Argent

We know he has Allomancy - at least emotional Allomancy (brass would be my guess). I personally believe he used the lerasium to turn himself into a Mistborn, but the evidence is not overwhelming.

Same

Huh. This is nicely fitting, and also awfully surprising in its reveal. Huh. We haven't seen any odiumspren?! That sounds broken.

Not quite, but I think this makes the evidence for Trell = Bavadin very compelling.

It is.

This is interesting. I find it very very likely too. I don't know whether it is more or less likely (to me) than my "he wanted to not suffer anymore" theory, but I know I find it difficult to choose between them.

'fraid I can't take the credit for that one, it was one of @Kurkistan's Still, it was from a Chicago signing.

@Pagerunner, here: So it does sound like he was talking about Autonomy. Unless it is Ambition's touch on Taldain that's light, but I don't find that very likely.

To me this is as good as a confirmation that she is (mentioned) in Oathbringer. Huh. I wouldn't have thought this to be such a big RAFO. Ah, I think I got RAFO'd on that one some time ago. Good to know! Great questions all around though! I usually pride myself at getting a lot of information at the Chicago signings, but I think you guys are going to make me work for it...

I think we just fundamentally disagree on how the Cosmere works, what's likely, and what isn't...

I disagree with the application of Occam's razor here. I am (at least partially) with @ROSHtaFARian2.0 here - the scenario where the original Vessels planned to and caused the Shattering, but didn't anticipate Adonalsium's power becoming obtainable is at least as likely as any other. In fact, the powers could've been forced upon them (a la the Fantastic Four).

Maybe @Kandra-in-disguise can tell us

Unless the allocation of Shards to Vessels wasn't (entirely) planned - or even intentional.

Sure, but I don't think this changes much about my theory. This is funny because I've always disliked thinking about Connection like this. For me it's always been about current and future Connections, how you are currently connected to the world and where those connection will go.

Speaking of spiking drinks, it also brings a new meaning to the act of sprinkling powder in someone's drink.

Which is why I think his betrayal got worse over time. I do believe he knows what he is doing by lying to Nale about the cause of the Desolations and sending him to kill Surgebinders, but I think he is doing it to avoid the (re)inforcement of the Oathpact somehow. The Oathpact, the Desolations, and both the return and the departure of the Heralds are all connected somehow, and so I think he has a reason (valid or not) to believe that the return of the Radiants will somehow result in him being sent back to the "place of fire."

I don't know, team, let's think about this for a moment. Why would anyone sufficiently invested be able to see those? We've seen people who have been all sorts of invested, and we haven't seen afterimages like this anywhere else - so it's not that Lift is special in any way (though her circumstances might make it easier for her to see those afterimages than other people with the same level of investiture), it's that there is something weird about Szeth's condition. Moreover, Szeth is special in a way that allows invested people to see his afterimages. So I think the better way to tackle this is from the other side - what does a high amount of investiture does to a person to allow them to see things differently? There is a few scenarios where we've seen investiture influence people's sight somehow. By magic system those are: Allomancy: Steelsight & Ironsight, tin-enhanced eyesight, atium shadows (and other related shadows) Feruchemy: tin-tapped eyesight BioChroma / Awakening: superchromacy (to use Brent Weeks' term) Aviar bonding: seeing possible future deaths I think there are also some important facts to consider when trying to figure out the cause of Szeth's afterimages: Elend peers into the Spiritual Realm when heavily invested with Preservation's power (remember that even though he was burning Ruin's power, metals in Allomancy act as gates for Preservation's investiture) Steelsight and Ironsight cannot must be tapping into the Spiritual Realm somehow (because it sounds like they reveal potential Connections an Allomancer might form with metal objects - magical, short-lived Connections). Wax's supercharged Steelsight* from The Bands of Mourning makes sense in this context too - his vast investiture could've allowed him to peer deeper into the Spiritual Realm, allowing him to see more Connections (and not be limited to just metals, which are easiest to create with Steelpushes). Temporal shadows created by the Allomantic effects of atium, electrum, and gold (among others) must also work by allowing the Allomancer to interact with the Spiritual Realm - it is where futuresight (which is just the ability to see and interpret Connections) comes from, after all. Tin-enhanced senses in both Allomancy and Feruchemy are probably not important here. I'd wager that neither is the visual "perfect pitch." The visions Dusk sees because of his Aviar sound very very similar to atium- and/or goldshadows, so I don't think they warrant a separate investigation. With all this in mind, I've convinced myself that what Lift sees is something of Szeth's Spiritual aspect. Furthermore, my thoughts on how Steelsight and Ironsight work lead me to believe that this something has something to do with Lift's (and other invested people) and Szeth's ability to form Connections. When an Allomancer sees another's image, it shows them either what they will do (and more specifically where they will be) or what they could've done; in other words, the shadows created by the (external?) temporal metals allow the Allomancer to peer into another's Spiritweb and then either interpret their current Connections one tiny step ahead or interpret their current Connections backwards (which should be much easier), and then forward So what is Lift seeing? I think she is seeing Szeth's Spiritweb as it was a short time in the past. I will speculate about why that may be another time though, I mused too long and hard here... * See how cleverly I avoided spoilers for TBOM?

I had a similar idea a couple of years back, so I checked with Brandon - the number of the Unmade is not ten.

Official blog is up.

Official blog is up.

I am in favor of Ishar just being so sick of the endless torture, he decided to get himself out of the Oathpact - even before the prologue (prelude?). I don't think he was evil in any way, at least not back then (it's debatable now), so he saw no harm in getting all the surviving Heralds out along with himself. Taln had to suffer anyway, I imagine him thinking, and we can't help him, but we don't have to suffer with him. In this theory, He may have formed an alliance with Odium back then, but I don't think so - I think he acted on his own there, and continues to act on his own. Which suggest to me that he is afraid of the return of the Radiants, probably because he is afraid their return will somehow cause the Oathpact to force him to fight and/or be tortured. I expect Ishar's story will be a sad one once we learn it.

Honestly, that's the thing that worked absolutely best for me. No slow descent into darkness. It's all "business as usual, business as usual, business as usual, DEATH, MURDER, SADNESS, DEPRESSION"

I dub them Santa Mistclaus and Sharda Claus.

The WoBs here very heavily imply Taln had an Honorblade when he showed up at the gates of Kholinar. It's not an outright fact, but it's the next best thing, and I see no reason to doubt that.

I actually I think I missed the point when this became the "prevailing theory." Back in my day we thought those things were either chasmfiends or had something to do with chasmfiends. I don't like the idea that they are Unmade.