Nellac

So I was thinking about it the other day and it seems soulcasting has a lot to do with changing the way something is perceived/perceives itself in the cognitive realm. I thought about the stick Shallan tries to soulcast and it took my to days in my childhood. As a kid when I would go camping sticks could be anything. It could be a wizards staff, a sword, a bow, you name it. I also would gather up rocks and pretend they were dragon/griffin eggs. I always have loved fantasy. That being said, is it possible that a child could be better at soulcasting than an adult? I know it's less likely they will get this power because they probably on't be developed enough to bond a spren, but just follow me on this one. Let's say for some reason they got an honor blade. I think they would be able to soulcast things in a simpler and greater way then adults because they are better able to imagine things and pretend the world around them is different. This also makes sense why the Lightweavers were usually very artistic. Not only did this help them create better illusions, but it would give them the imagination necessary to see something differently and to push those thoughts onto their cognitive version to create a change. I'm not a huge scholar of the cosmere so I might be missing an important detail about soulcasting or the cognitive realm so I'm putting this here to get other people's thoughts and opinions. Do you think a child would be better at soulcasting then an adult? If not, why not?

This is something that I think too little people consider. There is a comment in one of Dalinar's visions, I don't own copies of the book so I don't have an exact reference, where one of the Radiants say that they fight and teach the people in Alethkar to fight so that other people don't have to. This is the basis for what I think the Dustbringer oaths are. I think they are something along the line of, "I will fight so others don't have to." I think that they take upon themselves the need to destroy and cause harm to others. The feel all the emotions that come from killing and war, but take this up as their responsibility to deal with so others don't have to. I know there's not a ton of evidence for this, but there's not a ton of evidence for Dustbringer oath's in general so I figured I'd throw it out here and people can decide whether it's convincing or not.

I like all your theories, but I think there is one more option. Odium could've been manipulating events to make himself seem more overwhelming. There are two ways I think this is likely. It's important to note that when Dalinar is overwhelmed by Odium he is in one of his visions. We see that honor can use these visions to show Dalinar almost anything. It's possible that Odium simply took over the vision and used it to show Dalinar a larger grander version of his power. The other option is more interesting. We know that Odium's shard/identity has something to do with emotion. His name literally means widespread anger. We also see him manipulate emotions when he takes away Moash's pain and asks to take Dalinar's. It's possible that he could've simply manipulated Dalinar's emotions to create an overwhelming feeling. It could be even stronger then a mistborn using emotional allomancy and duralomin. He also could have more control to create the stronger and more detailed emotions.

Teft. Now, before y'all destroy me let me explain. I want Teft to go down in a blaze of glory sacrificing himself to save someone else. His biggest obstavle on the way to radiance was his addiction. When he first meets Kal Teft tells him that he can't be relied upon. Teft has constantly been afraid that he will let everyone down and not be there when he's needed. I want him to take up that responsibility and stay true to it even though he dies in the process. I think that would be a great ending to his arc. I'm imagining two ways this could happen that would be cool. One is that he and Kaladin are on a mission and they get ambushed by Moash. Teft takes Moash's first attack so that Kal doesn't die. The other option would be that there is a massive battle and he is assigned to holding a certain location. I'd love to see him stand there slowly losing all of his squires as they hold back the enemy just long enough for..... Not exactly sure what, but whatever the main characters are doing to stop odium.

So at one point Nivani mentions that soon after the recreance shard blades couldn't be dismissed. They only discovered later that placing a gem in the hilt let it be dismissed. Could something similar be possible with shard plate? The more I think about it the more likely it seems. Both blade and plate could be summoned and dismissed by the radiants. Both lost that ability after the radiants fell. It seems that what made one dismissible couple work on the other. Now, the biggest problem with this is that you would think someone else would have figured this out when they figured out blades. What if it was more complex though? We know that plate requires a higher order of radiant than blade, so it would also need more of a connection than blades would. Here's my theory. To be able to dismiss plate you need to place several gemstones on the outside of the plate in very specific locations. Just as a gemstone needs to be on the hilt of a blade, these would need to be in specific locations. Now, this being on the exterior of the plate would be why no one has tried it. Even if they could figure out exactly where to place the gems, It would be too expensive for the risk. It would be easy for someone, especially a shard bearer, to break the gems causing the connection to be lost. This could actually become a vital tactic in battles so the opponent can't just drop their plate when it runs out of stormlight. Over time people realized it was too costly for the minimal advantage it added. What does everyone else think? Could shard plate be dismissed again? Is my theory possible or just way out there?

What do you mean in the Canon version? Also, do you have any evidence for thinking that Renarin or lift could heal shard blade wounds or even resurrect someone? It says in OB that Renarin can't heal Rysn's legs. So far we have not seen it dinner, so I'm curious where you're getting this idea. Also, from what we've seen fabriels are weaker then radiants. Just look at soul casters compared to Yasnah. How could a fabriel do something we haven't seen any radiant do, heal shard blade wounds.

