Isomere

Yea native is kinda vague. I'm coming up with several ways to use that term, will be interesting to see how it ends up: A shard is native to the first planet it "occupied" after the Shattering of Adonalsium A shard is native to any planet it creates from scratch A shard is native if it was the first to create sentient life on a planet. A shard is native if it was the first "investiture" to arrive on the planet. (perhaps the same thing as option 3) Leuthie's idea that all shards are native to Yolen I also think most of the shardblades we see in the WoK are derived from the Almighty, though Szeth's could be an exception.

I am perfectly content if the soul does get Returned. In fact, I think that's what I would place my money on if I had to wager right now. However, there is plausible evidence that the original soul is not needed. Based on Clod, a foreign breath and the physical body is enough to grant the skills and attributes of the original owner and should theoretically be able to access memories stored in the brain. We really don't have much information about Nightblood. If it is indeed a splinter, it's the only man-made one we know of. Personally I think it still bears a symbiotic connection to it's creator, and there are several hints of that in text. Perhaps she invested more than just breath into the sword...

@ ROSH: A couple possible explanations. Splinters can merge completely with a soul OR form a symbiotic bond. I like this idea. Perhaps you can also access a Shard via symbiotic bond? Very interesting possibilities down this road. The original Soul of the dead guy isn't actually in the body of the Returned. This would help explain why they lose their memories, and is consistent with Splinters having separate sentience from their bonded human. I have heard many theories trying to prove that the original soul returns, but I can see ways around all the supposed "proofs". It is possible that only the "Breath" portion of the soul returns, reinforced with a full Splinter of investiture. The rest of the soul (including the intellect) could be chilling out in the cognitive realm and direct things from there. Perhaps the Returned dreams are a way for the dead soul to communicate with the physical realm while maintaining access to all the visions of the future and such that Scoot talks about people seeing after death. @ Kurk: A cognitive aspect may not be the same thing as sentience or intellect. Yes, all things seem to "think" in the cognitive realm, but why are they unable to do so in the physical realm? I believe there is something "else" inside the soul that allows sentience. I call this something else an "intelligence", and it seems Shardic Investiture lacks this extra something because it just doesn't function without a bonded partner.

This theory is based off two assumptions. Shardblades originally were designed to pass through most living creatures without hurting them. Shardblades were specifically created to destroy investiture from Odium, or creatures with this investiture I'm envisioning a thunderclast smashing through troops in combat, a radiant comes along and slashes wildly with his shardblade, hacks the rock-beast apart but the allies nearby are protected from instant death since the blade passes right through them instead of shearing off their heads. So what changed? Why do they cut the souls of men now? Perhaps it has to do with innate investiture. Odium was not from Roshar, so the people born on the planet did not originally have any of his investiture inside of them. But Odium attuned to the planet in some way. Brandon has confirmed that Odium did certain things which allow people on roshar to access his power. To me this means that people on Roshar are born with a bit of Odious Investiture woven into their soul. Now when a Shardblade passes through a human it detects odium and goes into destroy mode. Basically, I'm suggesting that the Shardblades haven't changed, but the people have changed to allow previously benign blades to kill.

http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=692/#11 http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=836/#49 A planet visible from Roshar has a shard. Honor and Cultivation came to Roshar long before Odium showed up, but presumably after leaving their own native planets. To me it makes sense that the "Old Magic" was the magic available before the Almighty showed up, but that is purely conjecture. It is not clear if the shard from silence divine has any magical influence on Roshar, but it is clear that it never actually "came" to Roshar since only three shards (Honor, Cultivation and Odium) have been on the planet.

