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COMPENDIUM OF KEY TERMINOLOGY for THE WAY OF KINGS and THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE Aharietiam – The Last Desolation, defeat of the Voidbringers. (p. 614) Aimians - … blue nails and crystalline deep blue eyes. Aimians – even Siah Aimians – were rare. … [they] cast a shadow the wrong way. Toward light, instead of away from it. (p. 440) / … all Aimians … could change the color and markings of [their] skin at will. (p. 441) Alespren - … appear only when one is severely intoxicated. Appear as small brown bubbles clinging to objects nearby. [Potentially] … a drunken hallucination. … infrequently. (p. 441) Alethela - … the historical name for the place that had become Alethkar. (p. 306) Alethi - … lighteyes … elite … grand people … there was a natural nobility to them. Tall and well made, the men … . The women were even more splendid. (p. 22) / Alethi had an odd sense of propriety. (p. 23) / [Darkeyes] were forbidden the sword. (p.24) / … a reserved people, at least with more passionate folk like the Horneaters or the Reshi. (p. 328) Almighty – Elithanathile. He Who Transforms. (p. 119) / The Almighty depended on the Alethi to train themselves in honorable battle so that when they died, they could join the Heralds’ army and win back the Tranquiline Halls. (p. 415) Amaram’s standard - … a burgundy field blazoned with a dark green glyphpair shaped like a shitespine with tusks upraised. Merem and khakh, honor and determination. Angerspren - … boiling up from the ground … like small pools of bubbling blood. (p. 234) / … bright red … . (p. 253) Anticipationspren - … like red streamers, growing from the ground and shipping in the wind … . (p. 106) Ardents - … couldn’t own anything … didn’t have to be paid. (p. 81) / The ardents were very secretive in using their fabrials … . (p. 90) / … [ministered] to the people, helping them reach Points in their Glories and Callings. (p. 122) / … forbidden to use their Soulcasters on people. They rarely even used them in front of others. (p. 534) / … burn prayers and Elevate people’s Callings … . (p. 540) / It is [an ardent’s] duty and calling to be truthful at all times. (p. 594) / A man can leave the ardentia … . (p. 596) / The Hierocracy and the fall of the Lost Radiants are [their] shame (p. 634) / If [one] left the ardentia, [s/he’d] be demoted to tenth dahn, almost as low as a darkeyes. (p. 638) / [Women] didn’t wear a sleeve on [their] safehand - … one of the advantages of being an ardent. (p. 712) / … wine – orange … of the clergy. (p. 755) / … weren’t supposed to engage in politics, whatever their devotary. They’d been officially forbidden to do so since the Hierocracy. But … the ideal and the reality were two separate things. (p. 756) Artifabrians – Navani was a renowned artifabrian. (p. 328) / … constructed … [contemporary fabrials]. (p. 566) Assuredness Movement – The scholars are intentionally overstating their case. They are trying to provoke discussion. (p. 459) Atheism - *(p. 466-47) Axehound – (p. 43) / … the smarter the animal was, the more likely it was to disobey. … sleek and lean, six legs extending before [it] as [it] sat on [it’s] haunches. Axehounds didn’t have shells or skin; instead, their body was covered with some fusion of the two, smooth to the touch and more pliable than true carapace, but harder than skin and made of interlocking sections. … angular face … . (p. 173) Azish – (p. 22) / Among [them], the bow is a bow is a noble weapon. (p. 770) Babath - … quite particular about how you speak. The women … have … patterns of veins that sit shallowly beneath their skin. (p. 651-52) / Everyone gets a chance to rule, if they live long enough. The king is called the Most Ancient. The Babath are very fair. (p. 652) Babatharnam - … they have a curious system of rule there … . … the elderly are given office. The older you are, the more authority you have. There is a great deal of unrest in Babatharnam. (p. 652) Backbreaker powder – Very lethal … . (p. 698) Beggars’ Feast – It was an Alethi tradition, a room where some of the poorest men and women in the city were given a feast complementing that of the king and his guests. (p.23) Bindspren - … dark blue and shaped like little splashes of ink, clustering … . (p. 796) Blackbane – … narrow leaves on a trefoil prong … . (p. 53) … a narrow, dark green leaf with a point divided in three. … one of Roshar’s most deadly natural poisons … . (p. 160) Blades – Each was a masterly work of art, flowing in design, inscribed with glyphs and patterns. If their masters … died, the Blades would … [vanish]. These Blades were weapons of power beyond even Shardblades. These were unique. Precious. (p. 16) / … [appeared] from mist, wet with condensation. (p. 17) Bonding – (p. 203) Book of Endless Pages – … the front page … was blank. The next one was as well, as were all inside of it. It’s a metaphor … . (p. 680) / … this book is [the] guide [to the Devotary of Sincerity]. The book cannot be filled, as there is always something to learn. (p. 681) Breakneck – The tower was three pairs in a game of breakneck. The queen was two trios. The first was an outright loss, the other an outright win. But a pair and a trio, that was called the butcher. Whether you won or not would depend on the other throws you made And, more importantly, on the throws of everyone else. (p. 367) Bride’s Prayer - … [worn] on [a woman’s] sleeve. … [a] white cloth with its blue glyphpair sewn onto the sleeve of her dress. [it would be burned] when [an] engagement was formally announced. (p. 621) Bridge – (p. (p. 95) / The bottom was a complicated construction, with eight rows of three positions accommodating up to twenty-four men directly underneath, then sixteen sets of handles – eight on each side – for sixteen more men on the outside. Forty men, running shoulder to shoulder, if they had a full complement. Each position underneath the bridge had an indentation for the bridgeman’s head, two curved blocks of wood to rest on his shoulders, and two rods for handholds. (p. 477) Brightcaller – By the Brightcaller’s rays ... . (p. 918) Brightlord – (p. 37) / … lighteyes’s honorific. (p. 396) Brightness – (p. 63) / … lighteyes’s honorific. (p. 396) Captivityspren – (p. 442) Chasmfiend – (p. 189) / These ‘oversized chulls’ grow to fifty feet tall and are capable of crushing even a man in Shardplate. (p. 194) / The chasmfiend towered like a mountain of interlocking carapace the color of dark violet ink. It had a twisted, arrowhead-like face, with a mouth full of barbed mandibles. … it was vaguely crustacean … . It had four wicked foreclaws set into broad shoulders, each claw the size of a horse, and a dozen smaller legs … . (p. 202) … bellowed with an awful screeching sound. It trumpeted with four voices, overlapping one another. (p. 203) … thirty-foot-tall beasts … . The monster was long and narrow like a crayfish, and had a flattened tail. (p. 204) … majestic … . They climbed up onto the tops [of the plateaus] and made a rocky chrysalis … . During that time they were vulnerable. … chasmfiends rarely came in the evening or night. (p. 223-24) / Purple ichor … . (p. 382) / … [called] ulo mas vara, which … translates roughly to “Monster of the Chasms”. Chrysalis – (p. 200) / The chrysalis itself sat like an enormous, oblong rockbud, fifteen feet tall and attached to the uneven stone ground by something that looked like crem. [Plunging a Shardblade into it, killed] the pupating creature but [avoided] the region with the gemheart. (p. 381-82) Chulls – (p. 51) / … large crustaceans … . (p. 53) ... red-carapaced … their antennae waving back and forth. The box-shaped animals had bulging, stony shells and thick, trunklike red legs. … their claws could snap a man’s arm. But chulls were docile … . (p. 74) Cobalt Guard – (p. 188) / [They] wore deep blue felt caps and cloaks over silvery breastplates and deep blue trousers. They were lighteyes of low rank, able to carry swords for close fighting. (p. 278) Conicshell mucus - … for numbing. (p. 746) Conclave – … where the Palanaeum is [in Karbranth]. … the king lives there … . It’s the center of the city … . (p. 65) Creationspren - … of medium size, as tall as one of [shallan’s] fingers, and they glowed with a faint silvery light. They transformed perpetually, taking new shapes. Usually the shapes were things they had seen recently. Always of the same silvery color, always the same diminutive height. They imitated shapes exactly, but moved them in strange ways. They weren’t substantial … . [shallan’s] drawing gathered … them, pulling them by her act of creation … . (p. 118) Creatures - … drawn … . … tall and willowy … with cloaks that split down the front and hung at the sides too stiffly, as if they were made of glass. Above the stiff, hjgh collars, where [their] heads should be, each had a large, floating symbol of twisted design full of impossible angles and geometries (p. 467) / … a figure with a sharp, angular symbol hovering above its collar instead of a head. … too straight robes, like cloth made from metal. (p. 641) / Each had a different symbol, twisted and unfamiliar … hanging above a neckless torso. … angular not-heads hanging horrifically where faces should have been. (p. 642) / … twisted symbols unconnected to their uneven shoulders. Those not-heads had unreal angles, surfaces that melded in weird, impossible ways. … too-smooth fingers … . … sleek figures. (p. 643) / … symbolheads … . (p. 677) / No eyes, no face, just [a] jagged alien symbol with points like cut crystal. (p. 678) / *(p. 968-69) / These are a type of spren … . (p. 978) Crem – (p. 61) / … the sludgy brown material that fell with rainwater – could make a man sick. … used … to make pottery. (p. 250) … crem would seal up caverns … . (p. 301) If left alone, crem eventually hardened into stone. (p. 361) A sediment of hardened crem smoothed the pathway on the floor of the chasms … . (p. 389) Cremlings – (p. 43) / … slithered … . (p. 79) / The tiny crustaceans were a translucent reddish color; … [one] could see its internal organs through its shell. (p. 390) / *(p. 564) / … multilegged, bearing tiny claws, their elongated bodies plated with carapace … . (p. 798) Cremslime – (p. 847) Crushkiller – (p. 435) Cultivation – Cultivation, she is better at [seeing the future] … . (p. 995) Curse of Kind – When the Curse of Kind followed you, you learned to take what happened as it happened. (p. 441) Cusicesh, the Protector - … an enormous, sea-blue spren … . It was translucent, and though it appeared to throw out waves as it rose, that was illusory. It takes the shape of a large jet of water … . The center is of the deepest blue … though the outer edges are a lighter shade. … a height of at least a hundred feet. One of the largest … . It was unique. One of the few types of spren … that seemed to have only a single member. [The] face is shifting, bewilderingly quick. Different human faces appear on the end of its stumplike neck, one after another in blurred succession. Some seemed male, others female. (p. 442) Cymatics – The study of the patterns that sounds make when interacting with a physical medium. (p. 511) Dahn – (p. 127) / Vorin kingdoms’ system of ranks for lighteyes. Dalinar’s visions – (p. 190) / The visions never showed him episodes of idle peace; they threw him into times of conflict and change. Turning points. (p. 728) Damnation – (p. 146) Darkeyes – … forbidden the sword. (p. 24) Dawnchant – (p. 519) Dawncities – … certain cities could trace their origins back to the Dawnsingers. (p. 754) / (p. 848) Dawnshards – A mythological treasure … . Certainly worth seeking, but only with great caution. It would make you famous, but actually finding it would destroy … all. (p. 460) / … known to bind any creature voidish or mortal … . (p. 524) Dawnsingers – (p. 114) / … both glyphs and letters dame from the Dawnsingers. (p. 511) / They were healers, kindly spren sent by the Almighty to care for humans once [they] were forced out of the Tranquiline Halls. Kind of like the opposite of the Voidbringers. (p. 634) Day of Recreance - … the day [the Knights Radiant] betrayed mankind. … the day the Knights Radiant turned their backs on their fellow men. (p. 732) Deathspren - … hate water. It will keep them away. … mighty good at killing … . (p. 152) / … cannot be seen. (p. 153) / They were fist-size and black, with many legs and deep red eyes that glowed, leaving trails of burning light. They clustered … skittering this way and that. Their voices were whispers, scratchy sounds like paper being torn. Only the dying could see deathspren. You saw them, then died. Only the very, very lucky few survived after that. Deathspren knew when the end was close. (p. 554) Decayspren – (p. 258) Deep blue wine – (p. 813-14) Desolations – (p.15) / ... happened during the near-mythical shadowdays before real history began. Before mankind had defeated the Voidbringers and taken the war to heaven. (p.302) / War against the Voidbringers. (p. 614) / … matters of ancient lore … . (p. 858) Devotaries – The specific devotary that one visited for worship often had to do with the nature of one’s chosen Calling. … the various religious congregations that proper Vorin people joined. (p. 71) / The devotaries were to teach morals, not enforce them. (p. 529) ... the devotaries – at their core – are still classical Vorinism. (p. 634) / The devotaries taught that when men died, the most valiant among them – the ones who fulfilled their Callings best – would rise to help reclaim heaven. Each man would do as he had done in life. … excellence in any Calling would bring power. (p. 836) Devotary of Insight – (p. 499) Devotary of Purity – … focused on … teaching one to emulate the Almighty’s honesty and wholesomeness. (p. 508) Devotary of Sincerity - … one of the very smallest of the devotaries … . They worship the Almighty, but are guided by the belief that there are always more answers to be found. This devotary is a place where one is never penalized for questions, even those challenging Vorinism’s own tenets. (p. 681) Diamond broam - … best for light, but less useful in Soulcasting, so weren’t as valuable. (p. 140) Divine prism - … the ten facets [represent] the Heralds. (p. 509) Double Eye - … symbol … stylized … eight spheres connected with two at the center. It had been the symbol of the Lost Radiants, back when they’d been called the Knights Radiant. (p. 305) Dungspren – (p. 540) Dustbringer – (p. 15) Dustmother – (p. 177) Easterners - … saw the world by the light of the highstorms. (p. 447) Emerald broam - … the largest denomination of sphere , worth a thousand diamond chips. (p. 138). Emuli – The people … are known for their expert crem pottery … . [They] are a certain tribe of the Askarki people, and they’re ethnically Makabaki – dark-skinned … . Their kingdom borders [that of the Azish] … . (p. 768) / Their legal system is very lenient toward foreigners. The people are most interested in exotic fruits. They worship Jezrien, though they don’t accept him as a figure from the Vorin religion. They name him the only god. [They] have what [Vorin] scholars like to call a splinter religion – containing some Vorin ideas. But to the Emuli, [Vorinism] would be the splinter religion. … flowing gowns and head-wraps of the Emuli women, … robes favored by the