Vessel of Theory

Well. That's certainly one way to take care of that nifty little weakness. So, problem though, how would you ever figure out that this person has that weakness? Just lucky guessing that they don't have some kind of invulnerability? A bomb under the couch... I'm amazed, have a rep

All right, I'm ready to post another chapter... First, I just want to know if anyone wants more or if we don't much care Either way is fine, just let me know

Introduction The sun set on another burning village. Naryl, an Archon whose power coalesced southeast from Kyr’s, had attacked another Archon’s village. Neither had very large armies, but it never took many men to destroy something. Or each other. Kyr spat on the ground. Will it never end? Kyr wondered. Since the beginning of existing memory, he had seen nothing but violence and malice. So far as he was concerned, there was nothing else. The village hadn’t even had walls. Almost half of the corpses on the ground were not wearing armor, and had died without offering challenge. With luck, few would rise. Doryl had killed the other Archon, some meaningless upstart who never really even had a chance. Probably some older Archon’s third or fourth son, desperate to prove himself and move up in the world. Too weak to achieve. Too unprepared. “Archon?” He speaks of me. To me, Kyr reflected. I have a duty to them. Even if this is the horrid part. “Isyah, tell my forces to take the field. We don’t have long before the Heartbound rise.” Isyah hesitated, then turned and departed. Doryl’s forces had abandoned the field, and any Heartbound, rather than be completely destroyed. Doryl always had preferred reports and information to chances. There were a few stragglers, of course. The handful of bright villagers who had found somewhere to hide or managed to not be slaughtered would be invited to join Kyr. The same offer would be extended to the Heartbound, of course. They were why Kyr was here. The position was irrelevant. It sickened him, but he was indeed here to collect corpses with short-lived sanity, if any. Dying hurt, he had been told. Being slain hurt more, and left powerful emotional motivation. His troops reached the village before any of the corpses rose. Fortunate. It was never good to interrupt a Heartbound, especially after they revived. He walked to where Isyah was, in the “Command Tent”. Had they participated in this fight, he would have stayed there, but he always felt pulled to witness the utter destruction his fellow men dispensed so freely. Opening the flap, he noticed Isyah hurriedly looking back down at maps and documents. Kyr could read and write a few of the symbols Isyah used, but no more. Isaiah was older than most, but he was loyal and wise. And my friend, Kyr admitted to himself. Archons couldn’t afford to have friends. Isyah cared for Kyr, and of late had been very worried about Kyr. Behaving strangely, he had said. Had he been anyone else, Kyr would have killed him on the spot. It was nice to know that compassion lived on, even if only in the hearts of children and the elderly. Those who had seen no evil and those who knew it too well seemed most caring. Terrible that humanity was lost while destruction was done. “Might be a simple extraction today, Archon. None of the others seem to be very interested, no scouting parties seen.” The first scream came, diminished over the distance. Kyr exhaled, realizing only then that he had not done so since entering the tent. He hated this part. Heartbound were so… unstable. None reacted the same, not completely. His men knew what was happening. What they were fated to. They would live, of course. Isyah estimated that only one in every four hundred came back as a Heartbound. Heartbound could destroy a man’s inner workings. He’d seen it happen. Too much destruction. “That’d be good, Isyah. My men deserve some relief. It’s not… it’s not right.” “Archon?” Isyah asked. “What, exactly, is not right?” “Expecting men to go and die, looking at the people I lead and seeing bronze!” He composed himself. He shouldn’t shout at Isyah like that. “They’re men too, Isyah. Don’t they have a right to freedom?” Isyah approached, slowly. He was getting old. “All men deserve freedom, Kyr. They can buy freedom with death, or they can buy life with freedom. We can all take or give our freedom, but to most of us, being alive another day is more important. “This day will encourage them. They’ll see your power, your strategy. Don’t think they don’t know that you try every day to see them as men.” “I fail, Isyah. Every day.” Kyr sat on one of the rugs. “Every day, I try and fail. Then I tell them to go die for me. They see my failure. They see the price they pay. How long before see me as weak, leave, and die somewhere else?” “Archon… your failure encourages them. It’s twisted, I know, but… I think that they see your effort. Then your failure. And so every day, they see you trying when you don’t think you can win. They admire that. It inspires them!” Kyr smiled. “I wish everyone believed men were so simple, Isyah. If so, we might be able to get somewhere with all of this. “I’m going down to the field. They need to know I appreciate them, not just their bronze.” The screamers had quieted. In most cases, they had been quieted with his men’s blood and bronze. Haft-captain Tarn approached. “Fourteen.” It was spoken quietly. Other men who didn’t know might have guessed reverence, but Kyr knew better. “Good. That’s good.” Kyr played strong so often. Why not let them see that I care? “You’ve done well, Haft-captain. How many were Silenced?” Tarn grimaced. “Ten.” Kyr nodded. This conflict had been violent. Tragic. “How many did you lose?” Tarn started, making eye contact with Kyr, then breaking it only a moment after. He breathed heavily before making his answer, not looking at Kyr. “That’s too many. Are they all dead? Or only injured?” Again, Tarn started. Yes, it was unusual for an Archon to say that soldiers belonged to their Haft-captains. It was never good when your Archon expressed displeasure. Too much fear. “Mostly injured, my Archon.” Poor man, trying to tell Kyr subtly that he was loyal. “How many do you think will pull through, Tarn?” Kyr stopped counting how many times he broke typical conduct. At this point, he didn’t care. No, he realized, I care. It’s the conduct that’s not important. These men are doing all they can and more. They deserve better. Tarn appeared to be trying to maintain decorum. “I’d guess half, Archon.” Finally, Kyr thought, he’s answering me and looking into my eyes. Maybe I can fix him yet. “Were any of the Heartbound given Growth?” Tarn flinched. “Two, Archon. Both were late risers.” “Good. Bring the wounded men to them. No, better: bring them to the wounded.” “As you say it, Archon.” Sands, this is going to take a long time.

