Scott

Cryptics being Adonalsiumspren would make sense. The only confirmed honorspren we've seen is Syl, and she's attracted to Kaladin because of his actions. I'm pretty sure Wyndle is a cultivationspren and he's assigned to a young girl so that "we can mold her" as he says. That sounds pretty cultivation-y to me. The cryptics seem to be something else entirely, and yet don't seem to be related to Odium at all. They seem very cold and logical, almost devoid of emotion. Maybe that's the result of them being Adonalsiumspren and uncoloured by any specific Shardic intent.

I assumed he was dead, but this would be so much more interesting, so I'm now hoping he becomes a high ranking bridgeman-soldier and makes up for his earlier actions.

Release the Kraken!

I'm sure the world would be fine. I'd be more worried about poor Vin exiting the atmosphere and ending up in the sun, or possibly on Roshar. Maybe that's what caused the shattered plains; A mistborn accidentally duraluminum pushed against the planet and discovered FTL travel

Shardblades are definitely much lighter than normal swords, but I don't think they're weightless. Shardbearers in battle still get tired swinging their swords despite having the strength-enhancing Plate. Length would be a factor in how fast you could move and pivot the blade, and how quickly you can react to an opponent's swings. I think that a longer blade would be an advantage against something like a Thunderclast, and likely also against a man in Shardplate, but I don't think it would matter much in a duel against an unprotected person with a Blade. With a longer blade you stay further from harm. With a shorter blade you can move it faster. When you're one-hit-KO-ing someone I'd take the speed over another foot of reach. Szeth does say that the massive blades were made to fight monsters. It's a pretty good suggestion that his was not, or is not currently. If it is an Honourblade that he carries then we can't speculate much on it's capabilities. Size modification is well within the realm of possibility given that plate resizes to the user.

I don't think Dalinar will die until his vision sequence is complete, at the very least. I hope he lasts longer. I was never fond of George R. R. Martin's style of main character recycling. "Oops, I now have 12 main characters, time to murder a few".

There seem to be two different trigger points happening here. I'd like to lay it all out as I see it and see if people agree with my reasoning here. 1) The first event happens in the time frame of the prologue. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like the assassination of Galivar and the discovery of the black sphere, the discovery of the Parshendi, the onset of the death rattles, and the return of Surgebinding seem to happen around the same time period. We don't know for sure if these are all symptoms of a cause we do not yet know of, or if one of these caused the others. The assassination of Galivar and the discovery of the Parshendi are related, since the Parshendi orchestrate the assassination. They state that they want to avoid the return of their gods which, combined with the existence of the black sphere in Galivar's possession, imply that the black sphere is tied to the Parshendi gods either in itself or in something that can be done with it. I would hazard a guess that the return (or increase in frequency) of Surgebinders is directly related to the discovery of the Parshendi. I propose that since both Parshendi forms and Surgebinding rely on bonding with spren, they are both effects of whatever happened and not the cause. I also propose that whatever Galivar did with the sphere either re-enabled Spren bonds or allowed bonding-capable spren to pass between the cognitive realm and the physical realm again. 2) This is much more guesswork. The second event is around the climax of WoK, which makes it hard to pick out specific events, but in my opinion there are a few important ones. First, Kaladin speaks the first non-general Radiant Words that we know of, "I will protect those who cannot protect themselves", and increases his radiant power level. Second, Talanel'Elin appears outside Kholinar to announce the Last Desolation. I don't know if the text is clear about the amount of time that passes between the Tower battle and Taln's appearance but they seem close together. Without knowing the specific time frame I can't guess for certain that Taln's appearance is a result of Kaladin's power-up, but it is suggestive. We know that Darkness is hunting Surgebinders (Ym interlude, etc). From the Jasnah prologue we can guess that Darkness is the Herald Nalan. I will assume that Nalan understands what causes Desolations from a high-level point of view, but may not know the specifics since he always shows up right at the start. Nalan seems to believe that Surgebinders are a key cause of Desolations. I'll present the following theory for people to poke holes in: What if there was a way for Spren to travel between the Cognitive and Physical realms easily in the beginning facilitated by the presence of Honor and Cultivation. This was unavoidable and couldn't be changed by the Shards since the Spren are a result of Adonalsium's power rather than their own. The basis for this statement is here: Since the Spren were caused by Adonalium there were spren that represented the whole spectrum of intents. When Odium realized this he found a way to allow them to bond with sentient entities on Roshar. Despite Honor and Cultivation's best efforts, Bonding-capable Deathspren (or possibly Desolation spren?) crossed the boundary and bonded with people, setting off the events known as a Desolation. The Heralds were Honor's only defense initially, but eventually the Knights Radiant form as a military group and the Desolations got easier, culminating in a victory with only one Herald dead. At this point the Heralds were going nuts. They quit. Somehow, their resignation allowed Odium to shatter Honor. The shattered power of Honor was soaked up by the Spren, and so the barrier was still permeable since the Spren were currently bonded to Radiants on Roshar and held most of Honor's power. Sometime later, the Heralds figure out how to make it harder for Spren to cross between Cognitive and Physical and bond with people, but they're left with a huge number of Honor-invested Spren in the physical realm. They tell the Knights Radiant that they need to disband and their spren need to return to the Cognitive realm; the Recreance occurs. Following this, few to no Spren are able to bond. If any do, Nalan finds them and kills them. Eventually, Galivar does something to make the barrier more permiable again. Spren begin slipping through and bonding. Kaladin speaks the first Radiant Oath, increasing his bond to Syl, and drawing more of her into the Physical realm. This results in enough of Honor's power being present on Roshar to further weaken, or possibly destroy, whatever was holding the realms apart. A death / Desolation spren slips through and it begins again. Well, that ended up being far longer than I intended. Havn't fully checked through for continuity. Thoughts?

