Confused

“The pen is mightier than the sword.” - E. Bulwer-Lytton, Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy, 1839. The first four words of this quote were combined into three in a famous Saturday Night Live spoof of Jeopardy The draft, non-canonical SLA 3 Jasnah chapter shows us some of “Jasnah’s Adventures in Shadesmar-land.” Jasnah falls through a rabbit hole…I mean a “juncture,” and follows a vest-wearing white rabbit…I mean a dapper spren, through Shadesmar-land, seeking a way home. I’m sure the chapter’s details will radically change by publication. Still, all parody aside, the draft hints at what goes on in the Cognitive Realm – it’s a jungle out there. This look into Shadesmar fits with much of what Brandon says about the place. I consider the basic description of Shadesmar – with “harmmore” painspren – reliable. Theory The Cognitive Realm is a place of ideas. These ideas do not achieve permanence unless they become Spiritual Realm “ideals.” If they do not achieve permanence, they will die. They fight hard – against each other – to achieve that permanence. It is a war of personal and ideological survival. The very idea of pain panicks the normally calm and staid Ivory. Thoughts can kill. The Shards’ mandates (intents) define the overall scope of this war. The War of Ideas, as so defined, is how I believe Shards fight each other. For those who haven’t seen my thinking on this, you might check out the following threads. Many of these ideas are controversial, but I’m trying to present a cohesive theory, of which this thread is a part. The Origin of the Cosmere: Its Composition, Realmatic Interactions, and the Workings of Magic The Shattering: Origin, Power and Nature of the Shards and Their “Intents” “Mandates” of the Known Shards To summarize the theory: Power, like people and other "things," exists in all three Realms simultaneously. Power needs a “mind to direct it,” according to Sazed. Without such a mind, Power becomes “frantic,” ultimately attaining sentience on its own with “bizarre” effects. Shards generally express their power under the compulsion of their mandates (a word I define in the “Mandates…” post above). A strong-minded Shard can fight against that compulsion. In that post, I interpret the mandates of each known Shard. Briefly, they are Cultivation: Survival; Devotion: Love; Dominion: Control; Endowment: Generosity; Honor: Relationships; Odium: Aggression. HoA established Preservation and Ruin as Stability and Intelligent Decay, respectively, so I did not discuss those Shards in that post. There, and here, I emphasize the importance of thinking of mandates broadly and abstractly. In this post, I extend the theory. If power needs a mind to direct it, then how can Shards cripple each other? Through the War of Ideas, killing off each other’s ideas, stripping away their consciousness, their ability to direct their power. (I’m not suggesting this is the ONLY way, but it is an effective way.)

Here’s the bare bones of the argument: Kaladin compares the listeners’ honor with that of humans. Humans are hateful and always at war. Listeners won’t harm a disabled combatant. Roshar’s humans seem to reflect Earth’s diversity: dark-skinned, brown-skinned, light-skinned; blond, brown, red and black hair; every eye color. On a planet with only one continent and no impassable mountains? The result of such human variability is the problem of the “other” – someone who is different from us, who therefore is to be feared and hated. More hatred, just as Kaladin sees, hatred he himself feels towards “others” – the lighteyes. The presence of the listeners compounds the “other” problem. Other threads have noted that the listeners are like Native Americans, driven to the verge of extinction by rapacious Europeans. Whose interest is it to have men fight men and listeners, to try to create more hateful ideas, more opportunities to grow his power? Any Shards we know, Mr. Odium? And whose interest is it to eliminate such fighting, to eliminate the means by which hatred is spread, Mr. Honor? To kill all hateful humans in genocidal events called Desolations… HONOR has more reason than Odium to cause the Desolations, to wipe out humanity’s rapacity. Odium wants to create the Everstorm, the TRUE Desolation. But Odium would rather humans keep on killing each other until then. And if this “bare bones” argument hasn’t persuaded you yet, consider that “honor” is a conservative social force, often keeping people in their place because the ruling class thinks “it’s the right thing to do.” Honor’s mandate (intent) is Relationships – organization. (See my “Mandates of the Known Shards” post.) Honor prefers stable relationships rather than the turmoil of war fostered by Odium’s Aggression mandate. If hatred causes men to fight, Honor might well tear down an entire societal structure and start again. Hence, Desolations. Hence, little technological growth, arguably regression. Hence, stratified, reified societies. Blame Honor, not Odium.

I"ll see both your speculations and raise you one: Elokhar's son is Sadeas' heir and Ialai will be his regent until he comes of age. I believe that Gavrilar agreed with Sadeas that their children would marry in order to secure Sadeas's support for Gavrilar's monarchy. Queen Ayuden (sp?) is Sadeas and Ialai's daughter. Who else would Elokhar marry when his father is trying to forge a kingdom? Ialai is the most powerful woman in Alethkar. She runs the best spy network. She is the widow of the most powerful Highprince, after Dalinar's army was eviscerated. I mentioned this in a different thread, and a similar conversation apparently has been ongoing here: When Adolin is discovered to be Sadeas's murderer (and he will be, and will probably even confess), Ialai will be entitled to have him executed. She will agree to transmute the sentence into life banishment in exchange for his and Dalinar's shardblades. That gives her three (ijncluding Oathbringer), plus Amaram's blade. That's a lot of power by Alethi standards. This speculation is based on the question, what would Sadeas want and get to throw his support to Gavrilar? You never hear about Sadeas's family. To me, it's inconceivable he wouldn't have children. He and Ialai seem so sensual, languid in their relationship, exactly the kind of parents who would raise a child like Ayuden, Who else would want syncophants lavishing her with praise while her city languished into riot. Remember, Jasnah wanted her dead. I also think this whole episode will raise the issue about why only women can be educated but not hold positions of power. Brandon has said that's cultural. I suspect it's because, like with Vorinism, someone made the decision to separate power from knowledge.

Actually, this has nothing to do with Brandon, the Cosmere or any book. I just wanted to put this long-held theory into writing somewhere. So, to justify placing it here, I stole Brandon’s identity We are each born as a rock. Some of us are igneous rock and some are sedimentary rock. Our own type of rock represents our genes, our nature. Erosion of our rock is our nurture. Because some of us may be born granite, our life experience doesn’t change us much; we don’t erode much. But those of us born as sandstone erode A LOT. Our life experience shapes us more than it would the person made from granite. So there’s the matrix. What kind of rock are you and how have you been eroded? What type of rock is Brandon?

Moogle, I recall this WoB but am uncertain of its application here. I will accept the statement that you don't have "to kill the Shardholder... first" to splinter. I was simply offering one way to accomplish splintering (since there seems to be some mystery about it). I would expect the Shard not to die immediately, because he/she has been living off all that investiture. (Sazed's comment about the Shard's inhabiting power like normal people inhabit flesh and blood (or something like that - I"m sure you'll find the actual quote). It's probably like the gold compounder who was executed at the end of AoL, proportionate to the amount of investiture involved. But somehow splintering happens. And my suggestion is plausible as one mechanism, even if it takes a long time.

Kill the person who became the Shard -- the mind that controls the power. If you do so without any other sentient life form around, what happens? The power diffuses, "frantically" seeking a mind to direct it (like the mists in HoA, according to Sazed). With no sentient life nearby, each sufficiently large dollop of power will at some point develop sentience on its own (with "bizarre" effects) -- and become a splinter. So the trick is, catch them alone (Tanavast) or alone together (Aona and Skaize), with no other sentient life form nearby. Odium's failure to catch Tanavast completely alone will cause him big time trouble. (If this has already been discussed, affirmed, rebutted, etc. elsewhere, sorry!)

Response Time!!!!! Leftinch: All I can think of when I see your name is “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” Very distracting… I use the word “mandate” rather than “intent” for two reasons. First, “intent” implies choice. You can change your mind and hence your intent. But “mandate” is compulsory. A Shard may fight against a mandate’s compulsions, but it is a struggle, not a choice. (Perhaps you know that the word "intent" was invented by Chaos in an excellent post some years ago called "The Principle of Intent." The Coppermind considers it a "non-canonical" term.) The second reason is textual. In HoA, Sazed describes the mists as acting with a “vague will” of their own “tied to the mandate of their abilities.” (HoA Chapter 79, emphasis added.) This phrase clearly refers to what we call “intent.” Since Sazed says “mandate,” so do I. Feel free to be “old school” if you’d like. Anyway, to substance. Let’s start with your “biggest problem,” that the Shards didn’t choose the “shard holders.” (Just so we’re clear, while I’m okay with distinguishing between Shards and their “holders,” and have done so in the past myself, as a technical matter, I believe the Shard and its “holder” are one. That’s why I use the phrase, “the person who became a Shard.”) I think the Shards DID choose their “holders.” But let’s suppose it was random or even the opposite way (the “holders” chose their Shards, as some believe). Does any of that change the mandate analysis in any way? That analysis interprets how the Shard expresses its power, not how it became that Shard in the first place. I think we all agree that mandates define how Shards express their power. Mandates involve action. The best example to me is the comparison between ReShephir, the Midnight Mother, and the lightweaving Herald (whose name I don't remember and am not looking up.) I believe they both use Illumination- and Transformation-type powers. (I'm sure those powers have different names for Odium-spawn). But the Midnight Mother makes Midnight Essence, different from, e.g., what Shallan does with lightweaving. Same powers, different result. Action, not name. Thus, rather than rely on Shard names, I prefer to look at what Shards do. For example, I don't think “intelligent decay” is what one immediately thinks of as "Ruin.” I'm reasonably confident about the general nature of the mandates I defined…except for Odium. The nature of Odium is to be alone and to divide others because a hateful person does not want to be around "happy" people and wants to take away their happiness. Okay. But what follows from that? Here, you and the others have persuaded me. Spite, Ridicule and Fury ARE an amplification over more temperate emotions. More than mere amplification, however, they are hate-tinged. Just as Odium’s investiture turns windspren into stormspren (I believe), that stormspren with Odium’s investiture colors less volatile emotions with hate. But “Hate” isn’t quite the right word for Odium’s mandate. Not everything Odium expresses is “hateful.” I believe the aggressiveness needed to survive – survival of the fittest – is not “hateful.” But it can lead to violent impulse. I invite you and others to come up with a single word for Odium’s mandate other than the too-easy “Hate.” ("Aggression"?) All credit to you for the effort. And for you and others who have raised this issue, I DID NOT SAY CULTIVATION IS THE “HIDDEN SHARD.” I said it might be an unknown Shard, but the description also applies to Cultivation (which it does). That inscription comes from 2012, before WoR was published. With my new fancy-dancy Kindle, I discovered that the ONLY reference to “Cultivation” in all of WoK was on page 995. There, Honor mentions Cultivation without any identification other than that she’s better than him at seeing the future. So at the time of the question, Brandon may have been thinking about Cultivation. All I’m saying is the inscription description applies to her, not that it IS her. Moogle: Thank you, as always, for your kind words. I did post a response to your comments on the “Sel magic” thread. I accept the Dor information and answer the question about Sel’s magical fragmentation by saying it’s the result of the shattering of Dominion’s moon and where the pieces fell. Titan Arum: Wow! Checking the Forum while you’re in Southeast Asia! Impressive! You ARE a “Titan”! I think I answered your question about Cultivation in my response to Leftinch (whether or not you accept the answer). As for “hiding in plain sight,” where better to hide? Actually, you misstated some things. Honor and Cultivation came to Roshar before Odium. Honor and Cultivation were romantically involved. It’s been speculated that Rayse was jealous of the two, but I’m unaware of any confirmation he was also romantically linked with Cultivation. Metaphorically, it would make sense if he was, given their mandates, creating the perfect and necessary “life triangle.” (Plus, I believe the Nightwatcher is a spren of BOTH Cultivation and Odium: cognitive boons and curses. It’s part of how Honor has trapped Odium in Greater Roshar. So I guess Odium knows where to find Cultivation, with their minds linked. NOW, whether he knows where the person who became the Shard is hiding is another matter…) Regarding your definition of the word “odium,” see my comments above. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet…” Tobar14: Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! You’ve never heard of a man or woman being described as “well-endowed”? Pardon the terrible pun, but thank you! See what I said to Moogle above. You’re right about the Dor and the splintering. I think I’ve addressed both issues. It’s interesting that both you and Titan reference rioting. That’s a great observation and consistent with my general belief that all powers are the same; only the Shards’ manner of expression differs. * * * * * * As always, thank you all!

