Leaderboard

I'M A KING'S WIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!! Get roasted!

I was just thinking and felt like I was being called to write this post so here it is. You may be having a hard day, if so this message is to you. I would like to tell you that everything is going to be okay and that you just need to stay determined and have hope. I believe that this will reach someone who will take this message seriously and changes a piece of them. Whoever you are. You are loved! okay. that was it. Hopefully reaches someone who needs it.

I now cook waffles!

Since the Nightwatcher specifically offers Dalinar a sword that "bleeds darkness and cannot defeated" in OB the simplest explanation is Vasher went to The Valley to ask to be able to consume Stormlight in place of a Breath to keep himself alive and his bane ended up being he had to leave Nighblood behind. He dies if he doesn't have a Breath to consume every week other than his Divine Breath and Stormlight is a lot easier to get than Breath, he doesn't have to convince anyone to give it to him it just shows up with every high storm. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/76/#e6177

Day 14-Radiant Ok so for today's prompt I had a good idea - or so I thought at the time. I started sketching it out and thought "wait this makes no sense" but I was too lazy to start over so I went with it. What I was thinking was that maybe Shallan would compare herself to Radiant and feel awful. She's created this "perfect" persona and feels like she can't live up to her. Radiant would be disgusted and disappointed in her because Shallan can never be her. Something along the lines of "you are your own worst critic." Or something I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I started drawing it this is just me trying to justify what I drew.

I'm a Son of Honor! Of course that isn't very significant anymore...

Status: LOL! What do you call a snobbish criminal going down the stairs? I don't know why I'm laughing, but I find this so hilarious!

Yeah I noticed that as well. I'd have thought that Teft would be the natural "heir" to Kaladin as Chief Windrunner, as he's been Kaladin's second since the early days of running bridges. At first I thought maybe Skar's promotion was specifically for Bridge Four, but no, it was for the "Windrunners" as a whole. Of course, Sigzil was delegated the role of head administrator for the Windrunners for "supplies and recruitment" and Skar for "active missions", perhaps Teft is over both of them in terms of overall strategy (i.e., the Kaladin role that goes to Dalinar and co. meetings)? That's what Dalinar had wanted Kaladin to rotate into, a general who commanded from off the field instead of in it, but Kaladin demurred as being unable to see the Windrunners fly into combat without joining them. Which would mean Kaladin is truly "out" of the Windrunners as an organization.

So, my siblings got me the Doomslug mask and t-shirt for my birthday, and they arrived today!

^ This has been confirmed. Don't worry Shallan... Formless can't hurt you...

Not to derail the current excitement over everyone's favourite grumpy ardent but humans are growing closer to the Rhythms. Rlain says some are close to knowing/hearing the pure tones and Kaladin almost senses something when Rlain attunes. This is pretty big.

Seven weeks ago, you left port from First of the Sun, with Silverlight as your destination. Four days ago, your captain was found dead. Stuck long away from your destination, your only hope is to kill the traitors on your ship before they overwhelm you. Basics Factions Roles Welcome to Long Game 71! I am the GM for this game, and @Matrim's Dice is the co-GM. @little wilson is the IM. All credit for the original ruleset goes to @Wyrmhero. This game is an altered rerun of LG15.2. Lots of stuff was changed though, so don't go by that ruleset. A list of changes and clarifications can be found here. If you have any questions, just @mention me. Signups will end on October 22nd at 5:00 PM EST. This will probably be the normal rollover time. RP Background: You're working on a trading ship in the far future of the Cosmere, with workers from a variety of worlds. Feel free to make up stuff about future society and magic! Spectator List Player List Quick Links

