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Night 7: Haelbarde Straw and Hadrian Heatherlocke stared at each other from across the open hall, both surprised. It was rare for the two heirs to run into each other on accident these days. The Keep was empty of nobles, and all but the most trusted servants. Only the necessary staff were here. Straw nodded to his cousin. “Hadrian.” Hadrian nodded back. “What are you doing out and about?” Hadrian sighed. “I’m leaving the keep. Auden, Dbec, and Leets have proven that we are not safe here. I’m taking our guards with me.” Straw nodded. “Good idea. I’m glad I had the same one. I’ve had the Hazekillers assemble to escort me.” There was a pause, as the cousins considered each other. They had spent the last week worrying about who in the Keep they could trust, but with Auden’s death, and subsequent proof that he had been the one to poison Lord Rab, they could again trust each other. Hadrian moved first, and Straw moved to meet him. They grasped eacother’s hands, and shook. “Good luck Cousin.” “Hopefully we will meet again, some happier day.” Lord Hadrian Heatherlocke, surrounded by the House Guard, personally walked down the streets of Luthadel. Auden and Taswell had both died in their carriages, because they could not see their surroundings. He would not repeat their mistakes. He had a solid wall of steel and flesh around him, with a smaller, looser ring inside that. He had room to maneuver, scouts in side streets and ahead of him, and all the power of his own Iron Allomancy to keep himself safe. It would take nothing short of an army to take him down. There was a commotion at the front of the wall of troops, and one of his scouts slipped in. The man approached, then knelt several meters away. “Lord Hadrian, there are more guards ahead. An army, equal to us. They are currently attempting to barricade several streets, blocking us in. They are killing our scouts.” “Blast.” Hadrian looked up and down the streets. There was no easy way to fight in here. The alleyways and side streets provided too many opportunities for others to get ahead and around his troops. “We need to get through them before they can finish their defenses.” “A good strategy my lord.” Rumbled his Captain. “Shall we form up into a charge, or continue in our current formation?” “I’ve never lead warfare in a city Captain. I’ll let you give the orders. Keep me safe.” The Captain slammed a fist into his armor in a salute, and began to give orders. The guards compressed the perimeter around Lord Hadrian, and began to advance down the street, more Heatherlocke guards arriving from the side streets. Archers began to scale buildings around the street, jumping from roof to roof. And then the other army appeared. There was a call from the front, and an opposing wall of Steel and Flesh swung around the corner ahead. They slammed into the front rank of the Heatherlockes, and men began to scream as they died. “Lord Ruler.” The captain examined the scene. “They must have abandoned their ambush when they saw the scout escape.” “Is it safe to go around them?” “We’ve lost too many scouts sir. We don’t know where around them is. We have to hold this street, and wait for an opportunity to punch through. Once we can — Arrgh!” Hadrian jerked away from the captain, as a large man in a vest fell on him, slamming him into the ground. The man drew back one fist, and punched clean through the captain’s helmet, killing him. A Coinshot landed beside the Thug, panting. “damnation you’re heavy. I don’t want to do any more Combat drops.” Hadrian pulled the captain’s sword from his sheathe and into his hand. He jumped backward away from the pair as his guards began to turn towards the new threat. But then a spray of coins and nails shot down from above, mowing down a section of guards. Another Coinshot, with a Thug holding onto his back, fell from the sky. “We’ll deal with the guards, you two kill Hadrian.” He recognized the man. Zakhary Tormander. Hadrian pulled a shield from a nearby guard, and charged, not giving them time to reply. The first coinshot smirked and pushed against Hadrian. But Hadrian only grinned, and pulled on all the guards behind the coinshot. His sword, and all the metal on him rammed against him, but the force of his pull still gave him enough speed to get close. The Coinshot stepped back in shock as Hadrian rammed a sword through his belly. The Thug punched him in the head. Hadrian dropped the sword and shield as he sailed into the ranks of his guards, who quickly grabbed him and got him onto his feet. He gasped in pain as his vision flickered in and out of focus. The Thug charged forward, knocking aside guards like a Koloss. He tore through their ranks even as they formed more. Hadrian breathed in, trying to catch his breath and regain his mental capacities. The Thug reached him first. Straw Heatherlocke cracked his dueling cane against the Thug attacking him. The Ffnord noble dropped, out for the count. Straw stood as 1 point in a pentagon, his back to his last 4 hazekillers. Surrounding them were several dozen guards and another half dozen Allomancers. The Allomancers and the Guards didn’t seem to be working together, but they had attacked at the same time. Together, they had killed 20 of Straws expert Hazekillers. Together, Straw and his 24 Hazekillers had killed 100 guards, and a dozen allomancers. All the coinshots were dead, so now it was just melee combat. The allomancers all focused on him, and the guards focused on his Hazekillers. There would be no help coming, unless Hadrian somehow learned of his plight. So they fought. Straw deflected two Glass daggers, wielded by yet another Thug, and directed the man into one of his fellows. Seemed like the Ffnords had sent every Thug they had after him, learning from the last several attempts on his life. He grinned as he fought, deflecting blow after blow, with the best of the best at his back. There was no force in the kingdom stronger than his hazekillers. “Above!” Straw glanced up at the call from one of his men. He gasped, and nearly died from the distraction, but managed to block at the last minute. Above them, barely seeable through the thick steel bars of the Prison Cart, was a mistborn. He was floating a good 40 meters above them, Steelpushing presumably, and holding onto one of the Lord ruler’s Prison cart’s with a combination of Lurching and Pewter burning. Desperately, Staw looked for some way out, but they were surrounded, penned in. He glanced up again, only to see that the mistborn had dropped the cart. “I was so close—” the cart slammed down. ----- Staw was killed by the Ffnords! Araris was killed by the Tormanders! The Heatherlocke winner will be revealed at the end of the game. This cycle will be another night cycle, since we want the Ffnords to have some say in which one of them wins. Player list: (Jondesu) RemartFfnord (Fifth Scholar) Count Olaf Ffnord (Crimsn Wolf) Altea Meza Heron (Orlok Tsubodai) Locke Tormander

