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MWAHAHAA... I just did this tonight, I wish I'd thought to look here sooner (I hope I'm not hijacking by inserting my own idea, but it seemed sensible to keep any ideas for bridge specs in one thread). -EDIT- In light of some feedback from both fans and Peter/Isaac, I made a couple revisions. The posts are removed, the height increased by half, and the horizontal posts extended to make room for two men. I think that pushes this a bit closer to "correct".

I don't think that normal Earth ship would be capable of weathering Highstorms, and certainly not pre-industrial age ones. So most likely some ships on Roshar would be constructed in a way so as to be capable of weathering Highstorms, or at the very least able to make sure that they're never caught in one. What modifications do you think that a ship would need in order to weather a Highstorm? So far all that I've been able to think of is that they'd need: retractable or folding mast (otherwise the mast would be torn of during a Highstorm, or possibly capsize the ship) several more anchors than a normal ship (for stability and to prevent being blown too far off course) possibly be enclosed on top (in a manner similar to a Korean turtle ship) outriggers or multiple hulls (for stability) What ideas do you have for ships to allow them to endure Highstorms? Note: I'm not too ship savvy, so it's possible (or rather probable) that I'm wrong about something here. If so, please do correct me.

The side-carry! I can fit five men per rank for the full 40 (not that Bridge 4 had a full 40) but they need to stagger in 3/2 rows and double up in the space. The shortest man is lifting most of the weight, doing a sort of low-roadie-run, but he gets to lift more with his back so maybe it's okay,. And they trade the short position every time they flip the bridge to the other side. The Parshendi could skip arrows under the edge, but that's a heck of a trick shot (and the narrative does mention arrows skipping around their feet). You can see how this messed up the other bridge crews that hadn't practiced the side-carry. But I think this works.

This idea has been kicking around in my head for a while, but I was a bit unsure if I had sufficient factual evidence to back it up. I'm sure there are people who have contributed to this idea (via comments or threads), so if you have prior art on this stuff let me know and I'll give credit. NOTE: Realm-wide spoilers abound (in particular, for Elantris and Mistborn) Theory: Jezrien picked up the remaining pieces of Honor after Tanavast died. He is the Stormfather and the face in the highstorms. However, the long years of immortality combined with other factors has rendered his mind unhinged, hence the name "The Broken One." But wait, you say - Odium is clearly The Broken One! Let us look at the source of this quote: We know from WoB that there were three primary Shards on Roshar. With the new info from Lift and Brandon we can now analyze this quote. * Honor - Tanavast died and his power was let loose in some way (see below). * Cultivation - Her Shardholder no longer cares about the humans on Roshar. * Odium - At the time of the quote, Rayse was on his home planet Braize. What happened to Honor's power? Well, there was something similar to what happened when Leras, Skai, and Aona died (see here for more): From this, we learn that the uncontrolled power of a Shard is extremely dangerous. The power "builds up," as we saw from Raoden's POV's in Elantris. On Sel, there was some measure of relief in the form of Seons/Skaze, but it was not enough and Shadesmar there is overwhelmed in some way. But cruically, we learn about what one person can do to wrangle the power, even if it is just a small part. There is also WoB that Splintering a Shard is a long process. Finally, there is a WoB somewhere (it elludes me at the moment) that connects the highstorms and the mists from Mistborn, with Brandon stating there is a term we have not yet discovered to describe them. We know that the mists resulted from Leras sacrificing his mind, and therefore control over Preservation, to imprision Ruin. Let's put the pieces together. Jezrien is known as the Stormfather, and as Jasnah points out in WoR Ch 3, the mythology surrounding him seems to be independent of the notions of Honor and Cultivation. There is something intelligent that Kaladin interacts with in the highstorms (the enormous face). And, by the combination of spren and something else, the power that was held by Tanavast is kept in check on Roshar. From these facts (and Brandon's almost hint about Kelsier), I propose that Jezrien actually picked up some large part of the Shard Honor when Tanavast died. EDIT: With the great comments below, I have a better explanation for what is going on in the following paragraphs in a response below. The immediately preceeding statement was an idea I have had for a long time, but there was an important snag - Darkness (almost certainly Nalan) references Jezrien as "drooling." This seems to imply that Jezrien has suffered some severe mental trauma that has left him weak-minded. How can we reconile these two pictures? I propose that Jezrien wasn't able to take full control of the Shard pieces or there was something about his mental damage (due to 4500 years or so of immortality) that rendered him weak-minded. I would love to back this up with data, but we have never seen someone running around with only half of a Shard. I think the current state is that most of Jezrien's mind is occupied with Honor, leaving behind his body with only a token consciousnes behind. His body hasn't been "vaporized" by Honor because he doesn't command the whole Shard, just a large chunk of it. This is where the name "The Broken One" comes in - Jezrien (as everyone would interact with him) is a drooling, mentally weak mess. And the part of his mind that is wrangling Honor still has scars from the Desolations and then abandoning the Oathpact, so it's not doing well either. Why hasn't Odium come back to finish the job? His modus operandi is to be the only Shard at his power level - something which the mostly-Splintered Honor could not hope to match. Thus, Odium would be content to just leave Jezrien scrambling to pick up whatever pieces he can, laughing as the latter's mental demons haunt him. There is one last important quote, from the face in the storm itself. He says "Odium reigns," and many people take this to be the reason that Odium is "The Broken One." However, we can now interpret this as Odium having the upper hand on Roshar. The constant infighting, the failure to follow Nohadon's example, and so on could be construed as a failure of Honor and Cultivation to lead their world. And in doing so, they have let Odium take control. In conclusion, I propose that Jezrien picked up a large chunk of the Shard Honor before it fractured completely. This is the source of the name Stormfather, since the part of the physical embodiment of Honor is the highstorms. Cultivation and Odium are not currently involved with events on Roshar. Jezrien was termed "The Broken One" due to the mental state of his physical body and what issues he still has from the Desolations and immortality. EDIT: New conclusion: I propose that Jezrien picked up a large chunk of the Shard Honor before it fractured completely. This is the source of the name Stormfather, since the part of the physical embodiment of Honor is the highstorms. Cultivation and Odium are not currently involved with events on Roshar. Jezrien was termed "The Broken One" due to his mental health at the end of the cycle of Desolations and subsequent abandoning of the Oathpact. Sorry for the long post, I wanted to be sure that I was clear on all of my points. Thanks for reading!

