askthepaperclip

Oh, I totally agree...I'm playing the long game here Maybe I should change "Theory" to "Hypothesis"...

Exactly! Adonalsium would be a wide-band filter, not a full-spectrum filter, so there could be small sections of the spectrum of the power of Creation that Adonalsium does not reach, which would fuel non-Adonalsium based magics. Sorry Freesh, I just realized that I totally switched your "Lens" terminology to my own "Filter" terminology....sorry!

So, this is a theory that I came up with in response to the Shardic Lens theory, and posted in rough form on that thread. I will restate it here, so that it is a little easier to find (plus I don't want to hijack that thread). So, based on my understanding of the Shardic Lens theory, Adonalsium is basically a wide-band filter for the power of Creation. Upon shattering, we were left with 16 (at first) narrower-band filters, the spectrum of each being defined by the Shardic Intent. This implies that Adonalsium(and the Shards) is not a power unto itself, but rather a means of accessing a power. This is consistent with I believe all the magic systems we have seen as well. Metal, Stormlight, Aons...they aren't the source of the power, but rather a means of accessing it or channeling it. This is important, because it means that the true source of the various powers of the Cosmere is still intact, only the access key is shattered. I believe the AonDor is a very good example of this, in that we are told quite directly that the Aons act as a filter on the power of the Dor, allowing only the desired power through. This makes perfect sense if the Aons are splinters of Aona, and thus an even narrower-band filter on the power of Creation. Which brings me to the theory: I think Hoid's mission is to travel the Cosmere, collecting a sample of each of the various waveforms/powers, in order to reverse engineer the complete "wide-band filter" and enable one to tap into the "full spectrum" of the power of Creation. Because Adonalsium was not the source of the power, but rather just a tool, it is not necessary to reforge Adonalsium. Instead, Hoid is actually trying to replicate that tool, which can be done as many times as desired! Thus the term "Adonalsium Proliferation." What, you want proof?? Well, I don't have any. But how's this: one thing that always bothered me about The Letter was the fact that the recipient disagreed with Hoid's plan. I had always assumed (like many of us) that Hoid was trying to restore Adonalsium/The Cosmere to its previous state, which seems like a good idea. Why would someone disagree with that? However, if Hoid is in fact going for a nuclear-deterrence style proliferation, I can see how that could be terrifying, causing the 17th Shard to try to shut him down. (In this Cold War analogy, the 17th Shard folks represent the Nuclear Disarmament mindset, while Hoid is of the Mutually Assured Destruction mindset). That's it for now! Thanks for Isomere, Senor Freesh, and WeiryWriter for laying the groundwork on this for me! (and any others who I haven't read yet...)

damnation. This does seem to make a lot of sense, and does tie together a lot of Isomere's crazy ramblings (j/k Isomere, you are clearly brilliant, but most of your theories make my brain hurt ) "Allomantic pulses" from Scadrial and "The Iridescent Tones" from Nalthis jump out as fitting nicely. On Sel, didn't we learn that the Aons act like a filter on the Dor, allowing only the desired wavelength through? Hmm, that seems to fit too. Add this to Isomere's info on wavelength on Roshar, and we have ourselves the makings of a Standard Model Of Cosmere Investiture! Very exciting. This makes me think that Hoid's mission is to gather a sample of each lens/power in order to read their waveforms, and thus reverse engineer the "skeleton key" waveform that was Adonalsium, allowing him to tap into the "full spectrum" of power. Odium's goal of splintering all the Shards would certainly make Hoid's job much more difficult. OOOO just realized something!! If each Shard is a lens that filters out a particular "wavelength band" of the power of Creation, then it makes perfect sense that when Aona was splintered into the Aons, that each Aon was also a lens that filtered out a narrower band of that power! This means that Adonalsium is really just a very wide-band filter. Which means that it doesn't need to be reassembled, but could in fact be replicated as many times as desired. Now it makes sense why the recipient of The Letter would maybe disagree with Hoid's plan, if it means Comere-scale proliferation of the power of Adonalsium! Whew, I need to go take a cold shower... Edit: I wrote up the above theory here, called "Adonalsium Proliferation" Although personally I think it lacks some of the breathless punch of what's above...

Man, someone downvoted this guy's very first post, and didn't bother to tell him why, or correct any of the things he said? Harsh...

