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I have been a member of the Shard for 3 years (and 16 days). This place has been so fun, it seems like just yesterday that I joined, but it also feels like I’ve been here forever. Without further ado: appreciations! Mods, though none of you will read this (except Ene, who is listed separately), I would like to thank you for keeping this community one of the most inclusive, friendly, and wholesome ones I’ve seen. @AonEne, you were one of the first (if not *the* first) Shardbuddies I had. I’m soooo glad I got to meet you this summer. I can’t really words about how much your friendship means to me. I have yet to drink from the bottle of dubious soda. @Tesh, you’re too interesting and funny for your own good. No matter how tired I am, I will stay up to talk to you. Meeting you was awesome and it WILL happen again. Sneezing isn’t normal. @Butt Ad Venture, I would also stay up talking to you if it weren’t for the fact that both of us would just be yelling at each other to sleep :P. @xinoehp512, I love tLTing with you, looking at your pixel art, and just talking with you, though I don’t have much of an opportunity to do so. @Zephrun's Imperium, your art is SOO GOOD! I still need to find a place to put the piece you gave me on my wall, and I hope I can see you in person again, you’re just so nice to talk to. @Hen (Nna), [insert comment about our marriage here], but seriously, talking to you is so fun (and watching you freak out about aART, as well). The possibility of my meeting you is fluctuating, but you are one of the people who are at the top of my list to meet. DFTBA! @Mist, you are awesome. You always know the best thing to say. (Unlike me, as I have run out of things to say) Shortie (@Condensation), meeting you was fun, I could finally figure out how short you actually are. @Vapor, I love talking to you, and I can’t wait to see you in person again. @Emi, I haven’t been able to talk to you much, and I really miss it. I hope I can meet you this summer. @DramaQueen, your play was AWESOME!!!!!! (As are you). I want more geck pics. @Channelknight Fadran: your world building is really cool! (even though I still haven’t read anything of yours) @King of The Oreo: Your art is awesome and I wish I could join more of your drawing streams. I have run out of words, so I will give messages to people, then list those left on the list after my brain stoped languaging @Scarletfox: WE WILL PLAY SOON @Flying: YOU ARE SO CLOSE I WILL MEET YOU SOMEDAY @Lecky Twig: Borsalino > Zoro Fritz, Truthie, KoI, Spock, Jessie, BoP, Salad, Frustie, Exp, Dark, Enter, Flaffle, Rev, and anyone I may have forgotten, I wish I had words to express how much your friendship means to me. I love y'all. (sorry for the double ping, formatting was atrocious on that one)

Prompt 1; Crystal, featuring Pheonix Blaze from CBST with a dream crystal. Okay, so I gotta say right off the bat, I'm not ridiculously proud of this one. I do think there are some things I did super well, like Pheo's hand and the crystal. But that said, I really think the pencil drawing turned out better than the final product. That happens sometimes. A big reason for that is his fire hair; fire hair is hard, y'all. So, I tried a few new things with this one. One of them was the shine on the crystal and holy crap was that an experiment that worked. The other one is something I'm still working at. Pheonix is Asian (which is a more recent change) and I'm really not used to drawing that. I'm definitely getting better, but I have a lot of work to do. Anyway, I hope you like this first installment. I will be back again not tomorrow, but Monday with more art.

Rastan cautiously knocked on the shop door. He wasn't sure if it was open, but it never hurt to check. "Anyone in there?" He hadn't met Airam before, but he had heard good things about the carpenter. Hopefully he was still awake - Rastan was hoping to talk to him about the ministry agents. [First RP post yay]

