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  1. I was just thinking... The number of things that rep can mean. "I find this amusing." "I feel sympathy for you." "This was a beautiful piece of (art, writing, etc.)" "You made me feel [this emotion]" "Thank you!" "You put a lot of effort into this." "I'm bored and decided to give rep to random people." "I feel obligated to upvote this." "This has a lot of upvotes, so I might as well do it too." "You have very few upvotes and so I'm giving you sympathy rep." "Somebody told me to rep you."
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  2. So, uh, I just finished reading through the Mistborn trilogy for the second time in my life and, yeah, no book(s) will ever, ever be as good as those. To me, at least. Those books have done far too much for my mental health for me to forget about their majesty. Now that I've finished that, I am free to read Rhythm of War... even though I really, really don't want to. I know I'll love it, so I'll do it, but... yeah. Y'all read way too fast and it makes me feel a little worthless. In more positive news though, I've just been so overwhelmed with love for Marshy recently. He gives me life and he deserves all the hugs. So, I really, really want to write - from his perspective - what happens to him after we last see him in HoA. Depending on how well it turns out, I'll either make it its own topic in the fanworks category or I'll post it on my blog, or in a status update. So, yeah, be on the lookout for that, I'm super excited to read it.
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  3. Da da da dat da, dat da da da da ya da
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  4. Since Connie asked, here is something that I drew a bit ago because I needed some relaxation~ Not that anyone will see this when I post it, of course. I could've done better with the eyes, and we all know that I could've done nothing with the horrible–– *cough* I mean, amazing lighting.
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  5. SPOILERS AND ADDED INFORMATION: I had posted other bits of this else where in 2020 before the "Taln never broke" WOB, but consolidated all the ideas here in this post This theory and post came out before Rhythm of War, but updates have been made to include information from ROW SA5 Prologue: This is not discussed to avoid spoilers, but SA5 Prologue has some interesting information --- Weird Questions: 1) TALN BREAKING SEEMS ODD What broke Taln? He is crazy and insensate for 4000 years and then one day he says "No thank you". What could have broke Taln? And, in terms of timelines, Taln returned before the Everstorm crossed into the physical realm, so it can't be that the Everstorm freed Taln. Yes the Everstorm was in the Cognitive, but all the doom and gloom seemed to be about the Everstorm being pulled in the Physical Realm by Eshoni and her team. Since Taln returns at the end of The Way of Kings, then Taln must return in a way that is not related to Eshoni. And as I mentioned before, I don't think it makes sense that Odium suddenly found a way to break Taln after 4000 years of trying. Edit: we later got a WOB that Taln did not break 2) DAVAR FAMILY CONNECTIONS Why was the Davar family so connected to secret societies despite being a Vaden house of little note? They have connections to the Ghostbloods and the Ghostbloods have handed them a confirmed soulcaster AND possibly a Seon box. Why? And it seems Skybreakers may have been visiting as well for "reasons". As well, the Skybreakers are breaking paterns when it comes to the Davars. As far as we know, Shallan's older brother is the only Skybreaker to be using a dead blade. Is this special treatment for a member of the Davar family? And finally, Mraize seems to know the Davar family well enough to recognize the name immediately. The Davars would need to be pretty active for that name recognition to be so apparent. 3) CHILD SHALLAN AND HER IMPORTANCE Why did the cryptic go to Shallan as a child? Lift was chosen due to her strange connection to Cultivation, but why Shallan? And why twice? And what were Shallan's parents fighting about? Shallan remembers her parents having huge fights over Shallan's future starting from a very young age. What was that about? Connected to that, why is an dark influence attacking the Davar family? Why is Heleran given a shardblade and brought into the skybreakers? No other Skybreaker acolyte was given a dead-blade and sent to war (that we know of), so why is Helaran so non-standard? Shallan's parents also fight A LOT about Shallan's future. This seems to be a hint that Chanarach had a major plan for Shallan. 4) MAMA DAVAR IN THE KNOW Why was Shallan's mother so quick to try and kill "one of them". How does she know "them" so clearly? Why would she have such a quick and radical reaction? 5) MORE SECRETS What is Shallan's last secret. There is still something horrible in Shallan's past, and this has something to do with a Seon box and whatever Radiant was created to protect Shallan from. What is worse than killing testament? We also have strange internal thoughts from Shallan from WOR in Chapter 10: "The world ended; and Shallan was to blame". This thought has never been explained. What did Shallan do to end the world? "The world ended, and Shallan was to blame.- Words of Radiance, Chapter 10. Mentioned by @honorblades Another strange but overlooked instance occurs in TWoK when Shallan almost summons her Shardblade: If this is indeed Patters/Testement, then why would that Spren ask "What are you?" Testament should full-well know "what" Shallan is in terms of her being a human or a semi-radiant or anything like that. If this voice is Testament, then asking "What are you?" is very odd in my opinion. Shallan answers "I am terrified", but to me that always seemed ... not what the voice was asking Shallan. I always felt there was more to this that simply speaking truths. 6) THE FAMILY'S SAFE AND THE GLOWING LIGHTS ARE IMPORTANT (main data point for me creating this theory) People are very quick to discount Shallan's recollection of Lin Davar placing a glowing soul into a safe. I have always been very confused as to why Shallan is taken as "lying" to herself in this scene. Shallan has no reason to lie about the item being her mother's soul instead of a Shardblade. Lin Davar acted extremely quickly in that situation and made sure to place the item in that safe before dealing with any other issues. That to me is extremely telling. Why would Lin think the Shadblade wouldn't disappear eventually whenever Shallan dismissed it? Why would Lin think the Shardblade would stay in a safe if he managed to place it there quickly? Why would Lin so quickly run to place the item in the safe in the first place? Why is there an unused safe in that room? And then why do Shallan and Lin seem to continually see light coming from that safe for years and years? None of that vibes with "it is just a blade and Shallan is lying to herself" in any way. I just don't get it. Shallan having a Shardblade is not in anyway covered up by this lie, nor is the lie that Shallan killed her spren hidden by this lie either? There is no mental cover-up being done by Shallan making up a lie here. It seems everyone else dismisses Shallan, including Pattern, in favour of "Lynn put a sword in there". 