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Upon my re-reading of Words of Radiance something specifically stood out to me. How useful Pattern was to Shallan: he picks locks, translates dead languages, and breaks Ghostblood codes in seconds. So this got me thinking about a lesser discussed tool in a Knight Radiant's arsenal, their spren partner. So specifically, what are bonded spren capable of? To constrain this topic some, let's focus on their abilities in the physical realm. Additionally, there's a lot to talk about when it comes to shardblades, shardplate, surges, and the Nahel bond, but all of that could be many topics themselves. I'd like to collect examples of other things these spren can (or can't) do, and speculate on their utility. I've always wondered things like, how well could a spren be used to spy on others? How far can a spren stray from their bonded person? General Bonded Spren: Granting access to surges, becoming a living shardblade, and other perks of the Nahel Bond like plate and stormlight. Telepathic communication with their bonded person while a shardblade, possibly limited to when in contact. Extremely minor physical manipulation, Syl can carry a leaf with great effort, Pattern can push lock tumblers. Controlling who can hear and see them, most bonded spren seem to have a limited ability to hide themselves from others besides their bonded person. This is different than telepathy, Brandon says their voices could be picked up by a recorder. This may not work as well with people who are more connected to the cognitive realm, like singers and Rock. Sylphrena/Honorspren: Shapeshifting, Syl and Rua both show the ability to take a variety of forms, even multi-part forms like gusts of leaves. Sylblade can also take many different forms quickly, which while a property of all living shardblades might be assisted by her affinity for taking different forms. Flight, hovering, invisible 'platforms', gravitation?, Syl can stand on seemingly nonexistent platforms as well as fly at will. Not only can she fly, but she has no problem keeping up with Kaladin. Sometimes it seems like she's changing the direction that gravity affects her, but it's just as possible she's not constrained by gravity at all. Adhesion, Syl can use some sort of adhesion to play pranks on people like windspren. Storm sense, after the Weeping Syl knows when the next highstorm will arrive. Superhuman ability to spot or locate objects?, Syl helps multiple times to locate knobweed and corpses for the bridgemen. Appearance similar to a windspren, when people do see her, she's mistaken for a windspren, and she even uses this to hide from the voidspren in OB. Pattern/Cryptics Lack of ability to hide form and voice. Pattern can't seem to hide his presence like other bonded spren can, he can blend in to surfaces but can be spotted. This may be due to Shallan/Pattern's unique situation of oath regression? Pattern recognition, cryptography, computational power, Pattern translates the Dawnchant and breaks the Ghostblood code effortlessly, this may not be a factor of 'intelligence' so much as Cryptics thinking in a more 'computer-like' way, though it's also possible Pattern is just a particularly intelligent cryptic, as he is a scholar. Voice mimicry, Pattern shows the ability to eavesdrop and perfectly recreate what he hears like an audio recorder. Lockpicking, Pattern unlocks a door for Shallan, being able to fit into the lock, understand its workings, and manipulate the pins. Surface-limited movement, Pattern can crawl along floors or up walls, but he is mostly constrained to sticking to surfaces, though he has floated as a three dimensional figure briefly. The Stormfather There's almost too much unique about the Stormfather to get into in detail. He's a fairly large splinter of Honor and his cognitive shadow, whatever that entails. Telepathy, the Stormfather can speak into Dalinar's mind seemingly whenever. Though there may be interference in the communication when Dalinar thinks the Stormfather is ignoring him? If there's any sort of constraints on the distance between the Nahel bond pair on a planetary scale (not going off-world), it doesn't seem to matter for the Stormfather Knowledge, the Stormfather didn't seem to need to make a transition when he bonded Dalinar, so he kept all his memories and knowledge from before the bond. Wyndle/Cultivationspren Another unique situation due to Lift's weirdness. Would be nice to see another cultivationspren bonded to someone. Difficulty appearing to others, Wyndle says he has difficulty making himself seen or heard by others, though he is capable. Vine growth, while not capable of shapeshifting Wyndle can do a lot with the way his vines grow, but his movement could also leave a trail for someone able to see him since his vines need time to crystallize and disappear. Knowledge, Wyndle seems to have made the cognitive to physical transition without losing many of his memories and knowledge. Not that Lift makes much use of it. Size, may seem like a weird one, but aren't most Spren about hand to head sized? Admittedly how spren look doesn't seem to be very important, but it does help Lift use him as a footstool/ladder/whatever since she can physically interact with him. Timbre/Lightspren Yet another unique situation being bonded to a Listener could mean any number of things work differently. Flight, Timbre seems to be able to fly to move around. Can hide in Venli's gemheart, other spren can enter a Listener's gemheart, but it is notable that a bonded spren could. Might have to do with Listeners being 'more cognitive' though, could a human bonded spren enter a gemheart? Granting void-form control to Venli, no idea how this works, I guess Timbre can bully the related spren and somehow suppress them while they're in Venli's gemheart? Ivory/Inkspren Knowledge, like Wyndle, Ivory kept plenty of information after bonding to share with Jasnah. It's telling that Ivory and Jasnah as a team seem to be in the know about a lot. Size changing, can change his size but not his shape. I'd like to collect more examples from the books or WoBs about what these spren are capable of. Hopefully RoW can provide us with more examples of Knights in the same order, or just any sort of information on Spark, Timbre, or Szeth's elusive spren.

