KandraAllomancer

That was my assumption for a long time, but this WoB has cooled my enthusiasm:

I see it simply as a consequence of her Intent - she wants to grow things and people, shape them into what they can be. Upbringing/nurturing is a natural part of that. Nothing particularly fishy about that

1. What Renarin and Nightform have seems to be the Voidsurge (Voidbinding?) of Illumination 2. All the Forms of Power we have actually seen so far, as well as the powers of the Fused, seem like a slight variation on regular Surges. Both Voidspren and the Fused come from Braize, so I think it's just Braize's version of Surgebinding 3. Renarin's power comes (indirectly) from an Unmade. I wouldn't be surprised if the Unmade could provide Forms of Power more powerful than what lesser Voidspren offer. Nightform and probably Decayform would fall under this category 4. Voidbinding chart might describe a situation when Odium actually Invests on Roshar (Night of Sorrows?), hence the ten levels of Voidbinding. This would be even more powerful than what Renarin or Nightform currently have

I think it's quite commonly believed to be the Spiritual Realm (something I agree with), but we don't have any explicit confirmation so far

Elsecaller: 94% Lightweaver: 47% Dustbringer: 28% Edgedancer: 24% Skybreaker: 22% Truthwatcher: 16% Bondsmith: 12% Stoneward: 11% Windrunner: 11% Willshaper: 6% I did expect high Elsecaller score, but this was a surprise. Now I wonder which answer was the single non-Elsecaller one

Truthwatcher: 75% Elsecaller: 71% Lightweaver: 29% Skybreaker: 28% Bondsmith: 6% Dustbringer: 0% Edgedancer: 0% Stoneward: 0% Willshaper:0% Windrunner: 0%

I used to think that too, but there is a new WoB offering some interesting possibilities:

You're right, I completely forgot about it. It opens up some new possibilities, like the Herald of War

I don't think it's really a hurdle. It's pretty much confirmed that Rayse's death wouldn't stop Odium from being a threat: While I could believe that Trell is Odium's avatar (though Autonomy seems much more probable to me), I don't think Odium itself will leave the Rosharan system. Arc 2 is supposed to be about figuring out the Oathpact, so I think Odium's Investiture will still be largely confined to Braize (or at least the planetary system)

Buddhism was just confirmed to be at the core of Roshar philosophy: Congratulations

Huh, I just found this: Unless there is some wiggle room here that I don't see, the key part of the theory might be disproven

OK, theory disproven - the Investiture used by the Ire comes from Sel:

Per the WoB above, it's no longer likely

I've just found this WoB: and it's heavily suggested that the abbreviation for Book 5 title would be KoW. I was wondering about it, but I only came up with "Knights/Kings/Kingdom of West" (given it's Szeth's book). What do you think?

I think it's a combination of two factors: Dalinar Ascended, making him closer to Odium's power level, but he's also influenced by Unity, which doesn't seem to be of (just) Honor

@Ookla the Prolific Done, thanks!

Unity is the child of Cultivation of Honor and the original Shard on Ashyn (plus musings on fabrials and Dawnshards): Caananite/Ugaritic mythology foreshadows Stormlight Archive plot and particularly Odium's fate:

All Cosmere Investiture is obviously from Adonalsium, but there seems to have been some restrictions on magic on planets other than Yolen before the Shattering:

A relevant WoB just came out:

The Surges used for the creation of Dawncities were very likely some subset of Cohesion/Tension/Illumination/Transformation, but personally I think the supercharging came from Dawnshards and what destroyed Ashyn rather than from Bondsmiths

I definitely agree with 'we' meaning 'we Rosharans'. As for the Sleepless, they seem to protect a Dawnshard and the technology to create Surge fabrials, so they might have had access to Surges all along, just not via Nahel bond.

I think it's a reasonable to assume that Odium did Invest on Roshar at one point in the past (it's hard to explain ten levels of Voidbinding otherwise), but it doesn't exclude the possibility of third Vessel using Investure originally assigned to Cultivation and Honor. Counting Shards gets really ambiguous when the number of Vessels don't match, like in case of (Mistborn spoiler) Brandon has huge wiggle room here, so any WoB should probably be taken with a grain of salt

I think Islam might provide even better analogy here - a more detailed description here

Roshar seems to have been influenced by numerous religions: Jewish mysticism: as pointed above, supported by multiple WoBs Buddhism: spren are essentially based on quantum mechanics and some authors (e.g. F. Capra in “The Tao of Physics”) see parallels between it and Eastern religions. You can see spren through either modern physics or Buddhism lenses, both seem to be valid Manichaeism: in Vorinism, the Voidbringers are seen as counterparts to the Almighty, balancing his goodness Islam: I can definitely see some similarities between Dalinar and Muhammad. Both are conquerors who unified their lands as well as spiritual leaders/reformers. Both are initially distressed by their visions and later helped by their wives. Both seek a true God with high emphasis on Oneness/Unity. Also, the geopolitical situation is kind of similar in both cases. Before Muhammad, the Arabian tribes were divided into two main coalitions used as proxies in wars between regional powers (Byzantium and Persia). They were united only after decades of wars between said powers resulted in complete desolation of their lands. I think a similar scenario for humans and singers is quite likely As for other Shardworlds, Shards and groups: Scadrial: Judeo-Christian style monotheism, with some potential deistic tendencies developing in Harmony Sel: monotheism possibly evolving towards some kind of pantheistic Gaia scenario (based on Khriss remarks in Arcanum Unbounded) Nalthis: Monolatry/henotheism on a Shardic level – Endowment is the only Shard on a planet, but given how easy worldhopping is there I would assume at least some people are aware of other Shards. The Court of Gods is textbook classical antiquity polytheism Threnody: borrows some elements from Gnosticism, which is based on a distinction between a supreme, transcendent God (God Beyond) and a blind, evil demiurge responsible for creating the material universe (Shards and, by extension, Adonalsium), trapping the divine spark within matter (the Shades) Bavadin: as a whole (avatars + whole pantheons based on her), she provides a very interesting take on polytheism The Ire: transhumanism, they try to attain godhood using technological means

That would essentially mean flooding the planet with Harmony's raw Investiture and, given Scadrial's nature, I would assume it would manifest as a mix of ettmetal, mists and Shardpool liquid. You get supercharged Deepness plus lots of metal that explodes when in contact with water... Ruin approves I don't know if that's possible or not, but it's very unlikely we'll ever see that - no Shard (even Odium) seem to be crazy enough to try it out