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I would like to announce that when one makes to decision to read one chapter of their book before going to sleep, it is important to make sure that the selected chapter is not Chapter 37 of A Memory of Light.

Aons, Breaths, Metals, Stormlight...all fuels for magic on Sel, Nalthis, Scadrial, and Roshar respectively. If Aons are found in Seons and are referred to.as Splinters (the only real reference to a specific Splinter so far) wouldn't it stand to reason that a Splinter on Scadrial would take the form of a metal core in some entity; on Nalthis it would be a Breath that is some part of an entity; and on Roshar it would be Stormlight found inside... possibly chasmfiends, greatshells, which we've already seen people pull Stormlight from?

Standard disclaimer: If someone else has already connected these dots, please link me to the thread where its discussed, because I couldn't find this conclusion anywhere but I might have missed something. But something jumped out at me when looking at discussions of various splinters recently. In hindsight, it seems really obvious, but I haven't seen any attention drawn to it yet.... All the splinters we've seen thus far take the form of the 'focus' component of a world's pre-existing magic system. Breaths are a natural part of the magic native to Nalthis. But some Breaths (the Divine Breaths) are Splinters. Aons are a natural part of Sel's magic, but some of them, the ones at the hearts of Seons are Splinters. Recently Brandon confirmed that spren already existed on Roshar before Honor's shattering, but after he was shattered some were different, and some new ones were created. So essentially it seems to me that when a Shard is Splintered, or Splinters themselves partially, those Splinters are a super-charged or specially endowed version of the magic that already exists due to that Shard's interaction with their Shardworld. So if there were Splinters on Scadrial (which we know there aren't, via Word of Brandon), those Splinters would be metals of some kind. So post Splintering of a Shard, some focuses are natural, pre-existing ones, like human Breaths, and some focuses are supercharged (or super Invested?) Splinters. If I'm right, that tells us a couple things. One - That spren are the focus component of magic on Roshar, rather than the Oaths, Stormlight, or anything else that might have been speculated to fill that role. Two - My first thought was that meant that spren were definitely of Honor, not Cultivation. If some spren (but not all) were Splinters of Honor, that meant even the non-Splinter spren were his contribution to the magic of Roshar, right? But then I realized, duh, it means exactly the opposite. In the Reddit thread, Brandon referenced the aons at the heart of Seons AND Skaze. There's only one focus on Sel, despite the presence of two Shards: aons. Same as metal's the only focus on Scadrial despite two Shards. Roshar has three Shards. If spren are the focus of Roshar's magic, then they're of Honor, Cultivation and Odium equally. Ergo the presence of things like painspren and deathspren, which didn't make too much sense to be purely creations of Honor and/or Cultivation. So 'Alas, not all spren are as discerning as Honorspren' - of course not, if some spren (ie painspren, etc) are a result of Odium's presence on Roshar. Honorspren are the Splinters. If Odium did ever Splinter himself the way Endowment has on Nalthis with Divine Breaths, his Splinters would be Odiumspren. If Cultivation is Splintered, there are Cultivationspren out there as well. Three - Again, I refer to the 'Alas, not all spren are as discerning as Honorspren' line. We've been singling out the Honorspren, since they seem inherently connected to the Knights Radiant and their Surgebinding. But if spren are truly the focus of magic on Roshar, that means all spren can be used in Roshar's magic, not just the spren that are Splinters. Much like all aons and all breaths can be used in their worlds' respective magic systems, not just the Splinter versions of each. That's why surgebinding existed before the Splintering of Honor and the creation of Honorspren. That's why there's no sign of a sentient bond between Szeth and whatever spren might be fueling his surgebinding. Spren don't need to be sentient to fuel surgebinding, anymore than aons need to be sentient to fuel magic in Elantris. Now, my question if I'm right is - we've been told that the magic of each Shardworld has as much to do with the world itself as it does the Shard(s). But how much of the shape a magic system takes is due to the world, and how much due to the Shards? For instance, if Odium had left Splinters of himself on Sel for whatever reason (just a hypothetical, Brandon's already said he didn't), would those Splinters take the form of spren, or would they be a new kind of Aons? If Endowment came to Roshar for whatever reason, and left Splinters of himself/herself, would those Splinters be Divine Breaths, or would they be Endowmentspren?

