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From the Way of Kings, we know that the Ghostblood symbol is composed of three diamonds that overlap each other. In Words of Radiance, it is described as a triangle (I hope nobody considers that a spoiler). I tried looking for fanart depicting this, but all I can find is this (from the Stormlight Archive Wikia): I have two problems with this: First, the first diamond doesn't overlap with the third (breaking the "overlapping with each other" rule). Second, the symbol isn't at all triangular. Unless this was confirmed by Brandon to be accurate, I'm gonna have to conclude that this isn't the Ghostblood symbol. Earlier today it came to me that the symbol might be based on Borromean rings, three rings linked to each other. Googling for "Borromean diamonds" gave me this (from this page by an origami artist named Francis Ow): Now that's more like it! Just change the colors so that it looks sinister instead of girly and it would be perfect. Notice that the center is a hexagon, and six is the number Shash, the number of Blood. Also, the number three (three diamonds, and the vaguely triangular shape), Chach, is the number of Spark, the Essence of souls. Soul + Blood is... Ghostblood! What do you guys think? Is this similar to your conception of the Ghostblood symbol? I could try making my own (less bright and less pink) version of this, but I know quite a few Sharders who are very talented artistically. Any of you guys want to help? Edit: I just realized that "Borromean rings" is not strictly synonymous with interlocked rings. Borromean rings are arranged such that removing one ring results in two non-interlocked rings, whereas something like gimmal rings, for example, are strictly interlocked. The origami above isn't even Borromean; the creator calls them "interwoven diamonds". Forgive me for using the wrong terminology! *bows head in shame* Update: Here are some low-quality images I made of the pattern/symbol. Update: Brandon says my idea is not correct. Oh well.

