Oudeis

If a rock has been Soulcast into a crystal, is it easier, harder, or no different for a Forger to turn it back into the rock it once was? This is part of why I dislike the arcanum of Forgery. Who decides what "plausible" is? If you ask anyone in the Rose Empire how plausible it is that someone could just touch a locked cell door and turn it into smoke, they would say it was utterly impossible. If people know that Elsecallers exist, however, it suddenly becomes entirely possible. Plausible means what one person will believe; there is no objective measurement by which one can say in an ironclad sorta way that one thing is more plausible than another. Something plausible to me might not be plausible to someone else. Is it the Forger? So a stupid Forger who is willing to believe anything is more powerful than an intelligent Forger?

Considering the first part, since you seem to agree that duralumin works both ways, can you really see yourself tapping enough to force someone to trust you when they know you're prolly gonna kill them, and imagine that you, feeling just as strongly towards them, would continue with a plan you know will end in their death?

To ponder means that you're posing something just so you (and others) can think about it; there's connotations that you're not really looking for a resolution, you just want to think for the sake of thought. In this specific thread (and I don't think any others, maybe one or two) I understand it to be etiquette not to respond with hypotheticals or personal thoughts. This is a place where people post so we can have a repository of questions to ask Mr. Sanderson. If you'd like to post a question to be shared and discussed amongst the group, I believe we all agree to discuss it elsewhere, in either the specific forum for that book or as a cross-mere post in General Discussion. I could be wrong.

Jimmy: This thread is for questions we'd like to ponder, but also to ask Mr. Sanderson. Typically, in this thread specifically, we try to refrain from answering questions unless it is backed up by WoB or text. Otherwise, it's general etiquette to let questions simply stand. EDIT: If you read the question and really start to think about it, you should totally start up a new thread in the Warbreaker forum and strike up a discussion there.

You're woefully underestimating Atium, and woefully overestimating skill. Just "wanting" to block everything doesn't mean you can; if that were the case, no one would ever land a blow on Adolin anywhere on his armor. They do. He cannot block everything. Your presumption is that this combat is the Shardbearer's to lose. That a theoretical scenario where you attack without ever leaving even the smallest opening is a plausible scenario. It isn't. In order to attack, you have to commit. In doing so, you leave yourself open, however slightly. Dodge the first swing of the Shardblade. They're light, but a Bearer cannot simply have his sword be in every position at once. Let your dodge take you in past his guard. Weave just barely to the side to avoid his off-hand punch. Shove the speartip through the slot. Your presumption is that a Shardbearer has the capacity to make it so that there is literally no move to make. Adolin and Dalinar can protect their eyeslit because they can react to what the other person does; if every feint is perfect, if every dodge is exact, there's nothing for a Shardbearer to react to. Your understanding of the fundamentals of melee combat is flawed. I again refer to the Kaladin/Shardbearer match. A trained Shardbearer fighting someone with, at most, nominal magic ability. I will grant you that Adolin or Dalinar are better trained than the Shardbearer was... but by the rules of the contest, if we're assuming a Shardbearer as well-trained as Adolin, then we assume an equal level of skill for our Seer. If the Shardbearer could not defend himself from a barely-if-at-all augmented spearman, then this is a slam-dunk. The Seer would win easily every time.

I'm giving this one to the Seer. We see that Yomen, with literally no combat training, is easily able to not only dodge both Vin and Elend, both martially trained, but actually attack and harm a pewter-enhanced Elend. Remember, Kaladin, using either a power not as great as Atium, or no power at all, was able to throw a knife so that it just barely didn't kill someone, and then stab with a spearhead and achieve it. If the Shardbearer couldn't hit/dodge Kaladin, I think someone with atium would have a walk in the park. There's a WoB I cannot find which says something about how someone burning atium is close to the pinnacle of martial capabilities that we've seen.

When you're biking half a mile up a steep hill, realize halfway you'll never make it, and desperately gasp out what you personally believe to be a Willshaper Ideal, hoping it'll somehow let you draw in enough energy from the spare change in your pocket to get you to the crest... ((...I actually did make it without stopping. Didn't break any records, but I kept going.)) When you find yourself musing philosophically as you shave, "A play is sorta like a hemalurgic creation... bits of soul taken from dozens of different people, mutated together into one thing greater than any single human."

Shallan walked into a bar, and ordered a Ginger ale.

Hrm... I think RobotAztec asked this and was told 'no', but I'm not 100% certain... Given that 16 is a huge number in all the cosmere, can we assume there are six Heightenings we don't yet know about?

...specifically for assassins, yes. Also, it says easier to form trust relationships. Presumably, it's no more 'mind-control' than Soothing is (koloss being 'bated). While you'd have an easier time getting someone to trust you, it's probably not mental domination.

First, I'm pretty sure 16 is important across the cosmere, 10 to a lesser extent, mainly just on Roshar (ten Shardworlds comes to mind, as do 10 known Heightenings). There's no reason to assume 5 is important to Nalthis, just because there's a milestone at one particular Heightening. The Five Scholars weren't some fundamental law of nature, it was just a group of people. Second, the "materials" theory is flawed. Returned and Lifeless are both made from human corpses.