Does anyone else think Renarin is a suspicious character who is up to no good? It seems like he is a character who is overlooked for the most part. And aren't those the ones that tend to go on to major roles in Brandon's books? I think he is the one behind the shattered gems in the kings shardplate. -There are several references to him being curious about fabrials making me think he understands about the workings of the gems. -He suppossedly rushes into the chasmfiend battle out of bravery but was it really to draw support away from the king and his weakened armor? Hoid/Wit makes it a point to pest him because he is less fragile than people think. Why can't his bloodsickness be soulcasted away? Jasnah is able to soulcast shallan's blood - why won't that work here? I think there is something more to this bloodsickness. How does Taravangian know so much about the recent events that make Dalinar's death inevitable? I think Renarin is working with him. What do others think?

I realize this is pretty pointless and probably totally doesn't matter to anything, but I was thinking today about things, and I got an interesting idea. What if Aona and Skai were something resembling romantically involved, if such a thing is possible for Shards. I think if it would work for any Shards we know of so far, it would make sense with the Intents of Dominion and Devotion, even if it wouldn't form anything resembling a healthy relationship in typical terms, but where she is all about Devotion and he is all about Dominion, it would actually be able to advance both of their Intents. Wow, that was weird and convoluted, but I'm not so great and disentangling my own prose into more elegant verbiage, so take from that what you will. Although, it does sort of tie in somewhat to a thought about Shu-Keseg and its offshoots. What if in its original form, Shu-Keseg was based on worship of both Devotion and Dominion and a pair? Then, Shu-Dereth and Shu-Korath each broke off to worship Dominion and Devotion respectively? To me at least, this line seems to explain pretty well the difference of doctrinal focus of the two churches. Anyway, that's just my thoughts regarding things on Sel. What do you guys think? EDIT: Spelling.

I've been agonizing about not having a very good magic system for my novels, but several months ago, that finally changed. Below is a set of guidelines and lists for my magic system, known as the Nine Disciplines. This is the magic system I am using for the epic fantasy trilogy I am writing, The Proanadi. The way it works is thus: any known magic-user has access to one, several, or all of these Disciplines. All "magic" as people know it derives itself ultimately from the Nine Disciplines. Where magic-users differ is WHERE they get their power from--their power source. There can also be differences in areas of focus, and ways that they use the different disciplines (because, the possibilities within the Disciplines are almost unlimited). Here are the Nine Disciplines below, grouped as they would be commonly, with three groups of three: Material 1 Physical (change in physical matter) 2 Sensory (change in perception) 3 Elemental (manipulation of the elements) Ultramaterial 1 Influential (change in feeling) 2 Intellectual (change in thought) 3 Essential (manipulation of life energies) Supernal 1 Continuous (disruptions in space or time) 2 Creative (creation of new energy or matter) 3 Potential (manipulation of force) Examples of something being done with each Discipline below: Physical: Enhances your (or another's) strength Sensory: Tricking another individual's perceptions, making you effectively invisible Elemental: Shooting fire from your hands Influential: Providing a morale boost to your comrades Intellectual: Tampering with someone's memory Essential: Bringing someone back to life Continuous: Teleportation (space) or slowing time (time) Creative: Creating food and water out of nothing Potential: Throwing up a wall of pure force Now, there are many different limitations and tricks associated with each Discipline, and points where they overlap, but different Disciplines work better in different situations. Please feel free to comment with ideas for changes, possible abilities within each Discipline, or discrepancies as you see them. Where the line is drawn between the different types of magic-users in the world comes from one major thing (though there are other, less important differences): Power Source. Where do they derive their power from? Below is a list of some D&D classes (not all of these are actually going to be used in the books, as that would kind of be plagiarizing, but it provides a good example for how different magic-users get their power) and some other magic-users and their power sources: Wizards – Power through learning (words and rituals that channel the energy) Clerics – Power through prayer* Sorcerers – Power through lineage (having some form of magical creature’s blood in your DNA) Favored Soul – Power through divine connection* Dragosamns (reptilian humanoid shamans) – Power through dragon totems (similar to Stewardic power)** Roshi (short reptilian humanoids) – Power through Chaos** Druids – Power through natural connection and energy Talir-Knights (though the original users of this form of power source are many of Serragon’s “monsters”, such as dragons) – Power through one’s own energy Demons – Power through destruction (breaking down of matter or energy) * Both Clerics and Favored Souls gain their ultimate power from the Stewards (gods). Only the means are different. ** Although both Roshi and Dragosamns gain their abilities through their dragon blood, their actual power sources come from outside their bloodline, unlike sorcerers. If you have any questions about who or what these types are, feel free to ask. That is the extent of it, I guess. There is much more to nail down, obviously, but that is why I post this on here, FOR IDEAS! Thanks for all of your time, and God bless!

