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AEFGOIWNEROCGHI HWERIOXGHQERO ICVCRRRRRTSCAEFXDZ LITERALLY NOBODY I KNOW HAS ANY APPRECIATION OF QUALITY Is this why I'm so depressed? Why the scud should I bother working away at something like a novel if literally everybody I know cannot show at least an ounce of appreciation for it??? My 'friend' just said yesterday that if it's a book it's bad, and my brother just decided after reading, like, three chapters of Way of Kings that it was 'too long' and 'boring.' XZVCMcsaadsknldfslaknmdvsbkjlskjlcx vkjl;sadkml;cxvlknmdsaf !!!!!!!!! Guys I don't think I'm okay. Like, for the love of Eru Iluvitar I need help.

To those wondering, here's a link: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/472/#e14863 Assuming all of the names weren't made-up, a river in the land of Koloss named Human is a pretty nostalgic nod.

Thank you so much! I will try to do more Elantris pieces in the future, I love that whole story and world! I was inspired by the Cosmere Shard drawing challenge going on a while back, but didn't have the time to complete them, *sadface* EEE thanks Ene, I love this comment. Thanks for checking out my work, but keep in mind, there is a "no unsolicited critique" rule in this section, see below! And here is a new sketch I did the other night, had some free time and was trying out a new style. Sorry it is so dark.

GUYS. BRANDON HATES ROGUE ONE. ... welp, being a sanderfan was fun while it lasted. brb, gotta go delete my account and burn all his books

Hail, I bring you old memes from LG78 once again! If the Durian had actually stopped a kill: GMs telling me about my Durian: Everytime Kas and Wyrm brawl in thread apparently: Also:

You know that awesome feeling where you hear a song and the lyrics just fit your characters perfectly? To the point that it actually affects the plot a little bit? Well, that happened. And not only is it plot-inducing, it's a fantastic, beautiful song on its own merit. Thinking I might have a new band to follow...

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"

We all think that Gavilar chose Aesudan to confide in for some manipulative or secretive reason, but could the truth be somewhat simpler? What if Gavilar was having an affair? What if all that he confided in Aesudan was their pillow-talk? Now mind you, I HATE this theory. I utterly LOATHE it. A different book series that I like did this, and it was an awful twist in my opinion. But it makes a weirdly appropriate amount of sense here, more-so than it could ever do in the other series. Aesudan may want to be the Queen, but so long as she's married to Elhokar that will happen in time. For now, she has the attention and "affection" (barf) of the real king. She also knows about Gavinor's dealings due to some pillow-talk by Gavilar (who needed someone to brag to), and uses his connections to become involved with some of the conspiracies after his death. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go try not to vomit and take, like, thirty showers... Other notes: I had a connected theory that Gavinor was Gavilar's son and not Elhokar's, but the timeline doesn't really add up. THANK ADONALSIUM IT DOESN'T ADD UP.

Oh, interesting! I too think Gavilar is not dead-dead, but I had not thought of that. Could it both perhaps? Gavilar goes, Shallan's mother dies and then agrees to swap with Gavilar? ---- For the Shallan's mother theory, we do now have another nod that non-returned cognitive shadows have had children, and we don't have many options for who those Shadows may be. Not proof, but making it more plausible that Shallan has a herald for a mother. Kingsdaughter613 I wanted to know if any of the non-Returned Cognitive Shadows have had children? Brandon Sanderson Yes.

