Windrunner

Brandon discusses this in an annotation

There actually was a thread way back when if I'm remembering right. The concensus was that it was either Gaz, the man who was in charge of the bridgemen or Nan-Helaran, Shallan's brother. In my opinion it was probably Helaran that Brandon was refering too. Gaz's disappearance was relatively unimportant, and Brandon even considered putting it in TWoK, but I think it got cut to shorten the book, so he's saving the reveal for Stormlight 2. Also some have speculated that Helaran was the Shardbearer Kaladin killed in Alethkar. The evidence for this includes that fact that Amaram mentions the Shardbearer was Veden, and assosciated with the Ghostbloods, both catagories that fit the profile of Shallan's brother. The original thread is here, I hope this helps

That sounds fantastic Zas. I'm finding that I have more and more respect for all the work you've done compiling the Brandonothology and the WoT database. Typing up audio transcript is tougher then I thought, and I'm not even doing any of the website coding you did. Great job I would like to announce that I took my first practice AP World History test last Friday, and I passed! I now have t-minus two months to get eleven more questions right to get my score level up into the 5 range, so all the colleges will accept the class as credit.

This is so awesome!!! I can't even wait for like another minute. I really hope it ends up being similar to Assassins Creed style gameplay, because I think it would be well represented that way. Here's hoping that there were noble keeps in this time period, so I can go on some atium raids! Also Mistborn Co-Op would be awesome KChan!

Wait, Miles doesn't do that? I've always assumed he burns a metalmind, and then stores the excess heath in his metalminds. If he so wished he could pull one out, shave it to powder, then burn it again right? But your Lord Ruler explanation makes sense, thank you! I forgot that he would be able to store less age as time goes on. And also I'll check out the RP threads, it might take me a bit to get one though. I'm still working on the Scadrial article as well as typing an audio interview for the database

I've got the Speculate SF one, I'll post it as soon as I'm done. I'll clean it up as well, and edit out any umms and things like that.

Hmm, that's the RPG right? It's definitely interesting, I've never actually been in one before. Any tips on how I'd go about getting started and what to do once I start? I don't really know where I'd begin since I don't know the rules. I'll have to browse the RPG forum. Also, can someone explain to me why the Lord Ruler would eventually run out of Atium Compounding. I'm just so confused. I get that unlike regular attributes you need more and more age to stay at the same youth, but couldn't he just run his power through a few additional Compoundings, and make it like 1000 times as much? And also why did he have to remain old in his room? I feel like I'm missing something here.

Indeed there is, straight from Peter's mouth

Wow! Nice work Chaos, it's way better late then never! The talk of Final Empire assassinations is especially interesting, along with the fact that anyone can take up a Shard. I was so sure only the users of that Shard's magic system could so. Interesting about the Feruchemical table, it appears the Metallic Arts are even more complex then I expected. I guess in Feruchemy metals and their alloys aren't necessarily in the same group. Thanks again Chaos!

I've always assumed that's what would happen. I guess it's never been confirmed though. The best part about this is that it could protect metalminds. All you would need is a thin band not covered by aluminum, so you could access the power. A perfect way to protect yourself from Allomancers.

A couple other things in this train of thought. If I am not mistaken, we don't know the intervals between Desolations. Even if it's only once every thousand years that isn't all that much time to rebuild. Another thing to consider is that, even if the Heralds had knowledge of everything, and could tell the humans how to do anything this doesn't help them any. As Joe said, The Heralds are basically supposed to to leave right after the battles end, they don't have time to deliver any complex instructions on how to go about rebuilding. Also the humans really have nothing left at all. They are basically starting at step one over and over. It would take a long time to get even a moderate amount of technology built up. It's kind of like if all the electronics in the world were fried, we'd be in trouble too, trying to start over. There is one more thing to notice. Assuming you survive this battle, with nothing left, as it seemed in the prelude, and no instructions, what are you going to do? The book said 90% of the world's population died in at least one of these Desolations. If you think about who survived this massive war, who's it going to be? It's going to be the greatest warriors of the time. Very few of the thinkers, and the scientists and the artifabrians (if they had those) would have managed to fight a war. Nohadon even mentions it, speaking about how all his "wordsmen" were slaughtered when the Unmade Yelig-Nar broke into his chancery. The books are probably all gone too, we know that the Palaneum, the greatest library in the world was almost completely burned once. So there is no one around who knows how to do anything except fight. If humans were once advanced, it's easy to see how they were held back from growing here. You also mentioned where the Heralds come from. I think they were chosen out of the regular population of Roshar humans. I know of only one piece of Herald-Lore mentioned in the book. When Jasnah wants Shallan to have studied all those topics like history and philosophy Shallan says, "Your demands are about as reasonable as the ones made of Ten Heralds on Proving day!" This implies to me that, at least in the people's mythology, the Heralds were once regular people.

Something cool and semi-related to how the powers work. Today in chemistry my teacher mentioned that the second law of nature is that form dictates function. Which seemed awesomely cosmerey to me. The molecular structure of the metals and Aons dictates what the function the power drawn through them provides. Both are form based. I wonder if thinking commands gives them some sort of cognitive form going on, that dictates what the Breath does. It makes me wonder if Investiture can be divided up into Physical Form based and Cognitive form based. Perhaps spiritual form as well. If only we could come to some consensus on what Surgebinding's focus is.

I just wanted to add this in here because it's relevant to your discussion. Luckily this quote supports my personal theory on Shard pairs. Hope this helps!

