FirstSelector

I agree with Moogle. Even if we assume that Hoid has a knack for languages (learning, speaking, accents, humor, and so on), by his own admission to Dalinar he is sometimes called to a location without knowing why and on short notice. It's one thing to know "I will be on Roshar in a few years, now is the time to pick up Alethi," but quite another to "I need to be on Roshar, now, and I need to speak the language when I arrive." Since language gives structure to ideas, and ideas are the denizens of the Cognitive realm, I find it highly likely there is some way to quickly learn a language through Cognitive trickery.

You all raise good points. I am the first to admit this is somewhat over-dramatic, and that the similarities to Mistborn are somewhat stretched. However, I think the idea that Odium might have some measure of influence over the Radiants simply due to the nature of Surgebinding is reasonable. Perhaps not full-blown mind control, but even subtle nudges over long times can be just as dangerous.

The Recreance - why, how, and when it happened - is obviously going to play a central role in the upcoming books. We know precious little, but I would like to propose a simple (if outlandish) theory as to why it happened. The Knights Radiant could be mind-controlled by Odium. Yes, you read that correctly. I would like to propose that the Knights gave up their power to prevent Odium from taking them over en masse following the most recent Desolation. To properly motivate this idea, I need to lay out some facts: * The cause of the Recreance can be communicated simply * The cause must be sufficiently dangerous that almost all of the Knights gave up simultaneously * The spren would interpret these actions as a betrayal The first fact follows from the Diagram, and the fact that Taravangian could somehow use the secret to break up the new Knights. I take this to mean that he would announce whatever the secret is, and the Knights would be compelled in some way to give up their power. In particular, I think the Knights themselves have to decide to give up their own power. The second fact follows from the Feverstone Keep vision and the in-world Words of Radiance. This isn't a gradual event - suddenly, within a fairly short time window, all of the Knights give up their power. I take this to be an indication of the magnitude of the damage caused by the secret. The third fact follows directly from Jasnah, the Stormfather, and Pattern. How does this mind control work? We have seen on other worlds how a Shard can interact with damaged souls, and it isn't much of a leap to assume a similar thing can happen here. Knights are, by construction, damaged souls. Odium simply reaches in, granting him anything from direct control to simply changing viewpoints. There may be some restriction on this ability, some requisite hatred or similar that allows Odium to take hold. Thus, a particularly emotionless Knight might be able to resist Odium if she could properly banish emotion. The Skybreakers fit this well, but the other Orders don't generically have their control. Note Szeth's unnatural hatred towards the people he has killed and Kaladin's unhealthy hatred of lighteyes. Why at the particular time? I assume that the Heralds provide some sort of "prison" for Odium during their time in Damnation. When all ten Heralds are present, Odium has very little touch on Roshar. But with only one Herald present, his touch may be more drastic. With no other Voidbringers to control and only Talenel, sometime after the most recent Desolation would be a good opportunity for him. In this scenario, I imagine that the Heralds/Knights realize that this possible and move to destroy the Orders before Odium can act. Depending on Odium's speed, the execution referenced in Words of Radiance may in fact be one of the first of these case. Finally, the spren consider this a betrayal because Odium can only take over when the Knight fails to keep hatred away. Thus, the preemptive abandonment rather than fighting his influence goes against the First Ideal and everything the Knights stood for. In conclusion, without the other Heralds to guard him (or Voidbringers to distract him), Odium can take advantage of a emotionally susceptible Knight's broken soul to mind control her. When the Knights realized this, they abandoned their Oaths instead of fighting Odium's influence which to the spren was a betrayal. Closing thoughts - any theory for the Recreance has to account for the fact that all of the Knights gave up at once. Given what else we have seen, this seems like a sufficiently drastic scenario.

It is worth noting that this upcoming Desolation is likely different than in the past due to the fact that there was only one Herald sent back to Damnation. Now, we can only guess at what their true purpose and duties involve, but they appear to be holding Odium back in some way. If the strength which Odium is able to fight the Heralds is proportional to the number of Knights, as a hypothetical, then Nale could make the argument that any additional stress on Talenel is dangerous. In the past, there were ten Heralds guarding, and this wouldn't have been an issue until there were ten times as many Knights, and hopefully that would be enough make up for the Heralds folding early. I think the exact details about the Desolations will be major plot points in future books.

