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Huh. Well that was interesting.

Earl Euphemie had tried to go into hiding as best as he could, after his latest failed assassination. It didn't work very well, considering he still had to go to the daily meetings in the capitol building, and, well...now he was stuck there with the rest of the people. That wasn't good for him, not at all. People were yelling and shouting at the guards keeping them locked in here now. It was the second day of them being trapped in the main meeting hall, after the guards had locked them all in there yesterday afternoon. Something about needing to keep everyone safe from something. Well, Earl thought that was bogus. Plus he felt like he was trapped and the walls were closing in on him and that his employer must be in the meeting hall with him and would kill him any moment. So he tried to escape. He tapped bendalloy and stopped breathing, trying to move as quietly as he could. He snuck his way through the seats at the back of the hall, which were all mostly empty since everyone was gathered at the front to argue and yell. He found an entrance that was left unguarded by a guard. In one quick moment, he leaped out of the seats and made for the exit. He didn't make it far before he felt himself being pulled back by something, and fell to the ground. A guard came running over to him, pinning him to the ground. And of course, Goren chose that moment to enter the meeting hall, right through the entrance Earl had been planning to escape through. "Why is this man pinned to the ground, soldier?" Goren said. "He was trying to escape, sir." Goren sighed. "Great, makes sense, take him outside for...questioning, but don't go without at least two other guards with you." Earl stopped paying attention to what they said at that point, trying to escape from the grip of the guard pinning him down. It was useless. He tried burning nicrosil and touching the man, seeing if he could shock him by making him burn all his iron too fast. It didn't work. Rusts, Earl thought, he must've stopped burning. There wasn't much Earl could do besides scream for help as the guard and his companions dragged him outside. A few minutes later, the others heard a gunshot from nearby, but Goren calmed them down and told them it was a routine practice shot. ~ Szeth_Pancakes has been removed! They were a Loyalist Nicroburst/Subsumer Twinborn! Szeth_Pancakes (3): Ashbringer, Biplet, Matrim's Dice Ashbringer (2): Archer, DrakeMarshall PMs are still closed, so please avoid PMing still. In addition, the Black Market is now open! You can see the amount of items available below. Buying an item doesn't count towards a player's two actions per cycle. This turn will end at 9 am CDT on Sunday, June 13th. Player List: Black Market: PMs will be sent out shortly, if they haven't been already.

So my husband and I took our kids to the zoo yesterday. I have a newborn baby so had to find places to nurse several times throughout the day. This weekend they had lots of artists doing a competition of sorts with chalk art all over the zoo paths. They also had an artist in residence of sorts doing some oil painting at a tiny amphitheater. Every place I sat to feed my baby ended up being next to some of the artists. I was the only one in the amphitheater for a while watching the oil painter work. We chatted about art, his work, and other random things while I fed my baby and gave her a minute to stretch out. I realized how much I felt like Lightsong or Siri in the Court of Gods just bringing in artists to watch for enjoyment. I never understood until now just how amazing it can actually be to watch a professional artist at work. Musicians performing I understood. I am a musician, but am not very well practiced and lack natural talent for most visual arts. Watching visual artists was totally new for me. And the more I watched the more fascinated I was. And the more I fell in love with the pieces that were being worked on. There are some seriously talented people out there. This totally changes how I see those parts in Warbreaker. I’m glad I had the chance for a new experience. I love it even more now. So, if you lived in the Court of Gods, what kind of artists would you most like to watch? (Including things like music, dance, visual arts, etc. Anything else I’m missing?) After watching the artists at the zoo, I’m not even sure I could pick one thing. Good thing I wouldn’t have to. I could enjoy something new every day. I actually really like watching cake and cookie artists. There is some neat stuff you can do with food. Some people use legitimate painting techniques. Makes it hard to believe anyone could eat what they created. And I have a history of watching artistic competition shows on Netflix. I’ve watched one on fashion design hosted by the wonderful Tan France. And one about plant design/floral arranging. Watching professionals in real life though rather than on a screen is a whole new level of appreciation. Also here are some pictures of the artists I watched most as I sat and fed my baby. Incredible stuff.