Moogle, I believe the "different reason" for territorial fragmentation on Sel is Dominion's splintering. Dominion's moon shattered leaving, among other things, soulstone in MaiPon and probably other bits of the moon elsewhere. Wherever that moon fell, it imposed a different land-based command requirement in that region. As you know, I've speculated elsewhere about the nature of Dev/Dom magic, and you rightly reminded me that the Dor comes from both Shards. So here's my explanation for Sel: Dominion defines the command. Each command -- whether Aons or soulstamps -- carries with it all the information necessary for its execution. Post-splintering, wherever a fragment of Dominion's moon landed, that region (however defined) now imposes a different cognitive command from that required by other regions. Perhaps Fjordell is so powerful because that region received the largest moon fragment with the largest dose of Dominion's power. As Sazed says, when we speak of a Shard's "body" (the moon), we mean its power. The Dor is the investiture used to carry out the command. I'm persuaded that post-splintering the two Shards' splinters finally "married." Their mandate is to work together, symbiotically. Therefore, they continued to. (And I'm not addressing for now the splinters' apparent aberrant behavior in the Cognitive Realm -- how would you like to be pulled apart on your wedding night?)

[i've amended this post to reflect the many excellent comments of posters.] My thesis is that the Shards' names do NOT accurately state their mandates (what we've been calling "intents"). Odium does not mean "hatred" (and is certainly not "evil"); Honor does not mean "honor"; and Cultivation does not mean amber waves of grain. I also don't think Endowment refers to body shape. They're all just cool-sounding placeholder names that vaguely relate to the mandate. I use the word "mandate," rather than "intent" for two reasons. First, "intent" implies choice. You can change your mind and hence your intent. But "mandate" is compulsory. A Shard may fight against a mandate's compulsions, but it is a struggle, not a choice. (Chaos coined the term "intent" in an excellent post some years ago called "The Principle of Intent." The Coppermind considers the term non-canonical, although Brandon himself often uses it.) The second reason is textual. In HoA, Sazed describes the mists as acting with a "vague will of their own tied to the mandate of their abilities" (HoA, Chapter 79, emphasis added.) This phrase clearly refers to what we call "intent." Since Sazed says "mandate," so do I. Feel free to use "intent" if you'd like. Before commencing this discussion, permit me... A Personal Note Many posters have kindly commented on my "creative" (that's spelled "N-U-T-T-Y") theories . To me, that's the value of having one's ideas vetted. You've helped sharpen my ideas and arguments, as reflected in this revised OP. I've learned things from you folks. I've been active lately because of the gift of my first Kindle a few months back. I LOVE actual books - the touch, the smell, the heft. But OMG, the convenience of e-books! I can search, highlight and take notes! The first two books I bought and re-read were, naturally, WoK and WoR. I consider WoK the best full-length novel Brandon has written - better than any of the Mistborn books, better than WoR, better than anything other than The Emperor's Soul, which is a jewel. I began thinking of how things worked in the Cosmere. I questioned everything and turned everything upside down and backwards. Examples of my questions include Is Odium an entropic hero for splintering Shards? Does he really want to be "last Shard standing" or will he splinter himself in the end, supplanting a magical oligarchy with a magical democracy (or at least a republic) of splinters? Is Honor a good guy (Tanavast did buy Hoid drinks once), or has he restrained social, material and biological evolution on Roshar by binding things up and slowing things down? What happened to the friendship between Hoid and Rayse that now leads Hoid to so fear Rayse? (Hoid visiting Braize is "The Biggest RAFO!!!!" according to Brandon.) I'd already come up with close to 30 topics by the time I posted the first one the other day. But my ideas aren't fully ready for Prime Time. My "Confused Theory of Everything" is still too confused. (Not that that's going to stop me...) I posted anyway because a recent topic on Honorblades being fabrials came close to my idea that the Heralds are spren. (None of you agree with this idea - yet - but as Gollum said to Frodo when he entered Shelob's cave, "you'll see, you'll see...") Once I came out with that Honorblades post, I had to start posting other topics, ready or not, because they're all interconnected. That's one reason you people have been so helpful. (After I'm done with this writing Surge - a long way to go yet - I'll probably settle back, read a bunch of stuff you folks write, and try to get my revised Theory out before Oathbringer.) Which takes me to this post. People may not agree with my analysis here either, although I don't think this one will be too controversial. But it became necessary to finish this one because of the nature of the objections to some of my other posts. Life's complicated, and so is writing. Here we are. And to those of you waiting for my responses to your comments on other threads, they're still coming. I owe A LOT of people responses on A LOT of threads. INTRODUCTION Now, where was I? Oh, yes: The Shards' names, while cool-sounding, relate only vaguely to their mandates. For example, Brandon says "Technically, Ruin would be most compatible with Cultivation. Ruin's 'theme' so to speak is that all things must age and pass. An embodiment of entropy." March 2013 Reddit Interview (No. 1) (emphasis added). Sazed is consonant: "It is too easy for people to characterize Ruin as simply a force of destruction. Think rather of Ruin as intelligent decay. Not simply chaos, but a force that sought in a rational - and dangerous - way to break everything down to its most basic forms HoA, Epigraph to Chapter 8 (emphasis added). I've theorized that Adonalsium's power chose each person who became a Shard based on the compatibility of the Shard's mandate with that person's unconscious drives. This has led to controversy, especially over Ruin/Ati. Many disagree with that theory. REGARDLESS OF WHETHER or why the power chose its Shard, or whether the Shard chose its power, or whether it was all random, the mandates are nonetheless real. Sazed makes that clear, as he does the fact that the mandates come from Adonalsium and pre-exist the Shards. When contemplating each mandate, I've tried to be as "abstract" as possible (which for me may not be much), encompassing the broadest swath of human behavior. A mandate should not be too specific or restrictive. So, without further delay (1,000 words or so into this essay), here's my take on the "mandates" of the known Shards, other than Ruin (intelligent decay) and Preservation (stability). SHARD MANDATES Cultivation Cultivation's mandate is SURVIVAL - to proceed, to move on, to progress, regardless of obstacles - life must continue. Cultivation doesn't care whether it continues as greatshells or as cremlings. Like the Nightwatcher, who is partially her spren, Cultivation represents the randomness that produces evolutionary effects. Cultivation as a Shard is neutral in the conflict between Honor and Odium, even though the person who became Cultivation may once have cared for Tanavast. If anything, Cultivation favors Odium's mandate (see below) because it leads to the kind of aggressive competition Darwin described as "natural selection," later termed "survival of the fittest" by Herbert Spencer. Kaellok in a post below believes "GROWTH" would be a better descriptor for Cultivation's mandate than "Survival." "Growth" to me moves only in one direction, towards more and more life. Left to itself, uncontrolled Growth would fulfill Malthus's theory -- geometric proliferation causing all life to cease, running out of some essential element. Just as Ruin and Preservation needed each other, Cultivation requires a decaying, entropic agent for life to flourish. That's why Brandon says Ruin's mandate may be most compatible with Cultivation's. "Growth" includes no entropic agent. In 2012, Brandon inscribed in a copy of The Way of Kings that one Shard was in hiding and concerned with its survival. After searching the database, I found this "paraphrased" report: "So I asked Brandon at the LA signing if he could tell us about a shard that we don't know anything about (including the survival shard) and he said that there was a shard that isn't on a planet. Now I think this means that the shard is either on an asteroid, or a star. It could also be floating in space or on a moon and influencing from a distance. I will repeat it is not any shard we already know about." I view this statement as strongly implying the "survival shard" is Cultivation. (There may be other threads on this subject; I haven't checked.) The "off planet" stuff is important. I believe the three moons of Roshar are the Physical Realm embodiment of Honor's, Cultlivation's and Odium's power, their "bodies." Each Shard's color is thematic: Honor is blue, Odium is purple, and Cultivation is green. That is the color of each moon. The person who became Cultivation, and whose mind still wields Cultivation's power, may not be on that moon, however (or on Ashlyn, third planet in the Roshar system). I believe that's what Brandon means when he says that Shard is in hiding. Technically, the Shard and the person are one, not a separate "holder" and Shard. Devotion and Dominion Devotion and Dominion established a symbiotic relationship. Perhaps they were lovers before they were Shards. Pre-splintering, Dominion created the form necessary to access investiture - the means to control that investiture (or so I believe). But it was Devotion's investiture that Dominion controlled - Dominion took what Devotion willingly and lovingly gave. I believe the Shards' splintering caused the fragmentation of Selian magic systems. We know from The Emperor's Soul that soulstone (or whatever its name is) fell from the sky on MaiPon. I posit soulstone came from the fracturing of Dominion's moon (his body). Wherever his meteors fell, a different magic system was created based on how much of his body fell there. Moogle has "reminded" me that the Dor is a mix of Dominion's and Devotion's investiture. Because the Dor supplies the investiture that executes the Aons' commands, I speculate that Devotion's investiture dominates that mix. Devotion's mandate is LOVE: goodness and giving. Dominion's mandate is CONTROL: to take possession of and develop, manage and expand. I think Brandon's idea is in part the Biblical directive for humanity to be stewards of the land. Endowment Brandon describes Endowment's gifts of Breath as "sticky." Unlike Stormlight, Breath does not dissipate. The nature of "endowment" is to bestow a permanent foundational gift on someone. Endowment’s mandate is GENEROSITY: helping others even at great cost to yourself. The Returned - who hold Divine Breath, splinters of Endowment that carry her mandate - are visible examples. (Thank you, both Moogle and Weiry, for clarifying the nature of the Returned. I hope I got it right this time.) Moogle suggests that Endowment's mandate is closer to "Sacrifice," pointing to the Returned. There is a large element of that, no question, but in trying to expand the mandate as broadly as possible, I chose "Generosity." Honor Honor's mandate is RELATIONSHIPS. Syl describes herself as "Spirit of oaths. Of promises. And of nobility." (WoK, Kindle p. 913.) As an honorspren, she "binds things." Oaths, promises and nobility all establish social organization among humanity. "Unite them." Honor imposes the Social Contract, from family to clan to country to world. I broadened Honor's mandate in this revision to eliminate the qualiier "all living organisms" after "Relationships." I propose that Honor creates organization - "Relationships" - in EVERYTHING...right down to the molecular level. Else, how could he have provided the Heralds the Surges he did? Regarding biological relationships, I do not believe Cultivation by herself could create complex organisms. It's not in her nature to care about that. Cultivation would be as happy playing with her pet paramecia, amoebae, viruses and bacteria all the time. Honor provides the organizational tools to begin constructing the building blocks of life. Odium I agree with Kaellok: Odium's mandate is AGGRESSION (not Intensity, as first proposed). Odium takes normal feelings and sharpens them, readies them for battle, makes them more "in your face." In the WoR I-11 Interlude, Eshonai feels Fury, Irritation, Spite. The old rhythm of Amusement is replaced by a new rhythm of Ridicule. Brandon makes us FEEL Eshonai's heightened aggression in her encounters with the Five. We know (believe? status?) that one of the Unmade, a splinter of Odium carrying his mandate, causes the Thrill to "surge" through the Alethi. While the Thrill enthralls him, Dalinar "bellows," "roars," and "growls." Check out his battle scenes. Because of his Aggression, Odium is a loner, individualistic, inherently divisive, incapable of bonding or forming relationships. By virtue of his very isolation, Odium must be careful, foresightful and cunning if he is to survive. He helps Cultivation grow life through his Aggression mandate - "survival of the fittest;" as mentioned above. Contrary to a popular view, Odium is not evil, anymore than a lion or tiger is evil. His mandate is to sharpen normal reactions with Aggression. CONCLUSION Once again, thanks all! I look forward to your comments.

Adolin. Here’s the argument: Voidbinding is literally “binding the Void.” It is the magic Honor devised to ensnare Odium in Greater Roshar. As a magic, it combines the elements of both Honor and Odium. Preview of yet another unpublished post: Roshar’s three magics are Surgebinding (Honor and Cultivation); the “Old Magic” (Cultivation and Odium); and Voidbinding. Honor used Voidbinding to create the Old Magic – binding together the Minds of Cultivation and Odium (Cognitive boons and curses) – and Stormlight (binding together the gaseous Physical investiture of all three, the only Shard “Power” actually on Roshar, with one and maybe two exceptions...) This is all I want to get into for now… The Honorblades are Voidbinding fabrials. That’s why they were created. The True Desolation has come. Nale seeks to recover the Honorblades from the Stone Shamans and reunite the Honorblades with their Heralds. One “drooling” Herald is unable to answer the call. Coincidentally, that Herald’s Honorblade happens to be in Urithiru at the moment. Also coincidentally, young Adolin is about to be exiled for murder. Dalinar will save Adolin from execution by relinquishing “Taln’s” Shardblade and requiring Adolin to turn over his own. These will go to men chosen by Ialai as payment for her agreement to reduce the death sentence to exile. (I am SOOOOOO sorry Maxal and the other Edgedancer adherents. You make such a good case. But narratively, I think this one works better. Maybe the recipient of Adolin’s Shardblade will become an Edgedancer because of Adolin’s prior attentions.) She will see her rise to power (controlling three Shardblades now, once Oathbringer is found) well worth her husband's death. She will maintain power by rotating Shardblades among different suitors, a more wicked version of Penelope awaiting Odysseus. Dalinar will search his honor and conclude that he can give Adolin the Blade Kaladin gave him, not realizing that it's an Honorblade. Like Voidbinding itself, Adolin balances within him two competing “mandates” (intents): honor and hatred. On the one hand, Adolin is a decent, honorable man. He takes genuine delight in the company of any person no matter how humble (the bridge waterboys). He will also stand up to protect an unknown prostitute against aggression. He sounds a lot like Jezrien to me in both his humility and his humanity, even when his young self still wrestles with pride. He’s portrayed throughout the two books as a “lead and protect” kind of guy. But he also became “irrevocably enraged” (italics in original) when he “snapped” the moment before killing Sadeas. That’s Odium’s domain, and Adolin now lives there “irrevocably.” As I pointed out in this post, “irrevocable rage” emanates from “immortal hatred.” So that’s the argument. And before you object, first answer me why Adolin is the only character with so much black and blond hair? Metaphor? (Please don’t bring up that Jezrien was blond. It’s JUST a metaphor… until the Honorblade’s identity spren chooses to replace the “drooling Jezrien” with Adolin, who then becomes fully blond...) Thoughts?

