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I'm not sure how much control there is directly from Cultivation. When talking to Dalinar, she says "It will do me good to have a part of you, even if you do become his." As much as she can have plans, there isn't a definitely endgame already laid out for Dr. T, since Odium has future-sight as well. I'm pretty sure that there is a WoB that hers is better than his, so maybe not. Because of this, and the inherent danger of trying to predict the actions of one who can see the future (T), the Diagram seems more like a tactic than a piece of the puzzle. Like was mentioned by @hoiditthroughthegrapevine, maybe a distraction from the true plan. Plus I'm certain that Odium can immediately tell that T has been influenced by Cultivation at some point, and is therefore wary of him. Because Odium should have the same difficulty in predicting the exact actions of T that Cultivation has (since he has foreknowledge), he is a better distraction than a predictable element? There is also the whole Odium/Cultivation relationship. They aren't actively in conflict like Ruin and Preservation were, but are more like cold war opponents. It's not even clear what Cultivation is trying to do. Her nature doesn't necessarily imply that she would want to save Roshar, and I wouldn't be surprised if she had a hand in Honor's shattering, just to end the cycle. Presumably she is interested in her own preservation, but beyond that, all we have seen her do introduce unpredictable elements to Odium's plan (Dalinar's ascension is partially her doing, and the Diagram might be that as well).

I chuckled. I don't think the Everstorm will stop, but may stop providing Void-Light if Odium left Roshar. If he is splintered, then he will leave a shadow like the Stormfather behind, providing voidlight. The concept of imprisonment will not work either, much as I chuckled at the SCP reference. There are just too many fused. Plus we haven't seen anything that says they cannot voluntarily leave their hosts. In fact, at the end of the Battle of Thelyen Field, the void-spren bonded to the humans abandon them (these aren't real fused at the very least, but the same concept might apply). That leaves three options; depriving the fused of Voidlight, which would make them dangerous, but combat-able; depriving the fused of hosts, which makes them impotent on the physical realm at least; or convincing them to move to the beyond voluntarily. The insane ones wont go for sure, but the sane ones, who are much more dangerous, could be convinced. The only people who could do this, however, are the singers, so it'd be functionally the same as depriving them of hosts. We have next to no information about void light, other than the fact that it is supplied by either Odium or Ba-Ado-Mishram, so I tend to find that options one and three are both possible.

It takes more than a year of speed to travel the world and visit every house. Plus, while he would be super fast, his reindeer would not be. I think we get a key piece of information from Rudolph's red nose. We all know that red is the color of corrupted investiture. The only corrupted investiture (based on the fact that Skaze are red) we've seen that improves speed is Dakhor. Therefore (and my logic is infallible), the reindeer are Dakhor abominations. The whole flight issue is a separate problem. We could instead be dealing with spiked, Dakhor, radiant deer that can manipulate the surges and pump enough pewter to keep from blacking out as they travel at relativistic speeds. This wouldn't get our toys to each house, just the sleigh full of toys. To get the toys into the house, I think we are looking at one of two things; either awakened toys which walk in on their own (unlikely, as it would be seen), or Santa is burning steel. Since he has to be travelling at relativistic speeds on the sleigh, he definitely needs to be burning pewter or stormlight to stay conscious. However, being only a steel ferring would work, as he could store enough speed over the course of a year to do the delivery if he only has to go from sleigh to house and the sleigh does the rest so quickly because of the super jacked deer. Moving at that speed would work to make him basically invisible, solving that issue. The only other thing we would need is for Santa to be a powerful soother to keep the elves working through their hellish existence. Alternative to all this; Santa is the Shard of Christmas Joy.

