Timewaster's Guide Archive

As long as we're discussing murderers, liars, and thieves who are merely victims of circumstance...  Shallan. 
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Jus' sayin'.  Well intentioned she may seem, but I bet she ends up doing more harm than good.  Kill her now, before she develops crazy superpowers.  It's the only way to be sure.

Aha!  Yes, I agree that that's another form of the Almighty's powerful Capitilization magic.

Hear hear!  And who's to say those Storming merchants will stop at taking away our fabrials, once we're wholly dependent on their coalition?  What's next -- free all the slaves!? 

Quote from: C12VT on October 07, 2010, 07:25:57 PM

Maybe the blood in the picture Shallan drew doesn't mean there was actually blood in that scene when it really happened - maybe she added blood because she expected it to be there, subconsciously, or because the presence of blood was true in a metaphorical or spiritual sense. Just like when she draws the symbol-headed spren into her pictures, they weren't actually visible in real life (but were present in some other way).

Shallan has a photographic memory. If she drew blood, then blood was probably there, she would've been drawing straight from her memory.

Not just a photographic memory -- but a Memory (with a capital M!).  The detail in which it's described reminds me of Dalinar's Thrill (with a capital T.)

Hmmm... Memory, Thrill, Shardblade, Soulcaster, Oathpact, Heralds...
I've got it -- the power of the Shard of Adonalsium that was held by The Almighty was... Capitalization!

From the "Horses" thread...

Here's a theory - Greatshell carapace strength (and by extension maximum phyiscal size) is determined by the capacity of the individual's gemheart (i.e. natural fabrial).

Thus, the spren that emerge from a dying greatshell escape the gemheart at the moment of death are the physical manifestation of the Shadesmar concept {improbably big crab thing that is alive and does not crush under its own weight}.  When the greatshell is alive, these spren are attracted to and trapped inside the gemheart.  The spren make it possible for their host to breathe Stormlight which not only solves the oxygen-CO2 exchange problem, but also allows for great feats of strength.  (We see similar effects as a result of Kaladin's bond with an honorspren.) This allows the greatshell to grow to Chasmfiend size. When the greatshell's connection to the cognitive realm is severed by death, the spren are no longer bound. Their departure leaves the gems inert and able to be cut by an autofabrian to target other varieties of spren.

Greatshells exist throughout Roshar (if I recall), but the ones in the Shattered Plains are particularly massive.  Something about the nature of spren or Highstorms in that region (perhaps as a result and/or cause of the final battle of the last Desolation) makes them able to grow much more effective gemhearts.

Chulls would have comparably smaller gemhearts compared to Greatshells, which explains their more docile nature.
At the other end of this growth spectrum would lie Thunderclasts, which have super-efficient gemhearts that can hold/metabolize Stormlight much more efficiently.

To go even further out on a limb... Parshendi would be parshmen that use gemhearts as natural fabrials to maintain a level of shared consciousness.  Their fabrials are tuned in pairs, much like spanreeds and are operated using vocal harmonics (i.e. songs) to evoke cymatic resonance.  At the far end of this spectrum, you get Voidbringers, which hold Stormlight perfectly and have all sorts of crazy powers.

edit: moved my post to the Thunderclast thread, because it didn't have anything to do with horses

I'm more inclined to think Shardblade creation has something directly to do with the Almighty's Shard of Adonalsium, and that the reason no one can make new Blades is that the Almighty is dead.

Shardblades are only able to physically cut materials that aren't linked to a living mind.  When interacting with living tissue, my guess is that they sever the physical object's connection to the cognitive/spiritual realm -- which is the sort of raw "laws of magi-physics" shenanigans which I'd place deeper than spren.