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  1. We have some exciting news to announce. So far in order to obtain some unpublished works of Brandon's, you'd have to email him through his site, and his assistants would distribute them. Well now you won't need to wait for that, because we will be in charge of distributing Aether of Night! All you have to do is post in this topic (you'll need a 17th Shard account, but that's it), and our staff will PM you the document. You do not need to post an email address here; we will send it to you through this website. Once we do this, we'll remove your post here. We'll be using this topic as a to-do list for requests. Ideally since we have lots of staff members, we will get this out to you soon, within a week or two. We hope you're excited about this, so many of you will be able to get this text in a much more obvious way now! You will receive a .docx file, and if you need to convert it into a .pdf or .epub, there are many converters to do that for you. (We are not distributing the old prose version of White Sand; that is distributed in Brandon's newsletters.) Thank you Dragonsteel for letting 17S do this! Edit as of 2024: This is still going! We've gone through over 300 pages of replies distributing. It's just that we remove posts here once we send them out.
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  2. General Brandon stuff: Cosmere spoilers: Mistborn spoilers: Stormlight Archive spoilers:
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  3. After our last major site update all the way back in 2016, we're excited to announce that we'll be updating the forums and everything else to the latest available version of the platform we run on. We picked Saturday, October 21, as the big migration day. This means there will be some disruptions in service you'll have to expect on that day, but we will do our best to get the site back online as fast as possible. At 06:00 UTC (2am Eastern Time, 11pm Pacific Time) on October 21, we'll be putting the site in "Offline Mode", which means regular users won't be able to use it from that point onward. In the background, we'll be performing a move to an entirely new server to host the site so we can modernize and clean up the environment everything runs in. We estimate this migration to take several hours as we'll have to perform some manual steps as well - plus, you all talk a lot on our forums, so there's lots of data to copy! As soon as all that's done, we'll flip the switch and allow you back into our gates. Immediate Changes The update will not be purely technical in nature. The most obvious change will be a new design that you'll see all across the site. We unfortunately won't be able to bring over the existing theme to the new version as there have been a lot of changes to the underlying software in the meantime and it's unfortunately not sustainable to customize the look and feel as much as we did for the current version. Regardless, we made some changes to give the site some character and to hopefully make the move ever so slightly less jarring. In order for you to get an impression of what the updated version looks like, here's a sneak peek of our homepage when you're logged in: The topic view will also change a fair amount with an at-a-glance overview of some interesting statistics about the topic in the sidebar: Another change is that custom member titles have moved a little bit in the user interface. They will be a regular profile field, but everything else about them should stay the same! Planned and Potential Changes You'll also notice in the topic screenshot above that the regular upvote button is gone! Instead, the new forum version allows us to define custom reactions! We'll keep this limited to an "upvote" reaction for now, but will definitely be exploring this and several other new features in the future: Additional reactions that might affect reputation differently Achievements for performing certain actions, e.g. posting enough or having very successful posts These can also be rewarded with fancy badges that show up on your profile page! Updated Social Connections: While some of our older members might still remember ICQ or MSN, we hear that these aren't as hip with the kids anymore, so we'll likely be updating those to reflect the current social media landscape Pronouns Profile Field: Asking for gender (sex, really) in your profile is kind of outdated and unnecessary for the most part, so we'll be replacing this with a pronouns field that should prove more useful and allows for many more options Dark Theme: With the move to a less customized default theme and thanks to advancements in how configurable a theme is, it will be much easier for us to hopefully introduce this at some point We can't give any concrete timelines on any of these and won't promise we'll implement all of them, but with everything else up-to-date, we should be able to iterate on new things a lot more! Future Update Schedule We aim to track updates of the software we use much more closely in the future, which will likely mean an increase in the update frequency. Rather than performing a big disruptive update every few years, there will be more minor and gradual rollouts of new versions. This is very much in the spirit of the books, as I think a wise man once thought
