Firesong

A bit of a correction on the repelling, we actually see that all Investiture repels each other when in a kinetic form. Like, for instance, Shardplate resists Surgebinding, and Stoneshaping material that is Invested at all gets extremely difficult (and that would basically just be referring to Invested by Honor or Cultivation). So, it is just a general thing. Unrelated, but I do wonder how different Adonalisum can become when remade, like, we know Shards combining makes Intents change, so like, would (Preservation + Ruin) + Autonomy be different from (Preservation + Autonomy) + Ruin, as one is Harmony + Autonomy, the other is a new Intent + Ruin. And this would basically compound over time to make some radically different Intents. Wonder how that works. Also, note, Harmony + Autonomy kinda makes perfect sense. Harmony is about Free Will, essentially. While Autonomy is about Individuality. The combination would make a lot of sense, and we do know Autonomy really wants Scadrial, which basically is Harmony. So... maybe she succeeds, and to do so she might have to just, take Harmony for herself and become a new Shard.

Would be weird for Bravery to be a Shard, we already have Valor. So not a fan of that example. But that is interesting. And also, I know, I didn't mean to post twice. I usually just edit my own messages. Sorry about that.

And I am trying to show you you are wrong to say that there is infinite Investiture, that has been thoroughly debunked by basically everything. The mind is finite, yes, but that doesn't mean that the Shard must be literally infinite. I honestly don't get the interpretation that Shards are infinite in the slightest, it is contradicted so bloody much by Brandon and the books, only like, 1 or 2 WoBs support it being infinite. Investiture is a renewing resource, not an infinite one. There would not be infinite at any singular moment in time. And again, Devotion and Dominion were pushed into the Cognitive Realm *in their entirety*, so, if Shards were infinite, this would cause the entire Cognitive Realm to be a sea of endless plasmatic Investiture. And taking away part of Ruin's Investiture wouldn't have weakened him. Because, that isn't what Brandon means by "they can't access it all", he doesn't mean "there is this specific set of it that they can access, and losing this part of the set makes them weaker" it was "they can only access so much of it at one time". It was a quantity thing, not talking about specific Investiture (I don't even know how to say what I am trying to say, as it isn't the most, dividable of things) @alder24 But you seem to be completely ignoring the other WoBs and the Books in their entirety in your desire to say that Investiture is infinite and thus the entire system of the cosmere is fundamentally broken as none of the limits mean anything anymore. My interpretation is based on looking at all of the books and what they say, and by looking at WoBs that fit with the ideas shared in the books. WoBs are disregarded when they directly contradict the books. As they do here, and I don't get why people are giving so much weight to them despite the contradiction. Like, this just isn't something I am going to budge on. The finite nature of Investiture and the cycle it has with energy and matter is one of the most fascinating parts of the cosmology of the world. It is one of the more unique parts of it, and is the cause behind various different plot points. I would lose a lot of interest in the cosmology and metaphysics if that was taken away. Edit: Sorry for aggression, this is just something I am really passionate about and I am also a very stubborn woman. I have calmed down now, but I am still not budging on this matter. I just want to apologize for being rude. I have temper problems.

