Green Hoodie Mistborn

Great catch Moogle & Chaos... I can't believe we didn't see the white sphere portion before and attribute that to the Sun in Shadesmar/Cognitive Realms This is very clearly the "big hint" that we were all supposed to have figured out, probably with the release of WoK back in 2010! And I think this is where the intent comes into play. If you intend a release from your 'mortal suffering' or are just tired of being an immortal/long lived Elantrian, when you sink to the well it probably does send you to the Spiritual Realm, which to draw parallel, is probably something akin to passing through the veil of death in the Department of Mysteries. One way ticket kind of thing... whereas a cognizant worldhopper would be able to shift to the Cognitive/Shadesmar and hop worlds. It definitely does explain the rarity of world hoping, 1 - 3 options per world, all very well hidden. Though we have seen and do know there are other ways of accessing world hopping magics. But like on Roshar, the art/power has been lost for millennium. On other worlds the power only recently possibly. Side note: I would be very excited if Warbreaker 2 ended with Vasher finding and entering Endowment's shardpool and traveling to Roshar 12 years prior to tWoK!

Like this one at Theoryland? Or this thread over here: Compiled Words of Brandon x2? All things in the Cosmere are comprised of aspects of all 3 realms. At least if you believe Shai. So yes, Shardblades have Spiritual sides to them. There are a couple of WoB that talk about a Shardblade cutting the "soul" of something. One specifically Brandon says that it cuts the soul of "the arm" and another where he just says "the soul" Here That being said, Shardblades are Spren are primarily Cognitive. A spiritweb by definition is a spiritual portion of a human, so is the Spiritual portion of the human. I wasn't saying that KR are "manifestations of all three realms", since every walking human is just that in the Cosmere. I was saying it would be cool if the KR's abilities were some parts of the 3 realms. Physical presence, Cognitive weapon, and Spiritual armor.

The large white sphere is likely significant as well. Possibly Sel seen from space? Ever since hearing that WoB I've assumed that this scene is the important one as well. I think the Elantrians who passed into the pool likely didn't go anywhere, they probably did just "give up the ghost" so to speak. Like many things related to magics in the Cosmere, intent probably plays a role in how the shard pools are utilized. If one steps in with the intent to Worldhop... Vs. someone who steps in with the intent to "shuffle off this mortal coil". Could be that the Shardpools are passages to the Spiritual realms so they equate to the same thing.. Worldhopping and ending, but that doesn't jive with WoB's that talk about Hoid's ability to Worldhop as a function of his skill with Shadesmar and the Cognitive Realm.

I like this theory... I have always ascribed to the Shardplate is solidified stormlight, but I love the thought of the 3 Realms coming together in the Knights Radiant, Physical Body, Coginitive Weapon, Spiritual Armor... TO me the Radiants who gave up the Blade/Plate in the Feverstone Keep vision, didn't seem like Lifeless to me, but more closely, Drabs with a sense of determination. I think this still works with your thought about giving up a portion of their spirit web, I don't think they gave up most or even a majority of it in the Shardplate, but enough... just like someone who survives a hemalurgic spiking would be messed up afterwards, and we see Drabs lacking lifesense and interest in the world around them, etc.These Radiants seem to have lost many of the positive aspects. Could also just be that they were determined and didn't want to talk to anyone after killing their bonded spren... That has always interested me about the vision at Feverstone... why were there no Radiants depicted as sad or torn up at the emotion of having just killed their closest friend/bond partner? As to the plate resisting the blade... investiture resists investiture. To me that part has always made sense. Just like it is hard to push/pull on a heavily invested object, so Blade/plate resisting each other makes sense too.

I only wish this had been posted on April Fools day... There is great logic hoodwinked in service to great hilarity. Thanks for the laugh Tempus!