“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?” - W.B. Yeats, “The Second Coming,” 1919 I recently started a topic asserting the Heralds are identity spren and that the Honorblades are Voidbinding fabrials. (I’ll get around to explaining more about Voidbinding in another post. It is NOT associated with Voidbringing, however.) I posited that, when it’s time for a Desolation, the identity spren search Roshar for temperamentally-suitable hosts to bond with. This last idea needs revision. It seems unlikely the spren would search Roshar for a new host. I can’t see Taln’s spren flitting from Shinovar to Kholinar before bonding with someone. And where’s the Blade in the meantime? I know Syl searched everywhere for Kaladin, but making sure you inform the world that a Desolation is imminent seems a different order of magnitude than finding an honorable man. (Is Syl Diogenes?) I theorize that the main purpose of the Stone Shamans is to be Heralds-in-waiting (and to recover the Honorblades). They train with the Honorblades, learn how to use the Blades’ Surgebinding abilities, and learn other martial arts. Comes a Desolation, they’re ready and waiting for the identity spren to choose one of them to bond with. My original theory in the linked post says the Heralds don’t know they’re not human. I’m sticking with that for now. If the Heralds don’t know, then the Shamans probably don’t either; although it’s possible the Shamans do know, and that “becoming a Herald” wipes all such memories away. In either case, the Shaman who will become Taln travels to Kholinar with the Honorblade. Outside the gates, he (or the Blade) does whatever must be done to initiate the bonding process. Pooff! He becomes Taln, complete with the glistening muscles that show the spren just came from Shadesmar. He is confused (love that word) because the “Taln” spren was left unbonded for an extraordinarily long time. Like other spren who bond in the Physical Realm after a long absence, it takes awhile for the Taln spren to reorient itself. (Think of Pattern after a relatively short time.) As of the end of WoR, Taln is better – he remembers “Ishar’s Knights” – but is not yet fully himself. As stated in the other post, I believe the Stone Shamans keep the Honorblades in the mountains east of Shinovar. Not only do the mountains block Stormlight from reaching Shinovar, but the Honorblades suck up any remaining investiture that might otherwise slip through. That’s what keeps Shinovar spren-free. Because the Stone Shamans had not seen a Desolation in 4,500 years, and had not seen a spren in Shinovar in all that time, they came to think Voidbringers were a myth. They may even have bought into Aharietiem. They were normal humans, passing along their knowledge non-magically. (Awaiting the writing of still another post: “Voidbringers” are what Odium’s investiture turns otherwise normal objects/entities into. First Odium “corrupts” (that is, invests) an Adonalsium spren. Then that spren bonds with another object/entity, giving that object sentience and infusing it with Odium’s mandate (intent). The “corrupted” spren in Dalinar’s Purelake vision was itself an Adonalsium spren before it became Odium-invested and created a thunderclast. Stormspren are Odium-invested windspren that turn listeners into Voidbringers; honorspren are Honor-invested windspren.) When Szeth somehow recognized that Voidbringers were real and imminent, he caused an ideological crisis among the Shamans. Their belief system would shatter if Desolations were possible. They had no choice but to banish him as “Truthless.” Nale now tells Szeth to take out the Shamans. This would enable Nale to recover the Honorblades for the true Heralds (that is, the ones the identity spren are still bonded to). It will also prevent the Shamans from wrongly using them, since only the Heralds with all their experience and knowledge will understand how best to use the Blades in the “True Desolation.” Nightblood meets Honorblade. Both suck magic. Place your bets…

Kurkistan: About Leonard (the Cosmere construct, not the real thing), you are correct. We DO begin with a physical thing. BUT THAT THING IS NOT A CANNONBALL. It is a LEAD ball. A cannonball does not exist until Leonard first thinks of it as such, clearly enough that a Spiritual Ideal forms with appropriate connections. Those connections will be much different from a lead ball, even if the two balls share common weight and composition. If for no other reason than that a cannon is different from a fireworks tube -- with lower trajectory, better targeting capabilities, perhaps greater mobility -- the cannonball ideal and connections will be different from a lead ball's. It is the same answer as the classic "chicken-and-egg" problem: THE EGG CAME FIRST. Whatever gave birth to a chicken wasn't a chicken. The genetic material contained in its egg mutated into chicken DNA. The egg contained a chicken even though Momma wasn't. Most things evolve from something else -- very few discoveries spring up like Athena. Fireworks become cannons, cannons become muskets, muskets become rifles, etc. In the Spiritual Realm, these are all new and different things, even when they have very similar functions and precedents. It's when you go back in time to the FIRST CAUSE, following the chain of causation to its beginning, that you run into the serious philosophical/religious issues. My OP interprets Brandon's writings and statements as requiring a FIRST MIND in the Cosmere before there was anything else. My other conclusions follow from that. My healing analysis does need more refinement; it still contains some errors you and others point out. I hope to clean that up soon. Do take another look at the first of my "Confused Comments" in Section 5d, near the end. That states my current thinking on how healing works realmatically. Thanks!

Thank you, KnightGradient, for your kind comments. I thought of Paradise Lost because of the WoR lines immediately before Adolin "snaps" and kills Sadeas. Adolin is described at that moment as being "irrevocably enraged" (italics in original). That called to mind the following quotation from Paradise Lost (Book 1, lines 101-109 (italics added) (yes, I am good at recalling quotes, just not very good at recalling plot lines, character development points, WoBs, etc., since I seem to be misremembering so much of the Cosmere books): “Innumerable force of Spirits armed, That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, His utmost power with adverse power opposed In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven And shook his throne. What though the field be lost? All is not lost; the unconquerable Will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield: And what is else not to be overcome?” "Irrevocable rage" sounds so much like something spawned from "immortal hate" that I thought of Milton. These are great lines, stirring. John Steinbeck took the title of his 1930's novel "In Dubious Battle" -- about union organizing in California -- from this passage. I've already written up a theory about Adolin and his future based on this similarity. He "snaps" because of "irrevocable rage"? No more hints, but I do not believe Adolin will be a Knight Radiant of any kind (sorry, Maxal)... Kurkistan: Based on your post below, I'm deleting my comments. I obviously misunderstood you. P.S. I've edited my post in case any of you like seeing cultural references. The following linked post lists what a bunch of artists, writers, and composers might have done with Veil if they were a Lightweaver. Enjoy...

Much Ado About Nothing William Shakespeare, 1599 [DISCLAIMER: I did not study philosophy in school and took just one basic psych class. (On the plus side, I did sleep at Holiday Inn last night…) Please feel free to correct or refine anything (everything?) I say. And burn a prayer for used book stores!] Brandon has cited Plato, Spinoza and Jung as important influences in developing his Realmatic Theory. Despite this post’s epigraph, I really do think that understanding the Cosmere and the Shards requires some understanding of that influence. Introduction: Before embarking on this discussion, however, permit me a brief digression about the modern literary attitude toward an artist’s “philosophical influences.” If you’re not interested, just scroll down to the “Summary.” In a 1927 essay, T.S. Eliot says that the poet’s task is primarily emotional, not intellectual. He compares Dante’s The Divine Comedy – reflecting Thomas Aquinas’s highly structured philosophy – with Shakespeare’s plays, mirroring the English Renaissance’s more muddled sensibilities. Eliot argues that Dante was not greater than Shakespeare simply because the ideas of early 14th century Italy might be “greater” than the ideas of early 17th century England: “[shakespeare’s] is equally great poetry, though the philosophy behind it is not great. But the essential is, that each expresses in perfect language, some permanent human impulse.” Eliot concluded in a much-quoted statement: “The great poet, in writing himself, writes his time.” (T.S. Eliot, “Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca,” reprinted in Selected Essays of T.S. Eliot, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.,1964, p. 117.) Our “postmodern age” is characterized (ironically) by a breakdown of belief in the efficacy of theory and “big picture” solutions. Brandon himself says he is a storyteller solving his characters’ emotional issues; the Cosmere stuff is just background. But our “times” do show up in the multiple intertwined idea systems underlying Brandon’s conception of the Cosmere. Brandon expressly acknowledges Plato’s, Spinoza’s and Jung’s contributions to his “mashed up metaphysics” (as well as Asian spirituality and other influences). And that’s why I’m talking about these dead guys… Summary: Plato fostered the concept of “dualism” – the difference between the world we see and the ideal world that “is.” Spinoza thought everything in existence is one “substance” governed by one set of rules. Jung imagined a “collective unconscious” with specific archetypes. And, if you’re still with me, I’ll highlight what appears to be a literary influence on Brandon, John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Plato: Plato’s concept of an unseen “ideal” reality underlies the whole structure of the Cosmere. That is what the Cognitive and Spiritual Realms are – alternate unseen realities. Plato’s “dualism” has dominated Western philosophy for 2,400 years and is one of the foundational pillars of Christianity (Heaven versus Earth). Plato addresses dualism in the opening passages of Book VII of The Republic, the “Parable (or Allegory) of the Cave.” People have lived their entire lives in a cave; their only knowledge of the outside world are shadows flickering on the cave wall and the echoes of distant sounds. These people have no concept of the “real world” the rest of us “know”; the shadows and echoes ARE their “reality.” Plato’s point? We cannot see beyond our own shadows to the “true,” the ideal reality. ASIDE: [if you’re not interested in philosophy, skip it.] Platonic dualism has fallen out of favor with certain American philosophers since the late 1800s. They prefer the philosophy of “Pragmatism” first espoused by men who personally witnessed the carnage of the American Civil War. These men sought a worldview that accommodated the fact that both sides to a conflict can believe with equal fervor they are right. Pragmatism was their answer. They explicitly rejected Platonic dualism, which in their view encouraged each side’s self-certitude (“God is on our side,” etc.). To a pragmatist, a belief was “true” not because it reflected an ideal established in an unseen reality. Rather, “truth” was measured by the belief’s “cash value” (William James’ phrase). Did that belief improve that person’s life – materially, emotionally, spiritually…in whatever ways matter to that person. In an uncertain world, which beliefs are useful and which are not? Pragmatism’s critics label this approach “relativism,” since (they claim) it adheres to no fixed set of ideals or values. The neo-Pragmatist Richard Rorty (who died in 2007) characterized the Pragmatic response to dualism as follows (my interpretation, not Rorty’s words): Pragmatists do not reject the possibility that something is as others believe it to be. They simply embrace the certainty that humankind will never discover the truth of it. Therefore, rather than to rely on external authority, whether labeled “God” or “Reason,” Rorty argued that humankind should decide by consensus how best to govern its behavior. As an avowed atheist who married and had children with a devout Mormon, Rorty clearly lived out his belief in human consensus (as did his wife). Plato’s theory of “forms” also appears in The Republic (first in Book V, but principally in Books VI and VII), but he continued refining this theory over his lifetime. The theory of forms is an adjunct to dualism and states that every object and idea in our world exists in ideal form in the alternate reality. All horses, for example, are based on the form or idea of “horse” existing elsewhere. Plato and his forms thus give us Brandon’s Spiritual Realm. Kurkistan has done a fantastic – and persistent – job conceptualizing the Spiritual Realm in terms of Plato’s forms. He was one of the first to point out how magic works in the Cosmere, through the manipulation of Spiritual Realm connections. Check him out, beginning with this thread. Despite my admiration for his work, I don’t agree with some of Kurkistan’s conclusions Since he wrote the linked post in 2013, I’m not sure Kurkistan himself would agree with them. As one example, he now rejects the idea that Spiritual Realm connections are the sole source of magic in the Cosmere. I also think Kurkistan himself would say that the cited post overly restricts the means by which a Spiritual Realm ideal form can be created. He states forms arise from “the massed Cognitive perceptions of large numbers of sapient…beings.” It seems to me a form can also arise from the mind of ONE sapient being. For example, the person who invented the wheel created the Spiritual essence of a wheel through the invention process. His fixed and separate “wheel” idea caused the wheel to “think of itself” as a wheel. Without Spiritual Realm connections between the wheel’s essence, the Powers of Creation (Gravitation, Friction, e.g.) and other ideal objects such as the planetary soul itself, the wheel’s inventor could never have actually made the wheel. Only after the wheel was seen and imitated by others was there a “massed Cognitive perception” of it. The same would be true of every novelty or invention, including the development of language itself. And, of course, in this post I posit that the entire Cosmere first existed as an idea in the mind of whatever “God” created it. Baruch Spinoza: Brandon has said that the Cosmere consists of everything in our universe – energy and matter – plus investiture. He’s further said that all of it is changeable from one state to another. Sazed/Harmony’s quotes in the hyperlinked post evidence Brandon’s conception of the Cosmere. These ideas come from Spinoza. Spinoza equated God and “nature,” claiming they were the same fundamental substance governed by one set of rules. Spinoza believed everything in the universe was one substance. There was no concept of matter (or energy). Everything was made from the same stuff, changeable in form and function. Brandon parts with Spinoza in some key respects. While the Cosmere contains both a Physical and Cognitive Realm, Spinoza objected to the “mind-body” dualism espoused by his near contemporary Rene Descartes (the “I think, therefore I am” guy). Because everything is one “substance,” including the mind and body, there should be no disjunction between thinking and being, as Descartes claimed. Spinoza also believed strongly in “determinism” – the idea that the future follows inexorably from the past and present with no variation. Brandon prefers the quantum mechanics approach of an uncertain future based on probabilities. Carl Jung Brandon has said Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious inspired his idea of Parshendi non-verbal communication. Presumably he meant that the spren bonded to a given Parshendi form enabled the common “chanting” and mass communication of the Parshendi. Jung, like Freud, distinguished between the conscious and unconscious minds. While Freud conceptualized the mind in terms of an id, ego and superego, many of the processes of which took place in the unconscious, Jung conceptualized the unconscious mind as consisting of two components: the personal and the collective. The personal unconscious reflects our individual experiences, but the collective unconscious is shared by the common culture. The collective unconscious is a place of “archetypes” – common cultural memes, often from myths and legends – Water, Mother, Hero, etc. Jung himself acknowledged the commonality between his “archetypes” and Plato’s “forms.” (“Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious,” reprinted in The Basic Writings of C.G. Jung, Modern Library Edition, 1995, p. 360.) While these archetypes resemble Spiritual Realm ideals, the collective unconscious itself looks like the Cognitive Realm. Sometimes I think Brandon’s metaphor for the Shattering is an emotional breakdown. Adonalsium “lost it” and his emotions went flying in all different directions. Each of the Shardworlds represents a ganglia of neurons thinly connected to one another through the Cognitive Realm. The Cosmere’s narrative is about reintegrating Adonalsium’s personality. (Not by recreating Adonalsium, but by unifying the disparate cultures the Shardworlds represent and restoring humanity’s “oneness.”) John Milton’s Paradise Lost: I may have found an unacknowledged influence on Brandon – John Milton’s Paradise Lost. It’s hard not to notice the similar language used by Brandon and Milton. Check out the following passage. (Each of the following quotations is from J. Milton, Paradise Lost, The Odyssey Press, Inc., 1935 – another cheer for used bookstores!.) “The Sulphurous Hail Shot after us in storm, o’erblown hath laid The fiery Surge, that from the Precipice Of Heav'n receiv'd us falling, and the Thunder, Wing'd with red Lightning and impetuous rage, Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep. Let us not slip th’ occasion, whether scorn, Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe. Seest thou yon dreary Plain, forlorn and wild, The seat of desolation, void of light…” Book I, lines 171-181 (emphasis added). Surges, red lightning, desolations and voids? All in one passage!? It seems beyond coincidence… And then there’s how the SLA morality play superficially resembles Paradise Lost and how Odium superficially resembles Satan: Paradise Lost provides the back story to humankind’s fall from innocence and expulsion from Eden. (How’d ya like them apples, hey Adam?). SLA references humankind’s expulsion from the Tranquiline Hills and desire to return to that state of grace by fighting off Odium. As God has bound Satan to Hell in Paradise Lost, where the Fallen Angel plots his freedom and revenge, so has Honor bound Odium to Greater Roshar (I believe). Odium has already taken his revenge, by killing Tanavast and splintering Honor. His try for freedom forms SLA’s plot. ASIDE FOR Star Trek FANS -- Check out this quote: “Here at least We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure, and in my choice To reign is worth ambition though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n.” Ibid, lines 258-263 (emphasis added). The last line is the answer to the question Ricardo Montalban as Khan asks William Shatner as Kirk at the end of the 1967 episode “Space Seed,” the prequel to the 1982 movie The Wrath of Khan. As the Enterprise prepares to beam down Khan and his comrades to an isolated planet, Khan asks Kirk: “Do you know your Milton, Captain?” And, of course, Shatner, with his usual smugness, acknowledges he does. See you all on TED! (Not…)

