KandraAllomancer

On 9.01.2021 at 4:39 AM, Koloss17 said:

So let me start with this. The dawnshard that is different from the rest is likely the one Hoid held (which was a topaz) and that is now dead.

While I agree with the rest of your post, I'm not sure about this particular point. Topaz is dead, but it's entirely possible that it was just a kind of Vessel (for the lack of a better word). Maybe the mural that used to contain/be the Change Dawnshard might be considered dead is a similar manner? We know that the Sleepless wanted to kill Rysn to get the Dawnshard back, so the death of the Vessel doesn't really affect it

On 6.11.2020 at 2:32 PM, Child of Hodor said:

I get where you are coming from. I think it's possible, I can't disprove it with a WoB or anything. I will argue against it though . 

Just a month ago I would have argued with this, but we have some new WoBs that I believe indicate you have a point.

First, a question whether or not Honor can be reformed will be answered in Book 5:

Quote

CaptainObvious0927

The really question is, given the death of Rayse, is honor really dead? Or is his essence out there, still available to be claimed?

Brandon Sanderson

I will answer this for certain by the end of Book Five. For now, RAFO.

General Reddit 2020 (Nov. 22, 2020)

Second, Brandon recently described the mechanism of visions / voices Dalinar experiences and it seems that these are Investiture constructs / AIs:

Quote

Gordon Kelsch

Can Dalinar permanently bring someone back from the Spiritual Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

No. In fact, whether or not the voices he is hearing are legitimately voices from beyond the Spiritual Realm, or if they're a manifestation much like the visions that the Stormfather creates, where Dalinar's desire for certain things is basically creating... So when Dalinar goes into the visions, what's going on there is: these are not people with autonomy that he is interacting with. These are Investiture manifesting a basic AI that is able to adapt, cause Investiture kind of can do this.

Dalinar would argue, "Yes, that's the case except for when I actually met Nohadon. That character felt different, that felt like the real Nohadon stretching through the Spiritual Realm and actually interacting." Jasnah would say, "No, that's because, Dalinar, you have such, in your mind, a hope and desire to see Nohadon, he's this mythological figure in your head, that basically the Stormfather's knowledge of who he actually was was creating this much more animated puppet that was more like actually how Nohadon was, but was based on knowledge of the spren and the Investiture that you're interacting with." And Dalinar would say, "I heard Evi's voice." Jasnah would say, "You heard the Investiture coming to life and speaking with her voice the things you needed to hear. And it wasn't that the Stormfather was like, 'He needs to hear this, I'm going to create this fake..' But it's instead your relationship with this magical force that does take on life of its own, manifesting this thing." Which one it is, I do not answer. Both are, I consider, equally valid interpretations of the text, and equally valid interpretations of the magic system.

Once someone is passed into the Beyond, there is no force that can bring them back, according to people's understanding of the magic system. There is even the argument that Cognitive Shadows are not the person. That the Cognitive Shadow is indeed a spren with the memories and an imprint of the person's personality that becomes self aware and continued on living that person. It's kind of the same question that arises in Star Trek. When you are ripped apart and rebuilt piece by piece with the transporter, some people in Star Trek do not believe you are becoming the same person again. You are then a different individual who has been cloned from the person and had the memories attached. Functionally, in the narrative, for the reader, it's the same. Is it the same soul or not? That question is answered differently by different people in the Cosmere. There are equally valid interpretations from the reader. You get to decide, basically. You get to decide, just like if there's a story where a person's brain is uploaded to a computer, you get to decide: is that the same person? Because we can't do that, we don't know. Is that the exact same individual, or is that a computer simulation of that person, where the person has died? That's what a Cognitive Shadow essentially is, but using Cosmere physics instead of theoretical science fiction physics.

YouTube Livestream 23 (Dec. 17, 2020)

It seems that Dalinar is pretty much ready to Ascend to Honor, he just doesn't have enough Investiture yet. He's tapping the power unconsciously though.

I still believe the Unity Dawnshard could be a thing (based on the term being used on Sel and Poem of Ista), but for now Dalinar is just using the name provided to him by Honor's remnants

On 29.12.2020 at 8:45 PM, Bzhydack said:

We know also Chasmfiends can bond spren. Maybe they can enhance theirs inteligence by proper bond.

