Tempus

I'm afraid I haven't read Sixth of the Dusk - I was under the impression it wasn't released other than the tiny sample chapter? Direct me, good sir!

If I recall correctly, Alloy of Law is placed exactly 341 Scadrian years after HoA, and Stormlight Archive is confirmed by WoB to be happening simultaneously with Alloy of Law (though they were originally supposed to be a little apart).

I've considered that argument, Swimmingly, but I just don't buy it. Remember that when Brandon talks about 'magic' he is not specifically referring to 'a magic ability powered by a single investiture shard'. Surgebinding he calls ten magic systems, or just one big magic system. He also calls many, many other things on Roshar magic. If you read Shadows for Silence, it becomes more clear - in Shadows for Silence, the 'magic' that happens is just a property of the Cosmere. Specifically, it's cognitive shadows without any Invested Intent to shape them. No one can 'use' magic there, or gain it. By contrast, the abilities seen on Ashyn in our admittedly short snippet are very clearly things that can be used - the old lady is demonstrated using her ability in the description, the narrator refers to the incubators as if the abilities they grant to others are used for job purposes, and depending on how you read the little girl she might have something going on too. However, even if they aren't in 'control' of their abilities so to speak, and they are simply passive abilities gained whenever they are ill like a bacteria operated feruchemist (which is not supported by the reading at all), they still closely resemble other active Shard Invested magic systems. And no other planet demonstrates bacteria related or physical organism granted abilities. So yeah, I don't buy it.

I missed that WoB. 341 is the time between the last Mistborn book, and the Stormlight Archive. Warbreaker is known to occur in that period at an unknown time.

I've been lax in making theories lately, and missing posting them, so I figured I'd knock out a random theory that has been rattled in my head before I head to sleep. Without further ado... Cultivation is the Shard in the Silence Divine Or at least she used to be Premise There is an upcoming Sanderson novel named the Silence Divine. This planet has no Shard[1], and yet has an active magic system that requires you to perform it. This is the sort of magic system corresponding to a Shardic Investiture[2]. Shards are required to invest themselves consciously[citation needed - I know it's out there], and are reluctant to do so. Thus, some Shard must have invested in Ashyn (the planet the Silence Divine takes place on)[4], in order to produce an actively invested magic system. Hypothesis The Shard that invested themselves on Ashyn is Cultivation. Evidence, Data, and Deductions Ashyn requires a Shardic Investiture Based on the reading from the Silence Divine, magic on Ashyn works as follows. You gain a disease, and for as long as you have the disease you gain a magic power. Magic users are termed incubators. The powers we've seen in the reading include prophecy, flight or hovering, healing, among others. According to Brandon, worlds without shards have magic that you interact with, but not that you perform[2]. These examples on Ashyn are clear examples of magic you perform, and share similarities to other magic systems in the Cosmere. Such magic systems require a Shardic Investiture to be powered. Thus induction suggests that Ashyn has indeed been invested. Cultivation fits Ashyn's Investiture There are a few points that support Cultivation as being related to Ashyn. In the reading, Ashyn is noted to be a planet with ash and magma - a fitting name. Ashyn is described more clearly as a barren world with fertile patches[4]. On Roshar, we note that there is an area that is heavily fertile and safe to an extent from the ravages of the Highstorms - Shinovar. It is very possible that a magmatic planet could support life only through intervention of a Shard such as Cultivation, in a process that parallels the unusual and suggestive area on Roshar. In addition to the parallel of terrain oddities that is suggestive, Cultivation fits the magic on Ashyn very perfectly in terms of Shardic Intent. In fact, bacteria are a tiny form of life. When studied, bacteria are cultivated, causing them to multiply. A bacterial solution is thus called a culture. The specific tie from bacterial infections to Cultivation is suggestive, though certainly not definitive. A third similarity between the magic of Ashyn and Cultivation lies with the Nightwatcher. The Nightwatcher is a spren on Roshar suspected of being related to Cultivation (mostly for lack of better options). The Nightwatcher grants a boon, and also gives a curse[5]. This again parallels the magic on Ashyn, where disabling yourself with a disease grants a benefit of using Investiture. We have Precedent of Cross-System Interactions An obvious issue is that if Cultivation is currently on Roshar, then how can she be powering the magic on Ashyn? Luckily, we have precedent. Odium is noted as being located on Braize, another neighbouring planet in the Roshar System[6]. In addition, we know that Odium is able to direct his power not only to other planets in the system, but indeed across the Cosmere[7]. Words of Radiance show us that not only is Odium capable of doing all that, but he is also capable of splintering himself to produce spren on Roshar. All these facts demonstrate the capability of Cultivation investing herself on Ashyn at the same time as providing spren and possibly other magical influence on Roshar. Indeed, it has a certain symmetry that the three planets in the Roshar system could each be home to a different Shard, despite their interest in Roshar proper. Conclusion Given the above facts and suggestions, it is entirely possible and indeed plausible that either prior to her arrival on Roshar, or at some point during the history of Roshar that Cultivation Invested herself upon Ashyn. The implications can be very interesting - Cultivation may be weakened by this, or it may affect the amount of Investment she has placed on Roshar. It may have implications for theories of Intent Meshing or Balance magics if Cultivation is not fully invested in Roshar as well. References Notes: In the past, a variety of theories have been presented regarding the Silence Divine. This one is notable for several reasons; previous theories believed there to be a Shard on Ashyn as there was evidence for such, previous theories were not aware that Roshar was limited to three Shards and believed mistakenly there were four, and lastly previous theories all posited the existence of a further Shardic intent rather than using an existing one.

