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Intro to the Cosmere So, you've read some of Brandon Sanderson's books, and you liked them enough that you want to talk about it with other fans online. But then it doesn't take you long to realize that you have no idea what everyone's talking about. Shards of Adonalsium? Realmatic theory? Worldhoppers? "I don't remember any of this in the books I read!" Fear not! This page is for you! What is the Cosmere? The Cosmere is the fictional universe in which many of Brandon Sanderson's novels take place. Stories set in the Cosmere share an underlying theorem of magic, a creation myth, a cosmology, and a few other key concepts. Characters and cultures can (and do) cross over between worlds. While early connections merely consist of a few scattered Easter eggs, they become more obvious and meaningful with time. Seeing and understanding it can greatly enhance your experience with his books -- there's a reason we can't stop talking about it! We've designed this page to point out all of the main things you may have missed, or that Brandon has said in interviews with fans, so that you can discover the secret world hidden in Brandon's books and be ready to participate in the discussion as quickly and as effortlessly as possible. For a more in-depth answer to this question, keep scrolling. For Brandon's own short answer to this question, see the FAQ on his website. For the complete list of works set in the Cosmere, see here. A note on spoilers: This post may contain minor spoilers for some Cosmere books--particularly Mistborn and Stormlight Archive. Links to the Coppermind wiki often contain many spoilers. If you haven't read all the books, we would encourage you not to read beyond the reading order recommendations! Does it matter? Knowledge of the Cosmere is generally non-essential to understand and enjoy Sanderson's work as each story/series stands on its own. That said, understanding the Cosmere can enhance your experience and give you something extra to chew on if you'd like to dive deeper into Sanderson's universe. So if you start looking into the Cosmere and find all of this to be overwhelming or uninteresting, that's totally okay. Take your time, or just don't even worry about it! Sanderson ultimately has plans for some books that will involve the overarching story of the Cosmere more directly. At this time, experiencing the Cosmere primarily involves connecting the universe's basic concepts and identifying characters who show up in unexpected places and seem to know more than they let on. Reading Order There is no “right order” to read the Cosmere in. Publication order is a common suggestion, which allows you to experience the books as if reading them from the start, but you should read the Cosmere in whichever order you most enjoy. If you want to try something new, branch off to a different world or series. If you really like the series/world you've been reading, then keep going down that road. Most reading orders will point out a few books that can be considered “starter” books. From these you can dive deeper into a particular series or branch off to something new. Some commonly recommended starting points include: Elantris -- If you like the idea of reading in publication order, this is where you should begin. This is the first book Brandon published. Mistborn: The Final Empire -- The original Mistborn trilogy (Era 1) is the most frequently recommended place to start. Warbreaker -- This is a standalone book that's available for free on Brandon's website. The Emperor's Soul -- This Hugo Award-winning novella is a great way to experience Sanderson's strengths with very minimal commitment. The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive) -- This epic is far from complete and requires the reader to place a lot of trust in Sanderson--it opens with a lot of worldbuilding and a slow start. But if truly epic fantasy is your thing and incomplete series don't give you pause, this is perhaps Brandon's finest work. For an interactive reading guide, see this page. Brandon's own recommendations can be found on his website. Two final notes on reading order: We highly encourage reading Warbreaker sometime before Words of Radiance. We highly encourage reading Mistborn: Secret History after The Bands of Mourning. Adonalsium, Shards, and Investiture Adonalsium and the Cosmere A long time ago, there existed an entity called Adonalsium. Very little is known about who or what Adonalsium truly was. Adonalsium's touch suffused the Cosmere, and many worlds, such as Roshar, were grown by it and bear its design. It was the source of all of the Cosmere's magic and was said to control the powers of creation. One day, Adonalsium broke into sixteen fragments in an event that became known as the Shattering of Adonalsium. Why or how Adonalsium was shattered remains a mystery. The Shards of Adonalsium Sixteen of those who were present at the Shattering took up these fragments, or Shards, and became godlike themselves. They went their separate ways, (well, some did) creating worlds and seeding the Cosmere with more life. The magic of the Cosmere continues to stem from these Shards. Each Shard has an "intent" that it strives to fulfill, which gradually molds and warps the holder of the Shard, the Vessel, until they are absolutely incapable of acting against it. This nature is so dominating that both the Shards and the Vessels are usually referred to simply by the Shard's intent. Note, however, that the intent of a Shard cannot be precisely conveyed in a single word, and there is some room for interpretation as to what each Shard's intent incorporates. Some Shards include Ambition, Autonomy, Honor, Ruin, and Devotion. Though these demigods may appear godlike to mortals, they are neither all-powerful nor all-knowing. Shards may be Splintered--a process which leaves the Vessel dead and the power of the Shard dispersed. Shards are also able to subdivide themselves into avatars, each with a distinct identity, though the exact nature of these entities and how they relate to the Shard and its Vessel is unclear. Investiture, Splinters, and Slivers Investiture is the catch-all term for magical energy in the Cosmere. Investiture, which comes from the Shards, is the power source for all of the Cosmere's magic systems. Most humans in the Cosmere have some innate Investiture, which makes up their soul. Humans generally obtain magical powers when their spirit (sometimes called a spirit web) becomes suffused with Investiture. A Splinter is a portion of a Shard's Investiture that has been severed from it, either willingly or unwillingly. Sometimes, these Splinters will develop sentience and sapience, and they can become highly intelligent beings. (Note that non-Splintered Shards can still have Splinters.) A Sliver, on the other hand, is a person who once held a significant portion of a Shard's power. Holding