Darkness

I'll try to explain that part of my thought a little more. Think of it like in Secret Histories I figure that people's Cognitive aspects are drawn toward the massive source of investiture (the Cognitive Sun) in a similar way, but on Roshar that means their literal 'Cognitive shadow' extends toward the Sun. It's a natural result of the connection they have to it. Side note: Now that I think more about it, I'm pretty sure that Cognitive Shadows retain their Spirit webs... Otherwise and I believe that's where Connections are stored, but it doesn't really matter if people's Cognitive or Spiritual aspects are the part that is connected and pulled toward the light, since stormlight comes initially from the Spiritual Realm, and then through the Stormfather, who resides in the Highstorms anyway... It would basically be the same result. Do you get what I'm trying to say? Edit: Yata put in a very good point. Maybe I can amend my idea a little. Instead of saying 'the Sun is the Highstorm', I'll say the Sun is the locale of a massive point of connection for people. In other words, it is what they are commonly tethered to; it's the defining identity feature of the planet. This would be interpreted on Roshar as primarily the same as the Highstorm, because that is the perpendicularity (my thought, has been RAFO'd) where all stormlight transfers from Spiritual, through Cognitive, to Physical, and is the principal feature of the planet. You could even say that the Highstorms are the focus of the planet's Identity. On Scadrial I realize my justification is rushed, and seems fragile, but I just don't have the details sorted out enough. I still like the main idea that people's shadows in the Cognitive are drawn toward the Cognitive Sun because of some kind of connection. I'm really not sold that it's the Spiritual Realm (because why we would it manifest in one place... The SR is famous for not being in any one place). I also dont think it's the Beyond, because in Secret Histories . Lastly, I dont think it's any single perpendicularity, because we've seen perpendicularities (horneater peaks, Scadrial's) and shards (Scadrial again, plus there were 3 separate shards on Roshar that likely weren't all hanging around together, and that aren't in the same place as the Cognitive Sun), although the probability that the Highstorm is also a perpendicularity certainly cant hurt. PS. Just throwing this out there, but just as Brandon says, 'the soul knows how old it is', I figure people are drawn toward the beyond because of the innate, overwhelming Connection that every mortal person has with death. The soul, even after separating from the body, knows innately that it should be dead, so it is naturally drawn to become even more fully gone and dead. People who develop other powerful Connections (like magic users) can temporarily use those unnaturally widened connections to resist the 'next death', but that's about it.

So up until now, I've been working under the assumption that the light in Shadesmar is coming from the origin, which lies somewhere east of the continent. I have no real reasons to discount this, but I do have some good reasoning to supporting my next idea: So we know that Shadesmar is basically a flattened representation of Roshar in the Cognitive Realm, and it is affected- to a large extent - by people's perspectives. We have also seen that Stormlight appears as light in the Cognitive Realm. Also, knowing that Highstorms do have some kind of representation in Shadesmar, and that they always come from East to West, I think that the 'Sun' in Shadesmar is actually the Cognitive reflection of a Highstorm, and that it is more or less always 'in the distance to the east' until a highstorm actually strikes, at which point it manifests in the direct vicinity of the observer. Basically, I believe that Highstorms dont really 'travel' through Shadesmar in the same way as in the Physical Realm, but that they exist in two distinct forms: either 'in the distance' as the Sun (the massive source of investiture should manifest as a huge light) or in the specific locale of a person who is Physically in a highstorm. To elaborate further, if a surgebinder entered Shadesmar immediately after a highstorm, he/she would see only the Sun to the East, and no Cognitive representation of the highstorm to the west. I'm still thinking about how Kaladin's vision relates to this (he flew over the continent, presumably attached to the Cognitive Highstorm?) but I think it should still work. That would also explain why shadows go the opposite way for people who are in Shadesmar or connected to the Cognitive strong enough: It's a natural result of their connection to Stormlight and the Cognitive idea of Highstorms coming from the east.

