Golstar

I very much like this: Righteous fury. This makes the gold not regal and grandiose, but more akin to the gold associated with knights, paladins and righteous justice. Awesome. I do think that it's not exclusively Rayse that caused this, but rather caused by an inherent duality of the Shard. The wrath of god carries a duality of supreme righteousness vs total despair (depending on the observer), and also hatred doesn't make sense without context. A Vessel who is biased towards only passion and righteousness (Rayse almost channels mercy when talking to Dalinar and Moash) is acting against the intent, but equally I think a Vessel that acts without motivation and simply becomes 'destruction' would also be punished by the Shard. The justification for the Hatred doesn't have to be reasonable or fair - but wanton destruction is Ruin's intent, not Odium. So I could see a different Vessel having a different secondary color - an uncompromising zealot might dress himself in white for example, while a bitter husk of a great man might appear all black. What motivates the hatred of Taravangian? I'd say necessity. He destroys that which stands in his way, that which is broken and that which is weak. He is not righteous, not just, but something far more sinister. In his own mind he is not even pure, but deeply tainted. He would wear the gold for the image it projects - to give mortals an illusion of justice and righteousness. But I don't see him caring about this self-image for his own sake. In that way he is a much more dangerous Odium. Tempering the red-hot hatred with cold cynicism and fatalistic nihilism.

His god metal is golden, though. So it's more than just pretense/illusion, and I don't think we have any reason to assume investiture has to have a natural color. Stormlight, voidlight, etc. are just one form of investiture. Shardblades and Shardplate are also pure investiture, and they have all kinds of colors. But I think you have very good point about the impact of the Vessel/Shard 'self-control' on how the investiture manifests. Odium is a volatile shard, and it makes very good sense, that loss of control changes the manifestation, not just in color but in 'shape'. It's also interesting that corrupted (non-sapient) spren gain weird stretched/spiky outlines. Perhaps the shard has some kind of inherent destabilizing effect on manifestations of investiture.

Raysium is golden and his internal light is golden. I still hold to my hypothesis, that the investiture is golden when it's the "body" of Odium (ie god-metal or the shard itself) and stygian-violet when it's external. Voidlight can then be interpreted as the Divine Wrath, and Raysium+Odium-light is the Divine itself. The shard is (mostly) hatred, but not self-hatred. I think this contradictory intent causes the multiple colors. Endowment isn't monochromatic, and I don't think there is a Cosmere fundamental law that Shards must have a single color. Scadrial is all about metal and mist, Roshar is all about light and tunes, Nalthis is all about breaths. These are all aspects of how investiture connects to the physical realm, but I think it's being slightly myopic to expect the conventions of Stormlight to govern all investiture. While there could very well be a "Shardlight" for each Shard, investiture manifesting in the Physical realm is the result of interplay between all three realms. I see manifested investiture as sort of similar to the 3-dimensional projection of a 4-dimensional object. And note that this is not meant literally, but as metaphor: If we "rotate" the intent of a shard in 4D in a consistent manner for each shard and project it from spiritual to physical, we may get something which is similar in 3D shape but varies in color. However some shards could then be thought have multiple "configurations of intent" in 4D which yield the same shape but with different colors. Perhaps it's a poor metaphor - but my point is that the spiritual may be consistent and deterministic, while still being complex and not quite as predictable as 1-color-per-shard. Just like how observing the projection of a 4D object in 3D tells us something about the shape of the underlying object, but never the full picture. Or in 3D to 2D terms - the shadow of an object carries a lot of information, but depending on the angle can vary quite a lot. Maybe Honor is this very symmetrical intent that projects very consistently - while Odium is a weirdo that put bunny ears on other shards, so you think you're looking at a bunny, but it's just Honor and Odium's fingers. Sorry that sounds like more like Whimsy. Back to the point: Colors aren't arbitrary, I am not arguing that Odium has multiple colors for no good reason. But I am arguing that constraining investiture to being a single type of light, gas and metal is too simplistic. Maybe Whimsy has 1000 different kinds of investiture with different tunes and colors. Preservation likes to manifest investiture as nice chunks of metallic matter. The intent of a shard affect how they manifest investiture, and also what pre-shattering investiture and magic "belongs" to a Shard. Surgebinding can convince matter to change into fire, which is pretty wild considering the differences on a physical level. Investiture can do pretty crazy things - it's the magic of creation after all, not just a different kind of energy. Voidlight is definitely of Odium - we've been shown this in multiple ways. But does it come from Odium's perpendicularity? Is it modified Stormlight? Is it both? Is it something else entirely? We don't know. Can Shards share and/or co-opt investiture? Yes. Ruin acted through metals that were of Preservation if they were used as a Hemalurgic spike. Intent when creating the spike changed the investiture from being Preservation-aligned to being Ruin-aligned. So something like Iron on Scadrial is of Preservation until you go spike someone with and then suddenly Ruin can exert influence through the Iron (and the broken spirit-web). Investiture all comes from the Spiritual Realm. It can carry the "spin" of a Shard, but we've seen that this can change. So until we get to a point where Brandon shows us Voidlight manifesting, all options are open. So my answer would be: Yes, Voidlight is Odium's investiture, but it is not his only physical manifestation of investiture and it may or may not have originated as his investiture. The colors could be a hint as to these things.