[Major revisions from earlier post to fix many dumb mistakes and answer questions raised.] KURKISTAN: 1. Erratum. You’re right. Not every invested person can self-heal. Maybe I can amend the statement to read, “Every person can self-heal who either is bonded to a splinter of investiture or who holds that quantum of investiture directly.” While unhelpfully tautological, we can also say that “Every person with special healing abilities can self-heal regardless of whether they have access to a splinter of investiture.” I think those statements account for everybody. Whether or not they are useful is another matter: how big does the “splinter” have to be, for example. 2. Self-Healing vs. Healing Others. I like this distinction because it represents the difference between patching one’s own SpiritWeb and patching someone else’s. a. Self-Healing. We know Elantrians and Surgebinders can self-heal simply by absorbing investiture, and Nalthians with sufficient Breath can also self-heal. We haven’t seen whether Forgers and other Selians can absorb investiture to self-heal like Elantrians, but Forgers can carve soulstamps for that purpose (and Elantrians can probably draw Aons to self-heal). Gold Ferrings (Bloodmakers) self-heal through their command of f/gold metalminds, and pewter Mistings (Thugs) can enhance their own healing. Aside: The use of f/gold is an example of how Shards’ powers are identical, though their mandates (intents) define the way the power is expressed. The Coppermind highlights the temporal powers of gold. Isn’t this just a form of the Truthwatcher’s Progression Surge? (1) Elantrians, Surgebinders and Breathholders all self-heal because they hold or are bonded to splinters of their Shards. (Healing is NOT weird on Nalthis). Elantrians and Surgebinders bond to Seons and spren, respectively, both of which are splinters. (Do Skaze provide self-healing to the Fjordell?) The ageless Returned are also splinters, of Endowment. According to the Coppermind, a Divine Breath equates to about 2,000 “normal” Breaths. Whether a Nalthian needs 2,000 Breaths to self-heal is unclear; Breaths “heighten” on a continuous scale. One does not need to be “ageless” to self-heal – something less than eternity would do nicely for most of us. (Compare the movie Death Becomes Her, where Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn were ageless, but could NOT self-heal. If you haven’t seen that movie, DON’T!!) (2) My interpretation of Brandon’s answer to you about Breath is that Breathholders approach divinity as they acquire Breaths. Elantrians and Surgebinders become divine as well, since sentient splinters according to Syl are “little bits” of a god. All three really are avatars. (3) The investiture Elantrians, Surgebinders and Breathholders hold knows their SpiritWebs. Seons, RadiantSpren and Breath are part of their SpiritWebs. (4) The same is true on Scadrial with f/gold. Feruchemy only works on one’s own SpiritWeb, transferring investiture corresponding to health attributes – elements of one’s own soul – into or out of the goldmind. This investiture knows and is part of the Ferring’s SpiritWeb. Pewter has different mechanics than f/gold, but its healing powers also operate directly on the Thug’s own SpiritWeb. (5) Thus, investiture needed for self-healing conforms to its own knowledge of the target’s SpiritWeb. That is NOT true with healing others. b. Healing Others. Bloodmakers and Thugs can’t heal others; their investiture doesn’t know other people’s SpiritWebs (and there may be other issues). By contrast, Aon/Dor, Forgery and the Regrowth Surge can heal others. (1) There is, however, an important difference between Sel-based healing and healing elsewhere. I believe that Dominion (pre-splintering) established each territorial means of accessing investiture on Sel, but each magic uses Devotion’s investiture to execute the command. (That’s one reason Odium could splinter both – their investiture acted coincidentally, not cumulatively.) [NOTE: I understand the splintering changed things on Sel, but it’s still unclear how. I assume that Sel had already been so “saturated” with Dominion’s and Devotion’s magic that the System still works more or less as it did before, just as Surgebinding still does following Honor’s splintering. But this is just speculation…] (2) Because Dominion set the command (the Aon or soulstamp carving, for example), the command itself carries all of the information necessary for its execution – typical of a micro-managing “dominant” person. The investiture simply fulfills the command. It is undifferentiated investiture, like Type O is undifferentiated blood. Both are “universal donors.” (3) The ability to heal others is apparently more widespread on Sel than on Roshar or Nalthis for two reasons: (i) as stated, on Sel the command contains all necessary information, so the kind of investiture used in healing is irrelevant; and (ii) I suspect Devotion’s mandate – to love, to give selflessly (like she does with all her investiture) – may play a part. (4) AonDor and Forgery do NOT work like “f/gold processes” even as to self-healing. Both AonDor and Forgery DO work the same way as the “more ‘surgical’ methods” you cite, whether in self-healing or healing others. The command carries the information on Sel. Thus, as Brandon says, to cure chronic poor eyesight you need “the specifics of everything, kind of like they're equations.” That’s particularly true of eyesight because of its variability – it requires an exactly measured “fix.” (That’s why we have optometrists and ophthalmologists, after all.) 3. “Accidental Creations or Discoveries.” When Fleming noticed the moldy bread and discovered penicillin, he was consciously conducting experiments, even though they were not directed at discovering penicillin. The fact that his efforts lead him to that discovery (imagine if he had been hungrier?) doesn’t change the cognitive aspect of the activity. I believe there’s a legal concept that says if you do an act, you’re deemed to intend what naturally flows from that act. (If you drive on an icy road and skid into a tree, it doesn’t matter that you didn’t “intend” to hit the tree. You did intend to drive under those conditions.) Accidents too are cognitive. a. Regarding poor Leonard, tinkering is conscious activity. Does he sleep walk through it or does he consciously poke around, questioning, curious? b. In your “cannon” example, yes, the lead ball is already in existence. It thinks of itself as a lead ball, and there is a “lead ball” Spiritual Realm ideal. (Presumably one of its Spiritual connections is that Superman can’t see through it...) c. BUT – it does not think of itself as a cannonball – and therefore is not one – until after that idea first formed in Leonard’s mind. Until that moment, no Spiritual Realm ideal existed for it. And when that ideal developed, it was not for a fireworks tube that launched a lead ball up in the air. That ideal was for a cannon that fired a cannonball at a target. Several different ideals, actually, with several different connections – a completely new and different thing. As Pattern says, when do you have four legs attached to some wooden planks and when do you have a table? (To paraphrase Bishop Berkeley’s theory of “immaterialism,” an object exists only in the mind of the perceiver.) d. Fire, I"m guessing, pre-existed all sapient thought except Adonalsium's. A form of energy that Adonalsium “thought of” and created “in the beginning." 4. Fireballs. I assume you’re being whimsical with your fireball comment. (What? Thermonuclear war isn’t enough for you?) But if you’re serious, your fireball description seems like something a Dustbringer can do. 5. Healing Proves General “Mind First” Model. a. To recapitulate, the methodology of cognitively accessing the Spiritual Realm will differ from unique planetary/Shard system (a “System”) to System. Means of access is a function of (1) each System, and (2) as I’ve tried to show, the unique versions of the Cognitive and Spiritual Realms related to each System by virtue of each System’s unique social and material culture. Culture, of course, is in part itself a function of the System. b. I expect Scadrial, Nalthis, Sel and Roshar to rely on different cognitive means of accessing the Spiritual Realm, for healing or anything else. Whether you empty f/gold “health” storage directly into your SpiritWeb (through a mental command); or draw an Aon, or carve a soulstamp, or infuse Stormlight to improve health, you are in each case following Brandon’s “Cognitive to Spiritual to Physical” model, not mine. c. You say the following about healing: “Two WoBs…would have us believe that it's a Spiritual impulse, filtered through the Cognitive, that guides Physical healing. So the soul never changes during the process (barring "patching", which looks like a different thing that is likely reliant upon Spiritual ideals rather than the Cognitive).” Let’s examine the first of these WoBs: “QUESTION Stormlight, I know it heals wounds and stuff like that but can it heal illnesses like colds? BRANDON Yes it can. QUESTION So if Kaladin suddenly contracted brain cancer... QUESTION It's plausible – it depends, see what it does is it takes your body and makes it align with your spirit, and partially through the filter of how you view yourself. So if you view yourself as sickly, then you won't.” You see this exchange as requiring a “mildly radical re-shaping of how we understand the mechanism of magical healing,” from Cognitive- to Spiritual-centric. I disagree. (1) First, I think we need to distinguish between directed healing and unconscious healing. The former relies on the “Mind First” model, and I don’t think you’d argue with that. The second is the kind of healing Kaladin endured after being hung out in the Highstorm and is restricted to self-healing. Kaladin was not awake, so his conscious mind couldn’t be directing the healing. (2) It seems reasonable, though, that the unconscious mind can also direct healing. Everyone heals while asleep. I assume this is what’s going on, even if as a definitional matter unconscious activity cannot be “cognitive.” (3) The problem with your analysis is that there’s nothing in the Spiritual Realm to initiate the process of healing. The Spiritual Realm IS. It changes only in response to external Cognitive Realm inputs. There is no “Spiritual impulse” that spontaneously originates change. The Spiritual Realm is IDEAL AS IS at any given time, unless and until it changes based on external Cognitive Realm inputs. (4) Brandon’s statement acknowledges this. He refers to an “it” that “takes your body and makes it align with your spirit.” Purely based on syntax, that “it” appears to be Stormlight. And how does Stormlight enter your body? You inhale it, in a very specific way that Kaladin and Shallan had to learn. That step begins the healing process. (5) On reflection, you’re right: soul “patching” is a “different thing” from “normal healing.” Normal healing looks at the SpiritWeb and brings the body into conformity with it. Soul-patching fixes the person’s SpiritWeb itself and is the way a person can acquire investiture and the ability to use it. (6) As I said above, every form of self-healing involves investiture that is already part of and intimate with your own SpiritWeb. There is no “ideal self.” There’s no need for one. There is only a soul, and each soul is unique. More on this in response to your second WoB. d. Following are what I deem the relevant passages from the second WoB. I’ve interpolated my comments at relevant points: “Brandon: A lot of the Cognitive is - so like, the Cognitive has a bigger effect on how you can heal and things like that—does that make sense? Kurkistan: Yeah. Brandon: But the power to heal is actually a spiritual thing. Kurkistan: So it's like the spiritual says "I want to be like this" and the Cognitive is like "okay I'll try really hard to be like that, but I have a limit." Brandon: Right. Right. Filtered through how you see yourself, yeah.” CONFUSED COMMENT (yes, my comments are “Confused”) : You keep insisting to Brandon that change begins in the Spiritual Realm, rather than in the Cognitive. It’s the other way around. Think of your Platonic “forms” analysis: the Cognitive command to “heal” references not only the injury but the person’s perceived self-image as well. The Spiritual Realm recognizes the command, checks it against that person’s ideal body form (not a generic “ideal” human), and reconfigures that person’s SpiritWeb to reflect the body that person expects to see. The Spiritual Realm does not change everything to an ideal form – it just does what it’s told to do. That change – healing – then automatically happens in the Physical Realm. There is no further interaction with the Cognitive Realm with respect to that change. Your way creates redundancy. It starts with a “Spiritual impulse” and moves to the Cognitive Realm, acting like a puppy eager to please: “I’ll try really hard to be like that…” The “puppy” does what it can, but the Cognitive Realm is incapable of MAKING the change – “the power to heal is actually a Spiritual thing,” says Brandon. So the Cognitive Realm then sends a second command to the Spiritual Realm to implement the change, so it can take effect in the Physical Realm? Really? To continue… “Kurkistan: [H]ow's [healing] work with healing wounds to the soul like Hemalurgy or Shardblades? What do you refer to to heal the soul at that point? Brandon: You need to make a patch on the soul with investiture. Kurkistan: So how's the investiture know where to go, what to look like? Brandon: Well your soul _is_ an ideal. So if you can get it up there, there are ways to do- to recreate that with um- see I'm getting into stuff with later books.” CONFUSED COMMENT: All good here. I just wanted to comment on the “your soul is an ideal” statement. As I said above, there is no “ideal self,” just a unique soul. The difference is best expressed in the WoK scene where Hesina talks to Tien and Kaladin about spren: “You have a soul, dear. You’re a person. But the pieces of your body may very well have spren living in them.” - Kindle, p. 540, emphasis added.) We know souls in Shadesmar appear as flame, but spren in Shadesmar appear as glass beads (unless you’re physically present there, when they can “harmmore”). I think the reason is that each soul is unique, but the body’s components, personified by spren, are not. The soul flames are like windows into the Spiritual Realm. Brandon’s statement that the soul is itself “an ideal” is both true and untrue. It is true in that everything in the Spiritual Realm is an ideal or connection (and the soul is clearly not a connection). But it’s untrue in the sense that other ideals reflect multiple copies of themselves in the Cognitive Realm, unlike a soul, which is unique. There are no copies anywhere of an individual’s soul. 6. Finally, I want to thank you, Moogle, Chaos, Weiry, and the other administrators/moderators. You guys keep this Forum going with your institutional knowledge, your creativity, and your hard work. I don’t know what rewards you guys get for all this, but we in cyberspace much appreciate your efforts.

