Observer

I would like to announce that my IRL Tineye trick involving goldfish doesn't work quite as well with potato chips. I'm stick nursing the feeling back into my tongue >_>

I have to agree with Elwynn, read Mistborn first, and then reak WoK last. Mistborn is a fantastic reference for Shardic lore, and WoK his just a huge Cosmere thing with some very creepy references to Mistborn.

Maybe Preservation tried anyways? Or maybe it's because the non-feruchemist population was still open to being hit by them, since they didn't have enough balance or whatever gives you feruchemy?

It seems to me that we don't really understand duralumin at all. We've been told that it simply flares other metals being burned along with it, but I doubt that's all it can do (This may either add uses to nicrosil or server to seperate them). It's kinda like how Brandon says people have a good idea of why you return, but not the full truth of it. So until we learn, duralumin is kinda useless. If you decided to mess with cognitive wholes, an aluminum gnat could be quite useful. Aluminum gnats could be the worlds best poison detectors. If you could burn out bullets and shrapnel that would be really cool. If Cadmium does this, we have some pretty awesome medics Meh, we really don't know a lot. I get the sinking feeling we'll be getting a book with a gnat as a main character. It's just like Brandon to do that.

Hoid either takes incredible pleasure in being obscure and annoying, or he wants to drop hints about certain things to people, but can't say too much, and therefore talks in his irritatingly vague way. I can't wait for Dragonsteel to actually give us some answers >:/ Afterthought: Then again, he is a storyteller, so maybe he really does like being annoying... Words on a Page could also mean that he himself originated in the cognitive world, and either became Midas later or somehow fused with Midas. Or maybe there was a prophecy about him, making him exist before he was born? And then he "Stole himself", using the prophecy to create his identity, making it self-fulfilling? Maybe he was true-name'd into existence? I like the middle one, but to be honest they're all kin dof far-fetched.

Look out, he's a Mistborn character, and automatically has deep psyche problems from his dad being a loser and from growing up in a hellhole in general. And don't forget what he went through in WoA and HoA. Heck, does Brandon have a single character who isn't severely screwed up in some way?

Jasnah's in for a shock when her lightning bolts of death don't insta-kill Szeth I severely doubt that Szeth, a character with such potential, will be killed off. I also doubt Kaladin will die for similar reasons. So the fight between them probably won't happen, as there isn't really a good way to disable Szeth and the Alethi would probably just kill him on the spot for killing Gavilar. More likely, Dalinar is without Kaladin and gets killed.

Well, read the third book. I liked it more than the others in terms of characters, and it definately did what it could to distance itself from typical elves and crap, but I still can't love it thanks to the races. Still, worth the read. I have absolutely no idea what 213 was talking about. Could somebody clarify?

*Excessive cursing* I was about to add that >_> *+1s anyway*

For all to consider My randompointless megapost of confusing crap: Yes, that was the Observer's pooprant. I hope whoever asked me to do one is happy.

Another point to the Shin for being the mysterious people prepared for the future. Reminds me of the Kandra actually...

Could be his next move on the character arc...

Oh wooow. Indeed it is. And for the record:

Wherever it would manifest, it would be pretty freakin enourmous. Destroying the concept of language would be nearly impossible. But picking off a few beads would work, though what effect it would have is anybody's guess.

It seems more to be where you place your hands, but I guess it could be the cognitive aspect instead. It works well with what we know. Again I have to ask though: What if the reverse lashing and the full lashing are just smaller abilities shared by two orders of the KR, and the main ability of Full Lashings is for Szeth's order only? What if Kaladin has something totally different? Also, imagine Szeth when somebody finally gives him a run for his money. FINALLY somebody who can kill me! That person would be the only human on Roshar Szeth doesn't loathe...

No, that's not the end. The last chapter is a Wit chapter actually. What comes after is fairly important I think, if you care about Wit and maybe Shallan (I think she might have a chapter after that). Remember the words of Alcatraz: Summaries ruin everything. I mean, one of the greatest epics sounds pretty lame when you say "A furry-footed guy throws his uncle's ring in a hole", so this crappy summary of the last chapter should only be read a s a last resort. Like, last resort. You have been warned. Somebody with a book will likely fill you in on the rest that you missed.