that much power stretched and expanded their soul. The Worlds There was an original world named Yolen. Yolen was home to three intelligent races (human, dragon, and Sho Del), and is the planet that the original sixteen Vessels came from. All human life in the Cosmere either came from Yolen or was modeled after it. After the Shattering, the Shards spread and settled down on many different worlds throughout the Cosmere. Planets where one or more of the Shards settled down are sometimes known as "major Shardworlds." Other planets, where there is still life and some magic, but no Shards, are "minor Shardworlds." Major and minor Shardworlds include the following: World Stories First of the Sun Sixth of the Dusk Nalthis Warbreaker Roshar The Stormlight Archive Scadrial Mistborn Sel Elantris, The Emperor's Soul Taldain White Sand Threnody Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell Worldhoppers and Notable Characters A small number of enterprising individuals in the Cosmere have learned how to travel between these worlds. These worldhoppers have a huge variety of backgrounds and motivations. Some worldhoppers are acting individually while others are part of an organization, like the Seventeenth Shard. Hoid Among the Cosmere's worldhoppers, there is none so prominent as the ever-mysterious Hoid, originally of Yolen. Hoid, which isn't even his real name, is thousands of years old, having been present at the Shattering of Adonalsium. Whatever happened to Hoid in his past, he's no longer exactly human, at least in the traditional sense. He has a way of knowing where he needs to be at the right time, and he uses this to subtly influence events behind the scenes. Hoid's true motives and goals are as hidden as his real name. Hoid has appeared in every Cosmere novel so far, though he is often in disguise and will occasionally use pseudonyms, such as Dust, Topaz, Cephandrius, and Wit. Trying to spot him in every book is part of the fun of the Cosmere. He seems to prefer disguising himself as a beggar, an informant, a storyteller, or a jester, so look for him to be playing one of these roles. He is also often, though not always, described as having white hair and an angular, hawklike or arrowlike face. Among many other things, Hoid has the ability to Lightweave (create illusions), he can heal from extreme injuries, he doesn't age, and he has a way to dilate time so that he doesn't have to wait as long for important moments. The planned series Dragonsteel will tell the story of Hoid's origin and the Shattering of Adonalsium, and Hoid is planned to be a main character in the final Mistborn trilogy. Khriss and Nazh Khriss, from Taldain, is the worldhopper who writes the Ars Arcanum at the end of each book, and she's the most knowledgeable of anyone—including Hoid—about the Cosmere as a whole. Khriss has been described as dark-skinned, with her hair woven into tight braids. Nazh is her assistant, a worldhopper from Threnody, tasked with collecting various maps and drawings from throughout the Cosmere. They are often included in the books with his personal notes to Khriss in his distinctive handwriting. One of his most identifying characteristics is his tendency to use Threnodite swears, such as "shadows". He has also been described as lanky, with a narrow face and sand-colored hair. The Three Realms Almost everything in the Cosmere has a body, a mind, and a soul, and each exists in one of three Realms. The Physical Realm is world of the body, where physical objects exist. This Realm is the only one that normal human beings consciously perceive. The Cognitive Realm, also known as Shadesmar, is the world of the mind. The Cognitive Realm is strange and alien: Water is solid, land is fluid, and shadows point backwards. Thoughts and ideas take on real form in this Realm. After a person dies, a leftover impression of their mind, their Cognitive Shadow, will linger shortly in the Cognitive Realm before passing on. The Cognitive Shadow can sometimes persist for longer periods of time, however, by various magical means. Worldhoppers have learned to use junctions between the Physical Realm and the Cognitive Realm called perpendicularities to cross between them. Often, these perpendicularities can be found where the power of a Shard is concentrated into a pool of liquid that fans call "Shardpools." The Cognitive Realm is of particular interest to worldhoppers because distances are compressed there in places where there is little or no mental activity (such as outer space), meaning worldhoppers can use the Cognitive Realm to actually walk from one planet to another. Depending on the Shardworld, the Cognitive Realm can be an extremely dangerous place. The Spiritual Realm is the world of the soul. Once you reach the Spiritual Realm, there's no such thing as space or distance anymore, just Connection between people and places. Those who peer into the Spiritual Realm can see all the branching possibilities of the future. The power of the Shards resides mostly (usually) in the Spiritual Realm. Chronology While in most cases we don't know how many years take place between books in different series, we do know the chronological order of most of them. In order, they are: White Sand Elantris The Emperor's Soul Mistborn Era 1 Warbreaker Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell Stormlight 1-5 Mistborn Era 2 Stormlight 6-10 Mistborn Era 3 Sixth of Dusk Mistborn Era 4 For more information, see this post. More Resources The best way to dive into the Cosmere is to find a fan community to interact with. While you may see a lot of confusing conversations going on, just ask questions and you'll be caught up before you know it. The 17th Shard offers both forums and a Discord chat server to this end. The other two important resources to be aware of are the Coppermind wiki and Arcanum, both operated by the 17th Shard. But beware that BOTH of these resources include heavy spoilers for all of Brandon's books! The Coppermind is a wiki covering all of Brandon Sanderson's works, with an emphasis on the Cosmere. Just dive right in by searching for pages that interest you, or by browsing through the page categories. Arcanum is an archive of everything Brandon has said publicly about his stories, drawing from interviews, social media, book signings, and more. There's a LOT to learn about the Cosmere just by hearing directly from the man himself! Search for specific terms or browse entries by tags. We could always use help adding more information to the Coppermind or transcribing audio on Arcanum, and you don't need to be an expert to help. Stop by the #coppermind and #arcanum channels in our Discord server to help out. There's no better way to learn more about the Cosmere than by helping improve these resources! Note: This is an update to the original Cosmere 101 topic by @Zas678. Feel free to recommend additional content, but please avoid major spoilers!

