RefusesToElaborate

>Love is the Shard that is conspicuously absent. I don't know about this. All the Shards seem to make up fragments of a whole personality. Bits of its Reason and Honour and Valour and Ambition, but also... 16 vague concepts do not make up a person's personality. It's clear some shards are lifting heavy, carrying multiple aspects of personality. I believe you could make an argument that Devotion, Mercy and (based on behaviour) Preservation, when combined, would for a Shard that would call itself Love, however would encompass... more.

I said he hasn't cured death. Still true. Kels lost his body and his allomancy, having to find workarounds to both issues.

Better in what regard? Worldbuilding? Tolkein constructed several languages for the sake of making his poetry better in universe. Despite already being an accomplished poet in English. At that point you're not worldbuilding for the world anymore. You're in it for love of the game. Prose? Tolkein has arguably every other fantasy writer beat. (Though, I will hear arguments between Tolkein and Terry Pratchett having better prose.) There are some aspects of Sandersons writing I prefer. Tolkein let a few characters just outright die on the grapevine, like Aragorn not really having a character arc and just being arguably a secondary aspect of Theodens character arc. But I won't call him better.

It also seems as if Honour and Odium are directly combining. Perhaps better than Ruin and Preservation. Taravangian seems go pretty quickly find his rhythm as Retribution, where Sazed still calls himself Sazed for long enough to fix the planet.

I think he did know that. The power of Odium had already sworn not to harm wit, didn't it? And the power was still fulfilling the Oaths that Dalinar renounced. I think it was less "Die" and more "get off my planet. I have things to do."

Dalinar Kholin is dead. ...right? Sanderson has not walked cured death in his fiction to date. The Returned are the closest he came and they don't come back as the people they once were. Except when Retrivangian tries to reach out and take hold of Dalinars soul, we get this lovely passage. Where I come from we have a word for this. Ominous. So. Who/what claimed him. Here are my candidates ranked from least to most likely. 1. Endowment Endowment has invested Nalthis, its true. However, once Retrivangian began forming all the shards watched. I believe this is what Harmony began sending people to Roshar for. I do believe the mental speed of a shard may as well "stand still" in time, therefore they can make a plan and implement it basically off the cuff. Should Endowment have chosen to Return Dalinar, need she grant him his own body? I'll admit this theory ain't great. But it's worth noting. 2. Honour I think a part of Honour already forgives Dalinar, and on top of that: Could it be these spit off chips of Honour are what has claimed Dalinar? The reason this sticks out to me as possible is this: Honour is already doubting the moral weight of oaths alone. It already learned from Dalinar. Could the independent fragments of honour laid a claim to Dalinars soul as a means of keeping its teacher around? Doubtful but not dubious. 3. Cultivation [muffled Vsauce music playing in the distance] Retribution was an inside job. That overgrown lizard planned this from day one and I dare and defy you "Oh," I hear you say "She fled the system, so she must not have anticipated this." My brother in Adonalsium and my sister in The God Beyond, my technicolour-specrum-in-between in Whimsy. When you conspire to set a house on fire from the inside, you get out of the house once it starts burning. That's like, the number one rule of insurance fraud. She is Cultivation, I don't believe any shard could potentially outplan her or have her beat on foresight. Maybe Reason, but if it's Reason as I understand it? You can Reason yourself into flawed judgements. I reasoned myself into believing in something I called the Gamblers-Fallacy Fallacy. Basically just because the odds are against you doesn't mean you're guaranteed failure, so go lose 10 grand on blackjack, you reprobate gamler, me. And I reasoned that with flawless logic. As such, I think Cultivation, an intent to do with growing things over time and watching them come to fruition, plans better than all others. Why did she run? Time dilation, if she's outside of it she has the advantage. 4. Nohadon He's a freaky little guy, isnt he? He seems to be more, in the Spiritual Realm than simply a... what will we call the echoes of people in the Spiritual Realm? Spiritual Shadows? The Spiritual Shadow of Nohadon refuses to answer who or what he is, is more capable of relevant conversation as a vision character, and seems to have an affinity for understanding divinity. Curios. 5. The God Beyond and/or The Beyond itself Boring, therefore wrong. Unfortunately most likely case.

Nah, fam. That's Nightblood. But seriously if Nightblood ever utters "Farewell, my friend" I will explode.

