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  1. Ok, so what follows is mostly speculation: Division is the power Separation, of Breaking Bonds, as compared to Adhesion that creates them or some of the others that manipulate them. Generally it will break Molecular Bonds (it will not break Atomic Bonds for purely Narrative balance reasons, too OP). Decay and Combustion are both just Oxidation reactions, and the Stormlight makes it happen in those fractal cascades even if the natural reaction might not be self-sustaining). Im no chemist by any stretch but if we assume they can learn/choose to break the bonds differently, they could (for example) either Decay wood by decomposing it into various Carbon Cycle type molecules compost-style, or they could Ignite wood by more specifically strip off all the O2 creating a small/local zone of pure O2 which can ignite in the presence of basically any carbon. I suspect Division is also responsible for creating the Electric Potential Differential that is Electricity and Lightning; I think we've seen this in Stormform (assuming Forms of Power are all still Surge-based) and I suspect it's part of why the Skybreakers came to be known as such. If so they also have spark creating capability to ignite any flammable gasses that can be released from decaying the target wood (in the above example).
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  2. good morning loveliesssss I'm only up this early because my internal clock hates me I get to go shopping todayyyyy even though I have literally a dollar and like 30 cents in my account but I. helping my grandma with shopping for Easter stuff! yay
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  3. Thank you for stopping by at Trutharchivist’s Rambles again! This is Trutharchivist (not that you were expecting anyone else), and in my next post I’d like to talk about Neo-Orthodox Judaism. To summarize the previous few posts, we talked about the Haskalah movement from the 18th century and its ideology, then how it led to Jews slowly trying to somewhat assimilate to their local culture - eventually leading to a Reform in the Jewish faith, with Orthodox rabbis resisting it through the beginning of the 19th century. And now, we’ll talk about a balance that was created between Orthodoxy and Haskalah during the 19th century - a balance that was named Neo-Orthodoxy or Modern Orthodoxy, for balancing tradition and change, or modernity. Now the idea here is to allow new ideas in, while still keeping true to the traditional ways of the Torah. So unlike in Reform Judaism, there is no giving up on the Messianic ideal or critical study of the Torah - since the Torah is seen as G-d’s word, and not just a text written by humans. On the other hand, Neo-Orthodoxy was far more accepting to studying science and philosophy than Ultra-Orthodoxy, and its prominent rabbis sometimes made a sermon in the local language and not Hebrew - which while controversial wasn’t forbidden in any way according to the Halacha. Before we continue to talk about the prominent rabbi I want to use as an example for that branch, though, I’d like to talk a bit on what made it so difficult for me to write this installment. It wasn’t just the war - though it did have a big part in it. It definitely wasn’t for a lack of a rabbi to use as an example - I had someone very specific in mind ever since I conceived of this series of essays. My list of prominent rabbis and thinkers for this was always going to be Moses Mandelssohn, Abraham Geiger, Ḥatam Sofer, Rashar Hirsch and Zacharias Frankel, all mentioned in past essays and claimed to be discussed later. No, my issue was the precise distinction of Neo-Orthodox from Ultra-Orthodox and its relation to the current division of Jews in Israel. The problem is, while I claim that those topics are ones still in discussion and relevant to this very day, things did change a bit in the previous 200 years, mostly regarding Zionism. This is also why I avoided touching the “where are they now” point in the previous essay - the division between Neo-Orthodoxy and Ultra-Orthodoxy are a little less apparent nowadays, with the major differences being more along the lines of Zionism. I’ll talk about some of it by the end of this essay, but I reserve discussing Zionism and anti-Zionism to a later date - likely a much later date, I’m afraid. Anyway, back to our topic! While there are a couple of other examples for Neo-Orthodox rabbis, one of the most prominent among them was Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, abbreviated to Rashar Hirsch usually. He was born in Hamburg (then a part of the Napoleonic Empire) in 1808. The perceptive of you