IT FINALLY CAME!! These were ordered for my birthday a while back, but they finally came today! I’m so excited. These two games have some of the best soundtracks ever, and finding quality versions on Musescore can be a pain sometimes, so to have it all right here in paper... It’s over two-hundred pages of some of the best sheet music, all at the tip of my fingers!! Not to mention, this quarantine it the perfect opportunity to learn all of these songs.

Hello all, it is nice to be finally on here and to meet you all as well. I hope to be as active as possible on here, I count Brandon and his books as some of my absolute favourites.

YKYASFW you get down your big Sanderson book to look up a fact like a smart kid taking down an encyclopedia.

This theory started as a crazy idea in my head (that Voidbinding might be Odium's equivalent of fabrial magic system rather than Surgebinding), but the more I thought about it, the more sense it had, so here it goes: The nature of Odium's magic Based on what we can infer from the nature of the Unmade and the Fused, Odium's magic typically seems to be a twisted and corrupted version of something that already exists. The Fused (and most of the forms of power) were Odium's response to Surgebinders. From a recent reading of this Rhythm of War we know that the Nightwatcher is not a “natural” spren – she was specifically created by Cultivation to not be influenced by the perceptions of humans and given very specific powers (the Old Magic) – and the Unmade seem to mimic that. Although that might seem counterintuitive at first, I believe that Voidbinding and fabrials might be connected in a similar way. Fabrials originated on Ashyn We know that the magic on Ashyn wasn't always disease-based, but used Surges somehow. Given that: we have a WoB suggesting that fabrials existed on Ashyn the Dawnshards (originally from Ashyn) and Surge fabrials are both linked to Aimia, which doesn't seem like a coincidence I assume that fabrials are the original magic system of Ashyn, which was then somehow moved to Roshar. On the origin of Voidbinding We know that Voidbinding (in most cases) originates with the Unmade. They can provide it in an indirect way: Sja-anat can corrupt true Spren and Ba-Ado-Mishram could possibly have been responsible for some Voidbinding-related forms of power (e.g. the Nightform) that are noticeably absent on modern Roshar. That's not “pure” Voidbinding, however – not in the sense described by the Voidbinding chart. The Unmade are probably the Voidbinding's equivalent of Bondsmith spren, granting Voidish versions of the Surges of Tension and Adhesion. But what about the other Voidbinding “orders” (levels?) shown in the Voidbinding chart? They are not only missing (their spren imprisoned on Braize?) but completely forgotten – in popular consciousness Voidbinding is only associated with the Unmade and predicting the future. Why is that? Voidbinding has ten levels, so it cannot be originally from Braize – that leaves us with either Roshar or Ashyn. It was well understood by humans once (someone must have created the chart, assuming it's an in-universe document) but it's barely known by the ancient Singers (Turash is surprised that the Voidspren can even bond humans). That strongly implies Ashyn – which makes sense. If Voidbinding existed (alongside fabrials) long before Surgebinding and the Fused, the knowledge of both was probably partially forgotten and partially suppressed, as they both might have been part of Ashyn's downfall. Voidbinding Initiation and the Wheel of Time analogy OK, so how do you become a Voidbinder? We know that humans can be temporarily affected by the Unmade (the Thrill, death rattles etc.) and even temporarily bond some (probably lesser) Voidspren (Amaram's army). That requires a particular mental state (broadly described as giving your pain or control to Odium), but that alone doesn't constitute Voidbinding yet. We have, however, one example of an attempted bond that goes further – Aesudan's and Amaram's bond with Yelig-nar, which requires swallowing a gemstone and trying to control him. While the first part is probably not necessary for all Voidbinding spren, I believe that gemstones and trying to control the power might be, next to the right emotional state, crucial elements of Voidbinding Initiation (though predicting how a said gemstone could be used is very hard). Based on that, we can actually make an interesting analogy to the basic principles of channeling from Wheel of Time. The magic of Ashyn represent saidin. You have to capture and take control of the spren in order to use magic. An incredible amount of power can be held by individuals with the help of Dawnshards (equivalents of saidin-specific Sa'angreal) and it literally led to the destruction of the world. Roshar, on the other hand, is more about saidar. Magic systems that originated there require a submission to either Oaths or Voidspren possession. What is more, Singers, the original inhabitants of Roshar, have the natural ability to link their power (just look at the summoning of the Everstorm) and in large number might potentially act like a saidar-specific Sa'angreal (I wonder if the whole Singer race could count as a Dawnshard different from the rest...)