A few thoughts: We know Vamah himself has no Shards, but in another chapter it's mentioned that some Highprinces appoint a champion to wield the Shards for them; not simply the loan of a Blade the bonded themselves, but to actually let them bond it. Still, I wonder if they every expressly say, "and Vamah was bitter that he didn't possess any Shards," or something similar. When you re-read, check that, it would prolly be early in Part 2. Still, if he had a Shardbearer, such a person would be registered, and would almost for certain be at the Shattered Plains. If Helaran, a Veden, was actually working for an Alethi Highprince, it was something clandestine and under wraps. I will grant that we don't know enough and it's entirely possible that Vamah was willing to sacrifice the advantage of commanding an unknown Shardbearer over a spit of land, but my gut tells me this is unlikely. I don't agree with the phrase "coincidental," I suspect this battle was the opportunity one of the cabals was looking for. Not a "coincidence" so much as a confluence of circumstance, but I confess that now I'm being a bit semantical. Kaladin being the target seems unlikely to me. If they know about him, it's one of two ways. One, reputation and rumor has led them to suspect Kaladin Stormblessed is Surgebinding. In this case, it would not be difficult for literally any secret society to learn which man on he field was Kaladin, and we even specifically know he dresses in a certain way so his men can identify him. Or, a power like bronze allomancy, or perhaps one of those warning Fabrials set to detect Surges. In which case, if it could detect him ever, presumably it could narrow it down specifically. And, finally, when Kaladin did stand up to Helaran, Helaran was shocked. Presumably, if he'd been sent to attack Amaram only to draw out a Surgebinding protector, he wouldn't be surprised to draw out the Surgebinding protector. Yet... if Amaram was the target, it's been a year. Why no second attempt? Sure, now he's a Shardbearer. But he was suffering from multiple fractures of his leg, what would have put him at severe physical disadvantage for months. At an absolute minimum, a month or two before his leg was even strong enough to be supported by the Plate. Also, there's poison, assassination in the night, any number of other ways to kill a man that Shardplate couldn't stop. Who on earth had access to a secret Shardblade no one has ever seen before, decided to reveal it to achieve some sort of goal, and then doesn't seem to follow up for a full year? One option is that they simply succeeded. Maybe Amaram's army retreated and Vamah's army held the land, which was the point all along. Maybe Kaladin confused them. They must've assumed that introducing a full Shardbearer would succeed, because any other guess would have been unreasonable. Perhaps their plans were simply sent into such disarray from the loss of such a powerful tool that even though they failed, they have been too busy recovering to try a second time? This one binary question would answer quite a lot for us. Did whoever sent Helaran achieve his or her goal in that fight?

Per chapter 58 of way of kings, Vamah's color is Brown. I grow increasingly convinced that the battle was between Sadeas's fiefdom and Vamah's.

When you hate ads for free game apps for your phone, but then realize the game is called Honorbound, and think, well maybe we give it a shot.

This is widely accepted, yes. It also furthers my theory that only about thirty people live on Roshar. What are the odds that of every Horneater, Hoid happens to show up next to Rock, who will end up drinking one day with Hoid's apprentice?

I do not agree with this sentiment, any more than the fact that my dog knows to respond when I said the word "food" indicates that she is sentient, or the fact that a bee's dance conveys information means that bees are sentient.

{spoiler} There are two brackets, just above your enter key. I will type them with shift key applied, but look for that symbol, and press the key for the symbol without shift. {/spoiler} Just like that, but without the shift key applied. Also, it's typically courteous to add something before hand to let people know what it is you're spoiling; in this case, before you typed the "spoiler" command, you could have said, "SA3".

What I wouldn't give to read the undertext added by whichever clerk posts these. Not true. Jasnah would be a member of the website 17th Shard.

Buzzspren.

Please leave stuff from spoiler chapters behind a spoiler tag.

Kurk's quote doesn't mean Nightblood has the capacity to inhale the mists, it only says that he would try. Remember that Nightblood is the type of person who will simply "decide" that he can feel the sunset. He could simply "decide" that he can eat the Mist, too, that doesn't mean he's got the power to do it. I'm sure the mists would pull back, but that also doesn't mean Nightblood can banish spren. Ceteris parabis, the mists would rather not be around him. That could simply mean they think he's "icky". Syl, or any other living Shardblade, might feel uncomfortable parrying Nightblood, but neither half of that quote gives any more than the vaguest suggestion that they would actually suffer for doing so. Think of this; the mists pull away from Vin, even if she's not burning bronze, just because she's wearing the earring. Does this, then, mean that you think literally anyone with any hemalurgic spike could simply banish Syl with a bare hand? Penrod, for example?

Your argument seems to presuppose that things only exist in one realm at a time under normal circumstances. Don't we know that to be the opposite of the truth? All things have a physical aspect, a cognitive aspect, and a spiritual aspect. "You" are the combination of all things. "You" are no more merely your physical aspect than "you" are merely your torso, distinct from your arms and legs. You can refer to any one of them at a time, they have different properties, just like your hands are not your feet, but the totality of you is your whole body, and all three aspects.

Chapter 20, Scarlet.

The shape is a bigger problem than the weight; in fact, with too little weight, it would lack momentum, and the interestingly-shaped head would catch the air, making the arrow less accurate. A heavier arrow, with enough force, would be more accurate, as it would take a stronger breeze to blow it off course.

Why can't you unAwaken Nightblood? You can't unAwaken a Lifeless because its body is too similar to a human form, too "sticky" because it once had its own Breath, and the Breath therefore cannot be drawn back out. But a sword is not a human form, it isn't even organic, and it never had a Breath. Why does it Stick so well? Why can't you just unAwaken Nightblood? (Or is it possible that Shasharra could?) Could Nightblood give up its mass of Breaths to heal someone, the way a Returned's Divine Breath can?