Congrats on your first post! I'm not generally a fan of the idea that Heralds are all worldhoppers, so I'll point out an inconsistency with this one in particular, regarding timeline. Warbreaker is set between 1 and 341 years before Stormlight Archive. Heralds have been seen a minimum of 4500 years prior, and maybe tens of thousands of years prior. Returned only started showing up a couple hundred years prior to Warbreaker. Thus, it's pretty much impossible for Blushweaver to be a Herald. Indeed, almost any character from almost any book we've read is impossible or highly unlikely for the same reason. Heralds are just too darned old. You may be interested to note that the Herald of Beauty Shalash is seen onscreen and is known to be Baxil's mistress. She is running around destroying all statues of herself for unknown reasons. Edit: Ninja'd by a fish! Curses.

Sure. Here's what I've got - I moved Kurkistan to the top, to make it the focal point, and Fjorden and Hraggen both migrated due to continental shift. The Reod was no fluke, is my theory, and the active tectonics would almost certainly have pivoted the world around the mysterious cat shaped country. Fjorden remains large enough to be just readable at the topic thumbnail size, to give people the context of 'a country on Sel'. Let me know what you think of the latest iteration, I'll refine further as needed.

At the moment, only three people have passed that ranking. And one is Brandon, and one is Peter. Anyway, even if a whole bunch did, I don't know if I'd see that as a problem. Personally, I'd stick mine on Forger, for obvious reasons. I think many of the top posters would do similar - stick theirs on a title they identify with. That's why they are here, after all.

Here are some related theories from the Words of Radiance Forums: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6905-analysis-of-knights-radiant-graph/ http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6785-theory-dubble-eye-powers-spren-attributes-and-symmetry/ http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6611-two-pupils-of-the-double-eye/ http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/5847-magic-system-to-shard-correspondence/

On another forum software I've used, (blargboard - don't ask), members are able to choose their rep title from any of the titles they've passed. Thus, members who find a title they particularly like can choose to keep it until their increasing rep gains them a title they prefer more. I imagine such a thing might be difficult to implement on invision, but a man can dream.

GreyPilgrim - If you like, I can make the Pill Reaper match the background, colour profile, and composition of your old picture. Then you could keep it and still retain much of that recognition factor. If you'd like me to give it a shot, link your old one here. Of course if you prefer the other one anyway, no sweat off my brow! For Ashiok, I present... the Ash Ewok. For Xanas, the 18th shard...

Some time ago there was a WoB mentioning that FTL had something to do with the excess energy from certain Allomantic abilities. Could this be related? This needs to be thought about more.

Bonus pics: Animated Pattern circle things. Note that profile pics will only animate on your profile page, as the invision setting to make them animate on topics or the index is turned off for these boards.