Just around the top of the head I think, the Vanishers conceal their aluminum protection under beanies and rich noblemen wear their's in the lining of their hats. Random-semi related idea. If you were wearing a suit made from Alluminum, a perhaps a better inert alloy, would your Allomantic pulses still be able to be picked up by a Seeker? Of course you could just go get a coppercloud, but if you're on a one man mission, keeping your Allomancy undetectable would be crucial.

I don't think that Dalinar has, as of yet, exhibited any Radiant-like superhuman abiities. However I do think he is slowly forming a bond with a spren. There is one scene when Dalinar is fighting a battle, and he hears a voice saying, "Once these weapons meant protecting", and "life before death". This isn't Dainar thinking to himself, he actually remarks in his head, "What was that voice?" so he's not imagining. This is almost definitely a spren in my opinion, and there is one thing to notice. This voice comes in during one of Dalinar's bouts of revulsion for the destruction he is causing, lending more credence to the idea that he is in Order 8, since destruction, the opposite of building, nauseates him. Just like when Shallan feels sick for lying. Some have pointed out that this is potentially a side-affect for contradicting the ideals of the spren you are bonding with. I don't think that this would end up working out. As you have so rightly pointed out you regrow Shardplate with Stormlight from gemstones. Whoever attempts to regrow Plate and has the most plate fragments will end up with a full suit, while the fragments in other people's possession will crumble into dust. So I think that if you ever ended up getting enough small plate fragments together to try to conjoin them, other people would have regrown their plate and some of your pieces would break down. Also, if you somehow ended up with a whole bunch of fragments, I'm not sure if parts of different Plates would be compatible to growing together. Perhaps if they once belonged to Radiants of the same Order? It would definitely require some specialized fabrials I think. My gut says no it won't work, but I've been wrong before. It's certainly an interesting idea!

They are not one Shard, as confirmed by Brandon, during the Alloy of Law signing.

The people who trade the chicken for the metal are the Shin, Szeth's people, who are not at war with anyone, for gemhearts or any other reason. As I understand it, the reason the Shin don't want metal tainted by stone is because of the their religion, Stone Shamanism. Somehow it seems they find stone holy and refuse to cut it or wak upon it. They live in Shinovar, on the west coast of Roshar. The people who are at war for the gemhearts are the Parshendi, the people who used Szeth's Oathstone to compel him to assassinate Gavilar. The Parshendi live on the Shattered Plains in the unclaimed hills, in the land once known as Natanatan. I hope this helps clear up any confusion.

Thank you Reader! I'm not sure I understand what your saying here. Do you think that humans choose a specific focus? Because I'm pretty sure Brandon has said that, at least in Allomancy, the power is hardwired into your sDNA, which I'm pretty sure means that they can't choose to use something else as the physical/focus component of the magic. Did I misinterpret what you were saying? Anyway one quote relevant to your question is here.

Well there were at least one, possibly two points where Preservation had no holder. We have no knowledge of how long it took Kelsier to take up Preservation after Leras died, so there could have been a gap there. There was also the brief time between Vin's death and Sazed's Ascension. Granted they were both fairly brief, but there was no mention of Allomancy changing at all. Also AonDor, and DakhorDor, presumably work in the same ways they once did, even though both Shards are not only dead but Splintered. This isn't fact though, just presumed from the fact that the carvings of Aons in Elantris worked until the Reod. I really don't think a Shard not having a holder changes how a magic system works. Also, about your Sliver Theory. I'm not entirely sure I buy it for a couple reasons. One is that I'm not sure that being a Sliver increases your connection to a Shard. It seems like it should, but in Allomancy your power level is directly related to your connection to a Shard. Vin becomes a Sliver, but it does not increase her Allomantic strength as it should if her connection to Preservation has increased. She is still much weaker then Elend. Do you have a quote where Brandon contradicts this? Another potential problem is that I don't think that Allomancy works in the same way AonDor does. AonDor isn't tied to the land any more then Allomancy is, they just have inherently weak powers, probably as check on their limitless abilities. The reason AonDor is more powerful is Elantris, which presumably boosts the Spiritual aspects of the Elantrians, allowing them to channel more Dor through the Aons. The booster acts like a radio tower the Elantrians can pick up on, the closer they are the easier it gets. Since Allomancy has no power booster similar to Elantris, I don't think moving away from Scadrial would decrease their power at all. They probably would still just draw it through that little piece of Preservation that fuels their life, regardless of location. Does this make any sense?

I just thought you guys should know that it's actually the Nightwatcher, in TWoK, not the Nightmother. There is also Re-Shephir, the Midnight mother, who is presumably one of the Unmade. Upvote for Skyrim reference though.

Another thing to remember is that Preservation had no holder, several times in fact. Nothing funny happened with Allomancy, so I don't think anything would change with Surgebinding either.

Ok, I have an editing question myself. When adding references, how do you name them, so when people scroll to the bottom of the page, it doesn't just show up as a link?

Well we basically agree here. I think we both think that the physical aspect of the power is tied to the Shardworld, which makes sense. However the physical part isn't always the focus. I'm curious, what do you think decides what powers are granted, and whether the focus is physical, cognitive, or possibly spiritual, if its not the Shardworld? We know its not the Shard that does it, they just provide the fuel, and the mechanism for how the power is accessed, because of their intent. Do you have any other ideas?

I understand how you don't think that the Blades are of Odium, I don't believe that myself. However I don't think that it's worth writing off that the Blades could have been tainted somehow, that's one of the things hatred does after all, it corrupts. I think that the way Syl refers to it as "that thing" means that it's not because Dalinar was using someone else's Blade or anything, but that he was using something evil and dangerous. That word thing has a very negative connotation. I do think that Blades were unique to their Radiants though, they seem somehow personal to me.