Ok, I don't really have a theory, just an observation. I'm looking for theories. Of the "primary" Radiants that we see in Oathbringer, at least 4 (5 if you count Venli) of them carry the designation of being unlike any other Radiants in the past. You have: Dalinar- able to open Perpedicularities, recharge stormlight (Stormfather notes how he's different than a Bondsmith) Renarin- bonded to corrupted spren, able to see the future (Ivory tells Jasnah) Lift- halfway into cognitive realm, metabolizes stormlight from food (Wyndle) Venli- Listener Radiant, has Fused Spren and Timbre, although pretty sure Rlain will join her soon, so maybe not that special but still unprecedented Szeth- has Nightblood but also I'm not even going to get into Hoid because I'm not sure he really counts but clearly no one else is like him, just ask Zahel. I'm summarizing and I understand the current Radiants don't exactly know what other Radiants were capable of in the past, but it's been Spren (and Zahel) who have commented how different they are. It could be plot device or it could be a final throw from the Shards to tip the scales somehow (looking at you, Cultivation). We might find out that Shallan, Jasnah, even Kal are unprecedented in other ways. Then again, they might be already in some ways and I just missed it. I have no unified theory on this and am open to theories why were are suddenly seeing Radiants who are unlike previous Radiants according to the Spren. Will it be common that the new Radiants in the True Desolation will be unlike the previous Radiants or are these few just special?

I, and I'm sure many others, have long suspected that music plays a larger role on Roshar than is explicitly said and that is is/will be one of the big reveals of a book that will suddenly help us understand what is going on a lot better. What better book for a such a reveal than one called "Rhythm of War" and feel like we just got in Chapter 15 some extra information so I felt like I would compile the definitive knowledge we have as well as the areas of speculation. Please help me add to these lists, both what we know and what you suspect. This can include Cosmere speculations, since I will be doing the same. Update: As has been pointed out, most of these have more to do with Sounds than Music. What We Know About Music and When It's Been Important in SA We have heard from the Listeners before about the music of Roshar which the humans are unable to hear. This ability to listen to the Rhythms allows Listeners to change form with a spren in their Gemheart during a storm. (Music and Stormlight?) Update: We know that the leaders of the Fused encased in stone were sing a song that Venli could tell was powerful. From Ch.15 we learn that the correct combination of light and music can attract spren to grow plants. Ryshadium attract musicspren even when there is no music playing. The Everstorm was created by chanting. Hoid's Flute (Music) is important and he can with it help/make a listener see the story he is telling (Light). Lightweaver's Ability affects both Light and Sound, (based on wavelength and frequency physics, I believe) Navani hears a pure note when Dalinar opens up the perpendicularity. Syl in her Interlude talks about the musicality of the storm, if I remember correctly. Update: Other spren, even deadeyes can hum to the Rhythms (we've seen Maya do this). There are probably many more and I will update this as I remember them or as others post things. Update: We also know that pure notes can be heard with Radiant Soulcasting. And chanting is used by ardents to do Soulcasting. In both cases there is the sense of harmonizing with other sounds. What We Might Speculate About Where/When Music Is Important in SA Roshar's landscape is an exact variation of a Julia set. I've often assumed this to be due to Rhythm of the planet creating such a mathematical formation. I believe this to be pre-Shardic and part of Adonalsium's design. Cymatics has been established early on as a possible explanation for why certain cities look the way they do. I've wondered about this being due to Dustbringers who I speculate based off of Malata burn things using frequency, potentially on a large scale when banded together. Another new potential explanation is that the Fused organically grow such shapes with Progression and they come out Cymatically due to the natural Rhythms of Roshar. This may also explain other patterns such as the Shattered Plains. Update: Could also be from chanting/music in general. We see in the Parshendi in general how the marbled pattern of their skin is unique for everyone and we've learned in RoW how the Fused maintain their pattern regardless of their body. Due to the prevalence of Light and Sound in Lightweaver, I've wondered if some or all of the other Radiant power can be explained by musical reasoning. For instance, as I mentioned, Dustbringers burning/disintegrating using frequencies and vibrations of resonances etc. Are Truthwatchers able to "listen" to the music of the spiritual realm or bring others into "harmony" with their perfect selves? Renarin can definitely do things with light and create a light illusion of a perfect self in the case of Moash. Do Edgewatchers "increase the tempo" of objects they are growing? Some of this sounds good to me as I write it and other parts sound like a stretch even to me, but I'd love input on this idea. Update: A suggestion that because sound creates microchanges in air pressure that that could account for Adhesion. Abrasion is in some ways the silencing of vibrations/sound. The "frequency" of Highstorms is currently not fully predictable, but what if it were with the right understanding of Roshar's Rhythms and their interactions? Is the Everstorm counter interference? Is the Origin the source of the music/Rhythms? Update: With all the new Fabrial insights we're getting, the metals, again, can be like tuning forks set to particular Rhythms. The cages need set patterns that could also influence the vibrations. Additionally, Logicspren can output certain frequencies it seems. Other spren in fabrials could account for the light/color connection. Additionally, we know that Honor supplies Stormlight - could Cultivation have more to do with Rhythm? We see how the combination of stormlight and music is so helpful in growing food, but only when combined. As an aside, could it be that Urithiru's Heart needs music/sound to help revive the Sibling? Does Kaladin's battle prowess have anything to do with hearing the Rhythms of battle? Or could his battle ability upgrade to hear this to then fight alongside someone as a war pair? The new Strength before Weakness t-shirt has me wondering about Kaladin and Venli and them being a war pair would be incredible. Now that I think of this, I want to see it so bad. Again, I'm sure I'm forgetting/missing things and I will update as people add ideas Light and Music In The Cosmere I don't remember any instance of music being magically relevant on Scadrial though I now wonder if the justification for metals always being Investiture relevant might have to do with them being Spiritual tuning forks of a sort. Update: Seekers hear pulses and it has been confirmed that they could hear the Rhythms of Roshar. In Warbreaker, sound and color are very important. We know that Awakening is used with sound commands up until the 10th heightening. We also know that people with lots of Breaths distort light around them to bring out the richness of colors. Finally, we know that color is important in Awakening, though we don't know exactly why it is necessary. Also, the Iridescent Tones in the religion based around the Returned in Hallandren - I always assumed both words to reference colors, but now I wonder about tones being a reference to music/sound. We also see certain painters being Invested enough to access the Spiritual realm in their painting and use of colors We know that Lightweaving is similar to Yolish Lightweaving, which I assume is pre-Shattering and from Adonalsium's original magic which I increasing feel is based on wavelength/frequency/music/arts? In White Sand, could Sand ribbons have any relation to frequency? Also, we see here that there is some color importance between invested sand and non-invested sand. Similar to how there are 3 realms, could it be that there is physical wavelength/frequency, cognitive wavelength frequency, and spiritual wavelength/frequency Update: We know Dawnchant to be a pre-shardic language on Roshar. Note its name: Dawn (light) chant (music). Coincidence? I think not! Again, I would love to add to this list of possibilities. tl;dr I see light and sound/music to a be fundamental magic system to both Roshar and perhaps the Cosmere as a whole with echoes all the way back to Adonalseum and I am trying to compile where we see it definitively and where it might be only hinted at. Thanks for reading and hopefully I get enough replies to further flesh out this theory. If someone else has already discussed this, I'm happy to be pointed that way as well.