I get very limited say in what gets drawn for the books... it would have to come up in the narrative again, and there would need to be a document in-world that involved bridges for some reason. It's possible, but I think we might be past that point in the story. Then again, he surprises me every volume. Someday we'll collect an art book of aallll the concept art and background stuff and everything that everyone on the team has done so far, and all that has yet to come. There's a lot of stuff behind the scenes, failed concepts and portraits and so forth. It's gonna be an amazing book, but it's not likely to happen until after we wrap the first five-book arc at the soonest. I might do up Dalinar's bridges just for my own satisfaction, same as I did these. Nothing too complicated, just a loose design to get the idea across. You can see a sorta rough hint of what I've been thinking in the final I sent to Michael Whelan for the Shallan painting. It's like a tower with a folding drawbridge, and after it lays the bridge the tower itself can cross over. Troops pass through the tower at ground level and over the bridge, and then the tower folds up the bridge behind itself and trundles along, towed by chulls. Thing is, I imagine that moves at about a steady walking pace, so maybe 3mph? Plus time to hitch, unhitch, drop, fold, lift, carry, cross, jump down, turn around, do the hokey-pokey. In comparison, Sadeas can run his men to death at a pace of at least a steady 5mph jog and the process of dropping, crossing, transferring and picking it up again is much faster. Dalinar has the advantage of being able to bridge wider chasms, so he can take more direct paths, but just the same he's soooo sslllloooowwwww... it's a wonder he ever gets a gemheart at all.

My thoughts: It depends on how the ocean reacts to highstorms. My best bet, though: Submarines for the win. EDIT: Upvote for your name.

