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Long Game 22: Corenne al'Daishar - Return to Glory, or, The Return of the Blood Battle Wheel of Time Elimination Mayor Twim Calberen awoke from the horrible nightmare he had been having, dispelling horrible images of war and death, betrayal and blood. Light blind me, but that dream felt so real! He stood up and looked around his room, the same office he had used for the last dozen years or so, ever since becoming the Mayor of the quaint little village of Drell’s Crossing. He stood up, wincing at the aches and cracking joints that accompanied his morning routine as he stretched the wariness out of his bones before walking over to his desk. He forgot to put out his candle out before retiring the night before, he noticed, as he moved the fine sea folk porcelain dish holding the melted glob of wax off of the letter he had been reading. That was probably why he had nightmares, considering. His cousin had written him recently, telling of news and tales, all mostly old and almost guaranteed rumour. False dragons walking the earth? War, famine and disease? The Dead rising from the grave? Next the fool would start talking about the approach of Tarmon Gai’don! Surely his cousin’s talk of weird dreams and repeating nightmares had gotten the fancy into his head, and that would explain the dreams from the night before. Although this Hinterstap didn’t sound like a village Twim Calberen wanted to be visiting anytime soon! He idly traced his finger over the final sentence his cousin had written him. Corenne al’Daishar. Mayor Twim was rusty on his Old Tongue, but he was certain that translated to “Return to Glory”. Either that, or “The Return of Bloody Battles”, which didn’t sound nearly as promising. Still, with an uneasy feeling and a dark feeling of dread slowly settling over him, Twim Calberen decided to greet the day with a smile, as sometimes that’s what being Mayor was all about. It was time to say hello to all the wonderful citizens of his lovely town, Drell’s Crossing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's that time again! This is going to be a rerun of LG6, with just a few slightly tweaked rules, so read carefully! Also, if enough players sign-up, I'll also add in the Warder Role down below! (Highlighted in Orange). I will let you know before the game begins if any Warders are included or not! Villager:A regular, vanilla character. Who needs powers to be a hero? Each night you get to give a player a Dragon’s Fang* Darkfriend: A group of dedicated servants of evil. You and your small group have been given orders to infiltrate and destroy this town from the inside out. You get to conspire in a secret Doc with the other Darkfriends and the Forsaken. **They also have special rules if Corrupted. Forsaken: The Leader of the Darkfriends.Get to conspire with them in a Doc. When Viewed shows up as a 'Villager', or they can perform an additional Night Kill for the Darkfriends. If they perform the extra night kill, their actions can be Tracked the next day and any Viewings on them the night they perform the kill will reveal them as 'Forsaken'. Can not be Corrupted by Padan Fain. Wisdom: Has honed the powers of saving people to almost an instinct. Can target somebody once per night and protect them from one Kill. Can not target self. Can not save from lynch. Wolfbrother: You feel the call of the Moon and your nocturnal brethren. Can target somebody to Hunt and Kill once per night. Viewer: Can see images and auras around people. Once per night can target somebody and find out their Role and Alignment Thief-taker: You can smell evil and find out past crimes. During the Day Cycle, you can target somebody and at the beginning of the next Night Cycle, you will find out who, if anybody, they targeted the Night Before. Whitecloak: As a Child of the Light, it is your duty to root out criminals. Once per Day, during the Day Cycle, you can choose a player to Detain during the Night. This prevents any Night Actions performed against the target, and prevents the target from performing any Night Actions. Can not target self. Dreamwalker: You have mastered the World of Dreams. At night you can flee to The World of Dreams and can’t be targeted that Night. Except if the Forsaken targets you for a kill, you, then they can still kill you. Players are allowed to send PMs during the Night Cycle while you live. When there are no living Dreamwalkers, messages can’t be sent. Aiel-blooded: You may not look it, but you have hardened Aiel blood in your veins. You can survive one lynching or Night kill. The fact you survived an attack or lynching be revealed in the write-up, but not your alignment or role. Ta'veren: The Wheel Weaves as the Wheel Wills. Except when you're involved, as people have always told you how the Pattern of the Wheel seems to bend around you, either forcing you or those near you to take different actions and choices they wouldn't have otherwise. Once per night you can target a player and re-direct their actions to another player of your choice (Not yourself) Channeler: A wildling user of the One Power. You can chose one of your Weaves to cast per Night Cycle. Once you use all 5 weaves you becomes Burned Out and show up as a regular Villager. You can only use each Weave once. Air- Hands of Air protect a target from Night Kill. Not yourself Fire – Hurl a Fireball at target, performing a Night Kill. Water – Cast Mask of Mirrors on a target at night, making them Untargetable for the Night. Earth – Use Earth to harden your skin, allowing you to negate any one possible Night Kill against you. Can also be used to Survive a lynch. (You send the order in during the Day cycle you’re getting lynched, if so) Spirit – Lash out at somebody with a weave of Spirit, Role-Blocking their Night Action. Channelers also start the game Bonded to a Warder. You know who the Warder is, but not their Alignment. You can PM with your Warder for the duration of the game, regardless of the Dreamwalker being alive or not. *If your Warder dies, you die two full cycles after that. But you can reuse any Weaves you used once before again. Warder*: Warders start off the game paired with a Channeler. They know the identity of the Channeler, but not their Alignment. The Channeler and Warder can PM together throughout the duration of the game, regardless of a Dreamwalker being alive or not. If your Channeler would die, you sacrifice yourself in their place and die instead. Doesn’t save from a lynch. IF your Channeler is lynched, you have 2 Cycles left to live, and get to make 1 kill to avenge them. Padan Fain: You carry with you the Taint of Shadar Logath. You can Corrupt up to X number of players throughout the game. (X based off of number of players) Corrupted players have their own Doc to communicate in. Padan Fain can not Corrupt the Forsaken, if they target them the action will appear to be Role-blocked. Fain also shows up as a regular villager when scanned. He’s tricky like that. **Darkfriends that get Corrupted are capable of winning as either a Darkfriend or a Corrupted. Town Mayor: During the day, the town can hold public elections to elect a Town Mayor. The Mayor has influence throughout the town, so therefore they can either have their Vote count for double, OR, they can cancel out somebody else’s vote for that cycle. This power can be used the Cycle you get elected. Dragon's Fang: At night, Villagers without any special Roles get to help the village hunt down any possible darkfriends. Once a Night, they can submit a player they want to give a Dragon’s Fang. The player with the most votes for a Dragon Fang gets revealed in the Day write-up, and has an automatic vote placed against them for the lynch that Day. Villagers win if they eliminate all of the Darkfriends and Corrupted. Darkfriends win if they outnumber the other players. The Corrupted and Padan Fain win if they outnumber the other players. General Mafia Rules in effect. Each player is assigned a Role and Alignment at the beginning of the Game, and then they can post Votes in the thread during the Day Cycle, and send in any Role Actions whenever appropriate. The player with the most Votes tallied against them is Lynched at the end of the Day Cycle, Mayor votes and Dragon Fangs are included. Day Cycles will be 48hours long, and Night Cycles will last 24 hours, or end whenever all Night Actions are sent in. If you chose not to use an Action for the Night, still send a PM declaring your action to be “None”. How Write-ups will work: Votes will be posted publicly in the thread with a list of who voted for whom, etc. Night event write-ups will work like this: -Wolfbrother kills will be obvious. (Wolves swarm the victim) -When Padan Fain converts somebody, it will be mentioned in the write-up, denoted with the appearance of the evil white fog, Mashadar.** -Darkfriend and Forsaken kills appear the same -Wisdom healing somebody is only mentioned if they actually save the Target from Death -Whitecloak, If somebody is Detained, it is shown in the write-up, but not who was Detained or who Detained somebody -Channelers Fireball will be revealed in the write-up if used, and the other powers depending on if they interacted with any other Roles. (If Hands of air actually save somebody, Earth Skin will be written up the same way as Aiel-Blooded, Spirit and Water Actions won’t be revealed in write-up) -If your Action gets Role-blocked or doesn’t go through, it won’t be revealed in the write-up and you will just be informed your Action was ‘unsuccessful”. -If a Channeler gets roleblocked, then it counts as the weave never being used, and you can still use it later. (Unless Two Channelers use Spirit on each other, then they’re both used up) - Dreamwalkers detained by a Whitecloak can still be targeted by Forsaken for a kill Quick Links to the Beginning of Each Turn

