Chiberty

Harmony's War

This theory has two different levels.

1. Broad consequences of the end of SA5 that may fit into a new theme in future-era cosmere
2. Possibilities of specific events in SA5 that may allow those broader effects to come about

For the most part, I am suggesting the broader level will come into play, since the events on the specific level are, well, specific, and I don't expect all of them to actually come about. Mostly, they are just to provide examples and possibilities.

The Theory - The future cosmere era will largely explore a conflict between the Shards of Harmony and War. Of course, that would not be all taking place, but would provide a backdrop for many of the conflicts.

Support for the theory comes from two sides: the Mistborn side and the Stormlight side.

(All spoiler boxes - except the very last one - are just for length)

Mistborn

Trell is the most significant factor at play here. I agree with the common belief that Trell is an avatar of Autonomy. This is not my focus, so I won't dive deep into it, but Paalm's ideals in SoS, the existence of Trell the foreman in WS, and this WoB on Trell's identity all support that being the case.

However, I am also arguing that Trell/Autonomy is being supported by Odium. This WoB implies that Rayse has worked with Autonomy in the past, and although Taravangian now holds the Shard, he is still aware of some of Rayse's past actions, and may see Autonomy as a potential ally. Here are some other possible supporting factors:

Stormlight

Tying directly into those points from Mistborn, lets look at Dalinar's final negotiation with Rayse.

Now, Rayse may have been planning these things, but what about Taravangian?

So it seems that a war is coming to the rest of the cosmere. But it might not be solely Odium's fault:

But how does War the Shard come into play?

Now into the specifics for how this may come about. Again, I'm not suggesting that all of these events will take place, but they are examples for how it might take place.

The most essential part of those events would probably be Dalinar losing the battle of champions, and the others are less significant (aka I'm not trying to discuss the child champion theory in this thread).

So what are we left with? The Shard of War is stuck on Roshar, but is sending out his agents throughout the cosmere, attempting to save everyone by freeing them from the other Shards. He gives some support to Trell in the form of faceless immortals as of Era 2, and across the next Era, almost the entirety of both Scadrial and Roshar are drawn into conflict against each other, until it comes to a head in Era 4.

Here's an extra bit for you who like reading all of the preview content - spoilers to the excerpt from the sequel to Sixth of the Dusk:

1 hour ago, Honorless said:

But... his Cultivation given boon bane split still seemed to exist

I interpreted that to be referring to the division between T's mind and the Intent of the Shard, but I suppose that explanation works as well.

I'm very interested to see how other people rank the books, especially with how divisive some parts of them are. My personal rankings for them are:

1. The Way of Kings

This was my introduction to the cosmere, and it blew me away. Meeting all of these characters and being introduced to the epic world of Roshar immediately made this book become my all time favorite. This book might have an unfair advantage in my mind being the first in the series, but it has it's own epic moments too: see the entirety of Part 5.

2. Rhythm of War

I liked the reveals and twists in this book the best, considering all the Ishar stuff, Taravangian's ascension, and cosmere references galore. However, the Kaladin plot in Part 3 got a little repetitive/slow, so that holds it from first place.

3. Oathbringer

I think this book felt the slowest out of the 4, but a couple things keep it from dropping to fourth place. One: Szeth's plot. Szeth was my favorite of the four "main characters" in WoK, and Skybreakers are my favorite order, so it was great learning about them. Two: The Girl Who Stood Up. This is probably my favorite chapter in Stormlight; enough said.

4. Words of Radiance

In my mind, there's no such thing as a bad Stormlight book, but something has to take last place. It didn't have my favorite reveal, favorite scene, or mindblowing introduction, like RoW, OB, and WoK, respectively, but it is still my fourth favorite book overall. Stormlight over non-Stormlight any day.

Oh wow, wasn't expecting the Skybreakers to be winning this poll. I agree with that result, of course. In my opinion, they have the best surges, the coolest aesthetic (especially with the highspren), and the most interesting Ideals. What they're doing right now is off, but that's even pointed out in world by Szeth in OB. Nale's explanation of the Skybreakers in that scene is great.

