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Shardcast: Ship It or Rip It?

By Chaos, in Shardcast,

This might actually be the funniest Shardcast yet. This time, we have a random number generator pick a pair from about a hundred cosmere characters. Two teams must argue whether they should be shipped, or we should rip that ship. The best part is making people suffer arguing for really awful ships. Or maybe Alyx judging a certain Renarin ship... You won't be sad tuning into this one.

You know what you need in life? Spiritual Mumbo Jumbo, and it's time we delivered. This time we focus on a very specific aspect: Language, and how it pertains to the Connection magics that let people in the cosmere speak different languages. Think there isn't enough to talk about here? Hah, you've never seen this show.

This week on Shardcast we thought we would talk about another set of epigraphs that we haven't discussed too in-depth: the listener songs from Words of Radiance! And we naively thought we could finish them all in a single episode, because the Song of Listing didn't have that much in it, right? Well turns out there's a lot of mysteries there! Next time we're getting to the spicy songs in the Song of Secrets, though, so stay tuned.

 

Time for another round of Coppermind objectives!

First we need to say a big thank you to everyone who helped out in April and May. We got a lot done, with help from long-time users and new editors alike. I wanted to give a special shoutout to Stargazer in particular, who showed up in mid-April and ended up in the top of the pack on both objective completions and total contributions! Lots of good work all around, so thank you to everyone who helped. In other news, we've officially reached the lowest stub count in the history of the wiki! This is a huge milestone for us, and we're ecstatic! Thanks for the hard work, folks. Let's keep it up! One more round to go and we'll be hitting our one year anniversary for these objectives!

Today, Vault Comics have announced the first Dark One graphic novel set to be released in 2020. Jackson Lanzing, one of the writers, also tweeted that the manuscript was 209 pages, and they started work on it eight months ago. He said next year, "you can finally join us in Mirandus," presumably the world of the story, and said "Down with the Narrative. All hail the Dark One." 

Today Brandon revealed on Twitter why the progress on Stormlight 4 didn't go up much during his trip to Germany. He didn't have much time to write, but he said he got through two scenes of a non-Stormlight cosmere novella. We were going to go through a long list of things it could be, but then he revealed on Reddit it was a Sixth of the Dusk sequel.

This week on Shardcast we are done with Roshar. Take that, Roshar, it's time for Scadrial's time in the sun. (Get it? Because they are closer to the sun in Era 1. Hah, jokes.) Anyway, we are talking about one of the most interesting things on Scadrial: the Lord Ruler! We're talking about his character and history, and we'll talk in detail about his powers next week. We talk about the Ascension A LOT, get derailed from talking about the subjugation of Terris, and of course, get annoyed thinking about the Lord Ruler's kids. 

Earlier this week, Dynamite Entertainment, the publisher of the White Sand graphic novels, released an interview with Rik Hoskin about the series' forthcoming third, and final, volume. Hoskin is an accomplished comics writer who was brought in to help adapt Brandon's original prose draft of White Sand into the graphic novel format, and in this interview he talks about his experiences working on the project. The interview also confirms the identity of the new artist, Fritz Casas, the cover art, as well as the release date, June 2019. Perhaps the most notable bit of information however, is the reveal of a Graphic Audio adaptation of White Sand currently in production.

Today, we are launching a Patreon for 17th Shard and our content creation efforts. We have long had a well-hidden donate button on our About page, and it was hidden for a reason: we don't want to beg for money. However, people have asked for an effective way to donate to 17th Shard, and so this is a good way to do that. Nothing with us is changing with our content release schedule. We will not timegate content or paywall content. This will just be a tip jar if you happen to really like the site, or want to support our content. If you're willing to put some of your hard-earned money into this venture, that is extremely humbling and we are insanely grateful for it, but make sure your financial situation is solid before you do. Don't feel obligated to do this; only do this if you really like what we do here and feel in your heart you want to support us.

