FuzzyWordsmith

By "eat" I mean convert to Investiture in a similar way to an Allomancer burning metal. We know they can convert Investiture into matter based on the creation of Scadrial. And we know matter can be converted to energy and vice versa. It just makes sense to me that you could convert matter into Investiture.

@PhineasGage So, the thing to remember here is space is HUGE. A planet is like a speck of dust compared to a star, and based on Scadrial and Taldain, we has seen that both are within a Shard's capacity. So a planet wouldn't add much. However, black holes count their mass in terms of stars. A large black hole will have hundreds of times more mass than a star. The Supermassive black hole at the center counts it's mass in the millions of stars. As to accessing the investiture, the way I see it, we know things like metal in Allomancy can be burned to produce investiture from the Spiritual Realm. Based on OB, we know that a perpendicularity is where the three realms collapse to a point. On that note, the Spiritual Realm is already a singularity, given that time and space have no relevance there. In my mind, that means it's not much of a stretch to burn a black hole into Investiture in the same way an Allomancer burns metal. Another thing I cannot state enough is that while the numbers are huge, Brandon gives the example of comparing running out of investiture to running out of carbon for humans. If you take a look at the video in the spoiler tag, running out of particles in the observable universe is feasible for humans on Earth. I believe there are about thirty orders of magnitude less particles on earth, so it's actually frighteningly possible to run out of carbon. (source: https://education.jlab.org/qa/mathatom_05.html) A dwarf galaxy is going to have a LOT less matter than the entire universe. As a result, I think Brandon might be overestimating the amount of matter in a galaxy relative to the absolute cosmic scale. Sorry if that was rambly. I'm happy to clarify any further points.

Perfectly valid. However, I would like to point out, that supermassive black holes are REALLY massive. And the cosmere is just a dwarf galaxy. To put things into perspective relative to our world, it would only take 8604 years for humanity growing at its current rate to use up all the matter in the observable universe. Source: Which is a LOT bigger than one dwarf galaxy, so running out of matter is actually a much more valid problem than I think Brandon is saying.

I immediately thought about Ruin with this. Ruin has pulled almost the exact same trick, with Vin, the mist spirit and Spook. Among others. The unmade are certainly reminiscent of Hemalurgic constructs. Some spiked people can resist better than others. It might be like that with the Unmade. The mindless ones are open and the sapient ones have some autonomy. In point of fact, Odium's connection to the Unmade should be stronger than Hemalurgy because they are direct splinters of his Shard, whereas Hemalurgy is magic derived from it.

So, I have a bit of a science background, and the scene where Dalinar goes Super Saiyan and summons a perpendicularity by uniting the realms, my first thought was: Singularity? It makes a certain amount of sense. That merging of the realms has a distinct similarity to black holes and singularities in general, with a lot of stuff compressed into a very small point. That got me thinking. We have multiple WoB that in the cosmere, the law of conservation is mass-energy-Investiture. Scientifically, you could express this as E=mc^2=xi, with x being a simple conversion factor for Investiture(i). While we don't know the exact details, we can surmise that larger masses cause more Investiture. We know that Shards can fudge with that to some extent. They can convert Investiture to matter and energy. It doesn't really make sense that it wouldn't go the other way. We know from this WoB that Investiture is Finite, which suggests the Shards have a finite amount of Investiture. We also have an idea from Bavadin that a Shard can be a sun. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/96-orem-signing/#e3188 chasmfriend's son Is there a finite amount of Investiture? Brandon Sanderson Yes. The reason I brought up black holes, is that it seems plausible that if a Shard were to invest a black hole enough to create a perpendicularity in the singularity, the would get a reasonably substantial boost of Investiture by eating it. While that may or may not make a difference, there IS a supermassive black hole at the centre of every galaxy, and even if the Cosmere is a dwarf galaxy, it would have one unless we get WoB otherwise. If I was a shard, Investing that supermassive black hole and possibly eating it/converting the mass to Investiture seems like it might give me a leg up over the competition. What do you guys think? I haven't slept in like 23 hours, so I could just be jabbering nonsense, but I feel like this is an angle to be explored.

You know, it's funny you say that. I immediately thought about Ruin. Ruin has pulled almost the exact same trick, with Vin, the mist spirit and Spook. Among others. The unmade are certainly reminiscent of Hemalurgic constructs. Some spiked people can resist better than others. It might be like that with the Unmade.

