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So the gemstone would still be a gemstone, kind of like a dusty quartz. You might be able to still hold some stormlight in it. It woudn't keep all its original properties because color is pretty important to it; a "color-drained ruby" wouldn't work for holding flamespren for a heating fabrial anymore.

I mean, part of the message of this whole series is that you always keep trying, no matter how hard it seems, no matter how hopeless it seems. Kaladin could have "given up" a hundred times. Stopped trying to free slaves, stopped trying to escape. Each attempt was costly. But he always kept trying. Dalinar could have "given up" so many times. He chose not to - he kept fighting, even when it was hopeless, even when he saw no way to win. And we're seeing the same with Navani. She could have given up. Went down to carrying water. But she didn't. She kept fighting, kept trying to beat Raboniel even though it felt hopeless, she was outmatched and cornered. Kept trying to find some bit of technology that would let her get the upper hand. And, like the other cases, it worked out. If she'd have given up, she would not be a Bondsmith now, the Sibling would be dead/corrupted, and the tower would be lost for good. She didn't, so now the tower is back in human hands, Odium's agreed to the contest of champions (in part because he lost the tower!) and they have ways of permakilling Fused and making whole new weapons (though so do the Fused.)

Interestingly, now that I think about it, it's a bit circular! They're consistent because they follow a code of laws. But are we assuming that those laws are "consistent", whatever that means? How can we tell if the laws a Skybreaker has chosen to follow is more or less consistent than, say, a particular Windrunner's internal moral code?

It seems like we're getting at some of the fundamental rules of magic that transcend specific magic systems. After all, the different magic systems are, at their base, all doing the same thing - giving mortals the ability to access Investiture and do different things with it. They're not just random an independent, they're all facets of the same underlying scheme. And we're starting to see that more as we get really in-depth in different magic systems.

Ooh, all plausible, I think. Except for the Moash being the part 2 antagonist. I'm expecting all the major plotlines of this arc 1 to be wrapped up; so Arc 2 both the heroes and the villains will be characters who so far have had a secondary role. So no Moash as major player in part 2.

I'm expecting we'll find out a lot more about how Deadeye spren work in the next book, as we deal more with the Recreance and with Maya. There's weird stuff going on there. I really, really doubt Sanderson would write the character of Shallan, including setting up a childhood secret backstory, and not figure out what that secret is. I guess somebody could ask him, but I'm like 99% sure that Testament was always the plan.

Well, the first chapter of Warbreaker - where Vasher gets Vahr's breaths - indicates that coercion works. I'd interpret "willing" to mean "The person has to say the words, clearly and knowing the words they're saying and Intending to transfer the Breath". Doesn't mean that wasn't coerced or incentivized.

Well, Warbreaker (and its planned sequel) are basically that, in Brandon's mind

What would it mean for it to occur "naturally" on Scadrial, since the whole planet of Scadrial was created artificially? I'd say anything that can't be created via Investiture wouldn't be able to exist on Scadrial at all.

I'd go the other direction, and hope that the resolution to that is the Intent - basically say "yeah, both people knew what they were agreeing to, the common interpretation to both of them is the one that counts." It's impossible to write a short/concise contract that's actually sound - and that should be obvious, because actually having a sound contract involves defining "willing", defining "to the death", defining "on top of urithiru", defining "serve", and so on, defining every last word being used and then some. There isn't a commonly accepted legal framework that they can fall back to to refer to those things. If you just go by the words on the page, of course the contract has one loophole per word, plus a bunch. And there isn't a Cosmere Contract Resolution Service or legal code that goes with it to clarify those things - "frustrating the purpose" or "under duress" and so on and so forth don't exist. I So to me, the only really way this works as a storytelling piece is if the agreement automagically captures the common intent of both parties, and it means exactly what it seems like it means to the reader. Doesn't mean there aren't loopholes, but you only get loopholes when both parties didn't think through the consequences of what they were agreeing to even though they both fully understood what the agreement was, not because one party managed to deceive the other one about what exactly the words of the contract meant. So, that's my hope. I hope that both parties legitimately pick a willing champion (where we would agree the champions actually are "willing"), send them to the top of Urithiru at the appointed time to fight to the death, and somehow still end up with a surprising outcome besides a straightforward win-or-lose.

Best way to disable a skybreaker forever IRL - invite them to a college campus! They will literally never be able to leave, since it will take all the time in their life to deal with the underage drinking and copyright infringement/filesharing! A skybreaker in the USA would never be able to pass by a freeway without causing the world's largest traffic jam (because, see, literally everybody is speeding.) Or maybe it goes the other way around, Skybreakers in the USA would ignore all US laws, because, see, the laws of the Native American tribes that actually have legal jurisdiction over this area are long lost to history, so maybe the entire US legal code is an irrelevant fiction as far as a Skybreaker is concerned? (We kind of see something along that vein with Nale's skybreakers. Where they decide that since the Singers were here first their law rules, and since they don't have any actual written laws from that time then whatever Odium says is the law, and now the skybreakers in RoW are just another military force that kill whoever their commander tells them to, except with the retroactive justification that oh, it's all just law enforcement, not military action.)

