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Aftermath: Peace Talks The death of Rif sparked a short, swift struggle among the survivors on the plateau. Petyr lunged for the last member of the fanatic cult that had dedicated itself to the destruction of the peace talks, but Kreshela's Shardblade swung up to interpose between them. Only Anya's last-second dive between them saved Petyr's eyes from flashing to smoke. As Petyr and Kreshela began to match blades against each other, Dalinar strode in, his massive Shardplate fully intact, and forcibly pushed the two of them apart. "Stop it! Stop this!" His booming voice echoed across the plateau. For a brief moment, everything stood still. Then, almost reluctantly, Petyr and Kreshela dismissed their blades. The skirmish sputtered out, as Alethi ambassadors and Parshendi scholarforms dropped their improvised weapons. Eshonai walked forward, and Dalinar stepped aside. Behind him, the body of the last Son of Honor cooled, slain in the fighting despite Kreshela's protection. Eshonai's voice thrummed to the Rhythm of Resolve. "Are there any else that oppose peace?" The silence was deafening. Dalinar stood next to her. "Then shall we proceed with the negotiations?" ------------------------------------- TBD (A Joe in the Bush) was lynched. He was a Son of Honor Ambassador! Anya (Daniyah) was attacked and killed. She was a Parshendi Warform! Petyr and Cranium (Alvron) was attacked but survived. Vote Count: A Joe in the Bush (6): Sami, Sart, Elbereth, Daniyah, Frozen Mint, Alvron Alvron (3): _Stick_, A Joe in the Bush, Drake Marshall The game is over! The Alethi and Parshendi have won! Thank you everyone for playing, and this time you can actually look forward to a retrospective from me. Alethi Player List: Straw @Straw Alethi Guardsman Stick @_Stick_ Alethi Ambassador Samar @Sami Alethi Guardsman Unnamed Character 4 @Sart Alethi Ambassador Kreshela @Elbereth Alethi Highprince Parshendi Player List: Kyner @Drake Marshall Parshendi Warform Mint @Frozen Mint Parshendi Scholarform Petyr and Cranium @Alvron Parshendi Scholarform Shardbearer The Dead Plato Anderson (Elenion). Voidbringer Decayform Arbol (Roadwalker). Voidbringer Decayform Locke (OrlokTsubodai). Alethi Artifabrian Aredor (asterion137). Alethi Artifabrian Raaman (Hemalurgic Headshot). Alethi Guardsman Zephyras (Megasif) Ghostblood Ambassador Kintas (Jondesu) Ghostblood Parshendi Warform Unnamed Character 5 (Crimsn-Wolf) Ghostblood Shardbearer (Plate) Unnamed Character 1 (BrightnessRadiant) Son of Honor Highprince Max Mercury (The Flash) Alethi Shardbearer (Plate) Ethelinar (StrikerEZ) Son of Honor Shardbearer (Blade) Corinoc (cloudjumper). Voidbringer Stormform Rif (Yitzi2) Son of Honor Guardsman Anya (Daniyah) Parshendi Warform TBD (A Joe in the Bush) Son of Honor Ambassador Doc Links: Dead Doc Parshendi Doc Voidbringer Doc Sons of Honor Doc Ghostbloods Doc

Y'all can call me Belle or Bellebon <3 I'm a 21 college student who's been reading Sanderson books since my senior year of high after my brother gave me the Mistborn box set. Needless to say I spent a lot of time reading them instead of studying haha. I'm not a huge theorist (mostly because I'm not aware of all the details out there and so I hesitate) but I love hearing about them! I'm also super into history and love learning about different fun facts!

This is not canon. Obviously fanfic.

Chapter 7: The Wings of Angels “Skai's Remnant was found Guilty of Assault with a Deadly Weapon against Mr. Red Facemask! He has been fined one essence mark, to be given to the plaintiff,” said the judge. Skai’s Remnant chuckled. Then he laughed harder and harder until his booming laughter filled the courtroom. “Very well!” he said, “and how about I pay the fine right now.” He opened the box containing the spare Essence Marks and tossed one to Facemask’s ghost. “You’re going to have a hard time proving that murder charge, Mr. Tekiel,” Skai’s Remnant said smugly, “considering your client isn’t actually dead.” The judge slammed his gavel down. “Court is now adjourned for the night!” - Requiem slipped the bracelet onto his wrist. The outer layer melted into light which shot down his arm to his back, where a pair of gigantic wings sprouted. Around him, the other adventurers got wings of their own of all different sizes and types. Requiem tested his own; they felt so natural, as if he had had them all his life. He lifted himself a few inches off the ground. After allowing everyone a few seconds of experimentation, Skai’s Remnant spoke. “Because of the delay, we’ll need to travel as fast as our wings can carry us if we want to rendezvous with our friend at the Valley. It’s quite the distance, but I think you’ll find—“ he flapped his wings and hovered “—these aren’t just for decoration.” TO BE CONTINUED after I get more sleep. The main setting of this cycle will be in midair, flying westward from the Peaks. This is a Day cycle lasting 48 hours. Mr, Red Facemask (Alvron) has come back to the Physical Realm! Requiem (Drake Marshall) has died and returned to the Cognitive Realm! Here is his autopsy report: And here is his will:

It is sad that those who have the timerity to invoke "wit" in their comments display so little of it themselves. But that is typical of this thread, where unoriginal commenters bumble about like broken Seons, desperately trying to imitate a fictional character whose (equally fictional) boots they are unworthy to lick and whose lowest jokes they must look up to in awe. Indeed, the intellectual prowess on display here is so poor that a Koloss would not long endure it, choosing instead to return to the scintillating conversation of his fellows. Vasher's lifeless squirrel could come up with better insults than you cretins. And you cannot even stay on topic. Toastlonformers (awakened or otherwise) have no place in this most serious trading of insults. Several windspren of my acquaintance have expressed to me their shock that anything could long survive with so short an attention span. However you should not fear, my poor mad Seons. Video Nihil, Audio Nihil, Scio Nihil (or for those of you without a proper education, I'm totally a super genius) and I shall elevate the discourse of this thread out of the repetitive pile of chull dung into which it has fallen. Quidem, omnes insultus mei sunt novi. Cur quaeritis?

my upvotes are my social standing...