Brandon has been very open about his future plans for the series, and has given us the names and extimated lengths of a number of Cosmere series. For example, Stormlight is going to be 10 books, and Mistborn was originally going to be three trilogies (Wax and Wayne will have 4 books, bringing the total to 13 Mistborn novels... for now.) As Tobar said, there will be two big Cosmere series, ones where Hoid is a main character: the Dragonsteel trilogy (earliest Cosmere series), and the fourth Mistborn trilogy (described as the 'grand finale'). As the 'bookends' to the rest of the books, these will most likely contain a lot more general Cosmere worldbuilding than usual. Dragonsteel is especially interesting, since it actually occurs before the Shattering of Adonalsium, and features all of the Shardholders as characters. I don't think it's been confirmed, but I know a lot of people speculate that the Shattering happens in the Dragonsteel series. Brandon's plan has changed over the years - at one point, it was 7 books, 2 of which were a Hoid-centric prequel duology (Liar of Partinel) a 5-book main Dragonsteel sequence. The rough draft of Dragonsteel was Brandon's thesis project, and one of the earliest Cosmere stories he plotted. Now, unfortunately, both of these series are a long way off, according to Brandon in his yearly State of the Sanderson update. Dragonsteel won't be published until Stormlight is finished. A few years ago, he wanted to write the third Mistborn trilogy between writing Stormlight 5 and Stormlight 6, but it sounds like he's pushed it back to make room for Wax and Wayne, so the third trilogy might also have to wait until the end of Stormlight, which means we'd have to wait even longer for the last Mistborn trilogy. Fun fact: in 2007, Brandon was going to kick off the Dragonsteel series after writing Warbreaker. He had a draft of the first book (Liar of Partinel), that didn't turn out great, and then when he was approached to finish Wheel of Time, he stopped working on Dragonsteel. When that one WoT book turned into three, Brandon's editor felt that Brandon needed to publish something of his own during that time, as well. Brandon, feeling that Liar wasn't ready, turned to another one of his old drafts - The Way of Kings. So, if things had turned out differently, we'd be getting Dragonsteel now instead of Stormlight. EDIT: Here come the sources! Shardholders are Dragonsteel Characters: http://theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=977#127 Dragonsteel is first, Mistborn is last: http://theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1112#30 Also relevant: http://theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1042#4 Dragonsteel has the Shattering in it: http://theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1094#39 Hoid is a main character in Dragonsteel and Mistborn: http://theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1076#2 Dragonsteel and final Mistborn will be Cosmere-centric: http://theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1076#7 Liar of Partinel history: http://theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=995#2

I think it perhaps has to do with your expectations. By reading your post, I understand you expected the romance sub plot to take more page time into the story then it truly did. When it didn't, you felt left down. It perhaps had to do with other books you have read where romance took over a larger part of the story. This being said, everyone will acknowledge the fact romance isn't Brandon's strongest point. For my part I was not disappointed by it as I was not exactly expecting it. There are things I expected which didn't pan out and there are thing I expect out of book 3 which may not happen, but WoR didn't disappoint me with its romance. For one, I actually enjoyed Adolin and Shallan's first date: I found it cute, adorable and refreshing. The poop joke had me rolled down laughing and had someone used it me: it would have worked. It tackles to how different people react to different events... Adolin is playful, young and stuck in a never-ending mode where he repeats the same discourse over and over again. It is a pattern: first he meets the girl (or to be more accurate, the girl presents herself), then he has a date where he recites the same stories made to make him appear as people expect him to be (oh so brave), then the girl pretends to fawn over him and well a few dates later, Adolin gets scared and screws it up. This time, Shallan completely disarmed him with her curious questioning (seriously how did knights poop when wearing their armor is amount one of the most asked questions in museums....): he forgot his speech which allowed him to be more... natural. Once his protection lowered, he confides in her something personal and he was hooked. To me, it was entirely plausible. Shallan is pretty, exotic (her entrance into the courtroom is very reminiscent of Shshshshsh's entrance into the bunker: father and son both start to stare at the hair), intelligent, but not arrogant or dismissive. She doesn't take him for dumb which is one of Adolin's sore spot. Adolin crushing on Shallan, despite the few dates, works for me. As for Shallan, she does not love Adolin. She manipulates him to her own ends, so her lack of thoughts, despite finding handsome, is not surprising. Courting Adolin only is one task on her long list, so she devotes to it the time she has, which is not much. As for the chasm scene, I would be careful before referring to it as an "attraction". For my part, reading them waking up in each other's arm and looking into their eyes passionately wouldn't have work. For one, it would be implausible for both characters to behave this way (neither are romantic and it will take much more than a few confidence down in a chasm where they thought they would die for Kaladin to start thinking of engaging into anything serious with a lighteyed) and for second whatever there is between this two has yet to grow into true romantic feelings. There is a curiosity, but neither has even begin to broach those feelings. There are many scenes we did not get. For instances, why didn't we get Adolin's POV after Shallan falls into the chasm? There are several reasons: either nothing interesting happened or it would have been too spoiler-y for future event. So why didn't Shallan and Kaladin talked more after learning they were both Radiants? Maybe because they didn't have time or maybe they had more important things to do than talking to each other or a lot of maybe. In the case of Warbreaker, I'd point out it was a rather short book. It couldn't realistically spend too much time on the romance, but I thought it was acceptable. We read how Siri starts up as scared of Susebron until she figures out he is more scared of her than her of him. They slowly start to approach each other: the intimacy takes a while to happen. For my part, it was plausible enough. Sure it wasn't a great love story, but neither do I expect those when I pick up a Brandon's book. Mistborn 2 though I thought it was done brilliantly. How Steris evolved from a background character to a more prominent and a rather cool one was a great surprise. Wax slowly over coming Lessie's death in order to open-up to Steris, who would not have been his first choice, was sweet. I thought it was rather well explained in the book why he prefers Steris: she is surprising, resourceful, sweet, a formidable planner, a good observer and her mental process allows her to make links nobody else does. Sure she isn't shooting people, but simply because Wax holds guns does not mean his partner has to do the same. I also disagree Marasi makes a better match. For one, she is too young for him, for second simply because they have work in common does not make them romantically compatible. Over all, I think your disappointments comes from your expectations and perhaps your personal tastes in romance. To me, your preference for Kaladin/Shallan and Wax/Marasi indicates a preference towards ships where both characters share a lot of common characteristics. Kaladin and Shallan are both Radiants and broken while Wax and Marasi are both law people with a love for actions and guns. You also seem to prefer ships where both partners argue a lot as opposed to more abnormal ships in between seemingly implausible partners. It strikes to me Brandon, as an author, seem to prefer to show how romance can bloom from unexpected people in unexpected circumstances. While I agree Brandon certainly isn't a great romance writer, it may be what he does write simply does not fall within your personal preferences. There is nothing wrong with this.