We have this WoB which indicates that there is a connection the Unmade, but it seems to indicate that Voidbinding can originate elsewhere. Personally, I think that it is relatively simple: Voidbinding is just bonding a corrupted spren. A "regular" Nahel Bond gives access to manipulating surges. Bonding in itself is a thing of Honor, but the corrupted spren are of Odium. So I agree it is of Honor+Odium, but I think it's really just another facet of what Nahel Bonds. Another interesting WoB: So maybe focusing on Voidbinding as a whole is missing the point: each type of voidbinding is unique to the type of bonded spren. I think this makes sense given the central role of the Nahel Bond. A final WoB: If Spren are living Surges, Surgebinding may just be binding surges literally. The pre-Radiant/Roshar Surgebinding being a way to bind surges without an oath, and perhaps not even using a spren, but non-sentient surges (the diseases?). I think 'Void' represents alien/foreign on Roshar, so Voidbinding is binding the unnatural forces of the universe. So really just any spren touched by Odium's investiture - or perhaps even any non-Honor/non-Cultivation investiture.

Yes, I think that was me, and I agree with your theory. It would be very interesting to see what a Seeker (or a Mistborn burning bronze) would hear on Roshar and Nalthis. Come to think of it, hasn't Hoid ingested Lerasium during his stay on Scadrial? I seem to remember that during his first meeting with Shallan, she sees him ingest a metal. Could Seeking be used to detect Nahel Bonds perhaps? Also, when used for Hemalurgy, Bronze steals Mental Allomantic powers (Copper steal Mental fortitude and ability). In Feruchemy, Bronze stores wakefulness (Copper stores memories). Or more briefly it is a Cognitive metal. Reference: https://coppermind.net/wiki/File:Feruchemical_table.jpg I'm not quite sure what to make of that, but perhaps it is related to how the spiritual (investiture) manifests not just as matter (metal, liquid, gas) but also as energy (light, waves, heat). Interestingly a Cognitive metal, Brass, acts as a Feruchemical store of heat (kinetic energy).

We've been told that investiture and magic existed pre-shattering, and was "distributed" according to intent (although things have been added and changed since then as shards have been active around the Cosmere). These metal properties may just be a fundamental aspect of creation, which is highly visible in Allomancy, but also relevant for other magic systems. Aluminium has a similar isolating effect across systems - it seems very much a fundamental property of the metal, and not tied to any shards. Color has also been shown to have meaning across magic systems and shards. Vibrations are part of allomancy and surgebinding both - in different ways but still related to identity (allomantic seekers identify using pulses, which are essentially rhythms of vibrations). Spiritual DNA is a thing across systems. Shards may have a strong influence in their native system and incredibly power on worlds they're heavily invested in, but they still exist in a Cosmere that had a pre-existing cosmic order.

