therunner

While they don't have internet, they do have spanreeds, and people we follow do spend a lot of time in rather diverse groups. But fair enough, to me it mostly didn't feel that different compared to e.g. Oathbringer, except at some moments.

Because they have different takes on what Honor actually is? They are different cultures with different perspectives. Not sure what it has to do with Honor itself. Accepting that someone has made an Oath is not a contradiction. The Power hates that Tanavast is breaking Oaths and/or bending them. It dislikes that humans do it to, but the primary problem is Tanavast doing it. Why would it prove that? Honorspren are rather varied in behaviors, compare Syl vs Notum vs Council in Lasting Integrity, they are people not a Shard. We see that spren can grow and change, something power of Honor cannot do, until very recently. Literally entirety of the WaT goes against Honor being about intent of Oaths, we see it being about Oaths themselves. And I'll note again, this is the first time we actually see the Shard directly, everything else were second and third hand accounts at best, and filtered through Tanavast controlling the Shard. There is zero direct evidence power of the Shard ever had the nuance to care about intent of the Oath, and not merely the Oath itself, and a lot of direct evidence that Shard actually never cared about it (see literally all of Tavanast flashbacks). Power likes Oaths, Raidants swears Oaths = Happy Power. Plus we don't know how exactly the Oath system works, it is entirely possible that latter Oaths supersede previous ones in such a way Honor is mostly satisfied (i.e. Bondsmith shenanigans). Power not being about self-improvement does not mean power dislikes self-improvement, it simply does not care about it, because self-improvement alone has nothing to do with Oaths.

Retribution is rather clear he will be very controlling with Warlight, to have tight control over the population. He even called back all Stormlight and Voidlight, and would do the same to spren if he could. Just giving to some off-worlders goes completely against this. Additionally, Ghostbloods are effectively servants of his greatest potential adversary, another di-Shard. He would likely kill them immediately. Finally, Oathgates no longer work and there is a single perpendicularity, making Shadesmar travel much more difficult. To sum-up: Ghostbloods can't gather Warlight, because Retribution is being stingy with it as means of controlling the populace. Even if he wasn't, Ghostbloods are servants of his enemy, hence Retribution has no reason to help them. Even if they did get some, travel in and out is much more difficult. Dor is much more difficult to access, and there is likely time-dilation going on as well. And Ghostbloods never had that much Dor, they had just 3 jars of it, despite their centuries of operations.

I would also add that the perception of Roshar as somehow medieval is widely off mark. Alethi is probably culturally closest to that, but even they are making large strides in sciences (fabrials), have reasonably advanced knowledge of e.g. biology and ecology, culturally already had post-modern art, have fashion trends with catalogues/folios (which is surprisingly modern thing). They increasingly interact with other cultures (Azish and Theylen primarily) which are more 'advanced', moving them further. Technologically, they basically lack knowledge of advanced metallurgy and firearms...because they never needed those, since they have superior options in Soulcasters, and Shards. Early rifles would be utterly pointless in a battle when Shardbearer would break their line in seconds. However, otherwise they have by early RoW, early quantum observations (from spren), indoor heating and start of modern plumbing, powered lifts prototypes, powered flight etc. And most of these had early versions back in first two books. Basically, Roshar was never pseudo-medieval setting, they were always at least early modern with surface veneer of medieval culture due to us seeing it from cultural 'backwater' nation first. TL;DR: Roshar was never medieval, but more like 19th century since the first book, but Alethi perspective made it seem less 'advanced'.