I like this theory, as I too have been toying with the idea of Braize being the remains of Yolen. My issue is the following: the Second Letter is mostly amicable in nature, even if the dragon is somewhat displeased with Hoid. This dragon would have started on Yolen, and I feel that he would be far more upset if "destruction of his home world" was on his list of griefs about Hoid. However, there is (I believe) a somewhat simpler solution - Braize was the original home of humanity in the Greater Roshar system. If Hoid's quest against Rayse starts immediately following the shattering of Adonalsium, then I think it would be reasonable that he would find his way onto Braize before Odium forces humanity off. Perhaps he was even around for the exodus. So, the "biggest RAFO" refers to the fact that Hoid having traveled to Braize somehow reveals information about this situation. Since this is likely key to the central conflict on Roshar, it deserves the name.

I like this idea! The Diagram fascinates me as a concept, because it appears to be so precise about some things (names, magic, and so on) but has other parts that very open to interpretation. Additionally, it is the sort of "prophecy" that often only makes sense in retrospect. Where did Taravangian learn all of this? How does he know about Hoid (the wanderer)? I wonder if Taravangian's smart/dull days were planned out in advance, so that he would only understand a certain part of the Diagram at a certain time. It would certainly be something to have Taravangian's death come with his perfect clarity about how the Diagram was to be interpreted, only to have it set the world up to unite against him. I'm also a bit curious about how the Diagram can predict anything, due to the fact that it is interpreted by many people and depends on their interactions with each other and with other people. There are random elements in here that can not possibly have been predicted exactly. But with 20/20 hindsight, the Diagramists will be able to say "Aha! We simply interpreted it wrong, clearly it is still right." Lastly, if this is the Nightwatcher's grand scheme to prepare the world, perhaps Taravangian wasn't simply being enlightened as he thought. Given the precise comments about the Unmade, we surmise Taravangian found this information somewhere and pieced it together. But it could also have been that the Nightwatcher used the "random" smart/dull days as a distraction for the one day she revealed part of the future to him. After all, Cultivation is better at that than Honor...

Unfortunately, adjacent Orders use their shared Surge in effectively the same way:

Most of the confusion on this topic comes from the intuition that denser objects should "resist" forces better, in the sense that it should be harder to cut, slice, or puncture. However, in the case of iron, this does not appear to be the case. Instead, there are two main effects: 1) Skimmer has a modified interaction with gravitational forces 2) Skimmer's body adapts to compensate for the change in gravitational interaction Let us first note that the second effect is purely so that iron is usable by humans without catastrophic damage, and isn't particularly interesting. The "simplest" way to modify one's gravitational interactions is to change mass. Note that I mean gravitational mass here, which in our universe is the same as the mass in F = ma. If a similar principle holds in the cosmere, then this would amount to a change in density of the constituent particles of the Skimmer. This increase in density would give rise to increased durability as in our universe since a force (see below). This is not observed. Instead, I propose that iron modifies the gravitational constant G instead. This means that only the strength of the gravitational force is modified, not the mass of the Skimmer directly. Since the constituent parts of the Skimmer are not more massive, they don't dissipate forces as well and thus do not grant increased durability. With this in mind, I am not aware of any contradictions. The gravitational force can change without having to change the mass. EDIT: The more massive an object, the smaller the acceleration granted by a given force. Since this acceleration is what determines bodily damage, we expect that if the Skimmer's cells were much more massive than normal that she would experience less bodily harm.

I have several posts about this particular spacetime configuration across various posts, and given Brandon's desire to make the physics of his world follow ours I feel this is likely how allomantic FTL is going to work. As an aside, the difficulty in our universe with setting up the Alcubierre drive is that it requires negative energy density. As far as we know (and there are interesting experiments about this), everything in our universe has a positive coupling to the gravitational field - i.e. has positive mass. (Contrast this to electromagnetism, where there are positive/negative charges.) Your point, then, is very elegant - imagine allomancy can influence gravitational charge in such a way to change from positive to negative. I imagine this would be the mass of the object itself, similar to how feruchemical iron changes the user's mass. Then, if it were properly shaped, one would pump in Investiture and start moving. Lastly, there is a WoB about how one might do this.

