trendkill

I know that when I read WoK, my first thought when the Blade stuck around was that "Taln" had died, so that kind of rings true to me. Not sure how correct any of it is now that we have WoR as well, though.

Short answer: we don't really know yet.

I think this is most likely the case. We have WoB that the Heralds staying in Roshar will cause another Desolation to begin, so perhaps people forming Nahel bonds and beginning to use Surgebinding somehow brings the Heralds back from Damnation, which starts a Desolation. Or specifically, people speaking the oaths brings the Heralds. Support for that would be that "Taln" doesn't come back until after Kaladin speaks the Second Ideal.

@bombadilio I would highly recommend looking at the Coppermind wiki (wiki link at the top here) before delving too far into the forums. Long story short: Most of Brandon Sanderson's adult novels take place in the same universe, known as the Cosmere. This includes Elantris, Mistborn, Warbreaker, The Stormlight Archive, and The Emperor's Soul (I might be missing one or two). Main things in the wiki that you'll want to look at are going to be the main Cosmere page, Adonalsium, Hoid, Shards, and maybe the different Realms (Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual), maybe even Realmatic Theory.

I believe that a member of Bridge Four was also homosexual, but I don't remember which one specifically.

I'm not really arguing for or against the eye-changing aspect. I just don't think that we have enough info to do more than guess at this point. Maybe someone can ask at a signing in the near future? "Do the Heralds' eyes change with an Honorblade?" or something like that. Another good question to ask would be "Do the Honorblades give the Heralds their power or do the Heralds give the Honorblades their power?" Probably a RAFO, but, with absolutely no evidence to back me up, I have a feeling in my gut that it's the latter.

The real thing of it is that we just don't know enough about the Heralds to know how the Honorblades would affect them, if they would at all. Similarly, we don't know enough about the Honorblades to know how they're different than the Shard/sprenblades. We do know that they are different, though. Since we know that they're different in some way, I don't think we can really make too many conclusions about what they do or how they affect people by only looking at Shard/sprenblades.

Now that... That is something interesting to think about. I'm sure you were only half serious, but given his Command, it kind of makes sense. Maybe not so much a plan, but a very convenient coincidence.

I'm sure that others have noticed and discussed this, but that sounds like the Parshendi. Possibly a form that we haven't seen named at this point?

Is there anywhere that the ARS Arcanum from all of the books are compiled into one document? That might help give us an idea of who is writing it.

@RShara, that's what I was getting at. Probably baseless speculation on my part, but the way Argent worded that brought it to mind.

Chills, man. You just sent chills down my spine.

I... Really like this theory. It kind of reminds me of Well of Ascension, like when Vin thought that she was defeating Ruin by releasing Preservation's power rather than using it. I could easily see Brandon doing something similar. Like maybe the Knights Radiant think that to defeat Odium, they must defeat the Voidbringers, but really, that just sets Odium free.

Well, pretty much everything has components from all three Realms. But I would say that each thing/person is more of one than the other. Humans: Primarily Physical, can manifest in the Cognitive through some effort, has the spiritweb in the Spiritual (as well as possibly ends up there after they die if they don't move on to something else). Spren: Primarily Cognitive, can manifiest in the Physical though some effort, don't know the relation to the Spiritual at this point (other than that Shardblades may be cutting the soul/spiritweb of the person it strikes, but I don't think we've gotten firm confirmation of that). What I was kind of thinking earlier (lost most of my train of thought by this point) is this: what if Nightblood's sentience wasn't created by the act of Awakening? What if the sentience already existed in the Cognitive Realm (like the spren), and then was drawn into the Physical Realm through Awakening, possibly being altered in the process? Like maybe there was a Cognitive being that already liked destroying evil, and the Awakening drew that one in because of the Command that was used. Alternatively, maybe it was just the closest Cognitive being around, and it had something altered by the Command, making it want to destroy evil. I don't know. No real evidence of anything here, just some of my random thoughts. I fear that I may have derailed this...

Not to derail the discussion too far, but does this remind anyone of anything, or is it just me? Maybe there's some sort of similarity between what's happening to "Taln" and what happened elsewhere in the past?

I've got some ideas in my head that might form a theory/hypothesis, but I need to organize them and actually put words to it before I decide if it's going anywhere. I'm super tired right now, so I might lose the thought before it goes anywhere, but suffice it to say, I'm very intrigued by the similarities and differences between Nightblood and the spren. Specifically the Cognitive parts.

This quote specifically is plaguing me right now. We know that the spren are primarily Cognitive entities that take a lot of effort/effort from a human (primarily Physical) to manifest in the Physical Realm, at least with any measure of sentience. Nightblood, to me at least, seems like a Physical object that had its Cognitive aspect altered/amplified to be given sentience in the Physical Realm. So Nightblood, the object, is Physical, while Nightblood, the sentience, is Cognitive. What I'm now trying to figure out is how that is related to the spren. Are spren and the Cognitive aspect of Nightblood essentially the same thing, and Nightblood's mind was forced into the sword, whereas spren are more or less free to take any shape they want in the Physical Realm? Am I way off? I think that we would need to know more about the Cognitive part of Awakening to answer this, but maybe all of the clues are there and I'm just not putting the pieces together. If none of this makes sense, don't mind me. I'm having a hard time putting to words the thought that my mind is bouncing around right now.

The first book takes a little bit to get going, but once it does, it's fantastic. I recommend giving it another try. P.S. *Rolls a natural 20 on his Spot Check, thus seeing Emeralis trying to take the cookie*

I'm currently on Book 2 in A Song of Ice and Fire. I've read to halfway through the third book before, and then something shiny distracted me and I didn't read for a few months. Now that Game of Thrones is on HBO, I decided to start from the beginning again in anticipation. Even though I don't have HBO and thus haven't been able to even watch the first episode...

All of the admins were eaten by Grues

That's actually another of mine that I didn't think of. Makes enjoying anything outdoors during July absolute torture.

*dramatic resurrection music* I have two lame superpowers that I can think of off the top of my head. Controlled Vomitting No matter how deathly ill I am, I can always manage to very calmly lift myself off of the couch/bed/etc., walk to the bathroom, purge my stomach, and walk back and continue what I was doing before (usually watching TV while under a thousand blankets to sweat out the fever), all without missing the toilet or people even knowing what I was doing. I really don't see how this would ever save the world, but it has saved me from having any messes to clean up while I was sick. Insta-Turn while Walking When I'm walking, I can change directions in the blink of an eye. But only when I'm walking, not running or jogging or anything else. It comes in handy when trying to make your way through a crowd or when I suddenly realize that I've forgotten something, but I would never be able to use it to chase down a bad guy. And they would most definitely be able to catch up to me if I was trying to get away from them.

I would like to announce.... That I haz no reputations!! Probably due to my extended absence from the forums. </begging for digital karma> Anyhow, I am back! Work has just been so crazy the past few months that I usually haven't had time to get on, and when I do have the time, I just didn't think about it because I got out of the habit. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post, but I will throw in my two cents when I feel that someone needs some change!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got the position at work that I applied for! Technically, it's a step down, since I'm a supervisor and I'm transferring to a position that essentially does the same thing as my reps do, but over email instead of phone, but they consider it a lateral transfer, so I get to keep my same wage, have *tons* less stress, and get to laugh at my customers *at the same time* as I'm helping them rather than having to wait until later!

It kind of seems silly to me to assume that the Passions is referring to a Shard. In Elantris, there was the Mysteries, which is kind of what I interpreted it to be. Some aspect of the religion, not a Shard.