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life update: my first concert with my youth orchestra has concluded.

Hooray for daylight savings! Hooray for sleeping in one hour! Screw you, Arizona

I think this is what you’re thinking of:

Are we playing the same game? Murder is the highest form of compliment in these parts. The more the better, I say. If anyone is feeling squeamish (which I sort of hope you aren't), feel free to hit me. I've died close to a hundred times in these games, so once more shouldn't upset me too much. I can enjoy my porch quite nicely from the afterlife.

My biggest question is what rank to they need to be promoted to before their taynix will manifest as a Mindblade and Mindplate?

Just finished! I liked Sunreach, but I LOVED ReDawn. From the worldbuilding to the slick teleporting action sequences to the escalation of the Superiority to the hints at romance to the gut punch of an ending...yeah, this was the best novella of the bunch yet. I think it also fixes some of the complaints with FM's personality from Sunreach as well. Now for the all important question: Overall, I think I'd currently rate the Cytoverse: Skyward ReDawn Sunreach Starsight but all of them are great. I know right?! I think I'm more excited for Evershore than I am Cytonic right now.

Peter's been saying some very interesting things on Reddit about atium: There's a lot to unpack here. I don't recall Brandon saying that everyone ought to be able to burn atium. I know it's been RAFO'd, and I could find Brandon saying "not just anybody could use it." On the topic of hindsight, I've seen him talk about atium breaking rules, and I know fans have discussed the rules it breaks (including who can use it, and also why it can be affected by steelpushes), but I can't find Brandon himself commenting on it. Did I miss something? Or was the questioner mistaken? Peter's answer seems to assume the questioner is correct. Now, I'll be honest, I've proposed that framework over the years (among many others), especially since "refined atium" was revealed on the hemalurgy table. But does this confirm it's an actual, canon fact? Or is this an instance of Peter as a fan, speculating off the cuff, assuming that Brandon said what people actually say he said? (For what it's worth, my proposal was that pure atium could do what any of its alloys could do, but everybody only knew the one effect, so that's what kept happening; actual atium Mistings, but they only had the Intent to use atium to accomplish the atium-electrum effect.) Bonus eyebrow raise: Preservation controlling the manifestation of Ruin's godmetal at Ruin's shardpool? "That answer has already been revealed canonically. RAFO." So... there are a couple ways I could take this. The allomancy poster says "pure atium grants the Allomancer an expansive vision of the future and enhances the mind's ability to accept, process, and hold information. In alloy form, it produces various mental and temporal effects." This could be read in two ways: The effects we see in the books do, technically, satisfy the letter of the description. In this case, it would mean that pure atium does what we see this "impure" atium do, allomantically. It's possible that the "expansive vision" and "mental enhancements" from pure atium are bigger in scale and degree than what we saw from atium burners in the book. We've been reading it like 3.1.1 the whole time, but that's been a misinterpretation. The hemalurgy table says atium "Steals any power. Must be refined." So, technically, we do know what pure atium does. But we only know what it does hemalurgically, not allomantically or feruchemically, which does technically answer the questioner's followup of "what does pure atium do." Peter says "RAFO" instead of explaining it. Is it possible that this gets touched on in The Lost Metal? But that wouldn't be "revealed canonically" yet, in my mind, since the book's not published yet. He may have just been saying RAFO since the topic's OP (who was not the questioner in the comments) is partway through reading Bands of Mourning... but we don't learn anything new about atium after that or in Secret History (the Hemalurgy table is in the Hero of Ages leatherbound), so I'm not sure what he'd be avoiding. All in all, a very confusing thread for me to stumble upon. Have I missed any WoBs? Am I forgetting any passages from the books? Can anyone help me understand this exchange? This could either be Peter firing off the cuff as a fan, or a pretty substantial confirmation of a lot of Mistborn fundamentals that have been argued about for years, so I'm actually not sure if this should be going up on Arcanum or not.