Mistborn, is a big example of this. Something about Jasnah griping about how the Devotionaries suppress free thinking reminds me of something as well.

Just as Divine Breath is the Splinter, and the Returned is not the Splinter. Could it be that Seons are made of Splinters joining to human souls (or maybe animals...), just like Returned are made of Splinters joining human beings? We know Returned can change their physical form (and that Breath favores mimicking the human body, why Seons wouldn't fit the form (favoring Aons), even if they were human? So, going back to the topic in the OP, I agree that maybe there is something in the worlds that make the Splinters shape like the components of the magic do (Breath, Aons), although I'm not sure which kind of component this is. What are Aons and Breath to the magic systems? I'd focus on this tow because they are confirmed Splinters, we haven't seen any Splinter on Scadrial and we're not sure about sprens in WoK (although I agree that probably Honorspren are Honor Splinters).

This is a common misconception, but there's an important distinction. Seons are NOT Splinters. The Aon at the heart of a Seon is the Splinter, the not the Seon itself. (Source)

Just read this entire thread. I find it hilarious that the announcement of the name of the book turned into all of this! :-)

Hey, this is a little late in coming, but I was trying to read Chap 11 without having read chap 12 and it was a bit confusing. So I backed up, read it, and figured I ought to comment on one or two things. I think the dialogue and interactions here flow pretty well, the bits of interior monologue fit in well, etc. The explanation of the 'magic system' if you wanna call it that isn't at all info-dumpy, which is good. I also didn't get the feeling of the Cult of Form being some evil al-Qaeda thing (but maybe I missed that in a previous chapter). I would. however, be cautious with some of the descriptions of Enos. To me, it seems like descriptions like "she looked more Polynesian than Oriental" really kind of put people in a 'race' box that I'm not sure is very sensitive. In fact, I don't think anyone uses the word 'Oriental' for people anymore; rugs maybe but not people. I'd also be wary about the "almond-shaped" eyes, not because it's offensive but it's a bit cliched. Other than that no real qualms, apart from one bit, where it says: >>"Enos was pretty—like, one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen, but he was hopeless with girls." At this stage I think the point that he's not great with the ladies has been hammered home pretty satisfactorily, no need to spell it out again. Now on to Chapter 11!

Just a side note - we need to be careful about trying to pair off every single shard. I think it could easily lead us to some "creative" interpretations of the shard's power and intent so that we can force it into a pet pairing.

If they understood how compounding health worked, people would realise they just need to get his gold off of him, then kill him and he's dead.