men. … [their] way of greeting an old friend – by holding the left forefinger to the forehead and bowing in respect. (p. 769) / To them … the need to strike a man personally is crass. They wage war in the opposite way from … Alethi. The sword is not a weapon for a leader. A halberd is better, then a spear, and best of all a bow and arrow. (p. 770) Enthir - … a square, stringed instrument. You played it from above, plucking at strings with it sitting on your lap. (p. 998) / One did not strum an enthir. It just wasn’t done, at least not by people with any sense of propriety. (p. 999) Epoch Kingdoms – They crashed when the church tried to seize power. (p. 316) Era of Solitude – The modern era. (p. 635) Errorgant – It means to be twice as certain as someone who is merely arrogant while possessing only one-tenth the requisite facts. … errorgance is a literary device. (p. 459) Everstorm – (p. 21) / The Night of Sorrows, the True Desolation. The Everstorm. (p. 83) Exhaustionspren – (p. 941) Fearspren – (p. 26) / … shaped like gobs of purple goo … . … drawn by … terror … . (p. 27) / … wiggling and violet … in the air. (p. 108) Feverstone Keep (p. 728) / The buildings … were blocky and utilitarian, built up against one another along the rock walls of the natural rift. Most had square raincatchers on top. With good food stores – or … a Soulcaster – such a fortification could withstand a siege for years. (p. 729) / [site where] the Day of Recreance … [took place]. (p. 732) Fingermoss - … sprouted like flowers … . The bright pink and purple … tendrils were reminiscent of tentacles … waving … in the wind. The clumps would only pull into their shells if [one] tapped the rock near them. (p. 798) Firemoss – Rubbing firemoss was said to make a man’s mind more receptive to thoughts and ideas. … once [one] grew … callouses [on thumbs and forefingers], it could … be euphoric. (p. 444) First Ideal of the Immortal Words – Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination. (p. 831) Flamespren - … like insects made solely of congealed light. (p. 23) / … a bright fire would draw [them]. (p. 118) / … [one of] the most common types … . (p. 441) Fourleaf sap – (p. 53) Frillbloom plant - … fanlike fronds …: two wide, orange leaves, with spines on the tips, unfolding like opening fists. (p. 695) Gallant – [Dalinar’s] massive black Ryshadium stallion … . (p. 184) … two hands taller and much stronger than an ordinary horse. (p. 187) Gemhearts – (p. 185) / … the enormous gemstone that grew within all chasmfiends. … even the small ones were worth a fortune. (p. 210) / [One] had to get to the plateau where [the chasmfiend] rested, break into its chrysalis … then cut out the gemheart. (p. 224) / … the scarcest, yet most desirable, substance in the land … . (p. 409) Gemstones - … a cut stone could hold more Stormlight … . (p. 90) / … the larger a gemstone was when used by a Soulcaster, the less likely it was to shatter. Enormous gemheart stones offered near-limitless potential. (p. 224) / … Stormlight shone from inside the glass … . … some of the storm’s tempest inside … . The light was like … part of the storm, captured … . The light wasn’t perfectly steady … . (p. 765) Ghostbloods – (p. 701) / …[a group] searching for [the] secrets [of the Parshendi]. … their symbol [was] tattooed on the inside of [the] arm. … a symbol of three diamonds in a pattern, overlapping one another. It was the same symbol … . … worn by Luesh, [shallan’s] father’s steward … . The symbol worn by the men who had come, pressuring her family to return [her father’s Soulcaster]. The men who had been financing Shallan’s father in his bid to become highprince. (p. 992) Gloryspren - … like tiny golden translucent globes of light … attracted by [a] sense of accomplishment. (p. 188) / … like hundreds of spheres of light. (p. 382) Glyphs – (p. 16) / … major, minor, and topical glyphs … . (p. 86) / … you could draw most glyphs in complex ways that made it hard to read them, unless you knew exactly what to look for. (p. 401) / They weren’t meant to be used in books; they were pictures. A man who had never seen one before could still understand what one meant, based on its shape. That made interpreting glyphs different from reading. Glyphwards - (p. 86) Grandbows - … large steel bows with thick strings and such a high draw weight that only a Shardbearer could use them, to fire shafts as thick as three fingers. They were recent creations, devised by Alethi engineers through the use of fabrial science, and each required a small infused gemstone to maintain the strength of its pull without warping the metal. … Navani … had led the research to develop the bows. They were sleek and dangerous-looking … .(p. 199-200) Grasper – A small tentacle snapped out, yanking [a cremling] down into [its] hole. (p. 798) Greatshells – Taking down a greatshell was the highlight of a young man’s year. (p. 194) … a musty, moldy scent. The smell of greatshell blood. (p. 221) … curious teeth … with a strange, complex network of jaws. Some flat platelike teeth for crushing and destroying shells and other, smaller mandibles for ripping off flesh or shoving it deeper into the throat. (p. 223) Groundspren - … pull … downward … everything … . (p. 688) Gulket leaves - … rubbing the sap of gulket leaves on sore muscles [made] them feel warm and cold at the same time. (p. 568) Half-Shards - Vedens … perfected … them. [They claim] the shields can stop blows from a Shardblade. (p. 332) / … they can only take the shape of a shield and don’t lend any of Plate’s other enhancements. But they can block a Shardblade. (p. 333) / … distinctive, diamond-shaped shields. … fabrials … . They were made of metal imbedded with a gemstone hidden at the back. (p. 717) / … they use a completely different design principle from regular Shardplate. (p. 848). Hallowed Hall - … the place where a wealthy man placed images of his Kadasix for reverence. (p. 708) Haspers – (p. 66) / … small two-shelled creatures proliferated during the Weeping. They seemed to grow out of nowhere, much like their cousins the tiny snails … . (p. 617) / …with pearly shells slowly oping and closing as they breathed. They looked like tiny mouths, silently speaking in rhythm with one another. (p. 885) Hearthstone – (p. 151) / Kaladin’s childhood home in northern Alethkar. Heliodor - … pale yellow gemstone … . (p. 432) Heraldic Epocs - … when men were bound by honor. (p. 315) Heraldic Forces – (p. 222) Herdazian - … evidenced by … dark, crystalline fingernails [and wearing] a sparkflicker. (p. 373) / … brown hair and deep tan skin … . The fingernails … were slate-colored and crystalline … . … great fighters … . (p. 487) Hierocracy – (p. 71) / *(p. 284-85) / … had tried to conquer the world five centuries before. (p. 369) / The failure of Vorinism. (p. 614) Highprince of Information – (p. 334) / … had authority over criminal investigations, particularly those of interest to the Crown. (p. 335) Highprince of War – (p. 291) / … a single leader to force [the Highprinces] to work together. (p. 292) Highstorm – (p. 39) / … could be predicted mathematically. (p. 77) / Nobody liked to be out during a storm … . The things that walked the storms … weren’t nearly so deadly as the rocks and branches cast up into the air. … the storm’s initial tempest of water and wind – the stormwall – was the most dangerous part. The longer one endured after that, the weaker the storm grew, until the trailing edge was nothing more than sprinkling rain. (p. 78) / … the riddens – the period near the end of a highstorm when the rain sprinkled softly. The time right after a highstorm was when the land was most alive.(p. 79) / After storms, plants soon pulled back into their shells, trunks, and hiding places to conserve water. (p. 337) / They caused enormous floods to crash through the chasms; to be caught in a chasm during a highstorm was death. (p. 389) / … highstorms always came east to west … . (p. 391) Holetental – (p. 988) Honor Chasm – (p. 101) / … the place where [the bridgemen] could make the one decision left to them. The “honorable” decision. Death. (p. 159) Honorblade – … of ancient lore … . (p. 298) / A mythological treasure … . It would make you famous, but actually finding it would destroy … all. (p. 460) Honorspren - … discerning … . (p. 849) / Spirit of oaths. Of promises. And of nobility. (p. 913) House Kholin’s banner – Deep blue with white glyphs – khokh and linil, stylized and painted as a sword standing before a crown. (p. 81) / [On Dalinar’s] … blue banners with the glyphpair … [khokh is] drawn in the shape of a crown, [linil forms] a tower. Dalinar’s mother had drawn the original design, the same his signet ring bore, though Elhokar used a sword and crown instead. (p. 420) House Sadeas’s banner - … a yellow glyphpair in the shape of a tower and a hammer on a field of deep green. (p. 99) Hungerspren – They look like brown flies that flit … almost too small to see. (p. 49) Impossible Falls - … of Kholinar. (p. 378) Infuse – [To] drink in … Stormlight and command it. (p. 831) Iriali - … [do] not take well to … nudity. (p. 439) / … very particular about their chastity laws. … golden-haired Iriali men went about wearing only waist wraps, their skin painted various colors and patterns. (p. 440) / The [golden] hair bred true … - the purer your blood was, the more locks of gold you had. … it wasn’t merely blond, it was truly gold, lustrous in the sun. [The Iriali] … were rarely inclined to bickering or fighting. (p. 441) Kammar - … ancient martial art … which used only the hands. It was meant as a less deadly form of fighting, focused on grabbing enemies and using their weight against them, immobilizing them. It was also ideal when one wanted to touch and infuse someone. (p. 718-19) Kata - *(p. 398-99) / Meant to work the muscles and make [one] practice the basic jabs, thrusts, and sweeps. (p. 399) Ketek - … a complex form of holy Vorin poem. (p. 1003) Kharbranthians - … Vorin … . They weren’t pagans … and writing was a feminine art; men learned only glyphs, leaving letters and reading to their wives and sisters. (p. 66) … burnt orange and white, the Kharbranthian royal colors. (p. 83) … separate the genders during dining. (p. 463) King’s Guard - … dressed in blue and gold. (p. 286) Knights Radiant – (p. 28) / … fight for no king and for all of them. [in the] Eighth Epoch … Urithiru is where [their] orders are centered, … in Alethela. It is [their] duty and [their] privilege … to stay vigilant for the Desolation. [They died] do that [others might] live. It [was] ever … [their] place. [Could] teach … so that [fighting would] not destroy [a person]. [Those] of Alethela [were the] watchers – the warriors who [protected] and [fought]. [They maintained] the terrible arts of killing, then [passed] them on to others when the Desolation [came]. (p. 306-7) / Two orders of the Knights Radiant possessed inherent Soulcasting ability; it was based on their powers that the original fabrials were designed … . … each Radiant’s abilities were tied to the spren. (p. 978-79) Knobweed – (p. 259) / Their rigid stalks were topped with delicate fronds that could retract into the stem. The stems themselves were immobile, but they were fairly safe growing behind boulders. Some would be pulled free in each storm – perhaps to attach themselves in a new location once the winds abated. Knobweed wasn’t rare, but neither was it as common as other weeds. (p. 338) / … [breaking] off the furry top of the reed [exposed] the hollow center. … [running one’s] fingers down its length, squeezing it tight … [produced] … drops of milky white liquid … . Knobweed sap. … knobweed milk … . … a powerful antiseptic. (p. 344) / It scares away rotspren … . Spread it on a wound that’s already infected and it will still work. (p. 345) / … [made] rotspren flee and … infection retreat. (p. 385) Kukori – (p. 450) Lanceryn – When the lanceryn died off during the scouring of Aimia, [it was presumed that] … the last gemhearts of large size [had been seen]. ( p. 526-27) Larmic mucus – (p. 259) Antiseptic Lashing – (p. 25) / … interfered with the gemstones that powered Shardplate … . (p. 29) Laughterspren - … minnowlike silver spirits that darted through the air in circular patterns … . (p. 213) Leggers - … larger crustacean … . … its hairlike spines lifted to the air to give warning of changes in the wind … its long body lined with dozens of pairs of legs. (p. 79) Lifebrother – (p. 975) Lifespren – They looked like motes of glowing green dust or swarms of tiny translucent insects. (p. 79) / … little green blips of light … small as spores … . (p. 162) / … silent … . (p. 767) Lightday – (p. 620) Lighteyes – (p. 22) / … a good lighteyes officer was really a team, the man to command and fight, the woman to read, write, engineer, and manage camp. (p. 408) Lister’s oil – (p. 53) Logicspren - … in the form of tiny stormclouds … . (p. 120) Longroots – The brown roots were dirty on the outside and sticky when … sliced into … so working on them coated [one’s ] fingers with a thick layer of crem. (p. 539_ / They grew in cracks in the stone where water collected. They tasted faintly of minerals, but were easy to grow. (p. 540) Lost Radiants - … said to haunt the most violent hightstorms. (p. 78) / They fell and became tarnished. (p. 316) / … fashioned only weapons … not productive tools for use by ordinary men. … never gave their Plate or its secrets to the common people. (p. 407) Lost Radiants’ motto – Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination. (p. 607) Maakian - (p. 681) Religious individual. Makam - … smooth hardwood. All mobile bridges were made of [it]. It had a deep brown color, the grain almost hidden, and was both strong and light. (p. 476) Marabethia - … a place in the world. It is beside the sea, to the north, in the Selay lands. The people are known for their great fondness for debate. At each intersection in the city they have small pedestals on which a man can stand and proclaim his arguments. It is said that everyone in Marabethia carries a pouch with an overripe fruit just in case they pass a proclaimer with whom they disagree. … [the Marabethians] have a curious way of treating condemned criminals. They dangle them over the seaside cliff near the city, down near the water at high tide, with a cut sliced in each cheek. There is a particular species of greatshell in the depths there. The creatures are known for their succulent flavor, and … they have gemhearts. Not nearly as large as the ones in [the] chasmfiends, but still nice. So the criminals … become bait. A criminal may demand execution instead, but [it is said that] if you hang there for a week and are not eaten, then you can go free.