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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"

I have to stop myself from saying that anytime I'm anonymous . I started saying it just for fun, but it became a habit. Elysian sat at the edge of the camp. Light from the fire played across his back, but its warmth did not reach him. Even if he’d been closer, the flames could not cure the chill his heart felt. Today he had been responsible for the death of an innocent man. Not only that, but he had turned brother against brother, friend against friend. Frederick and Duncan were close, that much was evident. The power of the Forgotten to shatter a bond like that was just as terrible as their command of the chalklings. As the camp settled into its nighttime routine, the fire burned lower, deepening the shadows around him. Longing the escape of sleep, yet dreading the nightmares it might bring, Elysian let the night overpower his mind. Elysian dreamed of fire. Not the warming fire of the camp, but of the raging fires of destruction and failure. He knelt in the center of a village, burning around him, ashamed of his failure. *Thwack* A pain exploded in the back of Elysian’s head as he toppled into the dust. When the stars faded from his vision, he could make out the transparent outline of an old man hefting a staff, standing over him. “Get up you fool. It’s not over yet. This,” he waved his stick at the carnage around them, “hasn’t happened. My story ends this way, but yours isn’t finished. It might turn out like this, but you still have work to do.” “Work. Just like the work I did today? Destroying families…” “Just like that. That’s what you signed up for when you came out here. When it’s all done, if you’re still alive, you can feel sorry for yourself then. Fredrick knew what he was getting himself into, and so did Duncan. Don’t let either of their losses be in vain.” The elder pointed the staff menacingly. “Get back out there and do your job until you drop.” The dream faded from Elysian’s mind, replaced with the darkness of the night. And slowly, he got on his feet and walked toward the fire. Toward friends and toward the light. His soul needed all the brightening it could get, for more dark work awaited the next day.

Yay, it's so close! I'd break my First Contract for you. And because that one wasn't my favourite... Only you can breach the Warding Line around my heart. That one's iffy too. Two for the price of one! 3 days until Valentine's Day!

