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So... a little while ago, I posted an essay in the Random Stuff thread. It was about Warbreaker, and is kind of meant as a trial run for something. Ive been wanting to do a blog analysing topics for a while, so i thought starting with one of the reasons why Warbreaker is my favorite Cosmere book would be a good start. And... I was thinking, maybe it would bare re-posting it here in a seperate topic? I hope that doens't count as "double-posting". Honestly, it maybe should have been here to begin with... So... um, yeah. For anyone who is interested: some disconnected ramblings on Warbreaker. Enjoy?

So my mom has been photographing a pair of Great Horned Owl babies at a local park in Ohio and sending me pictures, and some of them were just begging to be memefied. So here, enjoy memes of fluffy owlets! Things kids complain about #2378: bathtime. Channeling Christopher Walken: If Captain Kirk had been an owl: Do I even need to explain this reference, or is it too old for most people here? Owl gazes are the epitome of "intense": Parents never get a break...not even owl parents! Birdhemian Rhapsody (Thanks to @bleeder for that awesome pun!):

You know you are a Sanderfan when you replace the miniature bride and groom on your wedding cake with Syl and Pattern figures.

So last night I couldn't sleep. I was restless and worrying about alot of crap. Then I just sort of started writing, and well, here's what I came up with. This is the creation myth for the world I conceived. And I think it could apply to our world as well ------------------------------------- On Harmony, and the Creation of the world In the beginning, there was a single note. A pure, clear, constant note. This was known as the tune of Chaos. Then one day, the note was broken, and out rushed the ocean from the discord. The ocean created and filled the first sphere of existence, and added it’s own song to the tune of chaos. And there was harmony once more. 5 more discords occurred, and with each one something new was made. The second discord happened, and the sky spread from the broken harmony, overlapping the ocean and it created and filled the second sphere of existence. But the sky was empty, and it only rang with one note. But there was harmony again nonetheless. Then the third discord struck, and out spurted the heavens, greater and even more all-encompassing than the sky. They pushed and redefined the boundaries of the world, creating and filling the third sphere. There were 7 layers to the heavens, and each brought with them an octave to add to the song of the universe, for before then, the world sung on one octave, and was mostly empty. They added their tranquil and ethereal siren song to the symphony that was creation. For now the heavens were empty, there was nothing but chaos that filled the gaps. And there was harmony once again. From the fourth discord came the first manifestation of life. The Mariner. Sprung from one of the greatest discords the music had experienced. The Mariner was flung into the oceans with a ship and a lantern. His advent created and filled the fourth sphere of existence. The Immortal Plane. The symphony became a cacophony now. There was no more harmony. For with the mariner came his discordant tunes, the song of displaced life. And the mariner spent his days sailing the now chaotic seas, concepting land wherever he went, all sprung from the discords of his music Thus he created and filled the fifth sphere of existence Earth itself The discord continued for many centuries, until the mariner finally began to question the world truly. These questions, tho he had no answers, slowly brought a semblance of order as the mariner endeavoured to find answers. Over time, the heavens stopped reaching into the world, the oceans stilled, the storms stopped and the sky sang a pure note once more Finally, there was a recognisable melody, the melody of a the mind. A quiet piercing melody. Not quite harmony, but a semblance of it. But one day. The Mariner gave up, he stopped looking for answers, stopped asking questions. And with his broken will, the harmony was shattered. And with this tumultuous discord, came mortal life First in the form of a bird, a white dove. It was the first animal to to explore the new world, the first creature to travel the land. It created and filled the sixth sphere of existence: The Mortal Plane And with it, the music became wilder and chaotic, a complicated, overlapping on-rush of discord. One day, as the dove sung its song, a bolt of lightning struck it asunder, and the Mariner, by the fate of the music, stumbled upon it's broken corpse. For then, the spirit couldn't leave the body after death, unless the proper rites were performed The mariner fashioned a draught of life, with his tears and the waters of the ocean. And administered to the bird, nurturing it and rejuvenating it back to life. And with this came a special thing, for the Mariner created something, Love. Love was created, and it filled the six known spheres of existence. And the mariner found an answer. Love was the answer. And with this revelation, the bird died a second time, but with it's death, a star, twinkled into existence in the sky, the first star, the morning star, the evening star. A sign of hope and love for all! The star represented the first story of the world. The story of creation and love. The song of first age of the earth. The Mariner ascended to the heavens after burying the dove's limp body. He no longer sailed the seas, but sailed the stars themselves! And he became both sun and moon, his lantern the sun, himself the moon. His arm was always outstretched, carrying the lantern before him and lighting the way for the world. And so there was Day and Night. The Mariner knew his purpose now, and it was to nurture and kindle the stars, to preserve the stories made and pass them down to the land he now oversaw. To guide the world beneath him and shed light on the answers that were sought by all, just as the dove shed light on the answers he sought. With the advent of love; burst forward more life and music; filling the mortal sphere, the land, the sky, the oceans. And with these creatures, they brought their own stories, developing over the course of their mortal existence Whereupon the end, they ascend to the stars and heavens. Their souls continuing to the heavens, their light, their story, painted on the dark canvas of night. Kept and kindled by the Mariner, their souls able to enter the heavens peacefully. There was a seventh sphere, not one of existence but one of non-existence. A counterpoint to to the creation of everything. The seventh sphere was a subtle one. The Void. No harmony, no discord, no music. This sphere seeped into the other spheres, corrupting and defiling. The music was the genetic code of the universe, and the Void removed the music, taking away notes and tones, “chromosomes”. Mutating and defiling the symphony. The only way to battle it was to look to the stars, and find hope. For hope was the only thing that the void feared. And that was how the world was created, not through some divine plan, but through mistakes. Many many mistakes. And questioning, and searching for answers, through ideas and stories, for they are truly the things that shape the world around us. Our flaws can be our greatest source of strength, our reasons for asking questions, for searching for answers. They are the reasons we strive to be better people, the reason we love, live and endeavour. But they can also be the reasons we fall, the source of our darkest thoughts and deeds. But through our stories, through our compassion which is innate in all things. we can bring harmony to the discord and guide others. support each others and add our tales to the stars. Nothing was ever perfect and nothing will always be perfect Our stories are the tools from which we change and shape the world, our songs are the partof a greater symphony of life. Always have hope and never throw away your story, everything is worth it and there is no reason to stop living and evolving. And there was harmony forevermore. -------------------------- This is just the scribblings I wrote, I still need to explain things like the clouds, the rain and crap heh.

I'm an Oldblood. We don't rule Alethkar anymore, but when we did, we ruled better than Elhokar at least.

Hey, everyone! Name's Alleb. I'm a huge fan of Sanderson (never heard that before, I expect) and I thought I should finally introduce myself on here. So... Hi! Also, here's an image that perfectly describes how my interactions on this forum will go. -Alleb

Killing time before I go to get my insurance switched over….. Oh, and the Washington regional accent sounds normal, unless you ask a local to say "I begged the bagger not to go to war with the guy who washed the bags." You'll hear "I begged the beggar not to go to war with the guy who warshed the begs."

I'm very late to this thread, but I just want to say some things anyway: 1. Respect to OP for replying in such a nice manner despite all the angry comments he got. I will upvote the opening post for this. 2. About sexuality: I think that there is a value in the light sexual content of Brandons books. It is good that there is something for everyone. Just like it is nice to have superhero movies that are pure fun (Guardians of the Galaxy) and superhero movies that are darker and more gritty (Logan), it is nice to have different kinds of fantasy, and I would not want Brandon to change in order to become someone he isnt, just as Guardians should not be Logan. That would be sad for audiences like me, who prefer Brandons take on sexual content.

This is my life.

Think about it this way: Maybe your competition was freakishly, outstandingly good at drum majoring and mere mortals never stood a chance. Maybe the band director(s) would rather have you in the band playing your instrument for reasons of musical balance. If you feel like you did really well, then you know you performed according to your current ability. Plus, as you said, there is still next year, and just imagine: a year from now, you'll have another 12 months of experience and practice and learning that will make you an even better drum major. *hugs*

There was a reading of the Prologue from Eshonai's point of view, as well as (part of?) an interlude of an ardent reading a romance novel. We also have one page of Adolin remembering meeting a Ryshadium. On mobile right now, I'll see if I can find the links later, but good idea to get all the material in one place

Standardized testing is almost over, band and choir both performed respectably at State, and the extraordinarily stressful yet productive last couple of weeks are hopefully giving way to more calm ones ahead. Also, it rained so hard today that they sent a bus down to pick up people from the fine arts building and take us back to the main building, which I felt was a bit extravagant but kind of awesome at the same time.

Seeing as it tied with Stormlight, here's the first White Sand meme.

I have a non downvote policy. I have made my non downvote policy public on numerous occasions and I am sure I have caused the Mods quite a few headaches about my antics concerning the downvotes and yet I almost nearly did downvote this post. Why? Certainly not because he is expressing an unpopular opinion. I have expressed unpopular opinions more often than most regular posters. There is however a way to phrase one's thoughts and when you are purposefully going against the masses, you have to be clever enough to use the right words. It is an intrinsically difficult task to form up a decent criticism of a beloved author in a non-confrontational way, open-minded to discourse. Thus, the problem with this post aren't the thoughts being expressed, it is how they were expressed combined with the sick feeling the OP is shoving down his own opinion as the One Absolute Truth which basically is Mistake Number One of What Not to Write into an Unpopular post. I am absolutely not surprised by the downvotes, worst I am surprised it hasn't gotten more, yet. @Rockobar, yes, we could essentially discuss the sexual content within Brandon Sanderson's books, we could discuss as to whether or not Shallan and Jasnah should a homosexual relationship, we could discuss the religious content within Brandon Sanderson's books, we could discuss every one of the points raised into appropriate threads and guess what? We did. We did have those discussions and while we do not all agree with each other, we all agree Brandon Sanderson has the write to write his story how he sees fit. His prerogative as a writer to craft his characters as he feels are required by his story, our prerogative as readers is to decide whether or not his story is one we wish to read. Brandon is a swell guy, if you say you don't like his books because their content is not up to your personal preferences, he would be totally fine with it. Even better, I have seen him NOT recommend his own books onto Reddit to a few readers because, based on their tastes, he didn't feel they would enjoy them. We can express thoughts as to what we wish to read within future books, we can say we feel this or that would make a very good story arc, we can even be sadden if the author doesn't share our views and/or retain our favorite idea, but we can't barge in there saying it is his duty to write his story as we wish it to be. I understand wanting a story to unfold into a particular way, I do, I really do, nobody understands this better than I, but I fear a line has been crossed here. Your opinion isn't the only opinion nor is it the only valuable opinion. It is one opinion and we can discuss it, but it doesn't have precedence over other people's opinion and yes, this is hard, at times, to swallow it up. This too, I know all too well. For my part, I love the fact Brandon is actually writing low sexual content books, I love how he has dared, in the 21st century, to write mature characters whom are waiting before having their first sexual relationship. I love how Adolin is a virgin and somewhat ill-at-ease with the whole intimacy concept despite being in his twenties, loud and naturally bragging. Why do I love it? Because in a world where medias and mass entertainment promote to our kids the idea sexual relationships should happen during the first half of their teen years if they are so much as to claim to normality, I find it refreshing to read characters whom aren't following those unseen rules, whom are showing the young readers it is alright to be 23 years old and not having had an intimate relationship yet. It is all right if you haven't really had any serious relationship by the time you are in your twenties. It is alright if you haven't have sex and guess what? There are a great deal lot of people whom are within the same position. So while yes, Brandon could have written Adolin as a pure Casanova moving half-dress from one room to the next answering to the sole call of his male parts, he would have missed the chance to write a much better character, IMHO. So while yes, Brandon could have written Jasnah and Shallan having torrid sex, but it might have read more like heterosexual male dream fantasy than a real genuine relationship. So yes, there are numerous ways Brandon could have written the story differently, when it comes to sex/religion/whatsoever, but in the end what he has to offer does hold itself pretty well. This being said, I wouldn't fear too much about Brandon reading the letter. He might not answer, but Brandon is a swell guy, he won't be offended. He'd just think perhaps you should not read his books if you find them not to your personal tastes, he might even send you a list of books he feels you would prefer. That's just how swell Brandon is. Edit: Typos. Edit 2: I forgot to mention the fact Brandon chose Adolin to be the virgin shy about relationship character is incredibly amazing because he is exactly the kind of character people would take for the exact opposite. Young people can be social, outgoing, friendly. They can date numerous people, but it doesn't mean they have to have sex, right away with everyone. They can even be a bit scared about it, just like Adolin. I feel this message is increasingly important to send in today's world and no it has nothing to do with religion: I am atheist. I just think sex, as a whole, is taken up too much place within nowadays relationships, too much emphasis in put on sex, especially on young people.

If an author is uncomfortable writing graphic violence, they shouldn't be pressured to add more graphic violence to their work. If an author is uncomfortable writing about religion, they shouldn't be pressured to add a religious character to their next book. If an author is uncomfortable writing sex scenes, they shouldn't be pressured into writing sex scenes. End of discussion.

The plot begins to unravel under the pressure... IN A CHASM, WITH A PILE OF BODIES SHALLAN: Why won’t this SoulCaster work? I can’t believe operating an ancient and scared artifact is more complex than a point-and-click interface! (SHALLAN looks at several books of PHILOSOPHY) SHALLAN: I can’t believe Jasnah killed those Ardents! All the philosophies say she did the right thing, but… ELSEWHERE (ROCK, TEFT, and MOASH stand in the POORLY LIT ROOM, looking at a SUSPICIOUSLY COFFIN-SHAPED BOX mounted on the WALL) TEFT: I’m cutting the coolant flow. On my mark, be ready to start the transfusion. (TEFT taps an activation rune and closes several valves) MOASH: Core temperature is rising. ROCK: Hexagramic wards are breaking down. Investiture core is approaching critical mass. TEFT: Opening confinement unit. (The BOX slowly opens, and fog begin spilling out across the floor. A leg extends from the box, taking a moment to gain footing. A man strides out of the box. Pan and zoom on his faces.) (SFX: Imperial March) MOASH: Kaladin Stormblessed walks this earth once again. KALADIN: TELL ME, MORTAL. FOR HOW MANY MILLENNIA HAVE I SLUMBERED? TEFT: Ten days. (An AIR RAID SIREN sounds) KALADIN: Really? I’d have thought it’d have been longer. Meh, let’s get this over with. MANY CORPSES LATER KALADIN: It’s pointless. I can’t save anyone. The Bridgemen are Ablative Tactical Armor. I can’t save them. PREVIOUSLY, on AMC’S The Thinking Parshmen LARAL: AHHHHHHH! KALADIN: What’s the status of the patient! (LIRIN gestures at RILLIR) LIRIN: He’s totally boned! See, Whitespine bone right in the lung. And kidney. And spleen. And the funny bone. (RILLIR preforms an expert PORCUPINE IMPERSONATION) ROSHONE: What are you doing! Save my son! LIRIN: I’m sorry Brightlord. I’m afraid I can’t do that. ROSHONE: What are you talking about? I can see him spurting blood! LIRIN: I know, right! I can start harvesting his organs while they’re extra fresh. You can leave now; I’m sure that leg won’t fester. RIPPLE FADE TO K-BAR SHALLAN: I’ve decided. What you did was… Probably the fourth or fifth- … TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. PLEASE STAND BY. RIPPLE FADE TO K-BAR SHALLAN: I’ve decided. What you did was… Probably the worst thing I’ve ever seen. JASNAH: I was dismantling the Patriarchy! All my actions are always justified! SHALLAN: I’m not really sure how you can even make that argument. (KABSAL smashes through the WALL) KABSAL: OH YEAH! SHALLAN: What are you doing here? KABSAL: I brought jam? (JASNAH stands up, SOULCASTER humming ominously) JASNAH: What are you doing here! (KABSAL reaches into his JAM BASKET and withdraws a SAWED-OFF CROSSBOW) KABSAL: Justice. (KABSAL fires a short burst. JASNAH SOULCASATS each of the bolts into fire, but the wooden shafts simply served as sabots for METAL DARTS, which fly toward JASNAH as her SOULCASTER overheats) SHALLAN: NOOOOOOOO! (SHALLAN dives in front of JASNAH and is struck by three DARTS in quick succession) BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE KALADIN: I hate the Weeping. I can’t believe dad spent another of those Spheres. TIEN: It’s not so bad, Kal. You can’t let the weather get you down. KALADIN’S MOM: You’re brother is right. The spheres are a diversion. LIRIN: Army’s in town or something. Everyone act natural. (EVERYONE assembles in the TOWN SQUARE) (AMARAM enters, taking a moment to comb his GOATEE before resuming his MUSTACHE TWIRLING) AMARAM: Who wants to join the Army? We have… lot of rocks? I guess the pay is pretty good. (ROSHONE enters. He has gain CONSIDERABLE WEIGHT to account for his MISSING LEG.) ROSHONE: We will be taking volunteers. The volunteers will be you and you. (TIEN is knocked off his FEET and begins to FALL backwards, drawn by AMARAM ARMY’S immense GRAVITATIONAL PULL) KALADIN: TIEN! (KALADIN grabs TIEN, holding him by the hand) KALADIN: I’ve got you. ROSHONE: Need a hand? (ROSHONE falls out of his PALANQUIN. KALADIN losses his grip on TIEN.) TIEN: Goodbye, brother. KALADIN: I’m going after him. FADE TO BLACK (The BRIDGEMEN ASSEMBLE. HASHAL enters.) HASHAL: Listen up, maggots! I’m the captain now. MATEL: … HASHAL: Technically my husband is, but you can think of me and your new god! MATEL: … TEFT: Your husband is pretty clearly a cardboard cutout. [CENSORED] KALADIN: So, Bridge Four doesn’t get anyone new? GAZ: Not exactly. (A PARSHMAN wearing a TUXEDO and holding a MARTINI enters) GAZ: Not really sure where he came from, but all the Bridgemen dying lately have driven up the price of slaves, so Hashal though we should give it a shot. Also, you get permeant Chasm Duty. Matel’s orders, of course. (BRIDGE FOUR exits) KALADIN: You need a name. How about… Shen. Just Shen. SHEN: … (BRIDGE FOUR reports for CHASM DUTY) BRIDGEMEN: So, boss. How we gonna get out of this one? KALADIN: We can’t. We’re all dead. No KnobWeed money, no new members. We don’t have a chance. SYL: So, you’re going to give up, then? KALADIN: There is one thing we could try. (KALADIN picks up a discarded SPEAR from a DEAD BODY and racks a round) KALADIN: We could fight. LATER SHALLAN: Where am I? KABSAL: You’re in the Hospital. SHALLAN: What! Kabsal, you tried to kill Jasnah! You shot me! KABSAL: Actually, I didn’t do either of those things. SHALLAN: What do you mean? I saw you- KABSAL: I’ve been a figment of your imagination this entire time. (KABSAL begins to fade and quickly VANISHES) SHALLAN: …what? THE END? TEFT: Hey Kaladin. You can probably do magic or something. KALADIN: You’re right. I just noticed that. SYL: I still don’t care about you. I hope the Parshendi kill you! (SYL vanishes) KALADIN: We need to do something about the Parshendi arrows. If they keep shooting at as, they’ll kill us one at a time, unless… (KALADIN looks at the large number of DEAD PARSHENDI in the CHASM, then SMIRKS) THE NEXT BRIDGEDAY TEFT: This is going to be a bad one. They’re already lined up and waiting for us. MATEL: … GAZ: BRIDGES FORWARD! KALADIN: Checking systems. Stormlight reserve levels, check. Linkage integrity, check. RPMs reaching normal. (The PARSHENDI draw back their bows) KALADIN: Force feedback checking start. (The PARSHENDI open fire) MOASH: What the- (RIPPLES appear in several nearby WATER GLASSES) SHEN: … (KALADIN charges out from under the BRIDGE, ripples appearing in several nearby WATER GLASSES. He wears a suit of DEAD PARSHENDI. Several ARROWS strike KALADIN and bounce off.) KALADIN: There is no spoon. (The approaching ARROWS slow doing dramatically, and KALADIN begins DODGING ALL OF THEM as the PARSHENDI lose FIRE DISCIPLINE) GAZ: IMPOSSIBRU! TEFT: Well, we got the bridges down without anyone important dying, but it looks like Sadeas is going to lose this one. DALINAR: I doubt it. (DALAINAR ARMY arrives, attacking the PARSHENDI from a SECOND FLANK. They RETREAT.) IN THE KHOLIN CAVE ADOLIN: I can’t believe I was wrong about Sadeas! RENARIN: Well, you shouldn’t think less of him just because he set you up to fight four Shardbearders at once. ADOLIN: Wait, what? RENARIN: I mean… You shouldn’t think less of him just because killed Asmodean. DALINAR: Not to get us back on track again, but can we get back on track? I’m not sure I can tie myself to this chair on my own. NAVANI: I can help with that… (NAVANI enters, SCANDALOUSLY wearing a FINGERLESS GLOVE) DALINAR: I’ve been finding these odd fabrials attached to my head when I wake up… most mornings now, actually. There’s one on the table right there. (FABRIAL sits on the TABLE, GLOWING OMINOUSLY) DALINAR: I don’t suppose you know anything about that, do you? NAVANI: No, no…. No. RENARIN: Highstorm’s here. DALINAR: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn! ADOLIN: What did you see? DALINAR: I saw... I don't know what I saw. Death... Destruction... Nothing's really clear. NAVANI: What the last thing you said? DALINAR: ‘To be human is to want that which we cannot have’. (NAVANI procures a LARGE TOME from SOMEWHERE) NAVANI: Wait! If I cross-matrix the sample with the known passages and integrate the function of highstorm travel time over that interval… RENARIN: That makes perfect sense! NAVANI: And if I can translate the DawnChant from these visions, that would prove that they aren’t just insane ramblings! DALINAR: Can someone untie me now? NAVANI: I don’t see why that’s necessary. (AIR RAID SIREN) DALINAR: That’s The Tower. SADEAS: We need to attack the Parshendi now! ADOLIN: Is that a good idea? That far away, they’ll get in place first… SADEAS: Fighting is sure to result in victory, so we must fight! RENARIN: That isn’t even what that quote means. Besides, everyone with a brain knows that Clausewitz was better. SADEAS: Shutup, nerd. Anyway, that far away, your MechaBridges won’t be fast enough. You can borrow some of my Crews. RENARIN: Is that a good idea? DALINAR: I’m sure we can trust this man to give us bridges. (SADEAS twirls his MOUSTACHE) THE FINAL COUNTDOWN (SFX: Pacific Rim Theme) KALADIN: Bridge Four, Assemble! TEFT: All squads ready in all respects for action, sir. Ad Victoriam! (BRIDGE FOUR salutes KALADIN) BRIDGE FOUR: Ad Victoriam! KALADIN: Excellent. Stand by for departure. Ad Victoriam. OTHER BRIDGEMEN: YAY! ROCK: What are the wetlanders yelling about now? TEFT: They’ve finally realized who we are. MOASH: And what’s that? KALADIN: Their CHAMPIONS! Bridge forward. (SYLPHERENA folds her ARMS under her CHEST) SYL: It’s not that impressive… THE ASSASSIN IN WHITE FLED ACROSS THE PLAIN… DALINAR ARMY TECHNICIAN: Recovering from jump. Sensors coming back online now. Parshendi returns detected, separating signatures… Roughly ten thousand contacts on The Tower. SADEAS: We can take then thousand! We’ve got at least… a lot of soldiers? I’ll attack first, then you pursue the servants of the Corpse God up the Plateau. ADOLIN: But with that plan of attack, if your army breaks… SADEAS: JUST DO IT! DON’T LET YOUR FREAKY HIGHSTORM VISIONS BE DREAMS! DALINAR: All units, begin assault! (DALINAR and ADOLIN begin KILLING PARSHENDI) SADEAS: You’ve activated my trap card! (SADEAS shuffles all creatures under his control into his LIBRARY) TEFT: Is our army supposed to be retreating? (A wild PARSHENDI ARMY appears!) MOASH: That’s not good. ROCK: Stupid wetlanders, getting encircled. KALADIN: This is perfect. We fall behind because of our extra wounded, then loot those bodies for wargear and evacuate. They’ll assume we’re all dead, and then we’re free. (CREMLINGS chirping) (SYLPHERENA looks eastward, toward the ORIGIN and DALINAR ARMY) Vietnam, 1968 Near the Laotian Border Private First Class Kaladin Sturmmwerfer ran, clutching his assault rifle, trying to keep a low profile as he made a beeline for the trench. The detonation of motor shells formed a constant cracking staccato, combining the NVA fire to create a truly nightmarish cacophony. Kaladin spotted the trench and the last second and dove into it, a bullet slicing through the space previously occupied by his head an instant later. The situation was a mess; the fact that they had trenches, that they’d had the chance to dig them but had been unable to extract attested to that. … “What company are you from?” The man asked, flinching as a mortar shell detonated a few feet from the trench. “What’s their status?” “Dead.” Kaladin said, only barely managing not to stutter. “Dead. All dead.” … Kaladin found his way to the reassignment command post. He knew it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity, one he could barely remember. He spotted Sergeant Dalar as he approached; the man was in charge of Tien’s replacement squad. He needed to- “Reassignment is that way.” Dalar said, glancing at Kaladin. “I need to find the replacement squad. The one from the auxiliary regimental comms section.” “Why would you need that?” … “You.” The lieutenant said, pointing at Kaladin. “Get on the line. About time we got some reinforcements. How many-?” He was interrupted by a sudden burst of machine gun fire. “They’re attacking again.” The gunner announced, panic edging his voice. “Two thrusts, scattered. I’m almost out of ammo, and-“ “We’ve got fire support.” The lieutenant said. “Just make them keep their heads down for second and we’ll be clear. This time.” … Three solider in foxholes below the MLR. He spotted Tien immediately, fumbling his first attempt to fit a box magazine into the Squad Automatic Weapon he held, a weapon he clearly had almost no idea how to use. Tien opened fire, but the NVA were already closing on his position, and he fired almost continuously, and ran out of ammunition. Kaladin opened his mouth to shout something. … Tien could barely use the SAW, but he’d still caused the enemy to bunch up for the strike. Kaladin glanced back at the lieutenant. “Gotta turn a liability into an asset whenever you can. Only way to stay alive.” … SYL: Do fissionspren cause atomic decay, or are they attracted to it? KALADIN: Tien never could figure that out. I was usually more interested in the stellar sequences and other… Is this the time for that? Does it even matter? SYL: See, I’ve remembered what I am. Honorspreen. Spirit of Oaths, promises, and nobility. KALADIN: I’ve… This place… I won’t let it happen again… KALADIN: BRIDGE FORWARD! (BRIDGE FOUR charges the CHASM, easily DEFLECTING the first few salvos of PARSHENDI fire) (SFX) TEFT: There! On the left flank! (A large blob of PARSHENDI outflanks) KALADIN: Side carry! (BRIDGE FOUR rotates their BRIDGE, and the outflanking PARSHENDI suddenly EXPLODE) MOASH: Oh no… PARSHENDI: Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational battle station! (THE SUN vanishes as the PARSHENDI fire LOTS OF ARROWS) KALADIN: STEADY! (KALADIN raises a hand, and FLATTENED HEMISPHERE of RIPPLING EDDIES OF INCANDESCENT ENERGY appears, drawing in and catching each of the arrows) KALADIN: Vortex Lashing! (KALADIN returns the ARROWS to the PARSHENDI. They ALL DIE. KALADIN gains a LEVEL.) TEFT: Set bridge and prepare for combat! ESHONAI: Send in the next wave. (The GROUND shakes as a PARSHENDI SWARM approaches) KALADIN: GIVE THEM NOTHING! TAKE FROM THEM EVERYTHING! SOMEWHERE NEARBY SHARDPLATE: Stormlight dangerous low. Immediate withdrawal from combat recommended. DALINAR: I would if I could Shsh, but that’s not really an option now, is it? ADOLIN: Well, this is how it ends. DALINAR: What, no witty remarks? ADOLIN: Acerbic is better for last words. Besides, you were doing the right thing. I see that now. I suppose this had to happen sooner or later. Journey Before Destination and all that. If- WHAT IS THAT! (A massive SHARDBEAR crashes through the ALETHI line) ADOLIN: …. DALINAR: Why now! Why did you wait so long! ESHONAI: ROAR! DALINAR: Once more, into the breach! @BRIDGEHEAD KALADIN: I will protect those who cannot protect themselves. (KALADIN stares down the PARSHENDI SWARM) KALADIN: Sort of like you. (The PARSHENDI attack, with exactly the expected results against KALADIN’s T6 2+/3++ FNP 4+ IWND) SLY: OVERKILL! (KALADIN punches a hole in a PARSHEDI before grabbing another to use as a bludgeon) SLY: KILLTROCITY! KALADIN: THIS HAND OF MINE GLOWS WITH AN AWESOME POWER! ITS IMMORTAL WORDS TELL ME TO DEFEAT YOU! TAKE THIS! MY LOVE! MY ANGST! AND ALL OF MY COMPETENCE! (A PAINFULLY BRIGHT MOTE OF LIGHT appears in KALADIN’S HAND) KALADIN: INERTIAL-GRAVATIC CONFINEMENT FUSION LASHING!

An update? IMPOSSIBLE! PART THREE: HALF-SHARD LIFE SHALLAN: I’m not sure I like these women writing about the assassination of King Gavilar. JASNAH: It’s called the Assuredness Movement. The AssMove. It’s very dignified and cleaver rhetoric. SHALLAN: But… Here, Brightness Kayne is criticizing the centralized order imposed by the monarchy by simply repeating the phrase ‘storm THE POLICE’ in response to every argument against the position. (TARAVANGIAN enters, speaking on his CELLULAR SPANREED) TARAVANGIAN: I don’t care if the rate dropped by half, I want you to slice and dice. ???: Yes, daddy. TARAVANGIAN: damnation straight! (TARAVANGIAN hangs up, hanging his PURPLE FEATHERED CAP on a hook and draping his RHINESTONE STUDDED COAT over his chair) TARAVANGIAN: Jasnah, thanks for the assist on getting my ho out of that hole. What’s the scoop on your new girl there? JASNAH: Would you like a sketch? (SHALLAN sketches TARAVANGIAN, but accidently incudes some WIRED THINGS. She DESTROYS the SKETCH) PAN TO SHATTERED PLANINS GAZ: What is this? KALADIN: WE’RE GONNA NEED A MONTAGE! BRIDGE FOUR: A BRIDGE TRAINING MONTAGE! (GAZ wanders away) GAZ: I hate only having one eye. Not only do I have no depth perception; I think there’s something supernaturally wrong here. And given how that thing with the earring worked out… LAMARIL: Pay up, Gaz. GAZ: But you already took my lunch money today… LAMARIL: Well, get me more! Also, make that one guy die, but don’t kill him. Try spraying his blanket with ChasmFiend Mating Pheromones. (SOMEWHERE ELSE, KALADIN has a BRILLIANT IDEA) KALADIN: What was it that father used to say…? Oh, right. (A BRIDGE LAUNCH ELEVATOR deploys a SIDEWAYS BRIDGE) NEGATIVE SIX YEARS LATER LIRIN: Hey, Kal. (LIRIN and KALADIN sit at a TABLE. LIRIN is CLEARLY DRUNK) LIRIN: When you get to the Big City, stay there. Don’t get sucked back to some dump like this. KAL: Okay dad! KAL (THINKING): Little does he know that I’ll join the army, kill a Shardbearer, eat him to gain his powers, and then… figure out that part when I get there. (SOME TOWNSFOLK start pounding on the DOOR) TOWNSFOLK: Open up! This is a robbery! (LIRIN opens the DOOR) LIRIN: What do you want? TOWNSFOLK: Give us the spheres! LIRIN: Kaladin, go upstairs. Daddy has some work to do. (KALADIN beats a HASATY RETREAT upstairs, hearing his father’s SURGICAL CHAINSWORD revving as he does so.) PAN TO PRESNT DAY GAZ: Alright, fish. Bridge crews. KALADIN: Why doesn’t Bridge Four get any new meat? GAZ: Fine. One. KALADIN: I’ll take that one. He looks like the least useful, so he’s probably the best choice. (An AIR RAID SIREN sounds) KALADIN: Bridge Four, roll out! MANY HANDS OF BRIDGE LATER (BRIDGE FOUR and the rest of SADEAS ARMY approach THE DARK TOWER) KALADIN: So am I the Gunslinger here? GAZ: Bridges FORWARD! (SFX: SAVING PRIVATE RYAN BEACH SCENE) BRIDGEMAN: I’M LOSING CONTROL OF THE SITUATION! OTHER BRIDGEMAN: WE NEED EVAC NOW, DAMNIT, NOW! (Both BRIDGMEN immediately DIE, causing the rest of their BRIDGE CREW to suffer a PANIC CHAIN) KALADIN: Deploy our secret weapon. TEFT: Sir, it hasn’t been tested. Without proper calibration, we could lose confinement on the main reaction chamber and- KALADIN: We don’t have a choice. SIDE CARRY! (BRIDGE FOUR rotates their BRIDGE a full NINETY DEGREES on the X AXIS) TEFT: Stormfather! It’s actually working! (BRIDGE SEVENTEEN catches on FIRE. BRIDGE TWO suddenly EXPLODES. Within Minutes, SADEAS ARMY is falling back in disarray. Four PARSHENDI WARRIORS press their SKULLPLATES against the corner of the GATE and ESHONAI floats through, ending the BATTLE) (LAMARIL approaches KALADIN, accompanied by THUGS) LAMARIL: Do you know what you’ve done? KALADIN: For Great Justice. (The THUGS surround KALADIN and BEAT HIM SENSELESS) WHEN SUDDENLY SHALLAN: King Gavilar’s account of his expedition into the Unclaimed Hills is certainly breathtaking. So is his discussion of the possible socioeconomic and geopolitical impacts of intelligent Parshmen and easily harvested gemhearts. (SHALLAN spots the SUBTEXT, clearly marked with an ILLUMINITI SYMBOL) SHALLAN: Jasnah wrote this? It says… “Gavilar should be thinking about hitting Greatshells, and here he is whining about economics and anthropology and Voidbringers like a little bitch”. SHALLAN: Interesting. JASNAH: Time for a Philosophy lesion! (SHALLAN and JASNAH quickly FAST TRAVEL to a different part of KHARBRANTH) SHALLAN: Are you sure this is safe? JASNAH: Of course it is! This used to be a dangerous neighborhood, but then a group of Ardents started doing a lot of work to clean it up, cut down crime, improve education and public health… They’re working out of a chapel just over there. ARDENT: With this new immune system-boosting Fabril, we can increase the survival of patients, and allow surgeons to work on them without getting infected themselves! With mass production, we could cut down plague deaths by an Order of Magnitude! (JASNAH uses SOULCAST, turning one of the CHAPEL WALLS into a PILE OF RUBBLE. She enters.) ARDENT: You? No! (JASNAH uses SOULCAST, turning ARDENT into STELLAR PLASMA. He EXPLODES. The CHAPEL collapses.) JSANAH: Much more satisfying when they understand their lives are over. (JASHAN uses SOULCAST, turning the SURVIVORS into CHUNKS OF MEAT) SHALLAN: You just killed at least thirty people! JASNAH: Did I though? Did I really? Or, was it they were men and knew how to read that killed them? SHALLAN: …NO! (SHALLAN crouches, approaches JASNAH from behind and removes the SOULCASTER from her inventory, replacing it with her own BROKEN SOULCASTER and a GRENADE, sans PIN) SOME TIME LATER (KALADIN is STRUNG UP from the roof of the BRIDGE FOUR HEADQUATERS, facing the ORGIN, and is UPSIDEDOWN) KALADIN: Unfamiliar celing… Wait. That’s a wall. (SFX: WHEN THE WILD WIND BLOWS) TEFT: Not only did they beat you senseless and string you up; they took your money. ROCK: Stupid wetlanders. Can’t even survive a Highstorm. KALADIN: It’s situations like this that make me really want to reconsider my life choices. JEZEREZEH: ROCK YOU LIKE A HURRICANE. KALADIN: WELL THEN, COME AND GET ME! (KALADIN is SMASHED by the StormWall) KALADIN: That smarts… What? (SYLPHRENA holds a GLOWING SHARDBLADE, deflecting ROCKS before they hit KALADIN) KALADIN: Great. Now I’m hallucinating. (The HIGHSTORM becomes as a SHIFTING TECHNICOLOR EXPASNE) KALADIN: The rust is this? (The SHIFTING TECHNICOLOR EXPASE turns to the INFINITE COLD DARK BLACK OF SPACE, occupied by a RATHER LARGE FACE) KALADIN: The rust is that? (KALADIN is out of useable POKEMON. KALADIN paid out THIRTEEN CLEARMARKS to the winner. KALADIN BLACKED OUT.) PREVIOSULY, ON AMC’S Breaking Radiant (KALADIN, TIEN, and KALADIN’S MOM are SITTING at a TABLE) TIEN: Kaladin, look at this rock. Tiny pieces of it keep breaking down into even smaller pieces of something else. KALADIN’S MOM: That’s nice, dear. TIEN: I’m not sure what controls if, or when, a given piece of the rock breaks down, though. KALADIN’S MOM: Perhaps is has a spren. KALADIN: I doubt it. Spren are ugly and stupid. KALADIN’S MOM: I think you’ll regret that one day, dear. TIEN: I wonder what would happen if I got a bunch of this rock and crushed it really hard, all at the same time. (LIRIN enters) LIRIN: I’m off to see the BrightLord! KALADIN: I’m coming with you. (KALADIN and LIRIN quickly infiltrate the CASTLE and sit down for DINNER) ROSHONE: Give me the Spheres. I know your family is starving! LIRIN: If we want for food, we can always eat your family. Kaladin, please step out for a moment. (KALADIN exits. He encounters LARAL and RILLIR in a BREAKFAST NOOK.) RILLIR: Father says we should marry. I’m not opposed to the idea; I think I could limit myself to about ten or fifteen mistresses… LARAL: Stop acting like on of those Final Empire bastards and- Oh, hey Kal. (LARAL bats her EYELASHES at KALADIN) LARAL: Have you missed me, Kaladin? KALADIN: No. I can’t believe I ever thought you were… fun to spend time with. Storming lighteyes. PRESNET DAY (ROCK and TEFT look up at KALADIN, who is hanging from the ROOF and HAS LOOKED BETTER) ROCK: He is dead. TEFT: He’s only mostly dead. Big difference between all dead and mostly dead. Nothing we could do if he was all dead; they already went through his pockets looking for spheres. But if he’s only mostly dead… (TEFT and ROCK cut down KALADIN and stash him in the BARRACKS, then leave. TEFT enters some time later, carrying SOME SPHERES.) TEFT: No way this could work. Just what to prove those old bastards wrong. (TEFT places the SPHERES on KALADIN) TEFT: Good, nothing. I was worried for a second there- (SFX: LIBERA ME FROM HELL) (KALADIN begins GLOWING) TEFT: No! It can’t be! The legendary Super- (TEFT notes that KALADIN’S EYES become pale rather than his HAIR) TEFT: Oh. Just a Radiant. I was worried for a second there.

George Lucas Open on Kaladin, staring out at the battlefield. It is littered with both soldiers and Parshendi corpses. He stands alone in his vest and trousers, an unreadable expression on his face. KALADIN: Dead. All of them….dead. Half of Bridge Four is gone, because of me. Sylphrena floats up to him, a ribbon of light, before assuming the form of a young girl. SYL: Not-so, Mistah Kaladeen, sah! You-sa still have meesa! KALADIN: Uh, Syl? Why are you talking like that? You didn't talk like that in the last book. SYL: Mistah Lucas thought it'd be better for the KIDS! You-sa knows he loves dee children! KALADIN: Excuse me, Syl. SYL: Where-sa you-sa going, Kaladeen? KALADIN: To find the nearest chasm. J.K. Rowling Dalinarbledore gripped Kaladin's shoulders, meeting his eyes. "Don't you see, Kaladin? You are the Chosen One. Of all the Radiants at this school, you alone can unite the Sprenly Hallows and defeat Voidemort!" Kaladin looked away from Dalinarbledore's eyes, which always made him feel as though he were being X-rayed. "But….this doesn't make sense." "Of course it does. Voidemort chose you as his equal, which is why you can fly and do all of those amazing things." "But wouldn't I have been able to do that anyway, being a Windrunner and all? And while we're at it, why did I get Windrunning while Shalmione got Lightweaving? I mean, seriously, why are there differences in our magic, anyway?" "Because it's magic. Duh." Just then, Professor Sadeas walked by, scowling at Dalinarbledore. "You're smiling, Professor. Ten points from Gryffindor." "I outrank you, Sadeas." "Fine. Ten points to Slytherin, because I have better fashion sense." George R. R. Martin Sigzil stood alone on the battlefield. Around him lay the broken bodies of Bridge Four, Dalinar's warcamp, Sebarial's warcamp, and the entire customer base of a random tavern. "Looks like it falls upon me, then," he sighed. "I alone must carry this narrative to the end. And I shall. I shall." The arrow struck his heart from an unknown source, and there he died. Stephanie Meyer Pattern buzzed in deep chagrin. "Shallan?" "What?" "I know that your sketches are important….but shouldn't you be working on keeping the parshmen from destroying the world?" "In a minute," she said, chagrined. "Shallan, you have already made 499 sketches of Adolin Kholin's abdominal muscles." "And this will be an even 500." Just as she finished the sketch and held it to the light for a moment's admiration, the door swung open. Her chagrin was quickly replaced by delight. "Shallan," Kaladin breathed. "I'm sorry for intruding on you like this, but I had to see you. I didn't have time to put on a shirt. I hope you don't mind." Pattern's chagrined buzzing began anew, but Shallan ignored it. When the Almighty sent you a shirtless Captain, you didn't ask for details.

After clarifying in another thread that Honor was (probably?) killed after the Recreance, I got to wondering exactly how long. Was that the final turning point so Odium could whittle Honor down and eventually killed him? Or maybe it was something else. I am working with the knowledge of how well discussed this has been so far without any definitive answer that I feel is satisfactory. Maybe the Radiants abandoned their Oaths because Honor told them to, or the spren knew Honor wanted them to and got the Knights to abandon them. The reason for Honor telling them to is that he was about to die. Honor wanted the spren and Knights to avoid some of the fallout of him being destroyed, so he saved them by detaching them from himself. With the Oaths abandoned, the spren were stuck partially in the physical realm, which may have protected them somewhat, at the cost of their sanity. The Knights would be less directly connected to Honor, and not be hurt as bad when he died. I'm just spouting out ideas here, but I think there may be some merit to the base premise of 'Honor died right after the Recreance.' It would certainly make understanding why the Recreance happened a lot easier and more complicated at the same time. I am making the assumption here that there would be some ripple effect in the cognitive realm when a Shard is killed, which I don't think is unreasonable. There were probably some physical disasters too. Earthquakes, and the like. I don't know how Honor being killed would affect Radiants, but there would have to be some repercussions, so maybe they abandoned their Oaths to avoid those. It makes me wonder what happened to the order that didn't abandon their Oaths... maybe their honor was corrupted entirely? Again, just spouting ideas. Do you guys have any other ideas about potential reasoning for the Recreance in context of the premise that Honor was killed (relatively) directly after?

Hi, I sent this letter to Brandon, but I think it unlikely that I might get a reply. I would not expect you to read all of it, but I thought some of you might be be interested in the Sexuality section of it in reference for his future work. A heads up, it discusses all of Brandon's published works: Dear Brandon, I came to you having finished the Wheel of Time series and was feeling a hollow space within me that needed to be filled by more fantasy. Therefore, let me make it clear that I owe you a huge debt of thanks for your work on WoT and the Cosmere. There were a few topics that I’d like to discuss - in the same way how you feel the need to get a story down on paper, I would like these thoughts out of my head. Sexuality: The main point that I’d like to focus on is the heterosexual relationships of characters. I admire the romantic bonds that your characters forge whether they come from hardship or circumstance and personally I dismiss much of the claim that they are passionless or platonic. However, I would urge you against skirting around when sex actually does happen. It does not matter whether you claim to be a bit of a prude, you yourself mentioned in your Dumbledore EUOlogy that writing characters having a jovial time from is a natural part of any believable world; sex is much the same. The need for relaxation and good cheer amongst friends is as human an experience as two sweaty people lying in bed pleasuring each other - either from passionate love, casual abandon or respect founded on pressured times. Fantasy is primarily drawn from Western medieval-renaissance influence which itself was frequented by the casualness of farmhands with milk maids, easy lovers’ induced by Mediterranean festivities or young nobles dallying with maidens keeping secret from their father that they may not have an intact hymen anymore. Sex extends down to more disquieting interactions between noble and peasant girl that then need to portrayed in a negative light. Despite the control of the Church, people were just better at hiding it. It is one of the only drawbacks that I see in organised religion today: it clings to the dregs of social acceptability from centuries past. It was useful as a social construct when rural families had little knowledge of contraception to stop diseases when they could not afford multiple partners over a lifetime, however, with how far we have advanced in technology the prohibition now seems outdated. Raw primal desire is just something we cannot get rid of - as anyone who has gone through teenage years well knows. This may be prying, but I feel that some of your reluctance on this topic may come from what you have shared of your upbringing, in that was a sexual conservative one. You had to wait, of course by church and choice, until you could share with your wife something that you never let out. As such, it is a very personal and closeted topic for you to broach fully as it stirs too many feelings close to your home. However, you have said that you want to push the boundaries of what is expected in writing. We know that epic fantasy was weighed down by the preconception of Tolkien and Jordan of no sex. It seems only natural that if you want to push you and your books to new places, expanding that sexuality is the logical way to go. It may not reflect with your personal views or you may worry that it will reflect badly in your community. So what. What you put into your book is pushing your artform and your art is capturing the human nature. If you want to see under the skin of what makes a human graceful, an artist draws nude pictures; if you want to see beneath the skin of what really makes a human tick, you write in their deepest primal urges. You may say ‘All my batch of fantasy contemporaries are doing this, so I don’t want to do what they’re doing’. Yes and no. While in the last 15 years sex has been rising to the pages, it just seems to be making a big splash when surrounded in an ocean of meekness. I’m not asking you to go as visceral in sexual details as GRRM, for that is his style and how he plays with sexuality. If I wanted to see more of that kind, I would go read more GRRM. In fact, you started to move in a more positive direction with Warbreaker; it should not matter if the novel’s concept concerned was trying to get with child. However, that withstanding, every other novel feels like a Drab: a incredibly complex biological organism with divine proportions of engineering living an intricate life yet it fails to look quite right - it is missing its Breath. There are numerous examples I am sure you are familiar with, the most popularised one that of Vin and Elend sleeping in separate rooms before they are married, despite having been in a relationship for years and that you hint at their desire for each other’s body parts. Only after they are married is it mentioned that Vin will wear a top off in a tent. Again, I think this is an issue that stems from your personal life, that you never allow characters to engage in sexual matters before marriage. As I have mentioned in previous paragraphs, there are reasons for this hesitance and why it is limiting. Perhaps removing this limitation is the first step to opening yourself to your characters previously unseen natures. Start by creating a mere sentence that notes a main character coming out of a door tucking their shirt in. All the while, we can see inside the room where a random/side character is laying in bed with the sheet pulled over their chest. A simple casual occurrence, with no need to make a big deal out of it. Warbreaker was approaching this yet was still tamer. As you have claimed in the past, writers draw out their material from their own lives. This does not mean you have to jump in a time machine back to your college years and experiment with one night stands. But by talking with people of different life experience, sexual morality, a woman outside your community and your author friends who have written sexual passages will prepare you to slowly progress into writing sexual nature. As I have said, your task as an artist is to relate and expound the emotions that are in our lives. It means when a character describes the love of his life, there should be descriptive language of how the light of her eye dances with flashes of white and violet, the reddening of her cheeks as she runs to meet him in breathless excitement and the soft slope of the marble white skin down her back. The aim is to emote the perception of grace and beauty to the readers, the same feeling they would have when looking upon a master artwork. Moments such as these you know are excellent in order to slow the pace of the story. But similarly, one must be able to deal with eros, something which is so common between the butting heads of young and vibrant characters. Let us say, for example, Renarin grew jealous of Adolin for having an exotic and beautiful girlfriend (I avoid using Kaladin as I imagine that he has grown to like Shallan through their shared experience and then realises her outward attractiveness later on. Therefore, his is a merging of love and lust). The young prince on guard duty would notice the way Adolin caresses Shallan by circling the point underneath her wrist, the drop and swell of the breast due to a lower cut dress as Shallan unconsciously leans in towards Adolin across the table. Then there is lust of a minor noble character meeting his barmaid interest for a weekend morning vigorous and enthusiastic coupling. Slightly more challenging is a more domineering relationship such as that I might relate below between Jasnah and Shallan. When writing of lust, the danger to avoid from a lack of sexual experience before marriage is that you do not create the sense that the reader should be joining in on some gigglish teenager ignorance of a taboo. The less dangerous yet still important caution is to avoid making females incapable of displaying lustful actions - to do otherwise is to debase them to the traditional Victorian roles of ‘stiffly lie there and take it’. Your stories are known to have grit in them, whether it be the harsh world of Mistborn, the gruesome imagery of Bloody Tan’s menagerie or strong and broken characters like Kaladin. This realistic aspect would only be compounded with a realistic representation of sex. Just as violence needs to be shown in an oppressive regime, a high stress situation may likely bring people closer together. An unconventional relationship that blossoms out of respect is likely the undone challenge that you would relish, yet I would only appreciate if you are willing to commit to showing its full romantic development. Below are some more encounters from the Cosmere were this issue cropped up: With Wayne and MeLaan, I was getting slightly excited that you had written your first sexual premarital experience. And yes, well done that they managed to get their tops off, but it is a little simple-minded that Wayne and MeLaan were just kissing under there. When I first saw the words ‘neckin’ and ‘snogging’ I thought it was a joke, that others characters were trying to pass off a euphemism to protect Marasi or Steris’ innocence. But no, all parties seriously believed the two were just touching lips. Firstly, the amount of time that it took the train to travel to Ironstand and its protracted fight sequence gave plenty of time for foreplay then a passionate rebound shag reaching at least third base. Wayne’s personality and environment leave him with little inhibitions; the same for an immortal being who has had centuries to try every trick in the book. I thought it unlikely, but I had a faint thought that for the first time a lesbian relationship between main characters might occur. This possibility came to me from the gradual respect that Shallan and Jasnah grew for each other as two capable scholars. There is also the Shallan’s adoration of Jasnah in the student-teacher position that many fans were quick to wonder if it represented bisexual feelings. Jasnah herself finds herself seems so free from men and previous attachments that once we start to see cracks that mark her as a human, we can wonder if she might allow Shallan’s attentions to become something more. It would create a perverse moral quandary to explore if Jasnah were to take it up: if it is an abuse of the pedagogy relationship and would it require secrecy. I am not disappointed that this did not occur, maybe the opposite as Jasnah is one of my favourite characters. You would have received an angry email about how you did not know what to do with a strong atheist character if she had turned out to be dead. Fortunately, once Shallan failed to stumble over her corpse, I suspected that she lived, as I suspect that mere assassins could not kill Jasnah - even if the encounter tempts the dangerous waters of character resurrection. I thought Jasnah’s disappearance might have been unnecessary so that Shallan would be all alone, as I did so enjoy Jasnah and what she could have added to Navani and in the Shattered Plains by taking command of the royal court. For the first book and a bit, the dynamic between the two was what made Shallan interesting, compared to the second book when it focused on Shallan’s past. In the end, I do appreciate the growth that Shallan underwent. To bring it back to the point, you have said that you do not concern yourself with whatever orientation that characters have. I agree that making a big deal out of it would be the wrong direction. Yet you do not abstain from romantic relationships in your books. It makes it a perfectly acceptable precedent to trial other kinds of relationships. Please do not make Adolin into another Gawyn. The Trakand prince, despite his struggle to find his position in relation to Egwene, died still not able to reconcile that his love for Egwene needed him to put aside his pride and be her shadow. His selfishness lead to his death and failure, thus letting Egwene sacrifice her life so freely. That inability earned Gawyn one of the most hated positions among WoT fans. I fear that I can see you setting Adolin on that same tangent. He worries that his place will be overshadowed by having a Knight Radiant for a wife. However, I hope that I am mistaken. Although Adolin is boastful and proud, he does seem a better rounded person than Gawyn. Adolin was drawn to Shallan because she was something unconventional and exotic to him. I hope their dynamic leads to the couple working together as a fighting duo rather than the diametrically opposed Jordan couple. Blushweaver and Lightsong. God I was sad that they never got to consummate their relationship. Again, I hope that your personal stance had nothing to do with that they did not get to have sex because they were decadent unmarried gods. Blushweaver was set well to be one of your most erotically entrancing characters in your entire cosmology. I do admire the two’s articulate flirting - it does represent the most realistic building towards a relationship that I have so far. Blushweaver’s reproach to Siri, “Find someone else’s bed to climb into, you little slut”, left me laughing for quite some time and endeared her to me. I wonder if it would have been more tragic if Blushweaver and Lightsong ended up in a cell together in the end, Lightsong reciprocates Blushweaver’s desires in the face of the situation and they end up having sex on the cell floor or if as it happened, Blushweaver never really knowing that Lightsong really did care for her in the way that she wished. Hopefully they are up there in the Beyond, making up for all that lost time. In conclusion, I feel that you have come some way since the innocence in Elantris and Mistborn and are spreading your wings. Mr Jordan started incorporating more sexual influences too before his passing. It is only a matter of time before this challenge takes you, but I would much prefer it now when you writing so much good and prolific work. Religion: On a different point, I have noticed that it does seem that the characters that hold true to religious beliefs come out on top. Do not get me wrong, I love a good pantheon in fantasy, but I hope this is not a permanent fixture. Sazed did not deserve to Ascend because he went through a crisis of faith and back, but because he was one of the few characters that has gone through trials and we still believe is morally good. That trial did not have to be a religious one and there were plenty of morally grey characters that fill the quota to hold both Ruin and Preservation. Preservation set up someone who cared about the world and this is the person who Saze is. In this, I feel the resolution of characters is sometimes too simple: religious characters are true and the simple good of deontology wins the day. Someone like Dalinar seems a little too pure for what is to come. I hope that when Jasnah confronts her uncle on the whole quandary of if time is worth praying to a Shard, especially if by the end of the Stormlight Archives Cultivation dies. As for The Diagram, the tone of their passages perpetuates that they are the bad guys, but really in the face of an apocalypse, I hope utilitarianism will be shown for its ideological worth. What would you do to save your own wife and children? A sociopathic force has a gun to their heads, do you deny that you would choose the random stranger to die instead. What if it were four random strangers’ lives, five? I think I know which you still would pick. At what number do you let the gunman pull the trigger. It is likely that you never would, not for all the other six billion of us. To protect what is your world, you would give anything. Death: I am sorry to compare you to GRRM again, but I feel the death of characters is sometimes muted because you save them all towards the ends of your books. You might be relying the deaths as ending bombs to give closure to the novel. Valued characters’ deaths spaced sporadically throughout the structure is part of the formula which makes GRRM’s deaths so well received and emotional. As you say, characters have to take risks and their consequences, but one of those big risks should end in the ultimate consequence in Act 1, perhaps our main viewpoint character. Perhaps Dox and Clubs’ deaths didn’t hit as hard as they were meant to, but the only other time can think of a character death midway through the plot is Parlin and you yourself admitted that he needed more done to him to give his departure justice, yet still he is not a primary character. When Karata died, the outrage at her demise was not the event itself, but that not enough attention was given to it. Simply her head gets cut off while running. Even an extra sentence of Raoden acknowledging the light going out of her eyes would have left the audience much happier with the departure of an invested character. Genre: I must say that I am not keen on Mistborn advancing technology to the later end of the 1800’s. I am a diehard fantasy fan and am not of that more common breed that can also stomach sci-fi as well. Give me the setting of magic, medieval times and curious creatures and you can sell me a story of whatever concept you want. However, I start to get discomforted by technology further late Renaissance/Galileo times. It starts to drift from high fantasy. I know of the pitched Mistborn ‘trilogy of trilogies’, but with the Wild West/Victorian feel of Wax and Wayne, we already are into low fantasy territory. The novel use of Allomancy still as a magic kept me through the prologue concerning guns and then the partners’ chemistry, but the magic is starting slip away from the story’s control (machine guns being chief among them). I occasionally appreciate an urban low fantasy such as Skulduggery Pleasant, but only if follows its own rules and genre. By the time we reach modern day and then sci-fi plasma guns and artificial intelligence, I fear that all will be lost that was the spirit of Mistborn. It may be a clever idea to transition a series from fantasy to sci-fi, but I worry if I’ll stick around for it. The implications that it has for the Cosmere are too great, as our shiny technology will inevitably reach the other Shardworlds and turn your anthology into a sci-fi collection. This narrative danger is seen in Sixth of the Dusk. And that worries me because when you started writing you said to yourself that you were going to be a fantasy writer. I would not be particularly interested in a war between the futuristic Scadrial versus high fantasy era societies - it would just seem cheesy. The only hope I can see is that all the future scientific discoveries on Scadrial will come Allomantic innovation, much as the Southerners have, as opposed to electrical currents and telephones. Even still, I can just see our own ideas of the future such as flying cars being excused by Allomancy while losing the feel of fantasy. That said, here’s a suggestion for a potential death in the Wax and Wayne series: a Hemalurgist could die via accidental electrocution through their Hemalurgic spikes, Tesla style, courtesy of Wayne’s beneficiary Sophi Tarcsel. This letter may appear a scathing criticism, but I love your books - these opinions may simply be more useful than the praise that would needed to fill another correspondence. I am hugely looking forward to more Stormlight and have pre-ordered Oathbringer. The cultures and biogeography of Roshar are a world unlike anything I have seen before in fantasy. Blue skin and crystalline fingernails, I’m looking forward to seeing to seeing a cross breed of Thaylen eyebrows and whatever eccentricities that you conjure. Best of luck,

So... I was wondering why Dalinar hears att scream when summoning the blade he took from Taln in order to pin Amaram down as a liar. When the Stormfather accepts his oath on top of Urithiru he (like Kaladin and Renaren) hears the scream of the dead spren of which it is "made" from (lacking a better word). But if it realy was a honorblade Dalinar was holding it should not have that effect on him. Kaladin, after picking up Szeth's honorblade, notes that he does not hear anything and remaks on it. Is the blade Taln carried att fake, did someone swap it- if so when, and who?

Seriously, we are one of the weirder fandoms. For example: -our most revered character is a small piece of wood -the learning curve isn't evident until you've fallen off of it (Cosmere only) -We can claim ownership/partnership with an entirely separate fandom (WoT) -We don't argue about which book is the best -Or which character. Because of said Stick Why else are different and more awesome than other fandoms?

If you want examples of weirdness, I'd point you in the general direction of the entire Oregon RP.

I do not have any reasoning to offer for the Recreance but one item of interest that might help the discussion is that the Diagram says: "Hold the secret that broke the Knights Radiant. You may need it to destroy the new orders when they return." Source It seems that whatever caused the Knights Radiant to fall the first time is, somehow, usable again.

Welcome to the Shard! Have a cookie and an upvote!

@Blackhoof I had somehow assumed it was some reasonable Coalition vs the Final Empire. I feel like Clubs' perfect win record with Koloss has some small bias in his opinion on what seems like a reasonable K/D for Koloss, but he is the most authoritative source we have. Never really found(or at least never seen) a decent explanation of whether it was 16% naturally or mist-snapped. Skaa are by far the largest portion of the population, and per (Kelsier?) they can't even be Mistings if they don't have Noble blood in the last 5 generations. 16% with that kind of negative skew seems too high in my opinion. Fair enough on situational timeframe, but I don't think it's his very first keep raid. He may have only hit minor nobles in the plantations/other cities, so the standard guard sounds good. Ok, so I reread the scene again. The first group of Hazekillers she and Zane fight is the "looked to be perhaps fifty" group. They take out a total of 50 together at that time. Zane then goes to the second floor and does unknown stuff. Vin heads straight up to the third floor and is attacked by "dozens more coming out of a secret stairwell" There was a fifty to one mention, so we'll call it 4 dozen. The fourth floor is bypassed with a casual mention of Zane jumping out the window and that making it "clear." The Fifth floor is where they find Cett, after Vin fight "soldiers" not Hazekillers. She thinks they were probably trained against Allomancers, but they are noted differently than the HK's were. Floor 1: 50 HK \\ Floor 3: 48 HK Floor's 2 and 4 are cleared by Zane in the time it takes for Vin to clear Floor 3 via Two Duralumin moves, so I imagine if Zane faced any HK's, there were much less. Floor 5 didn't have any at all. So anywhere from 100-120 HK's in total.

Theoretically speaking, how long could Lift wield Nightblood in an IHOP on all you can eat pancake day?

Not exactly fantasy in the traditional sense, but Watchmen got me through some of my dark times. If I'm in a good place in life, I usually read fantasy. If I'm in a low spot, I gravitate towards darker sci-fi. Hmmm Either way, reading helps me, too, as does writing. If I ever hoard anything, it would be books and writing materials.

Do you really think Brandon would drop such a huge spoiler? Brandon will often give vague answers to vaguely worded questions and this looks like another example. I wouldn't say there's much that you can really say from that particular WoB apart from: Shallan and Kaladin will meet a few times (ie Kaladin won't be away the entire book) and there might be "sparks" but it doesn't tell us where they end up at all. I'd suggest being quite careful about this sort of thing, unless you're happy to take a "tabloid" type stance on "facts".

Hm. For some reason I'm reminded of Bloodsealing, though I cannot see a relation *shrugs. That's really cool! Why are bones powerful? Is there something in the marrow? And where did this magic come from? oh dear. oh deary, deary me that sounds interesting. I for one made a magic system last night, called Songweaving. Basically music is the genetic code of the universe, and people can manipulate it by playing music, singing, humming, whistling etc. But first you need to attune to the song of something, like the song of a star, or the song of a particular tree. This can only be found by special individuals who can sense the music that makes everything up, and then they can manipulate the music by "singing" to the particular thing they want to manipulate and like, coaxing it to grow or change. Oh and I wrote a fair bit on the lore for the world last night here

The kids next to me on the bus are watching Hebrew MLP.

THEY JUST DO? I also randomly felt like making a Sauron/Hermione Granger meme >>

El, you don't have to put yourself on hiatus just for a few dropped games. Many of us, if not most of us or all of us, have done things that have negatively-affected gameplay. There have been senseless bandwagons, accidental alignment reveals, inactivity on many more fronts than yours, broken game mechanics, betrayals in poor strategy... the list goes on. One inactive doesn't make or break a game, and I'm sure that the rest of the SE populace would join me in saying that you're welcome in any game that you sign up for, regardless of your projected activity level. So if you feel like putting yourself on hiatus, that's your choice. But whether or not it is your choice, it's not your only choice.

And thus dalinar breaks his oath and the stormfather is dead for good

FYI, I ended up using the official design I received from Chaos (which matches the site design and color scheme), rather than the one I made above. If I get approval, I'll post that file here. Either way, I am sure you can get the file from Chaos if you want it. I printed them double sided at Staples, and got 1000 for $25. It turns out half that many would have been about right for a three day mid-sized con, but doubling up to 1000 was only $5 more so I figured better safe than sorry. So now I have enough left over for all the future events I get to. :-)

Everything I'd say has already been handled by others so I'll just add one detail because I didn't know it until recently and it's worth spreading around. And here's what I want to add. Brandon has confirmed that we've seen the final phase in the chasmfiend lifecycle, they don't turn into anything else once they reach the point we've already observed on the Shattered Plains.

i think you remember it wrong. ivory never specifically says it's not the painspren. the exchange goes "but they are harmless" "on your side, harmless. on this side, harmmore". so it definittely refers to the painspren

Life doesn't discriminate between the sinners and the saints And it takes and it takes and it takes and it takes But we keep living anyway And we laugh and we cry And we break and we make our mistakes.

I completely agree with you on this one, Stormy. "Hey, you're about to die. Let's do the sex," is not poignant, to me. Especially for Brandon, it would be idiosyncratic at best. Though for some individuals sex is the pinnacle of romance, in my view it is not. This sort of walks back to the "humans are more than just death and sex" thing. That's a really cynical way of looking at life, my man. We have art, we have music, we have literature, we have love. These are the things that define us as us, not just the will to survive and proliferate. We are wonderful, intricate, beautiful creatures, whether made by a higher power or not, and we are more than just highly intelligent animals. We have culture, and the things within that shared culture that define us.

Welcome to the Shard @Rockobar *waves*. I must say, you have certainly entered with bang. Also, upvote because I don't think you deserve all those downvotes, you stated your opinion, and, even though I don't agree with it, I can respect the fact that you did so in a respectful manner. Anyway, welcome! Now onwards to my points (this sounds like a debate now...) which turned out waaay longer than I expected. Whoops. Overall, I would say that you are asking Brandon to be un-Brandon. Every artist has a hallmark to their art, and I think that if Brandon were to do some of the things you talk about, it would ultimately diverge his writing from his personality in his writing, as well as the story that he wants to tell. You refer to the upbringing and how it resulted in this view which is obviously misguided, but if we did not have authors of different upbringings and views, what would be the point in reading. If every story was the same in the outlook it presents, would you be interested in reading it? I know that I wouldn't. Firstly, on the topic of sexuality. I am personally very grateful for the fact that there is very little sexual scenes in the Cosmere. As an asexual myself, I find it refreshing to see a modern, adult fantasy series that doesn't involve some kind of explicit sex. Half the time when it occurs in a book, I'll roll my eyes skim the section to see if there is anything important and move on (I skipped pages and pages of Game of Thrones, rolling my eyes as I did). I would personally prefer to read about something that actually influences story and character in books (which are already getting very, very long) rather than a sex scene for the sake of a sex scene. "Raw primal desire" as you put it, is not the sole form of what makes us human. Humans are a complex being, as you have pointed out, and while it is a factor in who we are, I personally believe that humans are so, so much more than lust that they feel, and not every part of human life can, or indeed should be included in a book, simply because it does not have enough relevance to the story to warrant being included. Also, I would say that doing this makes the books more accessible to people of younger years On your point on religion now. Religion is something that has been a foundation of human society for milenia, and has had a profound impact in culture throughout much of the world, from creating the backbone of morality, to societal structure. Violence and peace can both result from religion, and it is a vital part of a culture. I would also say, particularly on your points on the diagram is to wait and see, because I think it will be an interesting ride, because we're only 2 books in. Now, onto genre. I must say, we have highly different opinions on this, because the mish-mash of genres is something that really appeals to me. Fantasy owes a lot to Grandpa Tolkien, but far too often, I believe, authors get stuck in a rut of making very fantasy fantasy (hopefully that makes sense). I know very few fantasy trilogies that show an obvious growth of society, over time, as culture is not static, but is a very fluid concept that is always changing, as does technology. I find that it is extremely refreshing to see this in a fantasy book. Also, on a bit of a side note, I love how I have no idea what genre Mistborn era 2 (1.5?) in that it's a strange cross between fantasy, sci-fi, western, crime, thriller and probably a few more chucked in there. Life is rarely so black and white. So, whilst I disagree with many of the points that you have made, I think it is great that you put your ideas out there, even though they might not be very popular ideas (especially on your first post). I hope I didn't sound too aggressive in my writing (sorry if I did), but I would love your thoughts on my thoughts on your thoughts (yay for overly confusing sentence). See you round the shard!

@Quiver @Darkness Ascendant

The frequency of bad puns in this thread hertz.

I second @WeiryWriter's answer to this. Speaking as someone with Asperger's syndrome (a kind of high-functioning autism), I can say with certainty that it is a fundamental part of my identity: it's absolutely not something that I would want to be "cured" of, even if you were to pay me for it. At the end of the day, all it really means is that I think differently to how most people do, and that's not a bad thing. What on Roshar makes you think that Kaladin will have feelings towards Jasnah? They seem completely unsuited for each other. Jasnah is, A) too old for him, and B ) far too much of a traditional lighteyes for him to be interested, surely.

Robert Jordan Adonalsium shatters, and the Shards turn into fragments, and the fragments turn into slivers, and even slivers fade to dust when the Shattering comes again. In a time of trial, a time yet to come, a time far past, a wind blew through the Northern Roughs. The wind was not a beginning. There are no beginnings and no ends to the Shattering of Adonalsium. But it was a beginning.

Greetings nerds, this is me the.... uhh guy who does stuff yup.

Not that that doesn't make sense, but Lift's condition (in relation to her partially inhabiting the Cognitive Realm) is unique, and it seems to me like this ability is probably the Resonance that all Edgedancers share (I don't know if Resonances are uniform within an Order/all people possessing the same two powers, but my current thinking on it is that it varies a bit in expression within the individual but remains mostly consistent). Granted, my evidence for that is highly circumstantial, but it just seems to fit so well. In WoR, it seems like such a clever little joke that the first Edgedancer we see is an uncouth street kid, when the historical Order had such a reputation for eloquence. However, with the evidence in Edgedancer, everything changes. If Lift applied this ability to the highfalutin types that she has so little time for, wouldn't they think she was an exceptionally eloquent young woman? No doubt they would. Of course historians and the like thought the Edgedancers were eloquent and refined. They valued those things, the highborn sources they talked to valued those things, and any encounter they had with an Edgedancer or heard about from an associate would be characterized by the like. Meanwhile, the Edgedancers were probably trading dirty jokes with the stable hands as soon as they were out of earshot.

Since Brandon is Mormon, it only seems appropriate to write it in the style of the Book of Mormon. Chapter 1 1. It came to pass in the 5th year of the reign of Elhokar, King of Alethkar, that the Stormfather spake unto Dalinar saying, They must unite, or this people will be utterly destroyed. 2. And Dalinar raised up his voice unto the people of Alethkar, saying unto them that they must unite, and live by the Codes that their fathers has delivered to them. 3. And there rose up one Brightlord Sadeas, who said, What is this that thou sayest? Should we believe one man, though he should preach that the world should be destroyed? Behold, I say it is the effect of a frenzied mind. And that which ye say are ancient prophecies, are the foolish traditions of your fathers. For no man knoweth of things to come, but every man prospers according to his genius and conquers according to his strength. 4. And the people hearkened not unto Dalinar. Chapter 54 1 And the servant of Sadeas rose up and swore in his wrath that the army of Dalinar should not perish from Roshar. And his name was Kaladin. And the spirit of Honor was upon him, and her name was Sylphrenia, which being interpreted means the joyful wind. 2 He was a large and a mighty man and he sought for the covenants of his fathers, that he might receive the blessings of the Knight Radiant. 3 And He smote upon the army of the Parshendi insomuch that they did flee before him.

RENARIN: You know man, it's great to finally meet someone who actually knows how to run a kingdom. RASHEK: Yeah, that Elocar guy sounds like rusting moron. You want another hit? RENARIN: Don't mind if I do... (RENARIN takes a hit of ATIUM) RENARIN: And now my sword starts screamin' at me and... I don't know, some days. RASHEK: This one time I had a sword that was all 'Destroy Evil' and I just couldn't handle that ash. RENARIN: And now we've got that big fight with those red guys comming up and I still can't do crem... RASHEK: Want to borrow a few thousand Koloss? I got a bunch of 'em runnin around... RENARIN: Nah man, too many questions.

What did brandon get drunk on, soda? Mormons don't drink. I would love to read this stones unhallowed parody though.