A few thoughts: First, remember that the Stormfather tells Kaladin that humans fight all the time because "Odium reigns." (The Way of Kings, hardcover, p.648. First edition, August 2010.) Second, there is a WoB from some years ago that I remember but cannot find again where some question had been asked regarding a Shard's name that we hadn't learned yet, and the answer was essentially that he is very careful and deliberate with the name of the Shard (Preservation and not Life, Odium and not Hate, etc.) and that at times the name that he has imagined for them changes somewhat. So, we know that Odium is the one that reigns, because of in-text using that specific word. But what is the difference between Rule and Reign? That seems to be the root question. A quick Google search gives us a few useful differences. In particular I find the sentence "Reign is also used to indicate something that is predominant or prevalent as in the reign of terror or panic reigned" to be fascinating and mostly appropriate. This seems particularly appropriate given a contrast between what life would be like when Odium reigns vs. Honor; hatred and hostility towards people that are different seems to be closer to the standard nature of people on Roshar, with those that are tolerant being the exceptions. We can see this direct contrast referred to frequently by people who mock Dalinar's adherence to the Codes, especially from Sadeas. Those people who view the Codes as something written after the fact so that the people seemed honorable, rather than a way of life. So this all means, to me, that at one point in time 3 Shards ruled over the planets in the Roshar system, but ever since Odium Splintered Honor and caused Cultivation to retreat into listlessness and passivity, Odium reigns supreme. If the question is more about why Odium is referred to as the Broken One, there's a few options. Again, looking at the definition and synonyms for the word. From dictionary.com, definitions 4 (not working properly; out of order) and 7 (fragmentary or incomplete) or 8 (infringed or violated) seem interesting. Of course, many of these seem to imply that they could be referring to Honor instead. The problem with that is that Honor is dead; the Stormfather watched him die, and then fled. Coming as it does in Words of Radiance, where there are already supposedly dead people returning to life, I really hope this is not another case of "no body, no death" and that Honor is just hiding out somewhere alive, but divested of the vast majority of his power. (Of course, that is an unrelated tangent, since someone without power by definition cannot reign.) End rambling wall of text.

@Fatling Ok, first off, the disclaimer: I'm not a computer science major or anything like that. I'm just a guy who likes tech. When it comes to choosing Linux vs Mac vs Windows for privacy, neither of them will protect you from applications keeping their own records of your activity. But as for OSs, Linux is your best bet. Both Mac and Windows are put out by corporations, so each collects user statistics so that they can tell what features are being used, etc. Because Linux is open source, there's no corporation storing your data in aggregate. If you're talking browsers, it depends on how hardcore you love security. If you're looking for a standard browser that's less info-gathery than the others, I'd recommend Firefox, because Chrome is run by Google, an info-gatherer. However, if you really want to go hardcore secure use Tor. Tor gets a bad rap as the browser used to access the dark web, but if you're looking for ultimate security there's a reason why those trying to hide from the law use Tor. Triple-encryption, packets bounced around the web, no browsing history, the works. It's slower than the other browsers, but exponentially more secure. So what a VPN does is it encrypts your packets between routers. There are a few uses for VPNs, but one of the biggest is keeping your ISP out of the loop. Internet Service Providers make a lot of money compiling and selling your internet habits, but if you use a VPN all they get is a worthless string of logs of you connecting to the VPN server. However, most good VPNs do have a cost associated with them. In short: if you're looking for a way to tighten your security a little bit, use Firefox and set up a VPN. This keeps Google, Microsoft, Apple, and your ISP mostly in the dark about your browsing habits, without too much change on your part. If you want to go a step above that, though, you're going to want to look into Tor, because I don't know enough about it to tell you if it will fit all of your needs.

Lazar walked up to where Damond was in the line, and gave him a questioning look. In response, Damond simply said "Lazar, ignore the fact that I know your name already, would you like to be in a relationship with me?" And lo, Lazar did indeed want to be in a relationship with Damond. And so it was. ------------------------------------------------------------ Lazar is signing up for the game, and is in a relationship with @Magestar Which obviously Mage would do.

Then it looks like we'll need a vote tally with the things in red text... Guilty (2) - Len, Len Stink (1) - Ecth Yitzi (1) - Ecth

It was raining. A heavy rain that almost drowned out the thunder that cracked throughout the night. Ratel worked long into the night and dawn was mere minutes away. He had had to call in several flavors to acquire the body before him but if it worked then it would be worth the price. It would be worth any price. After checking everything was in place, Ratel removed the Heart of the Divine from its protective case. Taking a quick sip of whiskey from Heatherlocke's flask, Ratel carefully shaved off a sliver of Heart and, with trembling hands, inserted the sliver just under the skin of the body above it’s own heart. Replacing the Heart and locking it away Ratel next took out a Gold Spike, and with three quick blows, drove it through the sliver and into the bodies heart. A great clap of lightning lit up the sky quickly followed by a booming peal of thunder. The body’s hand twitched once. Ratel held his breath. It twitched again and a third time. It wasn’t long until more parts were twitching. After what seemed like an eternity, Mr, Red Facemask sat up. His eyes slowly coming into focus. “It’s alive. ALIVE!!!!”