7) EDIT FOR ROW: Then in ROW we get the timeline, and this does not hold up to scrutiny either. Shallan says her father put the item into the safe. WoR Shallan thinks that was a soul, but Pattern convinces her she is misremembering and that the item was a dead spren-blade. But that can't be a dead spren blade because Shallan has not unbonded Testament yet. Shallan does not think that a spren is trapped in that safe and we know this because Shallan then leaves to go speak with her spren in the garden AFTER the item is placed in the safe. Shallan acts immediately as a child in a way that doesn't even consider that her "blade" is in that safe. It just doesn't make sense to think a blade was placed into that safe based on the reactions of the two witnesses involved (which we learn Pattern is not one of) We take it from Pattern that Shallan is wrong here in her memory. However, In ROW we learn that Pattern is NOT an eyewitness to what went down in that room. Pattern sure has a lot of opinions about what Shallan saw, but Pattern was not actually there in the room and cannot actually know what Shallan saw go into the safe. Pattern assumed Shallan is lying to herself as Pattern sees many other lies around that event. But Pattern has no knowledge about who Mother-Davar was, what the safe was for, or why Skybreaker/Ghostbloods may have been in the home. Pattern is not a credible source of information on the events of that day. Shallan is the only living witness, and the actions of her father are consistent with the understanding Shallan had as a child. Shallan too noticed her father staring at the direction of the safe and the light. Only later in life is Shallan told again and again that her memory of those events are wrong by people who were not there. Both Lin and Shallan believe something is in the safe, and a sword does not match the other data points we have. There is "light" in that safe, and it is leaking out over time. And where di the blood come from? A Shardblade should not have done that. The blood has to be some other injury? The box is something. The light was something. Pattern is making assumptions and is wrong about this history with the safe. And why does Shallan see a glowing light coming from the box? Is it a soul like she believes? We learn in RoW that no herald soul can be trapped completely, and that the light of a herald will slowly leak out (is that what Shallan was seeing her whole childhood come out of the safe?). Is it her mother's soul escaping slowly to Braize? Or maybe could it be a perfect gem with Mishram inside? Who knows? But it is something. We have seen other glowing lights (Dawnshard and Dalinar hearing TwoK), so is she just mad, or did she really see something? Whatever it is, it does not make sense that Shallan thinks Testament is trapped in the safe if Shallan went and yelled at Testament after her mother was killed. Something was put into that safe, and to me the most likely answer is "her mother's soul". And firhermore, there is no reason to believe that Lin Davar would think a safe would ever prevent a Shardblade from reappearing in Shallan's hands. 8) HOID and MIDDLEFEST Hoid is downright shocked to see child-Shallan at the Middlefest celebration. Hoid sees something, but that something is unclear. When we originally read WOR, we assume HOpid is shocked to see a Radiant Child or perhaps a bonded spren. However, Shallan does not have a regular active sprenbond at the time of Middlefest, so Hoid did not see Testament or an active radiant bond There are a few things Hoid may have seen: a. Hoid saw Odium's touch on her family b. a dead-blade living-radiant connection line was still active c. the Cryptic team that watched Shallan. d. Shallan is so obviously a part of Chanarach that Hoid was gobsmacked by the resemblance. e. Shallan is noticeably different than other Rosharans due to her strange parentage. But whatever Hoid saw, it was not an active Spren Bond since we know Testament is a deadeye at that point in the story. ---- It All Put Together - A Timeline 1) JAH KAVED Chararach settled in the Davar estate in rural Jah Kaved. Chanarach is involved in several of the secret societies of Roshar just like most of the other heralds we have seen. Chanarach learns of the theory that a return of surgebinders will bring about a desolation. Chararach is completely terrified of returning to Braize and supports the culling of nascent surgebinding. Chanarach is involved in research and is a part of the search to create a method that prevents a herald from returning to Braize upon death. Kalak is also involved. 2) COMMUNICATION NETWORKS Chanarach commands a fair bit of influence and even has a Seon to communicate off world. It is unclear who knows who Chanarach is, but as she did settle in a rural area it is likely Chana's identity is not common knowledge even within secret societies (similar to Restares and Amaram). Chana exerts some form of influence and stays in-the-know with investiture theory and is able to contact others on Roshar or off-world. 3) CREATING THE SAFE Chana tries to devise a way to never return to Braize. She creates a special kind of safe that her soul could be placed in to. She thinks it will entirely prevent a return or will greatly delay her return to Braize. Chana has no way to test this as there are no herald-souls or returned-souls to experiment with. Possibly, the safe is akin to the Seon box in design or the safe may even actually be the Seon Box Shallan remembers playing with as a child? At some point, Chana tells Lin Davar what to do in case she is ever killed (place her soul into the box). In ROW we learn Kelek has some knowledge on this herald soul-leakage issue, so perhaps he was also involved in the Soul Box experiments in some way. 4) SHALLAN IS BORN Chanarach eventually has a daughter and names that daughter after her friend Shalash (Shallan says she was named after Shalash). Shallan may not be a "typical" offspring. She seems to be different from her brothers in some meaningful way. Perhaps Shallanis a cutting of Chararach or maybe Shallan conceived through some form or parthenogenetic process. Perhaps Shallan was created using breaths, as Tyn notes that Shallan seems to see colours better than most other people. EDIT: In a later WOB we learned that that non-returned Cognitive Shadows have had children Edit: In a later WOB we learned that Heralds can have children but it is complicated and effortful to do. Chana has special plans for Shallan. We know from WoR that Shallan's parents fought A LOT about Shallan's future. This implies to me that Shallan is somehow more intentionally convieved than her male siblings, and that Chana had something planned for Shallan that Lynn Davar had moral misgivings about. We are not sure what this is, but I think a lot of us will assume it has something to do with the Oathapact and/or returning to Braize. 