Ministry agents in the slums. Airam glanced warily at the door to his shop. As far as he was concerned, life only ever gave you awful choices, like which leaky tenement you were going to rent, or whether debt collectors went for your storefront or beat you up. So of course the Steel Ministry would send some of its thugs here as well. 'Parently, Arenta'd run into one of them, and as much as Airam was also hiding from Arenta, on account of the fact she kept insisting he'd owed her rent for his last shop and had him evicted, blatant nonsense that, he'd borrowed to pay Wirum off, and that old bastard was holding that against Airam, too. Speaking of which, he hadn't seen—he grimaced, what a name, likely a ganger—Hollaback Atcha [OOC= TJ] around lately. Some of the other skaa'd been talking about not letting people know where you lived, at least not right now. Lord Ruler, Airam had thought that was obvious. He wouldn't even trust Tellam's crew with his location. Figured they'd start breaking his chairs again and telling him he owed them protection money. Protection money Airam's shiny arse—he knew a shakedown when he saw one. Figured that other skaa preferred beating down other skaa to striking a blow against the establishment, too. Truth was, Airam wasn't sure if he'd trust others with where he slept either. Sure, maybe, but old habits died hard and part him'd come from where you slept with an eye open and a knife under your pillow. He liked the idea just about as much as he liked his fellow skaa—great abstract concept, best kept at an arm's length. [OOC: I know what this game is designed for but yeah my gut hates this, I'm the opsec dude I don't know if I can bring myself to follow through!]

So…I may or may not disappear from the shard for a few weeks. I’m going to be very busy with real life stuff, but who knows? I might have time to RP. It depends. Just so you know.

Correct!

I just watched Chang-Chi and it was AWESOME. That is all.

Okay, I have maybe half an author credential crumpled in my back pocket; I've got a short story published and a weekly writing critique group I'm part of, so there's a halfway decent chance I know what I'm talking about. I'm going to take a moment to kick my imposter syndrome to the curb and chime in with opinion in three parts: 1. The kudos: You show a lot of promise as a writer. You've already got a good grasp of narrative flow, and you're demonstrating skill at painting a picture with words. These pieces are huge and, in some ways, the harder things to teach. You're clearly an avid reader, as it shows in your writing. You understand the feel of how writing words. That's invaluable. 2. The harshest truth: Writing is work. Growing as a writer is even more work. The old saying goes, "It takes at least a million words of crap in order to learn how to write well." And it's true. It's going to take time and a lot more words before you're writing at the level you want to be. But know that every single writer out there has done the same, and you have the spark. You can do it, if you've the will. 3. One thing to work on: I want to leave you with some concrete feedback without making you feel like I've picked your selection apart with a red pen, so I'm going to give you an assignment of one single thing you can improve: punctuation. Study up on your comma placement and, particularly, the correct punctuation to use around dialogue. It's an easy thing that you can learn that will give you immediate results. It's a small piece that will have a big impact on the overall look, flow, and polish of your writing. Good on you for being brave and sharing your work! I know that first time can be hard, and getting any kind of criticism can be crushing for a newbie writer. So I have one final piece of bonus advice for you: keep sharing. Keep putting yourself out there. It's hard, I know, but the only way for any writer to grow is to take the feedback and use it to improve your writing. Because no matter how successful, every writer has been exactly where you are right now. All of us. Every single one. (And, in fact, some of us may well have started a lot further back!) Even now, Brandon Sanderson himself will sometimes write something that turns out to be broken. He's shelved projects that didn't work. (See: Apocalypse Guard.) Good writers aren't born, they're grown. Keep growing!

Fade glanced furtively around before ducking into an alleyway. I’m already late to the… *Crash* His arms flailed as the street suddenly fell from under his feet. After a short drop, he hit the muddy ground and lay for a moment, stunned. What in the Lord Ruler? Fade got dazedly to his feet and tried to get his bearings. He was at the bottom of some sort of hole, dug into the bottom the alleyway. “You’re trespassing! That’ll be five meal tokens.” An elderly skaa woman was glaring down at Fade from the edge of the pit, leaning heavily on a knobbly walking stick. For a moment, Fade was unable to find any words. “Meal tokens? You old fool! You’ll regret keeping me from my…” *Thunk* Arenta let a rope down into the pit and clambered down to where Fade had dropped onto the floor, muttering to herself, “I said five meal tokens, not to insult me. Kids these days…” As she felt through the man’s coat for anything of value, Arenta noticed that Fade’s eyes had gone glassy, and his chest didn’t move. Guess I hit you a bit too hard. That’ll teach you to talk like that to your elders. Or it would, anyway. Surprisingly, Fade’s corpse had a few boxings on it, a rarity among skaa. Perhaps more surprising, since few skaa could read, a folded parchment had been stuffed in on of the inner coat pockets. Reading the note, a rare smile grew on Arenta’s face. Guess you deserved that whack to the head, and a harder one would have suited you even more. She bent over and wiped some of the ash smudges from around the body’s eyes. Sure enough, intricate tattoo’s adorned Fade’s face, a sure mark of an obligator, albeit a relatively minor one. In addition to her many other talents, Arenta knew the skaa rumor mill like the back of her hand, and word of the disguised ministry agent spread quickly to the inhabitants of the tenement buildings near her territory. Most of the skaa were too beaten down to care, but a few were worried enough to start pointing fingers at other potential spies. Fade was a Ministry Agent! Day 1 has begun, and will end on Sunday at 6:00 PM EDT. If you have not received a GM PM, please contact me. @Elandera is the IM, and unless she says otherwise, don't include her in PMs, but you must include me in all of them. For reference, here is a link to the rules. I'd also like to request that people try as hard as possible to maintain reasonable activity levels. I would want that anyways, but the rules for this game will not work as well if players aren't actively engaging (whether or not they are sticking to opsec ). General Rules: PMs are open but must be 1-1 Players can take a single action per Cycle Day turns will be 48 hours long, night turns will be 24 hours longs No vote minimum to get voted out Tied votes will be decided at random Player List:

Plus, Lezian was a very well known Fused so him being defeated by Kal probably was a big morale hit to the Fused and killing him would send a widespread message that things are different now. Lezian was known to follow his passion even when it hurt the war effort and Todium has just made it very clear that he won't put up with that. I think it was mainly Odium's way of telling everyone that there is a new sheriff in town.

He was a liability, the Pursuer would no longer follow instructions and could mess up a plan that TOdium would put in place; for example harming the Champion before the duel started

I’ve been wondering since the first time I read the book, why would Odium want to kill The Pursuer? He had lost his mind and his honor but at least he was still a functional asset to the war effort. El could’ve tested the blade on a completely insane fused that couldn’t do anything for them. The pursuer would still constantly tire Kaladin and attack him out of the blue. This was probably already discussed but I just want to know a good reason.

I didn't see a thread for this, so I thought I'd make one. I don't know if it warrants its own thread or not but oh well. So—what did you think of the movie? Full disclosure: I haven't actually seen it yet. I am going to go see it in ten minutes, and then I will give my thoughts on it.

I recently saw a theory about Szeth and his oathstone. He mentioned in the books that there is nothing special about an oathstone, but follows it only out of a sense of honor. However, after Szeth see's Ishar with the bondsmith honorblade he gets upsets knowing that something happened to his father who held the blade before. Is there a chance that Szeth was honor bound as well as bound to his oathstone by something done from the bondsmith honorblade? The more I think about the Shin elders and shamans the less I think they're doing honorable stuff. Second, Taln's Honorblade. I know that it is unaccounted for at the present time. I found an old theory here about Hoid being the one who has Taln's honorblade and it does make alot of sense. My personal theory is that the Shin Stone Shamans had come and collected it. I run into a bit of a contradiction there though because I thought they were holding the blades until the heralds returned. (Nale reclaiming his blade, and Ishar reclamining his as well). So why would they come and take it from Taln? Anyway, my last point is has to do with Szeth and Jezrien's honorblade. It's assumed that if he dies the stone shaman's will come and collect his fallen honorblade. No matter which way you look at it, he does end up dying at the end of WoR and his honorblade is left for Kaladin who reclaims it. Eventually the blade works it's way to find Moash. All of this happens with the Stone Shamans not even trying to recover a priceless object. What's up with that? That's a long time to be too busy to even try. These thoughts are a little all over the place but it has me thinking that the Shin leaders are not very good people. My initial response to the Shin made me think of them as an honorable people who stick to their land and glorify growing more than killing. When Szeth made an oath to bring retribution to the Shin elders I was leery because it felt a little too much like petty revenge. However, looking a little deeper, I think it may be a necessity that Szeth go and “... cleanse the Shin of their false leaders". Anyway, any thoughts on this?