Hey physics nerds. I've been toying with the equations of motion for paired gems (conjoiners and reversers). I'm happy with what I've got so far, but I'm interested in digging for thoughts on the decay factor that comes with distance.... But first let me back up and explain where I'm at. Using Pulleys I think the easiest way to think of paired fabrials is by comparing them to pulley systems. For a simple conjoiner, it's easiest to just think of them as rigidly connected, but the metaphor doesn't work for reversers. Pulleys are also a great way to account for the mechanical advantage discovery that Navani makes in RoW chapter 84. And I think friction is a good way to think of the decay they experience over greater distances. Two major caveats though. The metaphor only works for one dimension at a time, though that's not a big deal. And we have to pretend we can force our ropes in both directions. (can be pushed and pulled) Simple Equation Without the mechanical advantage discovery Navani makes and ignoring friction, we have the following equation: (m1 + m2) a = F1 + R F2 This is simply the equation of motion for a simple pulley, with one addition: that R factor. More on that in a second. The idea here is that F1 and F2 are the sum of all forces acting on the gems. (excluding the force being shared between the paired gems -- that is essentially the tension in our pulley system's rope) The masses m1 and m2 are the masses attached to each gem, plus the mass of the gem itself. If we've attached something fairly heavy to one and not the other, you can effectively say the mass of the lone gem is zero. So all this equation is saying is that the acceleration of the system is the sum of forces on the system divided by the total mass of the system. F=ma. We need to note that the accelerations of 1 and 2 aren't necessarily the same. I'm using a = a1 = R a2. In other words, the equation above is really for the acceleration of a1. If we want to know the acceleration of the other gem we need to substitute a = R a2. This R factor I've added is really just a convenience to account for the difference between conjoiners and reversers. Rather than deal with separate coordinate systems for each, I'm just using this one equation with R=1 for conjoiners and R=-1 for reversers. In other words, with a reverser the accelerations are in opposite diretions of one another and F2 acts opposite of F1 rather than with it. (F1 and F2 are in the same direction--whatever direction we want to label the positive direction.) Simple Examples Let's say we've got a pair of reversers with the same mass floating in the air. Their weights balance each other out just as if they were two masses hanging from a pulley. We have (m1 + m2) a = F1 - F2 where F1 and 2 are their equal weights, m1*g and m2*g. The net force of F1-F2=0 so we have a=0. Note that if we give one a push up or down (and ignore wind resistance) they will move at constant velocity in opposite directions. Point being, this isn't a scale that tries to balance back out. Just two weights balancing each other out. What if the second is twice the mass of the first? (m1 + 2*m1) a = m1*g - 2*m1*g using down as positive direction, which is 3*m1*a = -m1*g. Solving for a we get a = -g/3. So the first gem moves up into the air at 1/3 g. The second moves down at 1/3 g. What if the second is much heavier than the first, such that the mass/weight of the first is negligible? (m2) a = -m2*g so we are left with a = -g. The first gem, basically weightless, flies upward at 1g while the second gem falls at 1g as if it weren't paired. Makes sense, right? With a two equal masses conjoined, they just fall freely. (m1 + m2) a = m1*g + m2*g = (m1 + m2) g, which is just a=g and for conjoiners we have a=a1=a2. Mechanical Advantage In RoW chapter 84 Navani is able to use Raboniel's dagger to transfer the spren of a paired gem into a different, larger gem. When she moves the larger gem, the other moves three times as far. We see this same phenomenon with a pulley system that gives a mechanical advantage of 3. If Navani moves the smaller gem 30 centimeters, the larger gem will only move 10 centimeters, and vice versa. There's some force multiplication that happens here. Moving the smaller gem requires less force, though it doesn't move the other as far. Moving the larger gem is the opposite. It causes the smaller gem to move further, but it requires more force. When you work through the math, the equation above becomes this: (m1 + m2/G^2) a = F1 + R F2/G The G factor here is the mechnical advantage ratio. Usually we would use MA for this, but I felt that might be confusing alongside the m's and a's of mass and acceleration. I've