Leuthie

Who says the Well wasn't sapient?

Do we have confirmation that it was Odium that killed Ambition? Because this quote suggests otherwise.

I suspect that the only entity that can retrieve a Physical item placed in the Spiritual Realm is the entity that placed it there. It would be like looking for a specific file on a hard drive without a File System. If you think that's a possible thing, extend the metaphor a bit. A hard drive is a 1D plane with binary encoding. The Spiritual Realm is a multi-dimensional non-specific field with far from binary encoding. No one goes there and looks for things. You either have Connection to it, or you don't. Shallan sits in an interesting spot regarding her lineage and abilities to forge the Connections needed to pull BAM back. So that should be an interesting side quest.

I don't think we'll get much information about the Unmade until the back 5.

It's clear at this point that the Unmade are mostly off-world Investiture. If they were corrupted bondspren, we'd have more information about them in the front 5. Their explanations are being held back for the back 5 because of their wider cosmere implications. Front 5 is (mostly) Roshar only. Back 5 will most likely be more cross world, allowing room for non-Roshar origins to make more sense. At least, that's how I see it.

Plot armor is the key. Rand is a ta'veren, which means, quite literally, "person with plot armor" (I know it's described as "people around whom the Wheel of Time specifically weaves the Pattern with all surrounding life-threads", but the Wheel of Time is the author and the surrounding weaves are plot armor. Ta'veren is "person with plot armor") Does that make his plot armor stronger than Superman Prime One million's plot armor? Considering Superman Prime One Million's goal is to resurrect his girlfriend, I'm not sure his plot armor is all that strong. Power levels mean nothing in the face of plot armor. That's all the time I have, but the discussion moving forward should center around plot armor, not power levels.

Shardblades are made of Honor/Cultivation God Metal, not the Spren God Metal. The Investiture the Spren is made up of is brought to the Physical as a metal. I assume Kelsier is Harmony (Ruin + Preservation). If he manifested as a God Metal, it would be Harmonium. The big questions regarding Kelsier being his eye spike: Who is he bonded to that's allowing him to manifest in the Physical as an eye spike and why would this convoluted series of Connections be necessary when we've seen a Spren walking around as a Physical person while their Radiant was acting as a paralyzed coat rack?

Knowledge of the Spirit Web and how it interacts with the other Realms (or, better, how the other Realms interact with it) could lead to Hemalurgy. How you get that knowledge is the bigger question?

It was a red herring for Adonalsium. He's talking about Honor. Dalinar is was in the process of taking up the remains of Honor. The parallels make for a good red herring, but I don't see it as evidence that Hoid is looking to reform Adonalsium. I believe when the 16 (17?) were originally planning to kill Adonalsium, there were two choices: take up the Shards and act as keepers, or push the powers into something like what was done on Sel in the Cognitive Realm (this is where Rayse learned how to "permanently" destroy a Shard). I'm guessing Hoid was for the latter, seeing what would happen when even good people take up as much power as a Shard (Absolute power corrupting absolutely and all that). I further contend that Rayse and Hoid were friends and both on the same side in that debate. When they lost the argument and the others decided to pick up Shards, Hoid stuck to his guns and refused while Rayse put his plan of Hate into affect. All that pure speculation said, I'm not sure anyone is given the choice. He'll help me if it moves him toward his goal. He'll destroy me (my family, my country, my planet) if he's hindered. And I really don't know enough about his goals to know whether I'm helping or hindering, or even how I could do either should I be given a choice.

I don't think Brandon had anything in mind for the word when he first wrote it. I don't think Brandon is the type to take our speculation and shoehorn a created meaning into it after the fact. Robert Jordan literally changed a plot point from one book to the next because speculation turned out to be right and I believe Brandon has learned from that. So this is just a nonsense word that Brandon made up for Hoid to use. Hoid continues to use it, and Navani overheard his original use or Dalinar has repeated it enough for Navani to take it up.

I'm hoping it's something that we can't possibly guess.

Started with Mistborn trilogy, which I read at the release of Hero of Ages. Read Warbreaker, then Elantris. I believe I started putting together the greater Cosmere when reading the Annotations for Mistborn and Warbreaker on Brandon's website.

You're absolutely right. I should have looked everything up before posting because I've forgotten a lot. They both created humans. Leras' betrayal was in not allowing Ruin to complete the deal. We still have the "good" Shard betraying the "bad" Shard, the destruction caused by someone picking up the power of Preservation and not being very good at using it. Very little of the problems on Scadrial were caused by Ruin. They were caused by Preservations trying to save humans on Scadrial from Ruin. I still contend that Ati did fine in his containment of Ruin and could still be considered a kind and generous man. I further contend that Ati and Leras were content with the end result, them getting their ultimate rest and both Shards being taken up by a man who was well suited to keep them in balance. And their human creations surviving and thriving.

Ati and Leras were friends. They worked together to create Scadrial and its life. I'm certain taking up opposing Shards and settling on their own planet was the plan. It would allow the friends to stay together, and give Ruin an outlet as 1 half of the creation of life, which would aid in managing a potentially problematic Shard. However, Leras used a piece of himself to create the people of Scadrial. Ati was against creating people. This lead to a falling out between the friends. To keep Ruin from ultimately destroying his people, Preservation imprisoned Ruin. The destruction you see on Scadrial is the result of the Lord Ruler and his mistakes when he opened that prison and took up Preservation's power. I've always wondered about that epigraph. I guess being focused on removing the people your friend created would look like something a kind and generous man would never do. Then again, Leras' creation was a betrayal of trust, and even kind and generous men can get cranky when their friend betrays them.

This is how you should look at Hoid. It's also how you should look at anything you read on the internet: He's telling the truth, but he's telling it his way for his purposes. Hoid is 'lowercase t' truth.