5) SHALLAN IS DETECTED BY SPREN The Cryptics find out that one of the heralds has children or they discover a weird child who stands-out and is similar to the child of a Returned. The Cryptics send a delegation to investigate (WOB confirms heralds can have children though maybe it is difficult). At the same time, an unmade is drawn to the family. Testament begins to bond Shallan similar to what happened with Lift. Shallan eventually discovers what her mother is by playing with a Seon box at the Davar estate. The unmade's influence increases in an attempt to get the Herald to go insane and potentially get herself killed by Lin Devar or Shallan. 6) SHALLAN IS DETECTED BY SKYBREAKERS Shallan is discovered to be a surge binder by her mother. Her mother, fearing a return to Braize, refers to Shallan as "one of them". Note that Chanarach does not seem surprised that surgebinders are real. Chanarach has an absolute PTSD breakdown and attacks her daughter. Lin, who likely knew, steps in and Shallan is able to kill her mother in self defence. Lin Devar takes something and locks it away in the safe. We are told this is the Shardblade and Shallan's mother's soul. Shallan goes to the garden to scream at Testament and break her bond AFTER Testament is supposedly locked away in the safe. This timeline does not make sense even if we believe Testament could escape the safe. Why does Shallan believe her spren was trapped but also then in the garden? And how is Testament-blade = her mother's soul? There isn't a connection there logically. 7) SHALLAN KILLS A HERALD AND THEN TALKS TO TESTAMENT IN THE GARDEN After Shallan kills her mother, Shallan goes to Testament and breaks her bond. It is possible Testament told her more here as well. Shallan then begins to repress everything since Shallan has, in her mind, done the most evil act in history. "The world ended, and Shallan was to blame.- Words of Radiance, Chapter 10. Mentioned by @honorblades 8) CORRUPTION SETS IN Lin Devar begins to be corrupted even more. Lin also has mental guilt and wrestles with killing his herald-wife to save his daughter. He beings to protect Shallan at all costs for reasons that may be more than just guilt. Then Davar family hell ensues. The ghostbloods continue to cultivate the family. The Ghostbloods may not believe a herald could be killed by Lin or may not know she was a Herald. The Cryptics stay with Shallan as they don't blame her for what happened. They are still curious about what Shallan is and are researching what happens to a bonded-deadeye to its original radiant. The dark influence in the house may be more than an unmade as well. One of Chana's divine attributes is "obedient". I think this is significant. Lin is driven to rage every time one of his children will not obey him, and the word obey is emphasized many times. It may be possible the Lin's rage was a dark consequence of something Chana was doing, the safe's magical effects, or something else. It is also possible that Lin thought his children would inherit the divine attribute, and the fact they dont obey him drives him to rage. 9) BRAIZE AND SOUL LEAKAGE Chanarach returns to Braize. It may have taken some time for her to get to Braize. It seems the soul is leaking out of the safe over time (ROW: as we see with Jezrian in the gem). Or maybe it takes 5 years to find Chana on Braize since arrival was unexpected and because in earlier returns the heralds were able to "hide" for some time. Either way, the other heralds do not know that that has happened as they cannot detect the pain-bond while on Roshar. Edit: Ishar created the oathpact so he may be able to sense changes in it. 10) HOID SEES SHALLAN Shallan, with no bond, goes to Middlefest. Wit's magic or memory allow him to detect that there is something very strange about Shallan. Wit somehow knows what Shallan fights "is not truly natural" and encourages her to make a path for the light. It is unclear what Wit saw, but he knew more than the fact she was a surgebinder (even though she's actually a deadeye-binder at the time). 11) CHANA IS CAPTURED ON BRAIZE Chanarach is eventually found on Braize. For some reason, Chana either breaks to the pain or gives in to some deal Odium offers. It may have taken a while or been immediate. What is strange is that Chana has not been seen returning to Roshar, either Chana took some deal meaning she did not have to return or perhaps she intentionally landed somewhere remote. 12) TALN RETURNS WITHOUT BREAKING THE OATH Taln returns to Roshar completely insane and without breaking. What happens to Chanarach is unknown. All assume Taln broke. 13) SHALLAN BEGINS TO REMEMBER THAT HER MOTHER WAS A HERALD Radiant is created from memories of Shallan's mother. Or potentially, Radiant is somehow part of Chanarach. Radiant dresses in the same blue and red warrior outfit as the Herald Chanarach in artworks. Radiant is Shallan's repressed memories of who her mother was. It is also possible that Radiant is in someway Shallan's mother (connection mumbo jumbo and cognitive shadow stuff along with cultivation weirdness possibilities) Here is a description of Radiant: “She [Radiant] had chosen to wear her vakama; the traditional Vaden’s warrior clothing. It was similar to the Alethi takama but the skirt was pleeted instead of straight. She wore a loose matching coat with a tight vest and shirt beneath. The bright clothing features vibrant blues embroidered over reds with gold woven between and it had trim on the skirt” Here is Chanarach: 14) TESTEMENT MEMORIES Shallan is forced to confront what happened with Testament, and Radiant begins to see that she must help Shallan deal with her final truth. [Option 1] Shallan knows she killed a herald and that she sent her mother to damnation - possibly ending the world and starting the final desolation. [Option 2] Shallan does not know her mother was a herald, but will put that together in regards to the "hole" in her memory"
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  6. My little sister was apparently talking to my mom about character foils earlier. I am so scudding proud of her.
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  7. Feeling pretty might have a mental breakdown later
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  8. Alright so elims if you claim to me and help me get valuable items, I can tell you who the other villagers are for exchange, pretty good right?
