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Yeah, but not because of the reason you might be thinking. Motivators from an Epic don't normally work after Larcener/Calamity "Assumes" the Epic's powers. That's why Calamity reacted the way he did to Prof appearing with his own motivators strapped to his chest: Then notice what David said shortly afterwards: So basically, by risking failure (which was Prof's weakness) in order to help David (an act of heroism which was Calamity's weakness), Prof leaped from Level 1 to Level 5 in the power ownership scale. Actually, David implied that Prof went straight to Level 6. Which makes sense, since Prof probably had to accept his powers in order to do what he did. I'll edit the OP to make that clear (and to fix some typos ). The point is that the motivators themselves were useless. It is the act of trying to use them that changed Prof's level of ownership.

I know I'm supposed to be on a 17th Shard break, but a recent reply to my Transfersion thread has forced me to elaborate on the concept of "power ownership" that I used in my Transfersion theory. This concept covers Epic powers in general, so I'm (re-)posting my thoughts on it in a separate thread. One thing I haven't seen discussed here is how Megan prevented Calamity from taking away her powers, as well as how Prof regained his powers after Calamity removed it. After reading these scenes, as well as thinking about the concepts of Gifting and Assuming, I think it's apparent that there are levels of power ownership. Here's my speculative list of ownership levels from lowest to highest, including how I think one advances from his current level to a higher level: Level 0: You did not receive any power. Advance by being Gifted. Level 1: You received power, but it retreated from you, either via Epic Downfall (i.e. your weakness was triggered) or when the one who Gifted you takes the power back. Recover from Epic Downfall by escaping your weakness. If you are below Level 5, you may advance to Level 5 by using the weakness of the one who Gifted you. Level 2: Some, but not all, of your powers are not working properly. Usually a sign that your Epic Downfall was partially triggered. Level 1 conditions apply. (I was thinking of naming this Level 1.5. What do you guys think?) Level 3: Your power only has weak effects. Advance by using your powers more. Level 4: You can use your power at full strength, but the Downfall Avoidance of your power becomes more intense. Advance by sending yourself to Level 1 or Level 2 before using the weakness of the one who Gifted you. Level 5: You are now resistant to the Downfall Avoidance Rule, but you might revert to Level 4 if you use your power too much. Advance by fully accepting your power as part of yourself. Level 6: Highest level of ownership. Epic Downfall can send you back to Level 1 or Level 2, but after escaping you will return to Level 6 I base Level 6 on the scene where Megan finally freed herself from the darkness for good, back when she "defied" Larcener: Note that for the first half of the series, Prof was at Level 4 while Megan was at Level 3 (though she's Level 4 just after resurrection). When Prof Gifts his powers, he usually only lets the Reckoners have his powers at Level 3, and he always takes the powers back when no longer needed. Calamity, on the other hand, is at Level 6 and he Gifts powers already at Level 4. What do these levels entail? First, it appears that the powers can detect an Epic's level of ownership, as well as the chain of transfersion from him, to the one who Gifted him, to the one who Gifted the Gifter, etc. As long as the Epic has not reached Level 6 (total ownership), his power will defer to the next Epic in the chain of transfersion with a higher level of ownership. By that I mean the power will readily pull back either at the whim of that higher owner or automatically in reaction to that higher owner's weakness (as per the Downfall Avoidance Rule). Here are some things explained by these ownership levels: Megan reached Level 5 by first facing her weakness (moving temporarily to Level 1) and then using Calamity's weakness by selflessly trying to save someone. This was also the same thing that David did. Prof was sent to Level 1 without his consent, but that didn't really matter. The important thing was that he was at Level 1 when he tried to help David, and that was enough to send him to Level 5. Level 6, actually. See here. Calamity being at Level 6 is the reason why the darkness still affected Megan even after she reached Level 5 (but only when she used her powers too much). Megan reached Level 6 before David did (he reached it just before he turned the space station to steel), but it's possible that Dawnslight reached it way before anyone except Calamity. That's why he could freely use his powers without succumbing to the darkness. Strangely enough, Obliteration implied he's been at Level 6 for five years now. I'm speculating that his fear was of a crazy religious nature, perhaps the idea that God was using him to bring about Armaggedon. Coupled with another crazy notion that he can save people's souls by sending them to heaven before they have the chance to commit grave sins, Obliteration could have reached Level 5 by murdering innocent civilians in the name of his "holy task" via non-Epic methods (a conventional bomb, maybe?). Level 6 was probably reached when he blew up Houston. The reason why most Gifters can retrieve the powers they Gift is because the people on the receiving end often have a low level of ownership compared to the Gifter. The Diggers went crazy after using Digzone's power to create the Newcago's underground tunnels, but they seemed sane enough at the start. I think they were at Level 3 at the start, but prolonged use of the powers sent them to Level 4. Digzone himself was most probably at Level 4. Because the Diggers now owned the powers as much as Digzone, their power started skipping Digzone and deferred to the next Epic in the chain: Calamity. Hence, the descent into madness (which was simply the Rending). All other Gifters would have the same issue as Digzone. This is why Prof said that a person "changes" when Prof gives too much of his power to that person. I speculate that he Gifted too much of his powers to someone during his early exploratory days, and that someone became a Level 4 Epic. At that point, Prof no longer could take back the power because he was Level 4 himself, and he might have had to kill that person.

