Leaderboard

Hi all! I'm about to release my unofficial Stormlight short film! Have a look at the trailer and tell me what you think

Day 2: Spooky Scary Skeletons There was a scream. It was not a scream of terror in face of some nefarious entity or psychological horror, but a simple cry for help as someone did something they did not intend to do. This was followed by a loud crashing noise, followed by several more similar sounds. Then – much to the relief of those nearby – it was followed by Moro cursing every and all gods he knew of in the Court, interspersed by wincing and groaning. “Are you alright?” Billy shouted down the stairs. “Are you still alive?” “He sounds it, doesn't he?” Greg pointed out. “Besides, what were you going to do if he had said no?” “Let's give him a hand,” Billy said, ignoring Greg's comment. He carefully made his way down the stone steps, a hand on the railing to keep himself steady on the slippery rocks. He was grateful that the little light from the hallway showed that they were not slick with blood, just highly polished. He stepped down onto the floor and checked Moro over briefly, making sure there was no lasting harm as best he could tell. When he was certain that the man was merely bruised rather than sporting broken bones, he helped Moro up, supporting his weight until he was properly ready to stand. Thankfully, it seemed there was no lasting damage. “Blasted pencils, tried to kill me!” Moro said, shrugging off the aid that Billy had lent him. On second thoughts, perhaps the damage was worse than Billy had initially thought. “No need to thank me or anything,” Billy muttered, looking around. “Is this the cellar? Wondered where they kept their wine here.” “Must be,” Greg said, finally having made his way carefully down the steep steps to join them. “Don't remember seeing that door there before though. Or maybe this place is just getting to me.” “Must be getting to me too,” Billy nodded in agreement, “'Cause I swear that wasn't there either.” He frowned. “Doesn't look much like a cellar to me though. Looks more like a proper basement than anything. No idea what they'd put down here though; you'd think they'd have enough room upstairs. And why would it be hidden, and why's it now open?” “Maybe someone opened the door somehow,” Greg suggested. “A secret switch, or something.” “Well,” Moro said, dusting himself down a little. “If it's hidden, that means it's valuable. And if it's valuable, that means I want it.” “Maybe if we had some actual light,” Billy said, looking around. “There's torches down here,” he said as he unholstered one from the wall. “Anyone got a way to light one?” Two shakes of the head. “Okay, back in a second,” he said, carefully making his way upstairs to light it from a torch upstairs. “Why are there even lit torches here?” Moro asked. “Or is that a question I don't want answered?” The torch was brought downstairs, and illuminated a small room. Before them, now they could properly see them, iron bars raised up towards the room. A set of keys hung on a little stand on the wall on the opposite side. Within the bars, the torch illuminated ivory that had yellowed with the passage of time. A human skeleton, chained up to the wall. Clearly it had been tortured, carvings performed on it which hard worn through the skin and marked the bone. Even as they looked at it, there was a snap, and the worn wrists finally gave way, the bones falling to the floor in a heap. “You know what?” Moro said, throwing his hands up and turning around to go back up the stairs. “I am no longer interested.” “Wait,” Greg hissed, grabbing Moro's shoulder to stop him going anywhere. “Billy, move your torch closer.” Billy gulped and did as he was told. He took a hesitant step forwards, casting the torch's light further into the room. The next body it illuminated was not just bones, but had flesh too. “Is that Huxton?” Billy asked, looking back at the others. The body was lying on the floor, a long wooden stick poking out of his mouth. There was something pink and fluffy on the end, as though he'd been run through by a cleaning implement. Blood pooled around him from his mouth. “Yeah...” Greg nodded. “We'd better tell the others. You stay here and guard the body.” “Guard it? From what?” Billy asked. He shook his head and followed after Greg and Moro. “Colours no! I'm not staying one minute down here on my own! What if I'm next?!” By the time they had found the others and dragged them all to the dungeon, both the skeleton and the body of Huxton were gone. Only the blood remained. Day 2 has begun! It will end at 9 PM GMT on Saturday 26th November. Please halt all PMs for the duration of the Day Turn. This means you. You know who you are. Huxton (The Young Bard) was an Explorer! An Omen was discovered! Character List Kasther's Pocketwatch

I think it's a possible counterpart to the newly named Shard of Ambition. Now I'm thinking the Shard that just wants to hide and survive might be named something along the lines of Caution. In keeping with the theory that the Shards are all divine attributes, if Ambition is the divine urge to create, to do things, to advance....Caution is the divine urge to wait, to use restraint, to not do simply because one can, but to be aware of repercussions, ramifications. And as a singular Shard, without the influence of other divine attributes such as Ambition, Endowment, Cultivation, etc.....a Shard named Caution might simply want to hide and survive, isolating him or herself from the conflicts raging elsewhere throughout the cosmere.

