Shardlet

We don't know for sure, but the biome's adaption to the storms strongly suggests that there were.

No, we don't know whether or not shardblades have spren in them. Note: to generate the spoiler tag, use this handy bit of code (without the *): [spoiler*]Spoilerific text This will display as this:

The question is, is lerasium induced allomancy an additive or an overwrite? I am inclined to think of it as an overwrite. Thus, if I were to burn the appropriate pewter-lerasium alloy, BOOM, I'm a thug. Now I burn the tin-lerasium alloy, BOOM, I'm a tineye not a tin and pewter allomancer.

Point of clarification,I don't think it is accurate to characterize the mists as power left untended. They were/are power that was at least specifically programmed to perform a specific function (which it did/does). If it were just loose power, then it would be expected to form splinters, neh? I also don't see any reason at this point to believe that the highstorms did not distribute stormlight during the desolations (i.e., when Tanavast was alive and Honor unsplintered). I personally am more inclined to think that spren like Cusicesh are adospren.

I think that may be reading a bit too deeply into it at this point. Since being one of the Dawncities is a current status symbol. It doesn't seem like there need be any suspicion of such study. I think the point of the conversation was to give more information about Sesemalex Dar (which Kaladin saw in his stormride vision and later discussed with Sigzil).

Hah, I just searched on my Kindle and found that there were indeed four mentions of the Dawncities. At locs. 13657, 13658, 13663, and 15466. The first three locations are in a Dalinar POV (Ch. 54) at one of the feasts in the conversation with Highprince Hatham and Au-Nak (the Natan visitor). Hatham indicates, in conjunction with a discussion of Sesemalex Dar, that his wife studies the Dawncities. Dalinar thinks about a current trend of cities trying to link their origins to the Dawnsingers. So, still no discussion of Dawnshards in conjunction with this. But, at least my memory isn't completely fried. Thanks Rade! Edit: NP on the spoiler tip.

Jaddeth

The tricky bit with that is that most of the plant and animal life on Roshar is well-adapted to the storms. This leads me to two possibilities: 1) The Shards created the storms, plants, and animals (i.e., no evolution or adaptaion of lifeforms); or 2) Shards introduced humans (by creation or transportation) and investiture into a planet which had these raging storms and a biome well-adapted to the storms. If Shards created the storms, then they had to have at least modified most of the biome to be able to survive the storms. There simply has not been enough time for such a diverse biome to evolve naturally over say 10,000 years (i.e., ~5,000 years pre- and post-last desolation, seems safe). I mean really, scientists figure humans have not fully adapted to consuming grains as a staple of our diet and they figure we have been eating grains for many thousands of years. That seems a small adaptation that has not been accomplished compared to interspecies evolution.

She does. But, there is no apparent effect when Kal says the first ideal because he is essentially just considering and repeating what Teft said. But, before Kaladin orders bridge 4 back to the tower, you see crisis, the ideal coming into his mind, and the decision. Same with Lift. The crisis and decision seems to me to be more important than the utterance.

I think it is a solid assumption that those words (I will remember those who have been forgotten) were the second ideal. I don't think it is critical that the words are verbally spoken. What I think is more critical is the choice to follow the ideal in a crisis of sorts where the normal course would be to make a different (not necessarily selfish) choice. Edit: Also, it should be noted that we do not yet know that Darkness is Nalan.

Good grab, Weiry. What is up with the 'Sharks' clue?

It should be noted though, that Dalinar began his change shortly after the death of Gavilar. He apparently had been acting the way he is now for quite some time. Enough time for him to become renowned for honorability.

He is however, a strong link to the Heraldic Epochs, he is going to have far more knowledge of the Oathpact than you an I, his thoughts will be most interesting in regards the abandonment of the nine (whether or not he already knows about it or only just learns of it), add to that greater knowledge of surgebinding, spren, Nohadon, voidbringers, the KR, and likely Odium (or at least "the Enemy"), and you come up with a fairly significant body of knowledge that we all thirst for. I doubt we will be getting POVs from any other Heralds in the near future (I could see an interlude POV from Darkness in book 3, but he may not actually be a Herald). So, Taln is the carrot dangling before us. And, DANG IT! I want to eat that CARROT!

