Mistdork

I think that this is easy to explain...Endowment's intent, to endow something (life) on others means that it's easier for Endowment to create life by itself. One could probably say the same about another Shard, Cultivation. Cultivation's intent is pretty obvious, it drives her to cultivate life, so if she did create anything on Roshar, she could do so, as it fits her intent... However, with Preservation and Ruin there's a problem. Preservation wants to preserve life at all costs, this is why the life it created wouldn't have been sentient (this was the problem, that Preservation could create life...just not sentient life).From what I understand, sentient life of the type that Preservation wanted (human/persons) understands how to make "good"/preserving and "bad"/ruinous choices. With Ruin involved, they could do this, but with only Preservation, that life would only want to preserve. It would exist, but it would have no actual comprehension, therefore, that life would only be a bad copy of life that Preservation had known. They would not have personhood like the humans on Yolen, that is, they could not know/preserve against ruin...

Could you take some of a Shard(holder)'s power using this method? If I recall correctly, there's a way to spike people without killing them (though we haven't seen it yet), meaning if you wanted to forcibly cause a Shard to lose/give up some of its power to make a battle more (or less fair) this could be one method to do so. Though I still think it's unlikely to work...

The biggest problem here is supply, there's so much of it and I wouldn't be surprised if making ash soap (etc) were a thing taught to young (mostly non-skaa) women. In some locals, at least. Though if I were an Industrialist, I'd just make a factory and use street skaa to make these products for cheap, and since there's a lot skaa I don't need to care about losing them, I can just get more (no, I don't really think this is wise nor do I believe it's the best way to run a business...) But ash as a resource for goods requires human capital, or...skaa...

Ruled and reign also have different meanings. These words are only partial synonyms. The term ruled is more of an active governance, meaning that those who ruled Roshar (the Three Shards) ruled it more actively. "Reigns" on the other hand, points to a more passive governance, meaning this latter period is an era where the Shard is unable to take on active rule, or isn't interested in actively ruling Roshar. Honor fits the first possibility. Since Honor is a Splintered Shard, he could be seen as Broken (as you pointed out), but since reigning is a passive activity, one could say that Honor's splinters reign, thus the Broken One (that is Honor) reigns...in the form of his Spren and the Stormfather. These are broken off parts of Honor could be seen as reigning, since Honor's spren (plural) are not necessarily active in their governance of Roshar. On the other point, Cultivation isn't interested in the humans of Roshar, but I'm not sure I would consider her broken, and you've already explained Odium. Just that he could easily reign from Braize, one could easily say that his governance of Roshar isn't active in this era, but passive. This reigning is part of the long-term game he's playing with Roshar..., to make them think he's not interested and that kind of thing. And yeah, sorry if this didn't make any sense, it's rather early here...

I'd rather have them be witty and sarcastic though (to some extent) then have them be mean and arrogant (I have no idea what series I might be talking about, though! Why would I think poorly of characters from one of my favorite series?). The thing is, though, that just because wittiness is a favorite trait of Sandorson's females, it isn't their only trait (everyone's discussed this in depth already, so I won't). And really, witty-sarcasm isn't just a trait of these characters, it's a frequent trait in a lot of his protagonist regardless of gender. That said though, a lot of people have that kind of humor, it's really not that unusual,

Obviously, this Vasher's real goal on Roshar, to awaken the glorious Prime Stick. This is truth, the ideal of stickiness is what is the true goal of Vasher on Roshar...

Sneaky Scadrial worldhoppers indeed. I think this is supported by a certain WoB: I think that this was perhaps about Felt (since we knew about the Terriswoman already), anyway, good catch...

Nope, you're just a forgotten piece of land at the edge of Hallendren. Little, unimportant, that kind of thing...

So, does that make Kaladin's men all...stickmen? So they are all really members of the Church of the Stick and only want the true stickiness too...And that makes Kaladin a Knight of the Stick, then, because lashings stick you... Also, obviously that picture of Shallan is just her worshiping the Prime Stick and her great love of the Stick! See, they ship it (ShallanXStick; OTP forever)!

But I'm a woman, how can I be a spearman? This makes no sense! I'm not even allowed to wield a dueling blade, let alone a spear! Oh storm it!

