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A trend seems to be developing with regard to getting new info from Brandon by way of signed books. Well, I'm not above that either, so here's my contribution I asked Brandon for something about honorblades that we don't already know. His response was, "One Herald (other than Taln) kept his honorblade (or, at least, took it back). What is implied here is interesting. Can we assume that only two Heralds now have their honorblades? Is someone or something forcibly keeping the other blades, or is this just a reference to how the blades were originally left. And if we assume the other heralds have NOT also recovered their blades, we can eliminate female characters with a blade as a herald (not that we really thought that was the case, but I thought it worth mentioning). EDIT: Fixed a spelling error. I sure hope no one read that before I fixed it

I got an early christmas gift today (from a certain robotic Brit)! It is a signed/personalized hardcover of The Way of Kings. I asked the question “Are the ‘magic fish’ of the Purelake the result of symbiotic bonds with spren?” because that is a pet theory of mine and well, here is what I got: So... I'm excited...

I would love something like this: Dalinar: "Amaram, this is Kaladin, my new captain of the Cobalt Guards. I've seen him battling a Shardbearer with nothing but a spear... He saved my life that day!" Amaram: "Erm, yeah, me too... mine too..."

...When you and your mate get tattoos of the symbols for the God-Metals for Ruin and Preservation to represent the Harmony you become by being together.

Hi there guys, here I come with another crazy thought, plx bear with me =) XXXX- Attention Heavy Spoillers below -XXXX Reading this topic http://www.17thshard...ted-magic-fish/ where our friend WeiryWriter(tks again) shared the aswer that Brandon gived to this question “Are the ‘magic fish’ of the Purelake the result of symbiotic bonds with spren?" some piece fit in my head and I kind created this Theory. Basicaly Brandon said this: Yes they are. Many Creatures in Roshar have *some* interection with spren. When I readed this a world of possibilities opened in my head. We already knew that the "moving islands" and the clasmfiend had spren conection. And now this confirm the animals also bond with sprens gaining "magical" properties. Apparently in Rohar bonding with spren are a normal, the Radiants did, the Parshendi, and "some" animals did, very commom indeed. I always thinked that was odd that Jasnah didn't understod why some voidbringers are described as a gigant beast (Shallan drawing) after all a Parshendi in the "Voidbringer form" hardly could be mistaked for a gigant monster. But if then parshendi aren't the "Titan voidbringer" from the drawing what are it?. The aswer is to me is that the Voidbringer creatures, (Parshendi in Odium form, Clasmfiend from drawing and thunderclast from Dalinar Vision) are in true a being that was possessed by a corrupted spren. (What would explain the origin of the myth of a voidbringer that possessed people or "stole their soul") The key point to me that prove this is the fact that in Dalinar Purelake Vision the "voidbringer" was a fish from the purelake that had red eyes. Well, we now know that the fish of the pure lake have some kind of spren bond, and we saw that they acted strange before a thunderlast appeared. To me that fish was possessed by a "Corrupted Odium spren". In another topic I proposed that Galivar Black stone in reality are a gem with a "voidbringer spren" trapped inside, and if I'm correct sure would explain why the Parshendi killed him. They feared what that spren trapped there could escape bonding with other creatures or even bonding with the Parsendiswhat would bring back their old gods. By the way, The Alenthi think that to the parshendi the clasmfiend are Gods, in true the "Gods" are a clasmfiend bonded with a corrupted spren, that also would explain the drawing in the book. This idea that all voidbringer are in true some creature that was bonded with a "voidbringer spren" for sure would fit with Odium way of doing things, after all, if he only need corrupte/create a spren to hijack all the creatures in Roshar that have a spren's bond,in this way he could spare his investidure and make a almost inifinite army of creatures, (Clasmfiend voidbringer, Parshendi voidringer,even the Thunderclast) to do his dirt work form him, very crafty of him. So what you guys think ? Could be that "corrupted sprens" hijacking the normal spren bonds be the origin of the voidbringers ?

When I ordered my copy of Way of Kings from Brandon Sanderson's site, I asked for my personalization for any trivia on Axies or the Aimian in general since Axies was my favorite of the interlude characters; well I got my book today, and Sanderson did not dissapoint with the tidbit he gave me which was, "Axies is basically immortal because of an interaction with the magic. He's basically one of 2 kinds of Aimian." I hope this means that Axies shows up again in the story, I know Sanderson has said most the interlude characters were just there to show off the world's scope, but Axies with his 'curse' and now his apperent immortality strikes me as perhaps a bit more improtant than just a one off character.