This worries me somewhat because of the following observation. Nightblood consumes Breath (and other Investiture, but let's limit ourselves to Breath for a second). Every person on Nalthis is born with one Breath. Populations tend to grow. Which means that under normal rules of demographics, population of Nalthis should keep increasing. This in turn means that under normal circumstances the number of people with Breath on Nalthis should be growing. I can see the following possible explanations to this: Endowment can give Breath to many more people than are currently living on Nalthis. So, the exponential population growth has not yet reached the level at which Endowment's ability to award a Breath to each Nalthis-born human is seriously challenged. When it happens though, things will not go well. There is some built-in mechanism controlling population growth on Nalthis, making certain that the population stays within the limits. Nightblood's consumption of Breath makes these limits smaller, and overall may lead to Endowment's inability to grant Breath to Nalthis-born, but not for a while (essentially, Endowment controls population trends at she sees fit). Thoughts? Brandon Sanderson Just as a point you should understand, the amount of MATTER in the cosmere is finite too. As is the amount of energy. Worrying that Endowment will run out of Breaths to give is a little like worrying that the amount of carbon on Earth will run out because people keep being born. uchoo786 So just for clarification, once Nightblood consumes investiture, that investiture gets recycled? That's what I've always assumed. That it enters the cognitive/spiritual realm? Brandon Sanderson The investiture he consumes is not gone forever--it's not leaving the system, so to speak. Those are just a few that talk about the finite nature. This also essentially says it as well essentially infinite implies not being so, but it just being more than you would ever actually need. There is also the manner in which Devotion and Dominion were forced into the Cognitive Realm, but still are confined to a finite space, instead of just spreading to fill the entire Cognitive Realm. I also recall a quote of "Nothing is infinite, not even time" somewhere. Might have been in Secret History, iirc. Yeah, it was definitely there, said by Ruin. If anyone has a digital copy can they try to find that quote?

That was one individual WoB, contradicted by everything else. It feels facetious to bring it up when it goes against everything else he said in WoBs and books alike.

I know what exactly a Splinter is, I was talking about where exactly you would stop calling a Shard a Shard as you continue to break it up into smaller and smaller pieces. It was kinda like a Paradox of the Heap question.

No, Shards are finite. That is more more consistent and supported by the books and Brandon. So, you are wrong there. I don't remember anything in the books supporting the idea of them being truly infinite, it was always just said from the perspective of humans. If you want to say that it was literal, you would also have to say that the physical size of the Stormfather is literally infinite, as it uses descriptors in the exact same way. What it is, is unable to be completely depleted due to the fact it cannot be created or destroyed, just changed in form. It is not actually infinite in quantity. This is supported by WoBs. For another piece of evidence, why is only Sel victim to the Plasma Storm if the storm has a literally infinite amount of Investiture storming around? How would the creation of Scadrial and the taking of Investiture from Ruin to make Atium cause Shards to weaken? It is all pretty consistent about how the amount is finite.

No, it was clearly more than honorifics, honorifics don't really modify nouns and verbs that way, mostly just proper nouns. So, it is more akin to what Treamayne spoke of from Korean.

I did not round anything, as far as I recall.

I have been wondering what exactly defines the difference between a Shard and a Splinter, as you can keep breaking down a Shard into many, many, many Splinters, but as you keep going, what continues to define where the Shard ends and Splinters begin. And I came up with an idea, Shards having some sort of "Core" Imagine a circle with a very large radius, and a tiny one in the exact centre. Then make chords across the circle, removing the area between the chord and the arc. This would be similar to the idea of breaking off Splinters. You can do this as many times as you want. I believe that the Shard is defined by what piece this "core" is in. Following from this, Splintering a Shard in its totality would have to do with the destruction of this Core. I also believe we have essentially seen these, when we see Sazed pick up Ruin and Preservation and they are basically just balls of essence, I feel these balls are the Cores of the Shards. If this is true, it suggests that a Shard can reduce itself to basically nothing, to where it is basically just a Spren, while everything else is a splinter. Which I find an interesting idea. Though, it could be that the Core contains a minimum amount of Investiture that they cannot excise from themselves without causing irreparable damage.

I have 3,697,907 Words, not including the AU Essays, which wouldn't add much. I also did not include Way of Kings Prime, Aether of Night, or White Sand Prose, due to them not being canon.

Another implication of Autonomy being on Roshar (besides Brandon basically confirming it in one of the linked WoBs) is that one of the letters if from Patji and talks about her expansion (not saying Roshar is Obrodai, just that it was talking about her MO of expansion), and that Harmony talked about Autonomy encroaching on Scadrial as well. We also have Taldain sand play a prominent role. Autonomy has just, been discussed a lot in Stormlight. We also are like, 99% sure that the Expanse of the Broken Sky is Taldain, and we already have figures from Scadrial (Mists), Sel (Densities), and Nalthis (Vibrance) interfering with Roshar.

