Shardlet

Recall though, petroleum-based polymers are organic. (It's a dirty little secret, I know)

I agree. In hindsight, it wasn't terribly pertinent. But, again, I was not, even when I posted it, implying that AonDor should be considered to be cognitively based.

Not only that, the Tower is in Nebrask in a corresponding location to where Lincoln (Brandon's hometown) is in Nebraska!

While it is possible that the recipient of the letter is a Shard, the letter is ambiguous enough to be read otherwise. If it is written to a Shard, then yes, it appears that Shards are potentially detatched from the workings and doings and well-being of other Shards. However, it has been posited that the two stars that fell and winked out in Dalinar's last storm-vision represented the death and splintering of Devotion (Aona) and Dominion (Skai). That being the case, Honor, at least, is somewhat aware of these things. If the false trail that is spoken of in the letter refers to directing the searchers to the purelake, then the letter was written long after the death of Tanavast and the splintering of Honor. Which means at that point, the other Shards would likely be aware of Devotion's and Dominion's demise. Unless, of course, the intent of the shard has an effect upon the Shard's perception and awareness of the other Shards.

If you meant that generally, and if I was a gambling man, I'd take that bet. However, if you meant that to mean humans working on their own without super help or old knowledge (like knowledge of how shardplate or shardblades were made), then I would probable agree with you.

I suspect it will take a lot of time and effort for Taln and anyone who helps him to shift the Alethi (and Rosharan) cultural inertia. Roshar has not seen itself as a collective culture for thousands of years. That much time gives place to major individual cultural development that will require enormous effort to shift back to a more collective cultural cohesion. It might be easier for the Vorin nations to collectively combine (especially in view of the likely upheaval in Jah Keved resulting from the assassination of their king). But I wonder about the reception a Herald will receive from a clergy and a populous which, by all apparent evidence so far, has drifted over time to entrenched traditions as opposed to vital faith.

Yes, I did neglect his power. It remains to be seen, of course, how and how much Odium has invested in Roshar.

The key difference is TLR took up the power of the shard not the shard itself. Recall that Leras was still alive and held the shard Preservation until HoA. TLR could not take up the shard because Preservation was already held by another who was still alive, albeit severely weakened and diminished because he imparted most of his remaining power to form the well and Ruin's prison. By the way, welcome markeymarc18. Glad to have your voice here.

I think it is important to keep in mind that the fight is between Odium, Honor, and Cultivation. Roshar is just the stage where this fight is playing out. I would expect that Odium would want to destroy humanity only if it either achieved the goal of destroying Honor and Cultivation or facilitated that goal. He did not appear to care a whit about the people of Sel.

I was only pointing out a cognitive aspect to AonDor. I was not implying that it should be considered a cognitive-based magic system.

There is also Vun Makkak and Nu Rallak (I think I spelled that one wrong) in the Purelake region of Roshar in TWoK. There was not any religions on Scadrial (that were mentioned in the books) that referred to either Ati or Leras by their human names. Even at the point of Scadrial (which is early in our chronology), the holders of the shards had held them so long that they were more the Shard than their former selves. They were swallowed up in their respective shard's intents. If any religion revered a Shard by the holder's human name, then that religion would be likely very old.

I just finished filling in most of the blanks that Weiry couldn't figure out. It pays to have heard it before .

Pester Chaos until he posts it. It seems he has the only recording in existence and his silence is deafening!

While I agree that drawing Aons is primarily phtysical/spiritual, there is a significant cognitive aspect to drawing Aons. If an elantrian does not intend to draw an Aon the hand motion does nothing.

You are indeed correct Zizoz. I will get that corrected later this morning. Thanks. Edit: It is fixed. Edit: overly delayed upvote for the catch Zizoz.

Glad you like it. I put my notes together for it before I did the research for my 'Kaladin feels the Thrill' theory. For my previous ideas and posts I had to thumb through the book to find anything and it took forever to research an idea because I spent a ton of time just looking for the right chapters. After I had the notes though, it took me maybe 20 min. to find all the quotes I put into the OP for that "Thrill" theory. I was very pleased at how much more efficient it was.

