Scion of the Mists

The Investiture is not in the metal. There is nothing that differentiates Scadrian metal from metal on other worlds. The metal is a key that shapes Preservation's Investiture which comes from the Spiritual Realm. It's not the sand itself that is Invested - it's the microorganisms living on the sand. I think the point that @Calderis was trying to make is that on both Taldain and First of the Sun, people get their powers indirectly through other living creatures, not directly from a Shard. Sure, the Investiture ultimately came from the Shard (it would have to), but it's a very indirect way of getting it.

People have given it a lot of thought. Check out these related threads:

She is freeing the people from the tyranny of other Shards, providing them with their own autonomy (from everyone except her).

It's certainly possible. Brandon has RAFO'd this:

The Larkin are indeed from Aimia.

I see what you did there...

I think all of these are new, except for the Timbre/Ico connection.

It's confirmed that the Horneaters have Listener blood and that that is what grants them their spren-seeing ability. I think it's pretty likely that that's where their Rhythm sensing ability comes from as well.

Hoid disappears in the middle of Words of Radiance for a good while. Since at that point most of the main characters we know about are congregated at the Shattered Plains, I've always assumed that he went off world (although it's certainly possible that he stayed on Roshar). Unless I'm forgetting something - do we know what he was up to?

I think this is the WoB that people are talking about, which states that Rosharans would call Nightblood, Shards, and even Adonalsium spren. However, that definition is super broad, and probably based off of the lack of Realmatic knowledge on the part of the Rosharans. We already have a term for a chunk of Investiture: splinter. In my opinion, it makes sense to use spren to refer to just the Rosharan version (which is, I think, how most people use it).

There are tons of Unity theories you can check out: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/search/?&q=unity&type=forums_topic&search_in=titles It's pretty clear that Dalinar reforging Honor as Unity is the intended implication in Oathbringer. It remains to be seen whether Brandon will go with that or if it was a fake out.

We also have a hot off the press WoB report from @RShara that Kelsier has not yet figured out a way to leave Scadrial.

I think this is specifically not the case, in light of the WOB that says the spren cannot fracture themselves into separate forms such as a matched pair of swords or a separate Bow and Arrow. I think that @pixiehawk was referring to this WoB that says that the spren and radiant are "actually melding into one individual" with separate minds.

Plenty of ideas in this identical thread:

I'm not sure that any of the below is going to work, because we seem to have a fundamental disagreement about how to reason about the Cosmere. If the creator of the Universe says that something is the case - it's the case. We call them Words of Brandon for a reason. (Yes, sometimes he misspeaks or changes his mind, but that's actually fairly rare considering how many questions he lets us bombard him with) Doesn't Sanderson base the difficulty in holding Ruin and Preservation together, partly on actual chemistry? Doesn't he use the laws of thermodynamics in his overall system? These are science, not philosophy. (Some people may have a weird definition where they're the same, but I think it's generally accepted that science deals with objective questions while philosophy deals with subjective questions) Regardless, it's besides the point. My point was that the Cosmere is a fictional world that is very different from ours. Things do not have to be the same. There is a huge difference between saying "Brandon seems to be borrowing from the concept of thermodynamics; therefore, I think it's likely that *insert hypothesis here*" and saying "According to the (real-world) laws of thermodynamics, *hypothesis* must be true." This is compounded by the nature of philosophy where, unlike science which generally has one answer to each question, there are multiple competing and conflicting answers to each question. This is not a dig at philosophy, it is simply a difference in the types of questions that each field is designed to answer. Therefore, it makes no sense to say "According to *philosopher's* school of thought which states *theory*, *hypothesis* must be true because logic." Because not all philosopher's here in the real-world agree to *theory*, not to mention the fact that the Cosmere has magic and works in a fundamentally different way than our world. Starting a thread with "Brandon's works seem to match up well to *particular philosophical branch*: *insert evidence from books/WoBs. Therefore, I think that we could also apply it to *topic* and find that *hypothesis* might be true" would be great. I think that plenty of people on this forum would appreciate a philosophical perspective of the Cosmere.

We have no indication that this is how the Shard agreements work. Brandon has not said anything about it, nor is there any mention of the mechanism in the cannon. I fail to see how quoting real-world philosophy (as you seem to be fond of doing) has any bearing on the Cosmere. Besides the fact that there are plenty of different schools of real-world philosophy (which conflict with each other), the Cosmere is a fundamentally different reality that our world. There's magic, for goodness sake. They are similar in a lot of ways, but they're also dramatically different.

I'm not sure that the protagonists are on Hoid's side as much as he seems to be on their side. We're not even sure what his side is - what his grand plan is. I think he just can't help helping sympathetic people (e.g. Kaladin, Shallan, Shai). However, if one of the "good guys" were to get in the way of his plan, I have no doubt that he would put his end goal above them. See how he screws over Shai re the Moon Scepter. Sure, he felt bad about it afterward and set things up so she had a chance, but his goal was more important than she was.

Is there any indication in the books or WoBs that perpendicularities can be divided into aspects?

People have all sorts of different pronunciations, see these polls:

AFAIK, the main theory is that the highstorm is Honor's moving perpendicularity. This is somewhat backwards. It's not that Investiture naturally pools near a perpendicularity, it's that the large concentration of Investiture forms a perpendicularity. It pierces through the realms (similar to gravitational warping), which is what allows for transition to/from Shadesmar. I agree that Odium's perpendicularity should be on Braize because that's where he's currently "residing." (However, I think that, in parallel to Honor's highstorm, Odium's perpendicularity is the Everstorm, which was originally on Braize, but was transported to Roshar by the stormform Listeners)

If Kelsier and Lift were bonded, don't you think she would have mentioned him during Edgedancer?

There are some interesting parallels that I hadn't thought of before this thread. Lift can convert nutrients into Stormlight and exists partially in the Cognitive Realm. Spren exist primarily in the Cognitive Realm, but can also cross over into the Physical Realm. They also "feed" off of Stormlight.

What @MountainKing said:

Brandon has talked about what he considers the different kinds of immortality, which include the not aging but can be killed type. We also have confirmation that dragons fall into this type of immortality: @The Young Pyromancer Maybe don't call things facts that aren't facts.

Brandon draws a distinction between the Avatar and the island itself: Nightblood has been described as a splinter (actually as a "robot spren"). While we're not exactly sure what Avatars are, they seem pretty distinct from splinters.