Etedbert

The shattered plains were created by a bondsmith connecting an asteroid or small orbital body (the rock that eventually becomes The Tower) to Roshar and smashing it down into an active battlefield. The 10 war camps are in crater/domes created by stonewards to protect Radiant forces from the impact.

Looking at this from the real world perspective, it’s simultaneously easy and difficult to “verb” a word. (More accurately, we’re talking about creating denominal verbs). basically, in English it’s easier to make a denominal verb from improper nouns than it is to do so with proper nouns. The terms, elbowed, kneeled, and rained come to mind when you think of improper denominal verbs. using proper nouns to make denominal verbs is WAY harder. Words like that are usually super rare and very specific. Boycott is a good example, a verb taken from a proper noun that over a century came to be used regularly. A term like “Houdini’d” is an example of a word possibly on its way to full verb. Sounds funky but you understand what it means. basically, to make a denominal verb, the originating noun needs to have a pretty much universally understood meaning. the reason that some invested arts can be formed into denominal verbs easily, is because they’re partially formed with words that ALREADY have denominal verbs. Brandon can’t say “Allomanced” because the word Allomancy is formed from noun structures that don’t have their own nominal verbs already. when we as readers are first introduced to Allomancy, we have no understanding of what the proper noun means and there’s no existing nominal verb Brandon could use to bridge the understanding, so he uses other vernacular verbs instead (Push, Pull, Burn). If he went out of the gate saying “Allomanced” it would only make it harder for reader’s to catch up and understand the magic system. There’s an old study talking about denominal verbs I read a number of years ago, I can try to find the link and attach it here.

Nale being able to sense that reminded me of the 4th Heightening from BioChromatic Breath. But he’s passively sensing (I’m assuming) kinetic investiture where Life Sense is a little more picky, but seems to passively sense Innate Investiture. Perhaps part of the 5th ideal grants Kinetic Investiture sense? I’m sure it would have a better name, and that there’d be more to it. Nale’s ability to sense it could also come from Herald/CS shenanigans

Perks of a bookseller: I just finished an advanced reader copy of Lynn Buchanan’s book coming out in August, The Dollmakers! (If I knew she had a 17S account I would tag her) here’s the link to her website’s page on the book: https://www.lynnbwrites.com/books/dollmakers Spoiler Free: anyways, the book was amazing, anyone who likes Sanderson will probably like this too. It’s not quite as rules based in its magic system as he normally writes, but IMO it works really well. Her characters are incredibly compelling and the world she’s imagined is super expansive, but she keeps the scope really grounded in these characters and the people they care about. You can definitely feel the influence Brandon’s writing has had on her’s, but her voice strongly stands apart. Light Spoilers (I say the character names and stuff about them. No plot spoilers outside what’s in the cover flap blurb): Okay all in all, the book is stunning, and knowing it’s illustrated throughout and has full front and back illustrations only makes me want the full release more. I don’t often buy books I read advanced copies of, but this is one I’ll definitely buy a personal copy of. My grief with the publisher’s choices:

I’m a prophet anyways, that’s a great point! I’d be curious to see what effect that could have on someone if it ever took place.

I’ve noticed that there’s some physical resemblance between some of the True Spren and the Unmade, notably: Re-Shephir’s constant shifting form is sort of reminiscent of a Cryptic, especially in Shallan’s drawing of the midnight essence. Ashertmarn grows vein like tendrils into the ground almost like vines, like the Cultivation Spren Chemoarish is quite literally called the dustmother, so that’s close enough to the Ashspren/ the Releasers for me to draw a connection the last three we know the appreance of are where these comparisons fall apart Yelig-Nar grows creepy red crystals in his host’s body, closest comparison would be peakspren, or maybe mistspren because Glys is made of red crystalline structures Nergaoul manifests in a red mist, and that seems as close to mistspren as you can get And Sja-Anat is probably closest to Highspren or Inkspren, but given her wonky relationship with light, you could also argue mistspren (Can you tell I love mistspren?)

Welcome! If you had to survive on a cosmere planet, which would you want to be on?

In addition to the other WOBs people have brought up, there’s a few important pieces of evidence that might clue us in to what could happen if a shard vessel did have a child. firstly, we know Spiritual DNA is hereditary, and is passed from parent to child Another piece of evidence is the effect large quantities of investiture has on a spiritual web SUNLIT MAN SPOILERS basically, I think that a shard’s child would (in addition to being highly invested) inherit aspects of their parent’s spiritual DNA. I think they would be in some way bound to the same shardic intent as their parent. I.E. if Honor had a child, they would be committed strongly to the same ideals as their father. Now the question is how would the reproduction of two shards turn out? Does Spritual DNA play by the same Dominant/Recessive rules as regular DNA, or would they get a combo intent warping their soul. So if Ruin and Preservation had a biological child, would that child have the intent of “Harmony” warped into their Spiritweb?

Here I was thinking he’d found all of them, but if anyone was gonna find an esoteric WOB that disproves any given theory that no one else remembers it’d be alder

That’s my bad! I mixed up Aharietiam and the Recreance. You’re right about the timeline, BAM would had to have that name before the point where Honor got splintered.

