Windrunner

Thank you very much!

I tend to lean towards that explanation, but it isn't the only one. Ruin and Preservation each had their own system in addition to their balance magic. The Old Magic could simply be Cultivation's personal system.

I initally thought it was Marsh's own book from the from reading the end of Alloy. But some talks with Eric and actually getting a bit of the book's contents, I think the voice is undoubtedly Spook's.

In my mind, at this point there's no doubt that Surgebinding is a balance magic between Honor and Cultivation. Swearing oaths that can slowly help you grow into a better person? Spren that are made of both their power? The only potential hiccup I see thus far is that we really don't know which Shard it is that Stormlight comes from.

First, a bit of housekeeping. I am moving this topic to the Cosmere theories board, as it references Ruin and Preservation in the opening post. Moving on, I agree with Araris Valerian and hoser completely. The gemstones we've seen are no more fantastic than Scadrial's metals (and yes, I do believe that you could use any of the Polestones from any planet to hold Stormlight, or burn metals from any world in Allomancy). I do have an alternate idea though, that I may refine into a full theory.. Brandon's made allusion to the fact that metals that are burned returned to Scadrial in some way, they aren't gone forever. I believe a similar process is happening with color on Nalthis. The Tears are a supernatural way to return the color that is "used up," for lack of a better term, to Nalthis. I think this is simply the same process happening on Roshar. Gems are the Physical aspect of the investiture, just like metal or color. The gems are used up and broken (although smaller parts can be used and broken up further and so on) and then return in the form of gemhearts.

I also find it kind of unlikely that she could just vanish from one location and reappear at another without causing some sort of panic. At the very least, she couldn't bring all her clothes and books and research with her, which would impediment her movement quite a bit.

Marianmi, the power of creation is what the Shards are. I'm afraid that Weiry is spot on. Shards provide the power for magic systems. When they directly fuel someone, such as when Vin allowed Elend to use Allomancy without metals, that exerts power, but they are largely unimpacted by regular use of power (or Ruin and Preservation at least). The power goes straight back to Preservation, like water turning a wheel and continuing on its way (obviously not a perfect simile, but the one Brandon used). The Dor is commonly theorized to simply be a mixture of the power of both Devotion and Dominion, not some separate power source the Shards allowed access to. The basic premise of this theory has been around for a while, and it was disproved some time ago. I'm sorry.

You could probably just Soulcast the air around them into glass.

Just out of curiosity, why do you think that Syl was probably once a windspren?

Nah, that's all on me. I totally misread your post. My bad

Wow, I had no idea that you were from China! That's so awesome As Natans said, I love your art. I'm so glad that you're here!

Personally, I'm not sold on it. Look at the section where Szeth is given new orders. Taravangian is giving Szeth a single new name. If Szeth was to get new names, wouldn't they come after he'd killed Dalinar? And yet, Dalinar still seems to be alive and well in the Steelhunt chapter. His orders are to go directly to the Shattered Plains and attack. And yet, if this Kaladin chapter is somehow set after that attack (unlikely) there is no sign of it. In my opinion, it's much easier to swallow that the Primes' deaths were simply initially kept quiet, or confirmed news took longer, despite spanreeds.

I think that Radiant must be a Dustbringer. She moves unnatualy easy through the water, which I think may be her making use of the Friction Surge.

Because the koloss are spiked with human attributes, which always twist the person who is being spiked more dramatically than Allomantic or Feruchemical attributes.

Darnam's got the right of it.

Last I heard, it was the plan to make a set of ten!

I would be shocked if the other orders of Radiants didn't use Stormlight. There is no implication that this is the case. For your second question, the gems all seem to hold about the same amount of Stormlight, so he might as well get as much as he can. He can have more less valuable spheres for Stormlight or fewer more valuable spheres. It's just a logical thing.

It's kind of a funny story. I was working on a Featured Theories column (which I eventually need to get back to) going through the Realmatic implications of each magic system. And, for some reason, I made the assumption that Ruin's power was what attached a stolen attribute to a spike, kinda like glue. I had Eric (Chaos) read the column over before we posted it, and he, the Hemalurgy master and Lord Ruler, instantly caught my rookie error and dubbed me Bad at Scadrial. It's much more fun than my last member title.

Marabethia was accepted, with a few minor tweaks on my part. Eric and I don't feel like Arriev is at a level where it is ready to be marked complete.

Is it? The face in the highstorm disagrees. Ishar's theory may have been incorrect.

I just noticed an interesting parallel. Lift grows hungry and uses food to gain Stormlight, while those with the Royal Locks get hungry when they grow their hair. I'm not sure if this is simple coincidence (both need fuel from somewhere) or if it's not, what it implies, but it was just something I noticed.

Siri got hungry when she regrew her hair, so presumably her body is fueling the growth. I don't know why instantly regrowing hair would make the old hair less a former part of you, though. Also, Forgery is on Sel, and Awakening is on Nalthis, but Realmatic Theory applies everywhere.

I'm not sure that you can drain color from your hair. It seems like there are a few occasions in Warbreaker when the characters are out of color to use when being able to draw color from hair would have been useful. I think it would probably be considered a part of your body. After you cut it, that might change but I'm not sure how swiftly the hair would stop considering itself as a part of you.

I was referring to the greater conflict. Decay became Ruin, that's a fairly large piece of mythology there. I haven't read the book itself though, to be fair.

Personally, I never got any indication the that beggar Hrathen met was Hoid.