Green Hoodie Mistborn

Hah, that is the WoB I was looking for and I had JUST found it too... literally had just copied the browser link when I saw the notification of your post Thanks Kurkistan!

2 points and I'm killing myself not being able to find the relavent WoB for #1... People can "snap", so presumably "wound their spiritual web", with strong good emotions as well as bad ones on Scadrial. If this holds up, then that would apply to Roshar and other worlds as well. Just like the Shaod, the mists in WoA and HoA were running around snapping people "manually" through the external forces as well.

Interesting question, and one which we might get to see some more related to in future books, based on quotes like THIS from Brandon. There certainly seems to be ability with some of the magic systems to reshape a body (Returned/Royal Locks on Nalthis, Soulstamps on Sel, Elantrian physical change after the Shaod takes them), and I think the most likely ones to work for something like this would be the body shaping that we've seen from Nalthis, then Soulstamping. Based on the "how one sees oneself" portion of the Returned bodyshaping abilities, I think it would be very hard to change sex. It would be easier for someone is transgendered already, but still not very easy. Or maybe very easy if they were to Return since the initial Returned body is the "ideal of how they see themselves", so they may come back directly as the other sex. It takes some serious "mental gymnastics" to change shape as a returned, so once you've gone through the initial Return, I think it would still be very hard to do. With Soulstamping it might be possible, but I'm not sure... Shai had to spend time learning all the skills that she had with each new Soulstamp and then write a history where those skills were all she practiced and a life that supported those (i.e. tons of physical workouts to build muscles for Shaizhan). So it provided some body change, but really based on a history of training and workout. I don't remember it making her taller or altering the length of her arms to give her warrior a better reach or anything like that, so I think it would be almost impossible for a mortal to use Soulstamping to accomplish this... also Soulstamping like Shai did still wears off, it just takes a lot longer. She still had to keep applying her marks to maintain that state, so any gender change with Soulstamping would not be permanent. That said, I don't think it impossible. My other caveat would be that a Rosharian Lightweaver (especially Shallan) who could sell the "lie" to themselves or whatever she does with the drawing pre-lightweaving, could possibly combine that aspect of Lightweaving, the transformative aspect of it, in conjunction with a Return's bodyshaping or possibly even soulstamping to change sex for a time. EDIT: for clarification, when I say "lie" in the paragraph above, I'm talking strictly in the Lightweaving/Pattern sense, not trying to imply there is anything false related to transgender people and/or their orientations.

We know from this Q&A that ultimately there was a single source of humans in the Cosmere. How those spread pre-Shattering is unclear, but we also know that Shard's can create/did create the humans on their worlds (Scadrial 100% sure, other planets like Roshar pretty sure, Nalthis not so sure how long Endowment has been there.) So shared etymology and language on Shardworlds (which is all we're really seeing) seems natural to me since the original Shard holders were all from the same world and knew each other. it would be interesting to me to see a non-Shardworld populated by humans and see if there is any shared language there with Shardworlds, and if so, how divergent are they at this point since the non-Shardworld humans would have (again presumably) migrated/traveled to that world pre-Shattering.

You can also give away breaths in portions, so a returned who had breaths on top of their Divine Breath, could give away all their extra breaths but still retain their Divine Breath. Source: WoB Course... if that Returned didn't get another breath somewhere, they would consume their Divine Breath and die in a week anyway.

I fully agree that there are pools of people that can be radiants, but on Roshar I'm pretty sure that is determined by a series of actions which denote inner character and are in accordance with the KR Order to which the spren is related. I think the spren who form the Nahel bond with Bondsmiths are far more important to the process than we're giving them credit. Otherwise why would the Stormfather have to acknowledge Kaladin's 3rd oath or Dalinar's 2nd before it took effect with the words that he did? "the words are accepted", though Syl does say "you can't hold me back if the words are spoken".

Indirectly, almost certainly as I read that last epigram.

Question to add... related to the Shards & Magic question #1 Can you please define the word "soul" in relation to Realmatic theory? Is it the Cognitive aspect of a person? The Spiritual aspect? A blend of 2 or 3 aspects? In healing (with Bloodmaker ferrings, Stormlight, etc) you discuss repairs to a soul as it sees itself, so we'd like to clarify what is going on there Realmatically.

