Tarion

The biggest critique of Sazed, for me, is the Southerners. At a time when Sazed's chosen people were waking up in a perpetually fertile land, surrounded by the collected wisdom of the Keepers and their leader gifted with supernatural power, the Southerners began freezing to death. I don't believe it was malicious but it was, at the very best, careless. Lethally careless. Without Kelsier, who seems to be working at cross-purposes to Sazed, it would have been genocide.

I could read entire books about Syl taking a stand. The other big moment is her standing up to the Stormfather in WoR.

My guess is for similar reasons to why he engineered his own death, in a very public fashion, in Final Empire. To give people something to work towards.

Oh God. That's a nightmare. To track that down you'd have to read every post, with context.

Hmm. I've just taken a look and it's not leaping out. As far as I can tell, there's only one use of "Windrunner" in the Reddit history for /u/Mistborn. "RAFO regarding windrunner squires." https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormlight_Archive/comments/4r6ds5/oathbringer_spoilers_stormlight_three_update_3/d58hj0i/ I've tried a few other variants (Knight, surgebinder, surge, oath) and they either threw up too many results to be useful (So many Oathbringer references. So many), or too few (Surge appears once) Unless the comment has been deleted, or was a bit more vague (Answering a question of whether you'll see another Windrunner with "Yes, in the next book", for example), I'm not sure it's there.

That's possible, I imagine, but even just having external scarring would restrict his movement. That would also mean that he's been drawing in Stormlight since he was first injured, otherwise his shoulder would have locked up from the scars until he was able to Invest. Which says interesting things about his relationship with the Stormfather.

I'm not sure this actually fits with how the human body works though. Scar tissue is part of what inhibits your movement, so with Stormlight healing, he'd get back to his maximum potential quicker, but as long as he still had the scars that maximum potential would be significantly decreased. That doesn't fit with the relatively healthy Dalinar that we see in WoK/WoR.

We know Dalinar has drawn in Stormlight in the past But that doesn't sound like something that has happened that often, or he would have recognised the feeling. And more importantly, if it was Stormlight, he wouldn't be so badly scarred. It doesn't just preserve your ability to fight, it actually heals the damage. I like the idea of the Thrill being related, but as you say, Alethi medics would be familiar with it. The Nightwatcher seems like the best idea. I'm thinking that, much like Taravangian asked for "capacity", Dalinar asked to "endure". He was able to endure his wife's death by forgetting her, and he's been able to endure all of his injuries without ever being stopped. In fact, "enduring" seems to sum up Dalinar. Of course, that doesn't fit the usual pattern of the Nightwatcher, where the curse and the boon are distinct. But that seems to be the same for Taravangian, who seems to have his curse and boon entwined.

I think this is where it comes down to Scadrian perception (And the Cognitive aspect of Feruchemy). Hearing a sound that a human otherwise wouldn't be able to hear because it's too quiet is just as abnormal as one that they wouldn't be able to hear because it's too high frequency. They're both outside of the range of what humans are normally able to perceive, but are still just an enhanced version of your ordinary hearing. And that's exactly what Feruchemy does - it pushes the ranges that we normally operate in. You can hear things that the normal human ear isn't physically capable of detecting. And your body can physically change in order to make these things possible, as can be seen by Feruchemical pewter, where you have physical growth to your muscles, allowing you to lift weights that your normal body is simply incapable of lifting. And the EM spectrum is the same - We see between 400 and 780nm, not because there's anything intrinsically special about that spectrum, but because that's what our eyes are set up to perceive. I doubt an ordinary Scadrian Feruchemist would be able to do this. Their understanding of physics and biology isn't there. But give them another hundred years of Kandra research (who presumably can alter their bodies to see Infrared or UV, for example) and they'll have a fundamentally deeper understanding of their own bodies and the world around them.

