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Mundric Pentasum made his way to the meating spot through a city that, somehow, felt very different. Even a few days ago, Elendel had still been wrapped around his fingers, but now all that was falling apart. The EBI and the Constabulary where raiding warehouses, safe-houses and the private houses of members of the Set, and arrests were happening all over the city. But the tide could still be turned. Mundric had figured out how the so-called Law had gained all the information they were now acting on. Oh, the infiltrating agents had figured out some things, but what was happening now wasn’t the work of an EBI agent. No, it was the work of a traitor. And like any traitor, knowledge was the only currency Rathmaskal had to buy his own freedom. And so he’d have spent it sparingly. And if Mundric could take him down now, all the secrets that the man had not revealed yet, would go with him to his grave. The meeting spot was a small square in one of the poorer districts surrounded by blind walls. Rathmaskal was already waiting for him, alone. Mundric wasn’t too worried. He’d gotten plenty of experience with guns, back before the Set recruited him and sent him to Elendel, while Rathmaskal was only a glorified lawyer. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?” The loyalist asked the traitor. “Just that you should have done the same. I suppose that this is the end of the line though.” Rathmaskal responded. “It is.” Mundric tipped his head to his opponent. “Farewell, old friend.” With practiced skill Mundric drew his gun. A shot rang out. And Mundric collapsed like a puppet whose strings were cut. *** Rathmaskal breathed out a sigh of relief as he waved at the constable that’d taken the killing shot against Mundric from one of the roofs surrounding the square. He wasn’t really trained for this kind of thing, and without the help he doubted he’d have won the stand-off. Other constables entered the square now. “Any problem with his henchmen?” rathmaskal asked the man in charge of them. “Well, that’s the thing. He actually came alone.” The man responded. “It made things here easier, but it means we’ve still got to hunt down the rest of his crew.” “Well, I’ll leave that in your hands.” Rathmaskal tipped his hat to the constables, then left the square for the carriage that would be waiting to take him back to the headquarters of the EBI. He still had a report to write, after all. *** The commissioner stretched in her chair. To the east, the sky was already slowly becoming brighter as dawn approached. Though the hunt for the last few members of the Set continued, the report concluded that the organisation as a whole had been thoroughly neutralized. She was about to close the report when someone knocked on her office door. “Come in!” She called, and a moment later Rathmaskal, the last of the agents involved in this operation, entered her office. “What can I do for you?” She asked. “There was a little something I wanted to add to the report.” Rathmaskal responded. “A final off-the-record debriefing, if you will.” The commissioner motioned for him to continue. “As you know, I used to be part of the subset handling legal matters, and unlike the EBI agents I’ve been a member of the organization for long enough that I could spot certain...patterns. We’d get warnings before the constabulary or the EBI made a move against someone important, allowing us to prepare and create covers for our people. These warnings were attributed to a wide variety of sources, but their timing was odd. Always arriving in the morning of the second day of the week. Obviously, whoever was responsible for these warnings tended to learn these things on the first day. Something that regular implies it’s someone that gets briefed on all these operations as a matter of routine.” “What are you implying?” The commissioner asked tersely. “Everything, suit, Everything.” A quick smile crossed Rathmaskal’s face, but quickly disappeared again. “Of course, I can’t directly prove this, at least, not in a way that’d stand up in court. And even if I tried, I bet you could make me disappear pretty quickly if you wanted to. So instead I’ve left a little evidence behind where the remnants of the Set will find it, implying that you were behind the whole operation from the start, and that you tipping off the set about Ervine was merely part of a ploy to ensure that no one would be able to figure out your role in this. Who knows, maybe it’s even true.” He shrugged. “By this time, I suspect a sizable bounty has been placed on your head. The Set never wanted for funds, after all.” “And how, exactly, would this ploy of yours protect you from retaliation by me?” The commissioner asked. “It doesn’t, but you’re a pragmatic woman. As long as I’m alive, the Set will be sponsoring a bounty on me as well. If I end up dead, that money will go towards your demise instead.” “The commissioner cursed, then got to her feet. After a moment’s deliberation, she put the gun she’d drawn from her desk back on the table. “Very well, if that’s the way things will be. Just answer me this. Why warn me at all?” Rathmaskal shrugged again. “Because I wanted to know. Was this just a private operation by some agents that got too far before you learned about it? Or was it a power struggle between you and Stadtt?” The commissioner didn’t deign to give him an answer as she marched out of her office. *** In the back room of a small boarding house in Rashekin an unusual meeting had taken place. The meeting was attended by a group of people from all walks of life. People who, up until that meeting, had been content to just follow orders. People with lowly titles like ‘Scalar’ and ‘Vector’. When the meeting finally ended, the people that left held quite different titles though. ‘Array’, for some. ‘Suit’ for others. And for one enterprising Scalar from the PR subset: ‘Sequence’. *** Abstrusity has been lynched. They were a loyal thug and suit of the PR subset The game has ended! The EBI Agents have narrowly won! Vota tally Rathmaskal(0): Abstrusity Abstrusity(1): Rathmaskal Subset docs: PR Subset Legal Subset research Subset Kidnapping 'Involuntary holidays' subset Communications subset Suit-Sequence communcations: PR Suit Legal Suit research Suit Kidnapping 'Involuntary holidays' Suit Communications Suit Misc. docs Elim Doc dead doc master sheet

