Gloom

We'll agree to disagree. From what I see your interpretation of Cosmere wide healing rules wouldn't allow for Renarin to be healed of his blood weakness correct? Or for Kaladin to have his brands healed? Because it seems like your talking in circles to me Kurkistan. I can't actually pin down what you actually think about healing. All I get is that you shoot down anything that doesn't conform to this Feruchemical gold/Allomantic pewter formula. As far as Shardic intent goes, I don't see how you can argue that a Shard has no bearing on that Shards magic system. This is like saying that a Shard can create life, but has no bearing on what form that life takes, which is not the case. I find it implausible that a Shard has no influence on the magic system that is created when they invest themselves in a planet, I find the entire idea ridiculous. I don't hold Brandon to every word spoken in every interview. I believe that he will stick to the spirit of what was said, but I don't hold anything that isn't in a book as cannon because Brandon has repeatedly told us not to. A healing system can be much more robust than you seem to believe without leading to a society of perfect people that never get sick, old, or die.

You going to put those theories in the I told you so thread?

I think that Connor may have had a point even if his theory was unsound. The premise was that Stromlight healing doesn't fit into the pat little system of Feruchemical gold or Allomantic pewter. Neither does the healing system Endowment uses. I understand that you are using a quote from Brandon to justify this claim that every healing system relies on the Cognitive aspect of the person being healed to effect that healing, but I'm certain that this will be proven false, or at least have a broader definition than what has become accepted. I believe that Regrowth will be far more effective than the Scadrian equivalent because the intent of the Shards on Scadrial are end neutral or end negative. Preservation is end neutral. It seeks to preserve, to maintain, to stagnate. Ruin is end negative, to bring everything to an entropic state of nothingness. Honor and Cultivation are end positive. Cultivation is about growth and renewal. Honor is about higher ideals that make society a better place. To claim that Shardic intent has no effect is like saying that our intent has no effect on how we use nuclear energy. But our intent does matter when it comes to nuclear energy. We have a choice, we can use it to benefit society, or we can weaponize it. I find it highly unlikely that a being, or a pair of beings in this case, that can create life can't fix hereditary diseases or birth defects should they wish to. Healing magic may indeed conform to a set of overall rules in the Cosmere, but those rules are bound to be broader than the few examples that we have seen to date.

I believe that we should go back to the premise of the books. Brandon said the SA was about magic returning to a world. So we can assume that the amount of active investiture in the Physical can affect the frequency of Desolations. If this is so, then the attempts by the Heralds to limit the amount of magic in the Physical makes a certain amount of sense, but it is a flawed premise to think that limiting the magic in the Physical could prevent Desolations. Instead, it is likely that the lack of magic in the Physical has merely delayed the Desolations. It is likely that Odium was okay with the delay, because he spent the time well. He shattered Honor. Now he has nothing to lose, he can afford to push for a Desolation without concern of direct opposition since Cultivation seems to be preoccupied. Honor understood this, and so he left a message for those who were receptive to it with instructions to revive the Knights Radiant. How the Heralds fit into the intervening period between Desolations is ambiguous, but I believe that a theory was put forth that the Heralds in 'that place' could hold back the Desolations through force of will, which was why they were tortured. Break the Heralds will, and they are sent back to Roshar, leaving Odium free to act. I could be wrong, that might be my theory .

My bad, now back to my segue! Minor Shards! Thoughts? Also, if someone were to try to put the Shards on Sel back together, would they end up with Dominion and Devotion? Or would they have two completely different Shards?

Not just for Lighteyes. Look at the book seller in Kharbranth. Actually, I'm not sure if he was a lighteyes or not, but I think the example should hold regardless. The masculine and feminine arts hold sway at all levels of Vorin society to some degree. Yeah, who'd be pushing for woman's liberation in this society anyways? They have all the men wrapped around their fingers in a way. The men are too prideful to acknowledge that leaving all those arts in the care of women or emasculated men is harmful to their own development. Even in business, the man is relegated to the level of senior manager without the ability to manage things below his level of management. This is basically creating a figurehead leader because he is incapable of actually affecting change at a lower level because he lacks the skills necessary to enact those changes.

I thought I answered your question. I will try to be extremely clear this time. If the Shardholder is alive, you can't be the Shardholder no matter how much of the Shards power you accumulate because the Shard is being held. Now, your question did lead me to another question. Harmony can't be separated into Ruin and Preservation unless Sazed is killed and the Shard Splintered. This is WoB. So my question is this. When Adonalsium was shattered, did it shatter into the smallest pieces possible that could retain the function of a Shard? What I mean is, say three different people tried to reconstruct Honor at the same time. Would it be possible to create Minor Shard of Protection, a Minor Shard of Nobility, and a Minor Shard of Oaths?

I believe, that having a large enough portion of the Shads power would cause the Shard to reconstitute. As long as Endowment is alive and in control of her Shard, she would maintain control. She is the Shard. A Shard that has been splintered is a different ballgame all together. Lets not mix apples and oranges here. Basically what I'm saying here is that Honor could be reconstituted with a new holder without sucking up every last shred of Honor to do it. You wouldn't have to absorb all the bonding spren, and in fact, that might not even be possible since that power is invested into the planet. What I believe you'd have to do is capture the loose investiture.

I haven't taken the time to read your fan fic as yet, but now I'm curious if your metaphors are half as good as Davids.

All true, or at least I suppose it is. I didn't realize that Hoid was in TES. The point I was trying to make was that Hoid does have a purpose and that he wasn't just there for the show as Argent suggested was a possibility.

