Magnanimous Taz

@Argent I stand corrected. Thx for the info.

Iirc TLR was never a sliver. He had use of the well but he never held preservation's power. Vin became a sliver when she absorbed the mist, not when she was at the well. Or did I miss something. Cool theory btw. Not sure I buy into the symmetry of the unmade vs ???, but it does make me wonder if we are missing something.

@Cheeky-eyes I agree that there are stormlight savants. I don't necessarily think that the effects are as traumatic as those seen in mistborn, because stormlight and the surges function in a different manner than allomancy. I also think that surgebinders growing a gemheart would be a little out there. Do the greatshell gemhearts still function as part of their circulatory system? I mean, they still have blood. How could a crystalline structure operate? Perhaps brandon was hinting at some kind of internal stormlight retention mechanism. Even tho we have yet to see a fully bound radiant, it still seems that they use up stormlight pretty quickly in combat. Maybe they develop some kind of gemheart equivalent to store greater quantities in. *shrugs*

We did see those soulcasting ardents with the crystalline eyes. Using stormlight definitely appears to have a physical effect on the user in the long term.

The full lashing was where he sealed the door shut against the guards in kholinar. We also have WoB that he is not bonded to a spren.

@Wolven That's true but to truly become a skybreaker, szeth will need to attract a high spren and we don't know what the qualifications for that are.

Certainly it's true that stormlight is far more available on roshar than breaths on nalthis. What is also true is that nightblood burns up investiture very quickly. I think that he will use up stormlight at an even greater pace, my assumption being that one breath is equivalent to a pretty hefty measure of stormlight. That may not be a valid assumption. Argent is right, we really need to find a way to compare quantities of investiture on different worlds.

I agree, and iirc nightblood went through several hundred breaths over the course of the few minutes that vasher was wielding him unsheathed. If we assume that nightblood can absorb stormlight (as vasher is able to), but likely at a less efficient rate, even if szeth becomes able to infuse again, I see him burning through stormlight far more quickly than ever before. That's going to be a difficult balance. Nigtblood is still pretty effective while sheathed tho. Wonder if he would interact differently with a shardblade while sheathed vs bare...

Thanks for the info. I'll agree that there must be a bonding going on. I still wonder if, since the bond will be different on roshar, will that affect nightblood's feeding and Its cost on the user. Maybe nightblood, cognitively speaking, is the equivalent of a high spren? Obviously not a splinter like the nahel spren, but possessing sufficient investiture and a similar cognitive intent.

I'm really excited to see how this will play out. I wonder if nightblood is actually able to "bond" with anyone. I don't think his telepathic communication is any evidence of bonding. and the stormfather communicates with dalinar well before he showed any signs of radiantness. But if he did bond with szeth, would that protect szeth from the "cost" of wielding nightblood?

That's exactly how I feel about his ability. Also, could the sunmaker have been one of the heralds, maybe ishi? Or whichever one was the herald of wisdom? They oppressed knowledge and altered recorded histories. Seems to fit their penchant for perverting their duties. Just throwing it out there.

Well from the quote above she says it's dangerous, not evil. Perhaps literal clairvoyance is of odium, but I don't really think so. Honor posessed that ability as well. He just wasn't veey goos at it.

That doesn't mean it's necessarily of odium. Cultivation is evidently pretty good at it according to Tanavast. Renarin's spren is at least partially of cultivation so I wouldn't be surprised if they have some foretelling ability. I see it as more knowing when/where something bad will happen, not actual visions of the future. Kind of like hoid knowing where to go and when to be there.

I didn't mean to imply that nalan would want/intend for szeth to become a surgebinder. I just think that he is very aware of the qualities that skybreakers generally possess. I think that szeth is going to get the attention of some spren quite soon.

@Eejit I definitely agree that the other "magical" forms that the parshendi can take will follow a similar pattern to the radiants but with a mixture of cultivation and odium. I'm conflicted on whether or not the mundane forms are a part of that. I feel as though those forms (war, scholar, etc) are due to bonding with the mundane spren we see like glory spren, creation spren, and the like. That may contradict the "betrayal" of the spren that the parshendi allege.

I agree with all of this argent. I do feel however that we should make a distinction between the parshendi and the voidbringers. The parshendi were able to choose to take stormform and become "the voidbringers" while others (rlaine et al) declined to do so. We still haven't seen what effect the everstorm will have on the parshmen but I don't have any doubt that they will be forcibly transformed. So maybe I just talked myself out of my own opinion lol. At any rate we should remember that there is a section of the parshendi who still resist the old gods and I feel that saying that they are ALL voidbringers is inaccurate. They do all possess the capacity. We still have yet to see what happens to eshonai and whether or not she will be able to cast off the stormspren.

That is how I interpret nalan's comments to szeth also. Nightblood was made using regular breaths, just a huge number of them. I know that there was a lot of discussion here whether you could have enough breaths to equal a divine breath; a whole quality vs quantity thing. I tend to believe that a divine breath is fundamentally different from the innate version, meaning that any comparison is apples to oranges, not one humongous apple = x number of smaller ones.

I totally spaced on Szeth losing his ability to surgebind. And that was pretty much what I've been trying to get my head around. We have never seen nightblood display that ability, given only one scene that is truly relevant, but I doubt that he can do that. I also feel that szeth is due to bond a spren... I mean when a herald tells you that you are a dead ringer for the order that they oversee, I would think the spren would being showing interest. I definitely believe he will have stormlight to spend, but what happens when he doesn't?

Was wondering if Nalan is aware of the cost of using Nightblood unsheathed. He refers to it as a shardblade when WE know it is something else. What will happen if Szeth runs out of stormlight while wielding him? [spoilers]We know that on Nalthis, nightblood will feed on the users innate breath and kill him/her when they have exhausted extra breaths. [/spoilers] Don't know how this will manifest on Roshar where afaik there is no innate investiture comparable to the basic Breath. Also hope I did the spoiler tag correctly.

I think it's safe to say Dalinar had that moment on the tower. He and Adolin both could have escaped across the chasms but instead they chose to follow the codes and stay, and presumably, die with their men. Seems like that fits your criteria pretty well.

This makes me think of how hypothetical 4th dimensional objects would appear to us. Google hypercube and you'll see what I mean. Could be due to the "cryptics" existing more in the cognitive realm and humans who are primarily in the physical realm can't really "see" them. Similar to the story "flatland".

I always imagined him using something like a naginata or guandao, despite the obvious WoT similarity. Just learned tho, that the vikings had something that historians call a long bladed hewing spear... also first post!

Taz here. Been lurking for a while and finally had to join so I could jump in on some of the great discussion going on here. I grew up a huge RJ fan and was introduced to BS when he was asked to finish the series. Well, this might qualify as a "needless to say", but I absolutely fell in love with his writing and I have since read everything that I can get my hands on. I am on a 3rd or 4th, I forget sometimes, reread of WoK and I can honestly say that no book has completely grabbed my imagination like this. I can't wait to share my ideas with you guys and further my understanding of the Cosmere. Can it be 2014 already?!!