Argent

Arguably being the operative word. It depends on what tickles your kickles in a book. The prose is very good though, I won't argue that. Mostly, I like playing the devil's avocado advocado advocate. Welcome to the forums! No, less wasting time on things like real life and Internet, and more time not-wasting on hunting Brandon's works down!

I would like to remind you that the title of this topic and the actual idea behind it are a little different - while the title says "real-world values," the topic itself is more about the real size and quality of the gems inside the spheres, not the Roshar-to-Earth conversion ratios. Which, let's be fair, cannot be estimated with any level of accuracy because the two planets have so very little in common.

Yea, that makes sense... But then, why do we have a formal name for the Cryptics? What makes them so special? It's probably related somehow to the fact that they are treated with reverence / respect / fear in Shadesmar, being "lighteyes" and all, but where does that come from? Maybe they are Splinters of Adonalsium, after all - it would explain their special-ness if nothing else.

Yea, I'll have to vote for Kelsier. It's possible that Sazed is addressing himself, but for some reason this doesn't feel right.

A good point.

The only description I can think of comes from one of Shallan's earlier chapters: I am almost certain there was a part somewhere (maybe in another one of her chapters?) that explain how each sphere had was flattened a little on one of the "sides" so they don't roll when you put them on a table... but I can't find this passage.

I am pretty sure they have never been asked, but it's entirely possible that Brandon has all those things worked out - he did say he spent a lot of time researching gems. Maybe we can abuse the fact that Peter lurks around here and get some info out of him? Either that, or somebody could ask at a signing, which will likely lead to PAFO anyway (if the information exists). So, Peter, might as well save Brandon some trouble and give us the goods

Doesn't help us unless you make it public and share a link though

Fair enough, that's half an assumption down.

That "teleport out" I could see happening. But I can't imagine her staying anonymous for the duration of the entire book, not returning and never sending a message. It's out of character for her, now that she is invested in Shallan.

The Lethani is like water.

The big problem with this is that you not only assume the Broken One is Adonalsium (which, in and of itself is not an entirely unreasonable assumption), but also that the Cryptics are of him. While a popular theory, the latter part is just that - a theory based on a WoB telling us that there were spren on Roshar before Honor, Cultivation, and Odium showed up. From which, some people decided that there must be spren that are Splinters of Adonalsium (which could also be wrong, because we don't know that all spren are Splinters). Your theory is based on two assumptions, whose truthfulness depends on a couple of theories, which were formed on top of another couple of theories. That, to me, is a flimsy structure =\ @Aleksiel, there is a very good chance that Syl crossed over from Shadesmar - it's where the spren live, after all. Which would imply that this is where the Stormfather hangs out most, if not all of the time. And I don't really see spren taking orders from a human - though I will agree that if said human held a chunk of Honor's power, the honorspren might be inclined to listen to him.

I also don't want us to get bogged down in the idea that all of the Second Ideals are of the form "I will [primary Divine Attribute] those who [state of lack or need of said primary attribute]." It could very well be that the Lightweavers' Second Ideal reads something like "I will create."

Depends. What format is it in? Images you can upload to services like Imgur and Flickr. Documents, you do Dropbox (or some other cloud account of your preference - Google Drive, Amazon Cloud Drive, Microsoft Skydrive, Box, etc.).

We don't for certain that the Second Ideal is about the primary Divine Attribute. I support this theory, but wanted to give you a heads up - it's a theory, not a fact. Yet. Regarding Pattern's feelings towards eating... I am not sure if the Lightweavers' primary Divine Attribute (creative) is necessarily juxtaposed with destruction. When I think of someone creative, I don't put them on the opposite end of someone destructive. Bah, stupid English, kolo? What I am trying to say is that being creative and creating things are not the same things in my head.

Oh, heh. I so thought you two were the same person Get different names, people. Jeez.

According to a very old Q&A we had here, however, only three Shards have ever existed on Roshar.

It's possible. I can't think of anything that contradicts me, anyway. We may have gotten too focused on the literal idea of "truth" (and so a Truthless would be some kind of fancy liar or deceiver), while the reality* of it might be more metaphoric - Truth could be something like the Aiel Way, or the Lethani from Kingkiller Chronicle: a code of honor, a set of rules, a way of life. * Man, I really wanted to say "and the truth of it..."

I like the idea of spren "infusing" the Shardplate. I am not sure how possible this is in terms of Realmatics, but I like it. We don't know if Ivory is Jasnah's spren's "real" name. It sounds like something she gave to him - him being all black and shiny. Syl's name, unlike Pattern's or Ivory's, is not a name you can translate. It's just a name, not a noun that exists outside of it.

That could be it. There is also the fact that we know at least one of the books is going / was supposed to feature Taln's flashbacks - which lends credibility to the belief that it was really him. And, as of a few days ago, we know that he is alive at the time Words of Radiance takes place.

And you just did. All happy?

I like it too - and I don't know whether the fact that we already saw Ruin do something similar is an argument for or against this idea. On one hand, Brandon doesn't like repeating himself. On the other, Ruin and Odium are both Shards (though their Intents are not as similar as I once thought), so might be applying similar techniques or something...

I don't think I've seen it all in one place. The ten essences Coppermind page is what I usually refer to if I need information like this - if it's not there, I can usually get an idea where to go to from there.

Except that's not a "complex sort of conflict," to put it in Jasnah's words. It's about as simple as they get.

Here's something (that will likely end up being irrelevant). Please avoid responding to it here, but if anyone wants to make a theory out of it - we have a forum for it. --- Words of Radiance ---