Ym has Growth, but doesn't show another Surge. Without revealing Steel-hunt knowledge we can't place him on the chart as "Confirmed" in any particular place.

Lightweaving and Gravity - Pretend you're a flying saucer and fly by people's windows. Friction and Travel - Slide down a hill, teleport to the top, and repeat until you're playing Portal!

Potentially everything can be a factor, maybe It's like saying "Save up to 15% or more!" (http://xkcd.com/870/)

Confirmed that we've seen a few parts of the Lift interlude read by Brandon at signings. It's getting hard to separate what I know from the Steelhunt chapter from what I've heard in the readings.

Guess I was getting ahead of myself Looks like many of them have the ability, so it's reasonable to assume that all of them do. I agree about the Stormlight healing. I think Teft says (in the battle of the tower?) that Stormlight enhances things that already exist like body healing, speed, dexterity, etc. I'll try to find the quote when I get home.

I do, but I'm not sure what we can discuss, so I try to forget it for the sake of most discussion That being said, the method of acquiring the stormlight is probably unique in that case, so I'm not sure we can use her as a reliable data point. I'd look at her more as an outlier. The "constable" seems to know a lot about orders and surges and stormlight, and he doesn't know what's happening, so I'd assume it can't be too common. e: Not saying it's not possible, I think It's certainly possible that all people with bonds can learn to hold Stormlight, but I don't think we have any really compelling evidence yet. We have little enough as it is...

Shallan and Ym used the stormlight from Spheres that they were holding directly. I don't remember what happens when Shallan soulcasts the goblet, but when she enters Shadesmar beside Jasnah she's holding a dim garnet. Here's the part where Ym heals: He palms the sphere the whole time, and when he uses Regrowth the sphere goes dark. Even Jasnah uses gems, as we see her cracking the gem in her soulcaster to remove the chunk of rock even though the soulcaster is a fake. Only Kaladin seems to be able to transfer the Stormlight to himself as an intermediate step, and benefit from it while infused.

Would that mean other KR orders need to rely on gems for their stormlight? Maybe this is why all of the Shardplates have slots for gems inside, because the other orders would need to have a ready supply close to hand.

Maybe Adonalsium visited Roshar at one point. If it created the cosmere, it may have briefly visited every planet to make sure its calculations / flowcharts / D6 rolls were ok. The "technically" makes me think that BS is playing word games.

I'm hoping that Jezrien and at least some of the other Heralds have more of a plan than just abandoning the fight and walking away. They must know that breaking the Oathpact will have consequences for Honor, and they also must know that if Odium wins they'll be dead or worse. I'm sure Odium wouldn't be beyond torturing them for eternity just because. Abandoning the Shardholder that defends them can't be a decision that they make lightly, although I guess thousands of years of torture could affect that. Maybe they figure that they'll have a better chance to change future events if they aren't impaled on hooks all day?

Do we know anything about the language similarities or differences between the shardworlds? I was re-reading Warbreaker yesterday and came across the letter "Shash" when Siri was teaching Susebron to read: “That is the letter ‘shash,’ ” Siri said, smiling. “I can teach you them all, if you wish.” (http://brandonsanderson.com/warbreaker-chapter-twenty/) In WoK, Shash is mentioned often, including: - A month: Collected on the first day of the week Palah of the month Shash of the year 1171, thirty-one seconds before death. Subject was a darkeyed pregnant woman of middle years. The child did not survive. - Kaladin's Dangerous glyph - A number (not 100% sure) That suggests to me that they share at least parts of a language.

I think it is unlikely that Szeth holds Jezrien's Honorblade, and here's why I think so: It is stated in the Prologue that Honorblades disappear when their owner is killed. However, Szeth states in one of his interludes that if he dies, the Stone Shamans would recover his blade. This points to Szeth's blade being dropped like a normal Shardblade upon death and not disappearing with him like an Honorblade. However, we don't know where Shardblades or Honorblades go when they arn't in the physical realm, so the Stone Shamans may still be able to recover an unsummoned blade.

I just remembered, didn't the stoneward in Starfall seem to talk to someone far away? Do we know if Communication is a surge? If the worldsingers are an order dedicated to diplomatic areas, maybe this is one of their surges, possibly interchangable with Travel. If Skybreakers do have Travel, then Stonewards could have Travel and Communication. Worldsingers could be order 8 with Communication and something else.

I think Shardlet is only taking issue to your explicit use of the word "proof" here: He's not saying you can't post your theory unless it's proven, which wouldn't make sense anyway because a proven theory isn't a theory anymore e: he's probably trying to prevent this: http://xkcd.com/704/

I agree with most of the updated table, it matches my notes, and makes sense in places where we differ. I do think Travel is on the other side of the Stonewards though. Magnetism could easily encompass quantum theory, which would make travel by superposition a possibility