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Mistborn Era 1 Spoilers

"You're getting in the way." snarled Tahree Fields. Snip tried to fend her off, but to no avail. With one deft motion, she snapped his neck, a grimace on her face. The she turned to face Steel Kid the Science Squid. The squid was gone. "WHERE ARE YOU!" she screamed in a voice not befitting her bookish demeanor. Suddenly, acid splashed her face, and her eyes glowed white. "I'VE WORKED TOO HARD TO LOSE TO YOU!" She desperately attacked the Squid, trying to kill her last foe. A stray tentacle managed to grab her by the leg, and flung her into the air. "NO!" she screamed, before the squid slammed her into the ground, once, twice, three times. Tahree Fields, the last Forgotten, had finally perished. The Squid wasn't sure what to do. It was stranded on land, with no one to feed it. It looked toward the Tower of Nebrask. It had liked smashing the Forgotten into bits. It started crawling towards the tower. It was just one more thing to smash. Vote Count: Snipexe (1): Steeldancer Elandera (1): Snipexe The Soldiers have just barely won. Congrats to Steeldancer to being the only survivor. In case you're wondering what happened, Elandera won a tie lynch against Snipexe. However, Steeldancer used acid on her, so her kill did not go through. The lynch was tied for the next hypothetical cycle, as both players had bribes. Elandera lost that coinflip, and so Steeldancer won. Player List:

So here's a list of all the characters, since I got really annoyed with having to go through the whole thread every time. Also, can someone (@Voidus) add them to the OP? Sorana (Lizanne Farmer): ZincAboutIt (Renata): ITIAH (Wilhelm Wendigo): Silva ( Ashira Celeste Blanche Addington): Ark1002 (Hellbent-Son-Palm): Blessing of Potency (Arundhati): Kenod (Lisa Waite): Kidpen (Tishyl): Beantheboy12 (Zib): Snipexe (Jack Overchild): Gancho Libre (Fah'Loofah Smedry):

And Weird Al. The guy just doesn't seem to age!

Waffles shall reign supreme!!!