Warning: This post discusses romantic relationships, so do not proceed if that it not your thing At Brandon's signing last weekend, we got an interesting WoB where a fan asked about Kaladin's proficiency with the spear... and Brandon ended up taking the conversation around to a Connection (appears to be Cosmere capitalized Connection) between Syl and Shallan. I am specifically interested in the latter point. The link for the WoB is here and text below, with the part about Syl and Shallan in bold. I'll discuss my thoughts after the text. The scene Brandon is mentioning is in WoR, text copied below, and I personally had no idea this was supposed to be Shallan. At the very least, this is a specific reveal that Syl "knew" Shallan, in a similar way to the fact she "knew" Kaladin prior to actually meeting her. (With hopefully a different outcome though! Don't know how I'd feel about Syl bonding Shallan... ) The context for this is that Kaladin is training his men in the chasms, and Syl is discussing the danger she faced in coming to find Kaladin. On the face of it, she is encouraging Kaladin that he is not alone, that other spren are struggling against the prohibition for bonding humans, and there will be other Radiants. Syl of course doesn't actually know Shallan, when Shallan finally shows up at the Shattered Plains, Syl doesn't recognize her, know she is a Radiant, or even sense Pattern except maybe vaguely at the 4v1 duel (there's a number of spren she could have sensed then though.) But something about the Connection between Shallan and Syl in the Spiritual Realm allows Syl to "see" Shallan in that moment. Brandon analogizes that moment to Kaladin's affinity for his spear and Syl and Kaladin's own bond. In other words... "fun Cosmere connections" language aside, it seems pretty significant. One of the things we see in OB is that Syl really likes Shallan. She encourages Kaladin multiples times to pursue Shallan, pushing against his own wishes; I would argue Kaladin would not have made even the (small) overtures he did towards Shallan if it wasn't for Syl's insistence. Syl and Shallan hang out in Shadesmar without Kaladin, including the fact Syl wants to remain with Shallan in Celebrant. (This is of course partially due to Shallan's lightweaving skills, but Syl at that point already had a lightwoven disguise.) Syl is also skeptical of Shallan's choice of Adolin at the end of OB, encouraging Kaladin to continue his pursuit, and indicating she can't see Shallan's "choice is made". All in all, we know Syl has a Connection to Shallan through the Spiritual Realm (where everything is one), and that these types of connections are "echoes" of events that are forming, not something as strong as "destiny", but still a definite "something is there." And since Syl is constantly pushing Kaladin towards Shallan, I think there's a great inference to made that Syl is "knowing" something about Shallan which is not yet explicit in real time in the Physical Realm. While not for certain (as nothing is until confirmed as such), the fact Brandon spontaneously brought this up in a question that had literally nothing to do with romance or Shallan at all, seems to be him pointing towards yet another piece of foreshadowing for Shalladin, one which was not apparent from the text, but he obviously seeded a long time ago.