So I’m doing my Skyward reread before getting into the new novellas and Cytonic. And I decided that it is a good thing that Spensa is a fundamentally good person. Because her early story of being constantly looked down on because of her father, being judged for someone else’s choices, her mother not being allowed a job, forcing her to miss school to hunt rats, making it nearly impossible for her to get a decent education or job, refusing her a chance to prove herself, and being super derogatory and kind of cruel to her in general is a pretty good villain setup. And I totally agree that Defiant culture totally sucks at times. I get that they are super focused on survival, but still. Anyway. Thank you Spensa for choosing to be a hero instead of a villain. Though I’m all for reading an alternate version along this route too.

I realize this has been discussed prior, but I feel unsatisfied by the topic’s resolution. I wish to have it explored further. Simply, if a person dies invested, does their consciousness persist through their cognitive shadow? Based upon how Mistborn: Secret History was worded, I am inclined to believe so. The reader has no reason from the wording to infer that Kelseir was merely recalling dying as if from the memory of his past self, instead, the wording seemingly suggests the active, present experience of death through the eyes of Kelsier. What do you guys think? -Replies- An interesting argument. Such is however tied toward the idea that sleep does incur a definite “break” in consciousness. Even discounting the presence of dreams, the continued activity of the brain, from which consciousness stems, during sleep as seen through EEG, makes me inclined to think sleep as a “mode” or state of consciousness rather than its temporary termination. Indeed unifying the concept of consciousness and being conscious to the living “self” that exists and is aware of its existence seems strange to me. Perhaps my mind merely revolts at the Arclo’s supposition, but I digress. Supposing a hypothetical true break in consciousness as you have suggested, it would be impossible for an outsider to tell whether the story tells of the same Kelseir. We must therefore look upon the evidence provided by the precise wording of BS. So far as I can tell, no clean break seems to have occurred, though I might need to listen to Secret History once more to be sure. There should be an “objective” answer relative to the systems of order present within the Cosmere. Whether or not the soul which passes “contains?” or is the individual is, or neither, I agree, not knowable based upon current evidence. - As for the question; if I lose all my memories and accumulated new ones would I still be the same me? Depends on the definition of what we mean when we say the self or personhood I think. Yes, in a sense, I would not understand or recognize myself as the same “person” but I would recognize my current consciousness as the present continuation of my existence. Do memories make us who we are? in a way, but also no. Memories and ideals change the way we view ourselves as being, but it does not change our fundamental essence and existence (that we exist, that we are aware of it, and that there are attributes that, whether ordained by the divine or a simple consequence of our evolution, make us “human”, “singer”, “Kandra”, or simply people) We are not because we think but because simply we are. As for the philosophical ship for instance, it only exists because we perceive it as a ship, regardless of whether we consider it the same or not. But for people (and sapient life in general), there is an awareness that makes us distinct from the rest of the universe (such that even without constructs that “aware individual” still remains) and I refer to this continuing existence and consciousness as the core of the self. I guess the question to be asked is, if you were born with someone else’s memories would you recognize yourself as just having been born? As for people changing with every moment, our idea of our personal identity does change with every passing moment as it evolves, but I refer to the continuous “consciousness” of the aware being. I guess I’m asking whether, if I experienced dying as Kelsier, if I would also experience Secret History or if someone else, with my face and memories would. But I agree, BS probably will keep it a mystery. It is a very subjective thing and people will have different interpretations. ps. Thanks for all the replies guys! It was definitely an interesting discussion for me.

Def like the idea of Atium as a means of Realmatic travel. I think it grants true access to Fortune: like what Taravangian saw at the end of RoW in the Spiritual Realm. Elend seemed to have seen the same thing, imo.

@Nathrangking, the best advice I can give is to not take it so seriously. Nobody's going to shame you for not getting it done; and especially not your fellow authors

XINO BUDDY YOU'RE ALIVE *Hugssssss*

Yeah, he's mentioned that as things go on, it's started to feel odd to have godmetals be a Mistborn-only thing.