been using gamma in my notes and don't have it on this keyboard, so you get G. Also note that this gives us a different acceleration relationship. Now we have a = a1 = R G a2. In other words, the smaller gem accelerates G times faster than the larger. Navani isn't clear on what ratio produces this observed ratio of 3, though I'm guessing the larger gem in her accidental experiment was 3 times larger by mass? Something like that. More Examples So let's say we have a reverser where m1 is basically negligible, a gem ratio of 2, and both only under the influence of their own weight. We have (m2/2^2) a = -m2*g/2. Which gives a = -2g. For the larger gem we have a2 = a/(RG) = g. In other words, the large gem/mass falls at a normal 1g, while the smaller, effectively weightless, gem moves upward at 2g. Note that if the small gem is half the weight of the larger gem they balance out in this situation. The force-half of the equation becomes (m2/2)*g - (m2*g)/2 = 0. You can use this discovery in two different ways. Let's talk about how they apply to the Fourth Bridge. Two options. One thing you can do with this discovery is reduce the number of chulls required. If you use the chulls to pull the small gems and attach the larger gems to the Fourth Bridge, they can get more force with their pulling. But the downside is they have to walk further to make the Fourth Bridge move the same distance. On the other hand, if you attach the large gems to the chulls and the small gems to the Fourth Bridge, your chulls don't have to walk as far... but they have to pull harder. I'm guessing the second will be what they do with the Fourth Bridge. Most of the time the ship should be moving at some constant cruising velocity. So they'll have a harder time getting the thing accelerated up to that speed... But once they're there, they just need to maintain that speed, which shouldn't take as much effort. And in the meantime, the Fourth Bridge will be moving 2 chull steps (or whatever the ratio is) for every chull step. It would be interesting to work out the math on all of this, but I haven't tried yet. Distance Decay So now we come to the distance decay. Navani notes that there's some amount of decay which occurs over greater distances. The further the paired gems are apart, the more resistance you experience. This is essentially like the friction you see in a pulley system. When you work out the math, this essentially just becomes an extra force on the system. In a real pulley system you have different friction amounts in each pulley, but I'm basically collapsing the sum of those into one value: Ff. (m1 + m2/G^2) a = F1 + R F2/G - Ff I'm... probably not handling the sign on this well. It's resisting movement so we're basically assuming here that a > 0. Otherwise, the sign on Ff flips. Now... we don't really have enough information from the books to figure a correct equation for this value... But I'm trying to think it through and figure some idea of what form it might take. We know that it's a function of the distance between the two gems, but it can't JUST be that because I think spanreeds wouldn't work that way. Think about it. If the Fourth Bridge experiences a notable amount of decay from Urithiru/Shattered Plains to Hearthstone and if we just have Ff as a function of distance, then a spanreed over the same distance would experience that same resisting force. That just doesn't really make sense. I don't think it makes sense for the masses to be involved. Thinking back to the pulley metaphor, the friction between a rope and pulley is going to depend on how much tension is in the rope. More force being transferred through the rope means it's pulling harder on the pulley, and that harder normal force leads to more friction. So perhaps it should be a function of F1 - R F2/G? Note the negative sign there. For a conjoiner, that gives us the difference between forces. So, for example, two reversers (G=1) floating in the air give m1*g + m2*g. If you're looking at a simple pulley that's the total forcing tugging on the pulley. The full weight of one is countering the other, so the full weight of each is carried by the rope. More friction. Change that to conjoiners and it's a little odd though. You get m1*g - m2*g = (m1 - m2)*g which... suggests the amount of friction depends on how comparable the masses are? I would think two falling conjoined gems just basically fall under their own weights, together, and so there's no transfer of force between them. No tension in the rope. So something doesn't seem right here. My brain is getting mushy. Feedback appreciated. If you have no ideas, hopefully you at least enjoyed the explanation of the rest!

