Observer

The problem here is that it would require Dalinar to have a different, mentally-related curse, and from the extensive POVs we've had of him, he doesn't seem to have anything else of the sort. The problem with talking about this is that literally the only time anybody talks about Dalinar's wife that we can hear is around him, which means of course that he can't hear it, and he himself can't think about her. This means that we have no idea when he went to the Nightwatcher, a bit of a problem. If I had to guess, I'd say forgetting was his curse. His boon was related to helping Gavilar take over the highprinces, or something related to that. Sadly, it's just a guess, and only WoB can tell us at this point.

It seems that we have a lot of strange things coming from Aimia, as well as the WoB that they aren't human. Who made the Aimians, if anybody? They don't seem to have much of any of the big three in them, they cast shadows the same way people do in the Cognitive, but apparently they're farther in than Lift, which would mean the can probably touch spren. What other weird, Cosmere-related things do they have over there?

Alright, I didn't see a topic for this, and in the event that there isn't one, I think we still need an official place to discuss this.Starting at Chapter 59, "Fleet", the epigraphs become the reply to the letter written by Hoid, shown in the WoK epigraphs. The whole letter is here: Also, for convenient reference, I have posted the original letter below as well.

Who needs a manual? You have over a billion test subjects and nothing but bloody time.

My biggest problem with the MAG is that it makes Luck external. Everything about Feruchemy is about you. Even connection sounds more like you the Feruchemist themself is perceived. It makes no sense for Luck to be able to suddenly make a guard fall asleep compared to the other metals. As I've said before, I highly doubt that you could make an opponent trip from the other end of the room with a sudden burst of your own luck, without actively moving things around to do so. It's your fortune, not their misfortune. Based on what we know of how Feruchemy is internal, I don't see how a Spinner could make an opponent miss them. They can dodge perfectly, Atium-style, but they can't make the attack trip and throw the wrong direction entirely. It just doesn't fit.

In terms of pure survivability, Edgedancing would provide much-needed food, making it one of the best options for long-term survival, on top of being Awesome. If I could help it though, I'd be a Spinner or a Bloodmaker, one to keep alive and minimize bite risks, and the other so I can eat zombies and not get sick, therefore becoming the only human with an endless food supply. If Twinborn come into the question, I'd likely add Steel for making a killing grounds with unending ammo, zinc/brass in the event that zombies can be dissuaded from attacking me, or bendalloy, because sometimes the lucky need a second chance. Oh? And you know treadmills? My fort would be surrounded by them.

Ugh, merciful Domi, please save me from these Selish puns...

I always figured that if Hoid had a decent guess on how far away the planets are, he could just round down and go. I don't imagine appearing in space would inconvenience him very much. What about Aon Rao as the hint? It seems like Nicrosil for Elantris, and could possibly have applications elsewhere. Hoid could make a mini-Rao and use it + nicrosil to fuel Aon Tia or something.

Every Herald we've seen so far has gone stark raving mad. It seems to be an effect of having broken the Oathpact. Shallash goes around breaking artwork of herself, Nalan is murdering surgebinders in the name of fake justice, Taln who doesn't really count is doing a Madness Mantra, so yeah. It seems like they notices Shallash and felt similar things happening to them and were starting to freak out.

You have no idea how tempted I am to post an enormous compendium of vile words just to see which ones will be blocked. I noticed this when I tried to type WT- and it turned my rant funny.

Breeding programs don't mean anything if Feruchemists are part of the underground and making magical babies without permission. Plus things like Tindwyl totally messing up the whole point of the system. Honestly I'm not very surprised that Feruchemy lasted the millenium.

I assume survival isn't always a 100% top priority. If I currently want to win a coin flip, but doing so will increase my odds of dying by 5%, I'm pretty sure I'd still get the flip, because it's what I view as important at the moment, and cognitively consider lucky. Yes, I might be generally lucky in terms of things not working out for people, but I doubt my every tiny action would screw up assassins so far removed from me unless I was actively spending all of my time doing that. My solution is to let the Spinner focus their luck on other things, letting off some general luck, but never putting them in enough danger for their own cognitive will to decide that surviving is the top priority. Okay, I'm explaining this poorly. Luck is subjective, and likely has to do with the cognitive of the Spinner. Of course they always want to survive, so their luck will nudge them towards doing things that keep everybody nearby off of them. But it's not going to magically stop assassin plans. The luck is based on what you're already doing. You were already going to flip that coin, it just changes how you yourself choose to flip it. You were already going to pick a side for their coin, but this time you happened to say it in an influential way. I don't think it physically makes you do anything very different, so your luck can only go so far in screwing up your attackers if you aren't actively wandering around and trying to wreck their plans. So long as you keep yourself far enough removed from the Spinner and don't give them a reason to suspect or even a tiny chance for them to do so, it's possible to make them choose to do things that they themselves want, but rig the endroad to harm them. I know this is a crappy example, but say they want to win the lottery, and of course they do because they manage to arbitrarily pick the right ones. But as they go in, once again following what they want, namely to get the money, you block off the area they're in, once again keeping your men from ever being seen. No matter what actions they do on the way to the money, no matter how they trip or laugh, they're not changing your far-removed plans to surround them. It's not changing. Now say you know where they are because of cameras. Again, not much their luck can do to stop this from happening. Now you know exactly where they are, and they can't leave because you've set up a Cadmium perimeter with Coinshots and gunmen outside. You are now in a position to whoop their lucky butts. Okay, horrible example aside, see how this could be done? I doubt your luck can extend very far into the future, and there's only so much your sneezes can do to mess up an attacker's plans if they stay far enough away from you.