It's not often people invite me to make a probably gigantic post spitting out all my thoughts, you know? Still I will seek to have mercy on you all and be concise, or at least as concise as I am capable of being whilst running on approximately 2 hours of sleep and a cup of mocha. I could probably make a couple extra boxings splitting it into many posts, but I'd rather have all of this in one place and posted immediately. I've already waited longer in the cycle than I wanted to post this. I warn you, there is a reason I sat on some of this. Some of it could help the eliminators. But I'm hoping it will help the village more. I need help making sense of all of this tbh. Part 1: Role Analysis Thankfully, I may omit all analysis on now dead players. Ashbringer - ??? Biplet - Confirmed Thug, which I kinda did not expect given how they reacted to the whole being threatened thing. Definitely not a Thief, probably not a Hazekiller or Investigator, but quite potentially a ferring of some kind. Szeth_Pancakes - Nicroburst + Subsumer Twinborn. I was able to confirm the former role D1. Lotus also had an anti-roleblock power, and I somewhat doubt the eliminators would need a second one of those, which is a slight point in Szeth's favor. On the flip side, while I don't take it personally that they stopped Nicrobursting me after our deal fell through, I am kind of curious what the heck they have been doing with their ability for the last few cycles since I've never heard any villagers report getting helped by Szeth. Matrim's Dice - Confirmed Thief. Will by now have also implanted a charged spike with a random unknown ability. It is mechanically possible that Matrim is concealing a second role they started out with, although my gut says Matrim was telling the truth about this particular thing. DrakeMarshall - Archivist. Sadly, just an Archivist, and not one that has found out anything terribly interesting, although I can share tidbits to confirm like how I know Archer stored bronze last night for some reason, or how I knew/suspected a lot of y'alls roles before you claimed. In your position, I would probably suspect me of having an allomantic ability hidden, but I do not. Archer - Sentry + ???. And I am fairly sure they do have a second role, specifically an allomantic one. That is something I gathered from their D1 role analysis and our PM. What that second role is, I do not know exactly. Dannex - Sparker + Duralumin Gnat. Neither of these roles are easily mechanically confirmable, so they could theoretically be totally lying, but I don't think they are lying. The strategy Dannex is claiming to have taken is pretty extreme and is one of the only logical explanations for their deliberate lurking behavior. Also the degree of detail Dannex is coming up with about the clarifications and misunderstandings they had about their role feel like they would be hard to make up. Conjectured Existence: Soother. Multiple people including myself have already pointed out that one probably exists. Leecher. Araris claimed to be roleblocked. Araris had no reason to lie about this. And what's more my Archivist power from N3 told me that Araris targeted nobody (a result the GMs confirmed was consistent with a player who had been roleblocked), which means Araris wasn't secretly just taking another action and only pretending to be roleblocked. Also note that blocking Araris was pretty much exclusively in the eliminators' interest and the Leecher is all but guaranteed to be an eliminator. So there are two unaccounted for allomantic roles. I know that it is only mechanically possible for these players to have allomantic roles I do not yet know about: Ashbringer, Matrim's Dice, Archer, Dannex. Of these, I think Matrim's and Dannex's claims both actually have a ring of truth. Therefore I think it is likely that the two allomantic roles Soother and Leecher are possessed by the two players Ashbringer and Archer. Also note that one of these players no longer has their previous role, due to how the Kandra conversion mechanic works. Part 2: Reads Ashbringer - They have always been on my sus list, and the way they are acting pretty calm and not apparently focused on catching eliminators today feels like strong evidence that they are Evil. Biplet - I feel like they are village. Partially because Biplet teaming with the other people I find suspicious is a little too on the nose. Partially because I think Biplet talking about elim!Thugs D1 is also a little too on the nose. Partially because of gut and other hand wavey reasons I can't remember. Szeth_Pancakes - I thought they were village at the beginning of the game, but my read has become more and more conflicted. Some of this pertains to the role analysis bit I said above, the rest of it pertains to general behavior in thread. Matrim's Dice - I already listed a bunch of reasons this cycle why I think Matrim is Evil. I feel that most of that reasoning is still sound. DrakeMarshall - I know I am a villager and apparently you all do too, although obviously I could now be the Kandra. I have been saying the whole time that Araris and I are evil teammates after all (incidentally I am using my Archivist ability today and if I'm lucky it will let me prove I'm not the Kandra, at least unless the game ends before then) Archer - I know I sussed them for a bit but I have an increasingly village read. I feel like I've been in a similar enough headspace of "oh crap the village is in danger" as Archer this last cycle, and some of their schemes like trying to lure out the elim roleblock would be very unnecessary for an eliminator. They could probably still be evil, but heck, if they are they deserve the win lol. Dannex - I am automatically paranoid about anyone who claims to be an alignment scanner at exlo (probably bc that was exactly what I did the last time I was an elim ), but tbh, how they are acting is not how I would expect elim!Dannex resurfacing to act. As much as I don't like the whole "pretend to be inactive thing" it feels like a genuine village strategy, and I have a hard time envisioning elim!Dannex coming up with this lie. So... Tentatively a village read, but one that is kinda weak since it is only backed up by one cycle of activity. Part 3: Voting History Day 1: Experience (4): |TJ|, Archer, Ashbringer, Matrim's Dice, Ventyl Matrim's