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The Knight Radiant will need to have a specific Innate Investiture to do that. If he was able to have his Spiritweb modified (perhaps by the Nightwatcher) in such a way as to mimic the Innate Investiture of Allomancers, then yes, he'll be an Allomancer as well as a Surgebinder. I wouldn't be surprised if Lift could get Stormlight from swallowing un-Invested metals, but not the Allomantic power (since that comes from Allomantic Innate Investiture). Not sure what would happen if she swallowed a metalmind, a bead of atium, or a Hemalurgic spike, though, since all those things are already Invested objects in themselves. It's possible that Vasher's Innate Investiture already allows him to Inhale Stormlight directly. If not, then he might have asked a Shard (or a powerful Splinter, maybe even the Nightwatcher) for help.

Gavilar might not have told the Parshendi about the sphere. He could've just laid out his over all plan (i.e. bring back the Parshendi gods) without telling them what he already accomplished. That would be the smart thing to do in that situation. You have to keep some things secret when dealing with strangers, even those you consider as possible allies.

From the Words of Radiance (the in-universe book): So I guess each KR Order does have varying levels of Shadesmar access, with the Elsecallers having the highest level, then the Lightweavers, the Truthwatchers, and everyone else.By the way, I forgot to mention how awesome it was to finally see Soulcaster fabrial-users in action. It appears that repeated use of a Soulcaster fabrial can transform the user himself. I wonder if this is an issue for Lightweavers and Elsecallers. Also, I'm glad I was correct that the "living statue" glimpse had something to do with Transformation. I'm kinda sad that someone downvoted my thread-starting post. Was it because I didn't put some stuff in spoiler tags? I thought the title of the thread was enough of a warning. Anyway, I already added spoiler tags there to prevent further downvoting. Edit: Thanks to whomever upvoted to cancel out the downvote! I'll try to be more careful next time.

I think that "Invested" or even "Investee" are valid terms for sentient creatures with Innate Investiture, but there are problems with them. For one, "Invested" is already used for non-sentient things with Investiture, i.e. "Invested objects", so there will be ambiguity. We need a distinct term for sentient recipients of Innate Investiture. Another problem is the use of "the Invested" as a collective term in a fantasy story, where cool-sounding terms are preferred. To me, being called an Invested just doesn't seem impressive enough. Given that "investiture" can also mean "giving" or "bestowal", I propose the term "Gifted" for people with Innate Investiture. The term implies sentience because you can only offer gifts to thinking beings, so it fits.

Assuming that the Nightwatcher is a Splinter of Cultivation, I can understand her reaction to Honor's death, since it's the source of her own mother's grief.Edit: The Tear reminds me of the Tears of Edgli in Nalthis. If we ever find that Edgli is the holder of Endowment then I'll wholeheartedly support the Reya=Cultivation theory. It would be a weak justification, but that's just how my mind works.

Thanks, Peter! So, do the Iriali start counting hours at midnight like in most Earth countries? And do the Alethi start near dawn?Regarding Re-Growth, I wonder who else could've done what Kaladin did other than the two Progression Orders. If a Kalak Order Knight Radiant (for example) received non-fatal Shardblade damage, will he be able to heal the way Kaladin did?

You're ignoring the effects of the Heightenings on the Cognitive aspect of Nalthians, the Cognitive quadrant of Feruchemy, the Cognitive effects of the Kandra Blessings, of Tin, Gold, Atium and the Atium alloys. Even Soulstamp-based transformations on Sel depend on the Cognitive Realm. Every single one of those things are forms of Investiture. So is the Nahel bond interaction.

Jasnah was using some of the beads as a raft in that scene, though. She seems capable of manipulating Shadesmar beads at will even from the start, as we can clearly see from the WoR Prologue. Shallan, on the other hand, has to deal with the personalities of the beads.

You meant "the Parshendi need to attract them", right? Anyway, I hope you are right. I just fear that since the Everstorm will indiscriminately transform parshmen, it will also do the same for the Parshendi (unless perhaps if they acquire forms that are immune to it). Rlain being a squire sounds pretty awesome. I hope it's possible. WoB has it that the Parshendi's synchronized Rythms have something to do with Unity (which I'm assuming is what happens when you Diminish the Surge of Division). If a similar thing happens to KR squires, then Rlain would feel right at home with it.

