Leaderboard

It is worth a twi?

It is no secret that I stalk follow Brandon's online presence carefully, and so I am often the one to report recent Reddit WoBs. This one is straightforward, though not groundbreaking: "There is no cognitive shadow of Mare hanging around."

Hello everyone. I expect you’ve all forgotten who I am by now since I haven’t posted here for a couple of years now (save for the odd signing report), life unfortunately got in the way. But I’ve been meaning to come back for a little while now, and I thought: what could be better than doing so with a theory post? Some things have been simmering in the back of my mind for a while now and I need to get them out. Hopefully you don’t hate what follows, and don’t end up wanting nothing to do with me (or tracking me down and lynching me ). So without further ado, allow me to present my first (and hopefully not last) theory. For this theory we need to consider all four of the end pages of the Way of Kings. All of the images that I’ve found of them on the internet separate them out into four different images, however I feel that each chart/map pair is supposed to be taken as a single diagram for reasons that I’ll give below. I’m therefore presenting them both here as they were in the book, and as I think they should be viewed. Much of the speculation surrounding the second chart has been that it pertains to Voidbinding in the same way that the first chart pertains to Surgebinding. I’ve been thinking for a while that this would be a very strange inclusion in the book since we’ve yet to see Voidbinding: it would be much like including a chart for Haemalurgy in the first Mistborn book. Additionally, two of the larger glyphs are not connected to the smaller symbols, which would seem to imply that there would be Voidbinders without powers, which would be weird. It’s also been suggested that it relates to the fabrials in some way, but I don’t see any real similarity between them. There are five types of fabrial that we know of, and no grouping of five in the chart; the fabrials are known to utilize the surges, yet it hasn’t been suggested up until now that the smaller symbols are Surges (at least not that I’ve heard of), and if they are why then are the larger glyphs each connected to two of the smaller ones as with the Radiant Orders? And how do the myriad of spren types used in the fabrials relate to the diagram? In short, I don’t think either of these speculations are correct. I’ve been trying to figure out what this chart is by analysing the symmetry of both charts, starting with the symbols for the Surges in the first chart and their equivalent symbols in the second. The first thing of note here is that the two sets of symbols are distortions of each other: part of each pair is the same, but the other part is opposed. As a result of this, whilst each of the surges has a single axis of reflectional symmetry, the other symbols have no reflectional symmetry but instead have order 2 rotational symmetry. So what does this tell us? Well, by itself, not much; however it was then that I noticed the borders to these images. These are the same for each pair of images, however in the case of the Surgebinding chart the border has been reflected between the two, and in the case of the other chart it has instead been rotated by 180°. In other words: the transformation of the border matches the symmetry of the symbols in their respective charts. This is why I think that these images were placed together as they were in the book for a reason. If they were unrelated and hadn’t been created together (in world), then this pattern wouldn’t be observed, and I think that Brandon presented them to us like this for a reason. The fact that the two charts follow the same internal structure, with one juxtaposed by the map of Roshar in the Physical Realm and the other with the Cognitive version, suggests to me that these two charts are in fact the same chart but pertaining to different Realms. If I may reiterate, the symbols I was discussing earlier are the same but distorted from each other: I propose that they are both symbols for the surges, and that they are distorted because the surges themselves distort between the Realms. Or to put it another way, the powers behave differently in the Cognitive than they do in the Physical. This would mean that the larger set of Symbols in the Second chart also represent the Orders of the Radiants. I think this is supported by the fact that the glyphs in both charts share the same colouring and the same symmetry (1 axis of reflectional symmetry), thus suggesting that they are both representing the same thing (not distorted as with the Surges), but a different glyph is used because it’s a different aspect of the Orders. (It’s worth noting though that the Cognitive glyph for the Truthwatchers is unique in that the symmetry does change: it not only gains a second axis of reflectional symmetry, but it also gains order 2 rotational symmetry. I have no idea why this is the case, but with this in mind we should probably keep an eye on Renarin going forward: something is going on here.) The final thing to note with regard to the charts is that the connections between symbols are identical in both charts, save for one glaring difference. There are no connections from either the Bondsmiths or the Truthwatchers, to any of the Surges in the Cognitive chart. This would imply that if members of either Order were to end up in Shadesmar, then they would not gain other abilities related to the Cognitive, unlike for every other Order. But why would these two Orders be so much more limited? Well, I don’t think they are; I think instead that they are just aligned differently Realmatically. Consider what we’ve seen of Renarin and how it pertains to the Truthwatchers. We know that they have some capacity for future sight; however their Surges are Progression and Illumination, which (from what we have seen of those Surges elsewhere) have nothing to do with that ability. However we know that seeing the future is related to the Spiritual Realm, so it would follow that the Truthwatchers gain additional powers from their Surges, not in the Cognitive Realm like other Orders, but instead in the Spiritual Realm. Similarly, the Bondsmiths are speculated to have powers