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Valhalla

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Everything posted by Valhalla

  1. My brain wasn't working. I fixed it now.
  2. So, we recently got the following WOB: Questioner (paraphrased) Have we seen Ghostbloods in action outside of the Rosharan system? Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) You have seen proto-Ghostbloods, but not after the their actual initiation. Stuttgart signing (May 17, 2019) So, if I am understanding correctly, Brandon is saying we have seen characters that would later become Ghostbloods but weren't during the events of their book, kinda like how Demoux would later become a member of the 17th Shard but wasn't a member during the Mistborn trilogy. Given that, and given what little we know of the Ghostbloods, let's do what we do here at the 17th Shard and wildly speculate and then use confirmation bias to line up facts so they seem to support our claims. What characters do you think went on to join the Ghostbloods after their books?
  3. Sadly my school has started now and I'm not sure how much time I am going to have to do this. If it's possible, I would like to be downgraded from main cast to pinch hitter and someone else can take my spot.
  4. If I'm still reserved, I'll take Nazh. Unless we are allowed to do non-cosmere characters, because then I would want Stephen Leeds.
  5. recneps, the link you posted doesn't really support the idea of there being another God, especially in light of these later clarifying WoB: Brandon Sanderson Let's see... *reading written question aloud* "Can you tell me anything new about the force that opposed Adonalsium?" *writes* "I would count groups of people as a force." Okay? So, I'm not saying that that's what it is, but when people ask that question and leave a lot of wiggle room... because I would count groups of people as a force that opposed him. So, I have not confirmed it's a group or anything like that. The question has a lot of wiggle room. Footnote: PatrickDiomedes' personalization source Eric In Secret History we learn the 16 Shards that Shattered Adonalsium. Was that done [on behalf of the anti-Adonalsium force]? Brandon Sanderson You’re focusing too much on this idea of an anti-Adonalsium. It—the original question I believe that was asked me was “is there a force that is opposed to Adonalsium” and it left me a lot of wiggle room. In other words, the people who killed Adonalsium, you could say were a force, any person who opposed Adonalsium... What they were trying to get was a “devil” but to do that you must assume Adonalsium was a more Christian-style God, and I haven’t confirmed any of that. source So while I think it is still possible that there is an outside force we are unaware of that is causing this, another Adonalasium-like force seems unlikely to me.
  6. A couple of precursors: I haven't really written much on this website before, so apologies if I don't know how to tag spoilers, do quotes, explain myself intelligently, etc. If someone else has already talked about this, I apologize for stepping on your toes. I'm not always on the site so I don't know what I might have missed. This is kind of two topics, but they tie together in my mind. Apologies in advance if it seems disjointed to you. With that out of the way, I wanted to talk about the similarities between Ruin and Odium, and-- more importantly-- speculate about what those similarities might mean and why they might exist. The idea that started me thinking this was Odium and Ruin's interesting use of the word passion. As most of us know, Odium tries to convince Dalinar that his intent is about more than just hate, but passion as a whole: “They call me Odium,” the old man said. “A good enough name. It does have a certain bite to it. But the word is too limiting to describe me, and you should know that it is not all I represent.” “Which is?” He looked to Dalinar. “Passion, Dalinar Kholin. I am emotion incarnate. I am the soul of the spren and of men. I am lust, joy, hatred, anger, and exultation. I am glory and I am vice. I am the very thing that makes men men. Sanderson, Brandon. Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive (p. 551). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition. I noticed as I was rereading the Hero of Ages that Ruin says something similar: “This work I do, it’s about passion, Vin. It’s about dynamic events; it’s about change! That is why you and your Elend are so important to me. People with passion are people who will destroy— Sanderson, Brandon. Mistborn Trilogy (Kindle Locations 30922-30923). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition. Note especially the way the word is written in both cases: italicized. Outside the Alcatraz series, Brandon rarely uses italics for emphasis. The fact that both these characters would talk about their passion in this italicized way really stuck out to me. I thought that I might just be overthinking a small coincidence, but then I came across this WoB: Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] Was it relevant that Ruin mentioned Passion to Vin? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] Yes. source So now that I knew it was an important connection, I started to look into other ways that Ruin and Odium are similar other than just the way they talk about their intent. Some other possibilities that I came with: They are both vessels. This is obvious, but easy to overlook. Maybe all vessels just feel this way about their intent. Both had plans to cause cosmere wide destruction. Odium, with his "hit list" of other vessels, and Ruin, because his intent would have driven him to continue to destroy other planets after Scadrial was no more. They have both spent time being trapped (Ruin in the prison Preservation created, Odium trapped by the Oathpact) Both tried to forge "champions" that ended up working against them. Brandon says in the annotations to the Hero of Ages that for some unknown reason Preservation had chosen Vin from a young age, and that ruin worked to corrupt Vin after Preervation chose her (Annotation Chapter 79). Similarly, Honor for unknown reasons gave visions to the Kholins (starting with Gavilar, I know). All the while, Odium was hard at work trying to corrupt Dalinar and turn him into his champion. Interestingly enough, both of these individuals ascended and used their power to fight against the force that had tried to turn them. Probably lots of other important/relevant connections I'm too tired to think of at the moment. Since I was curious about the first bullet above-- that maybe all shards just act this way-- I decided to ask Brandon the following questions last Saturday: Valhalla [PENDING REVIEW] Ruin and Odium, they both talked about their passion, and it was italicized both times. Would any other Shards talk about passion in that same italicized way? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] Yes they would. Valhalla [PENDING REVIEW] Would any of them not talk about it that way? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] Yes they would. Excellent, good questions. source This made it very clear that the passion connection is not an inherent thing that all vessels share, nor is it something that is unique to Ruin and Odium. So, what do all the similarities between Ruin and Odium actually mean? And how does passion play into it? I'd love to hear your theories, because frankly none of the ideas I have come up with seem to add up, but I will throw out a few ideas to get the discussion started. Theory #1: They are both being acted upon by an outside force One theory that I developed is that they are both somehow being controlled/manipulated by the same outside force. There are a few problems with this. The first is that vessels like Rayse and Ati both have a lot of raw power and a large amount of knowledge and cosmere awareness, making them difficult to manipulate. The only beings who seem capable of manipulating a vessel would be another vessel. However, its possible that because both Ruin and Odium have been trapped with at least a portion of their full power made temporarily unavailable to them that they have been left in a state in which they would be more suggestible or otherwise duped. This still doesn't explain who would want to do it, how they would accomplish it, and why they would make both Ruin and Odium so focused on their passion. So, yeah, this theory is very much a work in progress. Theory #2: Ruin and Odium were working together So this theory relies on kind of a stretch to the answers to my questions; basically, that you can split all vessels into two groups: those who have passion, and those that don't. The passionate vessels like Ruin, Odium, and apparently others decided to group up to help accomplish their goals, especially those goals that the non-passionates might have attempted to stop. While doing so, they realize that they are more than just one intent, but that they are also a force of Passion in their worlds. They also realize that the names assigned to their intents, like ruin or odium, tend to have negative connotations and so when they interact with humans they tend to bring forth their passion instead. This theory works on a logical level, but it doesn't work on a storytelling level. I doubt Ati and Rayse are just repeating the mantra from their support group for passionate shards. There has to be more to it than that. Theory #3: Insert your theory here I had a couple more ideas, but they all have even bigger holes than the ones I mentioned. This would be easier if we had a third shard that we knew would describe itself as passion, so that we could make more connections. I am interested to hear your thoughts. Why does it matter that both Ruin and Odium talk about passion in italics? What shards have we met that would be passionate? What theories do you have about the connections between these two shards? And finally, does the fact that I stayed up to 2 A.M. on a weekday to write and research this post because I'm so passionate about this particular cosmere puzzle indicate that I, like Ruin and Odium, am a major antagonist intent on causing chaos and destruction throughout the known universe?
  7. Ashspren, thank you for thinking up this thread; it is amazing! I would also like to be considered for a spot in the second tournament.
  8. I got WoB in response to a question at a signing that directly referenced Dragonsteel. As far as I know, we aren't supposed to talk about Dragonsteel on the forums but I wondered if someone who had read the book might PM me and help me make sense of his answer. Any help would be appreciated.
