Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

Exactly! I think this has to do with the fact that Renarin should have died. Jasnah suspected he had a corrupted spren, and she was ready to kill him to protect her family. But, Renarin, seeing his imminent death at the hands of his cousin, instead of trying to save himself weeps for his father. His last concern before his certain death that he has seen played out before him in the shifting panorama of stained glass, is not for himself but rather for his father. I think this is the pivotal moment that undoes all of Odium's plans. Jasnah realizes that Renarin is offering himself up like a fatted calf for slaughter, and sees that even knowing that his own death is imminent, does nothing to resist his fate, but instead worries only about his fathers fate. If he had struggled or fought, Jasnah would have killed him without compunction. But because he is huddled on the floor, weeping for his father, Jasnah sees him as the tragic figure that he is, who is in desperate need of compassion. And this dual act of compassion saves Renarin, and because he was saved by an act of compassion (which is antithetical to Odium's intent) he becomes an invisible piece on the great chessboard.

My money's on the Herdazian bobsled team for the gold.

@The One Who Connects I have been getting some work done (sad I know), but during my down time I have been putting quite a bit of thought into this. Examining the prima facie evidence, we know that onscreen conjoined fabrials have only been used when the fabrial that is being manipulated by the conjoined fabrial that is being actively moved is at rest (spanreeds are set in specific predetermined spots, the archery platform was stationary before the conjoined platform was lowered). This means that the effects of engaging a conjoined fabrial while in motion have not been shown, and as such are pure conjecture. Furthermore, and even more telling (as in telling the death knell for this far fetched and impractical means to make flying airships work) the chapter where conjoined fabrials are fist discussed in WoR is called "The Multiplied Strain of Simultaneous infusion". In that chapter Navanni explains to Adolin and Rushu that the things that they are having the most trouble with for these reversers working to raise the archery platforms are that the distance between conjoined fabrials and the weight of conjoined systems both increase the likelihood that the reverser fabrial gemstones will crack under the strain. But in thinking about this more, I think this was never an idea that would have worked. In examining the scene in chapter 35 of WoR where Navani is testing out raising the archery platform, it is clear that there is a magical effect that is at play. The ardents engage the fabrial of the raised wooden square platform, then remove the wooden supports for the raised square and it hangs in space ostensibly unsupported in it's current position. This implies that conjoining a system sets a baseline frame of reference, where the conjoined object at rest becomes the baseline for this conjoined framework. After the ardents lower the engaged suspended platform down to the ground and the previously at rest conjoined fabrial + archery platform rises into the air in equal measure to the lowered square platform, they tie the lowered platform down. This implies that the conjoined system would return to its initial state, with the engaged fabrial trying to reach the baseline height before it was actively lowered and the raised platform would try to return to its previous position at rest on the ground. I believe that this is pretty clear evidence that the magical effect of the conjoined fabrial lies in the creation of a baseline shared frame of reference at the time that the conjoining fabrial is engaged. Furthermore, I think that this is not an absolute frame of reference but a relative frame of reference that probably takes into account the intent of the person that engages the conjoining mechanism. This point becomes more obvious when you look at the practical ramifications of using conjoined spanreeds to communicate between the shattered plains