related to Bonds, which are a type of Connection. And we know that Connection is also related to the Spiritual Realm. So whilst the other Orders are aligned with the Physical and Cognitive Realms, Truthwatchers and Bondsmiths are instead aligned with the Physical and Spiritual Realms. And this means that Brandon must be hiding a third chart from us: the Spiritual Surgebinding chart. I was looking for textual evidence to support this theory when I remembered Jasnah’s plight from Words of Radiance. As we know she used the Transportation surge to escape into Shadesmar at which point she became trapped. But if the Surges behave identically in both Realms, why could she not just use it the exact same way to return to the Physical? We know from her unpublished scene that it’s not because she lacked the Stormlight to do so but rather because she needs a “junction”, such as Honour’s Perpendicularity, to do so. This sounds exactly like how someone without access to the Surge of Transportation would travel between the Realms, yet we saw that when she did rematerialize in the Physical she did not do so in a Shardpool, but rather in the middle of nowhere. This suggests to me that she did use Transportation, but it behaved differently, exactly as I proposed above. Which leads of course to the question of what the Surge is doing in the Cognitive, and I do have a suggestion for this. We know that the Cognitive Realm is far more malleable than the Physical in terms of its geometry; it is after all shaped by the level of cognition in a particular area. I suggest that the Transportation Surge is capable of distorting it even further to the point that two different locations can actually overlap one another. With this in mind, after arriving in Shadesmar, the Elsecaller (or Willshaper) could travel to either the nearest junction, or to their destination in Shadesmar (whichever is closest). Then they could overlap their destination with the junction and thereby leave via the junction, but arrive at their destination in the Physical. There is an apparent problem with this however: it would mean that you would be required to travel through Shadesmar without the aid of the Surge to an extent, and as such it doesn’t allow for instantaneous teleportation. The Oathgates on the other hand, which we theorize to be fabrials that utilize Transportation, appear to do exactly this, thus contradicting my speculation. But, looking at this more deeply, I think there’s a way that it doesn’t have to be a contradiction. We know that each Kingdom had one Oathgate, plus there was an Oathgate at Urithiru; moreover each of the Kingdoms' Oathgates connected to the one at Urithiru, but not to each other. Travel via the Oathgates therefore, necessitates travel through Urithiru. This seems like a bizarre limitation to intentionally build into the system, especially for an organization that put such an emphasis on freedom of travel. I know that it’s been suggested that it was set up this way for the purposes of taxation, or as a symbol of some kind, but I think otherwise. What if Urithiru was built upon a junction? If this were the case then it would instantly work with my theory: every time you use the Oathgate you are already at one of the two places that you would need to be at. It also means that the gates were set up this way out of necessity: it would have been impossible to connect every gate to every other gate. And at this point I remembered the epigraph from chapter 35 of The Way of Kings: “The place nearest to Honour” sounds to me exactly like Honour’s Perpendicularity, which we know from Ivory’s testimony to be a junction. The first sentence also takes on greater meaning if this theory is true. If Urithiru is to be the centre of the Oathgate system, then it has to be built on a Perpendicularity. If there isn’t a Perpendicularity in Alethela, then it cannot be built in Alethela. Problems With the Theory Why couldn’t Jasnah use this second method to leave Shadesmar immediately? This is a huge gaping hole in the theory, and my only possible explanation for it is that she was simply too inexperienced with the Surge, or that she wasn’t at a high enough level in the Elsecallers at that point to be able to manipulate the Surge in that fashion. Ivory knew this so stated it as impossible for her to leave without being at a junction. I’ve been assuming, based upon Ivory’s testimony that a Perpendicularity is a junction, that the two are equivalent; however this isn’t necessarily true. Even if all Perpendicularities are junctions, this does not necessarily imply that all junctions are Perpendicularities. Therefore, there could have been something special about that location in which Jasnah reappeared, that meant that it was a junction even though there was apparently no Perpendicularity there. Therefore, this is not necessarily evidence for my theory. Jasnah’s subsequent conversation with Wit makes me think that it is unlikely that the location was special though. In Jasnah’s unpublished scene, we see Jasnah perform Soulcasting within Shadesmar, and it appears to function exactly like every other Soulcasting we’ve seen performed in the books. The only thing that I can think to explain this is that, since we know that performing a magic will have some effect across all three Realms, we saw the results of the Soulcasting as it appeared in the Physical Realm only. Something else would have occurred in the Cognitive Realm when she did this; but since Brandon stopped the reading at the exact point that we would have found out what this was, we can only speculate on it. Conclusion/TL;DR The mystery chart from the back of The Way of Kings is a Surgebinding chart for the Cognitive Realm. Each Surge Functions differently between the Physical Realm, the Cognitive Realm, and the Spiritual Realm. All Orders have powers associated with both the Physical and Cognitive Realms, except for the Bondsmiths and Truthwatchers which instead have posers associated with both the Physical and Spiritual Realms. The Transportation Surge allows for both travel into the Cognitive Realm, and the distortion of the Cognitive Realm’s geometry. Each Oathgate is connected to the central Oathgate at Urithiru out of necessity, not choice. Urithiru is built upon Honour’s Perpendicularity.