I completely agree with you on the bolded part. I do believe that the ending of OB after the climactic battle was really rushed. A lot of stuff that should have happened on screen didn't. But I feel like it is not unreasonable to believe they would trust him. It takes some mental gymnastics, but I feel that's not the characters' fault, it's more an issue with how rushed the ending was. Also, I feel that you may be undervaluing how much weight Lift's word holds. Of all the Radiants, Lift was the one with Dalinar in some extremely important situations. She's the only one who managed to follow him into Nergaoul. She's the only one who was with him when he stepped out to meet Odium. In addition, she was there the first time he met Odium in the vision. Additionally, a lot of Dalinar's arc this book was learning to trust other people and their Judgement, like the essays for the Azish. It may just be my interpretation, but it makes perfect sense to me that Dalinar would trust Lift a lot more than most people.

They were in a desperate enough situation that I doubt they would turn their nose up at help. Two other things. We know they had a discussion offscreen, because it's mentioned he told them about the Skybreakers switching sides. Second, Lift seems to like Szeth. That holds weight out of world, but based on their interactions, I feel like Lift's opinion holds weight with Dalinar as well. She vouched for him to Azir, she came back for them, and she followed him into Nergaoul. I feel like that has to mean something to Dalinar. And he is kinda the boss.

I think it might come down to pragmatism. They know his story now, and they know what he's capable of. Practically speaking, if he's claiming to follow Dalinar's word as law, which doesn't seem like the kind of thing a Skybreaker could convincingly lie about, it's better to have him around, if only to keep an eye on him. Besides, Dalinar is a good judge of character.

Could you elaborate please? I don't quite understand

See, my problem with that is that Kaladin is very mature due to his experiences in life, while I don't believe Jasnah is completely done growing. If physical age is ignored, then Kaladin/Jasnah are closer to Siri/Susebron the latter of whom is basically a particularly intelligent 10-year old, psychologically speaking. And I'm not entirely convinced that people aren't taking physical age into consideration, which just confuses the issue further.

So, I don't really have a horse in this race either way. But I see a lot of people bring up age. To those people, I must ask a question. Have you read Warbreaker? If so, how do you feel about Siri/Susebron? Because the difference in their age is how old Jasnah is, just for perspective. No one seems to bring that up. If that relationship is OK, why is Jasnah/Kaladin not?

So, Imma have to disagree with ya on multiple counts there. Source: I am autistic myself, formally diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The most important piece of evidence is that we have WoB https://wob.coppermind.net/events/227-rithmatist-denver-signing/#e7099 Kogiopsis (paraphrased) Is Renarin Kholin on the autism spectrum? Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) Slightly—not even so much as Asperger's, but yes. *Something about it being difficult to notice/diagnose?* So there's that. Also, I may not remember specifics, so I apologize, but he doesn't like physical contact. He gets uncomfortable whenever Rock hugs him, such as near the end of OB, when Bridge four arrives from the Oathgate. As to communication, he is stated as not making a lot of eye contact, and often starting thoughts in his head and then saying only part of it out loud. Also, the whole overstimulation in bridge 4 point: With higher spectrum autism, group stuff is not necessarily anathema. Here's the important bit: as an autistic person, group stuff becomes a lot easier if you want to be there, which he does. The important thing to remember is that autism is quite a wide spectrum, and in fact, two people on the spectrum can actually be more different than a person on and a person not on the spectrum. I personally believe Renarin is a very good example of a mildly autistic character. You usually see much more extreme examples in fiction, so it's nice to have a reminder that it is a very broad condition. #renarin

So, I just went through some choice sections of OB again. Something is definitely off about this romance business. I just read chapter 94, a small bottle. It was beautiful, solidifies Renarin as one of my favourite characters, and makes me feel for Dalinar. Why is that relevant? Because it showcases Sanderson's skill as an author. The slipshod nature of the romance plot and the magnificence of the action climax and depth of Dalinar's sequence are presenting a more and more glaring incongruity. It makes no sense for something to be handled so poorly while so much of the rest of the book is so good. Part of me wants to believe that it's just Sanderson not being very good at romance. But it just seems like this was on purpose. That the hints and the shotgun conclusion was an intentional disparity.