Given that I am hardly a realmatics expert and find much of it confusing, what I'm about to say should be taken with a grain of salt, as this is my understanding of realmatics. I've always kind of seen the spiritual realm as kind of like a pool connecting past, present and future, as well as people and place. In the spiritual realm, past, present and future all happen concurrently, so a connection formed in the future could have a sort of "ripple" effect, kind of like if you dropped a rock into a pond. Those ripples would then spread throughout time, creating tiny, subtle connections you would see formed in the present and past, since all three are happening right now. It's not destiny, as much as it's evidence of something that is happening. <I'm not sure if that made sense. Metaphysics hurts my brain...> So with that rough explanation out of the way, I had always interpreted that scene to be Syl mimicking something she'd seen, or trying out a new face. I never would have made that connection without Brandon explicitly stating that Syl was turning into Shallan. We know, from ample textual evidence however, that Shallan is kind of akin to Tien in Kaladin's mind in terms of significance. Regardless of if romance is involved, the fact that Shallan is the only other person, apart from Tien, that Kaladin specifically states drives the darkness away is hugely important. In my experience with depression, people that do that are few and far between, and usually become people that you hold very tightly to. I would also like to reiterate that Syl's gravitation toward Shallan should not be taken lightly. She repeatedly asserts that not only should Kaladin pursue Shallan, but that Shallan is better for Kaladin. That Kaladin is happier with Shallan. In fact, most of the time it is Kaladin who squashes the idea, even at the end of Oathbringer. Personally, I think it's largely self-pity. He doesn't think he deserves her. He's messed things up in the past, and she deserves someone who can give her better. Adolin is, in his mind, a perfect candidate for that, and she already seems to love him. And he tries to convince himself that that is true, but like the Jiminy Cricket she is, Syl continues to try to push Kaladin toward something better.

It's definitely fascinating that Brandon chose to reveal that detail on such an unrelated question. The word that seems to have sent him on that tangent is destiny. @Alderant's explanation of past, present and future occurring concurrently in the spiritual realm is a good theory for why "destiny" isn't quite the right word to explain the connection between Syl and Shallan (or by extension Kaladin and Shallan). But apparently their future connection is akin enough to destiny in his mind that it led him to what seems like a wholly unrelated answer. It seems like maybe Brandon specifically wanted to reveal that it was Shallan that Syl took the appearance of in that scene. In context, you could perhaps guess that is what was going on (Syl is talking about others becoming Radiant and we know Shallan is one of those, and we see Shallan on the ocean shore at the beginning of the next chapter) but you'd never be sure if Brandon hadn't confirmed it since the text is quite subtle. So basically I agree that it is significant that Syl pushes Kaladin towards Shallan so much and even at the end of OB she does not seem convinced that Shallan made her choice of Adolin. I relate that to what we've seen from Syl in the past, pushing Kaladin along his path as a Radiant, at times knowing what he needs to do when he does not. I think we see similar things from Pattern towards Shallan in OB, (though she doesn't listen to him for the most part). We've also seen Syl say that as she learns things it is like she always knew them, and there are indications that she "remembers" things related to Kaladin that she wasn't around for, so there seems to be a past connection as well.

Sixth of the Dusk Edgedancer Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell Stormlight Archive [OB spoilers] Mistborn Original Trilogy Mistborn Wax and Wayne [BoM and SH spoilers] That’s all I’m doing for now. This is really fun!

This scene happened at the end of Words of Radiance, while the rest of Bridge Four were across the continent, in Urithiru.The only way The Lopen could absorb stormlight was if he began to bond a spren or have a honorblade. We know he had a spren at the end of Oathbringer, and he was saving swearing his oaths until a dramatic moment. I not saving he kept his bond a secret for a whole book, he might not of knew he was bonding a spren, but he was never a squire just a potential Knight Radiant. It could also just be a continuity mistake.

