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  1. Szeth could have also put nightblood somewhere for safekeeping before he went to prison... or he just walked in to a cell and sat down but none of the guards are brave enough to actually face a full skybreaker with a sword that turns people into smoke.
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  2. If you can't wait for the analysis that leads up to the conclusion, and want to know right away who I think Ishnah really is you can click the spoiler below. First off, I think sometimes the simplest explanation is the best. The character with the best access to Ialai prior to her poisoning and who also has a very explicit connection to the Ghostbloods is Shallan's squire Ishnah. I think it's worthwhile examining Ishnah's actions in Chapter 8, where Ialai was assassinated. Ahhh Shallan, Shallan, Shallan, such poor judgement at times. Right after having your stomach turn in knots for suspecting your own squires, why have the most suspicious of your squires who was one of the only people who had the opportunity to poison Ialai inspect her corpse for evidence? That's an excellent oppurtunity to remove the damning evidence, namely the gag that Ishnah was instructed to use on Ialai. This scene is interesting for a couple of reasons, first I think Ishnah's explanation of the application of blackbane contradicts what Kaladin said, namely that to be effective it has to completely dry out. If you take an active drug where the efficacy is dependent on it being completely dry and then turn that into a gum (the only means being the addition of liquid) wouldn't that impair the efficacy of the drug? Also, a gum is a semi liquid state that is in no way fit for injection. It's all about misdirection... The most efficient and covert means of administering the blackbane powder would be to apply it to the gag yhat you shove in the target's mouth. The second interesting point is that Ishnah initiates the conversation with Shallan right after Ialai dies, essentially putting herself forward as the best candidate for investigating the murder that she most likely committed. What do we know about Ishnah, who appeared rather suspiciously in Oathbringer? Ishnah contacted Veil ostensibly to join the Ghostbloods, but she didn't approach Veil until she already had Gaz and Vathah as squires. Ishnah was known to be a spy for a minor lighteyes house, whose head, Brightlady Hamaradin, incidentally was assassinated by the ghostbloods and her spys were the chief suspects. Pretty good cv for most trusted squire so far. Here is her physical description from the Coppermind: She is by far the most obvious candidate for the ghostblood spy, which also makes her the least satisfying. I believe she is not truly Ishnah the Alethi spy (or rather not just Ishnah) but instead that she really is Iyatil, the Ghostblood infiltrator extradanoire! The only defining physical characteristics that we have of Iyatil are that she wears an orange carapace mask that has seemingly grown into her skin and that she has brown eyes. And we know that Ishnah wears heavy makeup and pencils her eyebrows in. Why the heavy makeup? Perhaps to hide the scars where her flesh had grown into the mask perhaps? Why the lipstick? To disguise the only other feature visible beneath her mask, namely her lips. I really didn't harbor this suspicion util the Mraize hunting moles scene in Chapter 13 came out, but the evidence in this chapter is pretty compelling. Here are the pertinent Chapter 13 excerpts (emphasis added only once, but holy crap this is important): So we know that bonding spren is a key objective of the Ghostbloods, and that they are not the type of organization to have only one poker in the fire. Why settle for just a corrupted Radiant bond when you have an easy path to a true radiant bond? The fact that Ishnah joined up with team Shallan after it was a proven fact that direct association with her was setting others on the path to Radiancy I think is very significant. Also, Mraize explicitly states that the guardianship that Shallan/Veil is under is directly comparable to what Iyatil did for him when he was an untested apprentice. This seems to be a pretty explicit tip of the hand. Mraize seems wryly bemused during this whole exchange, and what better explanation is there to this wry amusement than that his own babsk is the one keeping tabs on Shallan/Veil. One final point, there is a new nexus of power in ascendance on Roshar, namely the Knights Radiant. With the only stated aim so far of the Ghostbloods being the acquiring of power, it makes complete sense for one of their top and most capable members to try and infiltrate a known group that provides a ready pathway to this power. And just think what juicy truths Iyatil could reveal to her secret hungry cryptic.
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  3. Brandon tells us, in print, that she's fake. In WoR, one of her flashback chapters starts: "Shallan became the perfect daughter." This is the same as saying Radiant became the perfect leader, or Veil became the perfect spy. It's actually the flashback chapter that immediately follows the chapter where Shallan is trying to get her illusions to walk and talk, and where Pattern tells her she's already done this before, and she needs to remember how. The timing is too perfect.
