DiePie

do we have confirmation on this? I saw someone mention it but assumed it was speculation. The way reverse lashings are treated in the books they seemed like a resonance, being an expression of the combination of 2 surges seems like what resonances are.

I assumed that they were non-interventionist because they were more of a scientific/research organization, doing science for science's sake. They don't like to take part in conflicts because choosing a side would sort of go against their stated goal.

Book 1 seems to be the aether world (I saw somewhere that the aether world is supposed to have 12 as a special number, and 12 tidally locked moons that drop deadly spores seems like the batcrap crazy thing that aehers would be a part of. Book 2 would be kind of funny if it was the Rithmatist 2, but idk how likely that is Either book 3 or 4 seem likely to be Kingmaker (or whatever the sequel to sixth of the dusk is), we know that Brandon has written at least a little of it since he did a reading from the first few chapters.

This definitely seems like something Taravodium would do, but I don't think it would work. Rayse agreed to the spirit of the contract, and so that's what Taravodium is bound to. Besides I don't think that Dalinar could unknowingly breach the contract if one of his soldiers were to assault Odium's champion, both of them had already agreed that they did not have total control over their followers. Anyways, I am biased here since it's always seemed to me that both Rayse and Dalinar intended on choosing themselves as champions, and that the final fight would resemble [spoilers for WoT] under this assumption Odium wouldn't really be able to get any Radiant to hurt his champion, because you can count the number of people on one hand who could hurt Odium who currently inhabit Roshar. I'm currently favorable towards Taravodium trying to get what he wants by just smiting Dalinar ASAP, pulling him into a vision, and basically saying "hi, hello, I'm a shard now. You work for me, we can discuss things like paternity leave and insurance later. Right now, I'm going to send you back there, and we're going to have this big impressive battle that you're going to 'win'".

Isn't that pressure change the reverse lashing? Their resonance? Which in my mind is he unique expression of their powers.

The problem with this is a fundamental misunderstanding your friend had, Rosharan "Spren" are specific to Roshar. The term is only ever used to refer to the investiture-given-thought found on Roshar, and specifically shaped by Honor, Cultivation and Odium. The reason that there are 10 Radiant spren (categorizing the Bondsmith Spren as being the same type) is because the Radiant Spren were specifically created by Cultivation and Honor, and Honor's number (or maybe the Rosharan planet/system's number, I've heard the arguments and even if I disagree there's definitely a case to be made for the numbers to be thematically tied to planets not shards, but that's irrelevant to what I'm saying) is 10, thus the 10 types of Radiant Spren. Spren, in the way we think of them, aren't manifestations of shards' power, but a specific manifestations of a few shards' powers. Getting into the alternative debate that has evolved in this thread as to what counts as a Spren, I would first like to clarify what I consider to be a spren (since the Rosharans cannot be trusted. I'll be using Vasher's definition for "Type 1 Invested Entities", i.e. investiture that is concentrated enough to form a personality of its own, on it's own. The ahem "Lord of Scars" isn't a Spren but instead a cognitive shadow (A "Type 2 Invested Entity"). A person's mind that has enough investiture to resist death, which is then (optionally) tacked on to a body. I would also refrain calling the mist spirit because it is created using the mists (Preservation's "body") and has no mind of it's own (is commanded entirely by Preservation). The way I see it, calling it a Spren would be like calling your bicep a person because you flexed it. Nightblood is a... special case, but Vasher classifies it as a "Type 4 Invested Entity" and, seems to differentiate the two upon learning of Rosharan Spren, so I would trust him on that. I assume the differentiation would be that Nightblood was created with a specific purpose, while Spren consciousness rises on its own? I can definitely see the argument as them being he same. Also on a side note, it's resemblance to ruin is probably more to do with the fact it's command contains the word "destroy" (meaning the two share similar intents) than it being a a splinter of Ruin. Or maybe the intent makes it a splinter or Ruin despite containing probably very little investiture from the shard? We also know that Nergaoul forms a bond with people feeling the thrill (though I can't seem to find the WoB), and for that reason I see no reason Moelach doesn't either. There's also popular theories going around about Ba-Ado-Mishram is probably the best candidate to give radiant-type powers (their whole thing seems to be pretty connection-y, so they would make a god candidate for an Odium Bondsmith Spren).

Slight correction, Lift's radiant abilities are powered by Stormlight. Her "gifts" from Cultivation predate her bond to cultivation. I think that anti-Stormlight only killing certain types of spren would undermine the philosophical arguments between the Honorspren and Highspren about which type is "closer to Honor", since I would think it requires different types of spren to have different degrees of composition of Honor and Cultivation's lights, giving an objective metric that could be used to answer the question. However, if some spren were effected more than others, I think that most spren require the part of them that is of Honor to function, and any who survive wouldn't function properly.

Well we know that there is only one dragon currently on Roshar, and at least one dragon is a vessel. We can also probably eliminate Tarnavast as being a dragon But have we considered yet the possibility of Tarnavast being 3 dragons in a trench coat?

do (northern) Scadrians even believe in an immortal soul? I know we don't really know much about Scadrian theology (I blame the fact that the series focuses on the type of people who don't tend to be religious), but out of the major post-catecendre religions we know of (Pathian, Survivorism, and Sliverism are the ones that come to mind), none seem to focus much on the afterlife. Which, now that I think about it, is a weird thing to leave out. I know it isn't particularly relevant to this debate, except to add that Kelsier probably doesn't believe in the afterlife, considering the way he reacted after dying.

