18 replies to this topic

[Youngy]

There was a discussion here in January about who the letter in the Way of Kings was addressed to (and whether it was actually addressed to Hoid and not written by him).

LINK

This was a pretty neat, and reasonably workable theory from what I can tell, not that I believe it is right.

However, I couldn't find any other topics about who it is addressed to.

And I think one thing that no-one has really mentioned was the "Ponder on that for a time, you old reptile, and tell me if your insistence on nonintervention holds firm." line.

Hoid is not a reptile, as far as I can tell (neither is Sazed, who has been suggested) - and it could be a figure of speech, but I am more inclined to think it is literal. Fantasy, intelligent reptiles that live to a long age... Lets not forget his planned series, Dragonsteel.

Would it make sense then, that the letter is written to a dragon?

Sorry if someone has already said this, I'm relatively new here (been haunting the Coppermind for a month or so).




On another (possibly unrelated) note, do we know/have we worked out what Hoid is up to? Brandon eluded in an interview somewhere that the evidence is there for us to find.

Assuming he wrote the letter - he is on a quest against Rayse (Odium), and/or Badavin (whichever shard he ends up holding) who are shattering shards (maybe not Badavin). Most of the times we see him he only plays relatively minor roles, although more than a few times it appears he is doing something larger in the background.

Actually, just found THIS thread which pretty much summed up what I was thinking.

Edited by Youngy, 01 July 2012 - 04:13 AM.

[CrazyRioter]

funny thing is we were having a chat about that line in the #cosmere IRC channel the other day, general consensus is that yes it's a dragon. And there are in fact, dragons in Dragonsteel, and the character the letter was written to is in Dragonsteel, according to word of Brandon.

[Strawberry Eggs]

Huh, dragons in the Cosmere... For some reason, I find the idea odd, but it'll certainly be interesting.

[king of nowhere]

I do not like the idea of dragons in the cosmere.
A thing I highly appreciate in sanderson's work is that it is not conventional fantasy. there are no dragons, elves, dwarves, wizards, middle-aged uchronias or inexplicably-placed twisted phrophecies (ok, there were some in mistborn, but they were quite justified). I never liked a fantasy featuring those elements, unless it was for parody like in the work of terry pratchett. They feel like a second rate lord of the rings spinoff.
If there are dragons in the cosmere, I will appreciate the work of sanderson a bit less. I will still appreciate it enough to buy any book from him, but not as much as before.

[Yados]

I do not like the idea of dragons in the cosmere.
A thing I highly appreciate in sanderson's work is that it is not conventional fantasy. there are no dragons, elves, dwarves, wizards, middle-aged uchronias or inexplicably-placed twisted phrophecies (ok, there were some in mistborn, but they were quite justified). I never liked a fantasy featuring those elements, unless it was for parody like in the work of terry pratchett. They feel like a second rate lord of the rings spinoff.
If there are dragons in the cosmere, I will appreciate the work of sanderson a bit less. I will still appreciate it enough to buy any book from him, but not as much as before.

Well, you don't have anyone to blame but yourself for your expectations. Sanderson's LLC is called Dragonsteel Entertainment. His big, post-WoK epic is called Dragonsteel. It was also the name of his Master's thesis.

And, oh, if you go to his website, there's a big, honking dragon in the middle of the front page amongst the Steel Alphabet and Seons.

[dyring]

I had a guess there.. not having read the library dragonsteel thingy, just liar of partinell wich doesent say much of the world there.

That world was the original one as I understood it, where Adonalsium shattered. Then the shards moved out, created more worlds(or atleast altered new worlds;).

My guess/thought at the time I first heard of that was that the first world was a "standard" fantasy world of sorts, with the newer worlds being altered, new things. Would make sense. So that owuld mean dragons, perhaps even other simular fantasy classic monsters/races in dragonsteel.

