echaozh

Hmm, how can Hoid be less cosmere aware than Khriss? What does cosmere awareness actually mean? Understand all the magic systems? Know all the local ongoing politics?

Um, does anyone think that perhaps Wyrn himself is bonded with the Seon he had?

Now we do have seen him in the Secret History.

Isn't the recipient of the Letter Hoid wrote was located on Yolen? He/She got the letter and mailed out a reply, and was obviously in touch with the 17th Shard. How can someone as cosmere aware as Khriss consider Yolen hidden?

The dissolution of the body needs an intent, so Raoden came back because he didn't want to dissolve into the pool.

The opening of the Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, though describing the White Fox, who we know didn't have such powers, do sound like someone we know. The Fallen World is definitely the Cognitive Realm, and there are people who can kindle fire at will there: Kelsier and Nazh. However, things may be deeper than that. We know, from the Secret History, that Hoid has white hair. And it would not surprise at all if he had shaken hands with the Evil, no matter who he is, given his power beyond mere mortals. And he had ways to shock away Cognitive Shadows touching him, as experienced by Kelsier. I think that the White Fox is a mythical creature based on Hoid, and Silence Mondane just used his name. And I do wonder who the Evil is, who killed so many people in Silence's Homeland when Silence's grandfather was old enough to be a forestscout. We know that Silence's story happened after HoAA but before AoL, within the 300 years in between. My theory is that the Evil came after Kelsier's visit to the Ire's base, which is, I presume, on Threnody. I think the Evil came to destroy Ire's base, and destroyed Silence's Homeland, occupying the same location in the Physical Realm as a side effect. The Threnodite shades must have been so heavily invested to be able to linger in Cosmere after death, that they cannot leave the planet just like the shards or splinters. They're basically human minds riding investiture now, just like Ruin but on a much smaller scale, and that;s why they act so shade-like. Ire's warding off the shades means they're on the planet, which, I presume, is in the same system as Scadrial, since it was so easy for Kelsier to reach. Now, the Evil can the piece of Ruin shed by Harmony to balance his powers within. It makes sense given Ruin's grudge with Ire. But I don't buy it. Rather, the destruction of Ire looks so much like the outpost to the invasion of Scadrial. Ire set up their base there when they had plans for Scadrial, making it a very strategic location. The Scadrian shards have minimal power there, but it's still close enough to strike regularly. The Threnodites are allowed to survive in the Forests of Hell because they were never the targets of the Evil, and the Evil doesn't like wasting his powers on minor things.

Kelsier is the founder of the 17th Shard, and hunting Hoid to punch in his face and beat the rust outta him. Hoid is investing in space travel because Kelsier is a Cognitive Shadow, and it's easier for Hoid to travel in the Physical Realm with a space ship. Very elegant and consistent theory.

So Renarin from book 2 cannot be a Truthwatcher.

You know, considering the relationship between Khriss and Ire, if Ire is basing on Threnody, it would be very easy to explain how Khriss employed Nazh in the place.

Punch in the face!

WoB?

I think Ire are on a diffent than Scadrial. Kelsier was in space, which he didn't understand and thought was ocean. Ire may very well be on Threnody itself. Preservation's power tried to pull Kelsier back, that means something. Kelsier was mistaken mostly because he looked like a Threndian. Nazh looked like a skaa, which means skaas looked like Threnodians.

I think perhaps when all the original shardholders and Hoid set out to shatter Adonalsium, they all took an oath like "I will do good with the power given to me and not use it to hurt people". After all, if they knew they would be granted enormous power, they should have set up a threshold or something as to who should be allowed into the group. And that may also have been why Hoid is working hard on all the worlds as the shardholders are very capable of hurting people. His goal may be trying to enforce their original oath onto them. As to Ruin being the bad guy... Think about it, is the US a bad guy to tear down a dictatorship? Preservation said something in Secret History that sounds very similar to what every dictator claims why the mobs should not be given power and why changing the supreme leader is a bad thing. Of course, Ruin by itself is not a good thing, and you need Harmony to make the whole thing work. No pains, no gains. What you want is the gains after the pains.

