journaldetruthwatcher

[journaldetruthwatcher]

Intelligence Intercept Title: 'Series Choir' Source Location: Unknown, Neutral Space

[The recording starts.]

[Humming of Peace can be heard in the background.]

True Surge Chorister; Gravitation, report. Coloration: no noteworthy differences. Bodily Changes: Well…very aesthetically different, little added functionality. They grow cloth-like membranes from a carapaced…shoulder girdle? Guess that's a way to describe it.

Shoulder gorget. [Spoken to Confidence.]

Yes, shoulder gorget, thank you.

[Humming of Appreciation can be heard in the background. The humming changes to Peace as the dialogue continues.]

A carapaced shoulder gorget structure, under it they grow…

[The sounds of papers can be heard.]

…roughly a hundred or two ribbon-like cloth-like membrane tassels? It is extremely similar to the appearance of ancient scadrian mistcloaks apparently. They also serve similar functions, the ability to be pulled free. He spent a long time making that work apparently. Atleast he's a considerate sick monster. These will regrow in time, similar to hair.

It should be noted that, unlike those cloaks that had on average a layer and a half of ribbons, these membranous ribbons have an average of six layers with a standard deviation of half a layer. [Spoken to Curiosity.]

Yes, thank you.

[Humming of Appreciation can be heard in the background. The humming changes to Peace as the dialogue continues.]

The coloration of the gorget is that of their base skin tone, but tinged with some orange-red or red coloration. The ribbons themselves seem to vary between the full breadth of 'chorister colors'. Tans to browns and oranges to reds, though they are all the same color, no real patterning beyond fading from red where they are attached to the gorget to the 'appropriate color'. Their arms are slightly longer…something like a foot and a half with a standard deviation of three inches? Makes them proportionally strange to look at.

Now, psychological changes. They created an preference to manage their ribbons, as they were primarily aesthetic in nature. Some wove them together into structures similar to clothing such as sleeve or robes, others 'styled' it like a human does hair. They seem to enjoy remaining in weightlessness much like the Shanay-im, which often affects their ribbons. letting them float in the wind. Though, 'young' Choristers can only maintain this for a short period. Its honestly fascinating how the 'third hemisphere' as my colleague put it, changes how the Choristers think of the world. The gravitation Choristers unique perception- [Spoken to Excitement.]

[Humming of Annoyance can be heard in the background. It changes shortly into Peace.]

Thank you Lurin. Their invested adaptations…we've found extensive records of one, the basic gravitation adaptation. We've also found mentions of the 'Windrunner' adaptations as well.

[Humming of Anxiety can be heard in the background.]

It's implied that he 'caught' one. He's rather vague on how, where, or who. But he used them to test the adaptation theory. Any of the order who was classified as missing from the raids may have been one of them. He has three pages here written entirely of hysterical apologies.

[For roughly a minute, only the humming of the Lost can be heard in the background.]

The 'basic' adaptation lets them effectively ignore inertial forces. They can stop from full speed on a dime, they can make directional changes of over ninety degrees, they even go slightly faster than the average Skybreaker and Windrunner. They do all this without having to regenerate issues that would normally accompany such maneuvers. Did this monster really need vivisections to prove it worked? How did these things not revolt against him? This adaptation also prevents them from being harmed by falling from heights or from being lashed into the ground, but it does nothing against blunt force trauma.

[Humming of Peace can be heard in the background. Momentarily the rhythm changes to the Terrors before returning back to Peace.]

Curiously, he didn't try to solve the issue of blunt force still affecting them. His profile does suggest such focused hyperfixations to not be out of character. They are not designed for efficiency, but for the breadth of a surge. [Spoken to Curiosity.]

[Humming of Peace can be heard in the background. There is silence otherwise for several seconds.]

Right, that is…I guess is true…anyways…their adaptations to reverse lashings seems to repel small objects and ranged weaponry from themselves. It again has an obvious weakness to melee weapons…attacks from melee weapons…physically holding an object and trying to stab them.

I think melee weapons was a good enough descriptor. [Spoken to Amusement.]

Thanks.

[The recording ends.]

[journaldetruthwatcher]

Intelligence Intercept Title: 'Series Choir' Source Location: Unknown, Neutral Space

[The recording starts.]

