Pagerunner

Huh. I can't find where I learned about dragonsteel wells; maybe I imagined it. At the very least, there weren't gemhearts; chasmfiends were designed by Ben when Brandon was revamping WoK.

Perception is a huge thing in the cosmere, especially on Roshar. People's perceptions of the world around them drive the nature of the spren and the surges (which can be understood as natural forces personified). It might be a property of the planet of Roshar that gems hold Stormlight. But human perception drives how well they can do that. Here's the thought process that Rosharans might have: a cut gem is better than an uncut one; a perfectly cut gem is better than a poorly cut one. Obviously, then, the higher-quality one should hold more Stormlight, right? Because it's just a better gem all-around.

The question as somewhat rhetorical, just suggesting that the element Hoid protects might be some dragonsteel itself, and the specifics aren't evident to those of us who haven't read Dragonsteel. We know that in the Shattered Plains sequence in Dragonsteel Prime, they were fighting over dragonsteel wells, not gemharts. (Side note, is it possible that dragonsteel is a god metal? Sounds suspiciously like atium forming at geodes...)

We were just talking about this over in Cosmere Theories, oddly enough. There's a lot relevant to later Mistborn books in that thread, though, fair warning. The Nightwatcher is not Cultivation. She is a powerful splinter of Cultivation. That being said, it's possible some people of Roshar have conflated the two, so they say Nightwatcher and mean Cultivation, but they just don't know any better. Also, you're assuming that they can only meet the Nightwatcher before they die. The passage is referring to death, the ultimate destination. The Heralds don't die of old age, and if they are killed they simply return to Braize. So, Nohadon is saying, very poetically, that everyone will die eventually, except the Heralds. It might be a figure of speech, or it might relate to something that happens to a person's soul after their death on Roshar.

The reference to an 'element' leads people to think in terms of chemical elements, the Periodic Table and all that good stuff, which has only been relevant thus far in Mistborn. Add that to something Hoid is protecting, at the time WoK was published we only knew Hoid had the bead (no confirmation of Breath until perfect pitch in WoR, no inkling he was trying to become an Elantrian until the 2015 10th anniversary edition bonus scene, no Moon Scepter until Emperor's Soul a few years later), so it was really the only thing we knew of his that would need protecting. A similar thing happened in WoR when the Second Letter talked about a dead gemstone. All we have publically available that it could possibly be referring to was in the Liar of Partinel sample chapters that were released, where Midius had an Aether that looked very much like a gemstone. But, bits and pieces of Dragonsteel are slipping out, and we know Hoid went by the name Topaz in that story. So, we can refine our assumptions that the Second Letter was talking about Hoid's old Aether, and now see that it's talking about his old alias of Topaz. So, yeah, there's a lot in these Letters that relate to things we haven't seen, stuff from unpublished stories or even things that haven't ever left the planning stages. If we assume that we can know what the element is, then lerasium seems to be the leading idea (an element, he ingested it so he protects it like his own body), especially if we travel back in time to when WoK was first released and this idea originated. If we assume that it's something from Dragonsteel that we haven't seen (what is dragonsteel, anyways?), then it really could be anything.

Yeah, but Brandon won't define Rosharan. The system as a whole also bears that moniker; I can see how you would consider "Rosharan" to include people of all three planets, the same way you could call the people of First of the Sun 'Drominadian' or something similar (Dromedaries?). 'Roshar,' however, narrows it down to the planet or the continent. Alternatively, he could be calling Taln a Rosharan immigrant, after a fashion; he wasn't always Rosharan, but he's been there long enough that now he is more Rosharan than Yolish (or whatever he might have been originally).

We're always happy to discuss questions. Too happy. Almost like there's something wrong with us... but if you're not new (looks like you've been posting a little while), you might want to try the Cosmere Q&A subforums. There are a lot of questions that have already been answered by the community in there; you might find some interesting. Or you can post more of your own there. It would be nice if you could ask questions like this to Brandon through his website... unfortunately, if he let people do that, I'm sure he'd have no time for anything else! These days, most of our info of this sort comes from signings or specific events (like a Reddit AMA), although Brandon will sometimes respond to questions on social media. (But, again, he knows to strike a balance, and not try to answer every question, so he has time to still write the books and all that little stuff.) For the small question, most of the Seventeenth Shard has a method that slows down aging, but doesn't stop it completely. Breath is one possibility, but enough breath to live for over a thousand years (like Khriss had) would probably have a noticeable effect. But it's a good theory, nonetheless. For the big question, a Cognitive Shadow has to have died. Even in-universe, there are several interpretations as to what a Cognitive Shadow actually is; it might be a piece of Investiture that has 'copied' someone's soul, or it might be the soul itself kept from going Beyond by a bond with a large piece of Investiture. But, either way, it requires a death, so all Shards can't be Cognitive Shadows.

I don't understand your point... you should explain it more. Maybe post a new thread for your "theory theory" theory.