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  4. Important note: This list would be far less complete if not for the efforts of everyone who helped me compile it. Specifically thankyou to: Awesomeness Summoned, Delightful, Argent, PorridgeBrick, Kurkistan, Quiver, Green Hoodie Mistborn, Senor Feesh, Observer, ccstat, Swimmingly, Alvron, Metacognition, The Only Joe, GreyPilgrim, Aether, jasonpenguin, Mailliw73, Moodle, Tempus, Baine, Kobold King, LeftInch, Sir Jerric, Tensoon, Ashiok, Theorymaker, Seonid, Shaggai, TheYoungBard, Curiosity, Snoopy, Voidus, Frosted Flakes, Kasimir, Shallan. (Let me know if I missed you.) Hokay, for those who want to know the ranks, I looked through everyone who had at least 10 posts. Here are my findings. 10000+ God Beyond 9000 9999 Adonalsium 8500 8999 Hero of Ages 8192 8499 The Broken One 7800 8191 Shard 7500 7799 Splintered Shard 7200 7499 Splinter 6800 7199 Dragon 6400 6799 Stormfather 6000 6399 Herald 5700 5999 Sliver 5350 5699 Nightwatcher 5000 5349 Worldhopper 4750 4999 God of Color 4500 4749 Lord Ruler 4250 4499 Unmade 4096 4249 Dawnshard 3761 4095 Prime 3500 3760 Lerasium Mistborn 3250 3499 Bondsmith 3000 3249 Voidbringer 2750 2999 Knight Radiant 2500 2749 Most Ancient 2250 2499 Steel Inquisitor 2048 2249 Mistborn 1900 2047 Tarachin Superstar 1800 1899 Dawnsinger 1700 1799 Rambleman 1600 1699 Savant 1550 1599 Gerontarch 1500 1549 Midnight Essence 1450 1499 Listener 1400 1449 Enefel 1370 1399 Kalad's Phantom 1338 1369 Compounder 1337 So l337 Hoid Can't Compete 1300 1336 Surgebinder 1260 1299 Radiant Squire 1220 1259 Kandra 1180 1219 Twinborn 1145 1179 Returned 1111 1144 Scadrian Waffle Cook 1080 1110 Stone Shaman 1050 1079 Cryptic 1024 1049 Honorspren 1000 1023 Sentient Awakened Object 980 999 Truthless 950 979 Highprince 920 949 Worldbringer 890 919 Full Feruchemist 860 889 Full Shardbearer 830 859 Shardbearer 800 829 Seer 777 799 Spinner 760 776 Wyrn the King 730 759 Elantrian 700 729 Originator 667 699 Svrakiss 666 Torturer of Heralds 650 665 Shade 625 649 Soulcaster 600 624 Forger 575 599 Dakhor Monk 550 574 Lord Prelan 512 549 King's Wit 496 511 Son of Honor 475 495 Vanisher 450 474 King's Tester 425 449 Ghostblood 400 424 Envisager 375 399 Artifabrian 350 374 Ferring 325 349 Stormwarden 300 324 Bloodsealer 278 299 Silent Gatherer 256 277 Misting 225 255 Arbiter 200 224 Gyorn 180 199 High Prelan 160 179 Oldblood 145 159 Cobalt Guard 128 144 Hazekiller 110 127 Forescout 100 109 Houselord 90 99 Babsk 80 89 Prelan 75 79 Arteth 70 74 Idrian Monk 64 69 Obligator 56 63 Lighteyes 50 55 Grand 45 49 Noble 40 44 Crew Leader 32 39 Ardent 25 31 Pahn Kahl 20 24 Awakened Object 16 19 Noble-Blooded 10 15 Bridgeman 7 9 Spearman 5 6 Darkeyes 2 4 Skaa 0 1 Spren --- -1 -2 Negaspren -3 -5 Lifeless -6 -10 Hoed -15 -19 ? Beheaded Inquisitor -20 -24 ? Rotting Chull Carcass -24 -25 Lamespren -26 -100 Zucchini -101 and below Chasmfiend Corpse Note: negative reputation titles are no longer obtainable due to downvotes having been removed. I'll update this as we learn more We now know them all! I like the new levels. Good work Chaos Please don't ask me how long that took. Current lowest Unknown rep: nonexistent. We're so close to getting them all =D Edit: Wooohooo first popular post Later edit: For the record, at the time I added that comment 10 rep was a little more exciting Another edit: The lower rep ranks have changed at some point, I don't know where all of the new boundaries are yet.
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  5. Hello hello! The last couple of months saw an uptick in the membership of our Patreon page, in both free and paying members, so if you are one of those - welcome, welcome! (And of you are not, could we interest you?) Either way, hopefully you are enjoying your time here, on the 17th Shard, and hopefully the new year is treating you well. To increase the odds that everything is going peachy, we've got a Yumi and the Nightmare Painter fanart commission for you, coming right up! We bring you an art commission from last year, all the way back from August! Yumi and the Nightmare Painter had just come out in July, and we had decided to dedicate the next commission to the book. It was a close call, but Yumi and Nikaro at the Kilahito carnival beat Nikaro painting Yumi back to life (or whatever actually happened there) by a single vote, so that's what we did! We knew we had to bring Botanica Xu back for this piece, as their distinctive style was a perfect match for this book. Real life obligations made this piece take a bit longer than usual (turns out being an artist, editor, and translator makes for a busy life) but we couldn't be happier with it. Hopefully you like it too
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  6. Oh, whee, it's been a minute, hasn't it? Since we showed you art? Well, the end of the year is always a little crazy for everyone - between conventions, new books, exams, holidays, everyone is just a little busier, and things take just a little longer. But! Things are still moving along, and what better way to celebrate the upcoming holidays than with our October fanart commission - a piece as spooky as it is spoilery, so proceed with caution! If you haven't read all of Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, begone! Come back once when you've done your homework. But for everyone else... ... this is obviously the moment Yumi realizes she, just like everyone else in Torio, is a nightmare. Your artist for this heartbreaking piece is Megan Murphy, aka comiclysmic, whose iconic style you might recognize from a series of meme-y posts (like this Hoid being very upset with Design's stance on spoilers), but also "proper" fanart (like this Sja-anat). Regardless, familiar or not, Megan did a great job with this piece, just like she does with all her pieces (oh, do make sure you check out this Dustbringer OC), and we are all very happy to have worked with her on this, and are very much looking forward to working with her again in the future!