(p. 577-78) Mathana … [Alethi] formal term for an older sister. (p. 331) Memory – When [shallan] collected a Memory of a person, she was snipping free a bud of their soul, and she cultivated and grew it on the page. (p. 118) Midnight Essence – [Creatures]… fought … who released it is still a mystery. (p. 307) Mishim - … small green disk … the final moon … . (p. 349) Musicspren - … tiny spirits taking the form of spinning translucent ribbons. (p. 22) Nahel bond - … gave [Alakavish … a Surgebinder] no more wisdom than a regular man. *… not all spren are as discerning as honorspren. (p. 849) Nahn – (p. 134) / Vorin kingdoms’ system of ranks for darkeyes. / … first nahn, the highest and most prestigious rank a darkeyes could have, worthy even of marrying into a lighteyed family. (p. 199) Natanatan – … men with gloved hands and faintly bluish skin were from Natanatan. (p. 68) / The Shattered Plains lay in the land that had once been Natanatan. (p. 306) / Natan people … [had] pale bluish skin, wide noses, and wool-like white hair. (p. 525) / … the Granite Kingdon. (p. 821) Nightspren - … monsters of the dark. … dreaded … . (p. 592) Nightwatcher – (p. 179) / … things that could bring a man bad luck. (p. 659) / … every man gets one chance. Ask a boon of the Nightwatcher. (p. 708) / The Nightwatcher doesn’t trick you or twist your words. You ask a boon. She gives what she feels you deserve, then gives you a curse to go along with it. Sometimes related, sometimes not. (p. 709) / Most consider her to be just some kind of powerful spren. Once you’ve sought her out and been given your reward and your curse, she’s supposed to leave you alone. (p. 735) / She gives curses in exchange for granting small desires. Always one curse and one desire. (p. 859) Nomon - … the middle moon … . (p. 140) / … the Second Sister [to Westerners] … . (p. 179) / … shone with his pale,blue-white light. (p. 341) Oathbringer – [Dalinar’s] Shardblade … . Six feet long from tip to hilt, the Blade would [be] unwieldy in the hands of any man not wearing Shardplate. He’d carried Oathbringer since his youth, Bonding to it when he was twenty Weepings old. It was long and slightly curved, a handspan wide, with wavelike serrations near the hilt. It curved at the tip like a fisherman’s hook … . (p. 203) Oathpact – … so long as there is one of [the Heralds] bound to the Oathpact, it may be enough. There is a chance [they] might end the cycle of Desolations. (p. 16) Oathstone – (p. 178-79) / … a twinkling, sphere-sized chunk of rock … . It was fairly ordinary, a simple piece of rock with a few quartz crystals set into it and a rusty vein of iron on one side. So long as [one possesses] it, [s/he is Szeth’s] master. (p. 180) Old Magic – (p. 58) / … things that could bring a man bad luck. (p. 659) / … supernatural [curses] … were supposed to happen to people who sought the Old Magic. There were stories of evil men made immortal, then tortured over and over again … . (p. 688) / You never know what kind of curse you’ll end up with. (p. 709) / … you’d have … to travel to the West [to] seek it. (p. 734) / Soliciting the Old Magic is offensive to the devotaries, but their punishments for the act are never severe. (p. 859) Orange wine - *(not first mention)… crystalline … . (p. 544) / … sweet … . (p. 734) Order of Talenelat - … devotary … . They … hate arguing over religion. (p. 755) Order of the Stonewards – (p. 729) / [One of] two orders of [the Knights Radiant who had] … turned their back on their fellow men [i.e.: the Day of Recreance]. (p. 732) Origin of Storms - … the distant, the unseen place where highstorms began. (p. 193-94) Painrial – … [Navani] had a hand in its construction. (p. 847) / … a diminishing fabrial – it decreases something … pain. It doesn’t actually make the would any better … . … a completely different type from paired fabrials like the spanreeds. (p. 848) Painspren - … like small orange hands with overly long fingers … . (p. 47) Palanaeum – (p. 65) / … has the finest collection of tomes and scrolls on Roshar. More … than the Holy Enclave in Valath. … there [are]over seven hundred thousand separate texts in [the] archive.(p. 115) / … the grand storehouse of books, manuscripts, and scrolls beyond the study areas of the Veil … . The Palanaeum was shaped like an inverted pyramid carved down into the rock. It had balcony walkways suspended around its perimeter. Slanted gently downward, they ran around all four walls to form a majestic square spiral, a giant staircase pointing toward the center of Roshar. A series of lifts provided a [quick] method of descending. The lighting was dim; there was no general illumination, only small emerald lamps focused to illuminate the walkway floors. (p. 499) / … stone walls, portions of which had been Soulcast into quartz purely for ornamentation. The railings had been carved from wood, then transformed to marble. One could disappear for hours in the Palanaeum and never see another soul. (p. 500) / … the Kharbranthian filing system was now standard for many of Roshar’s libraries and archives. The air smelled of old paper and dust. It was never damp … . (p. 501) / The hollow inverted pyramid rose toward the ceiling far above, the four walls expanding outward at a slant. The topmost levels were brighter and easier to make out … . Fifty-seven levels … . The Kharbranthians cut out the rooms for the books. [The] formation is natural. (p. 633) Parshendi – They were men with skin of black marbled with red. … cousins to the more docile servant peoples known as parshmen … . They did not call themselves Parshendi; this was the Alethi name for them. (p. 22) / Parshendi always sang as they fought; that song changed as they abandoned their bows – pulling out axes, swords, or maces … . … the Parshendi grew enraged when you moved their dead. … orange Parshendi blood … smelled like mold. (p. 380-81) / The Parshendi grow carapaces. They can jump chasms … . (p. 401) / The Parshendi were squat, muscular, and had … skin-grown armor … . It didn’t cover as fully as Plate, but it was far more efficient than what most foot soldiers had. Each Parshendi was essentially an extremely mobile heavy infantryman. … always attacked in pairs, eschewing a regular line of battle. (p. 409) / … their jumping prowess could suddenly deposit entire ranks of Parshendi behind Alethi lines. … there was [a] distinctive way they moved as a group in combat. They maneuvered with an inexplicable coordination. … subtle and dangerous. (p. 410) / *(p.627-28) / Their black eyes were like shards of obsidian. No whites. Just that emotionless black. (p. 742) / They never yelled as they died. As always … two-person teams were the focus of their strategy. Each pair would have different weapons, and often one was clean-shaven while the other had a bear woven with gemstones. (p. 778) / … fought like chasmfiends. Few men dared assault a Shardbearer directly – at least not without the entire weight of their army forcing them forward, almost against their will. … attacked with bravery. (p. 779) / … Parshendi could jump … chasms. (p. 781) / At times [they] seemed alien, but their emotions were so human. (p. 783) / … rarely disturbed their dead after they fell; they’d take roundabout paths of attack to avoid dead bodies. … the Parshendi revered their dead – revered them to the extent that they would endanger the living to preserve the corpses of the fallen. (p. 792) / The Parshendi left their dead. … they found it a terrible offense to move them. Merely touching the dead seemed a sin. (p. 870) / … normally fled when they took large losses. (p. 891) / … always, each Parshendi’s song was in perfect time with that of his fellows. It was as if they could all hear the same melody somewhere far away, singing along … . (p. 901) Passionspren - … like tiny flakes of crystalline snow, [floating] down in the air … . (p. 863) Physical Realm – The body must be fed in the Physical Realm, but the spirit exists in a completely different state. (p. 711) Pilevine - … stringy, red fruit … . (p. 792) Prime Kadasix – (p. 707) A revered provider. Prime Map - … enormous, detailed … . It showed the entirety of the Shattered Plains that had been explored. (p. 352) Proving Day – (p. 88) Radiants – (p. 17) / … the orders of knights [the Heralds] founded. … they were … men who had too much power and not enough sense. (p. 153) / They fell and became tarnished. (p. 316) / … being a Radiant was more than [drinking in the Stormlight and commanding it]. It was their way of life, the things they did. The Immortal Words. Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination. That was their motto, and was the First Ideal of the Immortal Words. There were four others. … the Immortal Words – these Ideals – guided everything they did. The four later Ideals were said to be different for every order of Radiants. But the First Ideal was the same for each of the ten: Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination. The Radiant seeks to defend life, always. He never kills unnecessarily, and never risks his own life for frivolous reasons. Living is harder than dying. The Radiant’s duty is to live. Strength before weakness. All men are weak at some time in their lives. The Radiant protects those who are weak, and uses his strength for others. Strength does not make one capable of rule; it makes one capable of service. Journey before destination. There are always several ways to achieve a goal. Failure is preferable to winning through unjust means. How you lived will be far more important to the Almighty than what you accomplished. (p. 831) / … the Radiants held to a standard … . … by their rules, you shouldn’t do terrible things to accomplish great ones. (p. 982) Rainspren - … sat in puddles, like blue candles … . (p. 522) / … glowing with a faint blue light, shaped like ankle-high melting candles with no flame. They rarely appeared except during the Weeping. They were said to be the souls of raindrops, glowing blue rods, seeming to melt but never growing smaller, a single blue eye at their tops. (p. 620) Ralinsa – (p. 454) / … the main thoroughfare that led down the hillside in switchbacks, connecting Conclave and port [in Karbranth]. (p. 530) Raspings - … monsters of the dark. (p. 592) Re-Shephir - … the Midnight Mother, giving birth to abominations with her essence so dark, so terrible, so consuming. (p. 811) Recreance – (p. 71) / … an event so old, it might as well be in the shadowdays. (p. 377) / The fall of the Knights Radiant. (p. 614) / The Day of Recreance, the day [the Knights Radiant] betrayed mankind. (p. 732) Reshi – [in their decorative] style, there were no chairs, just cusions, and all the furniture was flat and long, rather than tall. (p. 713) Riverspren - … could mimic voices and expressions, but didn’t actually think. (p. 55) Rockbud – (p. 39) / … polyps split and set out their vines. (p. 79) / Many rockbuds never quite pulled into their shells completely [after storms]. (p. 337) / … spent winter weeks curled up inside their shells. (p. 360) / Rockbuds would eat away … stone … . The buds were a deep crimson. (p. 654) / … vines … like long green tongues. (p. 887) Rotspren - … tiny red … gathering around [a] wound. (p. 53) / … hate water. It will keep them away. (p. 152) / [lister’s] oil frightened [them] away … even better than soap and water. (p. 154) / … tended to cluster around the dead. … translucent … . (p. 394-95) Ryshadium – (p. 184) / … two hands taller and much stronger than an ordinary horse. The animals chose their own riders … . (p. 187) / A man couldn’t really understand until he’d had [a Ryshadium] accept him as a rider. It was … an experience that was completely indescribable. (p. 241) … hardly needed handlers. (p. 374) Sabatons - … armor for … boots … . They encased [the] boots entirely and had a rough surface on the bottoms that seemed to cling to rock. The interiors glowed with the light of the sapphires in their indented pockets. (p. 371) / [One] stepped into the sabatons, and the straps tightened of their own accord, fitting around [the] boots. The greaves came next, going over [one’s] legs and knees, locking on to the sabatons. (p. 372) Safepouch – … buttoned to the inside of [a Vorin woman’s] left sleeve. (p. 69) / By tradition, a woman’s safepouch was where she kept items of intimate or very precious import. To search one would be like strip-searching her … . (p. 563) / One did not look in a woman’s safepouch. (p. 677) Salas – Violet … . (p. 53) / … the smallest and dimmest of the moons … . (p. 54) Sapphire Broam – (p. 139) Sas nahn – A slave’s brand. (p. 704) Second Ideal [of the Immortal Words] – I will protect those who cannot protect themselves … . (p. 926) Second Sister - … known as Nomon to … Easterners … . (p. 179) Sesemelex Dar - … Emuli … capital. … an excellent trade city … . … quite spectacular, filling rifts cut into the stone. There’s a particular composition of the stone there that lets water drain. The design is amazing. It’s … one of the Dawncities. The city’s pattern is central to the Emuli religion … . They claim it is their ancestral homeland, a gift to them from the Heralds. … the city [is] … a fantastic port … .(p. 754) / … a place where people live in gouges in the ground. A city built in an enormous complex of lines, all set into the rock as if carved there. … it is the capital of the kingdom of Emul, and is one of the most ancient cities in the world. It is said that the city – and … the kingdom – were named by Jezrien himself. … built in giant troughs. The pattern is quite amazing. It protects against highstorms, as each trough has a lip at the side, keeping water from streaming in off the stone plain around it. That, mixed with a drainage system of cracks, protects the city from flooding. (p. 768) / It is a wondrous place, filled with exotic travelers. (p. 769) Seventeenth Shard – (p. 368) Shadesmar – (I. Stewart drawing, rear interior of TWoK) / … a place with a black sky and a strange, small white sun that hung on the horizon, too far away. … shower of beads. Flames hovered nearby, dozens of them, perhaps hundreds. Like the tips of candles floating in the air and moving in the wind. An endless dark sea, except it wasn’t wet. It was made of the small beads, an entire ocean of tiny glass spheres. They surged … moving in an undulating swell. (p. 643) / That distant horizon with its powerful yet cold sun. Clouds running toward it above, endless ocean below, making the sun look as if it were at the end of a long tunnel. Above the ocean hovered hundreds of flames, a sea of lights above the sea of glass beads. (p. 677) / … Cognitive Realm. (p. 711) / … [a] strange place with the sea of beads, the floating flames, the distant sun in a black, black sky. (p. 967) / *(p. 969) Shadowdays – (p. 737) / … the time before memory. (p. 802) Shalebark - … pinks and vibrant greens and blues growing in a gnarled pattern … . The crusty, hard plants had no true stalks or leaves, just waving tendrils like colorful hair. Except for those, shalebark seemed more rock than vegetation. … it grew and reached toward the light. (p. 351) / Clusters of a bulbous variety … grew … bursting with a variety of bright colors. Oranges, reds, yellows, and blues. Some outcroppings looked like heaps of clothing, with folds spread like fans. Others grew out like horns. Most had tendrils like threads that waved in the wind. (p. 544) / … the most prominent shalebark plant … “plated stone.” A fitting name, as it grew in thin round sections that piled atop one another, like plates in a cupboard. From the sides, it looked like weathered rock that exposed hundreds of thin strata. Tiny little tendrils grew up out of pores, waving in the wind. The stonelike casings had a bluish shade, but the tendrils were yellowish. … a different kind of shalebark – with fingerlike protrusions growing up into the air from a central knob … . (p. 564) Shardbearer – (p. 25) / … wore glistening blue armor made of smoothly interlocking plates. (p. 29) / … Plate