Might be a bit late, but is still needed. Brandon: says that stick is normal the entirety of his fanbase:

*waves nervously* It's been a while since I made a thread. I think the title is pretty self-explanatory. This is a place to just...talk. Whether it be a rant, tangent, well-wishing message, or crazy conspiracy theory, all is welcome. How's everyone doing? My life:

There’s a fairly common theory out there that our main characters are going to form a new Oathpact. I’d like to lay out explicitly the hints I see for this, identifying what I believe a lot of people are subconsciously picking up on. The Connotations of Oathpact But let’s start off with the word itself. Stormlight is a fantasy series, so we’re used to getting made-up words that are two real words mashed together. Storm-light. Void-bringer. Even Brandon’s other series, you get stuff like God King and Lord Ruler. They’re simple ways to make proper nouns without inventing a new word. (Obligatory xkcd link: https://xkcd.com/483/.) It’s not the only way to do it: the series Mistborn makes up new words to great effect, like Allomancer or Feruchmist, as opposed to Stormlight’s Surgebinders and Shardbearers. “Oathpact” fits the bill as one of those mashup words. But when you think about it, it’s an unnecessary amalgamation. We have a real-life word that is an oath and a pact; see if you can think of it. It’s not too commonly used outside of religious writings these days, but it perfectly captures both aspects of the word “Oathpact.” You need both the binding nature with a hint of divine flavoring to it (oath), and you need the two-party ramifications (pact). Did you figure it out? The word I’m thinking about is “covenant.” It’s a word with a lot of religious baggage, but I think that fits well with the broader religious parallels of the Stormlight Shards. In a Way of Kings letter, Frost refers to Odium as “God's own divine hatred, separated from the virtues that gave it context.” There are many Shards we don’t know at all, and even more we only know by name; but for those we know a bit more about, we see them encompass attributes of divinity with a particular leaning towards a real-world religion or philosophy. Ruin and Preservation have Buddhist parallels, Autonomy’s avatars are reminiscent of Hindu avatars. In Stormlight, I’m seeing big elements of the biblical, Judeo-Christian God in all three of its Shards. For Honor, specifically, I see the aspect of making and keeping covenants. There are many covenants in the Bible; perhaps some of the best-known ones are the Abrahamic Covenant (from Genesis, at the beginning of the Bible), the Mosaic Covenant (from the Deuteronomy, a little bit later) and the New Covenant (first introduced in Jeremiah, late in the Old Testament, and later referred to heavily by Jesus Christ). There are many more, of course (Adamic, Noahic, Davidic, or even the Eternal if you’re into that sort of thing), but these help illustrate two key points about biblical covenants. 1) Covenants have one or more parties involved with responsibilities. God is a party in all three of the major covenants I listed above. But the Mosaic is unique among the three in that it is also conditional on the behavior of Israel. Both sides in this agreement need to pull their part. (God, by definition, will handle his side of things, so that puts this on the back of humanity to hold up their end of the bargain.) The other covenants are called unconditional covenants; they are not dependent on human behavior, they are pure no-strings-attached promises from God. 2) Covenants have one or more parties as recipients. The Abrahamic has promises to Abraham (which is why it’s named after him), but it also promises all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Those parties don’t have to be limited to those involved in the covenant directly; “I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you.” Those are two principles that I think we need to keep in mind when approaching Honor and how he distributes his power. Honor’s Covenants Each Shard can only use their powers in ways that align with their Shard’s nature (their name, their actual Shard of divine nature); this is something we see quite heavily in Mistborn but haven’t seen quite as explicitly from the Rosharan Shards yet. For Honor, I believe he can bring most of his power to bear when he does it through covenants with others. That’s what Odium was referring to in Oathbringer