Plus, there's the whole thing where Brandon wants the Mistborn Screenplay to have Atium be burnable by anyone, implying that, like atium being pullable, that was (or was related to) one of the "rules" about how investiture interacts that he wishes he had cemented prior to writing those scenes.

Now that we’ve got 2/3 novellas and are a month out from Cytonic does anyone have any predictions? I predict we see Gran Gran and Cobb in Cytonic. I think she teleported into the Nowhere. Maybe once there she will be able to communicate better with Spensa and they will need to try and find each other to all get back. I wouldn’t be surprised if the exile device in Starsight was Taynix powered and that Gran Gran has a similar ability. I also predict Jorgen is going to have an interesting arc in his book. I think he might take a slightly vengeful turn. He hasn’t had the chance to really see the Superiority like Spensa did and realize that many of them are also just people doing their best to live life. With everything he saw Winzik’s faction do in ReDawn and the personal losses he faced, I think he is going to struggle. We might see him throw away the rule book. None of his main superiors are around to give him direction. He needs to move toward something and revenge seems possible. He also is bonding with Boomslug who can power cytonic weapons systems. I think he’ll develop mind blades too. If I’m right about his direction, I hope it doesn’t last long term though.

Man, Mat makes me vanilla village, you hit me with a stab vote, y'all really just want to get back at me for 81 don'tcha? well, I see your stab vote, and I'll raise you the newly invented mega-ultra-better-than-a normal-stab-vote Sword vote. a poke vote is a vote on a random person D1 a stab vote is a poke vote on a person that lasts the entirety of D1 a sword vote is a stab vote that lasts entire games via multiple D1s therefore TJ

@Ed Venture, I'd like to point out that we D1 exed Mage in the last game, which was their first, so I would pretty strongly oppose doing that again on the grounds that our community is not completely hostile to newcomers .

*sigh* I really hate my internet at times. Day 5 of Sketching

It's always been Brass Soothing and Zinc Rioting. There might have been a line in the first book that could have caused the confusion like when Kelsier says that Pushing metals are the pure elements and Pulling are the alloys which is the opposite of the metals do

I'm just not really sure how much control Vessels truly have over the magics, even ones that are "theirs". For example, even on Scadrial, where the entire planet is of the Shards, Preservation had to resort to (Spiritual) genetic manipulation of the Mistings to """swap""" atium in for one of the sixteen, and Mistborn could still use the """removed""" metals just fine. So I feel that, if the Fused are accessing it via a method that is not made of Honor's power, he probably can't do much to affect it. Yeah there's sooo many factors that could be at play here. That's a good point, and I do agree. Just wanted to bring the alternative up, just in case. Oh god that is a terrifying thought. I'm of the opinion that, going off Venli being able to use VL for her Surgebinding without a notable difference, SL might very well be able to just "plug in" in the place of the mists if you work out a way to breathe it in, which would be pretty scary. I agree with most, but I'm actually not so sure on this one. If you define Awakening as essentially "taking a fragment of the Investiture that gives life and giving it to something else", then I think it's reasonable to speculate that giving Breath to someone is the same thing, just with the thing already having a mind and so not needing one provided. Heck, the Command even drains color for the transfer like the rest: And as we see with Lifeless (and NB) versus Awakened ropes or something, Awakening already has a bit of variation with how it affects things, able to make both Invested objects with Commands and also properly living beings. There's also this WoB: So I'm not sure that's truly a separate thing. (Nalthian magic is a fun one, because I like to think about just how closely the things you can do align with the Intent behind the Investiture. A Breath is the Investiture used to give life to someone, so when given away it can make someone more alive, or it can bring an otherwise inanimate object to life. A divine Breath is used to perfect and repair the Returned, so when given to someone else, that's what it does, perfects and heals them. Compare to somewhere like Scadrial, where the powers are.... not that Preservation-y :lol:) That's a fair point, actually. That's fair, and I don't fully disagree with that. It's in the same sort of neighborhood as "is the boon and curse a magic system", I think. Is "Shards do what Shards do" a "magic system"? Probably not one in the vein of something like Allomancy, but I think you could make the argument it's a very primal expression of the base Cosmere system of magic, in which case I think calling it a different """magic system""" from Radiant-style Surge manipulation works, in the context of the Stormlight Archive. Agreed. I'm not fully sure where I think singer forms fall on the spectrum, I think I'd probably put them closer to a Radiant bond than a fabrial, but not reaaally either. You say this, but... Lasting Integrity... And I think you could almost argue that Surgebinding is debating the laws of physics, with all the "voice" and Command and "attuned" stuff... Gahhhckhhhgrde. Lol true enough.