glowed with an even blue light, and glyphs … were etched into the metal. They trailed blue vapor. (p. 303) / … destruction incarnate, the most powerful force on a battlefield. (p. 381) / An isolated, outnumbered Shardbearer could be tripped and topped by his adversaries. (p. 410) / … beautiful divinity … . (p. 671) / … needed space to fight; the Blades were so long that hurting one’s companions was a very real danger. (p. 777) / A Shardbearer wasn’t just a force of destruction; he was a force of morale and inspiration. Shardbearers changed battles. (p. 778) Shardblade - (p. 16) / … appeared from mist, wet with condensation. (p. 17) / At the tenth beat of [a Shardbearer’s heart], his Shardblade dropped into his waiting hand. It formed as if condensing from mist, water beading along the metal length. [The] Shardblade was long and thin, edged on both sides … . … the Shardblade killed oddly; though it cut easily through stone, steel, or anything inanimate, the metal fuzzed when it touched living skin. It traveled through [a human’s] neck without leaving a mark, but once it did, the [individual’s] eyes smoked and burned. They blackened, shriveling up in his head, andhe slumped forward, dead. A Shardblade did not cut living flesh; it severed the soul itself. (p. 25) / … a Shardblade could cut any inanimate object. (p. 27) / … first carried by the Knights Radiant … . Gifts of their god, granted to allow them to fight horrors of rock and flame, dozens of feet tall, foes whose eyes burned with hatred. When your foe had skin as hard as stone itself, steel was useless. Something supernal was required. If the Blade touched a man’s spine, he died, eyes burning. If it cut through the core of a limb, it killed that limb. … when weapons created to fight nightmares were turned against common soldiers, the lives of men became cheap things … . [A] Shardblade, as always, glistened silver and clean. When one killed with a Blade, there was no blood. (p. 28) / … something special. Relics from another time, a time when the Radiants had walked Roshar. (p. 200) / Ten heartbeats. That was how long it took to summon a Shardblade. (p. 202) / … etched up the sides with the ten fundamental glyphs. (p. 203) / [The Unkalaki] have no Shardblades … . Other than Alethkar and Jah Keved, few kingdoms have many Blades. Thaylenah has five Blades and three full suits of Plate, all held by the royal guards. The Selay have their share of both suits and Blades. Other kingdoms, such as Herdaz, have a single Blade and set of Plate … . But the Unkalaki … have not a single Shard. (p. 345-46) / No Shardbearer would sell his weapon. Each was a distinctive relic, taken from one of the Lost Radiants after their betrayal. … if a man kills a Shardbearer, he may take the Blade and Plate as his own. (p. 346) / … the great problem of Shardblades and Shardplate – winning either was highly unlikely unless you already had Shards yourself. … having one or the other often wasn’t enough. (p. 355) / The faster [the ten heartbeats] passed, the sooner the Blade arrived . So the more urgent you felt, the sooner you were armed. (p. 378-79) / … it sliced apart anything inanimate, but blurred when it touched flesh, as if turning to mist. The way it reacted to flesh and cut steel so easily, it sometimes felt … like … swinging a weapon of pure smoke. (p. 379) / Once these weapons meant protecting … . (p. 381) / … while Shards were incredibly powerful, they needed peoper support. (p. 410) / *(p. 661) / Any man can win a Shardblade. Slave or free. Lighteyes or dark. It’s the law (p. 653) / The Blade was enormous, yet remarkably light. There was never recoil; landing a blow felt nearly like passing the blade through the air itself. The trick was to control momentum and keep the blade moving. (p. 779-80) / … placing it intentionally [within rock guaranteed] it [wouldn’t] vanish. (p. 781) / Fighting with Shardblades … could be like a dance. The large weapons took a great deal of skill to swing properly … . There was a fluidity to fighting with a Shardblade. A grace. (p. 823) Shardbows – (p. 200) Shardplate – (p. 29) / … each suit was said to be an individual work of art … . Ornate, interlocking, topped by a beautiful helm with an open visor. (p. 104) / … Plate could make any man look regal. (p. 184) / … absorbed … impact … . Shardplate wasn’t merely armor. It was so much more. (p. 187) / … something special. [A relic] from another time, a time when the Radiants had walked Roshar. No amount of fabrial science had even approached re-creating [it]. (p. 200) / … the translucence was one of the most wonderful parts of Shardplate. (p. 204) / With time, the armor would repair itself. It could re-form even if it was completely shattered. (p. 240) / Modern Shardplate didn’t glow like that [of the Radiants]. One always put the armor on from the feet upward. Shardplate was extremely heavy; without the enhanced strength it provided, no man would be able to fight in it. (p. 372) / … absorbed most … recoil [from a blow]. (p. 415) / Shardplate was sacred. (p. 416) / … Plate didn’t do … work for [one] – it enhanced … strength … . (p. 417) / A man in Shardplate might be protected from Lashings, but the things he stood upon were not. (p. 720) / [The Radiants’] Plate was unpainted, but it glowed wither blue or amber at the joints and across glyphs at the front … . (p. 730) / … regenerating Shardplate generally shattered the gemstones it drew Light from. (p. 786) / … Plate was resilient, so exchanges were generally drawn out. (p. 823) / *(p. 949) Shattered Plains – (p. 41) Shin – To Szeth’s people, a dying request was sacred. (p. 34) / … people [who] lived in mud and worshipped rocks. (p. 137) / [The Shin] … lavish [all farmers] with attention and respect. (p. 434) / To [them] … if you must fight a man, then you have already failed. (p. 770) Shin Stone Shamans - … would recover [szeth’s Blade] from whomever had killed him. (p. 448) Shinovar – (p. 21) / [The Misted Mountains] caused the highstorms to break and fade, making Shinovar one of the only places in all of Roshar where highstorms did not reign. The entire landscape had an eerie feel to it, as if it were dead. Nothing moved. No windspren, no lifespren, nothing. (p. 432-33) / Foreigners aren’t allowed near fields or farming villages. (p. 434) Silver Kingdoms – The original names for the ten … . Perfect, symmetrical. (p. 511) / Urithiru was said to be the center of the Silver Kingdoms, a city that held ten thrones, one for each king. It was the most majestic, most amazing, most important city in all the world. (p. 630) Skyeels – *(p. 60) / …weren’t … afraid of people. (p. 71) Smokestance - … better with an imperfect weapon. One foot forward, one foot behind, sword … held forward with the tip toward [an] opponent’s heart. (p. 298) / … remaining in motion was the essence of Smokestance … . … sword-and-knife form. … whirlwind of blows … . (p. 299) / Always keep the stance. (p. 300) / … practiced and precise. (p. 305) Songling – The fist-sized creature was shaped like a peaked disc with four arms that reached out from the sides and scraped rhythms along the top. Four squat legs underneath normally held it to a rock wall. (p. 173) Soul’s March – (p. 901) Soulcaster – (p. 69) / … two rings and a bracelet connected by several chains, holding a triangular group of gemstones across the back of the hand. … the word was used for both the people who performed the process and the fabrial that made it possible. (p. 84) / … Soulcasters were the means by which all of the highprinces fed their armies. (p. 233) Soulcasters fed the army by turning rocks into grain, and it was easier for them – for reasons only they knew – if they had distinct, separate stones. (p. 320) / … should be able to create any of the Ten Essences. [One] couldn’t create actual gemstones with a Soulcaster – that was said to be impossible … . (p. 501) / Soulcasters were fabrials from ancient times. … forbidden to any but ardents [in Vorin belief]. (p. 566) / *(p. 597) Soulcasting - … one of the most sacred powers in all the world. The power of change itself, the power by which the Almighty had created Roshar. Sucking away the Stormlight in [a fabrial’s] gemstone, [an object] would give up its essence, becoming something new. (p. 119) / … happened at night [in a warcamp], and under strict guard to keep the holy rite from being witnessed by anyone other than ardents or very high-ranking lighteyes. (p. 262) / Spanreed – (p. 333) / … flashing [with an incoming message]. (p. 418) / The spanreeds looked like ordinary writing reeds, except that each had a small infused ruby affixed. … pulsed slowly. (p. 421) / *(p. 422) / *(p. 425) / … worked when you tapped the stones. (p. 565) / … paired fabrials … the spanreeds. (p. 848) Sparkflicker – (p. 373) Spiritual Realm – The Almighty calls all men back to [it] eventually. (p. 256) / … the spirit exists in a completely different state [from that of the body]. (p. 711) / The Realm of the Heralds. Splinter religion - … containing some Vorin ideas. (p. 769) Splintered – (p. 323) Spren - ... larger spren could change shapes and sizes ... . Spren didn't use people's names. Spren weren't intelligent. The larger ones ... could mimic voices and expressions, but they didn't actually think. Many of the larger ones were invisible except to the person they were tormenting. (p. 54-55) Large spren ... could move small objects and give littlel pinches of energy. (p. 110) ... don't sleep ... . (p. 215) [Lose] interest in things quickly ... . (p. 219) Most spren don't have long memories. (p. 220) ... all spren are, in a sense, virtually the same individual. There's harmony in that. (p. 262) ... kind of odd and magical. (p. 340) ... could be very elusive. Sometimes, even the most common types ... would refuse to appear. ... there were ... spren you could find only during war. (p. 441) ... can feel temperature. [Though] not usually. (p. 514) Spren live in everything. Spren appear when something changes ... . They are the heart of change, and therefore the heart of all things. (p. 539) [When the living thing they inhabit is consumed or used up] they are freed. To return to wherever it is that spren live. (p. 540) There were supposed to be thousands of kinds of spren, many that people never saw or didn't know about (p. 689) The spren change when [measured]. Before [they're measured], they dance and vary in size, luminosity, and shape. But when [a notation is made], they immediately freeze in their current state. Then they remain that way permanently ... . [if the figures are erased], the spren go back to being variable ... . Length, shape, luminosity. (p. 713) It's as if it knows ... that it has been measured. As if merely defining its form traps it somehow. (p. 714) Not all spren are as discerning as honorspren. (p. 849) Stagm - … a brownish tuber that grew inb deep puddles … . (p. 750) Starspren - … tiny pinpricks of light chasing after one another, zipping around like distant, glowing insects. They were rare. (p. 574) Stonestance - … Shardblade held before [ the Bearer] in two hands, point toward the sky, the arms all the way extended. (p. 822) / … focused on … delivering the most possible momentum and strength behind each strike. (p. 823) / Stonestance was one of the few to rely on [parrying posture]. (p. 824) Stone Shamanism – (p. 445) Stormfather – (p. 21) / … said to haunt the most violent highstorms. (p. 78) Stormlight – (p. 22) / The power of it was invigorating but dangerous. Stormlight could be held for only a short time, a few minutes at most. It leaked away, the human body too porous a container. (p. 24) / Stormlight healing was far from instantaneous. (p. 33) / In the darkness, it was quite noticeable. Translucent, luminescent, pristine. (p. 447) / It could not make a man into something he was not. It enhanced, it strengthened, it invigorated. It perfected. (p. 928) Stormwall – The storm’s initial tempest of water and wind … was the most dangerous part. (p. 78) / … the visible curtain of rain and wind at the advent of a highstorm. It was a massive wave of water, dirt, and rocks, hundreds of feet high, thousands upon thousands of windspren zipping before it. (p. 517) Stormwarden – They seek to predict the future. They studied the highstorms, predicted them … but learned about them and their mysteries. They studied the winds themselves. (p. 619) / Even though [they] were frequently wrong, they were more often right. (p. 846) Stormwhispers - … monsters of the dark. (p. 592) Strawberry jam – … deep, dark red. … exceedingly rare. Like most plants from Shinovar, it can’t grow other places. (p. 682) Stumpweight trees – Knobby and about as tall as a man, they grew leaves only on their leeward sides, running down the length of the tree like rungs on a ladder … . … large, bannerlike leaves … . (p. 541) Sunmaker – (p. 285) / … the last Alethi king to unite the highprinces. (p. 353) Sunraiser – … [Elhokar’s] Shardblade … . It was long and thin with a large crossguard, and was etched up the sides with the ten fundamental glyphs. (p. 203) Sureblood - … Adolin’s white Ryshadium stallion … . (p. 204) Surgebinder – (p. 15) / … had fought during the light of day, battling the night but not embracing it. (p. 447) Symbolheads – (p. 677) / No eyes, no face, just [a] jagged alien symbol with points like cut crystal. (p. 678) / *(p. 969) Takama - … a long, straight skirt that went down to [the] calves. Few wore them anymore, but … they’d been popular as warrior’s garb. (p. 366) / … skirtlike garments. The purpose of the uniform was not fashion or tradition, but to distinguish [a leader] easily for those who followed him. Taln’s Scar - … a swath of deep red stars that stood out vibrantly from the twinkling white ones … . (p. 53) Ten Deaths – … fighting against [them] changes a person. (p.306) Ten Divine Attributes – (p. 634) Ten Essences – Each of the Ten Essences had an analogous part of the human body. (p. 118) / … the pure form of an Essence is quite easy to make [when Soulcasting]. (p. 978) Ten fools – (p. 189) / … Cabine, who acted llike a child though he was adult. (p. 547) Ten fundamental glyphs – etched up the sides [of a Shardblade] … . (p. 203) Ten heartbeats – That was how long it took to summon a Shardblade. (p. 202) Ten Heralds – Kalak … . Jezrien. (p. 15) / Talenel … . Taln had a tendency to choose seemingly hopeless fights and win them. He also had a tendency to die in the process. Ishar … . (p. 16) / Jezrien … . The king of Heralds … . (p. 17) / Talenel (p. 16) / … from ancient Vorin Theology. Jezerezeh, Ishi, Kelek, Talenelat. … Shalash … . (p. 23) / … brightlord, chosen at birth by the Heralds, [marking them] for rule. (p. 46) / … the Stormfather … [was] said to haunt the most violent highstorms … . (p. 78) / Talenelat’Elin … bearer of all agonies … (p. 107) / … the Almighty … . Elithanathile. He Who Transforms. (p. 119) / By Vedeledev’s golden keys … . (p. 122) / … five male, five female. (p. 285) / … Nalan’Elin, emitting sunlight, the sword of retribution held over his head. (p. 286) / They abandoned [mankind]. (p. 316) / Ishi, Herald of Luck … . (p. 343) / … the Stormfather … . Jezerezeh, king of Heralds. (p. 516) / Jezrien. … the Stormfather, … in Alethkar … . Or Jezerezeh’Elin. He was king of the Heralds. Master of the storms, bringer of water and life, known for his fury and his