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  9. Back with another theory with probably more time put into overthinking organization and formatting than the content of the theory itself! This time, I'll be looking at our favorite little murder weapons, Nightblood and the Jezrien Stabbin' Knife, with bonus appearances from sprenblades, the Lezian Stabbin' Knife, and of course, Asterisk! (I'm sure various parts of this have been debated to death prior, but I haven't done a ton of looking around at other theories on this stuff yet. So oops if so.) As usual, this is full of everything being way over-cited even for common knowledge things, a.) to stay in the habit of citing, b.) to have exact wording handy, and c.) to try and avoid falling to commonly-held misconceptions. (0.) TL;DR Blackened wounds are an indication of something to do with the detachment of other aspects from the Physical aspect, but I am unsure what exactly distinguishes it from things that turn grey or white. Black smoke is related, though I am uncertain what it really is. (Despite the length of this post, my final conclusion is kind of wishy-washy on details, because it's all weird.) It is possible this is exclusive to Leeching (or similar but not identical mechanisms, such as raysium), but it is also possible it applies to other situations, and we just have not seen any of them yet. (1.) Background (2.) Finding Other Aspects (3.) Piercing the Realms (4.) Greying & Spiritual Draining (5.) Tying It All Together (6.) One Unresolved Question (I.) References
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  10. Smh legitimately offended that I'm not the first person you think of here ;-; /s *googles* > the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories. Haha a solo doc in a solo doc
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  11. [OOC: Tired and it's been a long day so no RP forthcoming just yet. Just further thoughts, some of which are at request: I'm mildly suspicious of Gears' move. I know some players disagree with me on this in PMs. I don't think it's strongly indicative of his alignment, but I do think it's either an Evil move or poor Village play. The only scenario under which it doesn't turn out to be poor Village play is if and only if one thinks Striker to be Evil - which to be fair, Gears was leaning towards last night. Lying about possession of the clock is not itself something incompatible with being a Villager - both Villagers and Evil have reason to be deceptive about this, so calling Striker out in that light appears to be both trying too hard, and attempting to instigate a clock FFA, whether by the Thief, or by LoRs. I note that Evil doesn't need to go for item possession play, only to deny us these items or to force us to squander valuable resources re-acquiring them. I didn't Ward the camp last night because I was out of chalk. I no longer am. Resource scarcity is definitely an issue. I'm somewhat suspicious of Gears, Striker, TUO, and now Araris, so this thread has basically been me singing 'Every Major's Terrible' to myself but trying to adapt it for 'Every Suspicion's Terrible' instead while working out who my final vote will go to. (Akan datang.) I'm not happy with how fast the vote wagon sprang up on Gears, and I'm saying this independent of my suspicions. Short of us having caught Gears bloodyhanded and some kind of quiet Seeker coordination going behind the scenes, a vote train shouldn't have materialised this quickly, considering Striker wasn't actively in danger of being grinched (thanks @Illwei, imma try this one) at that point. I haven't been able to do vote analysis or deep reading yet. I am reluctant to break my declaration I will be Laidback!Kas this game, and I'm tired. At least it's not the vaccine. But you may want to take this into consideration with regard to the level of analysis currently backing my suspicions. Striker - the late vote on Connie doesn't look good, and Striker commenting - consciously, of course - that his main suspicions had all gone awry and he was at a loss could be consistent with an Evil player realising he has to account for the fact Illwei and Mat are Village. Or it could be a Villager who really has realised he needs to re-evaluate. Striker could be a convenient patsy. Or not. But if we're giving flak to Striker for tunneling on Illwei, then Ash and Ventyl don't come out looking very good either. With Striker, the added complication is that he's known to be PM Spidering, and to have coordinated Wards on one Night. With players occupying these roles, the usual question is, "Why are you still alive?" Taking down info-nexuses is always a good thing for an Evil team. Of course, if the correct reading of the situation is that Striker is being set up as the fall guy for today, then it's no surprise he's left alive - because he's the next grinch candidate. Or, he could be Evil. TUO - they're lurking comfortably in the vaguely helpful region, claimed to be Warding daily but forgot their order last night, and attempted to offer item analyses, which in my view, only go so far until we know how Team Evil is playing. I'm very wary of how swiftly they jumped onto the Gears wagon. This is their first vote of the entire game, and Striker's reasoning for Gears is not substantially different from what has been offered for Gears on any point save D1, minus Gears calling Striker out, but again - that's not necessarily Evil-exclusive. Araris - that post on the Striker-Gears clash is incredibly wishy-washy and appears to be extremely gerrymandered towards voting on Striker, coming from a player who has consistently voted on Gears on every single day (D1, D3, mentioned as suspicion N1 -Edit: Correction, I meant mentioned as suspicion N3, which just makes this look worse in my opinion) Gears showed up as a vote candidate, including against Connie. There's a shift from 'Gears is suspicious' to 'Gears has strong justification' - really? What is it? Because the only way Gears shows up as having strong justification is if and only if Gears thinks Striker is Evil. Lying about the clock is not itself sufficient grounds to deem a player Evil. And for the record, I know two other players who tried for the clock and failed. Unclear to me how the deception would've been obvious. So the bottom line of that post: 'Gears is suspicious, TUO is suspicious, but I'm going to go for Striker, who has done the same thing TUO did in my analysis, and also, Evil Gears should've been more thoughtful.' - Evil Gears does have a reason to: instigating a FFA. I'm not comfortable voting on Gears or Striker without further analysis. But TUO and Araris have crept to the lead where my suspicions are concerned. I'm not gonna highlight this it's a sea of OOC anyway. Don't @ me this isn't analysis and I mean it.]
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  12. After 4,500 years, I think he is so far gone he can't break, like litterally couldn't do it. He's completly unresponsive to any stimuli, I don't think he's capable of breaking his word at this point
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  13. Doing mine for tomorrow now because I don't know if I'll be able to get on tomorrow. Are you Hoid? Because I see you everywhere. 7 days until Valentine's Day!
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  14. …It seems like such a disservice to Jasnah’s character to expect her to fall into some sort of vengeance-seeking spurned lover stereotype. I’d bet she’d let hurt feelings fuel vengeance against Hoid if he betrayed Roshar or her family, but over a relationship? Even ignoring that this is Jasnah, vendetta-ing over a relationship seems out of character coming from someone either where she seems to be on the Ace Aro spectrum, or where she seems to be in regards to letting emotionless über-practicality rule her. Let alone from someone in both those places together.