I already said in my last reply that the battery charging ability isn't affected by the Downfall Avoidance Rule, that Conflux's Gifting to other people is the thing that is affected by that rule. I will admit, however, that I didn't have that distinction in the original definition of the rule. I will revise the OP to reflect that distinction. Thanks for the input. Update: Done.

May I ask which statement of mine was contradicted by that? As a matter of fact, I believe it supports my Downfall Avoidance Rule. Even though Prof was the current "owner" of his powers, Calamity (the one who Gifted the powers to him) still had a stake in those powers, and so it is reasonable that the powers still recognized Calamity to an extent even when Prof Gifts them. (Update: I moved my thoughts on power ownership to a separate thread.) I think you're misremembering. Here's what he said: David then teaches him about the Large Dispersal Rule, which I already talked about in the OP. Remember that Conflux's device-charging ability is not the same as his Gifting ability. The first is the power to charge electrical devices, the second is the power to let other people charge electrical devices. It is the Gifting power that is affected by the Downfall Avoidance Rule, not the charging power. This means that when you're fighting a Gifted Enforcement officer and you bring out a dog to face him, his mechanized suit won't immediately run out of power, but he won't be able to recharge it if it was already low on power. (Conflux's power cells run for a long time, so that's still a stupid plan to use against an Enforcement officer, but you get the idea.)

Hi guys, I won't be visiting here much for the next few weeks, maybe until White Sand comes out, though I might occasionally reply to people. Time to put my Crazy Sharder Theorist coat aside for a while. See you guys when I feel the urge to wear it again.

How would you design a Nalthian currency that interacts with Awakening? You could make colored banknotes, but you'd need to make sure that draining them of color won't make them completely useless as legal tender, otherwise nobody would want to use them for Awakening. Also, Nalthian society must first undergo a paradigm shift to accept the notion of fiat money, otherwise the majority (who aren't Awakeners) won't exchange their metal coins for colored bits of paper/cloth/whatever material you decide to use for the banknotes. Anyway, I think an ideal "Awakening currency" would be small organic polymer banknotes with various modern security features and shaped like a person so that they can be easily Awakened, making them useful even after they are drained of color. This kind of currency is obviously not possible with the current level of technology on Nalthis, but future Nalthian nations might think of using something like this.

I've read several Bible editions that use the spelling "Cephas". That is even the spelling used in the English Wikipedia article on Peter. Anyway, I'm not quite sure what your point is. I'm Filipino, and we have our own way of pronouncing Cephas (something like "sepas"). Americans like Brandon might have one, too. Brandon may or may not be able to pronounce it in the "correct" Aramaic way, but people have been incorporating foreign languages in their made up words/names with their own pronunciations for a very long time now. (Not that I'm absolutely positive that Cephandrius came from the Aramaic word, mind you. I'm just confused by your argument.)

This obligatory XKCD comic about tautologies is a tautology comic that I am obliged to post.

Is it possible that he said "It isn't" but you misheard? Or did he make some affirmative gestures like nodding, giving a thumbs up, etc.?

Aw man. Well, I'm not too bummed out. Threnody's magic doesn't seem to be connected to either the form-based magic of Sel or the Intents of the Selish Shards. For comparison, Ashyn (which is in the Rosharan system) has a manifestation of Investiture reminiscent of the curse-blessing combo of the Old Magic on Roshar.

Aside from Theoryland, the Events and Signings forum is full of WoB gems since people post reports, recordings, and transcripts there. One thing I do when I can't find a particular WoB in Theoryland is I go to the 17th's Shard's Advanced Search page, enter some appropriate keywords, choose "Events and Signings" in the "Find in forum" field, choose "As posts" in the "Display results" field, and then click on Search Now. This method might work better if you've already read the WoB before (and you're just looking for it again to, say, link to it) because you would probably be able to think of better keywords to use. RShara tried compiling Stormlight Archive-specific WoBs (well, Words of Radiance-specific, anyway) a couple of years ago (and more general ones soon after). That herculean activity didn't last long, but she did manage to collect a lot. Coppermind articles often cite WoBs, so you could go to the article of the topic you're interested in and check the references there. (Reading the article itself also wouldn't hurt. )

Could someone have those readings posted now, please? Thanks!