Cycle 3: A Perfidious Pair After 3 days of a forced march, the provisions that had survived their first encounter with the Canim were getting thin. They also hadn’t heard any howls from their hunters either. Dominus called a halt. “Alright soldiers, we’re going to stop here and forage for a bit to boost our food supply. Spread out and gather what you can. We move out in 45 minutes. If you’re not here, catch up when you can.” … Gathering food was beneath Aldric. Instead, he observed Araris, hoping for an opportunity to challenge him to duel, and finally prove that he was the better swordsman. Unfortunately, there were too many others in earshot. He yawned, starting to feel a bit tired. Why’s the air look a bit hazy… Then he felt a quick sharp pain in his neck. He tried to cry out, but he couldn’t do anything as his body collapsed. As the life ebbed out of his body, the last thing he heard were two bickering voices. “I told you that it’d be easy without metal!” “No, it was definitely the watercrafting.” “Hah. If not the lack of metal, it was definitely my windcrafting. Never heard us coming.” “Heard me coming you mean. You hardly have the strength to pick up a stick.” In some ways he was glad to not have to listen to it any further. Dominius was walking at the head of the column when he heard giggling. He rolled his eyes. Lexa and Heaven, of course. He looked pleadingly over at Luxet, walking beside him. She sighed in irritation, but nodded. She was his Tesserarius. Handling annoyances like this was her job, so he could focus on the actual work at hand. “Girls,” she began. He tuned out their voices after that, concentrating on watching the forest around them. He had to walk beside Luxet, since the windcrafting was technically tied to him, but that didn’t mean he had to actually listen to their mindless blatherings. After a while, Luxet groaned at rubbed at her forehead. “Could you survive without talking for just a couple minutes?” “No!” exclaimed one of them. “No way!” said the other. He wasn’t sure which was which, really. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t just kill both of you and leave you for the Canim,” Luxet said in exasperation. “Because you’re nice!” Dominus could practically hear the innocent smile plastered on that face. “Because we’re traitors!” Dominus stopped cold. “What?” “Uh...” “Because you’re nice! That’s what I meant to say.” Her voice quivered slightly. “You. Traitors.” Dominus glanced at Luxet, but she was already moving. He just had to stall for time. “Um... no?” “Well, we kinda are, Lexa.” “Shut up, Heaven.” “You sent the dream,” Dominus said. “You killed Aldric!” “Well, not the dream. That wasn’t us. It was-” “Heaven! Great furies, I love you, but-” “Sorry!” “Bloody crows, there are more of you?” “Language!” they said in unison, then broke into laughter. “Oh hi, Luxet!” said one of them. Heaven, he thought. “Come to arrest us? Put us into custody?” “No.” Dominus said. He heard a thump and a weak cry: “But-” “This is a war zone,” he said grimly. “We’re running from the bloody Canim. Do you think we can afford prisoners? Let alone traitors?” A second thump. “Sorry, girls. Tesserarius, make sure they’re dead.” “Sir,” she replied. The windcrafting abruptly disappeared. When Luxet came back, her uniform was spattered with blood. Dominus decided to address them at dinner time. “By now, you will have noticed that another 3 of our company are missing. Aldric never returned from foraging, and that he hasn’t caught up since means he is more than likely dead. Lexa and Heaven are no longer among our number, but for good reason. They were traitors to our cause but inadvertently confessed to being so. They are dead, and their bodies scattered. Before they died, they let on that they’ve been behind some of the deaths, and the dream we all shared, and that there’s yet more of them among us. “So I need you to be both vigilant and careful. But don’t let this shake us apart. If we stand together, we can remove the traitors from us without any more innocent blood being shed. If we fight together, we can cleanse our ranks of the impurities, and come out as a shining example of soldiers who have spat in the eye of death and triumphed! Dismissed.” The speech didn’t quite have the desired effect. A number of soldiers immediately began to bicker, pointing fingers, and then weapons at each other. As their voices began to get louder and louder, Dominius started back to settle things down. He was only able to take a few steps, though, before Gammax stepped up and ran Mulciber through with his sword. “She’s definitely a traitor. Everyone remembers the flames that rose high in the nightmare, right? Mulciber is always setting fires. Search her, and I’m sure you’ll find evidence to show she was planning to burn us all to ash.” “Bloody crows!” Dominius yelped. He glared at everyone. “When I said ‘without any more blood being shed’, what do you think I meant? Kill everyone you’re even vaguely suspicious of? Mulciber was like a sister to me, and you’ve killed her just because she might be a traitor.” He sighed. Dominus quickly firecrafted Mulciber’s body to ash, using air and water to keep the ash contained, and to hide sight of fire from view, before sending the ashes a fair distance away, along a different path, so as maybe to distract their pursuers, when they reached this point. He dearly hoped they would lose them, but with the trail of bodies, and the constant distractions, he was no longer sure they could... Burnt was lynched! She was a Loyal Legionare with Tier 2 Earth and Tier 1 Metal! Winter was killed by a metalcrafter! She was a Traitor with Tier 1 Air and Tier 1 Water! Phattemer was killed by the traitors! He was a Loyal Legionare with Tier 2 Earth and Tier 1 Water! Vote Count Winter (1): HS Phatt (1): Con Joe (1): Lopen Burnt (2): Aman, Gamma Cycle 3 has begun! You have 48 hours to send in actions and decide who to lynch. PMs are being sent out now. All PMs from Cycle 1 are now closed.