Well, good job Orlok on neatly eliminating the possibility of a Kandra win. Guess we have to try to kill each other again, Jondesu. Count Olaf stood amidst the corpses of Hadrian and Straw. Their sightless eyes gazed uncaringly at the spectacle around them, where men lay dead in heaps, killed by coin and sword and staff. His arrest force of Guards had been sent to detain Straw on suspicion of skaa blood in his family line, but it had quickly joined with the House Allomancers Remart had sent. Together, they had killed him. Though Olaf had not known Straw well, he certainly hadn’t wished the man dead. He mouthed a silent vow of vengeance against Remart for his callous act of bloodshed, and moved to Hadrian’s corpse. This one hurt more to look upon. Killed, it seemed, by Locke Tormander, a man Olaf thought he knew. He had assured Olaf that all he wanted in the city was a seat of power. Yet what was that man doing with his newfound supremacy over the Tormanders? Olaf shuddered, and moved his eyes away from Hadrian’s corpse. Not quickly enough, however, to fail to notice the small pouch of atium beads tied to the man’s belt. He unhooked it, and within it was a note: Count Olaf Ffnord, If you are reading this, then either I or a political opponent is dead. I am a man of my word; when you conspired to place me on the Heatherlocke throne, you did so because you knew you wanted someone who would not play the political games of the nobility. So if I am alive, take this as a further sign of my goodwill. I am freely gifting you Atium which my own skaa have mined. As per my word. You will also find a sheet in here detailing instructions as to how to contact the kandra in my employ should I die or my Contract be passed. Pay him with these beads, and await further instructions. I know you do not want Remart truly dead; this may provide another way. I will tell you if and when to use these, and together we may yet enact real change in Luthadel. If, however, you have pulled this missive off my corpse, know then that this Atium is still yours, by my will and word. If legal contracts need be given, you will find a paper in my desk drawer. There’s a false back to the second drawer on the right; you’ll find it there. Unfortunately, my kandra will have returned to his people for reassignment. But I’m sure that Atium will be useful to you in other ways. Use it wisely, and do not let it fall into the hands of our enemies. For they are still crafty, and may yet find a way to use it. Be vigilant, for where there’s smoke, there’s fire. But the world is quiet here. Hadrian Heatherlocke Olaf wept silently, shielding his face with his hood so as not to let others see his tears. Hadrian was truly dead. But he glanced down at the small parcel in his hand. This Atium is yours, by my will and word... yet Olaf found within himself a deep, intense hatred for everything that parcel represented. Hadrian, who would not die peacefully but haunt his memory. The slaughter and instability, brought about by the initial poisoning of all the house lords at the ball. And the potential for murder and domination, if he simply pocketed it and walked away. But no. In his youth he would have done such a thing, but no longer. Motivated by a sudden impulse, Olaf sprinted towards Hadrian’s house. He pushed his way past the Ministry guards at the door, who were surprised but did not question him thanks to his high status. He took the stairs two at a time up to Hadrian’s study, where he finally paused, panting. He opened the second desk drawer to the right, and almost fearfully, pushed back the false panel in the back. Within it was a very short note: I, Hadrian Heatherlocke, bequeath all the Atium in my possession to Olaf of Ffnord. Olaf screamed, unwilling to accept what his eyes saw. He could not own this metal, which left so much death and destruction in its wake. Crumpling Hadrian’s note and tossing it in the fireplace, he took Hadrian’s letter and scrawled on the back of it: May whoever finds this drawer know that Hadrian was a great man. Use his gift wisely. For I cannot accept this curse. Olaf of Ffnord. Olaf placed the letter and the parcel in Hadrian’s secret compartment, closed it quietly, and walked out into the nighttime rain, weeping. Sorry you had to die, Araris. I hugely enjoyed working with you the whole game.

When you're thinking about Toy Story, and then you start thinking.. Maybe the toys are invested.. Maybe that's how investiture expresses itself on this planet.. So is this on Earth.. No, must be some other Shardworld.. So, can the investiture from the toys be used by humans?.. or maybe the investiture is in humans.. yeah, that works better.. But when kids personify their toys, and give them so much love and attention, they start drawing in investiture and gaining sentience... I overthink things when I'm bored. Although, This really makes sense when you look at something called the Pixar theory... Not sure If anyone else here knows what I'm talking about

In reference to my memes:

It’s been stated that prior to arriving in the Rosharan System, Odium paid a visit to Sel to check out the scenery, kill a couple of Gods, usual touristy stuff. By what I can gather, this happened quite some time before the Reod, and predates Shu-Keseg, the parent religion of Shu- Dereth, leaving a lot of time in the aftermath for the events of that interaction to fall into legend and myth. Brandon has also said that if you looked hard enough you could find the influence of Odium on Sel still. During the events of Elantris, it is said that Jadeth is an old pagan God who cared for the stones, but Shu-Dereth thrust him into their mythology when it split from Shu-Keseg proper. Considering the connection between Odium and Stone in stormlight archive, this is at least plausible. This isn’t to say that Shu-Dereth worships Odium directly, or that Dakhor Magic is of his power, as their religion and culture obviously fit better with Dominion. However, over time images of deities can shift and blend. Add to this, that when Hrathen meets Dilaf, he is careful to note his PASSION and basically states that if one can use that passion to achieve the desired Dominion, then it would be a tool he would use carefully but willingly. Dilaf’s motives in the story are driven much more by hatred than domination, and so it makes me wonder about how deep the influence of Odium goes in Fjordell culture.