I posted a theory in the stormlight subreddit some weeks ago. I've discovered this forum since then and realized that it is a much more appropriate place for long theorizing. I'll therefore post the theory here too if that's ok. While reading the Navani/Raboniel chapters, I was shocked to see what sounded like a really good analogy to a fundamental concept in higher-level math and physics that usually does not get good popular-science explanations. I don't know if this was just a coincidence that I'm reading too much into or if someone in Brandon Sanderson's orbit learned the concept somewhere. Either way, I had to make an account to write about this. Field Theory: This section is going to be pop-science, so every detail is going to be a lie. However, the overall ideas and intuitions should be correct. Modern physics theories think of the universe as a made up of a bunch of things called fields. A field can be thought of as a bunch of abstract waves that permeate space. Physicists then apply some standard mathematical concepts for studying waves and eventually derive all the normal particles and laws that we hear about. To go further, let's discuss two intuitive and familiar versions of waves: light and sound. The first step when studying a wave it to break it up into a combination of basic, "pure waves" that, when combined in the right proportions, can make up any sound or color. For sound, these are the pure tones and for light, these are pure colors that a prism breaks it into. The list of pure waves depends only on particular symmetries that the field satisfies. For light and sound the pure waves are sine waves which behave very nicely when translated around (slightly more precisely for those who know, they satisfy the angle-addition formulas from high school trigonometry). Translation symmetry is important because that's the symmetry satisfied by the laws sound and light waves follow. The more complicated fields in physics satisfy more complicated symmetries. For example, rotational symmetry gives you "pure tones" that look like the electron orbital pictures you might see in chemistry class. Mathematicians call these generalized pure tones "irreducible representations". Just like breaking up sound into pure tones gives you the notes that make up everything sound-wise, breaking up the more complicated physics fields into irreducible representations give you the pieces of the universe that make up everything---all the fundamental particles: electrons, quarks, etc. While you don't need so many fancy words to just talk about the concept of decomposing into pure tones, field theory suggests that this is the fundamental idea needed to understand reality. The Fantasy Version: Investiture: In the real world, this analogy between sound/light and the physics fields that make up the universe is just that, nothing more than an analogy. However, something with Intent seems to make it much more than that with investiture in the Cosmere. Navani's chapters suggest that Investiture breaks up into different "pure tones" corresponding to different shards. Instead of just being complicated irreducible representations of the symmetries of some "investiture field", they also correspond to analogous and much more intuitive things: literal tones/rhythms or colors. Somehow, having the right Intent when creating the corresponding literal sound tone turns it into the correct tone of investiture. It lets you turn "base-state" investiture into investiture of the type you want. Because she was born on Roshar, Navani had been hearing the tones of Honor, Cultivation, and Odium her whole life and knew them almost from memory, so this was possible for her to do. Some Wild Speculation: Now, here's some wild theorizing if thinking about investiture in this way is actually correct. First, you should be able to use light instead of sound to imprint an investiture type onto base-state investiture. Light is another human-intuitive form of decomposing a wave into pure tones so it should work similarly if you have the right Intent. However, making pure colors is harder than pure sounds and might require a laser or something similar. Much more interestingly, you should not be restricted to tones you know from memory. In real physics, the "tones" correspond to irreducible representations of the symmetries of the field. If you know the symmetries, it's not too difficult for modern, Earth mathematics to enumerate and describe all the irreducible representations. It should therefore be possible for scholars on Roshar to mathematically derive all the rhythms, tones, and colors for all the other shards. In total, they would then be able to create, for example, devotion-light or ambition-light without having heard the tones for devotion or ambition before. Maybe Connecting(?) light to other shards in this way is the method for moving it off Roshar. As one possible path to this, the equations stormwardens use to predict highstorms should have something to do with Honor's "pure tone"/irreducible representation. As anyone who's worked with difficult equations knows, the best tricks for dealing with them involve finding hidden symmetries, so I think the stormwardens might already know some. These hidden symmetries would be the symmetries of the "investiture field". Some stormwarden might, just out of curiosity, decide to figure out which other equations satisfy these hidden symmetries and suddenly discover the patterns governing other shards. This same type of story has played out a lot in the history of real-world math. Finally, this might give some insight into how Adonalsium was shattered. A good analogy might be splitting light into its pure colors by sending it through a prism. I'm going to run into an issue here of having lied in the pop-science section, but in some sense (that's an even worse lie), light in a vacuum has some extra symmetries that make all frequencies the same. In a prism, this symmetry is ruined and different frequencies travel at different speeds, separating them out. Maybe Adonalsium was shattered in a similar way: put into some medium where some symmetry of investiture was broken and then refracted into all the shards. Why RoW is amazing science fiction This fundamental idea--breaking up waves into pure tones--is something that I really don't see that much in even popular science, no matter how important it is to actual physics. Imagine then my shock then when the first mass media I see it in is, of all things, an ostensibly fantasy novel. It's not just a side-note; it's a critical piece of the magic system that I can use above to build wild theories involving real science concepts. This is what science fiction should be: deep concepts and ideas, not just the superficial trappings of the genre, like robots and spaceships or whatever. It is the pure opposite of technobabble. I didn't even talk here about how Navani's chapters present a more accurate view of what it feels like to work on a science problem than anything I've read before. She sees some strange phenomena that confuse her: the voidsphere explosion and the Thaylen guild's fabrial methods. She thinks deeply about all the implications of what they must mean. She then puts together some simple ideas derived from those in complicated ways, experiments with them, and figures out something amazing. This is what science is at its most basic level.