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  16. Imagine if, on Scadrial, Ruin had won, and the Inquisitors and Koloss were unleashed across the Cosmere. Preservation splintered and Ruin freed from the system, but the magic still remaining. Imagine if, on Roshar, Odium succeeded and Dalinar became the leader of the Fused. Odium unleashed, Honour and Cultivation dead and their spren turned to Odium's side. Imagine if Elantris had fallen, and all of Sel eventually was ruled by a single empire, lead by someone such as Wyrn, all the regions united into a single nation or a few strong nations able to travel the Cosmere and laying power lines like the Iree fortress made use of to access power further away. Imagine if Taldain, Threnody, and others had their emperors, splinters, dark forces, released, and Endowment was determined to bring the other shards into line. Consider the armies, all villains, fighting one another for the Cosmere, and imagine, due to whatever factors could slow some down or speed them up caused these events happened at the same time. Avatars of Autonomy fighting Ruin fighting Odium fighting Endowment fighting the remains of Ambition (and possibly Mercy). And presumably the shards already know, just as Harmony knew of the radio before one was in theory built, how to make fabrial weapons and advanced real world weapons. We don't know all the other remaining worlds and organisations, but considering these possibilities, it certainly is chilling. Shards fighting shards and remnants of shards, magic against magic, weapons used.
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  17. A few years ago, Brandon released this map of Roshar's Shadesmare Each of the expanses are planet that you can walk to in Shadesmare, the Expanse of the Vapors is confirmed to be Scadrial and the Expanse of the Density us confirmed to be Sel; the Expanse hidden before the "Shadesmar" text is known as the Expanse of Vibrance and is nearly confirmed to be Nalthis. Until RoW we didn't have any clue on what planet could be the Expanse of the Broken Sky nor why it could be called that way, Scadrial is called the Expanse of the Vapours because its Shadesmare is misty, Sel is called the Expanse of Density because it's Shadesmare is made of blazing plasma and with Nalthis' emphasis on coulour its Shadesmare is bound to be colourful, what could make the sky of a planet's Shadesmare broken? You've probably already realized where I was going with all that: I think the Expanse of the Broken Sky is Threnody, and the reason it's called that way is that the wound in the Spiritual Realm Harmony talked about is visible from Shadesmare.
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  18. So much amazing stuff happened in RoW, but Eshonai's final flashback was one of the absolute highlights for me. She's always been one of my favorite characters and I remember being absolutely devastated when the last Oathbringer sample chapter was released three years ago and she was just dead at the bottom of a chasm. She's such a tragic character and I always thought she deserved better than she got. Until I was reading that last flashback chapter I had no idea how much I needed closure on Eshonai's death. I think the entire scene was beautifully written and the resolution is so bittersweet. The way she also heard the rhythm of war. The way she fought to be free in her last moments, fighting to die as herself, to be free in the end. The fact that she spoke the first ideal and that the Stormfather told her she was Radiant, even for only a few moments. And how she gets to see the world as the storm and moving on, still excited to discover more. It just made me so happy to know she had a beautiful end to her arc, and I wanted to see if other people had similar feelings.
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  19. For reference, from the Silence Divine reading:
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  20. So I assume that every theory I come up with, someone on this site already had in like 2007, and it was disproven by 2008 That being said... here goes. A long time ago, the planet Yolen was home to Humans, Dragons, Sho Del, and a being called Adonalsium. The sixteen cornered Adonalsium and Shattered him. The sixteen, newly Ascended, each went their separate ways. Most went to their own Shardworlds. Some, like Bavadin, went to a sun. At least one just went somewhere in space. A few went two-at-a-time to a planet - like Aona and Skai on Sel - despite having bound themselves not to do that. Some used the powers of the Shards to make their own worlds, like Scadrial. (Aside: I wonder if Ati and Leras made their planet just to avoid some specificity of the language of their oath not to settle on the same planet. Which explains why Odium And Friends weren't able to kill and splinter them as easily as they did - even when their own fighting left them both preposterously weakened. Imagine if Ati and Leras were lovers or best friends, and the opposing nature of their Shards drove them to such enmity. All for their hubris. What a tragedy that would be.) Rayse - Odium - went off to his own Shardworld. This was not Braize - he would not end up there until much later. This planet was probably in its own solar system where Rayse could be a God unquestioned. Two Shards, however, decided not to leave. They would stay on Yolen together. These shards were Mr. and Mrs. Avast - Koravellium and Tan - the shards of Cultivation and Honor. When Rayse went to his planet, he took a group of humans with him. But he did not take every human off of Yolen. Many stayed with Cultivation and Honor. As did many dragons - Cultivation's species - and many Sho Del. We don't know much about the Sho Del. But they, and their ecosystem, was in conflict with the humans and their ecosystem. If Honor had stayed on Yolen alone, he would have established firm rules that allowed the two ecosystems to live side by side. If Odium had stayed on Yolen, he would have pitted them against each other until the stronger survived and the weaker died. But, true to her Shardic intent, Cultivation offered a compromise. She would let the two species grow together into one. The same will that would one day lead to the creation of the Sibling and its mixed light, spread across Yolen and all its people. Sho Del and humans could come together and create one species to live in harmony. The human and Sho Del ecosystems were also intermixed, creating wholly new hybrid species at every level. It is possible that some elements of each ecosystem were kept unchanged. Whether to act as a control group (like the South Scadrians), or through xenophobia, or just to preserve diversity, I cant say. This is related to one of the few pieces of Yolish trivia we have: that a common saying there was "May two worlds become one to you." Perhaps this is the same as many people on Earth say a variation of "may peace be with you" - because thanks to the intervention of the Shards, the conflict between these two ecosystems was ended by their merging. On Yolen, "two worlds becoming one" was literally synonymous with peace. And there was peace. Until there was Odium. Odium's planet was originally populated by humans who followed him from Yolen. As best as we know, those people destroyed their planet. They tried to manipulate the fundamental Surges, using even the Dawnshards, and in the end it was too much for them. They delved too deep, in the Moria sense; they opened the Bore, in the Collam Daan sense. This is a facially probably story. I mean, storms, look at