Crysanja

i thought the radiants were before the culture split? so it should not be connected with the current gender rolls.

guess Shallan drawing Kaladin will be more like an accident. like taking a memory of the shattered plane, but Kaladin is just staying somewhere in it. dont see much reason for Shallan to make a memory of Kaladin.

some say the memory-taking/painting is a gift from Cultivation. do we have any other example for a gift from Cultivation in the Stormlight Archives? otherwise i think there is only the bond to a spren, or the old magic left. why invent things we have no example for. about the time Shallan proved to Jasnah her skill of soulcastting. She asks in her head "Creatures, ..., Can you hear me"? the answer is "yes, always, .." i think this shows the spren shes communicating with is more advanced. it seems its lisening to Shallan allways. like it is with her all the time. and it seems to understand a little about time - otherwise it could just have said yes, but it said "allways". the other option would be that the spren is lieing - but thats a difficult concept, becfause Sly didnt understand it for a long time. the following question from Shallan is very unspecific. "Can you return me to ghat place?". we know that newly bond spren, are very stupid and silly, they have not much of a character or understanding at all. so this means either the bond is there for quite some time, or this spren (if it is one) is very very different to Sly, or was bond to someone very recently. Because it is not stuipd/silly.

uh i think youre very wrong here. the highprinces have their own lands - gavilar united the high princes(lands) to a kingdom. you think the highprinces were ready to give up their lands for gavilars kingdom? they most likely have most of the govermental rights over their lands, maybe the "new" king has some power to guide them. i dont think they even have to stay at the shattered planes, except they would look weak then, and would loose the chance to claim gem-hearts. One of the main reason they are there at all is, status and fun. sorry this has little todo with spheres. the size of gems is importand for soulcasting. i guess the larger the gem is, it can hold more power. when you draw most or all of the power of a gem, it can shatter, the question would be if you can draw power from more then one gem for one soulcasting job. if you cant draw from more then one, it would mean that spheres are useless for soulcasting, because they lack the power todo the job. im not sure if they can even shatter to dust then..

im not sure if i remember right, but maybe the ardans dont eat meat? without the tast you cant soulcast it.

i think Adolin is going to die. why is he going to die? his point of few is not offering anything special anymore. everything he can do, another pov char is offering too + more. he was interresting as -shard/platebarer, but so its the new character of the pashendi and (Shallan)/Szeth/Kaladin have a fighting pov too. -new high-prince to replace "crazy" Dalinar <- this is no longer the case/needed. -protecting his weak brother/king <- the brother has a shard plate now. And the king is propably going to change alot in the next book(learning about his following spren) so if there is not a huge role change for Adolin, he has nothing to offer, except marriage. there are going to be too many pov chars in one place. 1 Adolin, 2 Dalinar, 3 Kaladin, 4 Navani, ( 5 Szeth, 6 Shallan)

im not sure if a gem for a soulcaster is limited to xx charges, until it breaks, or if its just luck/depending on the task. maybe even the skill of the user of the soulcaster. so with recharging in storms, you can propably use one gems several times - maybe many times for simple tasks.

brandon sanderson is criticicing alot about the missing improvement of technology in fantasy. so i think we should assume here, that there was quite some improvements in technology between the desolations. so the ppl have better weapons to withstand each following desolation, but thouse desolations are getting worse. which means the desolation-forces getting much stronger, and/or thouse monsters/forces can use the "newly" developed technology too. another option would be that the over all population is declining over all thouse desolations.

isnt Szeth using the powers provided by a spren? - but we never see interaction between Szeth and a spren. so why would we need to see an interaction between Shallan and a spren for her memories? but i think there has to be another criteria to be able to bind a creation spren, in addition to be a very/good artist. Because lots of women are artists, sure some are good too. her soulcasting is another reason, to have a spren bound. - soulcasting seems very artistic too.

maybe the knowledge of the knightradiant is not as compleate as it sounds. i think they had allways an orientation towards warfare. so there might be lots of abilities, which are useless for warfare. there are löts of different spreen, maybe all can be bound. ok they knew much more then the ppl today, but that does not mean they knew everything.

