Grailmoth

Not sure if it needs to be said in this part of the forum, but this post has spoilers for Isles of the Emberdark. In Isles of the Emberdark, we see the effect that stories, told over generations, have on one of the nephilim, turning it into the Dakwara. Not only does this control the shape of it, making it a giant snake, it also changes its behavior, creating a set of conditions whereby someone can gain control of it for a hundred years. This is exploited by Dusk to provide planetary protection for his people that none of the cosmere superpowers are able to bypass. That is possibly a larger amount of investiture than anything we have seen so far except a Shard. A few questions come to mind for me. Could the stories be modified to allow someone to form something like the Nahel bond with a Nephilim? How sapient are the nephilim? Could the collective perception of the individuals of the cosmere be manipulated to affect something at the level of a shard? Is this Hoids long game? Go around the cosmere telling stories and nudging the perceptions of people in order to somehow affect the shards? How invested are the nephilim? More or less than the big spren and unmade?

@Sasukerinnegan that's an interesting idea. I wonder what impact it would have for a shard if the vessel swore an oath that was in opposition to the shard's intent? The most likely possibility to me seems to be that the intent of the shard would eventually win out, and force the vessel to break the oath. This would leave them vulnerable to splintering from another shard. That seems pretty close to what happened with Preservation and Ruin even. Preservation wanted to created, so they made an Oath to Ruin that they would eventually be able to destroy the planet. Preservation's intent made them want to preserve it though. This led to Preservation getting splintered in an effort to preserve the planet. I imagine that many of the shards are pretty careful about what they bind themselves to, since it can have such disastrous consequences. Although, to your point, Taravangian could make that oath, eventually break it, and leave themselves open to getting splintered by other shards, ridding the Cosmere of a dangerous force. It just seems like the intent of the shard would fight against even making that oath tooth and nail.

Thanks for sharing this! One thing that comes to mind as I read it, is the importance of separating the shards and the vessels when we talk about them. The shards themselves are just incredible amounts of power and investiture with specific intents, and it is pretty difficult for the vessels to act against the intent of their shards. The best they seem to be able to do is "filter" it so to speak. We're already seeing this with Taravangian now that he taken up the Odium shard, where he is coming to the same conclusion that Rayse did, albeit for different reasons. So when blaming the shards for the bad things in the Cosmere, are you blaming the shards themselves? (meaning, the raw investiture) or are you blaming the vessels? (Who are likely trying to do the best they can while struggling against the intent of the powers they have?)

Another possible explanation is that he has enough breath to become immortal. I believe the fifth heightening gives this (2000 breaths), and it appears Felt is an awakener.

Those are great points, and I hadn't considered the Ars Arcanum entry. My one question that I have, is if the timings of the Ars Arcanum entries line up with their respective books. I was always under the impression that they were written after the fact, sort of Khriss chronicling the Cosmere and writing about the different investiture system. Working under that assumption, the note about Xisis and his oceans makes more sense and doesn't break the continuity. And yes, you're right. There are probably shenanigans that could be done to account for time dilation with communication.

Possibly. If Yolen is time-dilated, then I don't think there is much we can place in terms of timeline. For what it's worth though, The Girl Who Looked Up is described as a Rosharan folk tale, so it seems like it would have existed and been told through at least a couple of generations before Shallan and Hoid did their tellings. Ignoring the possibility of time dilation though, I do think we can show that there are at a minimum, several hundred years between Isles of the Emberdark and SA1-5. So, the Iriali are going to be used to place at least several hundred years between Starling and the Stormlight archive. We also know that Xisis (who happens to be the owner of Starlings ship) is on Lumar starting about 300 years before the events of Tress and the Emerald Sea, and that the Iriali left Lumar around the time Xisis arrived. The Iriali are on Roshar at the time both Shallan and Hoid share the story of the Girl Who Looked up. This places Tress, at a minimum, 300 years after the events of SA1-5. However, we know the Iriali LEFT 300 years prior to Tress, and given they spent thousands of years on Roshar, they were probably on Lumar for at least a few hundred. So I would propose a minimum of 500 years between SA and Tress. Now, we just have to place Isles of the Emberdark after Tress, and we can do that with WOB from the Secret Project #5 Live Reveal and Stream. So, Tress is at least 300 years after SA, and Isles of the Emberdark is after Tress, so there must be at least a 300 year gap between Isles and The Girl who Looked Up, with some extra padding for the time the Iriali spent on Lumar before leaving, and the time needed for the story to become a Rosharan folk tale. Edit: I'll also add that Yolen being time-dilated in a way that makes it move much slower than the rest of the Cosmere seems like it would create massive difficulties for communicating with those on the planet, and we have evidence that Hoid, at least, is communicating with Frost who we know lives on planet in Isles of the Emberdark.

Theory time - we know the whole tower is a fabrial, and those gems on the top of the tower are part of that. Navani discovers some way to use the tower as a Choeden Kal-like power amplification fabrial for the showdown, perhaps a reversal of the towers existing suppression capabilities.

I like the theory, but Starling is 80-something years old at the time of Isles of the Emberdark if I remember right, and the Story of the Girl Who Looked Up is told during the Stormlight archive, which I would guess is far more than 80 years before that. Unless Hoid is seeing far into the future, I don't know if the timelines work out.

That's possible, though I took that passage bit differently when I read it - as more of an indication of Sigzil's character growth and change. I see this in my own life, where on one hand you have people who revere and deeply respect those who serve in the military. The honorable soldier is a really important idea and symbol for them. And then on the other hand you have people who hate the military, who find war to be a massive sham, and you have plenty of people somewhere on spectrum of possible opinions in between. Sigzil, who is mentored by Hoid, and has also held a Dawnshard that makes him physically unable to harm others, probably changed his views on the idea of an "Honorable Soldier" over time, and his changing views could have made him incompatible with his previously sworn oaths. I know that my own views on the subject have slowly changed over time, and I haven't ever been personally involved in a war the way Sigzil was. Either way, I'm excited to see what else we learn when Wind and Truth comes out.

I could see that, although if that were the case I don't think they would have reacted to him the way that they did. It seems like they knew what oathed Rosharans could do and expected them to have spren bonds and powers.

The way Nomad is regarded in the Sunlit Man by some Scadrians as an "oathed Rosharan" makes me think that they still exist and are fairly well known in the future Cosmere.

Brandon has a friend who has done card art for MTG and Brandon modeled for a few of those cards. He came and spoke at a company event a few years back and one of my co-workers got some of the cards he modeled for signed by him.