For the record, we also have the natural protection of the poles. While the normally habitable central ring of Scadrial had it's seas boil and turn into scorched desert, the poles remained technically habitable. So, without the ash-mounds, life would survive in a diminished capacity on the south pole, whose population could have been even closer to the pole of the planet than the northern population. Then, genetic manipulation or no, you have 1000 years of normal evolution; people with higher tolerance to heat and lower tolerance to cold would thrive. Then we have the Ice Death. Everything flips, with the 1000 years of natural selection suddenly working in the wrong direction. Might be enough to generate some of the issues there in the vision with Kelsier. Now, its been 290 years where they have atrophied their ability to insulate themselves using feruchemical brass, meaning their problems have only gotten worse. I should mention that part one of this theory is a bad one; 1000 years is short for evolution, and even with perfect selective breeding, the human body could only fluctuate down a couple of degrees before it would be fundamentally different from baseline humans (what might count as genetic intervention). Those few degrees wouldn't make them "freeze to death in what might be chilly for a normal human." Part two of this theory I think is a real possibility. The idea that they never reset to baseline after whatever TLR did to protect them from the increased heat because they had access to the brass metalminds could be the issue that they currently face. It would also mirror some of the same issues the Basin has had with developing Allomancy, and allow for a connection point.

I dont think there is a reason to do PR space travel, since there is a stable perpendicularity in the horneater peaks. It would take a lot less stormlight to Fly to the peaks, then fly through the CR to Braize. There is almost certainly a perpendicularity there as well from Odium (not that it would be safe). The only reason for PR space travel would be to get to Ashyn (for the record, it makes sense that Odium was on Ashyn, generated a perpendicularity to move humans into the CR, and they took Cultivation's perpendicularity or honor's back into the PR. Then Odium left Ashyn, meaning there isn't a perpendicularity there anymore). Willshaper or Elsecaller intervention is more likely in that case than actual space travel. I have wondered if we will get the Classic Chewbacca Death tactic. For those not in the know, it involves destabilizing the orbit of a moon as a siege tactic in interplanetary combat. I'm not sure we have any information regarding moons orbiting Braize, but we have been told that the moons are important for Roshar. That to me means it might be a possible tactic that Odium attempts to enact, and the Lashings would work just fine to do that, assuming tremendous amounts of stormlight. The only other alternative reason for the moons to be important is the old "The planet is a fabrial" concept. Which also could work as an interplanetary weapon (think space beams with the moons as a focal lens). So, while I think that space battle are possible, it's more likely to me that interplanetary bombardment, either via moon or something else, is much more likely. As a separate item under discussion, Spren leaving Roshar sounds a lot to me like the Ire using the Dor away from Sel via concentrated connection. That basically equates it to something like deep-sea diving, with an inherent time limit to journeys. It's possible that it can be accomplished using unkeyed metal minds.

For me it might be after Eshonai bonds the void spren and you get those comments about her screaming internally.

I don't blame you, he hopefully intentionally disappears from the second half of OB.

It think the question mark is very important. For example, lets say you woke up in an unfamiliar place, with strangers around, would the first thing you say be "United States?" or "Europe?" or even "Earth?" That wouldn't make sense; you would more likely be asking "Who is there?" Which you could treat as "Are you there _____?" (regarding the last person you saw) That's one step from "_____?" As Vax seems to be referred to as a place in other locations, including the already quoted listing as a planet or place. To me, that means that Vax is either a place named after a sentient entity, or a sentient entity large enough to be known to some as a place. Sel seems to be growing into a semi-sentient entity, as based on the many clues in Elantris (Yadeth is described as part of the earth, and his awakening is linked to the number of people who worship him, at least in the religion), and its description in the Arcanum Unbounded. That kind of Ego the planet type entity could be something that Brandon is building towards introducing, so it makes sense he would be coy about it. I should mention that besides the whole, "that's not what any person would say" portion, this theory doesn't have any more support than another. It's a cool idea to me though.

