Isomere

There is a clear Darth Vader presence in the book. You just have to look between the lines... literally.

They are definately connected, at least if you support Shardic Lens Theory. There is one central Power of Creation represented by a source of powerful Light. This light shines through a Lens called Adonalsium and creates the Cosmere. Somehow this lens was split into 16 lenses, and each one distorted the light based on their Intent. The filtered light now has 16 different colors as it enters the Cosmere and each of these colors represents an Aspect of Creation. Humans can only use this power if they get a piece of one of these 16 lenses. All 16 colors of light can be used by any lens and they can be combined in various ways to get different effects. The way magic is accessed in a given world depends on the Color of the lens (Shard's Intent), the Planet (Physical Focus), and the Human (Intellect). This corresponds to the spiritual, physical and cognitive realms respectively.

This is fantastic! If I am understanding correctly, you are saying the following: There is one central Power of Creation represented by a source of powerful Light. This light shines through a Lens called Adonalsium and creates the Cosmere. Somehow this lens was split into 16 lenses, and each one distorted the light based on their Intent. The filtered light now has 16 different colors as it enters the Cosmere and each of these colors represents an Aspect of Creation. Humans can only use this power if they get a piece of one of these 16 lenses. All 16 colors of light can be used by any lens and they can be combined in various ways to get different effects. The way magic is accessed in a given world depends on the Color of the lens (Shard's Intent), the Planet (Physical Focus), and the Human (Intellect). This corresponds to the spiritual, physical and cognitive realms respectively. I adapted this to Roshar and developed the Tanavallah Edit: I just realized that Fabrials are very good representations of this theory. Thanks Brandon The Stormlight is the power of creation. The Gem is the Shard. The Metal of the Fabrial is the Intellect. The pattern of shadow and light is the Physical You must have all three for any of it to work.

I'm honestly just amazed it took me so long to notice. Darth Vader is ON ROSHAR right now.