To all the Sharders in the USA, Happy Thanksgiving! (To all the Sharders outside the US, you too, but I don't know of any other country actually celebrating a holiday like this today. Correct me if I'm wrong!) I'm thankful for Brandon's crazy mind and fast fingers, so that we have tons of amazing stories to read.

I am pretty sure it doesn't work like that. For one to become a Sliver, one must hold (most of) the power of a Shard, and then lose it. Wielding an Honorblade is not the same as being Invested with a Shard - the power still comes form the Blade, not from the wielder.

I found Hoid. LOL. That must have been what started the event that Hoid referred to when he talked about spending "the better part of a year in a large stomach, being digested" back in WoR.

Cycle Three - Windbreak The detour they had had to make brought them out of the jungle proper into a more open rocky region. While one might have expected that leaving the jungle would make thing safer, that was far from the case. Tracks of dangerous creatures were almost impossible to detect, and the area was home to its own variety of unique monsters, like beasts almost indistinguishable from larger rocks, covered in an incredibly sticky film that trapped any creatures foolish or unlucky enough to touch it, keeping them in place while it poisoned the creature and waited for it to quickly die before unfolding, dragging it away, and messily consuming its prey. That wasn’t going to be a sight Idoya would soon forget. They had lost more time when the wind picked up. The wind had whipped up a mess of dust and sand, dropping visibility to almost zero. They’d had to quickly move towards a cave that the trappers had found shortly before the winds had picked up. Not all of them had made it though. Yazava wasn’t there when they did a head count. And then Nannyberry had disappeared. Apparently he had been forced out back into the winds and dust to find Yazava. He didn’t return. Something did come out of the detour though. Once the duststorm had died down, and they’d continued their journey, they found something remarkable. Stone formations with holes in them for the wind to whistle through. As the wind changed, different eerie notes sang out. And once they’d left the rocks, and begun moving back into the jungle, Idoya had looked back at the hills they’d just passed through. From this point, before the trees obscured the view, she noticed a formation of rocks that resembled something like that of a howling wolf. And now she knew they were on the right track. The mad trapper had mentioned these. Maybe they’d be finding something after all. JUQ was lynched. He was a researcher. Alvron was killed. He was a researcher. Clanky has replaced Darkness Ascendant. Aman has replaced Orlok. Vote Tally JUQ(6): Doc, Polking, Jondesu, Magestar, Stink, Ecthelion STINK(4): Daniyah, Alvron, JUQ, Darkness Ascendant Daniyah(1): Stick Player List

Rule Clarifications: 1. If I'm roleblocked, will I still be told I found nothing? If you're role-blocked, you will be informed. 2. Do people who discover Omens get explicitly informed of this in their results? i.e. "You found an Omen: <description.>" The results PM does not explicitly tell you it is an Omen. 3. Is it possible for more than two Omens to be found in a single Night? It is possible, depending on the dice, that more than two Omens can be found - It's just very unlikely. [Incidentally, it's also possible that your keyboard will tunnel through the table, just very, very, very, very, very, very, very unlik--hey, Chief, why're you scowling at me like that?] 4. Can I send in orders in advance so I don't forget to place them? "I'm afraid I don't allow advance orders like this, as it can provide a false impression of activity."

Sitting on my bed, with Bruce begging for a bite of the appetizers, watching Labyrinth for the first time. First Thanksgiving on my own = so far so good.

Oh wow, I did not expect the response I just got. Thank you for all the positive feedback! But I do still feel like I could have done better. And I will do better next time I paint. Sometimes I may feel like I'm nowhere near where I want to be, but that's okay because I'm still 15 and I have plenty of time for improvement. Thanks for helping me realize that! (b^_^)b

I took Bruce on two walks today.

The way it worked in WoR's first draft is still canonical. There are subtle things that make the two situations different.

No they don't!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I'm thankful for all of you. The Shard is where I found not only fellow Sanderfans willing to explore the weirder side of fandom, but people who listened to what I was going through and offered sympathy without judgment. This is where I gained self-confidence and the courage to leave home, turning my first Thanksgiving on my own into a fun, low-key day with Bruce instead of a day pining for a family that would turn the day into a day of cheer covering deep-seated tension. "Thankful" doesn't begin to cover how I feel about that.

No song linked 4/10

I don't know why exactly, but something about Arclo made me think that Dysian Aimians are not necessarily all hordes of cremlings; rather, they're all the same type of creature, but their essence isn't exactly physical (so individuals might be composed of hordes of any number of creatures that their true essence is bonded to via a spren-like bond).

Really powerful Splinters could be considered demigods. I assumed that he was just talking about some of the Unmade and/or other similar superspren.

