Leuthie

The final section of the Ars Arcanum is about Stoneshaping. The author goes into the Willingness, Connection and Command involved of getting stone to reshape itself as the surgebinder wishes. In the Connection section, he talks about stone being able to "reach back through generations of Connection to display events, feelings, emotions and ideas from long ago." Making this quick: The Storm distributes Stormlight and crem. Crem taints water; however, it is speculated that this tainted water provides the material for Roshar creatures to grow gemhearts. Crem also builts up on everything and is the primary component of the surface of Roshar. Eventually, the crem gets built upon and compressed by the layers above it, turning into stone. The stone has memory. I believe crem, therefore stone, is Connected to Cultivation, making it much easier to shape per the surgebinder's Intent and their own Connection to Cultivation through the Bond. Discuss.

Sanderson has talked on this before. Allomancers don't hold any Investiture when they aren't actively burning a metal. Selish magic doesn't require ANY holding if Investiture. Roshar magic is very efficient in its use of Investiture since it works through spren which are much closer to the source, so surgebinders don't really hold a large amount of Investiture either. Breaths aren't extremely large individually, but when you hold thousands, you're holding a lot more Investiture than even a 5th Ideal surgebinder would be able to.

Why wouldn't this be at least two copies of the sphere Galivar handed to Szeth to keep safe? Rab's "devoid of rhythms" could be a consequence of being close to anti-voidlight. Two of them would provide a soft clink. A soft clink implies two metal, glass, or ceramic things hitting together once. A chain might have several soft clinks, but not one.

I don't think it's about pushing too much power through anything. If there is a Connection made between a large "power" (Odium, in this case) and a smaller "power" (Moash), the smaller power becomes dependent upon the larger. When the larger is ripped away, the smaller loses whatever that power was Connected to. In the case of the Singers when BAM was ripped away, they lost their ability to Connect to Roshar, making them parshmen. In this case, Moash lost his ability to see. Odium was probably using Moash's eyes when the tower was turned back on, ripping Odium's Connection away and leaving a damaged area in the Spirit web where the ability to see was once attached. At least, that's how I see it.

Spren are in fabrials to take advantage of their Connection to a primal force. If she's a Bondsmith, she has direct power over Connections. My first guess: put a spren in a fabrial temporarily. Copy the spren's Connection to an Investiture framework made of Lifelight and Stormlight. The spren goes free and the fabrial works as though the spren was still in there. Get to work Bondsmith scientist!

I'm against Kelsier being the leader simply because this is supposedly a universe spanning story and a select few characters keep leading things. I get that everyone is interested in Roshar, and asking the Heralds how to deal with being a cognitive shadow is a worthy goal, but wouldn't Nalthis (a place where the resident Shard consistently creates cognitive shadows) be a better place to send huge resources to if you're trying to solve cognitive shadow problems? Isn't Kelsier already planning a coup of Scadrial? I'm still a bit peeved that Brandon brought the hero of his first big epic who died in the first book back from the dead. Now that one guy has multiple huge organizations doing world changing work on (at least) two different worlds? It's just too much.

It's pretty clear the capturing of BAM, which stripped the Singers of their Connection among other issues that are only hinted at, was a big instigator of the Recreance, as well. If the Radiants and spren at the time KNEW they severely compromised the Connection or even Identity of the entire world with one act, that would prompt a huge push to put the power down. There are hinted at consequences of capturing BAM that are probably severe enough to make the destruction of Roshar perilously close. At this point I think it's pretty clear that there was a list of issues happening that made the Radiants and their spren at the time convinced that a much bigger tragedy caused by Surges was building.

The full monty: Hoid attached actual memories to Design (because why wouldn't he be able to do this?) Hoid replaced those memories on himself with fakes. Hoid "forgot" he did these things (stored his knowledge of this switch on Design) TOdium finds the memories. Hoid forgets they are fake and has genuine terror. TOdium suspects nothing and steals the fake memories. Hoid let's us know he's missing so many Breaths that he's lost perfect pitch. (confusing the audience) Hoid notices that Design has way too much Investiture, finds the Breaths and "remembers" everything. (but we don't get to see that) TOdium is tricked, Hoid has full knowledge of the trick AND what TOdium thinks he knows, TOdium believes Hoid is neutralized, Hoid can play dumb for a while (even put his Memories somewhere else so TOdium doesn't see him fully Invested until it plays out)

The question wasn't about an antagonist to the Cosmere. Besides, she isn't releasing Odium. If she wanted to release Odium, she wouldn't have had the Vessel killed and replaced with a RESIDENT OF ROSHAR. Rayse would have left. Mr. T ain't going nowhere.