I'm pretty sure the taboo of predicting the future was a product of the Hierocracy right? Maybe the Envisagers harken back to before this.I like the idea that the Ghostbloods are a misdirected remnant if one of the orders, or possibly founded by Shallash. I'm on my phone right now though and too lazy to look up references.

Nobody turn a beta reader, they already born this way, we only don't know that until them receive a ARC book =)

Sorry I can't be more constructive, and please don't take this as a jab at you or your theory, but.. Reservation: The Butler Shard "Quickly, you need to use your maitre d'mancy to fend off seat these marauders!" "I can't! I didn't phone ahead to book their use!" "Valetchemy is the noblest of arts... it allows me to leave attributes in another's care and, provided I kept my receipt, I can retrieve them at a later date." "Astounding!"

I've just found this site and the cosmere. I had no idea. I've spent the last few days poking around this site and long story short my minds been blown and have alot of information I've been trying to sort out in my head. That being said I have a few theories of my own. Also a few questions hopfully I'm not rehashing things thats been done before. It seems alot of people are going with Eshoni, as the explorer mentioned on the cover of WoR. Personally I'm leaning toward Rysn. There is definatly somthing going on with her. She travels alot for trade and to places we only see through her. Then the whole scene of the soul of the greatshell saving her and giving her the larkin. I know the broken legs might hamper the whole exploring thing but she could heal and continue her travels. (speaking of the larkin, could that be the same type of creature darkness used to drain lift of her stormight?) Next topic, Honourblades and shardblades. Where to start. My first thought I want to put out there is about the one differnces between the blades when a herald dies his blade disapears, but when a shard bearer dies his blade appears for who ever wants to take it. I'm thinking along the lines that the honourblades are the origonals earned by the hearalds when they took the oathpact possibly given by honor himself. And shardblades are a fabrail type knock off created by man for the KR, Since fabrails have spren trapped inside when the user dies the blade can be used by anyone. Possibly in the making of a shard blade the spren trapped inside chooses to become a blade for one they choose worthy. That could be why Syl says Dalinar is better off without it because he didnt earn it and the spren inside did not choose him. I know theres no evidance for this but its just my idea. It could be Dalinar isnt meant for a blade but a shard hammer?!? I just thinking of when hes in that ditch beating away at the rocks and how it gave him claraity and time to think, sort of like Kaladin and his spear. Also a shardhammer seems to fit in with his order people are leaning to...stoneward i think it was. Well I've rambled enough for my first post but you can be sure it wont be my last. I hope I was able to get my ideas across like i want to. I'm not very good at putting my thoughts into words. Let the bashing begin!

Oh, I assure you, most men knows how to handle their swords.

I would like to stop lurking for a moment in order to announce that I am one exam and one day away from being done my first semester of law school AND my boyfriend Craig and I got engaged this past month . Have to say I am very excited for the holidays!

Whoosh, that is freaking awesome! The question is, who? Jez is the obvious choice since he was the last one at the circle of blades. But that doesn't preclude the possibility of one of the others having come back and retaken theirs. Edit: I liked Brandon's clarifying afterthought, 'What, wait, did I just essentially tell him that Jezrien picked up his blade and walked off whistling after Kalak left?'

People, to Brandon's way of thinking, refers to sentient beings. So, even Parshmen, as evidenced by Shen, are 'people'. Also, as I'm sure you are aware, SF/F writers commonly use 'lesser' races as a mirror for our interactions and treatment of other races. I have no doubt that your meaning is clear though. I think that your comparison to Kandra is very apt. The Kandra are indeed 'people'. They are a species though which has a cognitive block which is breached by their spikes. This raises many philosophical questions in Brandon's works. By all appearances, we would normally term mistwraiths as animals, not people. However, they are people, they are just very cognitively impaired. The Parshmen are regarded as little more than animals. But, we see that they are people who are apparently cognitively impaired. There is even suggestion in the Rysn interlude that the greatshells in the Reshi Sea are sentient, via a spren bond, and are therefore people. Does this signify a broad implication that much of the animal life on Roshar is potentially people with with some kind of similar cognitive impairment? If so, what is the reflection of that on us?

Your point, hoser, that some leeway should be given to people when using mushy terminology (Note: Not the case here with marianmi. I am speaking generally), I wholeheartedly agree with. There is somewhat of a learning curve here with what we do here. However, knowingly using such terminology when there is more accurate and precise terminology available (again, not the case here since we have not yet, as a community, established accepted definition and differentiation between cosmere-aware and realmatically-aware) does little more than sow confusion and misinformation. Obviously we should avoid speaking in an exclusionary way, but the means are there for people to learn terminology. I was able to learn fairly quickly what realmatics was and that is about the most ivory-tower-type terminology that we have. Other things like fMetal or aMetal and our many many many acronyms are generally easily gathered via context (the acronyms I have a more difficult time understanding are the net-speak ones. I still haven't figured out FWIW ). One of the more confusing ambiguities I have seen is using the word shards to refer to plat and blades. While TWOK indeed uses that term, it is confusing for it to be used in that manner. I think my next project is going to be to begin a 17S glossary of terminology where the first post is an ever-expanding glossary and the overall thread is a means for establishing agreed upon conventions. Maybe we can avoid confusion in the future as well as establish a useful tool for new sharders.

