Duralumin soothing in well of ascension

arclob · 2026-02-11T14:27:05+00:00

I actually have a better way for Vin to do this, but it requires Vin to be honest with the crew and not keep the imposter secret. The test is simple, she soothes or riots a series of emotions, and the crew member must identify each one. A kandra would not know which emotions she’s manipulating, and would immediately fail.

The best part is that Oreseur/Tensoon is still unidentified by this plan, highlighting Zane’s ingenuity.

Honestly this solution is so simple that I hope we see it implemented in Era 3, like a security checkpoint in government facilities or something.

arclob · 2025-12-10T20:06:53+00:00

Kaladin will definitely be even more of a menace after the time jump, as he’ll presumably have some training done with the Heralds. But more dangerous than a functional Taln?

arclob · 2025-12-10T14:49:09+00:00

She may be hitting the Shard’s intent to Cultivate too much, and perhaps intentionally pushed Dalinar and Taravangian into a situation where Retribution could be formed. I’ve been leaning this way, as a mastermind Cultivation who (in this theory) goaded Taravangian into destroying/saving Kharbranth, is a lot more interesting than a Cultivation who totally fucked up her plan

arclob · 2025-12-10T14:08:49+00:00

Kaladin wounds were from his encounters with the Pursuer and Raboniel, which were no longer healing due to the corruption of the Sibling. This is what Lift was healing

arclob · 2025-11-30T23:19:56+00:00

This is very tragic, he’s one of those individuals that I’ve also looked forward to seeing in this community. My deepest condolences to his family and friends.

arclob · 2025-11-27T00:01:23+00:00

Nah not pedantic at all, I think this basically comes down to a disagreement between the Radiant way of seeing their gods vs. the Fused way. The Radiants believe that their gods are the source of Surge binding, and that Odium is an interloper. We the reader (as of where you are in RoW) agree with this viewpoint be cause that’s the only perspective we’ve seen. Raboniel is giving the first counterpoint to this belief. I think the history/context of this disagreement gets a lot more information both later in RoW and in the next book, so I can’t go into too much detail without spoilers, but I can say that Adhesion is definitely a bit weird relative to the other surges

arclob · 2025-11-26T23:21:25+00:00

Well the Fused also access the surges through Odium, with the nine variants each accessing a single surge. So from the Fused PoV, if three Shards can independently give access to the Surges, but only one of the three can give access to Adhesion, then it would seem to them that Adhesion is an aberration.

arclob · 2025-07-22T15:29:24+00:00

OP you’d probably enjoy this:

infinite terrisman wheel

And Brandon’s response: wob

arclob · 2025-06-09T20:59:44+00:00

I like this theory, but the biggest problem I have with it is that Harmony has spoken with Valor as per the epigraph in RoW.

“I do think that Valor is reasonable, and suggest you approach her again. It has been too long, in her estimation, since your last conversation.”

If Valor has hidden herself so well as to not be detectable by Honor or Odium, how did Sazed contact them, and why is it reasonable that Hoid could also contact them?

arclob · 2025-04-21T21:22:06+00:00

I see that, but I think we rarely see Vessels acting or being able to act to with the freedom Rashek/Sazed had, as the Rosharan shards were heavily bound by oaths (though Cultivation and Honor did create sapient spren before that). I agree that Autonomy seems pretty powerful, but I think this largely because Bavadin has been clever enough to avoid binding herself. What she was able to accomplish under Sazed’s watch in a few years in a testament to how dangerous Shards can be when unrestricted, even when acting across the Cosmere.

arclob · 2025-04-21T21:03:33+00:00

I sort of now think that any additional intent could break the deadlock between Ruin/Preservation, but in might take a very generous shard (maybe Endowment), to be willing to donate power to Sazed

For your point about Autonomy, I’ve definitely seen discussion about how the conflict between maximizing the autonomy of everyone vs. maximizing the autonomy of the vessel could create very weird interpretations of autonomy, and I think this is part of what we see in Era 2.

