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Because grammar. Anyway. It's kind of inspired by Hamilton which at this point will probably not surprise all that many of you. When your stomach becomes a pit of hell slimy tentacles rise, spreading infection through vein and cell until you can’t remember The plain normalcy of feeling well. Construct walls, raise the drawbridge Retreat into your castle of misery “Like this they can’t hurt me” Until the loneliness burns and You’re left on a ledge and just when There’s nothing left at all - Thin delicate tendrils pierce the heart, Spread like a cloak against the freezing winds of the wilderness Injecting strength into the pulsing bloodstream, Wrapping the heart in soaring hope Grounded in solid reality And so the artist emerges, Protected, pained, yet free.

There's a pretty ominous blurb on the back cover of Words of Radiance, that I think might point to a darker effect of the Nahel Bond. I have two theories on what this could mean (which specific one is right I have no clue), but I think we would be naive in assuming the Nahel Bond is a purely positive experience for the recipient. "Men seek what was lost; I fear the quest will destroy them. It is the nature of the magic. A broken soul has cracks into which something else can be fit. Surgebindings, the power of creation themselves; they can brace a broken soul, but they can also widen its fissures" That sounds dark enough by itself, but it gets even more uncomfortable when comparing this to a familiar cosmere magical system (it sounds uncomfortably similar to how a hemalurgic spike cracks open a person's soul to invite outside influence or control). The imagery of cracked souls matches what we've been told so far in Stormlight Archive. Knights Radiant of the past according to Syl were all "broken" people. Being a broken person with a damaged soul seems like a pre-req for spren to be able to form a bond with humans. Indeed (from what we've observed so far), it is frequently only in moments of great psychological stress that the bond between spren and human can be strengthened. This seems like a full boon for our heroic knight, as they gain awesome powers for seemingly no cost. But what if there is a cost? 1) Loss of Free Will Every oath the knight speaks, the tighter their bond with their spren grows. Using the existing cracked soul analogy, one can picture the spren plugging the cracks in the human's soul to make them spiritually whole again (almost like a filling in a tooth cavity). But a more insidious way of seeing this is that the knight's soul is becoming less and less their own, and more and more their spren's. Each oath the knight swears, the more of their soul is bound up with their spren, the more spren-like they become. What's more, this isn't restoring the knight's soul, but only covering up the cracks (with a cover that can be later taken away). Sure swearing those oaths grants you more power, but it also forces you to live your life according to a very strict set of rules. At what point does fear about breaking those rules deprive a human radiant of their free will? At what point do they stop being a human struggling to embrace an ideal, and become just an ideal? I think Kaladin's dark night of the soul at the end of WOR is a poignant example of this. Because he swore conflicting oaths, his power left him, reverting him into his sad pre-Radiant state: chronically depressed, full of pain, and discovering that even skills he thought he had earned on his own (gracefulness with spear) were really only gifts granted by his spren bond. It is only by surrendering to the oaths previously sworn that Kaladin could become a functional human being again. Syl said she didn't want to force Kaladin to do the right thing, but functionally that is exactly what she did! Remembering the shock of his non-Radiant state, Kaladin will likely have something approaching panic disorder if he approaches future oath violations. Again, remember that all Radiants are damaged people. What if they all lived in chronic anxiety of breaking their oaths and reverting to being a non-magical mess again? And what about the addictive nature of stormlight consumption? Would such a constant stress to obey oaths, without the immediate need of a Desolation, be enough to jumpstart the Reacreance? Possibly! 2) I'm cursed - Kaladin makes some repeated ruminations that his continued survival while others fall is a sign that he is cursed. Syl dismisses this as nonsense, and it is our first impulse as readers to just pass this off as Survivor's Guilt on Kaladin's part. But what if he has a kernel of truth there? In Mistborn Secret History we have an interesting scene where Kelsier's shadow is trying to chase Vin around. Preservation loans some power to Kelsier, which temporarily strengthens him, but Ruin quickly responds by crushing Kelsier with mental force. Once Preservation gives up and withdraws his power from Kelsier, Kel notices that Ruin also can no longer restrain him as effectively. I think this was Brandon giving us a clue that competing shards often work in balance of one another, and one shard expanding their power on a human quickly draws the jealous attention of their enemy. What if a similar situation is at play on Roshar? A whole lot of incredibly unpleasant stuff is done to Kaladin and Shallan by the people around them in their life. What if this wasn't just plot convenience? What if Pattern and Syl starting to grant access to power to Kaladin and Shallan shines a spotlight on them for Odium and causes Odium to influence people nearby them to do a heaping of bad stuff in an attempt to break their spirit? It seems awfully coincidental that both of their lives went to hell after their spren first started to observe/bond them. Maybe the Radiants of the past got tired of spren inviting tragic events onto their chosen knights and decided to abandon their oaths as a result? There might be a sort of magical reciprocity at play.

Day 5: The Fall of the House of Heron Khaos awoke in total darkness. That in itself was a surprise. When one wakes up, one expects the darkness to recede, for colour and clarity to return to the world. But in this case, in her case, it did not. Perhaps it was to do with the pain she felt in her heart? Not a longing or a needing or an emotional pain of any kind, but a sharp-stabbing pain. Not heartburn either. No, it was more like someone had rammed a sword through her. She didn't actually know what being run through would feel like, but she imagined it would feel like this. Actually, it wasn't a heart pain either. It was a bit more to the centre of her body, as though her assassin, or would-be-assassin, had just forgone any semblance of precision or tact and just aimed for the centre of mass. Probably felt they would be less likely to miss that way. Her attempted murderer didn't seem to be the sharpest of killers. She put a hand to the middle of her chest where she had been hit. Her shirt was damaged and would need replacing or repairing as soon as she found a bit of makeshift cloth, but she couldn't feel any actual wound or scar. That was something. She sat up and immediately regretted it. When the world of blackness stopped spinning around her bruised head, she carefully lifted her hand up, and then to the sides, then finally back down. What she thought was wooden floorboards appeared to be more of a wooden crate or box. Which she was currently on the wrong side of, preferring infinitely more to be outside of it instead. She raised both hands up and pushed with all the might she could muster. There was no movement from the wood above her, but a small trickle of dirt fell in, raising a musty cloud which made her cough. She sighed and lowered her arms again, wondering what she should do now. She tapped her foot against the side of the box. There was a slight sound of a ring, and some resistance where her foot caught on something slightly. She explored a little with her foot, trying to get a feel for what it was by building a metal image of what she was getting snagged on. It was a rope, she realised. She hooked her boot around it and pulled as hard as she could towards her, before going slack again. She repeated this a few times, and was rewarded by a ringing noise. There was a shriek, followed by a muffled thud. “Oh Colours,” someone above her muttered, though it was hard to make out. “You don't think...” “Maybe she's a Lifeless without a master,” someone else said, a wary edge to his voice. “They eat your brains, you know.” “You're safe then.” The first replied dryly. It was punctuated by a stab of metal through earth. “Come on, help me get her out.” Khaos (little wilson) was attacked, but did not die! Character List Kasther's Pocketwatch

