Windrunner

Another point in favor of Endowment. S/he already has been seen intentionally Splintering him/herself in order to provide for the Divine Breath. I can see Endowment dropping by. Once the power of his/her Shard mutated the inhabitants or if s/he had to leave for some reason, then S/he could just break off a Splinter and leave it behind. Hmm, where did you get the idea that Shards don't power magic systems? I'm fairly certain that Shards are made of Spiritual energy, or Investiture, which powers all magic. Perhaps you are referring to the Power of Creation? I know that Zas believes this to be separate from the Shards, while Chaos believes it is just another name for the power a Shard controls. Did I misunderstand what you meant?

My bad, I knew that, I just have had the first 2/3 of this saved before that interview came out, and I didn't think to check it last night, good catch though I'll remove it. I do think perhaps that it would be easier for a magic user to take up a Shard. Chaos wrote anyone, so perhaps all that is required is using a Shardpool, which maybe expands your mind a little bit so you can handle being a full Shard.

Alright, I've mentioned bits and pieces of this around, but I figured that I should just post it all in one place, so I can get my thoughts together on this subject, and see what everyone else thinks. For the purpose of this theory, I'm just going to assume the Hoid wrote the Letter. I think this fairly well accepted so I hope this won't bug anyone. The main idea of this post is that fighting against Odium is Hoid's primary goal. He hates Rayse for unknown reasons, and wants to defeat him. So I see Hoid as trying to protect humanity from Odium, while simultaneously trying to kill Odium. I also see the conflict with Odium as being the major backdrop to everything that's going on cosmere wise. I believe that Hoid's appearances in the cosmere books are directly related to him trying to counter, or work against Odium, while still helping people. I also wonder if perhaps Odium hasn’t actually created any creatures, and has just corrupted the creations of other Shards to form his Voidbringers. Perhaps they were once Cultivation’s. I'll now try to summarize what evidence I have for how the war has affected the Shardworlds, bearing in mind that this is Odium's goal: Sel The War The largest piece of evidence we have from the war here is of course the Splintered remains of Devotion and Dominion. Odium came here to kill them and ensure that they could not be taken up again. I also believe that he killed the original Elantrians, and possibly the Dakhor monks as well. The whole former race that occupied Arelon, and Elantris were gone when the Arelish arrived, I think Odium probably brought some Voidbringers with him and just slaughtered them all. That's probably also the reason that there aren't any myths of Voidbringers on Sel, because the people they fought were obliterated, so there wasn't anyone else left to tell tales. Hoid We all know that Hoid was posing as a simple beggar in Arelon. The question is, why did Hoid show up? He's centuries too late to save Aona and Skai. However, I'm sure Hoid thinks the more Shards to oppose Odium, the easier job they will have, and I imagine Hoid probably also emphasizes with the Elantrians. We know that Devotion and Dominion are Splintered, the question is, how permanent is Splintering? I personally am of the opinion that it isn't permanent, because Shards are eternal, the problem is to somehow make them re-coalesce. It might even be happening on its own already, there are no new Seons, and fewer old ones, and apparently the Elantrians didn't make them. So hopefully somewhere Seons are converging and Devotion is starting to reform. So obviously Hoid wants new allies in his fight. I now know that anyone can take up a Shard. It might be easier for an Eantrian to do so but that's just speculative. Prehaps Hoid has had one of his precognitive visions and knows an Elantrian is destined to take up the power, maybe even Raoden. He could aso simpy be looking for allies, which makes a little less sense, because Galladon is obviosuly not Hoid's friend right now. Scadrial The War No evidence here of Odium's direct interference with events on Scadrial, he's probably left it alone, with one Shard as close to mindless as possible, and the other imprisoned. There was no one there to challenge his power. Only recently has this situation changed, so the people of Scadrial would be wise to keep an eye out for Odium. Hoid Again Hoid falls into an unobtrusive role, this time as an informant, but he also spends time as the leader of the Terris people. I personally think he's there to stop Ruin from destroy Scadrial, which seems pretty obvious. An evil Shard breaking free, killing all life on Scadrial, then going on a rampage throughout the cosmere seems pretty bad to me. Also Ruin could eventually form a temporary alliance with Odium, I'm sure Ruin would be amicable to destroying other Shards. Hoid probably was trying to exacerbate Great House relations to start a war in TFE. In WoA Hoid was trying to find the Well so he could get ahold of a bead of Lerasium for mysterious purposes. In HoA he was probably truing to give Vin crucial information, but something spooked her. Hoid goes there, probably for several reasons, but another for sure is to set up Sazed as someone holding two Shards, probably the only person in the cosmere that could beat Odium in a fair fight. This is obviously a great thing for Hoid, and his