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I thought about this question for The Longest Time when I ran QF30 with basically the same activity filter. Don't Ask Me Why, but I feel strongly about what my particular brand of activity filter is supposed to do. While allowing this kind of vote would be very entertaining, it undermines the expectation that players share their thoughts in a way that measurably impacts the game (even if they don't necessarily feel confident in their thought process, or their ability to argue it to other people). I encourage you to share your thoughts, Just the Way They Are, because You May be Right.

My favorite was when Wax, Wayne, Marasi, and Steris break through the Four Walls of Doom and steal Peter Ahlstrom's iPad so they can watch RWBY. And that bit where Brandon actually put Butt Venture into the giant pun battle between Vin and Elend that time the Spren-Haters Club went to the SR? Priceless! Of course, nothing can beat that Easter egg where he literally had the good guys play a tuba. Really worked out great.

I think Odium and the Desolations are collectively a metaphor for the way that history and cultural baggage wind up prolonging, or even restoring to life, pointless destructive conflicts that began before anyone in the world was even alive. The Fused are literally the angry dead, taking over the lives of the young so they can prosecute their ancient grudge. So much of what we become seems to be determined by things that happened, and actions that were taken, before we even existed. We drop into reality and we find that we're responsible for atrocities somehow, because our ancestors did them but only we are alive to stand in for them because we resemble them. People are born innocent but the cultures and societies that form the basis of their identity can label them as oppressors, or victims. If there is a single cohesive theme to the Stormlight Archive so far, it seems to be the theme of atoning with the past. It seems almost impossible to just drop it, but that makes it really hard to move forward.

Phase 3: Blood and Ink "Every Fae child knows this, but you mortals never seem to see. We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be." Squick swam happily in a forest stream, playing his squid-flute to keep the troupers entertained in these trying times. Dimly, he recalled that things had been different, once. Once, he was not a prized showpiece of the troupe, a squid which played the flute. Perhaps once, he wasn't even a real squid at all... It was hard to remember, these days. He didn't mind very much; being a squid was nice. No fires underwater, usually, unless the troupe firestarters were taking it a little bit far. No nasty Chandrian to come bother him, or any of the other fae for that matter. . . . The troupe stood around a bonfire of ash and rowan. The flames, thankfully, were the normal shade. Atop the fire was an iron pot, and within this pot was a small demon that had tried to gouge out a trouper's eyes earlier that day. "We need to find these Fae," one of the troupers said. For some reason, it was becoming hard to keep track of who was whom... "Yes, we must find the Fae," another spoke up. "But how I cannot say; they may appear in any way." "That so..." another pondered, but was interrupted by the lilting melodies of a flute player. This was not just any flute player, it was Squick the squid, one of the troupe's major attractions... And a decidedly unnatural one. How could a squid play the flute...? Unless it were really one of the Fae, of coarse... . . . Squick burbled an upbeat tune, swimming lazily along the stream, when a large crowd of troupers and pretend-troupers began to wade into his stream. Odd. They appeared aggravated. No, even more, they appeared angry at Squick. Maybe they didn't like his music? He launched into a new song, a flutist's rendition of the well-loved song Tinker, Tanner. He played his part skillfully, using all of his many arms to play the flute better than any human could. Beautiful harmonies echoed across the forest, hanging for a moment in the air. The mob seemed unimpressed. Seriously, how could they not like Tinker, Tanner? What was wrong with them? Squick attempted to shake his head, only to remember he had no neck worth speaking of. Instead, he settled for a burst of ink, staining the waters around him black and letting him make a graceful exit after his performance. The mob surged after him, some of them wielding weapons. Squick lead them on a merry chase. One of them lunged forward, only to miss Squick spectacularly and land face-first in the ink-laden waters, ruining a lovely cloak in the process. Another tried to block his path by standing in the way of the stream, but Squick simply slipped between the human's legs. Squick did his best to approximate a trill of laughter on his flute. Another staggered through the water after him, but it was too slow. He was escaping... And then some manner of weapon struck him from above. Squick let out a plaintive toot on his flute as he passed... The waters ran red and black. Blood and ink. . . . Steeldancer has been lynched! They were a Flutist! Vote Count Steeldancer (3)- Walin, Xinoehp, Rae, Cadmium Wonko (2)- Eternum, Orlok Fifth (2)- Drought, Snipexe Devotary (2)- Fifth, Wonko Snipexe (2)- Steel Eternum (1)- Alvron Arinian (1)- Arinian I think (1)- Bort Drought (1)- Bard Cast 1. Elandera as Ahnya Cyphus2. Eternum as Enerin3. Droughtbringer as Pyra Mainiak4. Aonar Faileas as Aorais Kipthorn5. Devotary of Spontaneity as Gaskana6. Walin as Nelden Dastardly7. Fifth Scholar as Marne8. Snipexe as Snip9. Alvron as Laon10. Steeldancer as Squick Flutist11. Megasif as Mega12. Xinoehp512 as Reyalp Nwoknu13. Arinian as Ray Fox14. Orlok as Locke15. I think I am here as Itiah II16. Arraenae as Alev17. Bort as Master Ash18. Wonko the Sane as Fifth Daughter Resterford19. Cadmium Compounder as Deric Watar20. Young Bard as Neris Countdown