I always figured that the reason Kelsier and Hoid wouldn't get along is that they're too similar, both will do anything for their goals (if they perceive them as good according to their idea of morality), even if that means bad things happen, they believe that even worse things would happen as a result. Their moralities could be considered even...egocentric...in the sense that it focuses on their experiences and what they (and not society) thinks is wrong. This doesn't mean that Hoid's sense of morality doesn't align to a more...normal sense of morality, but we have to admit that at the very least, it's a little screwed up compared to everyone else's. Vasher though...probably just sees Hoid as an annoying pest, that really isn't all that different to how he sees people in general though... I think that Rayse shattered Adonalsium. He had a spiteful, even hate-filled personality before he took Odium, so purposefully shattering, or being the cause of its shattering doesn't seem outside of his character. Even if he somehow forced Hoid to do it, Rayse seems like a better candidate for the "Who-Shattered-Adonalsium" position than Hoid. One thing we do know is Hoid wants revenge on Rayse for personal reasons along with his more...heroic? aim (this is according to the Letters in both books or something like that). It probably isn't exactly the best reason, but whatever his reasons are, they're more varied than being just another well-intentioned extremist...

Pfft. Perhaps while he's on Roshar he's studying its Investiture in a general sense while searching for his sword and figuring this out. Scholars don't stop being scholars just because they can't use the local Investiture system... I think that some combination of one and two could be another possibility. The thing is that you're not the original Radiant and so the Nahel bond wasn't originally yours, so fixing the bond (replacing the Ideals with a life that reflects the spren's mini-intent and by swearing the oaths) might not be enough. So, perhaps they would have to say the Ideals but also (for example) say the Command while conceiving the Nahel bond as healed and using X number of Breaths to do so. This would probably take some considerable knowledge of the Cognitive Realm, though... It might also be possible to use something like Regrowth on the bond or some other Investiture that could be used for healing or making something be conceived as fixed...Maybe. Also, do we know if the gems in the blades are linked with specific blade types (for the dead-spren blades)? Is this possible? Perhaps if this is true, they could figure out which blade goes with which order...that would make things easier, at least.

How about a ShallanXStick option? That is the ultimate OTP, forever, so much better than ShallanXAnyoneElse! You know it's true, you feel it in your heart and...*breaks minds* Seriously though, Brandon doesn't seem to like love-triangles, so I think that this might be resolved either by Kaladin finding someone else or at the very least, not pursuing Shallan while she is in a relationship with Adolin. A relationship between Kaladin and Shallan would be quite complicated, he killed her brother and their different orders (and conflicting spren) would make that relationship difficult to maintain. They might find each other attractive, but sometimes that's just it, two people find each other attracted but because of conflicting interests/opinions/pasts they never "hit it off". It happens in real life, but I can't say that it's a usual take in fiction...Perhaps this is just me wanting Kaladin to not have relational entanglements (because he's conflicted and complicated enough already) than it is me voting for either side... Honestly, if Shallan ends up with Adolin, I wouldn't care. If she doesn't, that's fine too. I'm not really reading these books for shipping.

We probably won't know what her purpose was until "Nightblood" (the book). I personally take the information we have about the Many war with a grain of salt. It's possible that Shashara Returned for academic reasons related to Awakening, or perhaps she plays a very long game. She knew that Vasher wouldn't be the man Nalthis (and perhaps the Cosmere, who knows at this point) needed without what she did. It's hard to even guess why without more information and that will take awhile...

First off, tech levels. You guys are mistaken, at Alethkar's Shatter Plain camps Sebarial's economy (the one he was telling Shall an about when she came to his camp) is notably early industrial (think First Industrial Revolution from the late 17th century into the 18th, though I would compare Alethkar culturally to being like the German princedoms...kind of). I know they still use swords and spears, but they have things like good sized standing armies and early industrial manufacturing and centralizing government. These are all signs of a early industrial culture and economy. Yes, I know they have swords and spears, their weaponry has no gun powder whatsoever, but they don't necessarily need it because of fabrials kind of replacing certain techs like coal and that sort of thing. Also, places like Hearthstone (small towns in general) would still be medieval, that was how the Industrial Revolution worked...anyway I believe there was some WoB supporting this, but I'll have to retrieve it when I get home...I just thought I should address this first before adding to the discussion. Also, on the whole age do Radiance age things... It might be possible that it's slows down according to the number of Ideals they have sworn. This is mainly speculation at this point, but each time they state an Ideal, the Radiants get closer to the intent of their spren (supposedly). This has benefits, and one of these might be slowed down aging. If we want to compare Endowment's Heightenings to something, we should compare it to this. With each Heightening an Awakener gets closer to Endowment, they receive a benefit because of this (as they become closer to Endowment's ideal/intent). A similar benefit (slowed down aging) might come from swearing the ideals, and really they give some benefits as we've seen already, not the same because the Investiture and the Shard's are intent is different, but I think that a comparison is reasonable considering that they are similar Investitures... Now, I want to talk about the Heralds and the Return. Both are to some degree immortal and linked to a particular Shard. Both are Divine, if the Heralds are splinters though, I think they are passive splinters. What I mean by this is that they (the Heralds) can't use Storm light except under special conditions but do get some benefit (from the still lingering) Oathpact with Honor. One of these being immortality and the other being a physique better than other men (I'll find the white later). Considering this, and that Returned have a breathe that amounts to the Fifth Heightening, it might be that the Heralds and the Rediants (of the fifth ideal) have certain similarities like this. That is, they both get passive benefits that are similar thanks to their Shard just as an Awakener of the fifth heightening (or above) and a Returned have certain passive abilities that are similar... Anyway, before I dig myself further into this hole, sorry if this didn't make too much sense, typing from phone...