ಠ_ಠ edit: Ok. I just spent the last 35 minutes backflipping on my trampoline. I’m a bit of an expert now. However, I video-taped myself, and I couldn’t get any of them to look impressive.

TL;DR: It's Ishar. First off, let's get this out of the way. Why Moash cannot be the champion. As we can see, Odium chose Dalinar as his champion due to his fearsome prowess on the battlefield. Moash on the other hand, grew up as a caravan worker and picked up the spear for the first time under Kaladin's tutelage in the chasms. You'd ideally want the best of Odium's to become his champion and Moash is nowhere near that even with a newly bonded Honorblade. Meanwhile, Dalinar's side has so many deadly fighters. Szeth: trained to use all ten Surges and capable of killing multiple Shardbearers at once; Kaladin: master spearman; Adolin: master duelist; Jasnah: who can kill without even a touch; all of whom have been training for years. It'll hardly be a fair contest. Furthermore, Moash's role is to provide a perspective into what would drive a human to side with the Voidbringers. It has occurred in prior Desolations and thus a human fighting for the Voidbringers does not make Moash a champion to be. And then there's this: Moash is aware that humans are invaders on Roshar. We saw how troubled Bridge Four became when they learned about this in OB. I'm certain that we're going to see more humans side with the Voidbringers in the upcoming books. That Moash did it first does not make it special or unique. Hell, there are 26 countries on Roshar: Azir, Jah Keved, Thaylenah, Shinovar, Iri, Rira etc and nobody outside a handful in Alethkar are even aware Moash exists. Moash has just replaced Amaram as Kaladin's foil. Kaladin and Moash, two members from the same bridge crew in an Alethi Highprince's army, and with a history between them, fighting over the fate of all of Roshar? Nope. There's simply not enough depth to make Moash a compelling endgame villain threatening the entire human civilization in Book 5. The epic conflict brewing will deeply affect all of Roshar and thus it only makes sense that all the nations have a stake in the conflict. And that leads me perfectly to my next point: Who among the handful of people are known to all of Roshar and wield immense power? Why do I suspect the Heralds? Looking at the state of the war, we see similar occurrences being mirrored on both sides. Humans have begun to side with Odium; singers have begun to side with the Radiants. The Thrill, a cognitive shadow from Odium's side is captured; Jezrien, a cognitive shadow from Honor's side is killed. Sja-Anat, a cognitive shadow from Odium's side wants to betray him and join the Radiants; A Herald, a cognitive shadow from Honor's side has betrayed him and joined Odium. Or as the epigraph from Words Of Radiance, Chapter 86 says: The Heralds are incredibly weak after centuries of torture and I doubt they'd offer any resistance if Odium offered them the same deal he did to Dalinar: Give me your pain and in return, serve me. Narrowing down our list of suspects. Why do I suspect Ishar? Here's a detailed timeline of Ishar's activities with relevant quotes. Note that there's one section below which is pure speculation and I have called it out as such but it ties together several disparate plot lines neatly. Aharietiam - 4500 years ago Ishar agreed to serve Odium even before Aharietiam. He is the one who convinced the Heralds to abandon the Oathpact after a Desolation where only Taln died in the course of battle. Ishar suggested that one person may be enough to keep the