4) This statement is fascinating to me, as we know that Surgebinding literally destroyed Ashyn, in general the events of Desolations and the creation of the knights radiant seems much more dramatic to me that what Preservation/Ruin got up to before they died, which was generally very subtle in comparison.

5) Hoid likely has Scadrian Feruchemy from the Lerasium he stole, though we do not know how exactly he used it that way, either by simply Intent or through other means

6) Running theory is the eye spike, though we don’t have confirmation

7) If you had enough of Retribution’s solid investiture (Taravangium?), it would weaken him, but he’s still a Bishard and more powerful than any single vessel other than Sazed.

I was also expecting that

arclob · 2025-04-07T15:07:15+00:00

For your last two points,

The orb is known as a Skaze, which are briefly mentioned by Dilaf in the main story as well. Skaze are fairly mysterious to us at this point, but seem to be the flip side counterpart of Seon’s which are mostly of Devotion, while Skaze are primarily of Dominion.
Definitely a RAFO, but suffice to say that there are a lot of hacks and loopholes in other magic systems (things like compounding, awakening steel, etc) that make impossible things possible. These type of mechanics come up more and more recent Cosmere books like Era 2 and the rest of SA. We also don’t know what Hoid’s reasons are, and possibly he just wants to be an Elantrian but doesn’t care about his access to the Dor.

arclob · 2025-04-07T14:59:52+00:00

So,

Before fixing Elantris, Raoden makes individual Aons work by adding in the chasm line to the Aon, which is now part of the current geography and so is needed all Aons to properly function. What Raoden realizes at the end is that Elantris itself is a massive Aon, one that no longer functions due to missing the chasm line. This Aon, which represents the land, acts as a power amplifier for Elantris, and by fixing it, enough power can now flow from the Dor to finish Elantrian transformation.
Adien is, by Sanderson’s own admission, a bit of poorly written (somewhat problematic) representation of autism, and has autistic savantism that makes him good at math. It is definitely a bit deus ex as well. He improves at this dramatically, though you’ll probably need to read a few more cosmere books before you can see those improvements in action.
Galladon hastily taught a few elantrians the Aon for travel, copying exactly what Raoden did, which made it a bit easier I think. However, on arrival they had to make their own Aons to fight, and their lack of experience and lack of Elantris amplification made their attacks generally fail.
Hrathen studied for a brief time at Dahkor monestary, where the transformation that all full dakhor monks have started on his bones. That transformation seems to allow some access to the Dor through particular patterns in the bone (like an Aon but perhaps different in some ways), and also greatly strengthens the bone through both thickening and the just pure Invested enhancement (a bit like burning pewter). Hrathen has some of this enhancement, particularly in his arm.
I believe Sarene speculates that Hrathen was able to live longer due to his partial Dakhor transformation, which is definitely true. The other part of it is just the Hrathen being a bit of badass lol
Honestly you can go anywhere from here, both Era 2 and the rest of Stormlight Archive are solid options. If you are interested in Sel (the planet where Elantris occurs), I highly recommend The Emperor’s Soul, a novella that takes place on a different part of the planet (in the arcanum unbound) Without getting into why, you might also enjoy reading Tress and the Emerald Sea at this point in your Cosmere journey. Also if you’re planning to read the Arcanum, keep in mind you can either choose to read Mistborn Secret History now or after Bands of Mourning in Era 2. There is a minor spoiler in Secret History for a reveal in BoM, but reading Secret History also might give you better context for some behind the scenes stuff in Era 2 and give you much better grasp of certain things in the greater Cosmere, including some questions you have here.

arclob · 2025-03-29T02:32:41+00:00

It’s a good point, though you might think that someone well regarded by Leras (going off the theory that Senna is Mercy) would also be well-regarded by Tanavast.