Dice (2): Araris Valerian, manukos, Szeth_Pancakes Araris Valerian (1): DrakeMarshall DrakeMarshall (1): Flyingbooks Mist (1): Devotary of Spontaneity Ventyl (1): Biplet A delightfully active vote, if scatterbrained. Ashbringer breaks tie in Matrim's favor, with stated reasons being the avoidance of ties. Vote removed from Matrim was basically just manukos storing, and probably not significant. Day 2: |TJ| (6): Araris Valerian, Archer, Biplet, Devotary of Spontaneity, Flyingbooks, Szeth_Pancakes Biplet (3): |TJ|, DrakeMarshall, Matrim's Dice, Mist Araris Valerian (1): Ashbringer Ashbringer does not get involved with the TJ vs Biplet vote. One of the votes on Biplet is probably Soothed. Day 3: Biplet (3): Araris Valerian, Archer, Devotary of Spontaneity, Matrim's Dice Matrim's Dice (3): DrakeMarshall, Flyingbooks, Illwei Araris Valerian (1): Szeth_Pancakes The Unknown Order (1): Biplet Archer unlikely to be E/E with Matrim. Day 4: The Unknown Order (5): Araris Valerian, Ashbringer, Biplet, DrakeMarshall, Matrim's Dice Matrim's Dice (3): Archer, Flyingbooks, Szeth_Pancakes Biplet (1): Devotary of Spontaneity Potential defense of Matrim by Ash and/or Bip, as Archer(?) already pointed out. Part 4: Conclusion So who is the Soother and who is the Leecher? Well, I already said I'm pretty sure the two allomantic roles are possessed by the two players Archer and Ashbringer. Archer said they aren't the Soother. I think Archer is lying, and is in fact a Soother. I am village reading Archer for the reasons I gave before, and I have also noticed that Archer seems much more confident than I do about there being a next turn in the game, which feels like something that would come out of knowing for sure that there is a village!Soother. They have also expressed concerns about revealing too much information that would paint targets on people's backs, so denying that they are a Soother is completely consistent with how Archer has been playing so far. If my hunch is correct, than Ashbringer is very probably the eliminator!Leecher. Or Archer could be telling the truth. In which case, Archer must be the eliminator!Leecher. This is certainly reasonable grounds for some to suspect Archer. In this case, Archer might also know for sure that a village!Soother exists (if the elim team does not include the Soother) and therefore this could also explain why Archer appears to be planning for a turn after this one. Obviously, if Archer is in fact the Leecher, then Ashbringer isn't. That is why I voted on Ashbringer. I am reasonably confident that they are the eliminator!Leecher, or at least that they were the eliminator!Leecher (bc they could have been converted last night). In this case, Ashbringer would be a fairly safe vote, in the sense that it would definitely remove an Evil and it would under no circumstances allow the eliminators to reach parity before the D6 execution is decided. Also, Matrim voted for Ashbringer, and as much as I really suspect Matrim, this vote intrigued me. I strongly suspected a Matrim and Ashbringer eliminator team, so why the beans did Matrim vote for Ashbringer? Well, there are a few possible explanations to that. One possible explanation is that spreading village votes between multiple eliminators and then hammering right at the end is a totally viable tactic for exlo. This assumes that the eliminators can actually all be online at rollover, though, which while possible does not seem the most likely. Another possible explanation is that there is (perhaps justified) conflict between the eliminators. I would be totally unsurprised if Araris managed to bag an eliminator as his successor. A Kandra!eliminator is totally disastrous for the elim team, since the Kandra can hijack the eliminator kill in addition to using their own intrinsic kill ability, and furthermore an elim-turned-Kandra should probably wish to weaken the eliminator team right now, so such internal strife could actually make complete sense. In this case, killing either Matrim or Ashbringer would be a decent choice, it should not matter much which one we chose. Edit: Since I didn’t get to it anywhere else, I will also note here that both Matrim and Ashbringer would have been potentially rather clever conversion choices by Araris in their own ways. Matrim bc then Araris could have targeted both thieves in a (possibly flawed) attempt to ensure that at least one eliminator was hit, keeping the game from ending in the Kandra’s defeat which was a pretty big danger. Ash bc not claiming kinda makes it a bit less of an issue that your old role was stripped from you, and bc converting someone you think could be an elim has significant potential gains. Edit2: Also because Matrim keeps saying “if you kill me the village loses” and that feels like it might be another technically true but misleading statement similar to the “I only started with one role” thing, not “I’m village” but “you need me to win” bc Matrim is the Kandra. But enough about Kandra conspiracies back to our regularly scheduled programming of catching elims /edit Obviously, another possibility is that Matrim and Ashbringer aren't E/E teammates. And if it's between Matrim and Ashbringer, if one of my reads on them had to be wrong, I guess I'd rather trust in my role analysis of Ashbringer being the Leecher, if only by a narrow margin. Because I am fairly confident in that role analysis. And even if it were wrong, that would probably make Archer evil, and I already noted that I don't think Archer and Matrim are E/E, so in that case Matrim is probably good, and Ashbringer would therefore still be the better choice for the exe. So uh... Yeah. That is basically my thought process. There are a few different possibilities I can see, but in every case it feels like Ashbringer could be an execution that is more likely to succeed than Matrim. I am still deeply paranoid about the fact that I can't think of a third member of the elim team that clicks, and I am also deeply paranoid that whether or not Ashbringer is Evil my decision to split the vote will still have doomed the village. I will hear out a case for a different vote. @Archer @Biplet @Dannex this is my thoughts, which in some way shape or form you said you sorta wanted me to explain. Sorry if it was long. I am interested on what your thoughts on my thoughts are