I don't think you would need every last piece of the Shard. Just enough of it. Tanavast was just fine even though a chunk of his power was invested in Roshar, Cultivation is also alive after having invested a large portion of her power into Roshar. There is bound to be a threshold at which enough power is accumulated to give the collector control over all the remaining untapped power of the Shard. A point which it has enough energy to remain cohesive.

So it's possible, but how you would go about doing it is another question entirely.

I believe the Lift interlude states that both Primes were killed within days of one another. I'm also not sure why some of you believe that the story wasn't moving chronologically. I think you really need to re-read the Lift interlude. The Prime was killed within the time frame that Szeth was on his killing spree. The Lift interlude occurs a couple of months after the death of the last Prime. If the Primes were some of the last assassinations Szeth committed, before traveling to Kharbranth to kill Taravangian, then it could easily fit within the chronology.

Eh, Hoid is opposed to Odium. I'm pretty sure he was where he was to assist Taln when he needed it. I'm not sure what assistance he will be rendering, but I'm fairly confident that he intends to do what he can. I'm also fairly certain he didn't travel all the way to Kholinar to annoy the guards at the gate. He had a pretty good gig as Elhokars Wit. Good food, appreciated by the monarch, got to annoy and ridicule the nobles, etc. He risked all of that for a reason. I think his cameos in past books were designed to prepare us for Hoid using magics not native to Roshar. If we didn't see him in Warbreaker, and he pulls out an awakened sword, people would be like 'What the heck?'. Same goes for his time on Scadrial. We even know for certain what he was after on Scadrial, so when Hoid starts using Ferochemy, or pulls out a bead of Lerasium, we won't be shocked by it.

I don't know, if you mix some of Peter Jacksons techniques he use in the Hobbit with CGI like the Spirits Within, you might be able to pull off something interesting. It would obviously be a long flick, but it could work with the right production company. I'm still pretty skeptical, but I'd give it a chance.

I disagree. We have had real heroes. We don't now, because our lives are, in comparison to those lived in prior ages, easy and soft. We don't have the challenges necessary to build the level of character required to reach that level. We don't have the culture that would appreciate that level of self sacrifice. But real people can and have achieved amazing things. Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc, etc. We don't like to believe this is true, and when such people do reach those heights, it is out fondest wish to tear them down, to prove they aren't any better then we are. The proof is in the pudding. How did Joan of Arc die?

Honestly, unless you are a Shardbearer, anyone who holds a Shardblade is dangerous regardless of their training. It's at least four feet of death on a stick. I don't need to be a swordsman to hit you with it, I just need to be a swordsman to keep it from another Shardbearer or a mob.

I would suggest asking Devotion and Dominion...oh wait, they're both dead. Odium wasn't invested in Roshar or any other planet. This means he had access to all his power, while Honor and Cultivation were heavily invested in Roshar. As far as I'm concerned, the question should really be, 'How did Honor convince Odium to invest himself in Roshar instead of having Odium kill him outright?' I think there was something on Roshar that Odium wanted. I think Honor convinced Odium to fight for it, I don't know how he did this, maybe he had a way of destroying or hiding what Odium was after. Regardless, he somehow convinced Odium to fight him on more even terms.

I agree that it is hypocritical to hold the Heralds to a standard that we would almost certainly fail to meet, but I find it interesting to see how people are responding to these fallen heroes. It's been said that the only real hero is a dead hero, and this is ample evidence of that. Talns death allows him to remain a hero, while those that lived are seen as flawed and vile creatures. The reality is that they were human. They had the same foibles and weaknesses that the rest of us do. I believe they performed admirably for an incredibly long period of time, but they are not judged by those looking in from the outside on what they accomplished, they are judged on how they failed.

Or they may have been receiving instructions directly from a Herald, and were covering for him.

You can cut the time line down in regards to the Skaa. The chances of a Skaa mistborn existing and being undetected are reduced every generation you go backwards. It was only after the nobility became lax in ensuring that none of their Skaa mistresses had children that survived that Skaa mistborn even became possible.

I'm fairly certain Galivar did something before he died that has broken, or at least put a crack in a dam that was interfering with the bonding process. It may be that whatever is in the orb was interfering. By removing it from the location he found it, or by finding a method of trapping it within the sphere, he may have opened a path that has long been blocked. As the crack widens, more bonding spren are able to create bonds. So far it has just been a trickle, only time will tell if it becomes a flood.

Healing from the inside out seems the most logical in any event. Healing from the inside out is more likely to force foreign objects out of the body during the healing process and be more efficient since it wouldn't require the body to absorb as many foreign bodies that were left behind. Additionally, it would help keep a fighter alive as it would target organ, bone and muscle damage before handling damage that is more superficial in nature. I don't believe that Stormlight would have any problems either creating or forcing the body to produce blood that was lost as blood is one of the ten essences.

I think he failed to prevent the Desolation from happening. I don't think he could have stopped it, but that doesn't necessarily mean he won't feel guilty for failing.

I agree completely. I think there are other factors involved as well, but the character of those involved is certainly something outside of the norm, at least in Alethi society. I believe those spren in the cognitive realm are making their decisions based off of various factors that are merely influenced by character, but Honorspren will be more strongly drawn to Dalinars family due to how they were influenced by Dalinar and the Way of Kings. I believe that Elhokar would have ended up with a bond regardless because he is the king of the nation that was traditionally important when it came to fighting the Desolations. Dalinars influence over Elhokar may make it plausible for Elhokar to attain the peak of Surgebinding ability and become a Radiant though.