fight, moving from two Shards that were useless, to two that could intervene if Odium becomes more aggressive. Nalthis The War This is where I start getting pretty far into speculation. If you’ve read my theory Endowment Recently Arrived on Nalthis, then you know where I stand. I think Nalthis was not Endowment’s original world, and that s/he fled from his/her original Shardworld because Odium attacked. Then s/he went to Nalthis, a Shardless world, and his/her presence gradually changed the sDNA of the people who lived there, so they had Breath and were able to Awaken. Hoid I honestly am not sure about why Hoid was here. Perhaps he was checking up on Endowment, making sure s/he was okay, or trying to win his/her support against Odium. He was also looking out for the people though, trying to give Siri hints in his stories so she could avert a Second Manywar. Roshar The War Here we go now, with the War finally coming into center stage. The main thing to think about is the Oathpact. This is how I see it. Honor has had enough. He’s felt Odium Splintering Shards, chasing away Endowment, and even destroyed Honor’s own Shardworld, the Tranquiline Halls. Honor, following in line with his intent, challenges Odium to a duel. For some reason Odium accepts, and becomes bound by the rules of the Oathpact. Why he accepts is mysterious. Maybe, as I suggested in another thread, Shards have the ability to affect each other with their intents, so Odium has no choice in the matter. Maybe Odium wants a fair fight, or respects Tanavast for some reason. Maybe it’s tied up in rules about the Shards that we don’t understand yet. Anyway, Honor and Odium need a neutral arena for their fight. They choose Roshar, and Cultivation possibly as a sort of moderator. She creates an Earthlike area for Honor’s people to arrive in Shinovar, a sort of staging area while they grow accustomed to this new world. The rules are drawn up. Every x amount of years or so, Odium will have to come against Honor. He will have an opportunity to destroy Roshar and all its inhabitants. If Odium wins he will be able to attack Honor directly. It is unknown if it is possible for Honor to win, the Heralds don’t think so anyway, although there still might be. They get opposite forces, humanity gets Heralds and the Knights Radiant. Odium gets the Unmade and the Orders of Voidbinders. It seems Honor sacrifices some of his powers to create Dawnshards and Honorblades, weakening himself further, and putting his trust in humanity, and Odium possibly makes opposites to those as well. The Heralds were required to submit themselves to Odium’s torture at the end of every Desolation. They would use Shadesmar or some other means to go to his Shardworld, Damnation. Once the Heralds broke this agreement, it no longer mattered whether the Voidbringers defeated humanity. Odium had beaten Honor, and was now able to directly attack him, killing Tanavast. So what now? Why is Odium still attacking Roshar? He left Sel alone after the death of Aona and Skai. My belief, is that he is afraid of Honor being taken back again. Either Honor was never Splintered, (unlikely from what we’ve seen of spren and the Shards on Sel.) or it’s reforming. Potentially Honor was dead before even Aona and Skai, perhaps he was protected the other Shards from Odium with the Oathpact. So Odium’s greatest enemy is returning, and he can’t let him rise again. The easiest solution? Kill all of Honor’s people and destroy Roshar in the process. He can attack with impunity now, and even perhaps intervene directly himself. Hoid This is Hoid’s stand; his cards are on the table, so to speak. He has come out of the shadows to directly oppose Odium. If he loses now he’s likely as good as dead. It seems that he is still trying to keep away from Odium’s notice, when he mentions that he “came to see an old acquaintance, but has spent most of his time hiding instead”. No more pulling strings from obscure positions, I believe he will lend whatever direct aid he can. Hopefully it will be enough. If this wasn’t long enough already I have one more idea I’ve been mulling over about the Seventeenth Shard. We know their leader, is someone who practices a policy of non-intervention. Presumably he imposes this policy on his followers as well. I believe they probably serve in roles of information gatherers as has speculated before. However I have one idea why they are looking for Hoid. This person the letter is being written to presumably opposes all outside intervention in the workings of various Shardworlds. Who is the King of intervention? Hoid of course. He’s been everywhere and has presumably been helping push the conflicts we’ve seen in the right direction. He also might be attempting to reassemble Andonalsium as well, as other have said. It makes sense; the only surefire way to make sure that the next Odium after Rayse wouldn’t be evil is to make sure there isn’t one. Splintering may not be permanent, but reforming Andonalsium would stop anyone from being influenced by that intent ever again. So for people who believe in non-intervention, Hoid is number one on the cosmere’s most wanted criminals list. Even the way he speaks of laying false trails reminds me of a criminal being hunted, even though I don’t believe Hoid is evil. Wow this is my longest post ever. Hopefully it provokes some discussion, and some parts prove to be accurate when we get to the end of this thing. I realize this is like the Godzilla of speculation. What does everyone (who made it through this post) think?