I will henceforth be referring to my boyfriend as Rachmaninoff, because he's a huge classical music geek. He's composing a symphony.

there really is no evidence for it, and there cannot be that early in the story, but I can't help noticing how fitting it would be. Jasnah has a strong connection to all three shards. she is normally cool and collected, but we have seen her executing the robbers in the alley: she seems to hate people doing evil, enough to go out of her way to hunt them, and takes pleasure (not in "sadistic pleasure of hurting them", but "righteous pleasure of having ridden the world of them") in dispatching them. Well, pleasure is too strong a word, but "satisfaction" is appropriate. So that's her connection to odium. she is often described as stern but fair. She treats anyone with honor (except for those she hates). She is pragmatic enough to hire assassins, but she has a moral compass. that's her connection to honor. She dedicates her life to improvement. To become better than she was, to help others become better, to make the world better. To make things grow. To cultivate. Her connection to cultivation is probably the stronger. Then, brandon said that he always imagined her as an atheist, and what better joke to pull on an atheist than to make her a deity? I already envision her post-ascension speech, in an equivalent to the scadrian words of founding: "I am definitely NOT a divinity. I just took upon myself huge powers that make me virtually omnipotent in regard to this world, extremely intelligent and knowleadgeable, and timeless. And so while there is nothing holy about me, from great powers come great responsibilities and I will do my best to protect and shelter and elevate you. But do not pray to me! Ever!"

So, a more complete signing report will come later (I haven't even checked my audio, but there were better recorders, so I'll probably let their owners post the stuff), but I wanted to drop in and say that - as usual - the signing was a blast. We were a bit short on time (library was going to close 3 hours into the event), so many of us got only one or two questions in during the signing line... but then we also essentially replaced the general Q&A with Cosmere questions, so that helped. Oh, and Brandon also hung out with a lot of us for like an hour after the event, outside, in the freezing Chicago night, answering questions and RAFOing only rarely. Let me tell you, my friends, too much of a good thing is not a good thing. I was not prepared for this many questions. I still missed a lot of what you asked me to ask (I just didn't think to put so many questions on my printout, and I was holding my phone to record so I couldn't browse the forums), but we do have a lot of information about the Cosmere works. Not as much about specifics, mostly theory, but still a lot of stuff. For now, off the top of my head, I'll just drop a few: Reyse/Odium went after Ambition first because of the nature of Ambition's Shard, not because any grudge against its Vessel or anything. Odium was afraid that Ambition (being ambitious) could become a rival of his. Honor's perpendicularity is mobile (but RAFO on whether it's in the highstorms). The Arcanum Unbounded essays were written roughly at the same time, long before Sixth of the Dusk (but after all the other stories). In the Words of Radiance epilogue Hoid is talking to a cremling and a songbird (?) while he is waiting for Jasnah to show up; the cremling is part of a Dysian Aimian, and Hoid knows it. 100% credit to @Zmann966 for both recalling this event, and asking the question. Wax's Resonance is (kind of) his steel bubble. Brandon's answer was a little more complicated and convoluted, but that's the gist of it. Wayne's is a RAFO, as is Lift's / the Edgedancers'. Somebody asked if Hoid has any relatives, and got a non-RAFO answer, but because the question is a little more juicy (and potentially rep-worthy), I'll give them a chance to report it. It's not Cosmere-breaking type of stuff, but we all cherish Hoid WoBs There is a ton more, I am not even remembering the most important reveals, but I am tired and a lot of the remaining stuff is more complicated, so I'll leave it to others and/or the audio.

I'm usually not much of a fan-of-things but I discovered Sanderson's writing a couple of years ago and he scratches a certain itch that's often left unscratched. Seems like a lovely bunch here, and looking forward to speculating, theorizing, and just meeting cool people in general. -Will

Murder. The fowlest of crimes.

Unlikely as it may be, I think this is a fun theory and I want to put my thoughts in one place. Others have talked about the idea before, so I don't mean to claim the idea as my own. But I'm not going to directly cite anyone else's reasoning here. What we know: It's pretty clear that the Shardbearer Kaladin killed was a Veden man. The stormwarden also suggests that he's not a particularly important figure, though it's hard to draw many conclusions from this. We also have pretty good reason to believe he is a Ghostblood. Amaram seems pretty certain that the Ghostbloods sent the man to kill him. While it's possible Amaram had some other reason to think this, I think that a simpler explanation makes more sense here: the man probably had a Ghostbloods tatoo. The Shardbearer certainly had possession of Helaran's Blade. The same Shardblade is described in each case. Not only was the Shardbearer a Veden man, but he was a younger man with red hair. This, tied with the blade description, leaves little doubt in Shallan's mind that her brother is dead. Helaran is also believed to be dead by quite a few people. Lin has received news of his death, which implies others knows. And Taravangian himself has heard of it. However, we still haven't encountered indisputable evidence that Helaran is dead, or that he was the Shardbearer defeated by Kaladin. Support for the idea that Helaran is alive: Mraize's comment suggests that Helaran was not a Ghostblood. Indeed, it seems unlikely that Helaran would join the Ghostbloods given his father had. This doesn't fit well with the notion that Amaram believed the Surgebinder was a Ghostblood. We have reason to believe that Helaran was a Surgebinder. Mraize claims that Helaran sought out the Skybreakers and Taravangian seems certain that he was advanced enough to offer training to his little sister. This strongly suggests that Helaran has advanced far enough to have formed a Nahel bond. (Note: evidence in Edgedancer indicates that this is plausible) Brandon was asked in 2014 if Helaran had bonded with a spren. While taken at face value, Brandon's words suggest that he had not. But his initial dance around the question followed by an indirect answer don't rule out the possibility. If Helaran is a Surgebinder, it seems highly unlikely that he would hang on to his original Shardblade. He would be hearing screams every time he used it. Renarin's experience suggests Helaran would be unable to keep and use it. Besides, it's entirely possible that he has advanced far enough to have no need of a "dead" blade. Lastly, I'd like to point out that Helaran is never seen with Shardplate. If he wanted to intimidate his father, why not bring that up as well? While it's possible his benefactors may have supplied it later, or that he wanted to keep his full capabilities a secret, the easiest explanation is that he didn't have Shardplate. Conclusion: Helaran is alive. After successfully seeking out the Skybreakers and joining their ranks, he rid himself of the Shardblade he was known to carry. The Blade ended up in the hands of another man--a Ghostblood--who was defeated by Kaladin on the battlefield. Reports that Helaran died are incorrect. There's too much mystery to the man's identity for this to be surprising. It doesn't matter how lowly Helaran may have been in Veden society. A Shardbearer on the battlefield would normally be well-known, and Amaram would have discovered the man's identity without much effort. The fact that the history of the Blade (and it's former bearer) is so shrouded suggests there's something to the story that people aren't seeing. In fact, it's possible that Helaran intentionally faked his death for one reason or another. Crackpot? Yes. I'm fully aware that the support for this is flimsy. But until proven false beyond a doubt, I think it's a fun conspiracy theory! Addendum: @Bcknight2 points out a notable WoB here, which strongly suggests Amaram knew the Shardbearer's name at the time he spoke with Shallan about the man. Based on that interaction, I think there's a strong case to be made that it wasn't Helaran. The gist is that he wouldn't have acted so casually or provided key details unless he had no reason to believe the details would be meaningful. And that doesn't work if the name he has is Helaran Davar. My full analysis and conclusions are here.