Responses: Paragrin: 1. The people who can do magic are “avatars” of the Shards whose investiture they hold – they are a god’s incarnation in mortal form, the original meaning of “avatar.” Not all these avatars may be human, so I hedged my bets by calling them “sentient avatars.” The distinction I’m making is between self-healing by means of the investiture – which anyone who can process investiture is capable of – and healing someone else, which only a person utilizing a variant of the Regrowth Surge can accomplish. 2. I didn’t think it necessary to itemize each Shard’s form of healing. Because feruchemical gold allows one to heal oneself but not others, it falls into the first category. Shaggai: 1. lord_mistborn4 made the correct point: there’s only one Cognitive Realm, but each planet has its own version despite the interconnectedness of each such version. So you can worldhop by strolling the Cognitive Realm, but you’ll see different sights as you travel from planet to planet. 2. I did not say the Cognitive Realm is more “fundamental” than any other Realm, just that change begins there. This is not “priority” in the sense you mean; there is no hierarchy among the Realms. The Cognitive Realm is only prior in time, initiating the magic process through cognitive commands of some sort. When you drive a car, you first have to turn the ignition on. That doesn’t make the ignition switch more important than the motor, etc. But it is the first thing you do if you want to drive your car. That’s all I’m saying about the Cognitive Realm. 3. Your interpretation of Brandon’s use of the word “transcends” is valid. Other than pointing out the word and inviting commentary, I’m not pushing this idea in any way. (It does tend to support the “God Beyond” notion, though.) I do think the word “transcends” in this context means “going beyond” all three Realms, but it is debatable. But I don’t agree with this statement: “Investiture is Spiritual power, imbued with Cognitive Intent, and invested in the Physical. It transcends the Spiritual, because it contains Cognitive and Physical elements. It transcends the Cognitive and the Physical, because it contains Spiritual elements.” Investiture is investiture is investiture. It has three aspects. It is capable of changing from one aspect to another and from one state of matter/energy to another. (Recall that both Jasnah and Shallan used Stormlight – physical investiture in gaseous form – to impel Shadesmar spren (cognitive investiture) to change form. My responses to Kurkistan, next, may help with this explanation. Kurkistan: 1. Does the fact that the Cosmere consists of matter, energy AND investiture change anything? The critical issue is the ability of whatever "substance" it is to change state to a different form of that "substance." (The idea of a single "substance" in the Cosmere comes from Spinoza; I believe Brandon said he relied on that Spinozan idea in constructing the Cosmere, but don't trust my memory on that point – it’s changing states...) Mind can become Spirit, and Spirit can become Body. Didn't Preservation "change states" when he sacrificed his mind (cognitive investiture) to trap Ruin in the Well of Ascension (physical investiture)? 2. The idea that Physical Realm manifestation is the last to occur doesn't mean that the "Gonne," like Athena, springs full-formed from its creator's head. It means, in your example, that Leonard couldn't create the Gonne in the Physical Realm until he first conceived it and had a very clear idea of what it will be. As I said in the OP, "until the Spiritual Realm ideal has established its connections with other ideals, the original idea cannot take tangible form in the Physical Realm." 3. YOU convinced ME about the importance of Spiritual Realm connections. Now you’re changing your mind! Ha! I see I need to restore your conviction. (As Lady Macbeth said to hubby: “Screw your courage to the sticking place…”) a. I don't think any of the magics are more spiritual, physical or cognitive than any other. They all exist in three Realms. (I recall someone not too long ago trying to categorize the magics this way – hopefully not you – but to me the categorization lacked value even if one could establish the primacy of one Realm in a particular case.) Maybe a magic dips into one Realm more than another, like Brandon says Forgery does, but I don’t know how helpful that knowledge is, even to us as observers and analysts of the Cosmere. b. You question how “the more brutish effects of magic [can] be explained in terms of spiritual connections” and state your “Test #1: “Using an Aon to spit a ball of fire.” I accept the challenge, but only on condition I don’t have to literally “spit” the ball of fire, even in the “thought experiment.” i. I note the similarity between this activity and what Jasnah did in the Kharbranth alley. That means I should analogize AonDor to Jasnah’s Surges of Transportation and Transformation. ii. My Aon(s), therefore, should enable me both to create fire (without a stick to help me!) and transport it to the target. Let’s assume Aons exist for such things. iii. Unlike Shallan, who had (unwilling) fuel for a fire, I have to find a way to make fire from air. I suppose I could rearrange the sub-atomic bonds of nitrogen atoms to convert them into a critical mass of plutonium. I could then use the plutonium to create a thermonuclear explosion. Is that a big enough fireball? The transportation Aon could move the bomb to the right target (although I wouldn’t need to be very precise...) c. “Brutish” or not, all magic happens in all three Realms, even Forgery. Whether the result is “brutish” is an interpretation of the Physical Realm effect. The Shard’s mind conceives, the spirit reconfigures itself, and the body conforms to the new spiritual structure. d. I find it useful to think of the Spiritual Realm as consisting of nouns and verbs. (Or you can think of networks, nodes and commands.) The “soul/essences” are the nouns and the connections are the verbs, instructing the nouns what they can and cannot do. The simple statement “Kurkistan runs” implicates the following “powers”: gravity, friction, various biochemical reactions, etc. If the statement were instead “Kurkistan flies,” then without a magical boost the Spiritual Realm will not execute the command because no such “verb” (connection) exists with your soul. Magic serves to create that connection.

“What might have been is an abstraction Remaining a perpetual possibility Only in a world of speculation.” T.S. Eliot, “Burnt Norton,” Four Quartets, lines 6-8. Crashing through the dimensional barrier came the fallen dragon. Never having seen a dragon before, government people wanted to cut it open and learn about its anatomy. But they were government people, secretive. They wanted the project “off the books.” So they brought in the rich philanthropist Edgli to pay for everything. Then they assembled their team, which included the following: Dr. Cult, a leading biologist, who had become pregnant by Dr. Tanavast, her “significant other” Dr. Tanavast, who wanted to “do right” by Dr. Cult and marry her Dr. Rayse, a spiteful, disagreeable man who wanted Dr. Cult for himself and hated Dr. Tanavast Dr. Skaize, head of the team, known for his overbearing personality Nurse Aona, who adored Dr. Skaize and would do anything for him Dr. Ati, a pathologist who loved dissecting and taking things apart Dr. Leras, Dr. Ati’s medical partner who had responsibility for managing their practice and keeping everything running smoothly while Dr. Ati was out buying drinks for everyone and generally making havoc Mr. Hoid, the teams’s clerk and reporter, writing the record of the proceedings. They move forward with the autopsy, “oohing” and “aahing” at their discoveries, Hoid taking careful notes. Eventually they reach the dragon’s heart, which looks like a giant gemstone. They remove this organ to examine it, only to have it slip from their hands to the stone floor and shatter…Yes, the Shattering was literally a shattering. Forget the Fantastic Four! We now have the Scintillating Sixteen! The powers of creation rush from the gemheart in 16 separate “whooshes,” investing these individuals with god-like powers. They vaporize. Yolen is too small for them. Different groups of them take off in different directions, and the rest is Cosmere history.