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  4. From the album: Natural History of Roshar

    This will illustrate more clearly what the plants in this orchard look like. I didn't expect a simple orchard to involve this much inventing and designing, because I didn't take into account that almost everything needs to be invented - even the green, normal grass took a lot of debating back and forth to finally settle on "green is fine". There is a 2nd page with the crops and the lantern and such, but it's not as interesting looking so I'll probably leave it and other boring grey materials on Artstation, buried at the bottom of Orchard's multi-image post.
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  5. Knowing that Shallan has pale skin and red hair, and thus at higher risk of developing skin cancer, Mraize was offering her a timely reminder to check her skin for unusual new moles.
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  6. Because storing health is just storing your spiritual ideal of health, you can't store sickness because there isn't an ideal for that.
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  7. Idea: Star Wars remake with Mark Hamill as Vader and Tom Holland as Luke. no I don’t take constructive criticism
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  8. I take no credit for this amazing meme. Please, go here (https://www.reddit.com/r/cremposting/comments/alfktb/stick_memes_are_the_best_memes_also_i_love_this/) and give this mans (I AM A STICK BOI) a upvote. Don't even give me an upvote.
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  9. Thank you for your contribution, Mr. Charles Dickens, now please return thee to the Nineteeth Century
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  10. Do allomancers eat Hershey's Kisses without taking the wrapper off?
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  11. Am I the only one who felt like Mraize was using the mole as an analogy for how humanity came to Roshar? The first part, about an invasive species from Shinovar, fits perfectly with how humanity expanded from Shinovar to the other parts of Roshar. The second part, about living where Rosharan creatures cant, and lacking the adaptions, could be some kind of vague hint about how humans bonded with Honor, settled in Urithiru, and gained the Surges and the spren bonds. Or am I just reading to much into this?
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  12. I propose that Szeths 5th ideal will be "I know good from evil." It works with "I am the law" in the sense that he's saying he can make his own decisions now. It would be a great capstone to his arc too. Several times I'm oathbringer he remarks that he doesn't feel like he knows anymore. Last but not least it would really round out his partnership with Nightblood.
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  13. Not necessarily. Depression really doesn’t work that way. It’s misery despite positive stimuli. Medication and CBT are more likely to help than Lirin suddenly approving of his son’s choices - and Lirin shouldn’t have to. He shouldn’t have to change his personality or his beliefs for someone else’s benefit. Nevermind that Lirin was right; being a soldier was bad for Kal - which is what Lirin’s problem really is. Kal has plenty of other people who can give him the approval he needs. And Lirin strikes me as very much the sort to support and approve of his son going to therapy; just by nature he isn’t the right person to give Kal emotional support. They’re too much alike, and Lirin has a rather cool personality.
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  14. Maybe Zahel will partially come out as a worldhopper and a kind of unconventional artifabrian/investiture expert? There is this very tantalising WoB about him: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/394/#e12916 and Shallan should have put 2 and 2 together about Azure and him, now that she knows a bit about the cosmere. As to Azure herself, I expect that she is stuck in Lasting Integrity and the younger Kholin couple will run into her during their mission to Shadesmar.
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  15. There's a brief mention of Adolin riding Gallant in chapter 13. I just thought this was so sweet. Dalinar doesn’t ride much anymore, and even Adolin doesn’t. It's nice for me to know that Gallant has accepted Adolin as almost a second partner since Dalinar is busy and Adolin lost Sureblood. It just made me smile.
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  16. [tinfoil hat time] Mraize's spy is... Pattern. [/tinfoil hat]
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  17. I agree with there being no such thing as the Oppression Olympics. People can feel whatever they want about their circumstances; there's always someone who's been through worse. If that was the case, then nobody should ever have depression, and it should all be dumped on the one person we've all decided is the one who actually has it the worst of all humanity. It just doesn't work like that.
