Scriptorian

Anyone else suspicious of the fact that Jezrien's honorblade is so accurately depicted?

Can't tell what books those are, but they look big enough to be used as blunt weapons, which means they are good books. 5 thumbs up.

To make it even better, Kaladin joins up with Jasnah and Hoid on their roadtrip.

Ah...choices...gonna have to go with Elantrian. Immortality and physical/mental boosts for free, plus object-oriented magic programming is hard to beat. Surgebinder was my second choice, but there is still a lot we don't know. We are only familiar with less then half of the orders and maybe half of the surges. Also I would want to be both a Truthwatcher and Windrunner (illusions + flying + two shardblades) and that may not be feasible. Get back to me once we get a Renarin PoV. Mistborn is my third choice, because Mistborn. Also metal is probably the easiest power source to get access to. Also Mistborn. I considered Feruchemy because it's sooo hackable, but that in turn means I can just buy medallions off another Sharder. Should Twinborn/Compounder (no, not Fullborn) be an option? Not sure I'd pick it, but it's still a high-tier power set.

Lazarus' point is that once the deed had been done, what's the normal, non-genocidal person (who had no part in stealing the sapeince if an an entire people) supposed to do concerning the victims? We can all agree that, give our current information, what was done to the parshmen in breaking their minds was absolutely aweful, and I have trouble conceiving of a situation where it would be defensible. That said, if there were no means of restoring them, the only options you really have are let them starve, somehow organize an effort to feed, house, and care for the entire population, or employ them as labor to justify keeping them alive. Not an ideal situation all around. Basically, I don't think modern rosharens are as culpable for the inhuman treatment of the parshmen as our sense of righteous indignation would like (barring individual cases of cruelty that certainly occurred). The parshmen were for (nearly) all intents and be purposes, sub-human. Of course, the restored parshmen do deserve to keep their freedom, peacefully, but currently we are headed towards a very bloody conflict instead. The only thing that's clear in this situation is that this was a masterful play by Odium.

Next time on the Stormlight Archive! Adolin thinks "Don't let them see that I killed Sadeas." Shallan thinks "Don't let them see that I recognize Mraize." Mraize thinks "Dont let them see that I'm just here to freak out Shallan for the lulz." Ialai thinks "WHY IS EVERYONE ELSE MAKING POKERFACES?!"

*reads thread title* Oh! Are we resurrecting the Shallarin ship then? Uh, no, wait! I mean... ...Hey, is that a demonic duck of some sort?! *flees*

Granted, I'm not sure we have explicit confirmation that using dead shardblade causes the spren pain...but the cries of agony that a surgebinder hears upon touching a blade would seem to corroborate the theory. Also the process of summoning one is described as bringing the spren back from the dead "a little". That doesn't sound particularly pleasant to me. With this in mind, I can only see a few limited edge cases where I would consider using one to be moral. Perhaps wielding it in direct defense of innocents...and then only because the spren itself would might have agreed (depending on the type of spren I guess). The other case is if you are using it with the active intent of reviving it (very hard to do) and since we only have theories on how that might be done, this's iffy. Really, its all iffy. But I think it's safe to say that using a dead shardblade is not pleasant for the spren.

Sly and Pattern have a slap fight. Shallan tries to teach Renarin Illumination. A storming Renarin PoV for Harmony's sake. Eshoni breaks free from Odium's influence. Lift eats Dalinar's dinner. Szeth draws Nightblood.

Schrödingerspren. They are simultaneously visible and invisible until someone observes them...and my head hurts.

Alright, just so we're clear... Is Renarin's shardblade a katana? Syl no! Don't provoke the Shadolin shippers! Also, I'm curious as to why Syl doesn't seem to have a problem with Lightweavers... Okay, ow! No wonder Dalinar is so grumpy... I'm with Navani, the queen of Thaylenah is awesome. This might be one of the most sinister lines ever written. I'm pretty sure I heard distant wailing. The voidbringers have me worried. They could be setting themselves up to be a body that, when faced with extinction, could be reasonable to ally yourself with. They do have legitament grievances (at least, they would be legitament if they weren't being driven by a cosmic force of Hate). And this is opposed to the bloody tyrant and conquerer everyone knows the Blackthorn to be, who just declared himself High King of the World.

