QuantumAce

I agree it is doubtful they will be reproducing in forms outside of slave and mate form, but it is a stretch to assume it is also impossible. Asexual but potentially fertile achieves virtually the same effect, but leaves the door open if Brandon wants to get creative later.

There may be influence that persists as more of a tendency after the direct shardic intent fades. Rashek and Kelsier were both influenced by Ruin on top of holding the power of Preservation. That could cause any level of hand wavy/yet to be defined weirdness.

The questions was "have we seen anything that indicates squires do not currently have the same capacity requirements as a full knight radiant? " All of the evidence I have seen indicates squires currently do meet the same requirements. So the question is, do they have to? What can you show me to support the idea this is more of a tradition than a rule? What are you basing your aviar level sentience theory on?

My interpretation was was that as an apprentice type of training/support role to the radiants, squires would need to potentially meet all of the requirements. It wont necessarily progress to bonding their own radiant spren, but they would need the capacity to. I understand you are referring to a potential evolution of the squire role, but have we seen anything that indicates squires do not currently have the same capacity requirements as a full knight radiant?

While I like the idea of a surgebinding Ryshadium, it is unlikely. They already have a bond with lesser spren that increase their intelligence, but are specifically called out as lacking the sapience level to bond a radiant spren. That seems to preclude a squire type of bond.

This seems like an important point. Any sort of potency loss during the alloying process could diminish the value pretty quickly.

Stormlight has a lot of details that are not crucial to the current scene, but become more relevant as the story progresses. On my 3rd read through I was still catching some pretty significant details. Sometimes I actually remember reading the line before, but didnt actually connect to the overall story the first few times.

I believe intent is important when discussing the possibility of forgiveness and rehabilitation. Moash has thought this through. He chose to suppress his emotions to allow him to commit acts of pure malice. When he was confronted with the reality of his actions, his first instinct was to run back to Odium. He knows what he is doing is wrong, and does not want to change. This would make it more difficult to trust him even if he does ask for forgiveness later. Dalinar on the other hand, was horrified when confronted with the reality of his crimes. He could have gone back to the Thrill to cover his pain and guilt, but chose not to. He knows what he did was wrong, and wants to change. That is the difference for me.

I hadnt seen the last one that specified Ryshadium are below the sapience level required for a radiant bond, thanks for digging that up. A Ryshadium who chose Lift as a rider and learned to use her "slickness" more gracefully than she can would still be pretty fun.

Has Brandon ever addressed Ryshadium and radiant spren? Bond with a cultivationspren could make a really fun battlefield medic.

I don't like this. If Kaladin does take up Honor, his final sacrifice would be accepting responsibility for all of Roshar. This would be in direct contrast to... Dalinar, who has finally found the balance of using power without tyranny. I was originally hoping to see Dalinar re-forge Honor and take up the Shard, but now I am leaning towards the personal growth side of learning to let go of control.

Only one breath per person makes it a scarce resource, but each one is still only the amount of innate investiture you can scrape off of a person while still leaving them functional. I wouldnt imagine this is a huge amount of raw investiture. My first thought was this emphasizes how efficient Awakening is versus something like Radiant Surgebinding, as well as the potential Cosmere wide value of stormlight as a resource. The implications are, significant.

I believe it is something spiritual, but the simple rumors are a critical component. I could see something general like the idea of a manifestation of Death escorting a soul to the afterlife being influenced by Scadrian perception, because the question "what happens when we die?" is universal. There is already a demand, a vacuum actively pulling in existing ideas. Details like iron and eyes seem too specific to propagate without some sort of catalyst. Natural rumormongering that spreads specific details to even a handful of native inhabitants could provide that connection. Of course my perception is influenced by depictions of the grim reaper with a shrouded face or empty eye sockets, so take that for what its worth.

My take is Kelsier is a good person at heart, and his initial motivation is usually to help people. However, he has an extreme, unchecked capacity for ruthlessness. That ruthlessness can twist or overwhelm his initial motivations. He takes "ends justify the means" to an extreme, and I believe his ego gets caught up in that. If you are going to do something destructive, why not do it with style? I can very easily see him taking a full heel turn as time passes and his humanity starts to wear.

It appears a device that produces allomantic powers does exist, but "commonplace" may be a stretch. Maybe the scientific outpost is important enough to merit rare and extremely expensive equipment, or there is some elaborate backstory that explains why Random Mid-level Lab Assistant #7 has the one and only prototype "Pusher Glove".

This is still based on numerous assumptions. We know very little about the equipment and technology they arrived with. We only see what it has evolved into over generations of constantly fleeing sunrise, while limited by available resources. As technology evolves based on fuel constraints, capability could have been reduced from being able to easily fly over mountains to what we see. With a range of magic systems and magic based technologies in play, the range of plausible scenarios is quite extensive.