The Physical Realm 1. Lucky Duke (Cloudjumper) - handy with a barrel 2. Vulture Sam (asterion137) - a card hustler 3. BrightnessRadiant as Herself - very confused worldhopper 4. Liz Allan (Sami) - terribly confused Marvel fanatic 5. Ister Mo (Manukos) - likes camping 6. Tautali Laust (Megasif) - valiant Radiant on a journey of self-discovery 7. Dr. C (Clanky) - Rickrolling mad scientist 8. Locke Tekiel (OrlokTsubodai) - I feel like this guy's died before 9. Silver Feather (Roadwalker) - deep in thought 10. An Innocent Man (A Joe in the Bush) - definitely harmless 11. Daniyah as Herself - first blackout game! 12. Aralis (Araris Valerian) - former head-thumper back from the dead 13. Mr, Red Facemask (Alvron) - likes to use commas The Cognitive Realm 1. Jaspian (StrikerEZ) - talks to a stick was Karata 2. Requiem (Drake Marshall) - Kyner from the future was The Doctor 3. Aran (Aonar Faileas) - the hunter was King Eventeo The Spiritual Realm 1. ppil (STINK) - had some beef with Phil 2. Alvron (Straw) - was a very confusing guy 3. Eobard Thawne (The Flash) - was NOT an evil speedster 4. The Wanderer (Yitzi2) - was definitely not Hoid

We have some exciting news to announce. So far in order to obtain some unpublished works of Brandon's, you'd have to email him through his site, and his assistants would distribute them. Well now you won't need to wait for that, because we will be in charge of distributing Aether of Night! All you have to do is post in this topic (you'll need a 17th Shard account, but that's it), and our staff will PM you the document. You do not need to post an email address here; we will send it to you through this website. Once we do this, we'll remove your post here. We'll be using this topic as a to-do list for requests. Ideally since we have lots of staff members, we will get this out to you soon, within a week or two. We hope you're excited about this, so many of you will be able to get this text in a much more obvious way now! You will receive a .docx file, and if you need to convert it into a .pdf or .epub, there are many converters to do that for you. (We are not distributing the old prose version of White Sand; that is distributed in Brandon's newsletters.) Thank you Dragonsteel for letting 17S do this! Edit as of 2024: This is still going! We've gone through over 300 pages of replies distributing. It's just that we remove posts here once we send them out.

There was a post on r/Cosmere recently by Pillar_of_S4lt. You can find it here. Essentially, they were asking about this death rattle from WoK. My question is a little different from theirs. From what I understand, the general consensus is that the last part of that death rattle is referring to Odium. But why? Why does he have that name? "Broken" gives the impression that he is shattered, but he is unshattered, and has invested far less into a world than most other shards. Is it his going around killing other shards that makes him "broken"? I doubt this because he is simply following his intent, like the other shards are. Has he gone mad, and that is why he is broken? I doubt this, since he seems to be executing a (so far) successful plot to shatter the other Rosharian shards. (I guess one could still be "mad" and intelligent and cunning.) Is this perhaps not a reference to Odium, but to the holder, Rayse? Could Rayse have been broken in some way before taking up the shard? Is that part of why Hoid wrote what he did about him in the letter? I would love to get some input from the Sanderson Savants as to how he fits this description. As for the post by Pillar_of_S4lt, I do think the wording of this death rattle is interesting. it gives the impression that there was some event that happened that separated the first half from the second half. I think the most likely explanation is that the "event" is Odium gaining dominance in Roshar. I believe this is a future event, since Cultivation is still unshattered, which would make this death rattle a prophecy like many of the others. Perhaps that is how book 5 ends, with Odium shattering Cultivation, and the desolation being successful. Books 6-10 would be humanity trying to clean up the mess and win the day. However, what if the arrival of Odium was the "event"? We know that Cultivation and Honor arrived at Roshar long before Odium did. What if there was a third shard who went with them, and together the 3 of them "ruled". This begs the question, where is that shard now? Maybe it up and left when Odium arrived, out of fear. Perhaps it left little bits of investiture on Roshar, such as the fish of the purelake (I haven't seen anything yet to explain how the fish work, and whether or not they are a manifestation of either Honor or Cultivation. If there is a WoB out there I haven't found yet, someone please let me know). I don't have the exact words with me, but in Arcanum Unbounded, Khriss alludes to the idea that there may be more going on in Roshar than meets the eye, some deeper system of magic. Do we know what that is? Could that be a third shard at work, or the leftover bits of one that left? Overall, I find the theory of a third original shard on Roshar to be a bit of a stretch, but I haven't found anything that outright disproves it. Thoughts, anyone?

Aonar Faileas has died and passed to the Cognitive Realm! Here is his autopsy report: And here is his will:

When you wake up and there's only two notifications and you wonder if the 17th Shard has been seeing someone else. Then you realize you're happy to share and wonder about whether your father would be disappointed in you.

According to HoA chapter 81 epigraph: Ruin made the mists stronger.

@Sart @Stick The three of us can actually control the lynch. I'm moving Drake's vote to Alvron. If you guys feel like helping me out, I'd appreciate it. If not, no hard feelings. Good Game everyone.

You are offended when the following happens: someone recommends you read King's Dark Tower series; you politely thank them for the recommend and counter with Sanderson. They respond, "I've never heard of him." They have also never heard of Scott Lynch or Patrick Rothfuss. Yes, that really did happen today.