So if Lift was an Allomancer, with the ability to metabolize metal into investiture, she could metabolize an unkeyed (I think this is the right term) metalmind. That wouldn't be different from Miles' compounding his Gold metalminds. She wouldn't be using atium, which has special properties as a godmetal, so she couldn't do the ageless hack detailed above. However, her ability is to metabolize nutrients into investiture (Brandon is a little unclear on the biology here, but essentially he is saying that the chemical energy that is stored in organic molecules can be converted from its chemically stored state to investiture, in Lift's case). Basically, her ability is to surgebinding what burning metals is to allomancy. That doesn't imply that she can suddenly burn metals to power surgebinding, or food to power allomancy. Feruchemy isn't really a part of that hack, so much as it is operating normally, but the person using it has access to much greater quantities of the attributes. I.E: Lord Ruler fills a metal mind with his youth, lets say a year, which is normal for feruchemy (he is now one year older than his actual age). He then ingests the metalmind, and burns it. Allomancy is net positive, so he would now be younger by more than the year he stored (he is now some amount younger than his actual age, however much over a year he got from burning his metalmind). He then stores the more than a year youth into a different metalmind (he is back to his starting age, with some amount of youth stored). He can then repeat this process, except now when he stores the year at the beginning, he is adding it to the stored reservoir of youth that he has, meaning that the extra gets multiplied also. The reason he can't live for ever, just for a very long time, is that the rate at which his youth is consumed in order to maintain the physical aspects of youth increases as his actual spiritual age moves away from his physical age. Eventually he would have to be storing an burning constantly to just maintain his age, because he was burning through it so quickly. This last bit is what is special about Atium as a metalmind; the rate of usage is determined by more than his intent, but also his spiritual aspect. It ultimately makes even this hack decay, which fits with the shards original essence (ruin and entropy). If he was able to do this burning of atium perfectly with no downtime between storing and burning the metal, then he could live forever, but would spend 100% of his time storing and burning. If Lift had an ability that was the same as feruchemy, but for food (she could hold a sausage, store stormlight in it, and then draw the stormlight out without eating it, like a sphere), then she could do the same hack, but with stormlight, but just for the amount of stormlight she was holding. It wouldn't change her age. She would have to have an ability similar to feruchemy with food, with the ability to store youth in the food. As far as we know, she has neither of those abilities. We aren't even sure if she can store stormlight in a sphere, burn through stored nutrients (like fat), or if her conversion is 100% efficient.

As far as we know, nothing has enough investiture to stop Nightblood from destroying it eventually. Basically, the way Nightblood has worked in observation is that each time it destroys something, it drains a commensurate (not one to one, but the amounts scale with eachother to some degree) amount of investiture from the person wielding it. Then it becomes a balance of the wielder's investiture versus the target's investiture. The second half of the sentence assumes that it is the Spren that operates the oathgate. But it might not be that, it might be specifically the bond, or specifically honor's investiture (which Nightblood doesn't have an insane amount of). Outside of all of this, there is a characteristic we know that a blade needs to operate an oathgate: it needs to have a mutable shape. I can't find the exact quote, but Shallan notices that her blade doesn't stick out the other side of the control building despite the fact that it is a thin wall. Dalinar similarly provides a "key" using the Stormfather. We have never seen Nightblood alter it's shape, nor is it likely that he can. It seems to go against the two components that make up his being: the intent (his command, which necessitates him being a weapon of some kind), and his original base identity of a sword (which is hard to change, with soulcasting being the only thing we've seen that does. That wouldn't work, as he is too invested by far to be soulcast). I'm pretty sure that Nightblood can both destroy an oathgate, and not operate it.

Also Rlain.