This entire post is a HUGE speculation, so be warned. Edit 6/11: This chart was created to mimic the Kabbalah, and uses color, form, relationships and symbols to create meaning. The ideas below are all my interpretations of these relationships and symbols. The main structure of the diagram is a large eye with two pupils and 10 lines radiating out from the center. The smaller symbols form a ring around the iris. The beasts wings form the sclera of the eye. If you take away all the trimmings it becomes the symbol of Knight's Radiant. "Dalinar recognized the symbol, the particular pattern of the stylized double eye, eight spheres connected with two at the center. It had been the symbol of the Lost Radiants, back when they’d been called the Knights Radiant." (Ch 19). But what does that symbol mean? I believe these images are a graphical representation that Honor and Cultivation merged into one Shard with two Intellects. In effect, they are both peering out of the same eye, but with slightly different points of view. The Harmonic Table: KR symbol Double Eye Double Skull I think its quite important that the two Winged Greatshells are symmetric, and that there is a single larger head with mandibles created in the negative space between the two physical forms. The left beast represents Cultivation, the right beast represents Honor, and the central head depicts the spiritual union of the two Shards. There is also a Glyph located at the place where the two Dragonwasp heads connect. The heads and symbol viewed together resemble a crown with the central gem placed over the forehead. This Gem contains the glyph of Ishi. Now putting it all together: Ishi is associated in the Ars Arcanum with guidance and piety, and resides in the third eye focus of the spiritual union of Honor and Cultivation. The Skybreakers then are an Order of Radiants devoted to guiding us based on visions of the future. Ishi is the 10th Glyph, so 10 becomes a symbol of revelation. Each glyph and map shape is important, and you can make similar interpretations for each order of the Knights Radiant. We can even use this image to figure out the general location of the two Shardic pools, and predict their release into the physical realm through the Greatshells. This is also a way to organize Surges, and by association, Invested Spren. Think of the diagram as a coordinate axis grid. The x-axis is Investiture, the y-axis is Realm. The quadrants tell you the element type. Before we go any farther I suggest you look at how the color changes from top to bottom. Up is Physical, down is Cognitive. Left is Cultivation, right is Honor. Each Spren relates to a primary element or combination of primary elements. Going clockwise from the top right we get air, fire, water, earth and spirit in the middle. The large glyphs are Spren, and correlate to an Order of Kights Radiant and an Honorblade. The small glyphs are Surges and represent a power of creation. Starting from 1:00 and going clockwise the Surges are: External Physical-Gravity, Pressure External Mental-Darkness, Light External Temporal-Transportation (Timespace Contraction) Internal Enhancement-Transformation (Spiritual Connection) Internal Mental-Memory, Awareness Internal Physical-Perception, Strength This fits with Windspren ( Pressure and Gravity), Cryptics (Memory and Transformation) and JasnahSpren (Transportation and Transformation). If this is grouped correctly, StoneWards would be Strength/ Perception. Edit: Skybreakers would be Strength and Gravity, Lightweavers might be Light and Transportation (which could explain how Hoid gets around through time and space) Where are the other 6 Surges? They were never Invested by Honor/Cultivation but the spren exist and some have already been incorporated into fabrials. We see a radiant use Heliodor (gold) to mend wounds and we've seen a painspren fabrial work. What is an Honorspren? What is a Cultivationspren? That depends on how sensitive or specific you want to be. I'll just arbitrarily say you must have more than 50%, which would give you 4 Honorspren, 4 Cultivationspren and two hybrids. A purist would say there are no Honorspren as they all contain a bit of Cultivation. Surges and Symmetry: To understand Voidbinding you will need to grasp the theory behind Surgebinding. Each Surge represents a power of creation and is accessed through an associated Wave, or perhaps through the Concept of how that wave should function, or through a portion of the Ideal Form of the original Wavepattern that sparked the creation of all things. It seems the medium is variable, and you can reproduce a Surgepattern with light, sound, color or even quantum probability waves. Notice that everything in the chart has perfect symmetry. This is a reflection of how waveforms have spin, creating alternating positive and negative cycles and generating perfectly balanced patterns. Symmetry became a cultural obsession in an attempt to get closer to the Harmonic Divine. Voidbinding The Table of Dissonance: Enter Odious Interference. His Intent is either to enslave or destroy everything else in the Cosmere. If He were to join the spiritual union He should add varying amounts of His investiture to each of the available spren, effectively creating a z-axis to the Harmonic Table. But He is a Jealous Younger Brother and didn't want to sully His Essence by combining with others. Instead, He found a way to enslave or destroy the Surges in the Harmonic Table. First, he created a way to trap the Investiture of the paired Shards into StormGems (Fabrials) and harnessed their powers. Next he used those powers to create perfect dissonance in the waveforms of the 10 Surges. Notice that the Table of Dissonance pairs up exactly with the Table of Harmonics. Surges are warped by reversing their charge and spin. This would in effect create an anti-surge. The very powers of creation are turned against themselves. Matter, Spirit and Mind are replaced by Fire and Shadow. EDIT: you can try this out for yourself by drawing a sine wave. Try and swing the part below the x-axis to create net zero at all points along the graph. EDIT: This is a supernova created when a star began to produce antimatter at its core. The organized matter turns into random energy and forms fire and empty space. This theory is far from complete, but it is as thorough as I can make it with the Splinters I'm working with. I'll be trying to finish the Harmonic Table based on Shardic Lens Theory, but could be hard to link everything up with only 10 of the 16 powers. My guess is we will see more Fabrials fill in the gaps for us. Since this theory depends on Honor and Cultivation uniting into one spiritual entity, it serves to reason that they are both partially splintered and partially whole. How that would affect the Cognitive aspect of the two shards is unclear, but best interpreted after reading chapter 57 and 75. Edit: I've done numerous organizational changes to clarify things, and I changed the Labels on the image a bit. For example, Heat changed to Light Edit 4/28: Based on discussions on page 3, renamed inertia to Strength, switched Gravity and Pressure locations. Updated image to reflect changes. Removed "Spin" from OP to avoid unnecessary confusion.

