CtrlAltDepressed

Hello all. Following the release of chapters 14 / 15 yesterday, I was thinking about it more and one piece stands out to me, which of course is Hoid going bonkers with all his magics while figuring out that Odium has tricked him. Passage in question: "Then the sand burst alight with a mother-of-pearl iridescence and hovered above the table. Wit’s silky nightclothes began to writhe and contort as if alive. His motions became increasingly frantic, fearspren bubbling up through the ground around them. " Particularly the part about his clothes contorting as if alive. Clearly this is awakening, however, from ROW we know that Hoid has around 200 breaths since he loses his perfect pitch. Enough to store some memories in, but not a crazy amount as some of us suspected. He is awakening his clothes with mental commands here, which should require the 10th heightening. Tens of thousands more breaths than he has. I seem to remember a WOB that if an awakener was really really knowledgeable, they would be able to perform mental commands with less than 50,000 breaths - but I cant find it. The coppermind article does not mention this so I think I made it up. When we see Hoid awaken in OB (might have been ROW), he speaks a command to the doll he gives the girl. Seems weird he would do that if he could awaken without commands. We also see Vasher whisper to the sheets when he 'fights' Kaladin. Vasher is the most knowledgeable awakener we know about. If he doesnt know how to do this, I would doubt Hoid does. Was this some sort of Yolish proto-awakening shenanigans? What do we think is going on here?

While personally I agree that Gavilar is due to return as the Champion (despite there being little to no evidence of that happening), it is fun to speculate wildly. Sometimes the wild theories end up being correct

Probably accurate. I think that line of thinking was more about being able to give gems of towerlight to Radiants before they leave, rather than relying on Stormlight alone. That makes sense to me as Dalinar is probably too busy to be refilling spheres all the time, and is only one man. He cant be at every battle to refuel. If Navani found a way to make Towerlight last as long as Stormlight in gems, they would be able to refuel Radiants a lot easier. I would think the Dawnshard effects would prevent him from piercing himself.

Personally I think powering his Allomancy with Towerlight is the most likely, though I find it really funny to imagine some poor blacksmith getting a vial of steel shavings for the Kings Wit, and then watching him E A T them

I guess that means Stormfather, if he wasnt there for it, should be able to 'find' the contract too. I wonder if this is only because they are of Honor, and therefore are tangentially a part of the contract, or if all spren like entities could find this contract. Man, so hard to tell! This could totally be a 'Hoid knows how to astral project around the cosmere' or it could totally be Jasnah interpreting him filtering memories as visiting other worlds. That seemed to me to be about infinite light making them invincible, not that Towerlight itself makes the Radiants stronger. That could be wrong though. It seems like Bondsmiths dont get plate? There was a thread on that - seems unclear Agreed. I have seen the Adolin as Odiums champion theory, and until this passage, I saw no evidence that could happen. Maybe this is a red herring red herring, and Adolin is actually about to become our first true Voidbinder. This was disappointing for me too. You only have 3 (1 dead to nightblood, 'both' remaining)? Seriously? They are the Fused equivalent of siege machines, and you only have 3 after 8000+ years? Dalinar recognized it as the body she wore when he went to the valley, so Im guessing its a manifestation that she made. Its interesting that we dont see the Sibling comment on her arrival. Sibling has been basically dead for thousands of years, she finally awakes, and her mother goes to talk to Dalinar lol. Of course it could have been off screen but yea, just thought that was funny. Even if he has investiture blocking abilities, the Sibling should be able to find him physically or mechanically. Someone activated the elevator, but i cant detect them, sound the alarm! Theres someone walking on me that I cant detect, sound the alarm! This shouldnt be hard for Sibling to do regardless of what abilities Mraize has access to IMO.

I hadn't even considered that. If she does tell him, I expect Dalinar to be LIVID. If she doesnt tell him, I would expect that to be the reason why. This hasnt exactly gone how she hope (TOdium still wants to kill all the other shards) Dal: 'You're telling me you had the opportunity to shatter a vessel-less shard, and instead you provided a much more capable and terrifying opponent?' Cult: 'Yup, have fun!'

