Benkinsky

oh hell yeah. First of the sun is so cool, I would love this novel for sure!

yeah, she could easily create the warriors she needs for whatever plans. I don't know how much control Edgli has about the Divine Breath, but if she, in her long lifespan, made a few returned with goals like "destroy another Vessel" or whatever, and helped in the creation of things like Nightblood, she has a good defense probably. We know the Cosmere has the rule of "live long enough and become very good at fighting", so a bunch of returned would be a powerful force against a Fused invasion or whatnot. We've heard what the five scholars can do, and there's five of them. And she probably might even have a backup Vessel in case Edgli's personality interferes to much with what has to be done. We've seen Cultivation prepare Taravangian for ascension, to make him attuned. Many people assume she's doing the same with Honor. If someone had been alive for centuries as a returned, traveling Nalthis or even the Cosmere, never dying of age because the goal of the Divine Breath is specifically "take up Endowment when it becomes necessary", they'd 100% be attuned to Endowment so much that they could easily take it up, and their travels probably taught them whatever lessons were necessary. Who knows, maybe that's what Vasher will be. Maybe Endowment knows she'll see her death coming early enough, and she has both the tools to fight and her own replacement to do it.

from what we know, this wouldn't really work, since he would need to spike the Spren too, otherwise he'd just get the Radiants part of the Nahel Bond, which the Spren could cancel, so all El did was stab himself with some metal. Personally, I think a Fabrial is more likely.

I assume Roshar the planet does, since Preservation just took up a set of metals that seem to have been a thing pre-shattering, and none of the metals (except for Atium, which might be retconned as being part of the 16) are godmetals or creations of preservation or ruin. However, Scadrial has a much much much higher incentive to actually dig for and try to alloy new metals than any other planet. And even so, in Era 1 due to TLR they didn't have all of them discovered. Taln's mantra tells us that up until recently, each desolation threw humanity back so far they had to rediscover bronze casting, so yeah, I think while the metals are technically on the planet, Humans haven't found or cleaned them yet. Maybe some Fused know more, and that's why they're interested in certain areas, where they know they can mine for those metals.

I wouldn't be surprised if he had a kind of ritualistic way he does that. Spoke with a friend yesterday and came up with the idea that we might see the Notes or the structure of that ritual as one the pre-chapter snippets, where El or whoever made those metals for him the first time if it wasn't him goes through the different plates one by one, what metal they are, maybe what purpose they serve. from how I understand it, Fabrial tech wouldn't have that problem, since the metal isn't actually charged in any way. So El can just recover his old plates. You do raise a good point with that the metal has to touch the Gem. I doubt he has a spike deep enough into his flesh that it touches his gemheart, but then again, who knows. If his Cognitive Shadow isn't exactly in the Gemheart but just present in the whole body somehow, maybe that's enough contact.

I'll make my own Tinfoil hat theory out of yours (with Blackjack, and Hookers) The Fabrial Stuff isn't a hint that it's hemalurgy, it's very direct: The metal in El's skin act as the cage, making him a kind of Fabrial-Cyborg. I mean, he has a Gemheart, and I'm unsure if there's a Spren in it (that's what Regals are, but Idk if Fused and Regal are exclusive things), if that's where "El" is (as in, the cognitive Shadow) or if he otherwise inhabits this body (more akin to how Nale stapled Szeth back to his body... somehow.) Either way, we have the two pieces for a Fabrial: 1. a Gem(heart) for a Spren (a piece of investiture) to inhibit 2. A metal "cage" around it to influence what happens. I would not be surprised if we learned that that's what the metal is there for. We know El has appreciation for Humans and their arts. He would be eager to see if the impressive technology of Fabrials can be used for gain. Now the only question is what metals those are, and what they do with the Spren or CS inside El's Gemheart.

Yeah, I'm big on that. We already know only very few, and Mraize and Iyatil definitely seem to be part of the Rosharan Chapter / Roshar Operatives. The GBs are said to be a massive organisation, so I rather think (and am very excited for it) that we'll meet atleast one, maybe a few, Scadrian GBs (as in, GBs stationed there, not necessarily people from Scadrial). Maybe one of them will be from a planet aligned with the Shard that Trell belongs to, and that will be our Info. If Trell is Autonomy, which I believe, it might be Sand master or otherwise Taldainian that tells us something like "The same force that guides Trell rules in my home. It stifeled progress for centuries. No wonder it took interest in your world" or something like that. I wonder how prevalent Images of the Sovereign are to the Southerns are. As in, will Allik see a statue of the Survivor and be like "wait a minute"

I kind of feel like Hoid won't be that, because we have another candidate for it. A good foil for Hoid, and in the far future, maybe even kind of a rival. Either way, it feels like we're watching that set up happen at the moment with Thaidakar, so I doubt Hoid will be too similar to that. But then again, standing by and watching Jasnah, Shallan, Kaladin & co die at the end of Book 10 and knowing he can't interact because of some reason would definitely be an intense moment for him and him as a character

First of, because I have to get that out: as far as I know and I'm pretty sure of that, Nightblood is not (the same thing as) Anti-Light. Nightblood destroys Investiture, Anti-Light is Anti-Investiture, negative Investiture. I wouldn't be surprised if Nightblood could eat Anti-Light too tbh. That said, yeah, I definitely think El is going to be a Fused+ kind of villain. We're kind of used to the Fused already by now. Unsure if he'll be done with by Part 5, I wouldn't be surprised, and he functions as an opponent for Adolin or Szeth or someone, or maybe he goes to try and assassinate Jasnah or Dalinar, OR if He's being set up for the Back 5 books. Maybe as some kind of Commander for TOdium's Forces.

It's a very good show. I appreciate that someone responded to the comment

Unsure how to mark Spoilers here, but: The Master. The drums that Professor Yana hears (that the Master also always heard, but this is more about his Persona as Professor Yana) that turn out to be the same rythm as the double heartbeat of a Time Lord. dum dum dum dum. dum dum dum dum. dum dum dum dum. and then later we also learn more about that, why he always heard that. But here I mostly thought of the heartbeat/war drums sound that was always there.

I've no idea if this is how it's going to play out, but man what a cute scene that is, and what a fun way to return to "Honor lives on in the hearts of men" reminds me of a certain character in Doctor Who.

Interesting theory, and I think I'm very on board with it. In Stormlight Archive, we have Resonances and I think we've had enough proof in SA (and enough good theories on the 17th Shard) that Resonances aren't just a Windrunner-thing, that it's reasonable to assume this would be the case for other magic systems too. Even looking only at Scadrial, we already have two examples of the potential of a pair together being more than the sum of two halves: Tin and Pewter, and Iron and Steel. We've seen Kel and Vin do so much more than just pulling and pushing. I think Electrum + Gold would behave similarly, then. The combination of "who could I have been" + "What could happen to me now?", (paired with the assumed hightened mental capacity, but even without) sounds interesting, to say the least. On a sidenote, I wonder if Duralumin + Electrum could give you something like a raw, more confusing version of Sak's Abilities.

Do we know how many further layers are between them? Iyatil's Master might be the "regional master" or whatever, of Roshar plus whatever lies close to there, i have no idea which Planet Silverlight is close to, for example.

Yeah, I assume they'll be pretty personal, especially on the Fifth Oath Level. I wouldn't be surprised if for Dalinar specifically, as the Bondsmith of Tanavast's Ghost, it'll be something close to "I am Honour" or something like that, but for Navani it would certainly be different. Makes me wonder what old Stormfather Bondsmiths had. Especially since A Storm isn't very closely connected to the concept of Honor

yeah, that's what I assume I just find it interesting, I would've never thought of Capitalising it like that, but I also would never have thought of "Knights Radiant" or "Unbounded" as words/phrases, and it's all fantasy after all, so there's definitely a lot of room for interpretation

May I ask, why do you capitalise these words like that? Not trying to be mean, but it does put me off, so sorry if this comes across as mean. Why the capitalisation? Personally, I think the names of the orders are all super cool because they flow very smoothly. It's also never capitalised like this in the books. I might be reading too much into this, but I have to ask

haha, yeah, that's fair here's the longer version, but I'll copy a part of the argument here. I think the key to understanding why Azure's blade is so different from Nightblood is that it was created with another shards investiture in it. I'm a big fan of grouping shards not into "good" and "bad". In this case, I think the distinction we need to be looking for is "involved" and "distant/apathetic", if that makes sense. What I mean by that is that Endowment, for example, gives you your breath and the rest is up to you, which is in line with her role/intent. On the other hand, the Knight's Radiant have a lot of checks and balances included in their magic system + their oaths, which line up with Honor. I believe we see a hint of Valor's character in Azure's blade: Does that remind anyone else of Mjölnir? The weapon investigating the wielder, pssibly checking to see if you are "worthy". - We don't see the signature black smoke or any of the symptoms both Vasher and Szeth displayed when Nightblood fed on their Investiture when Azure used her blade. The black smoke seems to be because is Nightblood is filled over-the-brim with Investiture, but the other symptoms are It eating Investiture. Azure's blade didn't display that. I think this is due to two factors: 1. a different command, more refined and well-crafted than Nightblood's. 2. some kind of inherent difference, that leaves less to the Blade itself. The Blade's sentience seems to be more rudimentary than Nightbloods, whose sentience might stem in part from the character of the Investiture it was awakened with: Endowment. Nightblood is already the result of using one magic system to create an hommage to another, Awakening to imitate a Shardblade. Whose to say we can't go one degree further, Awakening with Valor's investiture to imitate a Shardblade. The combination of a more refined command plus the nature of Valor's investiture result in a blade a lot less volatile. there's more to it than that, but for me it's the part I quoted that got me thinking about this idea. this "investigation", especially in the series that properly introduced bonds, the nahel bonds. @Quantus also raised the very good point

I agree on this. While Scadrial had Destruction vs NotDestruction as the shardic conflict, SA is a lot more personal than that, with Hate vs Virtues as a big conflict. Valor definitely fits into that conflict better. And I agree that SA 6-10 would be a great time to clear up the differences between Honor and Valor. I have a theory that like Endowment, Valor might already be present on Roshar a little bit, with Vivenna's Blade.

I don't think we'll get too much of Szeth after leaving Shinovar, we kind of know what he's been up to since then. What I wish for is - some Shinovar slice of life/insight. What makes Shinovar Shinovar? - the Stone Shamans. Why are stones sacred, etc? More about their beliefs and traditions. Are there connections to what Venli feels/hears/notices about the Ground/Stone in RoW? Or are those leftover teachings from the Ashyn Exodus? - Speaking of which, maybe a bit more about that. Those could probably be combined with Honorblade training or with young Szeth growing up. - Is there a reason Szeth got specifically Jezrien's Honorblade? Why did a Truthless get to take an Honorblade with him? That feels like something that was very lucky to be in place for the Ulim-Nale-Eshonai- chain that ends with Gavilar dead. Did someone look into the Future for that? - What made him truthless? I could see that as the Climax, or as maybe the Flashback just before Kal and Szeth arrive in Shinovar. What Voice did he hear? Was that an unmade, a highspren, a Voidspren (Ulim?) or was that a Dawnshard or something similar, like the Stormfather Visions? - Unmade! Was there Unmade influence there, is the leadership corrupted by one of them somehow?

@ScadrianTank ah storm, I lost The Game. Storm you! @Inquisitor #5 @LewsTherinTelescope those who theorize together suffer together! @Cocoa so what's The Game's place on Nachi?

hehey, thanks! sounds to me like "go to Threnody, help the forescouts reach the Home continent, tell them its to take back their homeland, then use that as an opportunity to get the biggest chunk of Ambition. Ascend and get worshiped" would fit that bill that's true, but do we really think Kelsier gives a Rust what Wit tells him to do?

Next thought, do you have imagination on how the landscape(s) look there? Giant spiral-constructions or cities that accidentally involve spirals sound pretty cool, but how populated is the planet as a whole, are there multiple continents, etc. Grim like Era 1 Scadrial or even Threnody, or more lush and vibrant like Nalthis and Roshar? and: What kind of mutations and magics we talking? It sounds like Turbine/Coil Magic is "similar to Hemalurgy" in the way that you aren't born or gifted this ability, you just have to learn how to use it, and it sounds like something used in larger scales and not necessarily by individuals. The mutations sound like they'd create "mages", if Coils are used by "Articoilians" (borrowing from SA there). What kind of manifestations of mutated Spiritwebs are you thinking? Like Aviars, theoretically all over the place? More physical, more supernatural, etc?

Oy! Gyro! that feels fitting and cool imho. Sounds like something that could've been around for ages and pretty much done its own thing, but it was there long enough that just by law of random chance there will have been some effects. Plus, we saw in Mistborn that you really don't need many "fantasy beings" to spice up a world. and then Invention coming along, accelerating things, sounds very cool. turbine go weeeee seriously though, hell yeah, I had hoped for something like that! sounds like a lot of work BUT also sounds like something that Invention's shardworld would sooner or later come up with and properly set up! that tracks. Turbines seem pretty specific, while the Shells are organic. Sounds like something we'd see in a collection like Mraize's

I did not expect the Spanish Inquisition in all seriousness, if Honor + Odium would make War, I think Odium + Dominion, especially + Ambition would make something like Conquest. Devotion is just the added bonus that makes them care about the conquered lands afterwards