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Thanks, Extesian. Brandon hasn't replied yet. Since nobody is willing to side with me on this issue, I will give this up as a lost cause. It was worth the try, anyway.

I guess this is another "agree to disagree", then. I prefer to think Brandon did not just coincidentally use the same word for two different in-universe terms, but I do acknowledge the possibility. I have already asked Brandon and Peter about this on Twitter. I hope they consider this mundane enough to answer directly. I'll just update this post if one of them does reply.

I fear there has been a misunderstanding. Hmmm... Perhaps I should word things differently: I am speculating that Brandon chose the word "vessel" to refer to the holders of Shards for the same deliberate reason that he used that word in Siri's case. I am speculating that the "Vessel" in both contexts are, in fact, the same term. In my post before this I attempted to show how they could be the same term. Both contexts show beings that contain ("is a vessel of") something considered divine. I'm not trying to force this definition onto you guys. Again, this is just speculation. I'm just asking you to consider it. I apologize for not clarifying my thought process earlier. It did not occur to me that the similarity of the contexts was not apparent to others.

Well, yes, but a Returned at the very least is a "vessel" (in the regular English sense) of a part of a Shard, which makes them analogous to the holders of the Shards of Adonalsium, who are vessels of said Shards. A pregnant woman can also be said to be a vessel of her child in a literal sense, justifying somewhat the Hallandren's symbolic title for the God King's wife (though we know the God King's wife isn't always the mother of the next God King). Rosharan Shardbearers on the other hand... not so much. In both the cases of Shardic Vessels and Iridescent Tones Vessels, the Vessel contains something considered divine. The Returned also contain something considered divine: a Splinter of a Shard. I'm not saying that this should be the definition of Vessel, and maybe one could say that the definition is too broad, but it's just something I'm putting out here as a suggestion. I dunno, guys, you seem to have a very strong objection to my simple answer to the OP's question, enough that someone would downvote me for it, and I just don't see why.

Actually that was just a reply to your statement that "It's the only context we have" for "Vessel", because we in fact have another context for it. But okay, you feel that the term should have a narrow definition, and that's fine. I, seeing that we don't have a precise definition yet (and seeing that "Vessel" has been recycled previously anyway), feel that we could expand it a bit. Since we can't seem to see eye to eye on the matter, I'll let it rest here. I'm still miffed that whoever downvoted me didn't bother to reply, but I guess I'll just have to accept that.

Nope. The term Vessel is also used on Nalthis in the context of the Iridescent Tones to refer to the God King's wife, presumably for her ostensible role in bearing the next God King. So you see, just because a term was used in one context doesn't mean it can't be used in others. Anyway, I only mentioned the Returned because I was surprised nobody has brought them up as an example of beings that bear Splinters. I thought it would be nice to jog people's memories, because speculation is best done with all the relevant facts at hand. To be honest, Argent, I only remembered about Siri being called a Vessel when I saw your latest reply. If I had been able to bring it up earlier, perhaps we could have understood each other better. Sorry. Edit: To the downvoter, please state your disagreement and contribute to our discussion here.

That reminds me of one of the questions I've been meaning to ask Brandon: Can Copperclouds block Leechers? From his answer here, it seems Copperclouds can be made to prevent Spiritual connections, so perhaps Copper Allomancy can be used to block Chromium Allomancy. As for @Ironeyes' report, I was one of the people who recently speculated that harmonium is fissile. As usual, Brandon comes up with an even cooler idea. Using harmonium to generate tons of Investiture would be awesome for space-faring Scadrians.

I guess it would depend on the definition of "Vessel". Since Brandon has used the term for holders of Shards, one could I suppose choose to say it cannot apply to Returned. But the Returned do in fact hold the Divine Breaths, which contradicts what you said: Of course, "holding" and "pick up" are vague in this context. You can, if you wish, define them such that Divine Breaths are not "held". But outside such ad hoc definitions and requirements (e.g. your ad hoc requirement that they don't use it to keep themselves together), I would not object to someone calling a Returned a sort of vessel of his Divine Breath, loosely speaking, at least until Brandon clarifies the issue. My point is that you're trying to make the definition of "Vessel" stricter than what Brandon has given us. I say there's room for creative use of it. At some point, someone could ask Brandon about his preferred general term for beings like Returned that have Splinters. But right now I think "Vessel" can be used.

