Eki

Nope. (Warbreaker spoilers)

1. We don't really know, no. I don't think I've heard any theories either, but I'm sure they exist. The sequel will probably give more information about this, since it seems to deal more with the lifeless. 2. White is the complete lack of color for the purposes of Awakening, but normal Awakeners can't draw that much - they can only make stuff gray. This is just how the magic works. Color can be seen as additive, where if you change the color by changing the frequencies of light being sent out (like a computer screen), and subtractive, where you change the color by making the surface absorb a different set of frequencies. Awakening is the second kind - you remove the surface's ability to absorb certain frequencies. 3. I think Vasher sees "colorless" as gray, being an Awakener. So I think it was gray. I'm not sure why it would be translucent as well though. Maybe as fewer photons are absorbed, more of them are likely to go through, instead of just being reflected?

That's true. I had forgotten about that. I looked at the annotations for that chapter, and the word Brandon uses is "vigorous". So I'm not sure what that means in terms of Investiture.

Not to me. I haven't read any of the short stories, or even The Emperor's Soul. Not to mention the planet introductions by Khriss, which are also new. I was planning on getting to them earlier, but then the collection was announced, so it felt a bit unnecessary to buy them separately.

Yeah. I assume it uses the same mechanism as actually summoning a shardblade does. We don't know what types of material a living sprenblade can imitate, but they should be able to turn into anything metallic of reasonable size, at least.

Hadn't read that excerpt! I think Edgedancer is the story I'm most looking forward to in Arcanum Unbounded.

It does fit some people, depending on style. I am not one of those people.

A child Returned will age until physical adulthood. Is the same true for a non-Returned child who attains agelessness from the Fifth Heightening? (The answer would depend on how the agelessness works, and if the reason Returned grow up is because of their cognitive image.)

(Warbreaker spoilers) Lift has only had her bond for a few months, so we don't actually know for sure if she ages. Also (again, Warbreaker spoilers), But I do think you are right, and that Lift does age. I think the true answer is that Radiants age like anyone else, but that they are healthier, and thus live longer. In normal humans, age never really kills: the breakdown of DNA and other issues that come with age lead to diseases that the body can't stop, and those are the ones that kill the person in the end. But the soul ages, and we don't really know what that means, exactly.

I mean saw, as in, saw a bunch of scribbly lines tumbling across some surface, without knowing for sure what it was. And if a spren can sense another spren in blade form, that could just as well be an argument for my theory. Wyndle knew what they were supposed to be (spren), but he couldn't sense any in them. The theory that has already been proposed a long time ago is that Nale has an Honorblade. That seems likely, for the reasons I have already stated. My theory is that the other Blade we see is an Honorblade too.

From the way I read it, Syl actually SAW Pattern there. There were many situations where they were much closer to each other without sensing the other, I'm pretty sure.

I'm actually not surprised Wit and Shallan never insulted each other. Shallan is, after all, very grateful to Wit after their meeting many years ago. I think Wit has a kind of respect for Shallan too. I actually think they are very much alike in many ways. Both hiding secrets and playing roles, constantly... That doesn't necessarily mean they won't get into a witty banter contest, but yeah, I'm not surprised it hasn't happened yet. I can't really think of anything I wish had happened. Nothing I don't expect to happen in the future, at any rate.

Except we can be pretty sure at least one of the blades is an Honorblade, since Nale used stormlight. I'm also unsure if spren can "sense" each other like that. Syl and Pattern never seemed to, at least. They were never in blade form close to the other though, so maybe that would make a difference.

In Lift's interlude, she thinks she sees Darkness being awesome, which probably means he has an Honorblade rather than a dead sprenblade. Most people seem to believe he has taken his own blade from Shinovar, which does seems likely. However, Wyndle mentions that there's something weird with the weapons (plural) they have. Lift assumes he means they are shardblades, but obviously Wyndle would expect those. Instead, I think that Nale's Skybreakers have at least two Honorblades, including Taln's. Interestingly, that could potentially mean that Nale is now using Stoneward surges rather than Skybreaker ones. That would be a cool twist I think. Sorry for hijacking the thread with a minitheory, but I had been thinking about it, and this seemed a good moment to bring it up!

There's a WoB that the "opposition" created the weapon, so I'd say probably not.

Well, I'd hope so. But really, it's probably an easy job. I don't think burning metals causes any sort of physical exhaustion, and if you don't even have to pay attention to whatever you're pushing or pulling, you can just sit there, reading a book or something. The only trouble would be that you'd be constantly pushed or pulled into a harness or the ground, which could cause strains and injuries over time. Since Allomancers are in limited supply, the pay would probably be okay, and they would have power to bargain. The reason unions started initially was that people did jobs that required very little training, and could be done by most people. That made it easy for factory owners to fire anyone who tried to get better (ie more expensive) working conditions and wages, or who got injured in those bad working conditions. Since not anyone can do what Coinshots or Lurchers do, the power plant owners might hesitate to fire the ones they employ, even if they do ask for more benefits or higher wages. And their services would be useful in other places, so I think few Allomancers would feel like they were forced to do a job like this. Still, I do hope unions start popping up, if they haven't already. They were a big and important part of the industrial revolution in our world. (BoM spoilers)

There was a topic about making "real" energy from Investiture a while back, it had very interesting ideas similar to this one. I think something similar to how the (BoM spoilers (not sure if I really need to tag that for this particular topic, but anyway)) would be better, since that seemed to only require a constant push downward. I'm still not sure how they achieved that. You could also use two Iron Ferrings, alternating their weight to push a see-saw up and down. The advantage with that method is that no iron is expended, only the energy it takes to produce the food that keeps the two Ferrings alive.

Is there a WoB on this? Or a WodV?

Many of the western religions seem to be more aligned to Cultivation. We don't yet know if they see her as a divinity, like Vorinism sees Honor, though.

Right. I was mostly replying to your comment about how soul aging works, rather than your argument about the Nahel bond in particular.

Finally picked up Elantris. I wanted to get it a long time ago, but I could only find the non-anniversary one. Also got a pair of Discworld books and the last Ancillary book.

I'm not so sure about this. (Warbreaker and Mistborn HoA spoilers)

Just the fact that there are cheap, relatively clean, and mostly fossil fuel free energy sources is a massive deal. I don't know if they've figured out induction and alternating current yet, but once they do, they will be able to use massive amounts of energy practically without any drawbacks. If Scadrial is anything like Earth, they won't exactly run out of iron any time soon.

Yeah, it is entirely possible that Rosharans age and mature differently. After all, their circadian rhythm is different. Anything else could be too.

The days are shorter on Roshar, as well. One Rosharan year ends up being 1.1 earth years. The Coppermind has birth years where available. Shallan was born in 1156, and the books take place in 1173 (WoR ends right when 1174 begins, I believe). So it seems like she's around 17 Rosharan years old. or so. Not sure where it says she's 18, but that might be closer to her true age if she was born early in 1156. So she'd be 19-20 by our reckoning.