Scion of the Mists

Some people are hard to kill. Like Hoid and Surgebinders. If the spike removes their powers, then they'd be much easier to kill.

"Are Spiritwebs made of Investiture?" Ooh, that's a really good question, to which I don't have a good answer. I'd make a new topic in the "Q&A" subforum so some of the Cosmere experts can weigh in. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that they are not. Investiture in the Cosmere is an addition to the energy-matter duality we have here in the real world. So, in the Cosmere, it's energy-matter-Investiture, which can all be convert to/from one another. Spiritwebs are tricky (see the Coppermind page, which describes it as "a rather mysterious concept"...). My current understanding is that an object's Spiritweb is a collection of all of the object's Connections to other things, through time (both past and present) and space. So, in this case, it wouldn't necessarily be a "real" thing that could be transformed into matter or energy, and as such wouldn't be considered a form of Investiture. You could *use* Investiture to change or modify it, however (which is what Hemalurgy does).

It's supposed to be ambiguous. But I agree with the others that he "partially Ascended."

That could make sense but I don't think it does really. Otherwise, why would Odium need to travel to Sel, Threnody, etc. to splinter the Shards? If their power is everywhere, why not just splinter them from a safe location? Also, the Dor is located ONLY in the Cognitive Realm surrounding Sel. If the Dor was the whole Cosmere, then worldhopping would be waaaay more dangerous regardless of where you go. In addition, lets say Harmony was permeating the whole Cosmere, then why aren't any Rosharans born with Connection to him? I am not trying to say you are wrong, because you could totally be right, I just do not understand how that would mesh with the current systems/situations that we see. @Thanatos is correct. All Investiture across the Cosmere belongs to the Shards. However, the Vessels are limited in what they can perceive/control, and are generally limited to interacting with their own system where they "reside." In the example of Patji, it was a collection of Autonomy Investiture, but Autonomy was not previously aware of it (because her Vessel was not in proximity to it). When she (somehow) did become aware, then she was able to manipulate it directly. This Vessel awareness limitation is why Odium had to "travel" to fight/Splinter his victims. And also why he could be "trapped" on Roshar. With regards to Harmony, there's probably Harmony (or at least Ruin/Preservation) Investiture everywhere, but the concentration is so low that it doesn't count as enough Connection to enable the Metallic Arts.

They're similar in that they're both drawing power from a large reservoir of Investiture. On Scadrial, it's from Preservation in the Spiritual Realm. On Sel, it's from the Dor (i.e. Dominion/Devotion) in the Cognitive Realm. The Dor being in the Cognitive Realm is unique in the Cosmere and why Selish magic is so localized (and wouldn't work on other planets without serious hacking). This is in contrast to magic systems like Awakening and Surgebinding, which are fueled by small, discrete chunks of Investiture that you have to collect ahead of time (Breath and Stormlight).

I think Ashyn's magic has to be powered by Honor/Cultivation. The magic system there has all the hallmarks of that of a major Shardworld's (they were able to basically destroy their planet), but without any Shards in residence. The magic has to come from somewhere, so the simplest explanation is that it's from the next planet over (i.e. Roshar). And, as you mention, a number of the Ashyn magics seem similar to the Rosharn Surges. Plus, we know that the "awareness region" for Shardic influence is approximately their solar system, so it would make sense that Honor/Cultivation would have effects on the other planets. I like the boon = Cultivation and bond = Honor idea.

A vacuum would attract the storm (as well as do bad things to the people inside of it. I think he used Adhesion to create a pocket of high-pressure air to deflect the storm.

Susebron is a red agent - there are 3 remaining.

Hoid knew Cultivation pre-Shattering, not the Nightwatcher. It's a common mix-up. It's a pretty common thought, but Brandon has shot it down. However, he RAFO'd whether or not he has an "echo image" of Adonalsium (read: Cognitive Shadow). In the same WoB linked above, Brandon says that gathering different pieces of Shards being Hoid's end goal is "a very good guess" and that "that is what the books seem to indicate is happening." Interpret that as you will.

@Snipexe @Rhapsody @MistCLOAKed Mountains @Turtle373 - anymore guesses?

I don't think we have any indication that specific Surges belong to different Shards. I think the prevailing theory is that Lift's abilities are the result of direct intervention by Cultivation, similar to Dalinar's. Either way, yes, the boon is from Cultivation's magic, not Honor's. Resonances do not have to be from different Shards. See the Coppermind page for more info. Lift's special ability is not a form of Surgebinding. Soulcasting converts one form of matter into another. Lift actually converts food into Stormlight itself (i.e. pure Investiture).

Yeah, it's WoBs. A whole lot of people have asked about Steelrunning.

You'd also burn yourself up. Tapping Feruchemical storage does grant you some level of resistance, but it's not absolute (e.g. Steelrunners can't go too fast due to friction). That's why I think it'd really only be useful for low-levels of heat tapping. Well, I guess you could use it for a massive incineration. Once...

I look at it as Eshonai's arc in continued with Venli.

I'm not sure why he couldn't. Jasnah Soulcast Shallan's blood after she was poisoned.

Yeah, what @The Forumlurker said. Compounding gives you a virtually unlimited amount of the Feruchemical attribute, not the Allomantic ability. So you'd never be cold again - not a very interesting Compounding combination. See the Coppermind article for more in-depth explanation: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Compounding.

But that wouldn't affect the timing of book 7, right?

Yeah, 7 is so far away when you consider the fact that Stones Unhallowed/Stormlight 4 might end up split in half due to sheer size. Wait - where did you hear that Stormlight 4 might be split into two books? Brandon didn't mention anything about that in the State of the Sanderson and that would totally throw off his whole 10 books - 10 Orders - 10 flashback characters thing.

The last part of Words of Radiance is my favorite of all of Brandon's works. You're in for a treat!

Brandon's been (understandably) squirrelly on this. The best answer we have is "kind of." He's also said that Hoid was only "loosely involved" and that it's implied that he was only a visitor. We also know that he was offered a Shard during the events of the Shattering, but refused it.

Yeah, I get that Nightblood's already there. I'm actually really interested in what non-Cosmere aware people think of Nightblood/Azure, but none of my friends/family that I've forced to start reading Sanderson have gotten that far yet. I still think there's a significant difference between Nightblood (who's very interesting and complicated Realmatically, but can be thought of as Uber-Shardblade) and a whole new magic system that works completely differently (i.e. Awakening) than anything on Roshar. You kind of see this from Kaladin's perspective, when he comes across Azure's blade. He basically thinks of it as a weird Shardblade. But if he saw her bring inanimate objects to life...

I think it would be pretty tricky to have a Returned/Awakener as a Radiant. They'd likely figure pretty strongly into the conflict and it would be hard to explain away their "extra" powers and keep Stormlight accessible to the non-Cosmere aware readers.

More info here:

So much this!

Cynder is a red agent! There are 4 more red agents. And yes, I intended Endowment 0 to convey that Edgli was the Assassin. I think I can say that without giving away extra information.