Odium was always presented as the big bad, but the problems our protagonists are facing are only peripherally related to Odium. The Desolations were always a fight between Singers and Humans. Odium used that fight and escalated it with Honor's full cooperation to the point that the fight itself did more to shape Roshar than any natural or Shardic process. I get the feeling that Cultivation started out helping her partner Honor in this fight. However, the fight would make it extremely difficult to pursue her Intent, especially when the Desolations were coming back so frequently that both Humans and Singers were only digressing with each one. She probably pushed the Heralds to lay down arms and helped Taln fight off the torture to give Roshar breathing room to grow again. She knew that wouldn't last forever, so she created Mr. T, Dalinar and Lift and orchestrated a response to Odium that was less about fighting back and more about changing the game. But she isn't an antagonist, either, and I don't expect her to be one. She doesn't really care about humans or Singers, and she'll "prune" anything or anyone to make sure Roshar can continue to grow and thrive. This might create antagonists for our heros to contest with, but it will be peripheral to the real fight: the long time enmity between the Singers and Humans on Roshar. Solve that and there's no more fight.

Honor + Cultivation + Odium Honor -> Fulfill obligations, keep agreements, Oaths Cultivation -> Prepare for growth, acquire and develop skills Odium -> Directed hate or disgust as a result of the targets actions (Why was this separated into a single Shard?) Holding all three shards wouldn't result in the same kind of blocks that the other multiple Shard Vessel we know experiences. Honor and Cultivation are nearly fully compatible, at the most tempering the worst of each other. Unchecked growth might be slightly checked by a need to keep promises. Making such promises would be checked by the need to develop growth. The one that would be checked the most, and really shouldn't be its own Shard anyway, is Odium. Hate is useful and, if focused, can be a great motivator to pursue change. In the case of a Vessel holding all three shards, the need to Hate would be tempered by the need to fulfill Oaths and the need to foster Growth. Long term, the Shard would need to focus the Hate on actions that go against its other two Intents, resulting in a very Protective Shard. In fact, Protection would be a pretty damn close stab at a shard name for the Three. Or Nationalization (bureaucracy + growth + outward hatred)... I think Branderson ending his magnum opus in a similar way to his first trilogy would be a bit too much repetition, but it could work as a mid epic happening. These three Shards seem particularly compatible to me.

Is there any real evidence that BAM is an Unmade? Thought: After a thousand years of Odium being imprisoned, the Singers got back a Connection that Odium was keeping from them. They used this Connection to fight against humans, so humans assumed that Odium found a new way to power his forces. In fact, it was just Roshar rehealing itself. Humans assumed the spren powering this Connection (BAM) was Odium's, an Unmade, so they trapped it to stop the threat, tearing away a piece of Roshar. What if BAM was never Odium's at all?

Spren are Cognitive reflections of the sentient perceptions of natural phenomena, emotions and other regularly occurring...forces. As such, they're very in tune with the thing they represent. Bonding them makes you in tune with those same forces. This isn't true of Seons, Aviar and the like. Bonding them would get you access to the things they are in tune with. Seons are in tune with their Aon and Devotion. Aviar are...in tune with Invested things they eat? So bonding spren gets you Surges. Bonding Seons get you...whatever their Aon gives you. Bonding Aviar lets you share their abilities in some way.

I don't think this is fully confirmed, but I get the impression that cognitive shadows can't move very far from the source of Investiture that birthed them. Since Returned carry that Investiture around with them (Divine Breath), they can freely worldhop. Kelsier needs to be near sources of Preservation tuned Investiture. The Ire need to be near Dor. Etc.

The light is human senses trying to deal with being bombarded with huge amounts of Investiture. That's it.

100% Brandon is throwing big stinky red herrings out to get your rabid Kelsier fans to salivate. Hoid has been around 10,000+ years. Almost certain he's slapped around more than just Kelsier.

Lirin is an extremely good man. The problem is, we always see him from the point of view of his son. A son breaking away from a strong father is one of the most difficult things to watch, much less be a part of. If the break isn't managed properly and both participants are strong, hard headed and bad communicators, the breakaway might never be completed and the two end up carrying the fight for the rest of their lives. When you see this battle from a single point of view, the other side can look almost evil. I've been on both sides. None of us were evil or even bad people. Lirin is trying his best for the only son he has left; a son that he doesn't really know very well anymore and is horrible at dealing with people he loves. Cut the man some slack.

The capitalization of "Remade" has nothing to do with Unmade. It suggests a more complicated concept and thought than the lowercase word would represent, probably as a concept put into Rysn's mind via the Command she holds. It is the Word that allowed her to grasp, "in the smallest way, the nature of the Command inside her".