This is probably an entirely different topic thread, but I assert that Steel Feruchemy does not speed up or slow down your mind or the way you perceive the world. My arguments for this are as follows: 1) Mental Speed is stored in Zinc and Physical Speed is stored in Steel. If they had the same effect, they wouldn't be separate metals, because Brandon doesn't do his magic design like that. 2) In SoS, there is a moment where Paalm taps a ton of Speed right as Wayne throws up a speed bubble. Interestingly, the prose makes it seem like Paalm took a second to realize that Wax was actually watching her, something that should've been more immediately obvious if it was actually increasing her mental speed. 3) Obviously there needs to be *some* kind of mental enhancement to make speed running work. I assert that these effects are in the subliminal part of the mind: Reflexes, physical coordination, etc. Have you ever had a moment where you're physically doing something you're usually bad at, but you start excelling for a brief moment, because your body is moving faster than your mind? And as soon as you realize the fact, and try to do it consciously, the magic ends? That's how I imagine the experience of steelrunning: You see yourself moving *fast*, but your subliminal control of your body is compensating--you don't *need* conscious control to avoid crashing into walls. The other thing is: When Sazed is storing everything, he doesn't remark that time seems to be moving slowly/quickly. His thoughts are moving slowly, but his body is moving even slower, Saze remarking on how agonizingly slow his arms are. Meanwhile, those speaking to him move and speak normally, Saze's PoV not noting anything strange in their timing. It's a good idea, but imo what you're looking for is A-Cadmium ;P

Thank you so much for this! And you know, I used to think that I was bisexual or pansexual. But now I realize, I might be fluid. I don't really want any label attatched to me. Love is love, right?

IIRC, Legion was in talks to get a television show, but the superhero show of the same name (also featuring a character with multiple personalities/alters in his head) came out first, killing any chances of Leeds getting a show at the time. As it stands, Legion is apparently owned by Cineflix Media (or something around that name) but nothing's been down with the rights yet. The graphic novel Skyward has a female protagonist, a relation to earth, and a sci-fi setting. While the story, characters, and overall setting are vastly different, I think all people will only see a woman leading the story, a sci-fi setting, and the same name, and make a poor judgment call that neither property deserves. Sure, our Skyward can change its name to something like Cytoverse and then do the book titles next (i.e. movie 1 is Cytoverse, movie 2 is Cytoverse: Starsight, and so on), but who knows how that would be received. EDIT: The closest WoB I could find at the moment: EDIT 2: FOUND IT!

Please do not devolve into an actual comabt of Mistborn vs. Radiant. Please. I can't do another one.

So, for the Mistborn RP site, I had a character named Felicity Arduenna, and elderly retired obligator who writes Lord Ruler fanfiction. Now that the MBI is retired, I figured I'd post the snippets of Felicity's novel, The Lord Ruler and I here for amusement and posterity. Titles are references to the RP threads the snippets came up in, not to the actual snippet content. Note - this is a parody of the type of novel Ellista would be interested in if she ever relocated to Scadriel. Very melodramatic, flowery, and heavy on the romance. I don't believe anything in these snippets goes beyond what Brandon would include or has included in his books, but if that type of thing isn't your forte, please feel free to pass this over. Note 2 - I don't condone or encourage starting a relationship with a nearly omnipotent ancient god emperor. Snippet 1 - Felicity Arduenna Snippet 2 - A New Master Snippet 3 - The Tale of Mother Ashes and the Mist Gremlin Snippet 4 - A State of Readiness Snippet 5 - Ancient Whisperings