But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. An eye for an eye, as the saying went, was not enough. For Zaffer, double agent, Scarf-stealer, liar, deciever, monster, even, did not play to get even. He played to get ahead. There were rules, yes, but they were created by something lesser than him, something that was mortal. The sound of a hundred footsteps marching in unison pounded towards Zaffer, the sound of death. He raced across the rooftops, casting off the cloak that had covered his true form, not a litteral cloak, but a mental one. He grew larger, his muscles becoming more defined, the slight limp to his step disappearing, and he returned to what he truly was, a Returned. A God. He leaped with the strength of 10 men, his legs now pulsing with the energy of life. The footsteps began to fade, but it would not be long before they caught back up. He quickly whipped out a rope, his target underneath him. And gave the simple command, "Entangle." He entered an old warehouse, it was out of the way, but it was where is true work went on, eight figures stood there silently, each the modified form of those that had destroyed by the hatred of their brothers and sisters. The last one was ready, and he quickly spoke to it, Awaken to my Breath, serve my needs, live at my Command and at my word. Technicolor Scarf. As he gave the newest, and last, lifeless the new Security Phrase, he draped the scarf that he stole earlier across its shoulders, a slight glint still registering somewhere in his brain. He went down the line saying each security phrase, one after another, each decorated with a beautiful work of art, that seemed to contain more than just beauty, but souls. Now that they were all ready, Zaffer spoke a final command. "Destroy Shu." And the Lifeless left. The pounding of footsteps slowly returned, drawing closer to him, and he flung his 'cloak' back on him, his form returning to that of a cripple, his leg flaring with pain. The steps were closer now, closing in on him, but Zaffer was content, not only would Shu be killed, but the only source of information along with him. A pounding echoed on his door, that was followed with the sharp sound of cracking wood. Zaffer kept his eyes clothes, and could feel the sting as a blade but into his eye. Shu had been walking, having talked his way our of death, convincing those that he was good. That was when the Rope fell. It entangled him, tying his arms together in tight knots, dropping him where he stood. He moved slowly, the Rope seeming to loosen, and slowly worked his way out. His left hand was free, quickly followed by his right, his legs following after. He got to his feet, and saw someone he knew standing at the end of the road. "You wouldn't believe what just happened to me!" He exclaimed "Lucky, I-" he cut off as he realized that Lucky was dead, yet was somehow standing in front of him. Lifeless he thought, slowly backing away. Lucky advanced on him, and he turned to run, only to slam right into Vaati, knocking him to the ground. After orienting himself, he looked up only to be surrounded by dead faces, each adorned with some odd trinket. He looked at each face, Gormund, Jaaver, Straw, Mac, Salthis, along with Vaati and Lucky from before. Their hands began to decend towards him, and he let out a single scream as his eye was ripped from his socket. The guards in the area quickly rushed towards the sound of the scream, and found was used to be a body surrounded by Lifeless. They took out their weapons, and began to chop the Lifeless apart, hoping to stop anything like this from happening to anyone else. As the Scarf hit the ground, the deal was done. An eye for an eye, and more. This writeup has been brought to you by: @Droughtbringer! Go upvote them. Vote Tally Drought (7)- Shqueeves, Brightness, Devotary, Monster, Ripple, Arinian, Ecthelion Shqueeves (2)- Drought, Joe Drought has been lynched! Identity of the deceased: Shqueeves has been murdered! Identity of the deceased: Player List 1. A Joe in the Bush as Jeo the Yellow 2. Elenion as Gormund Oscarson Idrian 3. Randuir as commander Jaaver Idrian Captain 4. Livinglegend as Lucky Idrian Sentry 5. Shqueeves as Shu Idrian Awakener 6. Bort as Bort the Brute Idrian Captain 7. BrightnessRadiant as Ivy 8. Straw as Straw Idrian 9. TheMightyLopen as Vaati Idrian 10. MacThorstenson as Mac Idrian 11. Devotary of Spontaneity as Fahmexa 12. Ecthelion as Eärendil 13. Coop772 as Salthis Idrian 14. MonsterMetroid as Roid 15. Droughtbringer as Zaffer Hallandren Awakener 16. RippleGylf as Sarcoline 17. Arinian as Elien Rollover

I own several pens, but I have not named them.