[The rhythm of curiosity can be heard in the background as someone else speaks. The consistent rustling of papers can be heard.]

First of all, I have to admit that Lurin has been extremely useful. I thank the council for their aide. [The last words are spoken in a rough imitation of the rhythm of Praise. The rhythm in the background changes to Appreciation momentarily, the rhythm in the background stops as another speaker speaks.]

The changes to the brains and vocal cords makes Choristers as alien to Singers as Singers are alien to Humans. [Spoken to Confidence.]

Maybe to you.

It is fascinating honestly- [Spoken to Reprimand.]

I've listened to several audio recordings Isso left in this facility. The mixing of rhythms was a unique experience to hear, they do sound like four harmonious voices speaking at once, each voice just happens to be attuned to a different rhythm. T- [Spoken to Excitement which changes to Irritation as the other speaker speaks.]

It sounds like a quartet that sing the same lyrics but can't agree on the song to me. It makes me very uncomfortable to listen to.

As I was saying, you did agree to let me speak in the reports. [Spoken to Annoyance.]

Sorry.

He seems to have changed to audio recordings sporadically throughout this process. [Spoken to Curiosity.]

It is obvious that he is significantly damaged and that his spren have been twisted through those recordings. [Spoken to the Terrors.]

It is through miscellaneous comments he makes throughout those recordings that we know more specific numbers for those that perished during his experiments. [Spoken to the Lost.]

In particular, he's been responsible for hundreds, even thousands of Parshendi disappearances across the Cosmere over the decades this 'project' was actively being worked on. Unfortunately, he never detailed how exactly he was able to accomplish this while avoiding detection. [Spoken to the Terrors.]

[Humming to Peace can be heard along with the rustling of clothes.]

We learned that many of the individualistic changes he induced seems to have been primarily aesthetic rather than purely functional. Which follows along well with his prior Hemalurgic constructs. [Spoken to Resolve.]

A storming deranged mind. He doesn't do any of this with a goal in mind beyond 'I can'. [Humming to Resignation can be heard along with the background comment.]

I have to agree, it has been hypothesized that he has an initial idea but no goal for the idea when he begins to work on them… [Spoken to Tension.]

I recommend a small group try to figure out what he may become fascinated with. If we can catch him before he does something else, its a win for us. If he stays in his hole for the rest of time because nothing else catches his attention, that's also a win I argue.

[Humming to Consideration can be heard in the background.]

The next few reports will be what we've compiled on particular 'True Surge Choristers'. We have some specifics on personality, appearance, and 'basal surge adaptations'.

[Humming to Excitement can be heard in the background. It suddenly changes to Consolation abruptly. By the end of the dialogue it changes to Anticipation.]

[The recording ends.]

[journaldetruthwatcher]

Intelligence Intercept Title: 'Series Choir' Source Location: Unknown, Neutral Space

[The recording starts.]

Well, I found more common traits- they were added during the 'specialization stage', so I thought that they were not shared between all of them when I had skimmed the papers.

[Ruffling of clothing can be heard.]

The spren was given particular authority to change its own connection and a small portions of the 'surge-brain'. These changes are explicitly intended for adding any novel variations of the surge encountered…for example, if the Chorister can sufficiently understand how the Voidish manifestation of the surge works or even the Radiant variations of combined surges, the spren 'memorizes' it. That is then available to any future Singers the 'Choristerspren' bonds. This could actually be dangerous and I recommend the orders to be wary of this functionality, should a Chorister be encountered.

[The moving of papers can be heard.]

Another possible concern on this 'surge memorization' is that- he implies anyways -in theory, the bodies of the Chorister can be adapted to safely handle the new manifestation of the surge. This actually seems to be where Dahkor came into play, its ability to change the body and cause novel tailormade invested effects…some sort of leveraging the spren medium?…I think this and whatever shade research he did is how he made a 'form spren'…

[The faint sound of a yawn can be heard along with the creaking of wood. There is a long pause of dialogue after the yawn, the ruffling of clothing can be heard intermittently during the pause. The speaker begins again along the sound of creaking wood and rustling papers.]