  9. In Chapter 1 of part 2 of Secret History, when Hoid meets Kelsier, the following happens: He reached down to the corpse he was using as a boat, then removed something from his pocket. Something that glowed, though Kelsier couldn’t tell if it was something naturally radiant, or just something made of metal. The glow faded as the Drifter administered it to his vessel, then—covering the motion with a cough, as if to hide from Kelsier what he was doing—furtively applied some of the glow to his oar. When he placed the oar back into the mists, it sent the boat scooting closer to the Well. Sanderson, Brandon. Mistborn: Secret History (Kindle Locations 455-459). Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC. Kindle Edition. What magic system is he using here?
  10. Not sure if this is actually a typo, but on page 425 in the Kindle version Shallan in referred to as "Shallan" when she is in the Veil persona. We usually see her refer to herself by the persona she is in at the time.
  11. I'm with @Nat. Skyward goes back to State of the Sanderson in 2013, so it has definitely been something he has been planning for a while. He said it was YA and non-cosmere, and it would therefore be something he could publish in place of the Apocalypse Guard. The fact that it shows up on his bio on their website is pretty much a clincher to me.
  12. I'm not sure if I agree with the argument that because a voidspren is sapient that it must be bonded to someone. We know that Odium currently resides on Braize, and that according to Khriss Braize is home to "an ecosystem of self-aware splinters (local parlance would call them spren)." To me those spren living on the planet Kaladin equates to damnation seem very likely to be voidspren. Given that they are the only inhabitants of the planet, this would seem to be evidence of sapience without any bond (assuming they are on the physical realm in Braize. Khriss never specifies, but it does seem to be implied). We don't know enough about voidspren to say if they would follow the same rules for sapience or bonding. I do really like the idea of a voidspren trying to recruit Kal, though. Could make for an interesting subplot and you did a great job on the intro to the theory.
  13. I definitely think that massive world wars and desolations are related, but I don't think they are the exact same. My very sketchy reasoning is that in Dalinar's vision when he meets Nohadon, Nohadon talks about what was apparently an extremely large scale war started by a surgebinder named Alakavish. He also say "and true, if he (Alakavish) hadn't brought us to war before the desolation, we might not have been broken this badly." (emphasis mine) That implies to me that a large world war is not in itself a desolation. I do think you are right that the conflict between kingdoms and maybe between humans and Parshendi are just a part of Odium's preparation for the coming desolation. It would make sense that Odium would try to divide people before he begins his destruction.
  14. I'm really curious about why if Gavilar was actually full on with the Sons of Honor he would suspect Restares as one of the people who might be responsible for his assassination. It's possible he was using them and their information for his own gain. I guess it's also possible he suspected Restares of being some kind of double agent, but those two were supposed to be on the same team. I just think it is strange it would be one of the first names he throws out if the two were actually working towards the same goal. I hope we get more info about Restares in Oathbringer, because he keeps being mentioned by powerful people and we know very little about him at this point.
  15. I just searched for the term Bavadin on the Theoryland database. The information it gives as the source is: INTERVIEW: Nov 7th, 2016 Lisbon, Portugal (Paraphrased)
  16. I really like this theory. It is further backed up by the following WoB: MORIDIN997 Did Bavadin in any way help Odium splinter Dominion and Devotion? BRANDON SANDERSON Uhh... Yes... Yes, you could say that.. That to me clearly backs up the idea of Bavadin and Rayse working together to at least some extent. One thing I would note is that if this theory is correct, it would indicate that Odium went after Tanavast for personal reasons, not because of the shard Honor. Otherwise Brandon's answer that he went after some because of their shards and some because of their vessels wouldn't make sense. Given the knowledge we currently have, I feel like it all adds up, though.
  17. Don't know if this is the place to post this, but I asked a few questions. Me: Other than vessels, how many beings have lived from before the Shattering until the time of the Way of Kings? Brandon: More than you would think. Longevity is not hard to come by in the Cosmere. That much longevity would be a little uncommon. But certain species are particularly long lived, and certain magic systems enable longevity. Me: Did Odium splinter all the shards for the same reason? Brandon: No. Some shards he splintered because he feared the shard itself, and some shards he targeted because he feared the vessel. He was working his way down his list in order of the shards and vessels he felt would be most dangerous to his plans until he got stuck on Roshar.
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