Of course

Well, seems like we are really getting into the meat of things. That hoid stuff was intense. It was really cool to see him use his allomancy. Jasnah said that he went through a physical change....not an illusory one. What does this mean? Is hoid substantiating like shallan? Is this similar to Returned changing their appearance? I would like to know what hoid was writing in his notebook. Obviously its a key for memories, but I need details! It seemed like he measured his own investiture with the sand and then calculated how much time he was missing based on that change. Really really cool. Im interested to see where Navani and Sibling head. The disagreement between them and Navani being trapped at the tower seem to be setting up bigger things. I need the Cultivation / Dalinar conversation now!

Taravangian's 'I can do better' and his whole monologue: “There is a spectrum of choice that can be allowed,” he said. “No society can persist with complete freedom, and growth can happen within limits. I can make it so that free will exists to an acceptable degree, while also preventing famines.” Tells me that he plans to rule the entire cosmere. Kill all the others and carefully keep all societies within limits to prevent suffering.

Wow. Im almost speechless. Felt is an awakener. Good for him. He didnt speak any commands, but I assume he just commanded them to get kalak when he entered and that he is not 10th heightening. I feel so bad for Kalak. Why didnt I see that the seon was the real spy? Mraize would never trust Shallan fully. And Odium. Oh my Odium. That was such an interesting and revealing conversation between him and Cultivation. He is still effected by her Boon / Curse - theres a theory laid to rest. He can feel all suffering, everywhere. That is intense, and puts a new perspective on all of Odiums actions. Its interesting that he is simultaneously mocking Rayse while also following the same path. It seems like Cultivations adjustments are working, in that he is better able to control, but it is leading to the same conclusion - that he must be the only god. Good that we got confirmation that Cultivation is going to work against him moving forward. I was worried about that. Any other thoughts?

A single breath can make a lifeless, so I don't know that it really takes all that much. Obviously will be harder with Stormlight, but I wouldn't expect it to take more than Shallan could carry in a few gems. Shallans complete dedication to a lie is what makes this easy for her (these are my assumptions). What I was getting at, is for someone like Vatha to be able to do this, would put them in an unhealthy state of mind. We already know that Shallan is not in a healthy state of mind. Thats where she started, she didnt have to get there for this to work. Agreed. Its shortsighted for a lot of reasons (im sure they had a good reason). No one should have to work at the Tower ever again. Just a few Lightweavers with unlimited Towerlight should be able to whip up a few dozen workers no problem.

My thoughts on why it was banned with zero evidence: 1) The substantiations can become alive on their own - the complications of which are fairly obvious. 2) Its extremely easy to frame someone 3) It can fragment the Radiants mind. For someone like Shallan who is already experiencing multiple personalities it might be easy as I could see this type of total dedication to a lie being very destructive for a 'normal' persons psyche

Those I feel the same about. If you have a hemalurgic spike that has stolen something, why not just spike it into the singer? Then they could swap between forms as needed while keeping their hemalurgic power. You could spike their gemheart specifically, but that is only going to do something if you have used the correct metal and stolen from the correct spot, and the gemheart is the correct place for that attribute. But at that point, its just hemalurgy. Maybe there is a way to channel the investiture from a spike to their gemheart using raysium or something similar, but that seems like a hack that might not even grant a form.

For breaths and allomancy, I feel like it shouldn't work on a basis of forms. A singer with breaths shouldn't be in a different form. The change of form should require a spren. Breaths are investiture that is attached to the soul and would not be stored in their gemheart (this is how i understand it, i dont think we know for sure). Same for allomancy. A singer who burns lerasium should just be an allomancer, with nothing in their gemheart. A singer with breaths should just be an awakener, without anything in their gemheart. A singer with breaths or allomancy should be able to also bond a spren and enter a form, separate from their breaths / allomancy. I think the 'this will work' from the WOB you provided is in reference to them thinking more clearly. The extra investiture on their soul would help 'escape' slaveform, but wouldnt give a form. At least, thats how I understand it. Even with Radiant spren, the spren is not staying in their gemheart, so I dont think that gives them a different form (please correct if this is wrong). WaT Spoilers

Isn't Dalinar breaking the terms the same as Odium winning? Dalinar would be in Odiums power, meaning he would have to free him, serve as fused, etc.

