Gloom

Oh, the Tranquiline Halls.... How many habitable planets are in the system that Roshar inhabits?

I think it was named, but the name was either easily discarded and replaced, or it was as you said and the name the media insisted on using was scientific Jargon. Probably a lame name based on the scientific name. Like Argo765b12 would just be referred to as Argo by the media after a few weeks. People don't really get attached to names that are just place holders, but give them a name that means something to them and they will hold onto it tenaciously.

I think that Nightwielder's awesomeness is at an end. It's to bad he didn't have a spren to look out for him. No, sunblock wouldn't work because the UV rays cut through his power, they didn't give him a sunburn. The power was being projected from him, and UV radiation counteracted his power.

I'll agree that your theory is the most likely. The evidence for your theory could easily be construed as foreshadowing. I will even go so far as to say that yours is an actual theory based on evidence while the others are simply educated guesses based on alternate possibilities that could result. I've yet to see a more convincing theory than yours, but it's still just a theory. Until we have published proof of Helaran's fate, their is room for doubt. There is a lot we don't know about the Ghostbloods, Helaran, Luesh, and Shallan's father. I believe that the mysterious death of Luesh is even further evidence of your theory since we know that Amaram knows the identity of the Shardbearer. I believe that it is possible that Amaram took action in retaliation to the attempted assassination by having the Ghostbloods agent in House Davar removed. Alternatively, the Ghostbloods could have removed Luesh themselves to cover their tracks. I still don't know anything for certain, and until I read the book, I will continue to lack certainty because all of these beliefs are based on a theory, and a theory is by definition uncertain. The point of the OP was to explore other possibilities. This becomes difficult when those who believe the prevailing theory continue to attack those possibilities because they don't conform to the prevailing theory.

I thought the same thing. There is no reason to think that comic books didn't exist, or that they didn't have the same comic icons that exist in our world. It's pretty funny actually. I hope they can get DC to let them use it when they make this movie.

I'm sure it was called something as well. We love to name things. It probably wasn't anything very clever though or the name would have been harder to displace.

lol, it probably was marble. Didn't actually look it up. Bad me.

I think it may have been clarity . You took a logic jump in your previous posts that some of us weren't following. From my understanding of soulcasting, they don't even need a quarry. They could just stack a bunch of rocks and soulcast them into quartz. If I understand correctly, you're saying it doesn't matter how they got the quartz, they told their lenders they had the quarries and were mining them and took loans out on the future sales from those mines. Without a soulcaster to continue production, the lenders will come seeking to recover their losses from non-existent Quartz mines and find nothing. The misunderstanding was in the phrase he sold off fake quarries, when what you apparently meant was that he created debts based on the future production of fake quarries.

I believe that an epic can gift an ability to an object or a person, or even a person through an object. Both Edmund and the Prof seemed capable of doing any of them. The Prof gifted people through the tensors, the jackets, and by using the harmsway. Sure, he could have gifted them directly, but I don't think he did. I think he figured it was safer to gift people through an object. That it might be an insulator from Calamity. Keep them from going insane like the diggers.

This is Joe Jacobs with CNN, Tonight, the Capital building was destroyed by an epic known as Devastator. This is just the latest disaster to strike our country. Top scientists have determined that these Calamitous events are the result of (change camera to the red light in the sky) the very same atmospheric anomaly that appeared in our skies one year ago. Bob Preston with Fox News, Calamity strikes again as two epics fight over control of the Miami Dade area of Florida. Casualties are reported to be in the thousands. The epics, reportedly known as Spotlight and Infernis were responsible for the destruction of more than two thirds of the metro area before they both abandoned the field and disappeared. This is Tammy Thompson with ABC breaking news, It has been confirmed by the scientific community that Calamity is responsible for the rise of the epic menace. (Quickly switches to a view of Calamity, then switches camera back to Tammy) Over the past few months, more and more epics have been rising and causing mayhem in our great nation. Now that the leaders of the scientific community know what is causing these changes, they are certain that they can find a solution to the epic menace. This is John Hambly with NBC News, It has been three years since Calamity appeared in our skies, and still we have found no solution to this unnatural anomaly that has...(feed cuts out) This is the President of the United States of America, Since the rise of Calamity we have been fighting a losing battle against the epics that have risen in our midst. It is with deep sorrow that I have to inform you, the people of America that we have no solution. We lack the ability to challenge these epics, and have been forced to cede territory to them repeatedly or sacrifice the lives of good hard working Americans in our effort to combat them. I am here today to tell you that the war is over. Our government will continue to function as best it can in the face of this crisis, but we lack the ability to continue to fight for those areas that have been annexed by epics. I am sorry, I have failed you. God bless you all. This seems like a pretty reasonable way that the light in the sky could have been named Calamity even though it had appeared a year prior to the rise of any epics.

