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Man, all this stuff seems so contradictory. Gavilar: "I'll bring back the Parsh gods. It will save your people. I'm being selfless." Eshonai: "Bad idea." Amaram: "We're actually doing this to force the Heralds out of hiding." Nale: "Dude I'm right here." Gavilar: "Actually, we're doing this because I nEeD UnItY and threats are effective." Amaram: "Yeah, and it'll bring back Vorinism." Gavilar: "That's not what I said. But it'll bring back the Radiants, so...sure." Nale: "Ishar is NOT okay with that. But he's also not okay with returning the Parsh gods, so...why am I here?" Gavilar: "What do you suppose we do? Stormdaddy tells me we're doomed." Kalak: "Can we run away? Did that once with our last planet and it worked out for millennia." Nale: "The Wheel of Time turns...wait, wrong series." Gavilar: "Ohh, secrets I can exploit...how do we open a passage to another planet?" [REDACTED] Gavilar: "Look, I got this voidspren." Nale: "I'm not sure why I'm okay with this. But we need to go deeper." Amaram: "What's that got to do with HoNoR?" Gavilar: "Glad we're all on the same page." Szeth: "...did I miss a meeting?"

Pretty simple answer: Harmonium sounds better. youshallnotpass Will there be a metal called harmonium in the mistborn world? Brandon Sanderson RAFO. But good question. WeiryWriter Just an fyi but you have confirmed the existence of harmonium before. (And this is probably a RAFO, but is there a reason you didn't follow the convention of the other "god metals" and call it something like sazedium? "Harmonium" just seems out of place.) Brandon Sanderson Sazed didn't like the sound of Sazedium. /r/books AMA 2015 (July 6, 2015)

Happy ending for Kaladin

So I have a character, and could groot come to e4?

Kill... me... Pheonix looked up, eyes widening as phantom pain played up and down his arms. No, he mouthed. No, Star, no... Frantic, he stood up and began to beat on the walls, desperately searching for a door, a weak point, anything that would let him escape this prison cell and save the one person who had ever cared about him. At last, he collapsed to the floor, silent tears running down his face. It was no use. There was no way out. Star would die, alone and abandoned- and his heart would die with her. Please, he called into the silence. Let me save her. Please... No response. I will do anything, he whispered. Anything... "Oh?" said a voice. "Will you?" Slowly, Pheonix raised his head to look at the source of the voice. A man stood above him, floating a few inches above the ground. His appearance was striking, with his jet black hair and pale skin, but the most eye-catching thing about him was, in fact, his eyes. The irises in each swirled with hundreds of different colors, each separate and distinct yet blending together to create a greater whole. Who... who are you? The man smiled. "I go by many names," he said, in a voice as multifarious as his eyes. "But you... you call me Fate." Why are you here? "You called me." I... did? "Indeed. You needed something. And so you called me." Pheonix reflected on this for a moment eyes widening. Does that mean...? "It depends. Did you mean what you said?" The man's face became serious. "That you would do anything?" Yes, whispered Pheonix, eyes desperate. Anything. The man smiled. "Then go." And with that, he vanished. Pheonix blinked, then looked around uncertainly. Was there supposed to...? With a start, he realized there was a hole in his prison. It was barely perceptible -surely it hadn't been there all along?- but something was tugging him towards it. Unsteadily, he got to his feet and began making his way towards the pull. It seemed to be getting stronger as he approached it; by the time he reached the edge of the room it felt like he was standing on a slide. He stumbled forwards in a sort of half-run, stepping through the broken wall and into the room beyond. The sensations from Star were stronger now. He could feel them emanating from a space in the air in the middle of the room- the same space he was being pulled towards. Hold on, Star, he thought as he rushed the portal. I'm coming.

I’m really sorry guys. I’ve been trying to write a post over the past week or so, but I’ve just been way too busy to be able to commit enough time to this, especially in a way that Itiah.’s amazing roast deserves. I really wish that I could have, but unfortunately real life has to take precedence. So I’m going to go ahead and post the 5 stanzas I have, but please consider this a forfeit.