temper, but also for his mercy. (p. 768) / … Talenel’Elin, Stonesinew, Herald of the Almighty. (p. 1001) Ten Human Failings – (p. 634) Tenth Glyphic Paradigm – [it is said that] … by numerological extrapolations of the tenth glyphic paradigm [one’s might] … determine [another’s] personality … . (p. 505) Thath – Justice. (p. 948) Thaylen - … all Thaylen men had the same stark white beards – regardless of their age or the color of the hair on their heads – and white eyebrows. Those eyebrows grew very long, and the Thaylen wore them pushed back over the ears. (p. 56) The Alethi Codes of War – (p. 192) / The Codes state that a general may not ask a man to do anything he would not do himself. (p. 226) / *(p. 244) / They are a tradition of old Alethkar. (p. 331) / Always be in uniform, always be armed, always stay sober. Be ever vigilant while under threat of attack. (p. 815-16) / … most duels should be avoided when Alethkar was at war. (p. 822) / Never ask of your men a sacrifice you wouldn’t make yourself. Never make them fight in conditions you would refuse to fight in yourself. Never ask a man to perform an act you wouldn’t soil your own hands doing. (p. 901) The Arguments - … scripture … . (p. 356) The Black Fisher – (p. 909) The hateful hour - … the time between the first two moons, the darkest period of night. … called [so by the Shin] … for it was one of the only times when the gods did not watch men. (p. 447) The hundred doves – Easy to release, difficult to keep … . … Shin … [proverb]. (p. 975) The Immortal Words - Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination. … the First Ideal of the Immortal Words. There were four others. But the Immortal Words – these Ideals- guided everything [the Radiants] did. The four later Ideals were said to be different for every order of Radiants. But the First Ideal was the same for each of the ten: Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination. (p. 831) The Last Desolation – (p.71) The Passions – Pagan superstition. (p. 133) The place of nightmares – … between Desolations. Centuries, perhaps millennia, of torture. (p.16) The Poem of Ista – (p. 524) The riddens – … the trailing edge [of a highstorm] was nothing more than sprinkling rain. (p. 78) / …the period near the end of a highstorm when the rain sprinkled softly. (p. 79) / … the after-flurries of drizzle that trailed a highstorm … . (p. 522) The Thrill - … of contest … wasn’t nearly as keen as the Thrill of battle, but it was a worthy substitute. (p. 187) / … the sense of battle [enraged] … some men, but everything seemed to become clearer, crisper. [A man’s] muscles moved easily; he breathed more deeply. He came alive. (p. 299) / Men didn’t often speak of the Thrill, the joy and lust for battle. It was a private thing. (p. 377) The Tower – (p. 182) / … an enormous plateau rising in an unusual shape. The Tower was wedge-shaped, uneven, with the southeastern point rising far into the air creating a steep hillside. (p. 490) / The Tower was enormous; even its huge size on the maps didn’t do it justice. Unlike other plateaus, it wasn’t level – instead, it was shaped like an enormous wedge that dipped toward the west, pointing a large cliff face in the stormward direction. It was too steep – and the chasms too wide – to approach from the east or south. Only three adjacent plateaus could provide staging areas for assaults, all along the western or northwestern side. (p. 893) / It was not only larger than most plateaus, it was rougher, covered with lumpish rock formations of hardened crem. The patterns were rolling and smooth, yet very uneven – like a field full of short walls covered by a blanket of snow. The southeastern tip of the plateau rose to a point overlooking the Plains. (p. 895) The Valley – (p. 708) The place in the West where supplicants go to seek the Old Magic from the Nightwatcher. The Vavibrar – (p. 519) The Veil – … a breathtakingly large room. The sides were of smooth rock and they stretched high … . Set into the walls were dozens of small balconies, much like the private box seats of a theater. That which comes before the Palanaeum itself. The War of Loss - (p. 284-85) / … destroyed the Hierocracy, shattering Vorinism into the devotaries. That was the inevitable result of a religion trying to rule. (p. 529) The Way of Kings - … ancient text … . (p. 227) / The book was used by the Radiants as a kind of guide-book, a book of counsel on how to live their lives. (p. 238) / the book did not have a good reputation, and not just because it was associated with the Lost Radiants. Stories of a king doing the work of a menial laborer were the least of its discomforting passages. In other places, it outright said that lighteyes were beneath darkeyes. That contradicted Vorin teachings. (p. 242) / [The] book was once considered on of the great masterpieces of political philosophy. … kings around the world used to study it daily. Now, it is considered borderline blasphemous. (p. 370) / … one of the oldest, and the only complete text [dating from the shadowdays]. … it had survived only in translation; [there were] no copies in the original tongue. (p. 425) / A metaphor from Nohodon’s life – a real event turned into an example. He calls them the forty parables. (p. 819) The Weeping – (p. 79) / It marked the end of an old year and the coming of a new one, four solid weeks of rain in a ceaseless cascade of sullen drops. Never furious, never passionate like a highstorm. While other seasons of weather came and went unpredictably, the Weeping never failed to return at the same time each year. (p. 615) Three Gods – (p. 300) Oath spoken by Taffa. Thunderclast – enormous stone beast, vaguely skeletal in shape, with unnaturally long limbs [sprouting] from granite shoulders. The eyes were deep red spots on the arrowhead face. (p. 15) Trailman’s flute - … dark wood … . … held … out to the side and [blown] across its top. (p. 802) Tranquiline Halls – (p. 224) Truthberry jam - … Azish. Legends there say that those who consume the berries speak only the truth until the next sunset. The berries are harmless [in truth]. But the leaves and stalks of the … plant, if burned, give off a smoke that makes people intoxicated and euphoric. (p. 593) / … green jam … . (p. 594) Unclaimed Hills – … far in … the highstorms were incredibly powerful. (p. 50) … places where Vorin rules governing the use of slaves were just a distant rumor. (p. 51) Undertext - … written in a small, cramped script. Most books dictated by men had an undertext, notes added by the woman or ardent who scribed the book. By unspoken agreement, the undertext was never shared out loud. Here, a wife would sometimes clarify – or even contradict – the account of her husband. The only way to preserve such honesty for future scholars was to maintain the sanctity and secrecy of the writing. (p. 525) Unseen – *(p. 368) Urithiru – (p. 305) / … where [the] orders [of the Knights Radiant were] centered … [in the Eighth Epoch, in Alethela]. One kingdom to study the arts of war so that … others might have peace. (p. 306) / … said to be the center of the Silver Kingdoms, a city that held ten thrones, one for each king. It was the most majestic, most amazing, most important city in all the world. … it was abandoned even before the Lost Radiants turned against mankind. Much of what [is known] about the city comes from fragments of lost works quoted by classical scholars. (p. 630) Uvara - … the People of the Great Abyss. Unlike the people in Roshar – who constantly argue – the Uvara always seemed to agree. From childhood, there were no questions. Each and every person went about his duty. (p. 804) Valley of Truth – In Shinovar … . [szeth’s] … home. Vanrial – (p. 630) / … an order of artists who live on the slopes of the Silent Mount in Jah Keved. Year after year, century after century, they’ve sung [the] same words - songs they claim were written in the Dawnchant by the Heralds themselves. They have the words of those songs, written in an ancient script. But the meanings have been lost. They’re just sounds, now. Some scholars believe that the script – and the songs themselves – may … be in the Dawnchant. (p. 854) Vanrial Hypothesis - … one of the most perplexing – and ancient – mysteries of all time. (p. 854) Veden – (p. 40) / Citizen of Vedenar in Jah Keved, one of the five Vorin kingdoms. Vengeance – [Elhokar’s] mount … . … of the best Shin stock. (p. 205) Vengeance Pact – (p. 82) / The highprinces vowed to seek retribution upon the Parshendi. (p. 195) Veristitalian – … they were an order of scholars who tried to find the truth in the past. They wished to create unbiased, factual accounts of what had happened in order to extrapolate what to do in the future. (p. 423) / … constructed the truth of what happened in the past (p. 503) / [They] search for answers in the past, reconstructing what truly happened. To many, writing a history is not about truth, but about presenting the most flattering picture of themselves and their motives. [Veristitalians] choose projects that [they] feel were misunderstood or misrepresented, and in studying them hope to better understand the present. (p. 630) / … religion – in its essence – seeks to take natural events and ascribe supernatural causes to them. [Veristitalians] seek to take supernatural events and find the natural meanings behind them. … the final dividing line between science and religion. Opposite sides of a card. (p. 979) Vinebud - … a few conelike flowers climed up from its vestigial shell. (p. 547) Violet wine - … among the strongest of liquors. … the deep purple liquid – the color of cremling blood … . (p. 480) / … intoxicating … . (p. 736) Voidbinding - … a dark and evil thing, and the soul of it was to try to divine the future. (p. 285) Voidbringers - … horrors of rock and flame, dozens of feet tall, foes whose eyes burned with hatred. … had skin as hard as stone itself … . (p. 28) / … said to haunt the most violent highstorms. (p. 78) / … suddenly dangerous … .(p. 471) / “The ones of ash and fire, who killed like a swarm, relentless before the Heralds … .” “They take away the light, wherever they lurk. Skin that is burned.” “Like a highstorm, regular in their coming, yet always unexpected.” (p. 592) / A scourge and a plague. They were creatures of terrible destructive power, forged in Damnation, created from hate. … an embodiment of evil. (p. 634-35) / … came again and again, trying to force mankind off Roshar and into Damnation. Just as they once forced mankind – and the Heralds – out of the Tranquiline Halls. (p. 860) / Flame and char. Skin so terrible. Eyes like pits of blackness. Music when they kill. (p. 980) Vorin custom – The left sleeve of each dress was longer than the right one, covering the hand. (p. 23) / … all Vorin women … kept [their] left hand – [their] safehand – covered, exposing only [their] freehand. Common darkeyed women would wear a glove, but a woman of … rank was expected to show more modesty than that. [They] kept [their] safehand covered by the oversized cuff of [their] left sleeve, which was buttoned closed. Reading was an unseemly trait in a man. At least, men who weren’t ardents. (p. 66) / Lighteyed women were very proficient at working with just their freehand. (p. 421) / Women were known to challenge each other to duels in the way of men with Shardblades, though they rarely used the word. These were always “friendly competitions” or “games of talent.” (p. 750) Vorin kingdoms – … five Vorin kingdoms. Jah Keved, Alethkar, Kharbranth, and Natanatan. United by religion,, they had been strong allies during the years following the Recreance. What was the fifth kingdom? (p. 137) / In Vorin kingdoms, everyone had a chance to rise. … a fundamental tenet of their society. (p. 252) Vorin legal code of citizenship - … men and their apprentices who served an essential vuntin in towns were afforded special protection, even from lighteyes. The Vorin legal code of citizenship was complex … . (p. 545) Vorin teaching - … regarding one’s Glory and Calling … . (p. 72) / … Points in … Glories and Callings (p. 122) / … the Calling of a farmer was a noble one, one of the highest save for the Calling of a soldier. (p. 245) /… the highest Calling of men was to join the battle in the afterlife to reclaim the Tranquiline Halls, but the Almighty accepted the excellence of any man or woman, regardless of what they did. (p. 281) / … it was odd for any man to change his Calling. (p. 283) / … goals in regard to [one’s] Calling. … Elevated. (p. 286) / A woman wanting to come to the battlefield was like … a man wanting to read. Unnatural. (p. 374) / The grandest of masculine arts was to become a great warrior, and the most important Calling was to fight. (p. 415) / … most masculine arts deal with destroying, while feminine arts deal with creation. (p. 418) / *(p. 508-10) Vorin temples - … were always circular with a gently sloping mound at the center, by custom rising ten feet high. The building was dedicated to the Almighty … . (p. 284) Vorinism - … taught that the finest warriors would have the holy privilege of joining the Heralds after death, fighting to reclaim the Tranquiline Halls from the Voidbringers. (p. 224) / … nobody risked offending the Heralds by seeking to know the future. (p. 445) / [One was] supposed to burn prayers to send them to the Almighty … . (p. 601) / *(p. 635) Wandersail – (p. 789) / … a majestic vessel intended to do what non had dared before: sail the seas during a highstorm. (p. 803) War of Reckoning – (p. 603) Whitespines - … reptilian creatures, as big as horses but with carapace across their backs. (p. 483) Windblades - … subcartographal rock formations … . The walls [of Kholinar] incorporate the formations, using them to augment the defensive strength of the city. (p. 498) / … peaked stone formations rising like enormous fins into the air. Built of blocky stone structures … . (p. 850) Winds of Fortune – (p. 434) Windspren - … amorphous, vaguely translucent. … devious spirits who had a penchant for staying where they weren’t wanted. … a ribbon of light without form. … often played pranks … . (p. 49) / They were impossible to tell apart. (p. 52) … larger spren could change shapes and sizes … . (p. 54) / … could mimic voices and expressions, but they didn’t actually think. (p. 55) / … could appear to those [they] wanted to … . (p. 318) Windstance – (p. 298) / The sweeping strikes, the grace. (p. 302) / … practiced and precise. (p. 305) / … turned sideways slightly, [one’s] hands before him and elbows bent, Shardblade pointing back over his head. (p. 822) Winterwort – Bitter taste … which makes it safer to keep, since people eat, since people won’t eat it by accident. Crush it to powder, mix ti with oil, use one spoonful per ten brickweight of the person you’re drugging. Induces a deep sleep for about five hours. (p. 156) Worldsinger – [Visits] places around the land, telling others of what they have seen. … they must travel to each kingdom and tell the people there of other kingdoms. … a kind of storyteller, though they [think] of themselves as much more. (p. 653) / … spread knowledge of cultures, peoples, thoughts, and dreams. … bring peace through understanding. It is the holy charge [their] order received from the Heralds … . (p. 768) Yellow wine – (p. 811) Ysperist – (p. 681) Religious individual.