what Rashek did - and he didn't have a Dawnshard - and he was fueled by an intent to Preserve! Yet still, I question the historicity of this account which blames humans. I rather expect that it was Odium who was trying to use the Dawnshards to do things that even his Shardic power did not allow him to do - such as change the fundamental rules of the universe. He failed. In his failure he destroyed his planet - maybe even his entire system. He needed help. He reached out to other Shards, who mostly told him to go pound sand - they knew what he had done to Aona and Skai and Uli Da. But when he reached out to Koravellium and Tan, they were willing to listen to him. In part because there were two of them and only one of him and they felt they could control him. In part because they felt sympathy for Odium's desperate humans - Cultivation to protect life, Honor to support a ruler's obligations to his people. (This leads me to another theory about what happened on Odium's planet - which is that he intentionally destroyed it, in order to create a situation whereby he could con Honor and Cultivation into helping him. It doesn't really matter - Honor is dead, and Rayse is too.) There were probably other factors at work. Perhaps Odium had something which Honor and Cultivation wanted: the ability to forgive them for breaking their word and choosing to reside on the same planet together. Perhaps he had something else they wanted: a Dawnshard. Perhaps they had a Bondsmith and so they felt they could create a pact which would protect them. Perhaps all three. In the end, they offered Odium a deal. He could return his people to Yolen. They wouldn't be too much of a bother - hell, if Honor and Cultivation had managed to find peace between the humans and Sho Del, dealing with just a few more humans would be easy. They would take these refugees. But in exchange, Odium would have to agree to restrictions, for Honor and Cultivation's safety. He would have to agree to be bound on a barren planet next to Yolen and would only observe and interact with his people through intermediaries. Odium agreed. Odium's planet was brought to the Yolish system. I expect this was done for practical logistical reasons, such as because Odium's people did not have enough idea of the Cosmere to find Yolen in the Cognitive Realm. While they were about it, they brought in a second planet, one just as barren, which would serve as Odium's prison. Suddenly Yolen went from being the only major planet in its system, to one of three. The other two were the planet that Odium's people came over on, and the planet on which Odium now resided. These were positioned to either side of Yolen so that visual astronomy, and therefore travel in Shadesmar, would be possible. This might have made it easier to get the humans from their planet to Yolen - but it would have been necessary for Odium's intermediaries to continue leading and viewing the people to whom he was a God. It is quite possible that Yolen's orbit was altered slightly, so that both of its two new planets would be visible to the naked eyes of its inhabitants. Unfortunately things did not go exactly as planned. Whether by natural occurence, or by Odium's influence - and of course I am disposed to expect the latter - the human/Sho Del hybrid race on Yolen began to worship Odium. By a turn, the humans that came with Odium began to ally themselves with Honor. This lead to a conflict between the two that threatened to be just as terrible as the ancient conflict between the humans and Sho Del. Cultivation attempted to solve this conflict the way she had solved the last one, by creating a hybrid species between the hybrid race and the humans. This did not work. In the end, Honor returned to Odium and offered him a new bargain: the Oathpact. Odium already had his ten intermediaries who could move between his prison-planet and Yolen. These ten humans... perhaps they switched loyalties to Honor, just as the human/Sho Del hybrid race had switched loyalties to Odium. Or perhaps something even more sinister is going on here. I can hardly speculate. This resulted in the Desolations, the death and splintering of Honor, and the modern history of Yolen as recorded in the Stormlight Archive. This is because my theory is that Yolen and Roshar are one and the same. The world we know as Roshar was once known as Yolen. The physical evidence has mostly been subsumed under crem. The memory of Yolen has mostly been subsumed under the eons, aided by the Desolations. That is why the location of Yolen is not known to (say) Silverlight - but rather than calling it 'unknown' or 'lost,' Khriss refers to it only as 'shrouded.' Its shroud is that it is known by the world which replaced it. It is hiding in plain sight. I do not know whether the Sho Del continue to exist, on Yolen or anywhere else. I don't see any evidence that unmixed humans remained on Roshar - or dragons, for that matter - so it seems unlikely that unmixed Sho Del persisted either. It is possible that they dwell in the oceans of what we now call Roshar. The Tai-Na could be the original Sho-Del - but I expect they are more likely to be a cross between the human Giant Turtle and a Sho Del equivalent. However, you can see much of the Sho Del ecosystem remaining in the rockbud-and-cremling ecosystem of modern Roshar. Perhaps this is the Sho Del ecosystem as it once existed - the equivalent of what in Dragonsteel Prime was called the fain. I expect that the Rosharan ecosystem is a hybrid between the Sho Del and human. Human dogs and their Sho Del equivalent were mixed to create axehounds; crabs and bulls were mixed to create chulls (a straightforward portmanteau of the words "crab" and "bull"). It may even be that the word for the human-Sho Del hybrid is a portmanteau indicating its origins. Part Sho Del, Part Human: Parshendi. The Parshendi are the Sho Del/human hybrids that were created by Honor and Cultivation to be the sole inhabitants of Yolen from the Shattering onwards. They were the sole - or at least, the primary - inhabitants, until Odium returned with his desparate band of humans. These humans were given Shinovar, which became a refuge for both the descendants of the humans of Yolen and their customs. I expect the Shin reverence for stone derives from the Yolish period, as a practice that resulted from humanity's conflict with the fain, whereby clean stone was kept in rings around towns so that moss, a sign of the advancing fain ecosystem, could be noticed as soon as possible. As with much in Sanderson's work, reasonable practices of survival and culture were eventually transformed into religion, disconntected from its original reason for being. It began on Yolen, was removed from its original context when brought to Odium's planet, and by freak happenstance ended up back on Yolen - a Yolen so changed that it was just as irrelevant, and yet, like so much of culture, persisted. The planet known to Vorinism as the Tranquiline Halls is what is known to Rosharan astronomers as Ashyn. What is not commonly understood is that the planet Ashyn is not native to the Rosharan system. Neither is Braize. When Odium destroyed his own system, Ashyn and Braize were brought to the Yolish system. Ashyn was brought to facilitate the transfer of its people to refuge in what is now known as Shinovar. Braize was brought to be a prison planet for Odium: Damnation. In subsequent years, we have seen interbreeding between the human/Sho Del mix known as the Parshendi, and unmixed humans. This can be seen in such human genetic groups as the Unalaki and