I love presumption. Truly. A little background on me, I finished writing my first novel when I was 15 years old. My every attempt to be published has been met with responses varying from "Why can't you just be normal? to "This is not marketable to a mass audience." Why? Because Michael Kirkbride is a big inspiration to me and turns out there isn't a big market for fantasy based on pagan witchcraft and eastern spirituality that results in characters doing things that are intended to be slowly achieved over multiple lifetimes and going insane because they supercharged their spiritual growth on a timescale that isnt sustainable. Point is, Kirkbride is lucky he manipulated Todd Howard into letting him get away with all that stuff he did in Elder Scrolls 3. Seriously, the 36 Lessons of Vivec are my definition of peak fantasy and I will be forever disappointed he never wrote The Pillow Book of Almalexia. But what do I mean by this? Because when I speculate on where another writer is going, you gotta take it with a grain of salt. My favorite character in all of fantasy is a gay robot knight from the future who killed a man by smothering him with moths for suggesting he has a connection to a dead god and has a best friend thats a winged bull or Minotaur or really strong man who calls him Uncle. I like weird, I like questions that aren't intended to be answered by the writer, I like things that don't make sense to people that aren't willing to sit and think for a while. So, that being said, I think the best course if action from a writers perspective, is to let Syl decide. As the Queen of Storms, the Heralds are her knights, on a moral level, I mean. Because their power is of Honour and she is the Stormfathers eldest heir. Therefore she, speaking with the authority of a Ruling Queen, can send them back whether or not they feel ready. Now she would in this scenario, defer to Kaladin and the Heralds as advisors but not as authorities in and of themselves. Meaning she would ask them about their progress and if they feel ready. And that would certainly influence her judgement.

About option Number 2. Moash already has two spikes. Why not a third? To lance the conciousness of The Blackthorn to Moash.

I think she already basically is a Radiant. The bond requires two active participants. It's very easy from a philosophical to argue that a Knight Radiant isn't one individual, she is one half of the Radiant that Kaladin is also one half of. Especially seeing as a Radiants soul is tied together with the soul of a spren so spiritually you could argue they are one person.

Personally I believe Tukos death rattle is something that'll come to a head in the back 6. I strongly believe that it will have something to do with separating Stormlight and Voidlight or "freeing" it. Which would make sense as to why a captive and a love of light are mentioned. I also doubt the Girl who Looked up interpretation as the Death Rattles all tend to look forward in the timeline. Now Nightblood is a darkened twin. If you loom at Syls chapter icon, I swear on the Almightys tenth name she has something slung across her shoulder. If it's Nightblood, I can think of no better description for him than the darkened twin of a spren. Especially with Sylphrena because both of them can grant their wielder lashings. It's an interesting one, certainly.

As @JohnnyKaizen El was denied a title and adding to that, the Rhythms. Now this is based on my idea of how to write a character, so keep in mind these are presumptions and based on nothing but how I would write it. Elodi was seemingly a voice for peace with humans in the time before Odium invested Roshar. Seemingly during the desolations, peace broke down and Elodi gained the title He Who Quiets. Also seemingly during the desolations Elodi is stripped of Rhythms. To summarize at several unknown points Elodi becomes Vyre, He Who Quiets. And then Vyre becomes El. So he is denied both his assumed name and his birth name, simply being El. And it is known that Elodi befriended Jezrien, and still holds a great amount of respect for him. Enough, even, to finalise his death. You will also note that both characters to hold the title of Vyre do not hear the Rhythms and lose their birth name. This is something that I am not entirely comfortable saying is coincidental. Again, pure vibes, but I feel Sanderson did this on purpose. I believe that at some point after becoming the fused Vyre, El did something. Perhaps even he is involved with the Listeners defecting from Odium and going to live in the Shattered Plains, or perhaps he was one of Ba Ado Mishrams, and the reason he accepts his deafening to the Rhythms and loss of title is because he lost them doing what he believed was right. It's possible that he made a moral judgement call and was punished for it, and bore his punishment with dignity. That's just my first idea, the second: He does want rulership of humans, as he said. And seems to hold an admiration of the species. Perhaps he also rejects titles that are so important to other Fused and the Rhythms because he wants to feel a closer kinship with mankind. I often wonder about Els relationship with other Fused. I wish he had a canon interaction with Raboniel. The interaction with The Pursuer I don't take as representing all Fused because Lezian seems to be a bit single minded to take his opinion as broad, and Leshwis interactions with him are coated by the fear of Odium. Of all characters in Stormlight, as of the current state of canon, El is the biggest mystery to me. And I dearly need a dose of him in Stormlight 6.

[Threnody will remember that.]