I wonder if that might be the role of the Stormstriders, maybe? We know that the Tai-na bond some mysterious spren (referred to as their "soul" by the Reshi) besides the regular mandras

4 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

OK, let's ask a basic question. Does the Shard of Honor still exist or is it splintered? If it exists, where is it?

We'll get a definite answer in Book 5, apparently:

Quote

CaptainObvious0927

The really question is, given the death of Rayse, is honor really dead? Or is his essence out there, still available to be claimed?

Brandon Sanderson

I will answer this for certain by the end of Book Five. For now, RAFO.

General Reddit 2020 (Nov. 22, 2020)

1 hour ago, Harrycrapper said:

Something to note: there has been a death rattle for each of Kaladin's oaths so far, so it's likely his 5th Oath is predicted in one of the other deathrattles. The Shardcasters(Evgeni in particular) think this is the most likely one: 

There's also this one from Kin Valam that I find particularly interesting:

Quote

So the night will reign, for the choice of honor is life...

Wow, I've never noticed that I wonder if that's just foreshadowing for the Diagram and Dustbringers siding with Odium or something more

I've read the first two books in Polish. Here's my old post about Order names:

Generally speaking, the obvious translation problem are Nounverbers, while Nounnouners are simpler to translate:

• spren names are relatively easy, for example windspren becomes 'wiatrospren' and voidspren becomes 'pustkospren'
• some names are not translated consistently: Surgebinder becomes 'Mocowiązca' (literally 'Powerbinder' for the lack of a single word that would mean Surge in this context), but Surgebinding is 'Wiązanie Mocy' ('Binding of Power')
• some Orders are translated into two words, which seems to sound quite good e.g. Bondsmith gets translated as 'Smith of Bonds' ('Kowal Więzi')
• other names are shortened, which sounds worse: Voidbringers become 'Voiders' ('Pustkowcy'), Soulcasters become 'Soulers' ('Duszniki'), Windrunners become 'Winders' ('Wiatrowi') etc.
• finally some names are just weird: Skybreakers are translated as 'Niebiańscy' (literally 'the Heavenly Ones', which is going to cause problems with the clashing Fused name) and Elsecallers become 'Przenosiciele' (literally 'Transmitters')
• words like crem, chull or parshmen are not translated at all

The first we see Ash in the books is when she's breaking stuff, so I would go with option A

2 minutes ago, Dunkum said:

I'm not sure this actually holds.  It is true for the skybreakers, but it isn't clear that it is the case for anyone else.  for instance the first surge we really see Kaladin using is the reverse lashing, which combines the two surges.  for that matter, he is clearly far more adept at the basic lashing, which uses only gravitation, than he is at anything adhesion based.  And we've seen Venli do more with Cohesion than Transportation at this point

There's a WoB about it:

Quote

Overlord Jebus

So I've noticed a pattern in the way that the Radiants learn their surges. They seem to learn their anti-clockwise surge before their clockwise surge?

Brandon Sanderson

They do.

Overlord Jebus

Excellent, everyone thought I was a crazy person!

Brandon Sanderson

They do tend to-- Now, I'm gonna give you some behind the sausage stuff on that. That is partially for writing expediency reasons.

Overlord Jebus

How do you mean?

Brandon Sanderson

I designed that partially because I didn't want to overwhelm people with too many magic systems at once so I came up with a little bit of a pattern so that I could have a little bit of an in-world reason why we were slowing that down. It's not a hard fast rule, it's something that I've kept to in order to not overwhelm readers so it's more of form following function than the other way around.

Oathbringer London signing (Nov. 28, 2017)

If I remember correctly, Kaladin was using Reverse Lashings subconsciously at first (the same applies to Renarin and his visions), but his first fully aware use of Surgebinding was trying to glue things to the walls of the chasms. Venli was using Transportation to peek into Shadesmar long before she was experimenting with Cohesion

We know that even though Patji is an Avatar of Autonomy located on First of the Sun, he hasn't Invested on the planet and doesn't influence local magic (second and third paragraph of Brandon's first response):

Quote

ReadAndFindOut

In 2014, Brandon said First of the Sun - the planet in Sixth of the Dusk - is a minor Shardworld, in that it does not have a Shard present (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/103-salt-lake-city-comic-con-2014/#e1010). However, we've now gotten a WoB saying that Patji - the Father island - IS a Shard (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/256-oathbringer-london-signing/#e8606). Patji was a Shard, but isn't during SotD? Or did we finally get confirmation on that elusive "Survival Shard"? What do you guys think?