This is just for fun! Please don't attack

I think Axies will die, pretty soon. Reasons: 1. Brandon specifically says that he will appear again but briefly. WoBs (bolded by me): And: Brandon seems intent on making it clear that there will be just a tiny bit more of Axies. To me that implies a clear plan for Axies. If Axies is just around to have fun, then why would Brandon be so intent on saying that he would just be around a little bit more. If he was a random fun guy, he would most likely appear now and then, and Brandon wouldnt be saying things like ”just a bit more”. There is clearly a plan for Axies, and that plan involves just a little bit more from him. Thus, the logical approach is that he will die. And who will kill him? I think either Odium or the Ghostbloods. We will get to see how you kill an Aimian, and Axies will be the one who dies.

One of those OB letters seems to imply that most Shards settled at least in pairs, contrary to some original agreement (which I now suspect was not the agreement it was made to sound like). That means most of the remaining mystery Shards are probably paired up, or even grouped up. What if there is a world with a Council of Shards? Honor, Cultivation, Ruin, Preservation, Devotion, Dominion, [Endowment, Odium, Ambition, Autonomy]... So, 6/10 in pairs. If all the remaining 6 were individual, then the loners would be 10, which would make the "so few" qualifier (quantifier, Kristian!!!) false. The minimum we have to take from the remaining 6, to keep the "so few" remark true, is, hmm... 9/16 is the absolute minimum overall required, but then why the "so" in "so few"? But, we need at least 3 more paired Shards, but that would be contradictory. So, at least four of the remaining Shards must be grouped together? EDIT: or the three are on one planet, or what.

That would positively fill them with Dredd.

Maybe not my one thing, but I'd love to see this play out with Szeth, his spren, and Nightblood. NB: Destroy him! Destroy evil! Spren: We don't have the statutory papers signed. NB: But look at him, he's hurting people. That's evil. Spren: That would be breaking the law, which is also evil. NB: Shashara taught me to recognize evil, we should kill him. Szeth: Let's go find Dalinar...

There are so many things to say about Terry Pratchett, one of my favourite authors, and someone who often made you both laugh and think (though someone who I disagreed with on many of his points). My favourite scene is in Witches Abroad, where Granny Weatherwax turned the powers of a voodoo witch against her, using the voodoo witch's own perception and beliefs against her. Pratchett was a brilliant writer, albeit one who in several fundamental philosophical ways I disagreed with, but his writing always made you think. And one of the main forces on the Discworld is that what you thought could define reality. Now, in the Cosmere, this is tied to the interplay between physical reality, cognitive concepts, and spiritual nodes, and so I doubt there could be any argument that in the Cosmere there is indeed an atom of justice, etc., because there would be, just in the cognitive realm, which is just as real as the physical world, and its hard to argue with that when a blade made from one of the inhabitants of that world can cut right through anything physical. This has got me thinking about something, about Cosmere dragons, and about Discworld dragons. It has been a long time since I've read through the series, so if someone who are read Terry Pratchett recently has any corrections, please let me know. As I recall, Brandon is a fan of Pratchett's writing also, and I wonder if he is going to use this idea. And an idea from David Eddings. Discworld deities, like the deities in David Eddings Elenium/Tumuli series, are shaped by belief, and are made by belief. In fact, one of the characters in the Elenium - no spoilers - declares that she willed herself into existence, declaring this in defiance of one of the beings like her, but older. In both Discworld and in one of the books of the Tumuli, lost and forgotten deities are found, desperatly seeking others to believe in them and allow them to become real again. Other stories and games have used this idea, but something I remember from the first Discworld novel is that this idea also applied to dragons. This has me wondering - what if dragons in the Cosmere are a race that willed themselves into existence, or were formed like virtual particles becoming real around the mass of the power of creation, where it settled on Yolen (if dragons are from Yolen, rather than just being life on it), life that congealed around it (with no anti-dragons ... or maybe ... :-P )? What if Cosmere dragons are the first life in the Cosmere (the entire universe or the set of stars / cluster / dwarf galaxy / systems called the Cosmere), and that their type of life being life that willed itself into being due to the mass of investiture near to them, or if it didn't will itself into being was life that eventually learned how to reshape themselves using the Cognitive realm, again to to expose to high levels of investiture from the complete power of reaction, and are now a race defined by belief - their own or others - which accounts for there shapeshifting. As the readable chapters of the original Bridge 4 sequence on Brandon's website show, they are made from, or have skins with, Dragonsteel, an indestructible substance, and seem to have a strong presence in the Cognitive realm. The power of Cosmere healing abilities might be the only thing that could reshape what is obviously invested metal. And, if that wasn't reaching too much already, what if the power of creation was something they gathered together by their own belief, or shaped by their own beliefs - and what if other races are races they originally formed using that power, the dragons are the original progenitor race whose beliefs either shaped the power, or they themselves were shaped by it? One possible scenario is thus: before there was life in the Cosmere there was an ideal of life in the spiritual realm that ideal was a powerful one, a complex one with strong connections to many other ideals due to its diversity and the possible futures it opened up that ideal was connected to the power of creation, itself the centre of the spiritual realm, and so at the site where the greatest concentration of that power in the physical and cognitive realm that ideal was able to shape some of it into its most refined form that proto-spren was able to cross over into the physical realm at the perpendicularity where the power of creation was - the theoretically strongest perpendicularity there could be that proto-spren, by crossing over, became something in both the physical and cognitive realm, and was the first dragon that dragon then dreamed the others into being, and together they formed a civilisation which had beliefs that defined the power of creation, and which they worshipped Or: Dragons came into being as a species before other species They learned about the Cosmere, its nature, and discovered the spiritual realm At the centre of the spiritual realm was the power of creation, which they were able to make manifest on their world That power allowed them to reshape themselves into the ideal of their life, making themselves strong and more capable That power also allowed their beliefs to shape the power slightly They then made or encountered other life, and discovered that sufficient belief would change them Or: the power was already alive, and already connected to the idea of life it made dragons to express its desire to make life, as it might have done elsewhere in other star systems those dragons beliefs formed a feedback loop with the power, and then made new types of life those new types of life had beliefs which allowed them to redefine dragons, causing dragons to withdraw I know there isn't much to support this, but the idea of dragons as a type of spren that became the first physical life in the Cosmere is possibly an interesting one, especially if they made other life, which had the unfortunate side effect of making them susceptible to being reshaped by the beliefs of their own children. What are your thoughts on this? Thanks :-)