first i thought Shallan had something like an eidetic memory, but she seems to forget memories after painting them. so it seems not likely. the old magic would be a valid way to get this skill, but i dont think she viseted. why not the bounding of a creation spren?(or another spren) we know she atracts more creation spren then most artists, maybe this abundance of them gives a chance to bind one.. painting a "memory" is like perfect art. Shallan cant see thouse "cryptic" spren, but she can paint them with a memory. maybe a creation spren would actualy take/hold the memory, it could propably see other spren. im not sure when Shallan got her ablity, maybe she bounded the spren in her "lonely" childhood. an immaginary friend(spren) for a lonely child? sillyness you dont speak about as an adult? against this speaks that we never saw any communication between Shallan and a Spreen(except the cryptics). or any special spren near Shallan. maybe any kind of spren can be bound, just how usefull they are is in question. (maybe dalinar binding a spren, would explain his visions)

maybe some spren go bad when theire linked partner dies?

something to think about. what happens when a line of forbiddens is drawn on the ceiling. does the "wall" go downward? if it is the case, and we assume it will reach the floor, will it prevent calklings from crossing? can calklings only attack the actual line or the wall too? - or would there allways be space between the floor and the wall? can calklings clime a line of forbiddens?

wasnt syl carrying a leaf for kaladin? - so there must be some physical force to manipulate the world.

we dont know much about shardblades from the "intended" users. we dont know how it is forged or made. maybe with the right mindset/tools you can change its size and form. ok this sounds a bit rediculouse, but our sources with information about shardblades are so too. they have no clue how they are made, why they were made, where they are while not summoned. they know nearly nothing about them, they are ancient relics, which are played with.

ok i said alot of bad things/motivations about the church here, ill give some different motivations here. so a single person invented/found rithmatics. now what can a single person do to spread the knowledge about it? he can go to a village and test, show, teach rithmatics.(this was 300? years ago) here we should remember what was done to ppl using "magic" in our world. we burned them as witches - and they couldnt use magic after all. so rithmatics seems to be a very scarry thing, maybe even the testing. in this world, it was fortunite that the church was willing to indoctrinate it. religion is one of very few ways to spread rithmatistism over a large population. the church could be the only way, to make ppl to accept it in the first place. maybe to saveguard the population, against the knowledge what a successfull testing is. sorry this is a bit off-topic.

i think thouse lines of forbiddance are not realy a save thing. just a few calklings can penetrate a line relativly quickly(just thouse few with shovels, remember), idk how many calklings there are at nbraska(?) if it could be in the hundrets, thouse lines could break even quicker. the strength of them is that you can propably draw them in seconds and breach them in a minute? -> useless for permanent fortifications against calklings, without oversight. i guess they will fad away over time.

religion is a way to have power over ppl. being or becomeing a rithmatist has nothing todo with the church, except that the church was able to take power over the testing process. with this power over the testing process, they connect the church with magic -> gods ability/right - it gives the church more power over the ppl. limiting it to just one testing day will make it a more religious thing, a tradition. traditions give power over ppl. so religious traditions are importand to control the ppl. if the number of rithmatist(shadowblazes?) is limited, then it is advantagous to have just one testing day, this makes it less difficult to manipulate who will become a rithmatist.

this secret keeping of the event of becomeing a rithmatist must have some driving force . i dont think you can keep 99.99% of all 8 year olds, which become a rithmatist to keep the secret, with just telling them not to. even if something realy horrible would happen, some child would speak about it, even if it means expulsion of society. which could prevent a grownup from speaking. would threat of death keep a child silent? maybe a child yes, all children? no. so there must be some force transfered, that keeps them silent, maybe they cant speak about it? - why? becomeing an rithmatist is propably the most wonderfull thing, that can happen to a child. if that is nothing to speak about, what else? why shouldnt a child speak about the dreams of everyone. so im sure they cant speak about it, or everyone would know the reason. you cant keep a secret with lots of ppl knowing it. interesting is now what force keeps them silent, maybe a shadowblaze takes over the body of the child and it is gone? or a shadowblazes merges with the mind of the child? simbiosis? again you cant keep all rithmatist children silent!

i think the only reason Joel didnt become a rithmatist is, that he carried a clockwork coin while in the testing-camber. guess the Shadowblaze would have moved into the body of Joel or made some other simbiotic bound with him, but the clockwork scarred it away. usualy Shadowblazes dont get scarred away in the testings, because 8 year olds dont carry clockwork gold coins. maybe it is just the running clockwork of the clockwork coin - Joel did wind it up before. HIs friends which didnt become rithmatists didnt see the Shadowblaze at all. rithmatists dont want to talk about it, because what would anyone think if they told them a calk-creature went into theire body? wasnt it said that one rithmatist must die, before someone else can become a rithmatist? this would mean one Shadowblaze for each rithmatist.