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  18. I agree with being happy that Kaladin can admit the truth of what is happening to him and the reality of his illness, but to call him "a whiny kid" for justifiably complaining about his situation is certainly... A Take, when that situation included going to war as a child, being enslaved, then sent to die in bridge runs because of the pettiness and greed of lighteyes, all while watching other darkeyes die around him. Why the heck should he not blame his unhappiness on his situation? He went through hell, of course he was going to come out with issues, and there was rightfully something and someone to blame and point fingers at. As well, it isn't fair to compare survivors to each other, because people will react differently, and... honestly, it isn't the Trauma Olympics. I get this kind of thing being frustrating if you're a different person, but not everyone can just move on or be expected to. WoR was him realistically reacting to and carrying the baggage of everything that's happened to him - he was still a kid at that point, and acted like one. He also showed amazing growth in that book, and I really don't think most people in his shoes would have reacted half as well.
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  19. I just had a dream that I had a warning point and I totally panicked, I instantly woke up and checked the shard, wow.
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  20. In Oathbringer, Shallan literally tells her newly budding squires that Veil and Shallan are both fake. So here is my rant about this new Formless personality being totally telegraphed and not at all surprising. Shallan has always seemed fake to me from book one. Her mandatory quips are a little too mandatory. Her goody two shoesness a little too goody two shoes, especially in light of her behavior. And her dumb idea to save her family by stealing another fabrial? So shortsighted considering her plan to do that invoked so much opportunity. Leaving her family was unthinkable for some reason. “I killed my mom and dad” seems like a great reason NOT to be around your own family. It’s fake. It’s a fake story. Read or listen closely to Shallan and she questions her own identity or who she is as a person from book 1. I don’t know if Formless is OG Shallan but that would be a good name for it. It’s the one that doesn’t fit into some prescribed form, some invented character sketch. Remember Pattern being so confused she couldn’t make her illusions walk and talk anymore? How much funnier are all those interactions if she basically IS doing what she wants to be able to do, holding a Shallan illusion. i can’t wait to see what supposedly horrible but actually fine thing Shallan did that broke her down originally. This should be good.
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  21. This annotation addresses the Cosmere reveals in this chapter:
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  22. “Sparks sparks sparking sparks!” Screaming. The sound of feet pounding against concrete. Electricity crackling and popping everywhere, filling the air with the smell of ozone. “You were wrong! Sparks, Sean, you said there would be no Epics! There is clearly an Epic!” Sean gripped his Louisville Slugger tighter, grimacing towards his radio. He very briefly stuck his head above the chunk of building he was taking cover behind, then yelped and frantically ducked back down, just barely dodging the two-foot metal needle that pierced through the air right where his nose used to be. It circled about for a bit, then flew right back the way it came. Sean exhaled in relief. “I sparking noticed, Tommy, thank you very much,” Sean muttered to himself, turning his attention back to ‘his’ team. He activated the transmitter on his radio, broadcasting instructions to them: “Alright. Change of plans. Anne, Harris - on my signal, take what you can carry and run for it. Tommy, you’re with me. Distraction duty.” Affirmative sounds filtered through the speakers, concluded by Tommy’s resigned, “Fine.” Another ionized boom shook the street, closer to him this time, followed by the hoarse over-the-top shouting of the Epic causing it. “Face me! Come, foolish mortals, and face the wrath of Shocksteel!” That wasn’t a terrible name, Sean had to admit (he’d heard of a lot worse), but he really did not have the voice to pull off that threatening bellow. He sounded more like a crow hopped up on drugs than, say, Steelheart. He was dead now, come to think of it. Sparks, it had been more than five months, and he still