Isomere

I like the idea of inertia only affecting the Radiant. Gravity clearly can be forced on enemies and is an external power, but Inertia is internal only.

They are effectively paired powers, but one is push and one is pull. Actually, you make a good point. I need to switch pressure and gravity. I wanted gravity to point down, so I was sure it was the second Surge, but that won't work.

Better stated, Feruchemical Weight and the Stonewards are both interpretations of the Inertia Aspect of Creation. So is a Pewter Allomancer and any Aon that increase your physical Strength on Sel. Notice that Inertia is Mass with Direction which makes this Surge fit perfectly between Tanat and Ishi.

I think Dalinar is a Skybreaker. Based on my theory of the Surges, he would have Inertia. I could see that giving you extra speed and let you hit like a truck. It also fits with him "Guiding" the Alethi people which is an aspect of Order 10.

Traditional Vorin doctrine is well established as corrupt and must be interpreted carefully. A nice pretty blue glyph in the middle of the quadrant that represents liquids seems like an obvious choice for water. Blood is a combination of Water, Earth, Air and Life. This fits nicely with the combination of liquids, minerals, dissolved gasses and nutrients that fill the blood.

Hey! putting "!!SPECULATION!! as part of this title seems kinda rude. Everyone has theories, many seem absurd, and none of them got the speculation hammer. This is the only internally consistent organization of all the Surges, Orders and Soulcasting elements that has yet been developed. If you don't like the underlying philosophy that's your choice, but please give it merit for the simple fact that everything works. As for the "elemental system, which has no basis on anything whatsoever, and is almost insulting" please consider the following: When you use a certain Gem for Soulcasting, one element is easier to create than all the others. For example, Emerald Soulcasters create food which is the physical substance associated with Growth. We know Jasnah used Smokestone, Ruby and Diamond and we usually see her Soulcasting things into Smoke, Fire or Crystal. Shallan created Blood, which is the element type for her Order. The six primary elements are Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Growth and Direction. The secondary elements are formed by combining these. For example, Smoke is a combination of Fire, Water and Air.

Theory: shardblades represent the condensed physical aspect of either Odium, Honor or Cultivation. (or a mixture). Odium based Shardblades function similar to a Stormgem for trapping Spren of very large Investiture. Honor based blades form a symbiotic relationship with the Knight Radiant's Spren. Most shardblades are empty shells with no trapped spren. A soulcaster that can create any element is a trapped Cryptic or JasnahSpren. Szeth attracted an Honorspren with his honorable actions, but trapped it in an Odium Shardblade.

Building it on land in Shadesmar would indeed fit, thought it would be remarkably hard to get to.

I tried working with Surge order of pressure, gravity, transformation, heat and I especially like Jasnah as Nan, because she is almost always represented with Smokestone. Shallan's personality is well represented with Fire, I think is has merit, but I haven't been able to get an x-y symmetry to work with it.

Good idea Morsk, I originally though fire was transformation and heat as well. I then tried to use Purification and Heat. We should both see if we can play around and make that work. It would put Shallan on the Honor side of the board, so we would likely need to either re-vamp the x axis or use the other shadowtable as Cultivation and put Memory on there for Shallan to use.

Very strong reasoning, and I support it. Adonalsium cannot be recreated. His intellect and physical aspects were totally destroyed and can never be restored. However, the spiritual form of Adonalsium cannot be changed at all. It is static and represents the IDEAL. What you can do is split the various parts of ideal, and these aspects can behave in ways that are not ideal at all. I think if all the bits of investiture in the Cosmere were gathered together in one place they would form a perfect IDEAL LENS. When an Intellect picked it up, the powers of this God would be exactly the same as those of Adonalsium, and the light would shine through in pure form. But the Intellect would interact with the power very differently and the light would form something totally new. My concern is the 17th Sharders are trying to insert something foreign into this picture and I'm worried about the results.

@17 I have no clue how the shard pool would be altered and I'm up for being taught by those in the know. @18 My theory is based on varying degrees of investiture. The difference between an Investiture, Splinter, Shard and "The True Harmony" is all just a matter of Threshold. Lets use a gravitational analogy. You create a black hole only after accumulating sufficient mass to overcome the linear constraints of Spacetime. This allows you to keep light captive. The difference between a large star and a small black hole could be just a few pounds of mass, but the way they behave is profoundly different. Similarly, the difference between a powerful Investiture and a Splinter could be a single Breath, but the way they behave is profoundly different. Investiture: allows access to the powers of the Source Splinters: can form independent sentience Shards: can form a Shardpool The True Harmony: can create the Cosmere All of these things are only possible if the Spiritual power of the Investiture is combined with a physical focus and an Intellect (which humans happen to posses). Apparently 1/80th of Adonalsium is still able to make a Shardpool. EDIT: the only reason I think they form a shardpool is because the Highstorms seem to be coming from the Windrunner Symbol, and I'm speculating that is where Jezerezah's pool would form. @19 The Tanavallah is basically a graphical way of saying Cultivation and Honor merged into one Shard with two Intellects. Hence the symbol of one Eye with two pupils. Because they had defined their magic based on 10 aspects, they both naturally split into 10 fragments when Odium shattered them. I am assuming that both cognitive aspects were destroyed during the shattering, and the Heralds then picked up the Shards and formed the Oathpact. EDIT: Windy has shown that Cultivation's Holder is still alive which does throw kinks in this idea. The only way it still works out is if Cultivation was forced to abandoned her Shard and continued to live as a Sliver.