The tiniest bits of matter have their own waveform, but when they start interacting with other objects the two waves merge and create a single more complex system. Quantum waveforms can be huge. Some of the experiments with entanglement and non-locality dealt with waves that stretch from the surface of earth out to orbiting satellites. There is no theoretical limit to how big they can get. Some of the theories even suggest that the entire Universe is one massive resonant probability wave. TES

I've always assumed it correlates to our Milky Way and can tell us something about the way their Galaxy works.

They last a lot longer than just a couple of weeks. I think the current desolation started with the death of Gavilar. “I ask myself this same thing. How could we let this occur? The Desolations are well named. I’ve heard initial counts. Eleven years of war, and nine out of ten people I once ruled are dead. Do we even have kingdoms to lead any longer? Sur is gone, I’m sure of it. Tarma, Eiliz, they won’t likely survive. Too many of their people have fallen.” (From chapter 60)

Nahel bond = merging the knight radiant into the quantum wave function of his spren. They each get some attributes of the other, and together form a new entity.

There is a lot of conflicting information. I'm certainly not saying the continents DID rotate 180 degrees, but we just need to be careful not to make too many assumptions about east and west. Keep an open mind and don't rule things out just because the location doesn't match up. This goes for political boundaries as well as continental. Alethkar may be in the same place, but who is to say they didn't get kicked off their original land and then a couple thousand years later "reclaimed" their birthright in the "east"?

We need to be extremely careful about east/west here. The map of Roshar seems like it is rotating on an axis around the Purelake, so what was west 4500 years ago may now actually be east. The people in the book usually refer to it as stormward and leeward.

There have been a bunch of theories out there that spren are the physical focus of magic in Roshar, but they all seem to have trouble. There are just so many exceptions. I have found a solid theory that will work for all the aspects of magic we've seen so far in the book. Any waveform can satisfy the need for a physical focus on Roshar. This includes sound, light, and spren (which represent quantum waveforms imbued with investiture). SOUND: There is good evidence that sound has been used as a focus for magics on Roshar. Examples include The dawnsingers, Dawnchant, the Dawncities, the Parshendi song, the Eternal Words, etc. There is evidence that soulcasting creates an associated sound, but unless the casting is very dramatic the sound is not audible. One example where the sound did occur is when Jasnah removes the stone debris for Taravangian. “And then, briefly, Shallan heard a sound. A low thrumming, like a distant group of voices, humming together a single, pure note. Jasnah’s hand sank into the rock. The stone vanished.” (From chapter 5). Other examples of sound include the heartbeat for summoning a shardblade, the verbal request for a boon from the Old Magic, and the rhythm of battle with the thrill. Cultivation also apparently uses rhythm, and her magic is associated with soul-sprouts: “When she collected a Memory of a person, she was snipping free a bud of their soul, and she cultivated and grew it on the page. Charcoal for sinew, paper pulp for bone, ink for blood, the paper’s texture for skin. She fell into a rhythm, a cadence, the scratching of her pencil like the sound of breathing from those she depicted.”(from Chapter 7) LIGHT: . The fabrials are in part based on the particular cut of the stormgems, "Patterns of stormlight filtered through the fabrial determine the power of the gem." (see translation of Navani’s Notes). So light waves may also contribute as a focus for magic. The other aspect of fabrial creation brings us to... SPREN: These little buggers have dazzled and confused us all for many Weepings. I'll limit myself in the OP to only discussing their physical realm aspects. They seem to follow mathematical probability patterns based on the research being done by Geranid. With these math equations she can predict their size, light intensity, oscillation patterns etc. That being said, they seem to randomly change between permitted values. They also demonstrate quantum entanglement, non-locality (spanreeds) and their nature becomes altered by measurement. We haven’t seen proof yet, but there are lots of hints that they can quantum tunnel. It sounds like Sanderson is drawing heavily on quantum theory, and spren like Syl are part of a probability waveform that has been invested with Honor. Interacting with them would satisfy the need for a waveform focus. The Highstorm: Probably a large Splinter of Honor that incorporates all three types of focus. The pressure fronts are literally sound waves, and stormlight radiates out of the depths of the tempest. Given the random predictability, it is also associated with a multi-dimensional quantum probability waveform. We know splinters like to inhabit the physical focus of the planet, so that is consistent. Another fun tidbit is the way Tanavast recorded his journal in a Cosmere scale sound-byte. EDIT: i'm now thinking that only sound is the focus, and the other uses of magic all use Stormlight to bypass the focus.

