Pattern

I thought more of stealing all of the spren/cognitive shadow by spiking it (that is Kelsier), move the spike to the Physical Realm and stab the body in the eye (one eye of the Sovereign has been spiked and gives steel vision). Moving the body to the CR also would work (we see Hoid do this). Edit: @Calderis: In answer to your next post: That remains the question. How big a part of a soul is stolen by a hemalurgic spike? Perhaps a part of the "soul" is enough to establish a connection to the body. I believe the amount of Investiture equivalent of a soul can still be considered "low Investiture". Spiking leaves the victim behind in a bad condition (usually quite dead), if he survives in a much worse condition than a drab. So I guess a rather large - or essential - part of the soul is spiked out anyway. We really need conversion factors for different types of Investiture and Souls. Khriss somewhere asks the question whether a cognitive shadow is a persons' soul and leaves the answer to theologists and philosophers. I am with her there and think for practical purposes it doesn't really matter, since the cognitive shadow essentially is Investiture imprinted by the soul. You don't have to split a part of the spiritweb if you can steal the entire entity (that is the spren or cognitive shadow). Stays the question whether a spike can contain enough Investiture to absorb a whole cognitive shadow. Obviously I cannot answer this question, though I read "Yes you could steal the investiture of a spren." as all of it. And being quick about using the spike is out of the question. Except you have a container filled with blood to store the spike in.

@hwiles: Browsing the forums for fun I stubled over, spoiler tags for size So being able to be spiked has less to do with believe than with the "substanceness" of cognitive beings in the Cognitive Realm. But it's possible. And a real mess I didn't find that WoB on my own, I am sure I have read this before. Especially the last line reads for me now "...when you're spiking into somebody you want to attach a body to..."

I think there is a WoB, somewhere in connection with Bavadins' gender. I try to find it. Edit: Bavadin as a dragon is only suspected because of her gender duality and shapeshifting to different personae. This could also be in the range of Bavadin's powers as a shard though. I interpreted the WoB not to think too much about Bavadins gender as a confirmation she is non-human.

The writers of the backs of the books are the Sleepless, that is, Dysian Aimians. Taln - the person calling himself Taln - has another secret.

Our next chance to get really more information will be The Lost Metal. We have such a big time gap between White Sand and Mistborn Era 2 that nearly anything is possible. Perhaps Bavadin just got bored with Taldain during those millenia and decided to leave. Or she is still there and Trell is something else entirely (there are still some shards left to enter the stage). @Calderis: Your interpretation of the intent of Autonomy is quite fleshed out but also very special. It nearly equates Autonomy with Isolation, which can be done but is only one of many possibilities. It definitely vibes with the fact that she isolated Taldain from the rest of the cosmere. On the other hand Bavadins' policy suppresses autonomous actions of worldhoppers and it stalls the advance and prosperity of a whole planet, forbidding autonomous development. Another variable: Bavadin is a dragon. We have no idea how a shard affects a dragon vessel. Her somewhat hypocritical policy hints that there is not just the shard acting but also still the will of the vessel. @Ari: The fact that the sun is the primary source of Investiture doesn't mean it is also the perpendicularity. Mistborn spoiler: Of course it is possible to enter the Cognitive Realm with some magics, perhaps darkside magic also has the possibility. Khriss would be able to return though, also through a dangerous Cognitive Realm, she even did navigate it on Sel with the Dor raging (Investiture of two shards, not just one, though rather mindless).

Well, Khriss was able to leave Taldain, most likely using the perpendicularity. Starlight from the main star is a carrier of Investiture, that does not mean that the perpendicularity has to be inside the star. Also Darkside has its magic, although another kind of. So they also somehow get Investiture, without ever getting light from the main star. Taldain (White Sand) was the earliest in the cosmere, Elantris 10th anniversary edition also has an Ars arcanum and a map underwritten by Nazh, so we can assume that Khriss has left Taldain at this point and visited Sel. Unfortunately we don't know when Bavadins isolation policy started and whether Kriss was able to return to her home inbetween. If it's recent, then Trell being Bavadin and the unreachability of Taldain because the shard has just left, removing the perpendicularity in the act, would fit together. If it's an old thing (we have thousands of years to cover between White Sand and Mistborn Era 2), it could still be the case but then the question arises what Bavadin did all that time away from Taldain.