and Tashikk. Based on this amazing map or Roshar, which was approved by Peter, the longitudinal separation between the shattered plains and Tashikk is ~110 degrees of longitude. Here is a view of the map with approximate orthogonal normals shown in black, showing the relative directions of up based on the relative position of both spanreeds. Looking at the map it becomes fairly obvious that some relative (and possibly cognitively reinforced) frame of reference needs to be established at the moment of conjoining to make sure that something as precise as the re-dipping of the spanreed quill into the spanreed system inkpot can happen. If the framework was an absolute framework then the spanreed when lifted up would be lifted in relation to the surface normal of it's relative position, and if this was translated as absolute movement to the conjoined spanreed it would be essentially lifted at angle nearly orthogonal to the direction that is up in relation to it's relative frame of reference (essentially it would be moving to the right instead of up). Here is another map of Roshar, with the plane that is orthogonal to the relative position of the spanreed at the shattered plains that should clarify what I am talking about: So based on this analysis, I think that we can safely say that conjoined fabrials have the following base characteristics: At the time that they are actively conjoined, each fabrial has a relative frame of reference that is linked to the relative frame of reference of it's conjoined pair fabrial, and that movement of one conjoined fabrial is translated into relative movement for the other fabrial in its own relative frame of reference. A baseline state of equilibrium is established between the two conjoined fabrials at the time that the fabrials are actively conjoined. This is the rest state. Each part of the coinjoined system, if no external force were applied, would return to this base state. I think we have primary evidence for this in the form of the archery platform (in that the portion lowered needs to be tied down in order to have it maintain it's position), but it would be interesting to know if the conjoined spanreeds have a force that is attempting to re-position them into their initial base rest state. These are small, relatively light pens, so the force attempting to reinstate them in their initial equilibrium rest position would also be somewhat negligible, but the farther away in any of the 3 axes you get from the rest position, the greater the resultant force to return to the rest position should be (this should be noticeable as a tension, kind of like an elastic string, tying the spanreed to the position where it was first engaged). This is a magical property, and possibly the frame of reference for each conjoined fabrial is imparted by the user that engages the fabrial. This would be a further proof of the quantum nature of fabrials (and spren in general) that the observer sets the functional parameters. This is the great causal I of the quantum system. The determinant nature of the frame of reference of the system is based on the perceived frame of reference of the user. I don't recall any references in the SLA of spanreeds being used in conjunction with compasses, so I am assuming that the cognitive interpretation of the spanreed user establishes the relative frame of reference. Up is towards the top of the spanreed board, right is to the right of the spanreed board, etc. This is the most flexible way to use this technology, and also it's probably part of the underlying magic that these considerations and translations of position are done automatically. But the root cause of these translations probably has to do with the perception of the user. So based on the above, I have to say, the idea of using a system of weights and counterweights dangling from Urithiru to provide vertical ascent/descent to flying airships is ridiculous and completely untenable. Till next time @The One Who Connects, when we see what topic unleashes an unholy war of ideas that can only be settled by the surgical use of WoBs and the clarifying use of diagrams. As always this has been diverting and edifying.