I would like to agree with the sentiment that Kelsier would not go willingly putting him in a room with the Heralds, Fused, Vasher, ends up with someone dead

Since we're talking about the climax of the Cosmere (cough cough MB era 4 cough cough) and not what's most likely going to be the last story in the cosmere (my bet's on Elantris 3): My personal theory is that, Harmony, and some odium/honor/cultivation combo, since both are tied to their respective planets because of how much they've Invested (and how ruin/preservation's Intents are opposed). And so Scadrial and Roshar are going to enter into a pseudo cold-war type thing, with both planets trying to take over the Cosmere. I also think that Roshar (with it's stronger state institutions etc.) is going to be somewhat of a stand-in for China, and Scadrial (at least in the hypercapitalist north) for America.

What if we were to steal the part of him that incapacitates him with Hemalurgy? I think either it would have to take the part of his spiritweb that makes him immortal with it (just outright killing it), his Spiritweb would resist too much for the spike to steal anything, or he would naturally heal that portion of his Spiritweb. I like the third option the most, since it means he could suppress his healing after getting spiked to allow himself to do some measure of harm. I think the first is most likely, though.

I feel that's where the major divide between Rayse and Odium is, Odium (the power) loves emotion, but Rayse doesn't like being questioned, he wants to be the only one with emotions. It's a concept I feel comes up a few times, the ones I can think of are: Leshwi talking to Venli about how the other Fused, and one of Taravangian and Rayse's conversations together. But also on the main topic of the thread, there's been some attempts to classify shards into four groups based on the Dawnshards, if that's any help. Personally I like the scale better, since it more aligns with the different frequencies of light/sound associated with each shard... but I think if that's going to be canon it's for the big screen, since the color symbolism feels a bit messed up for that to work for me.

The fact that Moash says that he's as sure of his inability as the sun orbits Roshar seems to indicate to me that Moash is at least a little delusional. But more seriously, he probably knows that something is up with Kaladin, and that Kaladin is an extremely skilled fighter. His time among the fused probably has probably increased his opinion of Kaladin's abilities, considering how many of the Fused are insane by this point, and how the rest are set in old ways. Combine that with the fact that Moash wants to be the one who gets the chance to go at Kaladin (and to do it on his terms), and I think that explains his view of Kaladin.

Dalinar takes up the shard of honor while dueling Taravodium, and because there's so much investiture at that one spot at the top of the tower a black hole forms, sucking in the entirety of Roshar before fizzling out.

he could've pulled a Kelsier and waltzed off to Braize or something for the majority of the series

My biggest wish is for Wax & Co. to turn up in Urithiru for book 6 as emissaries from Harmony. Just seeing the Stormlight cast react to a gun would be enough for me.

slight correction: There's 9 types of Fused corresponding to the 9 surges that they recognize (the 10 we're used to minus adhesion). The Fused are also called Fused based on their Connection to Odium, and their ability to occupy the bodies of singers in order to become functionally immortal. In my opinion, if an unmade (most likely Ba-Ado-Mishram) were to establish a Nahel Bond, they would be better classified as a Radiant, since the bond would be more similar to a Nahel bond.

yeah I always assumed it was the vacuum of space. Understand that the Fused probably didn't understand what pressure is, and why it doesn't exist in space, until the final desolation, which is why Raboniel talks about it in such uncertain terms. That Fused probably didn't even make it to one of Roshar's moons before they died.

I think that somewhere in secret history it's mentioned that Kelsier had a hard time wielding Preservation in part because of his body (or lack therof) of course this could probably be solved by abusing the Nahel bond (and using Brandon's 0th law of magic), to also make Kaladin share it in some way.

Land being given by the King to lords under their rule is the basis of Feudalism, and Alethkar is (slash was) a feudal society. The relationship between the Highking and the Highprinces is more similar to the relationship between the King of France and his dukes, as the Highking doesn't have the same religious basis of rule that the Emperor of Japan did (i.e. being the ancestor of one of the gods, and being treated as a god himself). We see the Highprinces immediately go back to fighting amongst themselves as soon as the King leaves, and actively trying to depose him when they think they have a chance.

I've been holding the theory that while Roshar is going to dominate the cognitive realm as there are 20 portals on Roshar that allow consistent access to the cognitive realm, not even counting the Perpendicularities and Radiants who can transfer between realms. Rosharan magic is also extremely well-optimized for land-based warfare, which is most of the cognitive realm. But that Scadrial is going to dominate Physical-realm, due to being the first to develop true FTL (era 4 was always supposed to be space-opera-y type stuff), and also the Metallic Arts having the best exploitable gimmicks for less traditional types of battles.

it could also be that, because Roshar has a less... active mantle/core, it means that it has less of an electromagnetic field that can deflect harmful radiation which causes more genetic mutations. Rosharans would also be less susceptible to cancer, as latent investiture would strengthen their immune systems.

Just reread that portion of secret history, and I didn't see any mention of red eyes. Can you find the quote for me? But besides that, red is also used as symbology for Corruption (i.e. when a shard's Investiture is used to influence a different shard's Investiture, as well as Odium

Odium's line there seems (to me) to be talking about the power's Intent, not specific agreements. First of all, he mentions a time frame (if Dalinar's oath were to bind him in 10 days, Odium would've said that they already bind him (or will soon bind him). Secondly, he says it as if it's the power that's doing the binding. The power didn't bind him to his agreements, he did. He made those agreements. The power is affected by his decisions regarding his agreements not the other way around. But either way, Rayse is being intentionally opaque. You could very well be right.