A couple of clarifications: Each of the three Shards on Roshar has a 'super-splinter' of them. The Stormfather is Honor's, Nightwatcher is Culviation's, and the Unmade collectively are Odium's. So, yes, the Unmade are less powerful than Stormfather/Nightwatcher, and less sentient to some degree as well. The Stormfather has 'absorbed' Honor's Cognitive Shadow. That's why he refers to himself as a Sliver. Nightwatcher, however, is just a spren.

Good to finally have these clarifications. Modern constellations, based on what's happening in those worlds, but not the constellations that the inhabitants of the PoV-planet identify. I think the frontrunner is definitely Yolen, again; it can't be any of the planets shown (obviously), and it's not from Silverlight, so the only other planet we know of is Yolen. Isaac notes that there are colors other than red and yellow. Just to note, Roshar, First of the Sun, and Taldain are all bluish-white. Doesn't seem to be any mystery there; these are the actual colors of these stars. It might all be a natural red. Or there might be something supernatural behind it. I thought I was on to something about when the map was created, by noticing that Scadrial was in Nalthis's constellation. I thought it wasn't inhabited yet, when the map was drawn. It looks like it's just a spatial arrangement issue; Nalthis and Scadrial are too close together, let's go with Nalthis for the symbolism. Not sure I understand the symbolism behind the tree for Bavadin... trees are usually in forests or jungles, where they're surrounded by lots of other trees. Is this supposed to be, like, a desert tree that's chilling on its own in the middle of nowhere? More of a Lonely Tree? Lastly, Isaac mentions that some of these stars are extracosmeric. (Is it okay if I just make up a new term like that?) I wonder if he's referring to random other stars in the background or in constellations, or if he's referring to part or all of The Scar?

I don't recall anything about it falling from the sky either. My first time through the novella, I had actually assumed it was a religious uprising of some sort, partly because of how vaguely it was discussed.

1) They were actual atium mistings. Because it was a signal (16%), Preservation was only keying in those metals that people knew as he snapped people. 2) We don't know. I, personally, think it's likely; he already knew Kelsier personally, so I don't think being able to interact with him later would cause his faith to waver. 3) The Ten Essences are a Rosharan philosophical concept. I guess it's possible that they are derived somehow from the interactions of your physical body with your spiritweb, or sDNA; I don't think anyone's ever thought about that before. It wouldn't be a direct connection, but they might build from the same Realmatics. Excellent question. 4) Doubtful. The magics of Sel are tied to the physical regions where they occur. If they could somehow be tied to the planet as a whole to produce the effect you describe, then why would they be restricted to regions in the first place? 5) I think Hoid can take care of himself, with or without emotional allomancy. He'd probably get a kick out of someone killing him, losing their status, and then he'd just show up and become his own replacement, claiming to be his own twin brother or some such nonsense. He did use some Allomancy in one of the WoR flashbacks, however, so it's definitely a possibility.

Oh, I was just pondering the implications of the answer, not anything with the specific wording. We have a super old pre-WoK WoB about having seen four Shards aside from R&P: interacted with two directly, one seen its power, and one seen its influence. They've since been ID'd as Endowment, Devotion, Dominion, and Odium, respectively. So, I wonder where we've seen Ambition's influence. Either it was so subtle Brandon didn't count it, or it's something we've seen in Stormlight, Mistorn Era 2, or the other novellas. It makes me wonder, actually, if maybe the Shardpool on First of the Sun is actually a piece of Ambition's power that he left behind...

Hey, no worries. We're all happy to answer what we can. Brandon won't charge for his signature. It's a promotional event, so on the contrary, he's often giving stuff away (like pins, or bookmarks). Sometimes bookstores will ticket their events, to make sure they don't have too many people than can fit in their space, but the only time I've heard of them charging anything for those tickets is when they make you buy a copy of the book from them in order to get a ticket. I haven't heard of anything other than conventions having an entry fee, and those obviously aren't just because of Brandon. It will depend on whichever bookstore is running the event, how they want to go about handling crowd size. When he posts his tour, you should look up the contact info for a bookstore that's hosting an event year you, and call them up for specific details.

Woah... Does that confirm that Threnodite silver is not another name for aluminum? But that it's actually silver, the same silver they have on other worlds? EDIT: Also, what?

No, you can bring AU to get it signed. As he's becoming more popular and signings are getting bigger, some bookstores on his tours will limit people to 3 books per person to keep the signing line moving, so if you have a large collection you probably don't want to bring everything to get signed. Also, it's considered polite to purchase something from the bookstore hosting the signing (on the AU tour, I bought the Stormlight Pocket Companion from the store that was running the event I went to, which I doubt I would have bought otherwise), so that might factor into which books you want to bring and get signed.

I think he was just talking about it on Reddit, that there will be UK stops on the Oathbringer tour (and he'll try to fit in Ireland, since he's never made it over there yet).

I have a long and complicated theory about why Vin was special.

Relevant WoB. Might not be sentience, but still has something to do with a magical strain on the land. Possibly still connected to the Dor, even if it's not becoming sentient.

