Scion of the Mists

@Pathfinder the Oathpact's Fused sealing ability is in effect during the Desolations, when the Heralds are on Roshar. Otherwise the Desolations would never end - the Fused would just keep coming back and it would be impossible to kill them all at the same time. Once the Fused were all killed and returned to Braize, the Heralds had a certain period of time before they too had to return to Braize. Three reasons why I think this is certain: If the Fused kept being reborn during the Desolation, there's no way it would have ever ended. You can't defeat an enemy that keeps reviving the next day/week. The Stormfather quote that @Child of Hodor posted: "THEIR OATHPACT DELAYED THE FUSED FROM RETURNING IMMEDIATELY, BUT EACH TIME AFTER A DESOLATION THE HERALDS RETURNED TO DAMNATION TO SEAL THE ENEMY AGAIN." OB Ch. 38 Broken People This WoB (that you posted) explains that, following the Desolation, the Heralds had a "certain period of time" that they can be on Roshar. Afterward, they had to return to Braize or their refusal to would trigger a new Desolation (i.e. release the Fused again). This period of time is prior to the Heralds return, yet the Fused are clearly sealed in Braize.

Interesting theory. There's definitely another possible explanation, that that was the only way to perma-kill a Herald.

There are certainly a lot of things we don't know about the Everstorm and the Oathpact. However, we do know that it is currently circumventing one aspect of the Oathpact. We know that one aspect of the Oathpact was to prevent the Fused from reincarnating. We know that the Everstorm now allows them to reincarnate. Therefore, in that particular aspect, the Everstorm is a loophole.

As long as the Everstorm exists, the Heralds going back to Braize wouldn't help anything. The whole point of the Oathpact was to prevent the Fused from returning after death. But the Everstorm already gets around that restriction - we've seen Fused die during the current Desolation and be reborn during the Everstorm.

How would a Singer have been able to possess a dead Scadrian?

Any time Brandon says anything about the Cosmere (or his other works), for example, at a signing, it is recorded, transcribed, and uploaded to Arcanum. We refer to these statements as Words of Brandon, or WoBs.

Odium is worried about opening himself up to a strike from Cultivation, per the Stormfather (OB ch. 111). I agree though, that he did create Splinters in order to more actively participate in the battle. But he has to be careful about how much power he exerts.

@Quantus I agree that most of the spren that serve Odium are corrupted from either existing spren (Sja-Anat's spren), the souls of the dead (the Fused), or something else (the Unmade). However, there exists (in my interpretation) a different class of voidspren: the guiding spren (like Yixli), the screamers, and the thunderclast spren. None of those seem to match up with existing H/C spren.

I'm pretty sure I asked you about this in another thread, but I can't find it and can't for the life of me remember your answer. What makes you think that the voidspren are corrupted spren? I was always under the impression that they were spren of Odium (i.e. Splinters of his power). In any event, I still think that the Everstorm is Odium's perpendicularity, which formed on Braize during his imprisonment (we know that they "are a natural effect of a Shard spending a lot of time on a world"), but was then moved to Roshar by the stormform Listeners. It being a Shardpool would explain both how Cognitive Shadows can reenter the Physical Realm and how the Everstorm distributes Investiture. It would also make a nice parallel with Honor's perpendicularity being in the highstorm (another theory I subscribe to).

The Coppermind is a really great resource for this kind of thing (although you have to beware spoilers). It's basically the Cosmere Wikipedia. https://coppermind.net/wiki/Shard#Known_Shards

The red team's next clue is: woman 3 Gameboard Link @Rhapsody @Ashertliden @Babilarian Darkeyes I don't think you jumped the gun. I think we could add a rule for the first turn where you automatically pass after N guesses, unless you post that you might want to keep going.

I think this is a perfectly fine rule that we could implement, but it's interesting to note that an early game had someone use their bonus guess on Turn 1 and got it.

There's an email address you send them to. It's listed in every Shardcast post.

I'm pretty sure Lift's spren is a CultivationSpren Yes, Lift's spren is a cultivationspren. However, @Walkerxes was referring to the non-sentient spren associated with each order.

Hopefully the Red team is okay with us taking a little bit longer this turn. @Rhapsody can you lock in your guesses by tonight? (p.s. Bloodsealing is not one of the available words) Link to gameboard

Brandon later said (during his first Stormlight 4 update) that he was accidentally misleading when answering that question.

I think that while Soulcasting seems to be fairly inefficient in general, Allomancy inherent efficiency would out weight it. The metals have a very high effective Investiture density because the power comes directly from Preservation. Just a few shavings can allow you to fly/fight/Soothe/have enhanced senses for hours. Jasnah's able to Soulcast entire bodies for not a ridiculous amount of Stormlight. Imagine how long you could fly via steelpushing using an entire person's worth of steel. Much, much longer than Kaladin could fly for using an equivalent amount of Stormlight.

@Rhapsody and @Ashertliden - you guys have any guesses?

Is this not a theory? That is a theory; however, it is from a different person.

Yes, Ash only destroys her own likeness. However, just because there are representations of the Heralds doesn't mean that any of them are accurate. It would be surprising if there was only one representation of each Herald across Roshar - different cultures are going to have their own ideas of what they looked like. It's only been ~2000 years since Jesus, but how many different representations of him are there?

Because they've been gone for 4500 years. Only a few beings would have been alive back then (Aimians, Hoid, etc.).

Are you talking about the strength of the internal Lines of Forbiddance inside of the Mark's Cross? I'm not sure why that matters - generally the cross is going to be attacked on the outside. I would imagine you could add extra internal Lines for increased stability/bindpoints. The Mark's Crosses are basically mini 4-point defensive circles. No problem! Always happy to see Rithmatist questions - there isn't enough activity in this forum. I got around to reading it a few months ago (it was my first non-Cosmere book) and loved it!

Okay everyone, let's get started on Game 12! Blue team's first clue: Stamp 2 @Rhapsody @Ashertliden

Here's her Coppermind page: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Khrissalla She's basically the leading Cosmere scholar, hopping around to different worlds to study them.

Hi @KiNg626 - welcome to the Shard! Have you checked out the Coppermind (the Cosmere Wiki) or Arcanum (a repository of everything Brandon's said)? They're really great resources for these kinds of questions, although they're more focused on the Cosmere than The Rithmatist. For most of the Line of Vigor questions, it's helpful to think of them as light waves (which is what Brandon based them on). So, for instance, they refract when changing medium (e.g. concrete to asphalt) and you have constructive/destructive interference when they collide. When waves hit an object, some portion of their energy is absorbed, and some is reflected (this applies to questions 1 and 3). The ratio is dependent on a whole host of things, including frequency. 2. I believe you could transition from a 2 point circle to a 4 or 6 point circle without issue (although I guess you could make an argument for intent being important). 4. I don't see why your drawings would be immune from your Lines of Vigor. A reflect-only Rithmatist would get overwhelmed by Chalklings. 6. This is how Adelle Choi won the 1888 Melee. 7. Not sure I understand your question 8. I don't see why not 11. It seems to be something unique to Melody (Brandon refers to it as "her magic") 12. Two reasons moats wouldn't work: the Tower moves and they could cross with boats. 13. Pretty sure Rithmatics is limited to North America, as it wasn't discovered until the Brits came over (after all the indigenous people had fled south) 16. The strength of a Line of Warding is determined by its straightness; the thickness determines height (see the Coppermind page). Good questions I don't have the answer to: #5, #9, #15 Not addressed by the book or WoBs: #10, #14