It's been a while since I've been theorizing! It's time to change that. This treatise--and it is a treatise; it is way too long--has a long history in my mind, and now it is finally time for me to actually put it down in writing. (The graph also took forever to figure out how to do, but I finally got it to work. Yes, there's a graph in this theory.) Introduction There is a wide variance in magic in the cosmere, but it has never been clear why some magics might be more related to one than another. Considering Words of Radiance, we know that Stormlight and Breath are similar in many ways. In this exhaustive classification scheme, we will rigorously describe how cosmere magics differ, using Realmatic reasoning, and also provide a high level view on how these magics came into being, and why they act as they do. (Look, I know I should be calling them Investitures or manifestations of Investiture, but I'm going to go with magic systems for now because it is just less clunky than "manifestations of Investiture," okay?) These ideas began, as many things with me do, with a conversation with Windrunner. When we read Words of Radiance, we had many thoughts, and we started comparing magic systems. What makes one stronger than another? The Spiritual fuel is important, but what of spren? In this scheme, I said that Allomancy and Surgebinding was probably the most "powerful" of the magics, but for different reasons. Allomancy was very restrictive, but because it was so restrictive, its effects could be much more impressive. AonDor was also very powerful in its own way, but while flexible, it required a great deal of preparation. So I supposed that maybe there's a "Power" axis and a "Preparation" axis. BioChroma would be of more middling power, but require less preparation. This seemed like a sensible way of organizing the magics together from a high level. But, I had never been satisfied with these terms, as they had no relation with any other cosmere terms. And more importantly, something seemed… missing, somehow. It turned out there were more precise axes to use: Realmatics. We throw terms around like Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual, but we don't know what they mean as much. But with Emperor's Soul, we know more, and now I'm going to relate these in classifying cosmere magics. Two axes seemed too few, so let's go with three, the typical Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual. In fact, there are good reasons to use these as attributes. In Words of Radiance, the writer of the Ars Arcanum uses it to describe Lightweaving: Of course, this by itself, is not a new idea. A long-espoused idea is that All Magics have Three Parts. But that theory didn't go far enough. Why? Magics are not equally rooted all three Realms. Time for a short digression on my philosophy on magic: every magic is essentially a Realmatic exchange. Power--Investiture--is moved or transformed from one Realm, say the Spiritual, to a different Realm, like the Physical. Not all magics have the same Realmatic exchange between Realms, but there's always some sort of interaction between all three Realms. For this to happen, a magic system has to be partially embedded in each Realm. Think of it like a chemical reaction: you have three different pots and with the right conditions, you cause a reaction between these three pots, causing various effects. This is not entirely relevant to this theory, but to me it seems to be an interesting way of thinking about magic. It's more fundamental, and to me explains the reasoning why magics need to have roots in all three Realms. It seems obvious that magics will be rooted in each Realm differently. Awakening has a strong Cognitive component that Allomancy does not. Surgebinding requires a Spiritual connection, and is totally different from Awakening and Allomancy. Three different magics, three different distributions in which Realms the magics are rooted. I think the idea of a "focus" can also be fit into this classification scheme. Originally, without Roshar, the focus of a magic system seemed pretty self-evident: Aons/symbols, metals, Commands--with Commands being the least immediately obvious, but in retrospect, Commands do all the "action" of this Realmatic interaction, if you think about it. But Surgebinding just doesn't have an obvious equivalent, and that's totally okay. Brandon has more recently said that the idea of a focus is something that peoples came up with to describe magic, which implies to me that the notion of a focus is not a core, fundamental attribute to cosmere magics. But again, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's classify magics. The Model You guys know I have a math degree, right? (Now a Master's degree in fact.) So, this part may be slightly… unnecessarily numerical. Don't worry about it; you can skip the numbers. Mathematical models, at their simplest, start with a few core principles and then use that to construct equations or numbers which hopefully illuminate things. We obviously have little to no true numerical information, so I'll be doing some estimations. But first, let's make our assumptions very clear before insanity begins. 1. Every magic is rooted in each of the three Realms (pretty widely accepted) 2. Depending on magic system, this distribution is not equal. So let's get onto classifying just how much each magic system is rooted in each Realm. It seems sensible that perhaps we rate magics on a scale of 100 points, and we'll have three values, for Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual. These values need to sum up to 100, so you could say these are the rough estimates for how much a magic is rooted in each Realm. (If you've had probability, you can just scale these to be from 0 to 1 rather than 0 to 100, but big numbers seemed nicer for this). So we might say a magic is 50 in Physical, 30 Cognitive, and 20 Spiritual, for an example. Now, that might seem like a pretty safe assumption, but what I'm effectively doing is saying that I'm normalizing every magic to have the same power level. There's 100 "power" to distribute between Realms. That's a pretty big assumption! We will see minor Shardworlds where Splinters power magics rather than Shards, and those magics will definitely not be as powerful as the Shardic magics. So, our final assumption: 3. Generally all Shardic magics have the same amount of pure "strength"; it is just distributed differently (this may be totally false, but right now we don't have tools to properly measure if one magic is purely stronger than another). With our assumptions in hand, we can begin thinking about magics. But maybe I ought to say what I mean by Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual. Physical: How much a magic is aligned with things in the Physical Realm. The Physical generally results in more restrictive abilities. Cognitive: How much a magic is aligned with Cognitive things, such as thought, preparation required in manifesting magic Spiritual: How much a magic is aligned to ideals, Identity, and other Spiritual traits. Depending on which Realmatic attribute is dominant will determine how a magic's focus is. Physical magics require a very rigid focus. Cognitive magics have more fluid foci. Spiritual magics may purely not require a focus because of a person's direct connection. We'll talk a lot more about this in a bit. Finally, let's get to business. Scadrian magics are interesting in that they are specially hardwired into a person's Spiritweb (and Hemalurgy revolves on rewiring these, essentially). It's the only cosmere magic like this, with very rigid abilities encoded into you. Many other magics can be accessed more easily, but not the Metallic Arts. You either have it or you don't, or you're a horrible person and like spiking people. I would thus classify all Scadrian magics as Physical. Whereas other magics require significant work to get going, like AonDor, Forgery, or Awakening, all the "work" of the Realmatic interaction is contained in the correct metal. Nothing else is required. Allomancy - Heavily Physical, minor Spiritual (due to its connection with Preservation), very little Cognitive Feruchemy - Physical, about equal Cognitive and Spiritual Hemalurgy - Physical, Spiritual, and Cognitive, but there's more Cognitive to Hemalurgy (since it heavily depends on knowledge of where to put the spikes), and it steals a lot of Spiritual attributes, hence its Spiritual designation. One could argue, perhaps, it is more Cognitive than Spiritual. Nalthian magics are most obviously embedded in the three Realms: color, Commands, and Breath are its Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual components, respectively. But where does the work lie? It's primarily Cognitive. The visualization and the Command is the most key element to the magic, Awakening - Cognitive, Spiritual, then Physical Selish magics are also highly Cognitive. It requires a lot of work to create just the right Aon or soulstamp. AonDor - Cognitive, Spiritual, very little Physical Forgery - Cognitive, Spiritual, more Physical I'm not including the ChayShan or Dakhor, as we know so little about them, but if we had more data I'm sure we could fit them into this scheme. At the moment, ChayShan seems more Physical, and Dakhor has a more strong Physical component too. AonDor really has the least Physical of all the Selish magics, yet a very strong Spiritual component. Finally, Roshar. This is a Spiritual magic if I've ever seen one. It requires a deep bond with your spren to make the magic work. If you don't have that bond, you need an Honorblade, which I would call a "focus" in this case. It grants that ability for you, giving you that connection to Honor necessary to suck in Stormlight. But in most usual Surgebinding, its dominant attribute--the reason for the power--is your Spiritual Identity. Who you truly are. Surgebinding - Spiritual, Physical, Cognitive (the last two depending on Surge) Of course, in this, I'm generalizing all magics under one umbrella. Certain Feruchemical abilities are in one Realm entirely, and while Windrunning doesn't involve much Cognitive, Lightweaving does. So take these as rough averages at best. Putting it all together: Allomancy - Heavily Physical, minor Spiritual,very little Cognitive Feruchemy - Physical, about equal Cognitive and Spiritual Hemalurgy - Physical, Spiritual, and Cognitive Awakening - Cognitive, Spiritual, then Physical AonDor - Cognitive, Spiritual, very little Physical Forgery - Cognitive, Spiritual, more Physical Surgebinding - Spiritual, Physical, Cognitive And heck, let's put some numbers to it, because I feel that will show a magic's attribute and its distribution more effectively than me blathering: Allomancy: 60 Physical, 30 Spiritual, 10 Cognitive Feruchemy: 50 Physical, 25 Cognitive, 25 Spiritual Hemalurgy: 50 Physical, 30 Spiritual, 20 Cognitive Awakening: 60 Cognitive, 30 Spiritual, 10 Physical AonDor: 50 Cognitive, 45 Spiritual, 5 Physical Forgery: 50 Cognitive, 40 Spiritual, 10 Physical Surgebinding: 60 Spiritual, 20 Physical, 20 Cognitive That seems to sum things up pretty nicely. The only one I'm not really sold on is Forgery, since it throws around much less power than AonDor, but yet still deals with Identity (a very Spiritual attribute) heavily. Perhaps if we consider that AonDor only seems so powerful with the help of Elantris, this power disparity doesn't seem nearly as extreme. So of course, here's a pretty graph displaying this info: Each color corresponds to a particular world: Red - Scadrian Purple - Nalthian Blue - Selish Green - Rosharan But what is a 3D graph from just one angle? That's why I made a fully interactive version for your viewing pleasure! Now that I think is pretty slick. Power levels and Cognitive Intermediaries And with that model in place, we can get back to the discussion Windy and I originally had, about relative powers of a magic. Tied up in this question also will be spren and foci. Remember, in my conception of magic, manifestations of Investiture occur because Investiture is being shifted between the Realms. This effects don't happen in a vacuum; they require a user, and almost always, they require activation of some sorts, a will for magic to occur (the only time it doesn't is when Allomancers unconsciously burn metals). But more importantly, there needs to be a catalyst for this Realmatic interaction to occur. If we think about Surgebinding and Shallan Soulcasting, Pattern acts as her intermediary in Shadesmar. Given Syl talks about magic being an "agreement with friends," it seems reasonable to say that your spren is the thing that, in the Cognitive Realm, makes this interaction work. It all comes back to the Cognitive Realm, really, because Shadesmar connects the Physical and Spiritual. It's where change happens. (Is it any wonder that Shadesmar is predominantly water? Liquids are a transitionary state of matter between solids and gases) I'll call spren a Cognitive Intermediary, or an Intermediary more simply. These are the catalysts that make magic all work. So, that immediately asks the question, do other magics have a similar Intermediary? Of course! They are focuses. I originally defined a focus as something that shapes power into a specific effect. Realmatically, that focus facilitates the Realmatic interaction. This explains why AonDor is incredibly unforgiving. Without a sentient Cognitive Intermediary acting on your behalf, you have to do all the action yourself, and persuading the "spren" of other things to do what you wish is… well, as we know from Shallan, it is nontrivial. Aons allow Investiture to be shaped very specifically, but you have to get it precise, or else the whole thing is for nothing. Awakening's Commands are also that Intermediary, and similarly, you have to be pretty darn specific in your Command (and your Cognitive visualization, which is really what you want; the words just help to visualize the Command). You are willing that Breath to take this very specific shape and form, for the "spren" of the object to do as you wish. You have to be a pretty persuasive. What of the Metallic Arts? In the case of Allomancy, the consuming of the metal unlocks the Investiture directly from Preservation. I interpret this