That was the external perception of Honor, because Tanavast cared about the intent behind the Oaths, but the Shard itself never did. It is mentioned that shortly before dying Honor cared less about intent and spirit of the Oath, and more about Oath itself, which we now know was Tanavast trying to placate the power that was increasingly unhappy with him. Heralds breaking their Oaths, seeing Radiants also break their Oath, over time it wore on the power (we even see parts of this in Stormfather, whose perspective is very against humans because they break oaths...now we know exactly why). So I don't think this was a retcon in any way, previously we only had external perception of Honor as controlled by Tanavast, and now we saw the Tanavast perception of the power directly. Surgebinding is Invested Art of Honor+Cultivation, the Bond and Oaths are of Honor, but the progression is of Cultivation. Basically, Radiants can be more and better than just Honor, because they have that added context making allowance for growth. All spren are also mix of Honor and Cultivation, granting them that ability. Dalinar hopes that with time, Honor can learn to be more refined in its Intent, by observing example of peoples of Roshar. (Personally, I think Adolin is probably the best candidate for what refined Honor could be, with shift from rigid Oaths to Promises). The raving could be before and after Recreance, he did start talking to Melishi some time before it happened. The chapters are a quick summary of years to hundred of years of events (one paragraph effectively describes Tanavast observing manking for hundreds of years, or early he forgot himself on Ashyn for nearly a century, but it was described in few sentences). So Radiants could certainly have context to see Honor is changing. On the war not being justified, he told them that sometime after he started talking to Melishi, and before Recreance. When Skybreakers leave the tower in one of the flashbacks, they do mention that they know they are the true voidbringers, I think. Tanavast likely mentioned Dawnshards as part of the vision he sent to Radiants.

Glad I am not the only one. It being just an error would be disappointing. This sounds plausible. Plus we know now that spren can travel off-world, so some windspren could follow him, and when he 'revives' his Oaths, windspren join in. He is also a former Exist Dawnshard, so pulling things more into Existence when they shouldn't could also help.

So, in WAT Sigzil breaks his bond to his Honorspren at a point where his 3rd Oath Windrunner. He later accepts Dawnshard, and we see him meet Aux at the end. However, in TSM Sigzil recovers plate formed from both Windspren and Gravitation spren, mix of both his Orders. How can this be, if he never reached 4th Oath as Windrunner?

I think he might yet change. He now holds Honor as well, which seems to be changing and might grow into something better (Oaths -> Promises? ). And he notes at the end that Dalinar was right and he was wrong. His explicit goal for Contest was to force Dalinar to prove Taravangian right, and instead opposite happened, and I think that combined with having to make allowances for Honor will shift Taravangian further.

Could also be that Honor being 'dead' allowed Szeth to do this jump In one of the Honor POV flashbacks, he mentions that he put Oath restrictions on Radiants, i.e. Oaths as method of advancement were artificial construct on human surgebinding. With Honor not active to enforce this, it could have let Szeth reach maximum bond without the need for middle step.

We have some of these answers, or at least directions: The Dor is not a proper Shard, it has been splintered. Also, it resides in Cognitive realm and not Spiritual Realm like all the other Shards, which certainly complicates matters. They lack Connection to Physical Realm, so they cannot fully leverage the power (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/484/#e15824). Kelsier was also poorly suited to Preservation, hence Shard was even less controllable for him (we see something similar with Rayse and Odium throughout RoW). Not sure what you mean exactly. If you mean why Taravangian was able to pickup Odium from Rayse after killing him, suddenly there was a lot of Connection which were previously attached to Rayse which were now 'free'. Taravangian was the nearest person and he was uniquely suited to attract the Shard, hence he picked it up. If Taravangian was in his 'Diagram-day' mode, I don't think he would have picked it up, since he would not be suitable.

I think that is likely, with the caveat it would be area of effect. Now that I think about it, it is not surprising that Harmonium has this effect. It seems that different expressions of kinetic Investiture have different Tones/Rhythms (what Bronze detects), and Harmonium quite likely literally harmonizes itself with it. Wonder what would happen if multiple Invested Arts were used at once near Harmonium. If the above hypothesis is correct, than Discordium might produce effects that cancel out nearby Invested Arts.

I have held this exact position since I joined these forums, so it's nice to have someone else arrive at the same conclusion. It is even supported by WoB on why Rashek had to tap exponentially increasing amounts of Youthfulness the older he got. Spiritweb 'knows' what you are supposed to be, so any change requires more and more Investiture.