So should we call them AesSedaispren

I hope that I'm not repeating a conjecture posted by another member, but I've long since had an idea regarding the broken gems in Elhokar's Shardplate after the greatshell hunt. Quote from TWoK: (Adolin PoV) There are a few points here I'd like to touch upon. One being that Adolin seems to see Dalinar or Dalinar's Shardplate glowing if only faintly. Another is that Dalinar tosses aside his Shardblade. What I posit here is that Dalinar, in an effort to protect Elhokar, invests Stormlight. Presumably from Elhokar's Shardplate's gemstones allowing him the additional strength required to catch the massive claw. This act being something that even other Shardbearers see as something a normal modern Shardbearer shouldn't be able to do. I feel that Brandon is also purposely drawing attention to the fact that Dalinar tosses his Shardblade away allowing him to invest when he otherwise may not have been able to. In short, I think the king's broken gemstones weren't the result of sabotage, but the result of Dalinar's pulling all of the Stormlight from them rapidly. I'd love to hear opinions on this ~Ink

Hi, I've been lurking these forums for a while, and thought I might post what I think the bridges look like. Obviously I'm basing it off of the descriptions in the book, namely these ones: This is the front and top view of the bridge: The bridge is roughly 10.3 meters (34 feet) long and 3.4 meters (11 feet) wide, which is slightly larger than specified in the book. The bridge is roughly 4.6 m3, which if the density of the wood is 600kg/m3 (but it's probably less) then the bridge has a mass of 2760kg, that's about 70kg per bridgeman, if there's 40 of them. If I remember correctly Brandon did state that Roshar has only 7/10 of the gravity of Earth, which would make 70kg on Roshar have the weight of 48kg on Earth. Here's a version with some crude dummy bridgemen: I'm not too sure that I got the design right. There are quite a few things that confuse me, such as it being stated that the bridge curves down at the ends. If there's anything I've missed (which I undoubtedly have) don't hesitate to tell me.

You're making the assumption that integrating women into the military would happen in the context of existing gender roles. And you're right in a sense; obviously, our gender roles are what they are, and a change in our military would happen in that context. But thinking more broadly, if we had a unisex military for any length of time, our gender roles as a society would necessarily be different because of that. For instance, there are societies where women do serve in the military, even in the front lines (Israel comes to mind, there may be others). Instead of wondering how you'd arrange separate ditches for men and women to piss in, maybe the question is "how would gender roles be different if men and women were forced to share such close quarters and piss in the same ditch?"

When you're playing the game where you say the first word that comes to mind and it's almost always impossible to understand for anyone who hasn't read Mistborn. My sister hated it when things like that happened: she would say 'gold' and I would say 'health'! And she would be annoyed. And it happened over and over and over.

I don't think thats the case. I have always felt Gavilar's last word refered to the radiants ideals. Also in the reading we have confermation they did it to stop something returning no becuase odium told them to.

Grievous Bodily Harm Really Cool People Cruelty to Animals Embarrassing Personal Problems Things Not Working Properly Even After You've Given Them A Good Thumping But Secretly No Alcohol Lager People Covered In Fish Ten imaginary superpoints to whoever gets the reference first. Who can post some other referential Bad Shard Ideas?

Hey guys, I'm Iced. I've been lurking around here for a bit now, I figured it was time to create an account. I like long walks in the snow, and read Mistborn when I heard Brandon was finishing the Wheel of Time. I loved it, and it's probably still my favorite of his books.

So, the question of soulcasting comes up a lot, but there's a few points to remember: 1) Soulcasting is expensive. Like, we don't know exactly how much, but it costs a lot, and the Highprinces are not absolved from paying the Church for their service. Most of the soulcasting funds of the Highprinces go into making food, and some into construction, but mostly for food, and it's a telling expense. It's possible that even the wealthiest don't have the spare funds to soulcast food AND housing/infrastructure in the camps, AND bridges out in the plains. Especially when you take into account that... 2) Bridges are not meant to be permanent beyond a certain point. For one thing, a bridge you can use is a bridge the enemy can use, and moreover it's a bridge your competition can use. Remember, to the Highprinces this whole war is a game with gemhearts as the prize. Why would Sadeas pay for bridges that Dalinar might use? Is he going to set up a tollbooth? And for another thing... 3) The nature of the Plains is such that the target plateau is random (or at least chosen for reasons unknown), and the target plateaus keep getting farther away. There's no point in setting up a permanent bridge between plateau A and B that costs a lot of money and gives advantage to both your enemy and your fellow competitors if you can't be certain that you'll need to go from A to B next time your scouts spot a chrysalis... perhaps this time the gem is over on plateau X, and you need to get there via an entirely different route. NOW. If someone was actually investing in winning a war, with a direct target and a select series of routes, where permanent bridges were important as a means of establishing infrastructure to support staging attacks deeper into the Plains... but that's not the game they've been playing up to now.