This is Wits/Hoids answer to the question "What is it that men value in others?" Anything coming from Hoid has to be taken with care, so I would not reflect his words directly on Brandon. Another example is Brandon writing Jasnah's atheistic reasoning. The implication that Brandon is an atheist from that would be simply wrong. Furthermore, in the conclusion of the epilogue in WoK, Hoid names timeliness as what men value most and that Taln - or the person naming himself Taln - is too late. This obviously is a cliffhanger for what is yet to come (and even a book later we are not really better informed about "Talns" role in the greater picture). So all the philosophical talk is a buildup to the cliffhanger. First of all, this is good writing (in my opinion) and less expression of Brandons own philosophy.

Don't get depressed, try angry instead and kick chull! You can do it! And don't give up hope, perhaps all will be fine by next week. And here are your "hugs" - perhaps go get them physically from your signifiant other.

Well, you first have to remove the rubble before building anew. Wait, that was another series... The real question is: Who is "us"? The backs are written from Aimians, who are already nearly extinct (not from natural causes). So does the writer mean all people of Roshar or just all Aimians?

That is true. But keep in mind that Vasher is the most able Awakener at the time and in the annotations Brandon emphasizes this: The fact that the squirrel took only one Breath and executed its task so well shows that. Your standard trained awakener probably would need much more than one Breath to awaken a squirrel. The one-Breath command to awaken Lifeless was also a game changer during the Manywar, before its discovery more than a single Breath (I think about 50) were needed to create Lifeless. So it is more a sign of ability and practice how many Breaths a certain task takes. Similarity to humanoid shape helps though, since Awakening was concepted as sympathetic magic with a touch of Voodoo. Giving away Breath should go with a change of Identity of the Breath, as long as a human is on the receiving end (otherwise the receiver couldn't use the Breath). If the receiver is an object (that is awakened in the process), the Identity does not change: The Awakener can take back the Breath and the awakened object cannot use the Breath to awaken something else itself. Lifeless can be either one of the cases, though I tend to believe there is an Identity change, since the Breath cannot be taken back anymore ("It is too sticky" is not a realmatic explanation). The lifeless of course cannot use their single Breath to awaken without dying (analogous to the Returned with their single divine Breath). So the breath of the awakened squirrel would be keyed to the form of a squirrel. Who knows the Lore of Wonders amongst the Returned Squirrels, where whole squirrel populations are safed by their Returned Squirrel gods sacrificing their life in action loaded adventures? Edit: Oh, to the original topic: I think awakened arrows would be as useful as shardarrows. We don't see them because the bonus they would give compared to the normal weapons would be only very small.

@Calderis You're right, comparing to what Miles does with compounding and the thing that even losing your head is no issue with advanced cosmere healing, healing a new body to match your spiritual aspect really looks easy. @hwiles Can you spike a Cognitive Shadow? Oh wait, I think there is a WoB about spiking Spren. I'll try to find it and come back hopefully soon. @hwiles Can't find anything on theoryland, nothing on reddit either, until now (stubled over spiked radiant (RAFO) and spiked sentient robot (logistics problematic). I have to go offline now, perhaps I will continue later, if nobody else came up with something. I am reall looking forward to the new WoB feature...looking for something specific still is a mess, especially because theoryland has geographically restricted access...

I am really not sure whether cosmere healing would encompass shapeshifting. Perception of yourself is a very important aspect of healing, but morphing a body to your own seems a bit over the top. It's definitely a cleaner possibility than abusing the poor Kandra.

Without evidence any proposed statement is, by definition, unproven - not false. You cannot prove anything with empirical evidence, by the way, but one counter example is enough to disprove a theory. A "theory" without evidence is a hypothesis - which in every real science is neither assumed as false nor as true - just as "to be proven yet". In short true != unproven != false

Magic systems based in the Cognitive Realm are found on Sel. There the Investiture of the splintered shards Devotion and Dominion has been stuffed into the Cognitive Realm where they make up the Dor, resulting in location dependent magic systems, since the Cognitive Realm is bound to the Physical Realm (at least where it is inhabited, uninhabited regions are somewhat compressed/warped in the CR). Shards usually transcend all three realms and the main part of the Investiture is in the location-independent Spiritual Realm from where it can be pulled (see AU entry for sand mastery or allomancy for example). Stormlight seems to be an example for Investiture in the Physical Realm with ties to the CR and SR since there is a moving perpendicularity on Roshar (I think the Highstorm is the perpendicularity where Investiture can leak from the SR to the PR where it is stored in exposed gems). Non-splintered Shards usually transcend all three realms, so I don't know whether it is possible to "hide" in only one realm. Also I think Silverlight would not be a good place to hide, considering the worldhoppers, etc.