I went to the release, and I do note that it was one of the most organized I have been to. I asked if Spren could be effected by emotional allomancy, and got a RAFO. (Though it appears someone else did too) My brother asked a question about my cousin's theory on parshendi(I don't remember exactly what the question was) Brandon said that the parshendi were created to be part of the Rosharian ecosystem. Awesome signing it was!

What. Have. I. Done!!! First Cuddles, and now this! Very well then, this is going to be fun. At first, Isaac Jones did not know what the scratching sound was. Like a swarm of angry beetles, the sound came from ceilings, floors, inside the walls. Never present but always there, scratching, a maddening sound. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. This was a kind of enemy that he had never faced before: most foes could be dropped by a Hammer, or by a well-timed slash of a sword. But this scratching was much more... sinister. Like the knives of a thousand demons, all sharpened and ready for blood. And worst of all, he couldn't even find out where it was coming from. He found the first message gouged into his preferred patch of sleeping floorboard: Violence never solves problems. Sometimes, it multiplies them. The second was on the wall, directly next to it, The pen is mightier than the brute. And then he saw one: a tiny fragment of a pen, wobbling slightly as it lay on the bare floorboards. Taking out his sword, The Hammer smashed it in two, all the while mumbling an incantation to ward off demons. This was one demon that wasn't going to get him! But then, one of the fragments moved. Then the other. A third joined them, skittering across the barren floorboards to join its comrades. Then a fourth. Five. Six. Eight. Twelve. An army of tiny, sharp fragments that moved and insulted as one. They began to draw on the floor, working as with a collective mind. Jones should have run. They couldn't have stopped him. But he stayed and watched as they drew an intricate network of lines and curves on the ground. He could feel his heartbeat in his chest. Thud-thud. Thud-thud. Thud-thud. Thud-thud. The fragments began to connect the gouges, forming an image. It was him. Dead. With a rope around his neck. Isaac "The Hammer" Jones ran for his life.

I asked him what happens to the perpendicularity when a Shard dies. He said that if the Shard's power is still there, even without a consciousness, the perpendicularity can still work fine, but there are other ways of destroying them. I also asked how to pronounce the main characters in Elantris: RAY-O-DEN, SA-REE-NEE, hRAY-THEN

I don't know. Gawks died, and Lift revived him. She does not recall seeing him with such an after-image. Somewhere in all the WoR discussion, mention was made of a theory that Odium was "riding" with Szeth the night he came to assassinate Dalinar during the highstorm, and Syl and Pattern went berserk. Perhaps what Lift is seeing is Odium's influence?

In good news, I was finally able to paint my first painting since moving! In bad news, I don't like it.

Haven't we seen hemalurgy on other planets because there is a kandra world-hopper? That's what came to my mind when I heard his answer that it is non-obvious. I asked three questions. First, I asked the question above about if there is a power loss when a feruchemist switches powers from one metal-mind to another. Brandon said (paraphrasing) the power does have to enter the person, and there is a very little power loss. Less than we'd probably think. Second, I asked if Rust is a separate person than Ruin. I may have asked this question before, but it popped in my head. He said good theory, but NO. Third, my written question was "How will the everstorm affect Vasher?" He wrote: "Vasher will probably just hide, but it signals something bad for him..." Then he said out loud (paraphrasing) that we will find out what this means in a LONG time. I should have pressed him for more information, but I was just SO excited to have my oldest girls with me and to have them meet him. My impression from this was that we'd see very little of Vasher in the rest of the front 5 Stormlight Archive. My oldest daughter, Tori, was the one with the Pattern costume. She left feeling SO happy to have met Brandon.

You just can't handle how awesome she is.

I suspect that only Lift sees it, because she sees somewhat into the Cognitive Realm. As to what caused the phenomenon in the first place, his death does seem likely, as if his Cognitive and Physical selves weren't put back together quite right, so his Cognitive self is a little out-of-sync. EDIT: [All right, @Pagerunner, don't be smug.] This appears to be confirmed by WoB here. [Well done. Next time, don't talk to yourself in your own post, though.]

Hello everybody, newcomer here! I'd heard a little about Brandon Sanderson a while back, and I got to see him when he rolled around Ogden, Utah about a month ago, and am starting to get my hands on his books. What I've seen so far, I've liked. But, that's not the only reason I'm here, as the writer's corner caught my eye when I was sniffing about here. Anyway, I'm a college student living in Utah whose Major is English w/ A Creative Writing Emphasis and who wants to be an editor so I can pay me bills while I try to sell whatever dreck I happen to type on a page, if the octopus what lives in my head will even allow that. See you all soon! Come, Cthulhu Jr., to Scrivener!

hey there mate welcome to the shard do you know what makes me relax and write good theories , snicker bars , have one:

My interpretation seems to be the same as yours, so I may have been somewhat unclear in my argument. Now, to be fair, Nightblood is something of a Franken-spren. He might very well share some characteristics with dead Shardblades, since he's more like a reanimated corpse than a living body (so maybe Brandon said Szeth shouldn't draw Nightblood "for a while" because it will take time to bond with him, just like bonding with dead Shardblades does). Whatever the case may be, I will be very surprised if Szeth doesn't gain powers of some type through his bond to Nightblood.