Lift to get the 10th pancake... somehow... Also, Kaladin being able to overcome his depression.

The Inquisitor knew that they were the only one left by now. There was still a part of them that was aware of things and that knew what was happening. The rest of the Inquisitors had all slaughtered each other, or themselves, in their madness. Like the rest of the Inquisitors, the majority of the mind of this last one did not care. All this Inquisitor knew was death, and the urge to destroy and the utter inability to resist. So, when the frightened-yet-hopeful human resistance stared in dismay as they killed one of their own... of course the Inquisitor did not care. - - - Snipexe has been lynched! They were a Village Rioter. Vote count: Snipexe (3) Drake (2) Rath (1) Night 1 has begun! The turn will end on Thursday, September 5, at 12:30 PM PDT. Here are the rules. Player list:

Yee (and I cannot stress this enough) haw.

Let's agree to disagree with Hrathen :-) In many ways it is the very definition of chaos - nothing bounding you, and so your actions are unpredictable. Law is an ordered system, and if you feel laws are restricting you, you break "free", and throw that system into disorder. And if she thinks Harmony is too restrictive, she adds chaos to his world, uncaring of if her actions interfere with his autonomy - the only thing that matters to her is that what she sees as control be removed, and control is order - and remember, there are hints that Autonomy is a collection of minds, so other minds could express Autonomy differently. Another word for everyone having extreme autonomy is also anarchy, and anarchy is a form of chaos (not that I am saying anarchy is chaos, only that they are related). [Edit] Lets use this example: if Honour and Autonomy are walking along the road, and they need to get somewhere quickly, but come across a sign saying "Keep of the grass", and the only shortcut is across the grass, what would each do? Wouldn't Honour, despite wanting to cross the grass, keep off it, while Autonomy would just walk across, because she refuses to have anything restrict her, be they a sign or the desires of others?