All Returned are Cognitive Shadows. WOB stated that there's no way to bring someone back from death that doesn't involve Cognitive Shadows. Everything in our universe is Matter and/or Energy. Everything in the Cosmere is Matter, Energy and/or Investiture. Investiture is generally locked in the Spiritual Realm. When it gets into the Cognitive or Physical Realms, it becomes usable to the entities there to power the various magics. Spirit Webs are ordered matrices of Investiture used to define things in the other Realms (a simple and probably inaccurate explanation, but close enough). If something exists, it has a Spirit Web. If a Dawnshard exists, it has a Spirit Web. So, a Dawnshard is a command so intricate and complicated that it developed its own existence. Since it doesn't exist in the Physical Realm as anything but extraneous light on a mural, it is pure Investiture. It is a Spirit Web that represents one of the 4 primal Commands used to create the Cosmere. It isn't usable like Stormlight to surgebinders (or other magics) because it is locked in a Spirit Web in the Spiritual Realm. Investiture is NOT relatively common in the Cosmere. Roshar is one of the few places in the Cosmere where free Investiture can be found and carried around. That's why there are so many worldhoppers. Sel has a huge amount of Investiture floating around its Cognitive Realm, but it can only be harnessed and used through intricate and location dependent shapes created in the Physical Realm on Sel. Otherwise, nearly all Investiture is locked in the Spiritual Realm. Dawnshards are not Shards. They are the primal Commands that the entity the Shards used to make up used to Create the Cosmere. They weren't split and they won't be split. They were used to create a weapon that broke Adonalsium into 16 pieces. Hoid held one of the Dawnshards at one point before the Shattering. It changed him in various ways. He doesn't hold one anymore. We don't know if he was one of those who used the Dawnshards to perform the Shattering (at least, I think we don't know) Wish I could pull up WOB on each of these, but I'm too lazy.

But the Investiture she holds is a solid Spirit Web locked in the Spirit Realm. It can't be used to fuel magic. I think if she gets enough free Investiture (like if she holds Stormlight), she'll become a beacon to those looking for the Dawnshard.

Why would Odium need a Dawnshard to create Unmade?

Nikli says that: "The most powerful forms of Surgebinding (he means, basically, Cosmere magic)...require Intent and a Command. Demands on a level no person could ever manage alone. To make such Commands, one must have the reasoning...of a diety. And so, the Dawnshards." The "demands" he's talking about aren't Investiture requirements. They're knowledge and reasoning demands. Lord Ruler goes through this in Mistborn. He moved Scadrial to a position in the system that required the sky to be obscured by volcanic ash because he just couldn't get the correct orbiting distance right. A couple seconds as a Shard and the whole place was a complete mess because the man didn't have the knowledge and reasoning to make the amount of power he had at his disposal to reflect his Intent. That's what a Dawnshard is. You have Investiture (power) and Intent (a goal) and you can filter that through a Dawnshard (a Command or set of Commands) to get the exact outcome you want. It's a machine that interprets your wants and applies the correct knowledge and reasoning to get it done correctly. It's not amplifying power, it's allowing a lower reasoning person to get the results that a higher reasoning deity would get with the same power and goals. Of course, with the right goals and access to power, that might be even more dangerous than simple amplification. If your goal is to destroy a planet and you have access to enough Investiture, you don't need a Dawnshard. If your goal is to scour a continent clean of all life without affecting the rest of the planet in any way, you probably need a Dawnshard. The Sleepless don't want Rysn to bond a spren for 2 reasons: 1. it gives free access to raw Investiture, which would make her an amazing surgebinder from the get go no matter the Oath level or her experience level due to the knowledge provided by the Dawnshard, and (speculation) 2. Investiture attached to a Dawnshard might be much easier to see than the Dawnshard alone, making Rysn and her Dawnshard a target. But yeah, we're probably both wrong.

The interaction between Adonalsium and the Dawnshards is impossible to know, I'm just putting something together for fun. Glad you're thinking differently. I wasn't aware that we knew that Adonalsium was aware of the impending Shattering. It would make sense that It would also be aware of the instruments used to Shatter. As for the Dawnshards not being sentient. The only one we've seen literally talked to Rysn, trying to convince her accept it into her. It then reacted to her acceptance and attached itself to her. That isn't exactly proof of life, but it does show sentience pretty directly.

I posted this elsewhere, but what if Adonalsium was complete and used only what was within itself to create the Cosmere? The Commands It used were so complex, they spontaneously existed (became ordered Investiture in the Spirit Realm) in the act of their use. These 4 Commands existed without Adonalsium's knowledge. As large chunks of Investiture, they eventually gained self awareness and led people to them (Dawnshard Change spoke to Rysn when she got near the mural). They sought acceptance to be attached from the people they attracted (as Change sought acceptance from Rysn). Upon acceptance, they attached themselves to their Spirit Webs. Shattered Adonalsium, thrown free, attached to murals, etc.