Oh. I have one. It was my first story idea ever. I had just recently read Eragon, and I was inspired. My hero, Erif, and his brother, Nithgil, were farmers in their small village at the edge of the evil empire. A volcano explodes and only they escape. Afterwards they meet two elven half-sisters named Eneless and Thiglnus (which I later changed to Thiglena). Cue dragons, dwarves, magic, and the revelation that Eneless's father was the evil emperor. ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*(◕ᴗ◕✿) *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ Though I have since recycled these characters and they're okay now.

It's in WoK, not WoR. Chapter 54

Or, you know, she ate the pancakes like this (excuse the hasty Paint illustration):

So I wonder now, based on a few of the things speculated here, what if the fain life is spreading beyond Yolen, but not by Adolnasium's design? What if the Shattering, in addition to leaving the Shards, also sent smaller bits of Adolnasium's Investiture flying out through the Cosmere? And what if some of those pieces passed through and picked up portions of the fain life (we don't know why it works the way it does, so it could be Investiture itself rather than biological, which would make sense from the way it behaves, to me), and that is now spreading out from Yolen? That could be the reason for the Scar, as the fain life destroys even stars, causing them to burn cooler and turn the stars red (I think that's why they'd be red, anyone with astronomy backgrounds could correct me if needed).

This one's specific to Not Always Right. The original story will be about a terrible customer doing something awful, for example, a customer who comes in five minutes before close, shops for twenty minutes, and leaves the store a mess after insulting the employee for not being helpful. The comments section will look like this: OP should've TOLD the customer they were closing. Well, yeah. Some customers will do whatever they want if you don't tell them to leave. OP should've told the customer to leave BEFORE the doors were closed. Twenty minutes after close = twenty extra minutes worth of pay. Stop complaining. And, my personal favorite…. Of course the customer complained. When a customer comes into a store, you are obligated to help them, no matter how late it is. Sometimes I wonder if the comments section is made up of the customers that employees go to NAR to complain about.

I feel like I remember Brandon saying that wanting to stay back and survive was more a response of seeing what Odium's doing than a facet of the intent. That said, I like the idea of a Shard of Caution. Even if it isn't the "hide and survive" figure, one of the Shards should have an aspect of Caution in it's Intent

Oh, btw I'm pretty sure that Alvs 'reasons' are gonna be meta-game stuff, so even then JUQ and DA won't be able to be like 'yo i get what you mean'. But oh well, if only I too could vote. Daniyah. JUQ.

That exact question has been asked in-universe, in the Stormlight Archive. However, the asker (Hoid) knows perfectly well that the askee (Dalinar) has no idea what he's talking about. (I believe it's in WoR, "Gibletish," although I couldn't tell you the exact page number) If it is possible (which I find a dubious claim) the end product will simply be a larger version of one of the Shards, i.e. it will be a mass of power with 16 perfectly balanced Intents, piloted by a sophont intelligence. As we don't know what, exactly, Adonalsium was before the Shattering, it is impossible to tell whether or not this would be an improvement.

I agree, there is no way they can all be Sleepless. Otherwise, they'd eventually learn to stay away from people like Nan-Balat, who delight in pulling them apart, piece by piece. Unless, they are a telepathic hive mind, at which point losing one cremling every now and then to a disturbed individual would be no more traumatic than losing a fingernail clipping in return for being able to spy. Or if there is a limited range of effectiveness for the hive mind, and once a part of the collective is beyond that range, they revert to being a simple crustacean. Regardless, seeing as he mentioned how closely they are watching all the principle players, I am going to watching all future cremlings a lot more closely.

Well, I've always wondered really. Nahel bonds require a broken spiritweb in part due to needing a gap to feed the investiture through. But apparently an honorblade can grant surgebinding to anyone. Would that not necessitate the blade breaking its owner's spirit itself by force? One of the suspected heralds at the party said that they "were not supposed to get worse" so it would seem that there is definitely something in their job description that would normally pose a problem but didn't for them (but it now does).

Hm... I'm calling it: Vax is the world of the Dark One. Cause DO's world has a superpoweful constant electrical field.

Peter for the trolling win!

Yeah, this was a spur-of-the-moment response. I had no idea when I was reading it, either. The point I'm going for is that Lift is essentially seeing Szeth's Cognitive Shadow. When Szeth died, it separated from his body. Nale repaired the connection (probably not capital-C Connection) between them, but there's a spiritual scar of sorts that results in a temporal disconnect. When we next see Szeth, I'll be watching if his skills in battle have suddenly become muddled, as if his mind can't keep up with his hands.