It could also be that Scadrians up until this point fully understand their power. We know from WoR that cosmere magic is inexorably linked to the practitioner's preconceptions - perhaps the fact that time bubbles can't move is because modern Sliders/Pulsers believe that they cannot. As a second example, Brandon has stated that something else to watch is what happens to objects when they enter/leave a bubble. We haven't seen this in detail yet, but if an object entering/leaving warps the shape of the bubble in any way (and if this can be controlled by the Slider/Pulser) then it's just a little bit of tricky geometry to an Alcubierre-style warp drive. So, perhaps the "Allomantic ability we haven't seen" refers to a new twist on something we think we understand, not some new metal.

Not necessarily, Vasher can suppress his.

It's worth noting that Brandon is being careful about revealing too much about the Heralds, as they are important characters in the back five. In addition, there is a quote (that currently eludes me) that two of the flashback characters will be Heralds - Taln and someone we haven't met. Granted, that may have changed since the quote, but I think it is a good indicator of what books 6 - 10 will cover.

How about this? Brother Lhan mentions "ten lamps on the walls, one for each of the ancient Epoch Kingdoms. An eleventh lamp represented the Tranqulline Halls, and ..." Shallan, on the other hand, sees only ten lamps. I posit that the "lock" is the extra lamp.

Hoid's appearance in the mountains is almost certainly linked to the location of one of Honor or Cultvation's Shardpools being in the Horneater Peaks. This is reinforced by Rock's story and ability to see spren. I like this idea, though it leaves out one important detail. When confronted by Hoid about her locatoin, Jasnah indicates that she was particularly stressed "at the time of [her] escape." Note that the attack on the boat took place significantly before their meeting. Also, based on Hoid's description of the geography, I find it likely that they meet somewhat close to the southern edge of the Frostlands. I think it is reasonable to claim that Elsecalling, like all Surgebinding, requires Stormlight. As such, I think there is some connection between how much Stormlight Jasnah was able to consume and the distance in the Physical world between her entry and exit from the Cognitive realm. However, why this is the case coupled with Brandon's statements about inaccuracies makes me wonder. Good thoughts!

I am partial to the idea that the events on Roshar are drawing the attention of various Cosmere-aware groups because the danger of letting Odium run rampant is incredibly serious. In particular, Odium may very well be defeated or incapacitated at the end of the Stormlight Archive. This brings up an interesting point - what would be "defeat" for Odium? I figure it would be very dangerous for him to be Splintered (think evil spren everywhere...) or to allow someone else to pick up the Shard (over time it would warp them as well). They could trap his mind and prevent it from escaping, but that requires a huge amount of power. However, we have to consider the various time scales here - if Rayse was killed, the time it takes Odium to break apart would set a timer on how long it could be until the Adonalsium plotline is wrapped up. Maybe that is comparable with the time until the third Mistborn trilogy. My best guess is that Odium will be somehow bound by whatever rules Shards have to obey until someone can pick up the shard without too much danger to themselves or the Cosmere. But I digress - =http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/5839-odium-is-a-mini-boss/?hl=mini-bossBrandon has stated that there was force or group that opposed Adonalsium. The real "end boss," as it were, will likely be from this group. In fact, this means that the big fight with Odium is a distraction from what everyone should be focusing on. Based on the overall length of the Cosmere series, we should (perhaps) start to see the barest of hints about this. There are very sparse references to the "God Beyond" or "Unknown God" in recent works, so this might be the direction to start thinking.

I would be very interested to see this WoB in its original context.

I like this theory. Here's the other quote we have referencing the Bondsmiths: Now, we know from Syl's actions and words that the Stormfather appears to have uncanny powers regarding the tendency of spren to form (or re-form) Nahel bonds. As we have seen, the nature of the bond (i.e. which spren) depends a great deal on the personality and history of the Knight, matching the divine attributes of the person. Now, while I agree that there is some case to be made about positive feedback (Kaladin gets increased charisma and so on from his bond, thus appearing to reverse cause and effect), but I believe his original desire to protect is what attracted Syl. What does this mean for Bondsmiths? I think their bond with the Stormfather allows them to help create and nurture Nahel bonds, or something along those lines. Given that the Windrunners and Stonewards each shared a Surge with the Bondsmiths (and we assume that adjacent Orders implement their Surges in the same way), whatever ability is being referenced by the quote must be something unique to Order 10. Furthermore, given that the unique abilities of the Orders follow vaguely what their Herald does, I think it is reasonable to draw the connection to Ishar, who was responsible for the Knights Radiant. He would want an Order who held similar power while he was in Damnation. Now, what about Cultivation? It seems a bit asymmetrical that there is an Order that forms a Nahel bond with a giant chunk of Honor's power and not hers. However, this is easily explained - Surgebinging is of Honor. Sure, the spren involved are a mix of Honor and Cultivation, but there is another whole magic system that is due to Cultivation. There is no particular reason that there should be an Order of Knights that bonds to a large Cultivation spren, and similarly there is no reason that the Stormfather should enter into Cultivation's magic.