I agree with you Meg that some distinction may be in force for splinters which are voluntarily created (Divine Breath) and those which are not (Seon Aons). Personally I think that spren like Syl are voluntarily created splinters. In contrast, I think that most of the more mundane spren resulted from the splintering Honor. As to splinters of Adonalsium on Roshar, for everyone's edification here is the full quite from Seattle: The quote seems to me to indicate that the Adonalsium spren developed their sentience independent of any will of Adonalsium though the power was intentionally left behind.

Just a note, the Cryptic does not ask for a secret. Rather, it asks for a truth. In Shallan's first trip to Shadesmar, when asked, "What are you?", Shallan replies, "I'm terrified!" which the Cryptic acknowledges as truth and pops her into Shadesmar. for the second trip, the Cryptic indicates, "you need to tell me something true. The more true, the stronger our bond." He does go on to indicate, "the stronger the truth, the more hidden it is, the more powerful the bond." So, secrets play a role, but are not required.

That is a plausible line of reasoning. I don't see any indication yet that he has seen or does see storm visions like Dalinar does. i also don't see what role Betab plays in the whole thing. If she did come to help, I doubt she would have done so using her true name (but that is semantics). I agree that Taravangian is genuine in his quest. I also think he will fail and I wouldn't be surprised if he fell at the hands of his own people. Although karma suggests that Szeth should do it. As to the waywardness of the post, let us call it an ode to Taravangian: A tragic figure.

Previously you indicated that Returned Breaths and the aons within Seons are splinters of their respective Shards. Recently, you indicated that a splinter was a portion of the power of a Shard left with no person caring for it or holding it which has attained self-awareness. Does this then indicate that the Seon aons and Returned Breaths are themselves self-aware?

I think that the key take-aways from these two conversations are: 1) Wyndle is our best source for info currently and he indicates that Lift is metabolizing food/fat into "stormlight", when she uses her surgebinding she is consuming/spending "investiture", and she eats food to restore her depleted store of investiture. Couple this with the WoB that stormlight is investiture (this smacked more of the short answer rather than a placeholder answer), our best information is that stormlight is at least a form of investiture. 2) We have old quotes from Brandon indicating that Returned Breath (not Returned) and the Aons within Seons (not Seons) are splinters. We have newer WoB that indicates that splinters are portions of the power of a shard (i.e., the power of creation) which have been left without a guiding intelliigence and subsequently attained self-awareness. This means we should seek clarification of the old in light of the new.

I just checked back with the cymatics chapter. There is a mention of the Dawmsingers in conjunction with symmetry specifically. But there is no mention of the Dawnshards nor are the four cities called the dawncities. So the tie becomes weaker and weaker. However, I do still stand by my comments in post 18 and now edited post 16 in this thread.

The other thing I found that supported metal plate was this:

Well, Dalinar uses the word 'molten' to describe the pieces of a shattered portion of plate. That is not to suggest that molten only applies to metal, but rather, we are not talking about normal conditions. On top of which, we are talking about a heavily invested chunk of stuff. The normal expectations for metals would not likely apply here.

Brandon said that the focus will be on different people but the first arc cast will still be there (excepting dead ones of course). So, expect a lot of Dalinar, Shallan, Kaladin, Szeth, and Eshonai POVs in the second arc.

That is my suspicion as well. A herald flashback book wouldn't make that much sense to me in the first arc. Have an upvote for all your disappointing quotiness. Maybe a new title: the Wet Blanket of Quotiness.

That may be a good bit of a hack to get around the Rosharan metal hemalurgic spike RAFO.

I may have simply made a slippery slope assumption based on the co-usage of the word 'dawn'. I'd have to check the cymatics chapter to be sure. Even if it is an assumption, I don't think it an unreasonable one. We have the dawnshards, the dawncities, the dawnchant, and the dawnsingers. I suspect that there is a significant connection between them all.