I wanted to write a long response because this topic confused me for a long time. But after RoW - specifically reading the Sibling and other spren throw around contradictory information - I'd rather just wait for book 5. Too much happened in a space of a few days, possibly even a single day, and yet it feels like we're still missing critical information. Did the Radiants break their oaths or did their spren just end the bond as the Sibling did? If all orders broke their oaths, whatever form it took, on the same day and Windrunners were among the first, how did the rest of the Orders get the communication? Were there no Radiants in seclusion or in Shadesmar who just didn't get the memo? It seems too convenient but, knowing Brandon, it all makes sense, somehow.

I agree storms is the most versatile/easiest to say, but rust and ruin is my favorite because it just works soooo well with the world and what is important/relevant to them

Thanks for the quote. It makes things a little clearer; atium being usable by any allomancer would be a part of the alternate movie universe, not the canon book universe. But then why is Peter trying to reconcile the events of the book and this hypothetical divergence in the movie? I'm leaning more towards an off-the-cuff headcanon response with no deeper meaning for his first comment. How Peter would retcon atium being burnable by all allomancers without directly contradicting the books. But it still doesn't illuminate, in my mind, what Peter was saying about the canonical effect of pure atium. All this speculation is well and good and fun to read, but what exactly has been "revealed canonically"? Any kind of atium inversion, atium alloy effects, that's all just theorization. Back in my original post, I shared the canonical reveals surround pure atium (the allomancy and hemalurgy tables). The WoB that directly contradicts atium being usable by anyone was from February 2016, a few days before Secret History came out, and the only canonical information we've received since then about pure atium's effects was the hemalurgy table (nothing allomantic). So, if Brandon changed his mind between that WoB and the 2018 hemalurgy table, that would be the only source of new, canonical info on pure atium's effects. In which case, since the questioner didn't specify pure atium's allomantic effect, Peter technically did answer his question. (But then, in the 2020 TV WoB, Brandon says it'd be a change he "wished he'd made," implying that he hasn't made it in current continuity, so what would the pure atium be on the hemalurgy table? It just keeps sending me in circles...) And, I guess, it's all social media. He's not necessarily taking his time to craft a carefully worded answer for some of these things, so parsing his comments like this may lead to stuff he didn't intend. I was already gonna be watching for any pure atium references in The Lost Metal, so this gives me a little bit more expectation that they're coming.

If so, the phenomenon of dead Shardblades was new. And nobody investigated that? I am sorry, but that makes no sense. And nobody noticed that they were dead and missing? Friends, family members of other orders? Nobody noticed a large number of corpses killed by Shardblades? That is just no reason to drop your Shards. If you believe in a future unspecified danger from Surgebinders, all you need to do is stop forming new bonds. Done. Old age will solve the issue.

No. I am sorry, but you have explained why they all did the same thing. But you have to explain why they did the same thing at the same time. I am sorry, but that doesn't explain anything. Under that premise the simplest respone would hve been to literally do nothing. Let time take its course and the spren do not rebond. Problem solved. Oathgates Elsecallers Persistent Blades The Scream They could not check immediately on their spren, but others could have. And they would have. Right. And the Spren could not. The Spren of a dead knight are able to communicate. Where were they? The other orders had scientist and researchers. Nobody asking where all those abandoned spren are?