Honestly, I don't have a lot of evidence for this, its more of a gut feeling. But lately I've been thinking about the fact that Odium, despite being at least partially Invested in Roshar, is not confined to Roshar itself, but rather the greater Roshar system. And I keep thinking about the legends of the Tranquiline Halls, theories of human migration to Roshar, and the ten gas giants ringing the system, as well as the fact that Brandon has remained vague about whether or not Ashyn has at any point had Shards Invested in it. And again, I can't point to anything definitive, but I keep coming back to the idea that the overall story of Honor, Cultivation and Odium and their struggle and the Oathpact that binds them encompasses the whole Roshar system, not just Roshar and Braize. I think at some point or another the three Shards have been Invested in all three planets that we know of, and its a whole web of Investiture that keeps Odium confined rather than a singular anchor point. We've speculated at various points that the Tranquiline Halls are a reference to humanity previously being from either Ashyn or Braize before migrating to Roshar, but what if its not just one or the other, what if its both? What if there's been a progression throughout the eons like perhaps the conflict started on Braize before progressing to Ashyn and then from there it progressed to Roshar, and all three Shards have left pieces of them in their wake as they moved from one planet to the next, and its those pieces that form a cage keeping Odium in the star system....perhaps because he couldn't be contained just via one planet. I'm not entirely sure how to describe it, but consider Odium's conflict with Honor and Cultivation as a chess match throughout the ages. They plotted their moves across the board that is the greater Roshar system. Envision humanity beginning on Braize, under the watchful eyes of Honor and Cultivation, until Odium arrived, trying to do to them what he'd done to Devotion and Dominion, and had a hand in accomplishing with Ambition. Perhaps his initial zeitgeist turned Braize into a wasteland as Odium attempted to destroy the two Shards, and humanity fled to Ashyn, and the chess match progressed to there. And maybe Honor and Cultivation tried to checkmate him on Ashyn but he eluded them and pressed his assault there, leading to great havoc and destruction across Ashyn, until only a few places were left fertile and most of humanity fled yet again, this time to Roshar, leaving only remnants behind on Ashyn. And then on Roshar, with nowhere left for humanity to run within their reach, Honor sacrificed himself to protect the real king in the game (Cultivation and humanity), making moves such as the Oathpact that left him vulnerable should Odium take the bait and engage on the terms Honor laid out. And when Odium did so, Honor was Splintered but all the moves he and Cultivation had made across the Roshar system were brought to fruition, all the Investiture scattered across planets acted to trap Odium within the greater Roshar system. As long as Cultivation still survives, the game can still be won according to some grand design the two had laid out across the eons, using their pawns (regular Rosharans), their knights (the Knights Radiant), and their bishops and rooks (the Heralds), pitted against Odium's own chess pieces.

This is what I can corroborate. Towards the beginning of the Night Turn, Wilson came to our PM and revealed her role to me - she said she was a Mistborn and asked me to keep an eye out for any metal vials. She also revealed that one of the items stolen (I'll let the party who it was stolen from reveal that if they wish) was a vial of metal that was supposed to come to her tonight, but couldn't because it was stolen. She also claimed to have no metal vials at the moment. I didn't have any metal vials - I haven't found anything at all, even though I have searched every night (except for one that I missed, apparently - Night 3, I think it was). So I'm roleless and itemless. But that's ok. We chatted for a little while about other things, then the PM tapered off into silence. Then, 20 minutes before the end of the cycle, she responded again in the PM, saying that Daniyah had claimed to have a vial of Pewter - supposedly a mass protection item - and had planned to give it to her and then changed plans at the last minute. She told me that Daniyah was to blame if she died tonight, since Dani knew her role. Wilson also gave me a list of people who knew her role, which were Dani, myself, Elbereth, and Aonar, and one other. I did not see that PM notification until after the day turn had started. I returned to the Shard about 11 minutes after turnover, checked my PM first, replied, found out it was Day Turn, and promptly apologized to Wyrm. At which point, I looked up today's thread, saw the turn of events, and decided to vote for Daniyah. That Wilson was protected is no real surprise - I would suspect that either she had some sort of protection item (likely not a vial of metal - just because she likes to be as honest as possible, and she was very specific in her PM about not possessing any metal vials, but made no mention of other items. That seems like just the type of apparent oversight she would exploit if she were attempting to mislead) and was trying to draw an attack, or that someone else (either among the group who knew her role or not) protected her for unknown reasons. A wounded gazelle gambit is possible, but those don't tend to turn out well - though I've been gone from the Shard long enough that the memory of past failed gambits could have faded enough to make it a possibly attractive option now. However, Wilson is the least likely among the active players for me to suspect that of. Not because she wouldn't do it - if she thought she could pull it off, she'd do it in a heartbeat. But her roleplay has already changed her normal playstyle enough that she has a sufficient reason to fly under the radar as regards suspicion. In fact, her character (chosen before the game started, and likely deliberately so) is near-perfect for avoiding suspicion already. The chaotic, random player who never interacts except through roleplay? How do you notice a change in behavior if she gets converted? That's why I don't believe that this was a Wounded Gazelle Gambit, because Wilson is already in a position to garner trust and avoid suspicion. Of course, I've been fooled by her before, and probably will be again, so take my assessment with a grain of salt. But this is the best lead I've seen all game, and of the two options, Daniyah seems more suspicious to me than Wilson.

I am the terror that hoots in the night.

Hello, fellow Sanderson fanatics! I am Mirdrim, and I enjoy philosophical ramblings, psychology, literature, the occasional videogame, and strength training. I began my addiction to Brandon's work with his completion of Wheel of Time, and was thoroughly impressed with his completion of such a long and detailed series. I began to consume his own work at an alarming rate. First came Elantris, which I loved for it's unique magic system and interesting pseudo-zombie illness. I picked up Mistborn, and, fortunately for me, read it straight through, as the original trilogy was fully released when I started reading it. After finishing Mistborn (which I absolutely loved) I read Warbreaker, which I also loved, then moved on to Emperor's Soul, which was absolutely phenomenal, and probably one of the best shorter novels I have read. I was shocked by how much I loved this story, given the synopsis and seeming "lameness" of the storyline. My favorite series is definitely Stormlight Archive, followed closely by Mistborn. I also really enjoyed the Reckoners series, but I find myself craving more Cosmere content. Aside from Sanderson, I enjoy reading L.E. Modesitt Jr., Patrick Rothfuss, George R.R. Martin, Brent Weeks, and occasionally philosophy. I look forward to discussing Cosmere theories with some bigger dorks than I. Edit: I just finished Arcanum Unbounded, and was a little disappointed that I had read all but two of the stories contained within. However, I was extremely impressed with Edgedancer and Sixth of the Dusk. I really enjoyed Lift's new story, and thought Brandon did an excellent job of bringing a character that seemed silly or frivolous fully into the story. I am interested to see how things play out for her in the future novels.

