Isomere

I don't really understand why getting enough breaths allows you to break some of the rules of Awakening. It is true that the Godking can Awaken without sound, but he can also use grey objects to Awaken and create prismatics from white objects. Something odd is happening there, and I'm assuming it has to do with color-control. We can definitely agree that sound is not a required focus, but I still think it helps shape the color into Biochroma which can be managed without sound if you have sufficient color-control.

The harmonics and the hues. I believe sound and color combined is the Focus on Nalthis. The Command itself is a sound, and acts as a focus for the Intent the awakener endows the object. Pigment then gets drained similar to how metal is vaporized on Scadrial. Could the sound waves and color interact to create Biochromatic aura? As for end-energy, I would support an end-positive mechanism for awakening. Awakened objects move, and the energy has to come from somewhere.

Or a deathbed delirium of Kaladin that never actually happened

Personally I like the ambiguity. We are left with evidence that spren are both attracted to certain things, but can also cause those things to occur. Sort of like the particle/wave duality of light, spren are to some extent defined by their context, which determines if they are attracted to an event or create it.

I see several strong options for why there was a gap and now suddenly new surgbinders. 1) The Nahelspren were kept separate from the people to prevent bonding. 2) The people were all just too dishonorable for bonding to occur. 3) Gavilar/Szeth/Parshendi did something off page. I really like the idea of Gavilar messing around with the power of the Parshendi Gods triggering something with the Honorspren I also like the idea of the original Radiants hiding their spren from the corrupt world, and creating a trigger to release them when the time was right. My previous theory about Szeth is interesting, but seems less likely. A Stoneshaman temple filled with Shardblades and trapped Honorspren, unleashed when Szeth broke the seal and released them into the world.

No, I don't think all spren were trapped, just the ones able to bond with KRs. It's a pretty wild speculation and might not stand up to close inspection. EDIT: ninja'd by hoser. The quote has lot's of wiggle room, but strongly suggests that the Splintering of Honor occurred after the Heralds were created. From what I can understand, a lot of people think he was splintered after the Recreance because it was included as a vision, and Tanavast says he directly viewed "most" of the visions.

The concept of a mathematical savant frightens Shadowblazes? Joel is kinda strange when it comes to numbers and geometry. My guess is the Shadowblaze will take time to learn about Joel before it can bond.

I like your idea that people attract and bond to a spren by living their lives in harmony with the Ideals of an Order. It seems to be in keeping with Kaladin trying to protect those who are weak. It also seems to relate to Shallan and her obsession with creating a visual archive of Nature, (memory surge fits nicely with an archivist) but may also be related to her keeping such dark secrets given what we know of the Cryptics. Perhaps we will see it with Dalinar and his desire to lead and unite his people, and it makes me curious if Elhokar is hiding some very dark secrets behind the throne. We really don't have enough info to explain why we haven't seen radiants before, but we do have a time-frame. Surgebinding resurfaced at about the same time as Gavilar started changing which also correlates to the first death rattle. Szeth became a Truthless around that time, and the Parshendi first appeared. I know correlation =/ causation, but any of these could be part of the reason people are bonding Spren again. I like Kiwi's idea connecting this with the desolation, but did the desolation release the spren, or did the Release of the Spren start the desolation? Personally I've been kicking around a theory about the Stoneshamen. Baseless speculation, but could the spren have been trapped in Shinnovar all these years? Szeth may have released them all when he violated the codes of his people and stole a windspren. Gavilar messing around with Powers better left untouched is a good idea too. And we shouldn't discount the coming of the Parshendi seemingly from thin air.