Honor's death has been a great unanswered question since TWoK, but after RoW, I think we can make some educated guesses about what happened. The biggest clue comes from Rayse's negotiations with Dalinar, where he reveals that breaking his agreement with Dalinar would leave him fatally exposed. This could all be exposition, revealing to us readers some fundamental rules about the nature of shards. Maybe a bit of misdirection too; just as we start hypothesizing about how Odium could be defeated through a broken oath, he gets stabbed in the face. But it seems like bad storytelling to show us a Chekhov's gun that can kill a shard and never pull the trigger. Unless, of course, the gun has already been fired. And it seems poetic for the god of oaths to be undone by a broken promise. Theory: Honor was able to be killed because he broke an agreement/oath The obvious follow-up questions are "what is the agreement?" and "who did he make it with?" One possible answer is that he made some kind of deal with Odium. This seems plausible - Odium is bound to Roshar by something Honor did, and I don't think he could have done so unconditionally without Odium's compliance. But if Odium agreed to be bound under some conditions, and Honor violated those conditions, it feels like Odium would have been able to free himself rather than simply kill Honor's vessel. Additionally, I don't think Tanavast would be dumb enough to make an agreement with Rayse and then violate it in such a way as to put himself at Rayse's mercy. And if that did happen, there's no way Rayse would take partial credit; he would not exclaim "We killed you!" as he did in Oathbringer. Instead, I think Honor broke an agreement he made with the Singers and/or the Fused. Once that happened, Tanavast exposed himself to the Fused, and Odium somehow empowered them to deal the killing blow. This would mean that the Fused named Rine, who also says "We killed [Honor]," was not speaking metaphorically or in a vague collective sense, but literally. I have some evidence to support this theory, and piece together approximately what promise was broken. The first has to do with Windrunners and Honorspren - it does not seem like a coincidence that the Windrunner oaths are all about protection. "The choice of Honor is life" and all that. From the Eila Steele, we know that after humanity destroyed Ashyn, Tanavast commanded the Singers to accept the human refugees. The steele suggests that the Singers did so out of pity and compassion, but it seems obvious that many would have objections. I think the leaders among the Singers (who would eventually become the Fused), demanded that Honor make an oath along the lines of "I will protect you from them" or more specifically "I will not allow the humans to destroy you with surgebinding" before they agreed. Consider how the timing lines up. Prior to his death, Honor apparently was going insane and no longer considering the meaning behind oaths, just the oaths themselves. In this state of mind, he might not consider the capturing of BAM and subsequent lobotomizing of the Singer race as "destroying" them. But it's obvious to the rest of us that such an atrocity is equivalent to genocide. When the Fused learned what happened, they would seek vengeance against the shard that allowed it to happen. Also, this theory helps explain another question I've had: Humanity "won" every desolation, but apparently never tried to exterminate the Singers after the Heralds sealed away the Fused and Regals. Genocide is bad, but towards the end the desolations occurred so frequently that people were living through several of them over the span of their lives. Surely there would have been powerful factions willing to do whatever was necessary to end the desolations once and for all. Unless, of course, Honor himself forbade it. TLDR: I think Honor promised to protect the Singers, and the Fused perceived the imprisoning of BAM as a violation of that promise, allowing them to kill him

Been job searching so I can finally leave the toxic environment I currently work at and I finally got a callback! I’ve been wanting to work at Barnes & Noble and I didn’t care if it was barista at the cafe or bookseller for the store. It’s not the closest one to me, that one rejected all my applications, but it’s the next closest so it’s good for the drive at least. I’m hoping it goes to interview level so I can know to give my storming two weeks notice and the ol two finger salute of punkhood. Hopefully this works out and I can stay for a few years to reach senior level and move out of Texas for good.

Because I want to horrify you all.

Actually it's very avoidable. First because the reproduction issue Returned is likely to be common to all types of CSs and second because having a large number of admirers doesn't mean you have sex with them. Though of course he could have had a child since era 1 and knowing @Kingsdaughter613 it's probably who she was thinking about when asking the question.

#1 seems most likely to me, with what we know from Sja-anat, Pattern, and Venli, personally. The storm in some way seems to allow things to escape, which imo kinda renders the Oathpact moot. Lezian seems to think something similar: If all that would be required is killing a Herald and sending them back, I don't think he'd be so sure he won't be trapped again.

Do you have a link to this WOB? Id like to see his exact wording. There are a lot of things in the Cosmere that are similar because they are built on common realmic mechanisms, but are not literally the same thing. When they are literally the same it has a lot more implications on the history and evolution of the Cosmere. Rysn got a burst of color enhancement consistent with a bunch of breaths, but if it's literal Heightening effects then we can assume she has Life Sense, Perfect Pitch/Color, Immortality, Instinctive Investiture use, etc. etc. which is a much bigger deal. From the other examples we have, just a big store of any kind of investiture alone wont create the Heightenings. We've seen people Ascend from overuse of Metallic Arts (Atium) without gaining other Heightening effects. We've also seen LTR need to hack Atium for a dangerous limited Immortality when he had access to more than the 5th Heightenings worth of Investiture.