1.) Adolin confesses his murder of Sadeas and is consequently sentenced to death. With Shallan's help he is able to escape though. Meditating in the wilderness he resurrects his Shardblade. 2.) Shallan discovers the last truth to become a full Knight Radiant in Urithiru. 3.) Lopen is no longer a one-armed Herdazian. He will make the paramount invention of two-armed-Herdazian jokes. And the double handed chouta burger. 4.) Vivenna meets Szeth and reclaims Nightblood. 5.) Nightblood is cheerful to slay some Evil. 6.) I forgot Dalinar. Well, Oathbringer will be his flashback book. I shouldn't forget Dalinar. So: We will learn more about Dalinar's past. ShShShSh's name will be known (it already is, from readings, but there are said to be some people who only read the books). 7.) The Stormfather will come to the insight that he made a big mistake bonding Dalinar. He will find himself in the form of a shardknife during a fabriallight dinner between Dalinar and Navani. Or in a black spherical gemstone hanging on a chain around Navani's neck. 8.) Finally we will learn more about the specifics of Rhyshadium. Adolin, living in exile, will find himself a new one. 9.) During their trip from wherever, Hoid and Jasnah fall in love with each other. Hoid finally decides that Cultivation is too old for him and fresh blood is not a bad thing at all. 10.) Kaladin will meet a stone shaman who is able to reproduce Tien's ability to cheer up Kaladin when he is gloomy. Syl will learn to become a shardstone in the process.

The Sovereign in the Bands of Mourning looks a lot like Kelsier's old body with scars on is hands and arms (from climbing and escaping the Pits of Hathsin). Theory is (as far as I know widely accepted) that the Sovereign is Kelsier - after the events of SH somehow having obtained a new body - which was his next goal at the end of SH. So, how did he get his body back? My theory: Kelsier and Spook manipulated a Kandra to once more use Kelsier's bones to impersonate Kelsier. Then he somehow (exploiting the Kandra's blessings) took over that body, killing the Kandra in the process. The result would be Kelsier's Cognitive Shadow attached to a Kandra copy of Kelsier's body. We could call it Kelsier's reincarnation.

That is not true. Also a negative has to be proven (a nice and non-trivial example is the proof that Pi is not an algebraic number). "Untrue unless proven otherwise" is no valid concept, it is more like "Unaccepted unless proven to be true". At this point we cannot say whether Hoid is a Feruchemist or not, though most likely he is not. To be one, he would need Terris sDNA or 16 hemalurgic spikes. Spikes he does not have and also would not use (the should be a WoB about the usage of H-spikes and Hoid), the sample of Hoids sDNA unfortunately is not available yet ;-) So how did Hoid get the coin from Kelsier? My guess: He stole it from the Thief to give him another lesson...

The Sovereign definitely is not TLR. Reading the BoM the first time (before SH was released), when I read the command "Survive", I thought "wait, what is Kelsier doing here, I thought he was dead". Usually going with my first impression/feeling turns out to be right. The Sovereign is either Kelsier or a Kandra impersonating him (as far as I know his bones should still be available?).

The State of the Sanderson 2016 doesn't mention Mistborn Era 3 at all: Also new in Brandons' to-do list: The Apocalypse Guard. That will be Reckoners style. Bad news for cosmere-only fans, good news for all of us who read every snippet they can get. The question of 1940's and/or 1980's Mistborn would be one for the future, I don't think there is anything predictable right now. Considering the amount of unfinished series I would strike out the "and" though and say its either 1940's or 1980's.

Interesting is that in the Oathbringer flashbacks "ShhhShhhh" becomes "Evie", so either the boon/curse runs out or the flashbacks are not memories from the present-day-Dalinar but written in the point of view of the past-Dalinar. Unfortunately i am shamefully uncreative finding a boon/curse pair that hasn't been mentioned yet and doesn't violate the timeline. I'll go for a run and think a bit more on the topic...

