Shardbearer

Oh, thanks a bunch for spoiling the end of WoT for me. Great.

I was alluding to the quote posted by Windrunner above. Emerald spheres are worth more because emeralds can make food, which implies that the spheres themselves are used in soulcasting. I never even considered Kurkistan's suggestion of a fiat currency, but that is a possibility. And why would I be cross with you? Isn't the whole purpose of this forum so that we can debate such nuances and form theories?

You have two separate spellings for the name of the poet...the first one is right according to the Wikipedia article you linked to earlier. Hesiod is a little further removed from Hoid than Hesoid. There could still be something to your theory, but this throws it off just a little bit. -Stories of Elysium were told by a Greek oral poet named...*cough* Hoid *cough*...Hesiod.

One thing that I've been wondering is how is it that spheres are used in soulcasting. I mean, you have these little spheres with chips of gems in them, but in soulcasting you see whole gems. Yet the whole currency system is built around spheres being used to soulcast. Any ideas on how this works?

Good catch. It would also explain why Syl doesn't like shardblaes. I do think there's something to this, even if it isn't captured spren.

[snark] The Rhyshadium are offspring of Honor and Cultivation's romantic involvement.[/snark]

Given how much symbolism is packed into all of the in-world art we've seen, I doubt that those dragonwasps are only decorative. What exactly they mean can only be speculated on at this point, but wild baseless speculation is fun!

Ok, so I just skipped ahead in my reread to Kaladins flashback of ch. 1 and it seems that things are different than I've been thinking. Kaladin as a squadleader outranks sergeant. Also, he indicates that he is unusual for having command at his young age, so squadleader is definitely an officer rank. My thoughts are that subsquad = modern squad, squad = platoon, sergeant = modern squadleader, and squadleader = platoon leader/lieutenant.

Hah, my goal isn't to humiliate you or anyone, but I was in the Army so I like to see authors get things right and I like to help readers understand some of the military stuff in books. My job was more on the staff/support side of things so my knowledge is limited in some regards. I went to Iraq but was never really in direct combat. I still think of Kaladin as an NCO, even if his "squad" is more like a platoon than a real squad. The way he acts is much more in line with the modern concept of NCOs than with COs. In modern support units, instead of having a platoon leader there would often be platoon sergeant instead due to the smaller size of support units. Combat units might even have platoon sergeants that work along with the platoon leader, I'm not sure. In case you (general you) weren't aware, many officer positions have a corresponding NCO position, like this: Platoon leader/platoon sergeant Company commander/first sergeant Battalion commander/sergeant major Brigade commander/command sergeant major

Kaladin was a squadleader before being made a slave: This is from the first time Cenn sees him, page 39 on my Kindle app. A squadleader is an NCO, which in the US Army would normally be filled by a Corporal or Sergeant. A platoon leader, on the other hand, would be a CO, which would be filled by a Liuetenant in the US Army. Searching on my Kindle app didn't turn up any mentions of platoon, platoonleader, or platoon leader. My statement that only lighteyes would normally be appointed as COs is based on real world correlations. In late medieval times, only nobles could be COs.

Vin's earring. I didn't really like the ending of Mistborn because it felt deus ex machina to me, but once everything was explained with the earring I was totally appeased.

Oh, I didn't realize the title was tongue in cheek.

Well, there is no Astral plane (to our knowledge) in the Cosmere. Kelsier's hanging round in the Cognitive Realm. Or, at least that's where he was when he took Preservation's power. As to whether it's a herioc deed that allows him to stick around or not is a big question.

Yes, I'm on my third read of WoK right now and Dalinar explains that the eastern and western edges are impassable because of mountains and plateus that are so whethered they are basically just spires. The Alethi box them in on the west and north, and have scouts in the east and west just in case. (pages 222 and 223, Kindle edition)

I think you've got that backwards. Usually, only nobles would be commissioned officers. If that's the same here, Lighteyes would be the commissioned officers, while darkeyes would be the grunts and NCOs (noncommissioned officers). I think that Dalinar is already stepping outside of tradition by making Kaladin, a darkeye, into a Captain, which is a CO. I wonder if captain and captainlord are basically different ways of referring to the same rank. Or maybe there are more darkeyed captains, and and captainlord is reserved for the lighteyed ones. Also, there's a lot of interchange between position and rank. In the US Army, a squadleader would be a position, not a rank. The rank of a squadleader would probably be Corporal or Sergeant, an NCO rank. I think that in Alethekar's army, a squadleader is a rank, equal to what a Corporal would be. After that would be a Sergeant, like Gaz. Squadleaders and Sergeants would be NCOs, not in command, but acting on behalf of the commander to carry out most of the day to day leadership responsibilities. Training, basic discipline, etc. I don't remember any mentions of Liuetenant in WoK. If there are any, those would be Commissioned Officers, and would basically act as a Captain's assistant. They probably wouldn't be in command of anything, unless it was a small unit. Captain/Captainlord: As I said, I don't know what the difference would be between these two. If they are two separate ranks, Captainlord would obviously be higher. Companylord: I would say that this was a position rather than a rank, but this quote makes me think that's not the case: Quote In modern times, a Captain would usually command a company. I guess in Alethekar a Captain commands a platoon or something. A Companylord would then command a company. For the rest (Battalionlord, Calvarylord, Infantrylord, Highmarshal) the OP seems accurate.

I'd like to add on to this to say that I think that Seons are also forms, but that what are forms of is more abstract concepts, such as Ien who would be a form for wisdom. If that's the case, then that could indicate how Spren can bleed into the Physical Realm. We have splintered shards on both planets, and I think it's been confirmed that the Aon at the heart of Seons are actual Splinters. I don't know if there is a similar confirmation saying that Spren are similar, but it has been widely speculated that they are. It could be that Splinters and Forms somehow combine in a way that allows them to interact more concretely with the other Realms.

How could they trade? They're boxed in pretty good.

We know from Brandon's readings of Eshonai's interlude that the Parshendi want gemhearts for food. Unless they eat the gemhearts, or have some other means of converting them to food, this means they have soulcasters. The question is whether they have fabrials or the soulcasting surge. What do you think?

Writeaboutdragons.com will be posting new lectures from Brandon's class next month. It looks like they are also expanding it to include a forum to use as a writers group.

Oh, I forgot to mention...Dalinar's wife will turn up and all sorts of craziness will ensue.

Well, atium allows you to see future shadows (temporal) and gives you the ability to know what to do about those shadows (mental), so those could be the various effects...

It seems to have something to do with the cognitive realm. Everyone believes the locks are a sign of being in line for the throne, so anyone born outside the direct line of ascencion doesn't get them. Something like that, anyway. Once born with them, you keep them even if you get pushed out of that direct line.

Actually, my impression is that they never could actualize their aon, The way I read the quote (below) is that the seons would never want to actualize their aon and so the chasm doesn't affect them directly. It only affects their spiritual connection to their bonded Elantrian. If they tried to actualize their Aon, it would have an undesirable result. In addition, the chasm broke their bond to the humans they were tied to, and you can see the result of that. So they were affected.

Notice the bold part. It seems that hemalurgy works by ripping off a piece of a soul and splicing it to another soul.

I think we'll learn more about Urithiru and the KR.