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  7. From the album: Cosmere Inktober 2023

    Cosmere Inktober 2023; Day 6 - Illuminate "He met her eyes, and her smile was storming contagious."
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  8. Well, today is my Shardiversary. It's hard to believe that it's been a year, but at the same time it's hard to believe it's only been a year. It's been an adventure, for sure! Recently, I've found myself increasingly reflective as I prepare to graduate high school and depart from my home. It's a melancholy time, but it's also filled with hope. And the memories I've made on the Shard, and the friends, connections, stories, jokes, adventures...they've changed me. I'm a different person than I was before. This year has been really tough for me, but having people here to give me advice and guide me through it, and honestly just having an outlet for the pain has really made a difference in my life. This is a special community, one that I'll always remember. I think the people here are what makes this place so unique. @The Wandering Wizard, the wonderful Wiz! You were one of the first people to help me feel like I belonged, and you've been a true friend to me, an amazing source of laughter and fun. Thank you for everything. @Robin Sedai, your sharing of Calvin and Hobbes and other comics when I first joined is one of my favorite memories on the Shard. I admire your voice of reason whenever things get a little unhinged. @CalanoCorvus, you always bring optimism to conversations and give great advice. You and @DoomslugLuna are adorable. @SymphonianBookworm our conversations here will always make me smile. I know you haven't been as active recently (I miss you!), but I know you're going to do great things! #Phantom #Jasnahoid @Telrao, come backkkkkkkk soon! I miss having someone to nerd out about jazz with. Your muffins and cats are iconic here on the shard. And your playlists are fantastic. Thank you for the wonderful art. @The Bookwyrm, your passion for space and astronomy really shines through. You're thoughtful and insightful, and our conversations keep me thinking for a long time after we're done. I'm looking forward to seeing where you'll end up!@Kajsa :), thank you for being a wonderful human being. You care about us, and you're just amazing. Your art is also out of this world! @That1Cellist, you are worth more than you could ever comprehend. You deserve the world. Thank you for sharing your love of cello with the world. @The Halcyon Girl, you are an amazing person. We miss you on the Shard. I'm so glad you commissioned that throne from me. @InfiniteInsanity, you are kind and you have wonderful ideas to cheer people up. Your mission was such a sweet idea. When you're on sugar, now I know to runnnnn @The Aspiring Archivist, I'm glad I know you. Thank you for putting up with me and for being there for anyone who needs it. You have a nice voice, too. @Ranryu, your energy, and sense of humor make the world a better place. Best of luck to you with your piano and compositional career! @TheGreatSnail, aren't filters funny?? In all seriousness, those SU replys were fun. That was where it was at! @Wittles of Shinovar, WITTLESS Skittles, I admire the way you bring a positive attitude towards problems. It's not easy the way that life works out, but you're an amazing helping hand. @The Last Fæ, you often have something very interesting to share. I like the way that you think. @Potato's Wit, you're really funny. The things you share make me laugh a lot @Morningtide, you're always so nice. I still can't believe there's an Idaho Potato Museum! @S. Stormy, diggin' the new branding. I love how you're always up for shenanigans and helping everyone here have a good time. @Cinnamon, you're down-to-earth and friendly, EVEN THOUGH you live life upside-down. That makes it even more special. @Thaidakar the Ghostblood, you're funny! And you always have quality things to share. @Sequence, you're always full of good vibes. It's always so interesting when you share the coolest info on planes and the like. @Cruciatus_heart, Elfffffff! Your interest in a certain type of brooding slightly insane sociopath is very funny to me. You have excellent taste in media. Congrats on everything you've accomplished this year! @TheAlpha929, you're very chill, and just fun to be around. @Eluvianii, you have chill pfps and you have cool answers on the forum games. @Matrim's Dice, thank you for all your help in SE and for putting up with me that one conversion game. No thank you for betraying me, but I know that's how it goes. and :P. for life. @The Known Novel, Thank you for the chaos. It is the way. *fist bump*. Kasimir, Archer, Aman, Stick, Illwei-- you guys are all really cool. I'm happy to have gotten to play with all of you this year. @Channelknight Fadran, you've always been the cool, experienced, cultured guy here. Ever since I joined, I've looked up to you and your RPing and worldbuilding prowess. @dannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnex, I never know what to expect from your SUs! I always know it'll be a fun time when I open that notif up. Man, those nnnnnns really keep growing. @DramaQueen, you really are a queen of drama. I know we haven't talked much but can't we just agree that theatre kids are the coolest! @Trutharchivist, thank you for sharing your culture with the shard. It's been very eye-opening. @Nathrangking, you write beautiful poems, and you have a wonderful perspective on the world. @Cash67 I never can remember if you're young but really wise for your age, or older but still really wise for your age. You are Perry the Platypus incarnate in the best way possible. SPEAKING OF PLATYPI, @Being of Cacophony, you are ALSO a pretty cool platypus. I like checking out TLT and seeing your chaos there. Cacophony is also a really fun word. @Edema Ruh, you'll remain an Aes Sedai in my mind for a very long time. Also, spontaneity is the