Honorless

Yeah, we've only seen professional worldhoppers in-book because they would be more plot relevant. Look at the Silverlight scholars Khriss, Nazh and Guyn, they make a living out of it, indicating that the people of Silverlight do visit and study other Shardworlds. This is corroborated by how Brandon often talks about Worldhopping, like in the WoB I gave in my first response regarding Nalthian customs office. Also check out the WoBs regarding Felt (interplanetary trade through the Pits, this is also mentioned by Hoid in Secret History) Not every Worldhopper is a part of the big organizations like the Ire, the 17th Shard or the Ghostbloods. Most are interested in tourism and trade between Shardworlds. He lives in the Rosharan subastral corresponding to Alethkar. He does know enough of the situation on Roshar to recognize Surgebinding. I'd say he's Physically been there too and he probably has the means to observe things from the Cognitive if need be. He also seemed to be aware of the stigma surrounding fortune telling. He treated the return as such because of the conflict it indicated as being near, which is undesirable for his business.

I don't think so, citizens of Silverlight do often Worldhop. Unless the Cognitive residents are like the spren or a Cognitive Shadow, bound to a Shardworld, there isn't much of a distinction. Ashyn magics we don't really know enough about to tell. But being sick isn't really an ideal way to have Investiture, especially when the current extract suggests worse sicknesses give more powerful abilities. Since there aren't any Shards on Ashyn currently, it's quite likely that they no longer have a Perpendicularity. I think Rosharans would look... not quite distinct from Ashynites but at least off-puttingly different enough. It's quite possible that not everyone would be able to tell the difference. The Heralds' physical descriptions are off-Alethi, so either the Shin were a distinct ethnic group or they've adapted. Or it's the Rosharans who've adapted and the Heralds' appearance is a bit affected by other things. That Kaladin might be native should be his first guess is simply from location + appearance. We, the readers are looking at these things with a magnifying glass. Most characters in the book probably aren't. We haven't really seen all worldhoppers, only plot relevant ones

Dragonsteel is a substance that the Yolish Dragons seem to be able to produce naturally from their own bodies. Dragonsteel also sounds awfully like a godmetal. In the Dragonsteel chapters, the Sho Del apparently use it somehow in order to be able to reproduce and the short story, The Traveler seemed to imply that the substance could be used to view events happening on other Shardworlds (as Frost's eyes were rimmed with a silvery metallic sheen) Dragons are also apparently naturally immortal and shape-shifters, which depending on their method of doing so sound like they could be Investiture intensive. The former is usually a result of holding a high concentration of Investiture. The latter is true shape-shifting, not illusory. Dragons are not like the Mistwraiths & Kandra with messed up Spiritual Identity and Cognitive blockage and fooling your sDNA regarding your species is no simple Forgery, this sounds like it should require a lot of Investiture.

The Aethers were conceived as being more sapient in Liar of Partinel but Aether of Night also gives sufficient examples of Aethers seeming to feel excited to their bondmates. D'naa's Verdant Aether in particular acted very alive & active, sometimes seeming to nuzzle her. Brandon has wanted the Aethers in the Cosmere since a very long time and they were the inspiration for spren, especially Syl. Vaeria didn't seem to have any other active sources of Investiture that fuelled the Aethers, though it is possible that we just didn't see them or they were not that apparent. They were apparently crafted from Order and Chaos, and we don't know exactly what they were supposed to be. Could've been Spiritual or interpretations of the Former's Intent. Brandon says the Aethers are currently pre-Shattering magic but that might change. (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/316-general-signed-books-2018/#e11245) If they were pre-Shattering, that would be interesting, they could be Adonalsium's Splinters and/or Realmatic interactions like Tzai Blows or Spiritweb fiddling like Microkinesis. Otherwise, they are likely to be Splinters of Vaeria's Shards. Either way, they were noted as being fatigued after prolonged use. Some Aethers are stronger, some are weaker. The Aethers themselves seem to provide the necessary Investiture to fuel their various effects. The name of the planet might change. Brandon intended to do a planet called Lor. Some theorize if Vax could be the Aethers' planet. Also while Brandon has canonized the Aethers but they might not necessarily be the ones we saw in Aether of Night. The Aethers have changed from this book to Lor to Partinel.

All this talk is reinforcing how ludicrously convenient Surgebinding would be for terraforming.