The discussion centered around one man. Frederick Kerr was seen as too vocal, too controlling. The camp reasoned that he must be a Forgotten. Although several other candidates were floated, there could be no dissuading the crowd. Unfortunately, Frederick's death did nothing to stop the swarm. The Camp had made a mistake, and now the Wild Chalklings were getting their second wind. Vote Count: StrikerEZ (7): Gears, Ashbringer, Lotus, Burnt Spaghetti, Araris Valerian, Devotary of Spontaneity, Kasimir Araris Valerian (2): Flyingbooks, StrikerEZ Flyingbooks (1): Archer Ventyl (1): Shard of Reading StrikerEZ was court-martialed. They were a Rithmatist. Items Taken: Camp Supply: Player List: The Strength of the Wild Chalklings is at 2. This Night will end on February 12th at 8 PM.

Rylan waited until the guards had turned the corner, out of sight, before pulling the chipped piece of flint from his pocket. Whispering the incantation that Yrtrimn had taught him, he struck the flint against the cool steel bars of his cell. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, with a flash, the metal bars warmed, and began to glow with heat after but a moment. Rylan watched the red-hot metal for a moment that felt like an eternity. Steeling himself, he clenched his teeth, and grabbed the bars, wrenching them apart. His palms searing, the putrid scent of searing flesh filled his nostrils as the bars pulled apart, easily bent due to their heat. As soon as he was sure he could squeeze through, he let go, and stifled a scream. It took almost a full minute before he was able to remember the words to a spell to help his hands, which only reduced the pain slightly. He waited until after the metal bars were completely cooled before he slipped through, and quietly made his way down the prison hallway. He felt the cool stone against his bare feet, and tried to ignore the calls of the other prisoners as he walked past their cells. As he neared the guard barracks, he pulled another object from his pocket, a small, clear gem, and crushed it in his hands, immediately wincing afterwards. He muttered a short phrase, and suddenly blinked out of view, becoming invisible. He quietly made his way past the inky blue-skinned humanoid guards, being sure not to step into their path. Casting a final detection spell, Rylan quickly found the room where his boots, sword, and most importantly, his hat, were being held. In but a few minutes more, Rylan was back onto the street of Graazun, ducking past carts and horses, trying to be sure he wasn't seen by any more of those blue humanoids. It took nearly an hour of dodging and ducking, running from shadow to shadow, to make his way to the city gate. He crouched in the darkness, watching the gatehouse, trying to estimate when the best time to run past was, when he heard the skittering of stones behind him. Rylan turned, just in time to see an arrow streaking right towards his face. He raised his right arm, and felt the arrow graze across his wrist, tearing his skin open, exposing bone, and leaving the very tip of the arrow stuck inside his hand. He yelped in pain, but at least the arrow had been deflected. He looked down at his wrist to see the slash was bleeding profusely. He could just barely see the barbed Arratzzn-steel tip of the arrow keeping his wound open. He felt dizzy as his blood dripped down on to the ground. His vision was swirling, he couldn't see straight. Rylan could barely see as one of the blue skinned creatures from the prison approached him, its snarl exposing jagged yellow teeth, its red eyes blazing with the adrenaline of the hunt. Then he felt it. That familiar gut wrenching tug that he had felt thousands of times before. He was being Kicked. The creature raised its crossbow again, with another barbed arrow aimed at Rylan's heart. The creature curled its oily finger around the trigger, and then froze. A bolt of pure black energy shot down from the red sky above, sucking in all light around it, striking Rylan. All he could do was groan in agony as he was suddenly torn from his current reality. ... ... ... ... Darkness. Rylan slowly opened his eyes, but it made no difference. There was nothing to be seen, only the eternal darkness of the space betwixt the endless universes of the Multiverse. He floated there, unmoving for what could have been seconds, and what could have been years. He was used to this. It had happened thousands of times before, and quite possibly would continue to happen until the end of eternity. Then, he saw light. A small speck, growing closer. A new world, a new life, and yet another round of the meaningless torture that the mightiest of cosmic powers forced him to endure. The light grew closer and brighter, first like a candle, then like a bonfire, then blazing like a star looming over him. Time to put on a show, Rylan thought, as the light engulfed him.

“I need more feral children” - me filling out this chart I’m not happy with the positions of some people but I’ve tried at least four seperate times to finish this and I’m done with it now (Hoid is more “big therapist energy” but I decided it was close enough. I was also debating on whether to swap Spook and Nightblood but Nightblood is more childish)

Stormlight

I've gone through and attempted to transcribe the page from Dragonsteel Prime that Brandon held up during the New Years live stream. The first half-page has some really hard-to-make-out parts due to lighting, which are highlighted in various colors to indicate my confidence (or lack thereof) in my transcription, but the rest isn't too bad to figure out. Color key: TL;DR: Orange text should probably not be trusted as accurate, and blue text definitely shouldn't be trusted, because it's not even really properly visible in the video. Red and pink are probably fine, though. The attached DOCX file additionally tries to replicate the layout and formatting of the original in the image best I can, but I'm not going to even attempt that in the post itself (Man, Jerick's an idiot... he didn't feel this dumb in the Bridge Four samples, but I guess that's what character growth does for you.) Dragonsteel Pages, maybe?.docx

If you give an Inquisitor a spike...

Within SA we knew: Thaidakar is a title. Thaidakar is an offworlder. Master Thaidakar follows a Scadrian honorific-epithet naming convention Hoid calls Thaidakar ‘Lord of Scars.’ Hoid has ‘slapped around’ Thaidakar. Thaidakar is a Cognitive Shadow. The chapters leading to the first meeting between Shallan and Mraize in WoR were: Scars, Mere Vapors, and Ghostbloods. Scadrial is the Expanse of Vapors. The Ghostbloods resembled the Mistborn crew in some respects. Some Ghostbloods have an almost religious like reverence toward Thaidakar. We also knew: Kelsier would lead the GBs in a heartbeat. Ghostblood referenced specific in-world events. We had seen the proto-Ghostbloods. Then Brandon told us: He expected many of us to know Thaidakar’s real name. Thaidakar had been seen going to great lengths in other books. And then Brandon went on the Shardcast and confirmed: Thaidakar is Kelsier and this was always the plan. The GBs are supposed to dovetail with Survivorism. And Kell is lying through his teeth about the Avatar thing. So yes, we know.