Yeah. Good thing he didn't have to deal with the sea of beads. It appears that his momentary (and partial) presence in Shadesmar wasn't strong enough for that.

Yes. Note that the ones who refuse to bond with the Listeners are the KR spren. Not all spren that came from Honor are KR spren. In fact, the vast majority of emotionspren (which are from Honor) are probably not sentient enough to be KR spren, so the Listeners might be able to bond with those. That won't make them KR, though.I suspect that some (if not all) of the five Listener forms they first discovered use non-sentient emotionspren. Rlain and the other uncorrupted Listeners will just have to discover other forms that are non-voidish but are still useful in battle. Perhaps Shallan can help them find clues in their songs.

Thanks, Dru! I've finally finished reading the book, during which I've collected a bunch of notes. I'll probably organize them later into separate threads, but I'll just dump them here for now: Overall I really enjoyed the book (proving to myself once again that no amount of spoilers can ruin a good book for me ). I like Shallan's character now. It feels like her "witty" lines (which I don't really enjoy reading as much as some people here) is just part of her lie. She makes herself sound silly and ridiculous so that people won't see the broken soul she's trying to hide. I actually found her non-"witty" lines quite enjoyable to read. One of my few complaints is that we never saw young Shallan when she first bonded with Pattern. We never saw her speak the First Ideal. What age was she then, and did her young mind already understand the philosophy behind those words? We also did not see Glys, Renarin's spren. I hope he discards his dead Shardblade soon and speaks enough Words to obtain Glys' Shardblade form. Lastly, I really hope all the ten Surges will be demonstrated in the third book. I mean, Szeth's about to battle Honoblade-wielding Shin warriors, after all. Man that'll be awesome!

I think I explained my position already. I think it's Investiture because Hemalurgy is Investiture. You Invest a spike by getting attributes from someone, creating a Hemalurgic spike. You Invest someone with a Hemalurgic spike by spiking him at a particular spot. A human Invests a bondspren by performing certain actions that the bondspren is attracted to, creating a Nahel bond and giving her sentience. The bondspren Invests the human in turn, granting Surgebinding abilities. The difference between Brandon's Cosmere works and many other fantasy books is that Brandon has actually made an underlying system behind all the magic systems: Realmatics, the Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual Realms and how Investiture affects all three. Basically, every single bit of magic in the Cosmere is simply a manipulation and transfer of Investiture to create an intended effect on the Realms. It makes the whole thing a bit more organized, almost scientific, with specific terminology that applies to all the Cosmere stories. It's something that I and a few other fans really, really like about these books. The terminology already exists. Why not use it?

Ah, then we agree. The Investiture that Syl received from the Nahel bond granted her a Cognitive boost (intelligence). When the Investiture was no longer replenished by the bond (Kaladin's fault), it decreased every time Kaladin tried to use his abilities, until the level was so low that the Cognitive boost disappeared. Kind of like how the Heightenings fade when a person loses the necessary amount of Breath, a problem that can be fatal to a Returned.

So, as the WoB that Kurkistan gave showed, there are no non-human Knights Radiant. And as the WoR quote that zandi gave showed, KR spren don't bond with the Listeners. Sounds definitive to me! Eshonai was forcibly changed from warform to stormform even after she tried to back out. I doubt the Everstorm will care what the Parshendi in its path think.

I'm under the assumption that Investiture-- you know, the power of creation responsible for all the magics in the Cosmere-- is by definition responsible for the Nahel bond. I wonder why you think that Hemalurgy is not a manifestation of Investiture. I thought that was common knowledge around here. I just prefer using Brandon's own terms than invent my own. The correct term already exists. I don't see how that is "looking too far into it." Anyway, to restate my on-topic point: I believe that a bondspren cannot feed on the Investiture it needs when its bonded human has broken his oaths. With the loss of that Investiture source, the bondspren will have to use up its own Investiture reserves to Invest Surgebinding abilities on that human. In the case of Syl (and all the bondspren of the Lost Radiants), her human forced enough Investiture out of her that its sentience-granting effect was lost, and thus she "died".

