Oudeis

The first two are pretty clear. It's absolutely possible to burn a spike. There's another one I've heard that spells it out even more clearly, though I cannot find it. Basically these are talking about burning a spike for its hemalurgic charge, like burning a metalmind for the feruchemical charge. There's a WoB that expressly states that an Inquisitor could, for example, burn a Steel spike, not for the hemalurgic charge but just as though it was any normal allomantic steel reserve. Out of a sense of completeness, I will add that it also mentions that specifically for an Inquisitor, burning a spike would cause so much pain you'd black out. We do not know if this would also happen for a non-Inquisitor. ...Kind of makes the idea of being a Koloss lurcher interesting...

Chapter 36, A Light By Which to See. It talks about "Lighting" ripping the sky when I suspect it means Lightning.

Yeah, I don't consider it a functional theory. It's really just a fancy of mine. I don't think it can be disproven, and I sorta thought more people would think it was a cool idea, which is why I posted it, but if it's not striking anyone else's fancy, I'm just gonna sit here twiddling my thumbs and quietly believing it.

Yeah, I got that backwards. Sorry. EDIT: None of this changes the real question. WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE HERALDS IS GOING ON IN THE UPPER RIGHT.

From a few paragraphs later: "My metals! She searched desperately inside, but she found nothing. She couldn't feel any metals, not even the one she had ingested moments before." As it was a "bit of metal" shoved into her mouth, not a vial that might have contained only a flake or two, presumably even if it isn't instant, it burns even faster than atium. Thank you for the quote about the earring. The fact remains that in Well of Ascension, she does burn duralumin while her earring is in, and burns bronze. Yet, the earring is unaffected. Also of note is that, despite always wearing the earring, she never once senses it as a reserve. Presumably, then, we're missing a link. Some condition must be met. If it is, you are able to sense metal piercing your body as a reserve, and aluminum/duralumin are able to affect it. We've got WoB that Inquisitors can do these things, but some Inquisitors also have duralumin. Either they never burn duralumin and steel, or they have a way of not losing all four of their spikes which grant the physical allomantic powers when they burn duralumin and steel. Basically, we know very little. The one fact that we do know is, it's not as simple as just burning aluminum while metal is piercing your body. Perhaps there's something a Gnat could do that would grant him the power to destroy a sword stuck in him, but he cannot be constantly burning aluminum awaiting this event, and burning it as a permanent protection against emotional allomancy doesn't work, either.

That's okay; I've never claimed this is anything more than a vague theory. Since spren are born from ideas, I don't really see how the "mother" of a spren has to be a spren. If you start a fire, firespren appear. Was the fire the progenitor of the spren? There is WoB saying that there are spren about "of all three shards". By this logic, since we know the Stormfather is a spren-like thing related to Honor, and the closest thing left to Honor, it's not unreasonable that an Honorspren would call him Father. If Tanavast were still alive, I think Syl would refer to him as Father. By my theory, the Nightwatcher was once, long ago, a human in love with Tanavast. She took up the Shard of Cultivation. Part of what she did was to cause some Cultivation spren to appear on Roshar, who consider her to be their "Mother". The woman abdicated the power and became the Nightwatcher, but she's still the same woman. Wyndle would still consider her "mother".

I think you have this backwards. The "lever" in this case is sorta the hilt, not the sword tip. You're trying to stop something. Force is mass times velocity. The tip of the sword will cover an arc of a few feet while the hilt moves a foot or less, so the tip's velocity is much greater. You'll have an easier time stopping it closer to the hilt. I think the surface area of the sword is what makes the last clap plausible in this scenario, not it's mass. You've got a huge, possibly etched thing to grab onto, as opposed to a slim blade you'll have to hope you catch perfectly by simple friction. It's like the difference between catching a fly ball, and catching a fly. (Or like a thrown grain of rice would be more accurate, but the verbiage worked out better this way).

That is the obvious connection, yes. Do you have any support for the theory?

1. Aluminum does, in fact, burn away itself instantly. I don't have my book with me, but the scene towards the end of The Final Empire is clear, Vin burns aluminum and all of her reserves vanish, even the aluminum she just ate. 2. It's not quite as simple as you imply to burn metal piercing your body. We know it should be theoretically possible, but Vin burns bronze and duralumin at the same time, while wearing her earring, and the earring doesn't burn up. We know from WoB that it's possible, but we know from the text that it is not the default for duralumin. Since duralumin doesn't burn itself but aluminum does, this admittedly doesn't automatically mean it works the same way... though, did they take Vin's earring when they threw her into the cell? If they didn't, then aluminum doesn't automatically burn piercings. I know she had it immediately afterwards, so either she found it in the chest with her mistcloak, or she had it all along.