So I was thinking about my super awesome Spirit Web topic (seriously, go read it. It's in my signature. Some of my best theory work). In particular, I wanted to address the issues some people were bringing up with my idea of Adonalsiums origin. So, today I developed a proof of why it seems logical. Given: The Universe of the Cosmere started similar to our own, and dumped out matter, energy, and investiture into existence The Spirit Realm encompasses all perfect ideals Matter, Energy, and Investiture began to clump in the early universe, just like ours No intervention from a God Beyond Investiture, as it clumps, naturally creates sentience there was no other life at the beginning Therefore, Adonalsium would have formed as all the investiture clumped together- since there was nothing else to form spirit webs for. Furthermore, as the mind inhabiting the ultimate soul (A mind a soul, anyone?), Adonalsium would be the ultimate ideal being- God, for all intents and purposes, naturally created by the processes of the universe. His mind would arbitrarily form in the location of the Cosmere, explaining the localization of so much life. And as the ideal God, Adonalsium created things. More conditions, becoming more speculative: Adonalsium comprises essentially the entire Spirit Realm, with a truly infinite mind to control all investiture Life has a greater personal spirit web- that would no longer be a part of Adonalsium's web. Adonalsium's ideal nature forces it to create life Therefore, over time, Adonalsium would become smaller, and no longer comprise all investiture- becoming less idyllic, and maybe losing the infinite mind thing. An issue with this is that it is unclear how much life Adonalsium would have to have created to make a noticeable difference in it's personality. It is possible that while I am pretty sure this mechanic would occur under the assumptions I described, that the actual effect is trivial. However, it does bring to mind another thing- as it loses investiture, Adonalsium may have begun taking its drive to create life to an extreme degree, or even altered it in another way. However Adonalsium ended up in the spot that it did, it got to the point where it got shattered. Given that I think it was an infinite mind, it could see the future. It could see its own death. All it would have had to do was not create life. Or even not create those people who shattered it. Given that it didn't, its own perfect nature must have driven it to create life, no matter the consequences. This feels EXTREMELY likely to me in terms of the Cosmere. First off, it matches with the theme that Ideals aren't always perfect. It matches with the idea of Gods not being able to control their will. And also, the idea of a God that naturally forms- and dies- as a result of the laws of the universe seems extremely cool. It feels like the kind of narrative that would fit into the Cosmere. Finally, it would put to rest any idea of anyone reforming Adonalsium. According to this, Adonalsium formed from all investiture, and naturally had an infinite mind, making it able to control all investiture. A human mind is limited. That is why Shards are limited in power, their minds can only handle so much, even when amplified by investiture (even though making aspects might be a cheat around this, at the cost of having one mind). Therefore, Hoid cannot recreate Adonalsium. Investiture has interwoven itself into the Cosmere. Between the Shards, invested planets, and all the investiture going on, Investiture isn't going to clump into an Adonalsium again unless you kill all life. And I don't think that is Hoid's goal. I hope my logic makes sense, and that at least some of my speculation seems plausable.

Because Time-Travel doesn't exist. How is she supposed to learn about something if there's nobody to learn from? Alendi was one of the first Allomancers. The only people who knew anything about the other Metals were the Synod(who were in hiding, and by HoA, all dead) and the Lord Ruler, who doesn't allow interviews. Khriss was only allowed the scraps of knowledge that TLR allowed anyone to know. The Steel Inquisitorius is responsible for Atium being in the Temporal Quadrant, and as the only ones who've experimented with it, they are the most authoritative source. This is also why the Atium steals anything tidbit didn't exist yet, because the Inquisitors hadn't discovered this until Ruin was freed. MB Era 2 Spoilers(on the assumption that you haven't read it yet) It's the same on Roshar, where there haven't been Surgebinders in nearly 2,500 years, and 4 losses of information since then(The Recreance, The Hierocracy, The Fire in the Palanaeum, etc..). She can't learn what nobody knows.

YES!! The Pixar theory is amazing and I believe that this might be the missing link we have needed all along! Investiture is the key! Mr. Potato Head is actually Hoid!!!

When I'm stuck in an irritating half-hour discussion elective, and then the discussion for the day is "do you reread books or rewatch shows?" and you try to remember if you are on your 8th or 9th reread of OB.

Okay so I managed to stop my Malazanv re-read long enough to read Angus Watson's Iron Age trilogy, which was interesting and funny but not really satisfying, and I can't help myself I HAVE TO READ REAPER'S GALE NOW ESP AFTER ALL YOUR COMMENTS. I am weak.

@podman36 How apposed are you towards the DA? When you make these: Vin as Valette, Hoid, Shallan, Syl, Raoden, and Jasnah. When you are on your sixth time reading tWoK. I've also read WoR five times, and OB twice.