That's true. I was going to say Scadrial is relatively homogeneous before remembering that they got scoured twice. Kaladin looks quite Alethi, I think, which might resemble some other ethnicities in the Cosmere but the way it's framed narratively and how Brandon keeps saying to look out for "Shin eyes", I think we won't see them or they won't be that prominent. But as many have said, Worldhoppers probably often have Breath, so it might not be an ethnicity thing. In Shadesmar in particular, they very well could be. Rosharan subastral is neighbours with Scadrial, who don't have an in-built Cognitive travel method in their Investiture systems & Perpendicularities in relatively difficult to access places for people in-world during the Final Empire, and Sel, whose Cognitive Realm has an Investiture plasma storm hurtling about. We don't know much about Nalthian subastral but it could have a comparatively freer flow of people. It apparently has a customs office in its subastral. Having Breaths is probably just more common among Worldhoppers. It's easy to get access to and as you note: The lack of reaction was startling in a way. I didn't expect Shadesmar to be that well-travelled by humans. Having spren to trade with probably plays a big part. If Riino did recognize Kaladin's ethnicity as Alethi Rosharan, which should be his first guess, why was his reaction so cavalier? I wonder if widespread knowledge of the existence of another realm means more people discover how to access it on Roshar. But how? With the Perpendicularities being difficult to get to, Surgebinding not being used in a while, Soulcasters not quite allowing exploration of Shadesmar. But he did ask him if he had Breath, which is one of the easiest Investiture to get. There are several Worldhopper and Cosmere aware secret societies in Roshar. They are actively recruiting. I wonder... Zahel and Mraize

Maybe the sequence in which the Vessels picked up the Shards

You might find these WoBs interesting:

This site is also really... fancy? I mean look at all these features! There are far bigger forums with far worse navigation, design, moderation systems, etc in place 603

Ah, the curse of those who read: How to get a friend to read a book? Don't we all wish we knew the answer to that question

I'm seconding that mushroom soup 601

They're called Deepwalkers. Nightmaws & Meekers also have thought detection powers. Meekers and Patji's Fingers also have thought projection powers.

Welcome to the Shard!

Because that is how the birds of First of the Sun interact with local Investiture. Other flora and fauna of FotS also have access to Investiture, they can sense minds.

Are you suggesting that the God Aethers were Perpendicularities? I mean, the Pool was a Perpendicularity but is the Night Aether by itself also one? It does seemingly teleport, and that kind of transportation usually involves the Cognitive or Spiritual Realms within the Cosmere. Elsecallers are supposed to be able to create mini-Perpendicularities Hmm... Ruin was imprisoned in the Cognitive Realm. Because the Spiritual Realm does not care about location so imprisoning a Shard there sounds weird, and Preservation is said to have specifically given up his Cognitive aspect to imprison him. So the Well is sort of a pocket realm of sorts within the Cognitive... I made this thread a while ago if you're interested in this topic: Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this! This was very interesting Some thoughts regarding Ferrous & Bestarin that I had over on Discord: It seems a Ferrous Bonded, upon choosing to be a Corpate (the vehicles) or the foundational support structure of large constructions (which can, in addition to providing immense structural support also provide heat or lighting), have their bodies transform into a metallic substance which is then sculpted into the needed forms. I previously assumed that their bodies secrete the metallic matter and they were entombed within the structure. It seems that all Ferrous Bonded have the ability to communicate with Corpates, the ones that choose to do so are called Nurturers. We don't know if the sculptors need to be Ferrous Bonded as well, or the nature of the Corpate-Nurturer Bond Bestarin can have animal parts grafted upon injury/amputation. The relatively reduced fear of such bodily harm puts them on the frontlines, plus lack of direct magical abilities means that they are usually skilled combatants. The animal body part is completely integrated into the host's body. It's difficult to tell if they automatically become proficient in the usage of their new limbs. It seems possible from the text that the strength of a Bestarin Bond can be measured by how quickly the graft takes, how other factors... factor in, I don't know. We don't know what grafting magical creatures such as Kandra would do.

That is spot on, but we are speculating on Shardic conflict and why there aren't (or are there?) signs of much conflict on the other two Shardworlds. Did their gods just die quietly? Ambition and Odium fought, we see the results. Honor (+ Cultivation) & Odium fought, we see the results. Dominion+Devotion (or at least Dominion, who "went out swinging, iirc" & Odium fought, where are the signs? If there aren't any, then why? I'm talking meta here, referring to us, the readers, who don't have enough info Preservation and Ruin created Scadrial but I don't think that the planet needed continuous power supply to continue to be. Once the act was done, it was done.

*wins decisively*

But were instigated in part by the same entity as on Sel & Threnody Not necessarily. That was one line by Alonoe, for which we have little context. It's certainly one possible interpretation of it though. Threnody doesn't seem to be doing so well Plus this WoB: Not definitively, no, but what is happening on Roshar with Odium's influence is what we get to see at present, as the similar events on Sel and Threnody are forgotten history. There are quite a few theories out there regarding how Odium Splinters other Shards that postulate whether interaction with the Shardworld is a direct part of said process.

Ah, got it. Sorry, the phrasing just confused me.

What other authors do you enjoy reading?

But then you did figure it out

That's a really fitting take on what the Intent of the Shard(s) of Aether could be! (Brandon does seem to imply that we might meet a new Shard on the Aethers world here:)

I didn't really find the situation comedic at all. As for plot changes, Brandon might just overhaul the entire thing.

Well, whomever you heard that from, they must be refined people with really great taste in literature How did you discover Sanderson?