First Theory Taravangian uses the phrasing What if: Dalinar wins: Odium can't work against Dalinar's allies or kingdoms, but I don't see anything about him working *for* them. He could wage war on behalf of Alethkar, he could recruit willing individuals from those realms to invade other worlds. Also he can wage war against anyone not allied with Dalinar. Odium wins: He still only has to cease hostilities against Dalinar's allies. If Dalinar now serves Odium, doesn't that mean anyone not allied with the Odium-serving Dalinar is fair game? Doesn't this deliver all of Roshar to Odium? This may be too much against the 'intent' of the agreement, but then again it might not. Second Theory Dalinar is a Bondsmith - he has sworn an Oath to Unite and not Divide. Didn't he just agree to an outcome that divides Roshar between Odium and Dalinar/Honor? Isn't signing away entire kingdoms to Odium permanently against his Oath? Among other things, Dalinar breaking his Oath could probably make Szeth go bonkers.

Pierced by a black arrow... or is that a sword?

That's a fair point. It could be they just don't see a point. Spren aren't particularly forthcoming - the Stormfather doesn't tell Dalinar even very important things until asked. Nale probably knows what happened during the Recreance, and he very likely doesn't want anyone else to know. So my devil's advocate question would be - "are they hiding anything, if noone is asking?".

Radiant spren that aren't bonded seem to know very little about what's going on in the physical realm, and they also to be rather forgetful. I'm not sure they are even capable of remembering events in the same manner as mortals. I think it can be boiled down to the unbonded spren seeing the bonded spren as dumb and/or frivolous. Then when they all suddenly become dead-eyes, the unbonded spren immediately assume humans are to blame (they were already likely biased against humans as they weren't bonded and fighting Odium). Those who did learn about the truth probably forgot or don't bother communicating it to other spren. Spren in the cognitive realm are sentient bundles of investiture representing an idea. When a mortal dies and leaves behind a cognitive shadow, they begin sliding into insanity - Zahel describes this as becoming 'spren-like'. The spren are essentially insane and without a Nahel Bond it's probably worse. If you send a former resident back into an asylum for the insane to tell them about the world outside, that's going to have a limited effect. When a whole bunch of former residents show up mute and without eyes, and the asylum residents know these were in the care of specific individuals outside - they're going to blame the outside people. Regardless of what they were told prior to the incident. They probably don't even remember any such stories correctly.

I don't think this is odd at all. Ruin has the color black, but Atium is silvery. The lines Allomancers see when burning Iron and Pewter are blue, but Preservation has the color white. It would be odd if the colors were seemingly arbitrary. But Gold for the divine being and Stygian Violet for the wrath/power of said being makes a lot of sense. There is also this WoB, which has a much simpler explanation, which Brandon doesn't confirm, but he also doesn't really reject it either.

Odium's influence overwhelms and dominates at an emotional level. The hatred is fueled by passion and emotion - but eventually consumes this fuel. That's also how I reconcile Odium being connected with the concept of Void - which doesn't seem to resonate at all with overwhelming and burning hatred. Odium's investiture is a volatile and voracious power which co-opts emotion, guilt, pain, passion and even love. So I don't see it as greed in the sense of someone lusting for wealth or power - but more as the greed of a chemical reaction. Honor is cold fury and just retribution, Odium is hot rage and bitter vengeance. I think this also makes the storms an interesting "battleground" for the two Shardic intents. The Storm of Honor is majestic, relentless but also indiscriminate and uncompromising. The Storm of Odium is tyrannical, furious and destructive. There is a lot of overlap between the two Shards, which I think makes Odium uniquely poised to tempt the servants of Honor - and vice versa. I think there is an interesting parallel between Moash and Kaladin. Honor helps Kaladin cope with his psychological anguish - not by taking away the pain, but through integrity, purpose and meaning. Odium relieves Moash of psychological pain by applying a nihilistic suppression of self, selectively applied to emotions that are painful. Interestingly, he is not left exclusively with Hatred (although it dominates) - MoashVyre feels respect, perhaps even twisted love, for Kaladin. I think that eventually Odium would feast on those as well, but it's not simple voiding of emotion. Just the ones that hurt. Which will eventually be all of them. I would argue that Rayse fell prey to this himself - his pride and egotism eventually becoming shame in the face of defeat - and Odium the Shard does not tolerate self-directed negative emotion, and was thus rejecting Rayse.

