Jult

Division: Nothing too groundbreaking.. Except the skill where they literally break the ground as they slide on it to create burning dust clouds. They cause things to decay "in a manner of your choosing. For example, you could crumble the object into dust, etch writing or art into the object, destroy parts of a object to form a smaller object, or create a smokescreen". There's also a table that shows the varying difficulties of dividing materials. Clean Air<Smoke/Gas<Blood/Water/Oil/Liquids<Organic materials like flesh bone and pulp < Solids like metal stone and crystal. Another interesting tidbit is that Division is a Spiritual attack - rather than a physical one. And of course you can spout giant flames. Transportation: You can always identify North and the nearest settlement. Cognitive Vision can be used to identify an enemy's intents. And (after the 4th Ideal) you can teleport yourself and 10 companions to an Oathgate or Permanent Perpendicularity that you've visited before. Oh and you get advantage on Deduction tests while Invested (Elsecallers only). The rest is stuff that I think we already knew. Tension: You can walk on water by increasing surface tension. When they make things harder at low ranks they also control their shape, but only roughly. At higher ranks, they can instantly create intricate and complex objects. And at even higher ranks they can create objects that they control as long as they maintain physical contact with them; these objects can move up to 25 feet along surfaces, perform tasks, and attack.

Sorry to dredge this up like 6 weeks later, but I was just flipping through TotES for a different topic and came across this Hoid quote: I think, in this case, I trust your word over Hoid's. What Tress is doing in the excerpt you provided certainly sounds like a bond to me. Does this imply Tress is special somehow? Or, more likely, that Hoid didn't study the spores very thoroughly? Or is he just lying to his in-world audience?

I'm not sure that the spores carry much Investiture of their own. At least when dry. Check out this quote from Ulaam (TotES Chapter 28): It sounds to me like Investiture doesn't enter the equation until water gets involved. And then it gets used up quite quickly. Maybe there just isn't enough Investiture around for a long enough time for a Perp to coalesce? That's a complete guess though. I think if there was a Perp somewhere, Xisis would have found it. I've personally only played FF7, FF14, and FF15. So, I'm afraid I don't get the FF8 reference. Brandon has said that he's played them all though, so it probably had some influence. He did cite Anne McAffrey's Dragonriders of Pern books as a big inspiration for Lumar, but that doesn't mean it's the only one.

Sure. But none of those Splinters require Oaths. We also know there are weird planetary restrictions on abilities related to Rosharan Spren. For example, you need to be on Roshar the first time you summon your Shardplate. Though you can summon it off-planet after the first time.

It could be. Some of the Selish magics feel more 'groupable' than others. And, as Treamayne pointed out, there are definitely more Selish magics than the ones we know about. I don't expect the list above to be perfect. It was mainly just to get my idea across. I actually found a WoB that seems to be on a similar train of thought:

Thanks for explaining. I'd hesitate to call this plate. We saw that Shardplate cannot be summoned in the Spiritual Realm when Shallan fought Mraize in Chapter 49 of WaT. I'd wager this was some form of Tension. Maybe the Bondsmith's answer for their inability to summon Shardplate.

I don't remember plate being mentioned in that scene? What's the inconsistency?

Small correction, Chanarach is Shallan's mother - not Shalash. But I could see Lift being a Herald's daughter. Wit describes her as so heavily Invested that he's surprised normal people can't feel it. That could all be from whatever Cultivation did to her, but I have a feeling she's got more going on than we know about. Why Vedel, specifically? Is there something that makes her more likely than the other Heralds?

I've been doing lots of reading on fabrials and Polestones the last few days and need to correct myself on some stuff I said above. I guess I glossed over this during reading, but the vast majority of gemstones used on Roshar come from gemhearts. Mining on Roshar is super difficult because of the constant layers of crem coming down from highstorms. Some animals are farmed with the sole intention of harvesting their gemhearts. Still the crystals used to create Shadowform Zealots are very unique because they are gemhearts from a still technically 'alive' Singer. This is a pretty bad suspicion. Based on the above, Moash's 'eyes' are actually very likely gemhearts. But probably gemhearts from a dead animal rather than a living Singer. Which does feel more in line with Hemalurgy's typically bloody nature.

Diamante was one of the first things that came to my mind when I learned what Stonewards could do.

That's the more likely option IMO. Plus, the compass was found on Scadrial. As far as we know, the Eelakin have never been to Scadrial and the Iriali have.