Honor definitely knew that Devotion and Dominion were splintered. In one of Dalinar's visions, 2 stars winked out and then he said he didn't realize he would be the next one. If the splintering was the reason Honor decided Odium was dangerous and should be trapped, he should have been Odium's target from the beginning, like the struggle between Preservation and Ruin. Honorspren binds things, Honor is good at oaths and bounds. I think Honor may want to unite the Adonalsium and thought splintering the shards as the first step. When the Adonalsium is whole again, only 1 person can be the vessel, and I think the others will not give up their powers so easily. Hanging onto powers not belonging to you can be considered dishonorable if you look at it from the right angle.

I think Taravangian must have been quite transcendent when he was writing the Diagram, like Elend when he was flaring his Atium in the last battle and could see through all Realms. Otherwise, he could have not been so cosmere aware without external information sources. If this is the case, I think he would not be so easily fooled or manipulated when writing it. However, the interpretation process may very well be misguided by Odium. His relying on death rattles caused by one of the Unmades is a sign that he is at least partway off the honorable path.

Even if he is not a truthwatcher, having a navel bond makes him able to heal himself. Alas, he may even be Kaladin's lackeys and heal himself just like the bridge four. The point is, he never heals or even offers to heal even his family. Why? What is he afraid of if he is a KR? And we see 2 truthwatchers if he actually is one. This is not normal as for other orders we've seen, there is only 1 instance, and it's for good reason: the spren are not trusting enough, and they're still testing the humans. And the other truthwatcher's situation is very different from Renarin's. First of all, for whatever reason, Ym didn't heal his sight. Secondly, his spren shines, matching the illumination part of the order's powers. Unless the comet-like spren Kaladin saw was Renarin's spren, we saw nothing like Ym's around Renarin.

I think Odium definitely has a hand in the first bonds between humans and spren. For listeners, it's part of their lifecycle, and sounds suspiciously like Cultivation's work. Odium found it a vulnerability of the listeners and corrupted them with his own spren. And he somehow persuaded the spren to bond with humans. There can be another motivation for him to try it: Strengthening his opponents, he can increase the chance of more surviving Heralds, which also increases the chance of deserting Heralds. He is Odium, and he must know exactly how the Heralds hate to go back to be tortured.

I have 3 theories that I think is not very mainstream and really want to talk about it with you guys: 1. I think Nin may be right in thinking that Knights Radiant first trigger the desolations. Though the heroes in the Stormlight Archives are almost all KRs now and they seem really honorable and saving the world, KRs are not considered good from day 1. Actually, Nahodon thinks ill of them and Ishar literally threatens them to behave. And bonding with Spren must be less natural for humans than for the listeners. My idea is that in the beginning, the Oathpact only involves the Heralds as champions for Honor against Odium's champions, presumably the Unmades. At that time, the humans are not involved and they may not experience such huge losses during the showdowns between the champions. Being Honor and binding Odium, it is not hard to imagine Tanavast imposes the "equal firepower" rule on Odium to reduce casualty. I think Odium tricked Honor by introducing the spren bonding to humans and start an arms race between the two sides. When the binders step into the pact, a whole war cannot be avoided. People hates the voidbringers and Odium is satisfied. And Honor is more vulnerable as ordinary people are more prone to be not so honorable. However, at present, after desolations of arms race, you cannot go back to fistfights between Heralds and say, Unmades, so Nin is insane after all. Or he may want to free Odium from the pact and have him go elsewhere and thus save Roshar (only). 2. Honor is the one who helped Odium to kill Devotion and Dominion. I think at the beginning of the Rosharian history, Honor and Odium are on good terms. Honor may even consider himself as Odium's friend, considering how nice he is. He bought drinks for Hoid once, and I believe he must have bought drinks for Odium, maybe much more than once. Honor may go with Odium to Sel, and forces the two shards there to fight Odium one on one, rather than overwhelm him by attacking together. This way, it was easy for Odium to kill both shards, and those kills both count as his. I make this assumption because Odium is obviously considered as a worshippable god on Roshar rather than a devil in hell. "Three of sixteen ruled, now the broken one reigns." The opponent of the Almighty should not be considered a ruler of the world, no matter how powerful he is, right? The Titans, the giants in Norwegian myths are all powerful and arguably more powerful than the worshipped gods, but they're not considered rulers of Earth. Also, Honor didn't realize Odium would come for him. If Odium is tricked and trapped on Roshar, as the one who trap him, Honor, no matter how noble and naive he is, he should be able to foresee that Odium will try to kill him without his future seeing powers. Or Cultivation sees the possibility and warn him. It should never have been a surprise. The simplest explanation is, Honor did not trick Odium, and they were on good terms. 3. The shards and Hoid together are the opposition to Adonalsium, and Hoid is not seeking to make it whole. Hoid wrote a letter to someone, and in the reply, his quest concerning Odium is compared to the shattering of Adonalsium. I think this comparison is not to prove to Hoid that he is a troublemaker, rather, Hoid's quest is basically the same as the one he was after before the shattering. Adonalsium is from the world for God in Hebrew. God in the Old Testaments is, well, if not hateful, at least very jealous. Odium is "God's wrath without context". My assumption is, in Cosmere, God's wrath, with context, may still be the strongest of his emotions and may overwhelm the others. Hoid and his friends may unite to form an opposition to Adonalsium and finally succeeded in killing and thus shattering him. Now, since the God is full of wrath, Odium the shard is actually the strongest of all and he can easily kill any other shard so long as they're alone. I think Hoid's current quest is to shatter Odium just like Adonalsium. He doesn't want Adonalsium, so he will not try to make it whole, but he also doesn't want Odium to be left alone and able to take actions. He is trying to kill Odium, and the one he's asking for help points out that killing a God may not end up like what you'd expected, and tries to talk him out of it.