The least the storming bastard could've done is make digital reports for me. He spent a significant number of 'generations' getting the true surges to work. These Choristers- assuming that these diagrams are of them -appear very similar to what few envoyforms I've seen. They appear to all be Malen or Femalen, the Choristerforms I mean. Similar to normal forms in that it isn't related to the spren, but the Singer themselves. Since we are on the subject of appearance, they have a sort of skullplate looking face? There's some cresting at the top of that plate thing, and they can grow hair behind it...after that they become slightly different in appearance...and when they aren't actively using their surges, their eyes are solid black, though when they are using them, they glow a bright red...he he wrote some ideas on how to fix that, but I don't believe he acted on those ideas...next they…I'll be honest- I don't know how he did this since I would assume that he is corrupting a massive amount of investiture -but he removed the normal Singer colors from them…same patterns, but different colors; tans, oranges, and browns. Reds seem to change to become more orange, while whites become tans, and the blacks become browns. The two colored pieces I found along with the 'samples' brings to mind sandy deserty rocks. Possibly should be concerned about the security of arid locales. He does note that reds will sometimes stay while the whites and blacks change, which makes sense to me given how little I understand whatever this-

[The sound of rustling clothing can be heard in the breif pause of dialogue.]

-thing he is doing is. Damnation, I don't get paid enough for this headache. This changes significantly for the 'false surge Choristers'; Their marbling, regardless of initial coloration, mostly changes to the colors of the shard the surge is associated with. So, for example, the Adhesion Choristers have blue-white marbling, since it's Honor's false surge. If it doesn't wholly change, then there can be patches or streaks of red left behind…speaking of the false surge Choristers, he notes that they have an easier time hearing the rhythms of the associated shard, they are connected more to that shard by design to enable the use of the surge. This could be used strategically to atleast hinder them in conflicts. The true surge Choristers begin to hear those rhythms if they have access to their variation of the surge…so the rhythms of odium if exposed to the voidish variation of the surge.

[The sound of rustling clothing and a sigh can be heard.]

Due to this "discovery", I recommend being allowed either time or more personnel to comb through the specialization stage papers. Unless he pokes his head out of the void for another series of monstrosities, we theoretically have time- so I could do this alone -but with more storming personnel, we could get more accurate information! This is way outside of my expertise here!

[The sound of a sigh can be heard.]

I will await instruction before my next report.

[The recording ends.]

[journaldetruthwatcher]

Intelligence Intercept Title: 'Series Choir' Source Location: Unknown, Neutral Space

[The recording starts.]

These profane creatures that are the warped forms of Singers, even of the Fused, the Choristers- his term, not mine -are supposedly an 'improved form of Fused'. Created by the sick bastard of a Truthwatcher.

[There is a long pause in the recording, broken up by the sounds of papers being riffled with.]

If I'm reading these notes correctly- whhich for the record are an absolute mess, his mind is utterly inhuman -he made these things after his "Amalgams" were deemed a failure. I've never encountered those constructs before, which makes sense…somewhere in this mess he pretty explicitly states that they were a failure.

[A pause in dialogue, though papers are being moved and a metallic sound can be heard.]

Figuring out what those were was difficult…I think that they were an attempt to make 'human fused'…they were deemed a failure because…of…some...reason…I honestly haven't figured that out…but based on what I understand a Chorister to be like, it was probably some sort of 'efficiency' issue. Resources, time, investiture, something. Anyways-

[A pause in dialogue. A creaking of wood accompanied with a sigh can be heard in the middle. The pause ends as the creaking is heard again.]

His raids on Rosharan aligned systems were concentrated on those with relatively high Singer populations…he was looking for a self-sustaining population he could deposit in his void. He seems to have gotten it…then he replicated the Fused in a round about way…I'm not smart enough for this bullshit!

[A sigh can be heard.]