I do think bendalloy is a legitimate argument as far as the element of surprise goes but I don't see it as the counter that I think may be presented here. The mistborn can do nothing to the inquisitor outside of the bubble. Any projectiles would be slowed down in the inquisitors eyes the very moment they exit the bubble and will be far easier for the inquisitor to adjust and move in time than for the mistborn. If both parties are on different edges of the bubble the edge goes heavily to the inquisitor as they have much more time and chance to react to anything exiting the bubble after them. A handful of coins shot into the bubble is a complete roll of the dice for the mistborn as those projectiles may be slow moving until they hit the bubble but the moment they enter the bubble they take a different course and speed up significantly. Yes a handful of coins would become a shoving contest which the potential for F-iron from the inquisitor would make extremely risky as getting pushed out of the bendalloy bubble would pop said bubble and give the inquisitor the couple of seconds to react before the mistborn is able to put a bubble up again. All that and once an inquisitor enters the bubble his steel will again allow him ample time to move and react faster than the mistborn can consciously leech him. As an argument for the mistborn with the bendalloy or even cadmium (and something I have thought about as a potential combat use of these 2 metals) is that it is described as being very uncomfortable to move into and out of a bubble. I can definitely see a moment of hesitation as an inquisitor is moving across the bubble for the first time or even the second time where they would be caught so far off guard that if the mistborn were close enough to touch they would have an opportunity. If a 5 yard bubble allowed the inquisitor enough time to process that change he could still land a killing blow (and honestly it probably wouldn't take too long with their steel speed suddenly being as effective as it would have been minus a bubble anyway). I don't doubt it would end badly for both parties no matter what and we really don't know what powers each inquisitor had so it is all based on that. But Vin with era 2 metals still doesn't have access to F gold and F steel. An inquisitor with the minimum spikes allowable would more than likely lose. Every spike you add increases the inquisitors chances. Vin era 2 vs marsh from HoA would still end with marsh winning most of the time. We don't see Vin outright win a fight against an inquisitor without plot armor helping her anyway. I don't think leeching and bendalloy bubbles will change that against an inquisitor with F gold and F steel. She might be able to duralumin boost a leeching strike but likely she will be wiping more than just chromium when it happens and we really don't know enough about chromium to know how much of the metal it would take to wipe out reserves of feruchemal metal minds. How much metal does chromium use up to wipe out another metal? So far we have only seen it wipe out a single mistings reserves of metal. I don't know if a spec of chromium could instantly wipe out all investiture. If it were to work that way a single chromium charged cube would leave a group of shardplate wearers stuck inside massively heavy plate with no storm light to power it making 1 chromium cube the end of the mistborn vs radiant debate. I have a feeling that chromium leeching would take time to empty reserves. It may do it quickly but can it do it fast enough for Vin to leech out all the powers from an inquisitor??? Both the inquisitor and Vin are able to touch each other. We will give Vin the benefit of the doubt and say she gets to start leeching and attempting to dispatch the inquisitor. The inquisitor gets to start delivering his killing blows. Does Vin both leech all of the inquisotors metal minds and land a killing blow before the inquisitor lands one on her? What it both plunge a dagger into the others heart at the same time.... did the leeching hand get enough investiture wiped in time and was it lucky enough to leech away all F gold? The bubble is vins best shot but not because it negates the speed. Her best scenario would be to hope the bubble can disorient the inquisitor long enough for her to grab hold of the linchpin in that time. I don't see attempting to joust with leeching touches to be a winning strategy. Vin is so happy to test new ideas though I wouldn't be shocked to see her forgo grabbing the linchpin to instead try to leech the enemy.