SPREN within THE WAY OF KINGS ... larger spren could change shapes and sizes ... . Spren didn't use people's names. Spren weren't intelligent. The larger ones ... could mimic voices and expressions, but they didn't actually think. Many of the larger ones were invisible except to the person they were tormenting. (p. 54-55) Large spren ... could move small objects and give littlel pinches of energy. (p. 110) ... don't sleep ... . (p. 215) [Lose] interest in things quickly ... . (p. 219) Most spren don't have long memories. (p. 220) ... all spren are, in a sense, virtually the same individual. There's harmony in that. (p. 262) ... kind of odd and magical. (p. 340) ... could be very elusive. Sometimes, even the most common types ... would refuse to appear. ... there were ... spren you could find only during war. (p. 441) ... can feel temperature. [Though] not usually. (p. 514) Spren live in everything. Spren appear when something changes ... . They are the heart of change, and therefore the heart of all things. (p. 539) [When the living thing they inhabit is consumed or used up] they are freed. To return to wherever it is that spren live. (p. 540) There were supposed to be thousands of kinds of spren, many that people never saw or didn't know about (p. 689) The spren change when [measured]. Before [they're measured], they dance and vary in size, luminosity, and shape. But when [a notation is made], they immediately freeze in their current state. Then they remain that way permanently ... . [if the figures are erased], the spren go back to being variable ... . Length, shape, luminosity. (p. 713) It's as if it knows ... that it has been measured. As if merely defining its form traps it somehow. (p. 714) Not all spren are as discerning as honorspren. (p. 849) Alespren - … appear only when one is severely intoxicated. Appear as small brown bubbles clinging to objects nearby. [Potentially] … a drunken hallucination. … infrequently. (p. 441) Angerspren - … boiling up from the ground … like small pools of bubbling blood. (p. 234) / … bright red … . (p. 253) Anticipationspren - … like red streamers, growing from the ground and shipping in the wind … . (p. 106) Bindspren - … dark blue and shaped like little splashes of ink, clustering … . (p. 796) Captivityspren – (p. 442) Creationspren - … of medium size, as tall as one of [shallan’s] fingers, and they glowed with a faint silvery light. They transformed perpetually, taking new shapes. Usually the shapes were things they had seen recently. Always of the same silvery color, always the same diminutive height. They imitated shapes exactly, but moved them in strange ways. They weren’t substantial … . [shallan’s] drawing gathered … them, pulling them by her act of creation … . (p. 118) Deathspren - … hate water. It will keep them away. … mighty good at killing … . (p. 152) / … cannot be seen. (p. 153) / They were fist-size and black, with many legs and deep red eyes that glowed, leaving trails of burning light. They clustered … skittering this way and that. Their voices were whispers, scratchy sounds like paper being torn. Only the dying could see deathspren. You saw them, then died. Only the very, very lucky few survived after that. Deathspren knew when the end was close. (p. 554) Decayspren – (p. 258) Dungspren – (p. 540) Fearspren – (p. 26) / … shaped like gobs of purple goo … . … drawn by … terror … . (p. 27) / … wiggling and violet … in the air. (p. 108) Flamespren - … like insects made solely of congealed light. (p. 23) / … a bright fire would draw [them]. (p. 118) / … [one of] the most common types … . (p. 441) Gloryspren - … like tiny golden translucent globes of light … attracted by [a] sense of accomplishment. (p. 188) / … like hundreds of spheres of light. (p. 382) Groundspren - … pull … downward … everything … . (p. 688) Honorspren - … discerning … . (p. 849) / Spirit of oaths. Of promises. And of nobility. (p. 913) Hungerspren – They look like brown flies that flit … almost too small to see. (p. 49) Laughterspren - … minnowlike silver spirits that darted through the air in circular patterns … . (p. 213) Lifespren – They looked like motes of glowing green dust or swarms of tiny translucent insects. (p. 79) / … little green blips of light … small as spores … . (p. 162) / … silent … . (p. 767) Logicspren - … in the form of tiny stormclouds … . (p. 120) Musicspren - … tiny spirits taking the form of spinning translucent ribbons. (p. 22 Nightspren - … monsters of the dark. … dreaded … . (p. 592) Painspren – … like small orange hands with overly long fingers … . (p. 47) / … glowing pale orange hand shapes, like stretching sinew or muscles … . (p. 254) Passionspren - … like tiny flakes of crystalline snow, [floating] down in the air … . (p. 863) Rainspren - … sat in puddles, like blue candles … . (p. 522) / … glowing with a faint blue light, shaped like ankle-high melting candles with no flame. They rarely appeared except during the Weeping. They were said to be the souls of raindrops, glowing blue rods, seeming to melt but never growing smaller, a single blue eye at their tops. (p. 620) Riverspren - … could mimic voices and expressions, but didn’t actually think. (p. 55) Rotspren - … tiny red … gathering around [a] wound. (p. 53) / … hate water. It will keep them away. (p. 152) / [lister’s] oil frightened [them] away … even better than soap and water. (p. 154) / … tended to cluster around the dead. … translucent … . (p. 394-95) Starspren - … tiny pinpricks of light chasing after one another, zipping around like distant, glowing insects. They were rare. (p. 574) Windspren - … amorphous, vaguely translucent. … devious spirits who had a penchant for staying where they weren’t wanted. … a ribbon of light without form. … often played pranks … . (p. 49) / They were impossible to tell apart. (p. 52) … larger spren could change shapes and sizes … . (p. 54) / … could mimic voices and expressions, but they didn’t actually think. (p. 55) / … could appear to those [they] wanted to … . (p. 318)