chapter 57: This statement does come with all the spin from the opposing political party, but we can see the kernel of truth as to what Honor means: keeping oaths and covenants. When we see the constructs Honor has set up to utilize and apply his power, we can look for three important questions: Who are the participants? Who are the recipients? And what are the conditions? The biggest example is, of course, the Oathpact proper. From Oathbringer chapter 38 (complain to the Stormfather about if the all-caps hurts your eyes): For the Oathpact, we see the participants were Honor (who provided the power) and the Heralds (who, at the very least, were responsible for their side of this conditional covenant, and I believe they received their Honorblades as a part of the deal as well). The recipients also included the Fused; they were bound on Damnation. They had no say in the covenant itself; they were merely on the receiving end of one of its parameters. And the conditions were the behavior of the Heralds; they would be sent to Braize, and as long as they didn’t break, the power of Honor was still in effect to shackle the Fused. But in the passage above, we see hints at another manifestation of Honor’s power: whatever covenant it is that holds Odium in place in the Rosharan system. The participants there are Honor and Cultivation. The recipient is Odium. The conditions, we don’t know much about yet. We can infer there’s something about Roshar in there, which is why Odium wants to destroy the planet; but that may also just be a side effect of annihilating the Shards involved. Also from Oathbringer Chapter 57: But elsewhere, Odium saw another way out: a formal retraction from the legal representative of Honor, a participant and mediator. From earlier in that chapter: Honor’s covenants, the way he expresses his power, cannot be overcome by direct opposition. Odium is bound until he can find some way to get around it. If you’re going to court (and you did it), you either need to find a legal loophole (breaking the conditions), or burn down the court building. (Editor’s note: please don’t take either of these as actual legal advice.) Radiancy as an expression of Honor This concept of covenants is also manifested in ten other ways on Roshar; through each Order of Knights Radiant. There is a conditional covenant between Honor and each individual Radiant; they are both participants. (The Stormfather eventually takes the place of Honor; that’s why he’s the one saying “THESE OATHS ARE ACCEPTED.”) The recipient in this case is the Radiant; they get Surgebinding, they get a spren, they get the ability to utilize Stormlight, they get the Shardplate, so on and so forth. But the conditions are laid out in each Order’s Ideals. And there are two ways that a Radiant has to break their covenant with Honor: they can either act against their Ideals (which is what Kaladin did in Words of Radiance and what Shallan did as a child), or they can formally renounce their participation in the Oath (which is what happened at the Recreance): This is why I refer to Surgebinding as Honor’s magic system. Sure, it uses spren of Honor and Cultivation; its ideals don’t necessarily have to align directly to something honorable. Just the mere act of making and following Oaths is Honor’s influence on the Initiation to the magic. (That, and the Radiants were in imitation of the Heralds and their Honorblades, which came about as a result of the Oathpact between them and Honor. No Cultivation in the original, no Cultivation in the copy.) The New Oathpact So, with all that groundwork, now we get to the meat of our prediction. Our ten main flashback characters are all going to be part of a new Oathpact of some sort. Lots of us, I’m sure, have felt it thematically, known it in our collective gut, but the passage that brings the most validation to the idea is from Oathbringer, Chapter 119: The most important phrase: “Something told him there should be one more.” What is that something? This is happening after Dalinar has summoned the perpendicularity, after he has Ascended to Unity. Right now, he is seeing into the Spiritual Realm. He’s getting a hint of the future – ten people who will be united in… something. Not this battle. The tenth isn’t present (more on her later), and the Heralds just skulk off. This is something further away. Something that involves Orders of Radiants, like how he identifies Szeth and Lift by their Orders. He and Jasnah