Quote

It is not perfection we seek, for perfection is impossible. It is instead consistency.

22 hours ago, SrBander said:

Hi there! I want to get a tattoo of the First Oath and searching for it i have come across this reddit thread. I have been using the search tool in the forum but i didnt see a post asking for the confirmation of this (sorry if it exist and i didnt realize) so here i am, im pretty confident this is accurate but you know, a tattoo is for life xD and seems like a good idea to ask here too. Im posting a picture of the alethi woman´s script but you should really give a look to the reddit thread.

 

Thanks for the help in advance

It's mostly accurate, but I think the letters with the double lines should be the medium height instead of the biggest.

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ketsugi

I'm not terribly fond of puns in fantasy unless the author expects us to believe that the characters are either speaking English or that the language that they are speaking has exactly the same puns.

Brandon Sanderson

It's neither one. Generally, the authors you're reading are pretending their books are in translation--and are generally providing an appropriate English pun to convey the tone of the scene. It happens in the real world, too. My books are all in English originally. When my translator for the Taiwanese editions, for example, runs across a pun, she often constructs a pun that works in the context in her language. The actual words are different, but the idea of "This character is making a wordplay quip" remains.

ketsugi

Thanks for the reply. One of my favourite things about this subreddit is the interaction with authors.How do you extend this to foreign languages within the world, then? For example, Tolkien's various languages, or the Old Tongue in Wheel of Time. Do we assume that the imaginary translator decided not to translate those phrases? If so, why?Made-up example:

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," Tom muttered under his breath.

As, perhaps, opposed to:

"This is a truly stupendous event," Tom muttered under his breath, in Poppinish.

Brandon Sanderson

The idea is that the imaginary translator (who is basically the author) is trying to preserve the proper tone. Any time one of those phrases is written, the author COULD have just written the translated version. Why didn't they? There are a ton of reasons, but the most likely is to preserve the feeling the characters have in interacting with something they don't understand. This extends to which words we choose to translate even from the world. In Stormlight, I use the word 'havah' for a Vorin dress. Yet I call a coat simply a coat. There's a balance between not overloading the reader and providing setting immersion, and also a distinction between an article of clothing that is meaningful culturally and one that is less so. Being able to make these kinds of decisions is like adding a pinch of exotic spice to your broth, making it a unique and savory experience, and is part of what I love about fantasy over other genres.

General Reddit 2015 (Sept. 8, 2015)

4 hours ago, Zoey said:

If we assume that the Orbital Period is 36000000 Seconds, due to the information that the years on Roshar are 10,000 Hours long (500 Days of 20 Hours each)

Note that Rosharan hours are also a different length than our own, and the year ends up being 1.10 Earth years. 

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Peter Ahlstrom

The Rosharan year is 1.10 Earth years. The Rosharan hour is a little bit shorter.

name_here

Let me guess: it's 50 minutes.

E: no, just checked on calculator, apparently it's 57.816 minutes.

Peter Ahlstrom

But it's 50 Rosharan minutes. 

Miscellaneous 2014 (March 20, 2014)

The answer is that there is no answer. Or, not an official one at least. 

So any theory you have that can resolve the inconsistencies may very well be correct. The theory I like is that mass changes, but Wax is not impervious to bullets because the mass change doesn't affect interactions among things internal to him, which would end up including the bullet.

6 hours ago, Frustration said:

Wax says it doesn't change mass,

thoug looking through WoB's it seems that's how Brandon looks at it.

 

Wax never says that - in the scene you are thinking of, he says that it doesn't change density,  which does imply a constant mass, but Wax is simply incorrect in that scene. As shown by Wax's talk with Khriss, he has never even heard of conservation of momentum, so he is not a reliable source for physics-related info. In that scene, he refers to how he does not not become bullet resistant to claim he doesn't change density. With only that information, a constant mass would be a valid explanation. However, like I showed in my post you quoted, other information invalidates it, so some other explanation must be the true one (such as the mass change not affecting things internal to the user).