Welcome to the Jacob Marley club, where you forge your own chains of compulsive indebtedness with every extra tiny revelation of the secret workings of the Cosmere you are able to pick out. Just remember people call obsession Drive or Motivation when it's linked to a goal, at least that's what I tell myself at 4:00 am when I'm checking on threads that I'm interested in. To reword the words of Obi Wan Kenobi when preparing young Luke for the perils of Mos Eisley, "Never will you find a more wondrous hive of genius and and caring humanity" that exists on the 17th shard. Have an upvote, and welcome!

Good point about it being at the Start of the Highstorm, in cosmere terms Saved in his pre-ascension moping about the loss of Tywndle phase could play the part of the waiter (pretty good stand in for Marvin the Robot). Have to agree with about Kal and Arthur talking, but then again pretty much any conversation with Arthur Dent would be fun. @The One Who Connects, I have to get some work done, but I will address your again very good points later, when I can in good conscience do so. Posting on the shard for some reason doesn't seem to help with my backlog of work... If there is anything that will ever guarantee that I will reply in detail to a post it is is the skillful use of diagrams (your diagrams are very nice by the way). I will update this post with some diagrams of my own (probably later tonight).

Rad, the game is afoot! But momemtum is a cummulative vector, the addition of the angular spin of the conjoined counterweight would affect the trajectory of the flying ship but not control it. This is a push and pull scenario where given enough time with the conjoiner engaged equilibrium would be reached. The greatest addition from the conjoined counterweight to the angular momentum of the ship+conjoined fabrial would be in the vertical axis (which would be a jolt, but let's say for argument sake that the fabrial has been soulcast into the hull of the ship, so the ship+fabrial equals one complete rigid body). Totally valid criticism, I was thinking that disengaging the brake of one weight would also slightly increase the resistance in the other brake, but over time energy would be lost to friction and you would end up with two weights evenly balanced. But this doesn't necessarily kill this idea, it just makes it so the pilot of the airship (or the underlying fabrial technology) has to be more sophisticated. They are on the tallest mountain in the WORLD. So you could potentially have the Weights A and B in Urithiru linked to other conjoined fabrials. So lets say that the Hull of the airship is actually rigidly connected to fabrials A, C and D (all part of the same matrix of conjoined reversers that help with the inertial thrusters) and Fabrials B, E and F (also a matrix of conjoined reversers but associated with weight B instead of A, and that both of these matrices of fabrials help with inertial thrust but in the opposite dimension). During the nominal descent any one of these conjoined reversers that is at a lower altitude could be engaged to in fact slow the descent of the airship, and if paired with other reversers could in effect be generating the potential energy of raising one weight higher than the other to effect a complete and total conservation of energy such that the airship could move through vertical space anywhere from where it started (at the height of Urithiru) to it's target altitude. As long as the control mechanism for engaging and disengaging fabrials can be accomplished with span reed technology (like a remote switch) this system of is irrefutable. You could never go higher than the landing pads at Urithiru, but absolute potential energy should be maintainable with enough linked conjoined fabrials. Again this would be a differential of angular momentum. If the weight was descending at 2x the velocity of the descent, then the resultant reversed vertical impulse for the shipboard fabrial would be 1/4 impulse in the vertical direction, but would still be positive movement in the correct axis. With the addition of additional conjoined crosslinked fabrials where the potential energy of the whole system could be effectively stored (which is the difference in height between the top of Urithiru and sea level, which is very significant) we can imagine a system where small perturbations are readily accommodated and corrected. We are necessarily limiting this to the disputed axis, the other angular modifiers would exist but would be mitigated by the swiveling carousel construction of the paired Urithiru counterweights Once again, a very salient point, but I again think that this can be mitigated with the right cross-linkage of reverser conjoined fabrials. Over the course of the Journey some of the potential energy from the system will most likely be lost to friction, but this is only a problem when they are coming back to the highest mountain in Roshar, at which point the conjoined counterweights can be operated manually. Otherwise, no matter where they are traveling they will always be at a lower alitude than where they start, so even if this system is somewhat ineffecient, it still stands a decent chance of working. I would have to say that diminshers that decrease the weight of the ship and gravitational fabrials that alter the spiritual gravitational orientation of the ship are far more elegant solutions to this problem. This solution is really only an attempt to cobble together a possible solution that would work with existing onscreen fabrial tech. As always, it is fun to speculate, especially with someone who is smart and quick to point out the obvious (or not so obvious) flaws with the given system. I had to take a break for dinner, but as I said above, the game is afoot, which is always fun.

Don't want to hijack this thread, so if you are interested in the flying ship discussion, there is more spoilered below:

They can be engaged and disengaged. They would essentially be used as vertical inertial thrusters. They could be engaged for a boost (angular momentum's adjust). Engaged again, for an additional boost then disengaged (angular momentums again adjusting) and the Conjoined weights could be falling, building up speed when they are not engaged as well giving a larger vertical boost to the ship when engaged.

and There was thread awhile back about the flying airships, and I think I figured out how they could make flying airships work with current fabrial technology: I think the solution linked to would work, it would just be a matter of testing the material science limit of the strain that conjoined fabrials can withstand and building in safety thresholds.