I have been rereading the Stormlight books (including Edgedancer) but this time following a theme or character (e.g. I read in succession the Lift Interlude from WOR, Edgedancer, and all the scenes that have Lift in OB). When reading the three Prologues, I began to write up my thoughts about what we know regarding Restares and the Sons of Honor and why Gavilar listed him as a suspect. I still plan to do that but when reading previous postings regarding Amaram’s actions in OB, there seem to be a lot of questions about Amaram’s changing of allegiances at the end of the book: Would someone so seemingly devout switch to team Odium so quickly? Sure, Odium may have shown him the truth about the Singers and the Heralds, but why didn’t it make him catatonic? Walk away like others did? Why would he even believe Odium anyway? The devout can handle threats to their faith. They may disbelieve the source or they may accommodate the message as Amaram did when Dalinar told him the Almighty was dead (WoR ch 67): Does Amaram shift of allegiances mark a larger shift of the Sons of Honor? Has Odium likewise convinced them that the rights of the Singers, the abandonment of the Heralds and that Honor is dead/Cultivation is a pagan myth, means Odium is the only true object of worship? I’ll deal with the third point first, which is to say that I doubt the Sons of Honor have switched to Odium. First, I think people strongly committed to Vorin faith would be able to survive the truths which Odium presented (e.g. Kadash at the end of OB was rereading the ancient theologians to justify modern vorinism). Second, according to the letter Mraize sends to Shallan, the Sons of Honor thought the desolations would restore Knights Radiant as well the voidbringers (OB ch 40). Even if the Heralds were mad, the Sons of Honor could count a success at restoring the KR. Of course, Mraize may be an unreliable narrator but it seems a strange lie to add. Certainly, Amaram shows no hesitancy on-screen with the role as leader of the restored Knights Radiant. But what Amaram himself? In his shift in allegiance consistent and believable? Consistent, no? Believable, yes? Or, (since I run the risk of being inconsistent myself), Amaram’s actions do not make sense to me as a high-ranking official of secret society dedicated to the Vorin church. They make perfect sense to me as self-absorbed, conceited yet highly insecure attention seeker, who desperately seeks approval from everyone but especially those he sees as worthy (Gavilar, Dalinar, Jasnah) and when he does not receive it, he vacillates between needing the approval even more and a nursing a toxic resentment. Amaram is consistently a narcissist. The touches that Sanderson gives Amaram paint the picture: He is magnanimous to darkeyes…but calls them darkborn (the only one in the series to do so). He wants an apology from Kaladin for the accusation of murdering his men but only because it is in the best interest of Kaladin. He laments the unfair burden placed on the Sons of Honor to cause the desolation. And of course, he had no choice but to take shardblade and kill Kaladin’s men. Other observations: At the end of WOR we get Amaram’s only POV. In it, he laments his act of mercy for sparing Kaladin. Why? Because it cost him his friendship with Dalinar. In OB ch 53, we get a scene with Jasnah and Amaram from her POV. He goes from wooing her, to mentioning his mother, to reaching for his shardblade. Weird. She clearly sees him in a way he has never been able to see himself. Jasnah’s opinion: Throughout OB, Amaram desperately wants Dalinar to see it his way, to understand that they are the same. When Dalinar refuses, the anger (and the feelings of rejection) reaches a boiling point. So Dalinar, and those who follow him, reject him while his armies (in their hatred of House Kholin) and Odium elevate him. So, yes, I can believe he switched sides. Three final points: If Mraize is being honest and accurate that Gavilar brought Amaram into the Sons of Honor, I don’t believe Amaram would need to be very sold on the ideals of the organization. The very fact that most powerful man on Roshar, Amaram’s ideal man, invited him to join a secret society would have been impossible to resist. But after Gavilar was gone, the effect could have begun to wear off. Especially after the rejection from his brother. Some narcissists do feel guilt, particularly when they feel they have disappointed some ghost in their past (Gavilar? Mommy?) So Kaladin’s pushback on his guilt could have hit a button in Amaram’s mind he was trying to ignore. I reread the fight scene between Kaladin and Amaram ignoring everything except their dialogue. Amaram is clearly having a psychotic breakdown—not surprising since he has fused with an unmade. What comes out of his mouth is nothing but narcissistic nonsense that cannot be connected by even the most twisted logic.

My vote is currently on Fura, but I would like to move it to Elandera, now that the MR is over and I can point to their excellent performance as a lone eliminator.

Reminds me of something my friend once told me: When in doubt, knock 'em out! He's in prison now.

I'm hoping one of them is Azure or Zahel.

Trapping them would only be temporary (even if it's thousands of years) and seems cruel to do. They've been through enough.. Better to destroy them with Nightblood although that's a boring answer and would be tedious to do. In Oathbringer Odium mentioned he can withdraw what he gave them to make them cognitive shadows. "You will follow me, Turash, or I will reclaim that which gives you persistent life." - OB Ch. 118 One of the Fused mentioned an agreement they made with Odium. I can't find it right now, it's not spelled out in detail but essentially these ancient singers were killed by humans who took their land and before their souls passed on to The Beyond Odium swooped in and made them an offer: join with me and I'll help you kill the humans and reclaim your land. Maybe the not crazy Fused will decide they no longer want to wipe out all humans and willingly give up what keeps them around. Not sure if they can even do that, but I like the idea of the Fused seeing that Singers and Humans can live together.

Ok, so I saw this Magic: the gathering card, and the flavor text sounds like it could be Kaladin’s next oath.

22 hours left in the day! Also, let me share this fitting screenshot of our GM.

I'll be honest, while I see some justification for the votes on Lum, her posts seem more like conjecture and attempts at getting discussion going more than anything. Voting on her because she wasn't doing player analysis this early is a stretch to say the least. What was there to analyze? (At this point, there is more content, but the only analysis has been focused on Lum for not analyzing). This might not be the right reason, but Lum has also been lynched early on in a lot of her games for being relatively new. Last time, she deserved it, but the "elim behavior" being pointed out this time seem more similar to her style when she was lynched as village.