will note that assuming his family didn’t move, he was 10 during the Temple dispute - a fact referred to in a biography of his written by one of his descendants I’ve had the luck to read. Said book either uses creative license - or knowledge from a source I don’t have - to write about a meeting occurring in the Hirsch household, for discussion about the Temple. It’s likely that Rashar Hirsch heard of it anyway even if it wasn’t this way, and it likely influenced him later. The young Hirsch studied under Ḥacham Isaac Bernays - an interesting Jewish scholar into himself, if slightly less well-known. He was among the first Orthodox rabbis to carry a Drasha, a sermon, in German instead of Hebrew or Yiddish, and chose to call himself Ḥacham - wise man - instead of rabbi, for some reason. The biography of Rashar Hirsch mentioned above claims it was to differentiate himself from the Reform rabbis by taking on a title from Sepharadi Jewish origin, but I don’t know. Anyway, Rashar Hirsch grew up in a very Orthodox family, though he studied from a relatively more open rabbi. Originally he intended to study to become a merchant, but he eventually forsook it for the study of the Torah and went to Manheim for that purpose in 1828. After studying there for a while he got a Semikha - he was ordained to be a rabbi. Then, in 1830, he went to the University of Bonn to study there. Sounds familiar? Well, it should, because guess who also studied there at the time. If you’ve been following my essays so far, you’ll note that at this exact time, Abraham Geiger also went to the University of Bonn. While the latter wasn’t ordained as a rabbi yet, the two became study partners - until Rashar Hirsch left to serve as a rabbi in Oldenburg not long after he went to university. By the time Geiger started his activities, Rashar Hirsch became one of his most outspoken opponents. From here on out, there’s quite a lot to say about Rashar Hirsch that would be relevant. To make it relatively short, I’ll start by listing the places where he served as rabbi - after the Duchy of Oldenburg in northern Germany he went to the city of Emden (which is apparently around the same area) in 1841, and later he became the Chief Rabbi of Moravia - which nowadays is a part of the Czech Republic - in 1846. From there, in 1851, he went to serve as the rabbi in a small sub-congregation in a city in Germany - perhaps you’ve heard of it? It was called Frankfurt-am-Main, where he served for the rest of his life. Why, yes, it is the same Frankfurt from which both Ḥatam Sofer and Abraham Geiger originated from! I’m glad you noticed. You see, the Jewish community in Frankfurt was a large and prominent community among the Jews in Germany. Even talking outside of what you;ve learned from my essays, you may well have heard of the Rothschild family of Jewish bankers - they originated from Frankfurt. I daresay this essay isn’t likely to be the last time we visit the city, though it might still be the latest time period we visit it in. Either way, I intend to go back to Rashar’s period in Oldenburg before continuing on to Frankfurt, because while in Oldenburg, Rashar Hirsch wrote two of his prominent books: Nineteen Letters on Judaism (published originally under a Pseudonym), which is a fictional correspondence between a young Jew influenced by the changing times and his studious friend, and an elaboration on the Letters - which was actually the original book, the letters being more or less a summary - named Horeb, or Essays About the Duties of Israel in Exile. Both books were written in German - an unusual move for an Orthodox rabbi at the time, but the Jewish youths who were the intended audience knew little Hebrew so it was necessary. I have not read either book, sadly - I only took a quick peek into the Nineteen Letters, if memory serves it’s mostly made of arguments regarding the Torah and perhaps G-d. But our point here is to point out what is unique about the movement known as Neo-Orthodoxy. So, the first noticeable point is likely the excessive use of German. One likely reason is that the intended audience for Rashar Hirsch’s sermons and books merely understood German better than Hebrew or Yiddish. Such points were a factor in other religious books historically - a couple of books were written in Arabic explicitly so the average Jew could understand them, like Ḥovot HaLevavot (Duties of the hearts) by Rabenu Baḥya Ibn Paquda, maybe the Book of Beliefs and Opinions by Rav Sa’adia Ga’on, and likely Maimonides’ commentaries on the Mishnah. Yet, some people shied away from that in more modern times due to the association with Reform Judaism and secularity - Rashar Hirsch didn’t, though. To