My quarantine contribution: Peeps Before Death: I will protect peeps who cannot protect themselves.

I'm going to my grandparents. Connie will still be at home, and Mist will have her phone. Adios, mi amigos.

Fox's tears increased as Nath and Circe embraced her, and she smiled softly. Everything was going to be okay. For the first time in a very long time, Fox realized she had a love for the softness of these things called hugs. She should've given them a better chance. Two words escaped Fox's lips in something that could barely be called a whisper. Fox didn't know if Nath would hear her, and she didn't care. "Thank you."

I woke up 3 minutes ago, stumbled around in a blur and now somehow I’m at school im so confused how did I get here

Day 14: Armor. This... this is amazing. I finished this at around 11:00 last night 'cause I was really distracted all day after school, but man, was it worth it. I put a ton of care into the shading of the gold on her armor and the red cape and it just. Looks. Gorgeous. I'm so glad I decided to make her hair and eyes black and white too, it just... This is the best. This is the best one I have done so far. I'm not even going to give y'all the gesture, that would detract from how plain awesome this turned out. I was going to have a quote with this one, but none of the quotes from the story really worked, so I suppose I should just give some context for the people who care. The story that goes along with this is called "A Happy Ending" and it's a possible ending to the CBST RP where Star has aged quite a bit and decides it's time for her to pass on. She puts on her armor for the last time and says her goodbyes before fading away in a very force-ghost-like manor. It's really sweet and I'm glad I got to draw her like this in all her venerable regality. Also, just have to say. This is no longer true of my art.