The Tanavallah is a graphical representation that Honor and Cultivation combined to form a single Shard with two Intellects. The theories here are only based on the symbols in this image, and there are a LOT of different interpretations. I don't have any substantial evidence, but here's what I see. The Table of Harmonics shows two Winged Greatshells that interact with each other to create a much larger Greatshell head in the negative space between them. This represents the Spiritual union of the two shards. The two heads of the smaller Greatshells come together and where they meet is the glyph Ishi. This also creates a "third eye" on the larger spirit face. All of these are symbols of vision and intellect. If you see the greatshells as representations of the map of Roshar then Ishi corresponds to the Purelake. This would be the logical place for both Shardpools to form since they represent the condensed cognitive aspect. We know Urithiru was built West of Alethela and at the place nearest to Honor (Chapter 35 heading), and that it was inaccessible by foot (Chapter 34 Heading). This would all be satisfied if the city were built in the middle of the Purelake on top of the Holy Grotto where the Shardpool was located.

Did anyone catch my reference to Vun Makak? I think the Purelakers have the only True religion, and that their Sacred Grotto is where the combined Shardpool of Honor and Cultivation was originally formed. Urithiru was built "near" the Shardpool so it was built in the Purelake and not accessible by foot. The Purelake corresponds to Ishi on the Table of Harmonics and is a logical place for their cognitive essence to form. This pool is currently altered because the cognitive aspects of the two shards are dead. (See the Top Room, chapters 57 and 75). After Odium killed and fractured the paired Gods into 10 shards, the Heralds picked up the mantle. The Origin was formed as the Shardpool of Jezriel. The shardpool of Taln is in Shinovar and his power managed to protect them from the ravages of the storm. There are 8 other Shardpools which likely correspond in location to the 10 orders of Knights Radiant. The shardpool of Ishi remains in the sacred Grotto

Parallel threads discussing the number of shardic influences on Roshar, thought I'd drop this into both. The other is here.

@12 I'm trying to say Brandon may have been splitting hairs when he said only three shards have been on Roshar. Another shard could have remained on a nearby planet or moon, but its influence filled a large enough space that interactions happened with Roshar as well. This would allow the 4th shard to participate in the Triumvirate and/or the Oathpact without ever technically coming to Roshar. Just based on Shardic Intent I would strongly oppose Odium being part of the Triumvirate, but he definitely would enter into an Oathpact if it gave him opportunity betray, enslave or destroy. Recent Q&A confirmation that Large = Order and Small = Surge. Ishi also confirmed to be Skybreakers here. BRANDON Yes they are, in fact they are- every order is a grouping of one of these [points to the large symbols on the Radiant tables] and two of these [points at the smaller symbols], these are the Surges. So these are the ten, sort of forces. And so Windrunning is pressure and gravitation, which are those two. But the Skybreakers are right there [points to gold symbol in the upper middle], with a different combination and each of these different groupings would make one order of the Knights Radiant. And that is the symbol of the Windrunners, right there on the cover. [Points at the swordglyph under the dust jacket]. So, fun little easter-egg type things there.

I have no good evidence to support this theory, but I think it would be fun for a Prophet to be Atheistic. I came up with it because I think Dalinar will become a Skybreaker (Ishi) and Jasnah is a SpiritWalker (Palah) the two of them would form the two pupils of the dual-eye. Dalinar sees Honor, so Jasnah should see Cultivation. This may explain why she became so interested in researching the Voidbringers. The Spirit Head in between the Greatshells in the knights radiant table is a beautiful representation of two physical objects linking together to create a single spiritual union. Ishi is associated with guidance and piety, and resides in the third eye focus of the spiritual union of Honor and Cultivation. This represents future sight and can warn us of dangers in the future and help us find the most beneficial paths. Palah represents past-sight, growth, spirit and nourishment as it resides in the mouth focus of the spiritual union of Honor and Cultivation. By learning of the past we gain the spiritual nourishment we need to grow and attain wisdom. This, combined with the guidance of Ishi, is the origin of the double-eye symbols so prevalent in the book, and show us the way to enlightenment.

I think the number 10 relates to Revelation. Cultivation and Honor looked into the future and knew they would be destroyed by Odium. They left clues and revelations to help the people left behind to eventually defeat him. They knew odium would try and prevent people from paying attention to the clues, so they included the number 10 as a constant reminder that the 10th Herald, Ishi, was a Seer and his entire Order of Knights Radiant was devoted to guiding the people based on revelations of the future. I explain my reasoning for this here, but if my theory is correct it's a pretty big spoiler. Totally agree with the Parshendi concept. That odium has them enslaved fits his Intent too. It does create some dangerous implications though, I'd rather not have the Nanny suddenly turn into a Voidbringer and blow up my house. Pretty sure the Highstorms have both Honor and Cultivation in them. If Odium has his hand in the mix, I wouldn't be surprised, but I think it's less likely given his preference to avoid mingling with others. Joining the storm would require him to mix his essence with part of the other two shards.