as, the powers are very specifically ingrained into you, and when the metal--the Intermediary--is used, Investiture is forced down the very specific paths that are ingrained into you. It's like a very narrow conduit that suddenly opens with the metal present. Other magics that aren't as firm in abilities either need a very precise Cognitive focus to shape the power how you want it, or it requires a deep Spiritual connection, with something doing the action for you. Those are the three ways you get magic. And of course, the way the Investiture is accessed also needs to be in line with the Shard's intent, but this goes a step further in identifying what components a magic will require need, Realmatically. (Tangent: Nightblood is a spren, really. He's his own Cognitive Intermediary in Shadesmar, like a spren. I imagine in Shadesmar, he's violently using the power of his Breath and the Breaths he consumes to actively fulfill his specific intent. Other spren get vaguer intents and have a bit more freedom in what they do.) So Allomancy is hardwired in, and it is powerful primarily because its power is very focused in specific ways. In AonDor and Awakening, you construct your Cognitive Intermediary yourself. Differences between these two magics come from the way you get the magic in the first place (differences in Shard intent), but also, AonDor has a lot more Spiritual power to throw around. Awakening is interesting in that it is the only magic (well, other than Hemalurgy) where Innate Investiture--Breath in this case--is the fuel, and in the scale of Shards, Innate Investiture is really small. Powerful magics require a connection with something more Spiritual. In Allomancy and Feruchemy, the encoding grants that connection to the Shards, and your Identity and who you are is what triggers the Shaod, allowing a direct connection with the Dor. Thus, AonDor has a lot more to work with. So power, ultimately, is vested in the Spiritual. The stronger a magic's spiritual aspect, the more power it gets to throw around. As such, Elantrians, Knights Radiant, and Allomancers have a great deal of pure "strength". However, Elantrians and Radiants are more closely related in this spiritual way. Radiants and Allomancers are more related in ease of use, because things are less Cognitive, but that comes with limitations: the magics that are fast to use are limited and not flexible. The more a magic is Cognitive, though, the more flexibility it has. Awakening and AonDor have almost innumerable abilities. Practically unlimited! Physicality means that things are the least flexible. But rigidness means you get dramatic effect at minimal costs. I predict that there will be very few Physical magics in the cosmere, as building a physical magic with these specific Spiritweb encodings seems like a very deliberate act on a Shard's part, and I'm not sure a Shard would make such an intense effort. Which brings us up to a more mythological analysis on maybe, just maybe, why these magics are vested in each Realm the way they are. A historical perspective (Source, and emphasis is mine, of course) This is an incredibly important quote. Focuses are not a function of the Shards themselves, but also the Shardworld. This could be taken to mean many things about a Shardworld, but what if this means foci occur because Shards and the actual events that happen on that planet? So let's take a historical look at magics. Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy have much more active Shardic connections, and their Spiritweb encodings represent a specific design. It's as if the magics were created with that purpose (If you buy that the Metallic Arts are designed, this can explain how Harmony can alter the way Snapping works and Preservation could switch out metals--the magic itself is Physical. Constructed. Designed.) That does make sense given Scadrial's origin. Things on this planet were born of an agreement between two Shards. They had to carefully craft what they built. Preservation let people access his power more, forging Allomancy in the process. The metal, being an artifact of agreement, became its focus. Ruin countered Preservation by using the metals for his purpose instead. He of course wouldn't let people access his own power. Their agreement was hardly a pleasant one. They were enemies and every action they did had to subtly give them an advantage over the other. As such they could have agreed upon a focus which let them be very careful in how their Investitures were used; hence the reason abilities are so rigid here. (Another tangent: It is important to note that they did not Invest the metal on Scadrial. Rather, they made a more interesting construct: Investing people in very particular, specific ways, and allowing the metal to be the key to unlocking the Investiture. So a Scadrian could burn Rosharan tin and find it chemically identical, unlocking the power exactly the same as elsewhere.) That was how Scadrial's conflict manifested in its magic. On Roshar, things emerged quite a bit differently. Honor and Cultivation, romantically involved, went to the Rosharan system. It is possible they Invested some of their power onto Ashyn or Braize--we don't know yet. But either way, Honor and Cultivation made it to Roshar first. Then Odium came and caused some issues. (Understatement of the millennium) Odium would not have agreed, as Ruin did, to an easy accord. Odium didn't even want to construct--he wanted to eliminate his opponents. Honor and Cultivation disagreed rather strenuously. Honor, at the very least (it is not clear how Cultivation fits in), began opposing Odium with everything he has. Honor threw around a ton of his power in opposing him--perhaps creating the storms in what seemed at the time to be an effort to blow Odium's forces off the whole planet. Odium threw a lot of his power around too. As such, Rosharan magics have a high ceiling of power because the Shards there threw a lot around. Conflict is Roshar. Or, rather, "Man's life on Roshar is conflict," says The Arguments (Way of Kings, Chapter 24). Spren, appearing through… well, the origin of spren is not clear, but possibly Honor and Cultivation wanted them prior to Odium's arrival. Either way, spren began imitating the Heralds' abilities and granting them to humans. The Heralds bound these Surgebinders to them, and perhaps due to the Heralds' connection to the Almighty, Honor Invested his power into these Surgebinders, so if they followed Ideals, they would become ludicrously strong. They became the Knights Radiant. There's another mystery with Roshar; why did Hoid say that its Shards are very strict? Well, in this epic conflict, Honor and Odium were battling with powers that were hard to comprehend for us. But Shards have limitations. Whether there were efficiency restrictions in this battle (Honor would not have wanted to use his power in such a way to be much weaker than Odium), Honor made it so you got two Surges, not all ten, for whatever reason. This is still a bit mysterious to me why this would be, but the strictness of the Shards came from high level restrictions and rules to how this war happened, maybe through the Oathpact. On Nalthis, Endowment Invested people and began Returning. Magic arose naturally (though I'm sure we could debate this a long time). Endowment allowed humans to do with the power what they will, not restricting the power. They could do basically anything with the power, if they knew the right Commands. Is it any surprise that the Scholars discovered essentially how to make a Shardblade (which Nightblood essentially is)? BioChroma is incredibly versatile. On Sel, the current day magics are really different manifestations of the same magic (this was proposed in Kerry's Selish theory, and I am absolutely certain Brandon said that's essentially what's happening, but I can't remember where that confirmation was posted. If someone finds it, I'll update this) It seems entirely rational that prior to Devotion and Dominion's Splintering, there was in fact a single magic system on Sel. Devotion and Dominion worked together, I think. Complementary. But whatever magic looked like on Sel, the Splintering created this unformed mass of power that couldn't be released effectively. The Dor formed. And because the Selish magic wasn't as restrictive, when the Shards were Splintered, The question you might ask is, why would Selish magics break whereas Honor's did not? Two reasons: first, Honor's Splintering power had places and people to Invest in, so his power didn't cause this cataclysmic Dor. Second, Honor was probably much more precise in how people could access his power than Devotion and Dominion. If you agree with how I've sorted magic systems as above, it seems as though Devotion and Dominion took a more hands off approach to how their magic initially was. There's not evidence of grand conflict between the two initially, so that could make sense. When Devotion and Dominion Splintered, that lack of "definition" meant that the method that mortals usually accessed the power also was disrupted, and so you needed a different sort of connection (and Identity) to the power to use magic. Comparing magics and replicating effects Let's talk about Nightblood more. Come on, you know you want to. It seems intuitive that Stormlight and Breath are similar. Both are gaseous metaphors. You Invest the two similarly. However, Breath is of life. It is the Innate Investiture on that world. Stormlight is not the power of life: it is directly the power of chaos, of the storm raging inside you. That is similar across all Radiant orders. This is to say, I'm suggesting that Spiritual power actually sees itself differently, depending on how the Shard's power was distributed (and the Shard itself, surely). Endowment made Breath Innate. Breath was of life. When you have more Breath, your life sense is increased, and at the fifth heightening, you're immune to disease and are freaking immortal. (Makes sense that you could use Breath to influence the mind--it is a Cognitive magic, and it is affecting life, right in line with Breath.) Then there are other abilities granted with that much Spiritual power, too, and other abilities related to tones and color (other Nalthian attributes). It perfects, as Spiritual power does. Stormlight is the power of storms and chaos. It perfects, but does so entirely differently. And actually, Stormlight is probably a much more potent source of energy than Breath. Breath being Innate means it is a weaker investiture than these gigantic storms and the power they radiate. Also, it seems as though Stormlight is more Physical than Breath is. Stormlight Invested things glow; Breath does not. But you can hold a lot more Breath than Stormlight at a time. Breath also requires color to move (an extra physical impetus for that spiritual transfer to a new physical host), whereas Stormlight requires a Spiritual link to Honor to move it in the first place. The idea that Stormlight is more Physical than Breath may explain why Stormlight dissipates while Breath does not. It's more Physical, so that power diffuses into the Physical Realm, while Breath is located more elsewhere. This idea--that these fuels are subtly different in intent--could mean a lot to Vasher and Nightblood. Shardblades are ludicrously destructive, and cause spiritual damage.(cite) Nightblood is, in many ways, a Shardblade. Would not the type of fuel matter for Nightblood? As I said, Breath is the power of life, and that's very different from what Nightblood's intent is. Stormlight though. That seems like the perfect fuel. Chaos. Destruction. So when it comes to some magics, if you want to get the most bang for your buck, you want the right Spiritual fuel for the job. I'm not sure if this makes Nightblood more or less destructive. Maybe he wouldn't be so vicious at consuming Stormlight as he was with Breath because the storms are a better fuel for him. Stormlight might make Vasher quite a bit different. Remember, any Investiture, no matter how small, will change you over time(cite), and Vasher has lived a long time. Make no mistake, Vasher is there because he can live off Stormlight(cite) easier than acquiring a new Breath frequently… but I'm thinking that because he's consuming the power of storms and chaos, he would be quite a bit different. It seems to me that if you wanted the right magic for a given task, you would want to consider the effect you want to have, and pick the Investiture colored by a Shard's intent that would be most in line with what you wanted to accomplish. Then, depending on what Investiture you selected, you'd have to work to shape the power in exactly the form you wanted. Illusion magics are replicated frequently. Yolen has it. Sel has it with AonDor, but that variant is different as there's no Spiritual requirement; it is all Cognitive. It is possible that Yolish magic has a key Spiritual component, if Lightweaving is similar. If Preservation and Ruin actually altered themselves to allow metal to be the key to their power, as I suggest, it makes sense that iron and steel influence metals. That might actually be the hardest basic Allomantic effect to replicate on another world because of those Shards relationship with metal. The other effects of Allomancy could definitely be replicated, especially the mental metals. Conclusion (the tl;dr version) The Realmatic description of magics help define magic systems much more precisely. How much a magic is rooted in each Realm determines a number of effects of a given magic. It can determine how you access it, and what sort of "focus" it requires. Physical magics cost the least to do, Cognitive magics are the most flexible, and Spiritual magics throw the most "power" or Investiture around. I realize this was far too long, but I hope I minimized the amount of crazy in the theory and made it as elegant to describe as possible. The numbers weren't important (since they are just guesses), really, but the moment I realized there were three axes, I had to show an awesome graph. At the very least, I hope I gave you a new way of thinking about cosmere magics, with the Realmatic interactions, Cognitive Intermediaries, and the nuts and bolts of how these Realmatic interactions happen.