We don't necessarily know if you need to steal abilities using this crystalline hemalurgy. After all Moash doesn't notice people being laid on him in his POV. Remember crystals can be charged and hold power on Roshar in a way metal doesn't in Hemslurgy. I think it may have less to do with stealing an ability and more to do with the colour of the polestone.

Maybe it's spite on my end but unless I knew for a fact, like no gambling whatsoever that the time dilation would put Retrivangian at a disadvantage against other shards, and then I knew for a fact they would unite against him, and then all the ecological changes on Roshar would be reversed, then the most I'd give Taravangian is a dollar and a kick in the shin. We have to think of it in terms of quality of life for Rosharans. A horizon to horizon everstorm and the loss of stormlight would have actual measurable impacts on the life of Rosharans, none of them good. I will grant Sabderson one thing. Every 'save the world' story should have a segment asking if the world is worth saving and if your saving it isnt also ruining it. After Dalinar finished helping, I don't know if Rosharans are all gonna believe their world should have been saved

... Retrivangian wouldnt just deprive himself of the thing that makes Singers useful. Would he? If he does, dumb Taravangian is still alive and well.

Oh God, it's time to show my Nale. Look, in terms of moral philosophy, I don't exactly have the most well rounded knowledge. However, her argumentation, to me, a person who agrees with her fundamental stance on where morals come from (ie. Not god), I simply am not convinced and I find it go be part of the 2010s Cringe Atheism mindset. I believe morals come from us, more than that they are fallible. Jasnahs morality presents a world where rather than deciding upon standards of justice through moral reasoning (ie. A law, a Skybreaker attitude) you look at a decision, analyse which action you can take that will minimise harm and maximise good. The problem that I have with this Utilitarian philosophy is, simply, that it depends on your ability to predict the outcome and consequence of your actions. We can predict the future with only slightly more accuracy than a guess. Utilitarianism is a philosophy that tends to attract people who think themselves much better at foresight than any person who has ever or will ever exist. In the interest of saving my own time I won't get into how easy it is to justify bigotry and false imprisonment in a utilitarian mindset. Just know that is a concern. I am much more convinced by Standards of Justice. Like, this is how we act, do not kill, do not steal, do not lie at someone else's expense to increase your own standing, even if you believe doing any of these things may lead to a positive outcome. If we have these standards in place we have a solid moral baseline and when it is violated we can have more standards to deal with how we respond there. It's just rules and laws until we hit someone who repeatedly violates moral standards and refuses to accept corrective measures. Then we can talk about possible executions if you're willing to present a convincing case for why this person is truly lost to morality. So... that's my problem with Jasnahs mindset. It is a moral philosophy I saw as too common in atheistic spaces during the euphoric fedora phase and I'm glad it's by and large vacating atheistic spaces and mostly shifting to twitch political streamers I don't watch. I don't like how a morality that functions at its best when you can predict the future to a Supernatural level is held up by people who deny the existence of any Supernatural phenomenon.

Devils advocate warning: [Gestures vaguely in the direction of Mass Effect] Mass Effect presents a world where interspecies relationships have to deal with conflicting biology. For instance, a Drell/Human relationship cannot dance around the fact that Drell saliva, when ingested by a human, has a hallucinogenic, psychedelic effect. With that in mind, a simple kiss can erode a Human beings judgement, and thereby, their capacity for consent, objectively regardless of how much they love their Drell partner. And then we get into Turian/Human relations. There is conflicting DNA that when ingested will act as a toxin between the species. Yes, there are ways to mitigate this but you show me tech that can't be broken and then I'll agree it's not a risk. Or the fact that a pairing of Quarian and any other species is immediately potentially life threatening for the Quarian due to their absence of an immune system after however many centuries of living aboard a nomad fleet. Relating it back to the Cosmere... specifically Renarin and Rlain. Imagine being in a relationship with a partner who, as a fact of their psyche, has a habit of every time it rains coming home in a different personality. It rains, hey your partner is suddenly all about work. It rains, hey suddenly your partner wants nothing more than art. It rains, they come home stern and ready to fight anything that approaches the home. Then imagine you, being that person who a shift in personality should be like a shift in the weather, or at least as frequent. And your partner cannot fully understand your language because they lack a fundamental understanding of a thing everyone else you know hears. There is more to relationships than consent, we can consent to things that damage us, (source: employment.)