I wonder at the specificity of it. Allomantic tin enhances everything, so there's no room for variation. But if you know what you're doing with Feruchemical tin, can you break up your senses further? When Sazed taps Sight, it gives him a binocular effect. But magnification is only one element of your vision, isn't it? Rather than storing magnification, would you be able to store the range of wavelengths you're able to perceive, thus allowing you to pick up light outside of the traditional visible spectrum when tapping it? Hearing is similar - Adjusting volume is the obvious use of it, but expanding your range of hearing could be very useful, and protect you from the susceptibility to loud noises that traditional Feruchemical tin hearing carries. And I don't see why they wouldn't be able to. EDIT: Ooh, wow. The forum automatically translated my shorthand of f tin (One word) to "Feruchemical tin". Which is interesting. I had no idea that was set up. I'm going to go away and find out more

Thinking about it, there can't be that many options. We know it was an unknown Shardblade, which rules out most people. And they knew enough about what's going on to find an apparent Herald and their Honorblade. Realistically, you've got the Diagram, the other Heralds, the Stone Shamans and various Worldhoppers (Vasher would be a good candidate, but I'm not sure if he had the time - He was busy being an Ardent. He's certainly old enough to have a Shardblade that could have been forgotten by history). Potentially the Sleepless, I suppose. They seem savvy enough, and could fit the "unknown Shardblade" requirement. It seems unlikely to have been the Sons of Honor (Otherwise, Amaram would have noticed the swap and realised there was trickery), or the Ghostbloods (Or Mraize wouldn't have needed to send Shallan to research Taln). The Parshendi were out of Blades. Almost everyone else who could realistically be in Alethkar would have a very difficult time maintaining an unknown Shardblade. Best bet would be the Stone Shamans. Szeth believed they would be able to collect his Blade, so why not another? EDIT: Actually, there's another, darker solution for an unknown Shardblade. Any new Radiant could make one, if they were willing to kill their Spren...

Fantastic, thanks for that. That struck something in me, and I was able to dig up this WoB that elaborates a bit more http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1182#66 So, it's definitely possible for there to be perfect vessels for Stormlight.

Have you got a date on that WoB? Because, interestingly, in 2015 we got a less negative response: "Not easy" is a far cry from almost impossible. And it appears that you only need to crack the armour, as opposed to removing a piece entirely. I'd assume the more recent WoB is more accurate.

Ooh, I hadn't seen that. That's very interesting. I've got no idea who managed the swap then. I mean, who has a Shardblade with no recorded (Alethi) history and was in the position to do it?

Everything you've said is, unfortunately, built on a faulty premise. Dalinar never received Taln's Honorblade. From the Way of Kings: From Words of Radiance: Someone seems to have switched the Blades. Hoid is the most likely candidate.

Thanks for looking for the WoBs. I've not seen either (And a quick Google search hasn't found anything). They do have enough Stormlight for the fabrials, but they say how much longer they'll last (Not through the rest of the Weeping) and they're not confident in how much Stormlight they still hold (Or at least, not sure how well their remaining Stormlight can hold up with a relatively experimental fabrial, anyway)

Do they? I was under the impression that Shardplate was powered by relatively normal sized gems. Considering the larger gems can be the size of a man's head, that seems... uncomfortable to wear. However, even the largest gems will run out during the Weeping (We're told less than half way through the Weeping that the largest gems will last only a week or so more), which would be problematic. I'm pretty sure we only see the opposite happen - Kaladin can put Stormlight into a piece of Plate, to keep it working well after it should have exploded, but we never see him draw it out. Do we have a WoB on it? Because the only things in the book is Szeth's belief that they can. It could be wrong, but right now, Szeth knows more than most on Roshar with regards to Stormlight, so I'm inclined to trust him. EDIT: I knew this was in here somewhere: So they're large, but not incredibly so. I mean, he's able to fish it out of a pouch at his waist, so we're not in the ballpark of the bigger gemhearts (which makes sense - There's no way they could afford the attrition on that).

I'm with you on the modern lifeless (Hence 40,000 Breaths - the strength of the army, IIRC). However, I'm not certain that the Phantoms would take just one Breath. Significantly reduced, because of the skeletons, but I think that they still must be harder to Awaken than regular Lifeless. If nothing else, they'd replace regular Lifeless very quickly once the secret got out and that's a fairly terrifying future for Nalthis. I'd assume that at the very least, they'd need a slightly different Command to animate the stone along with the body, and I doubt that Command would be as efficient as the standard one. I'll add it to the ridiculously long list of things I want to ask at a signing...