For this bit specifically, the Sibling tells Jasnah that Bondsmiths bonded to ancient forces left by gods. The general consensus is that the 'ancient forces' the Sibling refers to are Wind, Stone, and Night. Wind was pretty busy with Kaladin during WaT, and Stone was assisting Venli. But we have very conflicting stories on where Night might be. The Sibling says she left Roshar and that Cultivation replaced her with the Nightwatcher. But the Stormlight RPG World Guide suggests So, the Nightwatcher/Night may have taken an interest in Adolin. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ However, I have an additional idea. I plug this theory a lot because I like it (sorry, not sorry). But I think the Four Pure Tones of Roshar and the Fourth Moon imply the existence of a 4th primal spren. And, in this Topic, we played around with several ideas for this being a light/day/dawn spren who is stuck in a deadeye-esque state. Adolin's name translates to "born unto light" and he's got a good record of 'reviving' deadeye spren. He'd be a pretty excellent Bondsmith to pair with this 4th spren.

I view them more like Allomancy vs Feruchemy vs Hemalurgy rather than Pewter Allomancy vs Brass Allomancy. What I'm suggesting is something similar to the way all three Metallic Arts map to a different Shard or combination of Shards (Allomancy = Preservation, Feruchemy = Preservation+Ruin, Hemalurgy = Ruin). I wonder if a similar mapping could be true for Sel. Something like: AonDor = Devotion Dakhor = Dominion Hrovell Potion Making = Autonomy ChayShan = Devotion + Dominion Forgery = Autonomy + Devotion Bloodsealing = Autonomy + Dominion All part of the same Selish symbol-based magic; yet flavored differently based on Shardic impact. But that's just random speculation on my part. D'oh! I definitely knew that at some point. My bad.

Interesting. There's a pretty limited sample size for exploring this concept. Most Shards seem to have picked one planet and stuck with it. But I wonder if there's any potential to theorize on Shardic impact to the MoIs on planets that they've visited? Sel, for example, has at least six known Invested Arts. I wonder if any of these are influenced by Autonomy's meddling on Sel.. We haven't seen anything of the sort on Scadrial (yet), but it seems like Autonomy was absent for a pretty long period between starting Trellism and Trellism's revival.

We do know that a Vessel's interpretation of the Intent does matter to some degree. Here's a relevant WoB about this (it contains spoilers for Mistborn Era 1). So, Taravangian's personal interpretation of Honor may be skewing it to this heartless Intent. Something I've seen questioned before is whether or not Taravangian's Boon/Bane from Cultivation is still in effect. If it is still in effect, then Retribution may be logical today, but he could be very emotional tomorrow. Which could have very interesting implications as to whether or not Taravangian will even be able to hold onto the Shards for very long.

Technically, spoiler tags aren't needed on this board (except for new materials like IotE and Stonewalkers), but I'm going to at least throw a warning out here because it feels like a few people in this Topic are not fully caught up on Cosmere novels. I'm gonna spoil stuff for several novels (Mistborn Era 2, White Sand, Sixth of Dusk), so stop reading if you want to avoid that. We know that Trell is an avatar of Autonomy. While we haven't seen an Autonomy-based Invested Art on Scadrial, we have seen one called Sand Mastery on Taldain in the White Sand graphic novels. There are still some questions on exactly how Sand Mastery works, but it seems to involve a Luhel Bond with an odd microorganism that resembles lichen and grows on sand. This actually has me wondering about Sixth of Dusk. We know Autonomy has an avatar on First of the Sun as well. I never really made a connection between the worms granting Aviar abilities and the lichen granting Sand Mastery. But is there one? There is a somewhat similar vibe of the powers in both systems coming from some form of symbiotic connection to a 'lesser' organism. Does Autonomy's Intent push MoIs towards symbiosis? That almost feels like the opposite of what the word 'autonomy' means to me.

The rules have changed a bit for Spren by the end of WaT. Some, like Notum, are finding it possible to manifest in the Physical Realm without the aid of a Nahel bond.

Well, we know that the Eelakin had the means of traversing the Cognitive Realm. Crossing over from the Lumar sub-astral into the Physical Realm is the trickiest bit. Especially since Lumar doesn't have a perpendicularity. But we've seen various methods for crossing over without one. Such as: Elsecalling - I'd call this impossible based on our current knowledge. Unless it happened a loooong time ago. Like before the scouring of Ashyn. The odd hourglass device Wit used to send Sigzil into the CR at the end of WaT - we don't even know what this device is, but the circumstances for its activation make it seem an unlikely option. It also seems like a one-way trip. So, it probably shouldn't even be on this list. The 'Compass of Spirits' from TLM's broadsheets - we know very little of the origins of the Compass. And only know that it helps you enter the Cognitive Realm. It's unclear if it works in the other direction. Maybe it was an Eelakin artifact all along? Doubtful, but not impossible. The only other option that comes to mind right now is Skipping like Nomad does in The Sunlit Man. But that would require a Dawnshard. There are presumably other methods that we don't know about or that I forgot about. I don't know if I'm sold on the theory, but it doesn't sound impossible.