I have ascended! (for a week) Thank you though. I haven't read all of these past winners and I am looking forward to diving in =)

Fadran dropped onto one knee and proffered an onion ring to Queen. "Are you hungry?"

It might be more accurate to say that RoW provided more - and stronger - clues, and that Brandon himself then CONFIRMED it.

Enter drank a metal vial.

You may not be able to explain this but I can, having been on the receiving end of it. When enough players in a game are chaotic enough, the elims can never be sure what's going to happen. The village vig, who had hitherto suspected none of them, might decide to shoot one of them in the last five minutes of rollover (QF50 C2). The exe target might switch to an unsuspecting villager at the last minute (QF50 C2) and if that person was your NK target... (I mean, Ash wasn't but it's still something that you have to worry about with chaos). Or the exe target might switch to an elim last-minute (QF50 C1). and so on and so forth. If the elims can't predict what villagers are going to do, they can't react to it, and it makes their job a lot harder (I'm sorry, but the first 3 cycles of QF50 were a nightmare for the elim team so that's where my examples are coming from).

I definitely agree with this. I was hoping Rlain wouldn't bond the Sibling since it was brought up. The Sibling basically only was willing to because of immutable characteristics. Which would have felt awful for Rlain after him talking about wanting to have a spren bond him because it wants HIM. The whole Sibling being willing to bond Rlain felt like a different beat on the whole Kaladin ordering that honorspren to consider him. "Please consider our token Listener." I also didn't want Dabbid to bond with the Sibling either considering how he was extorted by them. It is my sincere hope that an honorspren decides to bond him. Anyways, Navani bonding the Sibling is great. They both have their faults, they both have their conflicting beliefs, yet they both mesh together. It was truly enjoyable to see the Sibling get all excited over Navani understanding the fabrials they made of themself.

I got it killer of white someone is going to kill szeth in the first chapter

Huh, apparently my subconscious ships Kaladin and Kelsier, despite how much I tell it that wouldn't work at all. I dreamed of training montages and having a minor hero-worship-crush on your teacher. Not gonna lie though, Kaladin dying, becoming a Cognitive Shadow after Kelsier rushes him to Stormlight, having a Dramatic Moment with Syl ("You're not my Knight Radiant anymore, Kal, but I will always be your spren"), and then having training montages in a swimming pool (no, I don't know either) trying to outwit Kell and his Avengers team RoW all sounds like a crack-taken-somewhat-seriously fanfic that I'd absolutely read.

(Is this meme entirely based on your username? Yes. Do I regret it? No.)

Some time ago I've put together a timeline of books. I've decided to translate it to English and post it with sources, so I went and searched for the WoBs to put them in the timeline. I haven't found all of those I was using at the time (see the end of this post) but I've also found some I haven't seen before, so... profit? Enjoy. Order of series: Dragonsteel White Sand Elantris Mistborn First Era Warbreaker Stormlight Archive (first pentalogy) Mistborn Second Era Stormlight Archive (second pentalogy) Mistborn Third Era Mistborn Fourth Era ------------------------------------------- Order of the books: (Entries not bolded have not been released yet) Dragonsteel White Sand (before Elantris) Elantris & Hope of Elantris (long before Mistborn First Era, but not thousands of years) Emperor’s Soul (technology didn’t change since Elantris so probably not much more than decades #2) Eleventh Metal The Final Empire Well of Ascension Hero of Ages (341 years before Alloy of Law) Warbreaker (closer than farther to Way of Kings) (between HoA and WoK #1 #2 #3) Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell (in the latter part of timeline but before Way Of Kings: #1 #2, and FAQ – if it’s correct – says it’s after Warbreaker) Nightblood (we don’t know whether it’s after Shadows for Silence..., but it’s before Stormlight Archive) Way of Kings (happens 300ish years after Hero Of Ages) Words of Radiance Edgedancer Oathbringer Stormlight Archive, book four (Rhythm of War) Stormlight Archive, book five (about 15 years before Stormlight 6 but the gap may as well be 10 or 20 years #1 #2 #3 #4) Alloy of Law (341 years after Hero Of Ages)(it’s after Stormlight 5 but we don’t know if it’s before Stormlight 6. It could also be after Stormlight 7.) Shadows of Self (year after Alloy of Law) Bands of Mourning (half a year after Shadows of Self) Lost Metal Stormlight Archive, book six (about 15 years after Stormlight 5) Stormlight Archive, book seven Stormlight Archive, book eight Stormlight Archive, book nine Stormlight Archive, book ten Mistborn Third Era (modern times, around 80s)(probably roughly about 50 years after Second Era) Sixth of the Dusk (just before Mistborn Fourth Era #1) Mistborn Fourth Era (sci-fi) ------------------------------------------- WoBs I cannot find now but I'm sure they exist since when I was putting together this timeline I was strictly going off only WoBs: the gap between Stormlight 5 and 6 could be 20 years (specifically 20 years, 10 and 15 I have sourced already) Warbreaker being closer than farther to Way of Kings