Hello. I wish I knew more about the dynamics of the Cosmere. I'm not good at things.

Hello! Years ago I introduced my best friend to these books. Now she’s paying back the favor by introducing me to the 17th Shard. Thanks, my witty, witless friend. I’m a devoted wordnerd who has a hankering for reading and writing fantasy. More often than actually getting to do either of these activities, I just enjoy weaving/admiring plots and well made cultures, philosophizing, and rolling intriguing words around my head all day until I finally look up the definition. Does anyone else get this?

I found the picture I wanted, pulled it up on my laptop, and made it the size I wanted on the laptop by coming in or out. Then I talked a piece of paper on, and traced it in pencil. For some of them, I had to scroll to get the bottom of the picture, so that is a pain, just to warn you. But then I traced them with different permanent markers, with different tips, then colored them in. In the case of the Radiant glyphs, I used colored pencils for the glyphs, and black permanent marker for the surges. For all the other ones, though, all I used was permanent marker. When your dad walks into your room in the morning saying, rise and shine, and you think, I'd only be able to do that if I was a Windrunner or Skybreaker.

On his quest he visited his cousin, Addie. She went by Ad, and loved exploring. If anyone could help him find his middle name, he figured, it would be Ad Venture. I’m not sorry.

@Tesh sometimes refers to me as King picky . I deserve that name

Man, I love these books way too much. In the middle of the Night Angel trilogy and all I can think is "ugh Malazan is so much better than this". Definitely postponing finishing it until after Dust of Dreams.

Perfect State: Rithmatist:

When you fantasize about how cool it would be to meet other Sharders at a signing or Comic Con or something to that effect.

You forgot that Lift was with them too.

Yeah I keep having to ask him if my plans are violating any laws of plausibility. Hats off to him. Also, UtDF? That was simultaneously amazing and awful. Honestly, I can’t believe you missed the part where the Lopen, Hoid, and Wayne teamed up to steal the secrets of the Cosmere from Brandon and used them to break reality and become Adonalsium.

It occurs to me that this form would be especially effective in Semitic languages where nearly everything is a form of a verb, and the poetry already relies on wordplay through parallelism (at least in Hebrew). Here's one: Once Tanavast was God and Almighty, sang Honor to creation growing. Now grows creation, to Honor sings. And Almighty God was Tanavast once.

A link to what? Edit: Never drink Odium, kids.

Eh, I rather liked that cookie banquet, I feel like the tuba music offset the scene. I mean, when Marsh spent hours making those cookies in his favorite heart apron only to have his pastry pieces of art ignored thanks to the spikes of blaring tuba music. P.S. They were sousaphones...

Ah yes! My favorite part! And remember that dance-off between Hoid and Mizzy to decide what color chalk to use? Brilliant work on Brandon’s part!