talk about another, perhaps more fundamental, point of innovation from Rashar Hirsch, though, I’m going to move on to his time as a rabbi in Frankfurt. You need to understand that by this time - the late ‘40s of the 19th century - the larger Jewish community in Frankfurt was Reform. Now, you might think it was the time of Geiger as a rabbi there and a reunion between the former friends - nope, it wasn’t, the current rabbi of Frankfurt at the time was one Leopold Stein. Geiger didn’t make his comeback until a couple of years later. Anyway, all that is not to say there weren’t Orthodox-aligned Jews in Frankfurt; there were, and they elected to separate from the major congregation in 1849. Legally it was a complicated matter - separation of Church and State, while not unheard of, wasn’t applied at the time, and if you were a Jew you had to belong to the Jewish congregation in your city. Still, they managed to found a small congregation of their own called ‘Adas Yeshurun. By ‘51 they managed to get approval to have their own rabbi, and one of their candidates was none other than Rashar Hirsch. Now, I have very little idea regarding how the process of picking a rabbi for a congregation, city or state was conducted. There usually were multiple candidates who wanted the office, and one of them was picked - but in many cases, requests were sent to rabbis who already served somewhere, Rashar Hirsch being an example, and they could choose to simply refuse and stay where they were. The congregation they currently served tended to try and convince them to stay, and Rashar Hirsch was definitely someone the state of Moravia wanted to keep. In addition, you can clearly see that this would be a stp down - from the Chief Rabbi of a state to the rabbi of a sub-congregation in what was definitely a major city - but nothing more than a city. But here’s a counterpoint: they needed him more. By that time, Rashar Hirsch was already known for his opposition to Reform. It may well be that there was a fight to be had at Moravia, but I’m pretty sure there were enough Orthodox rabbis to continue on the work there. In Frankfurt, on the other hand, the Orthodox congregation was a minority, and it was subjugated to the Reform congregation (which, for understandable reasons, didn’t want the Orthodox to be independent like this; not wanting old-fashioned ideas is something common among people who see themselves as enlightened). That was reason enough for Rashar Hirsch to move there. One of the first things Rashar Hirsch did in his new congregation was found a school, for what is the point of having an Orthodox congregation if the children are taught by the Reform one and will grow to join it? In general, education was one of the most important things in Rashar Hirsch’s eyes - I’m not sure I remember it precisely, but I think it’s apparent from his commentaries on the Torah (Pentateuch), which I probably don’t even need to say were written in German. I won’t claim to know much about Hirsch’s educational philosophy, but I do know of one major point of difference between it and a traditional school: it taught general sciences, while still staying loyal to studying the Torah and living by it. That was in realization of Rashar Hirsch’s motto - “Torah ‘Im Derech Eretz”, lit. Torah with the Way of the Land. Rashar Hirsch didn’t see modern ideas as opposed to Judaism, but tools that could be used in conjunction with it. There are a couple of additional points to be mentioned - for example, Rashar Hirsch did think Emancipation could be a blessing for the Jews, and tried to convince the members of his congregation to leave the major congregation of Frankfurt when it was permitted - though with limited success. He also (unsurprisingly) saw much value in religious studies and tried founding a Yeshivah - an institute for religious Jewish learning - in Frankfurt, which his congregation also didn’t support much. He also resisted Zionism, as part of his views. He was not the only major innovative Orthodox rabbi of his time - one other name that cropped up was Rav Azriel Hildesheimer, who founded a Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin - I don’t know nearly enough about him though, I’m afraid. So, in modern day, where are the Orthodox Jews? Where are the disciples of Rashar Hirsch and Ḥatam Sofer? Well… It’s kind of complicated. Orthodox Jews can be found in many places across the globe, but like (I think) @Kingsdaughter613 (sorry for the tag, hope you don't mind) could attest, the major communities will be found either in the state of New York and around it, or in Israel. By that I mean generally Orthodox communities. Regarding the specifics of the Ultra vs