Here is Brandon's explanation:

Essentially, he doesn't have an explanation. So any explanation we come up with that fits all the evidence could very well be true. But, simply saying it changes weight without changing mass does not fit all of the evidence, so it can't be true.

8 hours ago, Frustration said:

actually no it isn't mass

you will notice that Wax doesn't gain increadible punching power, nor bullet resistence.

It's a change in the spiritual value that holds his weight not any physical change to him.

It is explicitly pointed out in the books to be mass. Once when Wax says it doesn't change free-fall speed, and again when Khriss talks about conservation off momentum. Neither of those would be true if it was changing weight without changing mass. As for things like why he doesn't get bullet resistance, there are multiple theories for why, the one that I like being that the mass change doesn't affect the interactions between things internal to the user, so when a bullet enters them, it isn't affected.

2 hours ago, DoctaDajman said:

I feel like this is two different answers.  My brain hurts after reading all the physics talk this morning on other iron feruchemy discussions.  

So storing makes you speed up as you get lighter, and tapping and getting bigger makes you slow down?  Or is there no difference?  

If abrasion such as in "Edgedancer" allowed lift to lower so much friction that she couldn't feel the wind on her face even as she was moving would storing and tapping still make a difference?   Or is the point that F-Iron won't change your momentum at all.  

Here are a couple of links to the threads that peaked my question.  

There is a ton of back and forth in these that I found a lot of fun to read.  I just dont have the mind to work any of it out.  

Does air resistance and friction make any difference in the speed of a fall or not?   I was always of the opinion that sazed floated like a feather super light.  Is that because he started at a very light weight?  The physics would support that making himself lighter mid fall would only speed up his decent and it is getting much heavier that would actually slow a fall.   Which sort of destroys the juggernaut charge the door then fill a bunch of weight and break free.   This would almost suggest that if you tap too much iron you would stop your forward progress completely.   

It has been a long long week.  I just feel like iron feruchemy is sailing over my head as far as when to store and when to tap.  Like I have thought about it backwards for years and years.   I was on team tin for ferrings and just recently tried to understand more uses of iron.  

Yeah, that was two different answers. The first paragraph was my reply to Frustration, and the second was more just an answer to OP.

So for the first question, yes. You speed up when storing and slow down when tapping. For the second question, even with no friction or air resistance, f-iron affects your speed. That's because it conserves your momentum relative to... whatever the perceived reference frame is - usually the ground. So a if person taps iron while moving, their mass increases, so their speed goes down. It's like running into a bunch of stuff that's sitting still. 

Air resistance does affect how fast things fall. The higher the air resistance, the lower terminal velocity is. Sazed was floating like feather. If Sazed changed his mass midair to be really light... that's similar to getting recoil. Yes, the recoil pushes you forwards (down in this case) initially, but if it also makes you lose mass, your terminal velocity lowers, and that slows you back down.

4 hours ago, Frustration said:

But it's not mass it's weight, the mass of the object retains the same mass.

And as such without any air resistence it would continue at the same speed.

F-iron changes mass, not weight. That's why Wax mentions that storing doesn't change his free-fall speed. Sazed is only able to fall like a feather because of air resistance.

But, the speed change Khriss asked Wax about is just a perception-influenced conservation of momentum. It doesn't have anything to do with friction. An abrasion user would speed up if they stored f-iron, and slow down if they tapped.

4 minutes ago, Harrycrapper said:

Ok, went through a few early chapters in RoW and found these:

That confirms that they indeed do not lose Voidlight while flying.

That does seem to imply that their powers are tied to their Voidlight supply, though there's this bit a couple paragraphs later after Kaladin decides to let him live:

His Voidlight was expended at this point, but he was still in the air and was able to get away, though it does seem like his abilities were hampered. Not very conclusive, but I do think this indicates a relationship between having the Voidlight and the Fused being able to use their abilities that don't drain the Voidlight. It's possible he had a tiny amount left, but as far as I know, the Lights try to heal the body automatically until they are depleted. Though I suppose if anyone knows how to stop that and keep their light, it would be the Fused. There's another blurb from RoW about how Venli has a small amount of Voidlight that fuels her Envoyform abilities that also doesn't deplete, that might shed a bit more light(haha) on the situation, I'll see if I can find that at some point. 