No idea where, but I distinctly remember reading that Nazrilof is specifically his last/family name, and that it's his first name that's unknown and Brandon's been teasing us about.

She hands you a dictionary. Your curse is that all writing appears mirrored to to you. I wish to not be tired whenever I wake up.

For completeness: https://amp.reddit.com/r/Stormlight_Archive/comments/5dpic4/oathbringer_spoilers_stormlight_three_update_5/dak70et/?context=3 So radiants will probably remain quite healthy throughout their lifespan, but they are not ageless. Trying to picture what the last five books will be like is always weird for me since the characters will be so unusually old for protagonists. Depending on exactly how long the gap is, both Renarian and Lift could be in their thirties, Jasnah her fifties, with Taln and Shallash being time-abysses in any case.

Misjasnahism?

I've recently learned that there are in fact two distinct uses of "racism", and that very few realize that the people they are argueing with might use it completely differently than they do. There's the meaning I default to, probably what king of nowhere is using, that racism is a subset of personal bigotry or predejuce against different ethnicities. In this use, anyone could be racist against anyone else, regardless of societal circumstances. Then there's the definition winter devotion cites, that racism is a form of systemic oppression. In this case, it's a societal failing rather than a personal one. Neither is the "correct" definition, but it makes discourse rather difficult when we use the same word two different ways and neither side realizes it. To the address the topic at hand, I don't think either use of racism is actually applicable to the lighteyes/darkeyes situation. They're not really different "ethnicities", it's just a caste system with weird genetics making the distinction between the two castes physically obvious. Sure, Kaladin has what one could easily call "predijuce" towards lighteyes, but he'd still have a problem with the ruling class if they didn't have a cosmetic distinction. So "racism" never felt like the right word to me. Also, I get really nitpicky with semantics, can you tell? Edit: as far as the "honorability" of the characters, I'd go Dalinar->Kaladin->Adolin. Among other things, honor to me has to be a conscious choice to follow your "code" even/especially when other options have less reistence. Dalinar is constantly having to make the decision that goes against his natural inclinations. Kaladin is also very disciplined, and realizes in WoR that he can't protect only the people he likes. Adolin is a good person, but other than the Sadeas situation, it doesn't seem as if he's had to make any decisions that greatly challenged his ethics. So I'd say they're all "honorable", but if I had to rank them, that's my reasoning. Edit 2: Szeth is a whole other can of worms that's gets into whether following any given "code" is honorable. We don't know the full story, but it seems to me, that if he was really willing to stick to his convictions, he wouldn't have meekly accepted his judgment when his honor demanded that he was speaking truth. But perhaps this view is why I'd never make it as a Skybreaker.