And as I said, that was just a guess, dont remember if its been disproved since then. But it would be fun in a way:)

[Trizee]

I do not like the idea of dragons in the cosmere.
A thing I highly appreciate in sanderson's work is that it is not conventional fantasy. there are no dragons, elves, dwarves, wizards, middle-aged uchronias or inexplicably-placed twisted phrophecies (ok, there were some in mistborn, but they were quite justified). I never liked a fantasy featuring those elements, unless it was for parody like in the work of terry pratchett. They feel like a second rate lord of the rings spinoff.
If there are dragons in the cosmere, I will appreciate the work of sanderson a bit less. I will still appreciate it enough to buy any book from him, but not as much as before.

Somehow I've got a feeling that knowing Brandon, any dragons he happnes to have in his books will be anything but conventional. He'll probably have some mind blowing new take on dragons like he did with prophecy in Mistborn.

[prehistoricman]

Somehow I've got a feeling that knowing Brandon, any dragons he happnes to have in his books will be anything but conventional. He'll probably have some mind blowing new take on dragons like he did with prophecy in Mistborn.

Well sadly they won't be vegetarian druggies if he does something different.

[ReaderAt2046]

A thing I highly appreciate in sanderson's work is that it is not conventional fantasy. there are no dragons
If there are dragons in the cosmere, I will appreciate the work of sanderson a bit less. I will still appreciate it enough to buy any book from him, but not as much as before.

Actually, we've already seen dragons in the Greater Cosmere (on the CubeWorld). So you'll have to deappreciate Sanderson a bit.

[firstRainbowRose]

What cubeworld is this? I've never heard of it before.

[ReaderAt2046]

What cubeworld is this? I've never heard of it before.

The world where "I hate Dragons" is set. I don't know its real name, but one of the characters calls it the Cube.

P.S. Why in the name of You was I downvoted?

[firstRainbowRose]

OH! This makes sense now. Though, Josh and I don't think that book is Cosmere. It's just a random short story.

[Windrunner]

I would agree with firstRainbowRose as well, I think it's set in an unrelated universe. It doesn't feel serious enough to be Cosmere. Also Peter has it listed here as a Middle Grade fantasy, and all Cosmere books thus far have been adult fantasy.

[PeterAhlstrom]

I didn't list it as middle grade fantasy. That was me quoting Brandon—the Theoryland database is missing some info from Brandon's posts in that thread. (But I don't think it is Cosmere.)

Typical fantasy races are passé, but dragons are just cool. You can't deny it!

And you should read the Temeraire novels by Naomi Novik...

Edited by PeterAhlstrom, 08 July 2012 - 03:30 PM.

[Vikter]

I didn't list it as middle grade fantasy. That was me quoting Brandon—the Theoryland database is missing some info from Brandon's posts in that thread. (But I don't think it is Cosmere.)

Typical fantasy races are passé, but dragons are just cool. You can't deny it!

And you should read the Temeraire novels by Naomi Novik...

Excellent series, I love the Temeraire series. The fact that dragons were a real race and not just mystical was a great selling point for me. Novik did a great job building them as a whole speices, as well as setting the period perfectly not just present day characters and mindsets with an 1800's background.

Personally I cannot wait to see how Sanderson does dragons in the cosmere. They will be epic.

[Shivertongue]

Typical fantasy races are passé, but dragons are just cool. You can't deny it!

I deny it.

Dragons in general tend to bore me, for the same reason typical fantasy races do. That said, I love finding new takes on dragons, even small ones, such as what Jessica Day George did with Dragon Slippers.

[Quantum Toast]

Somehow I've got a feeling that knowing Brandon, any dragons he happnes to have in his books will be anything but conventional. He'll probably have some mind blowing new take on dragons like he did with prophecy in Mistborn.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Cosmere dragons are as different from 'normal' dragons as koloss are from orcs.

[happyman]

Well, you have to remember that the Dragons are from some of Brandon's earlier works. It may be that he had somewhat more stereotypical dragons in them, and just built on it.

One thing, though: If they started life as stereotypical, they won't stay that way. I doubt we will be disappointed. I've long suspected that the recipient of the letter was a dragon, but dragon is such a general term. The variations within it have actually been quite rich already in "standard" fantasy. Some are good, some are bad. Their life-cycles vary enormously, as well as justifications. I don't find it the least bit worrisome.

[Dros]

Well at least we know it must be the intelligent dragon type and not just a very dangerous, but not very bright animal type dragon.