Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: ErikHolmes on September 27, 2010, 07:07:32 PM
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Ok, so I was rereading and noticed something big I think.
There are no Spren AT ALL whenever Dalinar goes back in time for his various visions. And there are plenty of times where there should have been.
Dalinar even mentions that he should be seeing Terrorspren at one point with Taffa's daughter, but figures its just too dark.
There are no painspren when he and Taffa are being cut to ribbons. And no terrorspren from Taffa or her daughter.
In the prelude, even with all that death and destruction, there are no spren.
There's no anticipationspren even when 300 radiants begin to charge Feverstone Keep.
Nohadon does mention spren, such as honor spren, but I get the impression he's talking about spren like Syl and I think she's something different entirely.
Also, in all of his visions Dalinar notices something that wouldn't work during his time. Flimsy buildings, long winters, etc. He explains them all away, but during his visions there are no signs that the world is plagued by highstorms.
So here is my theory:
The Almighty tells Dalinar that most of the things he's shown him he witnessed himself. Meaning he was alive at the time.
But during Dalinar's time the Almighty is dead.
I think that in the past there were no spren for everything. Anticipationspren, terrorspren, deathspren, etc. There were the sentient ones like Syl, but they were everywhere like they are now.
The modern spren came about when the almighty was killed, they are a remnant of his power, maybe his body, etc. Like the Mist in the Final Empire. And his death brought about the highstorms as well.
I think maybe the face in the storm is the spirit of the Almighty, his body has been destroyed, but he lives on as the raging source of the storms.
Thoughts?
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Great thought. I think your right, the Spren are shards of the almighty, with the more intelligent Spren, like Honorspren and whatnot, being shards that the Almighty cut off from himself in order to give humans power.
Not sure about the Highstorms, as I think they are still running, remember, the Flimsy buildings are protected by a lait.
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My thoughts exactly when I listened to WoK, but I considered the theory to be too obvious to be worth posting.
Great minds think alike it seems. ;)
So, let's say we bind a spren to a gem or a surgebinder, then the spren acts as the mind, the stormlight as the power and the gem/human as its body...
Nope, no idea were I'm going with this. :|
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Maybe the death and splintering of the Almighty might have something to do with the highstorms and spren. I just dont have enough information to make a proper theory.
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That's pretty good speculation. :) I guess we'll see! :)
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There's also no mention of spren in the Interlude that happens in Shinovar.
Fabrials brought in from outside function in Shinovar, but natives find the idea of using Soulcasting to transmute materials to be "bemusing".
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There's also no mention of spren in the Interlude that happens in Shinovar.
Fabrials brought in from outside function in Shinovar, but natives find the idea of using Soulcasting to transmute materials to be "bemusing".
Oh, they mention spren all right. They're notable by their complete absence!
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I'm pretty sure there were highstorms, just not as powerful as in the present.
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I've always kinda thought it was odd how everything about Shinovar is more like our world. All the unique things about Roshar don't seem to apply there.
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I've always kinda thought it was odd how everything about Shinovar is more like our world. All the unique things about Roshar don't seem to apply there.
It does seem to imply that Cultivation and the Shin are closely related.
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I've always kinda thought it was odd how everything about Shinovar is more like our world. All the unique things about Roshar don't seem to apply there.
It does seem to imply that Cultivation and the Shin are closely related.
The other odd thing about Shinovar is that the highstorms never reach it. They apparently can't get past the mountains.
This is probably connected as well. No highstorms==no reason for the world to adapt to hurricane-force winds.
It could be as simple as evolution, or it could be a different Shard's domain, or what is left of one.
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For some reason those mountains stuck out to me as very significant. I thought at first that maybe they're where Roshar's magical well/pool is, since those seem to appear around hills and mountains, but there's really nothing to back this theory up.
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I've always kinda thought it was odd how everything about Shinovar is more like our world. All the unique things about Roshar don't seem to apply there.
It does seem to imply that Cultivation and the Shin are closely related.
The other odd thing about Shinovar is that the highstorms never reach it. They apparently can't get past the mountains.
This is probably connected as well. No highstorms==no reason for the world to adapt to hurricane-force winds.
It could be as simple as evolution, or it could be a different Shard's domain, or what is left of one.
There are many hints that the beleifs of the Shin lean towards being effected by or including Cultivation.
They respect Farmers and craftsmen "He who adds is to be revered." Szeth refers to himself as "he who takes away"
The misted mountains do not just stop the storms they cause the storms to break apart and fade away, I think there may be more to it.
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I've always kinda thought it was odd how everything about Shinovar is more like our world. All the unique things about Roshar don't seem to apply there.
It does seem to imply that Cultivation and the Shin are closely related.
The other odd thing about Shinovar is that the highstorms never reach it. They apparently can't get past the mountains.
This is probably connected as well. No highstorms==no reason for the world to adapt to hurricane-force winds.
It could be as simple as evolution, or it could be a different Shard's domain, or what is left of one.
There are many hints that the beleifs of the Shin lean towards being effected by or including Cultivation.
They respect Farmers and craftsmen "He who adds is to be revered." Szeth refers to himself as "he who takes away"
The misted mountains do not just stop the storms they cause the storms to break apart and fade away, I think there may be more to it.
Well, being protected by a different Shard might be a reason the storms break up. I was just noting the most obvious difference between Shinovar and the rest of the world.