I'd like to explore some thoughts about investiture merged with the soul compared to investiture in a symbiotic relationship. I'm not really sure if this distinction exists, but just run with it for a bit and see how it meshes with splinters. Now, we don't really know what a Soul is in the cosmere, but it seems clear that part of the soul can be made up of Investiture from a Shard. The "bits" of Ruin/Preservation on Scadrial, the breath on Nalthis, etc. These bits of investiture seem to enhance and improve the person they are attached to, making them more aware, more resistant to disease, more spiritually connected. It also seems likely that investiture somehow is able to expand the mind, or make things more intelligent. One example is how Sazed was able to just dump all the info from his metalminds into his own brain after he Ascended. I'm not sure this is a hard and fast rule; does a drab have a lower IQ than he had before giving away the breath? <<Shrug>> maby. But regardless I think that something about investiture helps nurture and expand intelligence and sentience. On the other hand, we have symbiots. The investiture seems completely latent when it is not linked to a living intelligence. But create a symbiotic bond and you get a sentient Spren or Seon. How does that happen? Well based on the stuff Syl talks about, the bond let's the two share bits of each other. The spren can develop intelligence and sentience because the human has sentience. The human can start using magic because the Spren has investiture that allows access to the Powers of Creation. So each partner in the bond gains access to attributes of the other. It seems with splinters the extra cognitive power of investiture is used to create a new "borrowed" sentience rather than to enhance just one mind, but I think the intellect of the Sliver is still coming from the human. I think it's interesting that people "have" a splinter but "become" a shard. For example, there is a clear separation between Syl and Kaladin, but there is no separation at all between Sazed and Harmony. So I theorize that Shards actually merge with the soul of the person that picks them up, while Splinters just form a symbiotic relationship. The mind of the shardholder is dramatically expanded, while the bearer of a splinter gets a lifelong friend with its own cognitive powers. I'll let someone else delve into the Intent part of your thread.

There are remarkable similarities between feruchemy zinc and taravangian's mental acuity. I had never made that parallel before and think it's a very nice catch. There are also differences as people have noted. I see the same type of parallel with allomancy iron vs windrunner basic lashings. Personally I am hoping for this overarching theme: The same Power of Creation being used by different Shards to perform similar tasks but with slightly different rules.

He snuck into the Tower of Nebrask, got possessed by a Charcoal stick figure. Woke up several years later with a very angry Rithmatist standing over him amidst the debris of a chalk battle. After that he had a disturbing obsession with the pattern for silencing, but didn't know how it was used. Then he decided to settle down, get a girl pregnant, make lots of chalk and fill his son's mind with rithmatic formulae. And that folks, is the honest truth right out of the horse's mouth. EDIT: the horse was lying by the way, so don't trust him.

Drab God was a term Brandon came up with on the fly when posed with a situation he had seemingly never considered before. Interpret with a grain of salt.

yup, I also agree. This is kinda the idea behind the theory I espouse - Sunmaker Changed Vorinism. I also think that "Voidbringing = prophecy" is a huge lie meant to blind the Alethi people to the guidance of the Almighty.

I am willing to wager that long before publishing Elantris Brandon plotted out the Cosmere Story Arc. He likely knew that Odium had come to Sel, corrupted the religions and shattered the Shards on the planet. Hate, Love, and Power. Odium, Devotion, Dominion. And the overarching theme of Unity viewed from all three perspectives. These three themes are woven into the fabric of the novel. Having a quote like Hrathen gives packed with thematically relevant ideas screams at me that Brandon is foreshadowing.

Mikanium, can you post that link please? I don't think i've ever read that quote about Lerasium. I think it is too early to suppose lerasium has no effect on Roshar magic.

His theory as I read supposes that there are a total of 16 pure metals in Allomancy and we have only seen 8 if them. These would be separate from the 16 God Metals. I like the theory but don't see a good way to test it right now.

I like your theory. Some interesting supportive facts: Each chapter heading in the mistborn series has an allomantic symbol, and there are some that don't have a metal assigned to them. There is foreshadowing at the end of Alloy of law that other metals exist (newspaper article, Miles' last words). What we do know is that each book so far has changed the tables of the metals, so if you are going by patterns we should continue to get more knowledge and add more stuff.

What I'm interested in is why Marsh gave Wax a book about Hemalurgy right after he got involved with his uncle. Could they be breeding not to have an army of allomancers, but to sacrifice the babies for Hemalurgic spikes?