ADOLIN!!!! Look, I get why people think he's interesting, and he is a great guy (especially when he killed Sadeas). However, I just don't get the same vibe of crazily-developed-character from him as from others. Sure, he's interesting, but nowhere near as interesting as most other characters, especially for all the hype he gets.

Total number of requests is around 2200-2225. As of yesterday we dealt with 1050 of them. Then Brandon tweeted. RIP. It's going to be a bit slower from here on out. I really exhausted myself yesterday doing these. If you are new, welcome! Sorry on the delay on sending this out As far as new members, this week we've had 1800 new registrations, making our previous peak of September 2011 (when we had a giveaway) which had 645 registrations look trivial by comparison.

Last Tuesday I had to rush my cat to the vet because a blood test came back with kidney failure. She was at the Vet for 48 hours on an IV to flush her kidneys and an antibiotic to clean out infection and give her a chance to recover. She has been home for a week and we've been giving here multiple pills and liquid medications to stave off infection, and to bind to the naturally occurring toxins in her blood so they bypass the kidneys. They did a blood test again yesterday and she's gotten worse. Tomorrow I have to put my cat down. For the past week, I've gone over everything in my house, trying to determine what she could have ingested that would have caused permanent damage to her kidneys, and literally the only thing in the house capable of doing it is ibuprofen. My wife refuses to take pain medication of any kind because of her history, so I'm now left with the knowledge that at some point, I must have dropped a pill, and my cat ate it. She's an indoor cat, we have no plants toxic to cats. There's nothing... So I'm sitting here petting a 5 year old cat that should have years left and she is going to die because I dropped a pill. It's not fair. This shouldn't be happening.

Heres my library. I have more books, but they are boxed away in the garage. I'm also planning on rearranging a lot of this at some point. Sorry for any sideways pictures, they uploaded that way. My leatherbounds, a handful of books from Fencon and my Big Finish audios: Mostly my YA and fantasy stuff along with a couple DVD box sets: More of my fantasy sets along with my Stephen King books, my Doctor Who DVDs and Doctor Who books My entire DVD/blu-ray library Now for some close ups My leather bound classics and modern classics. I plan on rainbow sorting these at some point, but for now just enjoy this color madness! Some older books and self published books I bought at Fencon My Big Finish audios ranging from Doctor Who to Frankenstein to Oz. If you haven't listened to anything from these guys you should, they are excellent at turning very visual shows into audio to the point the Fifth Doctor actually has to face off against the Weepibg Angels in one adventure. Just some nice hardbacks plus a great book from Dragonmount's founder My Harry Potter books Just some random books ranging from Disney Parks stuff to the Weird US books to a couple King's and Heroes of Olympus More hardbacks. The books to the right of the Walt Disney book is my mom's books. The start of putting my YA books on one shelf. I wish that the Twisted Tales were coordinated instead of changing at book 3. My Sanderson books plus some comics. I rarely double dip but I made an exception for Elantris. My system here is this is going by publishing order instead of by series. That copy of Calamity is a signed copy I got last year at Barnes & Noble on Black Friday because they had a sale going on for signed books and just couldn't pass this one up. I'm trying to get all the MCU comic tie-ins but dang are these things pricey! Also, Go Go Power Rangers! Unread books just waiting to be read after I read my Sanderson copies, though I will read the Holmes and Five Nights books in October. The Beast is an Animal is probably the only book I've ever bought just because of the cover which is gorgeous. I wasn't planning on getting any of Game of Thrones, I know that's not the name of the series, until Winds of Winter at least had a date but I picked it up to get a head start on getting them. No Rothfuss because dude, finish book 3, I don't want to read the two currently out and wait to read the ending! A mix of YA and adult. Simple and shiny Hunger Games is great. damnation J. K., you sure have a potty mouth when Potter isn't around. Jim Butcher makes an appearance along with Sword of Truth. Haven't read SOT yet. I loved the Alexa Codex book and plan on getting the rest along with Dresden. Divergent, eh, not the greatest story ever. Am debating if I should pick up the rest just to read more of Four. More King and WOT. Funny that I have Thinner right next to WOT XD Rest of WOT, King and LOTR. Confession time, I haven't fully read LOTR. I started it a few years back but the traveling from the Shire to Bree bored me. I do plan on trying again in the future. That book on the very end is one I got for Christmas a couple years back and will never read. It's a parody of LOTR and my mom saw me looking at it and assumed I was interested just because I picked it up and read the synopsis to see what the heck it was. A lot more YA. You can tell I like the Percy Jackson books and Kingdom Keepers. More King! You can guess who I was super into a few years back. I do have Eragon and Eldest but they are packed away in the garage. I'm basically a mad man with a few books Really, I'm a mad man Did I forget to mention I was a mad man... Hello there Mr Pratchett! A shelf I'm starting for my Shout! Factory purchases. There's the Big Bad Beetleborgs, Super Sentai's Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger (bloody fun kids show from Japan that became the adaptation for Power Rangers), the two old Power Rangers movies so that I can put them with the sets once I get all four (only have two at the moment) and the first film of Digimon Adventure tri. Hope you enjoyed this tour tour of my shelves and my silly words.