I don't think they could fully divert it like that, more switch it a bit. I.e. instead of doubling strength, double speed, but strength get only minor boost, etc. And it would probably take being a Savant in the Pewter to get to that point. Minor shifts would probably be learnable by someone with enough time. It really wouldn't be Compounding. Compounding is exponential, this just multiplies your stores by fixed number. Basically, at most it would let you double/triple your stores, nowhere near what Compounding lets you do. More useful application would be is the fact it would let you store for shorter periods of time.

There is a WoB that Ligthweaving does have elements of Cognitive and Spiritual as well So I think it is likely that when she is changing into her Alters through Lightweaving, she is also effectively making them more 'true'. Sort of like different/more limited version of soul stamping.

Aux notes that hundreds of BEUs are wealthy only on some world, so then clearly on some worlds, hundreds and low thousands of BEUs are not particularly noteworthy. Roshar is the most Investiture rich planet we have seen so far, hence Roshar is likely among the places were hundreds to thousands of BEUs are not 'wealth'. Even then, there are several counterarguments to that: That quote does not say what you claim. You say That's a loooot of investiture and Radiants don't hold a lot of investiture, even when infused with Stormlight But the WOB says only that they don't hold large quantities over time, which is true considering Radiants hold stormlight at most for an hour or so a day. So the WoB is not a counterargument. But even then, we have direct evidence of Radiants holding equivalent of at minimum high-hundreds to low-thousands of Breaths. In Warbreaker (chapter 56) Vasher unsheats Nightblood, and states It consumed ~600 Breaths in 3-4 minutes. It's rate of consumption increases the longer it is drawn. After those 4 minutes, the rate is such that We can conclude that after few minutes Warbreaker Nightblood (which seems far less powerful than Oathbringer Nightblood), consumes Investiture at rate of ~10-15 Breaths per second, which is increasing with every passing moment. In Oathbringer, Szeth wield fully unsheathed Nightblood for several minutes, killing Thunderclasts, dozens of soldiers enhanced by Nergoul, and engages in prolonged chase. He is then effectively paralyzed by Nightblood, but not yet dead. Then Lift starts leading him towards Dalinar. Moments later Szeth collapses and gets overgrown with Nightblood tendrils, and Lifts starts trying to heal him, which leads to Nightblood feeding on her too. We can conclude several things Nightblood consumed equivalent of more than a thousand Breaths. He was drawn longer based both on events happening, state of tendrils and its effect was more powerful. Szeth still had Stormlight left, otherwise he would be killed. Alternative is that solely Lift was feeding Nightblood. Lift noted prior to this that she is running somewhat low on 'Stormlight'. Either she managed to get some food (unlikely in the middle of battle when she is actively chasing someone) or even then she had enough Investiture to hold back Nightblood for possibly more than a minute (we see Szeth have his arm fully overgrown, and lifts start healing him. The next time we see them, Szeth is fully overgrown, and so are Lifts arms). As such, she had to have provided Nightblood with equivalent of high hundreds if not low thousands of Breaths, because at that point Nightblood is consuming Investiture at rate of at least 15 BEUs per second. This is all before perpendicularity is opened. TLDR: Nightblood consumes Breaths at such rates, that Oathbringer is clear evidence that Radiants hold equivalent of thousands of Breaths. 4th Oath Radiants are more Invested than Fused (Cognitive Shadows) (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/522-dragonsteel-2023/#e16263), and this is even when not holding Stormlight (otherwise Kaladin would not remain conscious). In TSM, when thinking about what could have invested sunhearts so much (thousands of BEUs), Aux positis that there must be some other force Investing them, and directly likens it to Stormlight (suggesting that Stormlight can infuse over a thousand of BEUs relatively easily. Roshar is probably the most Investiture-rich world we have seen (technically with the exception of Sel), so why wouldn't Radiants hold huge amounts of Investiture? So to sum up, your argument is not supported by the WoB you quote, Oathbringer provides us with evidence of Radiants holding at minimum high hundreds-low thousands of Breaths worth of Stormlight, Auxes comment suggesting Stormlight is relatively dense source of Investiture, and WoBs that support that 4th Oath Radiants are as Invested as some Cognitive Shadows and Roshar is high-Investiture world. On those grounds, I don't see why I should be convinced by your argument. And finally, if Radiants don't get those general Investiture enhancement, what is the source of improved resilience, improved speed and improved reflexes? But whatever the mechanism, we can agree that Stormlight enhances the Radiant to such levels as to let him fight on reasonably equal grounds someone who is over twice as strong as regular person?