So, the primary difference between OSDD and DID is that with OSDD, memories are shared between alts, i.e. everyone remembers everything regardless of who's driving. If Shallan had DID, then Shallan and Radiant would have none of Veil's memories and vice versa. Shallan is in fact extremely textbook OSDD. I say this as someone who has undergone almost the exact same symptoms as Shallan, i.e. having alt-based coping mechanisms become sentient and distinct from myself. I will be honest, Dissociative disorders are really hard to treat at the best of times in the real world. In a world where, as evidenced by Taln, mental illness is treated by locking the patient in a dark room alone, if Shallan wasn't a main character, I would say she is past the point of recovery. Particularly because of Adolin. I don't mean this to disparage him, he has no clue what he's doing. Compassion is important, but the problem is that the execution of the compassion is unwittingly doing more harm than good. Adolin loves the Shallan persona. To truly help, he would have to love Veil and Radiant equally, and treat them the same. It's not even about considering them one person. It's about treating her the same, regardless of which face she has put on. It is about establishing a baseline. Kaladin does that unconsciously, but something I feel should be mentioned is that so does Jasnah. Hoid does as well. That is the sort of compassion she needs. Adolin is trying his best, but it's misplaced.

So, I've been thinking. A lot of people seem to think that Dalinar is the second coming of Adonalsium, and "Unite Them" is on that grand a scale. Dalinar is also very important to Brandon, and is often mentioned as having seniority in the same breath as Hoid. We know how important Hoid is. So my question is, do you think Dalinar's story ends with the Stormlight Archive, or does he become something more relevant to the rest of the Cosmere? There is precedent for a character becoming very Cosmere-relevant past their orginal role: Sazed. Do you think Dalinar might be headed in a similar direction?

Hello everyone, I believe this is my first major post. I'm afraid it might be rather long. I am glad I am not alone in believing that this romance arc was somewhat mishandled. My main issue is that I can't tell if it is or isn't intentional. I guess this post is more about Brandon as a writer in general. He has admitted that there is a lot if unconscious bias in the Cosmere. That makes sense, however something that may be important to note that for all the arranged marriages in the writing, Brandon didn't actually have one, unless you count a friend setting up a blind date as an "arranged marriage". So I don't know what that says about the fact that most arranged marriages in his books magically work out. Another thing of note is that Shadolin is not the most disturbing ship in the Cosmere. Something I believe to be understated is that Siri, a 16 year old girl, ended up being made a glorified concubine for a 50-year old man who goes from having the mind of a 10-year old to the mind of about an 22-23 year old, and they end up with a perfectly happy and healthy relationship. Laral, though, is an odd case. My impression of her is that a "lie back and think of England" mentality in her as a girl eventually developed into full blown Stockholm Syndrome. But that's assuming it was meant to be taken negatively. It is entirely possible that that relationship is meant to be taken as an arranged marriage working out perfectly. If it is the former, it is an example of writing with great nuance and subtlety. If it's the latter though, then I worry and that sort of thing happening more would make continuing to read the Cosmere difficult. Moving on from that, there is also another thing that I don't think has been given enough importance, and I'm kinda peeved that @Arch mentioned this first cuz I been thinking along those lines for a while. The interlude with Ellista, the ardent reading romance novels. Not only is the conversation between her and her colleague mirror nearly word for word on the subject of shipping Shalladin vs Shadolin, the story she's reading has striking similarities as well. To refresh those who don't remember, she is reading a novel where a girl is in a triangle between Brightlord Vadam, a landholding brightlord to whom she has been betrothed, who is a man to provide sustenance and stability, and Brightlord Sterling, a simple, yet passionate man who is more grandstanding and emotional. The amusing thing is that you can plausibly paint Adolin and Kalladin as either of the two fictional men. If it was anyone else, I would dismiss it as amusing commentary. But to borrow the words of someone upthread, this is Brandon "I am, unfortunately, the Hero of Ages" Sanderson. I refuse to accept that something with such striking similarities was unintentional. The final thing is slightly off-topic, but the interlude mentions the sequel of Ellista's book being a girl choosing between a "strapping Naval officer, a Thaylen Banker and the King's Wit". Now, Honour and being in the military go seemingly hand in hand, Odium was described as a "loathsome, crafty and dangerous individual" which pretty well sounds bankery to me, and Hoid is Hoid. The idea of Cultivation having to choose between Tanavast, Rayse and Hoid seems hilarious to me. It's probably just me being weird and making a connection that doesn't exist, but don't deny that that might have been fun to see. I am eager to see if anyone has any thoughts on my post. Sorry if I rambled.

Hello everyone, first post here. I am almost certain there is a WoB somewhere that the ending for the mistborn trilogy was hidden in the first chapter, or something along those lines. I definitely remember him saying the same for SA, with the ending being somewhere in WoK. My question then, is where is the ending to mistborn hidden? I've looked through the books multiple times, but I can't for the life of me figure out what he meant. I believe his wording was something along the lines of the ending to mistborn is hidden/foreshadowed in the very first chapter, or maybe the epigraphs.