I know that highstorms existed before the shards came, but were they infused with investiture? I cant really remember the WoB. I'll try to find it.

thanks

are the evil seons (skaze?) red?

both of you are absolutely correct, and those are two of the reasons I think it isn't going to happen. But I still think it would be an awesome plot twist haha

We know that something about the thrill is becoming sickening to Dalinar. My thought is that his developing connection to honor (through his lifestyle and nahel bond) is both allowing him to access stormlight to heal, as well as interferes with the thrill (likely being the influence of an unmade). That interference makes him feel sick. Another point to consider is if stormlight as a system was set up by honor and cultivation - and is the natural source of surgebinding - and if both honor and cultivationspren nahel bonds can channel it equally without interference, would odium (who showed up on roshar considerably later) be realmically capable of fueling his planet-influenced form of magic (is. Voidbinding) with something that has historically been the medium of honor and cultivation. It seems that spren can have a dual, intermingling nature of the two of them without interference, so it's a reasonable assumption that whether stormlight is the vapor form of both cultivation and honor, or indeed just honor (as I think was confirmed by WoB?) there is no interference between honor and cultivations' investitures on a practical level: Surgebinders of both alignments can access it. that's the background. My question is, if these conflicting investitures (stormlight/honor-based and thrill/odium-based) demonstrably cause such a debilitating and connection-nullifying reaction in Dalinar, isn't it a reasonable assumption that a voidbinder under the influence of/ bonded to an odiumspren would suffer similar investiture-dissonance if they were infused by stormlight? And further to that, wouldn't that mean voidbinding would require some energy source other than one derived from honor or cultivation? The implications of this could be vast, or non-existant. After all, it could still be that all odium-spren (including the unmade) are simply corrupted (mixed investiture) forms of honor/cultivationspren, and retain their ability to process stormlight. But then... If that's the case. Then why would Dalinar react to the thrill as he did; becoming sickened and unable to maintain it. If my suspicions are correct and voidbinding isn't fueled by stormlight, then what is it fueled by? Maybe odium is taking a more direct hand and fueling powers directly? It doesn't seem like him to give away his power to be used by people. And how closely can voidbinding mimic stormlight's powers? The physical manifestation could be very similar, seeing as how the planet focus and sDNA of the people are constants. Here is where... Finally... I get to some plot-relevant discussion. I think that whatever is happening to Renarin is not caused by odium, because I am convinced that he is actually becoming a surgebinder and Glys is a radiant spren. This comes from the way Brandon speaks about Renarin and truthwatching, as well as the 'you stopped wearing glasses... Stormlight healed your eyes' exchange. There are just too many things that point to Renarin actually becoming a radiant. And if that is happening, then I dont think that odium could influence him to scribble prophesies, etc., because of the aforementioned interference. However! I dont discount the possibility that Cultivation is the one taking over during his episodes. Rant over. Any input please? I know it's rude of me to not reference a single WoB in all of that but I hope you'll all forgive me and consider my points and intuitive leaps,

I absolutely love the idea that Glys could be of Odium and deceiving Renarin. Huge twist: No, you just think you were a truthwatcher because i told you so... It seems unlikely to me for head-canon reasons though, which I wont jump into here because they aren't on topic. I'll make a thread on it this weekend hopefully.

didn't they already have an interaction where Kaladin told her it was ok to lie in order to ease someone's passing or certain other circumstances? Syl seemed to struggle with it a little bit but accepted the honorable intention. At least, I think it was Syl and Kaladin... My mind has been getting all turned around recently haha

I'm late to this party, but are we suggesting that Eshonai may have been hearing what Hoid said he heard? The sound a planet makes when it pisses itself? more to the point... Did Hoid actually hear Roshar urinating? Or was it metaphorical? Haha jk edit: So... Was that an accidental downvote, because those are the exact words Hoid uses, and that was actually a sincere question in the first part. Though I do apologize if the second part went too far, I have some social disinhibitions.

It's completely possible I'm misremembering on weight... But Sazed's body didn't just 'pop' into hulk-form, it was definitely a build-up. I'd have to reread the relevant book passages to say anything further, and I just don't have the time

as Skaa said, it has been bounced around, and I do believe it's a good sign that so many people have the same ideas independently. I created a very similar theory thread back in.... Probably 2012/2013? Anyway, dont give up on it! Just because we've discuss it previously doesn't mean we caught everything. If I remember correctly, none of the threads reached a conclusion, because we just don't have enough info yet. Something I'm looking forward to is Brandon has mentioned that in the distant future we will have past and present day books featuring Hoid

from what we've seen of feruchemy, the physical attributes at least are tapped on a contiguous scale: Like weight for wax and strength/weight for Sazed in the Luthadel battle, they are built up gradually not tapped all at once. I think copper and the mental attributes might be more discrete (full instantaneous access possible?) but I would put heat from brass into a slower 'build-up' type of power. That severely limits the maximum effect you can have before dying.