I'm not really looking at either Shu-Dereth or Dominion as being in the bad guy camp. My logic on that dichotomy is based on the comment in the book about Shu-Korath being based on unity through love (Devotion) and Shu-Dereth being based on unity through order (Dominion). As for Derethi use of Seons, that is very clearly contrary to letter of the law as they are directly tied to some very non Derethi stuff. As for your interpretations of the two religions and their connections, I think you run into some issues when you look at how they are described in the text. The Shu-Dereth chain of command is definitely more driven by you obeying the orders of the person above you and them having control over you than it is about you being devoted to them. Shu-Korath is more driven by personal devotion to Domi. I hope that makes sense, Yados.

Maybe Rosh is not wording correctly? I don't remember exactly how it works, but I think you need focus, energy and something else. Maybe you refer to the energy? Because I believe Splinters are mainly raw energy (and possibly intent), so maybe the form that takes the energy that fuels the world magic is the form that the Splinters take into each world. By the way, perhaps we saw no Splinters on Scadrial but, remember, we have seen Atium (which is Ruin's Body) and the Pool (IIRC, Ruin's Energy, meaning Spirit). BS said we have seen no Splinters on Scadrial but we have seen chunks of a Shard body, Atium and Lerasium, what is the difference? Why they're not Splinters? I think it's an interesting question.

I really loved this chapter. I feel like we are getting to a deeper level of the characters, and I love finding out more about the 10 species. Haha, I really loved this curse "By the ancestor's egg teeth." I have no idea what it means, but I like it anyway. I hate to pick at this again, but I still see a few problems with Sam's agoraphobia. Previously, you said that Sam would probably be shy, but upon first meeting Enos, he tries to get her to make eye contact and invites her to lunch. I do really want Sam and Enos to interact, but perhaps the suggestion could come from one of the magi instead of the apprentices? Or Sam could force himself to make conversation to avoid awkward silences? If the block is also helping with the social interactions, perhaps you could have Sam say something about how talking to girls was something he could have never done before, or something like that?-- Upon reading further, this does get better farther into the chapter. He becomes more awkward around her. I would still consider their first meeting though. Hmm, about the Cult of Form, so far, I haven't felt the way Aubrey does so far, but I think you should be cautious about it. If you were just trying to say they wear dark robes, perhaps you could call them dark robes or cowls that hid their faces instead. "while this Aridori rice paper flaps in the wind, what then?”... I'm not sure what this meant. Is this a cultural saying about the Aridori or something? I'm very curious to find out what Enos is being so secretive about.

That could probably have been expressed just as effectively with like, 30% less sarcasm. I can read about a page a minute. 1000-page book pulls in at about 16 hours, but it's rare that I would read a book in one marathon session. I know I pushed through A Dance With Dragons in about 3-5 days. I usually blast through a Butcher book in two, sometimes in one, which is a combination of frustrating and satisfying ("oh, that was good. Too bad I gotta wait a year or more for the next one"). Same thing with Hiaasen. Some authors are easier to burn through than others, but I usually consume two or three novels in a week as a general rule of thumb.

Nah, I am keeping Nathan Fillion in reserve to play Lightsong in Warbreaker. I like the suggestion of Hailee Steinfeld as Vin. She was amazing in True Grit. Jennifer Lawrence, who's playing Katniss in the Hunger Games, might also be good in the role. I thought she did a good job in X-Men.

Indeed it is form of scanning and reading. Im glad i ran into the forum police here right away, instead of when i broke some real laws. Ill make sure to start explaining my every word as if you were a four year old. My apologies great forum warrior. Guess theres always one in every forum..... awesome. For the record the problem people have when scanning is tryign to retain everything. The trick of scanning is not prioritizing what to retain, but what to dismiss and pass over while identifying the relative information your looking for. Ive never been interested at how hard the wind was blowing in a scene or the color of sky. "brain fatigue" interesting term, never experienced it while reading, but i do sleep like the dead after a few hours of reading. And now since this post has nothing to do with anything else talked about, i guess i just killed this thread.