I'm back with a new load of cosmemes... This one's kind of dark, but so is Mistborn: This is pretty self-explanatory Mistborn stuff (WoA spoilers): Speaking of Mistborn, here's my biggest question from Secret History (spoilers): Don't get me started on this: I used @Zas678's face to make this one, technically, so credit goes to him, I guess (WoR Pattern stuff): I regret this one, but here goes the bandwagon: Dragons: Poor Sovereign (Bands of Mourning spoilers): Spoilers for Words of Radiance and Oathbringer: This is all of us: And I couldn't help but do this too (Well of Ascension spoilers): And a couple of Skyward memes (SPOILER WARNING FOR SKYWARD):

I’m… honestly surprised I managed to talk myself into this. *cough* I mean, heyyyy. I’m back with more stuff to put here. Since Inktober, I’ve been wanted to draw more daily and get those nice, moist creative juices flowing. Drawing is very therapeutic for me, shut up. Anyways, what’s up with the title? Well, almost every day, I take the bus to my college for classes and whatnot, and since it takes about a half an hour to forty minutes to get there, I get bored after seeing the same scenery for a couple months now. One day, I had the wack idea to bring my little sketchbook with me and yes, it’s the same one that has all my Inktober stuff and drew in it. I really didn’t do it during October, because… well, I dunno. And I can’t promise that there will be a daily drawing, because as I said, I don’t take the bus every day, just the days of the week that I have school. I mean, who knows? I might throw in some random sketches to throw you off >:] That’s enough of my rambling, onto the drawings! Day 1 of Sketching Day 2 of Sketching Day 3 of Sketching

Dang. It was there when I posted it. Wile I work on that look at these. Words of Radiance Shallan Kaladin & Moash Thaidakar

