Elegy

Khriss knows about the cataclysm on Ashyn and I don't think a polymath like her would even have to watch Roshar too closely to determine that the humans don't belong on that world. It can't be determined whether or not the origin of mankind on Roshar is common Silverlight knowledge, but I think it's safe to say that Khriss would have figured it out by now. As far as we know, she most definitely meant Roshar by that. And mankind arriving there some time after the Shattering is completely unambiguous, at that.

Ambition and Dominion combined would probably be ... Capitalism? And Ambition and Odium would be called Evil (very obvious winking).

Cultivation and Honor combined would probably be Radiance, yep.

That's actually what he stated in that sentence, although the phrasing is a bit confusing. Except I misunderstand you and you're asking for the source for those being the only planets, that's in the Scadrial essay, stating that there are only two worlds where mankind doesn't predate the Shattering, one being Scadrial (and the other, as you said, Roshar).

Yolen doesn't have FTL: Whether or not that means that they never had it is debatable, but to me it didn't sound like they had. Yolen was the world where Adonalsium first created humans, but not the only one where that happened:

I mostly agree. Brandon has repeatedly stated that no Shard is evil in itself. The problem is just them lacking context, so Odium without any opposing force holding it down is incredibly destructive. Also, as much as Brandon confirms that Passion would not be a fitting name for Odium (maybe it would be a fitting name for a Odium+Devotion double Shard), it's evident that he doesn't represent just hatred. When he shows Dalinar the Shard's power, it is described as a flame of hatred, but at the same time, Daliner mentions ecstasy and sensuality - that doesn't sound strictly like hatred to me. So there seems to be more to the Shard than raw hatred, although I believe that it's Odium's core attribute nonetheless. Regarding the Freud part, I agree that Honor represents the rules that make a human being function in a society - laws, responsibilities, etc. -, while Odium represents what makes a human break these rules for selfish reasons, abandoning responsibilities; so I definitely see why that connection with Id and Super-Ego would be made. But I think we know enough about Cultivation to say that she doesn't really fit the Ego. She's a different concept entirely, the will to grow, and, in collaboration with Honor, the will to grow from Odium (weakness, not taking responsibilities) to Honor. Her Intent is basically what makes humans want to be better than Odium and reach Honor. It's not so much a decision/balancing between the two (which the Ego would be) but specifically the willingness to decide against Odium. Fittingly, Cultivation is not a balance or a mediator between Odium and Honor, but on Honor's side. But yeah! Good thoughts all around!

Trell is not Endowment: Also, Endowment's letter to Hoid seems to imply that she is very commited to the pact of Shards not contacting each other, going as far as implying that the vessels Odium killed deserved what they got. This theory would require a drastic change of heart in that regard.

In Rosharan terms, Seons and Skaize would probably be called devotionspren and dominionspren, consequently.

I don't think there's many people who wouldn't like the prose version to be canon. I would hate a world where it wasn't easily accessible. And it certainly would take a lot to make me accept the GNs in my Cosmere canon. I don't think it will ever happen, even if there happen to be some contradictions once the third volume is out.

We have a WOB that confirms that there is no actual center of the Cosmere: So the answer is no. There is, however, this little thread on the possibility and ramifications of the black holes in the cosmere:

I utilized this seemingly never-ending Cosmere drought for a Stormlight Archive re-read. Started on August 1st and now I'm in the middle of Edgedancer. Absolutely beautiful. I think the whole War of Reckoning story arc is my favorite ever (always suspected that but wanted it confirmed). I consider writing a little roundup of things I noticed once I'm through. Edit: Got through on August 24th. That makes, I think, 51,000 words a day.

Following this train of thought, could Odium and Devotion, in a similar manner, be two opposite directions of passion?

I intitially thought "It's the Same Guy!" refered to Hoid rather than Brandon as an author. I fear I've reached the point of suspecting him behind every corner. Welcome on the Shard!

Final Empire is of high personal value for me, since it was the book that started the journey some 10 years ago. I'm very fond of it for that reason, although I do recognize that, not taking nostalgia into account, Words of Radiance is probably the Cosmere work that has had me in awe on the most constant basis. Brilliant book with really just a few tiny flaws, which basically never happens with me and books. As a series, Stormlight Archive has probably overtaken the original Mistborn trilogy. Oathbringer was the key moment for that. I always saw Well of Ascension as a bit of a weak chain (comparatively) in the Mistborn trilogy. The Stormlight Archive doesn't have that.

Please no pop songs in my epic fantasy! I'm among those who strongly oppose the idea of any Cosmere-related movie adaptation, but if there was to be one for the original Mistborn trilogy, I would hope for more of a choir-based soundtrack, at best comparable to Whitacre's When David Heard.

Parshendi seem to be distinct to Roshar: If they are specifically created for Roshar, they have to be expiicitly different from the Sho Del, who were - living on Yolen - not created for Roshar. I personally believe that Cultivation was human and looked just as she appeared. Mind that Odium appeared Parshendi because it would have been a problem for him to appear as the very thing he went kind of a long way to make them hate. When appearing before Dalinar, he still shows up with Shin eyes, instead of adjusting his appearance to fit Dalinar's. Obviously, the Shards can change appearance, but I don't see a good reason why Cultivation would do it in the situation we saw her in. Of course, there can be different reasons for it, I'm just saying that all of them are more unlikely than her just manifesting as she looked (same with Tanavast at the end of WOK). So I believe that's where the best bet is at.

Yeah, the Graphic Novels won't leave Dayside. I meant that Brandon might allow White Sand Prose discussions on a more casual basis once all volumes are out, since the story will be canonized from that point on and there will be no reason to keep being secretive about it. By now, I'm almost positive it won't be out until the date for the physical release at the earliest, so mid-September. I honestly have lost much of my eagerness for that release. I just want to see if anything strongly clashes with the prose canon and if I can keep that one as head-canon.

Yeah, that's also noted in Baon's explanation. Scythe also seems to be able to control people in one way or another (but that seems very vague and could be just rumours. Also, the reason why any search on the Coppermind is fruitless is White Sand Prose not being canon and Brandon generally not wanting people to talk about it (and other unpublished stuff) outside of sub-forums that are specifically designed for it (like this one). I wonder if that will change once the Graphic Novels are completed.

Scythe is the emperor of the Dynasty who rules most of Darkside (with few nations still resisting). His policy aims at isolating the nations of Darkside and making travel as hard as possible (a very Bavadin thing to do). Gevin (and after him, Khriss) traveled to Darkside to find out if Sand Mastery can be used as a weapon to fight against Scythe. You could call him a "greater scope villain", since he's never seen, but they speak about him. Baon talks about his supernatural powers - ff you have the prose version handy, check chapter 24 in there, in the middle of that chapter there's that scene where Baon talks about it. I guess he would have been the main villain of one of the two planned sequels, but since those presumably won't happen anymore, maybe Brandon will find other ways of implying how the resistance against him went along after the events of White Sand.

There's this WOB about Investiture on Darkside: While Khriss mentions that Autonomy Invested into Darkside, there's no mention of that Investiture being used by humans. It's more comparable to what's going on on First of the Sun, with Investiture manifesting in ecological processes. That obviously raises the question: What's with Scythe ... I believe he doesn't need to be an outgrowth of a local magic system. It's more likely that he's a manifestation of what a Shard can do with its powers. There are personas of Autonomy influencing the things happening in White Sand's story: So it seems very likely that Scythe is an avatar (or at least a persona) of Bavadin. There are cases to be made for Heelis to be Scythe's Dayside equivalent, but those are not quite as convincing. So Scythe's supernatural powers are most likely because he's heavily Invested/an avatar of Autonomy, not because he uses a specific form of Invested Art.

Yep, that's him:

Swearing an oath and living according to ideals means taking responsibility. Odium is all about refusing responsibility, letting yourself go, giving in. Keeping oaths is the exact opposite of what what Odium wants people to do. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I'd find it very bewildering if his warriors would gain his Investiture by doing something that is inherently against his Intent.

I noticed something interesting about SH: Kelsier runs into Hoid, Khriss and Elantrians, in that sequence. The stories before Mistborn chronologically are Dragonsteel (which features Hoid), White Sand (which features Khriss) and Elantris (which features Elantrians, not yet the Ire or Alonoe, but I'd be surprised if that doesn't happen in 2 or 3). So basically, Kelsier meets a part of each Cosmere story before Mistborn. Really makes Secret History feel like a culmination of the Cosmere sequence up to that point.

The Resonances are less pronounced the more powers someone has: This is already the case with a Mistborn, so Rashek's Resonances are probably not noticable. That said, Brandon obviously encourages theorizing in this direction in above WOB, so don't let that hinder you from speculating if you want to. Edit: Got ninja'd, woops!

Awesome! I'm very eager to see how the Netflix series will turn out. I hope it will be good - puppet animation getting some attention is always welcome. I love non-digital animation.