Something I noticed about every natural ”Shardpool” perpendicularity: (meaning every perpendicularity that was not placed or moved) They are ALL in the mountains. On Roshar: Cultivation’s perpendicularity is in the Horneater peaks. On Sel: the only Shardpool we see is up in the Aonic mountains. On First of the sun: Patji’s eye, at the very top of the Island. On Scadrial: During Alendi’s time, Both the Well of Ascension and Ruin’s Shardpool (the dark lake that someone tried to take a sample of, but was stabbed by the Mist Spirit.) During Era 1, the Well was placed intentionally placed in Luthadel. The Pits of Hathsin, I think might have also been intentionally placed, and they aren’t really a “Shardpool.” I also don’t have a very intimate knowledge of the geography around the Pits, so I don’t know if they are in a terrain that could be called “mountainous.” (All that to say I don’t know whether or not it counts.) During Era 2, the perpendicularity is the blue mountain spring that is mentioned in the Broadsheets. On Nalthis and Taldain, we haven’t seen the perpendicularity, but we also haven’t seen any long walks through the mountains... Anybody else notice this pattern, or have any idea as to why that is?

BREAKFAST BURRITOS ARE DELICIOUS!!! But they have no place in the waffle and pancake war. They are too perfect to bother with such lowly things.

Silence

Meanwhile, the Pancake and Waffle Shards were at war.

Soldiers are often depicted as being able to sleep anywhere at basically any time - probably explaining Tonk Fah. I also believe there are some instances where he seems to be napping but is actually alert.

However, everyone titled their entries with 'Dear diary', so everyone changed their names to Diary.

waffles = crepes > pancakes

I don’t agree with this part of what you are saying. Dalinar’s good reputation among the Alethi was well established long before the Shattered Plains. He had well trained, well behaved soldiers who were well respected. They had been trained not to loot, rape, pillage, etc. If anything, Dalinar’s reputation was weakened at the Shattered Plains. And Amaram was a shady figure before the Shattered Plains as well. He was already well mixed up in the Son’s of Honor before Gavilar’s assassination. And he was already an “ends justify the means person.”

*is happy* *is having trouble resisting the urge to eat the throne*

I'm currently not of the opinion that Jasnah will marry Sue, given that we don't even have a character named that

Waffles are the ultimate food for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or second breakfast. WAFFLES WILL REING SUPREME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree that it would have been favorable to have some sort of Amaram POV. Maybe in an interlude or something. But there's hints in story that his public image isn't real. In WoK where he makes and forgets his promise to Kaladin regarding Tien. In WoR when Sadeas tells him straight out that he knows where all his bodies are buried. Or when he supposedly tries to heal the rift between Dalinar and Sadeas by telling Dalinar that his public image and flexible moral character makes him a perfect bridge. Or in OB when he believes Dalinar killed Sadeas and attempts to praise him for the master stroke. I would have liked to have seen it explicitly in the text but we had more than enough clues if reading between the lines. As for his heel turn coming out of nowhere, well after WOR his reputation, his pristine public image, was blown to shreads, unfairly so in his opinion. At the same time his faith was shattered upon spending time with the Ancient of Stone. So the 2 things that served as a bedrock for his worldview both broke at the same time. The important thing is that he thought he was blameless. Honor failed him by letting him suffer even as he dedicated his life to healing all the world's ills. Odium comes in and confirms his blamelessness. To me it seemed inevitable that Amaram would turn, I was only surprised at the timing. Lastly, if someone craves respect and legitimacy, they can be awfully blind to whatever advantage they posess if they feel they're getting less than their due as they see it. Amaram was in a position to reassemble his tattered reputation, he got a massive promotion, he could duel-wield Shardblades. But he lost Dalinar's respect and couldn't forge a path to legitimacy through a match with Jasnah so none of it mattered. A rational person in Amaram's position during OB would be pleased as punch at their prospects even with a trial looming. Amaram wasn't.

WAFFLES!

If Celebrant wasn't safe anymore, Meladian didn't plan on spending any more time here than necessary. If she had a Radiant she'd be able to collect materials from the physical realm, but for now, scavenging and bartering for materials and items was the only option. Perhaps she could create her own Radiant. Surely that couldn't be too difficult. Meladian gathered that humans were made out of flesh and had some sort of liquid inside them, both of which were standard essences. Perhaps the Stormfather would know more.