Uh, yeah. You definitely won. I have maybe twenty in book one, all total. So when are we going to write a Quirk/Ne crossover? The language...

This is how the world ends This is how the world ends Not with a bang Or with a whimper But with a squinty orange face shouting "YUGE!"

Yeah it was metal, and it was emotional allomancy, looks like.

Oh, that's another batch of really atmospheric pieces! I love the lightning in the "Hundred spheres" ones (and your rendition of Kal's father is just superb), and those black eyes on Shallan's mother... creepy. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the chouta poster looks like a deity coming down to earth in a nimbus of light As for the last one... you know, in anime, those sound effect of shock! That's pretty much what I heard in my head when looking at this page of yours. I won't be continuing talking about Kaladin - quite frankly, I don't have anything more to say - but I'd just like to note this: I agree with this so much. I've heard a lot of people saying she has a great sense of humour and her jokes are great, so I'd just like to say it's nice there are people who don't think so.

Thanks! I've always wanted to be solid. It's heaps better than liquid, and gas blows. I should clarify that what I meant was that I preferred the original ending to WoR where Kaladin kills Szeth with a hit to the spine to the new edited ending where Szeth is hit in a less vital point and "dies" when he hits the ground. The original ending felt more in character, and the new one felt more OOC, especially as you pointed out, Szeth was a legitimate danger and an actual murderer compared to the unintentional murderer by negligence that Elhokar is. There are many moments through the whole book where Kaladin says he wants to kill Szeth. All of these were building up and foreshadowing Szeth getting killed by Kaladin. I won't say that Shallan doesn't have moments of plot convenience, and how everyone who didn't like her ends up respecting her by the end because she's clever, funny, unexpectedly honest, good at getting what she wants through personal charm or magic, or a combination of the above. But Kaladin's sudden ability to learn how to change the direction of gravity was accelerated beyond disbelief to me. When I first read it, I didn't know about all the whole Cosmere-verse stuff with the three realms, and I didn't recognise that Kaladin saw into the Cognitive Realm until much later. But it was never explained in-story, and Kaladin didn't think about it again, so I felt unsatisfied by it. It is likely that Kaladin will go to the Cognitive Realm again in the future books and my response will retroactively shift as a result, but as of now, his accelerated learning is a moment in the book when my reaction is like "Really? Is that it???". Your mileage may vary, of course. I don't get the hate for Kaladin's headband. Brandon Sanderson didn't like it, which is why Michael Whelan changed it for the cover of WoR, but I think it's pretty cool. It reminds me of Rambo and also martial arts movies full of angsty young men trying to prove themselves to the world, so it fits Kaladin. Is it too goofy looking or something? Urithiru also had glass windows. Everything is built on giant scale and flat glass windows are pretty difficult to make without industrial processes - in the old days they were made with lots of little panes set into a lead frame instead of big sheets of plate glass that modern skyscrapers have, so it must have been Soulcast. If the Cosmere didn't have magic to explain things, I would have said ANCIENT ALIENS. Kaladin's (and most characters') appeal differs from person to person. I would have liked him more if I read his story when I was younger, but preferences change over time with life experience. When I read about Kaladin being hotheaded and shooting himself in the foot because he acted without thinking, a part of me cringes. It overshadows awesome moments he might have later on. I think I just focus on the insignificant details too much. Yeah, it's a photo that I put some blurring filters on because I didn't want to draw all the gym equipment. It gets tedious after three or four treadmills. I blurred and used some pixel noise in the background, and painted the foreground and dumbbells to blend it with the cartoon character art. The grunge filter is some layered textures. I used a parchment and a concrete texture set at low opacity, but you can find a lot of different ones that give a similar effect on google. Sites that sell flooring tiles often have good high res photos of their products that you can layer on in Photoshop. Like this one, for example. A pet peeve is something (usually small and insignificant) that annoys you personally. I think you mean "head canon" there. Lirin and Renarin have glasses, which means Alethkar has optometrists or some basic oculists who are qualified to test eyesight and fit glasses to customers, if only in the big cities to rich people who can afford the service. Which Adolin can. So it is likely that Adolin doesn't have bad eyesight, or least not bad enough that he requires glasses to be able to function normally in his daily activities. He might have mild hyperopia/farsightedness where things that are far away look normal, but close up is blurred. But we will never know, because slice-of-life moments where Adolin goes to the optometrist, or Kaladin and Rock go grocery shopping at the commissary for the evening's dinner stew are charming and humanising but add nothing to the plot. A lot of WoB's that happen at conventions and signings only become fandom knowledge if someone records it or posts the answer here or on the Coppermind wiki or another site. Not everyone is a Sharder, involved with the fan community, or bothers to copy down spoken answers into text to post online. Finding WoB's is difficult because it only works if you know what you are looking for. Many of them can be found in a Google search, if you know the keywords in the question, so if you've read it before, you can find it again. It is the new or obscure information that is almost impossible to find. I don't judge or dismisspeople who don't know information that isn't published in a book, but for the better known information that answers many repeatedly asked questions (Dalinar's Shardblade switch, was X character really Hoid, why doesn't Kaladin fix his forehead scar, does the Stick have magical powers) it would be good to have a place where this information can be read and sorted through. Does it all come down to a difference in personality and attitudes? I have no issues talking to people, or new people I have never met before. It's kind of fun, but I know that 95% of these people aren't people I could maintain a long-term friendship with, and of the few that I can, long-term doesn't mean forever. People change, and trying to maintain a relationship with someone you have less in common with than when you first met them is not that enjoyable when all you have to talk about is stuff you did a long time ago, when you liked one another more. Sometimes you just have to let things go and downgrade a friendship to an acquaintanceship and make new friends. Perhaps I am more blasé about relationships, but while it is disappointing when it happens, I don't consider it a rejection on the level of having my feelings stomped on and shredded. I am more easy-going in nature, and you are more... intense. If people have rejected you for some unknown reason, it might be because you can get emotionally invested in things and way more passionate than other people, so a casual conversation that started out as friendly turns into an unexpected heated discussion. Not everyone wants their conversation to derail into a debate, and if you have very strong opinions, it may come off as aggressive or as if you are ignoring opposing opinions that might be equally valid. The solution to that is to chill and not to take things personally, but then again it is the same sort of advice like "Just go outside and talk to people" that natural introverts get that doesn't help them much at all. So another solution is to be more judicious with what you say and remember your audience. A friendship involves one or more other people! I don't know if that helped. But if you can detach yourself from the negative emotions of rejection and try to figure out why people might like or dislike you, you could understand why things happened. Even extroverted characters can be introspective and self-aware. And now I think I am beginning to understand why people don't' see as much into Adolin's character as you. True, hardcore extroverts are rare, because most people, including me, have a mix of both traits, and anyone who strays too close to either end is in the narrow bit of the bell curve, statistically. Adolin's personality is taken at face value - he has friends, he likes hanging out with them, it's sad when they don't want to hang out with him. And it isn't developed further unless it is to set him up as BFF's with Kaladin and Shallan. I myself cannot even imagine being so extroverted that my whole identity is defined by what other people think of me. Sure, I understand what crowd hype is, and to feel pleased when you have made a good impression on a large group of people who think of you as lively and interesting. But I cannot comprehend a person who so deeply needs interaction with others that their life becomes meaningless without it, and I would not be the only person. It is such an extreme that it would be like someone who is agoraphobic to the point where going outside gives them anxiety, and making eye contact with a late night supermarket cashier sends them into a paranoid panic. And if I am being honest here, it is something that few people relate to, like they don't relate to extreme extroversion. That is why such characters are the side character of a cast ensemble in a TV show, like Joey from Friends or Barney from How I Met Your Mother. It is a personality trait that could be explored, but in a supporting character, it doesn't take the overall narrative forward. I totally understand the "book hangover" feeling when you finish a big series with a well-developed character cast and world and when you start a new one, you cannot help but compare and feel like it isn't as good as the last one, until you get fully immersed in the story (which may or may not happen). If I only read the same few books, I would not have discovered other books as good or better than the old ones. And I think it's better to return to an old favourite after a break where I read other books. I get a fresh enjoyment upon my return, and it stops me from being tired of the same character or character archetype. You criticise underdog farmboys with magical swords for being repetitive plot device characters, but you prefer to read only extroverted protagonists. It is not so different. I disliked the dragons and thought they were all selfish, manipulative lizards. Which is cool, since many other fantasy stories portray them as majestic creatures you can't argue with, like beautiful vegetarian elves. The dragons were useful in fighting off the invaders who did the Forging in the first trilogy, and it turned out that the Skill came from Elderling descendents, which is useful. But I would rather live in a world with no magic if it meant there were no selfish dragons who do more harm than good. So many stories are about magic returning to a mundane world (Westeros, for example), and it is rare that characters decide that magic is more trouble than it's worth and get rid of it. Renarin would not have thought that Shallan is funny or witty. In the Boots chapter in WoR, Shallan makes a joke about "vesture" and "virtue". Renarin would have been silent for a minute to analyse (the habit of his that makes girls think he is awkward and unsettling) and then commented on how the two words are pronounced similarly but mean different things, and killed the moment. I don't know if you read WoR in French or English, but it was not really funny to me because they're not that close when you say it aloud compared to how it looks on the page. Renarin would not have responded to Shallan's teasing and baiting, and he has the patience and composure that Kaladin lacks. I still think he and Shallan could have made a better long-term couple than Shallan and Kaladin, but it would take more work to set it up and sell it. Obviously it won't go there since there's Adolin, but if Adolin carks it before SA5 , Shallan could be the Navani since Vorinism has a love of symmetry. I loved the HP universe as a kid, but now I can see all the little holes in the world building. This is where the trend of a more scientific approach to worldbuilding in fantasy has stepped into the niche for all those readers who want something more solid for their backstory - authors like Brandon who have so much extra detail that he spends hours at signings answering questions about it. When I think about Harry Potter, it's kind of ridiculous that their economy runs off gold coins, and there is a rule of magic that says you can't create food from thin air, but you can take a tiny sliver of carrot and enlarge it until you have a carrot the size of a house. But somehow the Weasleys are so poor that Ron only has a sad corned beef sandwich on the train, while Harry buys everything on the snack trolley. I like to rant on Kaladin because I like to rant. I can take the rant to any and every character if I wanted, like Renarin or Navani or Shallan, and characters from other books and series and other authors. I love ranting and I like rant reviews on Goodreads, because they're the most entertaining ones to read compared to the boring "This book was great, 5/5". As long as it is done in a tongue-in-cheek and self-aware humourously sarcastic manner, it doesn't devolve into tiresome complaining where you have to point out, "If you hated it so much, why did you keep reading?". It's a fine line to walk, and I like to keep practicing at it. I dislike Kaladin's narrative more than Kaladin the character. Sure, his depression can be painful to read, but what I really am not fond of is all the bad things that happen to him to make him bounce from plot point to plot point like the pinball on the flippers of fate. This is mostly a personal preference thing. I did not like Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" for the same reason, because each book left me wondering what sort of bad things the author would force onto the poor orphans in this episode, and made me incredibly frustrated because their lawyer and guardian was made intentionally stupid so bad people could keep trying to steal their inheritance. Sure it keeps the plot moving forward and characters going in a new direction, but it is only because the author keeps introducing freak accidents and sudden deaths of the one foster parent they actually liked. And if it is only good things that the author gives instead, then you get Mary Sue characters common in wish fulfillment-heavy Asian light novel and web serial novels. Gosh, I now realise I am probably very picky. At least I have read widely enough to realise what I like or dislike about novels and can now pick the ones I know I will enjoy instead of attempting to slog through. The longer the narrative buildup is, the more people expect in the eventual payoff. And if the payoff is falls short, it colours the whole book and readers are disappointed, even if the rest of the story is well-written with compelling characters. Brandon is pretty good at managing buildup and momentum to payoff, which makes reading his 1000 page doorstoppers easy to fly through, but sadly not every author is as good at this. I have been disappointed a number of times in other series, but no matter how much I rant, I still think Brandon is one that guarantees satisfaction. Except with the Reckoners trilogy, but let's just ignore that. I thought you would have disliked Lirael since she is an obvious introvert who even tried to Honor Chasm herself. She gets better, obviously, and is not so annoying once her dog tells her to stop whining and get over it, but it's pretty clear she's not a happy neurotypical standard protagonist. That is why I enjoy Garth Nix books. You get presented with what seems like a straightforward growing up story, then your expectations don't pan out, but the ending is still satisfying and bittersweet. Sabriel never really rescued her father, after all. Also the character from "Bloody Jack" wasn't a caricature as much as she was a victim of fate and circumstance. The story would end after Book 2 if she got away with her crimes and settled down into obscurity. But it became a cat and mouse situation where the author kept milking the series and making the protagonist go on the run like Valjean to Javert. It wasn't just her extroversion and big mouth that was getting her into trouble, but rather eavesdroppers at the wrong place and wrong time that reported her, and other contrived situations like an accidental distinctive tattoo reveal. You know, (in)convenient bad luck. Johnny Rico's actor has a rectangle head and he looks like Ken doll. There, I said it. Art time Elhokar and the Symbolheads This is based off the Elhokar character design I did a few pages ago. The crown is the same one on the House Kholin glyphpair. Elhokar wears a different glyphpair (I'm assuming it's his personal glyphpair) of a crown and a sword, which is what I put on the shoulder patch. I wonder what they use signet rings for when it's the women who read and write all the messages. In the old days of Earth history, people used wax and signet stamps so they knew if other people were tampering with their mail when the letters arrived with the seals broken, but in Roshar, they have spanreeds linked to one other fabrial pen, and personal code passwords to authenticate users. Detail If you watch scary movies, they always have a jump scare when someone has a bathroom cabinet over the sink with a mirror that opens and closes. This drawing was inspired by that. Process Elhokar's Garden I'm taking artistic liberties with the timeline, but this is the time in between the 4:1 duel and Kaladin getting released from prison, where Elhokar sulks about how cool Kaladin is and how it made him look bad. I imagine that Elhokar likes to go to his fancy feast islands to drink alone and whinge about his first dahn privilege and how much his life sucks. And then Dalinar comes to talk to him and Elhokar gets mad because "You're not my dad, you can't tell me what to do!". Full image The Feast Rough concept sketch based on book description. I drew the dining platforms as Asian style pagodas. But I think they're too small because it should be able to fit a dining table and a quartet of musicians. Still, I am happy with the overall aesthetic, which is supposed to be ostentatious and a obvious waste of a rich man's money. Kind of like the old Victorian folly which is supposed to look cool rather than have some practical purpose. Szeth the Assassin This was me just messing around and experimenting with the aesthetic of Alethi interior design. Soulcast buildings are made of solid pieces of stone and decorations have to be carved out of them, and because of highstorms, windows are weak points in the structure. I've mostly drawn interiors to have big arches and columns because it is symmetrical and looks regal for the inside of a palace. Detail Costume design by Ben McSweeney. I follow canon descriptions and illustrations where they exist, and Szeth had a chapter header picture in his interude PoV chapters. The only time I disregard official description is when it is nothing like how I imagined it (Dalinar on the cover of WoK. Actually I don't think Michael Whelan's covers are offical canon after all) or it would not be practical or time efficient or sanity retaining to do so, such as the Kholin glyphpair on the front and back of Kholin army uniforms. In a painted piece, it looks really weird to copy-paste the vector file. Drawing it manually looks much, much better, but it is not something you want to draw over and over unless you don't mind going Taln crazy. Obligatory silly stuff Kaladin Stormblessed and the Power of Rock So Kaladin on the flute was sad and pathetic. You know what, let's throw away all attempts at realism and just crank the awesome up to 11 because why not. Why bother to make sense if you could be awesome instead? That's Kaladin. KALADIN THE ROCKSTAR. Oh, and he wears leather pants.

I'm certainly onboard with metal being important in the Cosmere, and at least one known metal (Aluminium) has a confirmed unique Realmatic property. That said, I'm not sure if all metals have properties as a class of material, or if metal in specific is better at holding patterns and not some other property that we haven't deduced. As NutiketAiel mentions, the material an Aon is written on is irrelevant - we even have a multi-material Aon in the form of the City of Elantris. That Aon also has subset Aons on it! Like the Aons on the stone walls of Elantris. In addition, I'll note that Soulstamps also can be carved into anything, with the only apparent quality difference being a purely physical one (how easy it is to carve and hold its shape). The ink for Soulstamps does have a realmatic property, though. It works best with organic inks over inorganic, animal matter over plant, and complex life form inks over simple life forms. Which has a nice parallel with Awakening materials. I don't agree with Nutiket that fabrials are metal because metal is useful - metal is scarce on Roshar, and not used as often as it is here. They could easily use shell, wood, bone, stone, or other carving materials, or cast or molded materials such as clay. Metal would work better, and it may just be that Fabrials are rare enough and useful enough to justify the expense of Soulcasting some metal for them, but it's suggestive. One other notable thing is that the metal on Scadrial is the only instance we know of where the manifestation of a pattern (the metal) is consumed when Investiture passes through it. Carved Aons don't disappear, nor do Soulstamps, or Fabrials, or anything we can see the Surgebinders using as a Focus. The sound from Commands does disperse, I suppose, but it doesn't seem related to the Investiture, just normal sound stuff. So maybe the opposite is true. Maybe metal resists patterns, or some aspect of Investiture. And Aluminium best of all? Metal is used in Fabrials not because it holds the pattern, but because it contains it and shapes it, like a resistor in a circuit, or negative space in art. Metal on Scadrial thus reacts poorly when it tries to pass power through it, leading to it being dissolved. Metal inks and metal Awakening are difficult and tie into the resistance aspect directly.

How could Jasnah fall for Kaladin when we all know that she will end up with Lopen ?

I am not sure this thought was posted elsewhere, hope I'm not repeating it. Some of this could be a stretch but theories nonetheless Is it possible that Szeth-son-son-Vallano's spren is bound or imprisoned in his oathstone? And is that why Shin consider stone sacred because spren are imprisoned in it. The fact that there is no stone in Shinovar could be the reason why there are no spren and this could imply that they have no access to Shadesmar, and hence no storms (besides the fact that they have a mountain range protecting them). Is this why they had to exile Szeth as they couldn't risk him exposing Shinovar to Shadesmar... Moreover, Szeth is the Truthless, is his truth bound in stone? is his spren TruthSpren? Does Szeth become free when he finds his words or his 'oath' as a Radiant?