Another point in favor of this line of thinking is that, as long as you know about Feruchemy at all, it's pretty easy for many Allomancers - and all Inquisitors - to spot a Keeper: that'd be the Terrisman or woman wearing not just the traditional metal jewelry, but metalminds. We see that Wax, a weaker Era 2 Coinshot, immediately differentiates an ordinary bracelet from an Invested one by the thickness of the blue line to it with his Steelsight, as the more invested a metalmind is, the harder it is to Push on (and the fainter the line would be). So obviously an Inquisitor, Mistborn, Coinshot, or Lurcher could easily be trained to do the same, as long as they realized it was possible.

Interesting point, since we know the Lord Ruler didn't hate Feruchemy, he just didn't want Feruchemy and Allomancy mixing. They Synod was not a threat to the Lord Ruler at all, so long as they stayed secluded.

Fair point about Hrathen, but in that sense I think it would be more of a Dominion-style loyalty than Devotion - he follows the hierarchy because that is what you do - logical order, rather than passionate chaos. Preventing interference is orderly, true, but Autonomy also interferes with others, or at least one of the personalities in Autonomy does. Yet at its heart Autonomy is striving to be free of restriction - I don't want to be interfered with, I want to be free to do what I want, is chaos. Don't touch my stuff, but I will touch yours, because I want to, basically.

She uses the expression "interfer with each", not "settle together". It doesn't necessarily mean that the Shards settled on the same world, just that they still interacted, in opposition to their pact. Actually, the three dishardic worlds we know are presumably the only ones; Khriss stated that they are unusual, but if there was even one more world with two Shards, half of the Shards would have settled on dishardic worlds, and mulitiple Shards settling on the same world wouldn't be really unusual if half of them did it.

That might work, but I think some shards might fit into a spectrum as well as being clearly defined, so maybe four very ordered shards, four very chaotic shards, and eight which are a mixture, as I will address below. What about Hrathen? It is possible to be passionate without that passion being manifest as an outward display of emotion :-) I did mention Cultivation as a mixture in the first post, as a combination of order applied to chaos, or chaos and order combined. Autonomy isn't paired with any other shard other than itself, and so could also be a combination, as could Endowment - Awakening is based on giving commands that are obeyed exactly as described, but who or what is given a breath and what commands are given are outside of ones control and are very flexible. It could be that shards more clearly on one side are drawn to shards more clearly on the other. I think that there are clearly order shards, clearly chaos shards, and shards that lean more one way than the other while being a mixture or are equally one or the other, and those more dually aligned tend to clump with one another. This is mainly about multi-shard settings, but could have applications outside of those planets and hint at the nature of both Yolen beliefs and the nature of how the power was split.

