Darkness

Right! Thanks Patrick Star, I overlooked that, and I actually really like the idea about Nalan! I did wonder about the phrasing of Szeth being 'hired out' to the Parshendi. Upvote for you!

First: I am truly fascinated by the direction of this thread, mostly because I'm a biology major with a mostly microbiology and genetics background. Second: Viruses are way different from bacteria and fungi. As different as taste and color. Sure, taste may overlap with colour in somewhat predictable ways (especially with dyed foods), but they are far from the same thing (bad analogy, but they're different). Not too far-fetched to say viruses could have developed, and did on at least one world since the worldhoppers got one from somewhere, but they likely wouldn't have developed on two different planets in the same way unless there was a common ancestor of some kind (from Yolen, maybe), so there wouldn't be effective immunities in the Rosharan population (again, unless there was a common ancestor). Third: Allergies are a category unto themselves. Allergies don't come because some dangerous particle gets through your immune system (like viruses and bacterial infections), they come because at some level, your own body sees a generally unharmful particle as a target, and whips up an exaggerated immune response. So I could definitely see metal allergies being less common on Roshar by simple natural selection, and a heightened natural affinity of their bodies to metals (via investiture). People who reacted poorly to metal either died out, or got ostracized (reduced progeny), or the Lord Ruler fixed them way back when. However, I can't see how that resistance to allergies would bestow a secondary resistance to harmful, foreign particles (e.g. viruses and bacteria). Again, apples and oranges here. I'm personally of the opinion that Rosharans just didn't even remotely have any resistance to the cold, so it hit them hard, and was highly contagious. Either Demux or Galladon (or the third guy) could have carried it. Galladon probably wouldn't even have known since Elantrians don't get sick. All that in mind, I'm completely willing to suspend all my thinking if SA3 or WoB says the Purelakers were just allergic to the cold or something haha, this is still fantasy

Adding to this a little, Gavilar is mentioned as in cahoots with both Taravangian -trying to "unite the nations" (WOR p.917) and Amaram/Sons of Honor -trying to bring the desolations in order to return the Heralds and reign of the church (WOR p.1060). Also, the Parshendi note that Gavilar told them of his plan to bring back their Gods on the day he was assassinated (strikes me as odd that the Parshendi just happened to have Seth on standby, but whatever), so I think it is quite likely that Gavilar meant somehow to force a transformation of a parshman/parshendi. This would also explain why Gavilar wouldn't want the Ghostbloods (who tried to kill Amaram at the end of WOR, probably opposing the Sons of Honor) to have the stone, but was ok with giving it to Szeth after he claimed the Parshendi as his masters. He was trying to get the spren near to the Parshendi.

Just throwing in a little more fun to this thread on our favorite gibletish: WOR p. 1076. Hoid is talking alone with a cremling, which could mean he is just messing around for practise/fun, or he is actually speaking freely for once. He says, "That man is me, I'm not physically blind, just spiritually." I don't know what to make of that, except to say that Hoid obviously uses magics that rely at least partially on the spiritual realm, and that he casually dismisses shardblades -which cut the soul- as 'little knives' that don't pose him any real threat. No conclusions on this one for me, just fun thoughts. Enjoy!

On a related note: We know a little about exhaustionspren and painspren, but is there any hint of what the godspren might look like in Shadesmar?

I just reread the Eshonai interlude, and I got the distinct impression that the black sphere might be similar to the gemstone that they capture a stormspren in. I used to think it held an unmade, but now I think it was something less sinister. Eshonai says that they confirmed the decision of choosing freedom and dullness over serving their Gods by killing Gavilar, and now they were risking the return of the Gods, specifically by risking the chance that stormform was a "form of power". I think Gavilar was killed because he knew a little about the forms of Parshendi, and was planning to chuck a parshman out into a high storm with his black sphere to see what happened. The Parshendi couldn't let that happen, so they killed him. I think the spren inside was a spren of power, but not necessarily an unmade, though it could be.

He could have also stamped himself. "Began life as a concept. Words on a page." = him planning out what he wanted to incorporate into him stamp? Might be a good way to change his appearance. He does seem to know himself well enough to create a stamp haha

That's actually explained by Teft in tWoK. He sees Kaladin fighting to hold the bridge for Dalinar's army, and thinks to himself about how Kaladin's powers couldn't grant him skill, but they did perfect his ability, giving him supernatural speed, agility, and strength. In a way, Syl does let Kaladin fight really really well... without her he just fights really well.

... and measuring with callipers "Hold out your arm please." - Raises sword - "Thank you."