It's confirmed by Peter, we knew it was cosmere before we knew what it was about.

Welcome Keeper, it's always nice to see someone new around the forums! I hope you'll end up enjoying your time here. If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask. Everyone here is super nice and friendly.

Here's the description too for any newcomers. One obvious thing to notice here is that this is likely another Form-Based Investiture, because is seems the symbol shape is integral to what you want the rock to change to. It also seems like you are using your Cognitive aspect to alter the Cognitive aspect of the stone wall. Once the Cognitive aspect has been altered, it now believes it came from somewhere with a flaw, the Physical aspect changes to mirror it, by giving itself said flaw. The spiritual energy you are channeling through the symbol likely is what powers the actual Physical change that is occurring. If we want to go to the Three part of magic it goes. Physical-Shape of the Symbol Cognitive-Knowledge and Persuasiveness Spiritual-Investiture drawn through and shaped by the symbol to alter the Physical Aspect of the rock This hearkens back to Awakening, with the the symbol being more general like a Command, but the persuasiveness and knowledge more complex, like the Command-Visualization. If I had to pick a Shard I'd say either Endowment, because it fits with my Endowment theory, or either Dominion or Devotion, because we have seen a similar Form-Based Investiture before. However, it is difficult to speculate on, because the intent only has power over how the magic is obtained, not what it does.

Wow that was awesome Eerongal, I've never heard that monologue before. Have your 200th upvote! On a sillier note, this about made me pee my pants

Ok, this is just a thought that's been in my head for a while. I can't find a topic that I can post it in without getting off topic so I'm starting this. If any admin knows of a better spot for this post, feel free to move it there. I keep seeing people talk about the truthspren (aka symbolheads, but in my mind there is no doubt thats what they are called so that's how I will refer to them.) One of the main problems people keep having is that they say, "Why would a truthspren be attracted to Shallan when she's the biggest liar in the whole book?". I just wanted to point something out. It is my firm belief that the Nahel spren don't just bond with anyone. If I was on Roshar and decided to tell the truth for a day, I wouldn't end up with a truthspren. They are attracted by the defining attributes of a person. Shallan's defining attributes are creativity and honesty, regardless of what she was currently doing. They make who she is as a person. Her drawings are a part of her, and I do believe she thinks about having never told a lie before, in TWoK, but I could be wrong. It's not what she is currently doing, it's character based. That's why Dalinar would fall into Resolute Builder. He may be destructive and confused for most of the events of the book, but those attributes define who he is. For most of his life, he's known exactly what he wanted to to, he was resolved, to rebuild Alethela. The same goes for Kaladin. No matter how much he gives up, his desire to protect and lead define who he is as a character. And that is why Syl doesn't leave, even through all those months of him sitting in the slave wagon. IT's who he is and what he does. I hope this isn't out of place, I just wanted to correct what I see as being a misunderstanding that I've noticed in a couple places. If you feel that I've misunderstood something, please comment, I would love to debate it with you.