count seven Radiants, each a unique Order, and Dalinar goes on to give them tasks. (Yes, there are ten total characters involved in that scene already; Adolin is also there, but you’ll notice the sentence structure for his appearance is different. It’s a side note in Renarin’s description. Every other character starts off the sentence as the subject, and they get some sort of action verb. The closest Adolin has is a question Dalinar asks; “Adolin was wounded?” But he’s not one of the Seven (since Jasnah specifies that’s seven Radiants), he gets excluded from Dalinar’s battle plan immediately following this excerpt, and he is the only character present not to be on the list for a flashback sequence in upcoming novels. So that’s why I’m leaving out of the New Oathpact.) Aside from the seven Radiants in that scene, I believe the other three Orders (Dustbringer, Willshaper, and Stoneward) are represented by Ash, Venli, and Taln, respectively, with Venli being the one who hadn’t been found yet. (She bonded Timbre later in the chapter). I go into more detail in another thread of mine on exactly how I see those Orders lining up: https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/64496-ob-the-five-pillars-of-the-stormlight-main-characters/ This lays out the participants in the New Oathpact. Our ten flashback characters, each acting as a representative of their particular Order (which could potentially tie in all Radiants as participants, or merely as recipients). That future formal covenant is what Dalinar glimpsed at Thaylen Field. What are the effects, and who are the recipients? Well, I’m gonna go big or go home and say this is the permanent solution (or at least long-term enough to last until the last Mistborn trilogy) to Odium. Maybe it’s a better way of trapping him; maybe it’s replacing Rayse as a Vessel with these ten individuals, somehow. I haven’t seen anything that would directly point me towards specifics, yet, but Odium as the recipient scratches the itch that so many of us have. Lastly, what are the conditions? Well, I think this gets us back to the biblical parallels. The Mosaic covenant, a conditional covenant dependent on the behavior of mankind, led into the New Covenant, which is an unconditional covenant where mankind are the only recipients. I think the New Oathpact has to close the fatal gap of the Heralds’ Oathpact; it relied on them being able to indefinitely hold up their part in the deal. Again, I don’t know what specifics would be, yet; we’ve got seven more books to go until the end of the series. But a lasting solution, in the vein of the biblical New Covenant, has to take the conditions out of the hands of the Heralds, the Radiants, and any other mortals. “SPREN AND GODS CANNOT BREAK THEIR OATHS”; maybe it has something to do with that, where it ties the spren population to the New Oathpact? A Final Aside As some of you may know, the working title for the Stormlight Archive series was the Oathshards. This has obvious connections with Honor, but we don’t know what the Oathshards actually were. Most of the specific terms from Way of Kings Prime (Honorblades, Shardblades, Shardplate, Surgebinding, Soulcasting) carried over unchanged. But what were the Oathshards? I haven’t seen the word appear anywhere in the released sample chapters from the original draft, and it hasn’t appeared in canon, either. I’m of two minds about it. On one hand, it could be referring to the Blades and the Plates; they existed in the 2003 version, but the spren weren’t incorporated until the 2010 rewrite, so Oathshards may have been the phenomenon that encompassed the Shardblades and Shardplates (which are both Shards that a Radiant would get through an Oath), and the term disappeared during the rewrite when those phenomena were combined with spren. But what if the Oathshards are still a thing? Something more like the Dawnshards (which, granted, we don’t know what they are yet) or the Honorblades, and these Oathshards are somehow what tie together the members of the New Oathpact? I’ll be keeping an eye out for this term as the series continues, for sure. In Conclusion Dalinar’s Thaylen Field “Avengers Assemble” moment was him looking through the Spiritual Realm at a future New Oathpact, comprised of our ten flashback characters, which will utilize Honor’s power in a new and more permanent way to bring resolution to the wars and conflicts plaguing the Roshar System. RAFO on the details.