The physical focus of all magic on Roshar is waveforms, likely the SOUND of the heartbeats is what matters. As for the number 10, it seems to crop up a lot, and I don't have a good explanation for it.

Completely agree that a splinter needs to interact with a human to function properly, and that without the bond they don't develop sentience. I'll explain why I think sentience is an important distinction though. It's all about thresholds. Breath is a small fragment of Endowment, but it does not have sufficient investiture to form a Splinter. Devine Breath is a small fragment of Endowment, but it does have sufficient investiture to form a Splinter. They are basically the exact same thing, but one is just more powerfully Invested. The reason Splinters get a different name from your run-of-the-mill everyday investiture is BECAUSE they have the ability to develop their own cognitive identity (with the help of a physical focus and a spirit-bond to a human). Now on to semantics and definitions. If anyone has a better term to refer to a Splinter-Focus-Human triad let me know and I will use that word. Until then, I suggest we all refer to this as a Splinter to be consistent with the Shard precedent. I have edited my original post to reflect this.

The issue here is just a matter of definitions, and it's identical to shard discussion. A shard does not have sentience. A shard plus a human does have sentience, but it is still called a Shard. In the same way, the actual splinter of the shard does not have sentience, but when it interacts with a physical focus it develops sentience and is still called a splinter. All splinters seen so far have paired up with the standard physical focus of the planet they were created on. Extrapolated from this, the shards are purely spiritual entities, and must combine with a physical focus to gain sentience. Using realmatic theory, the interaction of a sufficient quantity of both spiritual and physical matter is required to develop a cognitive identity. How about a plato's cave analogy: Your physical body and your spiritual body both create a shadow. Where those two shadows overlap the cognitive aspect is formed. The reverse argument is made on this thread http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/3190-visualization-of-realmatics/?p=51885. It tries to explain soulcasting and basically says that if an external power changes your cognitive aspect, the physical aspect will be forced to change as well.

@69, I support the idea that the highstorm is a part of the shattered shard of Honor. I actually think it is the largest remaining splinter of Honor, and was a contingency plan Tanavast set up if he were to be killed. I posted some info about waveforms being the physical focus of all magic on Roshar here http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/3107-the-nature-of-splinters/?p=52889. Sound waves, light waves and probability waves all seem to work for powering magic. The Highstorm is actually just a huge standing pressure wave which reverberates around Roshar. All such waves have amplitude, at least one node, and a period. The amplitude determines how powerful the Highstorm is (how much pressure gradient is in the stormfront) A node is a spot on the wave where the amplitude is zero and the period is the time between cycles. During a node, the chance of a highstorm hitting is zero which would correlate with the Weeping. The people use the Weepings to define time, so a year on Roshar depicts a full period of the Stormwave, not necessarily a full rotation around the sun. The highstorm follows patterns that can be predicted based on mathematical equations. These seems to have probability features similar to the schrodinger equation in quantum mechanics. That means you cannot know for certain when a storm will come, or what season will be next, but you can find out how likely a given outcome is. Stepping back a bit, what does a series of pressure waves traveling through the atmosphere create? Correct, sound waves. The Highstorm is music from Honor recorded to contain his Journal. It's sort of like a supernatural Ham Radio emergency transmission on a never-ending loop. Dalinar, Kaladin and at least one other dead guy somehow managed to tune in and could perceive the message contained in the storm.

