shred of normality. Sazed. On his arms. Look basically the entire last chapters of HoA until the Catacendre. That entire book was super bleak up until then. Then the Moments of Awesome hit back to back to back.

I see you guys are trying to slay me with textual evidence. It just may be working. However, a couple things to consider. One, Melaan isn't a typical kandra. She's rather an outlier in kandra society; most kandra don't think like her or would even go through the effort. Plus, unlike most Era 2 kandra she interacts with the outside rather more frequently than average. Two, a question. Was her stated purpose of having aluminum bones to prevent allomancy from taking hold on her? I rather think she did it to show off. More of a status symbol than anything practical; it's ridiculously expensive in both monetarily and in time consumption. Lastly, considering kandra wariness of humanity in general and allomancers in particular, if there was a significant benefit in having an aluminum True Body, if it protected them from allomancy to a significant degree, wouldn't we see more examples of aluminum use in the kandra population?

The scandian thing is something I didn't know. That takes care of structural integrity I suppose. Making a bladed weapon out of the material also seems feasible though there are other options that can be produced much more cheaply and would still be stronger than aluminum. Still it seems to me that it would make for a very expensive solution for negligible benefit. You want a skeleton immune to Allomancy with blade weapon add-on's? For metal you could use Silver. Or cut out the metal factor completely and use obsidian.

When Brandon put out the list for viewpoint characters around the time Words of Radiance came out. He gave out the list of characters slated to get a book and that each one would represent an Order of KR.

The tensile strength of an aluminum blade is weak at best. I'm not sure you could weaponize it. The blocking of emotional allomancy is its only practical use as a battle metal; the skeleton won't stand up to any strike of even moderate force and the blade folds if not breaks against any type of conventional weaponry. I don't know of any process that would harden aluminum enough to make any sort of difference. Detach the arm and use it as a bladed weapon but the obsidian dagger or axe destroys both the blade and the welder without much difficulty.