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Mountains protecting shin = lake/well/pool of Cultivation's power
Origin of Highstorms = lake/well/pool of Almighty's shard power
Thats my theory anyway.
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do we know if cultivation is dead/alive?
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Well, we know that she was alive at the time that the Almighty recorded his vision message. "Cultivation, she is better than I."
I'd say she's alive now, I mean, without a Shard to stand against Odium, he could just wreck everything. Like what happened with Ruin and Prerservation, it was only Preservation's influence that kept Ruin from destroying everything.
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Of course, that's the idea behind Odium killing other Shards, so it makes an equal amount of sense (if not a greater amount) that Cultivation is dead, killed off by Odium the same as all the others who opposed him.
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Hello everyone new user here. Been reading Brandon's books for years but just now decided to get into the forums, so I'm probably not as enlightened as ya'll. Ok as for this theory that there were no highstorms in the past during the time of the Heralds or the shadowdays or however they'd be called. Well there was the story Hoid told Kaladin about Derethil and the Wandersail, and how he took the ship out to sail the sea during a highstorm. Now obviously the story is somewhat suspect, and even Hoid admits that it could just be a legend or folktail, but then again, the people said the same thing about Voidbringers and we know that was wrong. I wouldn't be surprised if there was at least an origin of truth to the story. So it would seem that highstorms may have existed that long ago, but then again there was definitely some differences from how things are now. I guess we'll just need another book to find out more. ;D
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There is always that saying that in every story there is a grain of truth.
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Mountains protecting shin = lake/well/pool of Cultivation's power
Origin of Highstorms = lake/well/pool of Almighty's shard power
Thats my theory anyway.
The Highstorms don't come from the Almighty, they are from Odium. I saw Roshar divided into 3 sections. The far west (Shin) protected/nurtured by cultivation, the central region protected by the Almighty, and the far east the origin of the highstorms destroyed by Odium. Cultivation's area may have been larger but she was pushed westward when the Almighty died.
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Mountains protecting shin = lake/well/pool of Cultivation's power
Origin of Highstorms = lake/well/pool of Almighty's shard power
Thats my theory anyway.
The Highstorms don't come from the Almighty, they are from Odium. I saw Roshar divided into 3 sections. The far west (Shin) protected/nurtured by cultivation, the central region protected by the Almighty, and the far east the origin of the highstorms destroyed by Odium. Cultivation's area may have been larger but she was pushed westward when the Almighty died.
Odium might have hijacked the highstorm creation system recently, but it still seems to have been the province either the Almighty, or even multiple shards. It's too powerful on too much of a constant basis, and powers all the magic we've seen so far in WoK except probably the Old Magic.
Also, there are two different ways to read this epigraph, one that includes Odium as one of the three, and one that counts him as a 4th. Which way are you reading it?:
11.“Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns.”—Collected: Chachanan, 1173, 84 seconds pre-death. Subject: a cutpurse with the wasting sickness, of partial Iriali descent.
Could spren live off/be an extension of/have a symbiotic relationship with stormlight? If cut gems are better at trapping spren inside them, could that be why they hold stormlight better? I'll assume that most of the spren captured don't have minds/personality like Syl does, there seems to be quite a few different types of spren, some of which are extremely small. It's mentioned in 2 or 3 different places that cut gems hold more stormlight.
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There is too much of the Almighty in the highstorms for them to originally come from Odium, though it is possible for Odium to have 'hijacked' them.
I don't think it the land can just be broken into three parts and a shard given to each part. There is much mixture between the societies, indicating that the shards have influenced more than one culture.
Also, there are two different ways to read this epigraph, one that includes Odium as one of the three, and one that counts him as a 4th. Which way are you reading it?:
11.“Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns.”—Collected: Chachanan, 1173, 84 seconds pre-death. Subject: a cutpurse with the wasting sickness, of partial Iriali descent.
Brandon has stated that there are only 3 shards directly related to this series, so I think the former interpretation is more likely (Odium being one of the three).
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The broken one?
Wait, maybe Odium is not evil but simply *mad* or incomplete?!
Highstorms transmit the Almighty's journal entries to all who are sensitive enough to receive them, which makes me doubt they are (entirely?) caused by Odium.
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The broken one?
Wait, maybe Odium is not evil but simply *mad* or incomplete?!
Highstorms transmit the Almighty's journal entries to all who are sensitive enough to receive them, which makes me doubt they are (entirely?) caused by Odium.
Nothing more dangerous than a mad-man. And constant hate would make anyone mad. But what Hoid said in his note still stands, before taking his shard, Rayse was a loathsome man.
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There is too much of the Almighty in the highstorms for them to originally come from Odium, though it is possible for Odium to have 'hijacked' them.
I don't think it the land can just be broken into three parts and a shard given to each part. There is much mixture between the societies, indicating that the shards have influenced more than one culture.
Also, there are two different ways to read this epigraph, one that includes Odium as one of the three, and one that counts him as a 4th. Which way are you reading it?:
11.“Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns.”—Collected: Chachanan, 1173, 84 seconds pre-death. Subject: a cutpurse with the wasting sickness, of partial Iriali descent.
Brandon has stated that there are only 3 shards directly related to this series, so I think the former interpretation is more likely (Odium being one of the three).
Yes, well, I'd like to see this quote. I've been waiting for it, actually. Where is it?