Alright! It's been a while since anything has happened in most of the threads, so I think it's about time to passive-aggressively post the link to the almighty spreadsheet! It may or may not have been updated recently. Probably not. From Spreadsheet's memory banks, and from my own imperfect knowledge of what has and has not been written, here's the breakdown: Portland -The Chimera Situation: I double-checked. Kobold's next up. -Kidnapping Neverthere: I... think Timeport's next to post. The other people involved could probably write something too, though, if they wanted to. -Backtrack and Friends, Back in the House: Backtrack was the last to post here. The interaction with PP and Sach is over, I believe. I'm not sure what their plans are, actually. -Corpsemaker: Do something maybe. Whatever. -A whole bunch of other tangents which are vaguely waiting on our current set of major events to come to a conclusion in order to continue: Wait for the current set of major events to come to a conclusion, then continue. You know who you are. The Dalles -Quicksilver Fight: I'm hoping to write this in a series of collabs, if at all. First, though, me, Kob, and Twy have to make a little thing. This should be extremely fun. -The Clinic: Lyla posted last. Looks like Edge or Voidus are next up. Scribbler's reaction is probably more important but Shiny is the one who hasn't posted for the longest. The upvotes are just raining down on this little interaction, so post 'em like they're hot. -Freq's Gang: Honestly, I have no idea where this is going. I wanted to have a little out-of-town sideplot happen, but Shattered sort of disappeared on us. If anyone thinks Sunspot and Blindside look fun (they were extremely well-written, for sure,) go ahead and ask to adopt them, then maybe we'll ask for a post occasionally and you can have a character on the dark side of The Dalles. If no one wants them, I think we'll probably just move to infiltrate the city directly as soon as the Quicksilver thing is resolved. I'll have to double-check with Maill about that. -Rowena(?): ? Astoria -Ragnorok/Antimatter: Something, something, something. I have absolutely no idea where this is going, but I'm guessing it isn't done yet. Edge already wrote a post as a reaction, so I suppose Warrior is primed to continue with whatever he's going to do. -Invasion stuff: I assume it's still going on. They were arguing or something (hold on...) mmm. Nope. I don't think there are any loose ends there. I think we're just waiting for more time to pass before actually doing the invasion. -Corpsemaster: I have more stuff here, but I guess I'm waiting for someone to interact with. Voidus...? *whimpers for attention* -KFC: No idea where this is going, but I'm guessing you guys' PM stalled. Corvallis -Whatever: This city has so many loose ends at the moment that I'm not even sure where to start. I don't even write in this thread. Go figure it out for yourselves Salem -Hey! We're important!: Yeah, nothing's happening. I dunno. Does anyone even have anything right now? -Oh wait, I do: Was planning to write an introduction post for the Rift Cult. Wastelands -Just do your thing, Wastelands: Just do your thing, Wastelands.

I am pleased to tell you that my AC (which was definitely broken; the fan had snapped and it was generating heat instead of combating it) is now fixed! Nothing better than walking into an air-conditioned apartment!

As awesome as this sounds, and as cool the idea of Investiture being evil is... I gotta say no. I think there is a WoB that he is just corrupting the investiture. I know that there are a few WoB that conflict on this issue, but I am going to say that he is just corrupting it. And, even if he is 'Destroying' Investiture, I doubt that it is a direct function of his Command. Also, I think that the way he 'destroys' investiture is largely because he consumes vast quanities of it, And he uses it in such a way that most of it is rendered useless. Sort of like, when you cook bacon, you always end up with a smaller piece of bacon then you started with, because excess fat/oils are rendered away. Yes ladies and gentlemen, investiture is basically bacon.

Bolded for emphasis. I am responding to each point again as you stated you were being misunderstood, so I wanted to ensure I was giving each point its due attention. Words of Radiance Regarding Adolin and Shallan's flirting about poop: Words of Radiance page 570 He paused again. She was probably supposed to ask what happened next. "What if you need to poop?" she asked instead. "Well, I put my back to the chasm and laid about me with my sword, intending to....Wait. What did you say?" "Poop" Shallan said "You're out there on the battlefield, encased in metal like a crab in its shell. What do you do if nature calls?" "I....er...." Adolin frowned at her. "That is not something any woman has ever asked me before" "Yay for originality!" Shallan said, though she blushed as she said it. further down "I'm not doing anything to you" she said "I'm just curious." And honestly, she was. She'd thought about this. Perhaps more than it deserved consideration That's Shallan being genuine. Adolin doesn't pay attention to women for long, because they don't truly pay attention to him. It is a play that is acted out because it is expected of him. Shallan did not bring up poop out of shock value, but because she genuinely wanted to know. That scene threw out the whole "when on a date, don't be yourself because you might scare the person off" out the window. Shallan said "hey this is me, you want to keep talking?" and Adolin replied "wow really? cool! Let's do this again!" When you find something that feels right, when you find someone that you feel really groks who you are and what you are about, things speed up. I went from thinking I need to be boyfriend and girlfriend with someone for about three years before contemplating moving in together, and five years before proposing. After meeting my wife, we dated for a year before we started discussing moving in together. Finding and buying the coop took about a year, and after moving in together and being there for me amazingly when I lost my mother to cancer, I proposed. Year later we got married. Every step of the way felt right. When people first heard we were moving in together, some thought we were moving fast. Meanwhile I couldn't be happier. To you it struck you as crude, to Adolin it was endearing. Also consider given that is the form their flirting took place, and you felt it was crude, would you really want to read more? Word of Radiance page 879 For now, he wanted to think - though he was still glad for her presence. And aware of it in more ways than one, pushed against him and wearing the wet, increasingly tattered dress. His conversation with the Stormfather, however, drew his attention away from that sort of thought. Syl. Had he really....killed her? he had heard her weeping earlier, hadn't he? So when they wake up, he notices her physical proximity. But he had just found out he killed her brother, and killed Syl. I don't know about you, but as it states in the book, my mind would not jump back to the curves of the woman next to me and continuing our friendly banter. They both have a lot on their mind. Shallan just confessed to killing her father. A fact that she has been avoiding since she actually did the deed. That would weigh heavily on a person's mind. So given the content of the scene, the travel back was more than likely in companionable silence. Warbreaker As already pointed out, the main content over the course of weeks/months was each night Siri stripping down, jumping up and down on the bed moaning, and then once the spying individuals leave, reading together. The purpose of that was to demonstrate Susebron's naivety, and show the simplicity of two people connecting on a personal and intimate level without needing all the pomp and circumstance of a date or sexual tension. They were comfortable together. Siri felt safe with Susebron and Susebron felt safe with Siri. Personally I see a scene painted in a dark room, by light from a fireplace, reading a book together, smiling and learning together to be very romantic. Mistborn era 2 As I stated it was Wax and Steris truly discovering what makes them who they are. She may have grated on you, but Wax saw something in her that resonated with him. He saw past the cover. I think it speaks volumes about their relationship that Wax can start abhorring a task Steris enjoys, and learn to appreciate it and in fact enjoy it with her. I do not see why Adolin needs to start a physical advance in order for her to know he is attracted to her and visa versa. What does it truly add to the story, or even their narrative in their relationship? Adolin never reached that point in courting with a woman before. It is all new to him. He is nervous. It shows a vulnerability and sense of humanity to the stereotypical "pretty rich boy". Everyone sees him as a womanizer and spoiled brat, but the reality couldn't be furthest from the truth. Shallan realizes that, which is why she makes the first move on him. All these relationships referenced work differently than normal because those relationships are used to help develop the character. Kaladin is not going to act the way Adolin acts who is not going to act the way Wax acts who is not going to act the way Shallan acts who is not going to act the way Steris reacts in a relationship. They are all unique individuals. I didn't respond to the rest of that post as those points I covered earlier in this post. So you identified with the character and felt she should get with the main character. Not everyone identifies with Marasi. Quite a few people identify with Steris, and for them it is nice to see that relationship play out because it may be harder for them to connect with another person on a deeper emotional level due to all the factors she is dealing with. I am very regimented and scheduled with my life, yet my wife light heartily teases me and understands. We understand each other, which is why we love each other. Wax understands Steris. He doesn't understand Marasi. So you did not like the crude comment about poop from Shallan to Adolin. Nyali and I were making fun of the poop comment, but that comes off as patronizing to you? I apologize if so, but it was not meant as such, and pretty much everything Nyali said. As well as I corrected the downvote too Nyali. I think I covered everything. Whew, took awhile to type all of that. I will close this post with the point that you did ask and I quote: What are your thoughts guys? We told you our thoughts, and did it as respectfully as we could while disagreeing with you. You did ask.