could barely wrap his head around it. One of the most feared tyrants in North America, a god among - not even men, a god among Epics - dead. Killed, by the Reckoners, a group he’d thought hadn’t even existed before they’d quite publically taken the spotlight. A group consisting only of maples, consistently slaying Epics and getting away with it? It seemed like a fairy tale. Unlikely. And yet, it seemed that these were unlikely times, for the Reckoners did hold Newcago, were holding it, had held it against all comers for months, with no signs of being forced to stop. When Harris had finally managed to convince him it wasn’t a hoax, Sean had felt a spark of hope bursting in his chest, piercing through his hard-earned cynicism. Maybe things will get better, he’d thought. Perhaps the Epics that had oppressed everyone for far too long would start falling, life would return to that semblance of normalcy he treasured so deeply. Perhaps his sister would finally get to go to high school, do normal high school things, without the grim spectre of death looming over her every minute. His hopes had risen even further when Doubletake, one of the city’s major crime lords, had fallen under mysterious circumstances in the following days. Following that, after a period of frantic struggles for territory and more Epic fights than he could remember, he’d heard rumors of a meeting, called by Epoch, between all of the city’s major and minor Epics, which seemed like it could only go poorly. And then, as expected, there’d been some sort of disaster, though he hadn’t the foggiest clue exactly what had happened. What he did know was that every single Epic who’d attended was nowhere to be found, and that meant there were acres of unattended territory, no longer under the yoke of any Epics. Free. The minute he’d confirmed the news, he’d called Notley, asked her for support. He was going to take his little group - it didn’t have a real name, consisting largely of former students and parents - and take back as much of the city as possible before new Epics, and he wanted the help of the former Albertan government in doing so. She’d agreed. And so they’d went. Things had gone well, at first, as he and about a hundred others slowly tread through the eastern end of the city. They’d encountered a couple of minor Epics, but, thankfully, they were nothing that bullets couldn’t handle. There hadn’t even been any casualties. They’d avoided the southeastern end of the city; Pariah had been rampaging there, destroying and murdering wantonly at the time, though it seemed that she’d calmed down nowadays, leading her new faction in the ruins of ERA. And then Moonglow had shown up, and everything had gone to hell. He hadn’t been there personally, but he’d heard from the few survivors that she’d staked a claim, right where they were planning on expanding their territory. She and her ‘Lodge’, had expressed no interest in bowing to the ‘irrelevant mortals’, and had enough powerful Epics to make it happen, causing progress to grind to a halt. Notley pulled out the minute there was any sign of resistance, giving up almost all the territory they’d taken, irking Sean to no end, even if it was the logical choice. He’d heard they were currently combating some new corruption Epic, Depravity, just south of the middle part of the city. And now, he was back to doing what he was doing nine years ago: raiding and pillaging, foraging from abandoned houses for survival, keeping both him and the group alive for just one more day. It was grueling, hopeless. He wasn’t the only one who felt so, given that a couple people had left to join a cult with some slontzy name - the Acolytes, that was it. Still, the remaining people were looking up to him. So he did his job, going out nearly every day, braving desperate maples and dangerous Epics, hoping to find food and water and weaponry and anything else. Earlier that day, Anne had, while scouting, seemingly hit the jackpot. In the cellar of a seemingly-abandoned house, she’d found a large stash of food, weaponry, books, and other stuff. Sean had immediately called everyone in to toss it in the truck and haul it out, only to find that no, the house was not abandoned, and there was, in fact, a very irate Epic living there. Which they were currently fighting. And by fighting, he meant ‘hiding from’. Sean took another peek over his makeshift cover, finding that Shocksteel had turned away from him, crackling metal objects orbiting him lazily. He sighed. Pressed a button on his radio. “NOW!” Charged. What Happened in Edmonton (Reboot!) A new year, a new RP.