I like the idea of Rebuilding. What is not clear for me yet is the mechanism to absorb the splinters of a shard. For example would the mixed Investiture of a skaze and a seon always have to mix the same way? We know that the merging of two shards is not unambiguous, so I would assume the same to be true for splinters of the shards. Another thing I see as a problem is the identity of seons and skaze. They are not pure Investiture anymore but they have gained sentience so they should be viewed as individuals and not just as a certain amount of Investiture. Merging them together successively conjures the picture of a Siamese multiplet with another head for each newly added skaze/seon. So this would only leave method 1 (or another entirely): Kill skaze and seons pairwise and collect the Investiture set free in the process. I doubt that you could call a Shard that has been constructed this way "Benevolence" without sarcasm. Still, the amount of Investiture in the Physical Realm as Skaze and Seons on Sel should be small compared to the Dor in the Cognitive Realm. And there we hit the problem of the nature of a Shard. What makes a Shard of Adonalsium a Shard? Is it just Investiture with a certain Intent (gained sentience since Investiture tends to gain sentience on its own) or is the Sentience with its Intent separate from the Investiture with the Investiture being the fuel to empower the Sentience? Does a Shard need a Vessel at all? We know that the Vessel is warped by the Intent of the Shard over time, depending on his/her strenght of will, but ultimately the Shard's Intent will rule supreme. So what is the Vessel for? My attempt for an answer to this question is this: A Shard transcends all three realms, usually the main part of the Investiture is in the Spiritual Realm though (making the associated magic location-independent). The Vessel could be the anchor of the Shard in the Physical Realm, giving the Shard the possibility to interact there in a significant way. This could be supported by the fact that Kelsier as Cognitive Shadow without a body in the PR was a bad vessel for Preservation, being easily interrupted by Ruin. Unfortunately there are other facts that could be the reason for Kelsier being a bad Vessel for Preservation (only small Connection to Preservation, conflict of Intents, etc.), so this is no real proof that a physical body of a vessel increases the power of a Shard in the PR. Aona and Skai are dead, that is the Vessels of D&D are no more, so D&D lack the physical anchor. Odium splintered D&D, pulled them out of the Spiritual Realm and stuffed the pieces of Investiture into the Cognitive Realm where they are anything but calm (i envision this as a hot water/oil mixture unter pressure). Seons and Skaze in this picture would be leftover pieces of Investiture in the Physical Realm having gained sapience or artificial constructs made by Elantrians (the aons in them as a program). I don't think that with merging all Seons you would get Devotion (Sapience+Intent) back. The Intent is still tied to the Investiture, but the Sapience of Devotion died with the Splintering. A Vessel collecting the Investiture of all Seon and Skaze could become a Sliver (like Rashek at the Well of Ascension) but would not reach Shard level. There is a way to travel the CR on Sel, though it is dangerous and needs precautions (as far as I know there are no details on the precautions). So there might be also a way to extract Investiture from the Dor while being in the CR or, safer, to pull Investiture from the CR via an Aon algorithm and store it somewhere in the PR. Reaching Shard status should enable the new Vessel to transcend to the Spiritual Realm and put all that excess Investiture back there, where it belongs.

Actually you need to make adaptations for a movie to work. There's a reason for the existence of screen writers. Iirc, Brandon keeps away from screen writing himself, because he would not be great at it (perhaps decent, but cosmere films/ series deserve excellent screen writing). For me, the main plot points must be met, but not necessarily in the same order as in the books. If the buildup in a movie would require a different order than given in the book, it would be perfectly fine for me to have the order changed. Cutting scenes is another thing. Probably necessary as well, but many fans of the book would miss their favourite minor scene in the film (e.g Tom Bombadil missing in TLotR). Absolutely important for me is that the characters in the film have to fit the characters in the books. A non-gloomy Kaladin for example or a non-witty Hoid or a non-grumpy Vasher and - most important - a non-cheerful Nightblood would kill the film for me. A good casting is paramount, otherwise an adaptation would not work.

I preordered Oathbringer somewhen in spring. Yesterday I saw that it will be delivered on November 21st. WoR was a day earlier than the official release date though, so hope dies last... I hope to get Oathbringer sooner and during the waiting time between the 14th and the delivery date I will shun 17thshard like the devil shuns holy water. Appointments in mid-November I will move to an earlier or later time so I can grab the book and start reading without interruptions (except toilet, eating and - perhaps - sleeping).

Chalk is kinda dusty - easily Gone With The Wind...

Those WoBs above clearly show that there is a maximum of Investiture that can be hold by an object. The "metallurgy WoB" comparing a realloyed (is that a word?) metalmind with a hard drive with bad sectors also shows that this maximum is somewhat proportional to the mass or number of atoms/molecules available for a specific kind of Investiture. The normal Feruchemist should have no problems with this maximum though, since storing without compounding is a slow process.