This is a great theory imo. I have always known that Adolin was going to have some magic by the end of things, and I suspected it would not be Radiant powers. We have plenty of Radiant POV's already. We know that there is Cultivation Magic separate from Radiant bonds. We have been told that there is *something* happening with Adolin and Maya. Brandon has to show us that magic somehow, and the slow progression of Adolin reviving Maya through 5 books feels perfectly on brand for Cultivation's system.

Not completely confirmed IMO (since shallan was joking around), though its very fun for me that I had this theory and literally the next chapter talks about it!

So, this is actually going to be very very difficult to do. Investiture resists investiture, and shardplate is literal physical investiture. For living plate, this is going to be impossible because it is already alive. For dead plate, you would need an insane amount of investiture to overcome the resistance of the material. Perhaps Susebron with his 50,000+ breaths could do this, but honestly I doubt that.

I agree that the preview chapters specifically have felt.....disjointed. However, after some reflection, I may be able to explain that. For me, at least, this is the first time that I am a part of preview chapters for a Stormlight book. All the others I read back to back, close to 12 hours a day, until they were finished. However, with WaT, we are only getting small bits at a time. Each week the context of the previous chapters is lost. You only have a small chunk of text each week, and no author has their best words in every chapter. I went back and read all of the preview chapters in one sitting back to back, and they felt MUCH better. If you have not done this, I would highly recommend. Preview chapters are fan service. They are not how Brandon intended this book to be consumed for the more casual audience. All put together, it feels much better paced.

We know from the RPG (apparently, I have not seen the source) that all orders are able to lend their plate to others. What a great idea. I would love to see this.

Hi All. I had a thought. In ROW, we see that Kaladin can lend his living shardplate to someone else who needs protecting. The plate melds to that persons form - which prompted the thought - does it have to? We have seen that living blades are able to morph into any shape that the Radiant can think of, even including chain, typewriter, watch, gun, etc. Could Kaladin theoretically project his shardplate into the shape of a wall, or around a vehicle? Does it have to form the shape of armor? If he can do that, lets take it a step further. Shardplate is extremely resistant material. What is preventing Kaladin from sending his plate into a wall like a battering ram? Or better yet, hitting his enemies with it like an invisible hammer? Another tangentially related question - can he separate it into pieces? For instance, if he is fighting someone but sees someone else that needs it at the same time, could he keep the chestpiece and helm for himself, and convert his legs and feet into chestpiece and helm for someone else? I dont see any reason these arent possible other than Brandon not wanting it to work that way. From the lore we have, this feels possible. As I was typing this I had another theory, though this one is admittedly wacko. In the Emberdark preview, we see a ShardGun. There has been lots of speculation about what the ammunition / battery pack contained. What if it is their armor spren? Windrunners have several (do we have a number?) windspren that make up their armor. The shardgun could be ejecting a single windspren manifested physically as the ammunition. Once it hits the target or reaches the range limit of the bond, it would poof back to the Radiant as their armor.

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Ahh but Harmony provides a perfect way to get his investiture. The mists! We know those can be captured in gemstones.

There are certainly more efficient methods. Probably having a lot to do with the ratio of trellium to harmonium, and the speed at which they are forced together. I think Brandon is mirroring real life nuke development in a lot of ways. The first atomic bombs we made were very dirty (lots of radiation) because they were inefficient compared to our modern day nukes. Our current understanding of physics would suggest this is impossible. Of course brandon can have the magic bomb do whatever he wants, but since he seems to be mirroring real nuke development, I would say that no matter how big the harmonium-trellium bomb is, it will not ignite the Scadrian atmosphere. From Advanced Science News: “The limits were luckily never tested, but in general, I would say, the density of the atmosphere is too low,” Wiescher responded when asked whether a powerful enough bomb to burn the Earth’s atmosphere could ever be built. “If one would substantially increase the atmospheric density to Venus values — 100 times denser than Earth — one would still not have the density of water, and the underwater test program did not ignite the oceans, as some people predicted,” he elaborated.

I do not have the quote, but it is stated in TLM that a very very small piece is actually converted into energy, the rest is exploded throughout the room from that reaction.