He stripped the souls of connection and cognition is what I think these can be summarized with. Uh…he begins to deviate from simply using Hemalurgy like he historically has, though that is implied to have happened several years after starting this project. Probably in the void then… Why do I have to do this? He hasn't detailed what he used, but he made note of Sel, Threnody, and if I had to guess, an undiscovered planet named 'Canticle'. I think he learned Dahkor, used the weird shade stuff, and…whatever a sunheart is. He's vague, but that's my only guess. After a period of time, he was able to continue on…over some period of 'generations' he was able to make these souls what effectively amounts to spren, and over several more 'generations' he was able to make them produce forms in the Singers he had entrapped. Storms, this is sick. Um, next he fine tuned the 'blueprint' forms…skipping ahead in the timeline for the end results for common changes; They have dense musculature, hardened carapaces, 'perfect gemhearts', they generate small quantities of various light by what I'll summarize as 'being alive', they gain multiple sets of vocal cords, and their brains seem to become rather extensively added to. Everything except for the gemhearts were done early on. He uh, he tried a lot of surgeries and methods to make the 'sunhearts' work. They appear to have killed the 'spren' each time he tried to get them to change forms…I'm not sure why or how, but the apparent solution was to make the 'sunheart the core for the gemheart'…again, I'm not sure how exactly that solves his issues, but that makes the gemhearts 'perfect'.

[A button being pressed can be heard.]

Add 'Canticle' and 'Sunheart' to the Lightweaver network's keywords.

[A button being pressed can be heard.]

Lets see, where was I? Right, the changes…apparently they are to 'improve on the design of the Fused'. The powers and immortality of the Fused, but none of the insanity. Same basic principle, a spren grants the surge and heavily changes the Singer- it should be noted that unbonding that spren kills the Singer -but the spren doesn't possess the Singer. Stormfather, how does someone get this twisted? The physical changes are to 'elevate the singer appropriately'. Stronger, tougher, smarter, faster…though it doesn't seem particularly extreme compared to some forms, it is more just…compact I guess? Hidden may be a way to work that. So, the vocal cords…I was concerned what that could be for, but I think it was just a mad science thing…what I can gather is that they speak with four voices simultaneously, but they can each somehow speak in different rhythms? It doesn't seem to have any further purpose, atleast none that I've found. Their brains…they were modified rather extensively. Like their physicality, it seems to have had a focus on 'compacting', more power in the same sized skull cavity. They think slightly faster, a portion was added to attune to and process multiple rhythms at once, an unused portion which was either intended for something that was forgotten or was placed there for the Singer to use themselves- both seem equally likely given the slightly odd structure -, and a large portion of it- what amounts to a third hemisphere -is dedicated to an 'instinctual understanding' of their surge. That got 'programmed' during the 'specialization' stage…several decades later it appears. The 'perfect gemheart' grows overtime, on average sixteen years, that much is very clear atleast. He writes extensively how frustrated he is that the investiture gained to actually induce that change 'fully' takes so long. Several of his deranged Mistspren even wrote encouraging notes near those lines. We already knew he wasn't keeping them captive...but, damnation.. Anyways, so, light. They aren't limited to the…light specific variations of surges…something to do with the 'perfect gemheart'…again, I don't really know what that is… they generate small quantities of lifelight when they eat and drink food, they generate a small quantity of voidlight when they sleep, and a small quantity of stormlight when they breath. All three of those processes are similar to storing into the appropriate metalminds, just a different variety of investiture that those qualities are being 'stored' as.

[The sounds of a large number of papers being moved can be heard.]

It should be noted that…somewhere in this mess is mention of the planned prison systems for these creatures. If we ever crack into the void, we should be wary of powerful and consistent 'magnetic solar dust storms' which will be heavily invested.

[The sound of creaking wood can be heard.]

If the stars are invested like he plans, those storms will act similar to highstorms, just on a more cosmic scale, which will give the Singers in those systems stormlight and crem analogues…besides each variety possessing access to a surge, that is more or less all of their shared traits I found. If I find more pressing information, I will submit further reports, but they seem to be mentally stable Fused with less facial expressions…not really as warped as I was expecting when I was assigned to this place…

[The recording ends.]

(Inspired by this depiction of Singers, which I love.)

[journaldetruthwatcher]

I've read what I've written in horror. Shimmer has been screaming in what I assume is pain for the past three hours. The cremlings that I assume are possessed by Mistspren watch me. They stare and I hear whispers.

My mind and memories are full of holes. I know I should hate what I've done, from a logical standpoint. I know that I have ceased to be Human, I know that what I plan will cause more suffering.

I physically can't feel bad about it anymore. One of my shattered memories is of me tearing that out from myself. The empathy that prevented me from seeking answers.

If anyone finds my notes, Hemalurgy as outlined here creates a new being and tortures any bonded spren. I think my lucidity will end in the coming minutes. I am not strong enough to stop myself, and for that I feel I must apologize.

