CtrlAltDepressed

How would you recommend dealing with the Moash in our lives?

Im my opinion any invested art is going to easily be able to take down someone bearing dead shards, with the exception of what we see in TSM (though to be fair that isnt fully explored). Now as for Radiants with plate and blade, I think the only thing that could truly match up would be a fullborn. If we are assuming that amount of investiture is not an issue (infinite stormlight / metals) I think Kaladin could easily handle any of the other characters we have seen other than a fullborn. To be honest, a fullborn is the most OP in the cosmere that we have seen (disregarding special cases like dawnshards). Infinite healing, speed, strength, mental capacity, mass, and boosted allomancy - a fullborn could probably one shot a Radiant. I hope that we get the Radiant equivalent of fullborn but as it stands currently a fullborn would wipe the floor with any other invested art / character we have seen.

Heyo all. Hopefully a quick one today. Does the thickness of aluminum impact its blocking ability? For instance, would aluminum foil thickness lined hat stop the emotional allomancy of Rashek? Would aluminum foil thickness lined jacket stop any surgebinding of any strength? Would aluminum foil wrapped around a piece of cloth stop Susebron from awakening it? I believe that with Rashek effecting blocks of the city at a time, that his power would be too great for something as thin as aluminum foil to stop. Do we have an answer on this?

The only issue I see with this is that we have been told Vasher can only absorb stormlight to not die (his 1 breath a week equivalent) and hasnt yet figured out how to do awakening with it. The purified dor would make this possible, but that would require vasher to explain who he is (to convince someone to steal it for him, though he could honestly do it himself), which i dont see him doing outright. Love the idea of Taln gaining his sanity and showing us why Heralds are so revered. My issue here is that we have seen Taln get a moment of lucidity, and he was so thankful that humanity got 4500 years of progress before he was sent back. He wasn't angry at all. That is subject to change given more lucidity but he seemed genuinely grateful for what he was able to give humanity. I think if we are going to see the Heralds gain their sanity, even briefly, it will involve Bo-Ado-Mishram and / or the reforging of Honor. Correct, he is not. Really his function from the storytelling perspective is that Brandon wanted Nightblood on Roshar and Vasher feels personally responsible for the sword. In world he is on Roshar because stormlight is much easier to get than breaths. I am sure he has other motivations (why is Vivenna hunting him and Nigthblood for instance?) but that is his primary reason for being there. Kind of the same point but Nightblood is also the doom that you speak of. We have seen massive destructive potential from Nightblood including what he did to Rayse and it has been implied that someone with more knowledge / Connection to the sword could do far more than we have seen. I really really want us to see Vasher truly wield Nightblood (even if it kills him) but if that were to happen, it definitely wont be until the back half of stormlight. It kinda sucks but Vasher has his story (potentially future stories) in the warbreaker series and this is not his story. He is involved clearly but I dont think its likely he will play a major role other than words of wisdom and bringing Nightblood.

Firstly, thanks for the info, I hadn't seen that before. Are we to assume since he was unsuccessful in stealing the Connection to the Stormfather that he was also unsuccessful in stealing the 'will fight against Odium' Connection?

I agree I think Ishar could force a Radiant Connection. I think it would be bad news bears for both the human and spren but he should be able to do this. I dont think it is relevant to the physical spren situation, but should be possible given that you can force it hemalurgically.

I would agree. This does beg the question, where is Ishar getting the investiture to do what hes doing now? We havent seen if heralds still have access to infinite stormlight through their Honorblades - do we think this is the case? We know that Ishar hasnt bonded his order (unless its the nightwatcher which would be CRAZY but i think impossible because he would no longer be unbound) so he cant be absorbing it like a radiant. Maybe hes using another form of investiture? If so, which one? Perhaps he is so crazy he is getting voidlight from Odium.

Interesting, definitely seems likely. Do you think he could kill an unmade / stormfather / nightwatcher / sibling this way?

Interesting theory, could definitely be the case. I dont think it is because the passage states that the spren spontaneously manifest a physical body. I feel like if it was taking over radiant bodies, it wouldnt be described that way. That description could itself not be accurate though lol.

Heyo All. Looking for thoughts and potentially clarification. When we visit Ishars camp, it is discovered that through unknown means he is somehow forcing (convincing?) spren to manifest physical flesh bodies instead of as godmetal. We are told / learn (cant remember the passage exactly) that the spren dies within a couple of minutes. The stormfather is understandable upset about this and doesnt really give a lot of information. And then all the other Ishar stuff happens so it isn't really touched on again. I have so many questions. -How is he pulling them in? Is he creating a perpendicularity like Dalinar (unlikely) to force them through? Something with hemalurgy? -Is this one of the mechanisms that was broken due to unmade / trapping of Mishram or was this never possible? if it is a broken mechanism, is the broken aspect that this can be done at all or that it kills them right now? Is there a way to bring spren into physical realm with bodies without killing them? maybe not as flesh bodies, but something similar to Stormfather who is only in PR? -'the spren dies' what kind of death is this? TSM Spoilers: I realize there may not be any answers for these questions, but i hadn't seen this discussed and it feels like it could potentially be really huge. What are your alls thoughts? Is this important or just showing how crazy Ishar is that he would try this?

Why does every splinter need to be comparable? What i mean is there is nothing saying that Endowment couldnt have chosen for the Divine Breath to be 10x what it is or only half as large. Why does the innate investiture of the Iriali (who we have very few details about) matter to them being splinters? I would say all scadrians are at some level splinters of pres / ruin (harmony?) but they are still regular people as far as innate investiture is concerned.