The Rosharians may have a very different view on how to save Roshar from the residents of other Shardworlds. We as outsiders think the Rosharians should try their best to trap Odium there, but is it really the best thing for them? Bringing back voidbringers and destroying knights radiant seems to be the best way to guarantee a victory for Odium. Presumably it releases him from Roshar. What if it's what those self assigned Roshar saviors want? Yes, the people may be invaded and ravaged by the voidbringers, but it may be temporary. They may even be able to strike a deal with Odium to take away the voidbringers after he wins. After all, we now assume Odium is free to roam in the cosmere after the first 5 books right?

Renarin is a lot like Eshonai's sister. They both have a sibling of the same sex who is very good at fighting and contributes a lot to their people during the war. They're both scholar like and in a martial society, they will have great chances to envy their siblings and may want to sacrifice anything to be better than those siblings. Renarin may not be seen as jealous, but his mood is definitely far from positive. Seeing how Eshonai's sister is doing, I think it will not be strange if Renarin becomes something similar if not the same. He does not have or use powers a Truthwatcher has like Ym does. However, he is supposed to be able to see into the future. Yes, two magic systems can mix to give something unexpected, but you have to be able to wield those two magics right?

I've just run into this Q&A, and cannot help but wonder what can be recognized as alive and be detectable to the people with Heightenings. It looks like the Returned is not alive, which is OK, as they're merely "Spontaneous Sentient BioChromatic Manifestations in a Deceased Host"s. However, spren can be sensed, so they should be considered alive? Then what about Nightblood? It's defniitely less alive than the Returned, right? Also, if spren can be sensed by life sense, what about ghosts on Threnody? Or dead but still active people like Kelsier? What about splinters like Seons and Skaze?

When Lift spoke her second oath, Stormfather was not there to accept it, neither was Nightwatcher. There are 3 bondsmiths, and the third would what, communicate with Odium? Wouldn't that make him slipping into the abyss of hate?

I like the idea that Voidbinding is Odium + Honor. The binding part obviously has something to do with Honor, as Honor and honorsprens are all about binding. If O+H+C works at all, the magic system will sure have a "binding" in its name.

Speaking of a same solar system, I think the world in the sixth of dusk may be in the same solar system as Scadrial, as the Coppermind says it happens "Just prior to the era of the forthcoming sci-fi Mistborn trilogy". The Scadrielians will start from their own system with their space travel right?

If there are 10 new heralds, will they be KRs to begin with, or will they be ordinary people then elevated? If a KR becomes a herald, what happens to his spren?