It kind of depends. If I'm remembering correctly, Aikan Frost, WeiryWriter and I have all, at different times, had the idea that a Shard's presence will slowly mutate the sDNA of the humans of the Shardworld it's on. (I posted this idea back in my Endowment Recently Arrived on Nalthis Theory)There is precedent for this happening, the Aonic people of Arelon were not the original race that could become Elantrians, it took them three or so generations living in the abandoned city to be able to become Elantrians. Presumably their sDNA was mutating. However this is all just a theory, we could be as wrong as anyone else. Also on the subject of Engraving, which is supposed to be the name of that magic system. I think it is almost certainly powered by a Splinter left behind there, which is interacting with the Realmetic of the Shardworld. However it's not a very big part of the Shard, which I believe why Engraving seems weaker, and with more limited applications then we've seen with most other cosmere magic systems, which have all been powered by a full Shard if I'm not mistaken.

It's confirmed as it's going to get unless we actually ask Brandon about it. Shallan seems pretty certain that her father was creating new marble deposits, because every time he went out "surveying" he discovered a new one on Davar lands, which is too good to be true in my opinion. I see no reason to believe that the Soulcaster never worked. I agree that it probably lost its spren when the Shardbade cut it.

I have one thing to say. TGFGT. (Thank God for Google Translate)

Uh-oh sounds like something that happened to Straff Venture. Did Vin duralumin-Soothe you too? Good thing you aren't an Inquisitor...

Oh my gosh, that's what happens to me too. Sometimes I'l try to get in on a discussion, but either the opening post is too long, or there are too many math symbols, and my brain just goes, "Aww hell no" and shuts down. That's why I need Around the Cosmere

I would like to announce that I just had that moment when I needed 162 and I knew it instinctively. And then when I wanted to check it, I just divided the refill period of the Well of Ascension by 4. I think I'm going to have to sign up for CA. (cosmereholics anonomyous)

That's definitely what I've been doing. I clean what Brandon was saying, where he starts a sentence and changes his mind about what he was going to say and starts a new one. I've also been editing out a lot of "ands" to try to chop run-on sentences into better chunks for the readers. I also cut out interjections like you say you've been doing. I don't know what your Q&A sounds like, but since mine is an hour long podcast the questioners tend to go into superfluous detail. I usually try to distill the question down when I can. I've also been trying to chop it into discreet questions and answers for the database, rather then a conversation. This is typically easy because Brandon likes to give verbose answers.

I think a drab is similar to someone who survived having their powers removed via Hemalurgic spike, only less so. A large portion of their spiritual aspect is gone, but by no means all of it.

Warbreaker Annotations to the rescue! He didn't see any priests, or if he did he didn't realize they were Pahn Kahl The second man is Denth. We have a couple of hints.

I would like announce, in lieu of Wayne, that Chaos's time in Hawaii is obviously having some affect on his accent. Thus that long surfer duuuuude, that was in his last post. Also thank you EHyde!

I do agree that aluminum would negate a lot of usefulness of Allomancers in modern eras. There are a couple of things to consider though. Only aluminum and a couple of it's alloys are inert, and you can't make everything out of aluminum. Also Brandon might choose to make Scadrial have very few natural deposits of aluminum, making it a valuable commodity. We've seen him tweak his worlds from the typical before. For example Roshar only has 80% of the gravity of Earth because he needed a way to make the bridges easier to use on the Shattered Plains. I would actually like to see Scadrial have an aluminum based economy in the future, similar to how we once were on the gold standard.

Oh my gosh, thind comment in a row. FAIL, I am so sorry Anyway I just wanted to say that they are making it available on PC as well. Now to get off facebook so I don't find information worth a fourth comment...

Oh wait, I found the whole thing, and I guess you aren't allowed to edit comments. Oh well

So we now have part of a description. I can see half of it from facebook for some reason, but I can't find the entire thing on the website. Here you all go anyway!

Welcome François, it's nice to meet you! I'm glad you've found new information, we've got interviews coming out of our ears sometimes. If you want any more information you should check out the interview database, compiled by zas678, Terez, and a whole bunch of other people I'm sure. It's actually kind of a joint project containing all Wheel of Time interviews, as well as Brandon answering questions on his own works

Also true, the name was Tarah, a past love intrest if I'm not mistaken. I think she might be dead too. So many mysterious deaths...

Why doesn't the transfer of Breath command require color?