As for the spren/Highstorm issue, even if it isn't Investiture, they are getting something out of it. Syl noticeably brightens, which could be an indication of increased energy, though it could also be a mood thing. That may not seem like much to you, but I have serious doubts Brandon would have written that bit in as something that just makes the spren feel better, it feels very much like they get something vital from the Highstorm. And if they do, that does present another problem for long term voyages off Roshar with a spren. I could see them being able to miss a Highstorm or two, but it's quite possible that the effects of not being near one for a few months could be detrimental to the spren's health. 

Sidenote: if the spren really isn't losing Investiture over time and charging the sand doesn't cause them to lose anything, couldn't you just use the spren to recharge sand instead of a perfect gemstone? Considering perfect gemstones aren't exactly common, that seems like a more scalable solution. 

I don't disagree that the spren get something out of the highstorm, I just don't agree that it's vital in the Physical Realm, even if it might be vital in the Cognitive, since spren in the Physical don't seem to experience that effect from the storm.

Using spren instead of a perfect gemstone may indeed be a better way to do this process. It's possible though that the Investiture released by spren is different than that released from Stormlight, Intent-wise, which might make it work a different way.

8 hours ago, Harrycrapper said:

Actually, yes, spren seem to be constantly losing Investiture. In OB we see that the Syl and Pattern recharge in some way when the Highstorm passes through Shadesmar. They would not need to recharge if the Investiture that they're made up of stays at a fixed level. We do see that spren need Stormlight to recharge themselves after they're wounded, but Syl and Pattern had not been wounded like Notum was when they needed to recharge.

 For the Fused, a relevant question would be whether the Heavenly Ones can fly when they expend all of their Voidlight. If there's an instance of that happening, then the light isn't a factor in their ability to fly. It's been a little while, but the battle at Hearthstone in RoW part one might yield an answer on that. I feel like it's mentioned at some point that Fused fly off to refill their Voidlight, but can't quite remember. 

 

I don't see that as an indication of the spren constantly losing Investiture. For one, that only happened in the Cognitive Realm, and Phendorana was not in the Cognitive Realm when Moash detected her. Also, even in the Cognitive Realm, they don't seem to need whatever they get from the storm - it just seems to be good for them, so it's probably not actually a "recharge".

As for whether the shanay-im require Voidlight to fly... I suppose it's possible they don't, but I would find that strange, personally.

19 minutes ago, lipat97 said:

also, can someone remind me when they brought up the fact that spheres couldn’t be brought outside their system? Im like pretty sure some of this info was available in book 3 (or at least Arcanum Unbounded) but Im trying to be careful in case its actually a book 4 spoiler 

I'm not sure when exactly it was revealed, but if you haven't read RoW, I strongly recommend not looking at the RoW board, which this is in, since spoilers abound here.

7 hours ago, spaidapig said:

I'm not sure if I agree with your idea or not, because it has some pretty valid points and I think you can fit many of the examples of Surgebinding/Farbrialtech in it, but only if certain conditions turn out to be true, which I am not sure about.

But first to your assumptions regarding the Sand:

Do we know for sure, that the Sand from Taldain can detect Fused or perfect gemstones?
So far as I understand it, the Sand is able to detect kinetic Investiture, ergo Investiture that is being used oder leaking from something (this can be an imperfect Gemor a Radiant holding Stormlight)
In this Scenario it could definitely not detect Stormlight in a perfect Gem.

If it can detect perfect Gemstones, by what you are calling Spiritual Radiation, this would mean, that the Radiant could get more Storlight from a combination of Sand an Gem, because the Gem doesn't lose anything, but the Sand still charges.
This process would create more Investiture by itself, without any outside force like a Perpendicularity or natural Investiture distribution like the Sun on Taldain or the Storms on Roshar.