I've noticed a common theme of 'answers' to these questions for Brandon that are more in the realm of 'debate' than straight WoB. I'm directing this response to a larger audience than just Yata: I do appreciate your views on the matter, however this is perhaps not the thread for it. It would be great for a theory thread, or perhaps the cosmere q&a thread, but this is an open thread for questions for Brandon. Therefore, I would love to hear any applicable WoBs to my questions, but otherwise personal views and opinions only serve to impede people's questions getting to Brandon and clutter up the thread.

Before Nightblood was awakened and imbued with breath, was he different from a normal, steel sword? I mean, if I went and forged a sword on Nalthis, and then Vasher and Shashara decided to awaken it and command it to destroy evil, would it turn into basically the same thing as Nightblood? Does Nightblood have a key command phrase like Vasher's squirrel or the lifeless? Could Nightblood's original creator regain the breath from Nightblood like with other awakened objects? Would the breath be altered? Would there be more of it or of higher quality?

Ingenuity... Sounds like something Hoid would resonate with (along the lines of novelty/timeliness). Also, if I may coin the phrase... we got robbed (RoB-ed) so hard on that one.

Exactly, but the bearer would probably have to be utterly convinced that the shardblade was, in fact, a different weapon type. And that would have to override everyone else's belief that it was a sword. Also, we have no confirmed idea where shardblades go when they disappear (though I think it is the spiritual realm, since they have condensation on them when they are summoned - moisture pulled from the air because of the thermodynamics involved in transferring from realm to realm most likely, just like frost crystallizes on Szeth and Kaladin when they use large quantities of stormlight - pulling investiture from the spiritual realm and giving it a physical directive/form). Aaaanyway, long tangent. The point is, it's possible that over the centuries the blades have developed new identities as swords, and therefore developed new essences as 'shardblades' in the spiritual realm and it might be as hard to convince them as it would be for Shallan to convince a highly invested stick to turn to fire. Guess I have another set of questions for Brandon now: Would a dead shardblade appear as a bead in Shadesmar? Or what else would it look like? Would it even have a manifestation in shadesmar? Does it depends on how long it's been dead?

This is a pretty big post, so

makes some sense... Both she and Bordin were spying on Aesudan, and if she saw him hurry off with a mysterious, shrouded stranger, she could easily choose to follow. I dont know what her incentive for swapping blades might be... Maybe someone was following her blade's trail and she had to get rid of it?

The diagram didn't exist when Jasnah contemplated assassination, Taravangian only went to the Nightwatcher after Gavilar's assassination. I'm not saying she couldn't be a diagrammist these days, but it certainly wasn't the reason for Jasnah's deliberations.

Just popping in to mention that the intent Autonomy could lead Bavadin to want to free the other shards from their mandated intents... This seems to be similar to Trell in a way with the 'better to be dead and free than alive and controlled' attitude. If this is the case, I could see autonomy attempting to free everyone by simply shattering all the shards. If this is the case, it would take some special mental gymnastics to not go suicidal from her own paradoxical mandated intent, by which she could be said to be controlled or at least influenced. Perhaps she'll shatter herself last once her shard is the most influential force in the cosmere. (even if she just chooses isolation, I cant see how she would be ok with being so influenced by her intent... And if she was autonomous by nature before taking up a shard, why would she be ok with accepting a shard into her life?)

what, if anything, do shards themselves gain from having perpendicularities (aside from worldhopping minions)?

I cant think of a mutation case off the top of my head, maybe Terrismen are a case for this? but we've definitely seen widespread genetic changes through interracial mixing in the population on Scadrial, and selective breeding (horses, Aimian cremlings) on Roshar. So I can't think of why evolution wouldn't occur.

and which attribute you'd steal

Then the next big twist will be that the 'man' is Nightblood, and not Vasher.