I found a very festive hat in the choir room and someone took a photo.

Her name's Delightful, she is a poet. She's got a lot of talent but she doesn't show it. She likes anime and Lin-Manuel; She adheres to Judaism and is really quite swell.

-A sequel to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child where the events of Cursed Child are revealed to be a shared hallucination induced by Voldemort -Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Day -Black Friday, but for student loans, and you can apply the deals to loans you already have

Fun fact: Autocorrect can make your narration more interesting. For example, "Wind carried a child through the air" is much more interesting than "Wind carried a chill through the air."

Here's a cause I never would have championed if I hadn't become a librarian: Make every employer whose workplace has an online component (putting pay stubs online, sending schedules through email) provide basic computer training for employees who aren't computer literate. I just finished working with a patron who didn't even know how to access their own email account. Which sucked for them, because their employer had begun putting pay stubs online. So this patron was just given a page of instructions and sent off onto the wild blue yonder, probably told to "go to the public library if you need help." Here's the thing: We librarians aren't supposed to spend more than a few minutes with each patron. We get a lot of questions each day, and spending 20+ minutes with one patron is out of the question. Yes, we do have computer classes, and yes they're free, but they're nearly always held during the day when most people are at work, since most people who sign up for those classes are retirees. In other words, these employers are putting all responsibility for computer training on an organization that doesn't have the resources or manpower to provide it, or else tossing their employees to the wolves. And really, how difficult is it to hold a class or two on accessing personal data on the company website? Especially since the librarian isn't even allowed to help said employees through the final steps, seeing as how we're not allowed to access patrons' personal information. Really, just a quick run-through after the employees are hired would solve a lot of problems.

Redditor /u/Ray745 reported something interesting a little earlier - something that I at least have had missed, and it sounds like I wasn't the only one. Turns out that the group known as "the Diagram" is actually not as unified as I had previously believed: How would Dalinar become their ally if Graves was purposely keeping Kaladin away from Dalinar so Szeth could kill him? Is Graves lying to Moash there? That part I never fully understood. It seems as though Graves understands Dalinar is going to be assassinated, yet from what he says to Moash at the end he seems to expect Dalinar would not have been killed. Brandon Sanderson Answer - Graves is supposed to (though people missed this, so perhaps I didn't do it well enough) indicate that the Diagram is not simply one group, following Taravangian. They follow the diagram itself, not him, and some think his interpretations are wrong. Graves was ordered to remove the Alethi leadership entirely--though Taravangian was sending Szeth after Dalinar (the more dangerous one) and Graves was to remove Elhokar. Graves, however, interpreted the diagram differently. He thinks that Dalinar cannot be killed by Szeth, or anyone, and is hoping to remove Elhokar, have Dalinar step up, and help them. He has passages of the Diagram that indicate, to him, this is the natural outcome of removing Elhokar. The actual passages, and what it is they're trying to accomplish in specific, has yet to be revealed in full. The Reddit thread has a couple more of his questions (the second one featuring medium-level spoilers for Edgedancer), but I don't think they reveal anything interesting (or at least new).

Hi guys, I am writing this post to expose a theory I worked on for a while, recently I got some new possible contros and I developed a derivated theory of the main one (but that I like very very less). The core concept of the theory for both the main and the derivate ones is that an Highstorm is actually a perpendicularity...a mobile one (to be honest I think it better to say that an Highstorm has a Perpencidularity at its inside) Pros: - An Highstorm spreads Stormlight...Investiture that comes directly from the Spiritual Realm (many WoB about Stormlight as lightbulb to the spiritual realm), a perpendicularity is a place where the Realms are spiked and the Spiritual is "in contact" with the phisical. - Shadesmar seems really poor of Stormlight, another clue about the direct travel Spiritual->Physical (with maybe some minor leak in the Cognitive, that may be the origin of the proto-Spren) - The Perpendicularities we saw are all in a liquid state and may be part of a greater waterpool (often called water of live in certain Cosmere Culture) and the Hightstorm is actually a great amount of water (as every storm's cloud) compressed together. The Highstorms help to grown plants and have some benefit to the living healt (I think it's the reason the "Herald's wisdom" suggest to go out in the Highstorm to wash) fitting well with the "water of life" concept - The phase where the Spheres get the Stormlight is actually the same phase when Listeners can obtain a new form and the phase where people willing or unwilling are slightly pulled out of the Physical (the "calm eye" of the Highstorm). - Roshar is a place where the boundary between the Realms are less strong, what is better than a Perpendicularity that regularly pass over the whole planet ? Contro: - We never actually saw a mobile perpendicularity The previous part is common by both the Main theory and the Derivate one. Now I will talk about the difference between the two: Main theory: Adonalsium's design We know that Adonalsium explicity created Roshar as we see it, We know that the Listener predate the Shards there and that the Listener were created by Adonalium to fit the Roshar's ecology. As other Rosharans' beings the Listener are quite dependant from the symbiosis with a Spren. My idea is that Adonalsium left on Roshar as part of his design a great "Investiture Vault"(I see it as a willing analogue to the Ruin's stolen power) to put in place the Invested Highstorm as a tool to made the Spren's birth naturally possible. The bounday between Realms are weaker and the Mind of the physical being may more easy influence-gave birth to the Cognitive beings (thanks also to the higher level of Investiture). A specific Adonalsium's Splinter was put in charge or developed on his own the purpose to carry and manage the Highstorm (of course I am talking of the Rider of the Storm). Pro to the main theory: - Roshar's ecology seems to be strictly dependent from Stormlight - Roshar's flora/fauna is high developed to the Highstorm (this is actually a doutbful pro, because the Highstorm may be a regular uninvested powerful Storm in the Ancient time) - This would fits to the theory who saw the Purelake as a Shard's Perpendicularity along with Horneater's peaks and leave a place for the Highstorm as other source perpendicularity Contro to the main theory: - A recent WoB said that is possible to create a Spren from Stormlight while isn't possible to create it from Preservation's power because it comes from a different WoB. This suggest that Stormlight is from one of the shard that are actually parents of the Radiant Spren (without put an exception like "Adonalium's Investiture as untainted Investiture may be used corrupted with an Intent and be used as Shard's Investiture) - The presence of an huge amount of Adonalsium's Investiture is something never saw in other places of the Cosmere and in my opinion it would be cause a Manifestation of Investiture to arose on Roshar (like if a Shard was Invested).... I actually think that the Fabrial aren't from H&C but this is quite an external topic in this theory. - The Drominad System's essay seems to point as First of the Sun as an unique case in the Cosmere, where you can find a perpendicularity without a Shard on the planet. This may be semanthic, but actually on Roshar the Adonalsium's perpendicularity may be masked by the presence of H&C or it's not so relevant because you may actually use the Shards' perpendicularities Derived theory: Cultivation's will Cultivation is the Stormlight's source (I have another topic in working called "Stormlight isn't of Honor"). Pros to the derivate theory: - More in line with the Shard's investiment on a Planet - Stormlight has healing and growing proprieties on large scale, this seems to fit Cultivation's mandate/Intent - If the Purelake's theory is false, we have a good candidate to the second Shard's perpendicularity on Roshar (thanks to the guys who informed me that the Purelake's perpendicularity is a theory not a confirmed fact) - It doesn't need to put exception to the Cosmere's mechanics Contros to the derivate theory: - How the hell Did Roshar's survive before the Shards' arrive ? I would really know your opinions about... Soon or later I will wrote all my Roshar's model PS: If you find some horrible grammar horror in the theory please let me know it...I will fix it as soon as possible