Huh, TIL. Thanks, I was not aware of that, useful to know. That is why I mentioned that it would happen when Stormlight runs out suddenly or is blocked, then no matter how fast healing is, it would not have opportunity to heal all damage done. But if people on Stormlight don't have supernatural strength, then they push themselves far beyond regular human limits, into realm of tearing ligaments, which would hurt much more than any workout or post-workout pain. Well, if the comments were all we have I would agree. However, combined with clear evidence of supernatural strength across all books, and general mechanism of holding Investiture strengthening the body that Nomad helpfully lays out in TSM, I think the simplest explanation is that all of the effects of Stormlight are simply effects of holding large amounts of Investiture. That one reason explains every single enhancement noted in this thread. Happy you like it. Fair enough. Primary evidence for Stormlight not granting strength is that single sentence from Kaladin, at least so far in this thread. All the other comments and facts tell us that Stormlight does provide enhanced strength. To that I'll just note again that TSM gives us clear mechanism for all the facts we see with Stormlight, holding Investiture improves the body. That explains the improved and superhuman reflexes, speed, endurance, healing, durability and strength. So far, I have not seen a single argument for why this general mechanism should not apply. Personally, I think it makes more sense that Stormlight simply operates like most other forms of kinetic Investiture, than that somehow Stormlight strength is exempt from this and is explained by completely separate mechanism (which to me seems insufficient to even explain the observations).

True, however the mere fact of kicking over the plate does require more than human strength. And Kaladin effectively 'fell' much further than 12 meters, since he broke his legs. The 12 meters is distance we know Radiant can fall without breaking legs (if they fall right), and so I used it as point of comparison for how much strength Szeth could exert with his legs. Thank you. He didn't notice issues with healing until later on, but they were there. Same way, he might not have noticed strength being reduced. No test we see tested strength enhancement, and frankly Kaladin pays little attention to the quantitative part of testing anyway (only Lopen bothers to keep count with Sigzil for example). So I don't think his thought in the middle of chaotic scenario is as precise as you are making it out to be. Similarly, why do you disregard every other piece of evidence, in favor of this single quote? Kaladin and other state on numerous occasions that Stormlight does grant enhanced strength, one that is explicitly supernatural. It got progressively worse as nodes got destroyed, so the effect gradually increased. It is reasonable to assume that all effects were there at first as well, just on smaller scale than later on. He held that arm with a single arm of his own, that requires strengths to be comparable, not being half as strong. Kaladin is also self-described as not particularly good at grappling, so this is not like they are fighting with spears, were Kaladin would have advantage. While skill does matter, so does strength, that is why we have weight categories for combat sports, and someone who is twice as strong would simply steamroll their opponent. As a simple example, average man is circa 30% stronger than average woman. If they are similarly trained, the woman does not stand a chance in grappling fight. And that is just 30% difference in strength, now triple that difference. Simply put, Kaladin could not do what he did if Stormform is twice as strong as he is, hence his strength must be enhanced (like books state it is). Why are you focusing on just that one quote thought, when there are multiple other instances? Again, healing cannot account for all of the examples from the books, e.g. why would Lopen feel lighter to Kaladin? If he feels lighter to him, it is because he must be stronger than without Stormlight, and enough that it is noticeable. If it was healing, all it would let him do is exert himself more, which would not lead to Lopen feeling lighter. And I disagree, because from TSM we know the mechanism, that merely holding enough Investiture increases your physical attributes. So holding Investiture makes you stronger, and Nomad later uses sunlight to get Invested a bit, and Aux compares sunlight on Canticle to Stormlight as source of Investiture. And this strength enhancement is separate from healing. As such, we can conclude that merely holding Stormlight means that Radiants are more Invested, hence they should be getting those enhancements, which is supported by evidence we see in books. So we do have mechanism for that. They are getting all the other enhancements (speed, reflexes, resilience, endurance) why would strength be exception? It could, but the issue is that it would not lead to you feeling stronger, it would just let you exert yourself more. Lopen feels lighter to Kaladin, which means Kaladin must be stronger as whole. I used to think that too, but it is not consistent with observations. One, Lopen feels lighter to Kaladin, which does not make sense if he is just exerting himself more. Two, if Stormlight suddenly ran out mid fight/training, they should be left with rather bad damage to their muscles, which does not seem to be the case. And three, Stormlight does not stop pain, and repeatedly tearing your muscles would hurt, and no one notes that. So I think that: Holding Stormlight enhances your strength (per the universal mechanism described in TSM). This would be 'minor' improvement, but still considerable enough to be noticed, hence my estimate of 50%. It would explain all the instances talking about improved strength from Kaladin, Venli and Adolin. Stormlight healing in addition lets you push yourself even beyond that for short moments (adrenaline-like effect). This would explain the more extreme effects, like Kaladin shattering haft of spear and exploding the carapace helmet (which is comparable to steel in strength).

