Saal

Under the old Oathpact, the Heralds were locking the Fused away on Braize and when a Herald broke they triggered another Desolation/Return. Under this new Oathpact, I think the Heralds are shielding all spren from Retribution. My guess is that when the Heralds Return the spren will lose that protection, so the longer that the Heralds can stay hidden the longer the spren get to live and that effect is compounded by the Herald's existing in a space where time passes much slower than the physical/cognitive realm. I'm probably missing other context but this seems like the most significant detail to explain why the Heralds might feel good about time passing more slowly for them.

Wow, very interesting theory! I don't have anything to add at this time other than to say that you've piqued my interest and I will be following this thread.

Wow. This seems highly plausible.

My least favorite character in the cosmere, without a doubt, is Treledees from Warbreaker. His haughty, simpering, whimpering arrogance made me want to punch him in the teeth through the whole book. Then the sudden guilt I had when he went and got all noble by throwing himself on enemy swords to save his god-king made me hate him forever. OB Spoilers

I'm sorry if this should be obvious but what changes are you referring to? I didn't see anything mentioned in the Latest News section of the site nor on Brandon's website. Please let me know if I missed something.

I like this a lot. I'm kind of fantacizing that the person to pick-up Harmony would be Marsh.

Granted, but you must spend the rest of your life as a quadriplegic . I want a perfect understanding of realmatic theory.

So I like this interpretation for it's simplicity, but I suppose what I'm really after, but have explained terribly, is that I'm trying to get past the simple answer. It's like explaining that "if you rub two sticks together under the right circumstances you can start a fire." But when you start talking about how that works chemically, it's a much more in-depth process. Understanding that process can also let you make fires using other tools and under other conditions as well. I'm hoping for a better understanding of what's happening "chemically" when a spren bonds a person and can then turn into a shardblade. Is there a change to their sDNA? Is it mostly a cognitive change? Is it mostly a physical change? That hope is most likely why I interpreted Brandon's explanation as I did., so that I read it as the spren that were patterned after Honorblades instead of their Shardblade form being patterned after Honorblades. After perusing the forums for a few days looking for more info on this, I'm not finding very much... so I assume these are questions I might want to ask Brandon directly, or do you think they would get RAFO'd?

I'm rewording these from the Question and Answer thread in case this is the more appropriate thread for them. Does the Nahel Bond actually alter the bonded Spren's Spiritweb? If so, what determines which alterations are made? If not, does the bond "unlock" sections of the Spiritweb that they just did not previously have access to? Are Shardblades more Cognitive, Physical, or Spiritual in nature? If Syl passed through something in the form of a leaf, will she sever its soul? If not, then why does she act/function differently when she's in the form a Shardblade? ​What specifically caused the spren abandoned in Dalinar's vision of the Recreance to appear as a Shardblade instead of whatever their normal "physical" form? For example, why would Pattern not turn into the pattern shape that he normally has? ​Brandon has stated that Spren/Shardblades were patterned after Honorbales - was this just referring to their general shape or in their capabilities and powers as well?

Thanks for the welcome! Perhaps "fanboi" was too strong of a word; it's more like I find myself nodding my head in appreciation of their posts of on a very regular basis, each for different reasons. But I think that I will probably keep the names to myself for now. But I generally appreciate any post that is well written, with logical arguments supported by WoB or in-text quotes and examples unless the topic simply doesn't call for them..

Thanks! Is there any cake?

So I figured I would stop being that rude jerk who butts into conversations without ever introducing himself. I'm Saal. I've been using this online pseudonym for about 10 years now - ever since it was randomly generated for me while making a character for Knights of the Old Republic and I thought it sounded cool. (For anyone wondering, I've never seen Breaking Bad, but I'm told one of the character's on that show has the same name.) In terms of my BS fandom, I discovered Brandon when he took over writing the Wheel of Time and a friend of mine had already read all of his then-published works. I decided to read Elantris and I absolutely loved it so I picked up Mistborn and promptly read every book of his that I possibly could. I've been stalking these forums since The Way of Kings release. Historically I have preferred to let others do the theorycrafting and ask questions while I eagerly read all of their posts. It's actually been somewhat like watching a TV show where I've developed opinions on my favorite "characters" and personalities so that I find myself drawn to certain topics just because a specific person posted in it or created it. lol #fanboi I have found myself becoming increasingly interested in the Cosmere and how everything works, so I decided to make and account and start posting questions when I had them. If you have any other questions about me feel free to ask.

So based on the responses that I received in this thread I now haz moah questions. Does the Nahel Bond actually change the Spren's capabilities, essentially altering their Spiritweb? If so, what determines which alterations are made? If not, does the bond simply "unlock" sections of the Spiritweb that they did not previously have access to? Are Shardblades more Cognitive, Physical, or Spiritual in nature? If Syl passed through something in the form of a leaf, will she sever its soul? If not, then what makes her act differently when she's in the form a Shardblade? ​What specifically caused those spren to appear as a Shardblade instead of whatever their normal "physical" form? For example, why would Pattern not turn into the pattern shape that he normally has? ​Do we have any WoB on whether or not he was specifically referring to Shardblades being patterned after Honorblades general physical shape (i.e. they come with a hilt, blade, pummel, etc.)? EDIT: Would these questions be better suited to the Ultimate List of Questions for Brandon Sanderson?

So to reword that quote with fewer pronouns, you think he was saying something more like this...?

I'll agree that it's possible I'm reading into that comment too much, and that is how I initially interpreted his answer as well. But Brandon is famous for his subtlety, no? And some things just don't seem to add up for me, with that interpretation. Why would "first form" = "basic form"? Also, I don't remember the book saying exactly what happened to Syl after Kaladin fell into the Chasm, but leading up to that point she seemed to revert back into a more Windspren-like mindless state. Wouldn't that have been her "basic" state in Roshar?