SHARDCELLIST: I understand your basic argument to be that my theory violates the Cosmere “law” of conservation of investiture. I will address this broadly, rather than to focus on the specific instances in your post, and then address a few other of your comments. 1. Investiture Can Change States I start with the following premise: everything in the Cosmere is one “substance” (investiture) convertible from one form of that substance into another. Sazed/Harmony expressly states this in the HoA Epigraph to Chapter 78: “[O]bjects and energy are actually composed of the very same things, and can change state from one to another…every object that existed in the world was composed of their power.” To this we can add Brandon’s own words (Question 3, emphasis added), further confirmed by Brandon’s stated reliance on quantum mechanics principles and the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza: “Investiture is intended to be the building blocks of the cosmere so I would say for the most part it transcends the different realms. Probably more of the Spiritual if anything but more accurately it transcends them.” “State changeability” is also consistent with both mass-energy conversion principles (E=mc2) and the conservation laws of thermodynamics. Thus, my explanation of the Cosmere does not truly involve creation of something from nothing (despite the Navani passage about prayer). Rather, it acknowledges that ONE something can be changed into ANOTHER something. Merely by thinking, Consciousness converted some of itself into Spirit, which allowed for the creation of Body. Cognitive investiture became Spiritual investiture, which became Physical investiture. The “energy” changed from one state to another to still another. In truth, this is an exercise in cosmology. How did the universe begin? How was matter compressed only to suddenly expand? If you can come up with a logical alternative for magic to work in the Cosmere that doesn’t begin in the mind and is yet consistent with Brandon’s statements and influences, I’ll concede the point. For what it’s worth, the “First Mind” idea was also accepted by another of Brandon’s influences, Plato. IMPORTANT LAST POINT, about Brandon’s quote regarding the “transcendence” of investiture. I hadn’t focused on his wording before, but saying that investiture “transcends the different realms” is to say it “goes beyond, exceeds, rises above” them. That implies it COMES FROM OUTSIDE the different Realms. Investiture does not merely comprise the three Realms; it transcends them! Anyone care to speculate about that? (Especially since “16” is such a special number in the Cosmere.) 2. Unique Versions of Cognitive and Spiritual Realms Shardcellist, the idea of Realmatic “uniqueness” comes from the cultural differences among planets. To paraphrase the social anthropologist Clifford Geertz, when is a wink intended to convey meaning and when is it merely a body tic? Only the people of a common culture know that difference. And because of cultural fragmentation, each culture (planet) will have a different idea about, for example, what a window is and isn’t. Does a window require glass? Does it require a frame? How big can a window be before it becomes a door or a wall or just a piece of glass? Plato’s theory of forms addresses this, but only to an extent. Plato struggled with this theory throughout his lifetime, through several different works. Kurkistan does an excellent job summarizing the theory, as you note. (I disagree with some of his conclusions, however, especially his characterization of spren as one of the “pur[e]st manifestations” of a Spiritual Realm form. Spren by definition are Cognitive Realm denizens, evidenced in part by the many “copies” of each. I exclude Syl, of course – I don’t want to offend her…) I expressly acknowledge Kurkistan as one of the first to identify the manipulation of Spiritual Realm connections as the basis for all Cosmere magic. Not every planet in the Cosmere is at the same stage of cultural and technological development. Scadrial knows about guns and gunpowder. Those are idealized into their Spiritual Realm. There’s no gunpowder on Roshar. Shadesmar doesn’t have any “gunspren” as a result. THAT’s what I mean (in part) about “unique versions” of the Realms. (Cultural conflict is what Brandon’s novella Sixth of the Dusk is all about.) The point is, in some significant way each planet will have its own ideas about something. And those ideas will reify into Spiritual Realm ideals – BUT ONLY WITH RESPECT TO THAT PLANET. (Notice I’m not saying that planet has its own Spiritual Realm. I understand the Spiritual Realm is not location-based. But those ideals exist somewhere (I keep envisioning a central bank depositary), and wherever that is, each planet’s Spiritual Realm ideals and connections reside there.) Would you expect anything different in a Cosmere where each Shardworld has a unique magic system? 3. Clarifications (in order) a. You said the “Cognitive mind can survive a Spiritual and Physical death…” As a general rule, the mind cannot survive Spiritual death. Nale himself says so: a fatal injury to the brain cannot be healed. (If you’re referring to ghosts/”cognitive shadows” like Kelsier and maybe the Stormfather, then you are correct, but that’s a separate and unique phenomenon proving the general rule.) More broadly, no Realm has “superiority” over the others. That is what I mean by my “1 power/3 aspects” discussion. They’re just three different “things” (how’s that for precise language?!): Body, Mind and Spirit. b. Contrary to your statement, the Cognitive Realm does not “ultimately align[] to the Spiritual ideals.” The Cognitive Realm changes in response to new thoughts and ideas in the minds of the sapient beings who inhabit the corresponding Physical Realm, not through alignment with an ideal. The Cognitive Realm is a place where ideas battle, with real consequences, in their competition to achieve Spiritual Realm idealization and permanence. There are far more ideas than there are ideals. Survivors will “align,” and other ideas will die out, but so long as a single sapient being holds to an idea, that idea will endure whether or not it “ultimately aligns” with a Spiritual ideal. c. Normally, I would let this go, but I gotta tell ya, Cellist, don’t begin a post saying you don’t want to be “personal” and then nitpick at my language AND organization AND vocabulary. Not a way to make friends…I used “converse” in accordance with its normal usage, defined as a “statement that is the reverse of another or that corresponds to it but with certain terms transposed.” If you meant to correct me because I did not use the word in its stricter “formal logic” sense, then we BOTH would be wrong. The logical “converse” of my statement, “Restricting a Shard’s Consciousness… will restrict the Shard’s ability to exercise its power,” is “Restricting a Shard’s ability to exercise its power will restrict its Consciousness.” Now back to our sponsor… d. You raise important points in the following statement that deserve some attention. Let me address them after quoting you. “Many abilities simply allow one's Physical aspect to ‘fix itself’ to conform to their Spiritual Ideal, as interpreted through the Cognitive… This does not alter one's Spiritual Connections. I would argue rather, then, that magical abilities are a result of a Spiritual Connection to that Power, and while some magics affect Spiritual Connections…others are a matter of either changing an object's Spiritual aspect (Soulcasting and Forgery) as interpreted by the Cognitive, or are a matter of making the Physical conform to a Spiritual Ideal (gold Feruchemy).” First, each “Power” IS a Spiritual Realm connection. Go through the list of known Surges. They all represent a connection between objects and/or ideas. Thus, “fixing one’s Physical aspect” DOES alter one’s Spiritual connections – whatever power of creation causes the Regrowth Surge stitches together flesh, blood and bone at the molecular level. Like cohesion, adhesion, etc., that’s a connection. Brandon has taken all the known forces and factors in our universe and made them Spiritual Realm connections – “powers of creation” – in the Cosmere. Second, I’m not aware of “many” abilities that allow healing, only two – (i) the ability of every sentient avatar (like Kaladin or Vin) to heal him-, her- or itself with investiture; and (ii) the specific ability of the Regrowth Surge to heal someone else. Each Shard has the same powers; the differences in “abilities” lie only in their mandates (intents) and in the variations caused by unique planetary/Shard interactions. Healing relies on the same abilities, the same powers of creation, everywhere, whether on Roshar or Scadrial. Just as an example (though not a healing ability), I’ll bet you an “upvote” against a “downvote” that ReShephir, the “Midnight Mother,” is Odium’s version of a Lightweaver. She uses the Surges of Illumination and Transformation to create Midnight Essence. Third, both Soulcasting and Forgery ALSO rely on adjustments in Spiritual connections. Jasnah and Shallan’s common “Soulcasting” Surge of Transformation changes one substance into another. To accomplish this change, the Surge must adjust the sub-atomic, atomic and molecular bonds that define what that substance is. Isn’t that modification of a Spiritual Realm connection? Shai based her Forgery of the Emperor’s soul on the Emperor’s connections to the people, ideas and events around his soul. That’s how she reconstructed it, by talking to people who knew him and finding out things about him. She did the same thing with the window, the table, etc. “Plausibility” is the measure of the strength or weakness of the Spiritual connections between the Forged soul/essence and the other souls/essences it’s “known.” EDGEDANCER: I’ll address your questions in a post on the “Odium Is Dangerous” thread. I hope to get that done sometime tomorrow. This IS just a hobby. Until then…

I think the idea that a Shard can grow its power based on human thought – worship – is critical to both the narrative and the Cosmere. Other explanations of Odium’s dangerousness – apart from a natural, visceral revulsion to the effects of hatred – are inadequate. Please excuse in advance the space I take to rebut the contrary arguments. We know from WoB that (a) all Shards began with equal power; ( Odium does not want to dilute his mandate (intent) by acquiring the investiture of the Shards he splinters; and © he fears Harmony. I presume his fear is based on Harmony’s greater aggregate power (two Shards versus one) and the fact that hatred and harmony are so diametrically opposed, each capable of destroying the other (at least metaphorically). How then can Odium hope to splinter Harmony if he has only half his power? The obvious answer is he can’t, unless Odium first increases his power (or reduces Harmony’s, I suppose). How does Odium increase his power, assuming he frees himself from Roshar? Based on the way the Cosmere works and the evidence of Navani’s answered prayer, discussed in the OP, I believe human thought augments a Shard’s Consciousness (cognitive investiture), which in turn enlarges the Spiritual Realm’s network of ideals, which in turn increases the Shard’s Physical Realm power. Let’s look at the arguments against this thesis. 1. Iron Eyes writes, “Rayse is more powerful [than the other Shards] due to the lack of conflicting intent between holder and shard. If anything, I think he is just able to use a more complete amount of the power of his shard than others.” That’s a fair point. But it assumes that “the rest of the shard holders are (somewhat) inhibited by their natures clashing (at least partially) with the intents of their shards.” I don’t believe that is the case. As I state in this post, Shard mandates (intents) came from Adonalsium itself, but the Shards chose their hosts because those hosts were cognitively like-minded to begin with. ALL Shards had similar natures to their Shards’ mandates. All investiture is alike – even splinters have mandates (intents). Splinters choose human hosts based on their “temperaments” – that is the whole basis for the Knights Radiant. Adonalsium’s Shards did the same: they chose hosts who matched the Shards’ mandates. Even if Iron Eyes is correct, Harmony’s “nature” would have to be at least ONE-QUARTER DISCORDANT (not harmonic) to put his two Shards on equal footing with Odium. But Sazed was able to assume the Ruin and Preservation Shards precisely because he was such a balanced person, embodying the harmony within him – appropriate for a feruchemist. 2. Iron Eyes further observes that “prior to his apparent entrapment on Braize, Odium seemed to be untethered while the other shards we have seen we're invested in the shardworlds they occupied. I suspect this lack of focused investment gave him an edge against any shardholder who was invested in a planet.” EXACTLY! Odium is untethered primarily because his mandate tends not to form bonds with anyone or anything. A second reason is that his power exists everywhere – hatred is much more pervasive than honor or devotion or even preservation or ruin. Iron Eyes implies that Odium’s mobility means he can focus his power anywhere he wants, unlike the “tethered” Shard. (I’m not sure this is true, but assuming it’s so…) Wouldn’t the tethered Shard’s power be at its fullest on its own Shardworld? If Odium came gunning, wouldn’t it be an equal fight on that Shardworld, all other factors being equal? Obviously other factors are not equal. 3. Orlion: If I understand you correctly, your “two characteristics” that account for Odium’s “most dangerous-ness” are (a) the “simple destructiveness” of Odium’s mandate (intent); and ( Odium’s crafty ability to calculate consequences. Responses: a. I believe a Shard’s mandate has nothing to do with its power. (I also believe Odium’s intent is more about intensity than destruction, but that’s another post.) The mandates define how the Shard’s power is to be used, how the Shard expresses its power. But the power levels are equal, barring other circumstance. As I state in the hyperlinked post, Adonalsium’s power Shattered into Shards vertically, based on their mandates (intents). It might have Shattered horizontally, across the spectrum of power, but it didn’t. All Shards began with equal levels of power and with identical types of powers. Thus, in HoA, Preservation and Ruin began as equal. Only after Preservation gave away part of his power to humankind did Ruin’s power exceed Preservation’s. Preservation re-established equality by imprisoning Ruin’s Consciousness in the Well of Ascension. This is all laid out in the HoA epigraphs, many of which are restated in my post here. b. Odium’s craftiness and foresight are important, especially when he confronts other Shards. Quick Aside: A chess grandmaster lost game after game to a village peasant. In frustration, he asked the peasant how many moves ahead he could see. “Only one,” the peasant replied. “Only one!!!” the grandmaster snorted in shock. “How is that possible?! I can see 20 moves ahead!” “Ahhhh,” said the peasant. “But I see the right move every time.” Odium is not the most foresightful Shard, however. My money is on Cultivation, whose mandate (intent) has a lot to do with survival. In any event, as the Aside shows, there’s more to winning than foresight. Players of Magic: the Gathering know that blue decks are very difficult to play well and can, and often do, lose to decks of other color combinations. (Brandon is an M:tG fan.) By keeping his mandate pure, Odium is like that blue deck: he’ll often win, but he’ll often lose. Plotters generally are not risk takers. I see Odium growing overwhelming power before making his move, adopting the Colin Powell doctrine. That’s what his foresight will teach him. That’s what he’s been waiting for on Roshar. And that’s what he’s been waiting for once he frees himself from Roshar. 4. Ericth: I believe that, at least pre-splintering, Dominion established the Selian form of the power – the Cognitive command – but it was Devotion’s investiture used to implement the command in the Physical Realm. Thus, even though there were two Shards on Sel, their power was used coincidentally, not cumulatively. Given that, and my OP theory adding power to Odium on Sel, then splintering Dominion and Devotion should not have been difficult for him Odium. (I also think Odium is not as limited by “Shard-planetary uniqueness” as are other Shards, because of hatred's pervasiveness.) Doesn’t what I just described on Sel satisfy all three of your conditions? (Also, “some combination of the three” doesn’t necessarily mean all three.) Again, I wouldn’t blather on so long if I didn’t feel this theory so important. Thanks all!