I love this theory and have always thought that the Iriali were alluding to once being a shard that shattered itself into a people. My only issue with your theory is that this seems to line up more closely to the Intent of Wisdom / Prudence (unconfirmed) - in addition, if Virtuosity had splintered themselves into a people, I feel like we wouldn't be seeing the other splinters of Virtuosity around Komashi. The situation around Komashi seems to lend itself towards a violent / unfortunate splintering rather than an thought out / planned action. If Virtuosity was going to rebuild when the Journey is complete, I dont feel like they would leave the splinters around Komashi. I could still absolutely see this being the case though.

Im headed down the rabbit hole now, thank you!

Thanks for sharing I hadnt seen that WOB before. I agree that Taln is Taln, and I honestly did not pick up on the potential of it being a false herald until after I had finished ROW, and by that time its pretty clear. I was worried I was missing something lol. On this note......do we really think that after all those thousands of years, Taln finally broke now? That doesnt seem to make sense to me. Because it wasnt just the 4500 years, Taln never broke EVER. So i highly doubt he broke now. When we see him in the end of Oathbringer, he has to be told that he is back, he cant even tell hes not on braize anymore due to his madness. That doesnt seem like someone who could even know that 'breaking' is a possibility. Where im going with all this, what weight do you all place on the Shallans mother was a herald theory? We know that her mother was saying pretty much the same thing as Nale (kill all Radiants to stop the desolation) It makes sense that the cryptics would bond her at such a young age as they would be very interested in 'spying' on a herald It makes sense that the skybreakers would give shard blade/plate to Heleran in this scenario It makes sense that Hoid would have been following Shallan from a young age if her mom is a herald The timeline is sort of messy here, but taken all together, if shallans mom actually was a herald, that would put her on braize for 7 years. That seems like a realistic timeline for a not taln herald to break, given that we are told they were happening back to back towards the end. This also lines up with Shallan's personal arc - her 5th truth would be that she caused the desolation I admit it would be weird for this to not come up until the 5th book, but I think its very plausible. What do you all think?

What are your thoughts on the Taln is not the original taln theory? Cant find them at the moment but there have been multiple WOB's that say something to the effect of 'the guy who THINKS he is taln'

Sunlit Man, MB (all), Stormlight (all)

Part of the 'problem' is that Brandon loves this. In the most recent spoiler stream, he spoke directly to 17th sharders and said that 'one of the theories ive seen posted about SA5 is correct' WHICH ONE BRANDON???

It must be Raysium at some level to leech stormlight. A logical assumption would be that Raysium would NOT block a shardblade? Otherwise why add the aluminum at all?

I specifically remember Leshwi's weapon that drained the stormlight from Kaladin - was that Aluminum? I thought the parallel there is that Raysium sucks in investiture, therefore stealing the stormlight from the Radiants. As opposed to an aluminum blade that you would expect to block a shardblade, but would be inert when stabbed into something. We dont ever see aluminum suck up investiture, just block it.

Agreed. The issue here is not the Raysium. That stuff has been around. The fused have had weapons for thousands of years that can block a shardblade. What else could that be besides Raysium? I think the most likely scenario here is that the details of the Oathpact were interfering. We see that as soon as the Oathpact is widely known the be broken, almost immediately Jezrien is killed. It seems to me that Odium DID know about this, but that it wouldnt have helped them before now. The Heralds spirits were already in a weird cycle. We havent seen anywhere else that this respawn cycle happens, so its not a leap of logic to assume that Honor heavily modified what happens to those individuals spirits when they die. What im getting at, is since Honor prevented their spirits from going to the Beyond, that same mechanism would have prevented them from being trapped. Odium would have known this, given that he basically copied Honor with the fused in terms of their infinite respawn cycle. IE: stab a herald with raysium and gemstone, they are killed, but instead of trapping their soul they end up on Braize like they are supposed to. I believe that if Jezrien had been stabbed in this manner previously, he would have leaked back to braize instead of leaking into the beyond as we see happen. Odiums forces have been using Raysium pretty effectively. We see Leshwi when battling Kaladin, her sword drains his stormlight when fighting. So, yes, Odium was aware of the effects of his god metal, and he produced enough of it for at least the most distinguished Fused to use (seems pretty common though, for fused). It seems he was waiting for the Oathpact to be broken before imploying this method of trapping them specifically. In this day and age, if they wont help him (Nale), then I think we will see other Heralds killed in the same way (or attempts).

Agreed on all points. We know that the heralds were killed many many times by the fused. In fact, the only time that only one was killed they all quit lol. Why wouldn't Odium have them use Raysium blades from the beginning or at least a couple hundred years in? It makes no sense that Odium would allow this charade to continue since the Heralds have pretty much single handedly prevented him from getting what he wants. As an extension of that, why havent Honor / Cultivation used this or anti-voidlight against Odium / Fused?

Wow, really good point. I hadn't considered that. If the aluminum sheath does not work beyond the physical realm, that might be what Brandon was hinting to when he mentioned that it would be even more dangerous to transport nightblood through shadesmar than through physical realm. Edit: This is very confusing upon further reflection. If the sheath only exists in physical, then is there a floating nightblood in the CR that is constantly destroying things as szeth moves through the world? Clearly this isnt happening, but the sheath definitely wasnt in the vision. Very curious indeed. Perhaps the sheath in physical stops only the consumption in cognitive but doesnt prevent the cognitive form of nightblood from leaking.

Exactly. Following the details of our conversation, you would expect to see a huge amount of leakage in the house, proportional to the amount a single alethi creates when hit by Nightblood. That is an inconsistency that probably only Brando can answer. Will have to hope i'm lucky next spoiler stream