My apologies, I think I am conflating two words. Relationship to me in this context refers to a romantic or intimate relationship, where you seem to be referring to a connection (any connection) between two people (friendships, familial bonds, work acquaintance all included). So to edit my quote a little: I believe physical intimacy is an important part of any romantic relationship (excluding a minority who are asexual). Sorry for the confusion. What I was trying to get across is that IF there was a romantic relationship between a spren and a human, the fact that you can go to shadesmar and hold their hand is essential (and by that measure, enables the pairing in the first place). I also don't think that every relationship invariably leads towards sexual relations, but they usually get closer. I.e. if you spend enough time with someone you will eventually have a romantic moment (that moment may or may not lead to persistent romantic feelings). The time frame for this happening could be years or decades, and I don't recommend waiting around for it. IF there is some chemistry between people (or on one side) already, then you have the Dobler/Dahmer effect, where the probability of a romantic moment increases dramatically. That last bit is a straying a little from Kaladin, or the ethics of a spren/human relationship. The bigger thing for me is whether you want to sexualize Syl herself; she is analogous to a child half the time, and while she grows in self awareness the longer they are together, she lacks the actual life experiences that would give her perspective to enter into a romantic pairing with an adult Kaladin. I found similar faults in the relationship between Susebron and Siri. He is both about 60 years older than her, the equivalent of a 12-year-old. The only reason I can't find a moral issue with it is that he is essentially a prodigy, and develops the social skills and worldview required for a romantic pairing extremely quickly (as well as Siri herself being just as clueless). I'm not sure I could get past that for Syl; unless she recovers all her previous memories (she sounds like she is at least 20 years old equivalent when she makes her original bond, so if she got that back she'd be more of an equal to Kaladin).

I think out of the orders, he is mostly likely to become either a truth watcher or an edgedancer, as he doesn't have a care for status, just need. That being said, he is definitely not a radiant right now. Besides the fact that he seems to have insight into how war affects people, which is probably not supernatural, there is no indication that he is a radiant. By the original post logic, anyone surprised by something is a possible truth watcher. I don't even want him to be a radiant, I don't really like him, or find him worthy of the mantle. He is reallllyyyy judgy.

Well the Windspren are described as cousins to the Honorspren. Could be seen as leaving your bf with your sister, but being jealous when he hangs out with your friend's sister. The reason I think we'd see jealousy is a function of abandonment. Syl definitely hasn't forgotten that Kaladin almost abandoned his oaths, so it makes sense for her to fear his leaving her. Having another female persona in the mix would mean his attention is split. It's really common with children (jealous or even hateful of the new kid.

@Winds Alight and @The Traveler I actually think that sex is very important part of any relationship (excluding a minority for the asexual, who do exist). It demonstrates trust and should demonstrate some amount of compatibility. That being said not every interaction needs to be ultimately romantic in nature, I just happen to think that Syl and Kaladin have some amount of that romantic chemistry. I don't feel that Windle/Lift, Pattern/Shallan, Ivory/Jasnah, Glys/Renarin, Maya/Adolin (ish, they arent a real bond so are only kinda in this category) have that same chemistry, beyond what is mandated by their ideals. Maybe it's just the extra screen time between them. I wouldn't be upset if it didn't happen, but I think true acceptance of a life partner for Kaladin by Syl would be difficult.

Any particular reason? There have been weirder romances in fantasy/sci-fi than beings that are basically humans in Shadesmar, just more inflexible and a little different.

I'm not so sure. There are a number of foreshadowing moments where there *is a darkness in Kaladin* but I think this is just a description of his depression. The person definitely has a choice to bond a spren; Kaladin chooses to forgo his oaths and allows the death of Ehlokar, which causes his bond to break. This doesn't kill Syl, as I'm pretty sure that the bond isnt permanent until the 3rd ideal (as evidenced by Kaladin stating that he made a choice at a crossroads, choosing the path of a radiant). Trying to bond seems like trying to get someone to date you; you can give them a bunch of gifts and be nice to them, but that doesn't mean you'll end up dating. Last I think the higher voidspren generally refuse to bond with humans. Renarin seems to be a total oddity and not predictable by even Odium (who has decent future sight among the shards).

Has there been any WoB about spren/radiant relations? If the human lived in Shadesmar it's probably physically possible to be intimate. The only weird part would be that a spren dating their bonded partner would be a little like dating yourself. Honestly, I'm not sure how Kaladin can date someone without Syl ending up jealous.

I mean, I like Lynn and I like Kaladin, but I think her and Zigsal (sorry about spelling, I'm an audible guy) are better. They have a little more in common as both literate and outsiders. Also they are both closer in degree of focus in the books. Maybe if she got more screen time I'd be more natural.