Kind of sad but the consolation is that Brandon's books get better with successive readings. Who knows what trail of breadcrumbs of Cosmeric significance you'll find on your next trip through one of his series? Could have important speculative ramifications. I've only read the full Mistborn series once, so that is a deficiency that I plan to use the gap to rectify. Also, the new legion book is going to be coming out next year, that's a mighty fine series even though it's not in the Cosmere.

I know that Brandon is by design leaving the God Beyond untouched, so to ascribe any direct action/intention to this being would be to cross from the realm of fantasy into the realm of real wold belief. But we can still examine the prima facie evidence of the Cosmere, and build speculative theories based on these facts which possibly extend to parameters beyond which questions will never be resolved. I think this is OK, because inferences can still be drawn from these speculations. Brandon is not going to be directly confirming or denying anything that touches on his personal beliefs or the beliefs of others in the real world, but Adonalsium could be a part of larger Being within the fantasy Universe that the Cosmere resides in, and could just be another link in the Great Chain of Being with this intermediary pan galactic deity being a link between between Adonalsium and the God Beyond. Even if there is no intermediary pan-galactic intelligence, the theory that creation is an act of self-discovery, and that God is in all things, so all things that are created are part of changing living god is interesting enough that it's worth examining in it's own right. Also, I think that this theory has some predicative components as I outlined in an earlier post, so to dismiss it as useless because it is a theory about something that will never have a concrete in world answer is not necessarily productive, because almost all metaphysical speculation exists in the vacuum of proof. Just because something is unproveable doesn't make it less interesting to contemplate as a potential explanation for some of the greatest mysteries of life. We know from some WoBs (spoilered below) that the underlying Realmatic theory of the Cosmere is based on the Ideal Forms of Plato, that spren are based on Animistic religions and that questions without answers are deeply interesting to Brandon, because the process of asking these questions is as important in a lot of instances as the anwers to these questions themselves.

Just have to say first off @NotBurtReynolds, I really like the formulation of your OP, I just had some minor disagreements with some of the points, but overall you did an awesome job summarizing the theory, and your post was incredibly well put together. I think this really is a matter of a fundamental incapacity for a being with a Finite mind to contain the near infinitude of the Galactic mind. It would be like a common garter snake trying to swallow a whole world, it's a matter of an innate limit on what is possible. But like I said in the post, I still think that the Vessel that manages to Unify Adonalsium is going to be the central lesson that Adonalsium learns from his division and recombination, precisely because a singular individual was able to reforge the Unitary whole of the Galactic mind. Here are some additional bits about the predictive quality of this theory that I forgot to add to the recreated post: Synthesis of religious principles seems to be related to ability to unite shards (the following example is a continuation of this). Sazed was a Terris Worldsinger, he had studied different and conflicting religions from across the Cosmere, this combined with his loss of his love Tindwyl led to a crisis of faith. But his knowledge of conflicting aspects of different religious systems combined with his overriding sense of duty along with his active willful choice to Believe again were all instrumental in him having the capacity to Unite the opposing forces of Preservation and Ruin and create a new Unified shard Harmony. Dalinar, who had personally been touched by the influence of 3 shards, also had a religious journey that allowed him to see the importance of Duty, Unity and trying to do better. I don't think Unity without the underlying goal of trying to do better would have allowed him to have his lowercase "a" ascension, I think this is possibly one of the best proofs of the theory. There was another possible path toward Unification that Odium and the Diagramatists tried to drive Dalinar towards, the path of blood and conquest. But instead, with the help of the Way of Kings and most tellingly of all, with the guiding moral love of Evi and the forgiveness (or grace) that Evi gave him when he was at his lowest, he was able to Unite through a principle of "after falling down, standing up each time a better man". This is powerful stuff, and I think that it hints at this being a greater Cosmere directive than the personal story of one man (no matter how pivotal he is in the unfolding drama on Roshar). Evi believed in the one, she worked constantly to try and make Dalinar a more noble, moral man, and in the end she gave him (not Cultivation) the one thing that he desired, forgiveness. This has to me the touch of the true Divine to it, and I think that One of the Irial is a principle of compassionate love that tries to correct by example, not coercion. This I think is the true path to Unity for the shattered fragments of Gods mind. Totally agree with this. It's rare to find a place where people are matched in intelligence only by their kindness. I haven't been on the 17th shard that long, but this is truly a special place.

