Njvodin

I feel like this would be harder than using Breath, but it might certainly be possible. As an example, using Stormlight to Invest a singer Lifeless, and, assuming they have a perfect gemheart, you might be able to give them a Command. But it seems like it would be a lot more difficult if its two radically different Connections than to the Nalthian system. If it was, say, a Nalthian corpse, it may be easier. Just speculation though. Assuming the first one is possible, we could get an intelligent spren, as they are just Investiture, and smoosh them into a corpse (that sounds really gross, I'm sorry). As another example, you could get the Stormfather (dunno how you'd manage that, but I'm sure its possible), and smoosh him into Tanavast's corpse, and make a super Tanavast/SF . While I feel like the first two are easy enough to do, this one would be hard, bordering on impossible, as the Connection and Intent of both Investitures would conflict and cause problems. If you could do something like harmonise the Tones of the types of Investiture, then you could perhaps make something new, but I'm not 100% on board with the possibility of this one. This could be interesting, but the way that I see it, a Divine Breath is just a super-Breath, it just automatically brings you up to the 5th Heightening, or whatever it is, while only being a single Berath. So, it'd just be the same as Investing a Lifeless with like a couple thousand Breaths (plus one), which is a tad expensive. It may do something though, as Returned are pretty much just Lifeless. Who knows?

I'd like it if there were some sympathisers to the listener cause back when the Recreance was just happening, and some individuals in some specific orders, like maybe some Edgedancers or Stonewards who wanted to help them out. As to how they discovered the gemstones, I have no clue. Maybe we'll find out something in Book 5 because I have a feeling the Shin are somehow related to this. They seem to be very mysterious. I just think it'd be cool if some of the ancient Radiants were interacting with the listeners, or at least aware of them and supporting their movement.

I actually think that anyone CAN do it, as we see Nikaro, who is barely Invested, if at all, summon both a few Spirits, AND Yumi, who is actually most likely more Invested than those Spirits. So we have evidence that any random person can do it. I believe that maybe the Yuki-Hijo are better at summoning Spirits than the average Joe off the street, but that doesn't mean no one else can do it. If we correlate spren directly to spirits, then we can see that anyone can attract them, as anyone can have emotions (or in the case of true spren, whatever the order is interested in, like lies with Cryptics), just like anyone can make art. Which, I also believe, is part of the underlying themes, that anyone can make art. I don't think I said that it affects gravity, but the Surge of Gravitation, as the Rosharans know it, which affects mass. They are two seperate things (except for maybe Reverse Lashings?). A Cognitive Shadow like which we see on Threnody exists because their Connection to the Spiritual Realm is damaged somehow. The Nightmares on Komashi are the same as the Threnodite shades because they have also a damaged Connection to the Spiritual Realm, as the father machine is consuming their Investiture (which comes from the SR). That process you reference is just the father machine drawing them from the Cognitive Realm to the Physical, so it can feast upon them (at least until it started eating spirits, but by then the CS's Connection to the SR is already damaged). However, Midnight Aethers and the Midnight Mother are unrelated. They are the result of corrupted Investiture, not Cognitive Shadows, as far as I know.

I think the way the book explained it, Painter could paint the shadows because he was able to impress his thoughts onto the shadow itself. This could be a property of Cognitive Shadows themselves, maybe ones that aren't very Invested. However, the more Invested something is, the harder it is to influence it. So something such as a Seon, Skaze, Spren, or Spirit, or just any Splinter of a Shard in general is going to be harder to influence with something such as Painting. That's not to say it's impossible though. Maybe a skilled enough Painter that is really good at art, that is on some level Invested, or has something powering their Painting, could rewrite a Splinter (depending on size of the Splinter I guess). I reckon that you could say spren are attracted to emotions (Honor and Odium are kind of emotions, I guess?), and are pulled out of the Cognitive Realm, just like how the Spirits are attracted to art (Virtuosity is about art), and are potentially maybe pulled out of the CR at Komashi? I think you're pretty spot on with this one, the Spren of Roshar are somehow attracted (probably emotions), and coerced into becoming fabrials as the ancient Rosharans knew them. I think I saw in a WOB somewhere, but I can't find it now, that the father machine is akin to Nalthian Awakening, but doesn't use Breaths to Awaken it, just like how Yolish Lightweaving and Rosharan Lightweaving share a name, yet are slightly different. I think maybe this is the direction that even newer-style fabrials are going to go. We've only ever seen one other thing like this machine though, and that's Nightblood. I don't think these three are terribly related. The nightmares are Cognitive Shadows, whereas Midnight Aethers are an aether, which I'm not 100% on what that even is, and the Midnight Mother is something unrelated to Cognitive Shadows, I think. But in saying that, it's also similar to my previous point, how different magics share the same name but are slightly different origin. In my opinion, these two are not related. Skyeels seem to be somehow manipulating the Surge of Gravitation through a luckspren bond. Yes, the trees are are also manipulating Gravitation, but I doubt that they're also bonding luckspren. Maybe like you say, they are related. I could see the Spirits somehow being a part of this, but for a flora, an unthinking entity, being able to form a bond, is a little strange to me. Additionally to this, there does seem to be a thing with Spirits where if you have one half of a Spirit doing one thing, the other half has to be doing the complete opposite. So, if the trees are being Lashed upwards, then something has to be Lashed downwards, or some such. I agree with Firesong here, I don't think that it's due to a bond or anything. Just good ol' fashioned divine intervention. Feel free to correct me and point out any errors I've most likely made

As much as I love the Stormlight Archive, and as much as I want to see the characters develop, and how the worldbuilding plays out, I really love Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. Without spoiling anything, I'm a huge sucker for the style of the book, the genre, and the interactions between the characters in the story, especially the main characters. The ending really got me

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