Illwei was killed! They were a Forger and had the role of Forger. VC: Illwei(1): Matrim Matrim(1): Illwei The Members of the Heritage Faction have won! Player List: Thoughts: Ok, first off thanks everyone for playing and thanks @Araris Valerian for helping when my wifi decided to kill itself. You can see the hidden role in the rule doc below. So, there are definitely some things that I would change if this game were ever rerun. First, I would make it so that the elim has lynch immunity for the first day, so that they can't die on the first turn which almost actually happened. Second, when Illwei was converted she originally didn't gain the forger role, which I think needs to happen. We actually ended up doing this so that Illwei wouldn't need to survive 13 different lynches and have a 50/50 rng chance of death at the end (which turned out to happen anyway...). I think somethings that could be changed for that is have them gain the role if they are converted and the first elim dies before a certain number of turns, or if it's later they just gain the activations which would let them kill already stamped players. Docs: Rules (with hidden role and order of actions): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a0tPChwolmFxRfHBpQcs8FEjlKRa4aihp-q_dwyBqmI/edit Forgers doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IHC1sZ5sqt9JOSMzwe6NV1gDxAEa9Garzjf9mzrhihQ/edit Spec/Dead doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vi0-8oiQ9NqMcdO0ywehkMpObMLE6AhPoowalrM1BPE/edit

