happyman

Whatever else she is, Shallan's not stupid. However, even very smart people can be stupid when strong emotions come into play. Thus I'm not at all certain what Shallan's moral stance is on the death of her father. At the very least, though, I think we can assume at a minimum direct involvement in the events of her father's death, and also that she was probably there, and very likely alone with him, when he actually died.

Here's the quote, with important context: And beyond a few indirect references, that's about all we know about what happened that fateful night her father died. The text suggests, but doesn't state, that she got the sword from her father. It's implied (it is the fruit of her greatest sin) but it is not outright stated.

This is true. I would say that there are active Shards, but they are acting under restrictions we are not familiar with. Some of them, like Harmony and possibly Endowment, are probably busy with other things and/or not aware of all possible threats. Also, we don't know what it takes for Shards to travel between worlds. As a side-note, Endowment's Shardholder's gender is not established, but the little evidence we have suggests that the Shardholder is male. (The evidence is that Siri, in Warbreaker, refers to Austre as a he. Assuming Austre is a local name for Endowment, this is literally the only canonical evidence from the Cosmere pointing either way.)

This is probably a large part of their motivation, no doubt about it. Also, we know Shardholders are neither omnipotent or omniscient, especially when they are new to the power. Following a previously successful pattern is probably much easier at first, especially if you have specimens to examine. However, there is plenty of evidence they don't have to follow that pattern. The Kandra are a good example, although their relationship to humanity is apparently very real, at least psychologically. The Aimans and Parshmen are even better examples. Given that we don't know the history of the Cosmere or Shattering, this is a bit of a chicken/egg problem at the moment. Hoid and the Shardbearers are apparently human-shaped and predate the Shattering, but what that means for what you might call "original creation" is uncertain.

Possibly. The strength of Compounding in its various forms gave TLR enormous flexibility. The more we learn about it, the more the term "physical god" for an Allomancer/Feruchemist in the know comes to mind.

This is almost certainly for two reasons: (1) TLR could mix Allomancy/Feruchemy to Compound all the metals, and doubtless knew that he could. "Spectacular" is an understatement when it comes to Compounding. He almost undoubtedly compounded speed, mental speed, and health whenever necessary. Think Strong, Fast, Miles. Scary. His only weaknesses were his arrogance and his high natural age. (2) Elend didn't try to use his powers nearly as viciously as TLR did. He probably could have soothed as effectively as TLR did, but didn't think it was right.

Ahah! Finally, something to work with. I've always wondered, myself, if there wasn't a kernel of truth to the idea that Jaddeth was trapped in the Earth and could be freed somehow. Given that we know that the Shards on Sel have been splintered, it probably isn't a perfect translation of the truth, but it probably contains truth. The Shards are undoubtedly still influencing the world, even splintered.

Adding to Voidus response, I saw/heard somewhere that he though it was really cool how Issac Asimov and others managed to tie all their stories in to one overarching plot, but was always disappointed that it was so obviously tacked on after the fact. Hence, he decided that there was no reason not to invent the back-story first, knowing it would largely be a setting in which other stories would be placed.

I really like the idea that the Highstorms represent the fight between the powers. It would explain why they seem to be associated with all three of the (known) involved Shards. Cultivation->Highstorms make good fertilizer. Honor->Highstorms fuel Surgebinding. Odium->Highstorms are extremely destructive in most other ways.

This is easily the biggest flag that there is something deeper going on there. I'd be disappointed if WoK was the only book which contained Gaz. I'd like at least one other viewpoint from him.

What Zaz said. It's easy for fan-forums to start navel-gazing into their pet theories. Bringing in new ideas is cool. If it's been said before, the polite thing for us to do is to link you to the previous thread. (I guess I'd better actually do that in the future.) That said, you could well have something new. There are a lot of things which we have discussed which have gone nowhere, and could benefit from a new insight.

Actually, I think she said that it was muddled-it didn't feel like any of the metals. Probably because the things Ruin was using the power for spanned a much larger range than the specific powers granted by each metal.

Given the forms their bodies took, I doubt they had control over that, or cared. They were dead, after all. Vin's body came back the same as it had been before she took the power, and I doubt the Shardholders (Ati and Leras) would have bothered to change their default forms, even if it were possible for them to so. Given that we know they hadn't held the power forever, and had been something before taking it, human-shaped would be the best bet for their previous shape, especially given Ati's statement that they had seen that form before. Your other points are correct, of course. If the humans on the different planets were created in different "creations" by different shards, whether they are the same species on different planets is a very good question, and as-yet completely unanswered. However, even with the variety, we recognize most of the species on most planets on a variation of the theme "human." The question is, are they actually related to each other or are they independent creations? You could make an excellent case that the humans on Scandrial are an independent creations. The humans on Roshar might well be as well, although I doubt they were originally native to Roshar. Sel is a complete mystery.