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The Parshendi are nothing like I remember. They use Warform, but they don't have any of the Fused or even Thunderclasts.

I feel like I've made this observation before...

As I am not technically an Ardent, I can own things, though only a small amount of things, like a low nobleman, but I have to remain in the service of a noble. So, I've found myself in the employ of one Torol Sadeas.

Regardless, I've recommended to Sadeas the strategy of expendable and mobile bridgemen. It allows for a far larger area of influence and a quicker response.

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He accepted my suggestion! Wonderful! The benefits were made up, luckily the theory seems to work well enough. Really I just wanted to scavenge from the fallen.

Sadeas has been willing to grant me my rather unorthodox requests, metals and access to the forges primarily. Though he does seem wary of me, I suppose that is reasonable, I am in a unique position as far as Ardents go.

Despite the assumption that we will be leaving in a few months, I've allowed the familial units to build homes and begin attempts at cultivating the land.

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Familial units update; Attempting a small amount of regrowth on them after every high storm seems to yield results. It's taken months to be noticeable, but it is noticeable. Shimmer and the other Mistspren think that in 2...perhaps 3 generations, they will become independent similar to Humans. Disparaging yet hopeful progress. We'll get there eventually.

In other news; I've grafted on a few more traits onto myself, though, despite reinforcing my investiture and mind, I can feel myself reaching my limits. Since my body gets refined through the bond, I will see if the Mistspren can help me through my experiments with connection...but I would have to go all the way back to the Cognitive Realm, and I'm nowhere near the perpendicularity...It is interesting how some of the others around camp have begun avoiding stepping on cremlings due to the small swarm that follows me. Some of them aren't even possessed by Mistspren! Though Shimmer calls them 'cognitively weird', very scientific verbiage, thank you Shimmer. She is yelling at me not to write that joke as I wrote it and am writing this.

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The old acquaintance is that Mistborn I had helped once or twice on Scadrial! What are the odds? Anyways, he made this little club and has invited me to join, incentivizing me with hemalurgic research. I obviously joined and got this little angular tattoo on my inner wrist. Though, I do have to go elsewhere for the research.

Lucky too, there were some Highspren hanging out around the camp recently and Sadeas was beginning to want answers to my 'mercy killings' of the Bridgemen, I got a bit carried away and nearly annihilated Bridge 4...

Welp, that will be his problem soon to deal with, the slave caravans are scheduled to visit in a few days, he can pick up flesh there.

[journaldetruthwatcher]

She thought to herself, 'How many years has it been? How many twisted worlds have I had to survive through to get this far?'. She didn't know, she hadn't seen a spren world yet, just metal world after metal world...she hopped that the streak would be broken, that she would be closer to...she tried not to dwell on it too much. Then she saw it...a carapaced behemoth, another wrong world.

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I visited the nearby river again, apparently today there were a dozen or so, including one interesting old acquaintance (though I obviously don't remember who they were), a pair of Highspren, and one additional Mistspren volunteer. That makes six, the ardentia are beginning to suspect the growing cremling horde that follows me day in and day out.

Apparently the 'acquaintance' we had met off-world, he spouted something about some organization he wanted me to join. I didn't really get it or have any interest, but Shimmer seems to view the proposition positively, so I may have to consider it more.

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The king was just killed by the Parshendi, before I could go and study them! Fate is cruel sometimes, though not as cruel as it is to the Parshemen, they haven't quite figured out how to not go through the motions yet, and the kingdom...well, I get to say goodbye tomorrow...unless I can...yes, I will bring them to the shattered plains! Brilliant idea! We can compare through observation! The king's brother is going to there to wage war I believe I heard. Well, it won't be a desolation, but if I pose as an Ardent with ample combat ability...

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The Alethi warmachine is fascinating, using Transformation...or incomplete Transformation? The things they call Soulcasters, incomplete surges, if only I could use Hemalurgy on objects. Anyway, the familial units and I have made it to the shattered plains, apparently, the king did something that effectively made them mine, so I didn't have to save them at all. I should've paid more attention when I met with him the last time, since he also made me not technically an Ardent, this has something to do with the acquaintance, so Shimmer has been tasked to look for him when she can.