This is why I think that Kaladin is stronger than Szeth.

I can see the connection now, but I'm still not convinced. Even though Jezrien led the Wind Runners, we don't know that he shared their powers. I would also expect Jezrian to be more powerful than a KR, not less. Szeth is also capable of using his abilities without summoning this blade.

I never said stupid, I said lame. Stupid would be if Dalinar had Jezriens Honorblade and gave it to Sadeas. Jezrien is an easy name to pick out. Kalak, Jezrien, and Talenel were probably the most mentioned of all the Heralds in TWoKs, and we have more information on Jezrien than most of the others.

Precisely. A reflex action. The thing with this is, that if your powers do activate reflexively as a result of a threat, the natural response to a threat to an epic is for that epic to eliminate that threat. So even if you're a passive epic and try not to do bad things, you're very likely to over react when you feel threatened because your powers activated. Talk about temporary insanity. Now since this side affect of using powers doesn't appear to be widely know, let alone understood, it makes it easier to see why epics got out of control very quickly. For instance, you're an epic having a drink at a bar. Some slontze decides they want to hit you. Your powers activate, and you have a psychotic episode and cause him to explode. The cops are called. They catch up to you and point guns at you. Your powers activate and you have another psychotic episode and leave half the local police force smeared across the pavement. Now you're a fugitive, you have to keep using your powers to stay free, and the more you use them, the more psychotic you become. Once people see these apparently unstoppable epics running loose, other epics get ideas. They realize that they are basically unstoppable. Like Deathpoint they come to a realization that the rules no longer apply to them because no one can enforce those rules upon them. The cycle continues to snowball until we reach the point where David enters the picture.

My understanding was that House Davar was mining the quarries themselves and selling the stone. I think if they tried to sell the quarries, they would be found out very quickly even with a working soulcaster. Mining is a science, Quartz isn't found in just any stone. Their problem is that they no longer have any stone to sell, and they have to hide that fact to keep their debt collectors from mobbing them to recover what assets they could from House Davar.

You're positive that Kaladin killed Helaran based on the fact that he died around or before the Shadrbearer did? You're certain of this because the Shardbearer was a warrior from Jah Keved and happened to be a Ghostblood? The information we have on Helaran's death is second hand and without a single shred of evidence to support it. No body, no expert witness, just one persons word and Helaran's continued absence, and that persons character was reputed to be of an unsavory nature. What do we know of Shallan's Father? Nothing, but we've been led to believe he was a bully and a schemer who sought the crown of Jah Keved and would ally himself with other unsavory characters to achieve his ends. This doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that he's a trustworthy source of information. We at least have a basis upon which to make our own observations about the kind of man that Shallan's father was by looking at his children, which appear to all be broken in some way. I won't argue that it's impossible that Kaladin killed Helaran, but I'm certainly not certain of the fact, and I don't trust second hand information as if it were gospel. For all we know, Shallan incorrectly remembered her fathers words, or her father had reason to lie.

