Gloom

We have three related theories about Jezrien, and I don't see how they can all be compatible. We have the theory that Szeth carries Jezriens Honorblade. We have the theory that the two men Jasnah encountered are Heralds. We have the theory that the drunkard that approached Szeth was Jezrien. You can believe any two of these theories and not have a conflict. I don't see how you can believe all three. If the two men that Jasnah encountered are Heralds, then when one of them said “I don’t like this. What we’ve done is wrong. That creature carries my lord’s own Blade. We shouldn’t have let him keep it. He—” He would have been talking about Jezriens Honorblade. But then When Szeth encounters the person who is theorized to be Jezrien, all he asks is 'Have you seen me?"? I would think that if Szeth encountered Jezrien while in possession of Jezriens Honorblade, Jezrien might have something more to say about it than that.

Actually, he doesn't even have to do that. He can just corrupt an existing spren type and have them hijack the Parsh.

I agree that Szeths blade being Jezriens Honorblade is still just a theory, but it has a lot more to substantiate it than the evidence that the drunk at the party was Jezrien. Regardless, the point I was trying to make is that I would find it hard to swallow that both of these theories are correct because of that issue.

The only other evidence is that in TWoKs, it appears that pretty much all the Heralds we know we've seen were casual mentions, including Darkness and his companion. It looks like Brandon was placing them in important places, but he wasn't introducing them to us. This may or may not be the case with Jezrien. If that was Jezrien though, and Szeth practically bumped into him while possessing his sword, I'm kind of surprised that no reference to that was made.

The companion to Darkness in the Prologue refers to them in the plural when talking about the condition Ash is in. If they are both Heralds, then they both have the same lord.

I've been theorizing a bit myself, and have come to a few conclusions that may or may not be correct. Gems don't appear to have held a great deal of significance to artifact fabrials like Shards and Soulcasters outside of a power source. In an artifact Soulcaster, the gems are interchangeable. It's true that the actual process is kept somewhat mysticized and that our best source for information regarding them is Kabsal who is an untrustworthy narrator. Still, he's all we have. Kabsal said "But the truth is, there's not much to them. You just put one on, press your hand against something, and tap a gemstone with your finger. It works that simply.". Regardless of the veracity of his claim, we know the gemstones on Soulcasters are replaced, regularly. This leads me to believe that they operated on a different set of principles than modern fabrials. Navani, a reputedly distinguished artifabrian of the current era claimed that the design and workings of Shards are completely different from everything they had discovered. This statement from what we can assume is a trustworthy narrator says that everything we've learned about the artifabrian craft can be thrown out the window. That means it is unlikely that they were reliant upon trapped spren to achieve an effect. So if the gemstones are just a power source, which seems rather obvious in the case of Shardplate, then we are left with the artifacts themselves. The metal they are made from, and the way they are designed. Lets look at a recent quote and see what further speculation we can draw. This comes from a fairly reliable source, who only rarely contradicts himself. Now, if all the fabrial science that we have been made aware of is completely different from what was done in ancient times, and those ancient fabrials can replicate all Surgebinding abilities, this leads one to believe, that all ancient fabrials were created by Surgebinders. This means that Surgebinders had some way to infuse the power into the metal and permanently invest the object with Stormlight. Shards in particular are baffling. Plate can be regrown, and Blades require nothing. I would speculate that each set of Plate has a representation of itself in the Cognitive Realm which allows the Plate to be regrown to its previous form. Provide the plate with enough investiture, and it can activate a form of regrowth that allows it to return to it's original condition. Plate can also adjust its self to the form of the wearer. I would surmise that the Surge Surface Tension, or whatever it ends up being is also infused into the Plate. As far as the Blades go, I would need more information to even begin to speculate. I prefer to call those who are not inherently magical in nature investiture neutral. In the case of Scadrians, they can access the power of Preservation because of an imbalance in their make-up. In the case of Endowment, each person is endowed with a touch of investiture. So if you aren't imbalanced, or weren't granted anything extra, you remain in a neutral state.

I think the right word would be counter. If I understand all this mystical mumbo jumbo, your saying that it scatters or diffuses other types of investiture, but I think it really only scatters or diffuses certain types of investiture. I would say it could pretty much counter or diffuse (because I'm not willing to commit to either one) perceptual investiture. It can do those things and still be end positive and allow a strong enough Allomancer to break through. It wouldn't stop a Coinshot from actively using his power inside a copper cloud because the copper cloud because pushing steel isn't perceptual. It wouldn't stop a lashing, but it would stop a Stormrider from seeing what was going on. So yes, Life Sense would be a type of perceptual investiture as well. Yeah, I know, I'm totally way off of what you were theorizing, but

We'll be good, we don't want any thread hemalurgy going on around here. It's evil you know.

