Leyrann

So I'm done explaining the ten Surges, and it's actually amazing. It's. Actually. Amazing. It all fits so well. Only four of the Surges require the L bosons to be converted into energy, and two of those are related to molecular bonds (which are electron stuff and electrons can gain and lose energy if they get hit by photons) while the other two are related directly to Identity and are probably turned into energy through that, and therefore also require L-Theory. Of the other six, five directly use the L bosons to work, and the last one... Oh man, Elsecalling is beautiful. It requires the soul of L-Theory to work. I am now going to get some sleep, however, as it's getting late, but I'll continue tomorrow. Mistborn probably has some interesting things as well and I'm gonna see what I can get done with Warbreaker and Elantris. And after that I'm gonna do some more reading first as looking up magic systems of books I haven't read could end up with some spoilers I would not want to see.

There is honestly something like that about Sanderson, and his books as well. I feel like it is the only reason that I (and probably many others with me) am able to read Mistborn without getting depressed at the setting. I also noticed it in the change in tone in Wheel of Time when Sanderson took over. But do let it be clear that I'm very much always looking for a best-case scenario, not necessarily the most realistic scenario.

I'm coming back to this. However, it's going to be so much (I tend to be quite extensive in my explanations) that I'm making a new thread for it. I'll link it here once it's ready. EDIT: I'm just going to put it in right here, another reason to assume this theory is correct, is that Shallan is able to suck in the Stormlight from her illusions again, which makes sense, as Lightweaving doesn't actually do anything with the L bosons, contrary to the other kinds of magic.

I figured that, maybe, part of "reality" seeped into the story, and that was what changed the hair colour.

It does? Ah, that sucks. With some luck though, either Dalinar will trust Taravangian enough to tell him about the visions or Taravangian will trust Dalinar enough to let him in on the Diagram. I think that either of that happening (though it is not nessecarily likely) would be enough to have them sit together and think about how to unite Roshar, as it is apparently the goal of them both, given to Dalinar by visions of Honor (which, by the way, Gavilar also had, and Taravangian knows he did) and given to Taravangian on a day he was so extremely smart he managed to predict the future several years away with only minor mistakes.

On the other hand, could it be possible (I have nothing to back this up, ftr) that Taravangian (and/or the Diagram) consider there to be a difference between Dalinar ruling in Urithiru (actually that'd officially be Elhokar, but whatever) and someone ruling in Alekthar? After all, a central ruler in Alekthar would most likely mean that Dalinar is not moving to Urithiru. Maybe the reason that there should not be a stable ruler in Alekthar was that the armies of Alekthar, or at least the Knights Radiant led by Bondsmith Dalinar, should move to Urithiru for one reason or another. Again, I have nothing to back this up, but well, it could be.

Wait, he's actually going to do that? ...Well that's gonna be an interesting book to read. EDIT: Got ninja'd, and it looks like my assumptions were correct.

I don't think it's mentioned anywhere in the books, but it is a relatively safe assumption to be made. Chemical bonds are quite standard and you can often manipulate them without even knowing. For example, if you burn something, you already break chemical bonds and form new chemical bonds. In your body, millions upon millions of chemical bonds are broken every second and new ones are formed as often. However, not a single atom is split or fused in your body during your entire lifetime, except for some naturally radioactive elements (yes, there are probably traces of radioactive elements in your body), and humankind as a whole has not split or fused a single atom until less than 100 years ago. Also, nuclear explosions aren't easy. Even if they could break atoms, they'd still need an element that releases multiple neutrons upon breaking and is of high enough quality to establish a chain reaction. The first problem, that they need an element that releases multiple neutrons upon breaking (or neutron capture) means that they'll need something very heavy, like uranium, as atoms only release multiple neutrons if they actually break, as opposed to releasing a particle. Typically, such heavy elements do not have a long enough half-life time to still exist, assuming that Roshar is as old as Earth* (uranium is the exception), and even if you do have it, you still run into the second problem, and that is that you need to have a high enough quality. With uranium, for example, if you mine uranium ores, then purify it to have 100% pure uranium, you can do whatever the heck you want, but unless you shoot in one neutron for every atom of uranium, nothing interesting is going to happen. This is because there's two kinds of uranium, and in order to actually get a chain reaction, you need to have at least some 10% of the right kind of uranium**, and natural uranium is around 3% (note that these numbers are from memory, so I might be off a bit). The technology required to purify this is quite high-tech, and certainly not available in any pre-industrial revolution society. Also, note that uranium is by far the easiest element to use for nuclear reactions. *It is probably younger because it orbits a white star, which wouldn't reach 4.5 billion years before becoming a gas giant, but whatever. **This is what is used in nuclear reactors and is actually not enough for an explosion, just a continued reaction; nuclear weapons are typically in the 20-30% range if I remember correctly.

