Shardlet

Here comes a wet blanket. WoB is solid, Tanavast (the holder of Honor) is dead. Quote

Here is some quotiness from the Lift interlude which forms the groundwork for this rather simple theory: All of the above quotes were spoken by Wyndle (Lift's bondspren). I think these quotes virtually (though not absolutely) confirm that the Nightwatcher is indeed Cultivation. The first and second quotes refer to the Nightwatcher with Wyndle (and the Ring) referring to her as their "mother" and the third quote seems to clearly indicate (although not ironclad) Cultivation owing to the "Now that He's gone" part. So, one of my early criticisms of the Nightwatcher = Cultivation theory was that the boon/curse gifts of the nightwatcher did not smack of Cultivation since the curses that we had seen so far did not seem to have any purpose and seemed somewhat capricious. Now, in view of the third quote, I think that capriciousness fits nicely. It is my contention that Cultivation was so devastated at the loss of Honor that she by and large checked out of the whole game, as it were. She has given up on people (and the Oathpact?) and is depressed. Now, when people come to her, she makes the sword cut both ways out of bitterness of Honor's death. Now, there is still much room for discovery within this theory. Was the boon/curse system established before Honor's death. I think it was very possibly so. As so many have pointed out, the process of cultivation involves pruning as well as feeding. I would not be surprised to find that the 'curses' from Cultivation prior to Honor's death were constructive in the vein of some kind of disability (not necessarily bodily) in an area of less importance that leads to strengthening in some other area of greater importance. So, what do you all think?

Nightblood, thinks, chooses, acts, and communicates. It has a personality. It has a narrow focus, granted. But sentience seems assured. This may be putting a fine point on it, but I would point out that sentience is not the standard. Sentience is simply the ability to feel and percieve things. The quote from Brandon says splinters have self-awareness.

There are loads of possibilities on how this could play out. Here are a simple few: 1) The blades can only be wielded by a Herald (Not very likely since Brandon said they could). 2) Taking up a blade connects you to the whole Herald Package Deal (To me not likely since for the whole package,seem like you would have to make a commitment/oath). 3) Non-Heralds can use the blade, but without the proper Oaths and commitments, it functions like a normal old shardblade (reasonably possible in my view). 4) Powers are given to the wielder of an Honorblade such that they have access to the surges of the KR order aligned with the blade's Herald (Also reasonably possible). Etc., etc., etc. Hard to come to any reasonable determination when the only info we have is that there were Heralds which each had an Honorblade which is presumably more powerful in some fashion than a normal shardblade. The Honorblades behaved differently with Heralds than shardblades do with people (e.g., drop = dismissal; reportedly eye-change). The Heralds apparently needed to forsake their blades to forsake their role in the Oathpact. Each Herald was associated with a different order of the KR. Likewise, each KR order apparently has a symbol associated with it and each symbol corresponds with a sword cross-guard (possibly an Honorblade). The Heralds played some role in the Oathpact in which they presumably led the forces of Honor (and Cultivation?) against the forces of Odium. If a Herald died they were sent to 'damnation' to be tortured until the time of the next desolation. If they survived, they were to willingly go to damnation. 9 Heralds survived the last desolation and chose to forsake the Oathpact and their Honorblades because they couldn't handle going back for the torture. This left one Herald (who died in the last desolation) to uphold the Oathpact. Also, Heralds are immortal and are all still alive. Although it is a big paragraph, there is little detail and substance that we know regarding any of those points.

I disagree. In Awakening, there seems to be a strong cognitive aspect in the commands.

HI Deekay. Welcome to 17S. Glad to have you with us in the light.

Big words for such a small amount of evidence. The splinters we know of are Seons (and Skaze), Spren, and Divine Breaths. Seons exhibit devotion to an extent in that they have a bond-ish relation ship with single person. Spren we don't know much about yet. And Divine Breath...?

I definitely get behind this.

Not WoB, WoH (Word of Honor). Honor states that Cultivation was better at seeing the future than he. I don't know of anything regarding Odium's ability with future sight.

Nah, they just decided that 'Palap' sounded to much like 'plop'.

May I be the first to upvote you for this, kind sir? Thank you.

I couldve sworn I saw something back in June before shardspears were a big topic. But I haven't been able to find it and now that shardspears has been written about so much, it is all the more difficult.

I hope that isn't the quote that Argent was referencing. If it was, it was woefully inadequate to support that relationship.

I don't think it is possible because Kandra are a significantly different species than humans. Their human appearance is by choice not by anything genetic. Koloss were still genetically human when Sazed did his magic to make them breed true (though I still wonder about the female aspect of that). So don't bring up Koloss-blooded folk as evidence for demi-Kandra.

If you ask me, anime was made for Mistborn! I truly and emphatically believe that this would be far and away the way to present Mistborn.

I doubt it is forgotten. The glyphpairs used as the highprince's standards are stylized versions of the glyphs they contain. Also, the tower and the crown are pretty plainly represented in the Kholin glyphpair as seen at the beginning of each of Dalinar's chapters. Note that at the start of each Kaladin chapter, you see a spear prominantly displayed. The Tower, the Crown, and the Spear seems far more likely to me to represent Kaladin's alignment his Dalinar.

Thud is the best Discworld book if for no other reason than Sam Vimes is my favorite and Thud is the pinnacle of the Sam Vimes books. And that scene is awesome!

Nice. It is good to know you are looking out for us Kurk.

I would expect that there are more assassins than just Lyss that have a blade (whether or not they use them on the job). Consider, "Ha, snuck right up on you and killed you dead. What's this? Hello, you had a shardblade. Finders keepers." As to keeping an accounting of who has what blade and how many, just because people pay close attention now doesn't mean they always did. A couple of thousand years ago the record keeping may not have been so precise.

I'd like to see the wording on that WoB, Argent. Do you have a link? If that is accurate, then it becomes very murky about what constitutes honorable behavior.

I agree with you that what is Honorable on Roshar in terms of alignement with Honor is going to be determined by Honor's guiding intent. The rub is, we don't exactly know what that guiding intent is. There is a tidbit here and there. But, it is difficult to describe the picture a puzzle makes when put together if you only have a few of the pieces. Edit: Your example with Odium, is not consistent with my previous post. Those concepts would be determined by society rather than by individuals such as Odium. So, absent an overarching morality, if a society of community held behaviors and actions exhibited by Odium to be honorable, then, yes, Odium's actions would be honorable within that society.

Actually, I'm pretty sure I read or heard a snippet from Brandon directly tying the lifeless ot a Jewish Golem. That is of course making the assumption that Vorinism is/was the "true religion". One of the interesting things about cosmere theology is that so far, there is no true religion (although a reasonable argument could well be made for Pathism in AoL). For a religion to be a 'true religion' it must be formed under the direction and guidance of the god being upheld. Pathism is the closest I have seen to this, since Kandra (under the apparent direction of Harmony) are apparently actively spreading this faith. The bias towards Mormonism comes from the OP and thread title where we are exploring the potential influence of LDS (Mormon) doctrines and traditions on the worlds, cultures, and people Brandon has created.

By who's definition of honor? As has been discussed in several other threads, who get's to decide what honorable means? Is our cultural understanding of honor any better than some other culture's? Absent an overarching absolute standard of morality given by an ultimate creator, honor and ethics are societally determined constructs. Whatever a society decides is honorable or moral or ethical is ipso facto honorable or moral or ethical until that society changes it's collective mind.

and quietly said,

A hearty welcome to both you and your fiancee. I think you'll find that this is a wonderful place to spend some time (especially when you're bored). Glad to have you with us.