In reading some posts, I saw folks questioning why Odium is the "most dangerous Shard." I attempted to answer this in a small section of my very large post about the origin of the Cosmere and how the magic works. I thought it worthwhile to repeat here, for separate discussion. I believe it is possible to increase a Shard's power by "expanding" its mind, its Consciousness, its ability to direct its power. We know from HoA that limiting the mind reduces power; the opposite should be possible. Once humans and other sentient life began adding their ideas to the Cognitive Realm, divine Consciousness had company. Human ideas grew both the Cognitive and Spiritual Realms simply by their conception and idealization. Since investiture comprises all things, then the addition of human thought should expand God’s own Consciousness. There’s a word to describe human thought dedicated to a God’s Consciousness. It’s called “worship,” and the means of communicating with God include prayer. The scene where Navani draws Thath, the glyph for justice, following the Battle at the Tower affords a great example: “What was a prayer, if not creation? Making something where nothing existed. Creating a wish out of despair, a plea out of anguish. Bowing one’s back before the Almighty, and forming humility from the empty pride of a human life. Something from nothing. True creation.” WoK, Kindle p. 948 (emphasis added). Observations and Conclusions: When people have ideas about honor or hatred or selflessness or whatever, those ideas form in the Cognitive Realm. Following the process outlined in the Cosmere post linked above, some of those ideas will eventually reify into Spiritual Realm ideals, connected to other ideals. Growing a Shard’s Consciousness thus grows the Shard’s Spirit, giving the Shard more capacity to exercise power in the Physical Realm. True creation.Odium’s influence may be the most pervasive of all Shards, since hatred is so universal (unlike, say, honor or even devotion). The many hate-filled ideas spawning in the Cognitive Realm increase Odium’s Consciousness, and ultimately power, rapidly Odium is the “most dangerous” of the Shards because human hatred enables Odium to grow his power quickly over time.

“(You’ve Got) Personality” – Harold Logan and Lloyd Price Summary At or after the Shattering, Adonalsium’s Powers of Creation (the “Powers”) attached themselves to the sixteen Shards in equal and identical pieces. At the time of their attachment, these Powers lacked “thoughts and personalities” but already had what Sazed/Harmony calls the “mandate of [a Shard’s] abilities” (what we’ve been calling “intent.”) These “mandates” (intents) came from Adonalsium. BUT – the distribution of powers upon the Shattering wasn’t random. Like RadiantSpren, the Shattered powers sought cognitively “like-minded” hosts. Each mandated power could be taken only by a Shard whose “mind” could direct that power. Power needs to be matched with a mind that can wield it. Over time, the dominant drive of that Shard – the reason the power chose it in the first place – came to squeeze out all other feelings and drives. Ati became Ruin. That dominant drive arose in each Shard’s unconscious, built into their SpiritWeb. (Forbidden Planet, anyone?) Argument and Analysis WoB mentions that Adonalsium had an “enemy” who had developed a “weapon.” Brandon’s words, as usual, are so vague that they could refer to anyone or anything. So I won’t here speculate on HOW or WHY the Shattering occurred. Brandon has stated the Shattering happened about 10,000 years ago, but this estimate is non-canonical. Facts we DON’T know include whether the “people” who became the Shards (i) planned and executed the Shattering or were simply bystanders; and (ii) intended to acquire the Powers themselves. Brandon calls the entities who became Shards “people” to obscure whether they were all human. (WoB, Question #25.) The best we can say is that these “people” were likely the closest sapient beings with the right “temperaments” when Adonalsium’s Shattered Powers went looking for new hosts. Even that is uncertain. We also don’t know WHY the Powers Shattered into sixteen equal parts. We DO know from Brandon that the Power of each Shard began as equal. From this fact, I induce that the MIX of Powers exercisable by each Shard was (and is) identical, including equal amounts of each of the ten Powers we are aware of. Adonalsium Shattered vertically, along the fault lines of the mandates (intents), not horizontally across the spectrum of Powers. That is not necessarily a sound mathematical conclusion. But it best establishes a thematic story line – that the only difference among Shards (at least at the beginning) is how each Shard expresses its Powers through its mandate (intent). We also have the evidence this quote from Sazed/Harmony provides: “These two minds [Ruin and Preservation] were, of course, independent of the raw force of their powers. Actually, I am uncertain of how thoughts and personalities came to be attached to the powers in the first place – but I believe they were not there originally. For both powers could be detached from the minds that ruled them.” HoA, Epigraph to Chapter 55 (emphasis added). This quote is important because it is the one of the few bits of textual information we have about the Shattering in all the Cosmere novels. It is especially important because the information COMES FROM A SHARD itself (as do all of the HoA epigraphs). Sazed/Harmony may not have been a percipient witness to the Shattering, but he inherited the memories of two such witnesses, Ati and Leras. As his Consciousness became fully invested, I’m sure he learned all about the Shattering. But at the early stage of his Ascension when he made his Epigraph observations, his knowledge, while valuable, was incomplete and speculative. Thus, we have questions… Question 1: What does Sazed mean with his phrase “thoughts and personalities”? Is this the same thing as “the minds that ruled” the Powers? I think “thoughts and personalities” means something different from “the minds that ruled” the Powers. Power itself could be cut off from Conscious control and yet mindlessly function in accordance with “a vague will of its own, tied to the mandate of its abilities.” That is what happened with the mists: “[Preservation had] given up most of his consciousness to form Ruin's prison, and the mists had to be left to work as best they could without specific direction.” HoA, Epigraph to Chapter 81 (emphasis added). “The power needed a consciousness to direct it. In this matter, I am still rather confused. Why would power used to create and destroy need a mind to oversee it? And yet, it seems to have only a vague will of its own, tied in to the mandate of its abilities. Without a consciousness to direct it, nothing could actually be created or destroyed… That makes me wonder who or what the minds of Preservation and Ruin were.” HoA, Epigraph to Chapter 79 (emphasis added). I believe the “mandate of its abilities” refers to what we call “intent,” here Preservation and Ruin. These quotes make clear that the “mandate of [a Shard’s] abilities” was NOT the Shard’s “Consciousness,” since Sazed/Harmony distinguishes between this “vague will” and the Shard’s Consciousness that could direct the power. Question 2: Are “thoughts and personalities” necessary to the Powers? BEFORE the Shards’ minds “ruled” the Powers, Adonalsium’s “mind” did. And his/her/its mind did NOT have “thoughts and [a] personalit[y]” according to Sazed/Harmony. These were “not there originally,” as the first quote above makes clear. To restate my conclusion from this post, “Thoughts and personalities” are unnecessary to the exercise of the powers. Cognitively, power exercise requires only direction, not consideration or introspection. Whatever Adonalsium was had no personality. Perhaps it wasn’t ever human or even sentient (e.g., a computer-driven power)? If he/she/it did have a personality, it was so perfectly balanced as to have no discernible features.” Question 3: Where did the Shards’ “thoughts and personalities” come from? Well…if the Power didn’t initially have a personality until it attached itself to the Shards, then it must have picked up personality from the Shards themselves. This is consistent with Brandon’s comment that a Shard’s personality “’filters’” the exercise of its mandate (intent). Conclusion and Preview In a later post, I hope to detail how each Shard’s mandate affects its expression of the Powers. Here’s an early preview about Devotion (Aona) and Dominion (Skai): “Dominion and Devotion established a symbiotic relationship. Dominion created each local Selian form necessary to access investiture – the means to control that investiture. But it was Devotion’s investiture that Dominion controlled – Dominion took what Devotion willingly and selflessly gave. Example: AonDor. The Aon provides the land-based access/command mechanism (from Dominion) and the Dor is the investiture used to execute the Aon’s command (from Devotion). (Is “Dor” short for “adore”?) [And, yes, I know the Dor is purportedly a mix of the two splintered Shards. This is an early draft…] That’s it for now. As always, thanks!