Season two, episode twenty three "For me, Eragon was terribly cliche. For the thirteen year old boys picking up that as their first fantasy novel, it was not cliche" I read Eragon when I was eight Five years later, I'm reading Stormlight, the Iliad and Journey to the West Not sure whether the Iliad or Journey to the West count because the Iliad was assigned to me and I haven't actually managed to get Journey to the West but whatever, technicalities

Do you remember your first fantasy novel? The one where you knew it was something special. Starting it idly, not realizing you were plunging into not only into a book, but a genre (dare I say lifestyle) that would make a nice little nest in your heart? I have an unusually clear memory of mine. I was in 6th grade. I loved reading and was a fast reader, but didn't know much about fantasy (had an older brother deep into D&D and MtG, which had my parents mildly nervous). We were suppose to be reading My Friend Flicka. I'd finished it and was dangerously bored. My teacher let me go to his "free reading" shelf. There was a BIG book there. Like 500 pages. I was curious. Cover looks seriously intriguing (especially if you've been reading My Friend Flicka). (Good 'ol Shannara covers, So dated, so nostalgic) I kinda ignored the "Book Four" label. And despite having no idea what was happening in the story, I was HOOKED. ELVES??? DRUIDS? MAGIC SWORDS?? I didn't know this was a THING. Never looked back. From there it was Anne McCaffrey, Raymond E. Feist, L.E. Modesitt, Robert Jordan and anything else I could get my hands on at the public library.

Here I want to discuss coincidences (that meaning potential connections) you notice about the cosmere. For example, could "Kelek's breath" have anything to do with awakening? Please post anything you notice that you think deserves some looking into. I'll start off with the question I already gave: Why is "Kelek's breath" a saying? Is it because he came to Roshar from Nalthis, like Vasher did, or could it be something else, or is it just a saying? "Ash's eyes" means very little, as far as I can tell. Oh, and please warn of any spoilers, because I still haven't finished Well of Ascension and I'm one of those people who doesn't want anything spoiled. PS. Just to save you a bit of research (or a lot of looking like an idiot), it doesn't have anything to do with the ten essences. (https://coppermind.net/wiki/Ten_Essences) You'll see that Shalash is associated with garnet, whose body focus is blood, not eyes. Kalak is associated with Amethyst, the nails.

I'm pretty sure that inaudible time and space comment was me talking from the line behind the questioner. My take is that where the physical realm has length/width/depth/time across four dimensions, the spiritual realm smashes all of this together. It's as if the spiritual realm is only Tralfamadorians, or wormhole aliens from DS9, or some other entity that experiences time as if it were space. My point is, what I hear when I hear the spiritual realm is where time and space is one, is that in the spiritual realm, everything that has happened and will happened is arranged as if it were left to right. So Syl knows Kaladin and Shallan in the spiritual realm because there it's as if she's standing next to them, instead of she has yet to meet them. Does this make sense? Any Vonnegut or DS9 fans about? P.S. Sisko is #1 Star Trek captain fite me

@RShara I saw this WoB, and I think this refers more to the superset of sapient cosmere species. One of the traits that is common to all higher lifeforms (with the possible exception of the Dysian Aimians) is the ability to interbreed. The WoB is paraphrased, but as it's written it seems to be saying that there is, like in object oriented program, a superclass> sapient being, that the sub class derived from this superclass inherits the ability to breed with any member of this superclass. This seems like a base parameter that was set up by Adonalsium for how the cosmere works, but within this framework I think the shards were able to create according to this template (like the humans on Scadrial) or separate from this template (I really do think the Dysians are an outlier, whether they were willfully created or are another instance of coalesced investiture acquiring sapience through mere concentration of investiture remains to be seen). I'm excited to see Brandon's answer to my Aimian question when my personalized books come in.

Hah I wish, but I i think that this quote could apply to Steven Erikson as well as to it was originally intended CAS: Smith (or Steven Erikson) always seemed, to me anyway, a special writer for special tastes; his fame was lonely. Whether or nor it will ever be more than lonely, I cannot say. Every writer is special in some way, and those who are more than ordinarily special are either damned or lost along the way.”

Maybe instead of sticking himself to the ground, his spren stuck him to the ground? Did I just talk myself into this theory?

This an interesting theory, and I don't think we know enough about the events surrounding the splintering of Dominion and Devotion to really say yes or no. But we do know a few things about how investiture works without a vessel. Brandon has said that over time, investiture starts to gain sentience and Khriss says in AU that the land itself is becoming self-aware. So I believe that as the land in Fjordell becomes self-aware, seemingly godlike, it makes sense for them to ascribe to it an old God of the land. Now in terms of Odium's influence, my theory is that Odium indirectly caused the earthquake that lead to the Reod. Here are a few things confirmed via WOB's that mak it seem plausible: The Earthquake was not caused by the splintering of Dominion and Devotion, it happened much later. Odium wanted to splinter Ambition first, but wasn't able to locate the Shard and ended up splintering Dom/Dev first. Ambition was mortally wounded near Threnody, but eventually was splintered elsewhere. Brandon has RAFO'd a question about whether the splintering of Ambition had an effect on Sel. Brandon has confirmed that the earthquake was due to unnatural causes. So basically, Odium mortally wounds Ambition near Threnody, who subsequently travels nearby Sel where he finally splinters. The splintering causes the earthquake and all the subsequent events we see in Elantris.

