KandraAllomancer

1 hour ago, Ixthos said:

I don't think they can break something, I think they are more about reshaping. I do think it can be used to metaphorically weaken reality and then allow them to use Transportation to make a portal node. Basically I think Willshapers and Elsecallers together made the Oathgates, typing to their ideas of being builders, as while a builder can destroy something it is only in service towards making something - they build up, and if building requires breaking then they will break, but only to build. I think the more spiritual uses of Surges is a Truthwatcher and Bondsmith thing, and that the other orders are more restricted. I do like your idea of excising voidspren, but the Fused displace the original Singer's soul, so they probably would die if they were removed. 

Yeah, breaking a bond would probably induce a slaveform, but weakening a bond could simply free a Singer's mind from Voidspren's influence so he can try to change form during the Highstorm. Bondsmiths definitely have the most Spiritual oriented Surges, Truthwatchers only get that because of spren corruption. As for Willshapers, the Reachers can, at the very least, imprison a Voidpsren in a gemheart, weakening a bond so that the Singer can hear old Rhythms and regain original personality while retaining the Form of Power. Whether this is specific to Willshapers (which I think would make much sense) or can extend to others, remains to be seen

We now know that Bondsmiths existed on Ashyn before the Nahel Bond was discovered and they were able to bind Surges somehow (Surge fabrials, probably) and use Connection to achieve spectacular results. Comparing this description with what the Dawnshards were supposed to do, it seems quite likely that they were simply using them. If so, is it possible that Ba-Ado-Mishram was able to get one somehow and use it to cause the False Desolation? Each Unmade can be mapped (with some fuzziness, of course) to a KR order, with the exception of Bondsmiths. BAM's abilities during the False Desolation, however, seem like a supercharged, Roshar-wide, version of what Bondsmiths can do (providing Connection and Investiture). It was also the first time she showed these powers: the KR weren't sure how she did it ("Ba-Ado-Mishram has somehow Connected with the parsh people") and we know that historically they feared Sja-Anat more. I think it is in the realm of possibility that her original powers were completely unrelated to this, but, against all odds, she was able to obtain a Dawnshard. Maybe it was stolen from Aimia? In such case, the Scouring might have been an attempt to repeat the False Desolation by Dai-Gonarthis

We've learnt  from Syl's Interlude that Bondsmiths can strengthen bonds between humans and spren, which Dalinar doesn't seem to know how to do yet. Could it be the Spiritual version of the Surge of Tension? We've mostly seen Dalinar using pure Adhesion or the mix of Bondsmith Surges (e.g. repairing objects) so far and strengthening a bond seems to kind of fit the description of "making things more rigid, less flexible" (a definition of Tension from this WoB).

Assuming that this is the case, what about the Surge of Cohesion, which is pretty much the opposite of Tension (at least in the physical sense):

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)

We know that Willshapers are all about seeking freedom, so it seems entirely possible that they can use Spiritual Cohesion to weaken bonds. That leads to two interesting implications:

A. Syl is bound to remain within some distance of Kaladin, but what about the Reachers? Is it possible for Willshapers to weaken their bond somehow so that their spren can explore their surroundings more (which we know they love to do). The fact that Willshapers also have the Surge of Transportation (which seems to allow Soulcasting at a distance) might also be a factor in maintaining a bond despite physical isolation

B. The first Willshapers on modern Roshar are Singers, which offers some very interesting options. Can they use bond weakening to "exorcise" Voidspren from Singers (and replace them with other spren)? Can they go even further and expel the Fused from Singer bodies?

4 hours ago, R J said:

The Bondsmith that Sylphrena mentions bringing people to Roshar from Ashyn: perhaps the wielder of the Dawnshard that could "bind all creatures- mortal or Voidish"

It was mentioned by The Stormfather that the Oathpact was Ishar's work, for which he was called the Binder of Gods. Though it's surprising that he's also responsible for Heralds' immortality.

So the Surges were "bound" by a Bondsmith. The Honorblades weren't the first to harness the power... but then again, it was mentioned multiple times that Ashyn was destroyed by the Surges (Dawnshards and/or Voidbinding) but still quite an interesting statement

We know that there were fabrials (the Oathgates) on Ashyn. The Surge fabrials on Roshar were created in Aimia, which also happened to have had a Dawnshard and that doesn't sound like a coincidence. I agree that the original meaning of the word Bondsmith was likely to be a person wielding a Dawnshard - and they probably created Surge fabrials ("binding" Surges long before the Nahel bond was discovered), including the ones used to escape Ashyn

23 minutes ago, Karger said:

Linking their power to what?  Each other?  How does that help?