Brandon Sanderson

I stand by them. Though, as always, quotes and WoBs at signings aren't always as deliberately thought out as I'd like them to be. Answering questions on the fly can be challenging, and my phrasing can be bad in retrospect.

But no Shard was in residence on First of the Sun during the events of that story. The Investiture on that planet is residue, normal Investiture from Adonalsium. Everything happening there could happen with or without a Shard present. Indeed, I would say that no Shard was ever "in residence" on First of the Sun.

The being called Patji still exists, and is a Shard of Adonalsium. Shards in the past have been interested in First of the Sun, and have meddled in small ways there. (Like they have on a lot of Shardworlds.)

Note that I might have been a little misleading in the first quote by bringing up Threnody, which is a real corner case in the cosmere because of uncommon events there.

That said, I'm sure that every story I write about a planet will bring up the quirks and unusual interactions of the magic there, because that's kind of what I do. (First of the Sun has its own oddities, as mentioned in Arcanum Unbounded.) Every planet is likely to end up as a corner case in some way, just like every person is distinctive in their own way, and never fully fits expectations.

I still consider one of the major dividing lines between "major" and "minor" Shardworlds (other than Shard residence) to be in strength of access to the magic, and control over it. I intend the minor Shardworlds to involve interactions with the magic as setting--coming back to spren, you could have a minor Shardworld with people who use, befriend, even bond spren. (Or the local equivalent--Seon, Aviar, etc.) But you'd never see power on the level of the city of Elantris, the actions of a Bondsmith, or even the broad power suite of a Mistborn.

But, as ever, the cosmere is a work in progress. The needs of telling a great story trump things I've said about what I'm planning. (I do try as much as I can to avoid having two texts contradict one another. And when they do, that's often a lapse on my part.)

Oversleep

Wait.

I'm confused.

So the Investiture on First of the Sun is associated with a Shard or is it residue, normal Investiture from Adonalsium?

Cause the question was a follow up (on this) where you revealed that all Investiture in Cosmere got assigned to a Shard even if it wasn't part of a Shard.

And then you said that the one on First of the Sun is directly associated with one of the Shards (and since later you revealed Patji to be an avatar of Autonomy (also, what are avatars and how do they work?)) we took it to mean that at one point Autonomy Invested in First of the Sun.

But now you're saying it didn't?

If there was no Shard ever on First of the Sun but Patji is a Shard/avatar of a Shard then where is Patji, actually?

Could you please clarify all that?

Brandon Sanderson

So the Investiture on First of the Sun is associated with a Shard or is it residue, normal Investiture from Adonalsium?"

The reason I have so much trouble answering these questions (and you'll see me struggling to get an answer in the 10-15 seconds I have when someone asks me in a signing line) is because this isn't an either or. Is this computer I'm using matter associated with Earth, the Big Bang, or such-and-such star that went supernova long ago? Well, it's probably all three.

When people ask, "What Shard is this Investiture associated with" it gets very complicated. Shards influence and tweak certain Investiture, giving it a kind of spin or magnetism, but all Investiture ever predates the Shattering--and in the cosmere matter, energy, and Investiture are one thing.

I always imagine Investiture having certain states, certain magnetisms if you will, associated with certain aspects of Adonalsium. So it's all "assigned" to a Shard--because it's always been associated with that Shard. To Investiture, Adonalsium's Shattering meant everything and nothing at the same time.

We generally mean the term "Invested" to mean a Shard has taken permanent residence in a location, a kind of base of operations--but at the same time, this is meaningless, since distance has no meaning on the Spiritual Realm, where most Shards are. So imprisonment of a Shard like Ruin or Odium is a crude expression--but the best we have.