Read Aurora Rising and Aurora Burning, and The Gathering Storm, or as I like to call it

I don’t care what people say nothing will ever beat the bravery it takes to blindly reach for a hot curling iron. And I don’t care what people say nothing beats the feeling of accomplishment that I get when I get the handle.

as i go: pg 1 -ooh so Al is teaching people how to fight? -“The pair two from the end” idk why but this sounds odd. My brain was having trouble with this phrasing. pg 2 -idk what they’re talking about at the top of page 2 with the bruises. this could just be me though. -I feel like the line on page one “of course it would be them” falls flat because i dont know who “them” are… is?... are? Idk. Anyway, it might work better if we have a short paragraph/sentence describing who Al is talking about directly after it. Because later when it says “Al reached the pair and found Lady T waiting” for some reason i pictured her separate from the pair, like she was not part of the training and instead watching Al because she likes him. -"D had come up with the idea of having Al” this might work better if you place it a bit sooner to clear up some confusion. Better to be up front about what's going on I think. Before this paragraph, i'm just wondering what's going on and why Al is training people. Or maybe its fine where its at and its 4 am and im not fully here -“Had kicked one of those out” hmmm this felt like odd wording. A bit too vague. pg 5 -”Al was painfully aware” yeah i got the impression he wasn't into her, like maybe he found her attractive but nothing more. pg 9 -i’ve been holding consistent interest until around when “Dw—” is mentioned because it doesnt feel relevant to me -by the time Ais— is mentioned, it feels like too many names. 1. I think around page 10 is where my interest really dwindled because it just felt like they were reminiscing and talking about non plot relevant things. you could probably shorten their talk. 2. This may be wrs but I didn't know D and Al were as close as they seemed in this chapter. T seems seductive and possibly manipulative. I dont dislike her though. She made this chapter interesting for sure! 3. I was most interested in the training/sparing and Al and D talking about Al's suitors. I think this chapter also suffers from the walking and talking dragging (though not as much as previous chapters) and I'm still craving things to move along plot wise. This was a decent chapter though! I'm just ready for the main plot to say hello.

It is. (Spoilering for length)

I like rep updates, heck we had a short RP on it! I just can't resist a screenshot when the numbers (on rep or post count) align into palindromes and such, very satisfying Rant posts, done em Long personal updates or just accidental chat thread on status updates... guilty I try to wish people I've chatted with a bit Happy Birthday if I can It's all fun, I'd say, just have fun, you don't need to impress anyone! Don't get the social media fever! (Well, feel free to feel smug about a good rep count, that's just human and it's fun!)

I find that some of these options can vary by what's there, but for the most part I just like them to have some effort, like with most all content on here. Sometimes if I only have a couple things to say I'll save them up and put them all in one because I don't want to notify people for something too small. That's also super subjective though I am a little surprised people don't seem to like rep updates as much; I've always found it fun to try and write something that goes with the gimmick of what I've become, a little snippet of writing or themed meming or such. But then not everyone does it that way, and I can definitely see "I'm [x] now" on its own getting old. This is cool data to have, thanks Knight! (It's also okay if you want it in 17S Discussion - if you want I can move it there, or you can leave it here, whatever you'd prefer :D)

Wasing the welcoming the playing the new! Exciting the many to playing. Thanking and wishing good the game for all. Having suspecting for over new sounding Blanky. @Esooa Esooa Having suspecting for not the killing Firebug and maybe Burnie. ( @Archer and @The Unknown Order respectively) Eron, Scorched @Matrim's Dice SS, Wanting to hearing good the reasoning to lynching the fluffy? @Squirrelwatcher

I can do that. "So you admit it, you scoundrel!" Scorched was completely enraged. "Burnt them to a crisp did you! Nearly burned me too!"

That looks amazing! The inking is great, I love how you shaded the flame hair and the limited shading with the purple looks fantastic!

Evershore Brandon Draft at 100% Wax & Wayne Draft 2 at 50%

So….. are we supposed to just make them up? I can do that.

Paladin Kaladin.

New to the Forums, old to the Cosmere, My Tenure of the Cosmere is since I was 16 I'm now 27.

Seeing the spiritual real does give future sight, but that future sight seems to vary drastically. Kaladin and Dalinar’s experiences with future sight took the form of a vision and corrupted truthwatcher futuresight seems to take the form of portraits that you look at, both drastically different from the shadows effect of atium. My point is that I think that it would be more difficult to replicate an atium-like effect than you seem to think, and it would likely require firsthand experience and experimentation with atium in order to figure out exactly how to give yourself that exact type of futuresight. That said, A simpler option could be to connect yourself to your opponent, giving yourself knowledge of their fighting style. However, this might go both ways. In the end, I think this scene with Ishar just serves to illustrate the fact that heralds are basically unbeatable. They’ve fought for so long that they know how to predict their opponents’ next moves.