I think that Shallan and Kaladin is a definitely a pipe dream. Sanderson loves to drop in some red herrings here and there, and the romantic tension between them has always been one of those for me. They are attracted as most young attractive people with similar problems are, but aren't really that compatible. Shallan never mentions anything about Kaladin that isn't a surface trait (like the brooding glares or quippiness). Kaladin very much isn't interested in "distractions" as Syl puts it. He is a serious guy who wants a serious relationship. He probably could have grown to love Shallan, but more is just happy around her. Others in this thread have said that the resolution to thsee two was unsatisfactory, but it was more of a red herring closeout rather than a real relationship end. I'm not going to comment on the whole "Sanderson is bad at romance" conversation other than to say I think he is OK at the very least. It's not his focus, but he does OK with what he puts in. Personally I think Laral has been set up and after reading the new interlude with Lirin, it seems she is going to stick in the story. I could see them getting together. Roshone doesn't seem to be around by that point in book 4 as it is. She is the only one besides Syl (who I ship) who has had enough screen time to get something going in the front five

I think this is all set up to be honest. He'll get saved a couple more times, then it'll be a really huge suprise when he dies. I think he must have to if we're going to extend Shallan across 10 books. She could drop out after book 5 (like partially drop out).

What would Lift get? Like, besides food. Also Nightblood would get that hot hot destroying evil action. Axies would get to see his inprisonment spren (I think that's the one he is looking for at the end)

This is clearly important to you, and I wish I could help more. Its hard to be unable to share the love I have for these books, but I imagine it's worse to feel betrayed by them. I guess that all I can say is that there is a point at which someone will get it right, and you'll find that you didn't need to imagine it better than it was. Until then keep trying, as finding the failures in one attempt might help you find the successes in another. If not with SA than with something else. Worst comes to worst, write it yourself. I write all the time, and never share it with anyone (because it's bad writing), but it does let me tell stories the way I think they should be told. For me Hugbox implies a safe space which enables escapism or denial rather than growth and solidarity. It's taken on a derogatory connotation, but for me it's just kind of bad by definition. Kind of a misnomer, as I think that a place where people hug would be more effective than one where people are safe. I'm not saying you should struggle through everything, but there is something to be said for reading even things you don't like. I mean, I read the Art of War, and the Epic of Gilgamesh for "fun" although they weren't very fun to read. I think that finishing out a part of the books, like the first 5 for LerasiumMistborn, helps bring closure to the character. Even if it's not the ideal closure you wanted. Maybe I'm oversharing, I don't want to try and drown anyone out. It's ok to only read things you like!

I'm not sure! I dont think it's a method we've seen tried. I mean, radiants can redeposit stormlight into gemstones. If two people were close enough and familiar with the power we could see it done. I think you're right that it can't be taken without intent on the holder's part though (unless you're a larkin).

1. Wait isn't Wandersail going to be a novella maybe? But I definitely agree, Rysn is one of my favorites, and I think she a lot of potential as a non-radiant character. 2. I'm like 90% sure that Yalb is actually dead, Shallan is not a super reliable narrator about unpleasant things. 3. Not high on my list, but power to you! 4. Hav: I'm pretty sure Hav is off with the Void-bringers as part of the larger contingent, but given his interactions with Kal during the flashback in OB, he might want to hang onto his emotions a little more than average. Hopefully we'll find him trying out for the Windrunners some time. 5. That'd be a game id buy. 6. I'm not into that, but when Lift revives Gawx, she gets close doesn't she? I'm pretty sure Gawx has a thing for her, at least partly because of that. 7. I'd like to see them all swear oaths, they certainly all are broken enough for it. They could join Shallan as squires. 8. I think that would involve Kaladin training Shallan. I'm not sure how much "mind" the illusions have, versus whether they are just pieces of connection made visible. My Turn! 1. Shallan and Adolin's actual wedding ceremony. It'd be nice to start the book like that for a brief bit. 2. Gaz becoming a squire, and Ishnah joining Shallan rather than the Ghostbloods. Also Shawb becoming a squire and then complaining about stormlight somehow. 3. Lift and bridge 4 actually talking, as opposed to just offscreen talking.