I agree that the majority of women would not be ideal for infantry, but there could be some women who could handle it. I doubt a woman would ever be the strongest in the army, but the are some that can handle a rifle or pistol with enough skill for combat. Also shardplate and surgebinding powers are a great equalizers. Jasnah was able to kill four attackers with only one hand. I'd like to avoid this discussion becoming an argument about equal rights. I'll just say there are no absolutes. If someone is able to do something they should be allowed to do so. If they aren't then they should not be given allowances regardless of gender. Roshar however will have a different situation because magic is involved.

I'm painfully stuck with the Imperial measuring system, but the basic premises are the same... if the bridge extends beyond it's mid-point, it will start to tip. If the opposite side is further than half the length of the bridge, it had better be lower because that bridge is about to slide down. But if we go with 40' (cheating), then that's a 20' gap, which is not small... about the width of a two-lane street common to most suburbs. Much farther than anyone can jump. I'm thinking Dalinar's tower-bridges can cross gaps up to twice that distance, because the design I have for that would let almost the whole bridge extend over the chasm rather than half, but his bridges are slow. He can take a more direct route, but he's not as fast. Does it say the horses charge in double-wide formation? The width is about 8 feet, so that's possible, but man that's a tight fit. I figured troops for double-wide with a shield wall and set spears (see the charge of the orcs up the ramp at Helm's Deep in Jackson's LotR for a similar formation, sans battering ram), but that cavalry would charge single-file across multiple bridges. If I were sending in the troops, I'd send over a shield-heavy spear group to clear the immediate area around the bridge, then blast in the cavalry to wreck their lines deep, and follow through with more troops. But I know when Kaladin wrecks the plan with the side-carry, he's expecting a cavalry charge first. I just don't recall it specifically saying they charge two abreast. Structurally, all the weight is born by the outer walls, distributed along a grid of crossbeams. I'm not enough of an engineer to know if that would hold a couple tons of galloping horse and armored rider, but I think that might be the point where we start shuffling our feet and waving our hands. There's beams and a box and It's only got to be believable enough. When calculating weight, don't forget that Rosharan gravity is .7 of Earth, and the oxygen count is higher. I'm also not sure their common cavalry horses are on weight with a warhorse, Ryshadium horses being another beast altogether... I have a feeling that if we nailed it down, the cavalry horse of the Alethi would probably be a hardy little charger rather than a lumbering warhorse. Outside of Shinovar grass is a sneaky little devil, which means that grazing has got to be expensive and tricky, and I feel like lighter, smaller horses would be the norm.

Yes, the terms are very muddled these days. Sapience seems to mean wisdom more than ability to reason. There is also self-awareness (which is neither sentience nor sapience) and consciousness, and, to an extent, neither of these is a prerequisite for another, as far as I can tell. I would (as an aside) argue that you cannot separate logic and emotions, at least not cleanly, since emotions provide weights for decision making. Ahem Anyway, as far as I understand the terms, Nightblood is less sentient than human, but as sapient (he can reason quite fine, but his senses are very different from human, in particular, he doesn't perceive time well. By his very nature, he has to work with abstract concept of "evil"). Spen as Splinters are self-aware (as per WoB), but many of them are not sapient, and possibly not sentient either. Then again, as Kurk has noted, I doubt Brandon thought about a muddle of philosophical terms when he used them.

Just had an hour long car ride with a coworker coming back from a job and somehow we got into him talking about the fantasy novel he's trying to write. I suggested he listen to writing excuses if he was serious about writing. That led into me talking about how much Sanderson does to help aspiring writers which in turn led to me talking about Sanderson's various books. When I dropped him off at his car, he saw there was a B&N across the street and said he was gonna go look at picking up a few of Sanderson's books before it closed in thirty minutes. Fingers crossed for a new convert.