I wonder though if Brandon was just being loose with his words a bit there. Bloodmakers are using investiture to heal in the same way that Kaladin used Stormlight to heal his Shardblade wound. Essentially they are restoring the body to how the self "sees it". Here is a reddit WoB dealing with healing/souls/righting the self. "Seeing of the self" is all about the Cognitive aspect of a person from what I know. So to me that still says that they make a cognitive change to the person, not spiritual. Maybe we need to get Brandon to nail down a definition of a "soul" in the cosmere in relation to Realmatic theory... that would help answer some of these questions. That also raises some questions for me regarding Renarin and the healing of his eyes. If he needed the glasses as part of himself, then Stormlight should not have healed him to the point that he didn't need them anymore. Maybe that was his Surge of Growth/Regrowth at work rather than just stormlight healing?

Its a big gap though... we know that he was around when the Heralds broke the oathpact and through the Recreance, but he still might have died over 1 millennia ago or more depending on when the Recreance happened. Agh, too many gaps in our knowledge!

I wonder, if when he said we "hadn't seen that planet yet" if he was talking about in published works? I'm thinking of Yolen, which was obviously populated with humans pre-Shattering of Adonalsium. They may not have had any investiture on that planet, rather than him talking about a Shardworld. It seems to me that to get the creation of sentient humans, the Shards have to invest... The drab thing IS very interesting too.

Welcome! It is a conundrum for sure... Here are my thoughts on the subject: The Almighty himself said that he's not as good at foresight as Cultivation Syl said that foreseeing is "not of Honor" Men say that it is "of the voidbringers" I think it is a shift in history that skewed the "not of honor" concept and attached that to "voidbringers", since most people in Roshar seem to have forgotten about Cultivation's presence to me, as well as Odium, but he's at least on a different planet. I think that foresight, and that of the Truthwatchers is an ability from the cultivationy side of spren rather than the honor side. We know that spren are made of different % of honor/cultivation, so it could be teh Truthwatcher's bonded spren are much more cultivation than honor and therefore the abilities that they grant are akin to Cultivation and her ability to see into the future. As to what cause the shift from "not of honor" to "of voidbringers"? Time, distance from actual events, desire to re-write history as we see in Jasnah/Shallan's frustration with scholars and Vorinism in-world. It all just became blurred...

Haha, I know it's just autocorrect, but I love the idea of spren/KR "navel" bonds... like an umbilical cord!

It doesn't say that he is bound by the Oathpact. Only that he is trapped in his system and he hasn't killed another Shard in a very long time. It is likely, but unless it says it in cannon I don't trust Brandon not to flip something we think we know on our heads! EDIT: I also just realized the implications of this section for the broader Cosmere. Aona/Skai were thus slain "millennia" ago. We know that the Oathpact being broken by the 9 was also 4.5 millennia ago. Does this help us place the slaying Aona/Skai in the chronology at all? It also means that Hoid has been bopping about the Cosmere for a VERY LONG time. Also that Demoux and Galladon have been running around the cosmere for 300+ relative years, though perhaps not subjective years, depends on how world hopping actually works and if it does work in different ways.

Noted and apologies great one It could be their songs, but I feel like since the Parshendi seem to have only recently discovered any forms outside of dull/mate/war that it would have been hard for them to remember facts like Honorblades give surgebinding... who's talking to them?? that is one of the great mysteries of the Stormlight Archive for me right now.

Hard to heal the soul of your arm being severed too, but Kaladin managed it twice! I'm hopeful that enough investiture will keep them safe. I purchased the "Firstborn/Elysium" hardback from Brandon's store and asked a question about an Awakener with a ton of breath's being hit by a shardblade: Here is a thought I've been tossing around in my head for a bit... I have always assumed that a Shardblade is cutting/severing someone's soul, because that is what is thought in-world. What if... Since shardblades are really Spren, which are really Cognitive creatures, shardblades are instead severing the cognitive connection between your physical self or portions?

This I find it easier to just paste it directly. Plus it pleases my graduate degree self, since I had to do that for sooo many references in papers and such, just seems right!