Kaladin's character is in my opinion very well done all around. The real hook for he is how he struggles and how close he comes to completely giving up just to pull himself back and start winning again. The Way of Kings is made incredible by delving into his character, how he came to be brought as low as he was shown at the start, and then how he came all the way back. The Words of Radiance was just a continuance of this. My favorite lines from both books are his taking the oaths of the Knights Radiant, how it builds slowly but surely to that point is fantastic. And though the time in Shadesmar was a bit of a disappointment for me it still made sense I think ultimately and it hopefully will result in an even greater climax for his character to come. I would say that I also enjoy how there is some similarities in how Dalina and Szeth work and love both of their characters too. However, all in all I find Kaladin's story the most endearing somehow...

The thing is... Stick is a regular stick, but he is also omnipresent in all books. Therefore, by the definition of regular, most sticks are omnipresent.

I think Kaladin is–– as Lift would say–– awesome! No, he's not my favorite... that Honor honor goes to Jasnah. That being said, Kaladin is a very well-written character with a whole lot of development left to come. He's intelligent and quick-witted, going toe-to-toe with Shallan all the time, while also having a lot of internal problems that he's going to have to face. Overall, I just love his character.

Kal is a well-written character whom I enjoy reading about. But he's not my favorite--I don't identify with him as much, I am not as invested in him as much as other characters in SA or in the Cosmere writ large. Shallan/Jasnah in WoK hooked me, and I admit I skimmed so many Bridge 4 chapters in WoR that I had to go back and re-read just because of guilt lol. I just don't like the typical reluctant hero with all the angst trope as much, even if written as well as Brandon writes him. With that said, I would be upset if he weren't around because the story would suffer without him and Kadolin is the best ever (Adolin is growing to be my favorite character in all of SA on my 4th re-read of OB and his relationship with Kal is so perfect).

Theory: Hoid is gathering up magic from all the Shards for some purpose. Odium is of the Shards. He will cut a deal with Rayse to get some of Odium’s magic. Hoid’s Mission He was in Elantris to try and become an Elantrian. He was on Scadrial to get a bead of Lerasium. He was on Roshar to become a Radiant which he has as of OB. There is one more Shard in this system whose magic he needs. Hoid will go to Braize Brandon said “has Hoid been to Braize” is one of the biggest RAFOs https://wob.coppermind.net/events/221/#e6196 In WoK Ch 57 Hoid tells Kaladin his purpose in Roshar was to “chase an old acquaintance, but I spend most of my time hiding from him instead” In WoR Ch. 67 he tells Dalinar he’s willing to “watch this world crumble and burn to get what I need.” He doesn’t want Odium to win, which is why he’s sending all those letters. But he is going to help Odium out in exchange for voidbinding powers to add to his collection. i predict the book 4 epilogue is Hoid on Braize talking to Rayse.

Hello All, As it happens I am new here, obviously, or I would not make the topic. I am a major fan of Brandon's work and have read every published piece excepting a couple short stories. My favorite series is The Stormlight Archive and my favorite book The Way of Kings, and for characters my favorite is Kaladin with Dalinar as a close second. I also really like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and some other science fiction and fantasy stories. Video games, especially Star Wars: Battlefront 2. The outdoors, especially biking, fishing, hiking, and more! Thank you all for reading!

WOOOOOOOH!!!! I just watched Spiderman: Far from home! It was EPIC! It's up there with Civil war, my favorite MCU movie until now. And better yet i'm FINALLY done with all the MCU movies! (Spiderman is my favorite super-hero, if you can't tell.)

I received this image from a friend who's close to a very prominent violist (if you're a violist, you'd know him, so I won't say out of respect for privacy). [[ Disclaimer: It is fake - not true! Wish it were true, & not just 'cause it'd be easy $$ for violists everywhere.]]

I agree that this is a fun idea. Please keep in mind that our leaders have asked that we use the full name of the Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We wouldn't need to type it out every time, but I would appreciate it if it were in the title or the text of the first post. It emphasizes our focus on Christ. Sorry for the rant. Thanks!

Given that Hoid hates Rayse a lot, I think it's more likely that Hoid will work to destroy Rayse, and then maybe make a deal with his successor.

I can read a book with one hand while peeling a hard-boiled egg with the other. Does that count?