Not canonized in any way, bear in mind! I haven't run this past Brandon or Isaac or Peter (well, actually I sent this out to them at the same time I put it up here, but who knows when I'll hear back). I'm working off the reservation, here. The posts are certainly a cheat... having now gone and re-read that chapter, there's references to handholds and men grouping at the sides and back, but I'm sure he didn't have these posts in mind. Problem is that if you've ever tried to push something at a point around your knees or lower, it's REALLY hard to direct force forward rather than down. And at the back, if you're pushing on that sloped surface, you almost certainly can't get traction or apply a forward push effectively. I added little runners about four inches high so that you're not impacting the crossbeams along the bottom against the surface of the plateau. It probably could work at 30' or somewhere between, but since I'm not on the clock I decided to try it the way I wanted it. If I wanted to shorten it up a bit, I'd make the ramps half their length... that would bring it to 35' or so, but they'd be quite steep. The narrative isn't clear how far back they start pushing, but I reckon if all eight ranks start off then you can get some momentum and inertia will help carry it forward as the first four ranks clear off to the sides or get taken out by arrows. Ideally those men peeling away as they cross would run to the back and keep helping the push, but in practice they probably just run out of the firing lane or die. So long as you have at least 20 men pushing, it ought to keep going, I think.

I really like the OP design, but it suffers from the concerns that made me want to modify the specs a little... most importantly, how would your bridgemen place themselves to push the bridge? The horizontal beams give you something to push against, but only for about one person, and if they're too low to the ground then that would be very difficult to push. I've got the horizontal bars about 1.5 feet up, and the vertical bars so that you can have at least two on each side, but in doing so I've really pushed the line on "no railing". Anyone got a third idea?

I don't think that the concept of the safehand needs to teach readers any lesson, nor do I believe that characters need to come to the realization that it's wrong. It's not a metaphor against discrimination in the real world; it simply presents an aspect of society as it is. This issue highlights one of my favorite aspects of Brandon's writing. He never pushes any opinion into his work; he merely presents the world as he sees it - or at least, as his characters see it. Rather than comment on how things should or shouldn't be, he simply allows you to better understand the way things are. As a result, his stories and settings ring far truer to me than many others, where they are contrived to support a particular viewpoint.

I think Hoid's story about the people who killed because their "ruler commanded them to" also applies to Szeth. Szeth is truly the one responsible for the deaths because his owner does not actually control him, and one day he will have to face that no one else actually made him kill those people.

So after rereading WoK, again, I had the distinct impression that Gaz is being haunted by Cryptics. From Jasnah's identification of Shallan's spren as a liespren, I believe Gaz will be of the same order as Shallan. My guess is that he did not have enough stormlight to accidentally trigger a surge until after Lamaril died and he no longer had to pay his blackmailer. It would not surprise me if Lamaril was actually blackmailing Gaz because of Gaz having accidentally used his abilities. Much like Kaladin, he would not want people to know that he had any powers associated with the fallen Radiants.

As stated in the title this isn't so much a theory as it is random speculation. It pertains to Dalinar's to what boon and curse Dalinar may have received from the Nightwatcher when he sought out the old magic. We know from tWoK that Dalinar believes his inability to remember anything about his wife, is the curse he received when asking for his boon. However, we have no idea what this boon may be. My wild speculation is thus: Dalinar may have been responsible for his wife's death 10 years ago, or at least believed himself to be. In an effort to remove his guilt, he sought out the Nightwatcher and the Old Magic. Dalinar received his boon, removing his guilt, but his curse was to also forget everything he knew of her. Dalinar's boon and curse may in fact be one in the same. While this does seem unlikely. I think this would be a very interesting twist when we see Dalinar's flashback chapters in a book 5. Thoughts anyone? -Postmaster Lipwig

I'm not sure that he's a Surgebinder, but there is a distinct pattern of people seeing Cryptics by not-seeing them. Shallan draws them after taking a memory, Elhokar sees them sideways from a mirror, and maybe Gaz sees them as shadows from his blinded eye. If he's seeing any spren, I'd peg him as a Lightweaver too. Him having a secret would attract them, too, hence the blackmail. I see no reason for each Order to be represented equally by Brandon, since some Orders are bound to be less interesting or provide less narrative usefulness than others. Brandon had a distinct lack of gold Mistings in Mistborn, for example. Illusions and Soulcasting allow for a ton of variety, so I expect to see tons of Lightweavers. Windrunners and Skybreakers will be most-used, I imagine, because Brandon likes characters that can fly. I don't blame him.