Every breath was more difficult than the last. Awes could feel his mind wandering, recalling random moments from the last few days, unable to focus on the here and now any longer. He needed to pay attention though. He still had one thing to do before he let go. They were all gathered around him, confident that they’d finally one. Awes couldn’t argue with that sentiment. But their victory would not be as complete as they seemed to think. Awes knew how to turn that joy into ashes in their mouth. His heartbeat had slowed, but it was still there. Ace was leaning over him, gloating about how this slow death was deserved for the crimes he had committed. After feeling the pain himself, Awes didn't think that was true. No one deserved to die like this. But Awes didn’t hold it against Ace. He could understand his rage. What could not be forgiven was betrayal. Jim Bob Dirt had promised to help the ghostbloods but instead had brought their destruction. He likely never intended to help them but that didn’t matter. He’d made the agreement. The words had come out of his mouth. He would be judged by his actions, not his heart. The heart slowed even more, but didn’t stop. Wurum was the only voice of reason in the group. He was smart enough to realize that they should finish Awes quick and be done with it. No one else seemed to realize the danger though. They had no one to blame for this one final death but themselves. Awes forced himself back to lucidity with one last push of strength. He opened his eyes and looked at each face, resting finally on Jim Bob Dirt who stood far closer than he should have. “You think us defeated? We were but a small drop of blood in a sea of red. Enjoy your victory for now, what little you have left. In the end, the ghostbloods always get what we seek and right now I seek revenge.” Awes extended his hand directly at Jim Bob Dirt’s chest. “Ten” Edit: Spelling and grammar. Was typing this really fast to get it in before the deadline.