To each other, yes - in order to multiply the power of a given Surge

24 minutes ago, Karger said:

Also how are the rhythms involved in that case?  Eshonai was pretty clear on feeling instructions passed the rhythms.

It's been a while since I read WoR, do you remember in which chapter (or at least which part) was that described?

27 minutes ago, Karger said:

Dalinar opened a perpendicularity by just getting enough of Honor's investiture in one place.  I am not sure how that relates to what the singers are doing.

Dalinar got the Investiture from the Stormfather, he explicitly mentions the Connection between them when he explains what he did to him. I think (although that's a hypothesis) that Singer-multiplied Adhesion was enough to transfer massive amounts of Investiture from Braize and that's what jump-started the Everstorm

1 hour ago, Snorkel said:

Epub files are essentially .zip files, so something you could try is renaming (a copy of) the original epub to .zip extension, find and extract the images, put them in a new zip/rar file, rename that file to cbz/cbr and use a comic reader to read it.

Thanks, I haven't tried that

29 minutes ago, Karger said:

The other half "We are Unity" indicates that Dalinar is claiming/invoking the power of Adonalsium but that did not make sense either as the being is shattered. 

That was "I am Unity" if I remember correctly. I'm not sure if that necessarily implies Adonalsium's plan or involvement, although I agree that's a valid option

32 minutes ago, Karger said:

The singers creating the everstorm is a baffling feet.  A few thousand people with no special training manufacture a new storm that fundamentally transforms the way the entire world works and give sapience back to an entire race after two thousand years.  This is a lot.  The fact that they manage it indicates to me that Odium has co-opted some of Adonalsium 's old methods.  He sent "instructions" for the storm through the rhythms possibly using one or more unmade as an intermediary.  These instructions told the singers how to collect the free investiture of roshar in such a way that the everstorm could form.  This may have been aimed specifically at the free odious investiture.  Once the storm took form it gained a cognitive awareness that Odium shaped to allow him to control it better. 

I definitely agree that Odium used Adonalsium's design here, but I believe it could be way simpler than that. Singers might have the ability of linking their power (nice nod to Wheel of Time), to the point of being as powerful as a Dawnshard. That would explain why Honor was so reluctant about them using the Surges. Linking the power provided by thousands of Voidspren could allow them to accumulate enough Connection (I assume that the Stormform provides some kind of access to Adhesion) to bring Investiture from Braize to Roshar, a trick somehow similar to how Dalinar summons Honor's Perpendicularity

I bought the hardcover + ebook bundle from Vault Comics, as @Snorkel said, it seems to be the only way for now.

A few remarks on the quality of the ebook though:

• The epub file seems kind of half-cooked: the title is "DARK ONE Epub Build", there is no author etc. I was able to correct this in Calibre
• The epub file is rather big (~500 MB) and it might be the reason why I couldn't upload it to Google and use it in Google Play Books ("file rejected by server" error). It applies to both the original and corrected epub
• I ended up reading Dark One in PDF format on Chrome (once again, the big size made other programs very slow and unresponsive). Not super convenient, but you can get used to it

9 minutes ago, earthexile said:

We know that an Unmade can fit in a very small sphere, Aesudan and Amaram could swallow theirs. I think the King's Drop was just big because it was a spectacular display piece, not because perfect gems have to be large.

To be fair, the gemstone was there only to facilitate the bond with Yelig-nar, not to contain him for a longer period of time

10 minutes ago, PrinceGenocide said:

Now what does skybreaker mean ? I found someone asking thst question some months back somewhere and have been wondering and came to this conclusion. 

I assume that it refers to their Surges: Gravitation ("sky") and Division ("breaker")

10 minutes ago, PrinceGenocide said:

This got me wondering. Are bondsmiths the only exceptions and I thought perhaps we could split surges into two groups. 

Bondsmiths are an exception, kind of. Or at least their Adhesion is:

Quote

Zmann966

So, in Oathbringer, we see the Surge of Adhesion used in an interesting way, Spiritual Adhesion. Do all the Surges have non-Physical manifestations like that?

Brandon Sanderson

All the Surges do, slightly, in fact, but none of them, I would say, are as Spiritual as that. 

Zmann966

What about like, Shallan in Words of Radiance with her mercenaries? So, like, a Spiritual Transformation? 

Brandon Sanderson

I wouldn't say Transformation, she is seeing a little bit, glimpsing a little bit, does that make sense? 