following Desolations at bay. And so, the nine agreed to abandon the Oathpact. From the prelude of The Way of Kings: Ishar is the only Herald who survived the Desolations with his mind intact. From Oathbringer: Speculation Start I suspect Ishar assumed Taln being the sole Herald would not hold out for long and decided to wait it out until Taln broke. However, Taln's iron will over the centuries held strong and Ishar grew increasingly frustrated and instigated the False Desolation. False Desolation and Recreance - 2000 years ago The False Desolation is key to understanding the events which lead to the Recreance. Here is a quote from Coppermind: Look at the last paragraph (highlighted in bold) above. Ba-Ado-Mishram somehow managed to Connect with vast majority of the singers. Next, here's a quote from the Stormfather to Dalinar: Next up, here's a quote regarding the Dawnshards: Putting these quotes together, it's very likely that Ishar used a Dawnshard and Ba-Ado-Mishram to Connect with the vast majority of the singers and provide them Voidlight and forms of power. However Melishi, the sole Radiant Bondsmith of the era captured Ba-Ado-Mishram and due to the unnatural nature of the Connection, the capture of Ba-Ado-Mishram lead to all Connected singers losing their Identity. Quoted from Coppermind: Speculation End Now, there's one other significant event which ties into the Recreance: Nale's third ideal as a Skybreaker was to follow the word of Ishar. Nale seems incapable of making his own decisions and keeps visiting Ishar to seek guidance. Supporting quote from Edgedancer: Another one: From Oathbringer: Ishar is also the who sets Nale up on his mission to kill all budding Knights. Nale's a Skybreaker of the fifth ideal. He is the law. Hence all Skybreakers simply continued following Nale's will, and by extension, Ishar's will. Hierocracy - 500 years ago Ishar's next attempt at seizing power came during the Hierocracy, by which he had started wearing the guise of a God priest. Here's a very interesting quote, from The Way Of Kings: Here's another quote from Coppermind: Ishar almost certainly headed the Hierocracy and commanded his priests to conquer the world and control all people. He also did not want knowledge of the Radiants and Shadesmar to spread and thus rewrote significant portions of books and knowledge. However it was sometime during this time, a conqueror from Alethkar, Sadees the Sunmaker began an ambitious quest to conquer all of Roshar. I'm also certain that the Sunmaker saw the same visions as Dalinar did from the Stormfather. Relevant quote: Sadees, being a ruthless warrior attempted to "unite them" via conquest and put down the Hierocracy. For reasons unknown, he was poisoned soon after, leading to his death. I suspect involvement by the Ghostbloods, as poison seems to be their MO. Kabsal attempts to poison Jasnah, Iyatil attempts to poison Amaram through a blow-dart. Present Day As the God Priest of Tukar, Ishar has been engaged in the Eighty's War against Emul for control of the city of Sesemalex Dar. Here's evidence of Voidspren mysteriously appearing near Tukar: Here's some very subtle foreshadowing that Odium's forces are lead by a "head ardent" aka God Priest. And finally, Book Five was supposed to Dalinar's book before Sanderson switched it to Book Three. The final showdown in Book Five will be Dalinar, the Radiant Bondsmith going head to head against Ishar, the Herald of Bondsmiths, with both dueling and influencing Connection on a vast scale. Feel free to poke holes! Eager to hear what the community thinks