And interesting bit of information came out of a recent Reddit conversation. Take a look, I'll just do a poor job summarizing it anyway. He then elaborated that "Roshar predates the shattering" (which we knew) and that "There are many things that are unique about Roshar, but it wasn't the only world created in this way."

You mean you don't look exactly like Nightmare Moon? Seriously, man, appearance is an entirely subjective thing. I think that Brad Pitt is one of the ugliest human beings to ever walk the planet. I know you're worried about the OCD. But you are also a brilliant nerd-person, and there is some geek girl out there who will decide that you're the best thing ever, and she will be kind and understanding about your mental health issues. But you're never going to find her if you don't look.

Hey all,I started a project about a week ago, and as the title of this post suggests, it is an English to High Imperial translator. It is still in early stages, bound to have its bugs, but I would love some feedback. If you have ideas to make the output better, creative junk to toss into the translated sentence, or any idea how to use "Notting" in conjunction with the tense setting terms I'm all ears!The translator can be found here: http://highimperialtranslator.com/Best,Richard

Hello! I stumbled across Sanderson's Three Laws of Magic around a month ago and got curious about his stuff, so I browsed around his website. I found the foreword to Way of Kings, and found myself intrigued by how he described it. Fast forwards to now and I have just finished Words of Radiance and found myself interested in his other works. Imagine my surprise to find out that most of it is all interconnect as one interconnected universe. I did some more snooping and discovered that this forum, which I assume is basically the hub of the Sanderson fandom. So, my question to you all is, how important is knowledge of the Cosmere? Is there a particular order I should read his series in, and how closely do they all tie together? Is it a case of 'these all happen in the same universe, but that's more just an interesting detail' or is it more 'all the series have impacts on one another in some form, and learning more about the Cosmere itself can spoil the more minor stories.' Thank you for your time!

So yeah, a big fan of Brandon here. I've read all of his books except Bands of Mourning and The Dark Talent. I can't really say anything about my favorite series - immediately after reading an Alcatraz book I'll decide I love pun-filled tales of Oculators breaking things, after a Reckoner's novel I'll have a sudden wish for more Epicness, after a Mistborn story I'll desire Coinshots chasing each other over rooftops, and so on. I used to pride myself on an above-average ability to make up downright awful puns. That is, until I started reading some of the other forum posts on here. *bows* I am not worthy! I also have a few theories, like everyone else, which I may test in the theorizing forum. However, I'll probably stay clear of those until I've finished Bands - I hate spoilers, as the person who spoiled the Red Wedding for me will attest to. Well, if he makes it out of hospital (not really). So yeah, that's me. *bows and exits*.

