Ciridae

I agree that Wax is a baby-mistborn. When he was falling after not-Wax leached him, he was reaching for a vial in the air that then snapped into his hand. That sounded like iron to me. I can't remember, does leeching drain everything, or only metals you're actively burning at the time? If it drains everything, I guess it would have just been a lucky catch. At some point he punches someone and is surprised how little it hurts his hand, that sounds like pewter. And you guys already mentioned him being able to see through the mists with tin There are probably other examples, could be fun to see if we can find him using emotional allomancy somewhere. Maybe when he's trying to cheer up Wayne at one point? About Wax using duralumin, didn't Wayne pickpocket the flask off of not-Wax? They knew there was duralumin in there.

Could be the Nicki Savage book anouncement from Isaac, that would be fun. Does anybody know how far along he was last time they talked about it? But I do hope it's Secret History 2. The timing would be great, Era 2 could wrap up nicely with some new hinted at Kelsier stuff and then a while later we get more behind the scenes. I don't know how I would feel about a TV or movie anouncement, I feel like it's too soon. Unless the Kickstarter hype gave him some leverage for pushing for an animated adaptation, that would be something.

It's really interesting that Sigzil apparently gets the Dawnshard in SA5, after we learned in Dawnshard that Rysn isnt allowed to bond a spren because she would become something really dangerous. It's also interesting that Sigzil's reaction to trying to be violent is different from Hoid's, iirc Hoid gets nauseous instead of locking up. I'm really curious who Hoid's other two apprentices are now. And what is up with Aux being the knight and Sigzil being the squire? That's pretty odd.

I really like this aproach, you mostly see people trying to put four shards into a quadrant instead of this column arrangement with two defining characteristics. I'd say it looks really good the way you have it, though Mercy as decay of power is definitely an interesting way of interpreting it Well done and welcome to the Shard!

That's a great WoB @Nameless Yeah, like the Lopen, you can bond a spren as long as you are open enough for the bond. He just really, really wanted it. Looking at Lightweavers specifically though, it makes sense why Cryptics might be interested in bonding children or young adults more often than spren of other orders. Lightweaver oaths are all about finding personal truths, about growing as a person, becoming aware of ones own flaws and working to become a better person as a result. I imagine the Cryptics realize that it's very natural for younger people, who are still developing and growing, to come to such realizations, whereas people at a later stage in their life may already be more set in their ways.

My money is on Rock or a singer, but there aren't many great candidates there. I love Navani as Bondsmith but it would have been great to have Dalinar a human, Rlain a singer and Rock who is a mix between both as Bondsmiths. I also really like the Idea of Gawx as a Bondsmith for the back half. He had that very interesting throwaway line with Dalinar about how maybe he is the leader Roshar really needs while Dalinar is just the emissary. If Dalinar ascends he could bond the Stormfather. I could also see BAM bonding a Radiant in the back half. Maybe even Sja-anat, but I think that is less likely than BAM finding a Bondsmith.

I agree, if you look at the painting of Kalak, the little spren near the bottom of of the image fit the joyspren description really well, and so far we've seen other Herald paintings include platespren that are pretty much confirmed for those orders, like Jezrien and the windspren and Ishar and the gloryspren. So yeah, I also think joyspren are the Willshaper platespren

I also have to agree that the Heralds have something more than skill and practice going for them. Remember that all of the Fused have had just as much time to hone their skills, and not one of them has been described as being on a level with one of the Heralds. And we know it isnt just Ishar either, Nalan catches an arrow shot by Cord from mere feet away, something that is described as an inhuman feat in the text. And back in WoR Taln, who was a mumbling mess snatched Iyatil's dart from the air. That cannot be skill. That has to be supernatural somehow.

Finished El. There aren't a lot of physical descriptions to work of off, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I'm pretty sure that's how it works, at least we see a Stoneward in one of the visions shape a large section of a cliff into handholds and steps iirc. Pretty sure touch is required, not sure if they could do it at a distance. But Willshapers do have Transportation, so between Stonewards and Willshapers I'd say it's more likely that Willshapers could use it ranged. (Even though I'm pretty sure Brandon has said that distance Soulcasting is not due to Elscallers also having access to Transportation.) Also, I'd be really interested in whether or not Radiants could, with enough practice, faze into the stone like we see the Deepest ones do, without displacing any of it. And welcome to the Shard!