Killing people and bringing them back from the dead is lame. Brandon knows it's lame, he's said it's lame, and while he may do it for existing Heralds who have spoken their oaths before the Almighty and been invested with the power to do so, doing this with Szeth simply because he might hold an Honorblade would be disappointing. I'm sure if it's going to be done, it will be done well, but it will still be disappointing. I seriously doubt this will be the case though. I'd also like to know why, out of the ten Honorblades, you think he holds Jezrien's? Has Szeth shown some mastery of command, has he performed some brilliant act of leadership, that I missed somewhere? He's a brilliant fighter, and a deadly assassin, but he is also introverted, submissive, and emotionally damaged. These are not the hallmarks of a great leader. If anyone were to replace Jezrien, I think either Dalinar or Kaladin would make a more logical choice. Edit: Spelling

Calamity may be extra-dimensional. If either through science, or an outside agency, a hole was punched through to another dimension, this may create a stable rift. If that rift is omnipresent then it could always appear directly overhead anywhere in the world. The effects of the rift could be completely accidental. By omnipresent, I mean that the actual rift is simply access to an extra dimension that our perceptions tell us lies directly overhead in the sky. This would allow for Calamity to be seen overhead in every country of the world simultaneously. The epics would be a result of alterations caused by an unknown type of radiation that affects life on earth. Only a small portion of humanity that has certain genetic markers would exhibit a reaction to this radiation. The interesting thing about Calamity is that this may not be its first appearance. Red stars, and red comets have been a marker in human mythology for thousands of years as the bringers of doom. Perhaps in this world, this is the origin of the mythological gods of old.

He generates electrical power. He can gift the ability to generate electrical power to others, or use his power to charge energy cells directly. He can apparently also use his ability to power objects directly, which is how he accidentally killed his wife. I don't believe he has any offensive capabilities such as shooting lightning from his hands, but have no way to be certain of that.

I think all illusionists are somewhat susceptible to things like dust and smoke. They may not be their weakness, but they complicate the process. It doesn't matter if you are manipulating light, or trying to make others believe what they are seeing is real, if the environment is filled with particles they are going to have to put a lot more effort into the illusion. Think of it as the difference between high res and low res. If the environment is stable, low res will suffice, but if the environment is filled with free floating vectors, then the illusion has to be high res or it won't be believed. Firefight just detests dust because they make it a lot more difficult to use her powers in a believable manner.

Ahh, yes, I misunderstood. In that case, my chosen epic abilities aren't designed in that particular fashion, though I did put in a defense against those sneaky buggers. To my knowledge, no such epics actually exist though so they get disqualified and we get to kill them as powerless humans with delusions of grandeur.

Yup, that's what I think. I can't see any real pattern behind the powers epics have outside of them being what they really wanted, either consciously or unconsciously. So I feel that it makes sense that their weaknesses follow the same process. If these powers are basically their hearts desires or facsimile of those desires being granted, then I feel it would be even harder to resist using them.

I brought this up earlier and it was passed over without comment. I agree that their is little reason to write Helaran off so quickly. WoR is Shallans book. I wouldn't be surprised if Helaran chose to find his fortune on the Shattered Plains rather than get mixed up in his fathers delusions of grandeur. His appearance and interaction with Shallan would be a perfect way to introduce flashback scenes for her. His ability to interfere with her plans would be an excellent way to introduce conflict as well. Especially once he realizes that their father is dead and he is now the heir apparent of House Davar.

Ahh, sorry, wasn't reading closely enough. Shardholder and Shardbearer are so similar. My take on this is simple. Shards have their own intent. A Shardholder can influence that intent, but they can't act against that intent except in a very limited capacity. Even should Odium kill a Shardholder and choose someone to become a new Shardholder, the Shards intent would overwhelm Odiums influence. If the Shardholder was not alive, the Shard would overwhelm whatever investiture was used to animate its holder, likely destroying it. Yes, my understanding from reading the various books and quotes is that investiture can be overwhelmed by a more powerful investiture. I can't think of anything more powerful than a Shard. Odium would need to invest a significant amount of his power into the invested corpse to keep the Shard from overwhelming that corpse. It would weaken Odium significantly and I still don't believe that it would allow Odium to alter the Shards intent in any significant way.

I get a smaller one like Szeths, and you get a gigantic one. Seriously though, Shardblades are much lighter than steel. The difficulty with a large Shardblade is more a matter of its mass than its weight. This is actually a pretty good point if your going to go into battle. The Plate would be much more advantageous to an inexperienced warrior than the blade would. After all, wielding a hammer doesn't require as much skill or training as a sword. This isn't to say that skill and training aren't advantageous to have, but that you can get away with having less skill with bludgeoning weapons and still be effective.