Heh, having a marketing/SEO team (or any kind of team really), or hiring even a single person is probably going to be out of the picture for years to come, at best. We try to present ourselves professionally, but we are, at the end of the day, just a bunch of volunteers. Tapping the community for some kind of organized effort might be a good idea though. We'd have to understand a little better what kind of needs visually impaired people have, and how to best aid them with alt text (because I wouldn't even know where to start - though that Hubspot page does look like a good resource). So we'll keep this in mind

I work in branding/marketing and graphic design, and personally, I love the new looks for the logos. Cohesion among the 3 of them will allow people in the fandom to recognize that the 3 websites are run together! I didn't know that you guys also ran the Coppermind, somehow, until this year. It's particularly smart to give new, dedicated logos to the Arcanum and Coppermind. No direct visual reference to the cosmere = no problems with copyrite laws! The flat styles are also just visually satisfying + modern. Great choices! I happened to finish the Shardcast episode today where you guys were discussing the Part 2 Epigraphs in Rhythm of War, and your excitement had me CACKLING! Y'all are ballers. I spend so many hours a week listening to your voices in traffic (I drive a lot from NJ to NY). Thanks for being the best!

Hmm, I think people are trying to tell me that my art is not as bad as I think. Anyways… Day 4 of Sketching

No politics on 17th Shard, please!

When I read ReDawn, I had the thought that Spensa may have saved the National Assembly Leaders by pulling them into the Nowhere. Given that Jorgen has seen her twice since Starsight, that means some time has passed for her as well. However, the Shardcast clued me in to part of an interview or Q&A with Janci and Brandon where it was said that Brandon gave Janci the idea to kill the Weights. I'm holding out hope, but it's completely in world for them to actually be dead. So yeah, here's some thoughts. I think we're going to see some training (or at least learning) going on for Spensa while she's in the Nowhere. And M-Bot is going to have some learning too. If the Vapers are "ascended" AI, then I suspect M-bot will become a Vaper. Alternatively, if the Delvers are "ascended" AI, I think M-Bot will become a Delver. Basically, I think M-bot will evolve into something beyond an AI in Cytonic. I think Spensa is going to get out of the Nowhere, and I think it's going to be shortly after the events of ReDawn. I think Doomslug is going to die. Ok, not really. (most of) The fandom would probably riot. For Evershore: I think Spensa will return, probably in the first few chapters, if not the first. The only way I can see she doesn't return is if she doesn't make it out of the Nowhere in Cytonic. I guess we'll probably see Jorgen trying to take charge of both the Military and the Assembly. I don't have any other thoughts on this book, because I haven't looked into it at all.

Definitely a fair take, and I could see it playing out like that. Not that there *has* to be, but there hasn't really been any discussion of non-hetero romantic relationships in the books. ____ On a completely different topic (tangentially gotten to thinking about who we've seen that Kimmalyn may be interested in), I kind of want more screen time for the newer members of Skyward flight. Sadie, T-Stall, and Catnip. They've been around since Starsight (which I only noticed due to a reread), but we hardly know anything about them. ____ Jump number 2! While looking at what the Coppermind has to say about those three, this line stuck out about Sadie: EDIT: Listening to the Shardcast and LadyLameness brings up these exact things. She immediately glommed onto Kimmalyn's hesitation in the relationship discussion as a "I'm not into guys" vibe, and then calls back to this habit of Sadie's of writing down Kimmalyn's Saint sayings.

I definitely thought about that too. Given we're probably going to have more novellas between Cytonic and Book 4, I can see something happening there too. Being completely honest though, on my first readthrough and my current listen-through, I thought Kimmalyn was panicking because she wasn't necessarily into guys and was flustered from being put on the spot/hadn't told anyone yet.