Right you are! Your turn!

Lord Ruler save him, it was one of those. If there was something Airam hated, it was people who came into his shop, looked around, and didn't buy a thing. Worse, they only wanted to talk gossip. Sometimes, they did stupid things like break his stools in the bargain. 'Course, sometimes it was on purpose. Tellam's rusher, mot named Pheila. Liked to break things, figuring that it'd coax them into paying more money. Fool of a girl. If the boxings weren't there, they weren't. Being squeezed between the Lord Ruler's tax collectors, Arenta, and Tellam's lot was one hell of an existence. He glared at the interloper. "Listen, I'm a working craftsman here. If you aren't here to buy something, get! Ministry agents are all and very well but talk on the likes of those scum ain't going to make me a living!" [OOC: Eiwlil @|TJ| you'll have to forgive me for disrespecting you like this but I can always find you again ] Edited to add: For clarity's sake, TJ.

Rastan jumped, not expecting such a loud response at this time of night. "I dislike Tellam and Arenta just as much as you do. I just want to talk," he said, slowly raising his hands in the air to show he was unarmed. Rastan had absolutely no idea who Tellam was, but he decided not to bring that up. Airam would probably just get more agitated. "I just moved here from a different part of Luthadel." He lowered his voice. "You seem like you know this place, and I was hoping we could talk about the ministry agents...?" edit: going to sleep + work tomorrow; next post will probably be in about 12+ hours

Graves?

IT IS SOOOO GOOOOOD. I went in with pretty much no expectations at all and came out with a contender for favorite movie of the year. I was hooked from nearly the first moment: the fight dance between Xu Wenwu and Ying Li was absolutely breathtaking, visually and musically, and it just kept going. The architecture and scenery! The creatures! The choreography and score, the plot and the humor! Everything passed with flying colors, with only a few exceptions IMHO. The actors pretty much knocked it out of the park. Please pardon the incoherent gushing. The post-movie high is strong with this one.

Call me Ms. Frizzle cause we're going on the bus ride of a life time

This isn't really correct. All Allomantic abilities are unlimited use, so long as you always know the location of your target. The 2 charges means you basically get one "free" missed location.

So at the end of Rhythm of War, we see a bunch of Fused collectively turn away from Odium and "go listener". Earlier, in Ch. 111, after Leshwi and her band of followers fought to keep Lezian's followers from slaughtering the human civilians and unconscious Radiants, she tries to convince the survivors to surrender to her so she could find a way to "explain to Raboniel" (to talk her way out of her betrayal)... And then Rlain "channels Teft" to set everybody straight how a line had been crossed that could not be un-crossed, which she soon realizes is the case: Leswhi goes unconscious when the Sibling re-erects Urithiru's Odiumshield against voidish powers, but revives when they transfer her and the others to Narak via Oathgate, where she "hovers over" to talk to Kaladin before going off with Venli. So Leshwi didn't lose her ability to fly via Voidlight, nor even her access to Voidlight, due to her betrayal, yet Odium had sent Fused and Regals to execute them? Well we can assume that once she dies, as a Fused like Lezian she'd be returned to Braize, there to stay until either a listener/singer host in the Everstorm is open to her, or if Odium directly summons her back to him on Roshar (as was done "the way before the storms", as El called it, to pull Lezian back after only a day on Braize). She thinks Odium can block access to her coming back via the Everstorm, senttencing her to eternal torture as the Heralds were (and without the release of breaking sending her back to Roshar)... ...but Odium (Rayse) claims he could not do that while talking to Dalinar in setting the terms of the contest in Ch. 112! Unless Odium was lying, that suggests that he has no way of keeping a Fused on Braize against their will if a willing host in the Everstorm were available. (Not that Leswhi would know this.) At the same time, at Thaylen Fields in Oathbringer, when a Fused named Turash sasses him about having to follow Dalilnar as Odium's chosen champion, he calmly threatens him into submission with "you will follow me, Turash, or I will reclaim that which gives you persistent life." So maybe Odium can't block the Fused from cyclically returning via Everstorm (assuming a willing host), but he can "de-Fuse" a Fused? If so, why weren't Leswhi and her followers "unplugged" on the spot? Did he intend to torture them for a few days and then unplug them before the Everstorm? I mean, all these penalties are in their heads, controlling or cowing them with fear. I'm starting to get the feeling Raysodium wasn't the most forthright about what he could and couldn't do, LOL, and why would he have been!