I believe that the priests of the Heirocracy really were having visions. In fact, I think they were having the same visions Dalinar is having and they were following Honor's command to "unite them" when they were trying to rule all of Roshar. Then the sunmaker, under odium's influence, came and messed everything up, fabricating false evidence that the prophecies were lies.

Hi everyone! I've been reading this site for a while, but was finally decided to post because I had to log into chat. Whoever thought of putting a hint there was brilliant! (Still working on number 7 though...) I'm hoping to join in discussions if I can understand all the background. Thanks all the creators for making the site! -DM

I guess that Shard is what power the world of Brutal Legend.

They'd replace war drums with the sound of thousands of people snapping in unison.

Must have been hard with all the Wild Chalkilings. Sorry for the bad joke, I couldn't resist...

Wars would basically be guer wars would basically be fought guerrilla style with flash mobs.

I don't know if this would be a horrible Shard or an awesome one: The Shard of Musicals Sure, the singing and dancing would be awesome for awhile, but how many times can you listen to people shouting lines from the Sound of Music to fuel their magic before you go insane? On the other hand, battles would be amazingly coreographed. I'm just imagining a duel taking place like in West Side Story. Bonus: Your magic grows stronger by the number of people you can get to join your song and dance moves.

Thaidakar is not a highprince. You're probably thinking of Thanadal, Natans, an easy confustion.

It's Nalan (most likely) for a few reasons: Chapter heading for Lift's Interlude has his picture. He says that the law is 'all they have left' (paraphrased), fitting the attribute of Just to a T. He's working as a lawman. 'No one is beyond my reach', attribute of Confidence. His nickname is Darkness, and his Order's gem is a smokestone. He dresses in black. He likes shadows. Can't be Jezrien, as Darkness notes that he drools. Can't be Kalak, as we had a POV from Kalak and they are nothing alike. A thousand years will do a lot, but the personalities are just completely different. Darkness has some pent up arrogance (Edgedancers are frivolous) and is completely uncaring. Kalak, by contrast, is a tempest of emotions and seems like a pretty friendly guy from the short glance we got of him. Following the corrupted attributes theory of Heralds, Kalak should be corrupted Resolute - either suresighted to the point of insanity, or else a complete anxious wreck. Nalan should be a corrupted version of Just, which fits. Can't be Taln. We see him at the end. I can't see it being anyone other than Nalan. The only choices are Ishar and Nalan, and of the two...

So i wonder if the comment about Axies being immortal due to an interaction of magic applies specifically 'to' Axies, or if being basically immortal a trait all Aimian. I think personally its probably just Axies, since there was a collapse of their island and they are incredibly rare now. Now I can't be sure obviously what Sanderson meant by 'an interaction with the magic.' Maybe its just a weird phrasing choice, maybe he means the Old Magic? Or maybe Voidbinding? People in Roshar do apparently view Aimians as evil and in the interlude reading Axies shows up in they refer to his shadow as a 'Voidbringer Shadow'.

Jez seems the most likely. He certainly had the best opportunity to do so. The next question for me is, does the herald who took back his blade still have it?

Most everyone said everything that can be said on this one, and I just started reading it last week so I might not be able to offer much help other than a little cheerleading, but I can say I still really like how this one is going so far. I'm enjoying Ichu as a character, but I'm a little bit on yankorro's side with the magic only in a few places this particular chapter though), because I thought you described it so well in the last chapter, that some of the description wasn't needed here. I felt like you only needed to mention it in order for me to visualize what was happening. p.1The thought made his stomach knot as tortouise shoulders his load was one he performed often, useful for chores around the farm. This line of description isn't needed in my opinion, because you already showed us how useful it was in the last chapter, and how often he uses it in this chapter. I know the part where he was talking about his aching joints from the cold was showing that he may have cast the spell incorrectly, but I thought his joints already ached in the cold. I might just be imagining it, i haven't gone back and checked but I thought in the last chapter it mentioned him flexing his fingers and prepping for the morning routine in the cold and talking about his joints aching. Anyway, if that is true that paragraph at the beginning might be a bit inconsistent. Then again I might be totally off bc I didn't check so... Anyway I like your writing. Keep it up!