I honestly can't see that either, (but one or two wouldn't be too much...), just that it would be fitting with his character (or the intent of the Shard) for it to occur. It would fit thematically too, I imagine that the final part might have similar themes to the first trilogy (not the same story, just similar themes that seem to make the story fit together).

The extra Investiture probably went to make the Koloss fully sentient, considering that Preservation did this for humanity first, Sazed probably let go a similar amount when he invested the Koloss. This means he doesn't have to worry that about too much Ruin because he's used up the excess and can now be ultra-zen. Anyway, Sazed, for all intents and purposes, fits his Shard very well..., but I think that the Third Trilogy might have to do with Sazed feeling that the Cosmere is out of balance enough for him to act (to an extent). Odium hates everyone and wants to destroy Shards, so all Odium needs to do is keep being himself to make Sazed eventual have to act...according to his intent.

And we all know that Kaladin could use a bit more irony in his life. It seems like a decent theory, though it could also be that she is "just" the daughter of a rich merchant (first nahn parents) too who still had similar feelings about Lirin...

Is this like how everyone in Les Mis can be seen as in someway a character in Mistborn or at least the futile rebellion thing in French history is just all a lie and the truth is...never mind. But yeah, OP all fairy tales are really the cosmere seeping in! It's good you finally realize this...

See, I think it's more annoying to people who don't suffer from depression like that. It's a little hard for us to understand because we're not prone to bouts of depression. I was annoyed at Kaladin. I knew it was realistic but I was deeply annoyed with how long it took to get some sense into him... Even more so when he demanded a duel against Amaram; here's a smart fellow asking to fight and not giving it a second thought! Oh, was it logical? Sure, but it was just so...utterly stupid at the same time and quite, quite human. That said, everyone annoyed me in this book at one point or another. Dalinar because he's sometimes a poor judge of character. Adolin for having his...brat like issues. Shallan when she made her comment about historians being liars (okay, this one's just silly). But everyone had their moments. Well written characters, you could say, are not ideals. Otherwise it wouldn't be as good as a series, it invokes emotion and that's wonderful.

I was thinking along those lines (those two WoB actually) when I brought this up, but I'm just not fast/good at quote-fu yet... though I'm not sure that completely confirms the bonded aspect for Nightblood or not (but it's been awhile since I've read the annotations for WB...BUT, I won't say it's impossible to do so, Nightblood's sentience is certainly...spren-like). Anyway, when I said we can't predict it, I meant more that we don't know what it is exactly but it's bound to be...weird/interesting/whichever.

Oh! That's why my Kindle editions have that weird...errr...fuzzy white outline thing. And honestly, it's not even gray, it's...nearly illegibly white/yellow of the screen (I have an older tan and black kindle with no color)... Now I feel special...or something like that... @Swimmingly: Perhaps it needs to be slightly green then. Though I think the right phrase might be "It's investedly redacted--" Nah, that...that really doesn't work...

Levian, I think we might be talking past each other. I'm sorry that I didn't use all the correct terminology to make what I meant to say make more sense...(I'm new, so I can use that excuse until Damnation freezes over...) Also, it's Nymp. There's no 'h', I didn't choose this usename just because Nymph wasn't available.

I think this is an excellent idea, especially for people who are new (like me) or don't automatically abbreviate everything they can (I'm in the latter group). It would also be cool if it wouldn't get lost beneath everything else *cough*, that would be nice too...