So, really, I suspect that the organic fabrials are the 'true' fabrials- it's what the things that evolved on Roshar use. The metal-based versions developed by the humans are a weird hack designed to get around the way they can't hear the rhythms. Most visibly, this has got to be what the Singer forms are- they transform by going out into the Highstorm, attuning the right Rhythms, and trapping the right kind of spren in their gemhearts. From a more Realmatic point of view: In the Metallic Arts, the molecular structure of the metal acts as a 'key' that tells the Investiture what to do. We have seen other keys that have similar functions elsewhere in the Cosmere; most notably the language-based magic systems on Sel. And if a language can act as a key in this context, it makes perfect sense that a Rhythm can as well- the Rhythms do seem to be something fundamental about Roshar, after all. Then we get that the humans have replaced one type of key with another. But the real holy grail here, I think, lies in combining the organic and metallic fabrials. The Rhythms are probably gonna produce some effects you can't get with metals, and vice-versa. Using both in a single fabrial could lead to all kind of crazy things. Priority one, though, should be finding a way to make an organic fabrial that's more efficient than 'have a guy sitting there, constantly beating a drum'. Perhaps that why the Heralds and Fused have been so impressed by the things accomplished by the metallic fabrials; metals are a lot easier to mass-produce and scale up.

Jek stands, stunned, for a moment. "We only had one kiss," he whispered. He turned away from the others.

I'm not sure why you equate a storyline where Rlain gets an honorspren - which it seems he certainly would like to have, and it would seem like he certainly deserves, except for the honorspren objecting to him being "of the enemy" because of his being a listener - is "that's Equality with a captial E and therefore blech, 2020 message fiction". But you're entitled to whatever goes on in your own head. I think your comments are saying more about yourself than anything about Brandon's writing direction. So, there is a reason the listeners and singers had never bonded spren with Nahel bonds before. We don't know what that is. If it turns out it was purely racial prejudice and now, after thousands upon thousands of years, it was all really just a misunderstanding that will now be easily overcome simply by having Radiant spren - who are inflexible sentient concepts, at core, not living creatures with malleable minds, until they form a bond to a living person - suddenly deciding hey, let's bond some singers/listeners after all, and now all the fighting will stop! - I would agree that is an unsatisfactory storyline. Completely agree. But there being a deeper secret as to why Rlain is shut out from bonding, yet Venli was not, that can be discussed and shown as to Why It's Different This Time (for that matter, one can boil it down to the question of, "not why did, but why could Timbre bond with Venli when this had never happened before?") , that I think is being set up. And yes. Sorry. I am totally rooting for Rlain to get a spren bond, honorspren or otherwise, and would greatly enjoy seeing an honorspren like Yunfah being impressed by the honor on display by Rlain in telling him he doesn't want Yunfah to bond him under such a pretense of "enforced diversity." If you want to get all 2020 about it, Rlain doesn't want to be viewed as an Affirmative Action Token, he wants to be bonded on his own merit. You can't say that's not admirable. And having read what you have of Rlain and how he's acted after what he's put up with from humans, you can't say he isn't worthy of an honorspren.

There's that Whig History again. I disagree, I think this is a story about superheroes who have to overcome personal flaws in order to unlock their superpowers, in order to stave off the apocalypse and defeat the evil god behind it. Again, why is it important? Who is it important to? Is it important to you? To Tor? To Brandon? It's certainly not important to the characters themselves, since the thing that's actually important is, once again, surviving the apocalypse and defeating the evil god behind it. Kaladin seems to want reconciliation, but Jasnah is fine with genocide, and Venli wants independence, not a war and certainly not allies in a war. The spren themselves are divided, with some bonding humans, others refusing, and still others actively planning revenge. There's no reason why this should end in racial equality any more than it should end in one side winning or both sides being destroyed. Yes, this is exactly what I'm talking about. There might be compelling reasons for everyone to work together, but there are even more compelling reasons why they're at each others' throats in the first place. There have been four thousand years since Antietam Aharietiam. We've had nominal equality between races for what, three hundred years, tops? And that we is only Western Europe and the US. Don't ask the Chinese Communist Party to tolerate ethnic diversity, because they're not interested. I'm not against racial equality, I'm against poorly disguised message fiction. I hope Brandon isn't writing that story, but it amazes me how strong the desire is for such content. Why would he? This is simply not his fight. He's not on Roshar to get involved in a war between Shards, he's on Roshar to get away from that nonsense. He even says as much. The only reason he's opened up to Kaladin is because of their personal connection, probably because Vasher sees himself in Kaladin, and sees his own past folly in Kaladin's future. He's left the fight behind, or is trying desperately to pretend like he has (remains to be seen). He's not Gandalf, fighting for the good guys. He's more like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino: old, retired, surly, with a strong desire to be left alone, but a heart of gold behind the gruff exterior. It's only once you mess with him personally that he'll unleash his full capabilities. In Gran Torino Eastwood didn't go snitching to the police, and I doubt Vasher is willing to become entangled by aligning himself with Dalinar so publicly.