So this means, that using a multiple lashing would be like flaring a metal, and by that it would be used up faster, am I right?

Another thing is the rate that Squires, Radiants from different Ideals and Honorbladewielders use Stormlight.
We know that Radiants are a lot more effective, but why is that so?
Do Squires and Honorblade work on Stormlight and progressing Radiants on the Spiritual Radiation provided by the former, which would be more effective?

You are mostly basing your theorie on this WOB:

Brandon says, that the leaking is not what is causing the Glow of the Spheres but that it is more like a lightbulb, that is screwed in the SR. If we take this by word, it only means, that investiture in Gemstones glows. But not that this radiation is made up of Investiture. I'm saying this, because Lightbulbs don't emmit the electricity they are powered with, but they glow as well.
I'm reading this more a current flowing from an infinit battery and the light in the gem is the wire that creates the glowing.
When SL leaks the wire gets thinner an thinner until there is no wire left to glow.

 

Even the Fused need Investiture supply, even if they are not leaking any Voidlight at all.
We have seen this on many occasions:
They use their Voidlight for healing from wounds and they get hit often enough they need to retreat from the fight.
They can Lash thing, like Windrunners do sometims, which costs them VL as well.
The Pursuer uses up his VL pretty frequently when creating new Bodies.
And I belive theis Soulcasters cannot Soulcast indefinitely.

Well, these are my ideas to your theory.

We don't know for sure if the sand can detect an infused perfect gem, but there is some evidence that shows it could be possible, which I put in my post. One piece of evidence is that the Fused can do some surgebinding indefinitely. And yes, as you point out, for some things, the Fused do use up Voidlight, but the fact that they are able to do just some things without using it up is key. For the shanay-im to fly about, they must be getting energy from somewhere, and if they can do this without expending Light, then the Light itself cannot be the energy source in that scenario. I am suggesting that this unknown energy source is the Spiritual Realm, facilitated via the Light. Another bit of evidence for the "Spiritual radiation" is the sand's ability to detect spren. Unless spren are constantly losing the Investiture they are composed of, it seems that some other Investiture must be emanating from them.

As you said, this being true would allow the Radiant to get more Investiture than would usually be possible, by pulling from the Spiritual Realm. However, this is not unheard of in other uses. Again, the shanay-im are able to get more energy without using Light, and in the metallic arts, iron feruchemy could be used to generate energy without using up the stored attribute (tapping weight at the top of a wheel, and storing at the bottom, thus spinning the wheel). 

27 minutes ago, Harrycrapper said:

The only way I see this theory working is if light stored in a gemstone is its own mini perpendicularity and the sand is piggybacking on the stored Investiture to access the Spiritual Realm. You can't have an end positive amount of Investiture by letting it leak into the white sand unless that Investiture is coming from something/somewhere else. Extrapolating on the lightbulb analogy, there wouldn't be enough energy radiating from a lightbulb to power a separate lightbulb, but you might be able to connect to the source of the lightbulbs power and syphon off some for other purposes.  A relevant question for Brandon would be whether or not an infused perfect gemstone would charge the sand, as we don't know that for a fact and this theory is predicated on that assumption. 

Yep, that's pretty much exactly how I'm trying to suggest this would work. I don't know if the Light would count as a mini perpendicularity here, since a perpendicularity connects to the Cognitive Realm as well (which the Light may or may not do), but I do think it's at least similar to a perpendicularity's connection to the Spiritual Realm.

5 hours ago, GoWibble said:

What I'm getting caught up on is how this will help extend the life of the sphere or to let the Radiant use extra investiture. 

I'm basically suggesting a way to allow a Radiant to use Light like a Fused. In most cases, a Fused does not run out of Light when surgebinding, since they perfectly contain it, and none leaks out.