Okay, remember back about 2 months ago when I said I was producing an index document for TWoK? Well, I finally finished it. I organized it by POV (most POVs to least). I also sectioned off the flashback chapters and the storm vision chapters and collected all of the scenes with Wit/Hoid. There are internal links between each section and the table of contents for quick bouncing. Each chapter has a brief identification of significant parts of the chapter to help find the chapter you are looking for. Feel free of course to make the document your own by adding to or paring down what I have done. Enjoy! The Way of Kings ToC.docx Edit: Fixed an error in the text (ID'd Ch. 51 as Flashback and included with Flashback chapters). Edit 2: Moved Danlan introduction note to Ch. 28 from Ch. 52.

I actually wasn't speaking to your theory about lerasium having preservation (note the non-capitalization) power. I was responding to your response to Windrunners post. As to your actual theory, the only issue I would have with it is the nature of Preservation's future sight. Future sight sight (literarily speaking) tends to be either broader strokes over broader spans of time and setting or detailed views which are small in time-scale and setting. Now, that is not necessarily limiting since that is a tendency thing. But consider also that Preservation imprisoned Ruin at some point in time before TLR ascended. I personally suspect that the prison was formed at some point in time not too terribly long after Ruin and Preservation completed their collaboration. This would suggest a sizeable span of time pre-ascension since Scadrian history developed a rather culturally diverse population. When preservation formed Ruin's prison he became a shadow of his former self and power. I would expect that Preservation's future sight was also seriously hampered by this change. That means for your theory to be fully valid, Preservation would have had to seen extremely detailed events (down to the personalities and desires of those involved) to make those sort of plans. (Edit: or retained much of his future sight). I also point out that Preservation is actively working against Ruin (albeit in a very limited capacity) during all the intervening years which would result in a constantly shifting future. As to some portion of the lerasium having preservation power after the standard mistborn change, sure, why not? I don't see anything to support it or contradict it. But it is a fun theory. But, since it is "pure abject speculation", I would invite you to accept the speculation of others. Particularly when there is an evidentiary basis for the speculation. It is one thing when someone says little more than "I don't buy it" or "nuh uh". Those sort of comments are always frustrating and not productive. But can it be anything other than good when someone presents an idea to shape the discussion at issue? I really hope this doesn't come off as hostile. I am trying very hard to make sure it doesn't.

True that in-world character expressed thoughts and beliefs should not generally be taken as absolute fact. But, I think in this case it is an extremely safe assumption. Preservation almost certainly stabbed Elend in an act to preserve Ruin's imprisonment and, by extension, to preserve Scadrial. Nothing else really makes sense. If Preservation only wanted Elend as a mistborn, he could have directed them to lerasium without stabbing him first. It may have taken a couple of days to actually get Elend to burn it. But, he would not have needed to risk Elend's life to do it. Recall, that Elend's recovery with pewter was not certain.

The link for the WoR prologue requires permissions. Could you open that up Weiry?

Kaladin has to do something of significant and lasting impact, given the role he has now, before he dies. It would make his character development and story little more than worldbuilding (which would be extraordinarily bad writing to kill a main character before he accomplishes anything other than personal development). True, he saved Dalinar. But that does not seem like it would be enough. I don't see it happening until book 3 at the earliest. I do think Dalinar will die. He is in a strong position for his death to mean something and make a lasting impact. After TWoK, everyone will be talking about Dalinar. I expect we will be seeing two factions developing centering around how Sadeas's betrayal and Dalinar's escape and response will be viewed.

Okay, now that was weird. I clicked on Weiry's link above and suddenly I was watching Weiry write in real-time.

Awesome, thanks Weiry.

Hey, you sat down first. I was standing there in the back with a recorder in my hand and there was a seat in the front row. What the heck was I supposed to do?

I have just posted four audio files of readings from SpoCon in this post. Could some diligent soul(s) out there get us some handy dandy transcriptions of these readings?