While I concede, as I've conceded from the start, that this is a huge leap of speculation on my part, and I totally admit it's a long-shot, on a world with Lightweaving I'm still gonna say it's at least possible. Reading the passage in question... it's one man referencing another work by the scholar who did, in fact, speak to the Nightwatcher. I grant that the balance of evidence remains against me, but considering the fact that it's an indirect reference, I'm not accepting it as absolute proof that my hypothesis has to be false. (Random comment. The scholar Shallan reads is named Alai. The scholar HE references is Shubalai. Why are their names so similar? Coincidence?) The references give me the feel of modernity, so I will concede that this record is likely free of the Hierocracy's touch, at the least. I note that I did request people be brutal, and you have been. Thank you. EDIT: Her, and technically we don't even know she got a Boon/Curse out of the deal. The reference simply says they spoke.

Given what we know, here is my tentative, speculative guess on how Stormform!Eshonai turns into Radiant!Eshonai. I think she will be fighting someone while in a Highstorm. I think the comet-like spren will be nearby. I think Rlain, and/or perhaps her mother, will speak to her to the Rhythm of Peace, which seems to be something that makes Radiant!Eshonai stronger. I think this will give Radiant!Eshonai just enough of a boost to fight for control of her own mind long enough to desire to bond with the comet-spren. And she'll become a Radiant. Just my speculation.

1. Spook is a tin savant by the time he accomplishes this feat. And he gets surprised by Beldre's shot coins at the end, so it isn't infallible. I would suggest that even savant tin, let alone "I just got hemalurgically gifted tin" would be of limited efficacy in this case. 2. The MAG is not an outstanding citation. I wonder if part of the physical changes, like your brain working itself around the eyespikes, is an automatic iron savanthood?

Idle curiousity... I wonder if you can Soulcast impossible things. Could you soulcast something into something that is oak wood on a molecular level, but is nevertheless a vivid orange?

I didn't feel like going to the effort of a full spoiler tag, including explanations on who should read it and who shouldn't. I figure, if you know who I'm talking about from context, then there can't be anything for me to spoil, and if you haven't read that part of that book, you won't get it from context, and thereby won't be spoiled. Remind me when this happens? I can recall that of the viewpoint characters we've seen, Dalinar, Lift and Taravangian are the only two who have actually met her. I'd like to hear what they have to say on it. EDIT: I would suspect that in the fullness of their existences, Taln or Kalak could well have met her at some point. I don't think they mentioned it, however.

...They have? Where? Are you referring to how Spook can "feel" swords coming from behind him?

Random theory based on not much. Be brutal. We know the Nightwatcher has some correlation to Cultivation. Source. My theory is, the woman who took up Cultivation abdicated when Honor was shattered. I think that, just as SPOILER did, she was able to use her power to modify her mortal body in some manner that allows her to be immortal, as well as to have some other great power that allows her to perform the Old Magic. I think she is now the most powerful human on Roshar. I'm not entirely certain if someone else is Cultivation now, or if she was able to do something in the process perhaps that would allow Cultivation to exist without a mind. Or maybe she left behind a shadow of self. As I said, just a random, speculative theory. Feel free to prove me wrong.

Nazh is a worldhopper originally from Threnody, which is a planet without a Shard. I suspect we know too little about Worldhopping and the rest of it to be able to say much about what that might imply, though as ever I'm eager to hear what people speculate.