Eh. I still don't get what's so inherently evil about Taravangian. He literally asked the Nightwatcher the boon to have the knowledge to save the world, and now he's acting on it. Yes, he's doing horrific stuff, but where for someone like Amaram you can argue about what his goals are, with Taravangian you know that he might be doing stuff wrong (or not, because honestly, how can we judge that with the information we have?), but his goal is to save the world in face of the Desolation. I mean, I understand if people dislike Taravangian for what he does, but I do not see how that makes Malata untrustworthy. Taravangian is Taravangian, Malata is Malata.

One more thing I realized - most likely the book is named after the Shardblade. We do not know when the book is written, but if it is written by a character from the series itself (Jasnah, Dalinar, etc) then it is safe to assume that it has yet to be written; right now, however, the Shardblade is lost - Adolin threw it away and as far as we know, no one has seen it since. So is it an older book (which I actually don't think, as I feel like we would know about the book then before getting prefaces, which was, IIRC, the case with WoK and WoR), or will Oathbringer be found? And if it is found, then who gets it? And what other consequences will there be? Will the one that gets Oathbringer end up being the writer of the book? (of course, if Dalinar is the writer, then we can have a modern writer without needing Oathbringer to be found, but if it's anyone else, I think it is safe to assume the above)

I just want to say I think this is an absolutely astounding theory. I think that, if I got the time for it, I might try and see if I can figure out how all different kinds of magic are related to it. EDIT: The first version of Surgebinding is in my signature now, and I'll keep updating my signature with all theories I've posted.

And here I don't either like or hate Taravangian, but just hold off what I think of him to see more of what is going to happen first... I do hate Amaram though, but that's more of a 'personal' feeling, because of what he did to Kaladin and his men, which was also from Kaladin's point of view after a whole book of getting to know Kaladin.

Both, actually. GRRM probably stole it from rock climbers, and Brandon probably did as well.

Agreed on this. His plan relies quite a lot on "if the Voidbringers are there, the Heralds will come back" and "if the Heralds come back, the church will get into power again". Now, even apart from the debate of wheter or not you want the church in power again, the question is how do you know that the Voidbringers aren't just gonna end humanity* for good this time? *Or whoever is good in this series. I don't know.

And then hope that there's not someone else who also looks alike.

That better be the Heavy Metal Edition you're talking about.

Hello fellow WoT fan! I originally come from Dragonmount. How about you?

If Brandon reads this thread he's probably like, "huh, that's five ways to interpret it that I hadn't even thought of but are valid".

While it certainly won't be simple, I do think that we also can't write off a whole order of the KR as evil. After all, all Knights Radiant share the same First Ideal: Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination. We know that these ideals aren't just some funny thing - you have to hold to them to remain a KR. Therefore, it seems safe to assume that a KR can't simply ignore "life before death" at once (and remain a KR, that is).

*gives the finger to the "you cannot give more reputation today" message*

I guess he fills the Knight Templar and Well-Intentioned Extremist tropes. He thinks he's doing the right thing, but if you were to place him on the famous D&D (and maybe other stuff?) scale, he'd be Lawful Evil.

That's because there's no in-universe book called Highprice of War. At least, not that we know of.

I think this is an extremely good post, as well as the post above mine, to be honest. It just sounds very... logical, though indeed, it does kinda turn Roshar into a butt monkey for the games of the Shards. But hey, better to have just one world suffer under Odium's touch than all of them, right? That would be the honorable choice. A million is, after all, a statistic.

A minor note for the theory that it is related to the stealing of the Dawnshard, what we're used to calling the Origin (as it's called that in-world) is of course also the east, where the sun dawns.

Spren are often invisible to those they're not bonded with. Just like Bridge Four typically can't see Syl.