Observer

Actually, gems hold Stormlight a lot better than humans do. Humans can hold the stormlight that would light a gem for at leats a few days and they'll lose it in minutes. But like Voidus said, the investment of the body should protect it. I guess if you knew beforehand that a windrunner/shardbearer was coming to visit you could always rig the roof to collapse. Nothing kills the speedy devils like several tons of falling stone. If you were really ambitious you could get a steel roof and rig it to raise and drop at the push of a button and therefore be forever safe from those nasty assassins.

I kinda like that idea, though I find it unlikely that SHardblades are chunks of Odium. The Shardthings seem to be littl emore than uberconcentrated stormlight and it isn't too much of a stretch to see them as splinters of a shard. On the blade note, I'm fairly sure Shardblades were Honor's (Being used by radiants and all) but were corrupted by Odium rather than taken over, simply to save power.

Blinking is the trigger for Windrunning and magic, sorta like whatever you do to start burning a metal. Instead of being mysterious and instinctive, there's something definitive that you do to start. IDK, but that's the best guess with what we know.

Nowadays we have bulletproof armor, and I doubt it's tougher than shardplate. At the very least it'll take one hit, and even then there's no reason not to wear it considering it enhances you rather than weighs you down. Have crossbows firing sharpened gems infused with stormlight. From what I can tell they'd be immune to windrunning, and enough of those can be quite lethal to even Szeth's speed. Adding plate poses a problem until you get bigger gems.

For thousands of years of crazy he probably just did whispers and dark shadows to stay inhuman and impersonal. Also note that Rashek knew who he was, and after so many years the person Ruin immitated would be lost in memory and that person would be Ruin to him, making the trick totally ineffective.

Or we could go even simpler and just say that after 1,000 years TLR became an everything-savant and/or helped himself to more than one chunk of Lerasium and/or became more powerful from using the well. Nicrosil doesn't even need to play a part. Wierd and stupid thought: If you used years worth of connection and then tapped some other metalmind, could you make yourself so connected to others that your magic sees you as the same being and works for all of you?

Zane specifically mentions it in Well of Ascention as he takes off from Straff's camp.

Extremely unlikely. They (Or at least Vin, as she's the only one I remember ATM) compared it to emotional allomancy because of how subtle Ruin was in getting what he wanted, lightly pulling on their drives. It's like asking if copperclouds will sap a thug's strength or block a coinshot from pushing on metal. It's unlikely, and even in the event that such a thing is possible (If Elend and TLR couldn't do it, we're talking HUGE amount of investure) it would take such an absurd amount of power to do it that you'd be better of burning nicrosil in the first place.

That's like saying coinshots become useless once guns are invented. Not only could Shardplate most likely still take a hit, but enhanced reflexes and strength are nothing to sneeze at. More jump power, surviveability and immunity to soulcasting and windrunning are also welcome perks. No, I don't think shardplate becomes useless. If anything it gets a few more uses at the cost of others.

I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to say here.... No, you cannot replicate shardplate since the rest of it dissolves, though you could conceivably give two people half a shardplate No, I think once you give away your plate and blade the new owner owns it. The only thing keeping them from running off is the knowledge that they're in the middle of nowhere and the fact that there are 100+ other shardbearers and around as many armies nearby. That what you were looking for?

Most likely not a coincidence. Thanks to the blinking we've pretty much established that Shallan's memory is magical, not natural, and I like the idea of visions working through blinks. By the way, the lights are part of hypnogogia, at least when you're falling asleep. No idea what they're called otherwise.

Since Brandon said a Shardblade can't be pushed on, I doubt it would even be visible. However, much like things in the body, it might actually create a little bubble of anti-steel, allowing you to track the blade via the vanishing and appearing lines

You keep assuming that the god metals will grant use of a magic system, though that's most likely not the case. Yes, Lersasium gives you allomancy, but Atium does not. Non-allomancers cannot burn Atium, and Atium in no way gives you hemalurgic powers or abilities. In all likelyhood the other god metals would do their own unique thing rather than just being another world's Lerasium

I would like to wish you all a very much belated Christmas

Merry Christmas Ruin would give Elend a spike Wayne would give Ranette the secret to Bloodmaker rounds (I imagine it's something along the lines of getting the bullet to stay inside them and continue cauding damage after the healing) Miles would give his other self some flowers so they could be fwends Felt would get a hat made of.....you guessed it, SATIN.

Nice! I would like to announce that, while I have no idea what the heck the title is supposed to mean, Braid is one of the best games I've played since Portal.

I would like to announce that I have revolutionized hemalurgy through the use of tomato sauce. Bow before my might.

Awakening farted methane to make its own set of rude noises.

It could mean a shardpool, though I doubt Brandon will use that theme again. More likely it is some place shardically saturated, such as: The location the Oathpact was made The location where Honor "landed" on Roshar The place of an ascension Somebody's Shardpool The location where most of Honor's splinters went The location where the physical and spiritual are unusually close Take your pick.

It was a terrible time to be traveling. The sun was eleven long hours away from its Zenith, and until then not even family could be trusted.

I've always wondered if soulcasting worked on a loaded Windrunner. I imagine that a fully-stormed up Szeth would be resistant, but if he ever ran out of Stormlight, Jasnah would blast him into a puff of smoke. Still, he's a potential plot option that can kill a lot of people at any time just as everybody thinks things are going well. Not good.

Oh dear. It's a nice hook, and it functions well as one, though I'm not altogether sure if I like the sentence itself. Mentioning the wig seems to undermine the random feeling, but now that I think of it there really aren't many other ways to end an opening like that. That's me. King of useless advice.

"His punishment declared that they didn't. His honor demanded that they did." That is a very wierd sentence. Any idea what exactly Szeth means by it?

Yeah, the readings blow parts one and five out of the water, though an interesting note on the Dawnchants is simply the fact that the Parshendi picked up Alethi superfast, and dawnchant is the language root. It wouldn't be recognized simply because not only does nobody pay attention, but it's not like the learned women ever go to the battlefield anyways to check things out. I suspect Jasnah's entrance will provide some interesting new factoids.

Don't forget the Herald in the epilogue, his eyes stayed dark even when holding the blade. That could just be a unique effect, but it's different than either other kind of blade we've seen.