Interesting possibilities. Exactly. It is worth noting that Szeth assumes the "drooling man" is a drunkard because he sees him reach for a wineskin. He does not "know" he is drunk. It could be that if that is Jez that he is not drunk - he just has reduced mental capabilities because the bulk of his thoughts are holding parts of Honor as suggested in the cognitive realm. And he happens to be reaching toward a wineskin...

We would need WoB to confirm, but I want to say that because the continent is largely solid, sail travel is minimal compared to land travel and trade, and there really may not be any ships capable of surviving a full eastern highstorm... they've all failed, and it's considered a losing game to try and design one, it will probably get you killed. In the far west, where the storms are weak, they might make it, but I don't know if they need to modify the ships to make it possible... out there, it's just a really bad storm, and sailing ships have survived those before. That being said, I wonder what they do to protect ships in port during a highstorm... as a resident of Florida, I've seen what happens to boats in the harbor when a hurricane rolls through, and just being locked down and shipping the mast and sails won't help, the next morning there's always some footage of a sailboat smashed through someone's garage after being docked a quarter-mile away. I'd think the ports must have some considerable coverage, or dry-dock abilities, or I don't know what... probably many different things, from naturally guarded coves like Kharbranth to harbors with huge covered docks, and other stuff yet to be imagined. Of course, there's nothing to stop us trying to imagine a prototype. It might come up in some later book, or be useful if and when Stormlight is ever licensed as a game, especially a tabletop RPG.

Thanks! You've got it, it's more-or-less a hollow frame on wheels, but the sides at the lowest level are shielded and the bridge is a shield until it's dropped . The top levels might have archers to helps soften the landing, but it's still probably like hitting the beach at Omaha every time they go in. The long bars were some thought I had of being both a counterweight and acting as reinforcing beams that you slide into place after the bridge is set, when you want to roll the heavy superstructure over the top. The front and back of the tower would be identical and interchangeable, so when the tower gets to the other side you would slide the bars through, re-attach the bridge and raise it back up, turn the tower around and trundle along, back becomes front and rinse + repeat. That design is probably one story too tall, but I liked the look of the proportions and wasn't much concerned with the added weight of another level.

Submarines would indeed be the ideal solution. Why go through the storm when you can go under it. Besides the stuff you've mentioned and inventing submarines they could make the ship from stronger materials. They could soulcast ships to have metal hulls etc. That should offer a bit more protection during a highstorm.

eh. He has grown to really hate lighteyes themselves. There are several times where he says something like "All lighteyes lie/abuse authority." Whether or not he believes a Shardblade will automatically make him like them, I doubt he is interested in joining the club.

Hmm... I hadn't actually thought of that. I think I'm still going to hold with the idea that all of the Shards are now as Intent-driven as Ruin, but I definitely recognize that that's now just a gut instinct of mine, rather than an actual deduction.

Some already proposed this (and that Elhokar drawed the gems himself given the fact that apparently he see Liesprens,and soulcasting is more associeted with broken gems than any other surge that already appeared) but you take on this is very good. Take this upvote and be welcomed to the forum =) Side note, in the recent chapter released Kaladin asked Dalinar this and the theme pop out again, maybe we will have some explanation in the next book. =)

I feel like you could get away with single-file charge so long as you were following up in close formation and zippering off as you cross. That first horseman really has to power through the infantry on the other side, but if he leans left and the man behind leans right and the next fellow left and etc, they could clear space pretty fast. Of course, if the Parshendi set spears it's gonna be a mess (such is ever the fear for cavalry), but if they have good front barding and a horse trained to bite and kick and slash in concert with his rider, I can see them pounding through at a full gallop with longspears set, shafting a few Parshendi on the run, then dropping the lance and laying in with the sword, mace, axe and hoof, creating pools of constantly moving havoc in the enemy lines. But I think if you ride stirrup-to-stirrup you could do the same double-wide, and at 8 feet across I guess there's just enough room to get away with it. We're gonna have to presume for now (in lack of someone with engineering experience) that the bridge can take it.

Have you read Discworld? You must read Discworld. Terry Pratchett is win. I'm too tired right now to explain why and do it justice, but others on the Internet have done that job anyway. For sci-fi, try Kristine Kathryn Rusch's wreck diving books (starts with Diving Into the Wreck). The books have structuring issues that mostly have to do with their origin as a series of novellas, but I find them exceedingly compelling. This review explains why better than Tired Brain Ryan can.