I think you're probably more correct here than we probably think, because mostly we follow the Ars Arcanum which lists it by breath count. The concept of Breath count comes because each person starts with 1 breath, so as people started to give or sell breaths, they would count how many individual breaths had been accumulated into a single person and start associating that with the different Heightenings. It is a very human thing to try and make correlations like that. We know however that each Breath has a different strength, as Vasher says at the end of Warbreaker, it's more the quality of the Breath rather than the quantity. Some breaths are stronger and therefore get you further into a Heightening than other breaths. It kind of makes sense that all Breaths being Investiture of Endowment, when held by one person, would sort of meld together as they are the same type of Investiture. This plays into the false premise that people have that you have to give away all our breaths and not only some of them too. A "Divine Breath" is a single Breath, a splinter of Endowment. In theory this shouldn't be much different than regular breaths. They are all investiture of Endowment. Its not like Kaladin, or another KR, after sucking in Stormlight stores it in discreet parts based on the gem from which it was siphoned. I don't know why Endowment's investiture as Breaths would work differently than Stormlight in that respect. The only niggling question hanging in my mind though is the Return's need to consume "one breath per week". How does the Returned body know what constitutes "one breath" if they're aggregating into a single store? It could be that they need to consume a certain minimum level of investiture to sustain their connection/body and that any breath no matter how weak fulfills this requirement. Then anything over that minimum threshold would be consumed as well... but that still requires the consuming mechanism to be able to tell discreet Breaths from each other. Do Breaths/Investiture have "metadata"? Something that may play into this is the fact that the smoke emitted by Nightblood is per WoB, "corrupted Breaths". So it seems that Nightblood when active in his powers is consuming breaths, perhaps in a similar manner to the Returned body?

Either Demoux or Galladon... Seriously. Integral to their plots, and now trying to "mix it up" with Hoid??

I'm in Santa Barbara, CA

Well I said, "might". We don't know fully how it all works, and I agree that I don't think it would probably work, but could it? Maybe? You raise a good point that all cognitive instances impacting the physical are based on/in/around existing magic systems. Also - I edited my response above to respond to your earlier posts Kurkistan, not sure if you saw that as it as after.

We know that the cognitive realm has a huge impact on the physical, but it mostly has to do with physical properties. I.e. how the Item's cognitive/spiritual parts view itself is manifested in the physical realm. if Vasher convinced enough people that a fish could talk, it might manifest vocal cords. I would think that speech itself wouldn't come because that would require sapience, but there is probably an outside chance. Mostly it has to do with physical form than anything else... Returned bodies, Royal locks, Forging and an object's view of itself. We know that there are cognitive elements that play into Allomancy with Bendalloy and Cadmium bubbles as well. Another good manifestation of cognitive playing into physical is Stormlight healing. Kaladin still has issues related to his slave brands, so those don't heal while his Shardblade wounds do. Dalinar has innumerable scars which have never healed despite his using stormlight to heal for a long time. At the same time Renarin was able to heal his eyesight, and Lopen his arm because the way they viewed themselves was as whole people without those issues. Edit: Reply to @Kurkistan I'm not so sure that it's that clear. Those statements come from Vivienna who was proven a few times to not be knowledgeable about the magics of Awakening and Breaths within the story itself. To me that makes her statements like this to be suspect a little bit. It was also before we had knowledge that the cognitive aspect effects things as much as it does. I think based on mass and individual perspective that non-heirs probably can't use the royal locks, but that doesn't mean they don't have the right sDNA or the sliver of the Divine Breath needed. Just not the right mental "gymnastic" muscles to exercise the locks. if the direct and secondary heirs were killed off and someone knew that they were "4th in line" or whatever, and they were actually a descendant of Vo, then they probably would start to access the Royal Locks, but they would be horrible at controlling them w/o a lifetime of practice!

Well there is the held belief among the Idrians that only the "potential heirs" having the ability. It's no where stated, but I believe that is just a matter of perception and cognitive ability for the Idrians more than a real statement.

@weirywriter - I do remember hearing or seeing that somewhere, I guess the question is more for "normal" awakeners not those of the 10th Heightening! If we want to combine them, "does Awakening require a spoken command, or would someone raised only on sign language be able to use that?"

@Joe/Leftinch - I doubt we have a WoB on it, but I also doubt that sign language would allow awakening commands to take root. In the same way that you can't just speak the Aon into existence... Maybe the question would be best as "does awakening require a spoken command?"

I think the closest we come is this

Was Stormseat destroyed during the Last Desolation or after?