So, just finishing up Aether of Night, and Dean Martin's Volare has been bouncing around my head with the altered Lyrics Vo-Dari, so for your possible amusement I humbly present: Vo-Dari (sung to the tune of Volare, video of Volare spoilered below) Vo-Dari, oho oho Highest Dari, oho oho Let's fly way up to the clouds Away from the Forgotten crowds We can streak with the glow of a star that I know of Where Aedin will find peace of mind Let us leave the confusion and all disillusion behind Just like buds of an aether, a rainbow together we'll find Vo-Dari, oho oho Highest Dari, oho oho No wonder my happy heart sings Your aether has given me wings Don't really know what the lyrics mean for the parts in Italian, so I'll stop here. But I can still hear Dean crooning Vo-Dari, oho oho, highest Dari, oho oho.

Yep sketched it up, it was a rad idea. Birthed from the blackest pitch of Night, thus did Gary come forth to shift the tide of war. And the ground became as the sea as the Singers, did stop singing, yea and they didst wet themselves with much terror and trembling.

Warfare was never the same... Only question @Andy92, what do you call this Fabulous Flying Figment that is guaranteed to make the Fuzed wet themselves? This might not be as big of a hurdle as it seems. Given that Shallan can create an illusion with the surge of Illumination that is a perfect 3-Dimensional illusion that is perfectly synchronized to another person's slightest movements suggests that there is a fair amount of the underlying mechanics of the surge taking care of the practical details of implementation. We also know that the order of Lightweavers had members that were artists of different stripes, it wasn't all just painters. From this I think we can infer that it's the cognitive formation of an Ideal form that is actually the necessary component for forming the illusion. Like if you had a very skilled author, who is able to visualize a particular character, they might have to write a short description of the character in their journal to fix the particulars of the cognitive idealized form of the illusion they are going to create before creating the illusion. This opens the door, for fantastical beasts like @Andy92 suggests. Imagine what kind of hellish lightweavings could be unleased if you had H.P. Lovecraft as a lightweaver, or Arthur Macken, or even Stephen King. The world would truly be a scay and interesting place. Another possible hellish Lightweaver to have on operation scare the Pee out of the Parshendi (so they would Arshendi then I guess) would be H.R. Geiger, the guy who did the alien design from the movie Alien. Nightmares walking, and if they can be substantive like Shallan's sketch army during the battle of Thaylen Fields then holy crap, you might just scare the non-Fuzed, non-Regal Singers into switching sides.

