Zapata

Taln himself would fight, and win, difficult battles during the Desolations, but die in the process. He would continue to sacrifice himself, even before The Sacrifice.

As far as I'm aware, the idea for Illumination is that Truthwatchers could produce a video of a current event, possibly with audio, like a camera, or maybe even a two-way video chat. Lightweavers make illusions. For the Illumination orders, the surge use is probably in the name. But we have not yet seen a "normal" Truthwatcher to verify. For transportation, I personally think that it works differently for Elsecallers and Willshapers. We have seen Elsecalling on-screen, and it creates a mini-perpendicularity to take the user into the CR. I think "Willshaping" is just normal teleportation, however we will have to wait for Venli to use it. That might be in the next book, though, based on the way Radiants seem to learn their Surges.

It's in the OB epilogue, but I currently do not have access to that, so the next best thing is the Coppermind entry for Vatwha, the Fused:

As far as I'm aware, the people who add footnotes are probably either the person who submitted the WoB to Arcanum, or one of the Arcanists themselves.

The Dor is the actual Investiture of D&D, taken out of the SR by Odium. The bulk of D&D is located in the CR. It is Location-bound, because the CR has distinctive locations.

Gay people have to file for social reassignment, which I'm pretty sure means they have to transition.

For research and industry, the current system is better. Commerce might be made easier by Aon Tia, which can only teleport one-way when trying to teleport past Arelon. But if unbound, it might be able to come back to Elantris.

Exactly. "Spiritual" AonDor would probably be more intuitive, but less specific than "Cognitive" AonDor.

we currently know Hoid has unkeyed metalminds like the coin he gave to Wax

When an Elantrian leaves the Dor's influence, they retain the Connection to the Dor, and maybe some sDNA or something, to use their powers when they come back to the Dor.

This does not entirely answer it, but, So the focus, which is presumably symbols, was already there. and I never mentioned a new Vessel, just putting the Investiture in the SR. however, that's all I have to go on. Any new magic would still be symbol-based, and so far, an Elantrian can't be made mortal again. Being removed from the Dor just takes away their powers, but they would have the necessary Connection to the Dor to gain their powers again. I'd imagine that former Elantrianns would be the first and possibly only users of a hypothetical, new Spiritual symbol magic, if putting the Dor in the SR would even erase existing systems.

It's a trade-off. Would you rather have limited abilities anywhere, or unlimited abilities in a single country but be weak or powerless anywhere else? With the Dor in the Spiritual Realm, the Aons and other magic symbols would lose their exactness and those effects that make them be known as a "programming language" system, but they would be easier to learn and use. An example might be that healing would become more difficult, because instead of an Elantrian manipulating the flesh exactly as wanted, healing would probably heal to the Spiritual Ideal. Teleportation might become easier, since the Elantrian would no longer have to be perfectly exact with the distance, but the teleportation would be intuitive to the user's intent. Since the Ire is a worldhopping organization, I'd imagine they'd want to be able to use AonDor freely, without pipes or hacks, even if it is "Spiritual" AonDor, and not the "Cognitive" AonDor we, and supposedly they, are used to. The same would go for unaffiliated Elantrian Worldhoppers, such as Galladon. And AonDor being less accessible would hardly matter to the Ire, since they have already been Initiated into the magic system, and probably wouldn't lose their Elantrian status.

I can't recall it off the top of my head, but it was about how Worldhoppers extend their lifespans, right? Edit: found it

Do you think it would work like Lopen tried to do, by purposely not swearing the Ideal until a "cool" moment comes, but with more people, or just, as we get more Radiants, more might end up swearing during the ending battle because of the number of them?

Has anyone considered the idea that Kaladin might swear the Fourth Ideal after Teft does? Because I fear that a bit, although it is an interesting idea.

I would imagine that although not technically impossible, it would be difficult for any Dor-based magic to access the Spiritual Realm. since the Dor is located in the CR, it would not have access to Spiritual ideals or all times in one. If it was easy for the Dor to access the SR, someone would have tried to put it back, maybe the Ire. The Ire would probably benefit from AonDor being un-location-bound. They would not have to run pipes throughout the CR or use an investiture hack (Stormlight) I also think that Aon Tia and Dakhor teleportation don't transfer the user through the SR at all, but instead function almost like a "push" that moves them instantly to their destination, or at least through the CR to the destination.

the Radiant Plate is Identity-keyed somehow, so it can really only be Invested by its owner, as far as we are currently aware. Presumably this extends to not just Lashings, but other Surges Radiants used on themselves, such as Abrasion, Illumination, and maybe Transportation. We don't currently know if Plate can exist in the CR because we don't know if it's solid Stormlight, lesser Spren, or something else entirely. We also don't know if PR Transportation is something an individual Radiant could do, or if that was limited to Oathgates.

perhaps an Honor/Cultivation child would be able to always have Stormlight like the Heralds do. they can't use it without a bond, but with a bond they would never run out of power.

technically yes, you can, however the spren wouldn't like it. Another complication is keeping to the Ideals, which would make some orders incompatible. Interestingly enough, being a Lightweaver and anything else would be the easiest to keep the Ideals for, but it seems that most spren dislike Cryptics, so the spren would be less likely to go for it. A Cryptic bonding someone who is already a Radiant, however, might happen as an experiment.

So. I've been wondering about ways to create Shardblades using different magic systems. So far, there's the original, the Honorblades, which were made by Honor, and grant Surgebinding to the user. There's Sprenblades, which are bonded sentient Splinters which manifest in the PR and grant surgebinding. There's dead Shardblades, which are the Blades of dead spren whose Radiants betrayed their oaths. They have the same abilities of other Shardblades, but do not grant Surgebinding. There's Awakened Blades, such as Nightblood and presumably Azure's Blade. Since there are so few examples, the only common information shared by these weapons is the requirement of Ninth Heightening, and 1000 spare Breaths to Invest the weapon with. These are the known types of Shardblades, but there may be other ways to make one. Possibly AonDor could be used on a regular sword to give it strength, sharpness, and the summoning ability, however, this might only work in Elantris, and the Blade would always exist in the PR. Another method could be pulling a Seon or Skaze into the PR fully. So Aon Blades, Seon Blades, and Skaze Blades might be possible. Scandrian Blades would be different from other blades in that they would not be supernaturally sharp or strong, but they would grant powers and/or be made of Ettmetal, so an Allomancer's Blade would have a strip of Ettmetal in the sword, or an Ettmetal hilt. This could be used with Unkeyed Feruchemy to make the Blade itself a "medallion", and therefore give the user Allomancy or Feruchemy. I'd imagine the most common Blades would be Ettmetal, with unkeyed metalminds for A-steel and A-pewter. A-pewter would let the user swing the Blade with increased power, and possibly be put into the Ettmetal to make the Blade stronger. A-steel would push an opponent's armor and weapons away in a fight if put into the Ettmetal. These abilities might mimic an ordinary Shardblade's ability to cut through almost anything. A simpler option is that the entire Blade is just a metalmind, no Ettmetal involved.

Maybe they bond spren similar to Amaram's soldiers at Thaylen Field.

I mean, probably, but not only has it been Necro'd, but it has presumably been in SA since 2017, so no one's questioned it before. So I don't know.

Also, you can only sustain a Reverse Lashing while touching the object. So Kaladin would have to be holding the blade. However, a Shardblade should be able to be Lashed by its owner. Radiants in the past could Lash their own plate.

I feel that Teft might swear the Fourth Ideal before Kaladin. That would be interesting.

Welcome back! I'm after your time, but nevertheless welcome back. Which of Brandon's books have you read, so we can explain the theories without spoilers?