So I'm drafting a book. I'm only on the first draft, and not quite 20k words in, and I don't really have any previous writing experience. I'll post the introduction, which I think for once might be decent, and I'll try to be posting more content periodically. For now, just let me know what you think!

Love that, definitely agree with you. I didn't think for a second that he was going to enjoy his time, but then again, he's Kaladin. I agree, he's definitely going to learn some things, emotionally recover somewhat, rebuild ties with his family(ahem Lirin), and take a mental/emotional step back to get a kind of new view on things.

I love this thread, but have one problem with matching Shards to Divine Attributes. There are ten of these "Truly Divine Attributes", and sixteen Shards. Since Tanavast and Cultivation knew the other 14, why would they exclude them in their... table? Why not make 16 Orders of KR?

dang we friccin shattered Adonalsium

On a side note... How many of us Shards frequent the 17th Shard? I think I've only seen a handful.

Hah. Would you blame me for calling you an amateur, then?

I am so not okay with this. I mean, I get it. He's going back to what's familiar and close. Still, though, has he ever wanted to be a surgeon? It's a complicated topic, IMO.

Oh. Well, carry on then. Enjoy your... normalcy.

Sir I highly doubt the validity of this statement. As my fellow Shard I cannot let you humiliate yourself so, thus I shall ask thee one question. Is iron your divine metal? Is this what you mean? If not... I must arrange for your excommunication with the other Shards.

Definitively

I imagine Kelsier doing something kind of like what he did in his fight with the Inquisitor: surround himself with heavy metal objects, then fly around and be virtually unhittable. I think Kelsier would be able to identify Vindication as being a weapon, and push it about a mile away. Wax(to me, at least) doesn't usually seem very smart when it comes to dealing with other Mistings, much less a full Mistborn. I think that Kelsier might actually let this happen, only he'd simply grab and crush Wax's throat/head before Wax can react. Remember, Pewter increases reaction speed. As far as Kell burning tin, it doesn't matter. He does he did with the Inquisitor: use too much metal for his opponent to keep track of, unbalancing his enemy. Then he kills htem with their own weapon. Kelsier is very skilled in fighting Mistings, and a gun is basically a super-powered coin launcher. I think Kell would turn off his tin, but that's not the most important. He's burning atium and pewter. IMO, that's all he needs. He knows how to get around Wax's defenses and attacks, while closing. When they close, it doesn't matter if Wax can increase his weight, because Kell is burning Atium and Pewter.

