Salkara

If your goal is just reviving the dead spren, I don't think you need to permanently repair the Connection, just simulate it long enough (Feruchemical duralumin should be able to do it). Here's my post from earlier today:

Just reread the spoiler policy. I'd mistaken the "no spoiler tags required after 6 months" bit to mean not required in any forum, but it looks like (you're right) that only applies to the forum for that book or series.

Let's not underestimate the size of this gemstone hoard. I can think of two ways to think of it: Value. Shardblades are the objects with the highest stated value in the series, being worth as much as some kingdoms (imagine if a sword was worth as much as your country). Shallan observes that the gems, together, are worth as much as most kingdoms. So presumably, you could buy a shardblade with this many gems. Sounds like a lot to me. Mass. For simplicity's sake (and lack of better information), let's assume that each gem is a polestone, and there is an even distribution of the various polestones. That gives an average density around 3.5 g/cm^3. Shallan observes that most are larger than her fist. I'll use my fist as a start (10cm x 5cm x 8cm) and subtract 15% (assuming Shallan's fist is smaller than mine) to arrive at a rough estimate of 340 cm^3 per gem. Since m = d*V, each gem has a mass around 1,200 grams. Each thousand gems should therefore be around 1,200 kg (or 1.32 tons at Earth gravity), and there are multiple thousands.

I was talking about this earlier today on discord. I came up with (what I believe is) an outlandish method for reviving a dead sprenblade but which would actually work within our understanding of the cosmere. Here are the steps I came up with: Find a Connector ferring. Make a Hemalurgic spike from them with duralumin. Spike yourself to gain the ability to store and tap Connection. Store Connection in a duraluminmind (no idea how much is needed). Tap your duraluminmind while holding a dead sprenblade and saying the proper oaths (you probably have to mean them as well). We know from WoB, that just reciting the oaths isn't enough to revive a dead sprenblade [1], and also that Connection to the spren would be required for it to do anything cool [2]. You can't spike the Lost Radiant because s/he is dead so we need a way to duplicate that Connection. Enter Feruchemical duralumin, which stores Connection. In BoM, I believe the same principle could be used to increase Connection to a dead sprenblade, and with enough Connection to the spren, you should have a psuedo-Nahel bond. At that point, if you were to commit to the proper oaths, it should hopefully be the same as when Kaladin recommitted to the Windrunner Ideals and spoke the third oath. Voila: revived spren! Really, for this to work, you can replace steps 1-4 with anything that allows you to artificially increase your Connection. There are probably other magic systems in the cosmere which have this mechanic, but the only one I can think of Feruchemy. But what happens next though? Well, once you stop tapping your duralminmind, you lose your Connection to the spren, and the Nahel bond would dissolve. I'm not sure if this would kill the spren again, but the spren could get around this by breaking the bond before you stop tapping your duraluminmind. In fact, I think that's most likely, since WoB is that spren won't like Hemalurgic spikes [3]. So this is solely a method for reviving the spren. It would not make you a surgebinder for any useful amount of time (if at all). It's just an exception to Brandon's rule that "in most cases, the original person who broke the oaths has to be the one" to revive a dead spren [1].

The chapters said it was trapped long ago but not when it was released.

I think a person's Spiritweb comprises a person's aspects in the SR. If we use the Feruchemical table as a guide, this would include Identity, Fortune, Investiture, and Connection. So Identity would be a component of the Spiritweb, but they wouldn't be equivalent. Per WoB, "the power to heal" is from the SR but it gets "filtered through how you see yourself" in the CR. I'd argue that something like a book wouldn't have a Spiritweb healing template, so it wouldn't be able to heal (as a side note: this is probably why dead sprenblades don't heal). As for "ancient knowledge" not being enough to solve all problems, I agree, but I don't necessarily think Desolations got worse with each iteration. Founding the Knights Radiant probably made future Desolations easier, and that didn't happen at the beginning. Also, in the prelude, we see that 90% of the Heralds survived the last Desolation. To me, that sounds like they may have been getting easier, but that wouldn't really matter to the group who got to celebrate victory by returning to the torture chamber.

You do, but I think this would run counter to what we've seen Odium do. He's been interested in Shards, not humans. He splintered Devotion and Dominion on Sel and Ambition on Threnody, but he left humans alive on both worlds. I'd have to believe that there was a Shard on the planet already to think he went to Braize first, but the only other Shards in the system we know of (Honor and Cultivation) were invested on Roshar. Additionally, WoB is that there were humans on Roshar before Adonalsium was shattered, so I'd imagine any flight from Braize or Ashyn occurred before Honor, Cultivation, and Odium were in the mix.

I mean, I like the idea, but I also feel like it'll cheapen the narrative. All of a sudden the characters have access to loads of ancient knowledge while we still have 7 books to go? I think some of the books will be salvageable but not all. This will allow some knowledge gain, but we won't have ignorant characters suddenly becoming ancient scholars. As for how Progression works, I think it follows the normal pattern of cosmere healing. Namely, Investiture fixes the body in the Physical Realm so it matches the person's healing template contained in their Spiritweb and filtered by residual self-image in the Cognitive Realm (which is why Kaladin still has his slave brands, and yes, I just pulled a term straight from the Matrix; it was an amazing movie). For Progression to fix the books, I think they'll have to have a spirit, which is where I think the idea falls apart. The books are definitely present in the PR and almost certainly exist in the CR, but I'm not sold on them each having a Spirit. Separate idea. What if Shallan is able to combine Illumination and Transformation in someway to fix the books? Might it be possible for Shallan to view a book in the CR, learn its residual self-image, and then Soulcast it to that form? We've seen Jasnah Soulcast ink directly onto a page, so minute transformations like decayed pages to whole, word-filled pages should be possible.

