Gloom

I think you were on the right track until you got all serious. Alespren will change the world. Axies will introduce the Alespren to the Parsh and they will all take on the hobo form which makes them immune to Odiums influence. If I'm wrong, and it was those zany artifabrian scientists that were important, then it should be noted that a guass rifle is based on magnetics, but could just as easily be actuated through gravity manipulation. set a projectile in a long tube and accelerate it to about 20 gravities and you have a very deadly weapon. At those velocities each projectile would create an explosive impact that could rip through the ranks of thunderclasts with ease.

I have a feeling that Tarah isn't someone that Kaladin failed through his own actions. I believe she was someone he intended to help in some manner prior to getting branded a slave. His being branded of course prevented him from honoring his word to Tarah, thus in his mind he failed her. In reality, he may still be able to help her as intended in the next book or two.

Just to be clear here. Honorblades are a type of Shardblade. I agree that Tanavast was referring to the KR, but this passage does nothing to dismiss the importance of the Heralds. If man is to recover all the Shards they once bore, then it could very well mean the Heralds also have to reclaim their blades.

Kurkistan located this quote in another thread

I believe the Heralds had a hand in events. They seem meddlesome. Perhaps they felt that uniting them would bring the next desolation so they intervened and ensured that the Heirocracy not only failed, but that the visions that may have inspired the event were now considered evil.

I think that Tanavast meant for Dalinar to unite humanity for the final desolation. As far as the Heralds go.... If Tanavast told Dalinar unite the Heralds, he would think Tanavast was a loon. How would Dalinar even start to untie the Heralds? If Tanavast meant unite humanity and the Parshendi, well, then I think he could have been a little more clear on that point. So I think Tanavast meant unite everyone you could, if you can get the Heralds, great, if you can get the Parshendi, fantastic, but start getting your people in order or your all going into the Trollock stew pots....oops, my bad, the Trollocks aren't voidbringers.

I'll agree that it's more complicated than Brandon said. It is investiture, actually it has to be investiture because people use it to invest objects, but it isn't just investiture, and may be useless as investiture without being used in conjunction with other types of investiture like the bond, or gemstones. I think were trying to separate everything and analyze it individually when in reality, the magic is interdependent. The bond is just someone talking to themselves without stormlight, stormlight is just a pretty light without the bond or gemstones. Gemstones are just rocks without stormlight. Edit: Gemstones are not investiture, but can be invested with stormlight via highstorm. A gemstone with stormlight is invested in the most basic sense in that it has stormlight trapped within it.

Lift can definitely convert food directly into stormlight. After having all the stormlight sucked out of her by the larkin, she ate a roll and seconds later was able to convert that roll into stormlight. I'm sticking with stormlight because of the larkin. I find it hard to believe that a larkin would be able to drink in any type of investiture. It seems like it is specialized specifically towards stormlight. I'll still agree that it doesn't count though, because she received her gift from the Nightwatcher.

I'd propose that the Highstorms are a natural phenomenon of Roshar, a world with a single supercontenant and 2/3 normal earth gravity. I'd propose that when the Shards invested themselves in the planet that some of their investiture was placed in the Storm. At the very least Stormlight is an investiture spread by the storms. I would find the ecosystem far to advanced and adapted to life on Roshar and its extreme climate to have existed for less than a billion years.

As far as I can tell, Brandon has never been asked if the Heralds were human. He has been asked this... which is probably what marianmi was remembering. I almost misremembered that myself. I still find it difficult to believe that they aren't all human though, and I don't believe that we had a POV from any Heralds in TWoKs.

I suppose that we should also consider the differences in gravity. It wouldn't be unreasonable to believe that in a world with lower than earth gravity like Roshar that sediment could be suspended in the atmosphere more easily than it could on earth. I would really hat to see the size of their hailstones.

Either bindspren are susceptible to the friction surge, or they are capable of countering the friction surge. Until we see those little blue spren try to bind a friction user we won't know.

I'm sure this would be a Wyndle approved usage of Dakhor.

Just out of curiosity, when exactly did we see a pressure surge pin anyone down? When did we see this happen for a long enough period of time that it would require being counteracted with another surge? As for Jasnahs ability to kill almost instantly. Now you understand why Dalinar almost always ware his Shardplate.

Seriously? Have you smelled the breath on some of these 'people'? And you want to collect it? Yeah, and people thought this thread was disturbing before!

I largely agree with the post in general, but I felt the need to clarify a small point. The state of civilization we see in the prelude shouldn't be considered a constant up through the time of the last desolation. There were apparent high points of civilization that occurred prior to the desolation in which the Heralds opted out. The Silver Kingdoms were formed, Nohadon was the king of what appeared to have been a city rich in culture, art, and history, a city that Dalinar recognized as Kholinar. Nohadon was familiar with written records and the writing of books. The great cities already existed. Nohadon was finely attired. All of this existed prior to the formation of the Knights Radiant. So just because all we saw was the rag tag remnants of a bygone age, it doesn't mean that in previous ages things weren't better. Roshar may have been even more civilized in past ages than it is in the age we see.