Through methods involving the sacrifice of several people who didn't want to be sacrificed, I've decoded the song of the Parshendi. Read it here, and be amazed. Amazing, isn't it?

Here's a screenshot I want to show you. It's from my university's registration system, that displays class sections. This would not normally deserve an announcement, but humor me. That is my name in the instructor section. I teach for the first time on Monday. Whoa.

I think we came up with that partially from what Brandon signed in my Alloy of Law - along with his comment that it would not make any sense for around 10 books. This combined with the promise of FTL in the 3rd mistborn series lines up about right for what he was saying. There may have been other hints in this direction too but that is the one I know of off the top of my head.

I'm with Windy on this one. Especially if you look at this quote: Pretty fantastic, huh? So yes, all things (even inanimate things) have some form of "thoughts". At the very least, this includes some semblance of self-identity (as we see with the Goblet), but I bet that a tree would also include things like "Roots should go here. There's more water there." or "If I grow taller, I'll get more sunlight." I bet some would argue that those things are just natural responses from stimuli and genetics, but I bet Realmatically that this would be included in a living creature's cognitive presence.

So a bunch of us brainstormed up a sort of Bizarro-Avatar world on chat. I took it upon myself to turn those idea into a story. Here's what I've got so far and I'd like some feed back before I continue. “Fire. Air. Water. Earth,” Zuko began the story as he always did. There wasn’t much hope in the war. There hadn’t been for a long time. He needed to keep Azula’s spirits up. Especially with their father out on the frontlines, “Back before Grandpa died, and he became Fire Lord Uncle Iroh used to tell me stories of when the four nations lived together in harmony. That all changed when the Water Empire attacked.” Azula let out an exasperated sigh. “I know this story by heart Zuzu,” she said dryly, “You tell it often enough.” Zuko smiled at the nickname his little sister had given him, a holdover from the days when she’d been unable to pronounce his name. “I know you do Azula, but it’s good to remind ourselves of why our nation is fighting,” the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation said. Azula sighed again. “Continue if you must.” She had that air of royalty about her that Zuko sometimes lacked, the one that made you seem above the whole business. “It was said that only the Avatar, master of all four elements could stop them, but when the world need the Avatar most, they vanished.” Zuko finished the narration. “The Avatar is just an old folktale; we can’t rely on some spirit to win the war. It will be father who finally brings the Water Empire down to their knees.” Azula was very close to their father, she always had been. He was her hero and therefore in her mind the confidence in her voice was justified. “I hope you’re right Azula, I really do. He’s got just as much reason to want to end this war as anyone else in the Fire Nation,” Zuko’s fists clenched as he thought of their mother who’d been killed in a Water Empire raid years ago. His sister said nothing to console him. She hadn’t been nearly as close to their mother has he had. She’d still been affected of course, she’d still grieved and still come to despise the Water Empire because of it just not as much a Zuko had, “Sometimes I wish I could find the Avatar. Find out why they haven’t been helping us all these years. Agni knows the world needs them. Why did they abandon us?” “You don’t actually believe in the Avatar do you Zuzu,” Azula questioned. Her tone left a sour taste in his mouth. It was sweet, almost angelic but patronizing as well. There was no question about what she thought of belief in the Avatar, “It’s like I said, the Avatar is just some dusty old folktale too help children sleep at night.” “You’re probably right Azula, but what if the Avatar does exist…” Zuko trailed off at the sight of the withering look Azula was giving him. “Give up on the Avatar Zuko. They’re just a story. If the Fire Nation is going to survive this war with the Water Empire we’ll have to do it with our own power.” The princess insisted. Zuko simply nodded and stood up brushing the beach sand off of his pants and taking a deep breath of the cool night air. “We should head back in Azula. It’s already dark and our fire is going out. Uncle Iroh won’t be happy if we don’t head home soon.” He said. “Can we practice our Firebending first?” she asked. “You know we’re not supposed to Firebend, we were lucky Dad even taught us the basics before he left to fight in the war. Uncle doesn’t want us to learn. This war has already cost us Mon and cousin Lu Ten. They don’t want to put us in danger too.” Zuko said. He’d explained this to his sister about a million times before. “I know that. That doesn’t mean I have to like it. We’re here on Ember Island to have a vacation. I’d like to do something we both enjoy instead of sipping tea with Uncle Iroh all day.” Azula said. “Now Azula, we’re lucky we got this vacation with Uncle. We don’t get to spend much time with him with him being Fire Lord and all. It takes almost all of his time to make sure that the Fire Nation doesn’t end up completely wiped out like the Earth Kingdom was. Be a little more respectful.” Zuko chided gently. “I do respect Uncle. I just want to be out there fighting Waterbenders. You do too I know it. The only way we’ll ever have a shot at doing that is to practice our Firebending.” Zuko sighed sometimes it seemed like his sister knew him a little too well. “Alright Azula, we can practice our Firebending before we head back.” He punctuated his remark by thrusting his fist out at his sister and sending a fireball in her direction. He caught Azula’s smirk as she deflected the attack with her own bending and responded in kind. Zuko deflected her attack just as easily as she had his. Neither was really trying at this point, this was just the warm-up, put intended. Over the next few minutes the pace of the sparing quickened considerably with Azula pushing Zuko back. Despite her being younger than him his sister had always been the better bender. He sent several fireballs in her direction in quick succession. In response Azula slammed her hands to the ground and conjured up a wall of fire to block them. Zuko really wanted to draw his dual dao swords, they would’ve helped even the playing field but that would have been cheating in a pure Firebending spar such as this one and therefore dishonorable. Azula sent a barrage of fireballs his way and he hastily copied her wall of fire and blocked them. As he dropped the shield Azula followed u her previous attack with a wave of fore from a bicycle kick, which he barely managed to deflect However he was unable to counter her quick follow up to that attack as she thrust her palm out and sent a steam of fire at his chest. Zuko went flying backwards into a rather large rock that hadn’t been there when they arrived at the beach. He groaned in pain from the impact. His back was going to be bruised for awhile. His chest twanged a bit as well but that would pass Azula hadn’t put enough into her attack to do any real damage. “Zuko are you alright?” Azula asked as she ran up to check on him. “Yeah, I’m fine sis. I’ll be okay,” he assured her before turning to look at the large bolder he’d crashed into. There was something strange about it, “I wonder where this came from?” “It probably just washed up while we weren’t looking.” Azula said offhandedly. “No, there’s something strange about it…” as if that were a cue of some sort the rock began to glow a blue-white color revealing the outline of a girl inside it, “We have to help her!” Zuko didn’t wait for his sister to reply and blasted the rock with fire to no visible effect. He kept this up for about a minute with the same result. Finally Azula joined in. “Why are you trying to save her, she’s probably dead and could be from the Water Empire for all we know.” She pointed out. “It’s the right thing to do Azula.” Zuko said resolutely. Seeing that fire was having no effect Zuko drew his swords and began to slice at the rock. He managed to make a crack in the rock which leaked the same brilliant light. Suddenly the boulder exploded throwing the siblings unceremoniously backwards and sprawling on to their backs. The girl in the rock floated for a moment outlined in white light, her eyes glowing the same color. Zuko stood transfixed at the sight. Then suddenly the light faded and the girl plummeted to the ground. Both siblings ran to catch her out of reflex but Zuko, being older and fast got there first. Zuko caught the mysterious girl and laid her on the ground. Shortly thereafter she groaned and opened her eyes they abnormally light. “What’s going on here,” the girl demanded. “You tell us,” Azula replied, “How did you get it that boulder? Why aren’t you crushed?” “I’ll be asking the questions around here,” the girl said. Both Zuko and Azula noticed the sand on the beach try to rise up seemingly of its own volition, “Oh great. This ground is sand isn’t it? I hate sand.” “You’re an Earthbender.” Zuko breathed. “You don’t know that Zuko she could be an Airbender working for the Water Empire, did you see that light? It was probably some sort of signal.” “She’s not dressed like an Airbender and she’s missing the tattoos.” Zuko countered. “Of course she doesn’t look like an Airbender Zuzu; the Water Empire isn’t going to advertise its agents.” “Do you two ever shut up?” the girl shouted. Zuko noted that this girl could project an impressive presence for someone her age, she had to be a couple years young than Azula and yet it felt like she was in command here, the siblings’ royal blood aside. “I’m sorry,” The Fire Nation prince said, “I’m Zuko and my paranoid sister is Azula. What’s your name?” “Toph. Toph Beifong,” Toph said, “For your information I am an Earthbender and I really want to get off of this beach. It’s hard to see with all this sand around.” “See? But you’re blind Toph.” Azula noted. Zuko gasped he hadn’t made the connection between her pale eyes and the disability. “Aw how cute, she noticed,” Toph sneered causing Azula to scowl at her, a pointless gesture considering the Earthbender couldn’t see it, “I use my Earth bending to sense vibrations in the ground and in a way that lets me see. Sand though is loose and it muffles the vibrations, making it harder for me to see. Not to mention it’s near impossible to Earthbend sand.” “We’ll take you to see our uncle. He’ll be very interested in you. We haven’t had an Earthbender around here in a long time.” Zuko said. “Who’s your uncle?” Toph asked. “He’s the Fire Lord.” Azula replied with pride in her voice. Toph groaned. “Royals, that’s just what I needed." Sokka, Prince of the Water Empire turned from his game of Pai Sho when the pillar of light appeared. It was easy to see in the darkness. Darkness, even after three years of banishment he wasn’t used to that. It would be light nearly all the time this time of year back home at the South Pole. Although it seemed his exile would soon be over. “That light came from an extremely powerful source. Do you know what this means,” he asked with just a twinge of excitement in his voice, “The Avatar Master Piandao, we’ve found him at last!” The old sword master took a sip of his tea before speaking. “Perhaps we have Prince Sokka, but I urge you think before charging in. That light will take us straight into Fire Nation waters. The Fire Navy will not take kindly to our ship. That light came from the direction Ember Island, a resort for the rich and powerful of the Fire Nation. It will be heavily guarded. The Avatar may be on that island but it may not be wise to attack. The Fire Nation’s defenses are formidable, that’s how they’ve managed to stay in this war so long. I know that better than anyone on this ship.” Sokka pondered the words of his master and could see the wisdom in them. Master Piandao had been a soldier in the Fire Army revered for his swordsmanship and sword making skills before being taken prisoner by the Water Empire. The Empire had made great use of his weapon crafting skills and he had been made Sokka’s teacher in the art of a sword. The Prince of the Water Empire wasn’t a bender so he’d had to find other ways to fight. Sokka’s hand ran over the eye patch on the left side of his face. Master Piandao was a great man, especially considering that he was Fire Nation, the enemy. Sokka didn’t consider the man as such, he’d been like a surrogate father to him but Master Piandao would never quite understand Sokka’s pain. “I don’t have a choice, the sooner I capture the Avatar the sooner I can return home to my mother and sister. I embarrassed my family and must atone for it.” Sokka said. “Are you sure that’s what you want Price Sokka? Yes, you will be reunited with your family and that is a good thing but… other things will not have changed. Are you sure you can go back to that?” Master Piandao asked. Sokka squeezed his eye shut pushing away the memories of why he was in this situation. “I will live with it, because I must.” He said. “Alright then how do you plan to get past the Fire Navy?” his mentor inquired. “There are many skilled Waterbenders on this ship, even if they are exiles looking for a way home like me. We can literally control the seas. It’s the Avatar that concerns me. Why would the Fire Nation have hid them this whole time? The Avatar would make a powerful weapon in the war and depending on whether or not we missed an Earthbender somewhere along the way has had eighty to a hundred years to master the four elements.” “That’s another reason to reconsider this course of action Prince Sokka. The Avatar is the master of all four elements. Your Waterbenders will be tied up fighting Fire Nation soldiers. You are a non-bender to go up against the Avatar would be something most would consider suicide.” Sokka smiled and turned back toward his master. “That is why it’s brilliant Master no one would expect a non-bender like me to challenge the Avatar. You have taught me the way of the sword and I have learned it well and I am a master of the boomerang. I am as prepared as I can possibly be for this battle. Everything hinges on this, I will not fail.” Sokka swore to himself. “I am going to rest,” Master Piandao said as he stood up, “You should as well. You need to prepare yourself mentally for the coming conflict. We won’t reach Ember Island until well into the morning; I will drill you on your weapons before we get to the island.” Sokka merely nodded, his mind already completely focused on the coming battle.