Autonomy never "Invested" on First of the Sun. But even answering (as someone else asked) if they created an avatar without visiting is a difficult thing to explain--because even explaining how a Shard travels (when motion is irrelevant) is difficult to manage. It's a subject that I intend to be up for debate, discussion, and argument by in-world philosophers and arcanists.

You can see why I have such troubles explaining these things at signings--and why I fail when I try to, considering the time limitations and (often) fatigue limitations placed upon me. These are concepts I intend to spend entire, lengthy epic volumes explaining and exploring.

Let's say you were Autonomy, and you have--through expanding and exploring your understanding--found a gathering of Investiture that has always been there, you always knew about, but still didn't actually recognize until the moment you considered and explored it. (Because even though your power is infinite, accessing and using that infinity is beyond your reach.) Were you "Invested" there? No, no more than you're Invested on Roshar, where parts of what were Adonalsium still exist that are associated with you (in the very fabric of mater and existence.) But suddenly, you have a chance to tweak, influence, and do things that were always possible, but which you never could do because you knew, but didn't know, at the same time.

And...I'm already into WAY more than I want to be typing this out right now. If it's confusing, it's because it's practically impossible for me to explain these things in a short span of time.

I'm going to leave it here, understanding that no, I haven't fully explained your question. (I didn't even get into what avatars are, what Patji was, and what happened to Patji the being--and how that relates to Patji the island.) But hopefully this kind of starts to point the right direction, though I probably should have just left this question alone because I bet this post is going to raise more questions than it answers...

Overlord Jebus

You've confused things so much now. We thought we had a pretty good grasp of this whole Patji situation (Autonomy visited the planet at some point, got themselves all Invested and created an avatar which is called Patji by the locals).

Now you're saying no Shard has ever visited there? And that the pool would have existed if no Shard had ever interfered? But that Patji still exists and is a Shard?

Does that mean Autonomy edited First of the Sun from afar without actually going there? And that the pool would have already existed without any intervention? Does this mean it was associated with Autonomy from the beginning? I'm really confused now.

Brandon Sanderson

I don't believe I said no Shard had visited. I said no Shard was there during the events of the story.

Investiture on First of the Sun predates any Shards fiddling with it.

Shards have fiddled with it by the time of the story.

I think fandom might be going down too far a rabbit hole on this one.

Chaos

Are you saying here that Patji is an avatar of Autonomy, or is it a separate Shard and not an avatar of Autonomy?

Brandon Sanderson

When I said Patji was a Shard, I was meaning Automony--but it is not quite that simple.

Take this post to mean "no, you should not be looking toward another Shard for Patji's origins. Autonomy is the one relevant." But Autonomy's relationships with entities like this (not sure entity is the right word, even) is complex. I'm not trying to confuse the issue, though.

General Reddit 2018 (March 18, 2018)

On 8.12.2020 at 8:32 AM, Honorless said:

Are we not counting Ashyn? They used the Surges there, possibly using a Dawnshard, possibly with Investiture supplied by Odium as per the Stormfather and Syl.

Yeah, but they had Bondsmiths and Oathgates, apparently, and the destruction of the planet seems like superpowered Division (based on Raboniel's tale). Even with Odium's Investiture, these seem like regular Surges

On 8.12.2020 at 7:55 AM, LewsTherinTelescope said:

Shards don't decide what their magic systems do.

They don't, but they can refuse to Invest on a planet and restrict / modify the effects (Honor restricting the Bondsmith powers, Harmony modifying Snapping etc.). It seems that Odium doesn't have that kind of power over Voidbinding, currently

On 8.12.2020 at 7:55 AM, LewsTherinTelescope said:

Assuming you mean this current Desolation, we see some nightforms mentioned this book. 

Yeah, I totally missed that on my first read. The fact that they have zero plot relevance so far makes me think that futuresight is specific to BAM or Odium restricts that power, as described above

On 8.12.2020 at 7:55 AM, LewsTherinTelescope said:

I have a different theory on this — I think Mishram was a Bondsmith spren (my theory says naturally of Odium, but it's possible she was corrupted by him post-arrival). I know Brandon's said the Bondsmith is the missing Unmade, but like, a. she Connected to an entire species, b. he said it's not one-to-one anyway.