On this very Tense (yet Cohesive) Shardcast, we actually do finish talking about every order of Knights Radiant, getting through four orders in just over two hours. So yes, it's long, but technically speaking, shorter than the last one. We also go seriously into the weeds on a matter of Surges. But I'm sure it's no big deal and there will be no Tension in this.

We're back with more Knights Radiant, and this time we go even slower, getting sidetracked with lots of Surgebinding PedantiCast action. How does Progression work? Future sight stuff, Soulcasting mechanics, and Shadesmar and astral projection. Oh, we also talk about some Knights Radiant...

This week on Shardcast, we're going to start a multi-week adventure in discussing all the Orders of Knights Radiant, starting with the Windrunners, Skybreakers, and Dustbringers. You should not be surprised we'll talk about this for three episodes. We go into their oaths, their Surges, and more. Also, space whales and MMO jokes.

It's that time again! Objective time!

First we need to say a bit thank you to everyone who helped out in February and March. We completed almost ALL of our objectives the last round, and the work done was first class. Seriously guys, have you seen this new Tindwyl page updated by Ladymxdnight? And solid objective completions aren't the only big news. You may not check out the Editor's Corner very often, but we hit a new milestone on our "Complete to Stub Ratio." We now have 3 fully complete articles for every lowly stub on the Coppermind! In fact, with just a few more stubs updated we will officially have the lowest stub count in the history of the wiki! Thanks for the hard work, folks!

At least a nonzero of you wanted this: an episode on Children of the Nameless, a novella Brandon wrote in the Magic: The Gathering universe, released for free last December. Is it any good? Turns out it's actually pretty good even if you don't know about Magic. We are going to talk about the plot as well as the lore.

This week, it isn't Shardcast, but ShardPLATEcast, because we're talking about Shardplate. We talk about all the details on how Shardplate works, its function, differences between the Radiant version and non-Radiant version. Of course, we hypothesize how one gets Plate and how that works. But wait, there's also Inception noises and Avengers references. Everything you could want, really.

A little late, but we're finally back with another set of Coppermind objectives!

What better way to spend a cold winter day than snuggled up with a blanket, hot cocoa, and an article to write? We had some awesome editors chugging away over the holidays, and got a lot done. We got a good start on Skyward while continuing to chip away at some Cosmere articles that have long needed attention. We'll be continuing that through March!

As always, we're happy for any help we can get, so don't be shy. If you're new to editing the Coppermind, don't worry; we'll help you out with guides and plenty of assistance. You don't need experience, just the will to help out! We'll also provide awards, because everyone loves fake internet points.

Continuing our series of episodes where we think "eh, we won't talk that much, we can fit it into one episode" is the History of Roshar. Yeah, okay, it's hilarious we could fit it into one episode, but we spent a lot more time on Rosharan prehistory than I expected! We get up through the Last Desolation this week, and we'll talk about after the Desolations and the Recreance next time.

We did it, everyone. It's the last Words of Brandon episode for (hopefully) a long time, with the holiday 2018 Idaho Falls Words of Brandon. Behold my cohosts work really hard at derailing my best efforts at getting on task, from talking about Hoid's tramp stamp, and so, so much more. Where we're going, we don't need rails, I guess. You don't know what I do for mankind. Without me, you've doomed yourself to Argent stories... 

The Hero of Ages leatherbound came out just after New Year's, and with it, the long-awaited Table of Hemalurgic Metals! We now bring you the finest group of pedants to discuss all of the new powers, and more! In fact we talked so much (over three hours!) that we split this into two episodes. This first one we're exclusively talking about the Hemalurgic powers, but don't worry we're going to be talking about bind points and more next time.

We have a few short news items for you this week! First up, Brandon has moved the Stormlight 4 and 5 outline to 25%. Brandon wants to make sure the next two books are plotted so he doesn't miss any plot threads at the end of the first Stormlight arc in Stormlight 5, which you can read about in his Stormlight 4 Update 1 Reddit post.

Next up, the amazing Miranda Meeks made a fantastic piece of Vin and Elend for the Hero of Ages Leatherbound, and now you can buy a poster of it for $10.