General Stormlight Archive

It occurred to me today that the Elendel Basin map has a graticule on it... and we know that it maps onto the larger Final Empire map... And I don't think I've ever seen anyone do anything with that info. (If you're aware of somebody who has tried to do this, let me know!) I started to hail @Otto Didact and beg for him to do something with it, but I figured I'd take a stab at it myself first Here's the Elendel Basin overlayed on the map of the Final Empire. If it's news to you that they fit like this, I was not the one to figure this out. You can find several images of this overlay online. But I think I'm the first person to do it since we got a proper, high quality electronic upload of the Final Empire map on Brandon's website earlier this month. For the most part the match between these maps is dead on, but note the overlay isn't perfect at the northern edge of the coastline. Sazed must of made SOME adjustments beyond the Elendel Basin. (I mean, beyond raising the mountains around the edges of the Basin, tinkering with rivers, leveling the ashmounts, etc. etc.) Anyways, the fun thing I wanted to look at is the fact that the Elendel Basin map shows coordinates! So, if we make the big assumption that these maps are using the same projection, we can extend the Elendel Basin coordinates to the Final Empire map. It's not a terrible assumption, because the maps obviously fit very well ... But the Final Empire map is a lot bigger, so it's entirely possible that there's error with the overlay that's just too small to see at that scale, and the further we get away from the basin is compounds significantly. Generally, I think Brandon and his team prefer these maps to be intuitive, so I'm guessing the projections aren't terribly different. Longitude on the map seems to be quite simple. The numbers at the top of the page, from left to right, read "1, 0, 1, 2, 3" with the 0 longitude passing through Elendel. (Steel alphabet for reference) Obvoiusly they're using the longitude of Elendel as their prime meridian. But what's the interval exactly? I was going to guess that each of these is one degree, but the map also gives us a scale at the top left. I've measured the 100 mile scale to be 149 pixels. If I measure the distance between latitudes (which should be constant at all latitudes) I get something a little over 200 pixels (they vary slightly, which I take to be imprecision in the artwork). This means the lines of latitude are showing about 135 miles each. Now, Scadrial is supposed to be Earth, more or less. I think we can assume their miles are equivalent to our imperial/US miles for all practical purposes, and that Scadrial is the same size as Earth. If that's the case, I think this strongly suggests that each of these ticks is actually 2 degrees. The arc distance between latitudes on Earth is about 69 miles, or 138 miles between every two. I figure these numbers are too close to be a coincidence. So I'm going to assume that every line on the map marks every TWO degrees. The distance between lines of longitude varies depending on latitude. I measured the topmost line of latitude and got 96 miles and the bottom one to get 104 miles... Unfortunately, when I do the math on this it suggests these latitude lines are only 1 degree apart, with the map covering 46 degrees North down to 41 degrees North... And they clearly aren't, as explained above. They should span 2 degrees each. Anything else basically undermines the map scale entirely. I think my problem is that I'm abusing the scale. Scales on a map like this are always misleading because the scale changes depending on where you're at on the map... If horizontal distance a the top of the map is being stretched out and horizontal distance at the bottom of the map is being compressed (to give more of a rectangular grid) it means 96 miles at the top is too high and 104 miles at the bottom is too small... If I measure the distance between longitudes in the middle of the map I get about 101 miles, or 50.5 miles between degrees. This suggests that line of longitude is 43 degrees North. Taking every tick as 2 degrees, the top of the map is at 49 degrees North (and the scale here is stretched by a factor of 6%) and the bottom of the map is at 39 degrees North (and the scale is compressed by 3%). That's roughly in the latitude range of western Europe, so that seems reasonable. But then I'm seeing a snag with these latitude labels... The one I have at 43 degrees North corresponds to electrum, which is "12". And I'm struggling to reconcile those.... The latitude numbers down the side of the map are really weird. From top to bottom they read: "atium, malatium, gold, electrum, chromium, nicrosil". The last 4 are known to represent four numbers: "11, 12, 13, 14". You might assume atium and malatium represent 9 and 10, but in Era 2 they use cadmium and bendalloy for 9 and 10. I did find that Hero of Ages (original and leatherbound) just use ALL of the metal symbols (plus some unknowns) in sequence up to 23, and then repeat starting at 1 again. And in that case, they do use atium and malatium as the 9th and 10th. Maybe the map is just... using some older system of numbers? If we continue to assume every tick is 2 degrees, atium at the top would give 18 degrees and nicrosil at the bottom would correspond to 28 degrees. They're measuring latitude down from the geographic north pole, apparently. Using our system, this means the map spans from 72 degrees north to 62 degrees north. This means the map straddles the arctic circle, which... obviously isn't the case. So I figure, maybe these latitudes are implicitly the second set of 23? We're not going from 9 (atium) to 14 (nicrosil), but rather from 9+23=32 to 14+23=37. Assuming each tick is 2 degrees again and flipping to our system, that puts the map between 26 degrees and 16 degrees. Which... puts the map mostly in the tropics, which I also don't think is right. My best guess beyond this is that they're using some third system of numbers, which only counts up to 16 before repeating??? That would put it from 9+16=25 > 40 degrees north to 14+16=30 > 30 degrees. In other words, it fits right in the middle of the United States (in terms of relative latitudes). That fits well with the temperate climate... But that interpretation of the numbers is quite a stretch I think. My only other guess is that the metal symbols were just added for flavor. I was hoping to map the overlay onto a (earth) world map for comparison. Of course we don't know how much changed during the Catacendre... Does the former region of the Final Empire still look anything like what it used to, outside the Elendel basin? Does the latitude of the Elendel Basin region match with where it was during the Final Empire or did Sazed shift it? I don't we know for sure on these. So there would certainly be a lot of caveats... Unfortunately, with the latitude still a mystery it's hard to guess... Well... assuming my first guesses about latitude are correct (and the numbers on the side are nonsense?) I'm getting this: Curious if anybody else has helpful thoughts about what the latitude numbers might mean???