Ok, so found some time to try this post again, it was really sad when the original post that took 5+ hours to put together disappeared, but maybe that happened for a reason...Maybe Adonalsium is working through this chance agency to make this theory better... All referenced WoBs are spoilered at the bottom of the post. NotBurtReynolds, I really like your OP but there are some things that I disagree with: I don't think that Adonalsium would be guided by a Vessel in the same way that a shard of Adonalsium is guided by a Vessel. We know from several WoBs that the base intent of a Shard can only be affected to a small degree by the will of the Vessel[1] and that when the shard broke off from Adonalsium it took something with it and this is why the intent is so resistant to change[2]. They have the power to shift the base intent to a synonymous intent (like changing Love to Deep Affection) [3]. Also we know that eventually over time the inherent intent of the Shard begins to assert itself further decreasing the actual agency of the Vessel and the will of the Vessel doesn't modify the intent of the shard permanently [4]. This effect of the Vessel being subsumed into the greater will of the Fragment of God's mind would most likely be many orders of magnitude greater when a mortal Vessel was subject to the full unified whole of the great galactic mind. I think if a Vessel did fully reform Adonalsium their individual Identity would be quickly subsumed and incorporated into Adonalsium (so it wouldn't be so much the case that Dalinar would be the new Adonalsium, but rather that Dalinar would become part of the Unified Adonalsium). The point that I think is interesting though, is if this repeating cycle theory is true, this wouldn't in anyway diminish the role of the Vessel. The Vessel's journey, ideals, and intentions would be primary evidence used by the galactic mind to figure out what qualites/virtues/attributes/experiences allowed the Vessel to overcome the division between the current aspects of his divided mind. I don't think that it necessarily has to be the case that you are always left with one villainous intent, specifically Odium. I think the fact that any of the intents when given absolute primacy could be just as bad is a much better point. Anything taken to excess is still excessive (that's a taut tautology). Even shards that seem like positive qualities could be awful taken to their logical Extreme. If Endowment had absolute power, then life wouldn't be allowed to die. All inanimate matter would be made to dance and sing and live a farce of a life, with Endowment playing the part of the great Stromboli, jerking the strings. I do think that as a result of the shattering of the Cosmic mind into different base drives, you will have the inevitability of conflict, because if there was no conflict there would be no experience. But intents like Wrath, Prejudice, Vengeance and Retribution are all possible Odium like potential points of cleavage in the Galactic mind and limiting the shattering to always produce a Manichean villain shard Odium is necessarily limiting the full range of possible Experience. To address your points about Adonalsium foreknowledge and control over his own shattering, i think we have to examine some different potential cases for combinations of Omniscience and Omnipotence. If Adonalsium was: Omniscient and Omnipotent: He would both have foreknowledge of the shattering and would have had direct control over the events that led to the shattering. He would be the classical Predeterministic God of the Calvinists, everything that happens or will ever happen will be unfolding as he has seen and as he has made it to be. This is antithetical to the premise that Adonalsium shattered to become a more perfect god because this is a static unchanging god that presupposes perfection. The case against Adonalsium being this type of God is that the moral systems in all of the Cosmere works are driven by freewill and agency on the part of the moral actors. Hrathren's supposed betrayal of his leader Wyrm is the moral pivot on which swings the fate of Elantris. The Ideals of the Knights Radiants are volitionally sworn, Sazed chooses to Believe again coming out of the fog of disillusionment to "unfortunately" be the Hero. Omniscent and Powerful but not all powerful: He would have foreknowledge of the shattering, but may or may not be able to influence the events that lead directly up to and follow the shattering. If he is like the One in the Iriali religion, this would not be the type of God he is either. Omniscience is antithetical to insight gained through experience. An all knowing being, by defintion knows all, direct living experience would have nothing to teach a god like this. Far Seeing but not all seeing and Omnipotent: He could possibly have foreknowledge about the shattering, and if he did he could have made it happen. He could have foreknowledge of the shattering and could have also made it happen. He could have no foreknowledge of the shattering but instead have been manipulating events on a cosmic scale to maximize potential for growth experience, which could inadvertently lead to his shattering. This is the type of God Adonalsium most likely is. There is WoB [5] that highly suggests that Adonalsium's power is infinite, but the limiting capacity on the understanding/application/and use of this power is the finitude of the Mind that is directing this power. This applies to the Shards of Adonalsium's mind as well, and the limit on the powers of the individual intent are two fold, firstly the limited prescience of the Vessel holding the shard, and second the limiting lens of the intent of the shard itself. I suspect that this is the type of God that Adonalsium is. Far Seeing but not all Seeing and Powerful but not All Powerful: He most likely wouldn't have been able to see the shattering coming and most likely wouldn't have been able to manipulate events to make the shattering happen based on a pre-determined ideal point of division (I think the Ideal point of division would be the principle that can in effect reunite the intents of his shattered mind, and possibly this intent always has a secondary drive to the intent of Unity, this might be encoded in all pieces of the mind of god. Even Odium's process of Elimination is a Unity of sort, in that by striving to be the only active