If it "does not give much additional strength" the clear implication (supported by all the other evidence in the OP) is that it does give something. Kaladin clearly does separate it from healing in the quote. Source on this? Because e.g. kicking over Shardbearer or shattering steel is not something merely 'healing' would let you do. 10% is insufficient to for example, let Szeth kick over Shardbearer through doors. Kaladin does something similar while Lashing himself dozens of times, which is equivalent to falling far more than 12 meters at least (since Kaladin did not break bones when falling from 12 meters, and here shattered both legs). Show me a grown man who can kick with the force of grown man falling 12 meters. As such, the strength improvement has to be reasonable. That cannot be the case, as the rest of the evidence shows: TWoK: Szeth kicking over Shardbearer (over 500 kg), with explicitly 'Stormlight-enhanced' kick. Teft noting that all records agree that Stormlight strenghtens. Kaladin noting improved speed and strength. Kaladin literally shattering hardened wood and steel-like carapace. WoR: Kaladin noting that Lopen feels lighter to lift when holding Stormlight. (which would not be the case if Stormlight only let you exert muscles more). Kaladin noting after fight Lopen, Rock and Sigzil that instead of using Lashings, it would have been easier for him to fight the only with his Stormlight enhanced speed and strength. O: Bridge 4 sprints with the bridge the entire distance to Rock's families caravan, is effectively throwing the bridge across chasms, and the bridge is noted 'light as reed' (can be partially discounted as emotional state as well). Kaladin notes that Rock pulling Shardbow (intended for Shardbearer 15x-20x as strong as human) could not be done with just Stormlight enhanced strength, as it does not improve strength 'vastly.' (from this we can conclude that "vastly"for Kaladin is Shardbearer-level increase in strength, so mere 50% increase could be 'small' increase it to him). RoW: Kaladin lifting Warform in Hearthstone, noting his increased strength. Venli noting she could use Stormlight to strengthen herself, to better keep up with Stormform. Kaladin in RoW, when under influence of the Tower (which explicitly reduces effect of Stormlight) carrying Teft (noting additional strength) and grappling with Stormform (which is stronger than Warform, already stated to be about twice as strong as human). Adolin explicitly noting superhuman strength of Radiants. There is more evidence that Stormlight provides strength boost than there is that it does not (which is zero evidence). I'd say the only conflicting is how much strength Stormlight provides, evidence is clear that it is some, and it cannot be accounted to only healing. Again, if healing was the sole method of strength enhancement, Lopen would not feel lighter to Kaladin, since all Stormlight would do is let Kaladin exert himself more. And mere 10% boost would not explain how Kaladin can completely destroy hardened wood and steel like carapace, or Szeth can kick over Shardbearer. Fair enough, thank you for the quote. I'll note few additional things for that scene, and why we should not take it as the baseline scenario Kaladin at that point is weakened by the Tower, which as we later learn explicitly reduces benefits of holding Stormlight (Kaladin for example heals much slower). As such, any strength boost coming from healing alone would be much diminished. As such, any direct strength boost from Stormlight would be weakened as well. So when Kaladin thinks this this is while he is actively weakened compared to baseline. If Kaladin is less than half as strong as Stormform, skill alone won't do much. E.g. Stormform could simply overpower him after catching the swing. And note that he does not