best! And you're great at that. @Lotus Blossom, I'm so happy Symph got you to join the shard! You're a cool person @The Storming Stormfather, your messages on peoples' profiles are really funny. Thanks for being the storming The Storming Stormfather. @Justice_Magician, your art is incredible! Thank you for sharing it with the shard! @HOID WANTS INSTANT NOODLES, bro we gotta make that board game happen. You had so many great ideas. @Lord Gregorio, you have cool pfps. Also, interesting thoughts to share! @Nameless*, it's truly a shame that Nameless stole your name. Your contributions to TLT are immense, and not to be questioned. @Szeth's Facepalm, your cute froggie dudes make my day. Where they at??? @Shadowed you're always great fun and it's always so cool to find fellow musicians here. Flute rules! @solarcat can we just take a minute to appreciate how awesome your username is?? @2EmLee2, @Enter a username, @PyroPhile, you guys are all super cool. Thanks for being iconic. It's been an amazing year. Here's to many more Thank you everyone <3
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  9. Hi everyone. Calano here. With some news. A little while back, I made a post saying I'd be still here, but taking a break. Become something of a lurker. Well, I've decided to just take a break entirely. It's not been so great for me mentally, to have the Shard hanging in the back of my mind. I'll update y'all on big important things in my life, because I like telling people those things, but for the most part I'll be unreachable unless you have my phone number. If you want my phone number, ask someone who has it to PM it to you: I'll gladly accept texts from Sharders, but I'm not comfortable just putting my phone number out there. Y'all are some of the greatest online (and IRL) people I know. This community is safe, and accepting, and warm, and homely, and wonderful. But I have a life to live. So, I'll be going. I don't know if I'll return. I might not, not to a level of activity that I once had. Y'all have been just... an incredible group of people. And I'm honored to call you my family. I've seen so many others leave; Haly, Misting was gone for a while, Fadran left unexpectedly, Kajsa kinda went dark too, but I can text her sometimes lol But people have been slowly leaving. And I think that now it's my turn. Like I said above, I'll come back occasionally for big updates, regarding college, my mission, big life milestones, good and bad news, etc. But for the most part, I'm honorably discharging myself from active duty on this site (so to speak). loverboy Lessons is still coming out January 19th, 2024. I plan to make the entire album the week of December 18th, and get it going through the distribution process starting that weekend (23rd/24th). It's been a pleasure. It really has. I love you all so much. Goodbye.
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  10. You all warm my heart. I don’t come to the forum very often anymore, but this still makes me laugh.
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  11. When you finally have them all:
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  12. DARK MODE PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ADONALSIUM
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  13. Introduction Well, this is one of the most incoherent theories I've ever cobbled together. But I think I have something, at the very least. Regardless, here we go. I will first state the theory, for the sake of retaining reader attention, then explain the evidence I have to prove it. Whatever the case, I believe I have found the nature of whatever resonance the Truthwatchers possess, or at the very least an ability they somehow employ. I will delay no further; I believe the Truthwatchers had the ability glimpse the future. Please understand, I have not taken temporary leave of my sanity. I know Renarin is not a true Truthwatcher, and I understand the Surges as well as any Cosmerenaut. Allow me to present my evidence, such as it is. Evidence 1: The Urithiru Gem Archive I think everyone who's closely read the epigraphs has flirted with this theory at one time or another. I quote below an entry made by an unknown Truthwatcher, detailing their plan to deny Voidlight to the parsh armies. See below: It has already been established that the gem type corresponds with the Order of Knight who recorded the message. I invite all to look at the final message, recorded in "a particularly small emerald." Obviously, whoever recorded it must have felt a need to record their foresight. Now, this can be taken two ways. The Truthwatcher had an uncannily acute sense of foresight, and very accurately judged the eventual findings and conclusions of a group of scholars, tacticians, and warriors. The word "foresaw" was used in a more literal sense. I'm inclined to believe the latter, for the fact that the gem was "particularly small" as well as the Truthwatcher's evident need for secrecy. Evidence 2: The Surgebinding Chart It is interesting to note how specifically the Truthwatchers are placed. Directly below the Bondsmiths. Not only this, but a strange line connects the two, completely unrelated to the surrounding art. I am not the first to note this; indeed, another user asked a question concerning it. Brandon admits that there is some significance to this placement, and that Truthwatchers are different from other Orders in much the same way a Bondsmith is. How interesting, especially in light of Evidence 1. Evidence 3: The Nature of Resonances We have some details concerning the nature of resonances. Kaladin and Shallan---and to a certain extent, Jasnah and Lift---have all demonstrated abilities that occur from their two Surges interacting. Kaladin can adopt far more squires, and those of far more power, than any other order. Shallan has uncanny mnemonic abilities that Brandon attributes to her order. The same goes for Kaladin. Jasnah is noted by Wit as having an