The Divine Breaths are Splinters, right? Can't we consider the Returned to be "Vessels" of sorts for Divine Breaths?

For someone to "narrow these guys down to Moelach and Nergaoul", he must have first shown that Stormstriders are of Odium, and then shown that out of all the Unmade only Moelach and Nergaoul could possibly be the valid candidates for the Stormstriders. Do you remember the arguments for that? I hope someone who remembers that thread could link it here. For the record, I am in the "Stormstriders are spren, but not of Odium" camp. Moelach and Nergaoul have been shown to be active even without a highstorm, so I don't know where that argument came from.

I really don't mind him resurrecting my thread, as the topic is yet unresolved. Also, @dantlee, thank you so much for sharing that relevant scene. I wonder if Stormstriders were also in the surprise highstorm that the Stormfather sent in WoR. And also, does the Everstorm have an equivalent? That would be pretty scary.

That is an excellent question for Brandon. We currently don't know. If I were to guess, there probably is some sort of change in spatial relations to that effect around town centers and nation capitals, but this warping has to be relatively tiny because the Rosharan Cognitive Realm still mostly aligns with the Physical Realm in terms of general boundary shapes (assuming that the Shadesmar map we've seen is correct in that regard). If I may speculate further, it's possible that the only change that happens is that those centers of population on the Physical Realm are more active in the Cognitive Realm, i.e. the waves of the Cognitive ocean are stronger there. But again, that's just speculation on my part.

You can find a list of the Surges in the Coppermind. So far, we have not yet seen a viewpoint character use Division, Cohesion, and Tension in the books (at least, not explicitly), but Brandon already gave us some hints, as can be seen if you read that article. Also we probably haven't seen the full extent of any of the Surgebinding powers yet. It's exciting to see what else can be done with the Abrasion Surge, for example.

D'oh! I can't believe I missed that one. Thanks! I re-read the story of Derethil and the Wandersail and sure enough there was no mention of using stars to navigate. I suppose the Tear and Taln's Scar might be sufficient for that purpose, though. Also, @DocHoliday, that blew my mind! Like, why would Rosharans even suspect that planets exist if the moving stars they see are clearly spren that live below cloud level? Such a clever bit of worldbuilding, but that's Brandon Sanderson for you.

Oh my. It seems Brandon has revealed the ultimate reason behind the global rise of populism. Guys, I'm afraid Trell might be on Earth right now, and 2016 was his/her fault! But Earth isn't Cosm-- SHUT IT, STUPID TRELLIST!

Fascinating bits of speculation, guys! Yeah, I've always thought it was a spherical cabochon. Now, since it's described as "faintly violet", I'm guessing it's an amethyst cabochon darkened by "voidlight". The gemstone that contained the Stormspren used by Eshonai was also described as a sphere in WoR I-5 (and as a violet one in I-4), but that one had Stormlight in it so it was apparently a different gemstone.

As a slightly off-topic side note, I think it's also possible that most cultures on Roshar do not have (or no longer have) enough interest in astronomy to even be aware of planets, even in the Ancient Greek sense (i.e. planētes asteres, "wandering stars"). This is possible because, at least on Earth, the ancient cultures that developed the study of astronomy did so because of reasons that do not apply to Rosharans: (1) it helped them predict the seasons and (2) they believed in astrology. Both reasons do not apply for most Rosharan cultures because (1) Rosharan weather depends mostly on the highstorm cycle, and (2) the most widespread religion on Roshar (Vorinism) would most definitely prohibit astrology. So even if Braize could technically be seen from Roshar, it might not have been cataloged yet, and people might not have noticed a star (or two, or twelve) moving with respect to other stars in the night sky. This, of course, is assuming that the Tear isn't Braize. If so, it's possible that the "old songs" were made by ancient Cosmere-aware people who knew that Braize was a real place either through Worldhopping or by communicating with Worldhoppers or knowledgeable spren.