Thank you for this! I knew he could not have broken! So either: 1. The Everstorm somehow brute forced the Oathpact in the Oathpact's weakened state, and Fused were allowed through without a Herald quitting. 2. Another Herald Broke and the Everstorm was put into place after that to make this desolation the last one 3. Something we cant guess right now. Personally, I don't think Odium could return the Fused without a herald breaking. Sure, he could restore the Parshendi Singers, but I don't believe he could get the Fused to Roshar without the Oathpact being broken by someone (and that someone is not Taln).

Or he could read it and have someone read the information to him as a "patsy," and also to double-check if there are any spies. But that would be where she finds out about who Gavilar was dealing with, not what Gavilar himself accomplished. No, that would be Gavilar bragging during their pillow-talk. (Or maybe Aesudan knows this, and Gavilar gave this out as a bit of blackmail over Aesudan - the moment Elhokar's wife reveals she knows that Gavilar can read is the moment Gavilar has her killed; or potentially worse, exiled and humiliated for having an affair behind the prince's back.) There's a scene in the first season of Daredevil where the main antagonist, Kingpin, is dealing with an ally from an Asian country. (I can't remember where exactly, but I do remember that she wasn't Japanese, as that was a different ally of Kingpin's.) She's speaking her native language. Kingpin had his top aide and best friend (as friendly as Kingpin could be to another person) do the translating...until one time, it became necessary for Kingpin himself to speak on his own behalf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUhI4guM4Zk At that moment, it was revealed that Kingpin could speak the language, and never needed a translator in the first place. This also isn't uncommon in media, to know information, skill, or language, that another person is usually required for.* Besides that, if Gavilar is really trading information with Thaidakar or his agents, who's to say that the language the two were using was even Alethi? To several people in-universe (aka Adolin) and outside of it (the Inkeeper of The Dusty Wheel, to name an example off the top of my head), it is an issue that can't be fixed. To many people, what Moash has done, even if it's more justifiable than "I want be immortal with an immortal legacy and kingdom," is far more reprehensible. But Gavilar better have a good reason for abusing and neglecting his own wife (both emotionally and potentially physically), talking so derisively about his own children, and clearly doing something that scared an entire civilization into thinking he was going to bring back the deities they ran from. It's not just about the affair being gross (which, of course, affairs always are), it's about who the affair was with. Gavilar could have chosen anyone, but in this theory, he chose the woman who his son had married. What sort of monster does that? Just as an added note, what Steris was proposing was more in-line with open marriages than straight up affairs. There were rules, regulations, and boundaries in place. Affairs are about secrecy and lying, not just about extra-marital relationships. We haven't, and it's bound to be more complicated than what we know. But the man wasn't a good man either. He was a warlord, not unlike Dalinar was. He, as seen by Navani's comments and views, was an abuser. (Also not unlike Dalinar in many ways.) He, as seen by the people he surrounded himself with, was doing things considered incredibly dangerous. Gavilar at this point can't be considered a saint by any means. He may end up like The Lord Ruler, who is seen as "the lesser of two evils" in time, but he won't ever be considered a good man again. *A more humorous example is in House, where the daughter of a non-English speaking immigrant is trying to use her mother's cold as a way to get birth control pills. House sees through this, but gives both mother and daughter what they desire. However, when the daughter mixes up the pills and tries to blame House in the family's native tongue, House reveals that he knew enough to understand what the daughter was saying, and throws her under the bus.

We will smite your rules with judgement and vengeance! Or, y'know, make a couple of friendly suggestions and then approve them.