Yes, this is pretty much what I was trying to establish in my earlier post. If the Soulcaster has a unique energy matrix that can channel Stormlight from gemstones to attain various effects, a physical repair would likely fail to restore the artifact. A Shardblade wouldn't necessarily be required to damage it beyond repair with the resources that the Davars had available. The best theory outside of a natural death in regards to Luesh is actually a retributive strike by Amaram. This would require that the theory that Nan Helaran was the Shardbearer on the field the day Kaladin saved Amarams life. The theory has it's strengths and weaknesses, but it is plausible. The rest of your post I agree with without reservation.

Eh? Yeah, the Reckoners are a menace to all epics. I'm not saying that SH didn't have resources, or connections. In the case of the Reckoners, I don't doubt he could get trackers on them, but once they were in another High Epics territory, those trackers would almost certainly coordinate with the locals. SH himself, or his top lieutenants most likely wouldn't be welcome to come and go as they please though. Thse reckoners were after a High Epic, and SH at that. I'm pretty sure that if I was a High Epic and found out a group of Reckoners were in my territory and had just taken a shot at another High Epic, I would take the threat seriously and, at the least, look into the matter myself. If they were tracking another epic simply because that epic wasn't happy living under SHs governance, I think they would find their reception a bit frostier.

Lets work off the premise that Shallan got the Shardblade from her father. If someone killed Shallans father, and a Shardblade appeared, what is the likelihood that they would leave it behind? Shallan had to get rid of the Shardblade, and conveniently, to do that all she had to do was take possession of it. Now, it may have been merely suspicious if Shallan immediately came forth with the Shardblade, but she didn't. No suspicion is better than some suspicion. It is likely that if her brothers looked for evidence to implicate Shallan, they would have found it. As it was, Shallan was above suspicion. She was daddys little girl. She was the last person they would suspect of killing their father. This makes perfect sense if Shallan was unaware of the desperate financial straights that her family was in. Once she found out about the kind of trouble they were in, it was far to late to simply produce the Shardblade and say "Oh, hey, look what I found on the floor when daddy died!". If she did this, she may as well have just come clean altogether. It would have been pretty plain that Shallan was the one who killed daddy and put the future of their house at risk. So she kept the Blade a secret, but she felt guilty as all get out. It was because of her guilt that she came up with a plan that put all the risk for their success on her shoulders. This is all hypothetical of course

From the Jasnah Prolgue: An explaination. 'I'm worried about Ash' is believed to be referring to Shallash. The speaker then began comparing her condition to himself and his companion. 'That creature carries my lords own blade' This is believed to be in reference to the blade that Szeth carries which many believe to be Jezriens Honorblade. Lift Interlude: The Darkness appears to be very concerned with ensuring all the legal niceties are in order. He tries very hard to ensure that what he does is considered justice in his own eyes. The description of Darkness matches that of the man whom Jasnah encountered in the hall. There may be more, I'll leave that to others to flesh out, this is the basis of the theory.

I think the appropriate question for Brandon would be 'Can a Shard invested on Roshar see Stormlight'. The answer to that question would be telling. After some serious consideration, I'm going to agree that Stormlight is fuel. I'm going to propose that spren are actually the gateway. On Scadrial, investiture is inherited. An imbalance of forces within the Allomancer is what allows them to access the power of their Shards, while metal triggers and enables the magic. On Roshar, no such mechanism exists. The people of Roshar appear to be investiture neutral. It is only when a person bonds with a spren that they can gain access to the magic of their Shards. This isn't like snapping because a spren isn't actually a natural part of the Surgebinder. We have reason to believe a potential Surgebinder can even reject a spren. So spren are more than just the Roshar equivalent of snapping, they are an active gateway that can facilitate Surgebinding through the Surgebinder. Remove the spren (gateway) and the Surgebinder becomes a normal person again. But Stormlight is more than just fuel. Stormlight is the trigger as well. A Surgebinder can't Surgebind without Stormlight, and he can only Surgebind while he has Stormlight to burn. This is exactly what happens with metals on Scadrial. Once the metal is gone, the Allomancer can no longer use the magic of Allomancy unless they get more metal. Since this is Lifts topic, the same principle applies to her with some differences. Because Lift relies on food for investiture, she can potentially access her Awesomeness at any time provided she has eaten. Her trigger is internal and her gateway is always active. The drawbacks that she faces are different from those of other Surgebinders. A regular Surgebinder can go through pouches full of gems provided the Surgebinder has access to them, Lift is limited to her internal reserves. Restoring her internal reserves is slower than absorbing Stormlight, but she doesn't have to depend on an external trigger or fuel.