We hardly need this. When Ati and Leras die, their corpses fall our of nowhere. Human corpses. Detailed human corpses. Surely that is enough?

When Ruin was talking to Vin, he also said that He and Preservation created humans after a pattern that they had seen elsewhere. Also note that Honor claimed that he created the versions of humanity found on Roshar---and that these versions differ notable from both "baseline" humanity as we know it in real life, and humanity as it is depicted on the various other Shardworlds. Combine this with the fact that humans apparently existed pre-shards (otherwise where did the bodies of Ati and Leras come from?) and it seems much more likely that we have cases of multiple creation based off something much older than any of the stories we are familiar with.

This seems about right, and what I meant above. Every memory stored and burned becomes much more vividly than it otherwise would have been, but contains no more information than it ever had. It would turn copper compounders into people with photographic memory. Like the Lord Ruler is rumored to have had. As for Kwaan's memory, it's probably not that he could remember memories that he stored in his metalminds so much it is that he could gain and keep them in his own mind incredibly easily. It would go: he memorizes something in a second, stores it and forgets it-and then memorizes it again just as fast and never forgets it. It makes comparisons easy.

I'm pretty sure Dalinar was ashamed in front of Renarin at least partly because going to the Nightwatcher was heretical. It would be like a devout Orthodox Jew having to confess to their kid that they once ate a pork sandwich on a dare. I say, don't read too much in it.

Continuing on after ReaderAt2046: 4. Symmetry was holy when Uritihiru was built, but at that time the Heralds weren't considered as holy as later generations decided they were. 5. Symmetry was holy, but the names of the Heralds predated all of this. Given that the Heralds showed up from time to time. any drift in their names was suppressed until the Oathpact was broken.

Actually, given the sensitive we see to color in Warbreaker, this is fair. Not pure shades, maybe, but there is a lot of room from the point of human perception.

Ah, well, my guess is either it represents new shards or no shards at all. I'd lean heavily toward the second one. But yes, culturally, Ruin and Preservation could have been associated with different colors.

-This turns out part of a Cosmere-wide rivalry between the Shards Hilarity and Glumness to see who will dominate warfare in the Cosmere. Currently Hilarity is worried that the Alethi aren't getting the joke.

Heh. Jasnah's relationship with the ardentia and the Almighty would be quite complicated. Jasnah is in the position of being both right and wrong, but for all the wrong reasons. It'll be interesting to see how she interprets the future. I don't see Brandon writing a Flat Earth Atheist, but there are lots of ways a reasonable person could come to terms with the metaphysics in the Cosmere.

This is all true, but I don't think this is what this thread is discussing. People can assign any color they like to any of the shards. I could write up a very nice list on this very forum, and if I were somehow able to create a culture from scratch on the internet, they would follow my list. Very nice. No, the theory is about intrinsic colors, ones respected by the laws of the Cosmere. In other words, the ones that make Preservation's mists white and Ruin's mists black. Culturally, the shards will often end up associated with their real colors simply because people can see and the association will be reinforced. The only example we have of this is Preservation=white and Ruin=black. Associating a color with Endowment seems tricky at best, given that his magic is associated with all colors. For the others, there seems to be no evidence whatsoever. Given that there are 16 shards, I'm not even sure where we could go with this---humans don't see 16 distinct colors; our vision is much more complex than that.

That it's her second surge seems just about certain, given that the Memories manifest as art, while Jasnah has the artistic inclination of a rock. And that's giving rocks too little credit. Edit: Given Spren and the cognitive realm, in the Cosmere, it may actually be giving rocks to little credit. Huh.

Mmm. This idea has been discussed before. It's possible the Memories are something different from the other magic, but probably not. The connection goes as this: Shallan uses Memories to see Truthspren -> Truthspren bond with her -> Shallan soulcasts without a Soulcaster which suggests that the bond between Shallan and Truthspren is what allows her to Soulcast, much like the bond between Kaladin and Syl allows him to Surgebind. Since the Soulcasting is definitely part of the standard magic system, the memories just seem to be an unexplored part.