When it comes to the God/individuals connection, you're exactly right. But Honor is definitely a party in the Oathpact: The power the Heralds utilize for the Oathpact is divine, and that power is from Honor. As the Stormfather said in one of the passages I quoted above: "THE HERALDS WENT TO HONOR, AND HE GAVE THEM THIS RIGHT, THIS OATH."

I’ve never really felt all that attached to Kaladin. To be honest, I don’t really care about him. I’d be sad if he died, but I don’t think it would affect me too much. I’d just probably go “oh... no....”, take a moment, then keep reading. I don’t think he’s a badly written character, I’m just not very invested in him. Though, to be fair, I’m not the type of person to love every character I come across. There are very few fictional characters that I truly love (you know, those characters that when they walk into the room, the whole scene just becomes amazing).

In celebration of finally finishing The Wheel of Time, here are some WoT memes:

My school district just announced school closures through March 27th. Our grocery stores have empty shelves. This is so different yet so alike from the fire that raged through my community last year. And, yet, despite it all, my DnD group - my miraculous, wonderful DnD group - is still meeting. I may have lost my income from subbing and tutoring, but now I suppose I have plenty of time to get caught up critiquing writing, and writing for myself. Not to mention all those books I've been wanting to read. Hope everyone who's being affected by COVID-19 (and who isn't at this point) is finding the bright spots of life right now.

Tie makes the man. Literally. The fabric, colour, knot and tightness of the tie all contribute towards creating a thrall. The fineness of the fabric decides the size, strength and/or scale of the summoned thrall. The colour decides the tangibility of the thrall, with darker colours making thralls whose skin is hard as granite even or steel, and softer colours resulting in nebulous indistinct shape, barely visible and "ghost-like" near intangible thralls. The style and complexity of the knot decides the type of thrall to be summoned but more on that later. The tightness of the knot dictates how free the thrall is: a loose tie would create an intelligent thrall who may be a bit difficult to control whereas a tighter tie would create something more like a machine that has no initiative and needs commands to perform even the most basic tasks Below is a list of some of the known standard tie styles: A four-in-hand knot summons a four-armed thrall. Typically used for mundane purposes like carrying heavy objects. The darkest hued ones are also used for combat. It's impossible to summon a ghostly, indistinct variant of these creatures. Weak ones can be summoned but are useless as anything but pets or for... more deviant purposes. A half Windsor knot summons flight capable thrall. Their stronger variants are capable of carrying a full grown human being across short distances. The nebulous variants are recommended for reconnaissance purposes as they are capable of longer distance flight and are also quite difficult to spot. A full Windsor knot summons a flight-granting thrall. For this reason they are quite popular among the Elite. A bow tie summons an invisible thrall. These thralls are notoriously difficult to control and requires one to tie a tie of near choking tightness. They're widely regarded as being worth it though, as the Elite popularized summoning them in their near invisible, nebulous forms: using them as globs of pure telekinetic force. A Balthus knot summons a thrall that ties other (more human) thralls to the summoner. Another knot popularised by the Elite, this style is notorious for being very difficult to complete, with summoners getting dizzy, shaky hands, sweaty palms, inability to properly control finger movements, weak grip, etc in the middle of both the summoning and enthrallment. A trinity knot summons an Eater. Popularly associated with the Gentry, these thralls can eat substances and produce a different substance of the same chemical composition. Can be quite sudden in turning against their summoner, utmost caution is advised to maintain the crispness of the tie knot's shape. They can be quite sensitive to even a slightly ruffled collar or askew tie. A Merovingian or Ediety knot summons the notorious Dreamweavers. Another favourite of the Gentry, these summons are capable of trapping their victims in illusions. Very, very difficult to control. An Eldredge knot summons Binders of the Skein but only for the duration that the tie itself is being knotted. Even more notoriously difficult to complete than the Balthus. If the knot is tight enough, the Bound path of chance is impossible to deviate from unless the practitioner is found, killed and their necktie is unravelled. It is known that the colour of the tie is even more essential here as symbolism and matching the tie with the outfit is very crucial for a successful Binding. Used by the Exalted. A Kent or Oriental knot can be used to summon Ash Children. One of the easiest to control thralls and as such very popular amongst practitioners of the art. A Grantchester knot is another very popular choice amongst practitioners. The law of hues is reversed with these summons, meaning lighter hues result in more solid thralls while darker hues create ghost-like thralls. It is commonly used to summon what are commonly termed as "Givers" when they're used in this manner: a dark hue thrall that is absorbed by the practitioner to give themselves a boost in physical strength, endurance and durability. A Christensen knot summons thralls that are known by many names such as Thugs, Takers, Breakers, Brutes, Ogres, etc. One of the most popular summons. A Cafe knot is used to summon Custodians. Popularly used by the Nonpareil via ties manufactured from the finest silks and dyes, these thralls are summoned in their largest form and used to defend the summoners' base-of-operations Do note that the cravat knot has been forbidden since the Nonpareil were caught committing the forbidden act of letting their thrall wear a necktie. Test Scores