Modern, though, this is the complicated part. I won’t speak much about the USA here - frankly, there are others here better equipped than me to talk about this. It’s likely also true about Reform and Conservative Judaism - honestly, it’s more true with those two - but I have no idea, I can’t tell and thus I’m saying what I can and hope I may be corrected. Anyway, one institute I think can safely be called Modern Orthodox in the USA is the Yeshivah University in New York. In addition, quite a few American Jews come to Israel to study in Israeli Yeshivas - I would say the ones coming to places like the Gush, Kerem B’Yavneh and Ma’aleh Adumim are likely more Modern Orthodox. More than that I honestly can’t say much. In Israel, there is a division between the Ḥareidim - roughly translated as pious/G-d-fearing - and the Religious-Zionists. Those are rough but imprecise equivalents of Ultra Orthodox and Modern Orthodox Jews, respectively. The issue at hand, though, is that… well… Rashar Hirsch was opposed to Zionism. So were many of his students. Being a Religious-Zionist, though, kind of requires one to be a Zionist, right? So, how does this work? Well, to try and not make too much of a mess of things, I’ll say that the Yekkes (Jews of German origin) who came to Israel originally didn’t consider themselves part of the Religious-Zionist community. They even founded their own school, called Ḥoreb - which likely had a thing to do with Rashar Hirsch’s book. Nowadays, though, this school is one of the most prestigious Religious-Zionist schools. I’m not 100% sure how that came to be - a major figure in the community turning Zionist or something? The rather segregationist tendencies of the Ḥareidim clashing with their ideas and the Yekkes not being enough people to form their own group? All of the above? That happened, anyway. And yet, when some people who consider themselves Neo-Orthodox come to Israel from abroad, they tend to join the Ḥareidi communities - they somehow see themselves closer to them. In short, this internal Orthodox division isn’t as clear cut as you might think. There are even Religious-Zionists who are somewhat more Ultra-Orthodox than the rest. So, I think it could be said this is a little complicated. In short: Neo-Orthodoxy or Modern Orthodoxy is a movement of Jews that stayed completely loyal to the Halachic rules but were willing to accept things like general studies at a young age and usage of other languages in sermons, though perhaps not in prayers. Rashar Hirsch is a good example of this, and made his innovations in multiple places but mostly in Frankfurt-am-Main, where he more or less saved the Orthodox congregation from assimilating back to the Reform one. He had a couple of clashes with Reform Jews which weren’t really elaborated upon - one guy named Heinrich Graetz studied under him in Oldenburg , and later became a famous Jewish historian… who also went in a slightly less Orthodox direction, and Rashar Hirsch opposed him over that. He wasn’t exactly Reform, though - we might touch on the movement he belonged to in the next essay. Anyway, Rashar Hirsch’s motto was Torah with the Way of the Land, something that was expressed in how his school taught both religious and core studies. Thank you for reading this far, and have a good day! (P.S., I realize that I didn’t always mention my sources so far, so I wanted to take the opportunity to list some of them - for the most part those are the Wikipedia articles on the movements and people I mention, in addition to (in some cases) the Hebrew Encyclopedia in its article on tradition and change, books by the rabbis mentioned, general knowledge from my history lessons in high school and Mandelssohn’s biography. Just wanted to mention them in case I’d forget to later.)
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  4. I have no idea how many you missed, you didn't reply since the first one... So it's two at max. Somewhat similarly to our PM (if slightly worse in this case), I'm slow to write those and procrastinate a lot. There should be only one more in this specific series, then it's moving on to Eastern Europe. One day I might attempt to talk more about Mizrahi Jews, too.
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  5. Don’t mind me not checking my notifs but deciding to check certain peoples profiles. (ignore this: @Radiance @radiant
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  6. I need to log in again more often. This is very interesting @Trutharchivist How many of these have I missed?!? (Also, I promise you, before the end of the weekend I'll have responded to our outstanding PM(s) - I'll try to get it done before the end of today!)