nb: Theorizing will follow, but the thing I hope will be useful is the list and summaries of several dozen WoBs and canon sources on the Rosharan system, the Oathpact, the Heralds, the Rosharan system Shards and planets, and the Desolations. Scroll to the end if you need them. WHAT'S UP WITH ROSHAR?!? Introduction So I started this endless post to test the idea that the Heralds are from Braize, and I ended up looking at the Desolations, the Oathpact, the Heralds and Odium’s Braize habitation. I ended up with quite a collection of canon and WoB material on the Heralds, Braize, Odium, the Oathpact and the Desolations which are probably worth sharing. I want to say first of all, this has become far more, and far less than a theory. I think a lot of what I suggest is so tenuous that it's probably at best a collection of unusal ideas of the history of th eRosharan system and the realmatic aspects of the Oathpact and desolations. Not a theory. It's pretty unpolished because, well, I've spent enough time on this! I actually thought about not posting anything, because I don't like wild speculation, but it would seem a waste to not do anything with the WoBs. So think of this as...a story. Rather than the expected expectations for Rosharan history, future and realms, it's my piece of fan worldbuilding that I've tried to keep realistic, against what we know. Not likely, but realistic. An important thing to note here is I created the WoB catalog first, then wrote the theory. So if I've made any clear claims casually in the theory, they should be based on the WoBs I've summarised below. If not, call me out on it. But don't call me out on it until you've checked the WoBs I am also spoilering every WoB for length reasons, and I am doing the same with some tangents in the theory. There are no Oathbringer spoilers here. But there are of course vast spoilers for Stormlight Archive. There actually aren't too many spoilers for the other books though, more the Cosmere in general. So, here goes, with quite literally an explanation of my thought processes and structured as such. What causes a Desolation All I wanted to do was answer why the Heralds go to Braize to be tortured, and why a Desolation starts when they break? So what causes a Desolation, I asked mysef? The Heralds (all 10) being ‘in existence’, presumably on Roshar or at least in the Physical Realm. Then who has abandoned Roshar? Who is so important that the time where 10 angelic beings of power come to help you out is regarded as the time of abandonment? God. Surely? But why and how? So what causes a Desolation? And at this stage, I’m only dealing with normal Desolations, not the Final Desolation, which is happening differently to the previous ones. 1) All 10 Heralds being on Roshar? 9 were around for 4000 years and no Desolation. But previous Desolations happened so often that it seems likely they started as soon as one Herald ‘broke’. So I believe a Desolation is caused when no members of the Oathpact remain in Damnation (assuming that is where the Heralds go for their torture). I believe the Oathpact is realmatically powerful enough to enable just a single Herald in Damnation to hold back a Desolation. 2) Even at the end of a Desolation, if the Heralds do not go back, if they remain too long, ‘another’ Desolation starts. Again, this must mean the Heralds who are still part of the Oathpact. So the Heralds have a time limit for being on Roshar. 3) We have been told something else that could cause a Desolation (though it’s from the mouth of a mad Herald, via another mad Herald) – If humans discover the ‘greater power of the Oaths’ without Honor their to regulate the Oaths, there is a smallchance that what comes next would allow Voidbringers to again jump between worlds, causing a Desolation. Obviously Nale is wrong about the Desolation, it has in fact begun, but even through madness he must be realmatically aware for this theory to make sense. So, whatever a Desolation truly is, we know it involves Voidbringers jumping between worlds, either before or concurrently. And we know it’s caused (traditionally) by any member of the Oathpact being on Roshar/no member of the Oathpact being in Damnation. How do Voidbringers get to Roshar? First thought would be that the Oathpact involves the Heralds staying on Braize to trap Odium there, that Taln has been maintaining Odium’s prison for 4000 years. But two problems with that – why would the breaking of just one Herald in the past change this when there are nine left to maintain the prison, and we know from WoB that Odium being trapped is ‘not a direct result of the Oathpact, but the Oathpact was part of it’. But the Oathpact could be an all or nothing deal, and that WoB leaves room to move. But how does that actually let Voidbringers jump to Roshar? One option is that when a Herald breaks and returns to Roshar from Braize, this creates some kind of realmic 'pathway' from Braize to Roshar, either for the Herald to be transported there or for the Herald/Honorblade to be powered with investiture, but through which Voidbringers can follow, probably in the cognitive realm. But does it add up? If this pathway enables Voidbringers to come to Roshar, why would the Heralds not just all kill themselves immediately, shutting the pathway? Firstly, their Oaths I assume. But they broke their Oaths to break the cycle of Desolations, so I don’t think that can be it. I think once the pathway is opened by a Herald Returning, it stays open for a certain amount of time, before naturally closing unlessthe Heralds fail to go back to Braize in time – in which case the pathway forms again. Or it closes quite quickly but not before a whole army of voidbringers come. But then what makes it reopen if the Heralds stay too long? The Heralds that broke the Oathpact remained on Roshar, but this did not cause a Desolation to start again. This means that only members of the Oathpact are relevant, only someone still bound to the Oathpact being on Roshar can form this pathway. We’re assuming Taln has prevented this pathway from forming for 4000 years by holding strong, but that any time he finally broke (and I’m assuming this means his will was broken) he would have been sent to Roshar and the pathway would have formed. Does it fit with the idea that the greater power of the Oaths could lead to something that enables the Voidbringers to jump? Each Oath brings the spren more into the Physical Realm, and seems to give the surgebinder greater access to kinetic investiture. I think this is basically because the person and spren intertwine their spiritwebs more and more, which gives the surgebinder greater innate investiture, stronger Connection to Honor/Cultivation/Both. If Nale is right (and assuming I’m not missing steps in between – a big assumption) this indicates that either the increased Connection to the Shards, or the increased use of kinetic investiture (or both), creates a pathway, a means for the Voidbringers to jump. But how does the use of investiture on Roshar form such a pathway?I think it must be in the Cognitive Realm. Spren seem to be desperate for it there, I think that by having thousands of people bonded to spren, blurring the lines between the