This is because: QUESTIONCan someone bond more than one Honorblade? BRANDON SANDERSONHonorblade? You can't bond an Honorblade, though it can be given to you. Shardblades, however, come from a spren bond and it is possible to bond more than one. By default, Szeth was not bound to his honorblade. My guess is the honorblades are permanently bound to their heralds, and so they go back to Damnation when the heralds do. Since 9 of the heralds stayed on Roshar, the blades did too. Seth just happened to be using one (and was able to summon it - not a minor point. My guess is that was an artefact of how Szeth cognitively viewed the blade), but when he died, the blade stuck around, because Jezrien didn't die.

haha, I need that.

I thinking he's saying Hoid is more like a speck of Adonalsium dust that got left on the floor will the 16 larger pieces got picked up and run off with, then Hoid kind of developed sentience. Whoops! Nope, I read wrong. Matt, I think you may have meant to say Adonalsium 'Sliver' (like the Lord Ruler after he held shard power; a sentient being that once had power), and not Splinter (power that can take on sentience). Actually, this theory has been floating around for awhile. The bigger names (and admittedly much more Brandon-ly well-versed persons) on the site disagree with it though, so it hasn't gathered much steam. Doesn't mean you're wrong though. I actually wrote a post probably a couple years back theorizing that Hoid was Adonalsium, and is now gathering pieces of himself and trying to right what happened. Anyway, you aren't alone Upvote for your first post! Edit: Haha ninja'd by 2 seconds! Oh well.

How about Elhokar's wife? Or perhaps Shen? Now that would be fun!

That's what I was thinking. Just like Dalinar smashed out a latrine and wondered why normal workers weren't given Shardplate. Maybe the Shin used the honorblades for more glorious purposes than fighting and killing... like farming! Dicing up vegetables with an honorblade! <<Segway into most useless uses for a shardblade thread>> chugga chugga

I've been hearing a lot of people touch on the topic, but I want to open it up for real. Besides Shallan's memory-taking (more of an inwardly manifested talent?), we now have a WoB about Kaladin's "unique ability": Q: I said since Shallan has a unique ability of Memory from her blended surges, is fighting what Kaladin has? A: No. His unique ability is "Strength of Squires". Aside from exploring what "Strength of Squires" means (affects third parties more than Kaladin?), or how this will be epic, I want to explore a couple other things. Firstly, when Brandon says 'unique ability', does this refer to only Kaladin, or will this ability be common to the Windrunner order (another way to look at it is will it be easy to find Shallan's order because they all have memory tricks)? Secondly, does every Knight have a unique ability, or only a few of them? Finally, what abilities do you expect our Knights-dawning have? I like lists. Edit: With respect to recent comments on the thread, I'm going to try expanding this theory a bit. I'll fall in with the speculation that both orders and individual knights have unique strengths, and start hypothesizing some of them. Naturally, we only have one example from some orders, so it's too early to tell if the ability could apply to the order or specific Knight, or even if such structure exists: Windrunners - Strength of Squires - Kaladin: Visions of flying over Roshar (from Stormfather?) Skybreakers - Ability to judge innocence - Szeth (Aspiring): To Be Determined Dustbringers - To Be Determined Edgedancers - To Be Determined - Lift: Food --> Stormlight (from Nightwatcher?) Truthwatchers - Visions of truth (?) - Renarin: To Be Determined - Ym: Unknown Lightweavers - Mnemonic abilities - Shallan: Taking memories - Elhokar (?): To Be Determined Elsecallers - Sense of direction (?) - Jasnah: To Be Determined Willshapers - To Be Determined - Eshonai (?): I find the spren that bothers her in stormform suspicious WOR p. 711 Stonewards - To Be Determined Bondsmiths - Innate bond with Honor (?)- Dalinar: Feels a powerful trust for Kaladin. Possible subconscious recognition of oaths made/spren bonded. Note: The visions that Gavilar and Dalinar had were given by the Stormfather's choice, and are not an ability. This may apply to Kaladin also. Additionally, it would be good to know if non-radiant shardbearers can hear their swords scream when a radiant touches it at the same time (Relis heard screaming when Kaladin caught his blade WOR p.672). “There came also sixteen of the order of Windrunners, and with them a considerable number of squires, and finding in that place the Skybreakers dividing the innocent from the guilty, there ensued a great debate.” “The considerable abilities of the Skybreakers for making such amounted to an almost divine skill, for which no specific Surge or spren grants capacity, but however the order came to such an aptitude, the fact of it was real and acknowledged even by their rivals. ” —Words of Radiance, chapter 28, page 3 Is "such" referring to the ability to debate, or Implying that Skybreakers are uniquely able to judge innocence from guilt. Thoughts? Anyone I missed that we know had/has a bond with a spren? I'll edit them in.