I happened upon this WoB by chance: And this reddit post: The parshmen are protected from Odium's influence (except via spren). I think this is due to them being heavily infused by Cultivation. The Iriali are blonde and not from Ashyn or Roshar. I suspect they are from Yolen. Their religion of the One has strong similarities to Adonalsium, and the Iriali have been strongly hinted at as being part of the space age Cosmere stories (ie MB era 4). They've sided with Odium in the current conflict. From Mistborn books we know that spiritual DNA is a thing in the Cosmere. The Horneaters ability to see spren might an example of such. Could there be a similar thing with the Ashyn heritage? Capacity for surgebinding? Could there be a spiritual DNA unique to Yolen? Could that have implications for Renarin and Adolin? Finally the Jah Kaved have a tendency to have red hair and violet eyes. Violet is the color of Odium, but I can't recall seeing it associated with anything except Voidlight. However, it might hint at a past involving Odium somehow.

That was extremely poor wording on my part. I meant that Voidlight is certainly of Odium now, but we don't know whether the investiture making up the light started out as Voidlight. The reference to Towerlight and Warlight was to illustrate that light can be produced from other types of light. Voidlight may be Stormlight or 'rawlight' that has been co-opted using the rhythm of Odium. When mortals can manipulate light with relatively simple technology, it would be expected that a Shard could easily manipulate it in a similar fashion. That being said, I think the more likely explanation is simply that Odium has two colors: Gold for the aspect of the bringer of divine wrath and vessel of great passions, and stygian violet for the aspect of delivering said wrath and using hatred/passion as a power source. Perhaps one could even take it as far as to say this also illustrates the split of how Rayse-Odium views himself as a majestic, passionate and grandiose being - but the rest of the Cosmere experiences his influence as destructive, violent and odious.

That doesn't preclude that the light was initially "tinted" differently. Towerlight and warlight was once something else. It is certainly of Odium now, but as it investiture manifested as light we have no way of knowing where it came from. I think most agree that Stormlight originates from Honor's Perpendicularity. We don't know where pure lifelight (if it even occurs "naturally") comes from, and we don't know where voidlight comes from. Maybe it originates from Odium's Perpendicularity (which we know nothing about yet), but there is no light associated with the Perpendicularities on Scadrial, so it's not a given that all perpendicularities generate investiture-light. I guess what I'm saying is - Navani has discovered properties and methods of manipulation of specific manifestations of investiture. There is no guarantee that they all have the same origin or that all shards have a way to generate such light. Navani has quite possibly discovered a way to do this, but doesn't that lend credence to the idea that Odium can do something similar? He understands these things on a very fundamental and intuitive level. He think he could quite easily turn Stormlight into Voidlight. There may exist Hatelight which is golden and has a pure tone also of Odium (maybe even the same). I am not saying it does, just that investiture is complex, and we can't from what we've been shown so far deduce that it's as simple as one color per shard and one vibration per color. And as we've seen golden yellow as Odium's color on several occasions, we just have to assume he could very well have more than one color, depending on the nature of the investiture. Perhaps different colors for different aspects. Gold for his body and violet for his "breath". That would actually suit his intent well I think - expressing the distinct nature of his 'wrath' from his permanent identity. The deliverer of divine wrath is golden but the wrath itself is stygian? Kaladin had yellow eyes as he was acting as an extension of Odium's intent and not merely empowered by Odium's voidlight?