From what I can see, the splinters have several attributes in common. 1) A large quantity of investiture 2) Sentience (EDIT: the ability to develop sentience) 3) A focus based on the world it is created in 4) A tendency to bond with humans. Two confirmed Splinters: Seons, Returned Some Suspected Splinters: Nightblood, Spren capable of Nahel bonds, the Highstorm, Honorblades EDIT: Under strict interpretation, the splinter is the Aon at the center of the Seon and the Devine Breath at the center of the Returned. We need a term to describe a splinter interacting with a physical focus and a human spirit-bond. Since this correlates quite well to the interaction between a shard and it's holder and the combination is still referred to as a Shard, I recommend referring to a Seon spirit-bonded to a human as a Splinter of Devotion. Here is the best list I can come up with of Shards and associated aspects: We know so little of the other shards I just left them out. Cognitive (Liquid) - Spiritual (Gas) - Physical (Solid) - Focus Preservation - Well of Ascension - Mists - Lerasium - Metal Ruin - Pits of Hathsin - Black Vapor - Atium - Metal Endowment - Unknown - Breath - Unknown (Tears of Edgli?) -Biochroma/Color Honor - Unknown, but likely at the Origen - Stormlight - Unknown* - Waveforms^ Devotion - Elantris Pool - Dor - Unknown* - Symbols (Maps) Dominion - Unknown - Dor? - Unknown* - Symbols (Written in Blood,Flesh or Bone) *The last three shards are splintered; the physical form may have been completely destroyed in the process. The focus for the planet gives us hints as to where the remnants of physical essence may be hidden... ^A note on waveforms. There is good evidence that sound has been used as a focus for magics on Roshar. Examples include The dawnsingers, Dawnchant, the Dawncities, the Parshendi song, the Eternal Words, etc. There is evidence that soulcasting creates an associated sound, but unless the casting is very dramatic the sound is not audible. One example where the sound did occur is when Jasnah removes the stone debris for Taravangian. It is clear that sound is insufficient to explain all the magics though. The fabrials are in part based on patterns of light that are created due to the particular cut of the soulgems (see translation of navani’s notes). So light waves may also contribute as a focus for magic. I believe that any type of resonant waveform can be the focus for magic on Roshar.Seons: Investiture came from the destruction of Devotion, The focus is a symbol in AonDor. Their bond can be given away and is typically hereditary. Returned: Investiture is directly from Endowment in the form of a Devine Breath. The focus is Color and they radiate a huge biochromatic aura. The bond is with the person whose breath was returned, and is permanent. Nightblood: Accumulate enough little breaths, and you get sufficient investiture to form a splinter. The focus is color and it will drain a good sized swath to collect enough hues to support its biochromatic aura. Nightblood formed a strong bond with his creator and still tends to look for her, in spite of the fact that he and Vasher killed her. Spren: The investiture is from the Shattered Shard of Honor. The focus is a waveform, and the bond is with a knight radiant. Spren follow mathematical probability patterns based on the research being done by Geranid. With these math equations she can predict their size, light intensity, oscillation patterns etc. That being said, they seem to randomly change between permitted values. They also demonstrate quantum entanglement, non-locality (spanreeds) and their nature and state are altered by measurement. We haven’t seen proof yet, but presumably they also demonstrate quantum tunneling. It sounds like Sanderson is drawing heavily on quantum theory, and spren are part of a probability waveform that has been invested with Honor. As such, they make perfect sense as the focus for a splinter. The Highstorm: Investiture from the Shattered Shard of Honor. The focus is a HUGE standing wave pattern containing the journal of Tanavast. Bonds form with people that are aligned with Honor and exposed to the storm. The bond allows them to interpret the information contained in the Storm. Bonded people can “hear” this wave and have visions during the highstorms. Honorblades: too early to know if these are sentient. If they are, then they’re probably splinters of honor.

Does the weeping on Roshar occur all at once on the whole planet, or is there a mobile swath of weeping that migrates? Are the random seasons local or planet wide? More specifically, do the weepings correspond to a standing wave node of some kind?