Maybe not the Unmade themselves, but at least it could work on the odium-influenced spren.

You are all so polite! I don't think chaos could have a problem with this it's one of the special things that sets us apart as Brandon Sanderfans, and I'm sure that Brandon likes us to be so giving and wonderful too! Warm fuzzies and upvotes all around! haha

Nope, you're totally right. He doesn't just put it outside of himself. I didn't know about the annotations, but they are pretty awesome! I wonder how he suppresses it.

Using a shardblade to slice vegetables (all upvotes go to Brandon... he wrote that in tWoK). PS. Actually an interesting point here... the shardblades in Dalinar's visions slice right through the midnight essence. Does that mean they are inanimate? Or just don't have souls? Or don't exist at all in the Spritual Realm?

I thought there was a question about this already (actually I think it was about how skilled awakeners would partition their breaths so as not to use it all in one go, and keep a backup supply), and Brandon said something like 'they could store it in objects about them, use whatever was still in them, and then recover what they set aside.' I always assumed that Vasher was just storing his divine breath somewhere for when he needed it, and took in other breaths when he started feeling weak. Also, that would be very helpful for when he was wielding Nightblood, as a backup in case he left Nightblood out too long.

Question for the masses. Does Kaladin's clothing/surroundings also get cold or make frost condense when he uses stormlight, or is that a peculiarity of Szeth's blade? Also, does anyone know why that happens?

My problem isn't with the coverings... The storming book literally gave me tendonitis in my elbow from holding it open to long above my lap (I have the paperback, so I don't like forcing it to stay open and wreck the binding lol). Worst part is, now I have to take my WoR in shorter doses, and hold it with my safehand!

Is Ashir's discovery going to be a game changer? Edit for an add-on: Did the Heralds visit the Nightwatcher?

Predicting the future is of the voidbinders, but I couldn't help thinking that Ashir and Geraind in I-8 are going to do some very important things. To rehash the details, Ashir discovers that flamespren almost completely go into stasis when they are directly measured and the measurement is written down. There are some restrictions: Once the measurement is erased, the flamespren resumes activity. Also, the measurement has to be real, not fake. Ashir ponders whether the accuracy of the measurement might affect how static the flamespren becomes. Did Shallan drawing the cryptics make them freeze too? Pattern seems to have suffered a severe loss of presence due to Shallan drawing him into existence imperfectly. But could the measurement/drawing phenomenon be used to combat voidish spren? Could Ashir have discovered the means to stop monstrosities like the 'escort' that Dalinar saw in a vision? Perhaps they could freeze the Parshendi Gods in place (I'm of the opinion that their 'Gods' partially include the spren that only arise from freshly killed Chasmfiends - perhaps those spren will lead to a new form of power)? And this is where I hand it to you. What uses could you find for freezing a spren in its tracks? Keeping in mind the restrictions, I guess it becomes harder than it seems.

Actually, I have a thought on that. I've just been rereading Way of Kings, and it struck me that the Oathpact - giving Heralds the ability to forestay Odium indefinitely (until they break), while making them suffer in Damnation between Desolations - may well have been forged by Cultivation. The blessing of power with the curse of torture sounds like something the Nightwatcher would do. Hear me out. Even if Cultivation is not the Nightwatcher, most of us agree they are at least related somehow. It would be awesome if this series climaxed with 10 new 'Radiants' stepping forward and forming a new Oathpact with the Nightwatcher to prevent Odium's reign. Kaladin, Dalinar, Shallan, Jasnah, Szeth (please? I know he isn't a surgebinder, but can we please have Nightblood destroy evil all over Odium's butt?), Lift and a few others could become the new Heralds! Not supported by hard fact at all, but wouldn't it be awesome? And I don't think it's been straight up refuted... Edit: I was reading tWoK page 855 when this all finally occurred to me. We know how history becomes myth, gets twisted, and turned on its head. The paragraph from Kaladin reads, "It fed his nagging worry that he was subject to some kind of supernatural curse of the type that were supposed to happen to people who sought the Old Magic. There were stories of evil men made immortal, then tortured over and over again..." - I figure that kind of story could arise from the Heralds' situation. Also, calling the Nightwatcher's curse/blessing the Old Magic seems somehow important to me; like it was around before even the Radiants, maybe even at the time of the Oathpact's founding.