uncanny sense of direction, leading to some speculation among the fanbase. Then Lift, who displayed a very keen sense of comprehension in the face of street slang worse than that of Spook's. What's interesting is how all these resonances seem have certain common characteristics. These are the ones I have noted. The resonances we do have, and some suspected ones, are at least tangentially related to the Surges that produce them. The resonances, at least in the case of Knights Radiant, seem to follow their order's underlying themes. There seems to be an almost thematic connection between the Surges and the resonance. Evidence 4: Renarin Fear not, intrepid readers, for I yet retain my sanity. I bring up Renarin only to point out the connection between this theory and one of Renarin's main abilities. As a Cosmerenaut, I do not believe much in coincidences, and find it very convenient that a Truthwatcher of old "foresaw" something, and Renarin, a corrupted Truthwatcher, sees the future in intermittent fits. Putting It All Together From all these pieces of evidence, I believe enough data has been gathered to draw conclusions. So, diving right in, we start with the very high likelihood that a Truthwatcher past somehow saw the future. This was something he fear, or was ashamed of, but regardless felt necessary to maintain secrecy over. Evidence 2 introduces the thought that Truthwatchers have some abilities that almost resemble those of a Bondsmith. At the very least, they have something Cognitively and Spiritually related. We know that seeing the future involves the Spiritual Realm, where time has no meaning. The conclusions drawn from Evidence 3 are the shakiest I have to offer, but I'll do my best to be clear. Truthwatchers of Ideals surrounding the nature of truth, and seeking it out. Thus, they are commonly scholars and scientists. They seek to banish lies and understand the world better. More than that, the Surges exclusive to Truthwatchers are those of Progression and Illumination. What an interesting combination. Looking at these purely thematically, a combination of the two might illuminate a future path, a way of progressing forwards. Finally, Renarin. Again, I find it far too coincidental how he can see the future. And perhaps this provides some insight as to the nature of Sja-anat's Enlightening. Maybe Enlightened spren almost lean into the resonance, and that is the pattern of affected Orders. Conclusion None of these pieces of evidence alone serve to help prove this theory. When taken together, however, the connections drawn follow some common paths. If you have any thoughts over this, please comment so. Any and all criticism are welcome. Many thanks for reading, Longshot97
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  14. Kaladin will get a ryshadium with wings in Stormlight five and name it Rainbowdash.
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  15. From the album: Stormlight artworks 2023-2024

    "The wind had always been there, his friend, his companion, his ally. Until one day it had come to life and started talking to him". Rhythm of War. Congratulations to everyone that Mr. Sanderson wrote 50% of Book 5!! Yoohoo, I'm so happy! If all goes well, we can read the book in Fall 2024! I can't wait to learn the history of Kaladin and Syl in this book. Excited!
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  16. Hey y'all! So... you may have been wondering why I've disappeared for a few days... Yeah the Shard's blocked at home and I have been banned. Wheee Therefore, this is the last post I'm gonna make on here for a while. So I would like to say thank you! Thank you all for your support in my art and my writing - it has really meant a lot, and has helped me grow and improve! Thank you for being such an awesome community! It has been a joy to hang out with y'all and cause cHaOs. I apologize to y'all in the RP's and Sanderson Elim games - @The Wandering Wizard, you have full permission to do whatever you like with Telrao. She is yours now. It has truly been a delight and an honor to be with y'all! Until we next meet: May the sun shine upon your face The wind be at your back The path lead you to whatever place That brings you the joy you lack I LOVE you all, and hope our paths shall meet again! Blessings - Telrao *throws infinite muffins*
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  17. So. Today is my Shardiversary. It has been one year since, after quite a while lurking, I decided to join this community. Little did I know that the choice would mark a turning point in my life. As I slowly got involved in the activities on the Shard, I made friends. Connections. One of the first friends I made was The Wandering Wizard, who, though I didn't realize it at the time, lived in the same city as me. After some social deduction (and some off handed mentions of penguin...excrement...) I realized where he lived, and managed to meet up with him. A month or two later I met Cellist and Ranryu, and we got them to join too. During this era a bunch of other Sharders, many that I knew in real life and even more that I didn't, joined, and I somehow became popular. I fit in this community now. I have a place. I have friends that I can confide in, friends that know how to help me when I need help. Joining this site has given me friendships in real life and made them stronger, but it's also let me connect with so many amazing people, people who think like me, people who I'd been looking for for a long time. My time here has helped me realize who I am, I think. I've been able to greater understand my interests and goals and values in the last year, and while there were a great number of factors in that, this site, and the people here, have been a huge part in it. I'm glad all of you became Sanderfans and decided to come here at one point or another. Because you being here has been a huge blessing in my life. Thank you all, and here's to many more years!
