Terisen

The Cosmere board is just calling your name then! There's so much good stuff there. And take a look at people's signatures for theories that help explain things. The whole Espoused Theories concept here is a great resource for finding well thought out items in the Cosmere and individual worlds. And you're not the only person who sees names as symbols when reading. I do that and know others that do the same. Especially for names like Taravangian!

Wait.....people do stuff in the summer?? When did this start happening?

I, too, like this theory. I don't think Nalan is as bad as he initially seems (though I still think the Skybreakers are jerks, from what we know of them). He's just holding to what he believes to be a law. That is, Surgebinding brings on Desolations. Kill the Surgebinders, stop the Desolation, save the world. With the Stormfather being bonded to Dalinar now, it's possible that the law changes and Nalan (and, by association, Szeth) wind up working with Dalinar. To an extent. There does seem to be a chicken/egg question about what causes what. There are factions that believe that the Desolations bring back Surgebinding. I think both Syl and Pattern implied this is why they returned, but I'm too lazy to go look up the references. The Sons of Honor hold this belief.. Then you have those that think that the Surgebinding brings back Desolations, Nalan seemlingly falls into that category. And I don't know which is right. But if I had to guess, I'd say that Desolations bring back Surgebinding.

Giving a go with Earth Awakens (part of Formic Wars prequels for Ender's Game). "Father could be anywhere." Yeah, don't think that really applies!

Harry in The Order of the Phoenix. My goodness, I just wanted to reach in to the pages and smack him upside the head throughout that entire book. Yeesh.

Sshh! Tempus will hear you...oh crap, there he is! Thanks man! This is a good question and I'm not really sure. This makes me believe that the actual mechanics of the Recreance is going to have big implications for the overall Cosmere once we understand them. 1) Might be misunderstanding what you meant, but I thought it was the pieces that were separate that would disintegrate when regrowing Shardplate, ie those pieces that were not connected directly anymore with the Plate being regrown. Plate could be regrown from any piece and those not connected to it would crumble. The smaller pieces on the connected Plate would be fine and not crumble. 2) I'm strictly guessing that the Investiture in the Plate resists because it's been brought to the Physical Realm. The spren are Cognitive beings and (I'm guessing) don't cut the spiritual aspects of anyone when they are strictly in the Cognitive. It's when they're brought to the Physical and have the bond that they can start cutting things. I'd say that the inverse (protecting instead of cutting) is happening with the Plate. But I'd love other people's takes on it.

Shardplate is a Radiant’s Spiritweb Introduction There’s been a lot of speculation about what Shardplate actually is made up of. I had posted parts of this in another thread, but I decided to take those parts and expand them out here. As noted in the thread title, I believe that Shardplate is actually composed of the Radiant’s spirtweb, made manifest in the Physical Realm. Logic We already know that a Shardblade is actually a spren in the Physical realm. When the Recreance happened, the spren “died” and were left as the Shardblades that are currently used in most of Roshar. These Shardblades act a bit different than the spren version we see Kaladin wield (they can’t change shape, need ten heartbeats to be summoned, etc). Shardplate acted differently in the times before the Recreance. They glowed with Stormlight and Radiants were able to manipulate the Plate at will, adding and removing their helmet in the blink of an eye, for instance. The Plate changed shape similar to how a live Shardblade could change shape. This changed during the Recreance as the Plate no longer could appear or disappear at will and no longer glowed with glyphs. In essence, the Plate died in much the same way that Shardblades died. So why do I think that the Plate was/is the spiritweb? First, take a look at how the Radiants acted directly after disposing of their Plate. The Radiant that Dalinar caught up with simply ignored him, not speaking to him. This is very similar to how a Lifeless acts. Vivenna notes that Clod had an “emotionless face”. The Lifeless have a bit of their spiritweb left[1]. The Radiants giving up their Shardplate would likely be in the exact same situation. The Shardplate has certain points on it that, in modern times, contain gemstones to power it with Stormlight. I believe that these points are the exact same points that would be the Hemalurgic points in the spiritweb. They are focal points for Investiture. Szeth noted that Shardplate would have interfered with his lashings[2], but we see a Windrunner in Dalinar’s vision that could clearly lash. Why? Because the Windrunner had his soul as his plate. Shardplate for Szeth would be another person’s spiritweb and would not work for him. When the Plate is cracked, the cracks show up as a web. This is circumstantial evidence, but I believe it serves to back up everything else. There is a reason it’s called a “spiritweb” after all. Additionally, Plate can be regrown from using Stormlight. This is very similar to what we see with Kaladin, healing his Shardblade severed limb with Stormlight, essentially reconnecting the Spiritual with the Physical. The breastplate, as well, mirrors this. A strike to the chest (or spine) with a Shardblade is a killing blow. Shardplate ceases to function when the breastplate is destroyed[3]. Each Radiant’s soul was unique. This would manifest itself in the different shapes and patterns of the Shardplate. The sets of Plate were unique enough that Dalinar could recognize Adolin’s set in the vision of the battle where the Dustbringer fought[4]. Finally, every order of the Radiants had access to Shardplate, even if they did not use it[5]. This, quite simply, is because each Radiant had a soul (spiritweb). I think this makes for a very nice situation where the a Radiant would fight using aspects of all three Realms. Physical with his body. Cognitive with his spren Shardblade. Spiritual with his spiritweb Shardplate. References Edit: Fixed typos