First theory post in years. Yay! Background Let's begin with the fact that we know very little about how storing and tapping Determination really works. There's what we have in the Ars Arcanum and what the (apocryphal) RPG speculates. For reference, we have this description from the Bands of Mourning Ars Arcanum: And from the RPG: In the game, Feruchemical electrum functions identically to Feruchemical gold, except that it affects your willpower (mental health) instead of your physical health. We should also note that, originally, Electrum and Brass (heat) had their feruchemical properties switched due to a typo, but this has since been made canon. Theory What might Electrum's place among the Hybrid metals imply? Gold feruchemy, for instance, might seem to be a purely physical effect, but rather than simply increasing the body's natural healing rate, it actually makes the Physical body more closely match the Spiritual (filtered through the Cognitive) body. This is why it can heal shardblade wounds. What I am suggesting, then, is that Feruchemical Electrum deals with more than just cognitive or emotional states; I think it affects the health and integrity of the soul/spiritweb. We have several examples of soul "health" interacting with other magic systems. Allomancers must "Snap", creating cracks in their soul for the power of Preservation to flow through. Surgebinders have to be "broken" to create a hole in their soul for their spren to fill. From the back cover of WoR: From these examples, it is generally accepted that any user of End-Positive Investiture must have, in some manner, a "broken soul". So the status of one's soul is a real and important consideration and integral to the fundamentals of Cosmere magic. One of our best examples of such a "broken" person is Kaladin from SA, who appears to suffer from a variety of otherwise unpleasant mental and emotion conditions, including chemical depression, seasonal depression, and various flavors of post-traumatic-stress. Now, there is a bit of a chicken and egg problem with tying Kaladin's symptomology to his "brokenness". Did having natural chronic depression cause his soul to crack? Did his soul cracks cause the depression? Did his traumatic experiences result in both depression and soul-cracks? All of the above? In any case, the narrative closely associates his less-than-stellar mental health with his "brokenness". For this theory, I am hypothesizing that his chemical depression did not result directly in soul cracks, but was indicative of the overall integrity of his soul, allowing it to crack more easily under stress. Following this line of thought, I am theorizing that the "depression" associated with storing Electrum is really just a symptom of a weakened soul. Just like storing gold will not automatically make one sick, but weakens the immune system making it very possible to become ill, storing determination weakens the overall integrity of the soul making it more vulnerable to cracking. Conversely, if I'm correct, this would mean that tapping determination could actually heal the soul. Implications Well, as implied above, storing determination could lower the threshold for Snapping, which, granted, is somewhat useless on modern Scadrial. However, it could be another item in the Feruchemist's toolbox of magic system "hacks". Want to attract a spren but don't feel like carrying around all the emotional baggage of being "broken" for the rest of your life? Store a lot of determination, have someone say really mean things to crack your now really weak soul, and wait for a spren. Yes, you'd still have to actually have the right behavior to attract the spren, but this is a step in the direction of making end-positive systems easier to access. Now this does beg the question, what happens to the spren-bond when you stop storing or start tapping? My guess is that it wouldn't do much--having a spren bonded would be the new default state of your soul. Tapping gold with a hemalurgic spike in your face doesn't force the spike out, after all. I think this would be much the same. With that convenient segway into Hemalurgy...There's a theory I've seen pop up a couple times wondering if tapping determination could allow a Hemalurgist to over come Ruin/Harmony's interference. If my theory is correct, this would be true, not simply because electrum increases your willpower, but because it would (temporarily?) fill the holes in your soul that made you vulnerable in the first place. However, this could also mean that tapping determination would cleanse you of the foreign sDNA. This one I'm not as sure about. Would it be temporary? Or would it render the spike inert? A similar scenario is whether/how Feruchemical gold would reject a donated organ and regrow your own...It also could depend on if you've begun to see the foreign sDNA as your own. However, I do think that combining health and determination could be the key to surviving being a Hemalurgic "donor". Hmmm...Could you steal your own attribute, heal the physical and spiritual damage with gold and electrum, and then use the spike on yourself? Recursive Hemalurgy?! For one last implication, we have this line from Hoid to Kelsier in SH: This is not only further evidence that the soul might have "health" analogous to the physical body's, but that being able to heal such damage could be very useful in more esoteric conflicts when the likes of Hoid and Shards are involved. Summation I think Feruchemical electrum deals with spiritual health in the same way Feruchemical gold manipulates physical health. This could have implications for how magic systems are gained, and could make you resistant to Shardic meddling. This is all completely speculation, since all we have on Feruchemical electrum are brief Ars Arcanum entries and the dubious canonicity of the MAG. But there is precedent for spiritual health playing an important role in how Cosmere magic works.