Broad impressions of this chapter: - I'm not clear on Ao's practical role in the community. Does she hold an official position of authority, or is she just very respected in the community? Does she legally own the land, or is she talking nonsense when she threatens to kick W out of the village? - The sudden appearance of plot feels like a bolt from the blue this late into the story, especially as it comes in the form of two characters we don't know much about having an argument that the main characters just happen to be there for. - The ongoing idea that importing food and electricity from outside the village makes Ao a hypocrite is a bit weird to me? I mean, it's totally legit for her to want to buy food and electricity from outside but not want any other contact. The thing that seems dodgy to me is that she seems to be imposing her decisions on everyone else in the village, so I'm not sure why it doesn't register for W as a red flag. - From the setup in this chapter, I'm expecting the conflict between the village and the outside world to be important. I think that, for that to be engaging, I have to like the village first, before the story gets into moral ambiguity territory. So far, it seems like it wouldn't be a huge loss if the village were destroyed, because it's so shady and iffy anyway. The people who live there might be better off if they got out. General comments about the story as a whole and subbing it: - I'm happy to keep giving feedback on this draft version if you think that's helpful, or I'm happy to switch over to a new draft if you think this one is a dead end. I don't know what your process is, so it's up to you to judge whether continuing with this draft will help you sort out characters/theme/plot/tone for the next draft - A suggestion for plotting the next draft: nail down what the B-plot is and make sure to get it in the story early. And if you're leaning into the monster fantasy aspect, you may want to shore up the rules for how exactly the magic works and what the fairies can do.

That is quite possible. Now I’m imagining the super nerds of the LotRs being surprised by the fact that learning to speak elvish actually paid off.

you meant Raaaaaannd right?

i appreciated this book much less than the previous one. please stop having human-alien romance. Just because you end up liking and respecting your alien buddy, it doesn't mean you want to shtup them. especially considering the whole race of alanik seems aromantic. and I know too much about astrophysics and astrobiology to accept redawn ecosystem. sorry and gran-gran suddenly being able to teleport felt contrary to established fact. she's a weak cytonic, and her main cytonic ability is to perceive her surrounding to make up for being blind. if she could teleport, she had plenty of times when she could have done it aside from that, i enjoied the book. one thing, with all the stuff about the battle station being still kept functioning with fresh food and beds and everything, I was expecting for there to actually be humans on it. A second group, who managed to hide on redawn all this time. It would have been hilarious.

Definitely the same here. I understand the choice, but I think it's also because Brandon has a habit of sometimes skipping over things that we as fans may find interesting. Had we gotten a novella or short story about taking back Platform Prime that also built up Spensa and Jorgen's budding romance, I think Starsight would have worked a little bit better. I actually liked the Alanik/Arturo stuff. Yes, I'm a little upset about Bryn being sidelined so quickly for a new romance, but she only appeared in one scene, so I'm not TOO upset. I think I liked it because it was more...cat-and-mouse than the other romances. Jorgen/Spensa and FM/Rig have a youthful naivete to them. Arturo and Alanik start out as two people fighting the same enemy but feel the need to watch out for betrayal, to two people who respect each other, to one feeling a little more than just respect. I feel like groundwork was laid well for the romance. Not to mention how much more Arturo we got in this. Naming his slug Naga after Fire Emblem the mythical name for a dragon shows us that he really likes myths and dragons; his willingness to confront Alanik shows us that he's sort of the "behind-the-scenes" man for Jorgen in addition to being his #2; and his relationship with Bryn reflects some of the same problems that FM had in Sunreach - when you're in the upper class on Detritus, people expect the Flight Academy to be a stepping stone at best or a phase at worst. Ironsides gripped about it once, and now we're seeing how it affects characters we know personally. Do I like the Rig/FM romance more? Yes, but I'm also sometimes a sucker for that cute naivete than I am the relationship Alanik and Arturo will probably develop. Ha! I feel like a great many of Brandon's fans do the same. True. I wasn't in the camp going "I need a sequel ASAP!" but I definitely think it had a solid ending as well.