Best written is tricky. I'd definitely go for The Emperor's Soul as his best written shorter work, and The Way of Kings for his best written longer work. I'm not sure which I'd rank above the other, or if I even could.

Agree with cem here... Winter's Heart is a bit slow to get going but the end is one of the best of the series and is absolutely crucial to understanding the rest of the books. The main issue with Fires of Heaven is that it follows The Dragon Reborn and The Shadow Rising which are arguably the strongest two books in the series. So the interminable middle section of FoH (in the circus especially) reeeeeeeally drags. Of the books you have left: 7: Crown of Swords - Good book 8: Path of Daggers - Not really bad, but certainly not the best 9: Winters Heart - A bit slow with a mammoth finale 10: Crossroads of Twilight - Yup, you will have to wade through this one... it is the weakest of the whole series IMO. 11: Knife of Dreams - Not bad, I would say on a par with Path of Daggers. 12: Gathering Storm - The Epic finale begins, Awesome 13: Towers of Midnight - Nice continuation with some much needed resolutions. 14: Memory of Light - Truly excellent end to the series. In all, I would recommend going as slowly as you need to get through the weaker ones but not to skip anything. To answer your question... YES, it is worth it.

We can only do that for Legion and the Emperor's Soul, because we retain the ebook rights to those. For Words of Radiance, I haven't heard from Tor yet whether they plan to do the Amazon MatchBook thing. Their current MatchBook experiments with a few of Brandon's books are only experiments and are not indicative of future practice.

That's a bad advice, both because WH is a good book and because you can't expect to understand the rest of the series if you skip a book. If you intend to continue series, just pick up the next book and start reading. aCoS is pretty good and tPoD has arguably the best military campaign in the series. While the pace drops a bit after LoC, the only bad book in the series is Crossroads of Twilight.

I recently reread the first several books but I had to stop at Winter's Heart, it was just so dull and I've already read it and I remember that the only thing that happens of any consenquence comes all the way at the end as a sort of cliffhanger ending. I don't remember if I even read the last two Jordan books the first time thorugh or not. I want to get through these so I can read the Sanderson books and finally finish the series, but I'm not really looking forward to to the last 3 Jordan books.

hi there! FWIW I agree and disagree with what andyk and jParker are saying. I think your writing here is quite effective, though I find myself kind of skimming over some of the passages where we get into the intricacies of the Chayus and things like that, to be honest. (I'm not big on magic systems and so forth; I know you're probably wonder what the hell are you doing on a B. Sanderson fan site then?) As far as Ichu's personality, I don't feel like he's being inconsistent in recognizing the gravity of the situation once he gets in the company of others. I think he's totally allowed to feel one way when he's by himself in isolation and another when he sees how other people are reacting. (If that makes any sense.) What I'm curious about is how you're going to fit this storyline in with the other one. At the moment I find the Ichu plot more engaging that I did Silluka, but that could change of course.

Hahaha "Revenge of the Chasmfiends"?? I can see it now..."Ok, let's see how YOU like it having your limbs killed one by one with a shardblade!"

How do you even become a beta reader? I WANT TO BE ONE!

I do think the "three powers" hypothesis is rather arbitrary, as there are clearly more powers that does not fall within the range of any of the Surges: Rapid healing Protection from high falls Booming voice, ect. Naturally enhances strength, reflexes, speed and stamina There is evidence that suggests that Windrunners have a "Force Push/Wave" kind of ability Now, some of these might be inherent to Surgebinding itself and are not a result of either of the surges, but it does seem like a rather weak claim. The "three lashes" - one effect for each surge and one resulting from the combination of the surges - also seems rather misleading, as there is at least one particular set of powers where this is not the case, such as the Windrunners having two abilities solely based upon the Gravity surge and one upon the Pressure surge. Now, if Stormriding is a Windrunner only ability, we might have found something that might quite possibly be of both surges (Gravity to fly within the Storms and Pressure to keep from being thrown around by the hurricane-level winds), but then we're up to four lashings, and the hypothesis falls apart anyway.

There is a pinned thread at the top that starts with an awesome post created by Windrunner linking various readings. The one you want is called "Rysn's Interlude", but why stop there?

Interesting, It could suggest a blanket braodcast by Honor but only thiose tuned in can pick up the signal. Maybe middle-aged potter is cut of the same cloth as Dalinar (so to speak). Or Dalinar is fired of the same clay?