@More Cynical Than Funny Thank you! El is a fantastic suggestion, I think I'll draw him next. I use the full version of Infinite Painter on my phone, but iirc even the free version is pretty good. (The full version isn't that expensive though). Also, I added Lezian to the op

Thanks! Yeah, I think I'll eventually get around to her, but since I've seen a lot of art of her already I think I might give Lezian a shot first

Another quick one of Venli and Ulim:

I think there's a couple of champion pairings that would make thematic sense. I actually don't think that Dalinar is going to be his own champion, I think it makes more sense for Dalinar to remain a foil to Taravangian (or, you know, vice versa). Dalinar's battles are a lot more spiritual in nature, I think. But if I'm wrong, the best pairing against Dalinar would be Ishar. But I think the most likely scenario is Szeth vs. Nale. I feel like something will happen that will force Dalinar to delegate his role as champion to someone else (maybe he fully ascends), and Szeth is probably their best fighter other than Kaladin. It's Szeth's book, and his contrasts in convictions with Nale make them a good match. I also think that Taravangian isn't done manipulating Szeth. Imagine if Todium forced Dalinar in to a situation where he would need to appoint someone else, and he choses Szeth. Then, just before the fight Odium reveals himself to be Taravangian, the man who manipulated and tormented Szeth. That would probably throw him off a lot. Kaladin and Moash obviouly need to have their showdown, but I don't think it will be in the roles of champions. I have no idea where Moash's story goes in book five but he needs a resultion with Kaladin. But I think these two as champions is pretty unlikely. Adolin is also probably out as either champion, he'll presumably be off with Shallan involved with BAM. Renarin might be interesting though. I feel like the final battle has to be more than just stabby-stabby until someone is dead, so having Renarin as either champion might be cool. But I doubt he would be Odiums champion, a lot of stuff would have ro happen to make that work. El is really interesting, and I hope he gets a lot more development, but that last battle should pack an emotional punch, and I dont think we know him well enough for that to really be the case.

Here's some art of Eshonai, Venli and Timbre. I wasn't sure what to do with the background so I just left it blank for now. Any ideas for who to draw next? I was thinking maybe Ulim and Demid, since I haven't seen any art of either of them, but some of the fused like Lezian could be fun as well. Edit, Lezian:

I always kind of thought that Harmony may have tried to talk to Wayne, seeing how important he would be to his plans concerning Wax. But when he did, Wayne bashed his head against a wall, so Sazed never tried it again.

I don't think Vasher necessarily has to give up his divine breath to someone to fullfill whatever purpose he was given the option to return for. I'm sure he still has an important role to play, but he feels more like a character like Kriss or Nazh to me, a cosmere scholar that can explain things to the audience while being a cool cameo. That said I do think he has more plot relevance than either of those two.

I really didn't like Jasnah in this book. The way she handled Ruthar was so...jarring. Maybe that was the intention but the whole "harsher" bit felt so off to me and made me really uncomfortable. She's never been my favorite character but until that point I never disliked her either. I didn't really mind her involvement with Wit, but I'm not invested in that relationship at all either. I feel really sad about Venli. I think Eshonai would have been so much better in her place, but I do understand why they had to be swapped. I had high hopes for her though, and expected her to actually do stuff in this book. Brandon has said he made her more passive, because he didnt want all of his characters to feel like they were superhuman, and that he wanted characters who were in over their head, but Venli was just so passive and indecisive. There was this lingering feeling of "oh no, I hope nobody discovers I bonded a spren" but I never felt any excitement or tension in her plot. I dont know, in previous books Venli seemed way more smart and capable, and the flashbacks showing that even her achievements in the past were someone else's didnt help. She felt like an inbetween character. She had interactions with so many other important characters, Navani, Raboniel, Lift, Lirin, Rlain, but she never really got involved with any of them. Maybe if she had one of those to really team up with plotwise and actually do something with them, actually having a goal she wanted to achieve, that probably would have helped her story. I just hope she still gets to do something cool with the listeners, or maybe she worldhops or something, but with how crowded book 5 probably is I don't she will get a bigger role than she has now. It really felt like Brandon wrote her because he felt he had to, not because he wanted to. That said, RoW was still my favorite SA book and I loved almost everything else.