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  18. Highspren have come off as rather weird and distant in the Stormlight books so far - in fact, I don't think we'd ever seen or heard a highspren talking to their Radiant yet, and Szeth mentioned that his spren "rarely showed itself" to him, much less converse with him constantly as most other spren do with their Nahel bonded person. And their approving and enabling of hundreds of years of Skybreakers hunting down and eliminating all other spren bonds under direction of a mad Herald has always made the whole group of them seem bonkers. And we see them through the POV of how the honorspren and all other Radiant spren regard them for siding with Odium in the Final Desolation. But Auxiliary... Even as a monotone fragment of a highspren, he comes off very, very well. This is even more moving than Maya's declaration of WE... CHOSE! to the court of honorspren in Lasting Integrity. Aux chose. HE CHOSE. Not "with" his Knight, Sigzil, but FOR him.
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  19. From the album: Stormlight artworks 2023-2024

    “I… can’t,” Kaladin finally whispered, tears streaming down his cheeks. Kaladin bowed his head, sagging forward, trembling. Syl’s arms enfolded him from behind. She pulled him tight as he wept, sobbing, at his failure. Oathbringer
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  20. From the album: Stormlight artworks 2023-2024

    Finally captured my favorite moment from The Way of Kings! First Syl appearance before Kaladin. I don't know why, but when I re-read the first book... it makes me soooo emotional, especially Kaladin moments (and Syl, how she develops and everything). Ahhhhhhh~~~ Book 5 can't come any sooner, but I have a great opportunity to capture my favorite moments with Kal and Syl before the epic conclusion of the first arc
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  21. From the album: Stormlight Archive Fan Works

    Look at this very serious painting that is directly based on what was totally written in the actual book itself
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  22. Ok, tomorrow is the day! Have an amazing few years everyone!
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  23. yes luna and i broke up it was on good terms, and we’re still friends, but we’re not romantically together anymore thanks y’all for asking if i’m okay. i am okay. a little hurt, pretty sad, but.. i’m okay. and i’ll be okay. life’s different now, but i’ll get through it. and.. yeah. just wanted to let y’all know in case you hadn’t seen yet. im not mad at her. she gave incredibly logical reasons that i also agreed with, so it was a mutual parting of ways. please don’t bash on her or on our relationship or anything. thanks.
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  24. This is a cropped version of a Way of Kings drawing I did for my own enjoyment. Couldn't decide on what color version I like more. I know it's not quite how the visage of the Stormfather is described but this image has always overridden the cannon in my mind ...
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  25. I don't like YA fantasy anymore (Exceptions: Rick Riordan's stuff, Skyward saga, Hunger Games) And I get that the whole thing about having a bunch of twelve-year-olds save the multiverse is there so a bunch of twelve-year-olds can get into reading. As a kid I sustained myself entirely on Brandon Mull - Five Kingdoms was my first real foray into high fantasy. But now that I'm an adult? It just... hurts to read. There're always these grown adults sending these children into battle and making stupid decisions to make the kids seem smart and epic. And then some god-level monstrosity finally reawakens from his slumber and is defeated by the power of friendship. Why am I thinking about this? Maybe because I'm watching Rebels? I really like the series, but the fact that they keep sending Sabine and Ezra into these tough-nut situations on their own usually breaks the immersion a bit for me. Some episodes less so than others - like the one where Ezra infiltrates a squad of Imperial Cadets, because Kanan is all "this is the dumbest idea I've ever had we need to pull him out of there" - but a lot of the time it's like "our plan is to have the mandalorian child run down a whole platoon of stormtroopers as a distraction" and I'm like ??? Child soldiers??? (I do really like Rebels though; not crapping on it or anything) Maybe I'm thinking about this because I was thinking about some fantasy pet peeves I have - all of which tend to show up in YA fiction at some point or another: "We've got company!" "I'm not leaving here without [][][]" [Two sword fighters glaring at each other while their swords are crossed... like I can't hold eye contact with anyone for the life of me and you're telling me that these people hate each other so much that they can't bear to look away for one second?] "Believe in yourself. BELIEVE" (somehow they passed this off in The Lego Movie. I guess Morgan Freeman just has that effect) [Wisecracks amid the final battle between the protag and antag, including "oh yeah? well -"] Objectively the worst thing to ever come out of any of these stories are when the twelve-year-old children form lifelong romantic bonds with each other. No, Harrison the sword boy and Verdi the tank top girl are not in love. No, they did not find their other half at the ripe old age of thirteen. If it's written by a christian then neither of these kids know how babies are made, and you're telling me that they're going to kiss at the end of the story and get married in time for the Era 2 sequel? If your prepubescent tweens are going to be kissing then you need to get an appointment with a psychologist. Meeting your future spouse at that age is called arranged marriage, not true love. (I have some opinions about the very end of AtLA, in case you cannot tell) And then these children are beating up the bad guy's soldiers left and right? "It's because they use their wits to fight, not just their muscle" man shut up. No tyrant-king of this fantasy world is going to maintain control over his empire with a bunch of brainless monkey guards. No army consists of a billion muscle machines and three characterized elite warriors. It's like in the Kenobi show how the good guys will whack a stormtrooper in the face and they'll just drop their blaster because reasons. You want to show the protagonists being capable and thinking on their feet? Give them fewer guards to worry about. Instead of twelve on two make it four on three with tight individual v individual combat. You'll never establish the least bit of tension if the sword child can take out two dozen bad guys on his own. I know, I know... it's YA. It's written for children. No one's forcing me to read any of it. It just bothers me that there are grown adults who are making the decision to send children into battle because they're their "last hope" or some crap like that. Like maybe if the child has some super powerful magical abilities and is practically incapable of dying (Mob Psycho 100 my beloved), but giving them a slim chance of success on some elite mission? It's not worth endangering these kids over, and it's probably even less worth endangering the mission by leaving it up to a bunch of kids. Basically, I'm being very conscientious about what happens with my younger characters in the Iconar Collective.