Heat Death of the Universe would make for an awesome band name.

Nope, pretty sure a pasty, frail guy in a dark bath robe isn't all that scary in the light. And I'm pretty sure that not eating WOULD qualify as an eating disorder. At least that's what I gather from WebMD.....

I dunno, I found it awkward. The difference in what the strings are tuned to messes me up. And the chord shapes are all different.

Pffft, a quiet person who's afraid of the light and has an eating disorder doesn't compare to those who have Unlimited Power.

I would lean towards saying 'yes', but I am by no means as much of an expert on Hemalurgy or Spiritwebs as others on this board. From what I recall, Brandon has said that Hemalurgy is something that is global across the Cosmere, so I'm guessing that because it's not specific to just Ruin, that it would indeed open it up for influence. This is pretty much along the lines of what I was thinking. Similar to how colors have different wavelengths, different Shards have different intents which affects their "pulse".

Well, it's all assumptions at this point from anyone! We just don't have enough info about squires to make definitive statements yet. Book 3 can't come quick enough. But your statement about taking out the leader and having the troops become ineffectual is a tactic that existed in warfare for a long, long time. The troops would become disorganized and disheartened. It's why they would have specific guards for the commander (you see it in the Stormlight books too with the Honor Guards). So it's just an extension for the Radiants. You take out the Radiant, you're more than halfway to winning. It's not really that different, just with Surgebinding powers mixed in.

I had the same reaction as you, GreyPilgrim! The thing is, the logic here is so sound and the initial part sounds so plausible that the cardboard tube sword hits you like a, well, cardboard tube sword upside the head!

Guitar (like almost everyone else in this thread!). I did classical for years and then made an almost wholesale switch to the electric. I've actually been recording things with my friend who lives across the country from me. Thanks internet! I guess you'd call me a lead guitarist, though my friend and I trade lead lines. We're both leads? Seems weird. I have to put my 8 guitars to use somehow!

Brilliant! Based on this, I think it's safe to say that we now know exactly what Rayse looked like:

The sheer amount of Stormlight he'd have to hold to make that work is staggering. He'd have to be followed around by his own personal highstorm!

Kaladin with the Dustbringer Honorblade. Death to Voidbringers raining down from the skies!

Windrunner fatigue perhaps? We've gotten a steady diet of them in the form of Szeth and Kaladin the past two books and the allure of the new and novel is tempting.

The first time I ever read Ender's Game. I know other people saw it coming, but I'm not real bright at seeing those sorts of things, so it shocked me just much as it did Ender.

Aw, man. Do you know how hard it's gonna be to keep myself from venturing into those boards before I read the graphic novels?

This was my general interpretation of how it worked too. The Cognitive aspect isn't limited by geographic location, so despite Kaladin leaving part, if not all, of his bridgemen, I think they'll still be able to use Stormlight. Imagine how disappointed Lopen would be if he suddenly lost the ability to draw in Stormlight to heal his arm right after he found out he could do it! I think that they would definitely lose the ability in that case. The squires have made no oaths, so I would guess that their ability is something like "siphoning" the ability from their Knight. If that Surgebinding ability goes away for the Knight, all capabilities to draw in Stormlight evaporates.

This. Seems like everyone in Randland is just a horrible, horrible person. Except Mat.

And that'll take you an entire day! There's so much out there, it's a steep learning curve. Heck, I'm still trying to catch up.

It's an interesting idea and one that seems to line up in terms of sequence, but I think there's a couple issues with it. First thing is that, if this was indeed the case, there would have been some historical records of this that Jasnah would have come across. As much as Vorinism tried to scrub things and make the Radiants out to be villains, there were still records that survived (see the in-world Words of Radiance book). Even if they were scrubbed, the fact that parshmen started being used at the same time as the Recreance would have been a MAJOR piece of evidence that scholars likely would not have ignored. I'm not sure who they'd be swearing these secondary oaths to. They swear these oaths to the spren, ostensibly, so who would the second oaths go to? Odium? I highly doubt that the Radiants would ever trust Odium, regardless of the promises made.