DiePie

Shardplate does not innately need stormlight (the spren that make it up have enough investiture on their own to make plate usable without it), but it does need stormlight to repair. However I would like to add that the only real weapon a fullborn has against a radiant is a duralumin-fuel steelpush (most likely on a coin). Fullborn wins if they can get consecutive hits on a major section of shardplate using this method, and Radiant wins if they can either trap/trick the fullborn, or get close enough to cutoff the spine/head of the fullborn with their shardblade. Personally I think the Fullborn wins by just running a quater-mile away and launching coins like an artillery piece.

Are mortals actually bound by oaths in any way? Like does breaking agreements make it easier for others to damage your spiritweb? Or is it just the shards? It seems to me that the Shard's power is bound to agreements that are made by vessel on the shard's behalf, and that Dalinar simply made a personal promise. I also have trouble thinking that both Dalinar and the Stormfather wouldn't understand that circumstances have changed, and that that oath would be considered binding. Besides, the only people who know about that oath are Dalinar and Navani (of course if it would be such a binding agreement, Odium would probably have the power to see it in the possible futures). Someone mentioned that Gavilar might try and steal Dalinar's bond to the Stormfather, and while I don't think he would try and do that specifically, I do have something to add: Gavilar might try and make a play to be the representative of Honor. If he were to do this, he could scratch the deal altogether (meaning Taravodium wouldn't even need to wait to see the outcome of the duel to know to potentially win).

I think whenever we get a glimpse into the inner-workings of the 17th shard, we're going to find that most of the characters working there are (at least based on) people who work at/with the irl 17th shard platforms (moderators, administrators, coppermind editors etc.) in the same way that Bridge 4 is composed of people based on Brandon's friends.

While the rest feels a bit uninspired (I mean no offense, but simply inventing something causing people to get bursts of power doesn't feel like a Brandon "They Named the Laws of Magic After Me" Sanderson magic system... though with his skills I have little doubt he could convince me otherwise if he felt so inclined), a magic based purely on study feels right for an interpretation of Invention... Like your D&D wizards if I understand correctly(though, with the way Investiture works they'd be sorcerers but w/e). Though I do admit, "invention" could mean something a lot more... spontaneous. People, not studiously running through every possible material to see which emits the most light without melting while under large electric charge; but instead sitting in their bathtubs pondering when they put two before thought separate ideas together to have a "eureka!" moment. And in that light a lot of what you suggest does make more sense. I think the optimal magic system for Invention should display both those aspects.

As Raboniel said, the key doesn't fit the lock. You still have a lock and a key, and although AonDor is probably more analogous to one of those keys (I think they're called rakes) that are used for lockpicking, I don't think it would, just, work to fuel magics like awakening. I think you'd have to re-key it (or change the investiture) in some way in order to make it "open the lock" following my analogy... Or you might be able to draw some through by using some breaths on an awakening that requires more than you have, which could create a disparity that could cause the Dor to break the lock for you.

if you go back into RoW, around when Navani first bonds the sibling She calls the tone for Towerlight the "soul of science"

Well we know he made the Bands of Mourning didn't he? Edit: He could also probably have Soulforged himself to have had a Feruchemist ancestor, and got really lucky with the genetic lottery Assuming that that isn't the case, Brandon would end up saying something too similar for me to discount other possibilities. I find it unlikely that a mistwraith could be coaxed into forming anything resembling Kelsier's body (given only his bones), though I do think with a "blessing" that consisted of a connection to Kelsier or his body in someway I think you could dramatically increase the chances of the bones aligning the right way. I would, however, like to propose a better way of giving him a full body: A Rosharan regrowth fabrial. Just get the bones together and use them to regrow the rest. It would require getting the body to and from Roshar (or, figuring out a way to get Stormlight off of Roshar), but it's not all that difficult. And while that could just pull him back into his body, I think it's more likely Kelsier spiked himself back into it.

The theory is that since Syl was "created" by Tarnavast, she would be considered Tarnavast's "daughter", and since Syl bonded Kaladin, he's considered by the Stormfather to be Tarnavast's son-in-law or something along those lines. I don't like it either, but the more I think about it, the more likely it seems. Please prove me wrong.

I think the 4th ideal is going to have been the hardest for him, he's always struggled with a lot of survivor's guilt, "I couldn't save them" type stuff, and he seems to have done just about everything he can to majorly improve himself. He's a natural leader and exemplifies everything there is about Windrunners as a group. I think Jasnah will either swear off-screen, or during her book in the back 5. Brandon has avoided focusing on her for the front 5 (to the point of giving her a POV in shardplate and not even bringing up how shardplate works. While I'm not going to comment much about whether or not Kaladin is going to swear his 5th ideal in the 5th book (I think he will, but I don't have anything to support that besides for it would be relatively easy for him and that I really want it) but I hope he survives. His arc to me has been less about surviving these situations, but living on past them. Not about how he couldn't have saved Tien, but how to live with the guilt of not being able to. He has depression, just living is enough of a struggle for him. I think killing kaladin off just undermines that, it strikes me as the easy way out. He doesn't have to do anything important other than be there and support the idea that you can keep going. That it's ok to live on.

I assume that Dalinar could kill him by destroying the connection to whatever power gave made Gavilar a cognitive shadow, but ofc Taravodium could be betting on Dalinar not realizing this, or not knowing how to do it.

If I understand, the secret to the recreance is actually a different one to the one they learn in Oathbringer (something the Stormfather hints at). Though that's a small critique of your theory

All I'm going to say, is that this would be a cool place for Gavilar to have shown up as a bondsmith, having bonded to Ba-Ado-Mishram. Not only was he obsessed with the spren, he was a potential bondsmith candidate, and I think Taravodium would be perfectly willing to... alter the rules a bit to allow Ba-Ado-Mishram to form a Nahel bond and give Adhesion in the same way that other bondsmith spren do. This would also be a way for the battle to be more... spiritual in nature than other candidates would. I think it would also be dope if, during the first part of book 5, deadeye spren start to act up, giving us the hint that Ba-Ado-Mishram was let out of their gemstone.

I mean the time he spent in the well must have given him some connection, and I have a hard time seeing him having a weak connection to preservation after he held the shard. He's also connected (most likely strongly) to the current Vessel of both shards if that makes any difference.

first of all he's also very connected to ruin (perhaps even more so, the shard did kind of "reject him" because of it), but that's a minor detail. But on to my main point, the main argument I can find against this is the heralds, who are implied to have remained sane better than other immortal beings due to the Oathpact (which is revealed created an extremely strong connection between them). I.e. it's because of connection that they fared better than other immortals (I think Elantrians were used as an example). It's still a good theory, and connection shenanigans definitely don't help people like Kelsier. The way I see it, immortal beings going insane is because of the fact that human (and I presume singer) minds aren't built to handle immortality. Even Hoid (who's definitely the best off out of all of them) has to store his memories separately. I think that over time people accumulate cracks in their Spiritwebs, and, given enough time, they break.

reflectionspren

From the scene where Navani first makes some, it seems to be just another kind of investiture, that just happens to have the properties of reacting to voidlight

Probably because Brandon's never thought of it. Though I would say it's because the investiture of the inhabitants would resist being moved by the shard (and so you couldn't effect them directly), which when combined with the fact that the speeds you'd need to reach to get anywhere in a reasonable time (ie. not having the planet freeze over and everything die because no sunlight for a year) would either tear everyone apart, or fling them into space. Does give me the idea of a Shard inhabiting a comet/asteroid, Investing in the rock in order to allow life to sustain itself, floating out in space.

this is referring to when to make sweeping changes, not the changes themselves

something that's always irked is is, would Jasnah have actual proof that slaves work less efficiently than free workers? Like did someone do a scientific study into the productivity of free vs. enslaved workers? She seems to just not want slaves. I wouldn't call Thaidakar utilitarian because he isn't trying to do good, while Taravangian and Jasnah are trying to help people, Thaidakar is doing things either for the power/prestige, or to get revenge against the killers of his wife.

First of all I think you might be underestimating the sheer numbers of people, if there are 10mil people and 9 out of every 10 of them die then that's still 1mil, and trying to aid that many as a group most likely numbering<1000 is... difficult to say the least. But also, I think the 9 out of 10 is more so for the Desolations before the Radiants, and once the Radiants came around for the last few casualty rates began to drop, and civilization stopped sliding back so far every desolation... Except that they weren't given as much time to rebuild since the heralds began breaking more often, which is I think the answer to your question, 2 years between the final 2 Desolations is not nearly enough time to rebuild.

I think genocide would be a better fit, making it moreso about the hatred of a group that causes you to make them extinct. it seems to me that shardic intent has some leeway for interpretation by the vessel (i.e. Rayse decided that anger meant that he should eliminate what he was angry at, Ati eventually came to the conclusion that she would be doing people a favor by ending everything, etc.), and that Autonomy is not trying to preserve the autonomy of people per say, but the autonomy of planets, to allow them all to function independently. Autonomy does this by meddling in the affairs of stronger planets, and protecting the weak ones so that they all maintain an equal-ish playing field. But getting to what I really want to talk about, I chose evolution, but I think there's something missing there. Evolution (to me) doesn't have that connotation of hatred that Odium would give to a shardic combo. The name really needs to demonstrate the brutality of evolution, how in order to survive and pass on your genes you need to fight. It also needs a bit more hatred, not only are you trying to survive, your doing so in part to spite all others, and once you get to the top what are you going to do? Beat down everyone else. If they were as good as you then they'd be on the top. Social Darwinism would be the best fit imo, but that doesn't fit into the 1-word precedent that's been set, so Darwinism would be my choice.

I have 0 clue who these people are... but they're perfect. 10/10 would watch

I'm pretty sure in RoW Navani makes note that they had looked at Soulcasters in the cognitive realm and found that they were "Spren with their eyes closed, as if sleeping" or something along those lines. I can't remember if she specifically noted that they were radiant Spren though.

I mean just thinking about the timeline, Dalinar would either have to die at the beginning of the book, or the climax, otherwise the pacing/structure of the book gets messed up right? And Kaladin is going to spend a lot of SA5 in Shinovar making sure that Szeth doesn't decide to just kill everyone (among other things), and getting interrupted while doing that probably wouldn't be satisfying.

I wonder if this could work with a being that's physically larger than a human, like for example a Kandra (who are probably better predisposed towards running a civilization out of their own head anyways), if they need more space to put spikes they can just ingest more biological material. It could be a more biological-horror take on the topic, with the host of the hive mind basically turning their original body into a pincushion to maintain control over their bodies.