Hmm...I could get behind the idea (easier to stab it in the back that way) of shardblades working similar to hemalurgy (see my shardblade surgery theory in my sig). Wait, so what if you used Feruchemical aluminum? This probably isn't what you meant Shardlet, but it made me think of it. Does the Identity stored with aluminum have anything to do with those kind of traits? So maybe using both gold and aluminum could let you repair all of the damage done by a spike? Hmmmm....

I've thought about them a lot. I doubt Amaram would have gotten in contact with them, but I'm sure they'll pop up eventually. One theory that's been kicked around (By Gamma Fiend) is that Lirin will find his way to Mr. T's hospital. I don't subscribe to that tho... I think there will be a teary reunion that will break Kaladin's heart. Edit: Accredited Gamma Fiend

Yes, I noticed. Sorry for not responding to you directly, Peter, but I thought that was a rather clear statement that "well, if Brandon doesn't even remember it, it probably isn't him being all ninja-sneaky and sneaking Hoid in under my nose". So Peter's reply is further evidence of Hoid's absence.

I don't know when the preorder will be up on Audible.

I am completely ready to believe that a tin savant could see spren. Brandon hasn't told me anything of the sort at the present moment, but this would not surprise me at all.

I talked to Brandon, and he had forgotten about the thing that made me not be convinced.

Why are we still discussing crocodiles and kittens? DRAGONS, DUDES! WHO BREATHES PUPPIES!

If Stormlight Archive were Wheel of Time... Gawyn would still be the worst character ever. Seriously. Can anybody even tolerate that little prick? I believe this is the character Jordan wanted to hate. Like, "Here's what happens when you become the whiniest, most incompetent character in the series. Who's assumptions about absolutely everything is completely wrong and just makes a fool of himself" - That's what Robert Jordan was thinking when he wrote Gawyn.

Elric of Melnibone-I like Elric's brand of heroism: good, but dangerous company. A single line best sums Elric up; shortly after taking a Pan Tangian slave ship, Elric's companion suggests they sell the slaves at market to replenish their coin purses. Elric lets the slaves go free "because I felt like it." Rather than holding to the notion of honorable combat, Elric isn't above conjuring an elemental or using sorcery to win his fights. Very refreshing. Coltaine-I found his dedication to his duty very inspiring. Kaladin Stormblessed-Same as Coltaine, though I can relate to Kaladin a bit more. Replace Kaladin's imprisonment as a slave and rebirth as a leader with two semesters of organic chemistry. Bane (The Dark Knight Rises)-I liked the idea of a character who is a dark mirror to the hero. The modifications to Bane's origin that presented him as someone struggling to attain what Bruce tossed away (leadership of the League of Shadows) and the desire to prove himself to the father that rejected him made for a compelling villain. Sandor Clegane-The man's brutally honest. In a place like Westeros, it is refreshing. Shallan-Her cleverness makes her chapters easy reads. Roland Deschain-Like Kaladin, I admire Roland's dedication to his quest. I also like his personality in general.

I'd like to announce that all the epigraphs from WoA and HoA are now in their own pretty tables on the wiki. And I've added anchors to all the epigraphs from every book that has them, so now when you click on a citation for one of them, it doesn't simply dump you on the page full of epigraphs, but rather brings you to the actual epigraph that you wanted to see. Hopefully this will help someone out!

Neat topic. Some overlap with this one. This partially replicates a post I made there. If someone has a better idea about how to handle this situation, please let me know. In this thread CabbageHead makes an interesting point about motivation to kill Amaram. Basically, it could destabilize Sadeas and the Alethi kingdom. I agree with Tangletalon that Kabsal may reveal the view point of the Ghostbloods. I am struck by the conversation he has with Shallan in Chapter 45. Talking to Shallan about Jasnah, he says: For someone trying to be trusted enough to poison Jasnah, this is not a clever thing to say. It could therefore be what he really believes. If he believes this and joined the Ghostbloods, they presumably believe in the Desolations and are trying to do something about them. It also opens up the possibility that the Ghostbloods are involved with Vorinism more deeply. They could also be another group trying to pull a Taravangian. I agree with Xavien that they are not the same as Taravangian's group because we know what the Taravangians do to those they have a problem with. They just seem to be studying Jasnah, presenting her with not-strong Taravangian and contriving situations to get her to Soulcast even though they have Soulcasters of their own. I don't see evidence that Taravangian's group wanted to kill Jasnah at the point that Kabsal was trying. The Ghostbloods seem to be concerned with upcoming Desolations, want to destabilize Alethkar (Amaram and Jasnah assassination attempts, suspected in Gavilar's) and want to plant their own highprince in Jah Keved. To answer the original question, they seem to be a competing group trying to destabilize Alethkar, similarly to Taravangian, possibly with some Vorin basis.