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  26. Today was Senior Skip Day and oh boy what a day it was! Yes, my car may have broken down and started leaking motor oil when we were six minutes away from the beach but that's how it goes sometimes! Also I got Promposed to right after we got home from the beach!! I'm really happy about it! She did it in Morse code (which we learned together) and it was really cute. I was planning on promposing to her, but she beat me to it. But just you wait until Prom! I'll really step things up for her! Also also yeah I was going to make a status update about London from my trip last week but I never got around to it. Long story short I got to play piano at the top of tallest building there, did a Sherlock Holmes Escape room, toured the Harry Potter studios, saw some beautiful architecture, and just had a blast with my family. Last vacation before I'm outta here :/ Life is good.
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  27. IT IS DONE! Please enjoy, Shatter Me! @That1Cellist @Telrao @Being of Cacophony @Thaidakar the Ghostblood @Morningtide @Cinnamon @Spark of Hope @The Bookwyrm @InfiniteInsanity @Kajsa :) @CalanoCorvus @Aes Sedai
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  28. Two years ago, when Brandon first announced the secret projects, people were surprised to hear the audiobooks wouldn't be available on Audible. Brandon had spoken out before about how he was worried about their business practices and what that would mean for authors with a lot less success than him, and for the secret projects––where the rights would initially be in his hands rather than going through Tor first, as Dragonsteel would be publishing the books themselves––he took a big risk, knowing most of his readership was through audio, and decided to promote other alternatives for audiobooks besides the Amazon-owned company. Now, after many conversations with the company, he's reached a historic deal, not aimed at himself, but to benefit indie authors in particular, who are the most affected by Audible's policies regarding royalties and exclusivity. Many people have heard about this basic context. You remember Brandon explaining the new other options that weren't Audible. But today, I want to do more than just paraphrase this newest blogpost. So I want to explain the entire context behind the relationship between Amazon, and by extension Audible, and the publishing industry. I'm going to give a big shoutout to the Print Run podcast for a lot of this extra information that isn't pulled from Brandon's blog. If you're interested in the industry, go listen to them! Part 1: Amazon's Origins For those of you who don't know, Amazon started its online retail empire through books. The reason wasn't because of some artistic sensibility, but because books are "easy to ship and hard to break." In particular because with the amount of books and editions of each of those that exist, it is impossible to find them all at a physical bookstore. But it is possible with the internet. Which was the perfect opportunity for the business. The other thing about books is that they say something about us. The kinds of books you buy tells you a lot about a person, which for a business like this, is consumer data. Which helped them expand beyond the book realm. Part 2: The ebook revolution In these early days, Amazon started innovating a lot on distribution. The traditional process is pretty messed up, and Amazon made this a lot easier both for print books, but most importantly for ebooks. The Kindle changed the game. Dan likes to cite a statistic about how in sometime like 2012, the sales of books if I'm not mistaken, in that year alone, were higher than in the rest of history. And Amazon decided to price ebooks at 9.99 USD, and everyone agreed to it. But publishers eventually realized that their books couldn't cost that little. So they suggested switching to a model where they chose whatever price they thought was appropriate, and give Amazon a cut of that. Part 3: The lawsuits In 2010, we get the first large lawsuit with one of the Big 6 at the time, Macmillan. You all probably know that Tor is Brandon's publisher, but Tor is just an imprint of Macmillan. And Brandon has mentioned this incident before. To put leverage on Amazon, Macmillan said they'd window their ebooks. One thing you should know about the publishing industry is that most sales for a book come in the first few months of it being out, or even before. The bestseller list is built on preorders and hype, because you can rack up those numbers with months of marketing and word of mouth which will all count for week 1, rather than doing all that work in a single week. What Macmillan was going to do was not release the ebooks until about 6 months later, where a good chunk of those people would have already read the book in hardcover, which costs significantly more. But Amazon wasn't threatened by this. They pulled the buy buttons on Macmillan books, which means you literally couldn't buy anything from any of Macmillan's imprints on Amazon. I am not kidding, this is literally the nuke of book sales. So Macmillan panicked. Eventually, Amazon got enough backlash from the general public that they put it back, but they'd successfully scared the publishers. So in 2012, the Big 6 at the time––HarperCollins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Hachette and Random House––came together to try to put pressure on Amazon to adopt the model Macmillan had suggested in 2010. Amazon filed a collusion suit against them, which prompted the Big 6 to settle. The compromise was that Amazon could discount books as much as they wanted, but they wouldn't get back their 9.99 ceiling. However, since Amazon has so much business elsewhere, this allowed them to use books as loss leaders. 