Hoid is now a Lightweaver. He now needs to implement, maybe even research, a method to leave Roshar. In any case he seems quite interested in the conflict with Odium. So he probably does not even want to leave. Nor would that be easy. Hoid has been observed to use a perpendicularity. He would need to travel to the Horneater Peaks. So we can reasonably conclude that he is staying on Roshar. Where? Does he have a Fortress of Hoiditude? If so, where? Or does he dress up as a beggar? There will be a lot of refugees. It is possible. Living in the wilderness on Roshar on the other hand is problematic. Hoid likely would survive a Highstorm out in the open, but it would be anything but comfortable. Yet he bomded a Cryptic for a reason. Hence he would now be training Lightweaving, Soulcasting, fencing with a Shardblade or any combination of that. Doing that near any Fused or screamer spren is not a good idea. Especially as he likely does things like (Scadrial) will do. And we have to ask ourselves, whence did he get a number of aluminium sheets sufficient to shield a whole room before becoming a soulcaster. I would say he has some kind of depot or base near Kholinar.

I like this theory. It does seem that Odium did go to Ashyn first and came to Roshar with them so it's very possible that Voidbinding originated there. "The Unmade are probably the Voidbinding's equivalent of Bondsmith spren..." seems to be contradicted by this WoB:

...ergo it might not be true love...? I also don't think it was a matter of giving up on each other "too easily," as you say it. Tarah was faced with a choice between a job that fit her skill-set and would help her father later on, and a boyfriend who couldn't emotionally be there for her (for a good reason, but the point remains regardless). Kaladin wouldn't leave his post and Tarah knew that. Kaladin was stuck, but Tarah didn't have to be, so she left. Now will Tarah enter the story again and will they rekindle their romance? Possibly. Or maybe Tarah is will be "the one who got away" for Kaladin and once again he'll have to learn how to live for the living and those that are present? I can't say. Personally, I think Kaladin needs someone he isn't actively protecting for a significant other. If he has to protect them, they become his responsibility and then it becomes like a job to our favorite Windrunner (see his relationships with Rock, Sigzil, and Teft compared to how he describes his relationship with Moash and now Adolin). A Radiant would do nicely, since they would hold the same semi-immortal powers, preferably someone who isn't afraid to stand up to Kaladin and one who Kaladin isn't afraid to stand up to either.

June SAT Subject tests are canceled. I didn't learn about it just now, but its ramifications finally dawned on me in their entirety. I planned on taking three this year, two in June and one in August. The two would basically be supplemental finals studying and the third could be studied for over the summer. Except now, if I want to take them, it'll be in August (hopefully). Already more of an issue because a lot of the information won't be as freshly drilled into my head by teachers. It'll require more independent studying during a summer that I was expecting to be pretty chill. Additionally, it'd mean I'd have to take three in one day unless I wanted to be studying for a subject test during what looks like it's going to be the most stressful year I've faced to date. Yay. So I'm probably going to end up scrapping the third one since it's the one I suspect I'd do the worst on and end up just doing two come August. There are definitely bigger things I should be worrying about currently (and besides, these are subject tests, not even the actual SAT). Probably why my brain is focusing on this not really so important one.

While this discussion may be pertinent later on, it really has no bearing on the original topic as discussed above, and maybe should just get its own topic or Q&A question. In the future, please use the edit function instead of double- or triple-posting. Thanks!

Hello everybody, we decided to start the next era on May 15th That should give everybody ample time to finish current plots. Please leave us a note in the character thread which characters you would like to use next era. If you neccessary, please update your character sheets so that we can look them over. Thank you!

When this is what you turn in for your math project: (the project was to design something using conic sections)

...and then you just keep reading because you can’t stop yet, there’s a stopping point soon, but right now you’re at the good part! ...and then you finish the book...

Voidus and the Stranger as they near the end of the Era. "What have I become, my sweetest friend? Everyone I know goes away in the end."

Oathbringer sheds some light. Basically it is a form of negative solidarity. By being us we can be better then them. However if you look or act like them then you are not us. Sadeas just needed them to be aggressive and reasonably capable. He did not care what they were besides that and spent no effort creating esprit de corps or a sense of pride in themselves or each other.

Brandon: I'm going to write a short story Also Brandon: How about 30k words that sounds short

I like Moash a lot. Both as a complex and conflicted character as well as a tragic chracter I can sympathize with and be angry at simultaneously. I'm not even sure I would term him a villain so much as simply an antagonist (a bit like Hrathen's narrative role in Elantris).

Gavilar was on the Bondsmith path, and he was actively working to bring about a desolation. Sure, it was for what he thought were good reasons, but one of those reasons was essentially a Vorin theocracy. I'd say actively causing a disaster that kills 90% of the population disqualifies you from being a 'good leader'.

I have put an immense amount of thought into this. To the best of my understanding, these associations work the best: Windrunners : Ba-Ado-Mishram; The Leader focus on protecting and saving people over killing vs a suspected focus on vengeance, with utter disregard for the cost of life Skybreakers : Yelig-nar; The Lawman focus on external justice and objective laws vs supreme confidence and pride in the self as arbitrator, a trait shared by Aesudan and Amaram; also smoke Dustbringers : Ashertmarn; The... Guardian? Sentinel? I dunno focus on channeling passion and fiery nature towards productive, constructive and/or responsible purposes vs letting go of all responsibility, letting loose all passion; also fire Edgedancers : Moelach; The Medicine Man / The Gardener focus on looking at people as people and truly caring for their well-being vs cheapening and commoditizing individual life by making individual death enticing via death rattle "rewards" Truthwatchers : Sja-anat; The Teacher suspected focus on understanding how things grow and change over time, and using it in a selfless manner to help people perfect/improve themselves, vs using that understanding to selfishly manipulating and corrupting others to serve one's own purposes; also spying and eyes Lightweavers : Re-shephir; The Artist don't need to say much Elsecallers : ? Dai-Gonarthis; The Philosopher random guess Willshapers : ? Chemoarish; The Innovator random guess Stonewards : Nergaoul; The Warrior an army that defends vs an army that conquers; defense vs offense; survive and withstand the storm vs overcome challenge by defeating everyone else Bondsmiths : Odium's Champion; The Priest can't really explain this in one line