Realms, pulling in so much investitiure and giving it to the spren, it's dramatically weakening the walls between the Realms, and that's where the Odiumspren break through to Roshar. So, a pathway through the Cognitive Realm. But...why from Braize? Possible Realmatics of a pathway from Braize to Roshar So (deep breath), what is the common link between the Heralds (who are parties to the Oathpact with Honor, who are a type of Cognitive Shadow, who have a piece of Honor’s soul in the form of Honorblades) returning to Roshar, and Nahel-bonded surgebinders gaining greater and greater access to the investiture of Honor/Cultivation/both? I believe it’s a flow of investiture from Braize to Roshar to fuel the Heralds’ existence in the Physical Realm (much like a Nalthis Returned needs to consume investiture to keep their body stapled to their Cognitive Shadow), or more likely to fuel the surgebinding performed by surgebinders with the ‘greater power of the Oaths’ unregulated by Honor. I think Honor used to restrict the system to fewer Oaths than is possible, but later Oaths open up incredible access to investiture (and this is also the reason Ishar forced the original surgebinders to have organization thrust upon them and become orders of Radiant). Basically I see the later Oaths as spren enabling Radiants to become like Heralds, mimicking the system by which Honor made the Oathpact But why, why would greater use of investiture in Roshar cause investiture to flow from Braize?If not from Braize, basically, why would open up the possibility of Voidbringers going from Braiaze to Roshar? Because (and you’ll all shout at me now, coz here’s where the theorizing becomes speculation), maybe, Honor is still invested in Braize. Not exclusively, but there is still a significant portion of the Shard's investiture there. We know there are Shards whose shardpools are not on a planet they currently inhabit. Vorin mythology involves the Voidbringers invading the Tranquiline Halls, kicking out God and men. Is Braize the Tranquiline Halls, Damnation and Odium's Prison? What of the Oathpact? I think Honor and Cultivation originally set up on Braize – that Braize is both the Tranquiline Halls and Damnation. When Odium invaded, I think they both bolted for Roshar but they left a trap first. They forced Odium to invest in Braize and then did something additional to prevent him from divesting. I don’t like the idea, because it feels derivative from Mistborn, but I think that Honor splintered off part of his investiture and left it on Braize to counteract Odium (similar to Preservation’s trap). Of course that wouldn’t be enough to trap Odium, the entire power of Preservation couldn’t do that, and Honor needed to be intact to setup a new world on Roshar. So he coopted 10 people to shore up things, to reinforce the prison. He made the Oathpact with the Heralds. The condition for the Heralds was that they last as long as possible in Damnation, binding Odium there using the binding power of Honor’s investiture (using, perhaps, the Dawnshards?). Odium tortures them in an attempt to make them return to Roshar. When one does, perhaps the link between the Heralds and Honor’s investiture on Braize creates this pathway which, once open, allows Voidbringers through (at which point the other Heralds leave for Roshar immediately). The Heralds’ proving day then was to prove they could not be broken like an ordinary person. In exchange, Honor gave them immortality by infusing their spiritweb with investiture via the Honorblades, making them Cognitive Shadows – but they would automatically be rebirthed on Braize to keep their end of the bargain - to keep Odium contained while they can, to fight Voidbringers when they can't, until Braize can be retaken. But when they return to Roshar, how is Odium kept imprisoned? Honor takes the place of the Heralds. Honor returns to Braize to keep Odium trapped, or pulls a lot of his investiture away to Braize. Either way, this is why it’s called a Desolation. Desolate is latin for ‘abandoned’. Since Honor leaves during this time, or at least withdraws enough of his investiture, Roshar has been abandoned or feels like it has been. And this is why there is a flow of investiture from Braize, because Honor actually moves there (yes I know Shards can’t move around easily but I’m assuming things are different within a solar system, for the same reason Odium can affect Roshar and Ashyn, even though he’s on Braize). But Roshar has an investiture cycle, an ecosystem that rapidly recycles investiture. So perhaps, when Honor is on Braize, the investiture cycle returns investiture to him on Braize. To keep Roshar operating properly (as it is so dependent on this system), and to enable the Heralds and surgebinders to do their thing, there needs to be enough investiture. Because all expended investiture is returned to Honor on Braize during this time, after a certain number of years, after a certain amount of investiture has been withdrawn from Roshar, Honor is forced to open up the pathway again, send investiture back to Roshar, unless he is relieved by the Heralds. Cultivation? Part of the trap? But what about Cultivation, you ask. What’s her role? Why does Hoid call her ‘Slammer’? Why does Brandon say that Odium has a full-intact, fully-alive, very powerful Shard opposing him? I think Cultivation has basically walled-off Roshar from Braize in the Cognitive Realm. Not completely, Odium can still affect it. But mostly. I think Cultivation is called Slammer not because she keeps Odium trapped on Braize, but because she keeps Odium out of Roshar – she’s built a prison that keeps the bad things out, rather than the bad things in. When a Herald breaks and goes back to Roshar, she must make a hole in that wall to allow the Heralds to return and to allow Honor to take their places. The Voidbringers force this open and follow, but before too long Cultivation seals the hole. The Desolation consists of humanity fighting the Voidbringers who managed to get through in time. If the Heralds then stay too long, because (theorizing) they’re like Returned and need investiture to stay in their bodies, and to fuel their surgebinding, this forces Honor to remain on Braize, feeding investiture to Roshar, and if it happens for long enough it weakens Honor enough that Odium can force out of his prison a bit and restart the pathway, despite Cultivation’s efforts. It’s basically a finely balanced system of keeping Odium trapped through a combination of Honor, the Heralds (wielding Honor’s bonding power) and Cultivation shielding the Cognitive Realm. This is why the normal Desolations were time-limited. The Heralds together would bind Odium. One would crack from the torture, return to Roshar and break the cumulative bond, weakening the prison. The others return because it’s all or none. Honor takes their place to keep Odium trapped. He can’t do so entirely, but Cultivation shores up things from the Rosharan end. If the Heralds stay too long, too much investiture is drained, Honor must open up the pathway to send more back, and the Voidbringers again follow this – new Desolation. Edit - I've decided to split this into three posts because it's super long!