@Apollyon, SPOILERS! Only people who've read UtDF know that! At least you didn't spoil the end of chapter three, where Taravangian kills Sing.

@King Cole, then you must know that Reckoner’s is Cosmere and that Alcatraz is Adonalsium?

Welcome to the Shard! We embrace all manner of outcasts, refugees, and introverts! Have a Penny and an upvote!

Hey, Witless's friend! Welcome to the Shard. The title of this intro thread intrigues me. Have you by any chance watched RWBY?

Also looking at you, @Quickbronze I am inspired. I want to hang these on my walls. How did you do them?

Hi! I'm TruthlessofShinovar. I really thought that name would have been taken. I remember last year looking at some Best Fantasy Books lists, and I found Way of Kings as number 1 or 2. The cover and description instantly hooked me. I looked it up on Goodreads, and it became even more interesting. I remember buying the Kindle version that evening because I needed to read it. I think my 16-year-old mind blown with every chapter. (About 500 pages later I bought the physical copy - and the sequel.) A few months after reading WOK I read Elantris, and I loved it. Then Words of Radiance, which I think is even better than Way of Kings. Now, 8 months and three Sanderson books later, I'm currently reading Mistborn: The Final Empire. I love Brandon's writing style in the Stormlight books, but for some reason I'm finding Mistborn's style a bit clunky and exposition-heavy. From reading some earlier and later Sanderson books, I think he really improved on his writing - and especially his dialogue.

Nothing in Odium's Intent prevents him from telling the truth, no? To me, it's far more interesting when there isn't a deception. When the hero-turned-villain character turns because they were tricked, a lot of times it ends up making them look foolish in the reader/viewer's eyes(I know Brandon is a better writer than that, but you still kinda feel it...) It's just so much more powerful and tragic when a hero gets turned by something genuine, because authors can explore the interplay of that.

First game for me. Expect rookie mistakes. Sign me up as the Dead Private Hobbert. A military man who never rose high in the ranks, Hobbert was slain when he fell off his horse during parade and fell into the ranks of pikemen who were marching on either side of the cavalry. He's now returned from death after being summoned by the impending war. Now to go and research by rewatching the movie...

Yay--a new story! I think this is a good start, though the beginning could be sharpened up a little. The end of the section is solid. My main complaint is the magic,and worldbuilding that goes along with it. It's still pretty undefined, and depending on who can use it, might have some larger changes that aren't in evidence yet. Notes while reading: Ooo! A map! Pg 3: The first sentence goes on a bit. Could be shorter for more impact. Pg 3: "timeously" --that's a real word, evidently... pg 4: "No, there was nothing I could use. A butcher’s bin with no bones" --I'd rather see him find something, if only to show off the magic. Right now, we don't know what bones have to do with anything. --And also, how many people have magic? If it's everyone, or even a lot, I would expect the butcher to lock up his bones. Being a butcher might even be a more lucrative profession, because of the extra money from magic users... pg 4: "chancing his arm" --what does this mean? pg 5: "spent half of my remaining clout" --Is this the term for using magic? Had to read it a few times to figure out he enhanced his hearing. --ah, you explain some the next paragraph. I'd still like it a little clearer. pg 5: "I heard—unaided" --Does this mean the magic ran out? pg 6: "remaining store of heat" --So is it heat, or clout, or magic, or what? pg 6: "casting’s not like story magic after all, unfortunately." --which begs the question, what is story magic like, here?

The sky breaks YOU!

