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Recently I find that inserting obscure but relevant WoBs in the proper Coppermind articles seems to be a great way to make them easier to find at a later time. It also has the benefit of improving the credibility of the articles in our beloved wiki. I'll be looking at the WoBs on this thread shortly to check which ones need to be wikified.

It would be interesting to see how dead Elantrians experience the violent environment of the Selish Cognitive Realm, since we know that living Elantrians get ripped apart by the Dor when they travel there.

I will have to disagree. I believe that Calamity knew exactly what the darkness was, and that he vehemently denied its existence in the past exactly because of its nature. Let's take a look at the scene where you apparently think Calamity realized that he was the cause of the darkness, the scene where he disappeared: Notice how Calamity's words were not one of realization (as his conclusion did not necessarily follow from anything David told him) but of admission. I believe this is a sort of confession that he knew exactly what's been going on all along, but had refused to acknowledge any of it previously mainly because of his fears (as David had guessed). Calamity was a self-deceiving liar, but to assume that he was ignorant of how his powers worked is, I think, quite silly given the kind of being he is and what kind of author Brandon Sanderson is. Brandon isn't the type who makes ignorant big bads. If you look at his stories, the thing that defeats the main villain is almost always NOT some heretofore unknown aspect of magic, but the villain's own hubris. In fact, most of his main villains have been immensely knowledgeable about their world's magic system (with only a couple of exceptions that I can think of), and knew exactly what defeated them. So, yeah, I am of the belief that Calamity knew of his responsibility for the darkness, at least deep down. Feel free to read this theory post of mine (particularly Part II) that discusses the connection between the darkness and Calamity's fear, among other things. P.S. Other things I disagree with: You assume that Calamity "left", as if he simply gave up and chose to return to his world. If so, why did he collapse before doing that? I think my theory (which I discuss in the preface of the same post I linked to)--that he has a weakness just like every other Epic, and that David successfully triggered that weakness (as he has done countless times against other Epics) and effectively removed the powers responsible for Calamity's very presence in David's core possibility-- makes a lot more sense. You say you're not sure if Calamity had been Gifting powers directly. Please re-read Firefight, specifically the scene where Calamity speaks directly in David's mind shortly after what looks like a direct Gifting attempt by Calamity as requested by Regalia. Sorry if I seem a bit... argumentative. It's just that you seemed to ignore the main point in my old post above (that there is no reason for Calamity to deliberately set up an auto-Gifting mechanism for when he leaves) just to nitpick on that one sentence. So you could imagine how defensive I felt. No offense meant.

How would you distinguish your definition of Magical entities (non-living entities that use magic or exist because of magic) from non-living magical things like fabrials and god metals? I'm fine with those things being under Magical entities, but I can see why some would object. The difference between "magical life" and "non magical life" in the cosmere is blurrier than most other fantasy universes in that, as @thegatorgirl00 pointed out, there is an intimate relationship between Investiture and the creation and evolution of biological species. Given that all fictional lifeforms in Brandon's books are quite "fantastic" (as in, something magizoologists would be interested in) one way or the other, I think it's more useful to create much smaller Lifeforms subcategories like "Spren-bonded lifeforms" or "Hemalurgic constructs" (or even planet-based subcategories, though apparently @Chaos and I differ on what those would be for).

The Metallic Arts can be used outside of Scadrial. This is because they only require certain metals and (in the case of Feruchemy and Allomancy) the necessary Investiture in one's "spiritual DNA". In the case of Hemalurgy, Brandon has implied that the right Investiture isn't even necessary. Anyway, physical distance does not apply in the Spiritual Realm, so the spiritual aspects of Scadrians aren't affected by going to other planets. (Note that if a power resides in the Cognitive Realm instead of the Spiritual Realm, it can be bound to a certain region. This is the case with Sel, where the Dor is trapped in the Cognitive Realm, limiting the use of Selish magics outside of Sel. Also, the spren in Shadesmar find it difficult but possible to worldhop.) As for whether Vin could burn Shardplate, I would only say that we don't know what Allomantic property Shardplate has, if it even has any. If it has an Allomantic property (and I bet it does), then Vin should be able to use it in Allomancy.

Since you started with the Stormlight Archive, my book suggestions would be the following (in order): Elantris (the Tenth Anniversary edition) - Reason: It enhances rereads of WoK (I won't tell you why :P), is standalone, and is way better than the original Elantris edition. The original Mistborn trilogy and the Wax and Wayne books - If you like the scenes of Windrunners flying around, you'll love Mistborn. There are also (small) connections with stuff that happens in SA that will enhance rereads. Warbreaker - This one is standalone, free to read online, and has some significant connections with events that happen in SA. I recommend reading this after the Mistborn books above so the memory of the events from the book will be fresher when you move to the next part. At this point I'd recommend you reread WoR again, then move on to... Arcanum Unbounded - This short story collection contains Edgedancer, which is set on Roshar and features characters that you've met earlier. Another entry in the collection is Mistborn: Secret History, which you might want to read if you liked the Mistborn novels. Sixth of the Dusk, another entry, has story elements that you might recognize from Mistborn. Aside from all that, there are a couple of stories set on the world of Elantris, and you can also read excerpts of the first White Sand graphic novel and decide whether you want to read the whole thing. And before I forget, the book also contains a lot of stuff about the in-universe character who writes the Ars Arcanum of the cosmere books.