All good. But yes, you are right about grammatical similarities, those are indeed present.

Yeah, that is basically what I am saying.

I meant, the mountains would still have been very hot by the time of the Catacendre, and they would become icy and cold after it. This I feel would inspire them calling it the Ice Death, as if they were at the surface, it wouldn't have really been icy. Probably forced them down the mountains and closer to the surface.

Actually, the Korean-Japonic hypothesis isn't exactly popular, look at the work of Alexander Vovin for instance. He did a lot of work and concluded they are definitely not related. It ultimately comes down to a sprachbund as a result of geographic proximity and interactions.

True, we do see a flashback to it being really snowy and they call it the "Ice Death", but, given all the mountains, they likely were just mountain peoples.

Hey, thats the map Issac said was actually very accurate. But last time I checked I thought that the size was a bit smaller, based on the Basin up top, but I may have miscalculated. I do also wonder why the Southern Continent is so cold. But the WoP did bring up the fact that mountains can get really cold. So probably down to them living largely in the mountains. It is an incredibly mountainous continent, after all.

Sleepless are definitely sentient beings, far smarter and more capable of thought than the Ryshadium and Larkin, definitely.

Yeah, I do feel it was kinda meant to be quick and simple as the exact way it worked wasn't important to understanding the story, the main important thing was the intention or level of respect meant by it. Like, he ultimately is telling a story to people in-world. I do feel it is probably more complicated as he does say things like "lowest" instead of "low", which implies there are more than two levels. This is further justified by how they clearly do have a respectful informal form that they speak in normally, then a higher form, then a lower form. So, there is a lot of implication of how it works that wasn't directly stated. And, fun fact, English used to have something like this for second-person pronouns, all the thou, thee, thy, and such were actually informal pronouns, while you, your, etc are formal. It has basically completely faded away with time, the difference between singular second person and plural second person also vanished. That is why you is treated as grammatically plural (you are instead of you is), as that is how it started life. But, yeah, Brandon speaks Korean, so it was definitely influenced by Korean specifically. I am personally more familiar with Japanese, which does also have similar ideas in their language, with keigo and with pronouns having different levels of respect associated with them (though they prefer to avoid pronouns in general, even first-person pronoun is dropped when it is obvious or implied)

Aztec seems like a much more likely inspiration, due to being a notable empire. It also just, feels more Selish than the others. He also already made a Oceania inspired people (specifically Polynesian, but that is a part of Oceania) with the Unkalaki and Eelakians, and hasn't done Aztec before in cosmere, which makes that feel less likely. So, yeah, Mesoamerica feels like a likely inspiration.

It could be Mesoamerica, yeah. But it could just as easily be Africa or Oceania. And also, I am excited for when we get a more accurate Sel map. As the biggest map we have is intentionally very, very inaccurate due to a lot of political motivations (love how they are in-world ephemera like that). The sizes are very inaccurate as Fjorden really wants to feel important and make other peoples look small and uncivilized (they called the Rose Empire the Rose Barbarians, for goodness sake). The team said that they plan on making a larger and more accurate one later. Speaking of maps, I wonder how much of Scadrial is water versus land. As the main two continents (well, what we have seen of them, both extend off screen), are very, very small compared to what we know about the planet size. (We can make out the size due to the maps of Elendel Basin and the Final Empire having scales) Definitely excited for the world map in Era 3. Also hope Era 3 touches more on the Maskless. Basically, I love maps.

Hmmm... maybe. But I also doubt there are only six systems, I think I actually remember Brandon confirming there are more somewhere, but forgot where or if he even actually did.

We at least know that Honor + Odium is War. But not so sure about Cultivation + Honor being Tower, the name for that moreso came from it being associated with the Sibling, instead of that being the name of the combination.

The thing is, we don't know how Anti-Investiture interacts with another Investiture, only its own inverse. I think it is implied they won't destroy each other as Navani wasn't hurt by Anti-Voidlight and the Anti-Tone of Odium.