Okay, so I've skimmed through this post so sorry if someone already made this point. I keep seeing people talk about how Kaladin and Shallan could've worked if adolin hadn't gotten in the way, or could work if Adolin died. This seems absolutely ridiculous to me and I think it's just people hoping without any evidence. Here is the thing. Shallan has had a very distressing childhood. Most of this is because of the OVERPROTECTIVE nature of her father. We even see this at the end of OB when she gets mad at Adolin for saying he wants to protect her. Now, what is Kaladin's biggest flaw/struggle? It is how he feels the need to protect everyone. I see no way that this could end well. Kaladin would always be trying to protect Shallan, and this would just constantly remind her of her father.

Okay, you might be right on him not going beyond. But there is a very distinct difference between Szeth and Gawx. They were healed from very different sounds. Gawx had his throat slit by a normal blade. While this is an injury that kills very quickly, it is not instantaneous. Szeth, on the other hand, was killed by a shard blade through the spine. This kills instantly, and leaves no actual damage to the body. As far as we've seen, only a person holding investiture inside of them can heal from such a wound. Regrowth would most likely be useless because the actual body requires no healing. This is why I think it's a dawnshard. It doesn't heal just the physical body, it heals the soul itself.

Another thing to take into account is the fabriel Nahel uses on Szeth. It is something that literally pulls him back from the spiritual realm. This is far more than a simple healing. I wouldn't be surprised if this turned out to be a dawnshard. Either way, it seems to be something far past what normal radiant regrowth can do. It could easily be powered by cultivation light or have some other special property, such as being made of God metal, that only someone as old as a herald would know about.

So, I think there is one aspect of people disliking Moash that hasn't been tasked through enough. This is that he was great and then fell. How betrayal is there biggest reason I dislike him. So I'll admit there are people in the world that have done far more bad then Moash. Odium, Sadeus, Amaram, and Tarivangian have all done worse things then Moash. The difference is we never really grew a bond with any of these characters. They each got maybe a couple chapters at most before we knew they weren't good people. Some we even knew right away. Moash was different. We saw him as a great guy for a book and a half. During this time we started to connect with him and see him as one of the good guys. The fact that he then turned around and became so evil made him much more easy to hate. I'm not saying that some people aren't hating on Moash just because it's popular, but here's another reason people have a problem with him.

As I was reading through the series I remember the stormfather mentioning that he had two other siblings. It is also mentioned that there are only ever three (max) bondsmiths at one time. Now I don't think that it is coincidental that the number of bondsmiths on this world is the same as the number of shards. I actually think that each shard has an associated bondsmith. They are the most powerful spren of that shard. You would have the Stormfather, the Nightwatcher, and one of the Unmade (not sure which). We've already seen that we can have radiants bond spren other than Honor's (Edgedancers), so I think this could be possible. If so, does this mean we could have some orders of radiant that actually bond odiumspren? It seems that the most likely to fit in this category are Dustbringers, but we really don't know enough about them yet to make a decision.

I'm not an expert, but I'll do my best to answer what questions I can 1) I don't remember the exact scene very well, but does it specifically reference the eyes after it has been killed. If so I have no idea what's going on here. If not, it could simply be an omission of an unimportant fact. For example, there must be spren constantly appearing and disappearing around everyone, whether they be emotion spren or even just windspren. Because they are everywhere, many times they simply aren't discussed unless they have a purpose in driving the story forward. 2) I'm not sure why it mentions rubies specifically, but at this point Dalinar can hold stormlight so he could easily draw it out of one gem and put it into another. There may also be a fabriel device or another method to transfer stormlight from one gem to another that we just haven't heard of as of yet. I find the first idea more likely then the second. 3) When we get a chapter from Lopen's point of view later in the book he talks about his spren running of and playing hide and seek a lot. Rlain might not see the spren because it is hiding from even Lopen. 4) I think this one is just a phrase. "An old general's trick" could probably be used for any trick that he learned in the army. I don't think it's hinting at anything else. Also, they had spanreeds for most, if not all, of Dalinar and Gavilar's conquest of Alethkar. This means that all the time Dalinar as a general this could have been a popular trick 5) I'm not completely sure on this one. One explanation is that he used the surge of illumination. He could have made a powerful sound, basicly a sonic wave, that could have knocked the doors ajar. Also, it sometimes mentions that Shallan's illusion occasionally have some physical form. He could have given the light enough physical form to influence the world. Another explanation is that the doors were somehow made in such a way that they automatically open when they sense stormlight. Renarin could have simply dumped a bunch of stormlight into the air instead of infusing it into a gem, much like you could just throw a pitcher of water into the air, instead of carefully pouring it into a cup. The doors sensed the free stormlight and reacted. It also might have something to do with his corrupted spren. Since this has never been seen before we don't really know how it could change someone's abilities. I hope this is somewhat helpful

Fair, but would it still stand to reason to have one that leans strongly towards Odium? It seems too coincidental for there to be one order that is limited to just three members and there also be exactly three shards found on this planet. I still think that there will be a bondsmith that is closely tied to one of the unmade. Could that possibly be the champion that Odium was trying to make Dalinar into? I find this unlikely because there were always three bondmiths, but I'm throwing it out there as a possibility

Have we ever seen a mix though? I've never seen any spren that is a combination of two different shards. Each shard has their own attributes and the splinters of those shards would share those attributes. Also, if there was another spren as powerful and impactful as the Stormfather and the Nightwatcher we would have heard about it at this point. Those two are hinted at and mentioned from the very first book. I find it unlikely that if another (debatedly) benevolent spren like them existed we wouldn't have heard about it before now.

