earthexile

I think I'd make a good Endowment. I'd try to do a better job than Edgli, I think the whole Drab situation is awful, but I guess that's just what happens when you combine magic and capitalism.

Yes, Soulcasting is ridiculously powerful. It literally transforms problems into solutions. Random rocks into healthy food. Latrine waste into clean air. Corpses into stone. Empty space into useful housing. It replaces entire industries.

Anything that lies outside for a couple days gets eaten by the world. Blown away by storms, buried in cremstone. Over thousands of years, a lot of Shards have probably just wound up in the ground or the ocean. Stuff happens. Say your group gets caught in a highstorm or your ship sinks, that's it for any Shards.

I still think the 5th Oath confers permanent Stormlight, or access to Surges without needing light.

The presence of any outdoor statues in Eastern Roshar is pretty weird, isn't it?

I disagree, and here's why: Because of everything you've correctly identified about Lirin. He exemplifies the qualities and mindset of a complete Windrunner in many ways. And so, because of the somewhat ironic nature of the Nahel Bond, becoming a Windrunner would not be a path of redemption and spiritual development! He does not need to aim himself in the direction of protecting others, he's been devoted to that all his life. He doesn't need to swear to protect even those he hates, he consciously chose to preserve Roshone despite knowing that the guy dying would be much better for him and his family. He doesn't need to internalize the idea that he will sometimes fail to save people, he made his peace with that as part of his surgeons' training. The Honorspren would say he's a cool guy. But they aren't going to see someone who needs them, and can be healed by them.

Windrunner powers seem particularly geared towards recruiting, assisting, and defending others. We're already seeing the beginning of a Cult of Kaladin forming, and I think the 5th Ideal power will reflect that and enhance it: Allowing the Radiant to infuse others with temporary Radiant powers at will. Through Spiritual Gravitation and Adhesion, Kaladin could forge a connection with basically anyone but especially people who idolize him and paint his sigil on their faces. I imagine a burst of light washing over a crowd and leaving them all glowing.

If all Radiants broke their oath on purpose, at the same time, we can safely assume that the broken oath must have been the first, because all Radiants have that in common. My hypothesis is that they became aware of some kind of long-term threat or goal in the distant future, which convinced them that the Immortal Words were in fact wrong, or that they didn't believe them anymore. Life Before Death? Not if you're primarily concerned with things that will happen long after you'll be dead. Strength Before Weakness? Maybe their own power became such a threat that it would be better to be weak. Journey Before Destination? Maybe in this case, they truly believed that the ends would justify the means. The question is, what did they see coming?

Shardblades and Shardplate are very much not the same material, and don't work the same way at all. Blades are lighter than normal metal, completely impossible to harm, and can be summoned by the person bound to them, whereas Plate is heavier than the same amount of normal metal, can be shattered even by ordinary weapons and big falls, and you have to spend an hour getting bolted into it.

I only think not because the Stormfather seems to find this sort of thing unfathomable. If it was something that had been successfully seen in the world, resulting in a whole society, he would probably have said so. Instead he's stumped and disgusted.

Honor lives in the hearts of men. Also, it seems that the spren are themselves pieces of Honor's scattered power, or at least a lot of them are. Odium is talking about scouring Roshar of a LOT of what lives there.

I love reading Shallan as a character in a story, but I think I'd hate her if she was a real person that I had to actually interact with. She's racist, classist, her whole personality pivots on a moment-to-moment basis, she keeps important secrets from everyone in her life, she's able to straight up murder people and then make herself forget she had anything to do with it. This is all of course thematically appropriate, because Stormlight Archive is about mental illness and trauma, and sometimes the effects of those things can result in a person who's really hard to love and be patient with. I have had to remove people from my life because of the way their mental illness caused them to behave towards me. It's not their fault they are the way they are, but that doesn't change what you have to deal with by having them around.

I wonder whether Odium is even aware of the whole anti-Light concept at all. If Light is the distillation of a Shard's essence into material form, maybe their anti-Light would be invisible and unknowable to them. A hole in the universe where their essence does not flow.

Shallan's entire existence must be rooted in a fascinating lie.

If that was a real thing, I'd have all the superpowers by now

So we know that bearing a Dawnshard apparently allows for wildly overpowered Surgebinding. "Unite" seems to fit well with Adhesion. Ishar seemed to be able to use his Bondsmith power to attempt to steal his Connection to the Stormfather. So if we imagine a wildly overpowered version of that, we land on a Surgebinder with absolute mastery over the Connections between things on all levels of reality. So for example, such a person could change who a Shard is Connected to. Or what magics someone has access to. Or where the Realms overlap. Or who loves who. Etc.

I doubt this is the case, because spren seem to avoid Shinovar. Lifespren probably aren't attracted to grass and grapes the way they are to rockbuds.

I suspect that Skybreaker Division will allow hypersonic flight, once someone figures it out. Windrunners have Adhesion, which affects pressure and vacuum. They shape the air, so they're able to do things like push back the storm, or create an air current that keeps the squad together. Skybreakers don't have that. If they fling themselves hard enough into the air, it will push them and slow them. The solution is Division. They could separate the molecules of air in front of themselves and fly without resistance. It's not like they need to breathe while they've got light anyway. And then we'd know what Sky Breaking refers to.

One of the more arcane concepts in Mormonism is Exaltation, which teaches that Gods are former human beings and that humans can become Gods and rule their own worlds. And what is the Cosmere but a universe ruled by a pack of Gods that used to be mortals?

I like the idea of a wrathful young Gavinor being Odium's champion, but the boy seems to have nothing but love for Dalinar personally. I don't know how anyone would talk him into facing his heroic grandpa in a duel or whatever they're doing.

The One is the closest to the way I already see the universe. It seems to be the case that all matter and energy was once compressed into a single point, which expanded and became everything. I don't believe the forces involved had desire or consciousness, physics seems to explain it all just fine, but still. It's pretty amazing to look at the infinite expanse and imagine that it was all one thing.

Moash is a fugitive from Alethi justice with a standing death sentence. His worthless eyes won't change anybody's mind about anything.

I am an atheist, and I would remain so even if proof of God was presented to me, depending on the God. If it was the God from the religion I used to belong to, I would not worship it or participate in its rituals. I would feel morally responsible to oppose it at every turn. The God of the Christians could appear in my apartment right now and prove to me that it's real, but that would not make me a Christian. I would be a worshipper of no gods. Atheist.

The Shattered Plains have been the way they are for a long time, and lived in. I suspect that the spren of the region are used to the way things are now, which means healing them together with surges is probably out of the question.

It doesn't matter how much ass you can kick when you've got a big strong body and superpowers and Shards, if you're spending centuries being flayed alive by a hurricane made of hate. You're going to snap.