She definitely seems to be a Bondsmith spren during the False Desolation, but her powers were not understood by the KR back then and could have be something new. My current theory is that she could be using Ishar's Honorblade to do that

On 8.12.2020 at 7:55 AM, LewsTherinTelescope said:

Personally, I feel fabrials are more similar to Aviar, in that they are, while a magic system, not really the same "type" of magic system, for lack of a better word. I believe we know any Splinter can be used to make a fabrial-type device?

Regular fabrials are on the level of minor Shardworld magic, I agree, but Surge Fabrials, like Soulasters, are part of the 30 magic systems of Roshar, with Surgebinding and Voidbinding

On 8.12.2020 at 7:55 AM, LewsTherinTelescope said:

I feel like this is probably just because it's Roshar, personally. Just like Hemalurgy and Allomancy have the same number of metals. (I'm also on the side that the numbers are more due to perception by those on the planet than the Shards themselves, but that's speculation.)

Yeah, that's possible

@Honorless To be honest, after reading Dawnshard and RoW I have more doubts than I had before

On 8.12.2020 at 9:29 AM, Honorless said:

, the Dawnshard that could "Bind all things mortal and Voidish" and that is the Dawnshard not like the rest because it was Corrupted.

That would be really awesome really, but my one problem would be that

I I were writing this today, I would probably use Ishar's Honorblade instead of a Dawnshard

Tension is the modification of object's stiffness, so yes, it should include making things flexible:

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

Adhesion allows you to bind things together.

Gravitation allows you to change the direction and strength of an object's gravitational attraction, including that of yourself, which essentially gives you the power of flight.

Division allows you to manipulate the rate an object decays.

Abrasion allows you to make objects, including yourself, frictionless.

Progression and Regrowth allows you to heal organisms and alter their growth.

Illumination allows you to create illusions.

Transformation allows you to soulcast objects from one material into another.

Transportation allows you to travel between the Cognitive and Physical realms.

Cohesion allows you to alter the shape of solid objects.

Tension allows you to alter the stiffness of objects.

Footnote: This information is only shown on the results pages of the Official Knights Radiant Order Quiz.
The Ten Orders of Knights Radiant (June 9, 2020)

I don't think we've seen pure Tension so far, but Dalinar uses Tension+Adhesion to fix inanimate objects in Thaylen City in Oathbringer. Something weird is actually happening here, as the KR are supposed to learn their primary Surge first (Windrunners and Adhesion, Skybreakers and Gravitation etc.) and we've seen Dalinar using mostly Adhesion so far

Also, there's Shinar from the Bible

13 hours ago, Karger said:

My point is not that it is impossible.  It is that this course of action is difficult, dangerous, and unlikely to yield good results in the medium to long term.  Taravangian is a plotter and he is patient.  Killing the stormfather right now does not really improve his situation even if he is successful while if he is unsuccessful the penalties are severe. 

Another point I should probably bring up is the energy output of killing the stormfather could be severe.  It would be a lot like nuking the planet.  I am not sure anyone would survive for very long if the explosion is as big as I think it could be.

Come to think about it, there's an even simpler way to hurt the Radiants - Ishar's Honorblade should be enough to imprison the Stormfather in a perfect gemstone. This should be even worse than what happened to BAM - Radiant spren would all be affected somehow. It's also way easier to fix once either side wins

21 hours ago, Karger said:

I think that a bit of a leap.  Also Taravangian is bound to Braize.  Getting antivoidlight to roshar in large quantities seems pretty difficult.  More so when you consider that most of his servants would blow up if they touched any.  Finally what happens if team honor captures it and uses it on the everstorm?  You are also presupposing that antivoidlight will work on the stormfather.

Odium is bound to Braize, but his Investiture isn't. He can control the Unmade, and unmade them again into something else. Creating an Unmade (a new one or from an existing one) that can create anti-Stormlight from Stormlight or food from Voidlight seems to be within the realm of possibility. The latter should also be possible for the Transformation Fused

21 hours ago, Karger said:

Sending an agent with stolen NB to kill the stormfather is a bit more plausible.  However fueling NB through the destruction of an entity as large as the stormfather is a challenge in of itself.