Cold front! Finally some relief of this very grueling Louisiana summer we had.

Quiver, not only have we been putting up with you for over two years, we've been enjoying you. You'll be fine.

... Now I'm imagining the Ironborn mugging people for their fashion. "We do not sow" isn't too different from "We do not sew."

I had asked this of Brandon when Secret History came out and he RAFO'd me, thanks, you made my day.

Summer was still playing with Henry, ignoring the mild drizzle, when the door to the house behind her opened. damnation it, I must have missed Argon's arrival. She thought as she stood up and turned around to see who entered the garden. She sighed with relief when she saw just some guy wearing a raincoat. It was probably one of the servants assigned to Argon. He closed the door behind him and walked in her direction, scaring Henry, making him hide under the shrubbery again. "So, the Epic is finally here, right?" She asked, to make sure her suspicions are correct. "Yeah, he just came here a couple of minutes ago." The man answered and squatted near the bush. He reached out his hand for Henry to sniff, before he stroked his head. The cat seemed to accept this new human. "No surprise you missed his arrival with such a nice company here. This little guy is without a doubt a better company than any Epic, right?" "Definitely!" Summer answered, uncertain if she should go inside and introduce herself or to lay low for as long as possible. "How is he? Did he gave any instructions?" "I guess he's alright... He sent half of us home, after feeding everyone with cake. Those that stayed are supposed to carry the supplies indoors and make sure the house is in good shape." "He did what?!" Summer asked surprised. An Epic sending his staff home and feeding them cake sounded ridiculous. Unlike any other she had contact with. "Are you sure the cake wasn't poisoned or something?" She looked at her companion, half expecting the he'd drop dead right in front of her. He just laughed. "I think everyone is fine. You can go and see for yourself, maybe there's some cake left?" He stood up and faced her. "I apologise, I didn't introduce myself. My name's Matthew." He reached his hand toward her. "I'm Summer, nice to meet you," she accepted his handshake. His hand was pleasantly warm, in contrast to her's, which was cold and wet from the drizzle. "And this is Henry. I just found him here, but I think I'll keep him or at least take care of him. I just hope that Argon won't find out about him..." "Oh, I think he won't mind..."

Imagine all the awesome things you'll be able to complain about though, like teleportation! On the other hand it is also very possible that the young ones of the future will laugh at you for not having to deal with zombies and scavenging for food.

This pretty much sums up my feelings about this year's presidential election: And since talking about the election is depressing, here's something funny:

In light of THIS beautiful article I present to you: Brandon Sanderplant Bonus: A fish stick wearing a mustachioed knitted cozy on top of a potted plant

Plus, by not looking, you're also denying whoever it is a very enjoyable personality that might belong to the only one who ever gets her, making it a double tragedy if you don't look. By looking, not only are you helping yourself, you're helping someone else as well.

Uh, in any case. Mutual Shasnah would be... I... wouldn't exactly be as fond of Jasnah anymore if she entered into a romantic relationship with a woman literally half her age who was also her student. >__> Shasnah is best as a one sided hero worship crush, IMO. No incredibly sketchy power dynamic that way, heh. (Sorry Shallan :b)

*Face hoof*

So I'm making a short film about the Way of Kings, book 1, chapter 13. This is purely for the community, and I'll be posting the link up when it's complete. However, I'd like to know the community's thoughts on seeing this scene hit the screen. How have adaptations let you down in the past? How have they lived up to your expectations? Writing the screenplay, I realised that certain things that were described weren't physically possible, even with power armor haha. So there will be some minor changes. I hope you will understand. But more importantly, I hope you're looking forward to it!

Finally someone calls out society's true enemy.

There’s no sense in going through life presuming awful things about people you do not know.

I'm trying to work on diversity in things I draw, so does she look Asian to anyone here? As compared to this self portrait of me as a elf Hylian, standing tall and proud?

Ouch. Some of these are painful. I'll do my best... What have Marsh and Wax's coach-driver got in common? You should av-Hoid both of them. Why do Wax and Wayne get on so well? They both enjoy steeling things. What kandra is the best at imitating hands? Paalm. I'm sorry.