I'd argue that this relies on the Unmade not being the listener gods: I guess it comes down to the question of which came first: a broken Herald or the Desolations. If a Herald had to break before the first Desolation started, then this theory would allow for an Unmade to exist and bind the listeners. If the Heralds weren't sent off to daily torture sessions until after the first Desolation ended, none would have broken prior to the start, and under this theory, that means no Unmade would exist, which would mean no Voidbringers.

Calling end of part 1: Dalinar and Shallan flip a switch an Urithuru lights up like a Christmas tree. I imagine it going something like this:

I feel like this isn't the end of that library. I wonder if Progression can heal more than just living tissue? For example, if there's a decayed book, it might still think of itself as a book in the CR or have an ideal state in the SR, and maybe Progression can use either to make it whole again.

This is one of my biggest hold ups with this new theory. It would require the first Desolation to occur without the listeners having any gods. Additionally, the Unmade are always described as ancient, by beings who existed before the Desolations ended (even if they weren't sapient). It sounds like the Unmade predate the Desolations. And! There's WoB that 9 is an important number for Odium/Braize. It seems to me that would be something intrinsic to the Shard, not something that gets updated after every lost Desolation. My conclusion is that this one Unmade per broken Herald theory has a maximum shelf life of 2 weeks.

I feel like you're drawing on the fact that Kel couldn't use Preservation's power in MB:SH, but that was due to his lack of Connection to the Shard, not his status as a Cognitive Shadow. With the Heralds, I don't think there's evidence that they'll be less powerful than normal Radiants. They may be Cognitive Shadows, but they clearly have a presence in the Physical Realm. I think the bigger issue to them being bonded is the madness. I feel like that needs to be resolved before they bond a spren. Though, maybe the formation of a Nahel bond will be the mechanism for healing the madness?

That wasn't in regards to half-shards. I went back and reread the bits on them. You're right. I was talking more about whether aluminum can be cut by shardblades. From Peter's response, it sounded like shardblades can cut aluminum, but it would need to be thin enough that the shardblade could cut without being magical.

I thought you resolved this one in February ([1] [2]). Based on Peter's explanation, it sounds like shardblades will react to aluminum as if they aren't magic. Like if you try to cut a 2x4 with a sword, you'll probably succeed, but you're not going to cut through a full-grown tree. Has there been different information since then?

If there's a magical source to it, that could be it. It could also be that thousands of years of torture, only broken by intermittent Desolations where you're supposed to be a godlike figure leading humanity to salvation would drive any person mad.

I'm not sure if it was a WoB, but my understanding was that the Half-Shards made use of aluminum (e.g. the metal that shardblades can't magically cut).

Can't believe I missed there idea of madness-induced Shardic control. That's a very point point. Still, I'd argue that it occurred prior to Aharietam (sp?) due to Jezrien's comment in the prelude. It sounds like Ishar has been pushing viewpoints that we, the readers, see as helpful to Odium since before the Heralds went mad.

My understanding from the various WoBs is that Rosharan humans were naturally darkeyed. However, the Nahel bond affects a person's DNA, and over time, descendants of the Knights Radiant were born as lighteyes. We also know from Dalinar's first vision that the KR were somewhat insular (e.g. lived only in Urithuru and Alethela), so it's likely the incidence of marriage (or more directly, procreation) among KR was relatively high, which would result in lighter-eyed offspring.

Anyone else get the feeling that Ishar may have gone to the Darkside? In the prelude, Jezrien mentions that Ishar said the Oathpact will hold with only one Herald having died. In ED, Nale mentions that Ishar told him their wasn't a new Desolation. If Tezim is Ishar, we now have this: Sounds to me like one of the Heralds might be on Odium's side.

Do you read that differently? I agree it seems to point toward a simple "Mr. T doesn't want competition" plot, but I also acknowledge that Brandon's plots have unexpected curveballs. To me, that quote edges too close to an explicit statement without actually making one. It's the type of epigraph I expect to look back at and think, "Well, that was clever misdirection." There's just too much missing from it. Why is chaos in Alethkar inevitable? Don't let power solidify behind whom? Sue for peace with whom (other nations, the Voidbringers, Tezim... who?)? "Risk of competition" really gets to me. Risk to whom and from what? Taravangian has been content to be the ruler from the shadows, using everyone else as puppets. Why is that different for Dalinar, a man who has proven quite inept that politics? I expect manipulating Dalinar to be within the Diagram's capabilities. Much of the Diagram, to me, reads as steam of consciousness where the author choose not to record logical steps he thought were obvious. I don't take it at face value because I don't think every sentence perfectly follows the previous. I think we're getting just enough of the Diagram to draw conclusions but not enough to make the right ones. Tl;dr I think it's supposed to be read as you read it, but I also think it could be intentionally misleading.

Objection your honor: conjecture. I agree that it seems like this is what he wants, but we haven't seen enough to say for sure. Uh, not for Dalinar? The preview chapters have been pretty clear that if the Blackthorn wants to disarm you, you aren't going to have an arm.

This right here is why I think the Diagram quote about Dalinar needing to be the Blackthorn instead of a peacemaker is correct. Please yes, with Nale in full Herald mode (e.g. 7-8 feet tall).

They aren't. Regular shardblades are huge. Honorblades are still pretty long. Dalinar describes Yasi's honorblade as barely five feet long. If that's a five foot blade, Jezrien has to be 8-10 feet tall.

Jezrien's Honorblade is depicted accurately, but what about the dimensions? If it's five feet long in that painting, then Jezrien is incredibly tall.