The NB was enough to kill a Vessel, so killing a spren, even a large one and bonded, seems possible

21 hours ago, Karger said:

According to smart Taravangian Urithiru was self sufficient and Navani states it could support a population in the millions.

Technically yes, but once it's flooded with refugees from all over Roshar and doesn't have a sustainable source of emeralds for Soulcasters...

21 hours ago, Karger said:

Very few wars have been won on anything resembling a reasonable timeline.  If team honor knows no more storms are happening and can figure out at least a bit of the potential ecological devastation then everyone with half a mind is going to run right toward the nearest oathgate city.  Team radiant will focus on protecting them.  In the meantime most of roshar is going to die.  Odium has the theoretical ability to do lots of stuff but he is still stuck on braize and can't.  If he could provide food at will then his armies would have a huge advantage in the field. 

Rayse (according to his first talk with Dalinar in OB) had a plan to destroy all splinters of Honor and change the nature of Roshar, so that is technically possible. The number of victims would be huge, true, but that's not something that stopped Taravangian before

8 minutes ago, Karger said:

The death of a radiant might be traumatic but it usually does not do any serious damage.

I had Nightblood in mind when I wrote it, I should have been more explicit about that

9 minutes ago, Karger said:

How are you going to generate enough?

Anti-Investiture seems like a plausible explanation for Rayse's Shard Vessel killing abilities; if that was the case, Taravangian should be able to generate enough to take down the SF

14 minutes ago, Karger said:

They have a second source of light with Navani.  She can generate towerlight and use rhythms to separate out the lifelight and stormlight.

That's a valid point, but don't think Navani can generate enough Light to match the whole Highstorm and support the whole army

16 minutes ago, Karger said:

I mean yeah but the end result would be the death of basically everyone except team honor as they still have Navani and no one else can grow anything.

That probably depends on how long it would take to defeat the Radiants outside of Urithiru. With a massive Voidbringer offensive, monopolizing the access to Soulcasters (and possibly corrupting them so they run on Voidlight) and the Origin, the ability to create food from Voidlight (Odium is a Shard, so must be able to do that) he could probably win within a reasonable timeline. Then it's only the matter of merging Odium and Honor, at which point he would be free to leave Braize and could restore the Highstorm on his own terms

We know that Taravangian found some loophole that possibly allows him to win with Dalinar somehow, probably based on something that Rayse couldn't have predicted and/or simply would never do. Here I'd like to propose my guess: Taravangian plans to kill the Stormfather.

It's actually scarily easy to pull off in just three steps:

A. Manipulate Ishar into stealing Dalinar's bond with the SF

B. Manipulate Szeth into killing Ishar, killing or wounding the SF in the process

C. If necessary, finish the SF off with anti-Stormlight

This would probably destroy the Highstorms, creating something like a never ending Weeping (the Night of Sorrows?), described in multiple Death Rattles:

Quote

"I'm cold. Mother, I'm cold. Mother? Why can I still hear the rain? Will it stop?"

"Light grows so distant. The storm never stops. I am broken, and all around me have died. I weep for the end of all things. He has won. Oh, he has beaten us."

"You've killed me. Bastards, you've killed me! While the sun is still hot, I die!"

"So the night will reign, for the choice of honor is life..."

Honor's Perpendicularity would probably settle on a permanent location at the Origin, explaining the line from Puuli's interlude (describing Skybreakers maybe?):

Quote

They’ll come with Light in their pockets. They’ll come to destroy, but you should watch for them anyway. Because they’ll come from the Origin. The sailors lost on an infinite sea.

Without easy access to Stormlight for Team Radiant, Odium should be able to crush them easily, conquer all of Roshar and take Honor's Investiture for himself, which would free him from Braize.

A possible Arc 1 ending resolution I see would be something like this:

The Everstorm gets taken over by the recently freed Ba-Ado-Mishram, thwarting Odium's plans.

Dalinar Ascends to Honor using the unchained powers of Ishar's Honorblade and possibly (Dawnshard spoilers).

Kaladin dies, but his Cognitive Shadow replaces the Stormfather in the newly re-created Highstorm, changing its nature to be far less destructive.

Dalinar changes the nature of Stormlight and bonds, allowing Radiants to travel across Cosmere. Shallan becomes a worldhopper.