I think its worth remembering why Breaths are as limited as they are - Because they've been spent. Between the 40,000 Breaths invested in the army (which needs further Breath every few years for maintenance), the who knows how many invested in the thousand Phantoms (Presumably more than just 1 per Lifeless, as it's also animating the stone and so is further from the human form. In his lecture, Vasher says it can take up to "hundreds" of Breaths to make a Lifeless, depending on Commands), and the 50,000 sat inside the God King (Plus an extra Breath or two a week over 300 years, meaning he should be sat somewhere between 65,000 and 80,000). You'e also got ~2000 a year draining away into the rest of the Returned. If a God King wanted to make a set of Nightbloods, they could. If Hallandren decided to switch to human soldiers instead of Lifeless, it could amass a set of Nightbloods within a matter of years, which makes a lot of sense economically, because they've got no maintenance costs when they're not being used. And once it starts, it'll never stop. Nightblood likely can't be destroyed, so every one that gets made sticks around forever. And because you need a Nightblood style sword to counter Nightblood, the more of them there are, the more urgent it becomes to create your own. Think about Shardblades on Roshar for the arms race that Nightblood would provide.

I've been thinking of Shardplate on my audiobook trek through Words of Radiance. Something struck me about the battle near to the end of the book - Their Shardplate was still working. At a time when all of their spheres were depleted and most of their cut gems were close to it, their Shardplate was still at peak efficiency. They don't seem to be concerned about its function at all. In fact, the only time Shardplate seems to degrade at all is when it's damaged. Even the Knights Radiant aren't perfect vessels for Stormlight - Their bodies are too porous. We're actually told that the only other thing capable of holding Stormlight perfectly are the Voidbringers themselves. Personally, I think this is a feature, not a bug, and that furthermore, the Radiants would be able to pull Stormlight back out of their plates. The Radiants would need some form of Stormlight battery, because Stormlight in gems isn't reliable enough. Otherwise, the Voidbringers would simply attack during the Weeping. As it is, even a prepared army was drastically short of Stormlight while fuelling just a few fabrials. It would also explain the role of Plate for some of the less combat oriented Orders - Even if you're not expecting to be hit by a lightning bolt, being able to fuel your Surgebinding would be incredibly useful. I also think this is where we're going to see Identity come into play on Roshar. If a true Radiant was powering their own Plate, the Stormlight in it would be keyed to them, like a Metalmind. But the 'dead' sets of Plate are powered by gems. They're unkeyed. And I think that (with time, and maybe another oath) Kaladin is going to rip the Stormlight out of a set of Plate, either freezing it up (As we see happen with depleted Plate) or more spectacularly, reducing a section to pure Stormlight, and absorbing it all.

With the introduction of the Sleepless, we have a new thing to watch out for - Cremlings that are more than Cremlings. There's one that's confirmed (IIRC), which is Hoid's audience for the epilogue. Another potential is the one that Mraize kills with his dart in chapter 54 Mraize is at least vaguely Cosmere-savvy, and seems to have a better awareness of the various secret societies than most. If anyone in the Warcamps would know of the Sleepless, it would be him. Have we spotted any other Cremlings in convenient places? Most likely around the Radiants, but also the people higher up in the conspiracies (Taravangian being a good one, I imagine)

Worth noting that the other Highprinces certainly see him as a great tactical mind. See Chapter 8, Words of Radiance, where Dalinar shows up to a battle, correctly anticipates exactly what the Parshendi are about to do, and gives the correct advice to turn the battle from a Parshendi victory to a rout. And then Aladar, a Highprince who commands from the back (I.e. one who relies on his tactical acumen to win, and as a Highprince, someone who should have similar levels of experience as Dalinar) comments that Dalinar is good at it It's mostly an informed attribute, but Dalinar's strategic skills are definitely very good.

I came here to suggest this bit. Not full-blown awareness, but something. If it's capable of speaking to Dalinar in any (and, apparently, multiple) languages while giving him the ability to understand them (temporarily), making sure he's not speaking when it speaks doesn't seem like a huge leap, if you're wanting to get your point across. Even if it's just a case of the Stormfather queuing up the Investiture sound files and hitting play at appropriate moments.

I think you've either misread or are misremembering for the 2nd point. What actually happened is almost entirely the opposite of what you're describing - He noticed the discrepancies because the memories other people were retrieving from their copperminds were different to the memories he had kept in his head. The entire trick relied on people forgetting their memories when they stored them, but by virtue of not needing to use copperminds, he was immune.

Ah right, I took your comment about them not having Surgebinding Fabrials to include Soulcasters (Personally, I'd describe Soulcasters as the best example of a Surgebinding fabrial).