Had some fun with this one

Ha, I've heard the same thing about sopranos.

One more: How many first violinists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

I'm a violist... What do you call someone who hangs around with musicians What's the range of a viola? What's the difference between a viola and a coffin? What do a viola and a lawsuit have in common? What's the difference between a violin and a viola?

I am so happy someone made a thread for this, because I have so many. (Sorry violists. I have nothing against you, but these jokes are funny!) How do you transpose a violin part for viola? How can you tell if a violist is playing out of tune? What's the difference between a vacuum cleaner and a violist? What's the difference between the concert master and the last chair violist? What's the difference between ancient Greek and alto clef? How can composers get the violas to play a pianissimo tremelo? You are trapped in a desert and see three things in front of you. Should you head for the oasis, the talented violist, or the bad violist? What's the same about a grenade and a viola solo?

What's the difference between a squashed squirrel in the road, and a squashed viola in the road?

Yeah, I’d like an answer there (Also, don’t roll your eyes at a friend asking what spren are, how are they supposed to know if they just started? No, you must overwhelm them with spren facts and teach them the glory of Roshar, of course. )

Spren are not Cognitive Shadows. They are beings made of pure investiture. There is a difference.

This theory has problems he insists. If Syl dies then Kaladin can't swear any more oaths and he becomes just an ordinary person.

Hi! Nice to have you. Any good theories for RoW yet?

We totally need a Nightblood sticker!

This took longer to find than I anticipated. Oathbringer chapter 101. Page 992 a highstorm goes through. Same chapter, page 996 Shallan says "It's been long enough since they were renewed they'll almost certainly lose their stormlight in the next few days. A few have gone out already." It was almost all dialogue, and there was no way it had been days between the pages. Just some trivia, gold has practical uses as well. (Though it is much less known for it.) Higher-end electronics use gold for the wiring because it is a far better conductor than copper. On the other hand, clothing was practically nothing. and in chapter 102 Syl says that the prices were based on how permanent things were in Shadesmar.

I love this idea. Hot take: Cultivation's Vessel is an old flame of Hoid's from back om Yolen.

I'm hesitant to extrapolate more; I've gone as far as I think is a reasonable exploration of the clues Brandon is intended to write (failures of the Oathpact leading to New Covenant), and at this point trying to get any more specific would be essentially fanfiction masquerading as a theory. Some very cool possibilities; a ten-part Vessel with each of the Radiant Oaths helping to balance out Odious tendencies; freezing all the main characters in some form of stasis to trap them and Rayse until the final Misbtorn books; or even something that winds up with a Splintering of Odium. I haven't been able to pick up any clues as to what, though. I'm sure there are a bunch of clues in Death Rattles that haven't been deciphered yet, but I've been extremely unsuccessful in trying to interpret those beforehand. The name is the biggest giveaway, in my opinion. But Syl's explanation in Oathbringer chapter 87 is pretty telling, that the Honorblades were something from Honor:

The stormfather claims they were made from Honor.