But Alv! I wanted to kill you! I'm sad now... Congrats to all involved. I've only begun reading the docs, but I'm sure I will have comments later. Currently my only one is clarification to the Sons, since I only explained it to Yitzi - I never actually agreed to protect Striker. I didn't in any way break my agreement. I didn't respond at all, in fact. If I'd actually said that I was going to protect him I would never have backed out. Also, the Voidbringer doc is entertaining. Thank you for continuing to talk to yourself, Cloud. It provided excellent context.

My cousin/best friend came back to Australia after I didn't see her for 5 months. I missed her so much!!!

Good to know I'm not alone in wondering this. When you find an tiny old bottle of silver flakes and are super excited because it will make the perfect addition to your Mistborn costume (happened today :D)

Im pretty sure he wants to sign Denth up for the tournament.

Well, it's dangerous. This is from a Jasnah snippet between book 2 & 3 (see readings and excerpts for the full episode)

The courtroom was mostly silent; everyone waited with baited breath for the results to come in. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the courtroom door opened. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the voting results are in," Elenion said as he walked up to the stand, "The decisions of the jury will now be read to the court." Skai's Remnant was found Guilty of Assault with a Deadly Weapon against Mr. Red Facemask! He has been fined one essence mark, to be given to the plaintiff. Phil has been found Guilty of Impersonation of a Public Official! He has been sentenced to public service as a Silverlight errand boy for one year! Requiem (Drake Marshall) has been found Not Guilty of Slander against Mr. Red Facemask! This charge has been appealed by the prosecutor Mr. Tekiel. The charges of Murder against Skai's Remnant and Libel against Ecthelion III will be held today!

Brandon has mentioned this somewhere, I believe the annotations, but I'm on mobile so I cannot check. Vara'Treledees was Denth's scholar name, like Talaxin for Vasher and Shashara for Glorysinger. It's rather like people naming a child after the angel Michael in Christianity. It's a well known name with a religious/historical connection (since I'm not sure how well known it is that the Scholars were all Returned).

I love it! Gordon is my favorite chef inn the world (going to his flagship restaurant is my favorite culinary experience) because of his balance with flavors. His home cooking book is one you use if you want to follow recipes exactly but guarantee you'll have something perfectly balanced. A fair bit of French influence but without being regional French

Heh, nice Hums to Amusement

Flying figures glow with blinding light as the earth below is drenched by the blood of fallen warriors. Shining blades clash as lightning rips the sky asunder and reveals the shadow of a long dead divinity, The winds create a song which speaks of the end of all souls. This melody is formed of the power which has transcended epochs of death and ages of rebirth. Roars emerge from the mouths of the two demi gods who fight an endless war. Spear strikes sword and arcane energy surrounds them with an aura which seems to turn back reason and understanding. These two titans fracture the wills of all of the mortal souls who watch as the two champions of ancient gods battle for the fate of existence itself.

In the JordanCon Q&A session, it is revealed that there is a location where worldhoppers tend to congregate and set down roots. Not much else is revealed, except that it exists and is not a planet. We also know that there is a Shard not attached to a planet, but also that large concentrations of Investiture tend to warp the Cognitive realm. I find it somewhat hard to believe that there is a Shard just floating out in the wider interstellar medium (though I do recognize that it could have settled on a moon, star, or other astrophysical object). Moreover, it would not be particularly difficult to locate that Shard, so the location can't be some secret. Instead, I would like to propose that the proprietor of the Restaurant, as it were, is this Shard. It provides some notion of shelter to the various worldhoppers, along with a Investiture "anchor." This anchor acts like a planet or moon filled with life, allowing them to settle in the Cognitive realm without requiring the corresponding planet in the Physical realm. I think this is plausible for two reasons. First, I find it unlikely that every Shard is mostly focused only on their own world. I would guess that at least one takes the wider cosmere view, and thus refused to set down roots in a planet due to the restrictions. Second, worldhoppers are among the most powerful and dangerous group of individuals, and I would guess that any community would want to hide under the umbrella of a Shard to avoid being flattened by other Shards. Of course, this idea is patently ridiculous and over-the-top. However, I find the existence of the Restaurant to be intriguing, and I can't wait to learn more.

The powers of speaking to minds and hearing thoughts are firmly split between Ruin and Preservation. This is true even in Era two. It's why Harmony could hear Wax, but wax could not hear or see Harmony unless he was wearing his (hemalurgic) earring.

Hey, welcome to the Shard, @Momph! Have an upvote and a free spiked delicious cookie! DISCLAIMER: Side effects include, but are not limited to, hearing voices, gaining supernatural powers, having the sudden urge to kill everyone, and completely losing control over your mind and body. The Dark Alley™ claims no liability for any damage done to/by the eater of this cookie. Yeah, lots of people read the Malazan series here. I haven't read about it, but I've heard about it. Anyway, which Cosmere book is your favorite?