You probably all know that October is breast cancer awareness month. That's great. Next month is mental health awareness month. And this is a big deal to me. Depression falls under this category. I do experience high functioning depression. I know people who's depression is much much worse than mine. And guys, don't just go around saying you have depression if you're just sad sometimes. I constantly just have this feeling of not belonging, like no one cares, and like I'm completely alone. I have a really good friend who has serious depression, and one of my oldest friends thinks she has high functioning depression as well. (Yes, Kaladin has extreme depression). Another one is Multiple Personality Disorder. (MPD, or DID Dissociative Identity Disorder). This is where someone basically has several different personalities, with different characteristics, and things like that. (I believe Shallan actually has this, or at least experiences something a lot like it). Yet another is Obsessive Compulsion Disorder. More commonly known as OCD. Guys, this is a mental disorder. It isn't simply extreme perfectionism! Do not joke about having OCD. It's really serious. It's when everything has to be perfect in someone's life, or else they experience extreme anxiety. And more. I'm far from an expert, but I know the gist of it. I have another family member who has this. It's not good. I would suggest doing some research on it, though. Now Depersonalization/Derealization. This is a less heard of disorder, even though a lot of people experience it. Only two percent of people who experience this actually have a mental disorder. About fifty percent of the population experiences feelings of this in their life. Sometimes it lasts for minutes, other times, years. And yet others, a lifetime. It's when a person experiences extreme detachment from reality, the world around them, and even their thoughts. It can be caused by many things. The most common one named is abuse. The reason I care so passionately about this one, is that I've been experiencing it for the past two months. It feels like much much longer. I feel like I'm watching everything through a window. I don't know if I actually have the mental disorder, I'm just sort of trying to get through this school year. I have a friend who wanted me to add autism and Gender Dysphoria to this list. I'm going to add schizophrenia. I'm not going to go deep at all into any of these, but I will do something. Autism. (This month (April) is actually autism awareness month). Autism is not what you might think. Many people have it, (1 in every 59 males, 1 in every 189 females). And some don't even know. People who have autism often have a speech impediment early in life, don't like being around other people, and can become very attached to objects. (One of my sources). Gender Dysphoria is when a person feels like they should be the opposite gender, or in other words, that they feel strongly that their gender does not match their biology. Schizophrenia is really hard to spell. But it is also a life long disorder, that effects about 1% of the population. Symptoms can include hallucinations, trouble with thinking and motivation, and lack of motivation. (Source). Guys, mental disorders are a real thing. None of us can explain the full extent of it. I really like these two things: "What's depression like?" " it's like drowning. Only you can see everyone else around you breathing. " And: "Explaining to someone what a mental disorder is like is like trying to explain colors to someone blind."I All of that is copied from my profile. This stuff now, I'm writing from scratch. We need to raise awareness for these things. They are serious. Every one in four people is going through some form of mental illnesses. And the people who aren't... Let's just say they can be downright inconsiderate. Some members of TUBA really took my post to heart. Several of them have changed their profile pictures green, the color for mental health awareness. We have also added things into our signitures, explaining. So, spread the word. And if you have a type of mental illnesses you'd like to be added to the great list, speak up. Or if you have or have had a mental illness, and you are willing to share some, if not all, of your story, that would be amazing. It's time to stop hiding in the shadows, alone. We can be in the sun, together, and stronger. We can make a difference. This I promise. Even if it's just for one person, it counts. If you know someone with a mental illness, though, and you haven't experienced it yourself, don't say you understand. It doesn't help. What helps most, and I speak from personal experience, is just being there. Nothing more. Nothing less. That's all it takes. Is anyone else willing to help?

So here goes my crackpot theory; There are a number of listeners on the shattered plains who survived the events in book 2 and they wil be important in book 4. Oathbringer made a big emphasis on character development for squires as we saw Teft, Rock and The Lopen make big strides. However, there was a significant lack of Rlain in the second half of the book which Peter Ahlstrom says is intentional. There's a WoB on this somewhere but I can't find it and don't know how to link it. Anyways, I believe that the reason for Rlain's absence is that he discovered/was discovered by the surviving listeners and he has been helping them out. I think Rlain along with Venli end up being the bridge between both races and both end up with radiant abilities. My real crackpot theory is that Rlain does not end up as a wind runner but as a bondsmith, uniting people akin to Dalinar. Please share any criticisms or theories of your own. The crazier the better.

@Ammanas Lightbringer is the reason I picked up Night Angel! I LOVED Lightbringer, which has made the mediocrity of this series all the more disappointing. Paul Boehmer is an awful narrator whose voice reminds me of the true facts guy.

@officiumdefunctorum Have you read the Lightbringer series by the same author? It is much better in my opinion and it is narrated by the great Simon Vance.