I live in the states so yeah... The worst new series to try starting are the long ones without an end known. I have The Sword of Truth still sitting on my shelf and I've yet to start on it, then I have the first installments of Dresden Files and Wild Cards with no end in sight for either. Another long one is Discworld with 41? books total (hate the fact that my copy of The Colour of Magic is spelled The Color of Magic) and I also have the first Harry Hole book which has no end so far. I'm holding off getting The Kingkiller Chronicles until book 3 is announced (wanted to do that for ASOIAF for when book 6 was announced but ended up finding AGOT for cheap) One series I am glad to have finished was The Wheel of Time, that was so long I had to take breaks to keep myself fresh. But there are some series I have that are complete but I don't yet have all the books like The Lunar Chronicles (own 3/6), Codex Alera (1/6) and two of the Rick Riordon series (2/3 norse 2/5 Apollo)

Yeah, definitely waffles. Pancakes are just so boring.

*facepalms*

My promised thoughts: First of all, it’s important to recognise that if we are indeed having trouble with declining player counts (which I don’t strictly believe is the case, as I’ll get to in a moment), we really have three groups we need to focus on: GMs, “regular and recurring” players, and newer players. Each of these groups ultimately have the greatest influence on activity and numbers, and any reform efforts will, I believe, have to go beyond a mere rescheduling of the games and instead incorporate ways for each of these groups to help recruit and engage players. To address each of these groups specifically: GMs Obviously, GMs have little influence on how many people actually sign up for their games, but it’s important to look at recent games which drew a lot of people as examples of “what works,” as these games tended to have similar undercurrents. For some recent examples, LG53 had 25 players, AG5 had over 30 once you factor in pinch hitters, LG49 was similar in this regard with over 25, and LG46 had 27, 29 with pinch-hitters. LG44 had 26. For all of these, I think there were common factors: -A well-known GM, with prior records of entertaining games. An exception is perhaps Steel’s LG46, which was his first game, but Steel is still well-known enough to draw people (especially with the advertising he did ). -A storyline to the game; whether a new, creative or epic setting, or a rerun of a prior well-known setting, or both, these games all had a heavy focus on RP and players got the sense a story was being told with their characters. -The game mechanics were complex but easy to grasp, or fairly simple with a few neat twists. I’d put AG5 and LG49 into the former category, and LG44, 46 and 53 into the latter. In other words, everything in the rules had a purpose. No unnecessary complexity, or difficult-to-understand wording. This is more of a principle of good design, but it’s important to note that good design exists for a reason: to attract people. So don’t disregard it. So my advice to GMs? Obviously, the first point is outside your control unless you want to start cultivating an image for yourself. But the second and third are worth bringing up. Perhaps you’re not one for writeups. That’s fine. There are a myriad of willing co-GMs eager to do them for you, and as IM I’ll even do some if you want, though they’ll be short. It’s important to remember that SE is an RP game, and we should arguably place more emphasis on it, as from historical precedent it does draw people in. Finally, when designing games, get someone to look them over quickly and informally. It doesn’t even need to be a mod or committee member to begin with; it’s easy to get someone to just check that they understood the rules on a basic level on the first read-through, and were interested in them. It takes maybe ten minutes, and can help you format rulesets to appeal to more players. Complexity isn’t bad here; confusing complexity is, and the more it’s avoided the more people you can draw. It’s worth mentioning that even these three things won’t necessarily draw a huge crowd. In my humble opinion, LG41 had all three of these positive aspects and got 17 people. As I mentioned before, you have only limited control over these things. So plan for smaller player counts. If your game doesn’t draw the people you thought you needed, it’s hopefully adaptable enough to work for the smaller numbers. If it isn’t, things might break; I know this firsthand, since all the problems in LG48 sprang from this mistake. Hope for the best, plan for the worst, and continue to be the amazing people you are. Regular and recurring players You guys form the base of most of our games, and obviously therefore have the most influence on their numbers. My advice here is much shorter. First, don’t sacrifice your personal schedule to SE. Joining games when you know you for a fact you’ll go inactive or be disengaged doesn’t solve this issue; it worsens it. I’d rather see active LGs with 15 players than silent ones with 35. However, at the same time, if you know a specific time when you’ll be inactive and it isn’t too long, talk with the GM, or, depending on the convenience of such a measure, sign up as a