There are many theories in circulation on the cite and to commemorate the best of them I give you Theory Thursday. About Purpose Requirements RoW Season That concludes our RoW Season, we look forward to joining you again with tLM

'The chaining of a Shadowblaze, fourth entity removed, is an often indeterminable process, and the bindagent should consider wisely the situation before making any decision regarding the vessels to be indentured.' This is the paragraph I will be milking for all it's worth. I was reading the rithmatist, saw this, and thought to myself, 'Fourth entity removed'? At first I saw this more as like how people are related (Ex: Fourth cousin, twice removed), but that didn't quite make sense. So if a Shadowblaze is the fourth entity removed, where or what is it removed from? My basic idea is the Tower, but that's not heavily supported. If the Shadowblaze is the fourth (Rithmatic?) entity removed from the tower, their must be at least 3 more. Categorizations of creatures: I began to categorize forgotten, Shadowblazes, and actually, wild chalklings. Here's what I got: Shadowblaze (Fourth entity removed): Bonded to people (Vessels) to create rithmatists? [This bonding is important] When bound to vessel, vessel- is made a rithmatist/body preserved/vessel remains in control Forgotten: Bonded to people (Possesion) When bound to vessel, vessel-is made a rithmatist/body preserved/vessel loses control Wild chalkling? (I was wondering what the other entities of the four we know exist may be, and remembered warbreaker, and the categorization of awakened objects. So what if the body of the vessel wasn't preserved?) Wild chalkling: Bonded to people to create wild chalklings? When 'bound' to vessel, vessel- body removed/ vessel loses control If this proves true, than the other entity would likely be: Entity: when bonded to vessel, vessel- Body removed/ vessel remains in control Just some thoughts and ideas I had, but there's a chance they could prove to be somewhat true.

The T bomb at the end came out of nowhere!! For all that we had predicted where T is going, this was not what I could have ever foreseen!! Cultivation!! What have you done!!? “ Now I can save everyone” !!!! I never thought that such words will ever fill me with such dread ! But all things aside, what I really want to know is, do you think Taravangian suits the Intent? Vargo has shown a lot of things like amorality, mad genius vibe, he is very diabolical, megalomaniac, may be even a little narcissistic ( I think) and he is capable of doing the absolute worst to achieve what he deems right, he has (got) killed so many, caused civil war, backstabbed friends, etc etc. But still, I never felt hatred as an emotion from him. Even when he wanted to destroy Dalinar, it was more out of necessity, a (mistaken?) belief that Dalinar can not save them and I have always felt that he does not want Dalinar to save them, he wants to be the one who “saves” them, I have always believed that it is more about his ego than the survival of Roshar, But still I have never felt that hatred is a particularly strong emotion with him. So do you think he suits the Intent? Is he going to have trouble connecting with the Intent? Or have I missed to see something very obvious? Any ideas?

"What's there to expose?" he said, pausing a moment before following a far off. "You have powers. Am I supposed to feel inclined to tell someone? You seem to not care if the world know about them by practically flaunting your powers out in the open, like how you were flying." Also, you're fine. Rps sometimes go inactive for periods of time before they're suddenly active again.