Hey look im online Well hopefully this doesn’t all blow up

Inconceivable!! This defense has torn through every one of my very serious reasons leveled against you! My vote has been scoured away in the searing light of truth and superior common sense (but a metaphorical light, of course, because it is a night cycle and the sun is down). Matrim's Dice what do you have to say for yourself? Your argument is sound and I see no reason not to trust you, have a nice day night.

And it is still far faster than anything present on Scadrial short of Steelrunners. Even in battle, since they can accelerate nearly arbitrarily fast. Mists are gaseous investiture (like Stormlight), Mists can infuse gemstones (like stormlight, even if not as easily), Mists can be breathed in and power magic (like Stormlight). How are they different, outside of superficial properties (appearing in Highstorm vs appearing some nights from thin air). Are you seriously suggesting that a random metalborn with A-bronze and F-zinc can develop anti-investiture weapons against anything? Really? Scadrians have very little knowledge about Cognitive Realm, much less about Spiritual Realm, or experience with direct manipulation of investiture. Kelsier did develop that skill, he uses it his fight with Bendak. I mean, what he did in that fight was closer to what Magneto does, not to what Mistborn do. And Vin never did anything like that, the closest she comes is her horseshoe trick, which is admittedly impressive, but not as impressive as using pushes and pulls to rotate metal rods in air in roughly the same place. Is Vin more talented than Kel? Yes. Is she a better Mistborn? Yes. Is she better at using Iron and Steel? No. Except Shardblade is not invested metal, it is solid investiture, (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/6/#e247) and pushing on part is more difficult than pushing on a whole. Shardplate is comparably invested as shardblades are, with blades being a bit more invested. (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/217/#e7299) Also Wax never comments on detecting more metal/smaller metal/metal in bodies when tapping weight, he can just push more because he is heavier. And in BoM Wax is never shown to actually detect the bands or see them with metal lines. He is holding them after being revived, then he tosses them out of window, and in the next scene he holds them again. Never is he shown detecting them with metal lines. At least I was unable to find any such scene, if someone could please show a scene where he detects BoM with metal lines I would be grateful. Scadrians are not particularly invested when not burning metals (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/93/#e2675). When burning metal there is Connection opened to Spiritual Realm, that is where the power is coming from. In principle that Connection could be stolen, or moved. I was under the impression that we are currently discussing mainly Era 2 Scadrial and post-RoW Roshar, not space-age equivalents. A lot could change that shifts the dynamic in a couple centuries.

Changed my username to better fit Keyed. The Shard of Thought isn't even a Shard anymore.

Mm, unfortunate, that.

Anyone want to hear my theory about who the elim team is? :P. I guess we're playing this out because the kandra is still alive and kicking. It's up to them now how they want things to go. Also, I had no plan for tonight. I was trying to soft Hazekiller, but no one bit. Dannex, Drake, you're my teammates so let's do some strategizing. I don't suppose we're lucky enough to have all the blackmail between us? Should we even show our cards like that?

DatS 12:

DatS 11

I tried to upvote this, kept reading, then tried to upvote it again and unupvoted it so no upvote for you I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Two days and a night she’d spent in that cell that wasn’t a cell, until they’d ushered her to another room, locking her away with the rest of the council members to decide their fate. And yet, there were still dark corners, shrouded hallways, rooms tucked away behind pillars. Dead bodies on the floor. And all that time, all that time, those damned council members had only thought about themselves. No thought of protecting others, of doing their duty to their people. Not once had Shara heard a single councilman discuss making lives better in all her years of working for them. It was all economics, how to control the poor, why wages shouldn’t be regulated. Lies and exploitation. That’s all they ever were. She’d had enough. Years spent in poverty, climbing her way from the depths of the pit of hunger and homelessness on ladders of bones, scraping together coins to buy books and pave her own education with bricks made of her blood. She’d bled for these council people to make their fancy laws, to eat lavishly while her family and friends starved. They bought their education with money inherited from generations of men who stepped on those beneath them. She’d had enough. Earl Euphemie: deceased Sweeper: deceased Walker: deceased Myra: deceased Illwei: deceased Zara: deceased Magrait: deceased Azmine: deceased Lumen: deceased TJ: deceased Bill Door: deceased Veren: deceased Shara’s fists clenched. Years of doing his work. Years of writing his policies, filling his paperwork, writing papers for him to present as his own. Years without being asked where she had come from, years of him not helping those she loved. Years of him ignoring the pain and suffering of others. Iden: alive She had had enough.