Good job, sprocket! Here's the WoB that I think Ari was referring to: That was taken from a Chicago signing last year, which unfortunately has yet to be entered in the Theoryland database. Also, I asked Brandon once about whether there was a quantum of Investiture (the same way a photon is a quantum of light). Here is what he said:

The Cosmere 101 thread that Oversleep linked to is nice, albeit a bit outdated. I'd recommend the Coppermind article on Shards if you want a more thorough understanding.

Even if teeth aren't "alive" enough, you could just touch the fillings with your tongue.

My thoughts about the origins of the Essences are somewhat similar to yours, Confused, though I still need to develop my general Essence theory further before I post anything. My main stumbling block is that Brandon seems to be discouraging people from thinking too much about the Essences. This could mean that they really aren't that important in the grand scheme of things, or it could mean that they are so important that Brandon fears some great secret about the Cosmere will be deduced if people analyzed the Essence connections enough. Whatever the reason is, I'll just keep on looking for Essence-related clues, while at the same time being prepared to toss everything out in case those Rosharian philosophers really were just fooling themselves.

From what Knighthawk said, the Epic pain issue only happens when one of the following is true: The Epic has an identical twin who starts using their shared powers. A cell culture derived from the Epic is stimulated to manifest powers (as in motivators). (This of course assumes that the Epic doesn't have pain-negating powers like the Creer boys.) If you think this means people using the same power would automatically feel pain, you're forgetting Gifters. There is no indication that Prof ever felt pain when Gifting his Reckoners. If another person using an Epic's power automatically causes pain for that Epic, then Epics who willingly Gift their powers would be as rare as Epic twins who didn't kill each other. I think it would make more sense if the cause of the Epic's pain in the above cases is the DNA shared with the other entity (twin or cell culture) that is using a power, not the shared power itself. As for why Prof's own powers seems to be part of his weakness somehow, Megan already explained that in the book:

I'd like to know where you got the info that Tavi was born after Invocation, because I'm pretty sure the book implied otherwise. Tavi was described as a teenager (so, at least thirteen years old) and Invocation has only been gone for a decade according to Firefight. She was probably turned into an Epic at the same time as her father. Maybe, but I find that unlikely. The second book showed Calamity directly Gifting specific targets (specified by Regalia), so why would he need a separate, independent Gifting system? And why would he even want to keep that system running after he leaves? That would go against his stated goal of using the powers to make humanity destroy itself, since his darkness would no longer exist if he left. Note: I have a theory that once an Epic fully owns his power, it becomes fully inheritable. So I actually do agree that new Epics could be born after the resident alien eldritch Gifter (e.g. Invocation, Calamity) is defeated. But that obviously doesn't apply to either Tavi or Mizzy, who became Epics after they were born.

My crazy theory (look in Part III) is that Calamity's Gifting powers was triggered by his "death", the same way Steelheart's transfersion ability activated and turned Steelheart's skull into steel after he died.

I can't believe I'm saying this two years after making fun of this idea, but... I now think Shardworlds have two Essences. Yeah, I know how Brandon said that the philosophers who created the Essence tables were a bit off when it came to their understanding of how the Essences are connected to the Shardworlds' powers, but I reckon maybe they weren't completely off, maybe the Essences are still connected somehow. I actually posted this revised theory in the Secret History spoiler forums, but I'm re-posting it here. M:SH spoilers TL;DR: Scadrial is Physically Vapor and Spiritually Foil. Roshar is Physically Lucentia and Spiritually Zephyr. Nalthis is Physically Tallow and Spiritually Vapor. Sel is Physically Zephyr and Spiritually Talus.

Well, we know that at least some Shades are the cognitive shadows of Threnodites who violated the Simple Rules in the Forests of Hell. Also, if you're talking about Hoed who were dropped into the pool, we now know that they are ripped apart by the uncontrolled powers in the Selish Cognitive Realm.I like @Zmann966's idea that Threnody is Sel's moon and that Shades are Svrakiss. Too bad the Starbelt was the only thing visible in the Threnodite night sky (at least during the events of the story). Maybe the Forests of Hell is on the far side of the moon or something.

Sparks! I assumed from the title that you had a WoB or something. I like the theory that Deathpoint could have defeated Steelheart using his second ability, so have an upvote! Oh wait, you were just asking if an Assumer could take Steelheart's power. Maybe a strong one. Certainly Calamity could do it.

Last year, Peter already revealed that the Shardworlds are all in a "rather small star cluster" within the (dwarf) galaxy, but it's cool to get an approximate size.