Odium seems to have multiple colors associated with him: Gold: Investiture leaking from Rayse, his god-metal (Raysium daggers are described as golden), several visions of Odium Red: Corrupted/modified spren, various Fused powers Violet/Stygian: Voidlight, various Fused powers My personal interpretation is that Shards don't necessarily have a single color, but the investiture they manifest in the physical and cognitive realms are tinted in a unique way for each shard. We've seen on Scadrial that some Shards can even mimic the color of other shards and use this for deception. Probably not a normal occurence, but it shows that there is flexibility. Red, according to the WoB, is corrupted and/or alien investiture. Un-natural so to speak. Violet and stygian is close enough to this that it can be hard to discern. Odium is associated with voidlight which is certainly not gold, but there is no doubt that he manifests golden investiture on several occasions. My hypothesis is that the difference is in the manifestation. Voidlight is an almost elemental type of investiture - like stormlight. Mortals can manipulate it and it obeys certain laws and acts predictably. It's a very stable form of investiture. Alternatively, voidlight is special because it was originally manifested as another form of investiture, either stormlight or some kind of 'neutral' light. Then when Odium co-opts it, it becomes violet. Blue+red = violet? As Odium's god-metal is golden, I suspect that color is associated with objects and people that have been permanently and non-ephemerally invested. Voidlight is consumed and diffuses back to the spiritual realm, like Stormlight. I think a Champion of Odium could very well have golden eyes but use stygian/violet voidlight as fuel. Investiture can manifest as light, gas, liquid and metal. It's present in all matter, we're told on several occasions (Preservation in particular talks about how it's part of every single animate or inanimate object on Scadrial). Sentience is investiture, we're also told (and the reverse, investiture has an inherent drift towards attaining sentience). Do all these manifestations have to align in color? I don't think so. Shardblades are pure investiture, but can have all kinds of colors. Spren are highly invested - and they display a variety of tints. On Scadrial we have examples of blue investiture aligned with Ruin and/or Preservation - Allomancers see blue lines emanating from metal objects. So it was wrong that I said Odium's investiture was golden. That's a too limiting description for what we've already been shown - but I think it fits as his primary color (especially due to the god-metal and leaking investiture).

Great theory. The pattern of destruction on the Shattered Plains will probably be revisited and somehow tie into all of this. Maybe there is more to Stormseat than we know.

I like that Lirin is flawed. We see a man of great compassion and humility - someone who by an outsider could easily be seen as almost saintly in his benevolence, pacifism and altruism. But we also see a father with a troubled relationship with his son, a man who lacks empathy and tolerance for his son forging his own path. There is no doubt to me that Lirin cares deeply for his son, torn between conflicting emotions and convictions, and struggling to discern between what he wants to be best for Kaladin and what is actually best for Kaladin. Very often in fantasy literature parent-child relationships are either extremely positive, extremely negative or a trope of stubborn conflict resolving to extremely positive. Kaladin and Lirin have a more complex relationship, and one that shows us the price of a strong conviction. What is a boon to Lirin's community is often a source of pain and conflict to his family. He is a flawed man - and that's refreshing. People are rarely perfect. Is he often annoying and almost fanatical in his beliefs? I think so. But it's a nice departure from usual tyrannical and domineering fanatical patriarch. This is a softer fanaticism - with a different dynamic. That's awesome.

Just to clarify - I think that whatever Honor did to bind Odium on Braize was initially the only thing keeping him here. But I think that the many cycles of war, in which Odium has invested himself into not just the Fused but also the Unmade has changed this. But once he's released from whatever Honor did, I don't think he will have any compunctions about destroying what invested beings/objects are keeping him chained to Roshar/Braize - and that's where I think anti-Light is helpful to him. Especially if Honor has somehow intervened in the Fused cycle of rebirth, so that Odium can't stop it (even if it's "Odium investiture" being recycled) We also have this WoB, that to me indicates that keeping the Fused locked away is part of chaining Odium. I am also a bit iffy about this whole Odium-Dalinar thing, I think there's some key aspect Dalinar is completely unaware of, and Hoid+Rayse were both trying to trick him. Maybe Dalinar being bonded to the Stormfather really is enough to free Odium, but that just seems weird to me. The Stormfather is a weak shadow of Honor and is afraid of Odium. I'm sure there's something going on we simply haven't learned yet. But whatever it is - investiture chains a Shard to a system, and Odium is significantly invested in Roshar.