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  23. OH MY SHARDS IT'S ALREADY THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN. Y'all, in the past year I have come so storming far in my artwork. I've learned a ton about anatomy and proportions and I've gotten better at shading and faces and it's honestly really crazy to me. I am SO GLAD my friend convinced me to do the Inktober challenge last year, because it will be a great benchmark to compare this year to. I spent an insane amount of time prepping for this and I am on the edge of my seat for each and every drawing that I'll be presenting to y'all. One thing I'm doing slightly different this year: I had the idea to put some color in one of the drawings and then I realized it would be a ton of fun if I tried to colored one thing in each drawing. (Don't worry, it's still ink :P) So I really hope that works out (there will undoubtedly be a handful and a half that are completely black and white though and I am totally fine with that). Six or seven months ago I really started using markers in my art and I have since amassed over 60 different shades. They're ridiculously fun to art with. I also decided to base a lot more of my drawings on specific quotes. Some of those quotes are from non-canon Keyed stuff, some are from CBST, some are from TLT, some are from stuff that will be in the Keyed books, and some are from me just messing around. I am SO excited to kick things off tomorrow!!!! See ya then! - Star
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  24. So we know hesina has something important going on likely to do with her parents. 1. She had fallen significantly in social status since her childhood https://wob.coppermind.net/events/61/#e1335 2. Both of her parents are not darkeyed meaning at least one of them is a lighteyes or foreigner https://wob.coppermind.net/events/324/#e9290 3. Kaladin is related to the former queen presumably through his mother https://wob.coppermind.net/events/360/#e10909 4. on top of that kaladin could have potentially managed to get married to laral and she is far far above him in social standing, even with kal being high ranking and their fathers being friends it’s still a bit too big of a gap without other reasons. so is it unreasonable to think it possible that someone at Urithiru May recognize hesina or that she will know people there? even if she was onlt related to some people of middling importance she would surly still know someone there. now we really don’t know enough information to judge who would recognize or know her but i think we can try and judge if someone would. (my really really crackpot theory/ hope is that she is sebarial and Palona’s daughter, this is almost certainly not true but still)
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  25. Okay, so hear me out. Would fuelling Allomancy with Stormlight unveil new powers we've never seen before? Here's my logic. A fabrial uses a Spren (a fragment of Honor/Cultivation) as a key to determine what the Fabrial will do. That key is then refined by the metal used to make the cage of the fabrial. Then you power it with Stormlight to give the Spren fuel to power the Fabrial's effect. So with that in mind, let's compare that to Allomancy. The metals are keys that refine what the "preservationspren" (big airquotes there) produces as an effect. Due to the Connection to the Allomancer, the effect is emitted from their location in the realms. Obviously the big difference here is scale. One spren is infinitely less powerful than the entire Shard of Preservation. But the general analogy holds, right? A piece of Investiture filtered by metal that consumes a fuel source to produce an effect. So, then. If there was a Radiant who was also a Mistborn, and they sucked in Stormlight, could they then "burn" the Stormlight like how Vin consumes the Mists? Assuming that this is possible, what would the effect(s) be? Personally I think the Radiant Spren would be the determining factor here; Each one would act like a different "alloy" like the various Atium alloys, filtering the output. It might also be possible to still burn a metal while forcing Stormlight to come through, but that probably requires a LOT more hacking than just consuming Stormlight as a fuel like burning the mists. Now back to Fabrials, speaking of the mists. If it were possible to contain the mists inside a gemstone, could you use that to power "allomantic fabrials" kind of like Ettmetal? Using different spren powered by the mists to create allomantic effects? Hmm... Well I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this...
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  26. This was just a fun and goofy hairstyle challenge I completed using my OC Inquisitor, Dominique. Which one is your favorite? Can Inquisitors even grow hair?
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  27. Night 2 Akiia spoke swiftly and passionately, looking out at the crowd of their fellow merchants. They felt a bead of sweat roll down their brow. The crowd grew more galvanized the more Akiia spoke, every word seemingly driving nails deeper into their coffin. Their arguments made sense! Why wouldn't anyone understand what they said? The crowd pushed in onto Akiia and their words became more frantic, more heated, and rhetoric turned into heated argument. When Akiia had come to Kae, they had admired how deep and rich the culture there seemed. The elantrians ruled fairly and AonDor was a staple that permeated life in Arelon. But after the Raod, Kae seemed to lose its depth, the layers of culture were being stripped away and what was left was hunger and a struggle for power. The power hungry merchants they were currently fending off had started to turn rotten, like an onion left out in the sun. They were sickening. Akiia spent their final words spitting acid at those who accused them, but they could not stop the horde from taking them to the gallows. The rope waited for Akiia, and a small part of them welcomed it. Illwei has been lynched! They were a Loyal Merchant and an Actor. Vote Count: Illwei (3): Venture, Matrim’s Dice, Lotus Xinoehp (2): Elkanah, Ashbringer Venture (2): Mist, Illwei Lotus (1): Ventyl Mist (1): TJ Shade There were votes on four separate players, Socialites can now create group PMs. The Night cycle will end in ~24 hours, on Thursday October 1st, at 2000 MDT (0200 GMT) Item Market: Contract Market Player List:
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  28. Welcome to the Shard! This post actually should go in the Cosmere Discussion forum, since it contains spoilers for multiple book series. To answer your question though, Mraize would not be Kelsier, because Kelsier is still bound to Scadrial, and hasn't yet found a way off world.