I agree. It seems mainly like a game mechanic. It's not some specific mapping like "flamespren can only go into Rubies that are X size or larger". It's more that you can't put a spren into just any gem you have lying around. It needs to be a SpecialTM gem that was specifically crafted by an Artifabrian for this specific purpose. The intent is probably to limit Artifabrian players from mass producing a game breaking amount of fabrials.

He meant Mishram. As in Ba-Ado-Mishram. Anyway, there's something very odd going on here that seems to be a step beyond the spikes that were inserted into Moash. Here's the scene for anyone who doesn't have it open. Spoilers for Stonewalkers: As Sythrin said, these aren't normal crystals with a spren inside like some kind of fabrial would use. These are gemhearts from Shadowform Singers who have been trapped in a weird limbo between the Physical and Cognitive realms. So, 'Shadowform Zealots' as they're called in the game are a bizarre mashup of Spren, Singer, and human. I don't know if we've seen Hemalurgy before that combines 3 entities like this. I also don't know if it's possible to really emulate with other spren. As I'd guess that removing a Singer's gemheart would probably kill them in any other circumstance. I'd suspect Moash's 'eyes' are not gemhearts. There's quite a bit to unpack for the Hemalurgy scholars out there.

To add to this, Syl describes the feelings projected by Shardplate as "contentment". As opposed to the "pain" she felt from Shardblades (RoW I-1). Radiant Plate has other in-game mechanical advantages. It does not have the 'Dangerous' trait. And it doesn't add disadvantage to Invested checks. Another ability that was present in the books that I haven't found in game was the ability to Command your Shardplate to move to someone else as Kaladin did in RoW. If dead plate is still feeling too OP, you could consider making your players replace one or more of the 10 large gemstones that power the plate if it is significantly damaged during a fight. In book canon, I don't believe those grow back. They would be expensive and hard to find if you need to temporarily bench the plate from play. I'd only suggest this for tables that are into that kind of reality-heavy feature, though. Hiding their cool armor behind a paywall could be seen as unfun to some.

Yes. I estimated about 500 years between Shashara and Lift above. I wasn't suggesting that she was Lift's mother - just her ancestor. However, Nitpicking already pointed out that this is basically impossible because Royal Locks don't get passed down like a normal genetic trait. They are specifically linked to the throne in some (probably magical) way that makes it so only a monarch's immediate children can have them (I was unaware of this). And neither Shashara nor the 500 years' worth of descendants between her and Lift held the throne. If there is some kind of connection between Lift's powers and the Royal Locks, it almost certainly has nothing to do with Shashara.

IMO yes. WaT Quote: I believe this refers to Wind, Stone, and Night. Though it's a bit open to interpretation.

1. Far away from any Shards. Lumel, maybe? 2. I doubt this. Mainly because it will result in a ton of factions that would be hard to keep track of. But also, because I personally suspect you need to be on Roshar in order to bond a Spren. I think someone (Syl probably) needs to 'Accept' the Words as Stormfather once did. Otherwise Radiants would be too commonplace in the late stage Cosmere. Sigzil and Aux may possibly contradict this idea. But most rules seem to stop applying once Dawnshards come into play. 3. Elsecallers should be a huge deal during the space age, and I agree that their absence from the few stories we have in this time period is odd. Especially IotE. Who cares about a Perpendicularity? Just send someone to open an Elsegate. Something game changing must happen to the Elsecallers and/or Inkspren in the second Stormlight Era.

Exactly! Plus, the moons themselves precede the Shards. It makes more sense to say that the moons and superspren were created together. And that the Shards aren't related since they didn't even exist when Adonalsium created Roshar. I will admit that there are WoBs and even this excerpt from the Cosmere RPG that tie the coloring of the moons to the Shards: But those colors seem to come from Stormlight, Lifelight, and Voidlight more so than the Shards themselves. And we know that the lights are intrinsically linked to 3 of the 4 rhythms of Roshar; which also predate the Shards arrival to the system. It's what I pitched in the topic I linked earlier. Four rhythms and four moons should mean four lights and four ancient spren (and four Bondsmiths by extension). Because Adonalsium originally designed Roshar and he is associated with the number four (four Dawnshards and four aspects).