I think there is a good chance he'll die and return (due to Odium's investment), showing us that Fused and Heralds are essentially the same thing. If Todium turns upon the Fused at some point, perhaps due to needing to sever his connection to Roshar (he didn't bring anyone with him from previous shard-wrecking campaigns from what we know), then maybe Vyre will be our viewpoint into that: feelings of betrayal, fury and perhaps relief that it's finally over. I think we'll see him go to Damnation before that, though. We know the Heralds didn't like it one bit there - but what's it like for the other side? And many readers have wanted him to 'go to hell', so actually letting readers experience that in a very literal sense would be an interesting twist. Maybe he'll bump into some unexpected faces on Braize. Regardless of any theories, he can still serve as a human viewpoint into Odium's forces. I expect books 6 to need a viewpoint into how the Todium transition ripples down into the 'realm' of Odium. So there's plenty of meta-narrative reason to keep him around and I also think his personal arc is not yet done.

I think an important aspect of Cultivation is passivity. She plants a seed and waits for it to sprout. She trims the branches and waters the soil. She may even yank up some weeds - or sacrifice life to create mulch. But a gardener does not constantly interfere with plants. She sets events in motion and guide them to fruition. Even though Odium may be a wild beast chained in the middle of her garden, I think the intent still governs her way of responding. Splintering as a concept raises some interesting questions when it comes to Cultivation. First off, I think splintering is misunderstood as merely *the* way to "pacify" a Shard. I disagree - Odium dealt with the three previously defeated shards by making it impossible for new vessels to take them up. Weakening and splintering a Shard probably makes this a lot easier to accomplish - but additional measures need to be taken. Devotion and Dominion were trapped in the Cognitive Realm. Ambition was finished off after escaping Threnody - and thus splintered in an unknown location. Breaking off part of an unlimited power doesn't diminish it. I would think that splintering as a concept (setting aside the Odious use of it) is extremely in-tune with Cultivation's intent. The splinter is essentially a sapling. But trapping a Shard and preventing a new Vessel from taking it up? That implies stunted growth, stagnation and sterility. Incidentally, the cycle of Desolations - the Rhytm of War - also seems opposed to her intent. Such a cycle needs to go somewhere - branch out - change - evolve - live. I would not be surprised if she had a hand in breaking the stalemate. Cultivation has now dealt with Rayse. Why would she want to trap or harm Odium the Shard? Splintering Odium would make sense, but only for the purpose of cultivating the splinters into something new, and not to prevent a new Vessel. Redirecting Odium seems much more in-line with her intent. She has successfully cultivated a replacement Vessel for Odium, and manipulated circumstances to facilitate the Ascension to occur. I don't think her plans end at this point - she must have already sown the seeds that eventually lead to Odium leaving her garden for good - either on his own or as a Shard of War. I think she would like to keep a few striplings of his power, as that's in-line with her intent, but I think neither alliance nor hostility are of interest to Cultivation. As for Cultivation and Honor's relationship - I see him as the Sun to her Garden. Honor's Perpendicularity seems to be the most powerful conduits into the Spiritual Realm that we know of. Having access to constant Stormlight seems to fit Cultivation, and gives an extra layer to the relationship of the two Shards, as I don't think prior romantic relations will necessarily carry over to post-Ascension attachment. Except perhaps that Honor may have been bound by pre-Ascension oaths to his love, and thus fulfilled his intent by providing protection and power. This also explains the Stormfather/Cultivation/Odium stand-off - if he is de facto acting as power source to her garden, then she would be rather upset if Odium went and destroyed him. Very tangential, but we know the Everstorm existed prior to the Shattering. I think Honor and Cultivation nabbing the Everstorm greatly angered Odium and is what made him target Roshar. I think he invaded using the humans of Ashyn - then Honor won the humans over (because he can do that - Honor lives in the hearts of men), Odium created the Fused, the Heralds used the Oathpact to bind the Fused of Braize, and this bound Odium to Braize by extension (as they are immortal Cognitive Shadows invested by Odium). I think Odium needs to destroy the Heralds and/or the Fused to gain freedom. But they're all immortal so Odium needed Honor to dissolve the Oathpact, which he of course wouldn't do as that would act against his intent. I think now that anti-Light has been created, Odium has a way out, regardless of the outcome in the Contest of Champions. How will Cultivation react to anti-Light? I don't think she is opposed to pulling out weeds - and I think that is what she thinks of Fused and Heralds. Persistent weeds chaining a bull in her garden. She's calmed the bull by swapping Rayse for Taravangian - next up is getting rid of those weeds, so the bull can finally leave her garden..