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

So, like the tile says, at various times in SA, I'm pretty sure that Odium's forces are able to use the corrupted rhythms in a manner that is similar to emotional allomancy. They can't completely reprogram the way someone thinks, but they seem to be able to give a nudge in the desired direction. In particular, I think we see Ulim, Venli, and possibly a couple of stormspren use rhythms/vibration to manipulate others' emotions. I started down this line of thinking when I recently reread this Gavilar line from the OB prologue (Eshonai's POV): Given the juxtaposition of the words radiant and vibrant, and all of the stuff we learn about rhythms (i.e. vibrations) in RoW, I started to wonder if maybe the singers had at one point used vibrations in some kind of magical way. At the outset, I'll concede that the simplest explanation for Gavilar's saying that the singers are not longe "vibrant" is that he's just talking about the ones in slaveform. But indulge me. Looking back through WoR, OB, and RoW, I found a number of times where it seems pretty clear that either Ulim or Venli (or Ulim through Venli) use rhythms/vibrations to manipulate the emotions of others. Here's a rundown in chronological order. RoW Chapter 73 That's three times in relatively short order where we see this happen. Her mind growing fuzzy and circling back when she expresses concern about how manipulative Ulim is. Then Ulim's mocking laughter makes her gemheart vibrate. Note how Venli doesn't say that she "attuned" Agony, rather she felt herself attune it, almost like it wasn't her choice, but happened as a result of the ridiculing laughter. And lastly, she again starts to think that something is fishy with Ulim and he immediately starts with the obsequious puffery, accompanied by a rhythm, to cut off that line of thinking. RoW Chapter 77 Here we see Ulim vibrate energy through Venli while again peddling lies to get Venli on board with the plan to assassinate Gavilar. WoR Interlude 11 Here, just before the first highlighted passage, Eshonai is really angry about Venli not telling her that she knew stormform would change her. She's digging on on trying to figure out how Venli found out about stormform. She does not seem inclined to just let this go. But then Venli meets Eshonai's eyes, and hums to confidence while again repeating that they have to take this step, and Eshonai is just like, okay! and then proceeds to immediately do an endrun around the five and orders her stormform officers to round up any dissenters to be killed. In the second highlighted passage, Eshonai finally starts to have some doubts about what she's doing, and it seems like the stormform spren in her gemheart, mindless though it might be, senses her wavering and reacts, ramping up the new corrupted rhythms to push back. WoR Interlude 13 I'm not entirely sure what happens in the first part of this scene where Venli just smiles and goes along with Eshonai's position that they should wait. I imagine Ulim is saying something to her in her mind. Maybe pointing out that Eshonai is now the one manipulating her? Maybe congratulating Venli on making Eshonai think that the idea to wait was her own? I'm not sure, but there's something weird there. And then we get another instance of Eshonai poking into how Venli knows the things she knows and then something deep inside nudges her to move on. OB Interlude 3 I'm not entirely sure that in these two instances Demid is doing something similar to the other examples above. But Venli does seem rather agitated both times, yet quickly capitulates. I'll note that it's at the end of this Interlude when Timbre starts following Venli. Shortly thereafter she starts to be able to hear the old rhythms again, and as far as I can tell doesn't fall victim to this kind of emotional manipulation ever again. Bonus theory: all of this got me thinking that perhaps this is similar to what the ancient singers did, but not just with emotions. What if, rather than bonding with spren, the ancient singers were able to use the rhythms to communicate with the spren and ask them to manipulate the surges? The spren got some of those juicy thoughts and emotions they like so much through the rhythms, and got to manipulate things in the physical realm; the singers got to do cool magic that helped them out. Then the humans come along, all shiny and new, and the spren are like, whoa, now we can actually pass through into the physical realm more. And the singers are like WTF spren? ok, I guess we'll give this Odium guy a try.

In honour of the read-through of Crystellation that I've been doing today (longer than you might think) I have two comparison Chorale arts! Look how much I've improved yay such good One from... a little less than a year ago (it's in my sketchbook a couple arts after the art for Secret Sharder last year) And one from fairly recently. I think it was probably this term. (Think past month and a half) Obviously it's black and white (it was meant to be a minor doodle) and it's one of my favourite drawings. That pose is on point!!!

All those in favor of Frustration memes say Aye. Aye! Just made this myself.