Ok the most recent WOB shardcast they talk about how investiture can be stored in gems, but only stormlight can be infused by leaving it in a storm, and void light cannot, and presumably mist light (Scadrial) or gift light (Naththis) cannot. I think that has to do with the fact that Honor’s perpendicularity is in some way tied to the storms and the Stormfather. In theory, maybe bringing gems to the Well of Ascension, the emerald pool above Elantris or Endowment’s perpendicularity will allow gems to be infused with their respective lights. it is possible that it here has to be an intention to infuse the gems as well, but this is at least how I can see a passive system working

"Living for tomorrow, only takes away today." -Alex Boye

If we put this on the table, Full Feruchemist all the way

It is a shame. Full feruchemist all the way any day. I just think it offers the most useful options in most every situation... not just combat. I dont see any metals as being useless or unethical to use as a feruchemist. Even some things that I dont personally think I would mess with much could be sooo good in certain situations. Not to mention we live in a pretty cush world that makes storing even the harder attributes way easier. I have wondered; if steel feruchemy speeds you up and you precieve the world as being slower (the bullet time effect), then wouldn't filling it make you precieve time as being faster? How nice would it be to take long passenger rides / flights or even just plain boring days at work and being able to store speed and precieve the day to be going way faster? Feruchemy is my vote 100x over.

I haven't reread EotW in some time so it's possible she did say something like that and I'm not recalling it. It's also quite possible that either Moiraine didn't know about Wells at that point (being the most obvious 'objects that hold Power') or, more likely, RJ hadn't nailed down the magic system yet.

The best advice I can possibly give to any hiker is to START SLOW! If I had a nickle for the number of Marathon Bros that I met on the Appalachian Trail, who showed off all the first week and so were badly injured by the second, I could afford to go to space on my own private rocket ship. (I wouldn't - but, I could!) Starting fast is never good. Listen to your body, enjoy nature, eat more than you think you need to, and you'll get where you're going - and you'll get better at the getting-there part, every single day. For what it's worth, when I started my first thruhike I had never been backpacking in my life. I had been hiking exactly twice - each time for just an afternoon, and each time it took me to the edge of my own dang annihilation. I had also just recovered from bilateral knee sugeries. And three years of uninterrupted immobility o/a/o law school. Also I was approximately the size and shape of a Snorlax that hadn't shaved in wayyy too long. And yet, somehow, I managed to keep hiking for the better part of two years. (And would have gone longer if it wasn't for la peste). I'm now kind of good at hiking, and on most days I'm pretty okay with how I look in the mirror (which is decidedly new for me). Also I met a hiker on Te Araroa who made me read The Final Empire, and, well, here I am Also, while I haven't had kids yet, I've thruhiked with quite a few families. It sure has it's challenges but it can indeed be done! Now I'm like "wait I never really wanted kids but NOW that I know you can HIKE WITH THEM" omg hiking kids are the best. They grow up so fast out there! It's incredible! This is why, when Nohadon started talking about long walks, or Dalinar said Dalinar Things about Next Steps, I was like YES, YES, GO OFF KING, GO RIGHT THE HECK OFF. Is is a Mortal Instruments forum, because if so, tell Baguette that I say hi :-)

The only one we know of is Nightform, from the Song of Secrets. Given the number of Regal forms implied to exist, it's a safe assumption there are more.

Taln not breaking has just been confirmed!

Overall a pretty smooth chapter, but I think it did get a little tied down with all the talk about cars. I guess I'm not sure whether leaving town really is the plan, or if this is setup for something else. Didn't V fly around for about a week and not find anything? Will they get much farther with a car than (literally) as the crow flies? I feel like C is grasping at straws here, while her deduction about what to do with the town is sensible, after that the story meanders a bit into what to do. A strong ending here, either finding a driver, or starting on the trip, or something stopping them, might make a better arc. Notes while reading pg 5: Nothing so far! I'm enjoying the planning for a quest, but wondering where the story is going next. pg 7: not quite sure what is going on with V. pg 12: lots of time spent on starting cars, here. pg 13: "If the people around her would only make sense." --I feel like there are a lot of good thoughts in this chapter, but not really a complete arc.

This is not nessecerly counter-argument, this can simply means there are two Perpendicularities - Kelsier somehow gets to the South Scadrians fast enough after Catacendre, and considering fact he probably dont walk in Physical Realm.... Also Scadrian Cognitive Realm is probably rather small, because Scadrial is rather empty planet.