Hello. I'm moth, or Brenna if you want to be fancy and use my real name. I am an artist. I draw things! I love the cosmere. I also love Sazed. He is the best one. Some fun facts: I haven't read Sixth of the Dusk or SFSITFH yet, but I got them on audiobook and am absolutely too excited to listen to them. I have a particular fondness for birds. I do theater and keep bees and yell about politics. I am unusually likely to see shooting stars. I am allergic to pineapple. I love pineapple. My username was taken from a proverb that I heard somewhere in a dream once: "Don't yell at dead moths".

Edit: Unfortunately this speculation has been disproved. The plague in the Purelake is actually just the common cold, which was introduced by worldhoppers. At the very end of Words of Radiance, Dalinar makes an off-hand reference to there being a plague in the Purelake. We really don't know anything about it beyond its mere existence (and even that is non-emphasized, I completely missed it in my initial read-through). I've recently been giving it some thought though, and I've randomly speculated a possible cause. We know that the Purelake is home to "magic fish" that appear to be an important part of the Purelaker culture and diet. These magic fish are a result of symbiotic bonds with spren. My speculation is this: Is it possible that Voidspren have been hijacking these bonds (or alternatively the natural spren are being corrupted in some way) and instead of bestowing some gift they are making people sick? So, thoughts?

Meanwhile on reddit real Herdazians are very upset.

Hello all. I've been thinking about this theory for a long time, although a few recent comments have made me decide to actually write it up. To keep things short, I'm going to quote the Coppermind article for Adonalsium and link the relevant WoBs, that way I don't have to waste any time (mine or yours) regurgitating this information. While I can't say I know everything about Yolen, I have a general understanding that the world was dying to something known as fainlife. According to Yolish lore, it is some kind of malevolent disease(?) released from the corpses of Gods that began to gradually eat away at the world. My first thought here is, what is Adonalsium doing? Why hasn't he fought it off or tried to save Yolen? I can't answer this exactly. I can theorize the entity we know as Adonalsium did not originally hold that power, and that like the Shards, it shaped him into being unable to act in any meaningful way. We already see an example of 2 conflicting Intents forcing a Vessel from acting much (Harmony), so it's possible having 16 different Intents, possibly in 8 conflicting pairs, would have the same affect on Him. On that note, I find it interesting that Frost the Dragon has a non-intervention policy. I suspect that this might be a result of a particularly strict religion that worships Adonalsium directly, and adheres to the same concept that it is their duty to let destiny run its course. Either way, this isn't the main subject I want to discuss. Back to my theory, it seems clear that the 16 original Vessels of the Shards were a group of people from across Yolen who, each for their own reasons, wanted to stop the fainlife, and that the only way they could accomplish it was by killing Adonalsium and taking the power for himself. And thus I believe that the "force that determined which way it shattered" was each Vessel's Intent in committing deicide. To emphasize my theory, let's look at the names of the Shards we know, and connect those to reasons why someone might commit deicide or want to become a god. Autonomy: Based on what we know of Bavadin, she really doesn't like people who use magic. The Kertzians on Taldain have a deep hatred for Sand Masters, and she appears to be interfering with other worlds and encouraging their inhabitants to hate those with magic, if not the Shards themselves. For example, I believe that Bavadin has hijacked Idrian Austrism, hence their recent (300 years) opposition towards Awakening and Returned. I suspect she affected Shu-Dereth in a similar way, which is the driving factor in why wants to conquer the world, and perhaps why the Dakhor Monks want to slaughter the Elantrians as well. There's also the business with Trell on Scadrial. Ultimately I think Bavadin's reason for helping Shatter Adonalsium was because she wanted to have a Cosmere autonomous from Gods, which is somewhat ironic, since she's apparently going around pretending to be them. Cultivation: We really don't know much about this Shard or Vessel, sadly, but for now I can come up with an easy answer. I suspect the original holder of Cultivation was an older woman and a mother at that. She wanted to create a stable Cosmere with her kids could grow old and live happy and comfortably. Likely this desire applied to more than just her immediate family, but all others too. I also wouldn't be surprised if she was an avid gardener, or had an love for nature. Now that I think about it, I think Shinovar being where she resides / the location of her shardpool makes a lot of sense, as it's the only place on Roshar that resembles earth (Yolen). Devotion: This ones a bit tricky, since we don't know much about Aona, either, and one would think that with the religious connotations of the word, it's hard to imagine how someone is being devoted by killing their god. Perhaps I could see that, if a previous statement about Adonalsium not being the original holder of that power, that it's a tradition of sorts for the power to be passed on, and that Aona belongs to this culture. A bit of a stretch, but the most interesting theory I can come up with. It's possible she's just reaaally devoted to Yolen, or whatever country she comes from on it, to the point that she'd kill god to save it. Not as fun an answer, though. Dominion: Skai's reason is a bit easier to figure out, if Fjordell is anything to go off of! He just wanted to dominate the Cosmere! I suspect this isn't entirely the case. Maybe he just believed that mortals should be in control of their destiny, rather than the gods (or in this case, a god). Once again, this answers a bit generic and hard to say for certain since we don't know much about Skai. I personally got a feeling he's not that bad of a guy. Endowment: Considering how magic works on Nalthis, if this theory is correct than Edgli's main reason for committing deicide would be her wanting every person to have a little bit of god's power, rather than see it all be held by a single person. Honor: Tanavast's purpose for commiting deicide being "honorable" is another one of the tougher connections for me to establish. Considering all the business with oaths, maybe he was some kind of knight that strictly abided by some kind of code that compelled him to take part in destroying Adonalsium. Like Dominion, the Honor shard makes me question this theory, although either way, it's a fun thought experiment. Odium: Easy enough, considering what we know about Rayse. He hated Adonalsium. Likely for some completely tragic reason. Maybe he grew up in a very religious culture which was one of the first to be consumed by the fainlife, and ever since, he blamed Adonalsium in particular for failing to intervene. Considering that Hoid describes him as craft, I wouldn't even be surprised if he was the one who gathered this team from the start. Preservation: Another easy one... Leras wanted to preserve the world. He liked it the way things were and didn't want anything to change. The way I just worded it makes me think he might have been one of the younger vessels, which seems to contradict how wise he seems during his appearances, but on that matter, a lot of time has passed since the Shattering. Ruin: We know that Ati wasn't a bad guy, according to Hoid (I think? Or was it WoB?), and that Ruin had corrupted him over time. I know plenty of good people who have reasonable prejudices. It's possible that he came from similar origins as Rayse, in that his homeland was consumed by the fainlife, but instead of hating god for not saving them, he just wanted to destroy the source of his pain once and for all. Ambition: Here we are at the shard we've most recently learned the name of, and also know next-to-nothing about. With a name like Ambition, it isn't hard to guess what the Vessel's reason for committing deicide would be. I suspect he wanted power, perhaps for no other reason than to have it, and this may have been a large factor in why he was the first Shard that Odium attempted to Splinter. And now for the culminating statement! We know that Hoid was at the Shattering. We also know that Hoid is not a Shard(6). I believe the reason why Hoid didn't receive a Shard is because he didn't want Adonalsium to die. I believe that Hoid was present at the Shattering because he was trying to stop it. Furthermore, I believe it's possible that Hoid's ultimate Cosmeric goal has something to do with reforging the Shards into a new Adonalsium (likely not within himself, since I doubt he wants to be a God, or believes himself capable of being a good one). Now that all my thoughts on the matter are out there, I'll go ahead and point out that I don't really have much evidence to support this. However, I would really like to ask Brandon a question like "if every original Vessels was at the Shattering, except another person was there with them other than Leras, would the other people responsible for the Shattering receive the same exact Shards while Leras replacement would take Preservation, or would he get a different Shard entirely?" It would most certainly reveal an RAFO, but I do wonder what Brandon's reaction to such a question would be (a sly smile, a laugh, etc). The idea itself is pretty wild. But I would love it if people commented with any contextual evidence that might prove or disprove it, for discussion's sake. Also, feel free to come up with other motivations for killing Adonalsium that align with these Shard's Intents.