While reading the Stormlight Archive books, I realized that spren are 'real life' emoticons. So naturally I made some emoticons involving spren. To use an emote, copy the link next to it in the parentheses and paste it into your post. You can also right-click the link and choose "Copy Link Location", then paste it in your message. 17thshard.com forums allow you to load pictures into your posts by pasting the URL of the image into the post's content. It may be helpful to save a .txt file in notepad with all of the links you prefer to use in order to copy and paste elsewhere. Also, more cosmere-themed emoticons are under construction. Enjoy: Alespren (http://i.imgur.com/ktwO0cb.gif) and static version (https://i.imgur.com/bbMSt3L.png) Angerspren (http://i.imgur.com/D6J6xRU.gif) and static version (https://i.imgur.com/cCqVYgw.png) Anticipationspren (http://i.imgur.com/BM44BrV.gif) and static version (https://i.imgur.com/1tjwhIn.png) Awespren (http://i.imgur.com/3YfOz4J.gif) and static version (https://i.imgur.com/VkpiJTb.png) Awespren (canon) (https://i.imgur.com/7C8wANr.gif) and static version (https://i.imgur.com/9xD7XH0.png) Bindspren (https://i.imgur.com/2tmDaoQ.gif) and static version (https://i.imgur.com/32yBzwl.png) Coldspren (https://i.imgur.com/uOFJI3L.gif) and static version (https://i.imgur.com/e137yIJ.png) Creationspren (http://i.imgur.com/THDwKRq.gif) and static versions (https://i.imgur.com/8lMJI4Z.png), (https://i.imgur.com/1bSjE7G.png), and (https://i.imgur.com/AH8WdWC.png) Fearspren (http://i.imgur.com/fwkGdLK.gif) and static version (https://i.imgur.com/RTfcvUl.png) Gloryspren (http://i.imgur.com/IiBDG5u.gif) and static version (https://i.imgur.com/60gRN2F.png) (alternate version) (http://i.imgur.com/0rFKCWU.gif) and static version (https://i.imgur.com/844IBnV.png) I edited the laughterspren to make it more visible, but left the old one up so links aren't broken: Laughterspren (https://i.imgur.com/HLCjBvQ.gif) and static version (https://i.imgur.com/YcigcGe.png) (alternate) (https://i.imgur.com/UVYzqQB.gif) and static version (https://i.imgur.com/IFaGQje.png) (old) (http://i.imgur.com/dk9SAg9.gif) (dark version) (http://i.imgur.com/twskx1S.gif) Shardblade (http://i.imgur.com/6tU3gRQ.gif) and static versions (https://i.imgur.com/PVjEeQv.png) and (https://i.imgur.com/6UkYJJG.png)

Hi! So, I wrote a little sci-fi short story, under a few limitations such as it needing to have to a character arc in under 1500 words. Which was... tougher than I expected . Feel free to read and if you have feedback or any suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it. Alright, enough rambling, here it is: Maya:

Hi! I’m a huge Brandon Sanderson fan and just joined this site, although I’ve been reading posts on here for awhile. I’ve read everything released in the Cosmere and almost finished his other stories. Excited to be a part if the community!

I really don't think that is fair. Kaladin was not willing to do some of the basic things necessary to make a relationship work. Giving a guy plenty of chances and being patient is all very well but at some point call it quits.

Welcome!

I got the attachment just fine.