Very well then, I am completely suspicious of you and everything you stand for, you dirty, evil, lying, slinking shadow monster. Of course you're up to no good, I knew it all along! Alvron for most evil person ever! CHANDRIAN! Lemme go find my cold iron knife and stick it in you over the internet...

So, to prove his point, Butt turned into his chosen avatar to express his dominance. The omnipotent orange creamsicle of endless doom. Edit: @Aurora the Rioter Just noticed we have the same reputation and same number of posts!

I WILL be there. I'm pretty excited for the event as a whole - SO MANY authors!

Hello. I'll sign up as Val!

With regret, I must announce that the shard is going to have to take a back seat. I have several projects I am undertaking in this summer, and on top of work and college, I will be on the 17th Shard sporadically throughout the summer. I will still be able to participate in The Alleyverse RP, the Ghostbloods and few other things, such as my SE game I am doing when whenever that is. My projects are as follows if any of you want to keep up to date with what I am doing. Balance Upended (A book) Artwork for said book Cosmere Bot for Discord. (I am programming this)

Don't Forget being called a chull.

@King Cole @Roadwalker @Caesura @Kynedath @StrikerEZ I have seen all of you in recent days, if any of you want to join, even if it is spec doc, this will be a fun game. If this game makes me laugh half as much as just the signups have so far, this game is going to be great.

Welcome to the Shard! Also, Moash is great, I'm glad you like him.

I'm still not through the whole thread, but in case nobody has added this - the audiobook is read in Sazed's voice

The soldier rushed back, painting in his hand. My Death, painted by Sarcoline Lepinceau:

Political figures are assassinated left and right... oh wait...

When the NSA tries to spy on Sanderson, all they find is RAFO cards. Brandon Sanderson secretly holds the Shard of Devotion. His books are tests of strength to find worthy 17th Sharders to invest. Brandon only dictates his books in High Imperial. Brandon once got cut off in traffic and wrote an instant bestseller. In his yearbook, people didn't look at pictures, they just read the spreads that he wrote. The seventh seal talked about in the Book of Revelation is Dragonsteel. Brandon can't wear a Mistcloak because if he turns too fast the billow causes a highstorm. If/when he sleeps, his snores play out Requiem for a Tower. Brandon's real job is solving world hunger and finding s renewable energy source. He just writes novels in his spare time as one of his "minor hobbies." The atomic bombs weren't actually made with Plutonium and Uranium, they were just some books that Brandon decided the world wasn't ready for. Brandon once sent a worldbuilding outline back into time. We know of it today as the U.S. Constitution. Brandon is not allowed within 25 miles of kings, presidents, and ministers because they get mad from the attention he draws.

Once Brandon decided to write a story about chairs. However, it didn't meet his standards, so he gave it to his friend George to play with. And thus the Game of Thrones was born.

Brandon Sanderson creates diamonds for his wife by placing a piece of coal under one of his manuscripts. The coal is crushed almost immediately. Brandon Sanderson Dropped one of his manuscripts once. The United States Geological Survey made him promise never to do that ever again. Brandon Sanderson wrote a novel so quickly one time that the resulting friction melted his keyboard. Brandon Sanderson knows why the answer is 42.

Brandon Sanderson once made a thunderstorm change direction by threatening to write a novella that disclaimed its existence. The thunderstorm was diverted so hard that it rained out in one minute and dissipated immediately. The resulting water irrigated the entire state of Utah for a week. Brandon Sanderson had writers block once. It was the worst ten seconds of his life. Brandon Sanderson created a magic system that solved P=NP.

Shallan's been pretty hard on her authority figures to date: - Killed Mother (and friend) - Killed Father - Arguably got stepmother killed - Robbed/Hoodwinked Jasnah (may argue that Shallan got her 'killed' by recommending the boat) - Killed Tyn - Made Mraize look like a fool (his own words) (probably will kill him too) - Made Dalinar cry (okay, that one might not be as serious) I'd fear for Hoid's life if he began teaching her. Though I'm sure he'd get better.