We actually DO know that some spren were formed by merging pieces of honor and cultivation, but I'll admit that intentionally creating splinters together is speculation. All Spren are pieces of the one who has gone. All spren are pieces of either Honor or Cultivation or some mixture between the two. This spren is more honor, that spren is more cultivation. Seems pretty solid confirmation that at least some spren have part of both shards inside of them. The spren that appear all over the place are probably a result of Honor's fall, but we know that some Spren existed BEFORE he was splintered. I speculate that spren capable of radiant-bonds are splinters that were intentionally created and are all mixtures of both Honor and Cultivation. EDIT: Shardlet hasn't posted on this forum, but given his choice of avatar I found a deep need to include this picture. Sooooo creepy. Shardlet Double Eye KR symbol Double Eye Double Skull

None of the shards are native to Roshar. Cultivation and Honor arrived long before Odium. There is another shard on a nearby planet or moon in the same solar system that was likely there before honor and cultivation showed up.

So amazing to see odium spren in action. Maby the reason shardblades work the way they do is because they were designed to kill spren. The rock in a thunderclast is just a vessel after all, and I'd assume the Spren could just keep making more clasts forever unless killed. @Shardlet. Pretty sure Cryptics are Cultivationspren, but I'm hesitant to call the grey stuff around a dead Greatshell Cultivationspen.

Being romantically involved could be satisfied by a childhood crush on Yolen that never amounted to anything. It could also mean what I suggest above or anything in between. It certainly is not proof of my theory, just another nudge that these two shards were working very closely together. We know they merged their Investiture when creating Spren, is it such a huge leap to theorize the investiture of the Shards also mixed temporarily while they were creating new splinters together?

This quote strongly supports Honor and Cultivation merging in some manner. What does it mean for two people without physical bodies to make love? We have been told that Shards inhabit power and energy the way humans inhabit flesh and blood, and I see no more intimate relationship than having these energies merge to create something new.Edit: here is the source: http://theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=985/#5

Only if the person using the metal spike had Investiture from Ruin and had an Identity attuned to Ruin prior to spiking Dalinar.Could Elend and Vin have traded breaths? No, they don't have Breath. And if some people from Nalthis gave them lots of Breath they would still not be able to trade or use them unless they somehow attuned their Identity to Endowment. Could a Mistborn with a stomach full of metals use them on Nalthis, Sel, or Roshar? Space travel with Allomancy will become possible, which suggests you can use it on other planets. Extrapolate this and we can theorize surgebinding and Awakening work on distant planets. So far Sel is the only confirmed place where magic doesn't work away from home.

Theory: Rayse splintered the shard Hoid held.

I have never seen confirmation that Cultivation has not been splintered, only that the person from Yolen who picked up that shard is still alive. I see no reason to assume splintering is necessarily fatal to the holder. That said, there are good arguments to support Cultivation being intact. I like the theory that she is forming Odium's prison. I also like the idea that she is simply hiding and promoting growth and evolution from the shadows. If the prison is in Shadesmar she could actually be both hiding and trapping odium at the same time.

I like this idea, Cultivation's holder is confirmed to be alive, and we have no idea what she is doing at the moment. I've always assumed it was the Heralds that were keeping Odium on Roshar. They seem to be involved in some sort of plot to keep something very big and very bad trapped, and they endangered that by not going back to Damnation after the previous desolation. Will be interesting to find out more.

One reason most people think Szeth's blade is a third category is because of this quote. To me it says the big shardblades were designed to fight Thunderclasts, and the little ones were designed to kill Humans. Intuitive leap to say one is from honor the other, not so much. Most people assume this quote to mean there are only three types of shardblade, but reading it again it only says that we have already seen three kinds. That means it's possible we may encounter more types in future books. It also gives us a tantalizing hint that actions are very important for only SOME shardbearers. I think it has to do with Identity. MISTBORN SPOILERS: I'd like to compare Snapping and saying the Ideals of the KR. In both cases the person already has the Investiture, the right sDNA and the right cultural heritage needed to access a magic system. In both cases personal experiences make them better able to use magic. One major difference though: Snapping is instant and absolute, and the Ideals are progressive. You can't snap twice and get additional power the second time, but with Surgebinding there is a process where your magic incrementally grows. I believe these both represent a person's Identity being Attuned to the local Shard, which allows more powerful use of magic. It seems on Scadrial this is a binary process (it is either on or off) while on Roshar it's sort of a cumulative effect of all the choices the person has made and the effects those choices have on the person's character. Becoming Honorable doesn't happen overnight and requires consistent adherence to Ideals. Giving lip-service to the ideals would likely not have the same effect as having the words spark in your mind as you progress on the path to become a KR. Now why did I say all this crap about Identity? Well, just that using a Shardblade for a dishonorable purpose would estrange you from Honor. For most that wouldn't matter much, but for a surgebinder it would jeapordize their ability to wield the power of Honor. I think this is a very solid way to interpret the quote above.