I'm fascinated by the world you created, and am excited for the intrigue and rebels you set up for! However, I think the chapter is backwards. I can see what you were going for-- gradually introduce the characters and the world and build up to the reveal about the sister joining the rebels. Unfortunately, I found myself loosing interest as I read. The world was interesting, but that wasn't enough to really draw me in. There wasn't a lot of tension, and I felt like I was perpetually waiting for something to happen. As you'll see below in my as I read comments, there were a lot of places where I felt like I was loosing interest or my attention was wandering. I think flipping the chapter would fix that. I would've liked the chapter better if it opened with the sister announcing she was joining the resistance. I don't really need a lot of context ahead of time, and once I knew the mc's sister was joining rebels and the mc thought it was a Bad Idea, then I would've been curious about why there were rebels and how justified their cause was. I would've been more engaged when I finally learned why they were rebelling. Then, maybe instead of having the mc walking home from work, she could be walking too work. She would have a good reason to be jumpy when she saw the guards, and there would be lots of tension to keep me engaged on the walk. It would feel like it had more of a purpose than just world-building. The scene at work would also be more tense and more interesting. She could be struggling to focus on cooking while dealing with the news that her sister was joining what she thinks of as a doomed resistance. As I read: "The knife...garlic into the hot pan." Murder? Oh, cooking. You have my attention. "when she noticed saw those ears" saw or noticed? "I need to out to" Missing words? There will probably be twenty hundred sentences with missing words in my sub this week. "Rav... forbid..." Who or what is this? "Rav...an statue" Rav... must be a religion or deity? "make it through whatever..." Makes me think they won't all make it through the book. End of scene: I didn't quite get it until the end, but C needed I to find the names because asking them again would've been a mistake C couldn't admit to? There was some nice detail in the scene, but I kept waiting for something that felt significant to happen and it didn't. It just felt like a regular day in the kitchen. "...to see if the charms...had held...moths had eaten..." Nice world building detail. "The main thoroughfares...king's soldiers..." I felt like I was missing information here, with the amount of words given to them, I wanted to come back knowing more, how I should feel about them. "A nobody to a..." This walk is getting long and nothing is happening. "...at the thought of a Third..." As this scene winds down, I'm feeling it's sole purpose was to tell us about the world. Having a walk full of world building can work, but most of the time, at least for me, it needs to come after something significant has happened, and nothing out of the ordinary has really happened yet. So far, it feels like this could be any day in I's life. "tutting halfheartedly at the mound of wet clothes..." Is something happening now? Is the brother going to be missing? The house empty? "had gone sea slug hunting..." Now I want to see a sea slug! "Lcrowded, his round beaming..." So he is fine and here. OK, so the inciting incident hasn't happened yet. Also, I think there might be a missing word. "...her shoulder blades." I like how you worked the description in here! "calloused hands...small scars from iron burns..." Interesting! These details are well described and have me curious. "There was nothing they wouldn't do for each other." This line has me thinking there will be some tough decisions about what they will and won't do for each other. "New fishing regulations..." OK, I get this king is making things tough for all kinds of business. "...are going to join the Revolutionaries..." I feel like this should be the start of the chapter. See my overall note at the begining.

a collab sounds stupendous! Direct Message me with the details and we will see.

Brandon Sanderson demonetized me in front of a crowd.

Me: Well, I just finished Cindered Shadows. I should take a break before I start Silver Snow. My brain: What are you waiting for? Start Silver Snow right this instant! But yeah, I finished Cindered Shadows not too long ago. Overall, really fun. I had to switch back to Normal because I realised I didn’t have the patience to play on Hard, and I’m glad I did because it saved me a lot of frustration. I’ll put my spoilery ramble below. Can’t wait to start my final playthrough with the Ashen Wolves, whenever it may be (probably within the next day or two, with the way my brain keeps nagging me).

Me: Man, I'm so burnt out, but I really need to finish this Golden Deer playthrough so I can use the supports, renown, and maxed out statues in my next playthrough. My Brain: Hey should give up on your Golden Deer playthrough and start another Bylass Blue Lions playthrough ASAP.

I had plans to hang out with my crush the week lock down started. We can text but I hate not being able to talk in person.

Hi, I guess? After spending a good 5 mins contemplating, I'm here to introduce myself. I've been visiting this site since late last year, but just decided to join now (not that it's going to change much since I doubt I'd be posting and commenting a lot - I just really enjoy reading and following discourse among fans). So far I've only read SA and Warbreaker (all of which I read last year during summer), but am quite familiar with Brandon's other books (I'm not too against spoilers, so ...). Otherwise, I've been busy with schoolwork, but since it's quarantine, I've decided to finally read Mistborn. Though, I haven't gone past page 1 since I've kinda hit a slump (due to current events, I presume) so I currently lack motivation to do so. Other than reading, I do enjoy doing arts and watching shows, movies, or documentaries. Anyways, looking forward to reading more posts/topics in this site!

Mawwige. Mawwige is wat bwigns us together today.