[journaldetruthwatcher]

Esther crouched in the dense jungle foliage, she has yet to see the denizens of this world, but the last five's were twisted abominants...his pet projects...hopefully this is a spren world. 'What sort of thoughts go through the head of someone like that? Kidnapping, experimenting on, slaughtering...not just Singers and Humans, but Spren, Kandra, Elantrians, even Threnodite Shades.'

She shuddered as she thought of all of his atrocities, they were even so high that Silverlight itself placed a bounty on his head. 'What sort of nightmares that pass for thoughts go through such a demented mind?'

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I experienced another boring day. Being an Ardent is not as good as I had hoped, I've been begging the king for some Parshmen for...vague experiments. I need to know what happened to them, and why there are no Fused. Gavilar has been willing, yet at the same time, non-commital, I've even tracked the paperwork to find eighteen relatively inexpensive parents and their children, it really is lucky that the bookkeeping on Parshmen is so much better than Skaa, though reuniting familial units is an annoying task.

Shimmer is supportive...which I really do need in this time of stagnation...here's to next week.

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Finally! It took six months to gather all the Parshmen the king purchased for me. Now, the hard part...

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They very clearly have diminished capacity, they are slow of body and mind, like they are missing a piece...if only I knew what, then I could attempt to graft a solution if it was a soul issue...

But, if it is a bodily one...a lottery is the only fair way. Anyways, others of the Ardentia I've delegated the task of attempting to educate them. The mentioned experiment to the king was to see if they could be 'undomesticated', though on a small scale and in a relatively controlled environment.

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It's been almost a year and I've finally finished the final vivisection, which are only immoral if the subject dies, I used regrowth to prevent that from happening, so all of them are perfectly alive and well. Anyways, Shimmer believes that, due to the results of no known physical abnormalities, it is definitely a soul issue. If only I knew what parts were damaged... well, I am interested in the proposed experiment anyway.

As of today, they have become self-sufficient. Some families farm while others cook, and others perform maintenance. But they are only surviving this way, going on autopilot...they aren't living, they are just going through their taught motions. They clearly haven't retained much of their attempted education, they can't read or write, and they are barely capable of speech.

I wish I could convey my exasperation on paper well, but this is no fault of their own. They are, they lack, the ability. Repetition I believe is key, though Shimmer thinks it will take a decade or more. Luckily, I have time.

[journaldetruthwatcher]

Throughout my journeys, I've seen many wonderful things, and I have obviously developed certain dark curiosities, a few of which are now related to my homeland I would say.

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Me and Shimmer were given many strange looks traveling through Shadesmar, which I suppose makes sense. She's changed drastically along our travels. Her porcelain mask is now made of shifting metal, marbled with different metals...perhaps due to the changes I induced in myself, her eyes glowing a soft red. Her uniform hasn't changed much I feel, the symbols may have muddied and fuzzed, but it is still recognizably a uniform a Mistspren would wear during a desolation. Her mist doesn't seem to have changed much...maybe it greyed a little bit? She, unfortunately, stands out too much here. Luckily I wasn't planning on staying...unluckily, she seems to make me stand out more by comparison. That and apparently the changes I made to myself are 'disgusting' to the others, though because I was already bonded to Shimmer, she thinks I may be able to convince a few Mistspren to join my experiments, they would be curious enough to at least hear me out before rejecting the ideas.

She could've sugar-coated it at least a little bit, but that's not her style.

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After talking with several spren...or rather...letting Shimmer do that for me...her appearance apparently made that more difficult than she would've liked...we've learned that there haven't been any new oaths in quite some time. Luckily, we didn't lose, Humans are still on Roshar, but Honor is dead...well...desolations simply haven't been happening. Curious.

Unfortunately, Honor's perpendicularity is no longer accessible, so I have to use Cultivation's. Which is close enough to where I am, as is all things it seems in Shadesmar are.

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Back in Roshar's physical realm, well, no one seems to know what happened and everything has...changed. The Fused, the Singers, Odium, the Heralds, everything is different, nothing is the same as it was...I was gone for too long...I miss my home...

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I have become an Ardent, it grants me some measure of freedom and privacy, allows me to learn, and most importantly, allows me to continue reading and writing. This culture is so different to what I remember, so different to where I've been living, but I want to know more before I leave.