Uhh, what do you mean Moash didn't murder Elhokar? I quite distinctly remembering him killing the king while he was trying sear the oaths Okay, the bus comparison was really bad, I'll give you that. Elhokar's punishment was basically a lecture and a slap on the wrist. So, if Moash is justified does that mean that any Alethi can now kill him? I mean, obviously all that matters is getting revenge so any alethi has enough justification to murder him on sight. Actually make that every human on the continent since he killed a herald, one of the beings that has protected them for so long. If the idea is that if someone kills someone important to you you have full justification to murder them then anyone on the planet of Roshar can kill Moash. The reason I brought up him being redeemed is that many people say that Moash can be redeemed for the terrible things he has done. If he can why not Elohkar as well? I'm not saying that he is too far gone, I'm saying that he sees himself as too far gone. He sees that he has no way out and has given up on himself. The biggest thing necessary for someone to be redeemed would be for them to believe that they can be redeemed, They have to be willing to try and become better and believe that they can become better. He doesn't believe in himself and so he has turned his back on his possibilities of change and turned to Odium. He might be able to be redeemed, but at this point I don't see it happening.

So far we know of two spren that can create bondsmiths. There is something interesting that they share in common. They are both the most powerful spren from a certain shard. The stormfather is the most powerful spren that derived from honor. The Nightwatcher is the most powerful spren of cultivation. This leaves one shard that doesn't have a spren with a bondsmith, Odium. So, is the last Bondsmith bonded to an Odiumspren? If so, does this mean that other knight orders might have Odiumspren? It makes sense in some ways because Knights Radiant can be bonded to spren from Honor or Cultivation, so why not Odium. But then again, does that make them beholden to Odium? Or are they separate enough to do their own thing, like the unmade that tries to work with shallan in Oathbringer. Then again, the spren would be one of the unmade. Isn't there a reference in one of the books about on of the unmade turning on odium? I can't remember where it was so if anyone can help me on the quote I'd appreciate it. Overall I think it's at least an interesting idea.

I don't think you really understand how much goes into the ideas of the magic systems and how they work. Since all of the cosmere books have magic systems and histories bound incredibly tightly into Adonalsium, the shards, and the three realms, I don't think he could simply pick up another world that he created separately with separate ideas and just drop it in. I don't think that it would work. Also, I like having some of his books outside the cosmere because it gives me a bit of a break from searching through every chapter for references to other books. It makes them a little bit of a lighter read for me, which is what I want from YA book like Rithmatist. I am waiting more for the sequel just to see more of this world.

I don't think that is meaningless at all. I'm not saying that what Elhokar did as good, but it's less of a crime then hat Moash did. Elhokar as a completely incompetent king. Everyone knows this. But it is one thing to get someone killed because you are incompetent at your job, and another to flat out murder someone. To put it in perspective, let's say that there is a bus driver that is really bad at their job and they get into a wreck and kill someone. Is that the bus drivers fault. Absolutely and they should face a consequence. But this is far less of a crime then the grandson of the person killed hunting down and murdering the bus driver. This is why there is a legal difference between manslaughter and murder. One invokes intent to do harm while the other is accidental. I think Elhokar should have received a far harsher punishment, maybe even losing the throne, but saying that Moash was justified in what he did is taking it too far. Also, didn't this hole discussion start with the idea of Moash being redeemed? So a man that has deliberately attempted to kill the man who trusted him enough to give him a full set of shards, turned his back on all of his friends, killed a king who almost became a knight radient, and killed one of the heralds who have protected this world for centuries, this man can possibly receive redemption. But the man that was misled by a bad friend and accidentally got some people killed, then regretted it and did his best to become better and almost reached the level of knight radiant is not able to receive redemption. How does that make sense? Yes what Elhokar did was wrong, but he could have found redemption for what he did just as people think Moash will. On a side note, I don't think Moash will find redemption. He has turned himself completely over to Odium and is too far gone, even in his own mind. I think that since Dalinar has turned away from Odium that Moash will become the new champion. As we've seen with the radiants and the fused, humans and singers react very differently to being bound to spren. Also, there are none of the 16 shards that are bound to Singers, at least as far as I know. (Feel free to correct me if you have evidence otherise) I'm not sure that a singer would be able to bind enough with Odium to be his champion, while a human could