Q: What do you do after the everstorm hits? A: avoidbringers! so yeah, thats it. feel free to add jokes/rage at me for my terrible sense of humor.

I will edit my posts instead of posting twice in a row.

Kurk...? Ooh! I brought three people to the site! How many upvotes do I get??

When you find out that the friend that you converted to Sanderson converted someone else to Sanderson.

Hey guys (and gals) of the 17th Shard! I've been lurking for a while, and figured I might as well make an account. I'm a big fan of the sci-fi/fantasy genre and really love Brandon Sanderson's books. After discovering the Cosmere while reading Words of Radiance he instantly became my favourite author. Since then, I've read just about all the Cosmere books (I'm missing a couple like The Emperor's Soul and the Mistborn Adventure Game books). Some random things about me: I like archery and want to learn longsword fencing. I'm learning Video Game Design stuff right now (Self-taught right now, starting a real course in a few months). I love the lore and history of fantasy/sci-fi universes and how they're made (Hence why I love the Cosmere stories so much). I read a lot. If I could have any Cosmere power set and live on any world I would be an Awakener and live on Sel. I wonder how many people will know what my username is referencing...

I will strike without fear I will laugh when laughter seems impossible I will thwart fate and confound reality I will remain unconquerable I will devour that which is tasty, especially meat I will explore the unknown I will embody hope I will dance amidst the chaos I will shield the innocent I will bring the Beat I will make endless puns

Well, that's why you vote on the last day, guys. Well done to Awes for getting a final kill in. It's also a shame, but I am just a Pain Knife off of meeting Jim's secondary objective for him I have just a few things that I'd like to say as constructive feedback. Overall, I really enjoyed the game, even if I got really concerned that we couldn't win when they got the Shardblade. But, as we can see, that didn't actually cripple us nearly as much as I thought. Anyway: I think it was too easy to abuse the Shardplate thing. Giving it away meant that you could trade Plates and be practically unkillable without a Painknife. I think it should've probably been a cycle to recharge or so, possibly two, so that each side had two chances to finish them off. Speaking of which, Painknives were a bit too strong. At the moment, it was one action to negate three, which meant that when we found the Ghostbloods, they couldn't really do much about it. I'd either make it an action for an action, or make it take up your entire turn too so that it was fair. Probably the former, since the latter is still terrible for them when the number of Pain Knives floating around is the same as the number of Ghostbloods. Finally, I think Spies could do with a little buff, since at the moment they rely way too heavily on the dice roll (or however it's determined) and become weaker later into the game. It's too easy to become immune to them by stacking more items to ensure the special one isn't discovered, particularly for the Ghostbloods since they'll gather more items. As such, perhaps they should discover an item as they currently do, but also the total number of items they have? Once again though Mailliw, I really enjoyed this game. Thanks for GMing

Wurum looked at the weapon that pierced the ground in front of him, and the fabrial that lay next to it. It seemed wrong to him. He wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was because he was just used to his bow now, an entirely different weapon, even if a Grandbow was a complement rather than a worse weapon. He still hadn't even touched the weapon. It was delivered with the rest of Jim's belongings: A Reverser and a Half-Shard - both useless to him, since he already had the former, and the latter was unusable with his Shardplate - an Alerter and a Spanreed. Useful items, to be sure, but not as useful as the other two items that he was given. Had the thief really trusted him enough to give him the keys to an entire kingdom? He held all that the man could have ever wanted - Grandbow, Shardplate, Shardblade and Soulcaster. The Grandbow was by far the least expensive item of the lot, and even then it was a small fortune in his hands. He held his hand out towards the Shardblade, half expecting it to disappear from the cracked earth and appear in his hand, but it didn't. Of course it wouldn't. He hadn't owned it nearly long enough to bond to it. Damnation, he hadn't even touched the thing yet. He was afraid to, in case it might disappear. His family had owned a few swords, and even a set of plate, a few generations back. Now, they had some of that back. He stood up carefully, in case his Shardplate accidentally broke the chair. He took a step forwards, and went to grasp the hilt of the Shardblade. He hesitated, though. Claincy had died because he owned this sword. Jain had been cut through with it on mere suspicion. And now even Jim had been slain by its wielder. This sword, this immaculate, unstainable sword, had a lot of blood on it. Did he really want that on his hands? No, a Shardblade was a tool. Just because it had been stolen from an honourable Alethi noble and put to terrible use did not make it an evil weapon. He could use it for good. Indeed, he had to use it. The Alethi were short of Shardbearers as it was. He was now one of the most powerful men in Alethkar, with Jim's death. He couldn't afford to not have that kind of power at his beck and call. He placed his hand on the hilt of the blade and pulled it from the earth. It was heavier than he expected. People always talked about Shardblades being heavy, but- Then, wordless screams erupted in his head. He dropped the blade suddenly, and it clattered to the ground and lay there, almost accusingly. The only sound he could hear was his heartbeat and his heavy breathing. He felt worn, far more so than he should have done from holding a weightless sword. "What," he muttered, putting a hand to his face and wiping away a bit of sweat, "was that?"

Game 5: Wrap-up Wrap-up: Awes was frantically clinging on to life all day long. He managed to use his reverser and get one final revenge. The nobles had just ignored him this last day, assuming him to be too much in pain to accomplish anything. Foolish nobles. As Awes summoned his Blade, he was angry at Jim for the betrayal. He knew who his last kill would be. Jim Bob Dirt. The Shardblade appeared in Awes' hand and, with his last bit of energy, Awes pushed it into Jim's chest. Stomper came trotting up to Awes and looked with disappointment at him. You failed me. With that, Stomper trampled over Awes. The damage from the Shardhammer coupled with the trampling took the last strands of life from him. "Twenty cremlings fighting, wanting to be fed. Four were painted red. Fourteen now lay dead. Six continue crawling, who will be the head? ", Awes cried out at last. His chest stopped the faint rising and falling and lay flat. The last Ghostblood was dead. Votes: Jim Bob (2): Wurum, Awes The King and Highprinces will be announced as items are heired off from the kills. Awes was a Ghostblood with a reverser and a Shardblade Jim Bob Dirt was a Noble Thief with a half-shard, an Alerter, a reverser, a Soulcaster, emotion bracelet and Spanreed. The game is now over. Thank you so much for playing and I hope you all had fun. You can wrap up role play here if you want or leave comments or suggestions. Dead players may now speak once again. Dead doc Ghostblood Doc Speculation Doc Actions Spreadsheet Player list spreadsheet(Note: I stopped updating this partway through)

When you introduce your friend to Brandon Sanderson and she seems to like it and its the high point of your entire day.