Hi all, some minor changes happened this week for the site. There is now a Forum Games forum Way back in... uh, 2016, a dedicated forum games section has been suggested. I guess I just consistently forgot since I liked the idea, so we made one! Forum games whether they are generic games or Brandon related will go here now. This has an advantage in that they are now easier to find, and also will be out of the way for people interested in book discussion. Things will go in the Forum Games section if they are games, or if the thread is pretty random, like the Random Stuff thread. The goal is to make General Discussion more discussion based. Some forum games can be spammy (for one example, Three Word Story) and lead to an enormous amount of very short posts. For this reason, the Forum Games board does not increase post count. Eventually, the forum's post statistics will be recounted (it happens automatically when the site updates), and it may be the case if you posted, say, 1000 posts in topics that are now in Forum Games this may be retroactive and your post count may be significantly lower. I don't actually know if this is the case though. This hasn't come up yet in my experience. Are there any other forums you'd like created? Anything miscategorized? Let us know! Hiding posts returns A while back, I disabled hiding posts because there were a few instances of members hiding all their posts for some bad reasons. But since there's been a lot of double posting going on, this just seems unnecessary. So if you'd like to remove your posts, use the Hide button. No need to report them now! Just as a note because I've seen a lot of accidental double posting: if the Post button says "Saving" just wait it out! I have noticed sometimes it can take a while to go through for some reason, and I'm not quite sure why it does so. But if you click it again it will post again, which can result in something like 3-4 topics of the same kind. Remember the general computer rule that if something is loading, don't click more! (That makes things worse and will cause your computer queue that action more for every click!) That said the lag in posting is extremely annoying. If you have any information on this do post here or in Tech Support. Signature restrictions Our signature guidelines have been in effect since 2015. I've enabled some technological restrictions to prevent signatures from being too long. Now signatures can be a max of three lines. The exact value of lines can be discussed but I think 3-4 lines is a good amount. Long signatures really add to scrolling on desktop and are generally not aesthetically pleasing, especially if one adds a one-line post and the signature takes up much more room than the post itself. Animated profile pictures are disabled Speaking of aesthetically displeasing things, animated profile pictures generally make the site look much less modern and are pretty ripe for abuse. With profile pictures appearing on the main page, you really don't want a bunch of flashing lights from animated profile pictures on the main page. Additionally, animated gifs make sites load slower if there are a lot of them. I have generally discouraged animated profile pictures though it has not been a rule. I believe in old versions of Invision Power Suite, our software, there was an ability to disable this. I could never find the setting in the newer version, but tonight I found it, so animation in profile pictures are now disabled. This should generally lead to slight performance increases.

So in an earlier post, I outlined my theory that in book 5 there will be an event called night of sorrows, and one of my main predictions is that the stormfather dies. Tldr: There is a lot of foreshadowing for stormfather's sacrifice and learning mercy by choosing not to kill people in his storm. However this will prolly have unintended consequences. Like the total splintering of Honor's investiture. I think anti-stormlight will be used to kill a weakened stormfather( after showing mercy) in a very specific way. Stormlight will become very limited. The darkest point of the book, where we almost lose hope Now we know humans have a connection to Honor. The rhythm of anti stormlight sounds horrible to Navani, just like how the rhythm of anti-voidlight is horrible to fused' ears. But If honor is completely splintered? I predict that humans will lose that intrinsic connection and not be properly able to sing it. Things will look dire. Fanfic Time: I imagine Navani and Dalinar in a room after something catastrophic happens. Navani laments that it's all her fault. Dalinar would disagree and tell her not to blame herself. He will confess that he thinks there is no way to win against odium. Then he will say something like " If this is our destination, as long as my heart beats, I will keep resisting" Navani rests her head against his chest, somehow comforted by his decision. Then hears it "Honor's rhythm is orderly and staccato" Lub Dub. Lub Dub. Lub Dub. Lub Dub....... "Honor still lives in the hearts of men" I predict that Navani will realize that the beat of a heart( both human or singer) is the beat to sing the rhythm of Honor and be one step closer to reviving Honor Evidence: The wierd ten heartbeats rule for Shardblades. We know that the deadeye spren is getting partially revived everytime. Is it because it literally hears and connects with Honor? Thoughts?

I was searching pictures of robins last night and found pink robins and they are sooo cute!

On the second day of finals, Connie gave to you, Melody plus clones, And an awful mermaid in seas of blue! (Why even, markers? Why even?)

I feel like y’all should hear something an irl friend of mine said: “I’m only friends with hot people. You should feel honored” (An Irl Friend, 2021).

Behold

Time to yeet in some random art without context.

Aight. I can do that, unless you wanna work on it together :pp Oh yeah, and here’s a sketch. I still don’t like being around people :))

I take no credit for this amazing meme. Please, go here (https://www.reddit.com/r/cremposting/comments/alfktb/stick_memes_are_the_best_memes_also_i_love_this/) and give this mans (I AM A STICK BOI) a upvote. Don't even give me an upvote.