@Serack Yeah, both the stormspren and whatever type of voidspren bonded with the Sadeas troops (at least I think) were not sapient. I don't think that Ulim, even when he was living in Venli's gemheart, was ever really bonded to her the way Timbre is. Then again he does let her hear Odium's rhythms so I might be wrong about that. Just based on the fact that voidspren dont need to bond with a physical entity to be sapient in the physical realm makes me think that he wasn't truly bonded with Venli, because why would Ulim want to bond with someone if he didnt have to? But that's a very good point about Nightblood, I agree that's a perfectly valid reading of that WoB. It's totally possible that in their travels Nightblood could have eaten a lose pocket of Ruin. There's tonnes we don't know about Nightblood. I do still think it's more likely that Ruin's investiture was involved in their creation just because of Brandon's phrasing about not trying to wiggle out of the question I'll add though, that even if Nightblood wasn't made from lose Ruin investiture, Ulim could still very well be, because lose, assosciated investiture does exist, and I think its probably a lot easier for an entity like Odium or Sja-Anat to use that lose investiture than it would be for Vasher and Shashara. Cut from that very, very long, but very interesting WoB:

Wow, thank you, I feel honored! I'm glad you liked the theory

Thanks! That would be interesting, I wonder how Kelsier being a Cognitive Shadow would play into that. But Nale bonded a spren so it could probably work. I wonder in general why we haven't seen any of the voidspren bond with anybody, I'm really curious about them. I think it would be really interesting to see what powers they would grant. I doubt it would just be regular surgebinding. Iirc Sja-Anat said that her bond to Odium gave her sapience and I assume thats why Voidspren can be sapient in the physical realm without bonding anybody. Could be interesting if that changes with TOdium.

That's pretty cool, it would fit with the theme of revival in SA. I still think voidspren are like the fused only that they were human and then spren-ified, but that's a different theory. It would be really cool if the name had some sort of meaning or influence like the unmade names do. Do we know if Yixli is similar to or influenced by anything?

Minor Mistborn and Secret history spoilers. So in short I believe that Ulim is part Ruin and part Odium. Here's why: Ulim's red color means that it is likely he is made up of more than one type of investiture. We know that's not necessarily the norm for voidspren because of Yixli's yellow coloring. We know that investiture assosciated with each of the shards can be found anywhere. We also know that Ruin's investiture has manifested sapience (with some help) and a spren-like form at least one more time in the form of Nightblood. We also know that Rayse does not like expending his own power and would prefer not to invest much. We see this presumably with the Unmade and indirectly through Sja-Anat. Where he can, Odium corrupts instead of creating wholecloth. So I think it's plausible that Rayse or even Sja-Anat corrupted some lose Ruin-investiture that was available in the rosharan system and gave it sapience. Now, here are some textual hints: Ulim bears some physical resemblances with Ruin, or at least Ruin's manifestation that we get to see. The following is Ulims description when he finds out that Axindweth has left the planet and their plans have changed. Secret History Spoilers: I found this parallel pretty striking. Then, a few pages later, when Ulim is discovered by Nale, he says: Which is an interesting choice of words. He's also a pretty destructive little fella. He's cavalier with the lives of others. Even with Venli's, who Ulim is pretty dependant on for a large part of their relationship. And when Navani is captured his very first response is to ask if she should be killed. Ulim was also working closely with Axindweth. I think it's safe to assume based on her name and her rings that she is probably Terris and likely a Feruchemist or ferring. Now, I dont think she was working with him because he was part Ruin, I'm sure she had her own reasons for starting a Return. We don't really know much about her, but I thought I'd point out the Scadrian connection anyway. Finally, and I'm sure this is just a coincidence, but from what I've been able to tell the only translation of the world Ulim is "reduce" from albanian, so there you go

Aether of Night spoilers:

Nice, I only got 30 This was fun, great job on the guessing game.