Cassie clasped her hands in front of her chest nervously, twisting her fingers, then cupped Joy in both hands when the lightspren wandered over. She had no idea what to expect...and yet somehow, the Nightwatcher was exactly as she had expected. At first all that could be seen was a smoky wisp of dark green mist, coalescing next to James. It spread slowly, but other tendrils were beginning to creep out from under his desk, seeping from his covers. Refusing to step back, even though she was a little bit spooked, Cass watched as the green fog wound around its Bondsmith’s legs. It joined seamlessly with the other mists roping through the bedroom; a light film of emerald sheathed the floor. It was cool where it touched her ankles and as indiscernible as a feather’s touch. Next to James, the mist stirred, several currents in it pushing one direction or the other. A whispering sound emanated from them. Their tempo increased, whipping faster, more gusts jerking up this way and that, though she couldn’t feel any wind on her skin. Then the green vapor began to rise, the layer on the bottom of the room somehow never lessening despite being drawn upward. The whispering got louder, but Cassie was unable to make out a single word. The tower of mist was changing incrementally by the second, rearranging to show a figure here, molding a focused eye there, until at last before them stood a woman Cassie knew could only be the Nightwatcher. What will you ask for, young Radiant? Her voice was like listening to a coin-leaf tree in the mountains, her expression a mask of unfaltering calm like stilled wind, her scent - when Cass dared to take a cautious breath - one of flowers that opened in the dusk. She had thought it over on the way here, and she knew exactly what she wanted to say. "I want to have the powers of a Willshaper at the Fifth Ideal. I'll take any bane, just give me the ability to help my frie - my family." The Nightwatcher looked at her for one moment. It was just a look, but Cassie felt like it was cutting her soul, stabbing right through. Child, you don't know what you're asking for. This will not be what you wish it to. Her misty form shifted almost imperceptibly, but Cassie couldn’t decide what the emotion in her solid green eyes was. “What do you mean?” She held Joy a little tighter and was reminded that spren had no physical form. Protecting them this way will hurt you worse than you can imagine. Cassie relaxed just a bit. This she had prepared for; this she knew. "I don't care if it hurts me. Just so long as I can defend them." Again, the powerful spren got an unfathomable look in her gaze as it pierced her. Was it amusement? Anger? Discomfort? You should care. “...What?” Never mind. The Nightwatcher drifted closer, halting in front of her. I will give you this, every power that a Willshaper who has reached the Fifth Ideal would have, and the consequences that will come with it. That look was sadness. But was it melancholy? A briefer sorrow? I will also give you a bane, in the hopes that you will not do more harm; all spren will be hidden from your eyes, kept from your ears, secreted from your mind. You will not sense them in any way. No...that was grief. This I grant to you, Cassandra. Those deep, grieving eyes held her paralyzed as the Nightwatcher’s hand shot out, palm lighting on the top of Cass’s head - mist dripped from it, clinging to her face, creeping up her nose - her mouth dropped involuntarily and it flooded in - she couldn’t breathe - all she could see was jade and moss and snakeskin, green, green - something broke ...and a white-hot pulse wracked her, new and awful and entirely unlike anything she had ever felt before. Cassie nearly threw up, it was so bad, but she held it in instead, grasping for somewhere else for the burning to go. She thrust it to her hands with some long-buried instinct, and felt something hard settle there. All at once the pain and pulsing heat fell away like rain, as did the Nightwatcher’s vapor. The spren was nowhere to be seen, though Stormlight filled a couple scattered jewels; loose gemstones in Cassie’s jeans glowed through the denim. And in her hands was a long, straight Shardblade, patterned with perfectly round dots that shone with Light. She stared at it, realizing with a jolt that this must be hers. This was Joy. “Wow,” she whispered at the Blade. Surprisingly, no answering flicker of emotion came from Joy, and Cassie blinked - then it came to her. You will not sense them in any way. Spren were invisible and mute to her now; she wasn’t even able to communicate with her own. That did hurt, just like the Nightwatcher had said it would. Though maybe not as much. Cutting off the exchange of emotions wasn’t quite as bad as she had feared. It wasn’t like the two of them had had any heartfelt conversations anyway. Sucking in a shaky breath, Cassie brought her head up to look at James. “Thank you,” she said quietly. I can help them now. I should be able to summon Plate too...and use Transportation. “Thank you, too, Nightwatcher,” she added, knowing the spren must still be there - Cassie just couldn’t tell now.

Someone reminds me of this

So a few things snapped into place for me when I read the transcript, and then this thread. I now feel fairly certain that the Black Sphere Gavilar gave Eshonai had Ulim inside. Like, he'd been handling those things a bit too casually for them to be Unmade, and they didn't seem to be the perfect gems you'd need to keep one of those imprisoned anyway. And we know that Ulim somehow managed to get off Braize years before the other Voidspren did, because he'd apparently been working Venli over for quite a while. And now we know that Gavilar was taking things off of Braize, but was treating it mostly as proof of concept, so he likely wasn't grabbing anything he consider to be too important. Like, maybe, one or two of the native spren. And I can't but think that Eshonai would've given the sphere to Venli for research purposes after receiving it.

YKYASFW you capitalize Stick.

Hey Ark, this is a really cool idea. That being said, if people haven’t been making too many uninvested characters now, how will creating another ‘vanilla slot’ give people motivation? Most people already do have a slot or two available for characters, but still don’t make any uninvested ones. Why would adding an extra slot for the purpose change that? Also, worth noting we do have some (rather awesome) uninvested characters like Eve. But I do see your point, that there’s an imbalance, I just don’t see how another slot would aid that? Though I have tried myself to try and get some very low-level NPCs in some of my posts (most notably Wes, who somehow evolved into actually having a purpose, Patrick Miller, who I fully expected to be killed by Queen Elsa Steelheart, and Neil Patrick Carter, NPC ). So, in conclusion, I think you have a point about the imbalance, but I’m not sure if creating another slot for it is how we solve it. -I think I am here, aka ITIAH, aka Itiah

I've considered that its possible the Lord Ruler knew about the Keepers attempts to sabotage the Terris breeding programs by inserting female feruchemists into the program to keep feruchemy alive, and he allowed it to continue for the express purpose of creating new inquisitor spikes. If so, that could potentially be where all the f-gold spikes came from.