Mistress of the Kitchens, you do your post great honor. I have seen members of this 'Newcago Court' claim to have the recipes for waffles. Do they understand the folly it would be attempt to utilize this? I suspect not... They do not Know. They have not the realization the Wafflesworn strive to attain, know not of the ways in which the waffle guides and influences all. Have not delved the patterns of the nooks and prophetic drizzling design of syrups. Have not divined truth from the subtleties of flavor. One does not make waffles from a recipe. The recipe is a guide, the rote ritual, through which the waffle speaks. Waffles originate from the primordial chaos, the core of creation itself. They are a power not to be trifled with. Unless it'll be funny.

So I have this theory that Navani will become a Sky breaker for two reasons one is after reading this quote from Words of Radiance - "The considerable abilities of the skybreakers for making such amounted to an almost divine skill, for which no specific Surge or spen grants capacity, but however the order came to such an aptitude, the fact of it was real and acknowledged even by their rivals." (WOR pg 636.) Combined with what Szeth experiences after being brought back to life by a fabrial at the end of the book "impossible." " not if it is done before the brain dies... you could be restored with the right fabrial." Nalan then invites Szeth to join the Skybreakers the order he used to lead/inspire whatever. I think that the Skybreakers were really good at making fabrial and so is Navani. Also Skybreakers considered justice to be most important, and when Dalinar is betrayed on the shattered plains and Navani hears about it she doesn't write a Glyph for hope or mercy or victory or strength, she writes Justice. Maybe that a bit of foreshadowing maybe not. If you think that this doesn't work because Navani is not broken enough, just remember that she has raised Jashina as a daughter and a failure king as a son, on top of the fact that she straight up tells Dalinar the there was a darker side to Galavier. All in all maybe I just grabbing at wind spren here but maybe not

To break the trend of pure RP, I'm going to try and write a proper game-related post. I'm not sure how, as I can already speak with everyone I can trust, and few who I can't, at my leisure, but hey. Now, this is really a very interesting situation we find ourselves in, when we think about it. We each have two enemies that we are on equal footing with, and one shared enemy that has fewer members and a great advantage in information. So, each Faction has a choice: We can turn inward, root out those who seek to destroy us from the inside, and blind ourselves to the machinations of the other Factions who would crush us. We can look outwards, defend ourselves from our greatest foes, and ignore the insidious corruption among our own ranks, slowly wearing at us from the inside. Neither of these options are overly appealing, are they? There are other courses, but those require some trust, which will be a rather scarce commodity in this game. Aonar sat on a rooftop somewhere in one of the wealthier districts of Kholinar, surveying the burning and looting taking place. Though he had no love for Aesudan or Elhokar and the mess they were making of his country, he couldn't help but wish things had turned out differently. Now, no one went about unarmed, even he had acquired a longbow to protect himself. It was useless on the streets, but here on the rooftops, it kept him safe. At least until the next Highstorm, anyway. The riots had only been going on for only a little less than a week, and already he had been approached by those who wished to use the chaos to their advantage. While he had no desire to seize control of the city, he also hated seeing it in this state. It had been a beautiful place, once. A clatter on the crem tiles alerted him to the new presence on the roof. With one smooth motion, he stood and nocked an arrow. "Get off my roof." Whoever it was that was on his roof - Aonar did't know, or care who they were - looked confused. "There's nothing for you here. Evict yourself quickly, and I won't have to shoot you." After a short pause, his would-be roofmate appeared to take his advice to heart, slowly backing away and climbing to the ground below. Letting out a sigh of relief, Aonar replaced the arrow in his quiver. Thank the Almighty. When you only had a few arrows in the middle of a riot, it didn't do for you to waste them on the first stranger to come your way.

Here's the relevant Way of Kings excerpt from Chapter 74 ("Ghostblood"): Thanks for the upvotes and nice comments, guys! Attached is my terrible attempt at creating a vector version of this. It's my first time doing this kind of thing, and I've never even used Inkscape before, so pardon the imperfections. Hey, perhaps someone else might want to do a better job. Edit: Created a version that only has three normal diamonds instead of the three "hollow" diamonds. Which one do you guys think is the better Ghostblood symbol candidate? Edit: Added some colored versions.

So many possibilities... I could be a firesoul and live in antartica I could be a lurcher and tape coin to everything then never have to leave my reading chair I could be a Gasper and make Stig Severinsen (world record breath holder) look like a wuss I could be a Tineye and ALWAYS find Waldo

Even a Shardbearer couldn't bear these bad jokes... so Sadeas was trying to get rid of Dalinar and his family... in other words he was trying a Kholin cleanse

This could go in the cosmere puns thread.

FeatherFans: There's subdivisions of these, but I'm not going there. Basically you have FeatherWriter up at the top, although she claims that she doesn't actually control the clan. Lwd and Lurthemir are some of the members. This is mostly a fanfic club. They're not as involved in the whole "clans" thing as the rest of us. Shroomies: Currently only one member and he's just a smurf who compounds gold. Newcago Court: Leaders: Elsa Steelheart and Delightful are the two royalty and are in charge of us. Delightful has her own personnel army of upvoters/downvoters so it's best to be careful around her They're's also Quiver, GreyPilgrim and me. Quiver founded the guild after abandoning the Featherfans and thus has a bad reputation. I am the Headscholar and investure specialist of the Court do a lot of stuff involving research/reporting/interacting with the other guilds, which is why I'm responding to this post. (I normally have a tax of an upvote FTY). We also just got a new member Erai who is Guardian of Ice, and his powers/responsibilities have yet to be defined. There are a couple other but that's what I can think of. Wafflesworn: This is a sub-group of both the Pirate Monkeys and the Newcago Court. They're on very good terms with everyone else because of the refreshments. All of their recipes are held by me in the Newcago Court. However only the wafflesworn can make the waffles. I do something cool to them, but it's different. Miss Contrary, Ashiok, and Kobold King are the big leaders. Observers: Possibly the creepiest guild although mostly just because of the name. They're smaller and less powerful than the Court and the FeatherFans, and are True Neutral. They literally do not get involved in anything, they just "observe". Their leader is Lightsworn Panda with his lieutenant PorridgeBrick. I think you asked for this just to see if someone would do it, and to see how indepth it was.