What if reverse and full lashings are lesser abilities, and lashings are a main ability? That open the possibility that Kaladin has something other than basic lashings...

Would this mean that a Shardblade could kill Miles? I'm not too sure, but it looks like it would.

In a one on one, Kaladin loses. Maybe he's more powerful, maybe, somehow, he's a better fighter than Szeth. Szeth, however, has a Shardblade and a much better knowledge of how to use his powers and what they all do. Unlike Kaladin, all he needs is a single tap to win. IMO, Dalinar will die before Kaladin gets to have a decent fight.

You gain the ability to create them, but lack the materials or knowledge to actually do so. You die a terrible death, knowing as you die that you could have been something some much greater. I wish that, right as the first chapter of the second stormlight book occurs, Odium will suddenly die and his Shard will be splintered, never to be picked up again until Adonalsium's reforming.

It makes sense to me, if I'm following your logic correctly. The thoery makes sense, and it's probably the most difinitive stuff we've got on the Spiritual Realm as of now. So when the shardblade cuts through the soul, it no longer connects to anything. In this context, that looks like it would work.

It's quite likely that they found a form that was more scholarly or better at that kind of thing. What the heralds may or may not be doing is likely a very different thing. Again, I have to ask. What happens if you use Shadesmar to mess with things like a language?

Could just be a variation in power levels Mistborn style, but I find it fa rmore likely to be a result of the fact that, apparently, Kaladin and Szeth aren't even really doing the same thing. Still, my money is on Szeth in this fight. He actually understands the limits and rules of what he's doing.

Do we know that Honor created humans? They moved in from the TH, and it's not entirely implausible that Cultivation made them first and Honor just joined the fun. I guess what I'm getting at is this: what if Honor hadn't expended very much of himself on humans/Odium spent too much of himself on the Shards, and as a result the two were actually evenly matched? Odium couldn't just bruteforce his way through Honor becauce it would kill him, or at least leave him easy pickings for Cultivation. (It's also possible that, though they were both weak from making humans, together they could match Odium. Same thing though, in the end.) So they did the Ruin/Preservation thing, Honor tries to make people honorable, Odium blocks him. Odium tries to make people hateful, Honor blocks him. They go on like this until the sheer pointlessness sets in. So the two/three of them set up a roundabout way of getting at one another. They create the Oathpact, probably with some Shardic magic we don't really understand. How it worked is anybody's guess. Maybe they fought only with creations, maybe they did something else. Who can say? The important thing seems to be that they left a lot of their battle up to humans, kind of Diablo style I guess. This is where I get back on topic, for those who were fingering the downrate button. Maybe their shardic prescence had already given people powers ages ago during their push and shove match. In any case, now that they've figured out how stupid directly fighting is, they probably went down and did what they could to perfect the magic systems they had created. Honor got surgebinding, likely an improved and more honor-powered version of whatever people originally being given by him. Then we have Voidbinding. The name sounds pretty obvious, all things considered, and normally we'd just slap this onto Odium and get to work on Cultivation. But we know enough about the natures of Shards like Ruin and Odium to not just take things by their names. The name doesn't match up with what we know. Voidbinding is, as far as we've been told, a way to see the future. The mechanics we've seen for doing so pretty much boil down to people who die. So, for the sake of the theory, we'll say Voidbinding is in some way related to that, like the OP says, and move on. Honor has told us that Cultivation is pretty good at seeing the future, which is a little suspicious since Voidbinding is supposed to be Odium's thing. We also have the problem of Voidbringers supposedly holding stormlight perfectly. If they can hold stormlight, that means surgebidning. Do they have two magic systems? If so, why didn't Surgebinding get lumped in with Voidbinding over time? Nobody speaks evilly of people changing gravity and sending people into the atmosphere. With what we've seen of Shards, it's not too far of a stretch to say that Odium has changed theology to prevent anybody from stopping him via precognicion, and that either Voidbringers have a system we haven't heard of yet or that they have some form of Hemalurgy that lets them use the other powers alongside their own. Okay, that was a big rambling textwall that may or not have made any sense. Sorry :/

How exactly would a little ball of light Dominate you? Maybe the Skaze have some abilities we haven't seen yet? Fjon mentioned something about them after stabbing Hrathen.