1. Basically, yes. I believe that before it was a religion, it was a way of life. I believe it was once understood that living your life by certain ideals could potentially give you magic powers. I believe there was an organization which traveled the land, trying to counsel people in how to live these ideals (as Teft was helping Kaladin, as Shallan had the book) so they could speak the Ideals and "level-up" as a Knight Radiant. I think that after the Recreance, over the millenia, it changed from a way of life and a means to get magical power into a religion. The Recreance was obviously a blow to the structure, but apparently not a fatal one, and it adapted into a religion and survived. 2. I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are you asking me how I think it mechanically worked? Are you asking me why I think they did it? 3. I'm not certain I understand what you are saying here. When you say "these three things" you mean, "The vorin story about being kicked out of the Tranquiline Halls," "The planet Braize," and "The Desolations?" I'm not certain that "in tandem" is how I would describe their interactions, since they are simply three aspects of a large and complex society, but I will try to answer. a. The story of being forced out of the Tranquiline Halls. It's my belief that when Humans first came to Roshar, they lived in a great land. A land suited to their existence, a land protected from the worst of the highstorms, a land of fertile fields and chickens. Basically I assume they started in Shin Kak Nish. Then I think the Voidbringers came. I think they attacked the human centers there, and refugees spread out all across Roshar. As Vorinism turned from "how to become a Radiant" to a religion, in classic 'jam tomorrow' philosophy your reward must come after death, so instead of being sent from your home to a specific location to fight, it turned into "once you die, you will go to the Tranquiline Halls," which required translating the idea of the Halls to a nebulous Heaven, a place which could not be traveled to on Roshar. b. Braize is a planet in the system, known as Damnation. We suspect Odium is Invested there and it's likely the place the Heralds go to, in order to be tortured endlessly for centuries between Desolations. In Vorinism, it occupies the "Hell" archetype in opposition to the "Heaven" of the Tranquiline Halls. c. The Desolations are poorly understood. Odium's forces, including Voidbringers (which may be listeners in voidforms) and the Ten Deaths such as Thunderclasts and Midnight Essence, show up to attack people, with the presumed intent to kill everyone. Fighting happens, and humans have so far won every Desolation. Presumably, the first one is what forced humans out of the Tranquiline Halls, and out onto the rest of Highstorm-ravaged Roshar. As to what brings about a Desolation, when one technically begins and ends, how fighting them advances the goals of either Honor, Cultivation or Odium, or all the rest of it... I'm afraid your guess is as good as mine. 4. Yes. I know there are three habitable planets in the solar system; Braize, Ashyn and Roshar. I believe we do not have confirmed WoB on whether there are other, uninhabitable planets. As for your final thought, that's more-or-less exactly the point I'm making. Vorinism claims that the fight happened first in the Tranquiline Halls, then was all across Roshar, and then when the Heralds won the Last Desolation, they chased the Voidbringers "somewhere else" to the Tranquiline halls, and Roshar is now safe from further Desolations. We, the readers, know many of these facts are false. We know that the Last Desolation was never going to be the last one, we know Roshar is still in jeopardy, we know the Heralds did not "take the fight to the Tranquiline Halls." I'm proposing that Vorinism is also incorrect in their assumption that the Tranquiline Halls cannot be one specific place on Roshar.

Yeah, let's try to restrict it to extraordinary or very specific events. So, Renarin charges into a fight and doesn't help is a good one. Shallan drawing something is... not quite what we're looking for.

Yet it's always struck me as odd that not all fabrials seem to mimic surgebinding. What of spanreeds? Or its opposite, with the amethysts? What do we call the "warners" that don't seem to have any opposite? What would an opposite do, hide from a warner, like bronze and copper? There's no surge that inherently "increases" traits of things, like the heating fabrials do. In fact, Soulcasters are sorta unique in that they are a fabrial that provide access to an actual Surge. We know Regrowth exists, but we've only seen it used by a Radiant and a Herald.

When you hope to meet a girl who will fulfill one of your most deeply held fantasies... ...reading aloud to you, a la Navani and Dalinar.

This is a place to note extraordinary events that happen in every book. Perhaps I'll update the OP with strikethroughs if new books come out without an event occurring. In every book... ...Dalinar catches something impressive which was about to kill him. ...Kaladin turns down a full set of Shards, and they end up belonging to a total jerk. ...Renarin charges bravely into battle to aid at least one over-matched Shardbearer, and does not do much to help. ...Shallan makes a brief trip to Shadesmar (as her mastery becomes greater this might become too commonplace to count). ...Kaladin enters a battle where Adolin is about to be killed/maimed and inhales Stormlight to save him.

When you're having a terrible, terrible day, and decide to try to cheer yourself up by reading Jasnah's pre-release chapter for SA3. ...btw, I wasn't blown away. I was somehow expecting more.

The question above was from my friend, and he is very gratified that you all seem to like it so much. The following question is my own, and contains Words of Radiance spoilers.

ta-dah.