Toph felt more comfortable now that she was inside. Now that she was off the beach she could feel the vibrations properly again. She could see again, well see as much as her sight was actually seeing at any rate. At least she was somewhat at home in finery, true it was Fire Nation finery and not Earth Kingdom finery but she was of noble birth and this felt a little like home. It was odd how much she appreciated it now, she’d always wanted to be away from home but now being so far away from home it was a comfort. Toph was being escorted by two Fire Nation guards to meet with Fire Lord. What the Fire Lord wanted to discuss she didn’t know, but she wasn’t stupid enough to deny one of the most powerful men on Earth. Toph felt that girl, what was her name? Azula, yes that was it, following them. Toph figured she wanted to eavesdrop on her meeting with the Fire Lord. The Earthbender said nothing of the tail, wanting to see how far the sneaky little Firebender could actually get. The guards led her into a room where a man was waiting. She smelled jasmine tea. The man waved the guards away and they weren’t looking Azula slipped behind a tapestry on the wall. The man in the room, who she assumed must be Fire Lord Iroh. “Please sit, Toph, was it,” The Earthbender did sit, “I apologize for not seeing you last night, but it was rather late you understand and I need my rest to run the Fire Nation.” “It’s not a problem.” Toph said. She’d been raised in a wealthy home, even if she was hidden from the world for the most part. She knew how to be polite to those of higher station, even if she didn’t like to do it. “My niece and nephew tell me that they found you in a boulder on the beach. That must have been quite a ride,” The Fire Lord said with a chuckle as he poured the tea, “Would you like some sugar in your tea Toph?” Toph was beginning to wonder if Fire Lord Iroh was all there in the head. He seemed to take her mysterious on the beach rather lightly. Most people would not be inclined to do so, especially those running a country. “Two lumps please,” Toph cast her unseeing eyes of at the tapestry hiding Azula, “You know your niece is hiding over there right?” Iroh chuckled again. “Is she now? Azula likes to spy on private meetings. I’ve known for quite some time that she does this; I’ve just never called her out on it. Come Azula, sit and have tea with us.” Toph could feel Azula’s eyes on her. The Fire Princess was not a happy girl right now. The Earthbender didn’t care. Azula sat down and made her own cup of tea before speaking, “So Uncle why did you want to see the Earthbender anyway? I know she’s a curiosity with the Earth Kingdom having been destroyed in the war but don’t you have more important matters to attend to?” There was a smirk in the girl’s voice. Toph figured that Azula was trying to throw her off-balance. “Azula!” Iroh snapped, “You are being very rude. I’m sure that is a very delicate subject for our guest. It should be approached with care, not tossed out casually like a hello!” Now Toph was truly confused; she had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. The scariest part was that she could sense no deception from them. “War? What war? I don’t know of any war? What do you mean the Earth Kingdom destroyed?” Iroh sighed. “I was afraid of this,” he said, “Toph how long do you think you were trapped in that boulder?” “I don’t know, maybe a month or two to drift all the way to Fire Nation territory.” She guessed. “Actually I think it’s more like a hundred years,” the Fire Lord told her, “That’s how long the war has been going on. You don’t know about it because you were in that boulder the entire time. Tell me Toph have you noticed anything that you would consider strange about this island?” Toph thought for a moment. “It’s colder, than it should be,” she said, “The Fire Nation is on the equator. It should be much warmer than this, even in winter.” “You are correct,” Iroh said, “One hundred years ago, an extremely rare alignment of cosmic events occurred. At a single point in time the Earth reached the point where it was both closest to the Moon and farthest from the Sun, it also happened to be a full moon. The Water Empire used this combination of cosmic events to cool the planet starting an ice age. Crops failed because of the climate change and the Water Empire not only blockaded Earth Kingdom ports and made several attacks over the century until the Earthbenders and the Earth Kingdom itself was wiped out.” Toph’s jaw dropped as once again she could sense no deception from Fire Lord Iroh. “Why? Why would they do that?” she demanded. Iroh gave a sad sigh. “If I had to guess, you.” he said. Toph’s jaw fell further. She knew where this was going, or at least she had an idea. “Me?” she asked trying to deny the feeling in her gut. “Of course, you are the Avatar are you not? We haven’t seen an Earthbender in a hundred years but the Avatar Spirit was never reincarnated into a Fire Nation child. It seemed like a fairly good guess." The Fire Lord explained. “The Avatar,” Azula burst out, “You actually believe that she is the Avatar Uncle? It’s just an old story!” “You are wrong Azula. My father Fire Lord Azulon was told stories from his father Fire Lord Sozin who had personally met the previous Avatar Kuruk of the Northern Water Tribe in person.” Iroh once again did not seem pleased with his niece. “Yes, I am the Avatar.” Toph confirmed some of the confidence leaking from her voice. The room went silent, not even Azula could find anything to say. The tea had grown cold as the conversation had gone on. It had been completely forgotten due to the weight of the subject of conversation. A Fire Nation soldier entered the room gasping for air, his armor all askew. He tried to speak but stumbled over his words. “Calm down soldier,” Iroh said, “What is it?” “Fire Lord Iroh, a Water Empire ship is attacking the island! You and Princess Azula must come with me for safety.” The soldier said. “That light that shown when Zuko and I released you from the boulder must have attracted them.” Azula’s tone was accusatory. Toph glared at the princess. “Fire Lord Iroh, Princess Azula, we must get you to safety. Prince Zuko is already in a safe place, we must join him immediately.” The guard pressed. “Toph, will you come with us?” The Avatar shook her head. “No, it’s me they want and me they’ll get.” She said. Iroh and Azula were shuffled off down a back hallway while Toph headed outside. Sokka watched his Waterbenders fight the Fire Nation soldiers. Both the Benders and non-Benders of the Fire Nation were skilled warriors; Sokka could see and appreciate that as a warrior himself. However they were at a disadvantage against the Waterbenders of his force who kept the tide turned in his favor, not just because of the natural opposition of water to fire but because Ember Island was, well, an island. The Fire Nation soldiers had their backs to the sea, a weapon of their enemy. Victory seemed assured. “Where’s the Avatar, I know they’re here,” Sokka asked the defeated Fire Nation soldiers. He hadn’t joined the battle, opting to save his energy for fighting the Avatar; he knew he would need it, “You know a Bender of prodigious talent, master of all four elements, probably about a hundred years old.” For a moment no one said a thing, not even denial from the Fire Nation solders. The exiled prince of the Water Empire was about to make another demand of the defeated Fire Nation soldiers when the ground under his men heaved, tossing them aside. Sokka turned in the only direction it could’ve come from, toward the beach houses and found a girl who could be no older than twelve standing there. “You want the Avatar,” she said, “Well I’m right here, come and get me.” “You,” Sokka asked incredulously, “but you’re just a kid.” He rested his hand on the hilt of his black bladed sword anyway, just in case. “And you’re a teenager, what’s your point? You just saw me Earthbend, isn’t that enough for you?” The girl using her Earthbending to shoot a rock at Sokka’s head to counter he drew his sword and sliced the projectile in half. The Prince of the Water Empire charged the Avatar, barely dodging between chunks of ground that upturned themselves at the girl's command and slicing projectiles sent his way. “Your Earthbending skills are impressive Avatar,” he complimented, “but I must wonder why you haven’t used any other elements against me.” Sokka was genuinely curious about this and he hoped that the question might throw the Avatar off balance, but much to his chagrin she never missed a beat in her attack. “I could ask why you haven’t used any Waterbending against me,” The Avatar said. She raised a defense wall of tightly packed earth and stone as he got in striking distance, which Sokka cleaved through with his sword, “or how that sword can cut through my defenses so easily.” Sokka smiled at this. “I’m not a Bender Avatar. That’s why I trained in the way of the sword. As for the sword itself, there’s none other like it in the world. It was forged from a meteorite that fell from space, under the watchful eye of the world’s greatest sword master Piandao by yours truly.” He explained. “How nice for you.” the Avatar said sardonically. With that she slammed her feet into the ground and sent Sokka flying with a wave of earth. “You got me talking as a distraction. Now I really am impressed,” the Water prince commented as he stood back up, “May I ask your name Earthbender?” “Toph Beifong,” Toph said, “and who are you that’ you’re so important you can lead a Water Empire raid on the Fire Nation without being a Bender?” “My name is Sokka. I am the Crown Prince of the Water Empire,” he explained, “or at least, I was, I disgraced myself and now to get back into the good graces of my family I must capture, the Avatar, you Toph, and bring them back to the South Pole. It’s nothing personal against you, you understand, just something I have to do.” Toph rolled her eyes at that. “I’m so glad it’s not personal.” Toph’s tone was as dry as a desert, from the few minutes that Sokka had known her it seemed that was one of few of, if not the only tone she had. Maybe she was only like that in battle but he doubted it, “That makes me much more likely to go with you despite the fact that your people tried to freeze the Earth and probably want me dead. Oh wait, no it doesn’t. It just makes me want to bust some people’s heads in. It’s my job as the Avatar after all and between you and me Sokka, I like busting heads.” Sokka’s hand reached up and touched his eye patch almost of its own volition. “I don’t care about any of that, I don’t have the luxury of being able to care about it,” the Water Prince could feel the Avatar slowly Bending earth up his legs, this chat was just another distraction, well two could play at that game. Sokka reached for his boomerang and threw it, intentionally missing Toph, It would get her on the return sing; the whole point was to take her by surprise. “Your aim stinks,” the Avatar taunted. Sokka smirked, she’d fallen for it. He noticed the Water Empire soldiers getting back up, all according to his admittedly impromptu plan, “Anyway I don’t care about your backstory Sokka. It’s not my problem; no matter you much you want to make it my problem.” “You know I never expected you to be blind and you being a girl is a surprise as well.” He just had to keep her talking a little while longer. None of his soldier exiled soldiers made a move to aid him. Good, he hadn’t signaled them to, they knew he was an amazing strategist and would wait for his order to do anything. “Yeah and I didn’t think the Crown Prince of the Water Empire could be so whiny. You’ve spent most of this battle trying to convince me to feel sorry for you, it’s pathetic,” Toph spat on the ground to show how pathetic it was, “I really don’t care what you think of me.” The rock encasement was getting close to his arms now, normally this would’ve concerned Sokka but he smirked when he saw the boomerang on its way back. The weapon smacked Toph squarely in the back of head. “What the hell was that?” she growled shaking her head in disorientation. Sokka gave a muted nod to his men who rushed the stunned Avatar. “Lift her off the ground and don’t let any part of her body touch the ground until she’s locked in a cell on the ship, and then set a course for the South Pole,” The soldiers nodded and carried a squirming Toph off into Sokka’s ship past the defeated Fire Nation soldiers. As Sokka walked back to the ship after freeing himself from the rock with his sword he picked up his boomerang and spoke to it, “I love you boomerang.”

Fascinating speculation. Thank you! A few minor points: Dalinar eventually concludes that the vision figure was not responding to his questions. So when he previously thought that the vision figure was responding to his question about Sadeas, Dalinar made the mistake of trusting Sadeas. Interestingly, though, the vision figure actually said "Act with Honor and honor will aid you". So he acted with honor, trusting Sadeas, and was betrayed. But honor, in the form of Kaladin and bridge 4, aided him. Thus he was able to resolve his confusion, form a plan to move forward and join forces with Kaladin. Could the vision figure actually have been responding to the question somehow? When Syl speaks to Kaladin, the other people around can't hear. So there is direct spren to mind communication. Kaladin's powers are spren abilities that Syl shares with him. Maybe he will develop the ability to communicate directly with Syl or maybe he already can, and he just hasn't figured out how to use the ability. I believe Brandon reveals that the Radiants can communicate silently in the midnight essence vision. When Dalinar joins the Radiants in fighting the Midnight Essence, the text says, "The female Shardbearer turned to her companion, then the two of them fell into stances forming a triangle with Dalinar...". Why would he use the phrase "turned to her companion", if not to indicate silent communication? Later in the same encounter, the female Radiant "looked to the side, expression growing distant. 'Harkaylain says the desolation is close, and he is not often wrong. He --'" This seems like Brandon revealing a non-verbal communication ability. So the Radiants could be communicating with spren. As he develops, Kaladin may be able to communicate privately with Syl. I think we are seeing the same thing with Jasnah. When she soulcasts, she communicates with a spren to access Shadesmar, but she doesn't say anything out loud. Likewise, in her second trip to Shadesmar, Shallan communicates with the truthspren telepathically as follows: "Creatures, she said in her head. Can you hear me? Yes, always, a whisper came in response." Szeth can only hold stormlight for a tenth as long as Kaladin (let me know if you want quotes). So merging with the spren doesn't necessarily go with more advanced stormlight fusing abilities. I believe Brandon has said that something different is happening with Szeth. I don't believe that Szeth has a direct relationship with a spren (Nahel Bond). I think Szeth is accessing his windrunner abilities somehow like ardents can use soulcasters without talking to spren to go to Shadesmar. If an Honorspren had been associating with Szeth, I believe it would have broken the bond due to his actions. This still doesn't prove that Kaladin and Syl won't merge. I endorse (and upvote) Windrunner's explanation of Syl's sentience as a splinter of a minimally sentient entity. Whether from his physicality or some other aspect of the bond, Syl is gaining Kaladin's cognitive abilities. It seems logical that as the bond grows stronger, she would only gain sentience (cognitive aspect) and not merge with Kaladin.

Hroom. (Had to be said.) I'd bet its realmatic in a very loose and referential way. Nothing important. Just a little joke from Brandon to himself.

Alright! I noticed that this request went unanswered so I figured I might as well put my Fine Arts degree to use, right? Spent enough time and money on it. Anyway, I realized that I didn't have the best program for making digital drawings anymore, so I went up and bought a copy of Adobe Illustrator CS6, just to make this for you. Don't worry about the price, I was happy to do it. This is the work of a couple months, so I'm a little nervous about the reaction to it. Hopefully you like it! It's a bit big though, so I'll stick it in spoilers.

Yo momma so fat, Roshar has to decrease its gravity just so she could walk.

I would like to announce that I HAS EMPLOYMENT AGAIN!

And I deserve a cookie, I guess. - That might be the case, but it occurs to me that both Vin and Kelsier, besides being free from Preservation's intent, also have a measureable amount of Ruin's power in them, as they are human, so they might be able to do a smidgen of "writing."

Better- One of his parents was deaf, so one day, one wrote to another "I think we should have kids". There. He began his life on that piece of paper.

Why then, wouldn't a Feruchemist just use Harmonium (works best, sorry, guys) to store power. When released, those wimpy Keepers up in the Terris Mountains could probably shout down a mountain, or throw an army across a field with a blink of the eye. Besides, if nobody was able to store awesome, then nobody would be around to write the Mistborn books. Deduction: Brandon is a Legend, a Ferring of the metal Harmonium. Revision: Brandon is Adonalsium. Why would he needs to shout down mountains when he could destroy existence itself?

This topic has been closed because of the ridiculous amount of dissent it's causing. I'm all for healthy debate, but its been taken too far this time. We obviously don't have enough information to determine either way which is the truth, and so until we do, this topic will remain closed. Edit: I'm sorry if I came across as harsh, or brash with my post. I saw a healthy discussion that was corroding to a point where it was little more than arguing. This was happening not only in this topic, but in the chatroom as well. I closed it because there was a lot of anger rising up in the chat about this, and I decided that it would just be better to close the topic for time being to let tempers cool. More than anything, I don't want to have anger over something so trivial end up having a negative effect on the forums. Also, if there's something that you want to ask me about, shoot me a PM