I read WoK for the first time maybe 7 months ago, and since then I have read all of Sandersons Cosmere books except Mistborn era 2 and White sand, including the Reckoners and Skyward & Starsight. I thought it was time to finally join the 17th shard because I am now well versed in most cosmere books. I guess thats all I have to say, but i'm happy i'm here!

Hi! I’ve been lurking here for a bit and decided I should finally make an account. I’ve read a good few of the Cosmere books and really enjoy them. Unfortunately, my copy of Oathbringer got left behind in my quarantine exodus a month ago, but today I got The Alloy of Law in the mail. Hopefully it can stave off my desire to get back to Stormlight:) Fun fact: Brandon Sanderson did a visit in a random small city by me last year and I found out the day after he was there! Lots of regrets on that one

All I really want is to see more Herald interaction. Although I suspect most of that will happen in the back 5.

Yeah, I know how it sounds. Maybe I'm looking too much into it and see patterns where there are none, but Metallica songs really seem to describe certain dark moments in Stormlight Archive quite well. Not just well, but to the point where you could take some phrases and they would make quite poetic Death Rattles that actually foreshadow things. I don't know that much about Brandon's taste in music, but I was able to find a couple of his tweets about Metallica and Death (Without Pizza) will feature metal music, so maybe there is a hidden connection here. Anyway, here we go (spoiler tags just for brevity): Sad but true Odium's theme song. Works particularly well for his talks with Dalinar, with some phrases being very similar to Odium quotes Memory remains My favorite one. It has Shalash written all over it – her particular brand of insanity (“Fortune fame mirror vain gone insane”), being an immortal who doesn't always register the passing o time (“denies the grave”, “lips that time forgets”), unusually good hearing (“Just listen, they play my song”) and being called divinity by the Stormfather (“goddess”). The best part, though? Ash → Ashe (Aon of Light) → Lightweavers, the Order whose patron she is Dust → Dustbringers, the Order many people believe she'll join One It actually works on two levels: it describes Taln, the one Herald left in Damnation, finally breaking if you reverse some phrases (“can't remember anything” → “can remember everything”, “silence” → “screams”) you get the description of Dalinar regaining his memories of Rathalas at Thaylen Field. It's One as in alone at first, then One as in Unity The God That Failed Pretty much describes the Recreance Unforgiven More tentative than the previous ones, but all three songs seem relate to dramatic events in Kaladin's life Unforgiven, the death of Tien: Unforgiven II, his relationship with Tarah: Unforgiven III, temporarily killing Syl because of his hatred towards lighteyes: Enter Sandman Not on a lyrics level, but thematically it works really well for Shallan – she kills her father while singing a Veden lullaby

More like Ashyn

YOU CANNOT HAVE MY GOAT - Dalinar

When you hear that 16 is important in food measuring and in nature, and grin to yourself. When you read “the land of mist and snow” and automatically think Well, it’s not snowy so much as hot, so you’re half right. When you read the words cultivation and endowment in the same sentence and have to forcibly tell yourself that the book isn’t referring to what you think it is. When you’re hearing about knights in World History, and...it’s so hard not to make references. I mutter them under my breath, I mention the similarities to my teacher (who’s a Sanderfan and gets it), I mull it over in my mind. The Knights Templar, you say? With vows they have to say, and different orders? HMMM. When you’re reading a book with a group called the Legion and a character named Calamity, and it’s about superheroes, and every time… When again, in World History, you talk about guilds, and the whole time you’re thinking, so, assassins, bakers, scientists, et cetera, yes? When you misread biochemical as BioChromatic. When you misread allotment as Allomancer. When in that same World History class (it’s a gold mine, I tell you - disregard my pun), the teacher happens to say something about some guy who was so rich my coated a steak in real gold and ate it, and you decide he must be an Augur. When you read a book (Red Queen) with a main character named Mare. Good thing they don’t say her name too often. Wouldn’t want to be emotionally dead TOO often. When you learn that a student in your chemistry class is named Sami, and your brain goes “But Sami is a girl. And not American. Something’s wrong here…” When you mistype shared as Sharded, completely from autopilot. (And just then, I typoed it as Shard and just quietly smiled.) When in The Famous World History Class, excommunication comes up, and it’s all you can do not to scream Dalinar’s name. You can guess at what I’m going to say by now, I’m sure; it’s with convents and the Conventical of Seran.

Need I say more?

When you see people making out in the hallways and want to yell "NO MATING!"

When you see a truck labeled KR Transport and wonder whether the company's operated by the Windrunners or the Elsecallers.