Day 5: Eyewall Writeup to be edited in. (TheMightyLopen) was killed. He was a Knight Radiant and Vessel holding the Shard of Honor Honor has been Shattered! Zephrer has been killed! He was a Mistborn Roshar has been destroyed! All players on that world have been randomly assigned to other world PMs.

<3 Clearly, we must now romance.

So I am going to do my best to try and not to offend because I actually really dislike the type of romance Luciellav is referring to. So this is totally and completely just my own opinion, and any negative comments regarding the type of romance are purely pointed at the type of romance and have nothing to do with Luciellav as a person or her own preferences. Hopefully that covers it. So I have always felt that kind of romance comes off derivative, artificial, lazy writing, and takes away from the plot of the story. Real life (in my opinion) doesn't work that way. There is not some great catastrophe, or occurrence that throws two people together and then their eyes lock and they long for each other. It takes away from actual relationship development. Things like spending time together organically and talking genuinely are what build real relationships. Even with the Steris and Wax situation where she gets all excited over his roguish hero mystique, there are still times where they are together getting to know who they each other outside of drama. The train car scene is the prime example. Wax learns to see Steris not as an awkward, dry, OCD laden, judgmental, and boring woman, but as an intriguing, clever, passionate, and strong woman. That is what begins the attraction for her. Marasi and Wax conversely realize that any attraction was purely at face value. Marasi saw Wax as a heroic idol, that got shattered when she met and got to know him. Wax saw Marasi as a young naive girl that happens to hold the same interests that he needs to protect and never fully accepts that she is capable and strong on her own. Steris is not a damsel in distress, she is a capable member of the team. Marasi is also a capable member of the team, but when working on her own/in her own way. It takes far more to build that level of interaction, than to throw two characters into a dangerous situation, and suddenly they realize they are meant for each other. I think there is even a clinical term for those kind of relationships though I blank on it now. I might get some flame for this, but a huge example of lazy relationship writing in my opinion is Jim Butcher. Sorry I ended up going on a rant. To sum up, I like Brandon's style of romance because it doesn't take center, or even second stage. The world ending should be a priority. Whether you like a girl or boy or not, life still moves on. Events in the world still occur regardless of a relationship status, and I feel books should reflect that. I am sorry if I come off critical or derisive. Just the kind of romance I see in books regularly irks me, and I tend to skip over the scenes because they seldom if at all add anything to the actual story. edit: LOL now i feel better to know someone feels the same way I do Nyali to the point that we wrote very similar arguments at the exact same time.

I think I have to disagree on Brandon being bad at romance. I think some of his romantic situations are pretty downright adorable and interesting. I love that he almost never writes love polygons, which I find contrived and utterly stupid (I'm polyamorous, so I have a really hard time understanding love triangles and the like). I like that his apparent triangles are actually something entirely different, and the characters take time figuring that out. He has plots where characters fall in love with each other in absence of direct conflict against that love, and to me, that's pretty refreshing after some of the other stories I've been consuming. That said, Brandon has written a specific romantic scenario four times now that I can think of, and let me put this behind a tag just in case (spoilers for most of Sanderson's books): (I apologize for any name spelling errors - I listen to audio books mostly these days and am just guessing on some of them.)

This is an article I agree with. In fact -and as egotistical as it sounds- it's the thing that I said, from the start, was the most fascinating prospect of having Spidey in the MCU. ...but also, the comments started talking about pop culture in the universe, and wondering what Doctor Who would be like in the MCU and guys? Guys. This is the best thing, I want this so much.