What do you call an impolite Parshendi? Bad-form. I'll be here all night, folks.

Things were looking promising so far. Mon had quickly located a group who seemed willing to work with him. Now they just had to figure out how best to take advantage of current events. They’d been arguing all morning and Mon needed a break. Despite the risks, he decided to stretch his legs and see how things in the city were progressing. He excused himself from the conversation and stepped through the door into the blinding sunlight, shielding his eyes with the back of his hand until they could adjust. He heard boots approaching from his right and spin quickly, knives out and ready to kill. The man froze in mid step and quickly raised his hands, palms open and empty. “Forgive me sir, I mean you know harm.” The stranger reached into his coat and Mon readied himself to lunge but what the man pulled from his pocket was just a rolled up piece of parchment. “I have a message for you.” Without thinking, Mon slide the daggers back up his sleeves then reached out to take the missive that was extended to him, but at the last minute thought better of it. “Who is it from?” The messenger shrugged, “Doesn’t say.” Mon eyed him still not taking the letter. “Who is it addressed to?” The man gave an exasperated sigh and in a rather sarcastic tone responded, “You of course. Didn’t I say that at the start?” Mon began to tense again. “The name.” “There wasn’t a name included. The instructions were to deliver it to a stocky fellow with black hair who would be standing on this corner dressed exactly the way you are. We get requests like that all the time.” The man was certainly dressed for the part but this didn’t make any sense. Few people knew Mon was back in town and the only people who knew he’d be here were in the room he just left. Besides, there were riots going on. Who would be delivering missives in all this? The messenger gave off an air of nonchalance but upon closer inspection Mon saw a tightness just below the surface. Something wasn’t right. The man’s eyes flickered to Mon’s side and quickly back to his eyes. On instinct, Mon quickly reached down and seized the hand that had been sneaking under his coat. He twisted it sharply and turned to find himself looking at small man with very surprised eyes. To Be Continued... Today's RP got a little out of hand. I decided to split it into two parts so there wasn't a giant block text you had to read all at once.

Also, I mentioned it in the dead doc, but it was cool that the two Ardents were also Artifabrians.

The leftover rains from the previous days highstorm had subsided and like a spark in the wind, the Riots of Kholinar ignited in a fiery fashion. A few sections of the darkeyed neighborhoods burned spit out huge plumes of smoke into the orange cast, fire-hazed sky. Magam worked his way down one of the many twisting alleys, splashing and kicking up puddles left over from the previous day's storm. Cremlings skittered along the ground, and small, timid bulbs and rockbuds twisting away from him and withdrawing into themselves as he passed by in his hurried pace. Things had escalated even faster than Magam had anticipated. It took no time at all for the faction lines to be drawn, the citizens of the once proud and noble city now at each other's throats, with fear and mistrust thick in the air, like the smoke from the burning sections of town. He reached the end of the alleyway and peaked out, making sure there were no large crowds nearby. It wouldn't do to be caught alone at a time like this. He was about to sprint out around the corner when he caught a shadow moving off in his peripherals, so he jumped back instead and pulled out one of his many knives, brandishing it front of him threateningly. The shadow moved again and formed itself into a small child, huddling behind a pile of garbage. It was a filthy street urchin, wielding a broken leg of a chair as a club and staring at Magam menacingly. "Whoa, now." Magam said pleasantly, lowering his knife and holding his arms out. "Don't worry, no need to fear me." The child trembled for just a second, but then shook himself to and raised his club up even more. It was as the kid straightened his back to make himself appear larger that Magam saw the kids eyes in the light for the first time. They were a frosty pale blue. The child was a lighteyes. Some sort of Nobleman's son. His parents had probably been killed in the riots, his home sacked and looted, everything he had ever known destroyed and burning in front of his very eyes. Magam started for a second, but lowered his hands. He reached into his pocket and fished out a sapphire broam, the blue light from the infused sphere -- recharged during the previous day's highstorm -- lit up the alleyway and illuminated the orphaned lighteye in it's glow. The child's eyes opened wide and stared at the sphere. Even for a kid who once had everything. Once you lose it all, even a single sphere can seem like a treasure. Magam thought grimly. He tossed the sphere over to the kid, who almost dropped it in surprise and fumbled around with it for a second or two. "There you go, kid. Find your way out of here, this is no place for children." Magam said, turning away. He wasn't even sure if the city was a safe place for him, let alone an orphaned nobleman's son. "...But why?" The child spoke up finally, behind him. "Who are you?" "The name is Magam." He heard the kid gasp at his blasphemous name. So. The boy at least remembered his Vorin teachings in the face of the Riots. "Do you want to know how I got my name?" He asked, turning around with a slight flourish. The kid still looked slightly scared, but he nodded his head. "It's a great story," Magam started off immediately, not even waiting for the kid's response."You see, the Church would have us believe symmetry is perfect. 'It is the essence of the Almighty that guides the world', they say." Magam screwed his face up. "Or something like that. Either way, they make us look at these 'perfect' cities, with their symmetrical design. And then the Heralds themselves, with those perfect Vorin names. They never stop with the symmetry! Everything lines up, and folds into itself so perfectly. That's how they'd like to view their problems. The world. If you just look at everything as a perfect pattern, expecting all of your problems to fold up and disappear like the complicated designs they so like to show off, then your view of the world becomes just as skewed." Magam looked at the child, who just looked confused, and was still clutching the pale-blue, glowing sphere. He just stared at Magam with a blank look. Unperturbed, Magam continued with his tangent. "So, to bring back the original moral of the story. My name." He spread his arms out wide again, and took a step towards the child who didn't shy back this time. "I'd like to think I am a mockery to that whole concept. That symmetry is a sign of perfection and holiness." Magam smiled a savage grin. "I gave myself such a symmetrical, blasphemous name. Just to show them. Just because something is perfect, doesn't mean it isn't flawed." With a silent flash of metal, Magam swiped out with his knife, slitting the lighteye'd orphan's throat in one fluid motion. The child let out a quick grunt and crumbled to the ground. Magam reached down and fished his sapphire broam back from the spreading pool of blood, putting it back into his pouch and casting the alley back into darkness. "The truth is," he whispered to himself as the walked out of the alleyway, "is that my name means nothing. But what you do with a name.... now. That's what really matters." OOC: Well, that got dark pretty fast. O.o

I will not invite you to The Wafflesworn since you're very clear on your Chaos Rule. You see, we create Chaos in the name of Waffle. So we are very close to Chaos as such. We devote our lives to the perfection of our crispy creations, and in the deepest parts of our kitchens, we create the waffles that don't yet exist, and that should not exist. We are a subset of the Pirate Monkeys, so expect undesirables, Dark Lords and Ladies, novices and Accepted who were once of the Black Ajah (but had to be demoted and punished), a formidable Ash Ewok, and many other Awesome creatures. We take Scadrian Waffle Cooks by default and virtue of their professions. If you feel that your particular proclivities can gain you a place in our ranks, let us know. We are open to a man of your highly specific talents.