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  7. The way that it creates fire, which we only see Dustbringers do, is because it’s a resonance with Abrasion. Friction increasing in tandem with “destruction” creates fire. We never see Sigzil create fire, only shape the wind the fire is on, so my headcannon is that fire is only a Dustbringer thing, especially bc in the prelude of WoK, when smoldering ground is mentioned it’s attributed to the Dustbringers, not Skybreakers.
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  8. It has been a hot minute since you've been on here... but you've heard of the Stormlight TTRPG system, right?
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  9. @Spark of Hope @Edema Rue @TheRavenHasLanded @shortcake @Weaver of Lights
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  10. Notum? Have we ever seen him flying? But it can't be Syl, because as far as I'm aware, it's Kaladin who's depressed and not Syl.
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  11. No, just the first one a couple times. Don't know if I'll read that one, but if I do it will be after the main trilogy. Honestly, Durzo is a bit of a disappointing character for me. Interesting that it's polarizing, I've only really heard negatives, but I do enjoy Lightbringer's so hopefully I'll enjoy this one as well.
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  12. guys my nose is so stuffy I had to stay home from seminary and the first two periods of school today because I felt like I was dying I almost threw up as well my mouth is so dryyyyyy ;-; also on an unrelated note I got called annoying by a freshman today and I immediately responded with "aww, thanks! i'll be sure to put your constructive criticism into use next time!" and three of my friends were with me and they all burst out laughing it was great also my friend came over after school and I gave her some of my old clothes because we wear the same size, I never wear the ones I gave her, and she only has like four full outfits it was fun we called her boyfriend (my boyfriend's twin brother (I know, it's great /gen)) and he kept messing with the filters so I kept putting candy wrapper over the camera and then at one point I made a weird face at hi and he screenshotted it so that'll be a fun talk with @Dead lol love y'all
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  13. Uh... people who talk to birds. Feruchemy or parrots and macaws... We also have that Nicki Savage story with KeSun who purportedly can turn into birds. Could "legit" be from one of Jak's stories that we never read since Wayne and his ma got all of Jak's stories from the broadsheet. Larger Cosmere Spoilers, especially TotES
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  14. We must assume that many worlds form perpendicularities just as a part of the natural environment without any special intervention. Yes, a Shard residing on a planet guarantees that a perpendicularity will form, but that's it. Just as many worlds must have very high levels of Investiture without a Shard being present. (Sunlit Man) The Ghostbloods were in contact with a large number of worlds. The economy described in SP#5 will not work with perpendicularities confined to worlds with Shards or Aethers. That seems a bit lke jumping to conclusions. Spores can die without repercussions to the core aether. Why couldn't a full symbiont?
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  15. So, remember that series of essays on the History of Judaism I wrote? Well, guess what? I just recalled it too! not only that, I actually wrote the next installment and published it! Here it is, it's about Modern Orthodox Judaism - the group I'd consider myself to be a part of. For the previous parts about Haskalah, Reform and Ultra Orthodox, just click on the links! Hopefully you'll enjoy it.
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  16. RoW spoilers; We also see that Connection forged via Emotional Allomancy or F-duralumin to a Hemalurgic construct can let you perceive their thoughts somewhat, though they wouldn't exactly count for what you intend.
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  17. Elffff I started Malevolent, and I’m not far at all but I already love it and you’re right I ship them so hard.
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  18. It might be different for each order, but the people we have seen for Windrunners and Skybreakers do need to swear the first oath before they can become Squires. Specifically, Lopen and Szeth are both shown to have Sworn the first oath before becoming a Squire - and Ki specifically tells Szeth in OB Ch 90 that the first oath is required to become a Squire Skybreaker. Lopen also tells both the Windrunner hopefuls (OB Ch 46) and the wounded after the Battle of Thaylenah that you start with the first Oath to become a Squire and hope to attract a Spren. The Squires for whom we don't have confirmation are Shallan's Squires - who do not swear the first Oath on-screen before we see Vathah draw stormlight for the first time in the restaurant.