pinch-hitter; that way, once you have time again, you can freely join. Second, give games, and GMs, the benefit of the doubt. Obviously, we all play these games to have fun, so don’t feel compelled to join any game that you have no interest in. But if a game sounds like it could be interesting, and you have the time, give it a spin! No offence to Steel or Bard, but the inherent ideas behind LG46 and MR33 didn’t particularly grab me at first, and I can say with confidence that now they’re among my favourite SE games I’ve played to date. Games might surprise you with their quality. So try them out if they seem interesting. Might as well make the GM’s job a little harder too, while you’re at it... Newer players I believe it was Steel who mentioned that the influx of new players has become insufficient to offset the regular and recurring players who are dropping thanks to IRL stuff (Drought, Steel and Ecth are leaving on missions, and others have simply stopped signing up for games). While it’s true that we aren’t getting as many newer players recently, I’m not sure that it’s an issue that’s driving down game numbers, or even much of an issue at all. Ultimately, new players will only come and stay here if they a. know about these games and b. find them interesting enough, and the community excellent enough, to remain. While point b. seems fine for now, point a. could use work, and it’s a valid argument that we don’t proselytise enough. Of the three factors, however, this is likely the one that contributes to game size the least; new players eventually become part of the “regulars,” and then my second point starts applying more regardless. It’s true that more new players becoming regular would be wonderful, and introducing them with simpler, more roleplay-heavy games (again see point 1 for advice to GMs) may be a workable approach, but ultimately it’s the existing SE community which will have to take measures to address this, if we believe it’s a problem, and any steps taken to improve the quality of games for regulars will apply to newer players as well. Other Factors: Time at which games begin, personal schedules, numbers not necessarily dropping? To conclude, as Rand mentioned, this “trend” isn’t necessarily a huge thing. It’s true that if you go back a little farther into the past, notably between AG3 and AG4, there were a lot more people in many games. Unfortunately for us now, many of those people have left SE, or gotten too busy to continue with it. We’ve already lost, and will continue to lose, longstanding community members this summer to missions. But despite historic departures, and current ones, SE will survive. Why? Because it’s not about any one player, or even a group of players. It’s about the community the games are built around, and if that remains intact, so will these games for a long time to come, regardless of who is playing, or how many. But to get refocused, declining player counts have also come with a decline (mostly) in chronic inactives and lurkers, people who perhaps drove up player counts but never contributed all that much to games. I’d argue that this is an indisputably positive development, and that greater honesty about availability has been one of the key triumphs of SE in the past year or so, minimising some of the longstanding issues with inactivity the community had in the past. Our current games typically don’t have 4-5 (or more) people that go completely silent every single game, and that’s amazing and something that should be encouraged. In a way, our current numbers could be seen as a correction of the perhaps inflated counts of a year or two ago. Speaking of schedules (and thank you Bard for that data), I’d argue again that the current drop, and many of the declines in signups for games can be traced to the time of year. While I don’t have the time or patience to comb through all the previous games around this time period, I’d attribute current low activity on the forum to the typical exam/finals craze of April and May that is gripping a perhaps slightly older student population than we had a year or two ago. If numbers remain low through June and July, I think that would be more broadly indicative of an issue, but for now I’d wait this out. Besides, I’m not sure that numbers in the low to mid teens for MRs and QFs is inherently bad. They’re meant to be quicker and slightly smaller games, so player size for both seems fairly healthy. I’d again pin blame for Steel’s LG on exam season, and perhaps the Mafia Tournament holding back prospective players. Actually Final Thoughts (TL;DR?) -A slowdown of signups may be wise, and the mods will see what we can do to ensure that everyone’s getting to participate in the games they want to. There seems to be a consensus—ish—in that direction. -Numbers, historically speaking, aren’t terribly low. -Popular games that attract players and support typically have understandable rules, and a good RP and setting. An increase in such games, and RP in general, may be welcome. -Don’t be afraid to try out games you’re ambivalent about if you have the time. -Thanks to everyone who’s participated in this conversation, as it’s ultimately you, the players, whose feedback is most important as to how we run our games.