The last time I took this test (two years ago) it labelled me as INTJ-T, with "Judging" barely winning over "Prospecting". Now I've apparently transitioned to INTP-T, though there's still a significant amount of "Judging" there. I think the switch to P was caused by my being more prone to apathy in some areas of my life recently, leading to me being less oriented towards structure and organization in those areas. To be sure, I still prefer things to be orderly in theory. However, nowadays I feel that efforts towards greater order are mostly futile with regards to certain things (but certainly not all).

Thanks guys. I may have to revisit this to see if I still agree with the conclusions I made three years ago. But then, this isn't really a theory so much as a way to explain to myself the concept of the Three Realms via programming analogies. Nowadays my main Realmatic theory is a weird sort of string theory I concocted last year.

How dare you imply that Brandon Sanderson is one of the ugly lizard-crab things from Roshar! Or are you saying that he's a Sleepless? That... might explain some things...

I just formulated a quick theory a few minutes ago. I'm putting it here because it's not the typical (over)complex Skaa Theory(TM) and also because I don't foresee any interesting discussion coming from it. Anyway, I think the South Scadrians descended from the Bennett people. I'm talking about the people whose maps of pre-Rashek Scadrial allowed Sazed to move the continents of the planet back to their original locations. The Bennett were apparently seafarers who were native to what Sazed called "the southern islands". Like Jordis and her countrymen, the Bennett were brave explorers who valued learning. Come to think of it, flying ships are the obvious evolution of regular water-borne vehicles for people who wish to explore other lands. The only problem with this theory is that neither Allik nor Jordis gave any clue that theirs was an island society, and Brandon described the south as a continent rather than some sort of archipelago. It's possible that the islands became a single continent if a significant percentage of the planet's water boiled off during the Final Empire. Also, the planet's south pole would have frozen after Sazed fixed Scadrial's orbit, lowering the ocean levels further. As for how this will affect the future plot of the book, well, I'm not sure. If the Bennett religion has not changed, then then Malwish will certainly want to explore and map the area around Elendel Basin now that they know about it. The captains of Bennett ships were also their religious leaders, so Jordis might have more than just political power over her subordinates.

May I ask why you think so? The white hair and mischievous nature both point to Hoid. What made you think of Axies?

Wow. I hope none of you was seriously hurt. That's one heck of a vacation. Like, whoa! I hope someone else could top that, coz I certainly can't. We've had several vacations that I thought would end in disaster (I can be a bit paranoid sometimes), but my fears have always been unfounded. The craziest (as in crazy weird, not crazy dangerous) vacation I've ever been part of was five years ago. I have an uncle (actually my dad's cousin) who loves organizing family reunions. That year, he decided we'll have the grandest reunion ever by gathering as many descendants of my great-great-grandfather as he could find and sticking us all in an ancestral house in a rural province up north. There were so many of us that most had to sleep in tents outside of the house. I don't even know the names of some of my second cousins (several of whom flew all the way from other countries), and there I was seeing third cousins, their parents and uncles, and even some of their grandparents all for the first time. Each family was asked to introduce themselves in front of everyone, some of them showing pictures of long dead relatives I've never even heard of before. There was even a family that supposedly descended from my great-grandfather's cousin (they don't know which degree, but they showed a picture of the two together). I thought the whole thing was really weird at first. But somehow, the reunion turned out to be better than expected. On our second day we had a sort of relay race that involved (among other things) running several kilometers around the town, crossing a rope bridge across a river, going back across via row boats, and catching milkfish barehanded. Later that night me and some of my younger relatives (i.e. less than 30 years old) explored a supposed haunted house, went stargazing (it's nice to see the Milky Way every now and then), then drank until we passed out. Good times. The next day some of them (including my siblings) wanted to go island-hopping somewhere nearby, but I've already had my fill of socialization and excitement, so me and my parents decided to go home. Turns out I missed out on a lot of fun that day. Ah, well. We never had another reunion quite like that again, which I think is just fine. I think it's better to experience something grand like that once and have fond memories of it, than to make it a tradition and get sick of it. What do you guys think?

Oh yeah, I forgot about that scene. So Tanavast was indeed capable of seeing possible futures after a fashion. But yeah, there really isn't much reason to doubt Brandon's words about the Recreance being before Tanavast was killed.

Well, it was the author who said that, so your standard must be very high indeed. It's actually possible that Brandon is wrong, as he sometimes relies on others to keep his timelines in check, but if he's wrong about this particular issue then maybe it's just not that important when exactly Tanavast was killed with respect to the Recreance. Edit: Upon further consideration, it seems less likely that Brandon is wrong here. This is because he provided a reason as to why Tanavast must have been killed after the Recreance. It seems clear that Tanavast can't record memories he never had. Even if he had such a prophetic ability (which is weird, since he confessed incompetence when it comes to prophecy), I really doubt Brandon would miss that fact.