A perfect gem is needed here because it acts as the perfect container, like a Fused. The sand is there to catch the Investiture radiating from the sphere so the Radiant can use it. In a normal case, where the Radiant intakes the Light, they can pull the "radiation" through it quickly, but here, it is just being emitted at the natural rate, which is why the Radiant needs to wait for a bunch of sand to charge before they can surgebind effectively.

So it's not extending the life of the sphere or letting the Radiant use extra Investiture - it just lets the Radiant surgebind without leaking any Light.

2 hours ago, MGershone said:

So you're theorizing the existence of static Investiture that doesn't do anything, but just provides a connection between the Physical and Spiritual Realms?

I'm not saying that Light can't do anything else, just that in the case of surgebinding, that's what it does. (Also don't know that I'd call it static Investiture, but that's not part of this theory)

1 hour ago, MGershone said:

If this is true, then what exactly is the Light? I've  always  assumed Light is Investiture, but if not, it's got to be something else.

Under this theory, it's still Investiture, just not the Investiture that is used up. It just provides a pathway to get the fuel, like metals in allomancy do, except in this case, the thing providing the pathway is Investiture itself.

3 hours ago, GoWibble said:

Just to be clear, are you claiming that the Investiture absorbed by the sand is or is not Investiture that is an 'excess' or more than what the sphere is holding and leaking?

I'm not claiming whether the sand holds less or more Investiture than the sphere. The rate at which the sand gains Investiture is related to the amount of Investiture in the sphere. The amount depends on a combination of the amount of sand, how long it has been there, and that rate.

45 minutes ago, GoWibble said:

Essentially, you claim that the amount of "spiritual radiation" emitted across a gem's lifetime is more Investiture than a Radiant would gain if they simply breathed in the Light from the gemstone.

This process doesn't seem like it would be significantly net-positive for it to infuse other gems and sustain the process, at least on a small scale. This would need to happen on a massive scale to produce a significant net gain, and by that point, I wonder if there is not an easier way to do this. Especially on Sel.

I think this would work, it just might not be very effective.

Oh, I'm not claiming that you'd get more than from breathing it in - just that you would get some. The reason for doing this instead of breathing it in is so you don't run out, even if does end up being inefficient, since the source sphere would not be depleted.

On 5/23/2021 at 7:38 PM, mathiau said:

Making the ground so soft it's basically liquid would be Tension, not Cohesion

Actually, they were correct in saying it was cohesion:

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

The Willshapers have to have Cohesion, because Cohesion is the "grab something solid and melt it and push it in any direction you want..." it's the weak atomic force.

It's, you can take this and push your hand into it and leave a hand print, or things like that, and that's a Willshaper thing, not a Bondsmith thing.

Footnote: In the context of looking at the Radiant chart
Words of Radiance Seattle signing (March 8, 2014)

Although neither Radiants or Stormlight can get off of Roshar right now, I assume that problem will be solved eventually, so theory is about solving the next problem Radiants would run into after getting off-world: running out of Stormlight. If the Connection problem solved in this hypothetical future, the Radiant could, of course, take charged spheres with them, but away from the highstorms, what will they do when the spheres run out? Yes, there are perfect gems that will keep holding the Stormlight, but how much can a Radiant do with Light that they have to keep in a gem? Some of the things we've learned in RoW are key to solving this problem.

First, the Fused. They use Voidlight to control the Surges, but the Light, in many of of the Fused applications, does not run out. The shanay-im are able to fly around without expending any Voidlight. However, in the cosmere, we know that the amount of matter/energy/Investiture is conserved, so when a Heavenly One moves via flight, that energy has to come from somewhere.

Second, white sand. In Navani's experiments, she is able to use white sand to detect how fast a fabrial is using Light, and Moash is able to use it to detect a spren's location. As we know from the White Sand story (and Khriss's Taldain essay), when the sand is white, that means it is Invested. So, for the sand to turn white in the cases mentioned, that means it must absorb Investiture, and as we know, the glow from Stormlight is due to Investiture coming through the Spiritual Realm.