Well, I'm a Nightwatcher themed after a rooftop vigilante. Does the new avatar make me Green Arrow, or Batowl?

I think you will like this video . . .

That's actually a pretty key component of fantasy name syndrome, to be honest. There's always a critical backstory reason why the name is like that. In the mean time, the writer's asking the reader to endure a name that doesn't sound right in the vague hope of some sort of payoff. If I as a reader am rolling my eyes from nearly the beginning of the book at something that's going to be around the whole book, does the inevitable 'no no it's really cool actually when you find out' sound all that compelling? Yeah, but that's not the issue I'm feeling here; it's not that the character is coming off childish; it doesn't even read like they're intended to come off childish. His phrasings and in particular his punctuation have a sort of style you tend to see in children's creative writing. Too many exclamation points, a sort of over-explanation on these lines, the priorities of speaking. I'm not describing a character problem, I'm describing a style problem. And of course there's a reason for him having a diminished mental capacity. A dark one. (this, frankly, worries me from an ableism perspective, but cross that bridge when we get to it) How do you as a writer intend to make the reader care? It's not that it reads like you don't know your characters, but the narration reads like it's being conveyed by someone who knows all the details but has zero connection to anything that's going on. There's never any reason given for the reader to care about anything. I feel like, by the way you're answering some of these crits, that you're expecting that the promise of explanations for what you consider to be key character mysteries should be sufficient to engage the reader but you're not doing the work of investing the reader. It reads like you didn't enjoy what you were doing; the prose is laborious, agonized, like it only exists because it must to carry things from point to point. The biggest word cut from my initial response about the style was 'joyless'. There's no sensation of what I as a reader should be feeling about anything going on here; if your respone to this is to consider 'deep emotional dialogue', I have to stress: please read more. Please read more emotional prose. I mean really; this is a steampunk book about, like, airship privateers and the only thing you do to introduce the airship, glorious in its hangar, is 'yep, that's an airship all right'

If I were to be a shard, I would be Affirmation. Magic in my world would be based upon strength of belief, being similar to Soulcasting. If you believe something, Investiture would affirm said thing, making it true. Also, another form of Investiture would be able to work upon the mind, Affirming certain beliefs inside of someone, similar to Soothing and Rioting. I could Affirm certain beliefs to make them stronger, while Dismissing others. In terms of a world, I would have several high mountains, which sat above a shadowed world covered by clouds. Below, your abilities would be far more powerful, due to the planet being undefined, while above, humans lived normally.

Hello there, Mirdrim! I'm bleeder; you'll often find me on the General Discussion, ranting about music and my boyfriend. Welcome to the Shard! You'll make a lot of friends and learn a lot. Don't eat the cookies. If you ever need anything, let me know!

Yeah, I have read just about everything in the Cosmere. I did check out the White Sand excerpt, but I think that's all that's out at the moment, unless you request the novella from Brandon. I checked out the Wax & Wayne series and was very surprised that I liked it as much as the original series. I have never found an author I so uniformly enjoyed as Sanderson. The only work from him that I haven't read is Infinity Blade, Alcatraz & Evil Librarian series, and Firstborn. Thank you for the warm welcome. Fortunately for my soul's health I am on a diet, so no cookies. I wouldn't want to Ruin my fantastic physique..

Sadly, since he already did something like this with Harmony's 'seriously, don't waste time worshipping me' routine I doubt he's going to do it again but it would be hilarious if something like this did happen. And I could totally see Jasnah saying that. "Pray to me and I will smite you. But with science, definitely not divine wrrath. Maybe I'll drop a textbook on your head from ten thousand feet up, explaining exactly how I accomplished it so nobody thinks it's a miracle..."

Anyone notice that the photo source at the bottom of the event page is "Nazrilof"? a.k.a. Nazh?

There is no correct pronunciation, as far as Brandon is concerned (and this applies to all of his books). There are pronunciations that are correct in-world, but even Brandon doesn't always use those - so whatever sounds right in your head is correct. This being said, Arelon has a very specific (in-world) way of pronouncing names - the first two vowels are always stressed and open. So Raoden would be something like RAY-OH-den and Shaod would be SHAY-ODE. Which unfortunately means Elantris would be EE-LAYN-tris, but nobody says it that way There was a very old blog that explained all that, you may be able to find it on the website somewhere.

Ok.

I have an Age Of the Internet problem. I wrote a Hamilton-inspired poem. I want to tweet it at Lin-Manuel. (Shh fangirl here. He seems pretty responsive to randoms). Its longer than a tweet. Where can I post it to link to?

- Captain Marvel getting some dignity and respect back after the fiasco that is Civil War II - #Cyclopswasright getting acknowledged in universe. - Arrow season 5 being really good, and them maintaining that quality for season 6. - Actually, if DC can maintain the quality of its current relaunch un general, the would be fantastic.