Silly Quiver, Ruin doesn't have to take control of those who serve willingly. And of course I know what those spikes do. As does all staff, I have a perfect knowledge of everything in the cosmere but am sworn to the highest of secrecy about it all. I know aaaallllllllll.

I believe that Ranarin's sickness was life threatening at some point. Dalinar went to ask the boon of not losing his son, and was granted it, but in return lost all memory of his wife. Saving a loved one, yet losing the memory of another. I also think however that he thinks the curse was his son's weakness and the boon was forgetting his wife. I'm not sure how the two could be together, but that is the impression I've always gotten for him.

Hello to everyone on the 17th Shard, I am Adamantame (you can call me Adam) and I have decided to finally join the site in preparation of WoR. My favorite book of created by the amazing Brandon Sanderson besides WoK is probably Warbreaker or the Final Empire. My favorite magic system is Allomancy and I think that if Shardblades were sentinent (kind of like Nightblood) the wielders should have accesses to some sort of Stormlight Bankai. My favorite character in the cosmere is the wonderful Hoid, my favorite color is blue, and I like sushi!

Elhokar's secret is that... HE CAN READ!

Blah. Guess Hoid is right. What we really value is timeliness. +1

Warning: This Post Contains Science. You're mostly right. Bonded molecules are "low" energy, but that's relative; some bonds have much more energy stored in them then others. To break a bond, you always have to add energy, and then that energy + the original bond energy sticks around with the unbonded leftovers. Those leftovers aren't just going to sit there, though; they form new bonds with each other. If the new bonds require less energy than it took to break the old bonds, the excess energy gets released into the environment. Explosive substances have a lot of energy stored in the original bonds. When you break those high-energy bonds and the leftovers form into molecules with low energy bonds, you get a ton of leftover energy. BOOM! How much BOOM is very dependent on which bonds you start with and which bonds you end with. If Division is only about breaking bonds, your explody effects are going to depend entirely on what you "divided".

@hoser: I thought for a long time on the last two epigraphs.The fact that she specifically reference forseeing the future, means that someone had seen the future. We know that forsight isn't of honor, but we don't know if it's of cultivation, so the voidbringer part might be a red herring. This leads me to believe that the message is either a warning, or a taunt by someone sided with odium. If it is a warning, what is it warning about. Seeing as Navani references the parshendi so much, in her entries, does that mean that this warning is about them, or is it Dalinar's desolation theory. Who would warn dalinar, there are plenty of these, but who would have the power of foresight? Personally I think Dalinar might be acquiring the power of foresight, as part of being a bond smith.

I had exactly the same feeling about Taravangian. Both Amaram and Taravangian justify the killing of innocents now "for the greater good", later. I know there are different ways of looking at this, but I tend to agree with Teft: "Journey before destination. There are always several ways to achieve a goal. Failure is preferable to winning through unjust means. Protecting ten innocents is not worth killing one. In the end, all men die. How you lived will be far more important to the Almighty than what you accomplished." I don't think Amaram will have a full redemption. I don't know what his goals are, but he did not need to kill innocents for shards. I'm honestly not sure there can be a full redemption after what he did. That being said, it would surprise me very much if Amaram died in WoR. I fully expect that Kaladin will need to work with him; it would really push Kaladin's character development. So... Predictions: Kaladin will have opportunity to kill Amaram in WoR, but will choose not to. When Amaram dies, (I'm betting book 4 or 5) it will not be by Kaladin's hand. Amaram will not die as a hero. We will probably sympathize with him in "I understand why he did that" kind of way, but not in a "he did the right thing" kind of way.