I will Swear meaningless oaths. I will Upvote Clever Posts. I will (Mis)use the Force Wisely. You will Upvote this Post.

I will say that sounds enticing. I will have to take my time and gather more data in my reconnaissance of the factions before I am to make a decision.

Once the Stormlight Archives Omnibus comes out, that will stop anything!

Go to the Sanderson Elimination forum page, and hit the button in the upper right that says 'follow'. You will now get a notification every time a new thread is made here. Notifications appear with a red icon in the upper right. If you check your user settings, you can have the notifications e-mailed to you as well, if you prefer. Note: this will show both ongoing games and signups.

I completely forgot Australian had Opposite seasons. You know your a Sanderfan when you are CONSTANTLY wishing you could hurry up and craft a Sharblade for NEXT YEARS PhoenixCon Holy Storms, I just got lost on the forums. I thought I was in the Sanderfan thread. My bad, my queen for posting foolishness here.

This thread is making alleys dangerous. *wraps WoR in plastic wrap to keep previously mentioned brain chunks off of it.*

Buy. Definitely buy. (On a side note, I often wonder what he's searching for when comes online. When I hover my cursor above his name and see only the cryptic hint "Searching...". What I wouldn't give to know what keywords he uses...) Voidbringers have been on other Shardworlds.

Having been there myself, I can attest that the perfect color recognition will only make you a far better cook than you ever imagined. You will now always know when your batter is perfectly cooked.

I like that! I was thinking something like the Mitsubishi logo, but yours makes a lot more sense

The awards are upvotes. So I should get two from everyone, for the people I converted.

Psh, I've noticed for a long time. Just never complained about it before afhhsgjvwopvnsl don't make the Lord Ruler change your avatar for you It was a metaphor. Shut up and eat your waffles

Well, if it's not, it should be, cause this is awesome.

I'm not sure what you're saying, Joe, but Dalinar definitely did feel uncomfortable when wielding the Shardblade he thought he got from Taln, and after he bonded with the Stormfather, when he drew the Blade, he heard screaming. Honorblades are not made of spren so would never scream or have problems.

Our lives are dedicated to nothing else, High Chef. The Wafflesworn pride itself on not only creating the best waffle the Cosmere has to offer, but push the limits of what waffle can do. We have procured the Wafflerasium, enabling sentience in waffles to be used for subterfuge in war. Our laboratories beneath the kitchens have produced waffles meant only for those with an iron stomach. But most of all, we come to you with an army of punished novices and Accepted, trained in the art of waffle creation, and able to wield the craft even with eyes closed. Command us. We are at your service, now and always. High Chef, True Master of The Wafflesworn, here are the contracts signed by Newcago and Observers to make us their exclusive caterers. I hereby bequeth these to you for safekeeping. There can be no greater Honor.

I'd just gotten over that and now you've brought me down again. Oh well. At least I can still cook waffles.

Here's the quote. Source: By my reading, the gun wold probably also be "fast" because it's being wielded by a fast-moving person, and I would guess that the bullet, once it was no longer "part" of the gun, would experience the usual weirdness that bubble-exiting stuff suffers from.

So here is a thought regarding the speed in which Kal learned vs Jasnah and Shallan. Kal's biggest breakthroughs happened while running with bridgefour which was the worse of the worse, and the most damaging. For all of Brandon's magic systems, the user has to be emotionally "broken" in order to use investiture for the magic to fill in the cracks. The way I see it, Jasnah had breaks, but maybe not as frequent or as dramatic as Kal. Regarding Shallan she had multiple and traumatic breaks, but in order to handle them, she forgot them. Setting her back basically. So perhaps it is the extreme nature of Kal's tutelage as it were that accelerated his process. Also, Kal got to see Szeth in action. Duplication is far faster than innovation. Jasnah and Shallan are breaking brand new ground, and trying to learn from books that are at best rumors. Kal gets to SEE Szeth walk on walls, and SEE him fly. That's why in so many sci-fi plots, technology makes huge leaps when they jury rig another cultures advanced technology versus developing it on their own. When you know where you have to go, finding the path is much simpler than wandering aimlessly.

No... we just raised the steaks.

From what I understood, While mateform is more suitable for mating (surprise surprise), mating isn't limited to it, just as warform can still try to make art. So the parshmen, who are parshendi in slaveform, without free will (unlike dullform who look the same but only act as if with no free will), can still reproduce, through it probably require someone telling two parshmen to do it (which is weird on its own).

Here, I fixed that for you. As with Feather (*cough*underling*cough*) I claim no allegiance, although for obvious reasons I'm rather fond of the Wafflesworn. It would give too much of an advantage if I were to formally declare allegiance to anything; the staff must hold itself above the fray, and the admins above even the staff, coming down from on high only when necessary. Or when it will be funny. Remember, though: waffles. Think on that.

Ah, I see that my 'Shardic Vision' Theory is on the list. Would you mind removing it? After I posted that, Kurk showed me the Shardic future sight Theory, which is much better than my little paragraph. Also, could you add on my Shattering of Adonalsium timing Theory? I want to see my grade on that one.

Excuse me? Kaladin isn't very intelligent? The man whose surgeon father couldn't believe how quickly Kaladin absorbed medical information? Who Shallan thought was brilliant? Who Dalinar repeatedly praised for his insight, intuition and judgment? You might want to rethink your comment, FlatLine.

It's mostly relevant for later books, but there are some things here and there. Good question. ... RAFO Sel is very cosmere aware at this point, but getting to and through Shadesmar (that's not the local term, by the way) is very difficult on Sel. That stunted them for a long while. They're still fairly far ahead. Ha. If I give you this, what will you speculate on in the future? I hate to do this, but I'm going to RAFO that one for now. Sorry.