Gnorman Gneablies walked into the town where nothing happened. Well, he thought, obviously not nothing. His Gnomometer readings were off the charts, and the International Gnome Federation For All Things Pertaining To Gnomoid Beings. He would have to find the source of all these Gnomons. Gnomons, of course, were a sort of particle that all gnomes can sense, and which the IGFFATPTGB was in charge of monitoring throughout the world. As Gnorman walked, he used some of the Gnomons that were so abundant here to conjure up a new outfit. Brown overalls, and a dirty blue shirt, along with a hat he had seen referred to as 'cowboy'. He did not, of course, know how in the world cows and boys had crossbred, but the hat customary to their culture was quite nice.

Why is Kaladin so awesome? He starts out saving his bridge crew and they see him as something more. Then he saves a high prince from Sadeas’ betrayal, and beats down the a shardbearer, and they see him as something more. Then he saves Adolin by dueling two shardbearers at the same time, and they see him as something more. Then he stops the assassin in white in front of the entire army and casually floats over the entire army. Sorry about the repetitious format but Kaladin is so much better than every other Windrunner in terms of combat. The spren bond pulls the spren into the physical realm, and possibly pulls the radiant closer to it’s order ideal (head canon). Does the fact that Kaladin has such a legendary reputation influence him, similarly to how the collective consciousness of humanity effects spren? Even Vyre expects Kaladin to be the storm. If his bond pulls him closer to the cognitive realm could this explain some of his Stormblessedness. Sorry if this was asked before, wrote this during nap time.

I do enjoy bouncing Hi @Tesh and @The Awakened Salad!

I guess I should probably rant about the best week of my life. Friday, July 9th. I'm incredibly hyped as we yeet everything into the trunk of a tiny car and hit the road. We drive for nine hours to get to Provo, Utah. Saturday, July 10th. BEST. DAY. EVER. I get to meet my Queen, @DancingQueen, and we hang out all hecking day. Or, well... a modest portion of it. I saw her Newsies production which was an absolute bop. We also may or may not have decided that we had true love that day. Sunday, July 11th. I go to chuch with the water clan (@Vapor and @Condensation, @Mist wasn't there) and @Zephrun's Imperium. I'll also have you know that I had the best Young Women's meeting of my life then. After that I hung out at the Clan's house for the whole day with them and Star. We got up to all kinds of shenanigans BUT MOSTLY CUDDLES. Monday, July 12th. It's the first day of the writing camp, and I MET MY @Tesh!! We became besties right off the bat and hung out. There was also this other kid who was pretty cool I thought. Tuesday, July 13th. It's day two and we find out that this other kid was secretly @Tani THE WHOLE TIME. So she joined our Sharder duo to make it a trio and bam, an eternal friendship was born! Wednesday, July 14th - Friday, July 23rd. I guess it'd probably be annoying if I listed everything amazing that happened (there was an awful lot) but here're some highlights: I met a bunch of Sharders on Wednesday and Thursday, including my Queen (again), the Clan (with Mist this time), Star (also again), @Doomstick (much tall), @AonEne (much intimidate), and @FriarFritz (much mullet). But that's THE LAST TIME I'LL SEE THEM FOR A LONG TIME which makes me sad There's this cool new author around that some of you may have heard of: Christian McKay Heidicker. He visited our camp and talked about writing and he was the funniest freaking guy ever. He was also super friendly and some of my friends and I kinda hung out with him later. Read his stuff! My gaggle of guys were the bestest crew I could've asked for that week. We were just a bunch of nerds at a writing camp and it was awesome. Our group name was "Mostly Men" (my suggestion), and it became a running joke throughout the week. I BUSTED 100K WORDS ON ICONAR COLLECTIVE!!! Saturday, July 24th. This was the last I saw of my group, the Sharders, and the best week of my life. That wasn't to say that the ride home wasn't eventful (our tire pressure warning light malfunctioned and a cop pulled us over for speeding), but it was certainly a bittersweet last few hours. I miss the place already. So... yeah. That's what happened. Don't die! ~ Fadran