I converted my first person this year. He was an exchange student from Australia but he is actually American. Whilst he was here we went on holiday to the beach and there is no signal where we went so I told him to bring some books, he told me he hates reading, I gave him Mistborn anyway . Long story short, while in South Africa he read Final Empire, Well of Ascension, Hero of Ages and Alloy of Law he took back with him to Australia and of course the whole time he is reading it I'm dropping hints of the Cosmere. A month and a bit later when I go to Australia for my exchange he has already finished Way of Kings. He has now, to the best of my knowledge, read Warbreaker and a couple of days ago he got his copy of Elantris signed by Brandon while he was visiting family in Utah. He is now an active member of 17th shard(he just joined) and has already created a topic! his profile name on here is Zachi-chan. I'm really proud of this because not only have I created another Sanderson Fan but a READER! Then these next two are not so exciting, they're big fantasy readers and mother and son. I gave WoK to the son and then the mother read it. They love it and cannot wait for WoR but what really makes me excited is that they are as of now unaware of the Cosmere and I cannot wait for them to stumble across its brilliance.

It is also perfectly possible that she's asexual. There are people around who just aren't that attracted to other people.

Well things are looking bad for me, aren´t they? I have multiple things to say so one after the other. First, the argument that in my defense against the fact that I changed my vote with the mayority. Tecnicly I didn´t. Yes I changed my vote and I can understand that that makes me sucpicous but when I changed my vote it was 4 (me included) against Mat and 3 against Gravy so my vote actually made the mayority. Second, the spiked killing Jason was a pretty smart move. Given that he accused me, it woud seem that I have a motive. Admidetly a bad one given that he already said what he said, I had at least an attempted excuse and that suspicions are on me now but a motive non the least. Thirdly, I´m just gonna go bare and tell you my roll, as thinks stand I´m gonna die anyway, althoug something inside me screams against it. I´m the Seeker, so yeah and sadly I have next to nothing to prove it. The first night my target came in as undetected and it wasn´t Gravy, which leaves at least 6 possibilitys on why, so I´m gonna withold who for now and maybe present the name later on, depending on how things play out. My second target was ... Jason because I wanted to now wheather he was just guessing or accused me on purpose, sadly we all now how that played out. And thats all I can muster for my defense for now, so... please don´t kill me. Lastly, goodbye Jason may you rest in peace.

I did. Unfortunately, I live on the world where the Shard of Auto-Correction was shattered quite badly.

I solved it. We actually have to include "nonsense": "Kaglygrengse finds no Shardblade" I'm pretty sure that in the next book (or somewhere in the series) the character named Kaglygrengse will play an important role and be in bad need of a shardblade, but horrible things will happen because he can't find one. Also, it might be that this is not the actual spelling of the name. Could be two words: Kaglyg Rengse. Sounds Makabaki. Or maybe Horneater-ish. Edit: How could I be so blind! It's Rysn from the interludes! I assume her second name is Galgkege or something close. Nonsense. Balderdash. Figgldygrak. Rysn Galgkege finds no Shardblade.

I know this is a bit provocative, and a lot of people agree with Jasnah. I'd like to provide a basis to argue that we know the parshmen can't be voidbringers. Jasnah's theory is that the Parshmen will become suddenly violent, quickly bringing civilization to its knees because they are everywhere and they are trusted to be docile. There's a lot to support this: -it would work; they are everywhere and their sudden revolt would subdue civilizations -the evidence she presents points strongly towards them But I suggest the following facts contradict it: -there were several Desolations -over the course of the Desolations, the Knights Radiant were a constant, present for all of them regardless of the state of civilization as a whole. So in order for Jasnah to be correct, this sequence of events would have to repeat itself: -A desolation begins -After the desolation, civilization is in ruins -the people, noticing that the voidbringers are now defeated and docile, put them to work -over time, the people forget that the docile voidbringers were ever a threat -a new desolation begins Here's why this theory is unlikely: -the Radiants were still there. They lasted through several Desolations. Their institutional memory would cause them to recognize that "hey, enslaving the Voidbringers has turned out badly... let's see... 6 times now. NO MORE VOIDBRINGER SLAVES YOU GUYS!" and that's why Jasnah's theory is incorrect. In the interest of being fair and thorough, here are the ways this theory could prove false: -humans hadn't enslaved the parshmen before, they emerged in some other way during the previous Desolations (But I think Jasnah's theory strongly implies that she believes that the cycle is repeating exactly as it did before) -The Radiants were wiped out every time, and had to be re-founded every time, allowing them to forget -The Radiants were guilty of massive hubris every time, thinking "This time they are surely subjugated forever" -The Radiants kept quiet about the whole thing, because for some reason they wanted the Desolations to repeat.