alright i just finished trying bip you are forgiven ok

I'm sorry!!! can you forgive me

Moash hate is more people being upset about how he made them feel than his actual actions. Yeah, I said it.

The episode was slow in that it had so many flashbacks to things we had already seen. But it is setting up something with so much potential. I definitely loved Mobius as a therapist digging deep into who Loki really is. Tom Hiddleston has just absolutely knocked it out of the park with Loki’s character. I genuinely feel the biggest reason this show exists is because of how much fans love him and his performances. And I am so looking forward to it.

Yeah, I can't see Brandon allowing that, if nothing else because of Sanderson's Second Law: And I don't feel like that allows for such utter roflstompage (technical term, that. ) I wholeheartedly agree, if that's how regular F-nicrosil works then any conflict with Scadrial is won by default, a bit like the typical X vs fullborn. ¤_¤

Medallions are interesting that way, and it's probably because of what's mentioned here: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/316/#e11247 So Medallions store Invested abilities like copperminds, where you take them out, use them, and put them back. I don't think normal F-Nicrosil works this way, if solely for the reason that compounding it for a Mistborn would be most busted thing in the Cosmere and I don't think Brandon would allow that. That the Bands run out somewhat supports this--the Bands use normal F-Nicrosil, which is filled and tapped just like Iron, Steel, and most other metalminds. This would make the compounding more balanced, since a Mistborn with F-Nicrosil would be able to briefly become stupid powerful, but not permanently and infinitely. Edit: Btw, if it turns out that normal F-Nicrosil does work this way, I'm dropping everything and immediately giving Scadrial the win. Being able to compound anyone's abilities to stupidly-high maxed-out levels with just a couple spikes/a single A-Nicrosil/F-Nicrosil Medallion trumps basically everything. (Imagine a Pewterarm that essentially maxing out Tension on themselves all the time and basically does not feel pain, or a Coinshot that can sense and manipulate trace metals. Nuh-uh.)

Well well well well well well well well well!! This simplifies things And makes them more complicated, because I thought the game was still running because a village vote manip came through for us, but in reality it is due to a Kandra taking over one of the eliminators. And you guys just figured out that all of you can be online at the end of the cycle to put in kill orders

Hey, there wasn't a tie! I see this as a win in my book. (Okay, so I may have had some ulterior motives in my tie-breaking skills xD. But I really don't like D1 ties if I can avoid them. More on that in Aftermath I guess.)

DRAT. Guess my tunnel was misplaced!

I like the theory that Hoid was there to distract Rayse. I think Hoid went there to make Rayse look at him, which he obviously would do because he would be pissed after learning Hoid wrote the deal that bound him, and Hoid going out to tease him after something like that would've made sense to Rayse. But... I think that was part of the plan. Hoid's was the flashy part, something you want to look at, something you can't help but focus on, while the important sneaky stuff happens in the background. Specifically, Design went off chasing some enlightened spren. So... I wouldn't be surprised if Design was going to have a secret meeting with Sja-anat, under Rayse's nose. What would the outcome of such a meeting be? The most tantalising answer would be Enlightenment. It's possible that... given Hoid's speech about Lightweaving making things too easy for him, he's willing to give it up for some other power the Enlightened cryptics might be getting instead. Maybe Soulcasting is the one that would get replaced for him? There's a whole bunch of options, and Design might not get Enlightened and might be doing something else entirely, instead of meeting Sja-anat. Now, of course, Hoid's plan partially backfired - instead of Rayse, it was Taravangian, and we had some really creepy stuff happen there with Taravangian forcefully reaching in and playing with Hoid's memories, BUTT, Hoid's OG plan still worked, I think. Rayse or Taravangian, memory-rape or not, Odium still focused on him, and not on Design. We focused on him, and not on Design (or anyone/anywhere else, for that matter).

