Terisen

Here's the exact passage you're thinking of: So, to your point, average is just a function of the overall population. Would the culling continue on? Probably not, as Moogle points out, but we don't know. This is sort of like the Eugenics stuff of times past in the United States. Looking at this further, however, brings up a point about the Diagram. Taravangian made a rule that he couldn't pass laws when he was super smart to prevent laws like this from being put in place. Not many of us need to have it explained why a law like this is a bad idea. But consider that he wrote the Diagram was he was even SMARTER and he and his group treat that as the ultimate law. I think this is an interesting bit that is design to show the the Diagram is probably a bad solution to the problem.

I wouldn't call Hoid evil, but he is certainly an "ends justify the means" man. I, too, choose to believe that putting Adonalsium back together is his ultimate goal, but it's hard to say for sure. This quote comes to mind when I think of Hoid: "Every traveller is necessarily the hero of his own story, especially if he happens to travel alone. When he has the felicity of a companion the unavoidable egotism is obscured by the use of the social pronoun."

Or, to expand upon that, find a large room, half lash large styrofoam balls, half lash everybody and give them laser tag equipment. Boom, you have the Battle Room from Ender's Game.

I actually have hanging over an archway in my place an Elucidator (ok, not really named) and Dark Repulsor from Sword Art Online. I just like the sound of the name Dark Repulsor.

Soulstamp them into nice, little behaved children that always listen and go to bed on time. Done and done. It'll wear off when they're asleep and they'll be back to being little demons for their parents the next day.

That's it. I'm calling it right here. There's a Shard of Jolliness on Earth. And here we thought that Earth wasn't in the Cosmere.

Rudolph is spiked. I mean, that red nose hast to be a spike of some sort. That's why he leads. Santa has influence over him. Hang on, this makes Santa more akin to Ruin. I'm scared now.

Pffft, details, details. Next thing you'll tell me is that Santa isn't real. Wait......

Certainly. The source can be found here. Putting together your own list of these WoB sources isn't a bad idea. That'd come in handy. I get hit all the time with quotes I didn't know existed. Watch, it'll probably happen as I attempt to answer your other items. Actually, there's still debate on how something like that would work (ie, someone using the fuel for another magic system). Brandon has said it would take some jury rigging, but it seems that's what Vasher is doing with Stormlight in place of Breath. Once that's in place, Stormlight would likely act no different for an Allomancer than burning a metal. You may be confusing the nature of the mists with the nature of Stormlight. They're both vaporous, but I don't believe that Stormlight is a Shard's body. It's basically the same as tin or iron (only for the people on Roshar).

This might answer your questions.

I don't know if that works because you'd have to Awaken yourself if you were using a command like that, wouldn't you? I don't know if Awakening a metal would get the same result either. This is a strange little problem.

One of the issues here is that we haven't seen Dalinar's history and, therefore, haven't seen much of his "hero's journey". We've gotten the backstory for Kaladin, which is quite tragic, but we've only seen the recent history of Dalinar. We don't even know the full story behind his Blackthorn moniker or how he went from that to the person we see today. There's a massive time skip. Oh sure, we've seen references to him changing, but we haven't gone on that ride with him (so to speak). Dalinar is also, as has been pointed out, a different type of hero. Personally, it's one that I think is a bit more relatable. Most of us will never come close to the horrors that Kaladin goes through, though we might use them as allegories to our own problems. We won't be enslaved and watch all of our friends killed off brutally. However, a lot of us WILL have the issues Dalinar has struggled with so far. Some of us will be leaders in our work, trying to figure out how to unite the people who work for us and with us. Most of us will have to find ways to make our children understand why we want them to live a certain way and why it would be good for them. Granted, some of Dailnar's problems aren't ALL relatable, but I find Dalinar to be a good hero of a different kind. That said, I love Kaladin's story. I root for the guy since I, too, have suffered from clinical depression. Two different heroes. Gives you options!

This. Absolutely. I started on that audiobook and just had to stop it was so bad. I really need to just read the actual book because I've heard it's quite good (I enjoyed the Night Angel trilogy). But, man, that narrator killed it for me.

I had always assumed that it was because he was because he had been involved with those people who had been aligned with Preservation (Kelsier, Vin, etc). There was still some trust there that could be exploited. At least, that's how I remember it (been a long time since I've read the trilogy)

That almost makes Nightblood sound like Vasher's pet. I do find it a bit curious that Vasher appears to have a non-chalant attitude towards finding Nightblood. He's been in the service of the Kholins for a while (years, in fact). Now, I know it's a large area to search (being an entire continent), but you'd think he'd be trying to actively hunt down a sword that generally leaves a wake of dead bodies in its path instead of just hanging around, waiting for information to find him through the ardentia.

I say we take them and make them tell us about White Sand and Stormlight 3. And future Super Bowl winners. For, you know, academic purposes. Not for betting or anything....

I actually wonder if Shardblades COULD break given enough force. Adolin states that they could barely bend....but that implies that they DO bend. A little. Definitely not in normal use, or even under duress like standing on the blade in plate, but I wonder if there's a point where it could break and what, if anything, that would do to the spren.

One of the things I'm curious about with Shardplate is whether or not the Stormlight fueling it would come from the Surgebinder directly or not with a Radiant. Seems we've gotten RAFO'd on that a bunch. But it seems to me that taking Stormlight from the plate would almost be like trying to draw Stormlight from a Surgebinder. In my head, the gems are simply replacing the Surgebinder, so you'd treat the Surgebinder and gems the same.

So I thought about this a little more (finally). I think that I'd have to adjust the theory, much as Kurk has suggested, but instead of just moving the "hub" to the spiritual realm, I'd say that the pulses have their origin in all three realms. The only thing I think that could be rhythmic in the physical realm is the cymatics that produced the cities on Roshar, but that might not be the only thing. The physical pulse may be getting filtered somewhere or I'm just not identifying the correct result of the pulse in the physical. I'd include highstorms, but those seem to be just Roshar-specific. I think it makes sense to have the hub exist in all three realms. The other things in the Cosmere do. This is an interesting point. You're introducing the problem of the speed of light speed limit. For beings on the same planet, it's something of a moot point. It may not be instantaneous on the same planet if they're on different sides of the continent, but it sure would appear that way because no information could travel fast enough to tell you that it wasn't! Across different planets is a whole different manner. I'd posit that the rhythms have the same efficacy, but there would be a delay in when it's received between two individuals due to the speed of light.

@TheShashBrand

Come on. No guts, no glory!

I want the guy who does the Man at Arms series on YouTube to do a replica of a shardblade. Heck, he's already done Cloud's Buster Sword. He needs to do another friggin' huge sword.

Ah, another fellow Arizonan. Greetings! You know all about the Stormwalls/Haboobs that we get here. And yeah, the allergy situation is bad. My office is a cacophony of people sneezing and/or blowing their nose. Not canon by any means, but I'll go ahead and blame this on Dustbringers (the name is too perfect).

I very much like this idea. Gotta love posts that are essentially just spoiler tags!

Lopen with a fast-talking Aussie-ish accent is perfect. It fits his personality and quips to a tee. Probably contributes to him being one of my favorite characters. Which book had the bad narration? The closest thing I've heard was a book by Michio Kaku that had him read the introductory chapter. Dr. Kaku has a bit of a slur and that was making it tough to listen to, but the narrator switched when the actual chapters began.