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  19. This book has me reevaluating everything I thought about the Order of Skybreakers. I am now desperate to read some of Sigzil's story between when he bonded Auxiliary and when he broke his oaths. The way he acts in his moment of temporary return leads me to believe it's possible to be a Skybreaker without falling into the frankly repugnant culture the current order has under Nale.
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  20. Ironminds slowed down in Era 1 (where you even needed to tap F-Pewter to just move), but Wax taps occasionally and does not have any trouble moving. In fact it is described that F-Iron strengthens the body so that you can still move (but you do not hit harder for magic reasons). So the fact that Sigzil is weighted down without any enhancements is significant. Good point, it is very 'Ghostblood' kind of approach. The fact that Kelsier's philosophy became so usual for them is not good. There is not much context needed, they empowered local tyrant so that he can kill thousands of people, enslave (and destroy minds) of dozens more, while the entire culture has to sacrifice some of their population just to survive. And they could have saved all of those people for who know how long. They could have allied with someone else, or stopped supporting Cinder King. Hell, near the end that is exactly what was offered to them, they simply did not care. Scadrial as a whole might be fighting against something worse, but that does not in any way excuse their actions here, especially since they could have helped with basically no impact to their own research.
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  21. Oh yeah, I wanted to bring up all these points too, so I'll just respond to your post then! The Night Brigade - they're Threnodites who have "tamed" or somehow "recruited" Shades. So that's how they destroy entire planets, if need be. They "Hellify" until they get what they want. Though they're a mix of living people and Shades. So, how many of them are there? Are they all on that one spaceship, or is that ship just one of some Armada of the Night? Sigzil having a past as a Windrunner AND as a Skybreaker - By his own reckoning, he gave up his Windrunner oaths while or before taking up the Dawnshard. We don't know if that's related, like if he could only take in the Dawnshard if unbonded, but he retained enough of the Windrunner nature for him to reflect on them as oaths with meaning to him still (to protect), and when ghostly remnants of his armor start appearing towards the end of TSM, it seems to be that of BOTH orders. He "almost totally killed" Aux by bonding a highspren AFTER taking up the Dawnshard, which had given him the ability to use Investiture of any source to fuel some kind of innate Dawnpowers (healing and agelessness among them, as well as Skipping, and hopefully he can do the Connnection-forming without Aux overseeing the mechanics, because he's not got that any more). And then one time he invoked some Dawnpower without enough Investiture and it "ate" his spren, The question is, how long had he had his Skybreaker bond? Had he reached the Fourth Ideal as a Skybreaker (achieving a Crusade)? Or is the nature of becoming a Dual Radiant that your level transfers (i.e., he'd been a 4+ Ideal Windrunner, so when bonding a highspren, he's now a Skybreaker of the same Ideal, even if he'd given up his honorspren bonds)? Awakened Steelmind / Metalminds: I assume this was done by first Awakening steel, and THEN filling it with unkeyed speed? Would this mean the Steelmind could tap and fill itself? Also, as we saw with the Father Machine in Y&NP, Awakening is a generic Cosmere magical term for "Investing an object with enough power and Intent as to function independently", not that it had to have been done with Breath. The Scadrian Deadweight Manacle: Nomad acts like he's seen this exact type of thing before - for people to wear on low-gravity planets to move more naturally, but here turned up to the point his body was working under 3-4 times standard gravity. So it's some kind of involuntary metalmind that pushes unwelcome (and unkeyed) weight into the wearer, without the wearer's Intent! That's... Terrifying technology? (As for the manacle being "one-sided" in Feruchemical effect, that's not true: tapping an ironmind always did slow a person down, but the person would be made physically stronger to be able to stand upright and whatnot. Which Zellion does.) As for the "callousness" on display by the Scadrians: seems very much in line with the ethos of the Ghostbloods, doesn't it? Non-interference, or "not taking sides in a local conflict", as an excuse for sitting back and taking up the bits of power and knowledge that are of service to Scadrial, while telling themselves they retain a kind of moral high ground. As Kelsier continues to prolong his existence, after all, he becomes more and more like a spren. Of Surviving.