There is a wob about this, but it's not as direct as that, and piggybacks off of some in-world lore: which is based on the listener Song of Spren, of which we have the 9th and 10th stanzas: Now... the interesting question is, why can't Singers bond truespren like Syl and get forms out of that? For example, why is Venli's radiant-bond to Timbre not replacing her form-bond to that spren that grant her envoyform? And I think that would be in the same vein as "Why do Fused kill the Singer and take over their bodies, rather than just giving them some form?" Truespren like Syl and Pattern are probably just too big and smart for the form-granting nahel bond, the more advanced Knight Radiant-like nahel bond is probably their equivalent of the same thing. But... that's just speculation, we don't actually know.

It's been a good run, but I think I'm going to be unplugging, throwing in the proverbial towel, bidding adieu, and logging off from the Shard for the last time. The shard was really the only bit of Social Media that I have engaged in, and it was a fun run, but I think that I am just too old and crotchety for this Social Media thing. It was fun giving/getting boons/banes on the Nightwatcher thread, it was fun speculating after the release of Oathbringer, it was fun over at the Cosmere the Musical thread, it was fun doing the Cosmere Character Roasts, and it was great for the most part being part of the nicest and smartest online forum on the interwebs. But all good things must end, right? You all are great, really you are, but I am incredibly uninterested in the Cosmere© now, after Rhythm of War came out, and I fear that I'm not as big of Sanderfan as I used to be, due to the shift in emphasis from creation to marketing that has seemed to have taken place. I wish all you lovely people nothing but the best, and will now have time to read more and draw more, so don't cry for me, as they say. Adieu, Adieu, parting is such sweet sorrow.

DatS 12:

In espionage, a "sleeper" agent is just someone who has successfully infiltrated the target country, but is not actively doing anything (gathering intelligence, performing operations, etc). I suspect Taravangian's sleepers are just regular men & women who are loyal to the Diagram or Kharbranth.

The confirmation that El and Nahel have the same root is pretty handy, since we know that the latter means 'the bond to divinity'. It's probably a safe assumption that the article and particle there are implicit rather than explicit, and since El is a Semitic word meaning 'God' or 'Deity' that it's also the part of Elithanathile that translates to 'He' in the capitalized sense used in religious texts. Hence, El's name basically means 'God'. I'm guessing that's something he was assigned after... whatever it was that got him stripped of the Rhythms and his old title, since I have a hard time imagining anyone making their child, literally, God. Side note, Brandon also used 'Ihel' as a word in WoK Prime, though per the quoted WoB he doesn't remember what meaning he assigned to Nahel so he probably doesn't remember Ihel either. Still, it's clearly derived from the same root and probably had some meaning related to divinity as well.

I think it does a great disservice to Hoid (and, by extension, to Brandon) to assume Hoid had no objective. It would be completely out of character for Hoid to take such a risk for no good reason. @Leuthie is correct - Hoid tells us exactly what he's doing in his "performance" for Design: the subtle art of misdirection. He definitely wants Odium's FULL attention on him at this particular moment, which is carefully planned to allow someone else to do something without Odium noticing. Could be Design; could be Jasnah; could be Dalinar. There might even be more than one such secret mission. But I'm confident that we will eventually see a very satisfying reason for Hoid to risk his precious metaphorical hide trading pointless insults with Odium there. I'm also confident that once he realizes the significance of the loss of his perfect pitch and infers the removal of some Breaths, Hoid will be able to deduce much of what happened, including the events he no longer directly remembers. He will know, at the very least, that Odium is somehow different than he was. Thus this meeting will serve two important narrative purposes going forward.