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  29. Untreated depression will likely get worse. Currently he has depression without a trigger. He has chronic depression, which is cyclical, comorbid with SAD, which is seasonal. Without the genetic predisposition, he would likely not have depression at all.
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  30. Kaladin’s depression appears to be biologically based, exacerbated by environmental factors. This is evidenced by its early onset, prior to the majority of his issues with his father.
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  31. I finished season 4 of The Good Place last night and wow did I cry a lot. I really loved watching that show, it was clever and very well executed. I was hooked from the very first episode. What do you guys think of the show?
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  32. When you have more rep than you do content count. Forum Games and Random Stuff: 100
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  33. Enough with the Enough with the Moash thing already thing already!
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  34. It all fits pretty well. Ishnah is on site, her background has been verified by the people responsible for the crime and she has easy access to Shallan. Maybe Shallan will crack this and reveal it at an opportune moment forcing Iyatil to try and kill her and fail.
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  35. Last year the homecoming king's date at my school was legitimately a cardboard cutout of himself. And this year we aren't going to have homecoming...
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  36. A series of images flash past Vapor's eyes. A couple embrace, one holding a baby, both smiling. A little girl with light hair tugs on a father's sleeve. The same child, older, holds two babies, smiling softly. Now Vapor can recognize some of them. Jeffrey and her mother standing in a lab, Vapor questioning. Vapor almost looks away, knowing what is coming. An explosion. The little Vapor crying, crawling away. A hand poking out of the rubble. A woman pulling Vapor away. Then, it is later. Vapor comes, alone. A scrap of her father's coat. No signs of life. The images begin to go faster. Vapor watches herself grow older on the streets, tougher. Then she sees Vapor at the duel. The Fellowship begins to form. Now Vapor leaves them, coming to Rish's mindscape. Last, she sees herself standing at the water, watching the images. The vision ends, and Vapor wipes away the tears. It is done. She is alive.
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  37. Yeah, it doesn't make a lot sense if Restares was trying to return the Voidbringers, although Gavilar thought Restares may be the one who sent Szeth, That speaks to a disagreement. Sons of Honor with Gavilar joining and basically co-opting the group may have had different goals than they did before. Mraize thinks Restares was the founder of the group. There is, of course, the little issue of Gavilar and Kalak meeting in person in the prologue and Gavilar clearly knowing Kalak and Nale are Heralds. It's possible Gavilar never met Restares or never met him when Restares wasn't under a mask for their goofy initiation rituals and doesn't know Kalak = Restares. The theory sprang to mind because I had previously been speculating that the reason the Honorspren aren't bonding more radiants is that someone is hanging out at Lasting Integrity influencing them, maybe a Herald or Unmade. If Restares is a Herald he'd have to be either Kalak or Ishar because the other three are dead, hanging out with Ash and Jasnah or siding with the Fused and while limiting the # of Windrunners is helpful for the Fused, Nale was already the head of the Skybreakers secret society, narratively it doesn't seem like he should be running two for all those years. Ishar is still running a nation as far as we know so he's busy. It could be someone else. Mraize telling Shallan he's not necessarily ordering her to kill Restares "you'll know what to do" when she gets there makes me think Restares is something special. Herald or spren or something that needs to be dealt with another way. Unless it's someone Shallan has known personally for a long time which will help her in connecting with them. Which is a little too contrived for me on paper, but could work in practice (this being a book "in practice" is also on paper ) if the reveal is well done and Brandon's usually are.
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  38. I think most of the negative attributes in Feruchemy are the lack of the positive attribute, hence why Feruchemy works the way that it does. There wouldn’t be a way to store the negative attribute (like cold) if this is the case. In whatever case, I think it’s just the way that the attributes are by nature.
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  39. Kaladin is depressed because of genetics. His father isn’t helping, but the depression is biological.
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  40. Just letting you guys know really quickly that I should not be on at all tomorrow. My procrastination is starting to be a really big problem. I don't know if you noticed, but, even though I said yesterday that I'd be on a lot less today, I was still on pretty close to the same amount of time. So, if you see me on at all tomorrow, yell at me.