True, she could mean "all spren" in the same way she says "all animals." Obviously ALL animals don't act alike, only like animals act alike. Might be she is talking about spren the same way. Still, an interesting quote.

regarding the idea of the shards merging, I just noticed this quote from Syl during my current reread (emphasis added): "People are discord (...) You all act differently and think differently. Nothing else is like that -- animals act alike, and all spren are, in a sense, virtually the same individual." (chapter 17, pg. 262, hardcover) Brandon has said in the past that some spren are of Honor and some are of Cultivation, right? But if they are also "virtually the same individual," then does that support this idea of the shards being merged somehow? Not sure if this helps or not, but I hadn't seen it mentioned, so I thought I would point it out.

Wow, I step away from this thread for a day, and it blows up! Isomere, I hope you won't get discouraged by the apparent bashing you seem to be getting. Kick chull theory you got there. I don't agree with it all (or even understand it all), but major props for fleshing it out so thoroughly. I haven't had to stress my brain this hard trying to grasp a theory since grad school! Love you guys!

Good info...the question then is, would you build Urithiru where there is a lot of thought, or little? Is the supposed inaccessibility of Urithiru referring to inaccessibility in the physical realm or the cognitive realm? If they figured out a way to build it in a "thin" area of the cognitive realm, then that would reinforce the inaccessibility aspect of the legend.

My point was less about "close" vs "near", and more about "-er" vs "-est". "-er" is reletive, and doesn't imply knowledge of the location, whereas "-est" implies a definite location. Lots of places can be near-er to honor, but only one can be near-est. Very interesting theory...is it possible that there is a geographical location on Roshar where it is easiest to connect to the cognitive realm?

Interestingly, I remembered (or have seen it misquoted so many times) as saying "closer to honor," which would support what you are saying; that Honor is somewhere in the west, so the further west you go the closer to Honor you are. However, I don't read this as saying it needs to be as westward as possible, nor that Honor is just somewhere in the west. It seems to me that they knew exactly where Honor was, and built Urithiru there. Rather than being vaguely in "the west" it looks like the quote only says that Honor is west of Alethela, which could be as near by as Jah Keved or Kharbranth (maybe something to do with the unnatural formation of the Palanaeum?). Or even the Pure Lake? Seeing as the KR served all of Roshar, and most of the fighting of the desolations seems to have happened in the east, it would make more sense that their HQ would be at least centrally located, to facilitate rapid response to VB threats.

haha I thought of you Windrunner as soon as I saw the word "wings"! Definitely curious why they would be so prized dead...maybe like the powders of eastern medicine? (ground rhino horn, etc) My guess is it has something to do with the wings, since those seem to be the rare thing about it. Or maybe it can be used to create some exotic fabrial...

oh, those aren't great shells/ chasm fiends?

having read the first 10 books back to back, I tend to agree...I wasn't aware any of them sucked until someone told me :-P

Lol Feesh I haven't written it (or thought of it) yet! I thought I had a bunch, but then I found this forum and realized that they were a) already thought of, and totally minor league stuff. I am particularly interested in Realmatic theory, so here is a teaser for something I have been thinking about..."Unite them" means the Shards, not people! ie, reforge Adonalsium, which Hoid might have alluded to in his final conversation with Dalinar, about chopping people up and putting them back together. Or, if not reforging it, at least uniting the Shardbearers in the fight against Odium. Windrunner, thanks for the welcome! I do have one question...what is the Dragonwasp legion?

OK cool, I was worried about him jumping back and forth a lot, making it easy to miss something

Has anyone put together the full text of the Rysn interlude? As interesting as the writing process is, I'm hoping to avoid sitting through 4 hours of video...

Hi everyone! Having just finished Alloy of Law and The Emperor's Soul (and thus all of the published Cosmere works), I feel like I am finally ready to contribute rather than just lurk/mooch off the knowledge here :-) I first read TWoK shortly after AMoL came out, and got totally hooked on Brandon's writing. I'm also a big WoT fan (Tower Guard NYC for the ToM release tour!), and love the way Brandon finished the series. Unlike WoT, which I came to late, I am really excited to be getting in on the ground floor for SA, and am looking forward to having a pet theory of mine come true in 10 years :-) - Christian (aka Askthepaperclip)