Fred the Frog, a Splinter of Odium, was the leader of the cult.

That... was beautiful. The monologue part (or aside, or whatever you want to call it) in the middle especially got me. So perfect.

The Waffles have always been superior. The poll just didn’t know it yet.

When you have a shirt that says “I survived AP calculus” on the back, and you tell your friend who is also a sanderfan “I am the Survivor of Calculus.” And then he responds “whoa! I want to see those algebra scars running down your arms!”

Hmm. An interesting question, who the nine "main" characters are for this book. Let's engage in some rampant speculation on the subject. I think we can start with the ten flashback characters (swapping Venli for Eshonai): Kaladin Shallan Dalinar Venli Szeth Lift Renarin Ash Taln Jasnah At least one of those characters, and possibly more, aren't going to be part of the RoW list, aren't going to get a ton of viewpoints. I think Lift is being saved for later (or, if I'm being honest, I hope she's gonna stay out of the way). And since we last saw Ash and Taln together, I suspect that they'll still be together in this book and that they also have a lot of their arcs being held in reserve until later books. So if one's gone, both is gone, and I think both will be gone. So that leaves us with seven flashback characters who we can expect to have a good chunk of screen time in Book Four. What two other characters could round out the list? I'll go with Adolin and Navani, both of whom were once considered as candidates for flashback books. So, let's see how these nine could get assigned to arcs. I think the Primary Arc must include Venli, who is still with the singers. The book's title is about the singers, the flashback character is a singer. But who else could go with her, and what sort of a "place" could this be that has these apparent enemies together? Some sort of a battlefront, perhaps reminiscent of the Shattered Plains from WoK. (Heck, it could even be the Shattered Plains, with the singers on the offensive out of Alethkar.) Kaladin, though his OB arc and through Rlain, has a lot of connections to singers, so I think he'll be there on the battle lines. And two other main characters will be with him; I'm guessing Renarin and Szeth, but that's more process-of-elimination from whom I will assign to the other arcs. I'm thinking the Secondary Arc will be higher-level, political intrigue sort of stuff, centered around Dalinar, with Jasnah and Navani as the two other characters. This could involve maintaining the existing human alliance, attempting to expand it to include Shinovar or Iri, refounding the Knights Radiant as an organization, researching lost secrets of the Radiants and the spren, uncovering new fabrial science, all sorts of stuff. It's the secondary arc, but it's the big picture of the series. The Tertiary Arc is the Romantic Getaway Quest. I'm thinking Shallan and Adolin are off somewhere random doing something. Maybe working with Sja-anat? This arc could be Ash and Taln (in which case, I'd bump Renarin and Szeth from the Primary Arc and put Adolin and Shallan there), but I don't expect we'll see enough of them for a full book yet. Maybe they get the Interlude sequence. Or it could be Dalinar and Navani, (and I'd probably toss Shallan and Renarin in with Jasnah, and put Adolin on the front lines), but I don't think Dalinar's in a position where he could get away like that. I like the parallels this division of arcs would have to Way of Kings, in terms of its three characters. Kaladin, on the front lines of a battle. Dalinar, dealing with the broader war. And Shallan, off on her own. Very reminiscent of a ketek.