Perhaps I should have been a bit more clear, but I don't think anyone disagrees that Nale's companion is Herald. Given the three choices (Jezrien, Kalak, Ishar) and the apparent trend of "corruption" of the divine traits, Kalak fits best. I would be very interested to see any theory which attempts to name the companion other than Kalak, as I think there is a great deal to be learned from Ishar and Jezrien.

I agree that there was something very fishy going on when the Heralds gave up. Recent quotes from Brandon seem to imply that Talenel was continuing to uphold the Oathpact (and not someone else), while the person that we think is Talenel is in fact someone else. This is a subtle difference. Argent, the quote that was referenced was here.

The Heralds have to leave soon following the end of a Desolation (though their departure is a better way of defining "end") or another Desolation starts. However, not all of the Heralds have to return, as they have discovered by sending only Talenel back. Thus, this idea is consistent with what we now know about the mechanics of Desolations. However, it begs the following question - why didn't Jezrien return? Did the Heralds figure out that they only needed to send one, and thus allowed Jezrien to stay away and set up a better method of rule? Did they all agree to it? There is something fishy going on in the Second-to-Last Desolaion; I suspect foul play and that at least one of the Heralds betrayed the others. Perhaps this is the event that set it off. In any case, this is a plausible idea.

I think it is pretty commonly accepted at this point that Darkness is Nale, his companion is Kalak, and Baxil's mistress is Shalash. There is reason to believe (but scant hard evidence) that the drunken man is Jezrien. Talenel was otherwise occupied (i.e. being tortured) and was then released. The remaining five Heralds (Chanarach, Paliah, Vedel, Battar, and Ishar) have yet to been even tenuously identified in the books, as far as I am aware.

Gavilar knew something in addition to the visions that Dalinar received, as evidenced by the anti-glowing black sphere and his dying request. While I am reluctant to speculate as to the exact interaction between Gavilar and the various secret societies, he knew enough about their plans to instruct Szeth to keep the sphere away from others. Furthermore, he knew enough about the Knights Radiant (and their progression of Ideals) to tell Dalinar to "find the most important words a man can say." Also note that the visions were sent to (at least) one other person, who I can only suspect would have been a Bondsmith if he had not been killed by Taravangian. So unless the visions varied wildly in scope, we might suspect that Dalinar and Gavilar saw approximately the same visions. Furthermore, if we make the reasonable assumption that the Stormfather was required to send all of the visions, then Dalinar has seen nothing else of particular note. (As an aside, if several Heralds are involved with taking out potential Knights then perhaps that is why that particular subject was picked up by Taravangian.) Taken together along with the fact that several Heralds attended the feast makes me think that Gavilar knew something more than what is revealed by the visions. The Heralds had a hand in (and perhaps even orchestrated) his assassination, and whatever he did was directly related to the return of the spren.

Though I am loathe to refer to this extensively over-used example from Mistborn, Perhaps in the same fashion, Odium (and by extension, Honor and Cultivation) were somehow inhibited by the presence of trapped Stormlight. This filtered down to the Parshendi as "surround your head with infused gems," but as a full-head gemstone helmet is ineffective they instead put the gems in their beards.

I am fairly sure this is the correct interpretation, even with the horrible pun. The Stormfather all but rules Roshar, either directly (though the storms) or indirectly (by commanding the various spren). The highstorms are pretty much the defining feature of the planet.

The issue with Forging Taln's history onto someone else is twofold. First, it is so completely implausible that anyone else would act, think, and behave like a Herald that the stamp would never stick. Second, Forging diminishes in power with increasing distance from MaiPon. Though we have examples of Sel magic users showing up on Roshar, it is far more likely they used some other method of traveling between worlds. That being said, these sorts of arguments are what support the brain-switching or body-switching arguments. Hemalurgy doesn't have a distance cutoff, and there are likely other magics that can accomplish this as well.