That would fit with the direction he is going about being more and more focused on helping peoples psychological state in RoW, helping those with less physical pains. It would fit to protect people in all ways.

100% this. He'd already messed everything up, by awakening Kaladin from his depressive catatonia. All he had to do was keep it in his pants for a few more minutes - instead he undid Vyre's effective work. He was worse than the totally-nuts Fused, because he's running around actively kicking over sandcastles.

The real answer is that the physics break down, much like the age-old question of Why dont bugs kill the (non-bulletproof) Flash. The current explanation is that the Weight manipulation is some sort of Higgs field manipulation, not literal mass. For me it helps to think of it as a skin-level field effect that changes how the Feruchemist interacts with their surrounding reality without actually modifying anything inside that field. The line between Internal Effects and External ones is pretty fundamental to a lot of cosmere effects.

Hi fellow fans. Please forgive my daftness. But I'm struggling to work the site out fully. I'd like to be in groups that don't involve spoilers.. but not sure how to find them. If anyone can be of help please I'd be so grateful.

I have a question for you @Theldragor. Two of the lines really don't fit Dalinar well: First quote: Dalinar is unquestionably Alethi and is a king himself. How could a nation not claim him? Alternatively, if Dalinar becomes a fused, what would you call the government set up by the fused if it is not a nation? Second quote: the people would be referring to Fused or the Alethi. If the Fused, wouldn't the severing of his ties once he's on Scadrial argue against this point? If the Alethi, well, he doesn't do their wishes. They're a militaristic nation that is thoroughly Vorin. Dalinar is a heretic so can't be traditionally Vorin; has rejected conquering as a worthy goal and would be serving the enemy in this theory. So, he can't be fulfilling all of their wishes. Third, @Knight of Iron raises such a good point about how it fits squarely with Sazed.

It is midnight and I just changed my profile picture to a flying fish. I will come back in the morning and see if I regret this decision. (Also please tell me if this was a good idea. I'm so tired I can barely think right now) Basically I should have gone to sleep fifteen minutes ago but instead I looked at pictures of fish

Started Secret History since apparently the last 500 pages of RoW are better if you have, and it's a bit weird. I loved Kelsier back when I read TFE. Now at times I like him a lot and at times I dislike him a lot. I guess it's a good thing but it's a weird change in perception.

Evelyn woke to the sound of pattering feet speeding across the floor and something rather like a hiss, and her heart jumped. She bolted upright, eyes wide, until at last she recognized her room. No, not her room. A guest room, but one that was familiar enough after the amount of time she'd spent there. Pale walls, a desk in one corner, along with a small bookshelf and a window. She could hear raised voices somewhere in the house, too distant to make out the words, but the voices themselves were familiar and raised in what seemed from the tone to be an argument rather than another battle. No danger. Her shoulders slumped in a wave of relief, and she drew in a deep breath of air. What may have been her first actual breath since that jolt of panic, Evelyn realized, and couldn't help but smile at herself. It was silly to be so worked up. There was nothing to be afraid of, right? The attack on the house had probably been a one time thing, and anyways, people would have woken her up if there was any kind of a threat, right? If they hadn't that must mean they thought they could deal with it, and judging from what Evelyn had seen, they probably could. She'd been the weak link in the fight, not them. If that was the case, though, what was it that had woken her? Evelyn got carefully to her feet, instinctively feeling for he maple leaf necklace and running her thumb over one pointed leaf. Still there. Good. She wouldn't freak anyone out, or accidentally reveal herself as an Elantrian. The room was still empty, but she could have sworn she'd heard something. After a moment's pause, she dropped down to look under the bed. She hadn't expected to see anything but darkness. Instead, Evelyn was met with two glowing eyes. She broke into a smile at the sight of them, scooting back a little so as not to crowd the poor thing. "Hey, kitty. I didn't realize there was a cat in the house. How are you?" She began to tap her fingers against the ground, trying to draw the cat into the open. "Probably not too great if earlier was any indication." She threw a glance over he shoulder at the still open door. "Is the arguing stressing you out?" When she looked back, it was to find the cat out from under the bed, watching her carefully. It was scrawny, but obviously lovely, with a ale gray coloring. Evelyn smiled again, switching to petting the cat instead. "You must be pretty clever to come in here, huh? Definitely no arguing going on in here. Can I call you Ene? That's an Aon it means cleverness, something I bet you have in spades." After another moment spent petting the cat, Evelyn stood, scooping the Ene into her arms. The cat tensed for a moment before relaxing and even starting to purr. "Aww. You're a cutie. Let's see if we can get you some food." The smile slid from her face, however, when she turned a corner to see Rob, Cassie and James standing in the hall, clearly arguing. "You agree, right? You don't think I'm wrong, do you?" Evelyn hadn't spent much time around Rob with everything that had been going on, but she was pretty sure that was the most emotion she'd ever heard him express. He sounded. . . pleading. Almost desperate, and Evelyn suddenly got the feeling she'd walked into something she really shouldn't have. Too late to go back now, though. They must have seen her by now, so instead she braced herself, clutching Ene just a little closer, and prepared to enter an argument that she was in no way prepared for. "Guys," she said slowly. "What's going on?" @AonEne @Wyndlerunner @I think I am here.

