Alpharho

There isn't anything on the BackerKit, at least not yet. I'll check back periodically, but I don't expect to see anything until they start shipping.

I always thought that he gave her a bag of Lifelight infused gems. I never connected this with the epigraph where she mentioned the sand and chain. Though that chain might be useful to Thaidakar, so maybe he'd want that to stay in the Ghostbloods possession.

I don't recall him ever using Nightblood before he gave it to Szeth. That was it's first appearance on Roshar.

I'm wondering if the gathering were the cognitive corpses of the spren bodies that Ishar was killing nearby. Or perhaps somehow drawn to the pain that was being felt there by the dying spren.

Brandon's new reading had some amazing easter-eggs. Most notably, a violet-glowing radiant in full plate summoning a shard-rifle. He had a roughly bird-shaped glyph on his armor and asked about local laws. So I'm assuming a far-future Skybreaker. Also very interesting was a ship taking off from a steel landing platform with no sound. It seems that both Scadrial and Roshar, or some factions with their powers are vying for control of the Aviar.

This new letter is good for Shard names. 4 new ones in two chapters, holy crap. Invention, Whimsy, Mercy, and Valor Invention seemsto fit in a creation quadrant along with Preservation and Ruin. Valor seems awfully close to Honor in my mind, so I'm curious what the differences will be as far as Intent goes. I'm still digging into part 2, but I was so shocked at how many names we're getting.

Is anyone planning on going to this one. I'll likely be there. Trying to get a couple newer fans of Brandon's to join me. I look forward to sitting by/chatting with anyone from here.

In taking a closer look at the chapter icon for Kaladin's chapters, I see a significant similarity to the Steel Alphabet/Metallic Symbols from Scadrial. The arcs and spikes from these are oddly similar to that of Lerasium: It may be a reach, but could this be a shadow of what the symbol for Tanavastium might look like? Perhaps it's even the metal that Syl becomes when manifesting as a blade. But then that logically asks which metal Wyndle is as a Shardfork/rod. Is he the same metal as Syl, or is he Reyatium/Cultivasium :). And then, is Pattern some alloy of the two?

I think Venli would also be the better flashback. Also, that the WoB of the five being Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Eshonai, and Szeth was intentionally misleading to keep hidden the spoiler of Eshonai's death. With the actually Willshaper (?) being Venli, I am inclined to think this will be the case too. Especially since Eshonai was until the end, very naive to the state of the changing world and the history of the Listeners.

I guess I was spoiled with Denver visits for Shadows and Bands. Oh well, maybe for The Lost Metal.

Is there any official artwork for Nightblood yet? Is he technically a bad guy?

Not actively writing, but the idea of it may come up now. Only for the book to be his legacy in the last 5 novels.

Did I miss a comment from Brandon on this point? I haven't seen anything that brings us further knowledge of her, other than his reading during to Shadows of Self tour.

I think Dalinar will be the one writing the book. After the fashion of Nohadon, who originally dismissed the idea in visions, but wrote the actual The Way of Kings.