I was only a Spectator for a few turns, but I've got a couple things I'd like to point out. Honestly, quite a bit of my game play this game was explicitly geared towards helping teach some lessons. This was not one of them, however >> This particular lesson was don't trust a player just because they were instrumental in the death of an eliminator. As Nyali pointed out towards the end of the game, it was very odd that I was still alive. The excuses I made were not very well formed, and that was partially intentional. Another thing is, under normal (village) circumstances, a player is more likely to point out things that are odd themselves. Like for example, Doc saying how surprised he was that people weren't gunning for him. I personally completely ignored the fact I was still alive after a while, partly to see how long it would take for others to point it out. On the note of completely ignoring things, did anyone else notice my constant omissions of Stick's existence? That was intentional. By avoiding talking about her and focusing on other players, I effectively made sure suspicion on her was a minimum. Be on the look out for players seemingly ignoring the existence of others. Yes, some people can be forgetful, but a connection like that might be very important to draw upon some day. I'm sure I had more, but unfortunately I've got to get ready to head home and finally get some sleep. so I'll have more statements to make later. I imagine that the QF is going to be even more challenging for the village due to the shorter turns, so I hope everyone who played this game takes some things they learned into it, and more importantly than that, has a lot of fun. Oh, and of course, good game, everyone! And thank you very much, Hael, for running this for us all :]

I think that the part "without Honor to regulate it" is only about the number of Radiant Spren avaliable. If there is a risk to start a desolation if there are too much Radiant Knight. Honor would simply regulate the amount of Radiant Spren avaliable....Now He is death, and almost all his power turned into Radiant Spren, now there are too much of them.

I actually posted something similar about Dragon Age a few months ago. here is the link if you are interested!

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.

I'm sorry, Vasher. Must be a depressing way to live.

Breakthrough They had finally reached it. The trail had started climbing upwards, while also becoming more cleared out, eventually turning into a road. They’d crested the top, and looked down into the bowl shaped depression before them. Yes, it was overgrown, and just a little bit swampy, but this was what they’d been looking for. Patji’s Cauldron. There looked to be something of an outpost here, all made out of stone, and covered in the same slime as the marker they’d found yesterday. How had this gotten here? Nothing like this had ever been reported as being found anywhere. Was this from a lost civilisation? This was going to be groundbreaking discovery! They’d all spread out, to look through the buildings, to find anything to bring back with them, and to take notes of what they found. Szeth had accompanied Idoya, helping her investigate some of the outer structures. “I wonder what all these symbols mean…” She looked around, surprised when there was no response, only to see Szeth slump to the ground. “You…!” Then… Assassin was lynched. They were a Researcher. Vote Tally Assassin(3): Nyali, Stick, Amanuensis Nyali(3): Jondesu, Assassin, Wonko And that's the game! The Traitors have won, as they now outnumber the Researchers. The GM's thoughts, and the last few write ups, should be coming in the next few days. Also coming in the next few days will be the signups for a QF, which I will be running with much the same rules. Doc links: Traitors, Spectators, Corpses

If that theory is true, then Taln is really a mother-effing badass. 4,500 years of torture and only now the guy gave in?

What are your theories as to how the yet-to-be-discovered greater power of the oaths can potentially allow Voidbringers to return if Honor is not here to regulate this? I think we can answer this question, though it's a bit of a leap of logic. First, though let's start with reviewing the following major points of what we know: 1) A Nahel bond is, at the core, a spren's imitation of a given Honorblade. Ten Heralds were given ten Honorblades, bestowing upon each of them two Surges, and then "spren figured out what He'd done, and we imitated it," according to Sylphrena, and we have no reason to doubt her statement whatsoever. 2) Radiants gain increased power and abilities by speaking certain Words. These Words are based on the spren and/or the Order/Surges that a given 'Initiate of Roshar' is bonding. We have more than enough examples of this. 3) Each Order has only five Ideals. Or do they? The one thing that's been bothering me about the quote from Nale in the OP is the fact that Honor 'regulated' this so-called greater power. Why would Honor need to do that? I think this is the major point, and I think that this necessity, combined with what we know about those engaged in a Nahel bond, allows us to deduce what the issue really is. Which leads me to the following theory: Nahel bond candidates can potentially grow into Heralds. My assertion for this is largely based on the fact that spren-Shardblades are an attempt to duplicate the effects of the Honorblades. This would imply that, over time, a Radiant could have a Shardblade that becomes increasingly closer to an Honorblade. The five Ideals are, in my opinion, the above-mentioned 'regulation', which is to say that the fifth set of Words was the limit for a given Radiant; he or she had reached the supposed limit of his or her powers. But Honor isn't around to keep a cork in the bottle anymore, and we don't know exactly how the Stormfather arbitrates this progression system when Words are spoken. Additionally, nine of the ten Heralds threw in the towel, therefore creating nine potential "job openings" for someone who - I presume - says the right thing. Words - more precisely, the sincerity of the idea they convey - are what seems to be the requirement to gain power under Honor's system. To me, this same methodology was what the Heralds did (swearing oaths to the Oathpact) when they were formed. Thus, it's possible that someone could take up this particular mantle by swearing the right oath. Whether an Honorblade itself is necessary is the real question. That said, it's a very unlikely possibility (someone learning what Words to say to become a Herald), thus why Nale finds it a small chance, yet there still remains a chance that it could happen. Either way, I think the bolded point is the major danger that Nale is implying. If someone inadvertently stumbles into becoming a pseudo-Herald, then that alone would be theoretically sufficient to trigger a Desolation. Heralds bound to the Oathpact trigger Desolations by not leaving Roshar in time, that's straight from Brandon. Lastly, there's another point to consider: a Death Rattle. Why only ten, when reforming the Radiants should mean significantly more Shardblades should be present opposing the wall? I claim this is because Heralds are as needed as Radiants to win this fight, and to do that, a person must be able to become one. The best candidates would, therefore, be Radiants who at least understand their particular "path of Honor", to say nothing of experience with their powers. Honor isn't able to anoint a Herald, now, so logically this would suggest that one can arrive at that point if shown the way. So yeah, I think there's a little conjecture supporting the idea.

The new teaser trailer for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" !!!! And the dozens of "reactions" videos are fun to peruse through as well - - the thing I love most is the diverse ages, races, and genders of fans who are so keyed up for this one movie. May 2017 caNOT come soon enough!