“And Adonalsium said, ‘Let there be [storm]light…’” SUMMARY 1. The Cosmere originally existed as only Consciousness. As that Consciousness began to conceive ideas, those ideas reified into Spiritual Realm ideals; Spiritual connections began to form among the ideals. Only then could Consciousness’ power begin to manifest in the Physical Realm. Investiture comprises the Cosmere, the result of the creation process. 2. Changes within the Cosmere commence in the Cognitive Realm. This primacy means that restrictions on a Shard’s Consciousness impair the Shard’s ability to exercise its power. Unanswered is the converse, whether an increase in a Shard’s power in the Cognitive Realm – an “expansion of its Consciousness” – increases its power in all Realms; but I believe that to be true also and the source of Odium’s growing power. 3. Cosmere magic involves manipulation of an object’s Spiritual Realm connections. The people who live on each planet with sentient life have unique thoughts and ideas. Each planet, therefore, has its own version of both the Cognitive and Spiritual Realms and its own Spiritual Realm connections. Because of this Realmatic uniqueness and Shard-planet interactions, related but different Physical Realm effects appear on each planet with sentient life. Each Shardworld requires a different cognitive means of manipulating Spiritual Realm connections. ARGUMENT I believe Brandon’s Realmatic system works as follows: FIRST, a mind conceives, creating a fixed and separate idea about something in the Cognitive Realm. Typically the collective mind on a planet with sentient life jointly develops and agrees on the conception, allowing it to become idealized; but even a single mind can develop a new idea, as with any innovation, if it is sufficiently distinctive and separate from other ideas. SECOND, the concreteness and separateness of that idea causes it to reify in the Spiritual Realm as an ideal – an “essence” or “soul” – formalizing the idea’s relationships and connections with other ideals. This is the moment the idea becomes “truly invested,” causing an adjustment in the Spiritual Realm’s connections to accommodate the new idea. LAST, the idea manifests in the Physical Realm in tangible form. This algorithm is true for all magic systems in the Cosmere and implies that the First Mind (Adonalsium? the “God Beyond?” Brandon?) pre-existed both the Spiritual and Physical Realms. The mind must have an idea before the idea can take the form of a Spiritual Realm “ideal.” And until the Spiritual Realm ideal has established its connections with other ideals, the original idea cannot take tangible form in the Physical Realm. Thus, the Cosmere began as a void, occupied only by a Divine Consciousness – God’s “mind.” Creation of the Spiritual and Physical Realms may have taken only an instant. Just as humans conceive an idea, invest that idea with physical, mental and spiritual resources, and make that idea tangible, so do Gods. They invest their ideas with spiritual energy – God’s “spirit” – to make their ideas tangible. That’s what the Physical Realm is, the tangible expression of Divine Power – God’s “body.” Power – whether embodied in Adonalsium, Shards, or splinters – has “three aspects”: physical, cognitive and spiritual – body, mind and spirit. Power nonetheless is single and unitary. Restricting a Shard’s Consciousness – its ability to control its power — will restrict the Shard’s ability to exercise its power. While there is no textual support for the converse conclusion, I believe that enhancing a Shard’s Consciousness likewise enhances Spiritual and Physical Realm power output. Magic is the manipulation of Spiritual Realm connections. That is the only “magic” in the Cosmere and is why, I believe, Brandon says each magic system is theoretically “hack-able.” Spiritual investiture “powers” Physical Realm changes by re-arranging the affected object’s Spiritual Realm connections with other objects. That’s what Forgery does. “Plausibility” refers to the strength or weakness of the object’s connections with other objects. Surgebinding is the same: changing the direction of falling, for example, is simply altering your Spiritual Realm connection to the planet. In some sense it is a misnomer to speak of a God/Shard “investing” or “using” or “exercising” power in a Realm. Rather, a Shard’s mind conceives, its spirit rearranges itself to accommodate the new idea, and its body conforms to its new spiritual structure. EVIDENCE AND ANALYSIS The main textual evidence for these conclusions comes from The Hero of Ages (“HoA”) and The Emperor’s Soul (“TES”), plus one scene from The Way of Kings. Most of these passages have been cited ad nauseum, so please excuse their regurgitation here. I just think it’s useful to have the text in front of you as you consider the theory and its evidence. The Hero of Ages – How Investiture Manifests in the Three Realms HoA is when we first hear of the three Realms. In each of the following quotes, Sazed/Harmony speaks only about investiture, not about the Realms generally. “I have come to see that each power has three aspects: a physical one, which can be seen in the creations made by Ruin and Preservation; a spiritual one in the unseen energy that permeates all of the world; and a cognitive one in the minds that controlled that energy.” HoA, Epigraph to Chapter 57 (emphasis added). That statement is the clearest explanation in the published Cosmere novels of how investiture manifests in the three Realms. The following quotes add to our understanding: “The power needed a consciousness to direct it. In this matter, I am still rather confused. Why would power used to create and destroy need a mind to oversee it? And yet, it seems to have only a vague will of its own, tied in to the mandate of its abilities. Without a consciousness to direct it, nothing could actually be created or destroyed… HoA, Epigraph to Chapter 79 (emphasis added). “It may seem odd to those reading this that atium was part of the body of a god. However, it is necessary to understand that when we said ‘body’ we generally meant ‘power.’ As my mind has expanded, I've come to realize that objects and energy are actually composed of the very same things, and can change state from one to another. It makes perfect sense to me that the power of godhood would be manifest within the world in physical form…In a way, every object that existed in the world was composed of their power.” HoA, Epigraph to Chapter 78 (emphasis added). Observations and conclusions: Power has three “aspects” – mind, body and spirit. (Draw your own “Trinity” analogies here.) But each “aspect” is not a different power. Thus, conditions in one Realm can influence the amount of power available in other Realms, even though the nature of the power in each Realm is different. “Body” = “physical investiture.” Atium and lerasium are the solid form of the bodies of Ruin and Preservation. Shardpools are the liquid form of physical investiture. The mist, the black smoke at the Well of Ascension and Stormlight are each gaseous forms of physical investiture: HoA expressly identifies the mists as Preservation’s body. Sazed/Harmony says that the physical aspect of investiture – ”can be seen” in the Shards’ “creations.” His statements that (i) every object in the world was “composed of [the Shards’] power,” and (ii) matter and energy are just different forms of the same thing in the Cosmere, reveals the acknowledged influence of both quantum mechanics and Baruch Spinoza on Brandon. “Energy” = “spiritual investiture.” The “unseen energy” that animates the magic system – what Brandon calls “True Investiture” – exists in the Spiritual Realm. “Consciousness” = “cognitive investiture.” The mind that controls that energy – what Sazed/Harmony calls “Consciousness” in HoA – resides in the Cognitive Realm. * * * * * HoA confirms how the impairment of Consciousness reduces the Shard’s ability to exercise power in the other two Realms. Says Sazed/Harmony: “By sacrificing most of his consciousness, Preservation created Ruin’s prison, breaking their deal and trying to keep Ruin from destroying what they had created. This event again left their powers nearly balanced – Ruin imprisoned, only a trace of himself capable of leaking out. Preservation reduced to a mere wisp of what he once was, barely capable of thought and action. “These two minds were, of course, independent of the raw force of their powers. Actually, I am uncertain of how thoughts and personalities came to be attached to the powers in the first place – but I believe they were not there originally. For both powers could be detached from the minds that ruled them.” HoA, Epigraph to Chapter 55 (emphasis added). “Once you begin to understand these things [the three Realms], you can see how Ruin was trapped even though Preservation’s mind was gone, expended to create the prison. Though Preservation’s consciousness was mostly destroyed, his spirit and body were still in force. And, as an opposite force of Ruin, these could still prevent Ruin from destroying. “Or, at least, keep him from destroying things too quickly. Once his mind was ‘freed’ from its prison the destruction accelerated quickly.” HoA, Epigraph to Chapter 58, (emphasis added). Observations and Conclusions: Preservation confined Ruin’s power by limiting its ability to control that power. As the second paragraph of the first quoted passage states, each of the two powers retained their “raw force.” Note the following language in the first paragraph above: “again…nearly balanced [emphasis added].” These words imply that by the time of Ruin’s imprisonment Ruin’s power already exceeded Preservation’s. Yet Preservation’s confinement of Ruin’s mind precluded Ruin from using that greater power. This was a cognitive prison.The last quoted paragraph confirms that the mind’s control can be a chokepoint on the Shard’s ability to exercise power in the Physical Realm. The only reason Ruin was able to destroy anything before Vin freed his mind was the “trace of himself capable of leaking out” of his cognitive prison. That trace influenced events through whispers and hints in the minds of the Lord Ruler, Zane, Vin and many others.HoA also proves it is possible to reduce a Shard’s power within a Realm (as Preservation did by hiding the atium – Ruin’s “body” – and as Elend and his army did by burning atium outside the Pits.)There’s also this WoB from the March 2015 Reddit AMA (Question 27): “too many spikes can be dangerous to the psyche, even with Ati not messing things up.” That suggests that interfering with the SpiritWeb can have greater Cognitive Realm repercussions than Physical Realm repercussions. (Think Zane.)Preservation’s “spirit and body” were undiminished and could continue to oppose Ruin’s destructive efforts though Preservation had sacrificed most of his mind. The mists continued to function based on their “vague will…tied to the mandate of their abilities. “Finally, I note Sazed/Harmony’s observation that “thoughts and personalities” were not originally attached to the powers. That suggests that “thoughts and personalities” are unnecessary to the exercise of the powers. Cognitively, power exercise requires only direction, not consideration or introspection. Whatever Adonalsium was had no personality. Perhaps it wasn’t ever human or even sentient (e.g., a computer-driven power)? If he/she/it did have a personality, it was so perfectly balanced as to have no discernible features.The Way of Kings – “Growing” Investiture While restricting Consciousness can reduce power, can “expanding Consciousness” increase it? I believe the answer is “yes.” Once humans and other sentient life began adding their ideas to the Cognitive Realm, God’s Consciousness had company. Human ideas grew both the Cognitive and Spiritual Realms simply by their conception and idealization. Since investiture comprises all things, then the addition of human thought should expand God’s own Consciousness. There’s a word to describe human thought dedicated to a God’s Consciousness. It’s called “worship,” and the means of communicating with God include prayer. The scene where Navani draws Thath, the glyph for justice, following the Battle at the Tower affords a great example: “What was a prayer, if not creation? Making something where nothing existed. Creating a wish out of despair, a plea out of anguish. Bowing one’s back before the Almighty, and forming humility from the empty pride of a human life. Something from nothing. True creation.” WoK, Kindle p. 948 (emphasis added). Observations and Conclusions: When people have ideas about honor or hatred or sacrifice or whatever, those ideas form in the Cognitive Realm. Following the process outlined in this post, some of those ideas will eventually reify into Spiritual Realm ideals, connected to other ideals. Growing a Shard’s Consciousness thus grows the Shard’s Spirit, giving the Shard more capacity to exercise power in the Physical Realm. True creation.Odium’s influence may be the most pervasive of all Shards, since hatred is so universal (unlike, say, honor). The many hate-filled ideas spawning in the Cognitive Realm increase Odium’s Consciousness. Odium is the “most dangerous” of the Shards for a reason, and his ability to grow his power over time is a big part of that reason.This passage also tends to confirm the idea that the First Mind existed before its Spirit and Body. “True creation” is making something from nothing. (As opposed to King Lear, who told poor Cordelia that “Nothing can come from nothing.”)The Emperor’s Soul – How Magic Works Brandon best expresses his views on how magic works Realmatically in TES. “All things exist in three Realms, Gaotona. Physical, Cognitive, Spiritual. The Physical is what we feel, what is before us. The Cognitive is how an object is viewed and how it views itself. The Spiritual Realm contains an object’s soul— its essence— as well as the ways it is connected to the things and people around it.” TES, Kindle, p. 53, (emphasis added). “‘These things exist beyond us…We think about windows, we know about windows; what is and isn’t a window takes on…meaning in the Spiritual Realm. Takes on life, after a fashion.’” TES, Kindle, p. 75, (emphasis added; ellipsis in original). Observations and Conclusions: The second quote confirms that only through conceptualization of a window AS a window can the soul/essence of a window “take[] on…meaning” – that is, manifest – in the Spiritual Realm. The idea precedes the ideal. Formalization of the idea creates the ideal. (My personal metaphor for this process is the brain – repetitive usage creating neuron pathways.)The first quote confirms that the window’s “meaning” in large measure arises through the connections the “window” ideal now has with other ideals. I would argue that, conceptually, almost all of an object’s meaning arises from its connections, since nothing exists in isolation. Every Spiritual Realm “soul/essence” can be defined by where it is plotted on the multi-dimensional graph that is the Spiritual Realm. In this way, a Spiritual Realm “ideal” is like a mathematical “function” compared with a Cognitive Realm “relation,” which may have many correspondences with ideals based on the controlling mind’s perceptions. Skaa discusses this quantitative aspect of Realmatic theory in far greater detail and with far greater perspicacity in his String Theory posts.The part of the Cognitive and Spiritual Realms corresponding to each planet with sentient life is unique. (Though Brandon says the Spiritual Realm is not location-based, the ideals formed in the Spiritual Realm corresponding to each unique magic system will be different from one another, since the underlying ideas are different.) Local populations decide for themselves “what is and isn’t a window.” Since local populations may have different ideas, and different ideas reify into different ideals, each planet will have its own version of both the Cognitive and Spiritual Realms. On Sel, planetary isolation seems fragmented into territorial isolation.TES’s lesson? All magic we’ve seen so far in the Cosmere involves the manipulation of Spiritual Realm connections, specifically in the relationship between objects and the Powers of Creation, what Rosharians call “Surges” – Gravitation, Transportation, Progression, etc. Shai’s descriptions of the Forgery process throughout TES make this clear. These Powers of Creation exist on every Cosmere world we’ve seen. Despite Cognitive and Spiritual Realm differences from world to world – differences that affect the means of accessing the Spiritual Realm and the ways the Powers of Creation manifest in the Physical Realm – the essence of the magic is identical: a change in the Powers of Creations’ Spiritual Realm connections between two objectsConclusion That’s it! Are you still awake? Hello? Hello? Oh well…

Thanks, Weiry, for eliminating one of the two possibilities. Can you please cite a source for your Royal Locks statement, though? My search for "Royal Locks" on Theoryland suggests the opposite conclusion: that any Nalthian with sufficient investiture, including each of the Returned, can do the same things with their hair. Also, why did Siri have the Royal Locks even when she wasn't destined to be queen of either country? And isn't the wife of Dalinar, Highprincess of Kholin, sister-in-law to the King (and hence a duchess) sufficiently "royal"? Finally, I note that Brandon didn't answer your question at the March Reddit AMA. Your question asked whether a new ruling line could acquire the Royal Locks. That question, regardless of answer, doesn't address whether someone with the Royal Locks could pass them on to a child. Even if the answer to that is generally "no" (these are the "Royal" locks, after all), I'm still not sure why Adolin isn't sufficiently "royal" to get them from his mother (if she is his mother).

First, a reminder: this was "abject speculation." Second: BRANDON DID NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION! He did not say whether the names are coincidental. His answer was a distraction. In fact, his very distraction suggests he was hiding the answer. (On the "linguistics" question, I wrote a post last year arguing that Roshar must be a colony of Superman's home planet Krypton. Superman's father is Jor-el, his own name is Kal[adin]-el, and his mother's name is Lara[l]!) Third, Yurisses (intended to rhyme with Ulysses?), the title of each SLA book is based on an "in-world" book. The Way of Kings is Nohadon's book inside The Way of Kings. Words of Radiance is the book Gaz delivered to Shallan (after Shallan lost Jasnah's copy in the shipwreck), inside Brandon's Words of Radiance. "Oathbringer," while coincidentally (or not) the name of Dalinar's former Blade, must also be an in-world book that's likely about Ishar (or so I believe). Finally, Natc, of course what you say is true. But what's also true is that Brandon deliberately chose similar names in both cases. What are we to think about that? Pure coincidence? Twice? About the same character? I don't recall reading that the Heralds have not left Greater Roshar since the Oathpact. That would be important in this context. I would appreciate the citation. Thanks, Natc!

I agree with you all that this is highly speculative. I've been doing a lot of speculation lately. (Seloun, look at my response to your other post.) BUT - the principal piece of textual evidence is Dalinar's thoughts about Alethi hair. I believe this to be deliberate foreshadowing. Maybe Dalinar's observations were intended for some other purpose, like identifying Ialai as not fully Alethi. But why emphasize the proportionality of hair color based on blood? Brandon intends something. No other Alethi we've seen has anything approaching that amount of blond hair. Based solely on this, It's fair to conclude that mostly blond hair is unusual in Alethkar. Natc says the Iriali have golden hair. Yes they do. Putting aside earthly notions of dominant and recessive genes, we have to take Dalinar's observations at face value. Alethi black hair breeds true, proportionate to Alethi blood. Adolin's hair should have been half-and-half. It isn't. It's mostly blond. Ergo...