I always got the impression that to truly "Snap", one had to face death and decided to Preserve oneself, thus unlocking Preservation's link. Feruchemy is an odd kind of middle ground, since neither Shard really owns it. I don't think we know even to this day what causes is, or how to get a super Feruchemist like you would by eating Lerasium. I'd almost say it came about naturally from nothing but having two Shards around and has ties only to the people using it, but I doubt it's true and have no proof.

Hahaha, well that's a shame. Honestly I stick to my opinions that Shardplate is something completely different than Shardblades. It actually breaks, it's fueled by gems, and the Oathgate is made of a very similar material. If I had to guess, I'd almost say that it's like when the Spren tried to copy Honor, except this time it was mankind during a particularly long wait for a Desolation.

I always got the impression that when Adonalsium shattered, its magic systems also broke alongside it. Lightweave just happened to remain mostly intact when it emerged on Roshar.Also, it seems that Hoid did what Miles did and implanted the bead into himself for safekeeping. He'd be able to tap it with Feruchemy, getting whatever effect it gives, while at the same time keeping it as safe as it can get, considering that Hoid is one of the most powerful people in the Cosmere and pulling it out of him probably wouldn't be very easy. EDIT: Line breaks. Also, nice job Kurk!

I have Hero of Ages open right now in front of me. Spike size does exactly this: It makes the spike lose Investure more slowly when outside of a body. Once inside, it stops losing Investure, but no matter how much Investure is lost, a full connection to Ruin will always be open to anyone spiked with that metal. Spikes can be melted down, attached to other things, split, etc, their charge and connection will bend accordingly along with their cognitive aspect. This means that TLR probably just spiked some people and then attached it to his Atium bracers, and maybe a ring or earring as well. How could he possibly die? He was either saving Chromium (Not like there's an infinite amount of that he could mine up constantly), or was indeed tapping it to help him avoid hits. Ruin would soothe and riot him to keep him from killing Vin outright, and then she pulled in roughly three metric craptons of Shardic Investure and tore off his bracers, killing him. Personal Luck wouldn't change this situation much at all, so I don't see a problem with how he died.

I can't help but wonder if people who enter the Shardpool are sent where they wish to go, or if they wield it in some way. The Hoed would want to die, and so they would be granted their wish through either method. It's also possible that it does something weird to the spiritweb that could undo the effect of whatever makes a person an Elantrian. IDK.

Exactly what I'm saying. The spike size doesn't have anything to do with how much Investure it can hold, it only concerns how long and how quickly for being outside of a host.

Didn't Marsh say at one point that size meant nothing other than how long the charge would last? Lemme get my HoA... EDIT: Found it!

I think we have WoB that Nightblood functions almost identically to an Honorblade, so Szeth burning through so much of it makes a lot of sense.

The trick is to not die somehow during that time. Between human nature, natural disasters, as well as Shardic stuff happening, it wouldn't be a guaranteed success.

I don't know, that look of pure and utter release seems to me to be them dying. Maybe Shardpools can be wielded, and they just die because, deep down, it's what they want?

Did the Reod cause enough of a landmass cognitive change to cause problems? We know Shadesmar is tied to the land somehow, so it could relate to that.

Welcome to the 17th Shard! If you're not already Cosmere-aware, take a look at the Cosmere 101 thread, found here: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/491-cosmere-101/ This contains minor to moderate spoilers for Mistborn, so I guess in the name of long story short, this is what you'll get out of it: (Warning, poorly-explained paragraph of stuff you may already know and that could be explained way better in the link but hey not everybody's read Mistborn and I'm not going to be inconsiderate in any way other than in grammar.) Have fun exploring the community and theorizing, and all that other wonderful stuff. I'm sure somebody will drop by soon to greet you, so I'll warn you not to accept any cookies or spikes, no matter how tempting the offer. Again, welcome, and have fun.

Allomancy is built on one's connection to Preservation, and normally your power level is all about how much Investure you can shove through yourself at once, with Duralumin ripping the hole open wider for a little bit, so maybe you'd open yourself to Investure? Spiritual influence? Maybe you'd just become closer to and/or more connected with Preservation?