simply stop the swing and then lets go, he holds the Stormform hand and than blocks a second hand and Stormform struggles with him while Kaladin keeps holding that axe hand So what happens is, Kaladin catches first one hand, then blocks two punches of Stormform, and then they struggle all the while Kaladin is holding back the axe. There are only two options: One, Stormform for whatever reason did not choose to press advantage (i.e. his axe), despite being over twice as strong. Two, Kaladin is in the same strength ball park as Stormform. I think option one is far less likely, which leaves us with the conclusion that Kaladin's strength is in fact enhanced., which is consistent with numerous evidence from both rest of the book, and rest of the series. I'll also note that earlier in the RoW, we have these instances "Strengthened by the Light, Kaladin grabbed the soldier and lifted him up." (Kaladin explicitly notes he is strengthened) pg.125 "As a Radiant, she could have used Stormlight to strengthen her. But that would have been far too dangerous. She would have to be satisfied with the strength her Regal form gave her. Certainly she was better off than an average singer would have been. The rest of the force, however—in stormform—was stronger than she was, and Raboniel kept an aggressive pace." Venli notes that using Stormlight would make her stronger compared to her Regal form, and so implies it would bring her closer to strength of Stormform. pg.538 "He could not train himself to the level of a Radiant; they could heal from wounds and strike with supernatural grace and strength. " Adolin notes that Radiants have supernatural strength and grace (something he is in good position to judge as trained duelist and soldier) pg. 1006 So again and again, across all the books so far, Radiants are noted to have increased (and indeed supernatural) strength. If it was mere 10% increase, that would not be noticeable enough to be called 'supernatural'. I don't know what more evidence to use, since this point is repeated across all the books, starting with the very first prologue. To sum up: Kaladin carrying Teft (and grappling with Stormform) is while he is actively weakened by the Tower, which diminishes his healing (and likely other benefits of Stormlight). There are numerous instances across all books, were Stormlight is noted to strengthen the user, and indeed Radiant holding Stormlight performs feats of strength beyond that of human. This level of strength is occasionally called to be supernatural, and indeed most other feats in fact suggest that the increase is relatively considerable, letting user exert great force (to kick Shardbearers, shatter steel-like material, narrow the gap to explicitly super-human Stormform), ruling out a mostly small (10%) increase. As @Treamayne notes, for most us that is not an option. Over the ~7 years of reading Sanderson, I had a single chance to ask for a WoB. (which I used to ask if Lightweaving is solely PR phenomenon, or if it affects other Realms). They in fact primarily focused on the Lashings, not Stormlight enhancements alone. In WoR, the test scene is only about Lashings (and in fact Kaladin notes that Lopen feels lighter when he holds Stormlight, again being evidence for Stormlight strengtening). Then they fight, and after that Kaladin again notes about "extra speed and strength Stormlight lent", so again the book explicitly tells us Stormlight makes user stronger. In Oathbringer, they again don't test strength, only endurance while carrying items across ~mile. Considering the fact that every single book shows and tells us that Stormlight makes the user stronger, I think the simplest explanation is that Stormlight does make user stronger. It is not Brandon pulling fast one, if he is telling us that from the very first chapter.