Double Gold has obvious advantages. But F-zinc would be really tempting. Mental speed would just be so awesome -- even the storing part, during boring meetings etc. I'm not really all that interested in having physical superspeed/superstrength/etc, and I'd be ethically uncomfortable with emotional Allomancy. So that limits the options a lot, especially since aluminum/duralumin are useless for Twinborn and gold Allomancy not much better except for its Compounding use. So either double Gold, A-tin/F-zinc (for the real world - super senses+mental speed), or A-nicrosil/F-zinc (in Era 2 Scadrial, with lots of other publicly known Allomancers around.. a-Nicrosil ought to be a great way to build good relationships with lots of Allomancers...)

Well, he was right at the source for Atium, that's why I figured he used it. I am also not sure Pewter would be enough by itself for one unarmed man to defeat multiple armed guards. Kelsier was definitely experienced as a thief, but I don't know how much overt fighting he did, though he certainly knew something about improvisation and "fighting dirty" (that's how he was able to beat an experienced Mistborn in 'The Eleventh Metal'). As for the Oaths, that's kind of my point: a Mistborn has all their abilities potentially available at the moment of Snapping, and they seem to learn the use of them pretty quickly and fairly instinctively.

I don't remember him giving the Investiture back and he mentioned the Bands was far less full than before

That's a good point. She probably wouldn't think about it in those terms, even if as someone living in a time/place where social dancing is common, she'd probably be more aware of it than the average non-musician today. Interesting. I assume that the combination of mostly dancing follow and mostly swing dancing (a lot of East Coast swing that isn't lindy still starts with an open frame. At least at social dances) probably keeps those things farther off my radar than they'd be for leads. Which means I get to blame my husband for not catching it . And the combination of a pandemic and a small living room that's made dancing far more difficult in the past year

What we know is that Harmony coming into existence (the Catasandre) would have happened approximately 300 Scadrian years before the 5th book of The Stormlight Archive. (We know the 300 years because Mistborn Era 2 is placed between the first 5 SA books and the back 5, and it takes place 300 years after HoA) Rosharan Years are slightly longer than Scadrian years if I'm not mistaken... so its a rough guess... but that probably puts Harmony's creation at around the year 900 on Roshar; Roughly 1700 years after the recreance. Here's a very detailed Stormlight Timeline for reference:

New shards taking the wheel Put your trust in a higher power

Not bored but I had an idea, if anyone understand it I wonder, am I memeable?

Kaladin figuring out things, then dealing with them in like not a violent way is way more interesting character than Kaladin-the killing machine. Him deciding to find the lost guy, bossing ardents around and setting upo therapy courses was way more fun and interesting to read about than him killing Parshendi #204353. I looked back at previous books and confirmed that - Kaladin making the life of Bridge 4 better in TWoK, Kaladin organizing Kholin's guard in WoR and Kaladin finding out who Azure is while befriending Kholinar's soldiers in OB were the most interesting parts about Kaladin's PoV. Id prefer Brandon to shift Kaladin's focus from active battles to mental health clinic set up and ambassadory things.

And this is what happens when she gets your dinner.

I think it's funny...

"God's divine wrath separate everything that would give it context" although I can't find the exact quote. I find that even more fearsome. Morality is fickle and mutable. Even Devotion could be a deadly shard without a backing morality. Besides, morality is provided to a Shard by the Vessel. The terrifying thing about Odium is that it is an emotion that shouldn't exist without the tempering of the entire spectrum of emotions. This is why the followers of Odium are called Voidbringers. There's nothing left when you've successfully followed Odium's Intent. At least Ruin has an end game in mind. Hate without context leads to complete emptiness.

Its hard to distinguish unpopular opinion from criticism. Are majority of readers fine with Teft not leaving Urithiru, then being unconscious for majority of the book, then getting killed, while also being used as the only major reason for Kaladin to be a Spider-Men for like 500-600 pages? If yes, then im not okay with this. Feels like a lazy way to make Kaladin do his plot stuff in the way Brandon wanted him to be. He effectively turned Teft into just a plot device.