Some character sketches for D&tS. (L to R) Marsh, Ene, Kell, Ati, Hoid, (RoW) Saze, Shai

Ok, so the title should already tell you what this topic is about, but it it doesn’t then, In this topic, You’ll say what character you would like to meet the most! And why, It doesn’t have to be your favorite character, it could also be you least favorite! It’s entirely up to you! (By the way, this contains full spoilers for RoW!!) Here is mine: So, I have been thinking, who would I like to meet from SA? Immediately I thought of Vyre, (you know who he is) so I could kill him xD. But I feel like Navani will already do that. So, I decided I would want to spend the day with Lift! Mostly because I think she is won of the most hilarious characters! Although Kaladin is my favorite character, lift is probably on my list of top 5. (I find it surprising that I haven’t read Edgedancer yet) Anyway, here is why: She is super funny, Windyl is super funny, and Me and Lift both love pancakes lol. And I think It would be cool to hang out with her. Then she could take me to all of the hidden places in Urithiru. (By that time I had hopefully bonded a honorspren or cultivationspren. Mostly I want to be a Windrunner) lol. Anyways, what are your guys’ opinions?

I shall not, as I have a final exam tomorrow and my brain is currently made of mush and Spanish vocabulary.

We no longer constitute more than half of players. We still have plurality for the time being, but not majority. You know, that's a very good point. Dannex, what do you have to say for yourself? I wanted the elims to not be fooled by those codes and planned accordingly so who's getting fooled now

good!! I'm so glad <3

me too i like cubes you must like them too since you put them in your coffee coffee you drink as you prove me wrong about the game i am offend, bip i am offend

Austre!

Yeah I was wondering about that. only thing I could think of is that he is bonded to 2 spren or the firing mechanism is in the case thing

LET'S GO xD I can't really enjoy the victory outside of simply beating Illwei in a tie cause I subbed in C7, but still yay I guess :P. I get the sense Illwei could have won it if things had gone differently... and I did have fun following along beforehand. And now I can say that I've been the sole survivor in a game before, which is cool. And this is literally the first non AG village game I've survived in general, so... Anyway, thanks Exp for running it

I assumed so because of his Noble line and Vin's own potential, but no, I checked too and found nothing

-Bands of Mourning, ch. 28 So affecting metals inside someone seems to be a distinct possibility with the Bands, though seeing as Marasi notes how quickly the stores are used up a few seconds or so after she starts tapping you probably couldn't sustain that level of power for long. ¤_¤

I'm not sure... Szeth's highspren directly tells him he will need to "become the law" to reach the fifth ideal, so that's definitely the ideal. Now whether this directly means the Judge Dread sort of crazy it implies or of there is some more nuance there is up for debate. I think in general that 'becoming the law' could work with the tiny bit we've seen of the original Skybreaker philosophy. From Dalinar's visions (RoW Chpt 47) of sane!Nale. I think becoming the law is supposed to be like becoming a judge (and not Judge Dread lol more like King Solomon). The Skybreaker has shown that they can follow and understand a code, and are have proven themselves capable of interpreting that code. Sort of like the idea of living documents in the real world, the Skybreaker is a living example of the law that has structure but also has the flexibility to dole out true justice. The law cannot be moral but a Skybreaker can be.

I was just thinking about how much theorising about the Fifth Ideal is based on what we know about the Skybreakers, so I went looking for the passage where we learn about it. Oathbringer, chapter 90 Context: Szeth and a bunch of other Skybreaker hopefuls are asking questions of some of Nale’s Skybreakers who are in charge of training new recruits. Notably, this description of the Fifth Ideal comes from people who have not sworn it. According to them, it is centuries since the last time someone swore the Fifth Ideal - which, unless I’m missing something, means that Nale is the only living person who has sworn the Fifth Ideal (for Skybreakers). He’s the only one who has done it in generations. Presumably he’s their only source for this information. And he’s insane. Couple that with how weird it sounds as a Radiant Ideal (the person who says ‘I am the law’ is usually not the good guy) and it looks like there’s something fishy going on. I think that what Szeth learns about the Fifth Ideal in OB is not actually true. Or if it is, it’s misleading.

Just want to jump in and say that this is freaking MAGIC and you are awesome.

It's time.