Oathbringer Chicago signing (Nov. 21, 2017)

10 minutes ago, PrinceGenocide said:

I think it's cause they interpret division as not fire but lightning. Makes more sense for flying radiants to have access to cloudspren??? or simply molecules in clouds , rub them together and viola . Lightning.

That would be Abrasion, I think

18 hours ago, Use the Falchion said:

Just finished!

Okay, that was DOOOOOPE! Of all the projects Sanderson's been attached to, this definitely a contender for the darkest one (pun intended). There's optimism in the story, but given the perspective, it feels almost like anti-nihilism in a way. 

For a while I've said that Mistborn was Sanderson's response to the Wheel of Time, but after reading this, I think I might have spoken too soon (or maybe this is the Game of Thrones to The Wheel of Time's The Lord of the Rings...if that makes sense...). All of the talk of the Narrative was straight up Jordan, and how it's finished at the end is so fascinating. 

The basic premise is also quite similar to the Sundering duology by Jacqueline Carey (and the word "sundering" is used several times in relation to the Narrative). Additionally, the Blackened Lands and its inhabitants reminded me of the Misery from Ed McDonald's Raven's Mark series.

Horneater Peaks, as confirmed by Azure in Oathbringer (chapters 93 and 102)

I doubt it. The soulcasting that @PiedPeterPiper mentioned is the key here. It's hard to justify veganism/vegetarianism on moral (nothing is killed) or religious grounds (soulcasting comes from the Almighty after all) on Roshar, so I would assume it's rather rare

My cats, Zoya and Vivianne:

There's already a link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonsteel/the-way-of-kings-10th-anniversary-leatherbound-edition

It goes live on July 7th, at 9am Mountain Daylight Time

18 hours ago, Spren of Kindness said:

I still have no idea what the end goal of this book is.  I love it.

No to spoil anything, but get back to your comments on Part 1 after you finish the book. You got right more than you imagine

6 hours ago, SteelShaper said:

True, I'm just wondering how the process would affect the bond if it happened to one our radiants. Since the Nahel bond is a Spiritual aspect, would something of it survive? Or would the whole bonding process have to start over?

We have some clues - when Nale revives Szeth at the end of WoR he mentions that his bond to Jezrien's Honorblade ha been broken. I would assume that becoming a Herald (or Cognitive Shadow in general) is likely to break the bond with a spren; subsequent resurrections (if the bond is renewed) are probably much easier in that regard

6 hours ago, SteelShaper said:

However, it does raise another disturbing idea. If they have to die first, does that mean Honor/Dalinar would have to kill them, or do the Heralds commit suicide the first time? Because I think suicide would basically violate the First Ideal so thoroughly that it would kill any bonded spren.

Honor probably could separate the soul from the body, replace some parts with Investiture and return it to the body in a blink of an eye - which is technically killing, but more in line of clinical death. Or at least that's how I imagine it

My personal theory on this is quite similar: there were 10 godspren (or at the very least some large splinters, probably of Honor and Cultivation) on Ashyn and two godspren corresponding to Shards on Roshar. The destruction of Ashyn and Odium corrupting the Unmade led to the current situation

I can see two possible scenarios here:

A. It might be a quality shared among some but not all Shards, possibly one opposed to Passion. The plans to defeat/contain Passion-aligned Shards (Odium, Ruin) we've seen so far seem to cause anguish of truly massive proportions (the Oathpact, mists snapping people)

B. If we're talking a Shard, it might represent Adonalsium's Empathy, warped into Anguish by the lack of ability to let go (Ruin) and give up pain (Odium), similarly to how divine wrath became Odium

Based on the new information I get the Willshaper vibe from (Mistborn spoilers):

so maybe something akin to "creating a way for as many as possible to make their own choices" fits somewhere in their Oaths

4 minutes ago, Eluvianii said:

Just wait until people start taking their first two results and mixing them and making up new ideals for the combination. I call dibs on Lightshaper.

Dibs on Truthcaller it is, then

19 minutes ago, IcaroRibeiro said:

damnation. I didn't see this coming. I always thought I might be an Elsecaller but now I'm leaning towards Truthwatchers 

Same situation Truthwatcher, followed closely be Elsecaller:

22 minutes ago, IcaroRibeiro said:

damnation. I didn't see this coming. I always thought I might be an Elsecaller but now I'm leaning towards Truthwatchers 

Same situation Truthwatcher, followed closely be Elsecaller:

1 hour ago, Snorkel said:

You're gonna have to point it out, I can't see it!

Writing on the wall, better visible on page 18

Also, there seems to be a reference to the Alloy of Law on page 16 (and then 18). I wonder why this book in particular