Do you need to be on the planet to have your power manifest there? Could the fourth shard not have joined with Honor and Cultivation from a nearby moon? Or even from a close orbiting planet? Odium has not been confirmed part of the three nor part of the Oathpact. In fact, it seems very opposed to his Intent to share power in any form. I have little evidence and deliberately didn't discuss this earlier, but Odium likely already turned Honor's native planet to dust. I initially thought as you, that only Honor was represented in the first chart. I changed my mind when I was forced to give Shallan Memory, which is clearly her connection to Cultivation. As for the red crystal, it correlates with the position that represents the shards spiritual aspect. In the first diagram it is a beautiful representation that the spirit of God resides at the core of all things. I have already talked about Ishi, and was hoping someone would bring up Palah. This gem represents past-sight, growth, spirit and nourishment as it resides in the mouth focus of the spiritual union of Honor and Cultivation. By learning of the past we gain the spiritual nourishment we need to grow and attain wisdom. This, combined with the guidance of Ishi, is the origen of the double-eye symbols so prevalent in the book, and show us the way to enlightenment. I was thrilled when I realized that Jasnah is Palah. For odium, there is nothing else, just a red crystal with emptiness around him. EDIT: I don't know why this correlation to Shadesmar exist, but I'm pretty sure it's not coincidence. My completely unfounded guess is the Heralds picked up the 10 Shards of Honor/cultivation and used this Power together to create a prison for Odium in the cognitive realm. He leaks out over time just like ruin did and that causes Desolations.

I haven't heard any of this from any sources, it's all theory and could be wrong, but when so much starts working together I think it's unlikely. I started out with the idea that half the Spren are from cognitive and half from physical just based on the difference between Cryptics and Windspren. StoneWardens (Topaz) and Windspren are clearly Physical, so the bottom was Cognitive. I also was trying to prove that all 10 surges were purely Honor. I assumed from the outset that Shallan was using both honor and cultivation due to the quote about her Memory Cultivation in Chapter 7, so I was only trying to match her up with Soulcasting. She Soulcasted blood so Shash was easy for her. I also knew her two powers had to be far away from physical (so mental, temporal or enhancement) and one was Transformation. For the moment I was stumped so I filled in Stonewardens and skybreakers to complete the physical side of things. I also figured Jasnah would be mostly cognitive so I put her on Emerald and now I knew soulcasting and travel. At this point it was clear that left was internal and right was external powers. Next I worked on fire, which was intuitive based on color and form. It turned out that heat and cold were external mental, so I knew the internal mental powers would be opposite them and HOLY CRAP! Shallan's other power was Memory! Kaladin is clearly Honor and Shallan is clearly Cultivation and they are on opposite sides of the table! This is where I started thinking about the two Greatshells and noticed the symbolism of the spiritual union. The two shards went and merged on us! And now the table is complete.

Three of sixteen ruled, but there is no reason to assume odium was part of that. We know there was a 4th shard on another planet in the same solar system. I am pretty sure that shard is responsible for the Old Magic and has already been fully Splintered. Now about the Table of Dissonance. I named this the Tanavallah because the two charts mimic the Kabbalah. Everything has meaning, from color to form to relationships. So lets break down what we are seeing in the second Table. There is a large red crystal in the center, which represents a Shard. The only place where the physical and cognitive realms exist is above and below this shard and they are getting hammered with lightning. Interpretation: Everything that isn't a part of Odium was destroyed and the swirling darkness is the Void. Also notice the symbols of fire and shadow including the outstretched arms of the woman, the swirling flames on top and the ribbons of darkness on bottom, the lightning bolts and shadow bolts between Voids and Orders, and the dramatic contrast between red shard and black void. Pretty much all we know about the Voidbringers is that they are associated with fire and shadow. The real clincher though is how they inverted half of the surge glyphs. This would act just like noise cancellation headphones. If you are interested, try drawing a sine wave and see if you can do a semi inversion to get net zero.

Voidbringing looks like it involves creating antimatter, but it can affect all three realms. It completely negates the power of creation and all you are left with is energy and empty space.

6 elements actually, it's a Star of David with revelation at the top paired with spiritual growth at the bottom Edit: When you use a certain Gem for Soulcasting, one element is easier to create than all the others. For example, Emerald Soulcasters create food which is the physical substance associated with Growth. We know Jasnah used Smokestone, Ruby and Diamond and we usually see her Soulcasting things into Smoke, Fire or Crystal. Shallan created Blood, which is the element type for her Order. The six primary elements are Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Growth and Direction. The secondary elements are formed by combining these. For example, Smoke is a combination of Fire, Water and Air.

Rock may have some aspect of the Awareness or Perception Surges. I'd think he will end up being a Stonewarden with Strength and Perception.

I posted this topic at the same time as The Tanavallah, see that post for my interpretation of the Vader Head.