Herdazians, wherein the human genetics are more and most dominant respectively. Perhaps this was forced by Cultivation in an attempt to recreate her solution to the human/Sho Del conflict of eons before. Or perhaps it is a pure happenstance, resulting from the Parshendi being half human - enough, it seems, to interbreed. We have seen similar levels of genetic expression as to another species: the Siah Aimians and the Natan. This makes me wonder whether the Siah are a nonhuman species and the Natan a new mixed-genetics species, or whether the Siah are a mixture like the Parshendi, and the Natan a point between the equal mixture and full human rather like the Unalaki or Herdazian. Because of his partial shapeshifting ability but humanoid appearance, it would not surprise me to learn that Axies the Collector, and his fellow Siah Aimians, are a hybrid between human and the other species of Yolen, the dragons. The Natan people are the result of breeding between this half-human hybrid and pure humans - the descendants of those who left Yolen with Odium, and then returned from Ashyn. As the Parshendi are to humans and Sho Del, the Siah are to humans and dragons. Perhaps there is even a mixed dragon/Sho Del species - I would suspect the larkin, like Chiri-Chiri. One related possibility is that the planet Yolen was moved somewhat in space, like Scadrial was. This may have been done in order to better accomodate the sudden arrival of two new planets in its system. Or it may heve been done before that, by Shards trying to create an ideal habitat for its combination human-Sho Del ecosystem. In either event, it seems like it required a little tweaking - much like Rashek giving the North Scadrians adaptation to ash and its effects. Perhaps throgh magical evolution, perhaps through the hand of the Shards, some animals of this new ecosystem were bonded to various nonsapient manifestations of investiture in the Cognitive Realm - what modern Rosharans would call the spren of Shadesmar. This can be seen in greatshells who bond to luckspren, or in Rhyshadium who bond to musicspren - probably the result of horses who left Yolen and returned later from Ashyn. (Fans of the Giants series might see reflections of Minerva in this theory.) One derivative theory might be of interest. How did the humans get from Ashyn to Yolen? They could have crossed through Shadesmar. I have a hunch that they crossed through the physical realm. I bet that Ishar, whether or not using a Dawnshard, created a physical portal between Ashyn and Roshar - a kind of super Oathgate, the Gotthard Base Tunnel or Danyang–Kunshan Bridge of Oathgates. I base this on only one thing: crem. We know that crem was not always part of the Highstorm cycle. Perhaps it was created by Cultivation in order to provide an environment that would be adaptable to her new hybrid ecosystem. That is perhaps the most likely explanation. But another is that a physical gate was opened between Ashyn and Yolen/Roshar and was never closed. This maybe by intention, or by Odium's trickery (maybe their pact said "it will close as soon as the last person crosses," and yet one billion-ass-year-old person remains on Ashyn, thus keeping the portal open.) This portal is located at the Origin. Because Ashyn has been rather destroyed, its shredded topsoil keeps getting blown through the gate. It gets spit out onto Roshar, where the Highstorms then carry it across the world. This would explain why the crem cycle only began so relatively recently in the life of the planet. It would also mean that, at every Highstorm, anyone on Roshar could look up and say "Ashyn fell from the sky." A final point is that this implies that Adonalsium was shattered on what we now know as Roshar. I expect this is likely from evidence we have of modern Roshar. The Shattering caused a release of energy so great that its seismic effects can still be seen in the form of the Shattered Plains. Yes, indeed, Adonalsium was Shattered in Plain sight. The only reason the Shattered Plains are still visible is that their deep crevices drain away the crem from the Highstorms - otherwise they would have been turned into a simple field long ago, the site of the Shattering forgotten. It would not surprise me to learn that some of the great features of Roshar were created through cymatics back when the world was still known as Yolen. This could have been through the deific music of Adonalsium. It could have been through the non-shardic "gods" of Yolen before the Shattering as referenced in WoB. Or perhaps it was simply as a result *of* the Shattering. That great release of Investiture carried with it the rhythms, the pulses, of that investiture, which were so great that they created structures such as the Windblades in an instant. In any event, I expect it shall be seen that such features of ancient Roshar are in fact relics, not of an older Roshar, but of Yolen. (Woolheads might say that Urithiru is Rhuidean, but things like the Windblades are straight up Paaran Disen.) Finally, it may well suggest that Frost has been on Roshar this whole time. Perhaps we've seen him already. Or perhaps he's a Sleepless who is also a Kandra, okay I'm tired I'm a stop now. Thanks for reading. Hope you all went long on tinfoil stonks.
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  21. The Fused have known about Raysium and some of its properties for a while, but only in the last Desolation did they learn about the possibility of capturing Cognitive entities inside gemstones. This is the first opportunity they have had to try it on a Herald, Moash had shown himself - by killing Elhokar - to be a trustworthy servant, and I'm sure it made more sense to have a human do it, rather than a Fused striding into the Beggar's Banquet and stabbing someone. I expect Leshwi knew, but didn't want Moash to know, that a "cognitive capture" was the actual objective, preferring for him to view it as a simple murder.
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  22. My dog: barks at her big brother during Super Bowl Me: kicks both outside to settle grievances They come back in, and what does she do? Bark at her brother again. They were both sent outside during all songs for this reason. Also she's never dealt with stairs before, it's hilarious, she has no idea what to do.
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  23. The smoke leaking from Nightblood is corrupted breaths Note that the reason Nightblood leaks is because he's oversaturated in investiture Also there's an important example of skin going grey you seem to have mist, when Kal managed to attract the arrow from nearly all parshendi right before swearing the second idea Here's my hypothesis: Colour is investiture and when you try to use investiture while you have none you'll use your own essence, starting by the colour of your skin The black in the wounds and the black smoke are corrupted investiture, not in the usual "using the wrong God to power your powers" which give red eyes but in another sense that Brandon didn't make clear yet. For the Shades it'd be a mix of corrupted Ambition and Mercy, for the Fused it'd be part of their soul and spirit being either ripped of their being instead of being destroy or corrupted neutral investiture. For Jezzrien, maybe his connexion to the Oathpatc/his current body?
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  24. The Shard In Hiding: Well, sounds like I made the right call. @AonEne if you're ever out of rp ideas...
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  25. Oooo! Yay I’m at lighteyes! Thanks everyone!