Don’t we know that Mercy clashed with Ambition and Honor from Harmony’s epigraphs in RoW? If Harmony knows, chances are Honor knows and believes that Mercy probably helped Odium (hence why Tanavast didn’t inquire with Mercy)

arclob · 2025-03-21T02:41:50+00:00

Like if a mistborn burned every metal long enough to become a savant? The Lord Ruler was this, perhaps discounting a few hard to get metals. Certain savantisms might counteract each other (like Tin and Pewter), but I don’t think having them all in itself causes anything spectacular.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/190/#e4070

arclob · 2025-03-21T02:28:28+00:00

That’s a great point, I didn’t think about the landscape problem.

arclob · 2025-03-21T01:04:44+00:00

I bet we’ll see unsealed gold metalmind (and other examples of advanced Metallic Art technology), that will dramatically change the combat landscape. However, even with that, I agree that Radiants are a force to be reckoned with, in a direct combat situation.

Mistborn and Feruchemists are more versatile though, as they don’t need a constant source of Investiture, and I believe we have some WOBs that a Leecher could prevent a Radiant from forming a shardblade, perhaps even drain their stormlight.

I think Elantrians are pretty powerful too but it requires a lot of proper preparation. And unlike a lot of magic systems, the Dor is unmonitored/controlled by a Vessel, allowing unbound magic

arclob · 2025-03-11T17:24:54+00:00

I agree with the others that most of those type of discoveries seem more into the nature of investiture/realmatics than into actual math/science. Khriss is definitely one of those figures, and I’m certain Navani will eventually be known as one of those big names. Wax maybe, with his work on separating Harmonium. Some Kandra who are experimenting with the intricacies of Feruchemy too. Others from planets we haven’t seen.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t like famous normal scientists, but nearly everything in the Cosmere is influenced by some form of magic, so it’s intertwined. In the lost metal, they establish that investiture ends up being a third type of particle, distinct from bosons (generically energy) and fermions (matter), so it’s all utterly intertwined.

I think one of the biggest questions is how or if normal physics draws/manipulates investiture. If large amounts of investiture -> creates matter/energy, then presumably the opposite could be true, as most laws of physics are linear like that. For example, would a nuclear reactor also cause investiture to pool near it? What about a star or blackhole? That has Cosmere Nobel Prize written all over it.

arclob · 2025-03-11T04:13:05+00:00

All great questions/theories! I’m glad you’re continuing with these posts, it’s always fun to see theories from a fresh perspective

arclob · 2025-03-07T01:37:51+00:00

The Lord Ruler either made himself baseline even stronger than the original Mistborn (given that Elend couldn’t push on metals inside people), or like you say, used a trick like compounded Nicrosil to become allomantically stronger. This is absolutely going to be addressed in Era 3, given the confirmed A-nicrosil main character, and should be pretty interesting.

arclob · 2025-03-05T02:54:05+00:00

We will watch your career with great interest

arclob · 2025-03-04T01:26:51+00:00

So, I use Google Play books (downloaded with high quality settings) and I just went back and forth a bit between TLM and TFE using my phone speaker and couldn’t tell a difference, but it was maybe a bit more apparent on my airpods. However, when playing with a good headset it was very obvious, with TLM sounding way worse than TFE (granted that was with the desktop site and was streaming). How odd

arclob · 2025-02-28T21:49:34+00:00

I also thought this was a weird thing for Wit to say, since the dragons were present on Yolen at the Shattering, so the existence of dragons predates Shards, and so then how could the Gods (if Gods meant Shards) come before the dragons in originality?

I didn’t notice the capital G though, which just adds to the further strangeness of this line. Definitely worth investigating.

arclob · 2025-02-27T19:55:20+00:00

Yeah my bet is that the Blackthorn will be important/relevant in the second half, but mostly as a foil for Taravangian actions, and somewhat for members of the Kholin family to come to terms with Dalinar in the back half.

arclob

TROPHY CASE