It might have been something related to the Listeners, but I'm swayed away from that by a few things. The Listener's Song, Stanza 55 quoted in the OP Shallan's description says the city was "broken, like... find dinnerware hit with a hammer" When Kaladin flies over the plains in his dream flight it says: 4. Skybreakers seems to fit the concept of a hammer dropped from on high I suppose that could all point to some sort of earthquake/voidbringer power, but I think it point to something striking from the sky downwards, which to me says Skybreakers. Both Shallan and Kaladin see basically the same thing, a single impact point that fractures outward. We know there was betrayal in the KR and that an order turned against the rest. Could this all be red herrings? I guess so, but it feels right to me. The big question to me, is when did Stormseat get destroyed, in the Last Desolation or afterwards?

RAFO bait, but I like the thought in this thread by grinachu ... is Reya Cultivation's name? I think it fits with Wyndle's comments on "mother", and it's worth a shot!

At least according to Shallan, yes: But that doesn't mean too much since the times between the last desolation, the Silver Kingdoms, the Recreance, and "current time" are so vast that there's no telling when exactly it was destroyed. It could have been the act that kicked off the Recreance... but I kind of doubt it. It took the Everstorm to affect the plains again, so I think the initial shattering would have to have been much more destructive than surgebinders... Maybe it was the act of Nalan in conjunction with his order of Skybreakers all together... that might have approached the right power levels

@Chaos - I was totally creeped by that line too, so I understand that ranking! Just hit Hazekiller... bring it all you allomancers (except thugs... they're tough!)

Perhaps Vasher's speech changes as the language does. it is still his native tongue, but he has had three centuries to change right along with it... Since intention has almost everything to do with magic in the Cosmere, the Commands should act on the intention of the Awakener. Just like how Vasher says "grab things" which is very broad, I think she could have said "grab him" or "grab that guy" and the Command would have worked just fine since Vivenna is visualizing the attack and the "victim" as she issues the Command and Breaths.

Only problem is we have WoB stating that Alcatraz is NOT Cosmere. There are other WoB, but this is the quickest find for me just now:

Wouldn't Humans on Roshar also be composed of a bit of Cultivation? I like the idea that multiple Shards require snapping, I just don't think it's limited to 2. Nalthis is the best support of this idea to me, that Anyone can Awaken if they have the breaths. Harmony is one shard, but he still has diametrically opposed "powers" so to speak I believe. It is Preservation's power that allows him to hear people, but Ruin's power that lets him speak to them, which is why he needed to spike Wax. Functionally now they are the same, but they are probably still distinct within people themselves.

I found the Q&A through the Tor email, not this thread and I was going to post about it, but saw this thread. And I saw the top of page 1 was dedicated to questions to ask, so I initially skipped to page 2 where the only post about the answers was Chaos', but didn't see a link. It's mainly because I'm posting at work and only have so much break time!

EDIT: Whoops, didn't see the link that Argent had posted! Sorry for double posting that... Here is the link to the Q&A results which I didn't see posted yet. I agree Chaos... THAT was very interesting information to me. I wonder if there are speech or cultural markers that we can go back and look through previous books to try and ID?

Well, we know there is some truth to this even in the Cosmere, but outside of MtG! Preservations shardpool is a glowing white in Well of Ascension. Devotion's pool is "crystalline blue..." or "deep sapphire". Ruin's "pool" is black colored I believe based on his mist hovering about the well of ascension and Atium being a "dark beadlike metal". I wouldn't be surprised if Odium's pool is the "tiny violet ocean" that "glowed a deep violet" on its own which Kaladin encounters in the Chasms. Why it's there, I don't know, but since greatshells have violet blood and are likely part of the voidbringer army... Cultivation's probably the "emerald pools" mentioned in Rock's story and plays into the shardpool world hopping theory. Honor is probably some golden or orange color. orange because it is a prominent color in the SA books. Golden possibly because of the sunlight Dalinar experiences in the dream/vision at the end of WoR Bavadin/Skai I'm not sure on yet... but this too ties into the discussions on Rhthyms, pulses, & wavelengths. It only makes sense for Adonalsium to be composed of the entire "spectrum" that is, and when shattered that each shard would be a color. ROY G BIV + White & Black give us 9 shardic colors, of which I think we've directly seen or had described 5. I'm not sure where the other "7" colors would come from, possibly not visible light?