No need for apologies And fair enough, different strokes for different folks and all that. If someone who is at least twice as strong as you swung at you with intent to hurt/kill, do you think you could catch that arm? Could a child catch an arm of adult? If someone swings at you, to catch it, you have to put in more force than they put in the swing. Him catching that arm (which surprises the Regal if I recall right) does require Kaladin to be in the same ballpark as the Regal. Still weaker sure, per the rest of the fight, but he must be able to compete at least a bit. No, that is not what it says. Kaladin directly does say that Stormlight does provide extra strength, just not too much (per his judgement) Reparing the muscles is in addition to additional raw strength Stormlight provides. If it did not provide any strength, the sentence would read "Stormlight didn't seem to give one additional raw strength, but ...". The very fact he qualifies how much raw strength implies that it does provide some. Which is in line with evidence from all the other books.

It's WoB, here So somehow, Endowment did something to help Nightblood get created. Which would explain her attitude to Rayse in Oathbringer epigraph, she already did her part to help deal with him and thought it only a matter of time.

Some of this might be feasible, as it is all manipulating or storing energy. But items on level of Nightblood or Father Machine won't be possible. Nightblood required intervention of Shard, Father Machine was only possible because Shard in the system was splintered. So both required unusual circumstances.

I am aware of that quote. I see two options: BS changed his mind and decided to downplay that part of Stormlight. Kaladin is so used to it (and so strong without it, thanks to Bridges) that he does not realize the strength enhancement it provides. I lean towards option two, because Kaladin in RoW matches Stormform in strength when grappling, and those are superhumanly strong. This is rather strong evidence that Kaladin is simply mistaken there. The quote does not actually say Stormlight does not provide strength, only "Stormlight didn’t seem to give one much additional raw strength". Adding what would be ~50% improvement to average man, to someone who is already very near peak human strength would not seem as much. However, either way it is clear that Stormlight does provide additional strength. There were those statements, typically in the large RoW Scadrial vs Roshar thread ~3 years ago. In later Mistborn vs Radiant as well, though not as much as they were moderated to only Pewter being superior. Though you could still see people saying Mistborn burning Pewter would have general advantage in close quarters due to being stronger, faster and more dexterous than Radiant. This post is partly to show that the discrepancy might not be as large as some assume, and to organize this for my own sake as well. I'll note that I was personally surprised that Stormlight also seems to increase resiliency to injury, as that was not something typically discussed and noticed. Most assumed it was due to healing only.

While true, I don't think mere physical trauma is enough. For example, would having a massive surgery be enough to snap someone? It is massive physical trauma. Or, if physical trauma is enough, nobility could render their children unconscious before beating them, to lessen the impact. So I think it is the mental component that is the primary cause for snapping, which can be triggered by physical harm. Well, in RoW we see it like literal lines, and WoBs suggest that Coinshots/Lurchers effectively see form and see Connection between metals and themselves. As such, it is less a general field force, and more directed links. You can think of it as similar to e.g. magnetic flux tubes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flux_tube) or in QCD where the color charge is confined, leading to effectively 'tubes' of field between particles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_interaction). Fair enough. I personally still do think that physical trauma alone is insufficient, however we do lack more evidence.