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  22. Sundays aren't great for book releases, but I managed to make it through it without staying up too late. The thrust of the main story itself seems pretty straightforward, but a few thoughts to get out of my head real quick: I was able to pick up Sigzil's Skybreaker past pretty early in the book. (He described Auxiliary as "gravitation and interaxial force," and I was like, "that sounds like Division.") Definitely some interesting things going on on Roshar. My impression was that he didn't bond his highspren until after he took up his Dawnshard (something about "choosing to bond" Auxiliary had consequences), but I'd need to take a closer look at the text to try and confirm that. After getting some info on Sigzil's Torment, I'm still leaning towards his Dawnshard being the one from Rysn. She describes it as "The will of a god to remake things, to demand they be better. The power to change." And Sig says that his is diametrically opposed to violence, i.e. unmaking and causing things to become worse. Zellion's new Connection situation is something very interesting. I'm wondering if he will leave behind a Threnodite Shade now, if his Oath to the Canticlites (or whatever that particular band of Threnodites goes by) was able to draw a small piece from their unreleased Shades to make one of his own. The cosmology of Canticle is still a bit of an open mystery. It seems like the Threnodites chose this planet because of its sunlight-racing situation... but why is it like that in the first place? The obvious question is: which Shard is the Investiture cycle from? I think we can get a clue from the compelled behavior of the Charred to fight each other; it reminds me of some of the descriptions of Autonomy from The Lost Metal. The stars in the Taldain system both give off Investiture through light, so I'm guessing this is a similar setup. (If I really want to go out on a limb, I'd call this avatar the "Sunlight Man.") Why mountains form in the same place every rotation also bugs me. It makes me think there's a terraforming process going on, very slowly and inefficiently (perhaps broken?), and every iteration the world is getting closer to a final version. Either that, or it's attempting to remake the original version of the world. (More on that later.) There's also the rings. They don't really do anything for the plot of this story, other than reflect sunlight so there's some light, but I don't think that's really necessary since just regular starlight during nighttime would probably serve well enough. So why did Brandon add them in? I think they're mass that belongs to the planet, I just can't decide which direction it's going. Is the terraforming drawing from the mass of the rings, and they're going to decline as the planet continues to be formed? Or is the planet ejecting mass (as was described in the mountain during the final sequence) and that's forming the ring? I'm leaning towards the latter, that the rings are splattered from the violent reaction at the surface of the planet. So, what's in the core, then? I'm worried the description of Threnody's Evil as "mountain-sized manifestations" hints at some Lovecraftian monstrosities running around the cosmere, one of which might be underneath Canticle. Hopefully we don't have an Eldrazi in there. But the Selish system essay also comes to mind, of how the land itself was developing sentience. I feel confident we haven't seen the last of Canticle. Zellion's last Skip. A watery world with Sho Del? Did he skip to UTol? We finally get introduced to the Night Brigade. They want a Dawnshard... but why? In the postscript, Brandon mentions an "ongoing conflict of a nature that might be too spoilerific to mention here." That has me very intrigued. This book mentions an arms race on all the major planets, and the Dawnshards are sought as superweapons... but what's the goal? I'm hoping we only have to wait a year to find out some of this stuff... maybe Stormlight Five kicks the door open. That's all that sticks in my mind for now. Maybe I'll have some more after sleeping on it, or if I can find some time for a quick reread once the physical book gets here.
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  23. This post by @Pagerunner has a thorough breakdown about the Surges we didn't have a lot of info on, it's from before RoW so it doesn't have any spoilers / isn't updated with any new info on the Willshaper Surges:
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