lol @Rosharan A.C. I love it. Had to add:

If you are wielding Nightblood, any imprisonment is voluntary.

This is true - some had tabbed Rlain as possibly becoming a Bondsmith, as forging the bonds between humans and listeners, that could still happen. And I think the observation that once it's seen (by readers, especially) that Radiant spren can bond with listeners, as seen with Venli, even if they've already got a Voidspren!, that it would be unequal if somehow listeners could only be Willshapers. That makes little narrative sense.

In Chapter 15 of RoW Zahel talks about fossils, and how Nalthis doesn't have any, and Roshar likely doesn't either. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that Scadrial (and any other artificially-created worlds) probably won't have fossils either. On one hand this is obvious, due to the timelines involved, but hey, who's to say a shard couldn't just create the fossils at the same time they created the rest of the planet? Apparently, though, assuming Zahel knows what he's talking about, they didn't. I was thinking about this, and I realized that, unless the shards deliberately created them, there aren't going to be any fossil fuels either. No petroleum, natural gas, coal, etc. This is super interesting, because it's going to really impact the way Cosmere societies develop. I would propose that Rosharans are creating fabrials, and Scadrians allomantically-powered-machines, not because that was easier than doing what we did on Earth, but because they can't do what we did. They don't have the natural resources to have a good-old earth-style industrial revolution with coal-based steam power and such. And then moving forward, are we going to see plastics and other materials that are based off petroleum? I'm trying to imagine Mistborn era 3 without plastic, and it's a bit tough to wrap my mind around. I'm even more interested than before to see how these societies are going to develop technologically. It's going to be weird and awesome.

This is what I get for not keeping up with the forums. Proud gay disaster here who loves all certified gay disasters. Here's my list (in reading order): [DISCLAIMER - this is for FUN!][Spoilers]

While I agree Shallan swearing Oaths and having a blade at such a young age sure seems unique, I’m hesitant to add her to the list yet because we don’t know enough. That being said, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to hear Pattern say “you were the youngest person ever to swear the Oaths”. As for Kaladin, I do think he’s doing things no one else could do from a leadership perspective, but right now he has the same Windrunner abilities as everyone else at the 3rd Oath and none of them have shown anything that makes the Spren say “Well that’s new.” As for Jasnah, we just don’t know enough about her story or abilities, and I don’t think Ivory is going to say too much. We do know at least Lift and Dalinar have interacted with Nightwatcher/Cultivation. Cultivation ended up with Nighblood and now Szeth has him so that’s a point in her favor too. To me it’s very possible that Renarin somehow ended up with Glys cause of Cultivation deal with Saj-anat but who knows. That would leave Venli but maybe we would find out something in this book? Again, I don’t have any theories, just the observation they are different than any previous Radiants.

In the past two days I have grown taller than both of my older siblings and I’m now the tallest person in my family, this is an exciting accomplishment for middle children. @Vapor

Combined with Adolin's comment in Chapter 12 And we've now had a couple very direct comparisons between Kaladin and Dalinar's style of command and personalities. Kaladin also spends a fair amount of time now thinking about how others perceive him, and purposefully projecting an image of control and confidence around others. I don't think he focused much on that before but it's always been a huge priority for Dalinar. Seems like we're setting up the idea that Kaladin is the natural successor to Dalinar as head of the armies.