Here's the only thing I could find (thanks to a hint from Coppermind) that is remotely like what @Spoolofwhool described: That's from chapter 32 of WoR, which is in Kaladin's PoV. It is not clear here at all that Braize is visible in the Rosharan night sky. I once read someone speculate about the Tear being either Ashyn or Braize, but Brandon RAFO'd that. I do agree that it is very likely visible. We just don't have confirmation yet, unless I missed something.

It is? Interesting. Philippine English has the same pronunciation for Ms. and Miss: Mis. Now that I think about it I have indeed heard "Miz" before, though I thought it was just how Miss/Ms. is pronounced with a certain accent. TIL.

Brandon should totally write a Batman story set on Threnody.

I was taught in high school to use "Ms." in formal written language to address women regardless of age and marital status, as "Miss" (which connotes youth or maidenhood) is deemed too casual and/or presumptuous. But obviously that distinction disappears in spoken language. I suppose calling people just by their name, without any titles, does sound like the more progressive thing to do. My current pet peeve: People who commit the Tu quoque fallacy.

Unfortunately, WoB already has it that it was Odium who locked the Shards in the Cognitive Realm: As for @Ciridae's questions, I feel that the Well's power can be used that way simply because that's how Leras wanted it. Maybe Leras had to take specific steps to make that possible, but in the end it's just a matter of the Shard deliberately making his pool's power accessible to mankind. It does seem that Leras had a strange knack for manipulating Ruin's Shardic power for some reason. My current theory is that his Intent of Preservation allows him to create a spiritual boundary around something that his power touches, and that this boundary can only be removed through an action (defined by Leras) that acts as an "access key", with the caveat that this key must be achievable. So in the case of Ati's mind, the access key is a person's rejection of the Well's power after taking it up (which Leras only allowed when the Well is full), while the access key for the rest of Ati's power is the metabolism of atium by Ati himself. Applying that concept (using a Shard's Intent to conditionally affect other Shards) to other places, perhaps Odium used his Intent to cause a repulsive effect (repulsion being another way to interpret hatred) between the Dor and the Spiritual Realm, trapping Devotion and Dominion in the Cognitive Realm. And perhaps Honor tricked Odium into an Oath that trapped him within Greater Roshar. Of course, just like Preservation, there must be an access key to free the Dor. And there must be an access key to free Odium.

I'll just link to what I wrote in your introduction thread:

Welcome to the 17th Shard! The others have already offered some great ideas, but if you (and your professor) are in any way Science-minded, then you might also consider discussing how Brandon uses scientific themes in his fantasy stories. For example, the Stormlight Archive shows how most of the native creatures have evolved to adapt to the violent highstorms and the weaker gravity of Roshar. Other science-related topics explored in the SA are cymatics, ecological balance (Shallan brings up the dangers of hunting greatshells to extinction once), the fundamental forces (which are the inspiration for the Surges), and technology (how applied science turns something "mystical", like the spren, into something with practical use for common people). The other Sanderson series with a great potential for "Science Meets Magic" discussions is the Mistborn series. At this point we're still far away from the Sci-Fi Fantasy theme that Sanderson has planned for the series' future, but at least we now have a glimpse of how the magic on Scadrial can have technological applications. You can also discuss how the science of metallurgy is harnessed in the magic system, how some scientific concepts relate to some of the powers (e.g. External Physical Allomancy and Newton's laws of motion, External Temporal Allomancy and Einstein's Special Relativity), and other stuff that might be too spoilery to mention here. Anyway, good luck on your paper. See you around!

I don't remember reading anything to that effect. Perhaps you're mis-remembering this one: