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that was me! I actually cosplayed as Brandon with a part in my hair, comic shirt, dress coat, and jeans, but it was subtle haha I dont think even he caught it. I have audio of the first half of his seminar, but had technical difficulties in the second half I also have audio of my personal questions for him, but the supanova staff said no recording of the main q&a so I hastily jotted down notes of anything new or interesting to me that I'll put up soon. Edit 1: Here is the transcript of me asking Brandon questions: Edit 2: Here are my hastily scribbled notes from the signing. I think I got everything that could be considered 'new'. I didn't write a lot of things about writing process, world building, new author advice, and release dates (Oathbringer coming November 14th in Aus and USA, November 16th in Britain) Edit 3: My 20 minute video file of the seminar turned out to be a little over 2 GB, so it isn't letting me upload it to Youtube, Facebook, or the shard, or email, or anything else... but honestly it isn't anything that you can't hear by listening to his posted lectures. There weren't any new WoBs of note from it and people were specifically directed to avoid spoilery things in their questions.

It’s the year 342, and the discontentment of the people at the injustice of Elendel is barely seething below the surface. As chaos errupts around the Basin, with the growing food shortages in the outer areas of the basin going unanswered by the government, now is the time to act! In Bilming, the largest port city, and home to many a university, you have made your home, and now you are fighting to keep it that way. Led by students inspired by Lord Elend and his fellows, supplies have been stockpiled, with plenty of guns and ammunition to go around. When the signal came, you rushed to do your part in setting up a barricade in a carefully chosen location. Now you make a stand as you wait for the people to rise up with you and overthrow the upper crust that doesn’t care at all for the working class. Welcome to L35: Miserables. Being unwilling to miss the opportunity to make that pun, here we have a game inspired by Les Miserables, set on Scadrial, in the Elendel Basin, around the time of the riots and chaos of Shadows of Self. But before you go any further, there's something from Doc, my Co-GM, to read. Be sure to check it out. There'll be a quiz later. It's also the shape of things to come. The Rules: The Friends of the ABC are manning the barricade to oppose a corrupt government. It’s the job of the Constabulary to end this riot by any means necessary. While they are able to keep the Friends pinned down, they don’t have the numbers to overwhelm them. So instead they have to rely on Infiltrators who have joined the ranks of the Friends to sabotage their efforts from the inside. As long as there are infiltrators in their midst, the Friends cannot hope to hold the barricade. Each cycle will be 96 hours, broken up into 48 hour ‘day/night’ turns. Note that flavour wise, this will be more like 6 hour blocks of time so that 4 full cycles will be a day of in game time. During ‘day’ turns, everyone may place a single vote on someone to lynch. The player with the most votes is killed. In the case of a tie, one of the tied players will be chosen at random. Votes are placed in red, and retracted in green. If you place multiple votes, only the earliest vote will be counted. Don't go back to older posts and edit in retractions - if you need to vote then retract, do so in the same post, otherwise post the retraction in a new post. During ‘night’ turns, the Infiltrators get to attempt a kill on one player. The game will be starting on a day turn. Roles The game will start in a week. Once I've worked out what will work best to start the game (next Saturday is a bit messy for me), and the best times for my Co-GM, I'll edit in a countdown, and give a final rollover time. One last thing to note - I have a couple more ideas for thematic roles that I may also include in the game. I will make a further post about these later if I decided to include them. Quick Links:

I'm pretty sure I found out how Tanavast looks like:

Night 6: A Traitor and a Spy Remart was relaxing quietly in his bed when they found him. His shoulder was bound, healing from the brawl in the common room, but he hadn't been able to sleep since then. He'd heard the whispers about him, some of them escalating to outright accusations. And then that insufferable Hadrian Penrod had to ruin everything! Rust and Ruin, to think he'd admitted out loud to being a thief, but instead of punishing him as would have been just, they practically glorified the man as their savior for accusing Remart of working with the Ventures. Nearly the entire remaining garrison filed into the room one after one, some looking almost ashamed, but most just angry. Penrod stood at the front, an evil grin on his face and an iron bar in his hand. "If you're going to kill me, get on with it, lads." Remart didn't even rise from the bed or open his eyes as he spoke. Hadrian stepped forward and swung his rod down at Remart's head, hard. Hard enough to crush his skull. If only his head had still been there. Remart rolled off the bed in a flash as Penrod struck, knocking the man's legs out from under him. Drawing on all of his strength, he tore off the bandage on his shoulder and launched into the other guards that had come to end him. Fists flew and men cried out, but in the end, it was futile. Backed up against the wall, out of room and out of energy, Remart took a shallow, painful breath, and spoke one final defiant statement. "House Conrad is weak, and deserves to fail. I remain a loyal servant of House Venture to the end!" He didn't say another word as they beat him into the ground, and he never rose again. ------------------------------------ Night 6 has begun! It will end at 10:30 PM, Mountain Daylight Time, June 17th. Remart (Jondesu) was lynched! They were a Venture Hazekiller! Vote Count: Jondesu (9): Hemalurgic Headshot, The Flash, Manukos, Yitzi2, cloudjumper, Droughtbringer, Elenion, Araris Valerian, Metacognition, Araris Valerian (1): Jondesu, Player List: Marv (Hemalurgic_Headshot) Barry Allen (The Flash) Jeff (Manukos) - short for Jeffonimo Lance (Ecthelion III) - The Second Nameless Metallurgist Booken (Paranoid King) - a victim of the "common word + en" method of naming Village Seeker Garshin (Yitzi2) Ribis (cloudjumper) - the bored second son of a noble from the Remote Dominance Stick McStick (_Stick_) Village Courier and Brass Spiked Remart (Jondesu) Venture Hazekiller Beet Asper (Ornstein) - an old timer who knows his stuff Metallurgist Locke Tekiel (OrlokTsubodai) - a scion of a well - respected noble house Village Captain Absolen (StrikerEZ) - a skaa worker in the Conrad fields Village Lurcher Jay (DroughtBringer) - a blind young man attempting to keep his blindness a secret Boris (Elenion) - a guard known for laziness and general apathy Hadrian Penrod (Araris Valerian) - hoping to ascend to Ruin Mehir (Metacognition) - a mute and paranoid guard Cluny (Cluny the Scourge) - a man who believes he is a rat with a spearhead on his tail Village Soother with a Bronze Spike Valbar (TheMightyLopen) - who always gets ignored despite his large stature Village Rioter Mila (BrightnessRadiant) - a girl from the country Venture Courier Sorren Karidor (Dalinar Kholin) - an old guard who's been here longer than any of you whippersnappers Village Thug Argyle (Sart) - a very clumsy man

Brandon was awesome as usual today! So glad I got to meet my favourite author! It was a great day

Day 7: Fall of the Steelrunner Ribis loved the nights. They were a time he could get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and be one with the mists. He laughed as he raced along the top of the wall, feeling the comforting warmth of steel burning in his belly. His stores were very low, and he hadn't been able to get any more through the black market. Rumor was that the contacts had all been murdered. Well, that was one thing they couldn't blame on him. Well, Lance maybe. But it wasn't his fault that old Beet Asper had gotten murdered. And if Lance hadn't been acting all up and suspicious like he was a Venture spy, Ribis wouldn't have gone and acted...impetuously. That was a good word, he thought, as he launched himself from the wall on wings of steel. But at least he had found out Mila. That should be worth the death of an old black marketeet, right? He landed on the top of one of the manor house's towers, feeling his reserves stretched out to their limits, and pulled out the last vial of steel on his belt. Not a lot - certainly not enough to go hunting for spies to kill tonight. But enough to give him one last flight before he turned in. He laughed recklessly as he drained the alcohol, felling the grit of the metal slide down his throat. Then, he jumped, burning steel. Or at least, he tried to. Nothing happened. He just barely managed to wonder what had happened before he impacted the ground at a...terminal velocity. He never knew that the spies had swapped his vial of steel for a different metal while he was out. Not that knowing would have made much of a difference anyways. ------------------------------------ Day 7 has begun! It will end at 10:30 PM, Mountain Daylight Time, June 19th. Ribis (cloudjumper) was killed! They were a Village Coinshot! Player List: Marv (Hemalurgic_Headshot) Barry Allen (The Flash) Jeff (Manukos) - short for Jeffonimo Lance (Ecthelion III) - The Second Nameless Metallurgist Booken (Paranoid King) - a victim of the "common word + en" method of naming Village Seeker Garshin (Yitzi2) Ribis (cloudjumper) - the bored second son of a noble from the Remote Dominance Village Coinshot Stick McStick (_Stick_) Village Courier and Brass Spiked Remart (Jondesu) Venture Hazekiller Beet Asper (Ornstein) - an old timer who knows his stuff Metallurgist Locke Tekiel (OrlokTsubodai) - a scion of a well - respected noble house Village Captain Absolen (StrikerEZ) - a skaa worker in the Conrad fields Village Lurcher Jay (DroughtBringer) - a blind young man attempting to keep his blindness a secret Boris (Elenion) - a guard known for laziness and general apathy Hadrian Penrod (Araris Valerian) - hoping to ascend to Ruin Mehir (Metacognition) - a mute and paranoid guard Cluny (Cluny the Scourge) - a man who believes he is a rat with a spearhead on his tail Village Soother with a Bronze Spike Valbar (TheMightyLopen) - who always gets ignored despite his large stature Village Rioter Mila (BrightnessRadiant) - a girl from the country Venture Courier Sorren Karidor (Dalinar Kholin) - an old guard who's been here longer than any of you whippersnappers Village Thug Argyle (Sart) - a very clumsy man

Thanks Silverblade and everyone who wanted to know more about me. (I'm changing the way people should submit their answers. I think featured members should just post these directly in here!) 1. Provide a picture (if you are comfortable with that). Have some JAPAN PICTURES. Okay, those last two are obviously not me, but Japan is weird, so I wanted to show you. 2. Provide your real name (if you are comfortable with that). Eric Lake 3. Which book is your favorite and why? This is tough! Oathbringer beat Words of Radiance for me. As for non-Brandon books, I'd say Foundation's Edge. 4. What have been your main contributions to the community? What are you known for? I'm one of the three co-founders of 17th Shard. Originally my mandate was just in running the forums, but I have a hand in basically everything the Shard does. I'm ultimately the system admin of the site (and I'm not good at that, honestly). I deal with the Shard's software. I do some coding stuff on the main site, but mostly to make the Shard look pretty. I write news articles (which I did exclusively for a while. Now Weiry does a lot, which is good). I manage all podcasts, and somehow weaseled my way to be on every podcast now or involving future plans. I also do audio editing now for Shardcast, somehow. In many respects I'm a manager, directing a lot of our people to make cohesive things. I connect the 17S design team. I'm on the Coppermind staff. I'm on the new WoB Archive staff. I'm constantly working on something. Currently the WoB Archive is sapping a lot my effort. I used to be much more involved in the theoretical discussion here, but I'm way too busy these days to do so. However, I'm directly responsible for some terms fans use all the time, like intent and Survival Shard (the Survival Shard, by the way, was a thing that was written into a book of mine). I rather aggressively pushed the idea of Adonalsium's "opposing force" and kept asking questions about it, but that eventually got me in trouble, because Brandon likes intentionally misleading me at this point. He very much knows I care deeply about the Shards. Troll. I remember at a signing when I asked him, "How many Shards have Invested themselves onto Roshar?" (This was because at the time there was some debate as to whether there could be a fourth Shard in the system.) You know what he said? "Technically, all of them have." What a troll. I still find the pinnacle of my theorizing in the cosmere to be the Principle of Intent, which was eventually revealed to be totally canonical. 5. What made you join the forum? Maybe you guys don't know the story! I'll recount it. Long ago, when the Earth was young (meaning 2010 here), Mi'chelle wanted to make a fan site because she felt the fanbase had been outgrowing Timewaster's Guide. She along with Josh Brandon gave this place its name, and once we had that, I got fed up with our coding person I bought the domain myself. Thus, I've been struggling my way through being system admin of this site ever since 6. How many hours do you spend on the Shard on a given day? The Shard itself, less than you'd think. I always have a tab of it open but I don't browse all new posts. I probably spend less than hour actually posting on the forum itself. I'm always doing stuff in the periphery of the Shard, though, like being on Discord (where you can always find me), the Coppermind, or the new WoB Archive that I really want to tell you the name of. When I spend a day working on this Shard related stuff, I'll spend the whole day on it. 7. Describe your fondest forum experience. This requires me to actually remember things? Man, that's hard. My memory is quite legendarily bad. Sometimes people will say "You told me to do it this way like a year ago!" when I tell them to do the opposite in the present day. Oops. Anyway, this is hard to narrow down. For a forum specific moment, I'm going to say that one fateful day in February 2011 where Joe kindly bought us this forum software. When we did that upgrade, Kerry and I immediately had the most stressful design night, as we had to get the crappy default IPB site to do what we wanted it to do. There was about an hour where we yelled at CSS because something wasn't centering that should have. (Mind you, the site was live this whole time.) My fondest moments are really in all the people I've met on the Shard. I've met amazing friends who I talk to all the time. I've also met people on the Shard that I dated, but as that goes, that kind of happened by accident. An extremely humbling time happened when, at either Alloy of Law's or Words of Radiance's release, I was talking with someone and she eventually screamed, "Oh my god, you're Chaos!?" Apparently I am famous to a few It was a cool and very humbling. 8. What is one thing that Brandon does really well? Endings. Brandon's such a freaking boss at endings, especially recently. I'm a guy who absolutely loves good plot and good endings, and I don't think I'd ultimately care about the connected universe stuff and his worldbuilding if his endings weren't so sweet. (Uh, Oathbringer hype.) 9. What is one thing that he could work on? Sometimes he becomes so fond of a character that he has no perspective on when to cut down on a character. I'm looking at you, Wayne in the beginning of Bands of Mourning. Brandon liked the scene and he kept it in its entirety. I think it's still the strongest thing to criticize Bands about. Brandon likes Wayne way too much... It's hard to say other things. Others are having a problem with the amount of fake character deaths, but if those people didn't infect my brain, it wouldn't bother me too much. 10. Which fictional character is the best representation of yourself? I suppose I'll go with Mistborn 1 Elend Venture. 11. Any additional comments, whether it be about your life outside of the forum, favorite food, your website, or...anything! I teach math. Math is applicable to everything, because math is logic. The universe is inherently logical. You might not see that is inherently logical, but that's just because you might lack perspective on the issue. Everything has a cause and effect. Sometimes this is phrased as, "everything happens for a reason." That's needlessly dramatic. Practically speaking things happen for utterly mundane reasons. I'm thirsty, so I'll drink some water. My feet are cold, so I'll put on socks. It applies to everything. If you crush on someone and they reject you, or a friend betrays you, their logic may seem unknowable, but there is always reason for why something occurs. (Sometimes, though, it can be a very unsatisfying answer for you, especially if a person actively tried to hurt you.) So, in a way, if you learn math, you learn about logic, and you learn about everything. Learning math has made me a better writer, because writing is not some unknowable enigma. You can design a great story. There are bits and pieces you need to make a great novel, or even pieces you would need to write a good paragraph! Anything you think is challenging has a logic to it. I think drawing is really hard, but surely there is logic to it, or else it could never be taught. The universe has rules to it! How cool is that? One could easily imagine a fantasy universe where the universe actually doesn't have rules to it and it truly is unknowable, but fortunately, it is not the world we live in. Just because you don't know a fact doesn't mean it is unknowable--it means you have more work to do. 12. How did you incorporate the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise into a calculus lecture? Actually, a student of mine wrote this on a calculus quiz when he didn't know how to answer the question. It was great. I don't think I directly mentioned in it a lecture, though.

Made it down today, got some books signed with a mate and my father. Brandon was amazing he has this energy and charisma about him in the q and a. Didn't ask any difficult questions because I wasn't sure what was currently was WoB. Met a guy who was a 17th sharder who taking down notes. Didn't catch his name but he was wearing a Superman shirt. A great experience meeting Brandon!

Here we go folks: I've made that topic six minutes after Brandon posted the update at reddit. Some say it's coincidence, some say it's fate, some try to spike me for Feruchemical chromium, I say I'm a bit fanatical at checking Brandon's reddit account.

Hey everyone! I just found this place via the cosmere FB page. I got into Sanderson from WOT, and picked up WOK for the first time about 18 months ago. Since then ive read WoR, Elantris, Warbreaker, and the first set of Mistborn. Im currently reading Alloy of law. A bit about me. Im 32 a husband and father of 2. I was an executive chef for a restaurant for the last 13 years. I am currently brewing beer for that same restaurant. Its nice to be here feel free to ask me anything you would like to know.

one of my questions that was answered today was, 'for darkeyed people that bond shardblades, does the new eye color correspond to the specific type of shardblade that was bonded?' And I got a solid yes. I didn't have time to ask about inheritance patterns though.

Alright, finally! The site I was using to make my memes is now functioning properly and I can get to creating Memedancer! Apologies for the big delay. Let's see if this will be any good Starting with Chapter 1:

I'll join as Edmond Dantès. He was wrongfully imprisoned by the elendel constabulary after being framed by four people from bilming and has arrived at the barricade to hunt them down and exact his revenge

Hello, everyone. If you have any questions about the Oathbringer release or the tour in general, feel free to post them in this thread, or look through what has already been asked in the thread. I'll try to summarize some of the Frequently Asked Questions: What are the tour dates we know so far? Nov 13, Provo, UT Nov 14, San Diego, CA Nov 15, San Francisco, CA Nov 16, Portland, OR Nov 18, Houston, TX Nov 21, Chicago, IL Nov 28, London, UK Nov 29, Birmingham, UK Nov 29, Liverpool, UK Dec 1, Leeds, UK Dec 1, Newcastle, UK Dec 2, Edinburgh, UK Dec 2, Glasgow, UK More information about the US stops, including times and bookstore information, can be found in the Tor announcement. Information about the UK tour can be found in the Gollancz announcement. I will add in links to 17th Shard topics for each event as they are created. What's the chance that Brandon will come to Los Angeles/Timbuktu/Mars? Brandon's agent schedules his tour events. If you'd like to see where he has gone in the past, you can check out ccstat's helpful map of them, or to look through Theoryland's event database to see where Brandon's other large tours have been. In the past year or two, he has been doing several smaller tours a year (for YA stuff, Arcanum Unbounded, two Mistborn books in quick succession), but since this will have been almost a year since any other major releases, I suspect the Oathbringer tour will look more like one of the three Wheel of Time tours, with lots of stops. Big cities tend to get a lot of love, and Brandon's geographic location in Utah means that there tend to be more stops out west than there are in the east (and obviously outside of the continental US). Denver, Seattle, Chicago, San Diego, and San Francisco seem to be the cities getting a lot of visits. Two big cities that seem to not get their fair share of tour visits are Atlanta and New York. The former is probably because JordanCon is held there, so Brandon has plenty of opportunities to visit them. New York has been odd, and the anecdotal reason that I've heard is that signings in the Big Apple are in absurdly high demand, and even a big-name fantasy author like Brandon is still a very small fish in that pond. Brandon could get in when he was working on Wheel of Time, but hasn't really been back too many times since he's finished it up. For outside the United States, Brandon just finished up a tour through Europe (Bulgaria, Poland, and Germany). He's said he's planning on going to England, but that might not preclude some other European stops. Anything further would be pure speculation on my part (although I seem to recall Brandon is a big hit among teenage girls in Taiwan...) How do I get a numbered book? Do I need to be at the Midnight Release? Brandon typically outsources the sale of numbered books to Weller Book Works. He will make a blog post when they can be ordered; here's the Bands of Mourning announcement. Brandon expects that you will be able to preorder from them in September. UPDATE: Here is the link to the announcement. You can order them online from Weller's Book Works, or get them in person at the BYU midnight release or at the San Diego signing on the 14th. Any way to get the book early? I'm not good at that sort of thing. If you order on Amazon, you might be able to get it a couple of days early. In my experience, I get it a couple days late, so I usually go to B&N the day of. (Actually, I usually check on Monday night, if they're putting it out before they close, but I haven't had any luck with that.) Why can't I buy it in paperback? Books like this will typically have a paperback version released 1 year after the hardcover. It's because the publishing industry is full of greedy people, and they know that you'll pay for the hardcover if you have no other choice, and it lets them leave the ebook price well above what paperbacks typically go for. (But in all seriousness, this is standard practice for a new release. It's like paying for four movie tickets vs buying the DVD.) So, you can expect to see the MMPB around November 2018. Of note for this particular book, it's long enough that it may not be possible to release as a single paperback; we might get Oathbringer Part 1 and Oathbringer Part 2. This has been pretty standard for various worldwide releases, but pretty atypical for North America, where the fantasy market is so strong they don't need to fudge their numbers by double- or triple-counting book sales. The hardcover will still be a single volume, even if they need to shrink margins and stuff like that. It's my first signing, and I'm overwhelmed. Help! Don't panic! Here are some specific questions you may be wondering: Where can I find more info about a particular signing? This forum will contain threads for each event, once more information is known. You'll be able to reach out to the bookstores that will be hosting and ask about any specifics that aren't available on their website. Do I need to buy a ticket? This depends on the event host. Bookstores around the country host events, and they may decide to ticket an event to allow them to rent a larger space to hold the signing. They also may require you to purchase a copy of Oathbringer from them, or just give a free ticket with purchase. There are two reasons they do this: first, they shouldn't lose money hosting an event like this (because if they do, they will stop doing them). Two, imposing a price tag will reduce the number of attendees and make for a better experience for those who are willing to pay. (Somewhat analogous to Uber's surge pricing.) Not all bookstores will ticket their events, but it's good manners to purchase something from a bookstore that hosts a free event. Take care of some Christmas shopping early, if you can, and you'll thank the bookstore for their work setting up the event. How long a turn will I get in the signing line? How many books or questions can I bring? This also depends on the bookstore, and the size of the crowd that turns up. Sometimes, the bookstore will have Brandon pre-sign books, so you can just snag a copy and go. If you're bringing books you already own to get signed and/or personalized, be aware that the bookstore may limit the number of books that you can take with you in the line. You can pretty much count on getting at least 3, though. While he's signing and personalizing books, you'll be able to chat with him, ask questions, or get a picture taken. I have it on good authority that waiting to go last means you can slip in a few extra questions... if you're willing to wait around all night for them. What questions should I ask? We maintain (and by "we," I mean "I think somebody does") an Ultimate List of Questions you can feel free to pull from, and if you ask in one of the event threads, people will be sure to offer suggestions. I recommend you pick something that you're personally interested in. And you don't even need to ask any questions - you could always share a story, or something else to make things a little more personal. Can I give Brandon any gifts, to show my appreciation? He likes magic cards. And fish sticks. But he repeatedly says that he doesn't really need the gifts to feel appreciated, he'll just mention them as outlets for those who love to give gifts. (Also, he hates fish sticks.) When do sample chapters start coming up? Tor typically posts those two months in advance. Everything Brandon has read at signings and conventions can be found here. UPDATE: You can find released preview chapters using this thread.

VOILA 'TIS I!! THE DOC HAS RETURNED TO SE!!! TO THOSE WHO HAVE MISSED HIM, THE ADORING MASSES, THE CHEERS! *blinks Where are the cheers? Heh. So yes. I'm back, for a short while, to help Hael with this game. I fell in love with Les Mis over the past few months, and practically begged Hael to let me help him with the parodies So yes, expect a lot[i/] of parodies over the next few cycles, and I hope you guys do your part to at least drop some verses! I don't expect you all to be familiar with Les Mis, the musical, but any song would do in any style. We can't offer a reward system like Aman's games, but really, it would be lots of fun to do, and a great game for all, yeah? And to close off, here's an extra parody from me! Master of the Game, doling out the pain Ready with PAFO cards to drive you insane! Offers parodies! Writeups galore! Spectators appreciate a little gore! Glad to do my victim friends a favor Doesn't cost me to be nice! But nothing gets you nothing Everything has got a little...price! (Hint hint, upvotes!) Master of the Game, keeper of the zoo Ready to relieve 'em of a good night’s sleep! Ready with the hints, keep em in suspense! A little teasing smirk to keep ‘em nice and tense! Everybody loves a GM! Everybody's bosom friend I do whatever pleases! Ruin! Won't I bleed 'em in the end! (of upvotes!) (And while, life. And time. And sanity.) (But upvotes) *cackles and vanishes

Yeah this WoB is pretty good (if not complete) confirmation.

Strangely, I wrote half a page of notes on just such a scenario about 2 hours ago!!

I did Les Mis for my show this year! Count me in. I shall be... Jay. (All these flash names are going to get hard to keep track of LOL)

Yes and no? THere's a difference between being okay with something intellectually and with your clothes on, when there's room for the thinking brain to go "S is enby, and enby is a thing and it's all cool," and put a check on any hormone-driven habitual reactions; and naked sexy funtimes when it's hormones driving the bus, reactions are primal and habituated, and thinking reactions are packed away in a corner somewhere. Sorin's making a fine distinction and expecting a lot of thinking from a red-blooded lusty lady, but by the same token M really should know better than 1) to think sexytimes with S will be normal, and 2) to treat S the way she's treated previous lovers. It's M's reaction to S's boobs *AS WOMEN'S BOOBS* that causes the initial problem. When S's parts engender the same look as the flirty female barmaid's parts, that's M -- however unconsciously and inadvertently! -- showing that she hasn't really absorbed the "S is enby, enby is different" idea beyond a surface understanding *despite howevermuch she might care in other circumstances.* S being awkward and inarticulate doesn't help matters, either.

Was at the BYU Store today. Guess what I found?

Tell me, in what world would Dalinar Kholin, who had just sworn an oath to unite instead of divide, disinherit his son because he's not radiant enough, or because he killed the man who left him stranded on the battle field causing the death of thousands? Do you really believe that he would break his oaths the very next book? In that case, you should call the next book oath breaker. Do you remember in WoK when Navani is trying to get some time alone with Dalinar, and she tries to get Adolin away by convincing him that his relationship with the girl he was currently courting was on the line. (Which apparently it was, since it ended shortly) She tries to convince him to bring her roses and he says I'll do it later. She then further explains that he needs to do it immediately or else his chance with her may end, which he replies by putting it off further. His relationship ended quickly. Please tell me why the guy who wasn't willing to do something as simple as get roses, and bring it to the girl he intends to marry, when there relationship is dying, is completely qualified to have a relationship. Well the person who charged toward a chasm fiend, to save the girl he found himself caring for, knowing full well that was almost surely going to die, is not. Listen, Roshar is about to be Completely obliterated by the Everstorm. Both Adolin and Kaladin are going to be incredibly busy. So who's relationship would work out depends on who's willing to sacrifice more. On this, as previously shown by my examples given above, Kaladin wins. Hands down! Besides, even if Kaladin were more busy, the fact that he is willing to give more, is far more important. If Shallan thinks other wise, than that is an incredibly disappointing flaw in her character.

So...is he coming to Dallas? Just kidding. I'll just wait and see if he's coming anywhere near here, and then I'll force my parents to take me there (hopefully) if he's close enough. I'd actually be so excited if I got to meet Brandon. He's probably my favorite author, so this would be awesome for me.

XD I thought of this one while listening to the Kaladin and Szeth fight. Szeth kept seeing what Kaladin was doing, like Syl becoming a spear/shield/halberd and so on, and kept yelling impossible!!

I found baby goldfinches a few days ago They're storming adorable! (4 photos in the spoiler)

I've lurked on 17th shard on and off for almost a year and finally decided I may as well sign up. I've read all on Brandon Sanderson's cosmere works, and a fair bit of his other stuff too and I think I might have the occasional thing to add to the conversation. For the last two years my wife and I have been living up in northern Canada. There's not many people up here and fewer still who enjoy epic fantasy, so it'll be nice to talk about something I really enjoy here In a way that I really couldn't otherwise.

I'll just point out that they're actually all true palindromes, 'th' for example is actually a single letter, the 'translation' into English just makes the sound read as 'th'. But yeah symmetrical names are considered holy on Roshar which is also why some people are given almost -symmetrical names (symmetry is holy but to be too symmetrical is blasphemy, it's implying you're actually holy).

Interesting theory, but then there would have to be more six more orders, and it really is a drastic change to bring in, even with Oathbringer out soon. Maybe there will be sixteen of the KR shown in the books instead?

@maxal sorry to nitpick but I don't think this shows a link back to the Orders themselves, just the Spren that the blade their ancestors picked up were. So I guess it's probably a semantics issue. Because when I hear Willshaper heritage I imagine a human Willshaper ancestor. Where what I'm seeing as happened in this instance is someone, at some point after the recreance, pick up a blade that was a fallen Willshaper's spren, and that person then went on to pass their eye color genes down to Navani/Jasnah.

*sigh Comeone guys Stappit with the Super"powers" Just make people happy

That works. Once you're on the list to GM your first game, you'll be added into the SE GM PM (say that 5 times fast :D) where you can sign up for more games and watch as we try to figure out who's up to run what game when.

On the basis of that word count, and the word count and pages in Way of Kings, I estimate Oathbringer will be about 1164 pages.

Welcome @Crawgdor! Does your name, by any chance, stem from a certain dragon with a beefy arm coming out of its neck?

Freakishly fast. I'm used to waiting 2 years or more for my next dose from one of favored authors. Seven years in one particular case.. So having Sanderson churn out a new book pretty much every year is not only very impressive for the quality of his work, but the quantity of it, the word count, is mind boggling. The SA are thicker than most people's Bibles!

Little thing about introverts

Good to have you here! I'm fairly new myself. Go ahead and have an up vote, and refrain from eating any cookies of dubious origin. Instead, have a few spheres and go buy some nice ones from nearest corner the store.

Hah, ya'll think English is tough? Let me introduce you to The Story of Mr Shi Eating Lions: (Mandarin Chinese) "“Shí Shì Shī Shì Shī Shì, Shì Shī, Shì Shí Shí Shī.Shì Shí Shí Shì Shì Shì Shī. Shí Shí, Shì Shí Shī Shì Shì. Shì Shí, Shì Shī Shì Shì Shì. Shì Shì Shì Shí Shī, Shì Shǐ Shì, Shǐ Shì Shí Shī Shì Shì. Shì Shí Shì Shí Shī Shī, Shì Shí Shì. Shí Shì Shī, Shì Shǐ Shì Shì Shí Shì. Shí Shì Shì, Shì Shǐ Shì Shí Shì Shí Shī. Shí Shí, Shǐ Shí Shì Shí Shī, Shí Shí Shí Shī Shī. Shì Shì Shì Shì.”" Meaning: "In a stone den was a poet Mr Shi, who loved eating lions and determined to eat ten. He often went to the market to watch lions. One day at ten o'clock, ten lions just arrived at the market. At that time, Mr Shi just arrived at the market too. Seeing those ten lions, he killed them with arrows. He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den. The stone den was damp. He had his servant wiping it. The stone den being wiped, only then did he try to eat those ten lions. While eating, he just realised that those ten lions were in fact ten stone-lion corpses. Try to explain this." Pronounciation:

November seems so far away..

The Old Magic, Taravangian sought, For the future is shadowed and fraught, Now no matter the cost, In the lives that are lost, He believes that salvation's been bought.

A pious and virtuous Shin, Accused of the gravest of sins, Truthless they said, His life he must shed, He slaughtered in white, assassin. Edit: The shard is a wonderful place, Filled with knowledge and excessive grace, It's late and I'm tired, And I'm feeling inspired, To sleep 'fore I fall on my face. Goodnight.

My greatest Halloween costume ever.

A black hole in the Cosmere would be a big deal. A very big deal. Shards can shrug off the influence of black holes, of course, but then a black hole essentially hacks physical reality anyway. Who knows what is going down in teh Cogrealm next to a black hole. The most terrifying black hole-related thought about the Cosmere I've had is what if Ruin discovered a supermassive black hole and decided to invest himself in one.

@hwiles, sorry I'm new to this forum stuff and didn't realize i could do that. I will make sure to do it next time I add information to my responses.

@Pinnacle-Ferring AND I ARE ENGAGED!!!!!!! Basically we've known for a while that we wanted to do this. We went a couple days ago and picked out a ring (with a sapphire because Ravenclaw colours. Its really pretty!). So we met up in the morning and bought the ring. Then we went to see Wonder Woman (it was amazing too). So we were having a discussion about proposing over post-movie lunch but I wanted to wear the ring already and we decided ok, lunch. So while we're walking to the cinema I get an important phone call. I put the phone down and realised he looked really nervous, so I was like, ok, he's decided to propose now. So he says "Wasing the you in the giving of the me all of the happies and fuzzies. Ising the wanting of spending the life of the me with the you. Willing of the you of the marrying of the me?" and pulled out a white handkerchief. (Took me a minute to get the Spook reference. I have failed you all :P) And then I said to him "Will you be my Right Hand Man?" And he gave me the ring. And we walked off grinning to go see Wonder Woman because #nerdlove.

Come, children, gather round, listen to my tale Sit beside the hearth and think on love, loss, and betrayal Think upon a girl who lived twixt shadows and the light Listen to my story, as the sun falls into night El Let’s start with the girl, shall we? Once, there was a girl who hated and loved, controlled and obeyed, lost and found. She was not special for any of these things: every child is such. But she was nevertheless quite special, and her name was El. Her story begins - well, when she was born, of course. But we will move later, for now. Her birth will come in time. For the moment, let us look at her when she is twelve, and already a wanderer of worlds. That is, she was a wanderer, until she stepped into the trap which is Tyrian Falls. She lost all memory of her childhood, then. But she always searched for her lost parents: she was the apothecary apprentice, or the beloved of the local Lord, or the daughter of the town messenger, or an orphan begging in the streets. Always lost. Always searching. She stayed there for a long, long time, remembering herself for an instant every time the town fell to the Spiked, and then forgetting, over and over and over again. Then, one iteration, something was different. Something changed. And she drew the attention of the maker of Tyrian Falls, and was rescued by Death. Death Now. What do you want, child? El hears, still in the chamber to which she was brought when this… person… had rescued her. “I…” she says, hand rising to the locket about her neck. “I want to find my parents again.” As an afterthought, she adds, “And to see the worlds.” To find your parents, even though they… well. As you wish, godchild. Then El knows what to do, somehow. “Thank you.” Dominion Courtesy of Droughtbringer in LG29. Darkness. El alone is illuminated, smiling up at the figure shadowed in the gloom. “You cannot control me, Dominion,” she says clearly and calmly. “Will you accept my offer?” A feeling of reluctance, then assent. A hand reaches out to clasp El’s, and she inhales sharply. Her eyes gleam with new power. She smiles. Then she leaves, hiding herself in the place already prepared. She lays herself down on a slab of grey marble, closes her eyes, and sends out her spirit with one desire: find them. She barely remembers her parents, now, despite being freed. Too much has been forgotten, too many times. She’s not even sure how to start, but she must. She’s pulled into another spirit, nearby in time and space, already weakened and opened by the influence of another power. She cannot affect the body, much, but she can watch. Its name is Sandhya. Sandhya “Evening”, “Dusk”, Hindi Scadrial - LG23 El gasped at the shock of death. She rose from Sandhya’s body slowly, watching the blood spilling out. She hadn’t been in the body for long - a week or two, perhaps? But… it had been a life, and it was gone. She hadn’t even been able to do anything. She couldn’t do anything right now, not without understanding her powers. She hated that she couldn’t save the girl, but there was nothing she could do. And she still had absolutely no notion of how to find her parents. There was a certain quality, here among the crowd that had watched Sandhya die, that reminded her of Tyrian Falls. A paranoia that could not be vanquished. But she could make nothing of the feeling. She looked down at the body below her, still spilling out its lifeblood. She concentrated and cast out for another spirit that attracted her, in the hope that the next would be more useful in her search. Then there was a shaking, of some sort. She looked towards the Lord Ruler’s palace, which was suddenly shining with the power of a thousand suns. Something to do with what the power controlling Sandhya, Ruin, had been planning? Then everything exploded. El rode the power, trying to take control of it, to find something to latch onto. There was a node, here. The Well. And… a resonance, from a thousand years in the past. The world was ending. She had no choice. She dove into the heart of the power, and emerged amidst the snow and ice of Terris, one thousand and twenty four years in the past. Tindomë “Starry dawn-twilight”, Quenya Scadrial - MR13 El watched from Tindomë’s eyes as she dragged herself through the brush. She could feel… something... happening, in the Well inside. She concentrated. Some other power… Mother? There was just the barest scent of something half-remembered from long before. Could it be? El took hold of Tindomë somehow, commanding her to go closer to the Well instead of scrambling away. Barely able to walk, the woman stumbled down the tunnel until she reached the end. El got a glimpse of a woman exuding blue-white light, beautiful and terrible - and then she vanished, and only Jonly was left standing proud and tall. El nearly screamed in frustration. Jonly left the barely-glowing Well to rejoin his companions, and Tindomë avoided his notice as she slipped around and half-stepped, half-fell into the pool. El tried to focus on the woman she’d seen and go to her, using the node as she had last time, but the essence of that woman was everywhere and nowhere, and Tindomë’s mind couldn’t focus well in that state. She emerged on another world that she later learned was called Sel. Tindomë managed to tap her goldminds enough to stumble down from the pool where she emerged into the city, though she still bled from the wound that should have killed her. Sel - LG21 (written by Seonid) El did scream in frustration, this time. It wasn't like anyone else could hear. She was now stuck on another world with no place to go and no leads on her mother even though she had just seen her not ten minutes ago… She frowned, and concentrated on travelling. In theory, it should be possible without a Well to assist. She pictured the scene she’d caught a glimpse of in the chamber holding the Well, and then poured power into it. There was a wrenching, twisting sensation, and she was thrown into a body at the very edge of the Cosmere, far from anyone or anything important. She sighed, stuck in that body until its death. It seemed she still had a fair bit of learning about her new power to do. Crepuscula “Twilight”, Latin Threnody - QF16 El turned around, looking at her murderer, still rattled from the shock of death. He was oddly familiar. She moved closer, and… it was. Not quite, but similar to Jonly. Not in facial features, but in… soul, perhaps? However she was seeing him right now. She frowned, noticing one of the shades trailing her. Crepuscula had apparently decided to follow her into the Cognitive Realm. El carefully detached herself from Crepuscula’s shade, after focusing it on Joseph for her amusement. Wouldn’t do to let someone kill her if she could change that, after all, and the girl deserved to repay her killer. Then she herself focused on Jonly, as she had known him with Tindomë, using the version in front of her as a focus, and she found herself on another new world: Roshar. Tintallë Iurnu Tintalle - “Starkindler”, Quenya Iurnu - “Twilight”, Corsican Roshar - LG31 El was fascinated. Something had been different about this one. She didn’t know whether she’d done something accidentally, or it had been inbuilt from the girl’s nature. Regardless, Tintallë had seen natures, souls, as El saw them but more. Even more interestingly, Jonly had been there, and El had been able to see his soul. So much hatred… She was distracted from that thought within moments, though, as she felt something else, somewhere on this world. She shook, disoriented. Was that… her mother, again? Maybe her father? She lost all other thoughts and focused on that sensation, that instant, careening towards it in time and space. Just before she could find it directly, though, the sensation vanished, and El snapped into a nearby young girl, a messenger of some sort. El clenched her incorporeal fists. She would find her parents. She had to. She took this girl’s mind, and drew on Dominion, though still somewhat clumsily. Tintallë’s power had been undeniably useful, so El tried to make this into a second Tintallë. It wasn’t perfect, when she finished. ‘Allë was a little rough around the edges. But she would do. Tintallë “Starkindler”, Quenya Roshar - LG20 That hadn’t been her mother exactly, El knew. It was like the version of Jonly with Crepuscula: still the same and yet not. It was something, though. Something she could focus on. Another point of reference. Travelling was getting easier, now. She focused on Kenara and the woman who’d been with Jonly on Scadrial, and leapt across worlds. Minuial “First Twilight (dawn)”, Sindarin Nalthis - LG25 El smiled at the interaction, rising from Minuial’s body. She was so close, now. To both her parents. She could feel their essences across the worlds. She would find them. After a couple of short stops elsewhere to tidy up a few loose ends, she concentrated on her parents. Her mother, light, day, sunset, danger, and her father - shadows, ambiguity, hatred, but love beyond measure, too. She fell through the worlds easily, and reached her last body. Liadan. Liadan “Grey Lady”, Irish Gaelic Sel - LG24 - written by Joe This was it. El could feel it. Her mother and father were here. Or would be here soon. Or had been here in the past? Her sense of time wasn’t very strong anymore. Liadan was acting oddly, she noticed. The spirit didn’t pass into the Spiritual Realm, but held onto El’s spirit and stayed in the Cognitive, seemingly free to do as she wished and even interact with the physical world at times. Perhaps El had been doing this too long, or the fact that she’d died so young had had something to do with it? El decided to wait around, in any case. Some instinct told her it was still in the future, what was to come. She would find her parents again. She reached up to clasp the incorporeal locket around her neck, and smiled. To be continued.

I seek nothing if not approval of my fellow Sharders! Day 3:

There is very little actual way Vasher could win such an encounter with the Lord Ruler. No doubt that Nightblood would be quite damaging to the Lord Ruler--though whether or not Nightblood would determine the Lord Ruler as evil is another topic entirely. But still, as the Lord Ruler, he would Push on freaking everything in the general vicinity and note that the sword is highly Invested, and thus cannot be Pushed on. The Lord Ruler would then immediately know that it is probably dangerous, considering neither metalmind nor Hemalurgic spike would be an Invested sword. This is with assuming the minimal level of cosmere awareness, and I think the Lord Ruler would probably worry about something Invested in this way. Also, Allomantic bronze and the Lord Ruler's extreme skill with it would notice that something is awry with Nightblood. That's when the Lord Ruler stays the crap away from Vasher and Pushes a coin into Vasher's skull and instantly kills him. It's highly unlikely that Vasher could ever sneak up to the Lord Ruler--and sneaking into Kredik Shaw would have the same issue with Steelpushes being extremely effective. But even if it wasn't Kredik Shaw, the Lord Ruler would have extreme senses from tin. In any sort of arena-based fight where both parties were prepared, the Lord Ruler would win because of his ability to range Vasher down. If Vasher unleashes Nightblood, the Lord Ruler will win. There's not a way for Vasher to catch up; the Lord Ruler has so many ways to keep an adequate distance from Vasher. Allomantic pewter, Feruchemical steel. Tapping speed will be seriously overpowered here. Best case against the Lord Ruler's (or, let's be honest, any Mistborn) ranged assault is a lot of Awakened objects to try and deflect the coins, but still... the sheer velocity on the coins will destroy Vasher's typical Awakened objects, and then Vasher immediately loses. Vasher could try and throw Nightblood, but as soon as he does, the Lord Ruler can tap physical and mental speed, dodge Nightblood, and instantly kill Vasher. Nightblood's the only thing that keeps the Lord Ruler from physically overpowering Vasher. As soon as its thrown, Vasher loses. The Lord Ruler has far too many ways to keep moving for it to ever connect. Then, the Lord Ruler has a minion, like an Inquisitor, pick up Nightblood after the fight is complete, and have them die over it. This is to say nothing of the Lord Ruler's incredible emotional Allomancy to toy with Vasher... Even worse for Vasher, this is all assuming the Lord Ruler does not use atium, in which case, he will always win. He will see what Nightblood is, the extreme damage it can cause, and will keep his distance. No throw Vasher makes will ever hit, and then the Lord Ruler has an Inquisitor pick up Nightblood instead of himself, and proceeds to lock it very deep within Kredik Shaw. The best chance Vasher has is long after the Lord Ruler horribly murders him, when maybe, just maybe, the Lord Ruler picks up Nightblood and is killed in the process. Either way, Vasher is toast. I'm frankly astonished that anyone would vote Vasher here. If anything, Nightblood is a liability in that it warns the Lord Ruler to a new threat. Anyone who wants to try and defeat the Lord Ruler would at least require a range advantage (unlikely), or superior defensive attributes. I think that would mean that anyone with a chance against the Lord Ruler would be a full Knights Radiant. Full KR Kaladin would probably do well, as Plate is an incredible advantage, the Blade is a huge threat, and Lashing might confuse the Lord Ruler enough for the Blade to connect. But man, if Kaladin didn't have Plate, I can't seem him winning, either, unless he had tons of Stormlight to survive the initial onslaught. Vasher just really lacks sufficient sustainability.

"Obey me". He doesn't have enough understanding to properly apply commands that require judgement, so I would keep responsibility for all decision making myself.