Oudeis

I had assumed he simply altered his physiology, like he can do to make notes appear on his skin, to make the hangover go away. What do you mean, "are close to the cognitive realm"? Everyone is in the cognitive realm. People sense most clearly the physical realm, but all people are made of three aspects; the physical, the cognitive, and the spiritual. Everyone has a cognitive aspect, ergo everyone is in the cognitive realm. I don't understand what it is you're trying to convey when you talk about Aimians being "close to the cognitive realm".

Per Hoid, Awakening was discovered 400 years ago.

They are entirely different universes.

Spoilers!

Exactly. Maybe few people ever grow comfortable enough in their own skin to flat-out state it like this. And she's not saying that she has to constantly, consciously observe the people around her and mimic their behavior. But everyone, at some point in their lives, has felt the pressure to act a certain way and made the conscious decision to do so. Who is crazier? The person who does this, but then convinces themselves that it was their idea in the first place, or that they really like doing the thing they don't like, or just walls off the uncomfortable memory of the event in its entirety? Or the person who faces the issue, recognizes and accepts it for what it is, makes the decision that it's a small price to pay to live in society, and moves on?

Well... yeah? Maybe not actually consciously, but 99% of adolescence is observing the people around you and mimicking them so you don't stand out. At worst, Steris does consciously what every functioning adult does without bothering to think about it. If anything, she's more sane than most people, who are essentially ruled by instinct. Life is painless when you're brainless.

If it were witnessed and counter-signed, MAYBE... (jk) But yeah. Of all the Orders, I'm having the most trouble getting my mind around Skybreakers. Windrunners try to protect, no matter what. Edgedancers care about the people lost in the shuffle. Lightweavers study the subjective nature of truth, and Elsecallers appear to prioritize scholarship. And, largely in my headcanon, Willshapers are constantly pushing back the boundaries of the known. But Skybreakers? What's the underlying philosophy behind law? Is it a fundamental belief that people, as a whole, are smarter than individual people, and that people deserve whatever system of government they tolerate? Is it an almost submissive subjugation of will to a broader authority, an acknowledgement that my own needs and wants are selfish and small-minded and should be secondary to the proscriptions of a society? I feel like what little we know about Skybreakers doesn't really answer several fundamental questions about them. What about things like Catch 22s, or fundamentally unjust or contradictory laws? Or just unclear laws open to interpretation?

^ Yeah, this. I wish I could give you more upvotes because it could not have been said better. I concur. I myself exhibit pretty much every indicator of the "checker" class of OCD... yet for me, it's not a 'disorder'. If I'm running a bit late, and I'm already on the road headed to dinner with my friends, and I suddenly wonder whether or not I set my alarm, it might bother me. If it were a disorder, I would have to turn the car around, go home, check that my alarm was set, and be an hour late to dinner instead of 10 minutes. Similarly, Steris might exhibit some of the indicators of OCPD, but, while it might have a deleterious effect on her life, it's not to the point of being an actual behavioral disorder. It's just something that kind of bothers her sometimes.

Things don't get "ratified into law" (in America, at least) but things which are not laws get ratified. The Constitutional Congress absolutely did exist and was the body that wrote and ratified the Declaration of Independence. It's possible you're confusing the word ratified with something else. I said that the Declaration was a legal document, and you have rebutted that it's neither a law nor has it made any laws. I don't actually concede this point, but I suggest it's irrelevant. I don't think something has to be a law itself to be a legal document. Congressional censure is a legal document, but isn't a law. Executive Orders are legal documents that aren't laws. Treaties are legal documents (which get ratified, much liked the Declaration was) which aren't laws. Even without a treaty being a law, I doubt a Skybreaker could break a treaty he'd otherwise be bound by. This is largely a debate on philosophy, as clearly nowhere in Roshar will end up having anything like our Declaration for a Skybreaker to obey or not. The Supreme Court has said, ""it is always safe to read the letter of the Constitution in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence." It was largely the basis of several of President Lincoln's more landmark moments in office. He argued that the Declaration is a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted. While it's not a "It is illegal to tie your giraffe to this lamppost after dark" law, I suspect that Skybreakers obey the entire system of laws, not just the part of it that are literally a list of "do's and don't's" laws. But that is just my two cents, and I think I see where the confusion between us mostly came from.

I concur that she's non-neurotypical. However, one thing you mention brings up an interesting point. At the Ostlin wedding, Steris speaks of the world they live in, and how she makes of herself someone who can survive there. Does that contradict "wanting things organized to her standard"? I acknowledge that one can exhibit several traits of OCPD without having to do it all, but I honestly don't know if this is a point that allows wiggle room or not.

Have not yet found the WoB that it's specifically a bit of a spike, but here's a WoB that it is hemalurgic.