I think that light is less closely tied to shards than most assume. This is my theory on the nature of Stormlight and Voidlight - and "anti-light": Stormlight is investiture from the Spiritual Realm which has "leaked" out via Honor's Perpendicularity. It's "tinted" by Honor due to this route of entry, but it's not actually "Honor-energy". It's really just investiture manifesting as light and a Connection to Honor. Voidlight has an unknown source, and while it could theoretically be leaked from a Perpendicularity belonging to Odium, I think it's not the case. Instead I think Odium has the power to co-opt raw investiture and re-tint it. Lifelight is rare - Cultivation doesn't usually manifest investiture in this form - we've seen it with Lift, where it "overflows" when she converts food into investiture, and split from Towerlight. I think it can reasonable be classified as a "not naturally occuring". So I think there are four known methods of creating Light, and I hypothesize a fifth and a sixth: 1) Shardic tinting: When a Shard facilitates a flow of investiture from the Spiritual Realm to the Physical (be it via a Perpendicularity, a metabolic process or something else), it is tinted by the intent of the Shard and colored accordingly. This is the only method which creates new light. 2) Merging: Using an emulsifier, existing light is combined. The Shardic tints are preserved, but take on a hybrid color and intent. 3) Splitting: This can only be done to hybrid light and is simply breaking said light into constituent Shardic tints. 4) Inversion: Anti-light created by isolating light from Shardic intent and then manipulating it to "vibrate" with the inverted intent. Now the hypothetical methods: 5) Modulation: I suspect this is how Voidlight is created. After absorbing stormlight (or any investiture) using Raysium, some method is used to overwritten the original intent with Odium's intent. I think Odium and BAM are capable of this through their powers - but there are likely 'technological' ways to achieve the same effect, as it's very close to inversion which we have seen done with some fabrial+fused technology. 6) Purification: If we consider 'raw' investiture with no Shardic intent at all, I don't think that can exist currently in the Cosmere, as Shards are the only link between the Realms, and they invariably imprint their intent on any investiture they channel. However, I think that if all Shardic intents were merged, it would create a pure light - essentially full-spectrum investiture. This could be done by taking for example Stormlight and then splitting it into 16 instances, modulating each of those, and then merging them (possibly in stages, as not all intents may have an emulsifier). At the end one has pure investiture. Now assuming I'm correct that 6) is possible - might it then be possible to invert this light and create pure anti-investiture? If so, I think this would incredibly destructive. A final musing on anti-light: I don't think anti-light is directly capable of destroying investiture at a fundamental level. Using it to destroying investiture that has been manifested in the physical realm, certainly destroys that manifestation (and thus prevents it from re-manifesting via the Cognitive Realm), but there's still an infinite store of investiture in the Spiritual Realm. So new investment can still happen. I think it's impossible to use it to close a perpendicularity or destroy a shard. The source of anti-light is manifested investiture - which is finite - and the thing it's trying to cancel out, has an infinite reservoir on the other side. So I think anti-light is a devastating weapon against invested beings and cognitive shadows in particular, but it's not an existential threat to a shard.

I agree, and recently posted a similar theory of my own. We know that investment in a system will make it harder for a Shard to leave a system. I think Cultivation's endgame might very well be to have either a hidden Tanavast shadow (as I think the Stormfather, who is a Sliver of Honor and highly, is used as decoy by Cultivation to keep Odium from discovering the Cognitive Shadow of the Tanavast the Vessel) take up the Odium shard (and become War) - or to manipulate Odium into leaving Roshar, so she can regrow a new body for Tanavast. If Odium is tethered to Roshar through investiture, he should be able to gain freedom by destroying those invested - that would mean wiping out the Fused and the Unmade. This WoB has some interesting stuff about investiture and Shards - and how investiture isn't simply energy from a particular shard and 'flavored' by it. 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... General Reddit 2018 (March 18, 2018) To me this indicates that Odium could be using investiture in different way than other Shards. Considering his intent - it seems possible that he interacts with investiture by "super-charging"/"polarizing" existing investiture, rather than how other Shards seem to manipulate their own investiture and build a system on it. Odium doesn't have a system - he just breaks that of other Shards. I don't think it's a coincidence that the Shards he splintered in other systems don't exist in an "Odium-corrupted" state. I think by interacting with investiture he ties himself to a system. I might speculate his modus operandi is to corrupt during the fight, then once victory is achieved, he destroys whatever he touched, and moves on. The cycle of desolations on Roshar, and his failure to achieve victory, may have prolonged this for so long that the investiture he's corrupted has gained more power and agency than he expected or wanted. His splinters and minions essentially repeating his behavior on a smaller scale (BAM, Raboniel, Sja-Anat). He does seem to have a preference for freshly corrupted minions. Perhaps to avoid a cascade of investment that is trouble to clean up afterwards. Consider Odium heading into Roshar to wreck Honor (and maybe Cultivation - he seems to care less about her) - he'd want to splinter Honor and then move on. If Honor lives in the hearts of men then he wouldn't want to exterminate all humans on Roshar as that might un-splinter Honor. He doesn't want to permanently corrupt everything, as that would tie him to Roshar. I think his endgame is to exterminate the Singers and Fused once he tricks/browbeats a child/champion of Honor into releasing him from Roshar. TL;DR - I think being 'marked' / corrupted / invested by Odium is a death-sentence, since he wants clean up any such ties to a system before moving on.

Wasn't something mentioned of an Aimian being part of the main cast of MB4 as well? I can't remember which WoB it was in, but I'm sure I read it at one point. And yeah you're right we do have a lot of the pieces. But I think we're still missing a lot - if MB3 packs the same punch as the prior arcs, it's going to have some surprises in the store for us. I'm very excited to discover the antagonist(s) of MB3, because while Stormlight Archive is very upfront about the Cosmere forces at play (even if the exact machinations and meddling worldhoppers are quite mysterious), Mistborn has always kept us more in the dark and slowly unveiled the bigger picture. But I agree with your Era 4 theories - I think they're very good bets for what could be involved. But I'm not quite sold on the speculatation by some that this is going to be about one or more big bad Shards and the protagonists fighting to save the Cosmere. I think Scadrial has more surprises in store for us.

True, now that I re-read it I did let my preconceptions color me too much. That just makes the wait harder for me, but you're absolutely right, the Cosmere end-game is MB4. But I still think that Stormlight Archive will have an endgame of it's own. It's 10 book epic, and I'm sure it won't end on a cliffhanger. For those into the Cosmere as a whole, I'm sure there'll be tons of loose threads and interesting developments, but I am still confident Brandon will manage to create an awesome and fulfilling conclusion to Stormlight Archive. It's one of the things I greatly admire about his works. Someone can pick up MB1, or just the first book even, and end it there - and it's a great story with a proper climax. Very few writers of fantasy epics manage that feat. Perhaps I misunderstood but I thought the original poster was talking about the Stormlight Archive endgame - and I cannot imagine it's not going to be epic by itself. I love the shared universe of all these books - don't get me wrong - but I don't think Stormlight fans will be left feeling they read a chapter in a bigger story. At least that's never been how I felt reading any of the previous series. As for the MB4 / overall Cosmere end-game, I think it's going to be full of story threads and actors we haven't even been introduced to yet - and as such it's slightly premature to speculate on that particular end-game. Not that I'd berate anyone for doing so - it's just that I think it's going to be pretty far "ahead" of the Stormlight Archive climax in time, space and story. Does that make sense? Sorry if I came off as rude - and I do admit I misunderstood that WoB before you corrected me - selection bias is a horrible thing. I just wanted to highlight that I think these books are so much more than 'just' a Cosmere story. I perhaps also misunderstood the original poster, so - heh - my bad on that as well.