18th Shard

Granted. Your Awesomeness instantly leaks out of your imperfect body, and you cannot stop metabolizing your food. Hmm, must word it right.... I wish that any wish wished for is unwished prior to its curse existing. MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Nalthis 8 Scadrial 16 But it's got the awesome magic! Yolen 5 First of the Sun 0

I think shardblades cut through when they sever all nervous connections to the central nervous system. Cutting the spine is so damaging because it cuts the soul that leads to the heart, so the heart won't work. Cutting the spine lower just kills the rest of you below there (see Hobber).

Granted. You cannot stop to observe any of the beauty of any of the places you visit. Time to break logic. Insert paradox. I wish to not have my wish granted.

Mine is what the 18th Shard is, The Shard of Analyzation of Cosmerical Fantasy and Conjecture, or in other words, the shard that governs most of the 17th Shard actions. You all are using my Investiture to come up with your theories and conjectures. It sounds really awesome and scientific. See my signature.

When you cannot write a short short story.

Bendalloy was meant to transpose your night action to a time no one else is doing something. So now one is lurched, smoked, tapping a goldmind, etc.

I've been making a game on an Island during the Well of Ascension and Hero of Ages time period. I don't know if I'll be able to personally GM it, but if not, someone who wants to gm can use mine. My game involves all the Metallic Arts. I only have the Allomantic ones online right now, but I'll add the others from my scatterbrained notes in a few days. http://www.17thshard.com/forum/gallery/image/463-capture/ Critique my game! I was thinking of having Day 1 & 2, and Night 1 & 2. Day one is voting, day two is day powers. Night one is sleeping/plotting/night ability. Night two is also sleeping/plotting/night ability. You must sleep one of the nights with exceptions. Only two abilities may be used (choose two: burn, tap, use spike, character abilities) per day, and you have to store for an entire cycle to get one charge.

See Elantris Annotations. the Seons could originally do this and Ashe, I believe, did.

That character that lies dying, making a big traumatic scene for the protagonist=> Regrowth, BAM! they're fine

To do Parshendi stuff. Bond spren that way. Seems pretty awesome.

Atium. The end. Magneto dead.

Dalinar said you don't imprison a Shardbearer. You either kill them or let them stay free because they can just get free. Kaladin isn't going to let himself get locked up. He's going to have to learn to lead.

How does Moogle find all the quotes? Pay special attention to the last bit - it implies that Radiants themselves are also part of the Oathpact, which is really curious. Also note that the Heralds may very well have managed to completely leave the Oathpact - Brandon only says that the Oathpact is still functioning, he doesn't say that the nine Heralds didn't manage to leave it.Lacking of Evidence is not Evidence of Lacking. He also says that breaking the Oathpact had nothing to do with summoning or unsummoning their Shardblades.For Radiants! Sudden theory (note rampant speculation): Nalan is killing Surgebinders because they are what is causing the Oathpact to still function. If he kills them all, and then Taln can be made to abandon the Oathpact, then the Oathpact is over and the cycle of Desolations is broken. This is why Nalan thinks Surgebinders bring Desolations! If I didn't agree with my OP, then I would bandwagon on this. Convince me in another theory. See above in red. Although obviously the giving up of the Honorblades didn't end the Oathpact, the Heralds thought it would which reveals that they are at least related.

Or at least if you broke an Oath.

This is an assumption the whole theory is based off of. The Heralds making the Oathpact made them Heralds (ooo, could make a ketek from this) Emphasis Added. Bonding is the whole power source. Hemalurgy is a hack. I mean natural bonds. Edit: And the Heralds, or at least some of them were warriors. The Midnight Essence Dalinar fought was defeated only when Radiants came. What about before the spren copied the Heralds? There must have been some defenders of humanity. This is still on. Moogle is in the lead.

Thank You! Moogle, I see your points, and I would explain my thoughts but Vaspin has done marvelously here. Again, you can agree or not, this is just a theory. Moogle, Vaspin, upvotes for excellent arguements and quote findings! I would like to reiterate the key point of my theory,so key I titled my theory after it: THE BOND IS THE KEY! That is not virtual screaming, just lots of fun emphasis.

I am pretty sure the Heralds were originally human who became Herald's by the Oathpact, and they existed before the first Surgebinders, as spren imitated this bond. Edit: I believe they can Surgebind on their own, like Kaladin without Syl summoned. Their innate Investiture is the piece of Honor that is sometimes in the form of a sword

I believe there is a WOB floating around (to be inserted below) where he says the Oathpact is not as broken as they might think it is. I think you mean Heralds. And no, because Szeth was not the Honourblade's bondee. He had that initial bond, but he could not progress further due to the existing bond to the Jezrien. That's my opinion, not part of the theory, so your third question depends on your stance on the second question. I would say no, but you can think otherwise. Edit: Here's the quote: Q: So, by the nine leaving, did that actually break the Oathpact for them? Did it change the cycle of Desolations? A: They have not completely broken the Oathpact, despite what they may think.

Sorry, I don't have the time to edit my scatterbrained notes now. I will in a day or two. Try and make sense of this; like Taravangian, i had my moment of brilliance and scambled to write it in any form. There is a quote in WoR that Pattern holds less Stromlight (or uses it faster). Spren hold stormlight less efficiently because they are not the Surgebinders. Same with honourblades. Stormlight retention is a function of the strength of the bond to a piece of honor. Honor blades are extremely large pieces of honor. Spren mimicked this and are much smaller pieces of honor. Basic bond — bond formed when spren is attracted, before first ideal. Analogous to being attracted to some one - like them but have no personal bonds it. Stormlight retention and surgebinding abilities strengthen as ideals bring the bonded human closet to the ideas and attributes the spren represents. Ex. Kaladins second ideal is protecting those who cannot protect themselves, bringing him closer to the divine attributes leading and protecting. The third ideal is even closer to Syl's philosophy, that the law doesn't matter, but doing what is right does. Honor blades act the same way - being large chunks of Honor, or manifestations of the part of Honor in the Heralds. "Bonding" with one as Szeth did is like the basic bond between a spren and a Surgebinder - it allows very small abilities and the ability, in this case, to summon the Honorblade and dismiss it. However, there is not a true bond, and there cannot be unless the Herald shattered his/her oaths beyond the point they already have. A Honorblade is intrinsically a part of the Herald, so they would have to abandon a lot more than just the blade to make their bond with the blade die. The Honorblades are also much higher in degrees of power than the "spren blades" and so grant surgebinding even when Szeth or the wielder had little to no bond to it ( as a piece of Honor). The stormlight use was how much the blade could hold on its own. However, a Herald is much more closely bonded to his/her blade and could wield it to much much greater effect than any other, and would probably make a 5th Ideal Surgebinder look weak. The stormlight efficiency would make them "glow like the sun" Edit: SO a lot of people were wondering why Honorblades seem weak, and how the Nahel bond works. Here is my theory. Bonus upvotes to anyone who can support it textually. Double Edit: If you have questions about what I mean, just post them.

what if "Taln" is the Dustbringer? I mean, he has been abanded by the other Heralds for so long.

Ooh, a rhyshadium allows one to heal or something. Dalinar remembers drawing in stormlight to heal before, or a feeling like it.

I hate being out of town in summer. Can't kill Darkfriends. Gamma, make it so a viewer glimpses Telaronrhiod and a creepy smiling person emitting gamma rays messing with things in reality. There's your cameo.