Add to this that if Kal had become Dalinar's champion it would basically had been the only way for Odium to stop Lezian from breaking the contract and letting Cultivation splinter it.

Yeah, I'm going to have to second this. Having just finished a reread of RoW, Raboniel was already complaining that Lezian was following his vengeance to the exclusion of strategy and common sense, and it's repeatedly stated that through their long lives and repeated resurrections, both Fused and Heralds are becoming more like spren than people (ie, driven by ideas and archetypes more than mundane concerns). Considering Lezian just got killed and resurrected again, which has a negative effect on the Fused's sanity, and then add in his humiliation at Kaladin's hands... yeah, I'm figuring Odium (whether Rayse or Taravangian - do we know for sure if T had Ascended yet when the kill order went down?) decided he was a liability and his skill as a warrior wasn't worth putting up with the risk of him going off the rails, and it was best to just cut their losses and get some use out of him, even if it was as a test subject.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAN

Happy birthday!

I think the primary point that needs to be made at this juncture is that Shallan burying her trauma actually is "sucking it up and moving on." That's what it looks like. That's why sucking it up doesn't work: actually processing trauma involves months, if not years, of work and in 99.9%* of cases, requires the guidance of a therapist in order to make progress. It's just not something a person -- let alone the Earth-equivalent of an 18-19-year-old (my gods, she's young enough to be my kid) -- can do on their own. And in a world that doesn't even know how to treat mental health problems, there are no therapists for Shallan to go to. And given the level of trauma she's sustained, even with help it wouldn't be an easy road. Shallan is, in a manner of speaking, trapped in the lies her own mind tells her. She lacks the necessary perspective to even understand how to properly process her trauma. She needs help to dig her way out, but she doesn't know help is even possible, let alone who to ask for it. Can it be frustrating to read? Sure, and it's completely reasonable to get a little uncomfortable during her passages. But is it really fair to judge a teenager for failing to fix herself when even an experienced therapist would likely need years to help her untangle it all? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no. It is not. And as frustrating as it can be for some people to read her POV sections, I invite you to take a moment and try and empathize with her, because living in that kind of brainspace is much, much more difficult than reading about it. *I'm one of the 0.1% of people who managed to muddle my way through on my own. It wasn't easy, and was only possible because I have an abnormally high level of self-awareness and ability to analyze myself. And it took years. I didn't really reach a reasonable level of functioning until I hit about 30, and I'm still not completely 100%. I'm finally getting some support for the ADHD and executive functioning disorder. The OCD is never going away; I just have my tics under enough control that I'm able to mask them well enough that it's rare for anyone to notice them.

Just stepping in quickly to give a general reminder to the room about being respectfully when talking about mental illness, as dismissing or demeaning them is harmful and you never know who might be lurking and being affected by your words. Otherwise y’all look to be having a great dialogue so far, have at it. Kudos to you all for being respectful of each other’s opinions even when they differ.