I'm no moderator, but I believe it's against the rules to discuss Dragonsteel here. Also, may I ask why you don't use punctuation marks? The current Cosmere magics are influenced by people who were Yolish (i.e. from the planet Yolen), but the actual source of magic is Investiture, the power of creation through which the Cosmere was made. Investiture did not originate from Yolen (which is just a planet in the Cosmere) but from Adonalsium, the god-like being that created all the planets, but was eventually Shattered into sixteen Shards, each of which were taken by the above-mentioned Yolish humans. Mistborn spoilers:

It would be fun to see Lift as a 40-something year old woman, the head of her Order and acting like a stereotypical Edgedancer (refined, graceful, etc.), but with the "awesome" teenager still hiding there somewhere.

Theory: He's using either Feruchemy or Fabrial Science to get the Allomantic power from that Lerasium bead without burning it. Watch out for any description of Wit wearing a ring, possibly with a gemstone on it. Though... it's possible that he hid the thing in his flesh to keep it from getting stolen.

Oh, I assumed that the time difference between the first part and the second part was going to be centuries. Unless Lift becomes immortal (which would be awesome), this implies that Part Two of the Stormlight Archives will take place within the lifetime of most of the major characters (assuming they survive Part One). Edit: I just realized that the other major characters becoming immortal is also a possibility, which would make my above statement seem pointless. What I mean is Part One and Part two might just be decades apart in-universe, as opposed to centuries apart.

But Investiture can grant intelligence. Remember the Mistwraiths on Scadrial? Quite unintelligent, until they receive "Blessings" via Hemalurgic Investiture and become Kandra. In the same way, Syl got her sentience and intelligence through Investiture that she somehow obtained through Kaladin, the Spiritual power granting her a Cognitive boost. Or do you have an alternative Realmatic explanation for it?

This is the Cosmere, Aminar, so you have to think Realmatically. She's getting intelligence, yes, but how? Via Investiture, of course. Kaladin and Syl Invest in each other. Syl's Investiture grants Kaladin various Surgebinding and fighting abilities, while Kaladin's Investiture grants Syl intelligence and additional power that she could then transform back into Kaladin's Surgebinding. What I'd like to know is how Kaladin's honorable actions (or whatever it is Syl feeds on) are transformed into Investiture for Syl, Realmatically speaking. One possible explanation is that actions are Spiritual entities that can directly be transformed into pure Investiture (which is Spiritual in nature) by the spren. But I'd be interested to see if Brandon is willing to give the actual answer in one of his future interviews.

Syl implied in WoK that her bond with Kaladin is a form of exchange: Kaladin gets his abilities from her, and she gets... something... out of him in return: Whatever it is that Syl was getting from Kaladin (a power of some sort, probably some kind of Investiture present in the humans of Roshar), she could no longer get it after Kaladin broke his oath to protect. But she was still bonded to him, so if she wanted to, she could still give him her Surgebinding gifts... at a cost to herself. Because she no longer received whatever it is from Kaladin that gave her power, she had to use whatever power she had left, slowly depleting it. When Kaladin first noticed his trouble with sucking in Stormlight, you'll notice that he was still able to do it after talking to Syl. I don't know if Syl sacrificed herself willingly in that particular case, or if Kaladin was somehow able to force her sacrifice. Anyway, that one act of Stormlight infusion already weakened her. And when he fell down the chasm later on, I believe that Syl sacrificed her last ounce of power to protect Kaladin. That's why she died. It's like how the Returned like Vasher (who possessed another form of Splinter: the Divine Breath) could Awaken things at no cost to themselves as long as they had Breaths from others given to them. But once they run out of regular Breaths, performing any kind of Awakening will use up their Divine Breath, and they'll die.

I had thought about the possibility of "mega-spren" being the bondspren's parents even before WoR came out. I think, since the spren are Splinters of the Shards, it's possible for them to voluntarily Splinter themselves as well. It would be like how some fungi reproduce asexually via spores. In that sense, the Stormfather, the Nightwatcher, etc. would be considered parents. Now, I'm wondering if this means there are eight other "mega-spren" that we've yet to see. Is Cusicesh one of them? How about the Purelake's god Nu Ralik?

Giving Dalinar Jezrien's Shardblade would give him Windrunning powers. I'm not sure if that would override his Bondsmith powers, or how that would affect his Nahel bond.