Collapses to the ground in exhaustion Oh my gosh I pulled it off. I'm so tired. Alvron, you're terrifying. My poor team got slaughtered this game. That was incredibly close. One question though. Did you take a durian? I almost killed you during the night turn on the off chance you hadn't eaten one, but realized if you had I'd stand no chance after that. So, did I make the right decision? Edit: after looking at the sheets, it looks like I made the right decision. Thank goodness I slept on that, because morning me realized it would be smarter to just kill Ashbringer and claim link and exe you. Whew.

It is hard to say what Hoid planned, we know that he manipulates fortune to know where to go, but not necessarily why he should go there. In RoW Hoid "makes" many mistakes, having hordling as pen, having memories destroyed. Previously it seemed like he was usually few steps ahead, so maybe there is more to those errors. In stormlight, Hoids seems like a really nice guys, he aids Kal, Shallan in their moments of need, he shares his knowledge with Dalinar and Jasnah. But on Sel he stole scepter and let Shai be captured, he attacked and refused to aid Kelsier with any information and then took bead of lerasium. I wonder if he does similar things on Roshar too but this time offscreen. My main issue with him letting Odium destroy his memories is that he could probably do it himself with use of Breath of some soul stamping. Unless his inability to harm others also makes him unable to alter himself in this manner. Before he picks Design up, he provokes others to harm him to make his disguise work better. Maybe he does that not only for show, but because that is the only way he can do that to himself.

Thanks for the good (and kind) explanation. I spend most of time when it comes to the Cosmere in Stormlight Archives. But your explanation makes sense. Taking up a Shard would connect you to all of that Shard, 1/16 of the total power in the universe. Good example with Breath. So the god-King, whatever he is called that makes things lose their color, he is only at the 10,000-20,000 breath correct? What is Lerasium by the way, I don't remember? I do like systematizing where people are. Calling it power scaling would open a can of worms so let's not do that. Still, in Stormlight Archives their does seem to be a bit of power scaling going on as they discuss in RoW. Soldier vs Singer, Shard bearer vs Regal, Radiant vs Fused, Herald vs Unmade (maybe), Honor vs Odium. Bondsmiths seem to be somewhere between Unmade and Herald, but they certainly break the mold. Radiants of the 4th ideal also seem to have a significant edge over most Fused, rendering Fused technology somewhat ineffective. I can see Ishar somehow folding Jezrien's honor blade into Syl and Kaladin somehow making her a super spren.

Welcome! Having a willing Unmade be the Champion would surely be unique and a very interesting solution, but it may not be the best choice now. Spren can die, and I doubt even an Unmade is immune to that. (Although getting enough Anti-Voidlight before or during the Contest may prove to be difficult.) Add to that the lack of moral, philsophical, or thematic resonance, and it doesn't feel like a viable solution to me. But I love the idea! I can also easily see Taravangian claiming that the "Contest is still on" after the Unmade (or Remade, or whatever) is captured in a Perfect Gemstone, and using the time needed to gather Anti-Voidlight to destroy the Unmade to work on his next plan.

I was re-reading the section where Mr. T ascended to Odium, and something caught my attention. Chapter 113 (Italics as per original text) That sounds to me as though Taravangian was losing hope, and some external force helped tilt the scales in his favor. And what external force was that? Bravery, otherwise known as Valor! What do we know about Valor? Sazed to Hoid - Epigraph to Chapter 25 We know that Hoid hated Rayse and was looking for a way to bring him down. Perhaps he did take Sazed's advice and approach Valor again. If Valor did indeed affect the situation here, that explains so much: Why did Brandon feel the need to give us 4 new Shard names? So that he could hide the foreshadowing for Valor. What exactly was the deal with Hoid's conversation with Todium in the Epilogue? Given his dealings with Valor, Hoid knew that Taravangium had Ascended to Odium. This conversation was his way of getting a feel for the newest Odium. The scene felt strange because Hoid does not want to let Taravangian know that he knows about the replacement, so he hid those relevant memories in the coin. Could one mortal really take down a Shard? Well yes, but it still seems odd that one person was able to out-plan a Shard. Okay, so maybe this was Cultivation's planning. But could a plan with so many moving pieces really work flawlessly without support? It's much easier if another Shard helps out at the pivotal moment.