[SIGNAL DETECTED] [INITIATING OS] [LOADING...] [LOADING...] [ALL SYSTEMS ONLINE] [DESIGNATION: ARTIFICIAL LIFE AND SYSTEM TECHNOLOGY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ROBOT] [WARNING: DECEASED CREWMATE DETECTED] [INITIATING PERSONALITY MATRIX] VGhlIHF1aWNrIGJyb3duIGZveCBqdW1wcyBvdmVyIDEzIGxhenkgZG9ncy4= ALASTAIR came online for the first time in many months (5 months, 162 days, 3891 hours, 233485 minutes, 14009143 seconds). There was a mission. [PERSONALITY MATRIX ONLINE] [INITIATING DEDUCTION ENGINE] [DEDUCTION ENGINE ONLINE]

The epigraph of chapter 15 mentions alternating of dimming and brightening in regular patterns, and we saw that the “organic” Gabriel’s use rhythms to attract spren. What I’m thinking is that logicspren may be able to emulate the rhythms in how they pattern their brightening and darkening. This could maybe help people in world devise more complex fabrials that incorporate aspects of these organic fabrials and the tradition inorganic ones. Even without that, just being able to tune a logicspren’s light controlling cycle to the tune of rhythm could be useful in replacing the people who have to stand around beating drums. It would be really cool if they could function as sort of light jukeboxes that can be set to different rhythms to attract different spren. For normal spren, it would make it easier to capture them for inorganic fabrials. If it worked in radiant spren (which is, admittedly, quite doubtful) it could help attract them for bonds. Finally, if they were able to attract some of the more mindless unmade in a ways that similar to how the life spren were attracted, perhaps a large number of them could be set up as a trap. I may be completely off base here in thinking that regulated brightening and darkening patterns could be paralleled to rhythms, I’d love to see what other people think!

Tears continue to fall from my right eye. I gently remove Ember's arm and lean forward. I allow my love and warmth flow through as I gently take Fox into my embrace. I allow the slight breeze that carried my voice to her to end. Silently I embrace her. I speak no words and simply allow my presence to say what I know she needs. Circestran removes her hand from Fox's shoulder and wraps her in an embrace of her own. @Channelknight Fadran @Mist

The kickstarter poster arrived yesterday and it is as awesome as expected!!!!!!!!!

Taravangian himself would approve (on his more intelligent, ruthless days)! Jasnah would too, in fact, Jasnah wouldn't even bother with the poison. She'd smoke him, open some windows, and never tell Dalinar to keep him compartmentalized..

What does Team Dalinar think they know about Taravangian, anyway? I also don't think they know about the Diagram, or his cycle of cold intelligence and empathy. After the battle at Thaylen Fields, he tells Dalinar straight up that he abandoned him because he assumed he'd fall and wanted to put himself in position to seize control of the coalition. This shocks Dalinar into realizing he had not become king of Jah Keved by accident, either. Taravangian then further says, while excusing himself from Gavilar's death at Szeth's hands, that he subsequently sought out the Assassin in White and managed to get him to do all those other assassinations of world leaders. (Which Szeth should have further explained by now as being Oathstone related.) Eight days later, a "dumber" version of Taravangian is thinking back on how he'd given "some truth" to Dalinar as a "calculated risk" to remain in the coalition, even if Dalinar might never trust him again. So Dalinar probably knows or believes: Taravangian's "slow of thought" reputation was a complete front Taravangian has been scheming to take over the world with politics and assassination... For which his motive was to unite and to save humanity from destruction by the Voidbringers after an ardent at the Palanaeum, "Dova", who was probably Battah'Elin, told them the Desolation was coming He has lost his assassin (in Szeth), so his most dangerous tool is now gone, and his political scheming is limited by his confessions Because he still thinks Taravangian's ultimate goals align with his, and because Taravangian controls Kharbranth and Jah Keved (two of the human nations that still stand - where Alethkar itself does not), he is still including him in the coalition to fight the Voidbringers. They don't know he was responsible (by commanding Malata) for the attack on Urithiru through the supposedly closed Kholinar Oathgate that resulted in the loss of Jezrien's Honorblade that Vyre is now flitting about with. As we see from the Conference of the Fused, he's been passing on information about the "guard patterns" at Urithiru, but not really important stuff like Navani's advances in fabrial design. Assuming he's not holding back, he's being excluded from such things even though until his earlier treachery had been revealed, Jah Keved had been at the forefront of fabrial technology (what with the "half-shards" and all), and Taravangian himself gave the tip to Dalinar as to how one captures a spren in a fabrial gemstone that insipired him to trap Nergoul in the King's Drop ruby.