Quote

Alteroden

With Stormlight, the better the gem is cut, the less Stormlight it leaks, and the longer it holds its charge. If a gem was perfectly cut, on a molecular scale, would it leak Stormlight at all?

Brandon Sanderson

In a theoretical flawless gem, then no it would not.

Alteroden

Would it actually give off light?

Brandon Sanderson

[...] Theoretically no it would not, but it's not what you're thinking...

Alteroden

No no no, that’s not what I’m thinking, I figured that’s something totally different.

Brandon Sanderson

Well, actually, it probably would still give off light, because it's drawing out of the Spiritual Realm. So I’d say it still lights, but it doesn't leak. The leaking is not where the illumination is coming from. The illumination is coming from a direct... It's basically a light bulb screwed into the Spiritual Realm.

Shadows of Self Chicago signing (Oct. 12, 2015)

This explains how the sand is able to slowly charge even when just next to a spren - the spren, like Stormlight, emits Investiture from the Spiritual Realm. Now, here comes the more theory-based part. When Navani detects how fast fabrials use Light with the sand, I believe the sand is also simply absorbing this Spiritual radiation. When the fabrial uses Light, it tries to pull more power through it, causing more Investiture to be emitted.

Combining what we know about the Fused with this white sand detection information, I think that, in most cases, the Spiritual radiation is actually what is used up when someone uses Light as "fuel". The Light itself is not used up, it just leaks - and pulling Investiture through it faster makes it leak faster. This would also explain why the anti-Investiture explosions we see are not as big as one might expect - the Light that is annihilated is actually a relatively small amount of Investiture, at least in comparison to matter. It only seems like a large amount because large amounts of Investiture can be pulled through it. Now, one might point to spren becoming solid Blades as evidence against this disparity between energy levels in Investiture and in matter, but there is much we don't know about the conversion of Investiture to a solid state, and how exactly it differs from other states of Investiture (namely why raysium daggers don't react with anti-Voidlight), that I don't think that argument can hold much weight without more information.

That brings us to the idea - how Spiritual radiation being the true power behind Radiants will allow them to have extended use of their powers off of Roshar. A perfect gem charged with Stormlight is needed, along with a supply of white/black sand. If the charged gem is placed by/in the uncharged sand, the sand should slowly charge, while the gem remains full. Then, after accumulating a decent amount of charged sand (using more gems should make it faster), the Radiant can pour water on the sand, causing it to quickly release its Investiture. This should be the same Investiture that the Radiant would have used from the Light, only this allows them to release large amounts of the Investiture at once without having to draw the Light in.

White sand does fade over time, so this solution is not ideal, but since the perfect gems don't lose their charge, the sand doesn't need to hold the charge indefinitely - only long enough for the Radiant to accumulate a decent amount. It is possible that a similar solution using nicrosil Feruchemy would be more efficient, but we hardly know anything about how that works, so that is unclear.

So, that person on the WoK cover is just supposed to be a generic Sharbearer, according to the artist. However, it does match another Sharblade we know of exactly. I don't know how far you are in the series, so I'll spoiler this for WoR all, maybe early OB:

Even though it matches that Blade, since the artist says it was meant to be a generic Shardbearer, I wouldn't read much into it.

Eshonai's Blade looks like this in the official Call to Adventure art:

23 hours ago, Jofwu said:

I'm also a bit skeptical that the Heralds can die and be sent to Braize? I'm not entirely confident in this because I'm not really sure WHAT would happen if they died.... If they could die in the past, in their prime, I suppose they are certainly able to die NOW. But their confidence is really weird to me... I'm particularly thinking of how little fear Jezrien had when Moash stabbed him, at first. The man had ZERO fear of dying. Could a Shardblade even kill a Herald so easily as Shallan killed her mom? And are we sure they would still get sent to Braize if they did die? The assumption that they could be killed by a Shardblade and that this would send them to Braize is super reasonable... But it does strike me as an assumption, I guess.

Kalak says in the prelude:

Quote

When he died, he was sent back, no choice.