Shig

Well, we do know that the blades are left behind because of broken oaths, but if there is no oath needed for the voidspren bonds, perhaps the spren can never die.

I know this may be a stretch, but has Tanavast been brought up as a possibility?

I had a hard time trying to find non-traumatic examples off the top of my head, but conflicts of identity could definitely cause cracks, especially if it creates conflict.

In fact, I think in most cases confronting the truth may come with a sense of relief. Accepting yourself for who you are, not who you are trying to be. Sure, you can continue to put on the mask, but the truth is acknowledgement that it IS a mask; but of course there is pain associated with finding out that you aren't who you want to be.

I do think Shallan might be more of a special case, She had bonded and spoken truths before her mother tried to murder her, so it may specifically be her circumstances that make it more difficult for her, not the Order itself. I'd like to imagine a Lightweaver speaking truths that they want to deny, but aren't tied to traumatic experiences ("I am a skilled liar, no matter how much I hate it", "I do not believe in the edicts of my homeland", or something like that). These people are still speaking personal truths, but in these cases, it would be acknowledging an internal struggle, not a trauma.

So, holy crap, Shallan is a lot worse than I thought. She got a lot more lost in Veil than I expected, seems to he getting addicted to Stormlight, and completely ignored Patterns warnings. She doesn't even trust herself/memories anymore. I don't know what it will take to pull her back and force her to carefully examine herself.

I don't see Lopen or Jasnah in this list

Yeah, I see your point there. I do think Jasnah being back will help Shallan, but I think it might be more of another issue on the stack having to deal with her "death", and not that Jasnah gave her stability. I think Jasnah, given more time, will help center her, as Shallan does obviously idolize her a bit (Brightness Radiant was based off of her, after all); but it does seem apparent that Shallan has always been a bit crazy from the start.

I should edit my last post, but I really want to see an interlude set in Herdaz. I'm interested in seeing how their culture differs from the Alethi.

She was able to focus on her studies, and while she did lock away her past, she was focused on the future. In addition, she was even reluctant to steal the "fabrial" from Jasnah once she had built up a repertoire with her. She rarely felt incapable; inexperienced at times, but she didn't really have any mental breakdowns where she had to just flee from a situation (which is basically what she is doing with her personas now, she mentally flees from situations). I may just be misinterpreting lack of information as stability, but she seemed less rash and more in control of herself while she had a mentor.

Also, this isn't totally related to discussion, but I can't help but think about Persona with all of this personality and mask changing. Personas are the mask you put on to face the world and hide your true self; kind of EXACTLY what Shallan is doing right now.

I don't want to see Rock forced to fight. It feels very important that he is a pacifist, and I don't want to see that forced to be broken.

I think some of her mental fractures are being amplified by the loss of Jasnah. She hasn't really had an adult mentor for most, if not all of her life. She was significantly more stable with Jasnah around, and I really think she'll be helped just by knowing Jasnah is alive. More than her personal relationships, the fact that she has buried her grief for Jasnah so quickly and completely is a major issue that needs to be addressed.

I think it has to do with their willingness to follow Kaladin's orders and take his word as final. Moash had his doubts and didn't really treat Kaladin as a leader like the others did and do. I think that would have been what prevented him from being a squire.

Anything with Lopen. Like, a whole chapter from his viewpoint.

I get the feeling that its actually a lot deeper than we expect. Its a layer of ground with no more than 6 ft of water, but that water recedes during high storms, just like plants do. I bet there is a deeper pool of water under the broken surface, which is displaced back up when something (i'm thinking a large mass of plants) moves back in the place after the highstorm passes

I think we'll be getting a bit more insight as an interlude, or once Bridge 4 rejoins with Kaladin. I believe Sanderson was just planting a few seeds, but I doubt he'll leave us hanging on this big of an event.

Gotcha, I might have misread the line, I was thinking you were saying that she chose what she was going to do with her power as she breathed in stormlight, not when she actually used it (I was imagining consuming as the term for taking in stormlight, not actively using it). My bad on the misread!

First, I want to say I read through all of these, and I like them A LOT. These are really well put together; my scattered thoughts couldn't have put this all together. I did have a question about one part. In the part I quoted below, are you saying that when Shallan consumes the stormlight, she is deciding what is going to be done with it at that time? I think the Nahel Bond/ bonded spren might be closer to your analogy; Shallan pushes Stormlight out through Pattern (Pattern, as a product of being a crypticspren translates the stormlight) as she is deciding what her lightweaving illusions should produce. Just a thought, anyways, let me know if I'm off base a little bit.

Ah, neat. I'm actually glad to see that, because Soul Forging seemed a BIT too powerful for my taste, especially compared to the other magic systems. Flexible is cool, but flexible and potent causes issues.

Ah, thanks for that! I couldn't remember the WoB exactly. That does make the method a bit more inflexible, but considering how wide ranging Soul Forging is, I think it is still in the realm of possibility. That said, I don't think anything like that would happen in the cosmere, at least not with this method; it's a little too specific in scope.

The way I understood it, it gives you insight into the spiritual web of the object you are "Remembering" which would include the bonds (each strand of the web) made. Soul Forging (Not feruchemy, I'm not totally sure how that one works yet) actually REWRITES that web, making it so that you were the original holder of that bond. It does also rewrite the person who was forged, spiritually and psychologically (which is another set of issues), and would potentially allow you to reawaken the bond. Also, we have been told that Nahel bonds can be passed down hereditarily, so it may not even need to be that complete.

Perhaps Cultivation+Endowment would be closer to Nurture?

Yeah, I thought I had added them, must have been in offline mode, oops!

I think Ruin and Endowment would be more likely to fall under Sacrifice (Change and loss to enable giving to others). I think Honor and Endowment would likely be Fealty (Giving due diligence and respect to superiors).