Moash bonds with Dai-gonarthis and becomes Odium's avatar:

Quote

"Let me no longer hurt! Let me no longer weep! Dai-gonarthis! The Black Fisher holds my sorrow and consumes it!"

He continues Odium's work on Roshar and searches for a way to free him, eventually starting the plot of Arc 2

4 minutes ago, beewall said:

I suppose that could be possible, but it sounds very strange to me that something could be conducted by something if they explode on contact.

The explosion only occurs if the Investiture is under any kind of pressure; otherwise it's simply annihilation

On 1.12.2020 at 7:12 PM, beewall said:

I mean, it's literally the exact same thing as Odium's tone, with some Spiritual nonsense added on top. Personally, I'm pretty sure its Intent is still just Odium. Keep in mind, it doesn't destroy everything Odious - it gets conducted by raysium just fine. However, the actual thing it is "made" of reacts with Voidlight and destroys it. No reason for it to be anything but Odium.

That's a valid point, but there's a possible explanation - Raysium simply conducts Investiture really well and the kinetics of reaction is much faster between Lights than between Light and godmetal, explaining why it was Voidlight that was destroyed

On 1.12.2020 at 7:12 PM, beewall said:

(Also, it would be really weird for Ruin and Preservation to have the same sound, but that's a gut feeling argument rather than evidence.)

On the other hand, Vin, despite using Bronze enhanced by Hemalurgy, finding the Well of Ascension with Ruin trapped within and fighting atium users, never seems to hear any pulses that are so distinctly different than the others that the could easily be attributed to Ruin's Rhytm

On 2.12.2020 at 6:02 PM, beewall said:

They might claim that, but Brandon has said there is disagreement in-world over the "closest to Honor" thing, and if one was verifiably "pure" Honor I doubt this would be the case. He has also generally couched his statements in "well, the honorspren would claim" when he talks about them being the most Honor.

I also doubt that Honorspren are purely of Honor, but they might have enough Honor's Investiture in them for anti-Stormlight to be deadly. I wonder how it would work on Cultivationspren

On 2.12.2020 at 7:06 PM, Harfyn said:

I'd also agree with some others saying that it's unlikely Ruin and Preservation are each other's anti-lights. I think they are maybe as close as a shard could be to having that, though - like each of them might have a rhythm that is very close to the other's anti-rhythm/frequency/wavelength. What Vin is doing seems to me what almost any shard-attack would look like - each shard is "equal" and infinite, so a direct attack will cause annihilation of both. (though, that idea makes me wonder how odium splintered Aona + Skai 1 vs 2)

I really like this idea. We know that Stormlight changes its Rhytm somehow before merging with Voidlight, while still being Stormlight at that point. So maybe instead of one Rhythm, we have some spectrum of Rhythms assigned to each Shard, depending on the Intent of a person holding Investiture. For example, Vin wants to kill Ruin, which changes the Rhytm slightly, so that Preservation's power becomes anti-Ruin; Sazed does something opposite to both Shards

Exactly what it says: some ideas and theories on spren I had after reading RoW

Cusicesh, the Protector

The Sibling is, well, a sibling of the Nightwatcher and the Stormfather. Sja-anat calls them a cousin, which could imply that the relationship between the original spren that would be unmade by Odium and godspren is similar to the one between cousin and Radiant spren. It makes sense: Re-shephir seems like a superpowered creationspren, Yelig-nar a superpowered windspren etc. If that is the case, is there a superpowered gloryspren somewhere? Cusicesh seems like an interesting candidate, given that his most pronounces feature is the face (OK, faces), something he shares with the NW and the SF

The Oathgate spren

OK, this is super tinfoil territory, but while reading RoW I thought about the weird potential link between Oathgate spren and Cryptics. Given their Surge, it would make sense for the Oathgate spren to have features similar to Inkspren and Reachers, right? It works for the former, but I cannot see an Lightspren features in them. On the other hand we are specifically told that Cryptics' hands come in two colors, exactly the same as Oathgate spren. Is it possible that association between sapient spren and Surges works differently for Surge fabrial spren?