I am doing a re-read in preparation of WaT, and I noticed a few things regarding Stormlight, and enhancements it provides. Healing: No need to comment here I think, this is the most visible of enhancements. Strength: In discussions here and elsewhere, it is typically held that Stormlight does not enhance physical strength to superhuman levels (like Pewter). However, even in Way of Kings we can easily find evidence to the contrary. In prologue: Plate weights at ~500 kg, and here Szeth kicks a Shardbearer through a door, specifically calling it Stormlight enhancend. This is certainly beyond human strength, Kaladin achieves similar feat by lashing dozens of times in WoR. At the end, Teft specifically calls out Stormlight as strengthening and enhancing Kaladin slams butt of the spear hard enough to shatter both it, and Parshendi carapace helm (which is comparable to steel) Shattering wood + destroying steel helmet with a strike is certainly beyond human strength. in WoR, Kaladin easily lifts Lopen while on Stormlight and later notes that Stormlight gives him extra strength and speed Later in RoW, Kaladin matches Stormform in strength, and Stormform is noted to be stronger than Warform, which in turn is stronger than human. (don't have it on hand for citation, it is in the surgery room I think). I'd estimate that Stormlight puts human at 1.5-2x the amount of usual strength at minimum (based on Lopen lifting, matching Stormform), with short bursts even beyond that (shattering carapace, kicking Shardbearer). But without a doubt it does grant superhuman strength. Resilience of body: In prologue, Szeth withstands a punch from Shardbearer to the face. Shardplate enhances strength about 15x-20x, even grazing, held-back punch breaks ribs and organs (Moash to Kaladin in WoR). Here Szeth got punched right in the face, which should have basically went right through his head. Instead, it seems his brain was mostly intact, and he was healed rather fast (despite it being Honorblade healing). This suggests Stormlight helps withstand damage. Kaladin drops ~40 feet (12 meters) with little Stormlight and does not break bones This is before he learns Lashings, so it could not have been due to that (and the fall takes only 1.5 seconds). Additionally, it is not that they broke and healed, as Stormlight does not remove the pain (see WoR where Kaladin kicks Plate and shatters both legs). Again, this shows that Stormlight helps withstand damage, and to considerable degree. Enhanced reflexes: Kaladin notes that he dodges faster with Stormlight Increased speed: Szeth notes his speed increases when breathing in Stormlight In WoR, Kaladin notes Stormlight grants him extra speed and strength Generally then, Stormlight grants enhanced strength, speed, reflexes, resilience and healing, all boosted to superhuman levels. It also seemingly helps with endurance, however this is difficult to separate from the healing. The stormlight strength enhancement is likely in the ballpark of 1.5-2x strength, with peaks beyond that. (kicking Shardplate, matching Stormform in strength etc.) The stormlight speed and reflex enhancement is likely comparable to enhancement provided by Shardplate, as Kaladin can keep up with them.

Pain and stress, or more generally trauma which is the confirmed reasons for Snapping. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/270/#e7526 No, its emotional trauma (which can be caused by physical). You have it backwards, Spiritual -> Cognitive -> Physical. Physical change won't necessarily cause Spiritual Change, otherwise Radiant healing would not work. Invested Healing works by aligning Physical Self to Spiritual Ideal Self, not by healing the physical body and then changing the spiritual to match cognitive. We know that healing Spiritweb is much more difficult than healing body, because it would take a lot of Investiture (per comments on spiking Miles). So healing spiritweb 'by accident' seems very unlikely. Per WoB below Healing soul requires more powerful forms of Investiture, than healing just the body. Hence healing the body won't heal anything in the soul by default. Sure. We know that spiritweb is a thing that exists within Spiritual Realm, hence it is made of Investiture. Additionally, per this WoB (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/100/#e3448) thinking about it in terms of nodes and lines is a good line of thinking. And then there is this WoB (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/188/#e3923), which literally describes spiritweb/spiritual aspect as mix of Connections and raw Investiture. So spiritual aspect/spiritweb is Connections + Investiture. Cracks physically form (IRL) when you break bonds between particles of material, i.e. when you break connections. Hence, natural way of thinking is that cracks in spiritweb = broken Connections, which can then Connect to something else (similar to blank Connection). I'd say it fits with the evidence as well. Nahel Bond is spren Connecting their spiritweb to these broken Connections, getting a foothold in PR to piggyback into it, as their spiritweb is now merging with that of KR. Allomancers form Connection to Preservation when Snapping. Hemalurgy forcefully breaks spiritweb in places to graft stolen piece of Spiritweb, and since it is of Ruin, it breaks more than is strictly needed, causing cracks. And these cracks form when something traumatic happens (like your brother getting killed and you feeling guilty, killing your parents, etc.), but it does not have to be that traumatic as just living will lead to some measure of cracks in spiritweb. For example, you could have Connection to e.g. you parents, and when then die of old age, their spiritweb will start to decay, possibly damaging/breaking some of the Connections you had to them.