Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive

There's also the epigraph "The considerable abilities of the Skybreakers for making such amounted to an almost divine skill, for which no specific Surge or spren grants capacity, but however the order came to such an aptitude, the fact of it was real and acknowledged even by their rivals." It might be the ability to sort the innocent from the guilty, as the passage is from the same page as the line "There came also sixteen of the order of Windrunners, and with them a considerable number of squires, and finding in that place the Skybreakers dividing the innocent from the guilty, there ensued a great debate."

So here's how I think the powers work:

• All Surgebinders get the ability to hold Stormlight (duh), with the associated benefits. Also granted by Honorblades.
• All Surgebinders get a Shardblade, due to their bonded spren being the Blade. All Knights Radiant also get Shardplate, though the source of that remains unclear.
• All Surgebinders get two Surges, which grant at least two abilities, probably a third unique one. Also granted by Honorblades.
• All Surgebinders get a passive ability from their bond with their spren. Windrunners get a windsense ability that increases their combat skill, and Lightweavers get photographic memory. This might also be granted by Honorblades, judging by Kaladin's first fight with Szeth, but it could be that Szeth is just that good.
• All Knights Radiant get a number of other skills and talents that are taught and passed down through the traditions of the Order itself, rather than specifically through the bond. Edgedancers were known for being elegant and refined—but Lift has never trained with the Order of Edgedancers, so she's...not.

Hmmm...with one of Dalinar's Surges being Tension, I wonder if he's been unconsciously using supernaturally strengthened muscle tension to perform his feats of incredible power, like holding off the chasmfiend in Way of Kings.

...If that makes sense.

Sounds about right.

Nah, Shardplate's just that powerful. Remember Dalinar dug a pit out of solid rock while wearing one, and Moash ruptured Kaladin's internal organs while just trying to wind him.

True...although it seems like holding off a chasmfiend was treated as a particularly impressive feat. And beyond that, I'm just trying to figure out what the Surge of Tension would be capable of doing.

edited 7th May '14 3:11:23 PM by beorc

According to this, it's "the surge of soft axial interconnection". What it means beats the piss out of me, but (and this is pure idle speculation) I get the feeling it might have to do more with proverbial forms of cohesion and such than literal.

I thought it was surface tension, which could have applications as a superpower like walking on water.

Yeah, that occurred to me too, but I would guess that it has a number of other possible uses as well. Otherwise, it seems pretty limited in its usefulness...

I think I recall reading some WOB on something like that, but I can't remember if that was in regard to that or Adhesion. Maybe Dalinar's gonna be a killer masseuse. (Also, I think everyone here's up to date, but you might wanna spoiler who gets Tension for good measure).

Bondsmiths also get Adhesion, the power Kaladin uses to stick Lopen to the wall. I really hope there's more to that one, because otherwise it just feels...underwhelming.

Bondsmiths are supposed to be the most powerful of the orders, so either they got some major synergy with Tension, or there are indeed unique powers per order. 'Course, there's that whole godspren thing.

That's a lot of vague stuff that is hard to parse without more detail, but that last part makes a bit of sense in context of the whole godspren thing.

I've started rereading The Way of Kings, and I'm picking up on quite a few things that I missed the first time around:

• The mysterious black sphere that Gavilar gives to Szeth in the prologue.
• The Death Rattle at the start of Chapter Four foreshadows the method by which they are obtained, the symbolheads and Shadesmar:

• The Letter in part two is most likely Hoid writing to Cultivation, as he mentions that the recipient follows a policy of non-interference and we haven't heard anything about her. (Can't remember the contents of the replying letter in WoR that may confirm this)
• In an interview, Sanderson mentioned that Hoid has a bead of lerasium (the metal from the Mistborn trilogy that turns people into Mistborn). One of the passages from the Letter says:

• This one is quite obvious, but in Words of Radiance it is mentioned that there were only three members in the Bondsmiths. Dalinar bonds the spren of the Almighty, so presumably the other two members will bond the spren of Odium and Cultivation.

edited 8th May '14 6:10:10 AM by JimmyTMalice

The Black sphere is probably a spren or voidbringer as many might have guessed. Oh and the Shards power their system of magic right, like a battery in an already laid circuit?

Hm, I wonder if Eshonai will end up being one of the Bondsmiths.

It's pretty obvious at this point that a Parshendi is going to become a Radiant (Sanderson probably should have RAFO'ed the question on whether or not it's possible; it's too obvious), though it's unclear whether it's going to be Eshonai or Rlain. I could see Eshonai being a Bondsmith, what with her uniting her people, but I'm not sure what Rlain would be. Just a Windrunner? We don't have enough information on his personality.

EDIT: And I forgot to mention that one of the reasons it's obvious a Parshendi will become a Radiant is because of part of the Diagram:

I guess it could be something else, but it sounds like Eshonai becomes a Radiant and leads her people. It's all hard to parse because we still don't know what the Diagram's end game is.

edited 8th May '14 9:35:44 AM by Discar

I'd prefer if Rlain was one, rather than Eshonai. Though I do want to see her Fighting from the Inside against the voidspren. Anyway, been wondering, what's RAFO stand for?

"Read and Find Out."

And really, why not both?

Might well. We'll start getting duplicate Knights before both, so why not.

It seems more likely that Eshonai will end up being a Radiant, what with her being book 4's viewpoint character, and all the viewpoint characters we know about so far being Radiants...

Though now that Ninety brought him up, I'm hoping for Rlain, too.

Also, I'm finding myself more and more curious about Lift. What did she give up to the Nightwatcher?

I'm hoping that in Dalinar's book (which I thought was going to be number 4, but maybe not) we get to see the actual deal with the Nightwatcher, and see exactly how it goes down. I've been operating under the assumption that you tell her what you want, and then she tells you "Okay, I'm going to give you this blessing and this curse," and explains the details of both. But the fact that Taravangian doesn't seem to know the precise effects of his blessing/curse makes it seem like you ask for your boon, and then she just says "All right, I've given you your blessing and curse, don't let the door hit you on the way out."

Back to Lift: She probably has no idea of what exactly she was given. Even if the Nightwatcher did explain "You will now exist partly in the Cognitive Realm, which will give you a number of benefits, such as directly converting calories to Investiture and touching non-physical entities," Lift wouldn't understand half of it. Plus, it seems like a really weird thing to ask for. She's another one I want to see her deal directly.

I believe Dalinar's planned to be the focus of book 5.

Well, in the POV of Shallash's assistants, it was said (though the reliability is questionable) that there's no Literal Genie shenanigans with here — you go, tell her what you want or need, she gives you what she feels you should get and extracts a proportionate price, and that's that. Oh, and the Nightwatcher is Cultivation's godspren, right?

Yes, and I have a feeling that's perfectly accurate (Law of Conservation of Detail; why would we see it if it wasn't accurate?), but it doesn't say how precisely that happens. Do you engage in dialogue with her? Do you just shout out your request into the darkness and leave with a blessing and a boon? It's vague.

Also, I don't think it's confirmed that the Nightwatcher is Cultivation's godspren, but it's strongly implied. Wyndle describes her as his mother, in the same way that Syl calls the Stormfather her father. They are the only two semi-confirmed godspren, but Cusicesh the Protector (the giant spren Axies the Collector sees in Kasitor Bay), Moelach (the one behind the Death Rattles), and Nergaoul (the one behind the Thrill) are also implied to be the same. It's not clear if there's one for each Shard, or what.

However, those are implied to be creatures of Odium — not necessarily spren. The Rosharians in general have a tendency to attribute any seemingly supernatural occurrences to spren. There's also the Unmade to consider.