Thunderclasts

We know that there is more to Cultvation's magic than Old Magic and ancient Stoneshaping seems like an excellent candidate. It has some decent foreshadowing, really: Singer gods ('spren, stone, and wind') mentioned in the Eila Stele, Shin reverence for stone, Cultivation being identified with Roshar itself by many people. Ancient Stoneshapers being corrupted by Odium also explains the Thunderclasts, the only Voidbringer being we couldn't match to any magic so far. Given that they are essentially twisted Singer souls, it could imply that this Stoneshaping didn't require a spren bond (unless the spren was also corrupted and merged with the Thunderclast). Could it be a genetic ability, like what the Horneater Sighted have, or maybe something granted by Old Magic style spiritweb modification?

Stormstriders

We now know that larkins are sapient, something that Tai-na also share to some extent - and based on the RoW ending, there's something more to the chasmfiends than we previously realized. From WoR Rysn interlude we know that Tai-na, besides the usual luckspren, also seem to bond some spen (considered their "soul" by the Reshi people) in their gemhearts. If so, this situation could extend to other greatshells, including larkins / lanceryns. It's more intuition than proof, but it seems likely that such spren would be rather huge and unique, as well as easily available in Highstorms (assuming that the bonding mechanism is shared with the Singers). I think that Stormstrides could be such spren (and maybe provide lanceryn Forms?)

 One argument against it would be that the smoke Nightblood produces is corrupted Breath:

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Brandon Sanderson

Anyway, Nightblood is named for the smoke he leaks, and he originally had a different name when he was created. Vasher himself dubbed the sword Nightblood after he had used it to kill the woman he loved. The blackness that leaks out is actually corrupted and consumed Breaths, the ones that Nightblood leeches off anyone who draws him.

Warbreaker Annotations (April 25, 2011)

Also, anti-Investiture needs to be prepared specifically for each type of Investiture, with specific Intent. Nightblood seems far too universal for that

19 hours ago, LightReader said:

If Ruin and Preservation were each others’ anti-investitures, then Sazed would never have been able to pick up both Shards and mix them together. Anti-investitures don’t mix, they cancel each other out, which seems to result in explosions. I don’t think the intents are really relevant once the investiture is brought to the physical realm. I think the Shard/intent is more like a filter that the investiture goes through when it is brought over from the spiritual realm, which results in the different rhythms (which are essentially frequencies of investiture). This is also why the Shard’s intent has more to do with the ability to access investiture and than with the actual powers that the investiture fuels. 

To quote from The Hero of Ages:

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The powers were opposites. As he drew them in, they threatened to annihilate each other. Yet because he was of one mind on how to use them, he could keep them separate. They could touch without destroying each other, if he willed it.

It's Sazed's will that keeps them from mutual destruction, not their nature. It seems that Intent of an individual who holds some Investiture can override how it behaves; for example, Voidlight and Stormlight don't mix, but the joint will of humans and Singers can work as an emulsifier. What Sazed does seems to fall under the same category, just on a completely different scale. Also, the chapter where the emulsifier is discovered is literally named Harmony

On 25.11.2020 at 5:56 AM, Gloomspren said:

My immediate thought was that we might have another lgbtq+ icon on our hands, since (as far as we know) mateform seems to be a heterosexual pairing for the purpose of producing children. Anyone else have thoughts on this (or the quote lol).

Not confirmed explicitly, but as close as we can get right now:

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Questioner

Any teases on upcoming LGBT characters?

Brandon Sanderson

I put some hints in Rhythm of War. I should be making those canon by Book Five for you. But it wasn't quite time. I actually tried writing them harder into Rhythm of War, and they felt like it stood out too much; it was unnatural. So go ahead and begin your theorizing. It's not gonna be a big surprise; I think that people will figure it out pretty easily. But I'm not intending it to be a big surprise; I'm just trying to let things like what happened with Jasnah in this book come out naturally as they fit the characters.

No big surprises, but for those who would rather read about it in the book when it happens, then I will leave it to Book Five.

Tor Instagram Livestream (Nov. 25, 2020)

I don't think that the association between Shards and colors is perfect or consistent. Let's look at Scadrial for example: Preservation and Ruin's symbolic colors are white and black, and it's reflected in their mists but not godmetals. Rayse has it the other way around: Raysium had gold-white color, but his Light is "hyperviolet"