Unless BAM gets the name change before False Desolation, which puts it before Aharietam. It gives the listeners a period of time to know her by the longer name before the songs are created

If Ba-Ado-Mishram was created before Honor’s splintering and then given a splinter of his investiture, it could explain how she had such strong connection to all the Spren of Roshar. Almost like hijacking Honor’s connection to the world, let her form connections planet wide to the singers and Spren. Your point about the names possibly being tied to how many different shards investiture constitutes them could explain the WOB here bringing up the linguistics of BAMs name. BAM could maybe be a splinter of Cultivation, like an earlier Nightwatcher, who Odium corrupts with his own investiture, making Ba-Ado (or whatever else the name would be) then when Honor is splintered, Odium gives Ba-Ado a splinter, or maybe she takes one herself, becoming Ba-Ado-Mishram, gaining quick connection to Singers and Spren. BAM is then of enough prominence in the False Desolation that everyone on both sides adopts the name change quickly, possibly assuming that’s who she always was.

This is a rambling theory, apologies. I’m not sure if this has been brought up before but I couldn’t find anything on a cursory search. I can also find quotes to back up anything people have questions about. But this is really long already and I don’t want to write a manifesto quite yet. I was thinking about where the Unmade might have come from, especially given the way the Sibling fears becoming transformed into something like them by Raboniel in RoW. We know her plan was slowly flood the sibling’s pillar with void light and then use the surge of transformation. Is it possible that this is the way Odium created the other unmade? There are hints that the unmade were all something else before being “Unmade” into what they are. The other weird thing about the Unmade is the variable levels of intelligence, seemingly reflected with the length of their names. Single name unmade like Moelach, and Nergaoul are described as mindless, just sort of radiating their respective effects into the PR around them. But then there are the two name Unmade who are cognizant and often have their own agenda like Sja-Anat, or Re-Shephir. Then if the pattern holds Ba-ado-Mishram is a step beyond even them. BAM is also weird given the lack of historical consensus about her. Some say she was unmade, some say she was a voidbringwr priestess. So there’s 9 unmade, 4 of which are mindless, all (that we know of) enflaming certain emotions of nearby people or manipulating fortune and giving death rattles to people. Then 5 unmade who are cognizant beings who reflect more advanced uses of investiture, Re-Shephir using midnight essence, and Sja-Anat pretty clearly uses Transformation in a way I can only assume is the same as to how the unmade were originally “Unmade” just on lesser Spren or radiant spren. Anyways, the other time we see 5 as a notable number with Odium is the number of shards he’s killed. Technically he’s killed/splintered 4. Devotion/Dominion over on Sel, then Ambition at Threnody, and finally Honor on Roshar. However we know Mercy was at the fight with Odium and Ambition, and that Mercy was injured at the least. the theory is basically this, the unmade are all large splinters of Odium, and the 5 more advanced unmade are made by combining Odium’s investiture with splinters of other shards that he’s killed. Basically collecting these powerful minions as he goes along (possibly founding the myth of the “deepest ones” on Threnody). He had 4 by the time he gets to Roshar, and after splintering Honor, creates a 5th unmade out of a large splinter of Honor, a larger splinter of himself, and a Fused priestess, making BAM. This would explain BAM’s contentious historicity. The timing of this is important, since BAM has to be Unmade before the False Desolation, which ends with the Recreance, and we know Honor dies shortly before the Recreance. So in this scenario, Honor is splintered, BAM is created and basically IMMEDIATELY sets off the false desolation. This explains BAM’s greater cognizance than other unmade, being both a former Singer/Fused, and using the forging of connection and bonds similar to Honor to give singers forms of power for the FD. Possibilities for which shards splinters were made into unmade Ba-ado-mishram = Honor Sja-Anat = Mercy (feels fitting given her character and choices so far. She shows mercy to Shallan, as well as her children) Dai-Gonarthis = Dominion (no evidence for this, purely vibe based. D-G seems to live in the ocean somewhere, maybe he purposefully crashes any boats that try and get away from the continent, stopping them from entering his ‘domain’) Re-Shephir = Ambition (I feel like there’s a WOB somwhere where Brandon got tight lipped after someone asked about R-S being connected to Ambition in some way. R-S also has this drive to mimic human violence, possibility mimicking violent ambition) Yelig-Nar = Devotion (I mean eating a storming sphere has got to be a pretty hefty show of devotion to whoever’s asking you to do it. Otherwise I don’t have a lot of evidence for this one. Y-N is a weird one since he has two names but we never hear him really talk on his own or hear his thoughts or anything) I could also see swapping Y-N, and S-A, since maybe Y-N is weaker than the others and needs a host because he was made with the splinter of a shard still not fully dead (Mercy being only wounded in the fight, not killed) anyways please poke holes in this, and again, I’m happy to find quotes or WOBs if anyone is curious about my wild conjecture