Welcome to the fora! Also, love your debate style. There is some debate as to whether or not the koloss cross-breed with humans, but on balance I think it is the most likely scenario. That I know of, WoB is inconclusive. Obviously we have Tarson who has both koloss-blood and allomantic pewter, but since koloss used to be made out of humans, maybe there were already allomantic genes within them. Looking at the text of the quote, the children of Inquisitors would have... complications. This suggests, to me, that hemalurgy must somehow affect reproduction. Now, it might be a simply matter of the physiological changes. Koloss are changed from viable humans to non-viable koloss, in a manner that shouldn't have a direct impact on their reproductive organs. The mistwraith, with their 50-year lifespans, are turned into kandra with negligible senescence. We have absolutely no idea if they retain the ability (or urge) to reproduce. Again, getting a pair of spikes used to kill people and grant you the ability to remain calm does not logically extend to an infinite lifespan, so something else is happening here. So, to answer your question, we don't know. A follow-up to Mr. Sanderson might be in order. It could be that the child's spiritweb will inherit some of the mutations to the parent's spiritweb, or even that the scrap of spiritweb stuck in the spike itself will affect the child. Or it could literally just be that the body of the parent has been physically changed so much by bleedthrough from the spiritual realm that there will be purely physical complications. If someone has further W's-o-B or other conclusions that might be drawn, I for one am all ears. Excellent question, Aluminum! Also interesting name.

Actual storms, as they pass over open water, gain power. Presumably, something similar is happening here. So once it leaves Shinovar, it gains in power until it crosses the continent again. It's also possible that, as has been alluded to, there's not one eternal Highstorm, just one Highstorm a year, that dies just before the Weeping, and a new one starts up four weeks later. Otherwise it's really weird that the Highstorm would just hover in one spot on the far side of the planet for four weeks. In which case, maybe the Stormfather simply generated the new year's Highstorm a bit early, so there's still just the one Highstorm.

I disagree. What is the basis for your argument? The Declaration was written and ratified by the Constitutional Congress, provided justification for war against the ruling body of the colonies, cited natural and legal rights all people have which had been violated and established the country of America. For all these reasons, I propose that it absolutely is a legal document. All that said, I am neither a lawyer nor a constitutional scholar. I am, however, asking several of them what their views on the matter are.

Mr. Sanderson researched atheism as well as he researches anything (partly why we still don't have Rithmatist 2) and spent a lot of time on atheism boards to accurately portray one. While I'm not atheist myself, I've heard that he's gotten positive reviews from actual atheists who read the books.

Yes, there is WoB that Odium likes his current Intent perfectly fine, and has no interest in modifying it in any way.

However just like repressing a Divine Breath, this would result in the person losing the Heightenings and associated advantages.

Ah, yes, my apologies. Thank you! I suppose I meant to say 'mortal'?

Your argument does not axiomatically support your premise. For example, if the mortal who would become Blushweaver had thought of herself as "busty" as a human, why didn't her chest grow? It seems clear that in this case, the crux of the matter is being Returned. If you are a Returned, that sets up a unique scenario wherein your cognitive aspect affects changes to your physical aspect. The cognitive aspect does not, that we know of, have an inherent ability to shape the physical realm. Instead, we have seen a small number of specific examples wherein a unique situation refers to a cognitive aspect to affect physical change.

So in the future, when we have the technology to terraform planets, will we be Gods? Jasnah's point is, just because someone is powerful does not make them an object of worship. Should the people on Sixth of the Dusk worship the Ones Above? They can do all manner of things the backwater people cannot. Compared to the Christian God I believe in, the Gods of Olympus aren't all that terribly powerful. What, fundamentally, makes something a God rather than a being who simply possesses abilities you do not?

Hrm, interesting. In America, our Declaration of Independence claims that when a ruler is a tyrant, it is more than the right but the duty of the population to rise up and rebel. Given Alethkar's history, I would be VERY surprised if this were in their charter, but it's not axiomatically true that a Skybreaker couldn't assassinate a king. Mistborn. Still, in keeping with the idea of living your life less by a set of rules and more by Ideals, I suspect that typical Skybreakers are uncomfortable with such vague laws open to so much interpretation. I suspect the typical Skybreaker wouldn't see it as "yay, freedom to use my power however I wish!" so much as "Oh god, this is chaos and anarchy."

Pretty much Labrat's thing. There's a lot of support on this forum for the "cognitive trumps everything" theory you describe, but I see several flaws in it. In this case, if I think of my skin as myself, why don't I think of my hair as myself? Or my nails?

When Vasher has 50, the guards who presumably live in a world with Awakeners and know it's a thing don't notice his aura. Siri twice is confronted by the doctor or Treledees, and has to check pretty closely to notice their auras. When Vasher takes Vahr's Breath, he comments that Vahr, who has hundreds and hundreds of Breaths (we assume at least 600, since Vasher takes it and is at the Third Heightening) has such an aura, even someone with but a single Breath would notice it. So we know the "blatantcy" threshold is somewhere between 50 and 600(approximately). Presumably, a Shardworld where no one thinks to look for it would be less likely to notice. Between all this and the AMA answer from Kurk's link, it seems a little less surprising. When I actually started to look at the numbers, I was sorta surprised how many Breaths you could have before it actually became ostentatious.

Odd that whatever it was, the First Returned figured out the trick in a week, yet it's been a secret every since. Perhaps that was Vo's Destiny, or part of it? To start a line of people with a spark of Divine Breath?

I'm choosing not to read it until the book is released. Why do I feel like I should just avoid these forums in their entirety until November?