Krelian

Might this be extended to a very general idea about the "landscape" of the Cognitive and/or Spiritual realms on a given world being shaped into specific forms by the Shards nearby? Brandon's comments about the various versions of investiture being easier/harder to translate from world to world seems to have a direct relationship with how tied to the world those abilities are. He said Scadrial's are the easiest to take to another world, while Sel's are the hardest. One is totally internal, while the other is completely dependent on the physical landscape. I'd guess Roshar is more on the difficult side, since spren seem to have been bound to the world in some way, though obviously they have some capacity to move around and potentially even travel through Shadesmar, if Shallan's truthspren are any indication.

So, we have very little information on Nicrosil as it relates to Feruchemy, but we do know it allows you to store investiture. Brandon has said that when you burn metals using Allomancy, it's really just sort of opening a conduit to the related investiture from Preservation/Harmony. That got me thinking, if you had a Twinborn (or someone like the Lord Ruler) who filled a Nicrosil metalmind while burning a metal, would they then be able to draw on that metal's abilities later without having to be actively burning it? Could be handy if it works that way, would be one of the few ways I can think of to effectively counter being hit by a Chromium or Nicrosil misting...

He confirmed at a signing that Szeth does not have a spren associated with his abilities. So, we can assume Szeth isn't in the same apparent "Radiant reborn" category as Kaladin. What I'd like answered is whether Szeth's abilities would be considered "natural" on Roshar, or whether we're looking at something akin to Hemalurgy there...

I think surgeons in current Roshar serve as a very crude analogy for the KR's financial state, honestly. They're vital, people respect them, but they're very much not part of the regular order of things in most cities/villages. Some governments and individuals are happy to fully fund them, some just probably give enough to keep from dying next time their services are needed. I think it's clear that in the later years, at least, the KR were totally on their own, and didn't have support from any higher power/organization. Tariffs/taxes/tithes to keep them all in fighting shape makes a lot of sense. Especially since, as long as they maintained their honor, they couldn't exactly use their abilities to directly raise money by force.

Good thing I just cleared out our old printed encyclopedias from the bookshelf. That should fill the spot nicely.

To add to this, his whole Cosmere mythology is supposed to encompass, I believe, about 36 books. And only the latter ones will have any discrete crossovers. Moreover, I think in a somewhat recent interview he said that Stormlight Archive would not, within the scope of the actual series, do much crossover at all, even near the end. Hoid is the only character that is meant to be recognizable as being present in multiple series so far, though we've figured out a couple more. So, if you wanna delve into the rest of his works (which I recommend!), then pay attention to seemingly unimportant stuff. Otherwise, just enjoy the series, it's meant to stand alone regardless of everything else going on in the universe :)/>/>