I remember an old thread where this got brought up, apologies that I can’t find it. I don’t believe we get an answer in book, but we see Vasher do it in WoR I think, so it’s a way of connecting Vivenna to him, showing that he trained her. The advantage of it could be a complex command involving parrying or grappling a weapon or opponent, but likely it’s just that by putting breaths into it, it becomes resistant to other investiture, and similar to half-shards might allow her to block a or glance off a blow from a shard weapon. Another option would be that it’s there to be used with commands, but isn’t currently awakened. Like how Vasher uses his cloak to grapple enemies in Warbreaker, having the cloak readily available on your arm would make it easier to awaken and then launch at someone or something. TLDR: It’s probably just a cheap way for a Nalthian to make an investiture-resistant bracer to protect themselves

The discussion of Scadrians turning planets into farm worlds to fuel expansion efforts got me thinking about what could have started the war between Scadrial and Roshar. What better world to make into a farm planet than the world with infinite easily accessible investiture, and a power system that allows the manufacturing of metals from other materials (soulcasting)? Seeing the interest that the ghostbloods have in getting stormlight off world in the “present” timeline, it makes sense that as worlds become more cosmere aware, more scadrian groups would start trying to use Roshar. Assumably that would lead to increasing tensions until it eventually heated up into trade sanctions and travel bans, eventually escalating to all-out war. At that point we see the current blitz of expansion both worlds are undergoing to try and fuel the war efforts. Seeing the (I’m assuming) skybreaker also makes me even more interested to see the conclusion of SA5, and how the radiants join back under what seems to be one group.

You’re right! Given that running is (very simply put) just an application of force against the ground, with the equal opposite reaction propelling you forward, and since force is a product of mass and acceleration with such a low mass, you’d have a hard time getting much speed, to go enough force to move fast you would need to be able to move your legs crazy fast. some arm chair math: rough low ball estimate of force put out by a single footfall of a runner is 1200lbs for 150lbs individual (source: http://www.aecreatingelite.com/blog/2019/12/17/ground-forces-of-jumping-amp-running#:~:text=The repeated stress would be,for the 150 lb person.) in better units, that’s 5,337 neurons, emitted by a 68kg person. that means their foot is accelerating at ~78.4 m/s^2. (5,337/68) if we bring their mass down to 1% to reach the “microgravity” state Brandon mentioned here 1% of 68kg is 0.68kg (gotta love quick decimal math) To get the same force output of 5,337 N, you’d need to accelerate your legs at… ~7,848.5 m/s^2 …wow. That’s reaching hypersonic MACH 22-23 speeds within a second. TLDR: to effectively run while the skimmer had their weight down low enough to walk on water, they’d need to be moving their legs at hypersonic MACH 22-23 speeds. without some form of healing, or reinforcement, their body, or at minimum their legs would be instantly blown to shreds from heat and air resistance.

A fellow Truthwatcher! That’s awesome! I’m excited to learn more about the order (and specifically the higher oaths) in future books.

Welcome to the shard! What Radiant Order do you identify with the closest?

I know, but I mean the idea of artistry in general. The creation of art, or notably the lack thereof given the hellscape of Canticle

On this week’s shardcast, they brought up the phrase “Sapient Physical Realm Entity” as someone who can bond a spren to form a radiant bond. A SPRE bonds a Spren if you will. anyways it got me wondering where the line is on radiant bonds. We see cognitive shadows (Nale) bonding spren, albeit while he’s in a mortal body. I’ll also assume that two radiant spren can’t bond each other, given their cognitive realm shenaniganary nature. So where’s the line? What defines someone as being of the physical realm? Siah Aimians are apparently tied more closely to the cognitive realm than other seemingly mortal species, so could they bond a radiant spren? Or does their mystery connection to Shadesmar preclude it?

You’re totally right! I forgot that Confidence has glasses. Makes me wonder about the state of artisanry on Canticle, especially with specific material requirements like lenswork.

Happy Publication Day to the retail version of Sunlit Man from Tor! After a quick search I didn’t see any posts talking about the figures on the cover. Starting in the middle, it’s obvious we have Nomad, to his left is Rebeke, to the right Elegy. The top two are the less obvious, but the top right figure is probably the Cinder King, as he’s the only important Male Charred we meet. The real question is which of the non-charred Male Threnodites is on the top left? I don’t remember any character described with glasses, but I’ll probably find something on a re-read. It’s likely Thomos, but I’ll hold out hope that it could be Adonalsium-Will-Remember-Our-Plight-Eventually.

Spoilers for Mistborn Eras 1 and 2 There’s an old WOB from 2012 talking about if a Mistborn burned enough Lerasium to reach savant status. It’s basically saying that pre-Catacendre when Preservation’s power isn’t fully held by a Vessel, a Mistborn could Ascend by being invested with enough of Preservation’s power through Lerasium. If a Mistborn in Era 2 or beyond obtained and burned enough of either metal to become a savant, since the shard’s powers are already held, would they become an Avatar by being so heavily invested with the shard’s power? And if so, would they be an avatar of Preservation/Ruin, or of Harmony?

I’d bring back Tanavast and Jezrien for the one of the most awkward reunions imaginable.

Cream cheese is a must for any bagel!