Now that I've seen the actual transcript, I'm not so sure my theory is confirmed. Part of it is that you weren't necessarily asking about the specific chemistry of it, so Brandon might not have gone into the detail that I would have wrangled out of him. Emphasis mine. I'm not convinced that Brandon was operating on the same terms as we were. He should know that subatomic particles are protons, electrons, and neutrons. But, he seems to refer to Harmonium as a whole as a 'subatomic particle,' almost implying that it a fundamental particle in and of itself, not comprised of the usual pieces. Either that, or maybe he was accidentally thinking compounds were comprised of 'atoms,' and elements were comprised of "subatomic particles." (He was a chemistry dropout, after all. Alternatively, it could have been a momentary slip in the middle of a signing line.) I just don't get how it can be reacting with water, though, if it doesn't have electrons to give away. If it doesn't create an oxide at all, then it seems the water is just acting as a catalyst to trigger a breakdown of the harmonium. Also, a lot of people seem to be saying that nuclear reactions work on e=mc^2, Brandon included. Which isn't the case. Nuclear fission works by splitting an atom's nucleus, releasing the energy that is holding the protons together. (The...weak nuclear force, I believe?) In an atomic bomb, yes, you will see some matter converting directly to energy. But Einsten's equation isn't the phenomenon we're concerned about when it comes to nuclear stability and radioactive decay. So, he's not talking about splitting the harmonium nucleus or even just keeping it from decaying to another element, he's talking about converting it from Investiture to energy. Not saying I don't appreciate you asking the question, Ironeyes. This isn't that much further than I got from the Hoboken signing on the specific nature of its reactivity, but we weren't able to transcribe that, so it's great to have some exact words. And the stuff about interesting reaction byproducts is new. But I'll need to ask some more specific questions before I'd call my theory confirmed, and use some very exact terms like Orbital Structure, Electron Shielding, Nuclear Fission, and Quantized Investiture. (You already took care of Harmonium Oxide, which was one of my favorites.) I'll update the original post to include my speculations on Ruinous Hydrogen. But, if Harmonium doesn't follow the usual orbital structure, then I think it opens up some pathways to other options for reaction byproducts, like atium, harmonium, or even solidified universal Investiture.

From a glyph analysis, it appears they all share the same pieces (which we think are derived from consonants in the Alethi word), so they should all be the same words. That would mean Voidbinding has Windrunners, it has Adhesion, it has Illumination, etc, but they are different in some ways of actual implementation. That's why I think it's very closely connected to Surgebinding, for now at least.

Been looking at this thread. I don't think we have a canon answer. But, I think we see that exact instance in Aether of Night, of powerful Splinters having their own Vessels. The way I understand the Shards of Aether, there is Decay (a proto-Ruin), Formation (The Former, a proto-Preservation, the Shard behind the Aethers), and Chaos and Order (two powerful Splinters of Formation). One Splinter was given to each of the Fell Twins, and they took on their new names based on actions, not on Shardic intent (Slaughter and Despair). When the Fell Twins were trapped, it appears that the bulk of their Investiture was drawn out of the Spiritual Realm and placed into the Physical Realm in the form of a Shardpool. These probably aren't true Perpendicularities; I suspect they're more analogous to Shardblades, where they're just a straight-up physical embodiment of a Splinter, and you can't use them to worldhop (and those executed in the Pool of the Forgotten were, indeed, executed). I make the Vessel connection because their bodies were removed from the Physical Realm, and later returned, exactly as we've seen with Vessels of Shards. I think, to have a Vessel, a piece of Investiture needs to be able to accommodate a human's entire Physical form being converted to Investiture and stored in the Splinter, which would set a lower limit on what Splinters could have a Vessel. I think the presence of a mind already there will also prevent a Vessel, since that 'slot' is already occupied by a natural manifestation of the Splinter. So, Honorblades aren't big enough. Superspren (Unmade, Stormfather) already have minds. The Well of Ascension isn't a Splinter, it's a Perpendicularity. There's nothing in the published canon that could support a Vessel. But I think we did see it in Aether, and I think the realmatics of Aether have no contradiction with canon (even if the specific events in it did not occur in the cosmere), so I think it's a possibility. Any other thoughts? I don't think I want to mention any of this over in the original thread I linked, since even mentioning that there's relevant info in an unpublished book seems to violate the unpublished discussion rules.

Is it just me, or has Brandon been talking about the matter/energy/investiture relationship a lot recently? Makes me wonder if he wrote some explanation or application of it into Oathbringer, and it's just on his mind all the time now.

@Harakeke, listen to this. Ardents talking about Dawnchant. Relevant part starts around 19:00.

You know, we learned recently that we've seen hints of another end-negative magic system. I always suspected it was Voidbinding. Maybe Voidbinding actually consumes a spren? Maybe Kaladin started Voidbinding on accident when he was consuming Syl to power his Surges when he fell into the chasm in WoR? It's possible there are more Hemalurgy parallels, that it uses the same powers (the Surges) but accesses them in a different way, through capturing and consuming spren. That would be why they share the same symbols, which we know are the names of Surges and the names of Orders. But it's actually a different magic system, one that destroys spren in order to function. Lastly, an observation on the chart itself. It's three-dimensional; look at how the Windrunner/Edgedancer line crosses over and under various other lines. This is also present on the Surgebinding chart, but not as noticeable.