The sharks became very afraid.

No, just no.

Both! When the text says, "boss" it's supposed to say box. At least that's how the audio came off to me. DragonCon Prologue

You are correct that this is tied to Defending Elysium. I'll continue precedence and spoiler tag this discussion. (Caveat: I haven't read DE since before Skyward came out, so my terms may not be specific to what is used in world)

Well it is almost certainly a male Herald. Assuming otherwise just leads to ridiculousness. There are 5 male Heralds total. It is not Nale(he can't talk to himself), Jezrien(he is by the statue), or Taln(he is in Braize). It could theoretically be Ishar we have no idea what he looks like after all but I doubt it as he a god king in the west and his absence would be noteworthy. These are both true beyond reasonable doubt. His final guess was Sadeas although he was only guessing from the context. Sadeas was the diversionary individual who should have drawn Szeth away. Brandon confirms they were on good terms at the time. I will add that some speculate that Liss(the assassin that Jasnah meets) is actually the Herald Chana(patron of Dustbringers) although I personally disagree. Still the fact that Jasnah almost had her sister in law killed is noteworthy. She also had her first encounter with Ivory that day(that we know of). Her childhood madness is mentioned in passing and this has given many people cause for speculation. Szeth and Eshonai were both given black spheres by king Gavilar(we currently believe these to have contained unmade or at least voidspren). Many people think that the many ringed steward is actually a feruchemist(although we tend to think this about anyone with metal jewelry). You may be able to get some information by looking at Torr's stomlight reread(they have one for every chapter of every book except Oathbringer).

This seems to imply Gavilar is seeking ways to transport something beyond the Rosharian system. (Braize not being as far as they'd like.) If Gavilar was seeing the same visions as Dalinar, I think it's feasible his interpretation was 'Well we're royally screwed, let's get everyone off Roshar and away from Odium.' What I can't figure out is if his interaction with Eshonai in OB supports that. He flat out says he's trying to return the Parsh gods and he needs a threat to unite everyone. Is it feasible his end goal, once united, was not to fight but flee? Maybe somehow trapping the Parsh gods on Roshar in the process?

So the Heralds wants to leave the Rosharan system? I get why Kalak would want that, but why Nale? He has his own private army and seems to be content with ”protecting” Roshar by hunting proto-KR. The only reason I see for Nale to go to Gavilar for this is because Ishar asked him. And so, it isnt necessarily Nale who wants to get off-world, but Ishar, who thinks that he is a god. Anyone else who thinks that Ishar might be planning a Cosmere crusade?

I like this idea. What if Nale and Kalak were attempting to play Gavilar? After all, there is a pretty developed theory that they helped orchestrate the assassination, and Nale most certainly knows of the Sons of Honor. Nale and Kalak might just be there talking to Gavilar in order to spy on him.

There are many runner-ups, but for me it has to go to the saddest scene in the first Cosmere book I ever read, Vin's lament of Kelsier's death.

No worries. With all the stuff happening with work and the death in the family I haven't been able to give it proper attention. Sorry for that! I truly meant to do it proper-like.

I agree. I want Adolin to revive his Blade, because he would be an Edgedancer, so he would end up going to Lift to learn the Surges, and Lift would be Lift. I can just picture Adolin asking Lift how to use Abrasion, and Lift saying something like “you make yourself Awesome and then Slick yourself real good.”

A Lightsaber fabriel. There is even an equivalent to Khyber Crystals - the gems. The Surge of Illumination should theoretically be able to make lasers. Since Radiants can summon their spren in any shape they want, and since gemstones can stick to Shardblades and be summoned-unsummoned with them, this could also be achieved by Knight orders with access Illumination.

Well one of the theories about it has to be correct, so someone on this forum is correct. We just don't know which one.

Bwahaha! I actually never noticed this.