If you read the Etiquette section of the General Rules, you'll see that we basically already have a "Don't be a jerk" clause. We already have a section on putting yourself in other people's shoes and on treating other players as individuals (which covers, in part, the fact that some people don't play as competitively as others). In fact, most of that section is a very good guide for how to approach these games and the other players in them. It basically covers your A through C questions, if you really consider what they mean in different aspects of the games, IMO. As far as D goes, I'm not sure I'd want to make those kind of categories in the first place. It makes it sound like we'd be dividing people into groups, where one style of play is more preferable than another and that just isn't the case. That's part of why there was a push (probably about a year ago now?) to stop referring to people that have played a lot as "Experienced" or "Veteran" players, because it gave the illusion that those players were a- bigger threats, b- should be paid attention to more, and c- should have more authority when it comes to their opinions. We have a very close tight-knit community here partially because we've shied away from dividing everyone up into classifications anymore. Especially when, IMO, I don't feel like it's necessary. I like the strategy side of the game. I enjoy, as Elenion said, the battle of wits and manipulation. And as a strategist, that means also finding ways to play around "imperfect" play. A good general will try to turn their weaknesses into strengths. If they have an army of 50% archers, they won't bemoan that they don't have more cavalry. They change their tactics to a more guerrilla style warfare and perform more hit and runs. In LG 34, when Sart was basically inactive other than being able to put in actions, we used that to our advantage and let him put in most of the kills rather than try to force him into a role he was unable or unwilling to play. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, on either side of the factions. I'm actually a pretty lousy Elim, IMO. I have some great and fun ideas, but I can never enact them when I'm an Elim. On the other hand, I almost have a 6th sense at times when it comes to ferreting out Elims when I'm village. Wilson practically mirrors me, as she has had her fair share of moments where she totally fell for Elim lies as a Village, but has proven to be quite difficult to pin down as an Elim. My point in all this is that we're all playing to each other's strengths and weakness in each game already. You let those that are more likely to be helpful later in the game slide a bit initially because they shine latter. You don't always try to kill off the players that instigate discussion because you need that initial spark to get things moving. There's no clear, defined line that delineates one type of play as sub-optimal in comparison to another and I think that if we were to try to actually define it, we would find a lot of biased towards how we, individually, play the game. Not to mention the unnecessary dividing of our community into groups and the turmoil something like that could cause. Because another part of the game that I truly love is the setting. If you've played on other forums or watched Aman's games over on MafiaUniverse, you'll notice that most of them don't ever even acknowledge that there is a setting to their games, let alone play with it. Part of what makes SE special is the fact that we all love a good story because we're readers. So taking part in Sanderson's worlds in a way that we never could before, or watching a dramatic moment unfold, or helping create one is thrilling and worthwhile in its own right. Without our stories to tell, I don't think SE would've continued on throughout the years as strongly as it has. And because I love that aspect of the games, I would say that the RPers and the fun-lovers are just as important to the success of a game as much as the strategists. They help keep us involved and coming back. They can provide much needed comedic relief (Matilda or HH's character and his rat from the last AG anyone?) in an otherwise serious game. Sure, they might play "sub-optimally" in the terms of a strategist, but they still play optimally to the game as a whole and to themselves, which all the more I would ask of anyone. Finally, I agree with Wilson. The reason we don't want to create a lot of rules and how people can play is because that severely limits the way everyone can play. It limits strategies that can be used and can make all the games basically feel the same. We want people to come up with creative ways to find Elims or manipulate the Village. We love when a particularly daring plan comes together. We allow everyone the freedom to play as they want specifically so that everyone can find their own inspiration and, in a way, cut out their own part of what makes these games so amazing. So the more ideas that allow our players to do that without us needing to limit everyone's play via rules is going to be the best option, IMO Well, that turned into an essay fairly quick! I do hope that this conversation continues. I think it's a great question and I'm glad that you brought it up here, Yitzi. I'm not trying to criticize your suggestions up there as much as using them as a backboard to state some of my own thoughts on the matter as well. This is the perfect place for such discussions and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's thoughts.

Yeah, that helped push the idea of how the Mirror Realm behaves, but the idea existed long before that movie was even announced for production.

Hm, kind of reminds me of Doctor Strange. Cool!

There's an idea. Let's kill Drake and see what happens. Nothing like a good experiment to enlighten the masses. After all, Discovery requires Experimentation.

Exactly. This was the conclusion to Dalinar's story arc in tWoK. Acting with honor and expecting others to do so in return in spite of evidence to the contrary lead to the betrayal at the tower. Expecting Adolin to repeat those mistakes "because it's the honorable path" is ignoring the story so far. Dalinar, the one half of everyone says is the most honorable, figured this out too late. It was Adolin pointing this out to him from the beginning. Why would Adolin suddenly flip 180 and commit the same mistakes he saw his father make? In an unjust society, you can't follow the law and expect justice. I will continue to defend Adolin's actions. He killed a man who was above legal punishment, who was openly threatening to undermine the Kingdom, and kill members of Adolin's family, and people who he is sworn to protect as a Kholin prince, while knowing Sadeas has the means to carry out those threats. Not acting at that point is permitting someone to attack, and hoping you can block in time. In a fight, and this is perfectly analogous to a physical battle. If an opponent is coming towards you in a threatening manner, when they have already shown intent to kill, and you see an opening, you strike. You don't just sit and defend and hope they get tired.

When every time you read or hear "flare", you expect the next word to be the name of a metal.

When you leave a marble out in a thunderstorm to see if it sucks in stormlight.

Today I was walking home an I purposefully dropped a penny on the sidewalk. Then I picked it back up because I remembered I couldn't Steeljump since I hadn't Snapped yet. Yet.

Whenever you see someone named 'Kendra' and can't help thinking they're secretly Kandra because why not (looking at you, Legends of Tomorrow)

When you hop on for two minutes, to this thread, and all of your upvote are already gone.

...Hoid is just annoying. Glad that there's a place where no one has to hear him. Here, have an upvote.