Yes, It appeared that Galivar was confident that he succeeded at something, and the Death Calls started around that time.

What I was trying to get at, is that a soulcaster fabrial of the sort that Shallans father was reputedly in possession of, was supposedly able to be activated and maintained without the aid of a Surgebinder. From what I gathered reading about such artifacts, the gemstones could be, and were replaced regularly. This is how Gemhearts are transformed into resources. IIRC, Kabsal said that they were easy to use, just tap a gemstone and produce an effect, but Soulcasters were fabrials from ancient times. I would hesitate to suggest that the only thing of import regarding such fabrials was the gemstones. The gemstones are the only part of the fabrial that is ordinarily replaced. Modern artifabrians trap spren to attain certain effects. This doesn't sound like it's necessary for soulcaster fabrials. I would suggest that the fabrial design and and composition possibly crafted by a Surgebinder artifabrian, possibly a Bondsmith, placed the instructions in the fabrial itself, and bypassed spren completely. If this were the case, any dmage to such a device could render it unrepairable by anything short of a Surgebinder artifabrian. If it could be superficially repaired by ordinary methods, then it could likely be damaged by ordinary methods. This would also provide an extra incentive for the ardentia to protect the fabrials and their secrets closely.

We really don't know how durable a fabrial is. What we do know is that fabrials are created by trapping spren. It seems to me that the spren would be trapped in the gemstones. If the casing of the fabrial is a cage, than if it was damaged in such a way as to disrupt the pattern, then the spren might be able to free themselves. This is contingent on the the fabrial being a real fabrial in the first place. So if a fabrial is made of gold, and it gets bent enough to disrupt the pattern that binds the spren in place, you have a pretty piece of jewelry until new spren can be trapped inside.

Most of the Q/A stuff has been added to Theory Land here The most recent Q/A sessions from Chicago and Seattle can be found here. I believe that the concensus on that quote was that it was from a KR. That may be wrong, that one may have been Cultivation, but we can assume with some confidence that most of the quotes appear to be from KR. There is reason to believe that the Death Quotes are from varying sources, so it's possible they could come from anywhere.

I believe that when Darkness meets Kaladin, he will almost certainly be after someone else. Kaladin will protect the Surgebinder that Darkness is after, and in the process uncover a new ideal and possibly the power to fly. Then he will either drive Darkness off, or more likely, take his fellow Surgebinder and fly off leaving Darkness behind to pout.

Yeah, I know you're all tired of reading this quote. Magic on Roshar is not hereditary or genetic. It is based on actions. I suppose since Hoid is on Roshar, an argument could be made that he has a genetic investiture, so perhaps I should say that magic native to Roshar and its Shards is not genetic. source link number 111

Or that, That would be the obvious reason.

This quote doesn't really confirm my theory, but it confirms it's validity as a theory.

I believe that Dalinar described Elhokar as dazed. Elhokar may have been staring at a sea of glass beads thinking he was going nuts, but he didn't appear to be aware of what was going on in the real world at the time Dalinar may have glowed, or perhaps reflected the light in such a way as that he appeared to glow.

I disagree that the 'Orb of Shadows' had to be the reason for the Parshendi assassination. They may not have known about the Orb, and been concerned about his search for the most important words a man can say. The Orb does seem to be the logical reason, but that, along with the fact that the Parshendi provided their assassin with no instructions regarding the Orb lead me to believe that the Orb wasn't a factor in the why the Parshendi had Galivar killed. It may still have been a factor in why he was killed. The Parshendi weren't working alone. Someone provided them with Szeth and informed them on his capabilities. If another party wanted Galivar killed for the Orb, then it would make more sense why the assassin lacked instructions regarding what to do with it.

I don't know that an Honorblade can be "lost". I would assume that each Blade is bound to the Herald in some way greater than that of a Shardblade as we know them. I believe that the Heralds can either recover their Blades whenever they desire, or the Blades have been taken beyond their reach by a greater power. I find the second possibility unlikely. I'm pretty sure that the Heralds predated the arrival of humans on Roshar. What the spren did was a surprise to Honor. The Radiants were an accident. The Heralds fought in the Tranquiline Halls prior to their forced exile. For some of the Heralds to belong to Cultivation, you'd have to buy my theory regarding the origins of Roshars humans and the Tranquiline Halls, and that would just make it possible, not likely. theory

Yes, actually, none of these are in theory land. I've had to bookmark them separately. They are the most current Q/A sessions that I'm aware of. I'll link them here since I should have referenced a source anyways. Seattle Newcago