I've been mulling this over for a while, too. I don't think the constellations represent Shardbearers, because Scadrial is part of another constellation. That being said, there are definitely some undeniable parallels between the constellations and the worlds that are a part of them. So, the big question in my mind is timing. When did these Constellations come about? It's a bit of a chicken-and-the-egg situation. Here are some possibilities. The Constellations are based on the Worlds. Silverlight generated them as they studied various worlds, specifically to match an aspect of that world. If it was soon after the Shattering, then it could have been before Ruin and Preservation created life in the Scadrian system, so that's why it doesn't have its own constellation. (Side note, could Silverlight predate the Shattering?) The Constellations are based on the Vessels. I don't find this terribly likely, since there's stuff like a tree and a lamp, as Argent said above. However, there could be symbolism there, which we just aren't able to grasp yet without reading Dragonsteel. The Worlds are based on the Constellations. I liked the idea that the constellations were viewed from Yolen, and put some thought into this avenue before it was debunked. But, if Silverlight is near Yolen (a not unreasonable possibility; as the source of the Shards, it should be near the center of the cosmere, and Silverlight as a worldhopping community wouldn't want to be off in a corner somewhere), then Silverlight could share similar constellations to Yolen. Elements of pre-Shattering mythology could have driven Shards to drive their magic in that direction. (A recent discussion from the Hoboken signing makes me think that the Vessel could have more of an influence on the magic system than I had previously assumed.) So, if you're on the breath planet, you get Breath. If you're on the fighting planet, you get armor and swords. I think this one would be stretching coincidence a bit. Lastly, this one I just thought of right now, the Constellations are Focuses. As I understand it, a magic system arises between a world and a Shard, and each will inform the specific magic system. A Shard needs to Invest in a world to create a magic system. What if these constellations are representative of the aspect of the world that defines the magic systems? The Initiations, perhaps? Roshar shows a knight; by definition, a knight follows a code. Nalthis shows breath; you need to collect Breath. First of the Sun shows a net; you need to capture a bird. Taldain shows a tree; you need to filter Investiture through other lifeforms. Threnody and Sel, we don't know the Initiation for either of them. Scadrial, I'd probably go back to the first point, and say there's nothing on there because the chart predates its inhabitation. And the cop-out is that the Constellations tell a Story. Khriss's essays, especially the Rosharan Essay, read a little stilted to me, since Brandon had intentionally written them so as not to spoil anything he hasn't written yet. And I don't fault him for it; otherwise, we wouldn't have the essays at all. So, still worth it. But it's possible the star chart is designed to mean more to us, the readers, than it does to those in-universe, and it could contain several levels of association. So it's possible this is giving us hints to the overarching story of the cosmere, the stuff Hoid's been up to, the stuff we haven't seen yet but Brandon promises AU begins to open the door to. It's possible these are relevant to Dragonsteel's plot, hints to the reader while just being constellations to those in-universe. This would ascribe the least meaning, but it is an in-universe art. It might not be any more complex than Earth's astrology, or the stories told by our constellations. Closer, brighter stars take prominence in constellations (center of a tree, light of a lamp, Orion's belt).But maybe going too in-depth would be losing the forest for the trees. So, yeah, those are some of my thoughts. This seems like it will be a big mystery, like the Shadesmar map or the 'Voidbinding' chart. (Yes, I'm aware that there's a good chance it's not Voidbinding, but that's how I've most often heard it referred to.) EDIT: Great point, @Tsidqiyah! I can tie that into Constellations as Focus, with Nazh saying in Secret History that it requires rites to become a Shade. Maybe emotion is a focus on Threnody; you need to feel a certain way to access or interact with magic? (Or did, when it there was Investiture there.) That could be the reason behind why all the worlds in the system are named for things connected with mourning. But, it does fit more simply into the first point, that it's called Threnody so Silverlight decided to make it a mourning woman.

Hm... I don't actually think that Ishi'Elin actually put in place the system which makes radiants lose their abilities if they break their oaths. The nahel bond requires the oaths I think, so I would guess this was always a feature of surgebinding without an honor blade. Rather, I would guess that Ishi'Elin organized the various surgebinders into what we now know as the knights radiant. This organization undoubtedly had more rules than just each group's oaths... After all, windrunners and skybreakers could get in an all out fight and still each be following their own oaths (WoR notes a time they did indeed have a dispute though it did not escalate). I suspect that Ishi'Elin imposed additional organization on the surgebinders, forming them into the orders of knights radiant, which would be made to work together, and to answer to the heralds.

Note: I will try to consistently use "Shadesmar" to refer specifically to the region in the Cognitive Realm that corresponds to Roshar/Greater Roshar. When Shallan first went to Shadesmar in WoK, I didn't think much about the sun. I didn't really know anything about the Cognitive Realm, so I sort of implicitly thought, "Sure, that's the cognitive representation of the sun." But after her visit near the beginning of WoR something seemingly really obvious hit me. We've seen that in Shadesmar, physical objects, seemingly no matter how large they are, become spheres. We have no reason to think that a star, just because it's huge and produces light in the Physical Realm, would be huge and produce light in the Cognitive Realm as well. Rather, we've seen that the consciousness of a being in the Physical Realm appears in the Cognitive Realm as a pale light. That is not the sun. It's a mind. I think the sun in Shadesmar is the cognitive self, or the cognitive shadow, or something like that, of Adonalsium. Most of what I've seen has tried to figure out what the sun is in terms of what we know to exist on Roshar. People have discussed it being the mind of Honor and/or Cultivation, or being a countdown clock of some kind until the next desolation. I think this totally misses the sense of scale. Planets in the Physical Realm are regions in the Cognitive Realm. Everything is scaled down. The vast emptiness of space is reduced to mountain ranges between the regions. (Side note: It's kind of funny to wonder whether there's a sad little sphere representing Roshar's sun somewhere in the mountains surrounding Shadesmar.) With this distortion of scale, the sun that is visible in Shadesmar should be visible in the Cognitive Realm region corresponding to any other planet. What is a dwarf galaxy in the Physical Realm is more or less a planet in the Cognitive Realm, at least in terms of distances, so the sun in Shadesmar is the sun everywhere. This is where the more savvy among you will, I hope, fill me in or shoot me down. Brandon has said that matter and energy are essentially manifestations of Investiture. We know that a shard of Adonalsium doesn't act on its own in a meaningful, sentient way. It affects the cognition of a person who holds it, but it doesn't seem to think for itself. I think that the shards of Adonalsium were, at least at the time of the shattering, literally physical pieces of the body of Adonalsium. These pieces by their nature held an incredible amount of Investiture, granting all kinds of power and causing all manner of effects on the holder that you wouldn't normally associate with a simple physical object. I think the cognitive self of Adonalsium remains, independent of a physical body. I haven't read Secret History yet (Bands of Mourning is next on my reading list!), but I know that Kelsier discovered it is possible to linger in the Cognitive Realm after physical death, and that it seems to be dependent on the significance of the being who died. If Kelsier could stick around, Adonalsium surely could have. I don't know how the spiritual figures into any of this, because, well, nobody seems to know much of anything about the Spiritual Realm yet. If I'm wrong and Adonalsium's mind isn't still around, it does stand to reason that the cognitive shadow of Adonalsium would be incredible. The Stormfather himself is the result of the worship of a portion of the population of a single shardworld. Imagine the cognitive shadow of a being who is as close to God as we've seen (short of the God Beyond, whose consciousness I expect wouldn't have a finite size), whose death directly or indirectly motivated just about every story we've been told in this setting, whose essence literally makes up the physical substrate of the Cosmere, and who is known of by at least part of the population on seemingly every world. The Cognitive realm is structured by perception, and Adonalsium seems like a good candidate for the radiant center of sentient perception in the Cosmere.