1. I think my biggest question in this regard is where you want to focus your effort. If continuing to submit through this takes time away from a project (or revision) you're more excited about, I think it makes sense to put your primary focus on that instead. That being said, I think continuing to submit through this could be helpful just from a learning process—to get more experience and practice with editing under your belt— even if a good deal of it gets scrapped in the end. Especially if there are themes/character archetypes/tone/etc. that will carry over between the two and some of the feedback there on this will be helpful carried over to the other. So ultimately, my not-super-helpful input is that I think it mostly depends where you want to prioritize your time and focus. I'm glad to continue to read through this to the end or to read through another project (similar or unrelated) if you start submitting it instead. 2 & 3 (though, mostly just general commentary, since there would be a lot of overlap between the general comments and the actual question answers) Arch- showing up really threw me off. Especially when some of the conversation there seems to imply that he shouldn't be able to get there on his own, and no one ever really answers the question of how he got there now. I like the grandmother character, but her argument with N goes on a little long, and begins to devolve into a sort of bickering that takes away from her mystique. I also feel like Ao is a little harsh when N is clearly involved in the community if he's bringing things for the kids and running off to visit as often as is implied elsewhere. The conversation between Arch and N/Ao also feels a little exposition-dump-y, but I still don't have a clear idea of what they're talking about. There's a bit of a non-sequitur feel to them all standing there arguing shifting to N and W going off into the woods. I know W has been intentionally distancing herself from N, and realizes she wants to change that. I like that she's intentional about that. But I feel like the kissing scene is a huge jump when I am pretty sure I remember W not having much relationship experience? I'd expect her to still want to move things forward slowly, even if she has intentionally made the decision to move them forward. Or to have some sort of some awkward moments of "I want to be closer, but what does that mean? Where do hands go? Do I just kiss him? Do we hug first? How do these things work?" They seem far less concerned/affected by the fire than I'd expect. If it's engulfing the area, wouldn't they have more difficulty breathing? Also don't see why Ao seems convinced that they have something to do with the fire. Or why she seems to imply that they brought Arch- there on purpose when the guy clearly doesn't like N or W either.

I just want evershore.

Oh Jorgen. Great read! I couldn't put it down. Edit: I've always felt since Starsight that the Superiority felt like Ba Sing Se from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Now in ReDawn, it feels even more so, just going full Dai Li unhinged insanity!

Same, it drove me nuts too. I was also thinking about the rhythms when I said he will spread the knowledge of stormlight or lifelight with his flute while traveling around the place

Since we are on the internet, you sadly cannot see me hyperventilating about what you just said and how this was genius. I was a little unconvinced before about my theory( I still think this is how Kaladin should end) but I didn't actually think that Kaladin would lose his powers. You sir have convinced me of my own theory, have my damn upvote

El knew because Raboniel sent a copy of their studies to Kholinar.

Yes, you read the title right. No, I wouldn't have made this if we still had the downvote-button :-P But honestly, while Moash is chull dung, he is also incredibly efficient. You have to give him that. He gets stuff done. Just look at his track record as a villain in two books: killed off Elhokar, Teft, Jezrien and Roshone, almost broke Kaladin, almost killed Navani and almost prevented the Sibling from recovering. Compare this to some of our other villains: Rayse: Spent four books being tricked by Cultivation, lost every battle he commanded despite having the better odds, and got tricked by Mr T on one of his dumber days, and then died. Sadeas: Traded away the most valuable military company on Roshar for one Blade, failed to kill Dalinar and Adolin, lost Aladars loyalty, almost got tricked by Adolin, and then died. Amaram: Was manipulated by basically everyone, failed to control Sadeas army, got tricked by Dalinar, ate an Unmade, and then died. Mraize: Has spent three books being on the phone with Shallan, and then she hung up on him. I could go on, but I think you guys get it. Moash may be reprehensible, but at least he displays competency.

That's probably not good for you.Though I can imagine how the doctors visit after that would go! Doc: It appears your stomach is full of tiny slivers of metal. Do you know how this happened You: I purposelessly swallowed the metal to see if I have mystical abilities that I could use to assassinate a immortal tyrant to free an oppressed lower class! Doc: *slowly backs away, reaching for the door*

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