Aether

And as a general note on Nightblood: It is not that he kills you unless he gets the proper fuel, its that he need the proper fuel or he will turn you into the proper fuel. Remember that Investiture is literally small pockets of the power of creation. EVERYTHING has Investiture, in a way, but much of it isn't in its raw form. When Nightblood doesn't have any easily-accessible fuel at-the-ready, he turns you into that fuel by breaking you down into Investiture and then feeds on that. I am reasonably certain that I am correct on this point. I'll try to see if I can hunt down the correct WoBs if I get the time tomorrow.

Ok. Flexing my muscles a bit here. 'Tis been a long time, so bear with me as I might not be completely up to speed, nor will I remember all my sources, but there is a few things I'd like to point out. Do point out if and when I get something wrong. I do think you guys are onto something here. The Returned's vampiric tendencies is likely heavily tied to Endowment as a shard more so than to the more general workings of the Realmatics behind Cognitive Shadows. Some others have pointed out that there is one major difference between Returned and (most) other Cognitive Shadows that we've seen, and that is that they are the only ones who've got their own physical bodies, so there is still room for their Investiture Drain to be more of a general thing rather than a quirk of Endowment, but we have too small of a sample pool to answer this in any definite way, IMO. We have seen at least two - possibly three - other examples of cognitive shadows stitched to a physical body, and that is that of Kelsier from BotM, the Heralds and possibly Szeth. Kelsier (or whatever is going on there) is likely stitched to a body by Hemalurgy - and Hemalurgy comes with its own pile of weird interactions and rules, so nothing definite from that example. The Heralds seem to be something of a whole other calibre than even Returned, and even if not, there is likely a bunch of rules and stipulations that come from the Oathpact, so Heralds know how that is supposed to work (pardon the awkward and terrible pun). This is likely just plain wrong. Just because they do not have their Surgebinding abilities without their Honourblades does not mean that they cannot use or wield Investiture - even if they do not have a direct "funnel" for using Stormlight specifically. There are jailbreaks to the different forms of Investiture - plenty of WoBs that confirm that. The mere presence of Vasher on Roshar confirms this, so I'm not going to bother hunting those WoBs down. Point is, Brandon has hinted at the Heralds having other abilities, and the way he's worded it in the past seem to imply more than just super-human levels of strength, dexterity and such. I find it likely that they have powers that require Investiture, and given their strong bond with Honour (at least in the past), they can probably wield Stormlight directly. And if not, there are ways to get around that, as previously stated. Also, just because we haven't seem them use these powers during the few relatively short interactions we've had with them in the books, doesn't mean that they do not have them or cannot currently use them. We have no idea how old the Heralds are and how long the conflict on Roshar has been in play. Even if they wouldn't have had time to study during the Desolation, that does by necessity mean that they haven't had time to study it before. And they seem to have known Tanavast personally (either from before his ascension or in the beginning of his godhood), so who knows what they may or may not have been told directly. That might not require use of Investiture directly, though. Consider the Elantrians and anyone holding a lot of Investiture (Stormlight in particular), really. Super-charged human abilities is likely just an off-shoot of being a heavily invested being, either by having much more of it as a part of your very being (such as with the Elantrians) or by holding it temporarily (such as with anyone holding Breaths or Stormlight or channeling the Dor with your fists as that weird Kong-Fu trader did in Elantris). Do we have direct confirmation of the Heralds being created as a part of the Oathpact? And even if so, does that mean that they were created as sentient beings at that very moment or that they were just elevated to demi-gods from "normal" humans at that point? We seem to be in agreement about the point your trying to make, but I think you have reasoning wrong, here.

I don't feel betrayed, I was just surprised to dive into the forums properly for the first time in years and find that the landscape had changed drastically. Currently reading your updated Time Bubble post. Whether you will continue to churn out new material or not, at least your previous work is still pretty amazing. May I ask what you do for a living? I've wondered that for years (well, way back when, at least), but never thought to ask. So that nomenclature is now a thing. That word irks me. It looks horrible. Not like Squirearchy, which looks amazing.

Some of the older mastodons are just impossible to replace. Kurk in particular has written the equivalent of books in theorising and mapping of Realmatics in particular. A bit messy work, true, but solid beyond compare. Some of the newer material I am reading now also seem to lack a bit of rigour, but that might be more about my own high standards twisted even higher by my choice of education. But, again, all of this will likely change come November, possibly even earlier, given how many sample chapters we will be given this time.

Oh, hi Claincy ! Good to see a familiar face (well, familiar pixels) ! The forums die down a bit between major publications, and most of us specialise in certain series (except for Kurk, of course), so I suppose It would be difficult to keep track of even major posters if you don't frequent the same fora? How has the Discord channel worked out, btw? Has it hampered this site in any way?