My new favorite theory is that both had their wins and losses in this encounter. I think that Hoid HAD to have SOMETHING he meant to get done here - he wouldn't have showed up just to trade insults, he might seem whimsical but he's crafty and calculating, he wouldn't risk dealing with Rayse unless he had something to gain. And even with his memories removed, remembering doing nothing but trading insults, he ends the encounter by saying that yep, he accomplished whatever he set out to do. Him being so oblivious that he doesn't notice losing perfect pitch doesn't seem reasonable - so my guess is after seeing that his breath got messed with and he's forgotten what he did with his coins, he still concludes that the encounter went as planned. (The best guess I've read is that he's feeding Odium false memories - what better way to make your enemy trust your misinformation than to make it seem like they're literally reading your mind.) But on the other hand, Hoid DID "Feel true terror" when he was being attacked. Maybe he's just that good of an actor, but we're seeing his own mind - that does seem unlikely. There should be a reason he was scared, beyond acting. So clearly, something went off-script. So how can both be true? How could he have both been caught off-guard by something Toadium did, while NOT being surprised when he's lost some memories and some Breath? Here's my latest theory. Hoid DID plan to use false memories to feed Rayse misinformation. His plan to give up some memories went off without a hitch... ....except, midway thorough is when he realized that he was facing Taravangian, so his carefully planned misinformation isn't the right misinformation for this vessel. And that knowledge DID get deleted from his Breathminds! So in that sense, his plan is went perfectly - but he learned that it was the wrong plan. And he's terrified, because there's no room for missteps when fighting Shards. And then that info is deleted, and he thinks he's successfully mis-informed Rayse.

I think Brandon leaves enough clues so that after the mystery is revealed, you look back and say "oh, there were actually enough clues that I could have figured it out." Most people just reading through don't spend the time to clue-hunt, though. It's pretty hard to make a mystery that's obscure enough that superfans poring every word can't figure it out, but casual readers that read through just once go "oh, that makes sense, now in hindsight I see all of the hints leading up to it." If there are clues that actively misdirect or point to the wrong thing, then after the reveal, people's reaction would be "hmm, that doesn't make any sense" instead of "ohh, that's cool, it all fits together!" You can't say "oh, that theory makes the most sense... therefore it's wrong, because it would be too obvious." (See, for example, Kaladin's fourth ideal, which was literally word for word the most common theory people had about it.) If Brandon wants something to be completely mysterious and surprising even for obsessive fans, he can just not leave any info about it. (See, for example, Dawnshards, which were a complete mystery up until Dawnshard, simply because there was no reliable information.)

Wow. Steps crafted for heralds being Urithiru, and used by Melishi to bind B-A-M, would mean that B-A-M is probably hidden somewhere near Urithiru. Maybe in Shadesmar-Urithiru? We haven't explored that at all, and it's so active and bright on that side that a massive bit of investiture like B-A-M in a gem could be hidden there.

Yeah, people who are super into the lore and dissect all the text of that scene can expand "either Todium played Wit or Wit played Todium" into, like, ten paragraphs that reach the same conclusion

Brandon typically writes endings of the form "The heroes win... but turns out that was the easy part" or "The heroes win... but at a cost." With the former being more common mid-series. We don't have many series endings from him (just Mistborn), though. The endings of series/books that I can think of him writing - Mistborn era 1: Ending restoring the planet to green plants, with Sazed ascending. At the cost of Elend and Vin dying. Warbreaker: War averted, Siri/Susebron in control of Hallandren, but Lightsong and Blushweaver die. Elantris: Elantris restored (but a bunch of people die, including Hrathen who switches from badguy to goodguy). Not counting endings of ongoing series (W&W, Stormlight) or novellas... So I'm expecting in book 5, the heroes are going to successfully defend Roshar from Odium, and Dalinar's gonna beat Taravangian. But I think in that book, especially in the ending, none of our characters are safe and any ones of them could actually die (I personally am expecting Kaladin to have a sacrifice, but Dalinar is also a possibility of course).

I think it's the other way around - Taravangian is *staying* the antagonist. It's been Taravangian vs Dalinar the whole time.

Yeah, I don't think he's insane. I think the key to understanding who he is and what he's doing is figuring out why, exactly does he need to come out once every 16 days. I don't have good ideas, though. Waiting for a dead drop? A message? A signal?

I'm definitely very curious about Navani and Sibling going forward. Yeah, it was absolutely a bond forged of the situation. Navani had to be just barely worthy enough to be better for the Sibling than dying, and yeah, she cleared that bar, but it's definitely a war relationship - built off of a common purpose (not dying) rather than, so far, shared ideals. But now they're together, and gonna have to live with each other, and I'm super excited to see how that goes.

Alloma Allomantic time dilation - flare cadmium (?) so that 16 days outside is a minute inside the bubble. Could be that as far as sixteen is concerned, he’s been in Lasting integrity less than a day, repetitively doing “flare metal to pass time, go outside to check or wait for (whatever it is)”.

Possibly Mraize is used to repeating himself for Veil, Radiant, and Shallan separately? Since we know the personalities don’t always share info.

Huh. And I wonder if it failed for the same reason that really invested entites can't leave their Shards' planet. But on a bigger scale - nothing tied to Adonalsium's investiture can leave the Cosmere star cluster.

Another way to contain it would be to merge it with a different shard. Harmony did this for Ruin/Preservation. Merging Odium with Honor could make it less dangerous.

Because it's the only way to win, as far as Dalinar can tell. Dalinar, at the point he makes this deal, sees no other way to end the war. After all, Odium can just keep re-creating the fused, keep re-creating more superpowered soldiers. Without the contest of champions, the war will go on forever. Before, in previous Desolations, there was at least a way to get a reprieve - the Heralds going back to Braize, starting an Isolation. But with the everstorm - the war will go on forever. That's not something Dalinar wants. Better to take a risk for a chance at an actual victory.

That would be awesome.