So the symbols literally ARE their numbers. Jes = number 1, so this is just a numbering sequence with symmetry: Jes - Nan - Chach - Nan - Jes == 1 - 2 - 3 - 2 - 1 How much would you wager that Nan will be embossed on the hardcover of Words of Radiance?

I can see this interpretation working, but it would have a lot more strength if the regrowth fabrial didn't use Heliodor and Topaz. To me that links regrowth with orders 9 and 10. Your interpretation of Kalak in the prelude is quite sound. To me however, he seems to be mourning the wanton destruction and terrible loss of life. That is the work of the Dustbringers, and Kalak's comment echoes his sorrow as he takes in the scene.

I strongly agree with you phantom. I view Cryptics as Cultivationspren. (the entire left side of the hourglass is cultivationspren for me)

The only way I can see to create cymatic patterns in the earth is if you surrounded an area with barriers that can reflect sound waves. Then you need to produce the right tone to match the resonant frequency of the land you enclosed in the reflectors. Yes, the pitch would likely be well below human hearing. My theory has huge Greatshells creating those sounds, perhaps singing in concert with the original Dawnsingers.

Mistborn spoilers here: I can see a way to make SOUND the focus, and just eliminate all the other waveforms from the equation. It does require one big assumption: stormlight correlates to the gas form of Honor's physical body. If that is true, then what we see with stormlight on Roshar is similar to people directly burning the Mists on Scadrial. When you directly burn the body of a god you can bypass the planet's Focus altogether. (We see elend and vin do this) Soooooo, what does that mean? It may be possible to access magic on Roshar without the use of stormlight, but would require the correct use of sound as a physical focus. There are many places where we see people do "Magical" things on Roshar without using stormlight. Shallan putting memories on a page correlates quite well with copper feruchemy and doesn't use any stormlight. It DOES use sound to mimic the breathing of the people she depicts. Summoning a shardblade doesn't use any stormlight, but it uses the sound of 10 heartbeats The thrill is suggested to give you increased strength, precision and mental acuity. It doesn't use stormlight but always comes with the rhythm of battle/contest. The inexplicable coordination of the Parshendi doesn't seem to use stormlight but is magical and definitely connected to song. Others?

Some possible interpretations of the connections: The circle created by the connections between surges forms an eye (or more specifically an iris) All the orders are paired into a male-female connection. Could represent a "marriage" or a complement system. If that is true they may share oaths and other attributes with orders they connect to. The element combination theory: Crystal is a mixture of earth, air, fire and growth; smoke is a mixture of fire, air and water; molten metal is a mixture of earth, fire, water; blood is a mixture of water, earth, air and growth The connections were drawn this way to mimic a fabrial stormlight pattern that resembles a sideways hourglass

@Hoser: I haven't seen a WOB about Lightweavers being order 4, but most people lump it there since the Ars Arcanum symbolism seems to match up. I personally don't think regrowth is a surge since the Stoneward used a fabrial to heal. The gems in the healing fabrial were Heliodor and Topaz, so IF it is a surge I think it should go right where Cem has it. We also know Heliodor is the soulcasting gem for Flesh so it would make sense for that to be associated with healing. @OP: Dustbringer and voidbringer seem like deliberately similar words and both probably represent servants of Odium. I'm personally hoping for Fireheart or Embersoul for order 3 My grouping has light and warmth as the same surge since that glyph kinda looks like wavy flames and they are both related (light creates warmth, warmth makes things glow). Separating them seems to work just fine though.

I like your theory, and you clearly put a good deal of thought into organizing it. Enjoy an upvote.

Can odium continue affecting people if he doesn't have any investiture on the planet? I've been meaning to organize my thoughts on how svrakiss correlate to the Unmade and I think that is very relevant to this thread. There is some evidence that Odium uses dead souls that can possess living bodies. Could that be a way to keep your influence going on a planet even when not there? Perhaps a dead soul with the Investiture of Odium could possess someone on Sel and actually use Odium's magic there...

Spren exist everywhere but are only visible if stormlight infuses them?