I would think that the friction surge would allow an increase and decrease in friction, just as I would think that the pressure surge would allow one to increase or decrease the amount of pressure. So yes, I think Lift should be able to walk on walls, just a s I believe Kaladin should be able to create a shockwave of pressure as easily as he creates a pressure vacuum.

Corrupting an existing fabrial? I'm not sure that this would be possible. A fabrial already has a spren, unless you are talking about an ancient fabrial like a Shardblade or Soulcaster fabrial. In the later case, I think the inherent investiture locked into these artifacts would be difficult to overcome by such a crude means. In the case of the former, it should be easier to overcome the investiture of these devices. They are quite a bit less powerful, but I'd like to think that a spren that is trapped is also protected. Sort of like being in a bank vault during an earth quake, the building may fall down around you but, provided someone is around to dig you out, you should be okay. Add enough investiture to crack the gem and the fabrial stops functioning. On the other hand, a skilled artifabrian working for the ten anti-Heralds could quite possibly create some very nasty fabrials that do some unpleasant things. Consider a fabrial that when activated sparked hatred and rage in those around it for a hundred meters in all directions? Even if this fabrial could only function for a short time before cracking and releasing the Midnight Essence trapped within it, some serious damage could result. Then of course their is the Midnight Essence that escapes after the fabrial fails. Compound mayhem.

Well, in the event that Szeth is carrying an Honorblade, it's possible that the blade would return to the last place it was held by the Herald it belonged to. Regardless of whether or not this place was in Shinovar, so long as the Stone Shamans know the location, they could recover the blade from that location providing this does occur. We have no evidence to suggest this happens, but we have so little information regarding Honorblades that were basically playing guessing games and largely limiting their abilities to those of Radiant Blades anyways. Of course it's possible that this is all wrong, that Szeth carries a unique blade that doesn't fit into any other classification and that it will slay anyone who isn't a Shin. It's possible that upon Szeths death the blade will sit in the spiritual realm until the Stone Shamans use some hokus pocus to bring it back into the physical, it's possible that they lied to Szeth. It's possible that Szeths blade will appear in Brandons living room upon Szeths death and the Stone Shamans will have to travel to Utah to get it back. Who knows?

I don't see any reason why someone couldn't create fabrials using corrupted spren. I would hesitate to say that it would be equally safe to use these fabrials, since I believe the level of investiture in spren corrupted by the minions of Odium has to be increased by the corruption. A more highly invested spren may lead to fabrials with greater capabilities, but they may also have side effects. At the least, a spren corrupted by the power of Odium will be hateful and should it escape will likely use whatever investiture it has been endowed with to cause harm. I was intentionally vague on where the Parsh stand in my previous statement. My personal beliefs are closely aligned to those of Jasnahs. If I'm wrong I'm in good company. I feel the ties between Thunderclasts and Midnight Essence are much clearer. These appear to be incarnations of the ten essences summoned into existence through Voidcraft. I don't see why you couldn't create a fabrial that would summon these creatures, but if you did, I would hope that you had the ability to summon them far away from where you currently stood because I don't believe that a fabrial would grant you control over them.

I see surge vs surge more like rock-paper-scissors. A full lashing may catch someone using the friction surge, but someone with the Transportation surge would be able to travel out of it. Someone with Lightweaving could make you think they escaped, or cause your to lash the wrong location. A Dustbringer might get caught in the surge and blow the other Surgebinder to little bitty pieces. I don't think all surges are equal against each other. If this was the case, then all Orders would be equally combat efficient.

I would agree that Thunderclasts are related to Voidbringers in the same way as Midnight Essence. I think the Parsh are separate from both.

I only think it is 'safe' to assume that an Honorblade disappears when the Herald bound to it dies until we see evidence to the contrary. I'm barely certain this is safe based on the information provided by Kalak and the fact that Taln appeared armed with his Honorblade on his return. We never actually see a Herald die so lack definitive proof of the actual process. We lack any evidence at all that an Honorblade would even bond to a someone who isn't a Herald. We do have WoB that an Honorblade can be used, but no confirmation that it can be bonded. Even should an Honorblade be capable of being bonded to someone who isn't a Herald, in order to truly bond with that person the Blade would be required to make that person into a Herald. Even supposing this is within the Blades abilities, so long as the original Heralds live, it would either have to sever the link with the initial Herald, or create multiple Heralds for the same ideal. I have seen no evidence thus far to support either argument. Looks like we have a in training here.

Throws a fluffy little kitten to el_warko. You can catch right? That's a long fall if you miss that kitten. I think their are crocodiles down there. Are those crocodiles?

I have to take exception to this statement. Taravangian has certainly made an impact, and you aren't the first to promote that he has smoothed the way towards a united Roshar, but we have no evidence that he is actually accomplishing his supposed goal. We see the difficulties that Dalinar faces yes, but we don't see the results of the chaos left by Taravangians actions, so some people assume that it doesn't exist. I'm quite certain we will learn more of the chaos that ensued in WoR as a result of the actions that Szeth was ordered to take. Unless Taravangian already has leaders primed to take control of each of these nations, their will be a power vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum. I personally expect that the results will be an increase in warfare, both civil and amongst neighboring nations.