Moved to Oathbringer Forum and added [OB] spoiler tag

This really needs to be moved into Cosmere theories with an OB spoiler tag

Hate, love, passion/ extremes that burn in the heart/ they bring out people's truths/ people out bring their hearts/ in them burn those extremes/ passions, love, hate

What?! You haven't named your pens? I have a maroon pen with me right now that I have named Isabel Riker.

From what has been said and seen in Oathbringer, I think the original fabrials, the oathgates, and potentially Urithiru, weren't enslaved Spren, but rather were helping voluntarily.

I beg to differ. That said, Odium is primarily invested in Braize, so the number nine being associated with his magics and creations makes sense.

Thank you! Delightful is actually my cousin irl. I like cows. So i like your username

I'd say this is a great topic for a new thread

I loved the chair scene @TheGoddessBeyond and I adore Navani "bringing order to chaos". But I agree completly with your last statement. On time, we finally accept what Brandon gives and not what we imagined. Sidenote, I loved OB, but I can understand people feeling underwhelmed.

Nightblood sitting at a bar looking depressed because all the evil on Roshar has been destroyed.

I really like Dalinar and Navani's chemistry, especially when he was trying to be proper and she was trying anything but. On non-romantic......Lightsong and Llarimar.

I have a friend reading shadows of self, and whenever he asks me BoM questions I reply “RAFO” with a sly smile. I also read WoK and WoR in 4 days. I only stopped to eat and go to the bathroom. I’m a horrible person.

I decided a long time ago that if I went with a pen name, it would be Bernard Rice. Why Bernard Rice? When I was in middle school, we had a mini mall project where we had to come up with a product to sell and a business plan and such, then execute it on a day when we would all set up inside the cafeteria and the rest of the school go through all of our booths and browse our wares. I was selling snow cones and mini notepads with our school mascot on them. The snow cones we're popular enough that the reporter for the local paper doing a story on the project decided that my booth was the one he wanted to take a picture of, so he got a couple shots and wrote down my name. A few days later, there was my picture in the paper, but not my name. Instead of Trevor, I was Bernard Rice. It was strange and funny enough that I decided it would eventually be my pen name should I decide to use one, given just how far off he was from my real name.

There's WoB floating around that says there is no full shard on First of the Sun. This, also with everything else, indicates that Autonomy created a splinter to be there. There may even be more than one splinter, Patji isn't the only god in the pantheon and Brandon has specifically stated that entire pantheons are all made of Autonomy. As for the magic system, Autonomy is driven to be autonomous, hence creating possibly autonomous personas that can act on their own. It doesn't necessarily mean that any magic system derived from Autonomy's investiture will be entirely autonomous, example being allomancy. The way allomancy is fueled preserves the user's strength, but the actual abilities don't really have much to do with Preservation.

I really enjoy all of what you've said here and I think it adds a lot of great context to my post. I also brought the subject up with my brother through text message and he helped me get my thoughts more in order as well, so let me clarify my points just a little bit. Mostly, my problem with Elhokar is that it took a disaster or major event every time for him to grow into a better and stronger person. Had he been less vain and more quick to grow, he would have bonded he spren sooner and possibly could have saved the mission. My biggest problem with Elhokar is that he built his own pyre. You can't wait until your bank account is empty and your credit cards are maxed to get your finances in order. Elhokar's arc was the equivalent of this, and as such,his death was very fitting for me.

Prince of Thorns: Bands of Mourning: Stormlight Archive:

Taking a page out of Chaos's book... Oathbringer: REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED

For all you programmers out there: Elantris

Warbreaker:

I'd be called the displacer, as well as a number of other highly unflattering things, and my ability is that I can teleport anywhere. People hate me because my sole purpose in life would be to teleport into peoples houses and hide all their keys in strange/obscure places. My weakness is having small pieces of dense, aerodynamic mass typically of a metallic nature traveling at a high velocity perforate my body. I wear a top hat and suit like a true gentleman. Best part about me is, you never know if you've made an enemy, or just forgotten where your keys are.....