I don't know of a single place where wee have seen magic on a planet both before and after a splintering occurs. The best hint we have is from sel. We know that the Seons didn't exist before Odium came, so anything directly related to using Seons will be new. So are there hints about the magic system before the splintering? Yes indeed, and it seems the magic didn't change so much after all. No one knows who created the city of Elantris or where the people that originally lived there have gone. The Arelon people discovered the city already intact but completely empty, and just started living there. I believe the city was created before the coming of odium and was formed using the same Aons that currently work for Aon Dor. Since Aon Rao works the same before and after, this implies that splintering a shard doesn't need to fundamentally change the nature of the magic system on a planet. Same type of thing can be suggested for Roshar. I think the 10 Heralds existed long before the shattering of Honor, but the current magic system fits perfectly into Orders that each correspond to a Herald.

I've been assuming that Ruin was controlling events directly to form the random spikes. The odds of that much stuff lining up by coincidence is pretty slim and points to Shardic intervention.

All of the magic systems in the Cosmere seem to require a mental effort, a physical focus, and investiture from a Shard. I am confident that Hemalurgy is no different. Hemalurgy steals part of the Soul, packages it in a metal spike, then implants it into someone else. I'd guess that the type of metal and the placement location on the victim works together with the Hemalurgist's mental objective to determine what gets taken. Then the placement in the recipient determines how the stolen stuff gets merged with the new soul. I your idea that killing a Mistborn may let you steal multiple aspects of his power is an interesting one. The books tell us that only one of the powers can be stolen from a Mistborn, but maby the original Hemalurgists just didn't know how.

Lerasium bead may be implanted in his skin so no one can detect it (soul interference). In that setting he could be using it for Hemalurgy, Feruchemy, or just hiding it for later.

Mistborn stuff Find the correlate Vapor that Odium creates as part of his physical body. Wrap it up in a skin to keep it concentrated and give it form. Then let it's hatred loose on the unsuspecting. I don't really think Midnight Essence has a soul to rend. It's just condensed Shardic energy from Odium.

I like your ideas on symmetry and think it is reasonable to have the oathpact enforce a separation/symmetry between Honor and Odium. Incorporating the Shardblade-for-each-Shard into this to create symmetry between the gods is a nice touch as well. Your theory seems to hold up against the information we have so far. I am firmly against taking the Vorin religion at face value, so I'd be careful using the "Voidbinding is future-sight" in your theory. There is just too much evidence that the truth behind Vorinism was lost because the Heirocracy or Sunmaker or XXX deliberately changed it to suit their political goals. I'd guess that someone was being subtly influenced by Odium to denounce prophecy in order to blind men to the upcoming Desolation that they should have been preparing for.

The Alloy of law strongly implies that burning gold does indeed allow you to gain information from the other self. How else would Miles know about the men of Red and Gold who I presume are on the other continent. I bet one of his possible past selves crossed the Ocean. This could be a very powerful tool. For example, you could have an augur "scout" for you and get the report instantly. Just have him burn gold to see past selves that went scouting in different directions a few hours earlier. You could do all sorts of illegal things to get information without having to actually torture anyone or sneak anywhere.