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  26. I've been ninjad six times writing this. Gak. My PM buddy is claiming vanilla, and it would be a bad idea to lie about that with the bookkeeper role in the game. Assuming there were vanillas got us in trouble in QF50, but I feel okay thinking there are some in this one. If we're assuming there is an Elim doctor, dying people should do their best to make them slip and reveal their identities. Have fun with that. However, the hospital doc is published publicly afterwards, ya? So the elims might be blindsided by a revelation, but I don't think it's integral to their team to have a doctor. My guess is either 2 village doctors or one village and one Elim. At most there'll be three. I'm guessing a maximum of two trappers. The Elim team will likely have 3 or 4 people. 5 is ridiculous in a parity game, they'd win after three rounds. 25% makes much more sense. My post was small, I can understand it being missed. You with the RP birds, are you claiming Aviar roles? *** Third quite liked the sound of the Three Musketeers, even though he didn't know what a musket was. He also found the man poking around the bar funny. People had spoken highly of him in the snippets of conversation he'd heard. "Ya know, regular people are okay at division. They can chop things into fourths no problem. But to be a real pro you have to be able to chop things into quarters, then quarter those quarters! Sixteenth is apparently really good at it. I've even heard people on the ship call him the quartermaster."
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  27. Good theory, but Frost is on Yolen and his letters want Hoid to leave Roshar, and calls it "that place" so I doubt they are the same
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  28. 1- Adolin, hands down, fun and easy going, loyal, great wingman, and handy in a fight. 2- Dalinar, no explanation needed. 3- Dalinar, Kaladin, Szeth. 4- Szeth, Renarin, Sja-Anat. 5- Lopen, Lift. 6- Ulim. 7- Renarin/Teft. 8- Teft, been there. 9- Syl, she’s intelligent and articulate. But seriously, Rushu. 10- Teft, again.
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  29. I'm seeing a Forgery stamp honestly
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  30. I saw this and to be honest, I've never been so tempted to buy out a whole bookshelf. (spoilered for size)
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  31. I actually think the Alethi language should fall into patterns pretty easily, but not all languages do. One like English, that draws from a host of different source language roots, and cobbles together all sorts of grammar and other linguistic rules in the process, should be pretty hard to figure out, compared to more ordered languages. It’s possible that the way the Alethi substitute certain sounds for others seems illogical to certain mindsets, thus making the pattern difficult for this particular Cryptic to crack. Probably this is just a Cryptic who does better with different types of patterns than linguistic ones. In the real world, there are plenty of people who “get” numbers or logic but are stymied by languages. Just like there are people who are excellent with a particular “hard” science but struggle with a similar theoretical one even though both might require the same heavy math skills…just applied differently.
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  32. Weird. How can a Cryptic not learn a language? They crack patterns and meaning almost instantly. Pattern got the dawnchant from supposition, so why wouldn’t most Cryptics get the Alethi language with some help? Unless maybe Pattern is especially good with language patterns. Could it be the type of pattern making up a pattern gives them different skills?
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  33. SA general, not plot
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  34. If there is an afterlife, there’s no reason for Phendorana’s soul not to have gone to it. tl;dr If souls go on The Beyond, a dead spren’s should, too. Everything loses its Investiture at death, and a spren’s “body” being formed of Investiture shouldn’t make losing its Investiture somehow destroy its soul’s identity but not other sentient beings’. So, lots of related WoBs. Loooong WoBs (always subject to being one-upped by the text, and italics mine) confirm: that most things have souls, that souls in general are composed of Investiture, ...but the Investiture is not the soul that the souls of at least sentient beings go on to The Beyond, that Investiture isn’t destroyed, and, in the same vein, that Investiture and energy and matter can be thermodynamically interchanged. If, when Investiture connecting a person’s souls (to their bodies, their lives, their friends, etc.) is sent back to the universe, their identities in their souls presumably continue to The Beyond, then there’s no reason for a spren’s soul to be destroyed in the same situation just because it’s body basically was Investiture. The dead spren still merely lost its body and the power animating it, just like the soul of a dead human would have.
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  35. Unfortunately, Kelsier’s already burned his bridges with Jasnah...
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  36. Here's the thing about Honor's truest surge. Remember that the Stormfather said that Dalinar's powers wouldn't work. So I more view it as the fact that it's Honor's truest surge AND the fact that Kaladin's spren is an HONORSPREN. Which is of Honor. Retroactively, you can look at the same thing for Lift. Her surge of Progression works because it's Cultivation's truest surge AND because her spren is a CULTIVATIONSPREN, which is of Cultivation. And that both of them are invested enough to stay awake in the tower. This can really cause a reassessment of the surgebinding magic system. Instead of 10 or 9 plus 1, it's 8 plus 2 (2 meaning Honor and Cultivation), which is more in line with the basic allomancy system. Then imagine if voidbinding is really 8 plus 1 (1 meaning odium) and it will turn out that the Rosharan magic system in closely aligned to the rest of the cosmere. This most likely won't be actualized in the canon and currently has some holes in the theory, but it seems like something Brandon might pull and it seems like it may have some truth in it.
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  37. Here's the next one! Lines of Forbiddance can't keep us apart. 8 days until Valentine's Day!
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  38. I don't agree that Sanderson isn't (sometimes) funny, but I'm also fine with less humor. I don't feel that there needs to bee TOO many comedic moments. It's a dark book, and I'm ok with that. I agree that Navani bonding the Sibling seems off. But, I don't think Rlain should have bonded them. It should have been Dabbid!!! I completely agree with this "unpopular opinion" lol. Not happy with Teft's story line in this one. But his ultimate arch will be redeemed when his soulcast body is awakened in the next book and we get Zombie Teft shenanigans.
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  39. 2 likes
  40. It fits with the Pattern (hehe) of ShallanReveals too. Reveal 1: ‘omg I killed my dad’ Reveal 2: ‘omg I killed my mom’ Reveal 3: ‘omg I killed my spren’ Reveal 4: ‘omg I killed my planet (indirectly by causing the cycle of desolations to resume by sending my herald mom back to Braize)’
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