When I think of Odium, I think of people in the secret societies personally, or Eshonai's sister who I doubt died in that battle. I'm pulling for Adolin to bond a highspren and become a real actual Skybreaker instead of whatever Nan's group is doing!

Thanks for the support Argent and linking in the thoughts of the Horneaters and their "creation myths" to my theory. I like the idea that there are 3 godspren as you term them. the Stormfather could well have been the spren of the mountains before Honor passed and then he took up what little of his mantle remained, Storms and mountains are very connected, especially peaks where the horneaters live. Cultivation as the godspren of the trees and Cusciesh as the godspren of water both very much make sense. I still doubt that Cusicesh is a spren of Adonalsium, but rather... we know that spren are a blend of Honor/Cultivation, rather they are actually splinters. Which means that Honor/Cultivation would have consciously created them before honor died, otherwise how would a still living Cultivation merge some of her investiture to create the spren in differing % with the dead splinters of honor? Maybe it's possible, but I doubt it. I think they were conscious creations of Honor/Cultivation. As with my previous theory about the faces on Cusicesh (that they were voltron spren showing the faces of their own bondmates), I agree that Cusicesh is reliving the Recreance in some way still, and that those faces are still the faces of the previous KR. The other possibility is that they are the possible KR on Roshar at the moment. I.e. those who fit the bill for different spren who may want to try and bond with them... So for the big 3 here is my thought. They are all much more massive splinters of Honor/Cultivation than other spren just with different balances of the 2. Stormfather: we'll go with 75% Honor/25% Cultivation (maybe higher percentage of honor as he seems VERY focused on the Recreance and not trusting humans anymore Cusicesh: I'm thinking this is a blend of 50/50 Nightwatcher: this one is more 75 Cultivation//25 Honor. In order to cultivate something, you may have to prune it, so her boon/curses would fit with that I think. A clip here and a little blessing there encourages growth in a certain direction. Think Myagi and the Bonsai trees Thank you to Azul for finding the quote from ch. 75 (True Glory) about the Stormfather surviving the Recreance (which would imply that he WAS bonded at the time). I'm not sure why he evinces fear at Dalinar trying to bond with him, but I think that has to do with his slightly broken mind. I really hope that through the bond with Dalinar the Stormfather's sanity returns to normal and that is a huge benefit to Dalinar and the burgeoning KR. Can you imagine if the Stormfather stays in his Marvin the Depressed robot state for the next 3 books? "Ok, take your bond human, you're only going to die anyway while I sit here with my massive brain and watch it happen.." Glad that my thought and theory isn't crazy to everyone else!

Agreed! I think the first real bonded Skybreaker's that we'll see will be either Adolin or Moash because of their pursuit of "Justice" over what is "right", with Adolin being in the lead since he is seeking justice and is VERY confident. Moash suffers a bout of insecurity after running from Kaladin

Which would give a good reason why/how Odium was able to kill/shatter Honor... and Aona/Skai for that matter. If Odium is not Invested naturally, then like the Ruin/Preservation imbalance, Odium would have more power and therefore be able to beat/destroy Honor and any other Shard who passed innate investiture to the humans of their world.

Probably not any more of a killing machine than he already was!

As you go about making a theory on this Argent, think about the WoB which says that there is something beyond the Spiritual realm as well... Cant' wait for the theory though!

No, probably not. It may still just be theory, but the thought is that he is in fact a dragon of some sort from Dragonsteel. Those who ahve been lucky enough to read it may know more about that, though I myself have not.

I see what you're saying Argent, and I think that I agree for the most part. Definitely agree on the Parshendi leaving Szeth and his honorblade behind. What if they are tied to the Heralds in some way and the Honorblade's ineffectiveness is related to the lack of honorable actions on the Herald's parts? Questions that I have right now: Where the heck did the Parshendi learn about honorblades? From Szeth? He always says he's not supposed to talk about it, even to his masters... so they must have already known? Where is Taln's Honorblade that he brought with him to Alethkar? The one that Dalinar bonded with was a regular dead Sprenblade, otherwise he wouldn't have heard the screams when he summoned it after bonding with the Stormfather.