Dalinar recognized what happened at the Rift was wrong. When he went to the nightwatcher he asked for forgiveness. Cultivation erased his memory to give Dalinar a chance to choose who he would become. She said she could be just as easily making a weapon for the enemy. Dalinar could have taken the erased memory, and continued on killing like nothing changed, but he didn't. He chose to be a better man. He chose to ask for forgiveness. He chose to take control of his impulses. He chose to take responsibility and do better. Szeth followed the tenets of his people. When Kaladin proved them wrong, Szeth chose to take responsibility for his actions. When he was raised from the dead, he no longer took things on blind orders. He began to question. He reasoned for himself. He could have chose to follow Nale. But instead he chose to take responsibility for his actions, and seek to do better. Amaram had a choice when Kaladin gave up the plate and blade. Instead he chose to kill Kaladin's men to cover it up. Amaram had a choice when he found out what the Sons of Honor was trying to do (bringing about Desolations that would result in countless loss of life). He chose to continue to help them and actively took actions to help bring it about. When Kaladin popped up and accused Amaram of what he did, he had a chance to take responsibility. He chose not to. He chose to lie further and try to get Kaladin removed. Amaram then chose to further be duplicitous and try to rob Dalinar of the shardblade. When Dalinar caught Amaram red handed, again Amaram had a choice. He could have taken responsibility, but again he did not. In fact tried to draw his shardblade on Dalinar, and fled when Dalinar was quicker on the draw. The desolation has come. Dalinar and others are revealed to be radiants to stop the coming voidbringers. Amaram knows many will die. Does he take responsibility then and try to change? Nope again. He talks to Restares saying how they succeeded and he continues. Now we get to the question as to when he switched sides. There is a theory I like that says when Amaram got caught out in the storm before arriving at Urithiru was when Odium contacted him. So now we get to the final big chance to change. It is revealed to him that the heralds lied. Everything he did and justified by saying it was for the greater good, was wrong. Does he take responsibility like Szeth and realize everything he did was on him? Nope. Does he take responsibility like Dalinar and try to change? Nope. He sides with Odium who tells him it isn't his fault, and sells out humanity. That does not sound like a bizarre deterministic sense of morality to me. That also does not sound like a tragic figure to me. But that is my own reading of the character.

And he made everyone let him win whenever they played Uno.

Tarah! I know this isn't everyone's first choice, and we know so little about her... But I don't think Brandon has been planting the Tarah seeds for no reason. It's totally possible that she's just a throwaway character who serves to flesh out Kaladin's back story and love life. My gut tells me that Brandon has plans for her. I'm absolutely convinced that she's in Urithiru, which suggests she has a role to play in the future. Meanwhile, Oathbringer directly connected her to Kaladin's 4th Ideal struggles. My prediction is that Brandon will have them meet up in book 4 and rekindle their friendship. He will develop her character a bit for our benefit while he uses her (and her past with Kaladin) to explore some of Kaladin's issues. MAYBE things will turn romantic by the end of the book, but I tend to think we won't see romance come back into their relationship until book 5. If I can be even MORE bold with wild speculation... I believe Tarah moved to Mourn's Vault after leaving Kaladin, which is on the border of Alethkar and Herdaz, and that means she has connections up there. The [now scrapped] Lirin PoV that Brandon read, along with his commentary on the rest of the chapter, suggests that this region, particularly the Herdazian miilitary, will be important in the book 4 story. So, wild speculation: Kaladin will spend most of book 4 helping shore up defenses in this region. Tarah will be sent with his team because of some connection(s) that she has. (e.g. maybe she knows this Herdazian general personally)

HI

@robardin I will admit, I don't believe that Nightblood was made from a Hemalurgic spike, so most of this is just entertaining the idea... Ruin wouldn't have been able to be the one to provide the intent to a spike elsewhere. He should have been limited to the Scadrian system in the same way that Harmony is. But that doesn't mean that a different Shard couldn't make use of the Intent I'd think, unless (like, unfortunately in Endowment's case) that went against their intent. I imagine that Hemalurgy has a lot of potential as an "attack of opportunity"

Well, Ark, you weren't the only one who forgot, apparently. And unfortunately. Ah well. It happens. Nice roasts, @Silva and @Toaster Retribution! Silva, I especially liked the parts that broke the fourth wall. Serious burns on those ones. (Psst. @ILuvHats. Roast...? Maybe? If you want to?)

Idea for a Stormlight Archive AU: Everything is the same, except the bridge four salute is a dab. Other Fandoms: wow we r sooooo dedicated look at all this art we made Sanderfans: We have a database recording every word our lord and savior says