This one's from the Illinois Shadow's of Self signing:

Well, I was trying to incorporate @Pagerunner's idea of one extra Ruin nucleon in harmonium, but I guess at this point your idea is as valid as any, though note that uranium-256 is not one of the known isotopes of uranium (like, that's a lot of extra neutrons you're adding there...). Also, @FiveLate, you should edit your post if you want to add stuff instead of creating a new post. Double-posting is frowned upon by the mods here.

Well, yes, it's clear that the explosive effect of adding water to harmonium is due to the mechanism that you explained in the OP. That's why when the Set's researchers tried building a bomb out of it, they only managed to create something as powerful as dynamite. Because the explosion wasn't nuclear. But if the reference to city-destroying bombs ("they needed something that could end cities") was a hint from Brandon that harnessing the nuclear energy of harmonium will be key to future Scadrian technology, then it would make sense for Brandon to use uranium (or perhaps plutonium) as the base element for harmonium, because that's one kind of fissile material his readers would be familiar with. I admit it's also possible that Brandon wants a magical cesium that is fissile. So in the end we go back to the test you offered: Which one breaks physics less? A variant of fissile uranium that acts as an alkali metal? Or a variant of cesium that can be used as fissile material? Edit: That line about cesium's first ionization energy being ~1/16th less than that of rubidium is very nice. Upvoted you for that.

Who's your favorite Love Live! character, if I may ask? N-not that I like that show or anything...

Thank you, kind sir!

You might be interested in this (warning: Stormlight Archives spoilers!). Back on topic, I've just had a thought. @Pagerunner has already mentioned how the Realmatic effects of two opposing Shardic powers sharing a single atom could make harmonium more reactive. This reminded me of how relativistic effects can make certain heavier elements deviate from some trends in the Periodic Table (e.g. this is why cesium has a golden hue while the other alkali metals are silvery white). And it got me wondering: what if the atomic number of harmonium isn't even that of an alkali metal, but it acts like an alkali metal only because of Realmatic effects? Pagerunner, you're the chemical engineer, so tell me what you think of this idea: Suppose harmonium is a non-alkali metal, would it make sense to say that the repulsive forces between the Ruin particles and the Preservation particles could somehow be strong enough to give a harmonium atom only one valence electron? I'm asking because we know that certain Scadrians are planning to create a bomb that can destroy a city, and I'm starting to think a magical uranium-235 (with 117 Preservation nucleons and 118 Ruin nucleons) could be handy when they figure out E=mc^2. Interestingly enough, "finely divided uranium" reacts with cold water (according to Wikipedia), so maybe giving it a Realmatic push towards more reactivity is enough to make it a "super cesium". Pardon me if anything I said above sounded stupid. I am not a chemist, just someone relying on Wikipedia.

That would be me. To be fair, I did not have any way of knowing harmonium's chemical properties at the time. The idea that lerasium is green is something I've been trying to verify ever since @Phantom Monstrosity asserted it three years ago. I've yet to find evidence of it. I've re-read the Well scene several times. Nothing green was mentioned there. Apparently a bunch of people believe it's green without knowing why. Perhaps you could share your source?

So, I just uploaded to the Coppermind a vectorized version of the Harmony's symbol form Mistborn: Secret History. I extracted the PNG file containing the symbol from the e-book, then vectorized it via Inkscape. Here is the link. This is the first time I uploaded anything to a wiki, and I'm running into a weird problem. At first, I forgot to resize the page in Inkscape to fit the image, so the uploaded SVG file understandably didn't look right. So I fixed that and re-uploaded. But then, the image looked too small. So I resized it in Inkscape and re-uploaded yet again. That's when things got weird. Not only did the new version still look small (despite the dimensions indicated being correct), if you look in the file history section the previous version now looked bigger. So I tried reverting to the older version, but that still didn't work. Has anyone experienced this before? What's the solution? (Also, I'm not sure if it's okay to extract images from e-books for Coppermind purposes.)

You can change the title of your post. Nice list. It seems Brandon uses "weird" to mean any of the following: It is not intuitive (Shadesmar) It is a magic system hack (spiked Parshendi) It does not belong to the categories that he has revealed so far (Old Magic) It involves mechanics we haven't seen yet (how Skimmers change their mass) It may seem ordinary, but it's not (Nazh's knife) It is just absolute bonkers (Cutting off Lord Ruler’s and Hoid’s heads and switching them) Some of those things overlap in some cases. Anyway, I can't wait to see what theories you'll make based from your list.

I distinctly remember seeing a transcript of one of his Silence Divine readings, but I can't seem to find it here right now. I think it's in a Google Docs file somewhere.

Hello, Geoff! Since you like the Stormlight Archive, I highly recommend you read Warbreaker (it's free!), then immediately do a Words of Radiance and Edgedancer re-read. You're welcome. As for Brandon's YA books, I much prefer the Rithmatist, though it's probably the closest to Harry Potter, which you found boring. In Potter terms, the Rithmatist is like a story about a Muggle/Squib studying at Hogwarts as a Ravenclaw (i.e. very smart) student. If that premise doesn't interest you, then I guess you might be more interested in Brandon's other YA stuff.