I like it I'm not sure on what Kaladin being the child of Tanavast means, but I would guess that it means Kaladin is somehow close to Tanavast either through birth(hmmm) or through some kind of "choosing" thing that Tanavast would have done before dying. I definitely agree with you that Shallan has some mad lass drawing skills, to be able to see something once and then draw it better than she saw it. That's pretty crazy, and while I'm not good at art and do not have a photographic memory, I can't really imagine a non-Cosmere human being able to do what she does. Kaladin definitely has some strange thing going on. I looked for jade in the ten essences and didn't find it, so I'm officially guessing that it's just a Kaladin thing to be able to "see the winds" and have such an affinity for them. I haven't re-read SA yet and so I don't remember many of the details, but does anyone know if we could find a "special ability" for Renarin, Malata, Venli, Dalinar, or Jasnah? I'd imagine we could find one of them.

Working on it EDIT: Might take a while longer than I thought, someone else might want to try :/

Haah! That's great She'd have to relearn the skill "searching your handbag" at the Constabulary.

Ising the true of now, @McWafy ising the undone

Okay... I like it I know that a lot of the older spren don't have genders because they are so much older, and I think forgotten, by most of mankind. You've definitely got a point, though, that stuff about Stormfather. Stormfather was a big spren before he was melded with Honor, any ideas who/what he was then? Was he a Bondsmith spren before being merged with Honor, or only after?

I'm following you, this is just too good. I like the direction you're going, but I'm not sure you're hitting the nail on the head. IMO, the Sibling is likely older than the Stormfather and Nightwatcher, seeing as the Sibling does not assign itself a gender(typically a sign of older spren). Also, I'm pretty sure it's been confirmed that the Stormfather is related to Tanavast, something with Splinters and Shards that I don't have the time to investigate. https://coppermind.net/wiki/Stormfather Here's something funny: Urithiru was built "in the place closest to Honor" and we know that Dalinar can feel the Stormfather in the direction of the Origin whenever there's no Highstorm. I'm thinking that you're onto something, that there's some connection between Honor and the Sibling. I don't think I know enough to make many conclusive comments, though.

All right, we're happy to have you! I'm especially pleased to find another Dustbringer among the ranks of the Sharders today I spend most(all) of my time in the SA section, where I generously dispense theories. There's a really great(prob one of my favorites) thread here: Additionally, there are some pretty exciting threads about the Heralds, Odium, the Unmade, you name it, and if we don't have it I'll eat Wayne's hat. Well, maybe just Wax's, but still.

Just one thing, because I love this theory and this isn't a discussion thread: How would Taln spoilers affect his potentially becoming OC(Odium's Champion)? Would it surprise anyone if Brandon wrote a character who later(or earlier, even) went to the other side? We've had PoVs for Marsh when he was controlled by Ruin, we've had Taravangian PoVs and he's hardly a good guy, there've been BoM villain PoVs... SA seems kinda like Sanderson's "ultimate" series, where he expands on everything. I could definitely see Taln's book being a sort of glimpse into his mind(Connection to Odium could give him mental faculty IMO, or maybe he healed otherwise) that either explains why or previews how he'll swear to Odium. I know a lot of people don't seem to like the idea of an MC becoming bad, and we all wish it was just Taravangian, the Fused, the Unmade, and Storming Moash, but I don't see why Sanderson wouldn't get more adventurous with his character arcs.

It does not matter - we can replace it with one more easily Invested, then use our magics to remove all memories of it from Wayne's head before giving him the Hat of Omnipotence

Elhokar's spren was deeeeefinitely named Progress, or something similar. Progress is a pattern, I can see it being something Elhokar would strive for, and it starts with a P, just like Pattern