The fjords really are majestic, I agree. But I am a bigger fan of the mountains. And the great, uh, plains(?) in Hardanger. Almost has a Scottish moors feel to them, but with much more colour. There is a famous painting that really encapsulates the beauty of the mountains. It's "Fra Stalheim" by Johan Christian Dahl, though you cannot really get the proper feeling from it on a computer screen. That thing is MASSIVE, almost two meters in height and two-and-a-half in length. The dude even painted lemmings into the foreground. Lemmings !

There's a Discord channel? Is it open for whomever? The first few months after a major release is always super exciting. Even during these three years away, I have dipped into the fora to take a look at what people are writing about around every Cosmere release. You absolutely have something to look forward to! And thanks, and thanks ! I wouldn't say the prettiest, as variation is the soul of beauty, and there are many other different yet also beautiful countries. But it is nice here =D

Well, I disappeared, so not that surprising others might have as well. I will take a look at what those three posts, will be fun to dive into what sort of theories are tossed around currently.

Who? Gods, what happened with the old lot? Is Weirywriter still active? I know Kurkistan has been posting, but how active is he at theorising?

I am cheating a bit here, because as might be evident from my 1'700+ posts, I am by no means a newcomer to the 17th Shard. I have, however been inactive for more than three years. A recent reread of several Cosmere books have prompted me to return to the forums, however, and while I likely will not dive head first into my old pattern of obsessive and compulsive posting, I wish to make a bid for my old "position" as one of the theorising mastodons come the release of Oathbringer. I probably won't be focused around Lists(tm), though. So, what has happened in my life during the three last years? Recovered from severe depressions. My own experiences has really made me respect Brandon even more for how he portrayed Kaladin. Switched Majors (and Minors) from Law to Philosophy. I wrote my Bachelor's Thesis about epistemological resources in friendships (I specialise in Social Epistemology). Moved around a lot (still based in Norway for the time being, however). Accidentally killed a cat (sorry, @Kurkistan). It ran in front of my while I was bicycling.

Agreed. That twist came out of nowhere (well, not really, it was well foreshadowed looking back at it) and fits brilliantly into the major theme of "real" vs "fake" of the novella. Another one will have to be the one at the end of the Way of Kings:

I must admit that I am somewhat annoyed by it. I find Swimmingly to be hysterically funny quite often, and he does create interesting Threads/posts from time to time, but overall (and correct me if I am wrong), it is the sheer number of snarky/somewhat funny posts that makes up most of his Reputation Points. While there is definitely room for every flavour of contributors/posts on this forum, I feel like users such as Kurkistan (for his in-depth discussions and incessant WoB tracking), Awesomeness Summoned (User Profile Icons) and FeatherWriter (honestly, just the crazy Renarin essays would do) would be more deserving of the top position(s).

He is nailing the trees to the side of a mountain. The flightless Kiwi basically commits suicide to experience flight just one time. Which is why I am crying right now. Since my quest to find a funny picture by googling "half Rndian, half Russian", I just linked you to a random Wikipedia article.

I am quite confident she was referring to Kabsal here.

Forgive the double-post (and the fact that I'm commenting on my own Easter-Egg), but that video is so bloody sad! Gets me every time.

I am surprised to learn that Norway has a bigger population than New Zealand. And I do not think that I'll make any particular sub-divisions. The possible exceptions are Great Britain if they ever get around to demand it, and the US which is definitely pushing the boundaries of legibility.

Then, what would you like me to put you up as? Haha!

Huh?

Really? You're still twelve to sixty-seven according to my List. You might both be over-represented as compared with the rest of the world, but the US is still makes up by FAR the biggest fan-base.

You should definitely have that checked out! According to WebMD's Symptoms checker, unless you're victim of alcohol withdrawal or a side effect from some medication, you're likely suffering from an Anxiety disorder or Schizophrenia. Or you're high on something. Or just a smart-mouth. Anyway, if you're curious, the symptoms I checked were: Poor concentration, Hallucinations, feeling of being detached from reality, easily distracted, disoriented, delusions and confusion.

Vu!

The people who down-vote Stick references really do have sticks up their lower-part-of-their-bodies-that-are-their-backs.

I am looking forward to the day you start a Renarin shipping Thread in order to map and plot all possible (and quite the number of impossible) Renarin-ships. EDIT: Anyone else than me who wants to read a Jenet/Renarin ship just to see how that would / would not work?

Woah! This suddenly got Dark Souls deep!

I suppose it has become censored since then? I would prefer to ask before I dive hours deep into the archives to hunt for this name.