So... I've had a few ideas floating around aimleslly for a bit. Inspired by Delightful, and Writing Excuses, I'm trying to weld sone of them together...but I'm worried they don't quite fit, or that they would be better suited for seperate works. What I'm thinking is that...in this world, water has a magical kick to it, being primed with extra nutrients and such. This results in plantlife being more...more. The whole setting is especially verdant and fecund. And, since the plants are magically better, so are the animals that live off them. The extra nutrition promotes the growth of antlers and horns in animals, tying back into an old idea I mentioned about a society where antlers are viewed as crowned species. The other part I'm considering is... I mentioned my "magical fashion" idea a few pages back. Tying that into this as well. Animals and plants have a slight magical quality to them which wizards ("Coutouriers") can weave into fabric. So, a cloak woven from a particular type of flower might have a particular quality which others don't, for instance. I'm thinking...a late renaissance society, French inspired, where appearance really does matter. There is a strong chivalric tradition, and really strict roles of how people are supposed to behaved (dunno if those roles apply to gender though...) And...two characters I've been considering for it.

Back in my day, we had the internet, but if you accidentally pressed the internet button on your phone, you'd have a momentary panic attack while frantically hitting END 50 times so your parents wouldn't have to pay for such a luxury.

You kids these days and your fancy-pants school wifi. Back in my day, the internet was technically born, but nobody knew about it yet. Wifi was science fiction! (My day kind of sucked.)

@Darkness Ascendant - and here's an upvote for you! Thanks for subscribing!! :-D

I'm actually kinda curious about this...

Granted. The song sounds like the theme of Game of Thrones, and you get jailed for copyright infringement. Fortunately your food is so good that you get employed as the cook with $100k annual pay until the end of your 3 year sentence. You get your own house within the prison, away from the other prisoners. Your bane is that the jail is in Damnation. I wish to become CEO of Microsoft, so that I can do the world a service and make Age of Empires 4.

Spoilered for room.

Darn it. All right, one more meme. If this one is also a repeat, I'll just give up.

Posts like this probably must have been posted many times before but I just couldn't help myself! XD

except from Stormlight Archive maybe, we really do get relatively more Hoid scenes than others XD

I have found Hoid at all this pictures. Coincidence? I don't think.

Lets try one that's a little more... obscure. EDIT: bonus points to everyone who gets it.

Noticed this one on the cover of a copy I borrowed from the library. Ugh. UGH.

I imagine that since Brandon's confirmed that Drehy is getting a love interest in book three, we'll Alethi/Vorin attitudes about it on display then? No actual WoB yet about how their society treats it though.

R emember Lirin and Rosanne? Maybe they are an exception, but I get the impression it's not that uncommon. Shallan's father wanted to marry his second son to a middle aged woman for connections. Most powerful lighteyes marry for connections. Marrying for love may be odder than the age gap. That said, I think Shallan ending with any woman is unlikely. It would be cool, but Brandon said her crush on Jasnah was something he did unconsciously. We've already seen her flashback book, and Brandon's already written the final chapter of the series. I suspect Shallan's story is already nailed down, and if the bisexuality is an unconscious inclusion, then I bet it will remain subtext. Maybe he can confirm it openly in the text, which would be awesome, but I bet her relationships are important to the overall story and aren't likely to change from his current plan.

Hello, Thinky! I'm bleeder, resident vest-wearer. Have you read Warbreaker? Also, do not eat the cookies. They will Ruin your life.

One of my 4 closest friends, the one I shall refer to as J, was just throwing a water bottle at the ground. I said, "Hey J___, you might wanna stop before that busts" "Nah, C__. It'll be fine. These are sturdy." *throws bottle at floor* J___ is now drinking out of a hole in the bottom of the poor abused bottle.

So, uhm, Shysn?

Yeah it was metal, and it was emotional allomancy, looks like.

Someone else moves us, Burgundy.

Got back from our first marching competition. We got straight ones. That's real good. We stopped by a little grocery store, and some people ended up with interesting purchases. A friend of mine got a half-gallon of apple juice and Nilla wafers. Someone had a bunch of bananas they were handing out. Another person almost bought a cheesecake. All in all, a satisfying trip.

So do unicorns