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  41. Welcome to the shard. This theory has been discussed at length over the last few weeks. I personally take issue with it as it feeds into negative stereotypes around DID and Brandon has made a commitment to try and portray Shallan more accurately. I also think it has a verity of narrative problems not to mention logistical and plausibility ones. My opponents seem to argue the rule of cool allows it.
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  42. I see your point here, but I don't think that she reacted in a way that was unexpected. Last book, they traveled to another "world"/realm. They met people who looked weird (lighthouse guy). They saw spren cities. They met a stranger with a strange blade (Azure). And surely they have enough astronomy to know there are moons and planets out there. My guess is that (a) she thinks he wants to travel to another planet, which, wouldn't be strange for her as a scholar to hear, and (b) she is not at all even fathoming the breadth of the worlds we know he is discussing. Even the ancient greeks had theories regarding planets and the cosmos--and Galileo's telescopes expanded knowledge even more. So I don't think it's outside the realm of expectation that she wouldn't be surprised that some people wanted to go to different planets, and magic might make that possible. I guess I didn't think that was unrealistic as a reaction. Character-wise, Shallan is hardly ever shocked, either--her ravenous curiosity is a pretty strong character trait that Mraize definitely knows how to exploit.
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  43. Minimal buildup? You say that like we haven't had two books worth of increasingly unsubtle hints of 'the Ghostbloods are Cosmere-aware', three books of epigraphs of Hoid talking with Shards, and one book of main characters from Warbreaker hanging out with important characters, making no particular effort to hid their identities. And nor are the ideas being dropped here particularly massive. Names are dropped without any context for what they mean beyond the implication that they're somewhere further than Ashyn and Braize, and there's talk about how it's hard to bring stormlight to those places. Not particular huge ideas, by themselves. Really the whole Allomancy/ Fabrial connection should be making a lot more people go 'wait what?' than any of thing Ghostblood stuff, that's all been built up pretty naturally. And in case, there's certainly nothing here the requires having read Mistborn to understand what's going on, or anything.
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  44. Well, Gaz was the first to jump on the chance to be a decent person that Shallan offered in WoR, despite the danger, he hinted to her that he was ashamed of his past and also told her that even if she couldn't/wouldn't obtain the pardon for the deserters and they were all horribly executed, he'd still have been glad for the opportunity to act like a good person for a few weeks that she gave him. So, there was some kind of redemptive work going on in the background, as is fitting for a bit character. There might be more in RoW, but it isn't like even the central PoV characters necessarily apologize to the people whom they have wronged until much further into their Radiant development. BTW, it is an unfortunate human tendency to take their frustrations out on others who are even more powerless. Which the powerful constantly exploit to keep the heat away from themselves. Gaz hated his job as a sergeant of bridgemen and lived in constant fear of becoming one of them. This is not an excuse, but it is clear that he would have never sought this position of his own free will. I.e. he was not normally a sadist.
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  45. Just going to quote an older post of mine here, because it's a thread about Taravangian and The Diagram, and there's nothing I love more. I don't believe that for a moment. The Diagram has been absolutely accurate up to this point. It's "failures" have steered events precisely. Szeth's slaughter of world leaders created the ground on which the coalition was built. The release of information to undermine the coalition lead directly to Dalinar's desperate situation and rejection of Odium during the battle of Thaylen city which in turn led to the meeting with Odium where he read those words. Taravangian on the day of the Diagram laid out this plan to steer his less intelligent self (and even on genius days, he's still far less intelligent) by the nose to follow the true plan he had on that day. That plan did not exist outside of his head. Odium is aware of everything that is in the Diagram, and to have written down the plan would mean to expose it to scrutiny. The goals of the Diagram are not, and have never been what Taravangian believes. This is not about saving a remnant. This is not capitulation. This is about positioning himself where he can do the most to undermine Odium directly. He is now a "servant" of Odium, ruling one of the most powerful nations on Roshar. Odium believes him to be loyal out of necessity, because Taravangian himself believes that. Which is the entire point. He is a trusted tool of the enemy. It's in that "capacity" that he'll be able to do what needs to be done. Or as @RShara likes to put it. "T is a plant"
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