*goes to write parody post about Stick* ... *thinks better of it*

Does Feruchemicical Steel affect the speed of your bodily processes (aging, digestion, etc.) Does zinc? Preusmably, tapping Feruchemical steel increases your reaction speed in some way. How is this different than tapping zinc? Does Feruchemical zinc only make you think faster, or does it also increases your ability to make lateral connections? Are you sure that tapping mass doesn't make you bullet-proof? Could an electrum savant reach the spiritual realm by flaring? What if they received a nicroburst? If a lurcher were in the spritual realm, could they Pull on the lines Connecting them to everything? What would this do? How hard would it be for a Kandra to take the form of a bird and fly? Would it have to be a relatively large bird? Is it theoretically possible for an Elantrian to "mentally" draw Aons (make them appear in the air without actually drawing them) like how an Awakener visualizes Commands? Is this practical? Can a Forger alter their epigenome? Could they change their genotype/phenotype within the possible genes provided by their parents? Can a surgebinder consciously affect how much stormlight they expend in healing? In order for Szeth to form a pseudo-nahel bond with Nightblood (and join the Order of the Nightbleeders) does he have to swear "I will destroy evil"? Is the next oath "I will destroy evil today"? Edit: forgot a few. How does aluminum show up in the spiritual realm? Can a shard's future-sight account for it? Would an Oracle be able to see an electrum shadow get struck by an aluminum bullet? Can an Oracle only see electrum shadows in their line of sight?

The point I'm trying to make (slowly, I must be storing a lot of speed) is that we don't know this is how it works. Tapping or storing brass almost certainly does not affect your biological processes in this way. They continue functioning as if you weren't mimicking a blast furnace or a freezer. I could be completely wrong, but ever since I looked too closely at storing and tapping mass, I've been careful to not make assumptions about feruchemy. Now, tapping Zinc does make you hungry...and the headache is back.

I have been ninja'd for the fourth time today (maybe I just need to type faster...I blame tiny phone). I think my point is still valid however: This is an intuitive way to look at it, but we don't actually know if this is the way steel works. If so, then what's the point of zinc, which only speeds up your mind (do we actually know this for sure, or does it also increase your lateral thinking ability?)? Brass doesn't directly affect your bodily processes in this way (which would cause all kinds of problems). Trying to figure out exactly what steel does and doesn't speed up has given me many headaches. Not as many as iron, but still a pain. Edit: to simplify, I think steel only affects you on a macro scale (bodily processes are unaffected) whilest protecting you from increased friction and also increasing reaction time (without duplicating the effects of zinc).

We still know basically nothing about Dustbringer, Willshaper, Stoneward, or Skybreaker spren. And we really don't know much about Truthwatcher's or Elsecaller's either. So any one of those could break what we currently see as the pattern (pun intended) for nahel bonds. The in-world WoR snipets only draw attention to the Bondsmiths being weird in this way, though. So...*shrugs* I gonna go back inside my cadmium bubble till November.

Ah...thanks! To throw another thought out there, I've had this headcannon that Renarin's spren (Glys) had previously been bonding with Ym before Nale killed the poor shoemaker. Of course, this thought mostly originated from the (now defunct) idea that there was only going to be one spren from each order.

I can never seem to actually find where he originally confirmed a maximum of three Bondsmiths (the in-world WoR epigraph only seems to say that three was a common number, not the necessarily the maximum). I suppose this means there could be more spren that could potentially make bondsmiths, just that there was never more than three bonded at a time. But just how many more spren like the Stormfather could there have been? There usual train of thought has the Stormfather, the Nightwatcher, and some other mega spren (possibly of Odium) as the three candidates for Bondsmiths spren. Edit: third time ninja'd today. I seem to attract them. Edit again: reread the WoB and realized it could mean a maximum of three Bondsmiths or a maximum of three spren (the latter implying the former). Either way, it's probable the Stormfather was bonded previously as Calderis described.

Just watched you two post at the exact same moment, answering the same question. Edit: to actually contribute to the topic, there's a pretty strong implication that the Stormfather has bonded previously as well, given the limited number of Bondsmith spren.