Hey guys, just want to refresh everyone's memory of the Fair Play Rules:

Vorax groaned softly. Another three people were killed during the night. Ten years on the Shieldwall, and Vorax thought that he would have at least gotten used to it by now. He thought he had. But not even the Icemen could be more terrifying than this horrible fate. Vorax got up from his bed and walked around the camp, slowly stretching his muscles. He could feel the tension in the air, and could tell that people were already pointing fingers, so he had better be ready for the day that was to come. Please excuse the quality. I had to rush it, because my schedule is really tight right now. Edit: Fixed name

I have to correct one thing, Confused. Brandon has stated fairly unambiguously that the Shard's Mandate (I think he used intent in the WoB, but I like the Mandate term too) only really affects how you gain access to the magic, not what it can do. My view from the WoB's I've seen plus in-world clues is that the Shard provides the method of Initiation, and in some cases provides a way to lose the power (ala Surgebinding), but the world and its foci in particular affect how to actually use the magic (metals on Scadrial, colors on Sel, etc) are an unconscious interaction between the Shard and the planet itself, and the Shard's Mandate doesn't play a role in what is possible with the magic system at all. jW

Night had descended quickly, the sun nothing but a shimmering, red blister on the horizon, causing the twilit sky to slowly bleed for a deep orange, to a bruised purple, and finally masking everything under the cover of darkness. Gammax hated night times the most. Never knowing who was out there, secretly plotting behind your back, sneaking up on you with knives drawn, waiting for the time you weren't looking. Gammax was ready for that tonight. He had exerted himself throughout the day, spending his time away from everybody else and all their insane bickering. Debating who to kill next? As if murder was that civilized. He realized he didn't have a choice but to help participate.... the captain had already made that abundantly clear with the threat of "desertion and dereliction of duty" hanging over everybody's head. Still, it didn't mean he had to like it. So Gammax spend the whole day gathering up firewood. Piles and piles of kindling and smaller twigs to keep the base and coals going. Giant logs to toss onto the fire to keep it burning the whole night. He would keep his campsite well lit. He wasn't going to let anybody sneak up on him. Except maybe that one person..... the only other person who had really come forward and confronted Gammax. They extended the hand of friendship. And Gammax didn't want to lose his only friend...... but could he really trust them? He shook his head once again, dispelling the thoughts of paranoia that seemed to grip his psyche lately. No. He told himself. You have to trust somebody..... He just had to wait and see how the night went, first.

On the topic of Cap being Hydra: (Where's Slowswift? I have a feeling he'll have a good reaction to all this.) ...Anyway. Going swimming on military bases is interesting because usually they're pretty quiet and nice but sometimes you'll get a platoon of soldiers in full tactical gear bobbing around the shallow end. That's something you don't get to see at the YMCA.

SEE WHY IT'S UNCOMFORTABLE??

Wow, that's incredibly unprofessional. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding arising from our different associations with the word/concept. My associations are all positive, because baby. (EDIT: Clarity)

I'm stealing that. jW

Tonight I will be doing some server maintenance. This will affect 17th Shard, the Coppermind, Mistborn: The Inquisition, and the TWG Archive. So basically everything on the entire site. This will begin at 11:00pm PDT. It should not take more than an hour and could be even faster. You will probably see weird errors while this occurs but it's okay. I probably won't break anything

Same as Honor Spren. My book reviews tend to be a few lines of gushing if I liked it, or fourteen paragraphs of sarcasm if I hated it.

Maybe instead of Cap’n Jack we had Cap’n Steve in the TARDIS, his disappearance in WWII cover for being recruited into the Time Agency, and still flirting with everything that moved… followed by some embarrassment when the real Cap turned up alive. But when real Cap meets young Doctor Who fans he pretends that he really DOES know the Doctor. ​All in favor of a petition calling for more crossovers between American and British media….?

There are a great deal lot of people who cares: you may want to re-visit the former Cosmere MBTI thread where it was previously discussed just to appreciate how many people were interested in it. If you aren't interested in this thread, then you can choose to ignore it without implying those who may find an interest in it bizarre creatures.

Pretty sure there is a WoW that mentions that Nightblood is an exception to that rule, so Nightblood reduces the amount of investiture in the cosmere. Edit: from http://www.theoryland.com/intvsresults.php?kwt=%27investiture%27

The Alloy of Law introduced Cadmium and Bendalloy Mistings into the Mistborn universe, known as Pulsers and Sliders respectively, and boy oh boy are they important to this method! A Cadmium-burning Pulser can make time slow down in a bubble around themselves, while a Bendalloy-burning Slider can make time speed up in a bubble around them. Pulsers are incredibly useful in day to day life—who hasn’t wanted more time in the day?—but Sliders may be the ones who hold the key to faster-than-light travel. Time and space are intertwined aspects of each other. The most massive objects in the universe—our Sun, neutron stars, and black holes—warp space and time naturally by exerting massive amounts of gravitational force upon the space around them. Sliders and Pulsers, however, get to do this without having to summon enough power to crush a solar system. This is an extremeenergy cheat on the part of these Mistings! By altering the flow of time around them, Cadmium and Bendalloy Mistings are also altering the flow of space around them. Visualized, it looks like the effects an Alcubierre drive has on the fabric of space. (Pictured above.) According to the Ars Arcanum of the Mistborn series, Bendalloy Sliders contract time around them, speeding it to one-eighth of its normal rate, which means that they’re also contracting the space around them to one-eighth of its size. The occupants in that “space” travel at the same rate, but they have less “space” to cross, so the end result is that they arrive at their destination sooner. This also means that Cadmium Pulsers, by slowing time around themselves, are expanding the space around them, presumably to eight times its size. They are also traveling that “space” at the same rate, but there is now eight times more space to traverse before they arrive at their destination. To an observer outside of these bubbles (in this case, the rest of the universe) a spaceship traveling through a Pulser’s bubble would appear to slow down within the bubble, while a spaceship traveling in a Slider’s bubble would appear to speed up. Like Coinshots, Mistings who generate time-altering bubbles have certain limits. They are stationary and do not move with the Misting that generated them, and they’re small, on average five feet in diameter. To make a Slider’s spacetime-speeding bubble have any real effect, we’d need the bubble to be longer than the ship itself, so let’s figure out how big our ship is. The length of a NASA shuttle orbiter is only 37 meters, but we’d most likely want a bigger ship (and a star to steer her by…) and a nice buffer of space before and after the ship itself, so we’d want a ship 50 meters passing through a bubble 150 meters in diameter. So far, a Slider bubble of this size has not been generated in the Mistborn books, but it’s possible one could be created with assistance from one or more Nicrosil Nicrobursts. As we read above, minimum speed for a spaceship attempting to escape the gravitational pull of its own solar system is essentially 45,000 meters per second, but we’d actually want our spaceship to go slower than that. There are two reasons: One, in case something goes wrong with the Slider on board, the spaceship won’t be at risk of rocketing out of its solar system to certain doom. And two, the spaceship needs to be traveling slowly enough to be successfully captured by the gravity of its destination solar system. As opposed to an Alcubierre drive, where the bubble travels with the spaceship, our ship has to move through a stationary bubble that does not travel with the ship. Our craft needs a precise speed, slow enough to achieve through conventional means but quick enough to take full advantage of the 150 meter bubbles. Let’s set 25,000 meters per second as the speed a Scadrial spaceship would be traveling as it hits the first bubble generated by its onboard Slider/Nicroburst combo. (This is also roughly the speed of Earth’s quickest probes.) From the perspective of those inside the spaceship, their craft would traverse this distance in only .006 seconds. From the perspective of an outside observer (and space itself), the spaceship would travel through the bubble in only .000750 seconds, one-eighth of the time experienced by those inside the bubble. The spaceship would emerge from the bubble 131.25 meters ahead of where it should be. .006 seconds is an instant for those onboard the spaceship, so the Slider/Nicroburst combo could generate and collapse bubbles as fast as they could think and jump the ship ahead 131.25 meters every time. It would take 2,285,715 such bubbles to move the ship 1 light year, which is unfathomably exhausting for a Misting, but possible. (It is probably even more possible for a machine Invested with a Slider’s power.) If a bubble was generated once per second, it would only take 26 days and 11 hours to travel one light year, all while only traveling at a speed of 25,000 meters per second! It gets even better, though. If two Slider/Nicroburst combos overlap their bubbles, then their warp effects are, at minimum, doubled. (We don’t know the actual multiplication factor, so let’s go with the minimum.) The ship would jump 140.625 meters in only one-sixteenth the time, more than halving the amount of time needed to move the ship one light year! A team of four Slider/Nicrobursts working in tandem would more than halve that number, making one light year a distance of only a week. If you keep doubling the number of Slider/Nicroburst combos, you keep halving the time. It doesn’t take long to get to an ideal combination of Sliders, Nicrobursts, and travel time, though. All in all, you would only need 32 Slider/Nicroburst combos to bring the distance of one light year down to a journey of a single day. Ideally, you would have twice that, so that you could have two alternating waves of Sliders and Nicrobursts that renew their stored metals while the other wave burned theirs. This isn’t at all an impossible task. In fact, it’s one that the people of Scadrial, as we know them from the current Mistborn Wax & Wayne series, are probably only one century away from achieving! copy-paste FTW!