piece of God's mind Odium would be attempting to clarify the mind of god as one single component. This would be Unity through destruction. Over the long timescale of cosmic time, we know that Investiture naturally coalesces into setience from these WoBs [6] [7], so eventually you would have the re-coalescing of the shattered fragments of God's mind and the inherent drive for Unity would again kick in until the Mind of God is once again reunified under a principled Intent. And this: So the arguments against this being a re-purposing of the Wheel of Time's never ending repeating cycle are twofold: First, any cyclical process viewed through one iteration looks like a linear progression. I think that we may only see one cycle of this, but I do think this idea is awesome, and would make it possible to have Cosmere Era 2 with different Shardworlds and Shardic magic systems based on a different base division of intents. I am an eternal optimist, so this is in fact my secret hope. Second, there is an in world explanation by Hoid that prefigures the criticism of this series being Derivative. When Hoid is waiting for Taln to show up at Kholinar he has a long soliloquy about what Virtue people value most, he suggests it's Novelty and then immediately shows that it's not Novelty at all but rather timing. There are no original ideas in the world only novel synthesis. To repeat an idea is inevitable, but how the idea is combined with other ideas is the soul of creation. The synthesis is greater than the parts. Herein lies Brandon's true genius, an incredibly well thought out synthesis of some of the most interesting ideas of Philosophy combined with Ingenious magic systems that clearly struggle against their inherent limits. Finally, what would a theory be worth if it didn't have some predicative capacity? Thought experiments are fun, but I think that this view of Adonalsium reforming as a given and reforming due to how his mind was divided can be seen in some of the more currently opaque actions of some of the more secretive characters and groups in the SLA: Hoid is actively seeking to collect shardic investiture, and he is actively working to contain Rayse (as evidenced by the Letters). He was present at the shattering, and declined to take up a shard of Adonalsium. If this theory is true, then Hoid could be studying what principled intent results from the combination of different forms of Investiture (i.e. what happens when different intents are admixed), and could be using this gained insight to try and find people in the Cosmere that exemplify these principle/set of principles which will actively help Adonalsium reforge. Also, the scene in WoR where he asks Dalinar about Adonalsium reads a bit like he is trying to awaken through the use of an engram (or deep seated sign, that can be intuited but not necessarily understood) to awaken Dalinar to a deeper purpose. His stories to Kaladin are also coded messages that help him undestand the principles he needs to know to advance towards a greater understanding of himself in relation to his ideals and his interventions with Shallan are also formational, the Girl Who Stood Up was an important revelation for Shallan, the realization that just continuing on in a world of Pain is truly heroic and defines her true power. We know from the 1st and 2nd Letters that the 17th Shard is an organization that is self tasked with the duty of observing the interplay of the Shardic powers in the cosmere and further that they are actively non-interventionist (meaning they will actively stop others from interfering with the shards, and from this a WoB [8] we know that this includes attempts to bring the shards back together). Frost to Hoid in the 2nd Letter: The view of Frost and the 17th shard is that the Shattering of Adonalsium was possibly a mistake, but meddling in the aftermath might be even more damaging than the actual shattering. This implies a certain belief in Adonalsium's corrective force, like this bit about how Rayse is contained on Roshar (there is a subtle bias towards viewing the problems in the cosmere as self correcting): So the prediction we can make about what the 17th Shard will likely do is let nature take it's course as far as the Shards are concerned, but actively try to restrain the other forces at play that are attempting to Unify, or Co-opt the power of the shards. We know from a WoB [9] the Iyatil was once a member of the 17th shard, and that her pupil Mraize has been collecting artifacts of Investiture. So we can assume that Iyatil and by extension Mraize are as aware of the original shattering of Adonalsium as the other members of the 17th Shard. Their intentions can be guessed at somewhat based on Mraize's statements to Shallan in OB: So from these statements and from the Task that Shallan is given at the end of OB to capture and deliver Sja-Anat to the Ghostbloods, they too are interested in studying the interplay of different forms of Investiture, but their interest does not lie in Unifying or letting the power of Shards play out in a natural unmodified state. They are interested in the application of Power. They want to control this power, the ultimate end of what they would do with this power are unknown, but it's most likely just the collection of power for the sake of projecting power. I've speculated before that they seem to be most closely aligned with the intent of Ambition, and maybe one of their long term goals is to reunite the splinters of Ambition (intereting to note that this would still be in service of the Unification of the Mind of Adonalsium). The Ire in MB:SH had a plan to take up the power of Preservation with their special instant Spiritual Connection grenade. They were living on the outskirts of Scadrial's sub-astral for a long time, waiting for this moment to pick up the power of a dying Shard of God. The fact that they were in the Cognitive Realm and Trying to pick up a Shards power implies somewhat they might have been planning to use the power of Preservation to reunite Devotion at the least and possibly even combine the Splintered bits of Devotion and Dominion into a new unitary whole (like Crusade or some such intent). This is a small fraction of the original post that was lost, but since this is still a wall of text it's probably for the best that the original one was lost. Here are the referenced and spoilered WoBs:

Possibly this is the explanation for the dun sphere Fuzed, the ones that stare blankly or smile creepily and who are obviously touched in the head. Maybe all deaths to the Fuzed aren't equal, maybe death by shardblade does more permanent damage to their spirit web than death by spear. Leshwi seemed pretty unaffected by her recent death by spear when she talked with Moash.

Guys, Moash is dead along with his world. We now have Vyre, who in my head I picture as Danzig at the time of the album Danzig IV. For the Moash shardcast thread I made an album Cover for this Slayer of Heralds, who has lived the song "This is How the Gods Kill":

@Khyrindor, I have one more possible question that I think would be interesting to know. So the philosopher Martin Heidegger in his most famous book, Being and Time, is primarily concerned with establishing the primacy of Being by examining (in highly repetitive fashion) the idea that true being is Dasein being (which translates roughly to "being-there" or "there-being"). His point is that being had been since the greeks represented as a passive state, a mere object that was "a being". But true being, or Dasein being is being that is aware that it is being, or to put it slightly differently Dasein being is the state of self-awareness of ones being. So the question I would love to know the answer for is this: Were the Dysian Aimians named after the concept of Dasein from Heidegger's Being and Time? Possible follow up questions: If so, would it be correct to view them as Beings who are primarily made of Being that is in a perpetually active state of Being? Or to put this slightly differently, would it be correct to say they are the will to be and that is the true nature of their being? Being's who exist to be?

I was just reading Philip K. Dick's Exegesis, and I noticed that one of the contributing Editors/Annotators had written a book which is the Science Fiction analog of your project, might be instructive to see a parallel system of analysis along the same lines as your paper. The book is "The Gospel According to Science Fiction: From the Twilight Zone to the Final Frontier" by Gabriel McKee. https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-according-Science-Fiction-Twilight/dp/0664229018/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517587449&sr=8-1&keywords=the+gospel+according+to+science+fiction

That's awesome @ElephantEarwax, nice work!

I think that @KChan figured out Hoid's purpose in the Cosmere. It has to do with removing Large Sticks in Certain Places. I spat some pop out when I heard that bit, funny stuff. I also really like the Fanfic idea for backseat sharding, might be best if the new shard is the son or daughter of the cognitive shadow of the old shard who is sticking around eternity to point out their failings. Thinking something along the lines of a Jewish mother who could say things like "Back when I held the power of Preservation, strawberry jam stayed fresh for 3 weeks, but look at your jam, just look it at. It rots in a couple of days. And you call yourself Preservation". Thanks for the long guided tour through the Oathbringer release tour Words of Brandon, I thought all 3 episodes were great.

To get your groan on...