Well, since so many seem to dislike the nodes, I guess that makes my opinion not really unpopular! That was the reason why I didn't pick Hoidnah, because ouch. On the other hand, I might have a positive potentially unpopular opinion: I liked the Shallan-Adoline plotline the best of them all. If you just took those chapters and published them as a 100,000 word book (which is the typical length for Way & Wayne, Skyward, and Reckoners books), it would be a really tight, strong and satisfying narrative. Shallan is at her best with her constant back and fourth with her personalities, and Adolin is not just carried along for once but has his own conflict (in contrast to Oathbringer's Shadesmar journey, where he was just the third wheel on a bike beside Kaladin and Shallan). The only thing I disliked about that arc was how more than half of the team just vanished between parts without having done anything. I guess it was nice to meet some non-main character Radiants, but give them something to do! Probably not that unpopular as well, but I feel like many on here prefered other arcs.

I can finally get this off my chest: I never would have thought that Brandon would allow himself to use such a lazy, convenient, stupid and useless plot device as the nodes. He clearly didn't know what to do with Kaladin in Part 3 and had to find something for him to do while other characters move the plot along. So he introduced a random number of crystals with no obvious in-world reason to exist that have to be destroyed. It's so far below his story-telling ability, it baffles me. I'm not used to that, at least not in his Cosmere works, and especially not in Stormlight.

Well I don’t know this part. I’m not sure if a child of a herald would have some special powers similar to how Vivenna can shape change. If you recall, Vivenna and Siri are descendants of a Returned. Vivenna also has a higher natural ability to awaken due to her heritage (confirmed by Vasher). Something there is different Maybe the divine breath is doing something special to cognitive shadow babies as an “Endowment” for one’s heirs is on brand. But the only children of cognitive shadows we know of are more invested then a regular person. So if Shallan is the child of a cognitive shadow, then there is the possibility that she looks different to someone as invested as Hoid. Maybe her aura is different? Maybe she bonds easier. Shallan might have something. It might even be a curse like a propensity to mental illness as well. Who knows. The point is Hoid seems flabbergasted to see Shallan at Middlefest. We assumed it was because she was bonded to Pattern. But it turns out Shallan only had a deadeye. So maybe Hoid saw a hint of cognitive shadow descendant power? And what is this dark presence Hoid says Shallan and her family are fighting? What did he see? Is it an unmade. Is it a cognitive shadow curse? Both? Who knows.

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)’

Moash is on his own. Gives off a padan fain vibe now.

Gavilar could have had Breaths: And Life sense potentially??

Depending on the type of homework. If it's textbook exercises or something similar, where the point is to help you learn the material, then I will try to do any problems that confound or confuse you, and I'll make sure to explain as much of my thinking as possible. If it's a project or whatnot, where you're supposed to show that you've learned the material, please don't ask me to do that for you. It's dishonest and it could get you into difficult situations. So, the most basic equation for triangle numbers is T_n = T_(n - 1) + n. However, the sequence of perfect squares can be expressed as the sum of two adjacent triangle numbers: n^2 = T_n + T_(n - 1), meaning that we can switch this around to get another equation for triangle numbers: T_n = n^2 - T_(n - 1). Using substitution, we get T_(n - 1) + n = n^2 - T_(n - 1) So: 2(T_(n - 1)) = n^2 - n T_(n - 1) = (n^2 - n) / 2 T_n = ((n + 1)^2 - (n + 1)) / 2 T_n = (n^2 + n) / 2 There you go.

He only really had to knock him down. He kept doing it because he could.

That sounds like some major physics pedanticism there. We call the magnetic pole on the north end of the planet the North Magnetic Pole because it's in the north. If, someday, our poles flip, there will probably be a giant scientific argument over whether to keep calling the pole in the north the NMP. The scientific community will want to keep it "accurate" and everyone else will want to keep it "simple" and we'll wind up with the greatest divide since Imperial vs Metric. (If Scadrial's magnetic poles are flipped from ours, it doesn't matter, we'll never know, because Earth isn't Cosmere so nobody from Earth can compare their compasses to one from Scadrial.)