Today (yesterday) I have this lovely llamia And this girl in a ballgown, who I did a while back when I was more active in Masquerade! I had a hard time choosing the colour of her dress - I did some examples and liked the pink and blue combined, but there was also this super pretty red and black. I ended up choosing this one because it fit Alienor better.

Here’s a little sketchy. Not from the bus, though.

I wanted to and went up to reference her, but didn’t end up doing it, because I had too many things to do. Oh, and here’s le sketch for the day.

I'm sure someone's done something like this before. I just couldn't resist.

Screw what I think is the imposter syndrome I have, ‘cause I’m still posting this. Day 6 of Sketching

Words of Radiance

Airbending is just an advanced form of waterbending.

Again, no sketch from the bus. It’s been rough for me to find motivation to sketch on the bus, but I do like that this thread just basically turned into my art dump :pp

No sketch on the bus today. I tried, but I ended up not feeling it and didn’t finish.

The nervousness of my choir concert is beginning to set it, but I’m doing what I do best: Ignore it till it’s actually there.

Between these two quotes we can see that Smokers and Seekers should both be able to affect the rhythms of Roshar in the same way they're able to dampen/detect allomantic pulses. And in the first quote, Brandon explains that the rhythms are tied to the spiritual realm, not so much the cognitive. So what I'm thinking is, copper and bronze being treated as 'cognitive' metals is one of those "Scadrians don't have a complete understanding of the metallic arts, there's some errors in the provided information that will clear up as the timeline and in-universe research progress" (heavily paraphrased) things that Brandon's talked about before. I would almost suggest that the proper grouping for copper and bronze would be with gold and electrum, since all four seem to tie to the spiritual realm more directly than other metals, except that would throw the whole internal/external division of allomantic metals into question since all four are internal metals.

Well of Ascension

I wanted to post this earlier, but I kept forgetting till just now lol. Oh also: There won’t be any more sketched from the bus for the rest of the week because… it be of the Thanksgiving week for us ‘Muricans.

I just felt that I needed to thank you all. Thank you guys for being such a kind community. Thank you for not being toxic, and thank you for making me (and others) feel welcome. I've never encountered such a kind online place before the Shard, and I'm so happy I found it. Thank you. Also, not quite sure where I was supposed to put this, so sorry if I put it on the wrong topic page.

I hate this. Words cannot express, so why even bother?

As cool as that would have been, Nightblood's Ruinous Investiture (because there is some of that happening, per a WOB that appears to have been literally back-to-back with the one above) comes from somewhere else. For what it's worth, it would have been pretty cool for Nightblood to be atium.

finals: done driver’s license: gotten Shostakovich String Quartet No. 11: good, go listen to it chocolates: not even close to done, at least six more hours of work after the fourteen I’ve already done

HOLY CRAP HOLYCRAPHOLYCRAPHOLYCRAP There's a rock band class/club at my school, and they've been practicing in the cafeteria; and they sound really good. Which is cool enough as is, but they just whipped out a SCUDDING HOLLOW KNIGHT SONG (Dirtmouth theme) and it was AMAZING!!!!!!

So, what got me thinking about this was Spook's observation on how well a-Tin and a-Pewter pair together, sort of like they're two halves of the same whole (not his exact words, but that seemed like the gist of it). Now, I know that's certainly not the case for all push/pull pairs, but I think for a-Gold and a-Electrum it is. a-Gold, on it own, is a very disorienting metal to burn. Your brain isn't equipped to handle existing in two self-states at once. However, we know that Atium enhances your cognitive abilities to be able to process the information you get from the atium shadows, and as near as I can figure a-Electrum would have to do something similar with your own electrum shadows. So if you burn them together, I think the enhanced cognitive abilities from a-Electrum would let you process the increased information coming in from a-Gold.

So, one of my best friends and I use the Google Chat thing to talk bc texting sucks and we’ve been talking over Hangouts/Chat for literal years now and.. :pp Anyways, with the whole Chat thing, there are the “smart” replies that you can press if you’re short on time; I’m saying “smart,” bc… well, just see for yourself. We’ve been abusing it since last night at around midnight. I have so much of this, but I’m only going to share a little bit lol.

- Spambot, 2021. The best humor happens when no one is trying to make humor happen.

General SA, but I guess WoR?

WoK (again) (crempost)

See, the thing is, when I started this academic year, I had two options. Pick physical education as a subject or art. And since I get winded while climbing the stairs, I picked art. But I also cannot draw for the life of me. However I cannot ignore this any longer since my exams are in February. So I am going to record my journey to becoming an artist. Hopefully doing so will be give me motivation to keep practicing. Sketch 1- Female human body.

I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! No more school for another two whole weeks! yessssssssss

Brandon said on the stream State of Sanderson will be out Monday morning, so this stream will be now Monday afternoon sometime, but we haven't quite figured out when. Should have that sorted and scheduled tomorrow.

Here's a quick little WOT comic.

Vasher is pretty clear that Nightblood is steel.