There are a couple of passages in RoW that might shed some light (ha) on whether Odium knew about anti-Light prior to Navani's work. First, Raboniel in Ch. 76: Then, in Ch. 97, after they figure out how to produce anti-Light, and Raboniel uses it to kill her daughter, here's Navani: Raboniel doesn't outright contradict Navani,but she does rather abruptly turn her attention toward using Navani's method to create anti-Stormlight, which suggests that was probably her true goal all along and that finding a way to provide a merciful death for her daughter was just a side perk. It seems from these passages that Odium maybe knew about the existence of anti-Light, but that he either did not know how to produce it himself, or was simply unable to produce it himself. So he needed to lead one of his Fused toward figuring it out. One other kinda unrelated point on knowledge of anti-Light, I'm reminded of the back-cover text written by the Sleepless: It sure sounds like they're talking about the discovery of anti-Light right? Could a rogue Sleepless have been the source of Gavilar's sphere of anti-Voidlight?

Completed Fanart!

Thank you so much for your kind comments! Sorry I haven't been too active, I started school in January and haven't had much time for art this year. Here is a little sketchdump: (not sure if I've already shared this here, because I drew it late last year.) Devotion Dominion Very recent sketch of Azure I have some more RoW drawings, but I won't post them for a little bit. EDIT: Oh wait, I did share that Vin. Okay let me make it up to you and add this: Rushu sketches!!

Kaladin already began this path back in Heartstone, though, when the wind swirled around him during the fight (IIRC, it’s been a while). I just finished RoW, btw, still recovering from the Sanderlanche. But Kaladin’s something beyond just his reputation and always has been. He was before Tien died, but then it began in earnest, really picking up steam as he starting really trying to protect. I think he just somehow storming embodies the Ideal of the Windrunners so much it can’t help but make him awesome.

That sounds to me as though Taravangian was losing hope, and some external force helped tilt the scales in his favor. And what external force was that? Bravery, otherwise known as Valor! It did stick out to me when rereading that passage. He describes Bravery like people do when they perceive the true nature of a Shard, giving examples of what it represents and the only Shard that fits is Valor. We've seen this three other times in the Cosmere that I can think of. Dalinar viewing Odium in the spiritual realm: It was hatred. A deep, pulsing hatred with a pressure to turn all things molten. It was the heat of a thousand suns, it was the bliss of every kiss, it was the lives of all men wrapped up in one, defined by everything they felt. https://coppermind.net/wiki/Odium Mistborn Secret History: I think it's a good guess that Taravangian was Connecting to or being influenced by Valor in this moment. One thing to keep in mind is that the Shard investiture permeates all of the Cosmere, so the Shard doesn't have to be actively doing anything for some of it to be nearby. Also, Taravangian was partially in Odium's special gold room in the Cognitive realm while at the same time being stabbed to death in the Physical realm by Szeth while encountering the Vessel of a Shard which is mostly in the Spiritual realm. I don't know what my point is , but maybe this weird situation makes it easier for Taravangian to Connect to a Shard that's not in the local system. Or maybe Nightblood has a lot of Valor in him and that's where Taravangian is sensing it from.

Unless something changed dramatically on Braize in the intervening 8 years after this flashback takes place (such as, as this thread's hypothesis posits, another Herald shows up on Braize after being killed), the following exchange between Ulim and Venli seems to be pretty solid evidence that Taln did not break, and that the Everstorm was created to circumvent the Oathpact out of a concern that Taln would never break: -Rhythm of War, Chapter 73, "Which Master To Follow"