Woah, woah, woah. First, not all men are "thugs" on Roshar. We don't see a whole lot of different professions due to the focus of the novels but it is an incredibly unfair generalization to make upon the men of Roshar. One of the main viewpoint characters was trained as a surgeon by his father whom abhorred killing. The city of Kharbranth is known for its surgeons which I'm fairly certain includes men. Stormwardens use complex mathematics to produce fairly accurate meteorological predictions for Highstorms and seem to be scientifically minded as Navani included them in the group watching her Reverser test. Many men are simple farmers, Thaylen men are seen to be traders, Horneaters only have certain children become warriors, the Shin essentially view soldiers as slave and thus seem to value more cultivating trades, the Reshi appear to mostly yell and boast when they "war", the Azish have an emphasis on their bureaucratic theocracy (or theocratic bureaucracy) and generally don't seem warlike or thuggish (too much paper work to be violent and have a civil war), etc. That's not even mentioning the fact that Ardents seem to be fairly well-educated, Alethkar has male silversmiths and presumably blacksmiths, and the book that's the basis of the pseudo-religious male/female dichotomy presumably has more professions that are either acceptable trades for men or trades without gender basis like horse groom. Also, the claim to illiteracy also seems to be fairly untrue. It appears that it's mostly the eastern Vorin polities that have a general restriction on men reading. It's mostly taboo though some certainly learn it, like ardents and Taravangian. That's not even mentioning the fact that many well-educated men can read the iconographic glyphs and Stormwardens have created their own script outside of the women's script. Then, as you start going west, the literacy of men appears to go up. You have the Thaylen merchant in Kharbranth, Artmryn, of whom Shallen suspects can read but has his wife do it to protect her Vorin sensibilities. You have Szeth, a Shin, writing Gavilar's final words in the women's script. The entire succession of the Prime Aquasix in Azir involves the applicants to write essays and such, many of the applicants shown being men. But that digresses from the point. In my opinion, Jasnah's sexuality could be asexual, bisexual, homosexual, heterosexual, or any multitude of others given the lack of any information we have indicating it. What I always got was that she was just focused on her research and saving the world to the exclusion of much else. We have that scene on the Wind's Pleasure showing just how hard she works on it. Honestly, as a graduate student, I can relate.

Keland is the half-brother to the town fool, Witless. In an alternate universe, Witless was once an Aiel-Blooded Mayor, but that's just not his destiny in this universe. Keland is the innkeeper of The Golden Dagger, the town inn, and while he runs a pretty tight establishment, he usually lets his (half) brother sleep in the stable loft when there aren't many guests. He's a good brother like that.

For some reason, I also picture them with rubber ducks.

It's true that characters need flaws and limitations to be interesting, but authors have to be careful. If not blatantly obvious or pointed out by the story, people might see a "good" character espousing a "bad" belief, and think that it's perfectly alright because the "good" character is saying it. In fact, a "good" character with "bad" beliefs might be interpreted as the author themself promoting the "bad" belief. This is further compounded if the "bad" belief is still prevalent in many parts of the world. For example, readers might react poorly if a male protagonist says that a woman's boobs are more important than her abilities, especially if nothing happens in the story to suggest that attitude is wrong. Authors have to be careful with they beliefs the give their characters. In this case, Wayne was being insensitive to the struggles of the LGBTA+ community with his "it's just a phase" and threesome suggestions, and it might not have been the best decision to put that in there, especially since many LGBTA+ people face similar situations in real life. Wayne's comments were insensitive, vulgar, and homophopic. However, we can and should assume that Brandon intended to show Wayne's character, not preach opinions about LGBTA+ people.

I'll join as Ana-Alline. Also, since both the dark friends and the corrupted only need to outnumber the other players, could they win with each other if a darkfriend was corrupted and there were equal numbers of uncorrupted darkfriends and non-darkfriend corrupted? So there would be 2 corrupted, 1 both, and 2 darkfriends. Since both teams have 3, do they both win?

Perhaps Sanderson is reserving Jasnah in case he reaches a point where he feels more comfortable writing a LGBTA+ character? Or maybe not. If not, I think a lot of people are missing the colorful writing on the wall: Who is a known scholar with a fiery red passion for research who would definitely appreciate a woman as wonderfully bright (get the pun?) as Jasnah? Hint: he wishes he had made the choice that let's him sleep at night.

I don't think the cognitive realm is solely a function of the individual perceptions, but I think a component is the collective unconscious as filtered through aspects of each realm specific to each realm. Places without conscious thought simply don't exist in the cognitive realm, bringing everything much closer together, afterall.

Sure, why not. I'll sign up as Eryn, a Cairhienin "Maiden of the Sword." She's staying at the village's inn after getting separated from her "society" while traveling and then getting lost in the woods. It's hard to follow in the footsteps of the Aiel when you have no sense of direction!

Sure. Let's go with Cenn al'Idrius

No. Clearly, we must discuss defecation. It's traditional around here. <.< (And I have a wife, not husband - same sex marriage ftw!)