I theorize each Shard gives access to its Investiture through a unique “primal force/fundamental law/something natural.” I believe the quoted WoB shows Cultivation’s primal force is the cosmere’s First Law of Thermodynamics: the inter-convertibility of mass, energy, and Investiture. Lift is a “hint” of Cultivation’s magic. Odium styles Cultivation’s primal force “transformation.” Roshar’s natural spren are an example of Cultivation’s transformative magic (from my magic theory post): Cultivation tells Dalinar, “I CONTROL ALL THINGS THAT CAN BE GROWN, NURTURED.” (OB, Chapter 114, Kindle p. 1079.) I believe Cultivation exercises her transformation magic through the pre-Shattering life “natural pathway”: Conclusion: Cultivation represents evolution – a Shard that’s primal force is mass-energy-Investiture conversion exercised through life’s natural pathway. Brandon says Cultivation would be a mono-green M:tG deck. TL;DR? Cultivation’s personally met with Taravangian, Lift, and Dalinar. Does that mean she’ll also meet with someone whose name begins with an R? Rlain? Idle thought. P.S. - All of you, wherever you live, please take care of yourselves and your loved ones during this plague. All the best, C.

You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave

I wish there was an "alright" option in the poll. Kaladin is the most stereotypical "fantasy protagonist" of the PoVs, even though done well, and as such was a little boring to me. He hogged too much limelight in WoR, IMHO, and his "saving the day in the nick of time" schtick was a bit overdone there. I liked his story arc and page-count in OB more (even though his fight with Amaram was silly and fan-servicy, YMMV) and I would have preferred it if he didn't become more prominent again. He had his book and a big chunk of WoR - let the other characters get their time in the sun now. Alas, it is not to be...

He's a very interesting charecter, but reading him for too long can be depressing, especially book 1 Kal.

The star systems would only be relevant if they were inhabited by sapient life. Also, they don't say Shades, they say, "Forces of Threnody." We have no idea what these forces are comprised of. They could easily be the Evil that drove Silence's ancestors away from the Homeland, instead of the Shades.

This isn't quite a meme, but it fits best here, I think. Anyway, I felt like trying to make a gif of Silence fighting the shade. I don't know whether I did what I wanted, but I had some fun, so I might try out more gif-making in the future. Hope you enjoy ~

Here are some ideas I have for capturing a powerful radiant: 1. Cryogenically freeze them while they aren't burning stormlight. 2. Lock them in a small room, say you're about to release them, but secretly there's a Cadmium savant on the other side of the wall going full blast. 3. Whatever the thing is that was used to trap the fused and/or postpone the desolations? 4. Send them into orbit in a craft that has no method of propulsion, no stormlight, and is rigged to explode if it's tampered with from the inside.

Suspend them in a large box of aluminum, with chains of aluminum Soulcast into the rock that anchor it being held above a void (potentially in the ruins of Rathalas) with less than a fridge's worth a space on the inside for them to move around in, while on the Cognitive side you do something similar to their spren except by dropping them into the beads with a manacle or concrete on their feet so they can't get back up. The spren won't die, so they're still Radiant, but there wouldn't be enough room to summon their Blade, not to mention the distance making that difficult, and not even enough space for their Plate to make a major difference, should they actually be able to don it at all.

Elantris is my favorite Sanderson work, and the book that got me hooked on Sanderson. I know many criticize it because it was lacking in character back story and had no explanation for the Elantrian’s beliefs, but I don’t think it needed either of those things. In fact I love a little mystery. I haven’t read the Emperor’s Soul yet but will soon enough. Elantris is the one Sanderson book that I will read over and over even above Mistborn though Mistborn is a close second (Elend grated on me enough to say that. I liked Tindwyl scolding him a little too much.) It’s an unpopular opinion, but anyone with me?

YKYASF when the teacher mention the Ising model and you start think about jokes in high Imperial "Ising the knowing of the Ising model or ising not?" is the best I found

This conversation actual happened in my Orchestra. Conductor- Now I want to here this part, just you violists. Violists- Awwww, no! Someone is expecting us to do something? We didn't sign up for this?

I feel like Renarin would be: The guy who's quiet most of the time, but when he does say something, people are blown away by how insightful it is

You wanna know the difference between a viola and an onion? How does a violinist keep their violin from being stolen? To be real, though, as a composer who wants to write for multiple instruments, particularly strings, alto clef is hard to work with!

David's Dad in a nutshell. (Steelheart)