I appreciate the whole Debate, differently than most, I think. Jasnah in a lot of ways, to me, presents Sandersons flawed understanding of atheism and really a caricature of what some younger and more radical atheists think of as a role model. Which is to say, Jasnah presents to me with lot of cringe memories of myself. And it is good, that now, as a man staring down the barrel of his thirties, to see a fragment of what I once thought was the ideal all people should strive to (intelligent, merciless, dispassionate) being utterly humbled. Reminds me I kind of pulled myself out of a singularity of needing to be right more than needing to hold to a moral standard.

Hmmm. Yes, you're right, and it would make sense that a piece of Autonomy would be required to separate a piece of two distinct intents. However, I would be shocked if Autonomy, based on recent clarity made in the Timeline, isn't going to show an interest in Roshar very soon. I believe her actions on Scadrial are direct preparations to combat Retribution. It's almost funny, I basically predicted this outcome in like... whenever Rhythm of War came out, based on the idea that Mistborn Era 2 was not running concurrently with or preceding Stormlight, but following it. In this idea, yes Honour and Odium were combined, but they were called Crusade or Prejudice, not Retribution. And they were being beared by Dalinar intent on reforming Adonalsium.

I've spoken about this in many ways in many fictions. Assuming you're a writer, you are a product of the culture you live in. I'm sorry, I don't believe in Death of the Author, I believe that is a cudgel used to guard elitism and discourage curiosity in people that don't match a lit professors ideas. Art belongs to the unwashed masses. I believe everything we produce has ourselves in it. You read Lord of the Rings, you see Tolkein at war, baring his soul. You read Mistborn, and you see messages hiding a hidden world-changing historical account engraved in metal. Yeah, I don't know broski but I'm starting to think Sanderson might be a Mormon. Now, to relate it to Cosmere politics, Sanderson is a product of a Representative Republic living in one of the most religious subcultures in his nation that was born of rebellion. And true to that form, Sanderson writes about the affairs of republics, revolutions and religions. That is the general aura of his fiction, and you know every writer had one. It does seem to me that Sanderson does Americanize the political landscape of his worlds. Not to the point where a Bald Eagle perches atop Urithiru, looks at the majesty of democracy in action and awed by the beauty, weeps a solitary tear of KFC gravy while reciting the pledge of allegiance and loading a gun. But enough that I as a non-american can feel the "God, Guns, Government and Gravy" pouring off the page more and more as the story goes on. Is this a criticism of Sanderson? Yes and no. While I do feel it's a bit weird that the Cosmere trends toward democracy, I also feel like an artist producing art that gels with the culture they live in is simply a given. The standard that you should expect. I'm not going to attack Lovecrafts racism when he was a contemporary of the Holocaust, so to am I not going to attack Sandersons idea of representative government when he is a contemporary of late stage democracy. (Late stage democracy = approval rates couldn't be lower and election rates couldn't be higher. A democracy functioning at its most stable.) I will say that it makes sense Sanderson does this on a geopolitical level. In real life the only stable governments on a large scale are democracies and dictatorships. Democracy at its most allegedly fair, and dictatorship at its most allegedly cruel. In between the most fair democracy and the most cruel dictatorship? That's where the revolution happens and keeps happening. Cruel dictatorsbips are stable because starving illiterates make bad rebels, and in this case revolution only happens because the dictator is being replaced by the army, and democracies are stable because it turns out the majority of people can be categorised into voting blocks, revolutions happen in democracy because the sitting government fails to accurately gauge voting blocks power. It's difficult to justify revolution to yourself when you voted for the guy. This is the kind of thing characters like Elend and Dalinar kind of just intrinsically gel with on a very real level.

As far as memory can take me, I do believe that Harmonium can be split into Lerasium and Atium. So all you'd need to do is split Retributium somehow... Taravagium. Vargium. Tarium. Oh, Rust... it's Rosharium, anyone who disagrees can submit their complaints directly to the waste paper basket.

I don't know why I finity as a concept just makes sense to me. Like countable infinity (ex. how many whole numbers are there: 1,2,3, etc.) and uncountable infinity (how many numbers with decimals afterwards are there, 0.0000[...]0001, etc) being equal in size. Just makes sense. Infinity is infinite, there is no stop. You can always add another digit or decimal. The one thing I don't get about infinity is how everyone underestimates it. The explanation given to me is that infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters will eventually produce Shakespeare. My understanding is that infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters should immediately produce Shakespeare. If they don't, it's not infinite.

When you cut a countable number off a piece of infinity, there's still an infinity. Slice infinity in half, you just get two infinities.