I suppose it all depends on your individual tastes. Some people are more into the whole romance side of things than others. Personally, I find it fine where it is. If anything, I could have coped with slightly less in Warbreaker. It's been a while since I read it, so forgive me if I get something wrong, but I seem to recall a gradual shift from fear of one another, to curiosity, into a steady relationship. Particularly through the transition of Siri being the ignorant one at the beginning, being thrust into a position of maturity, to her eventual realization that Susebron is even more naive and inexperienced than she is, which was quite a powerful moment. I guess it's just a matter of taste, I suppose.

The fact that our society prioritizes sports the way they do at all disgusts me, to be honest.

That's why there are 10 Orders and not one. Honour (like all Shards) has a number of interpretations I.e what does it mean to be Honourable/have or act with Honour, as demonstrated by each Order's different Oaths. Simply put, each order sees a different journey to a the destination.

Welcome to the 17th Shard! Here's an upvote for you! I'm fairly new myself, but welcome nonetheless! The Mistborn books were my second Sanderson series, and I'll tell ya, I love them. They were what really got me into Brandon Sanderson's books. I've also really, really, liked the Stormlight Archive. Just be ready to be slightly confused in the beginning Germany is very beautiful. Don't worry too much about your English, you did amazingly!

Welcome to the forums! I hope you enjoy your stay here. The Stormlight Archives is a very good series. I'd also recommend Elantris. Oh, and your English is excellent for a second language! Don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have PS: If someone offers you cookies, DO NOT take them. They're secretly Hemarulgic spikes that will give you powers in exchange for your soul and all free will

...sorry. I'll just go...annoy Kaladin alongside Wit or something...

I'm currently re-reading Warbreaker, and I'm starting to think that there might be more than one shard on Nalthis. A number of bits in this are going to be somewhat spoilery, so bear that in mind if you haven't finished this book. What we know for sure: Something I've noticed during this read is that the main characters tend to trust those whom they should not, and ignore, fear, and reject those who are trying to help make things better. For example: All of those things might just be part of the writing style, and how the kingdom operates. We are a product of our experiences, and maybe those exact same events would play out no matter which world the characters were on. However, we've seen a similar influence on Taldain. It has been confirmed that Bavadin is there, and he holds the shard of Autonomy. It's expressed in the actions of the people, wanting to be independent. To take charge and assert themselves. We also see it on Roshar, with the Knights Radiant. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find a second shard on Nalthis related to Deception or Mistrust. Some kind of influence causing people to act the way they do. Are there any credible sources that deny the possibility of more shards on that world, or is this a possibility? Thoughts?

Ah, finally, a place to share my epiphany from the other day. While waiting for the train to work, this sudden thought of the cause of the Shattering hit me. I apologize for the length this will undoubtedly end up being, but first, some slight backstory: At the Shadows of Self midnight release and book signing, I asked Brandon about the magic system on Yolen, seen in Dragonsteel, and its relation to other magic systems in the cosmere. His response was "You have to remember that Dragonsteel is pre-Shattering." I have a completely different reason for asking that question, but his answer intrigued me. What's more, he started to say why it HAD to be pre-Shattering, but then stopped himself. Without too much discussion on the "forbidden zone" of unpublished works, I think it's safe to say that it has to be pre-Shattering because the "opposing force" is likely the same threat that Hoid knows is coming, though he doesn't know who/what it is or what it will do, despite actively trying to fight it. Even then, Frost had a "non-intervention" policy, not wanting to get involved in major events. In The Second Letter he says "My path has been chosen very deliberately." He chooses to not interfere, and tries very hard to persuade Hoid to join him. However, immediately before that, in the same Letter, he says, "Is not the destruction we have wrought enough? The worlds you now tread bear the touch and design of Adonalsium. Our interference so far has brought nothing but pain." He goes on to talk about Rayse, and the danger he poses, and how they are "as infants", and don't know what they're doing. Based on the Letter alone, it's seems to me that Hoid and Frost either indirectly or even DIRECTLY caused the Shattering. Considering Frost's policy pre-Shattering, and his vehement adherence to it post-Shattering, I think Hoid probably convinced him to set it aside for a brief period of time and take up the fight against the "opposing force". However, that led to pain, destruction, and worlds bearing "the touch and design of Adonalsium". Thus Frost goes back to his non-intervention policy, and even goes as far as to send the 17th Shard after Hoid to stop him from mucking things up further. We do know that the Shattering was a deliberate choice, possibly to stop the "opposing force" from getting Adonalsium, and I think it might have been caused by those two. But they didn't realize what effects such a decision would cause. As to whether or not Adonalsium was held by someone that died, causing it shatter, or the nature of it before those events, I can't say.

Khyrindor is correct, from what I can decipher. His abilities allow him to transcend the 4th dimension, not just the 3rd, at least to a degree. And I believe I heard someone say that he can move FORWARD in time, but not back. Don't quote me on that though, I don't know if it's true. But even before the Shattering (presumably before having 4th dimensional abilities), he was several centuries old. Again, not as old as Frost, though. That guy remembers millennia before Hoid was even born.

Since I'm brand new to the Forums, I'm just now getting to posting my Q&As from the BYU Library signing. I was going to try and hide the Dragonsteel bits in a spoilery section, but apparently I don't know how. Sorry! 1. Q: It seems to be more and more apparent that different abilities are granted depending on the design of one's spiritweb. Is the design of a spiritweb, and the abilities it grants, limited to a specific shardworld, or are the designs universal across the cosmere? For example: can a worldhopper from Roshar travel to Scadrial and access previously locked portions of their spiritweb through methods such as hemalurgy? A: Most abilities are free to be used across the cosmere, but some are VERY region-locked, like with Elantris. They have difficulty using their abilities outside their own country. There is a reason for this. But most are able to be used elsewhere. 2. Q: Is it possible for there to be a microkinetic who can see spiritwebs to the point that they could alter a web, granting at will new abilities that were previously inaccesible? A: It IS possible that a person could exist who uses micokinesis to see spiritwebs and alter them according to their will. However, Dragonsteel is pre-Shattering. (Which I infer to mean microkinesis no longer exists post-Shattering, when other magic abilities become prevalent.) Those were my only two questions. I will note that I was intrigued by his statement about Dragonsteel being pre-Shattering, and told him that I (and others) were under the impression that Liar of Partinel and Lightweaver of Rens were pre, while Dragonsteel and everything after was post. To my great pleasure he said "No, it is definitely pre-Shattering because..." and then kind of bit his tongue to stop himself from saying more, and just nodded his head. Take from that what you will, I know what I theorize from it.

If you find one, let me know. I've got a million theories on different things about that book, and would love to discuss them. Unfortunately none of my cosmere-enthusiast friends have read it, so I can't really theorize with them about things pertaining to it.