Another quick update. Now up to 427 theories. One page had 24 theories on it! Cosmere boards are certainly dense. This latest update has brought the arrival of Odium's Shard, putting his big intelligent stamp on the boards. He'll have more theories to come in Stormlight as well. Windrunner has also clawed his way up to being one of the most prolific theorists. Plenty more to come in the next 20 pages of Cosmere. I've also been more consistent about marked proven and disproven theories (though I'm sure I've missed some). There are 63 proven/disproven in total at the moment, about 15%. Speaking of percentages, at 306 theories... Distribution Actual Expected 23 were Bandaids 7.5% 10% 105 were Normal 34.3% 35% 88 were Bronze 28.8% 25% 66 were Silver 21.6% 20% 24 were Gold 7.8% 10% And now.... 35 are Bandaids 5.8% 10% 144 are Normal 33.7% 35% 109 are Bronze 25.5% 25% 106 are Silver 24.8% 20% 33 are Gold 7.7% 10% So you can really see how the cosmere boards have raised the bottom line for quality a few points, which is fantastic for it only being 1/4 of the index so far. Last note, I started organizing the topic key. It now lists all the topics used, and formats them based off popularity. Going into the Edit menu of the topic subsection will show a comment outlining the current state of evaluation for topics, and the changes I think might need to be made to already existing topics to make the list neater and easier to use.

Okay, Mailliw73 was the hardest one yet. Here it is, though! Explanation 73 letters, in a Mail box, for williaM. Post any further requests and I'll get to em' when I do! I'll still be around, just need to work on some other things.

It depends on Gold's abilities really. In Mistborn, when Vin uses Gold, she sees two alternate versions of herself. She also has some knowledge of their past and how they got there which she narrates to us. That knowledge is the key. Forging an essence stamp has two steps - research and engraving. The Augur/Forger in question would still be required to learn the engraving and the skills to interpret the research into the necessary sequences. The research, however, is the bulk of the time spent making an essence stamp. Vin was shocked, confused, and distressed when she activated Gold. A calm headed, prepared, experienced Augur could potentially have much greater and deeper knowledge, and would record that knowledge. No need to touch the visions. The emotional stress produced when using Augur abilities is an issue, however. Presumably, every time you use gold, some parts of your cognitive identity overlap with those possibilities, causing distress and potentially changing you as a person (some people have suggested this is what turned the lawmaker Miles into the criminal Miles - too much burning gold caused him to change somewhat into one of his alternate versions). Provided you could overcome, mitigate, or adapt to the identity issue, and that you could train yourself to have great insights into your other selves and keep presence of mind to record them... You would probably be an awesome Forger.

I was feeling sorry for Joe, so I made this one to hopefully cheer him up? Mailliw73... I'll have to ponder that one for a bit. Probably last one I'll do tonight, each of these guys takes me 20 minutes or so. I'll do some more another time, though. I'll keep it on my growing list of 17th Shard projects, along with the Theory Index, the wiki Theory subsection, my own unified theories, and the persistent multi-game forum cosmere space RP I've been developing.

Don't be silly. You just need some medicine to change your mind. Here is 'The Grey Pill Grim', who takes digested pills into the afterlife. Yes, I though imagine my I can spare a few of my sixteen buxom litterbearers away from carrying me on the Victory Pavilion to take you into town on a stretcher. One must be magnanimous in victory, after all.

How are we going to walk into the sunset then?

The Sanderson Memorial it is.

That is an unusually offensive mangling of my name, we shall have to have a duel. Name the weapon and place, sir. As for Kobold King, I have no idea. I have a good idea for the Bold Ko King, though.

Are you saying I'm in a race with a pony to make the best avatars? I'm almost certain to win - horses don't like mice. Regardless, here you go. This one is animated! Also, here's the 200x200 TheOnlyJoe original, just so that it all matches up (Thanks for covering for me, Awesomeness. I just forgot to compress the png)

Esoteric titles: Taln's Scar, KeHwo, Brollin, Duis, Shakewelts victim? By the way, are any unpublished titles making an appearance? Or non-cosmere titles?

I'm a crepe guy, myself. Do you do crepes? Can you give me a List™ of toppings and fillings?

That's fantastic. Three grogs for the captain, sir. And let in the duchess and have her wait in the drawing room, the one on the poop deck with the fancy divan, not the one next to solarium above the steeringhouse. Mad props on going the extra mile with the display name.