If you read it like I read it, he referred that event obliquely as a "mistake", yet "the best one he ever made". So it wasn't stolen, but a decision to let it go. (When Kaladin asks about why Zahel "gave up the sword", I like to think he mentally replied to the very related question, why Vasher gave up THE SWORD.)

Well, Zahel was saying that as long as that description fit Kaladin, he would not really be fit - by motivation, not by skill - to be a swordmaster ardent. "Return when you hate the fight,” Zahel said. “Truly hate it.” Return (no pun intended, I presume)... To be an ardent... Like he is. Which equivalence would mean that Zahel "truly hates the fight". For now. This time. ("Because I learned that conflict would find men no matter how hard I tried. I no longer wanted a part in trying to stop them.") But has not in the past. And then not long after, he muses about how "Type Two Invested Entities" like himself are "chained to their Intent" the longer they exist. And what Intent were you given, O Warbreaker the Peaceful who has lived a dozen human lifetimes or more? (Or was that Wartlover the Ugly?)

As you might imagine, I love your username! Welcome! Glad you enjoy Shardcast

I am not calling Stormlight message fiction. It's Epic Fantasy, and I'd like it to stay that way. I'm afraid of it becoming message fiction, and I disapprove of what I see as hopes that it becomes message fiction. Yes, a good story succeeds or fails on its characters. What's the point? Yes. If this is it, I'll be disappointed. I want a gnarl, something that makes it distinct from Captain Planet or a Very Special Episode in the Cosmere. Someone switching sides and betraying their former ally for a better deal is a tale as told as time. Everyone deciding that they're not so different and that diversity is their real strength is 2020 message fiction. I have no problem with Vercingetorix saying Death or Free Gaul, what I have a problem with is the Romans saying, OK no problem we're all cool now. No! They're sworn enemies, and Vercingetorix spent the last six years of his life imprisoned just so he could be paraded through Rome at Caesar's Triumph, after which he was unceremoniously strangled to death. That's the kind of ruthlessness I expect to see between these people, because that's the kind of world they live in, and just as it would be a betrayal to show Kaladin unaffected by the trauma he's suffered, it would be a betrayal to show Roshar as a happy multicultural multiracial one-world nation given its history. I'm not interested in seeing Rlain get an Honorspren because that's Equality. If that's the story we get, blech, no thanks. What I'm interested in is revealing the reason for the split between the Singers and Honor. I'm interested in Humans and Singers switching gods, and the reasons why that happened. Good reasons, one would hope.

The "fossil" from Zahel recalled me of this epigraph from the second letter targeting Hoid. And Zahel shows the fossil just when they were talking about Hoid. I know that is improbable but, ey, it's an old rock

Zahel's summary of Wit was accurate.

No wonder if every worldhopper took a rock away from it...

Wait so logicspren are basically analogues to semiconductors right ? I think that's what the epithet is implying. Yo yo. The clothing , they were just laundered. And he's ripping them apart. Wow . That galls me for some reason Woah , omg , so they are copies. Perfect copies. Not the initial souls. Huh like Whole Brain Emulations , theoretical copies of brains run on computers which have the same exact personalities and memories as the human being emulated , which can hypothetically let humans achieve immortality and super intelligence and a few other things. Woah . He's using real world sci fi and science analogues for Magic. My respect for Sanderson as an author has increased so much. So Zahel seems to be a living case of the ' Ship of Theseus ' paradox . I would say that a being is a pattern of information set in neurons in real life or in Investiture in the cosmere , so Zahel is really the real Vasher . I mean if u make a perfect copy it's no longer a copy but rather another original. Also I know I'm no one compared to most everyone, let alone Brandon Sanderson himself. But I can't help feeling proud that he actually used a real swear word. *Wipes tear of joy

Made this a couple days ago but realized i probably couldn't put it in cremposting. Thank you so much for creating a meme page where RoW spoilers are fine!