7% of Amazon's sales were books in 2016, but 43% of all online retail went through them. Books were extremely insignificant for them, unlike the situation publishers were in. And of course, this accustoms people to go to Amazon first when they want to buy a book because they're more convenient and cheaper. During this time, Amazon also started using this rhetoric of publishers as elitist and gatekeeping, that didn't want the good of the customers and authors, who if they self published on Kindle Direct Publishing would receive a higher royalty rate, particularly on ebooks, even if their books wouldn't be in physical stores as often, because physical stores don't like stocking Amazon published books. In 2014, we get a second lawsuit, this time with Hachette. At the time, this was the biggest of the Big 6, with authors that are both incredibly prolific and popular, such as James Patterson. Who, I am not kidding, had books coming out about every week. Hachette wanted better pricing now that their contract was up and it was time for renegotiation, but Amazon wouldn't budge, and Hachette wouldn't either. Even being the fourth largest trade publisher in the world, it was 12 times smaller than Amazon at the time. Just like last time, Amazon pulled the buy buttons, but they went further than that. They delayed shipping, pulled the preorder buttons, ceased their discounts, letting consumers feel the weight of the full price they weren't accustomed to, and filled Hachette recommendation pages with similar, cheaper books. This caused a huge culture war. Amazon brought back their gatekeeper argument, saying the reason paperbacks took about a year to come out is because publishers wanted to get you with the bigger hardcover purchase, and that if Hachette gave all their online retail share and gave it to authors, they would stand down. Of course, Hachette couldn’t do this. In a way, Amazon lost this fight, but this is when everyone started getting involved. Particularly authors and agents. One of the most famous agents to get involved was Andrew Wiley. He is probably the most well known literary agent, the one people will think of when they think of the classic agent. He is also very notorious for being extremely anti-publisher, saying that "if a book has sold out its advance, he failed as an agent because he didn’t get enough money for his authors." One would think he’d jump on the Amazon bandwagon of criticizing the publishers. But he didn’t. He spoke out on behalf of them. He went pro-publisher. This is because Amazon’s model dries up the money authors would be getting very fast. Publishers have less money to spend on advances or new deals, and become even more risk-averse, which is bad for authors. The fact that someone so notoriously anti-publisher would side with them against Amazon says a lot in my opinion. Part 4: The Penguin Random House merger. This brings us to the Penguin and Random House merger in 2013. Companies didn’t want to wait to have to fight the same fight Macmillan and Hachette had to deal with, and since they’d gotten caught colluding before, the solution was to make that collusion legal with a merger. This made Penguin Random House the biggest publisher in the world, and let me tell you it’s staggering how many imprints they own. You forget half of them until you start looking at their company timeline on their website. What happens here is that because publishing’s response to Amazon is to band together, you get these two giants punching at each other with everyone else crushed in the middle because competition has been driven down, there are less places to submit a book to, less houses to drive up prices in auctions, and a lot of other side effects. You probably heard about the recent merger attempt between PRH and Simon & Schuster. Authors like Stephen King spoke out against that one because of these exact reasons, and Brandon’s Kickstarter that prompted this article also got caught in it because PRH and S&S were trying to use it as an example of how authors could go independent, making it even more necessary for a merger like this to keep business going. This original merger was just the first iteration of what happened in 2022 and early 2023. In 2017, Amazon made a change to their buying page, where instead of automatically buying a new copy from Amazon’s warehouses, you could be buying from third party vendors who would usually be reselling. This means that you can’t trace that money back and that it won’t go to the authors. It also increased the chance of fake books or fraudulent copies. Part 5: Audible in 2022 We’ve been talking about a lot of these policies in terms of ebooks, but they apply for audio too. In the old days, audiobooks were incredibly expensive, because they came in cassettes or CDs, and the process of getting them made was much more complicated. Just listen to any Wheel of Time fan who listened in audio from when the books first came out talk about it, or to Michael Kramer and Kate Reading in their many interviews. With Audible, Amazon made audiobooks viable again, and much cheaper, just like they did for ebooks. In his 2022 State of the Sanderson post, Brandon explained why he wasn't putting the Secret Projects on Audible. He focused specifically on its impact on indie creators. And worse, these are the rates for Amazon exclusive authors. That means they can't have their book available on any other platform, like Libro.fm for example, which is also very popular. The rates for non-exclusive authors drops to 25%. The other problem is that most audio companies turn around and put their books on Audible as well. Brandon cites Apple, Recorded Books, his own publisher Macmillan (who owns Tor), etc. And because of that, most of everyone else pays the same rates Audible does. To even try to compete with them. He urged readers to go to those other providers and try to change the tide. Part 6: The new deal On the 5th of March 2024, on the heels of another secret project announcement in conjunction with the Words of Radiance leatherbound, Brandon announced he'd had conversations with Audible about changing their practices. Like I hope you've been able to realize by now, getting Amazon to budge on anything is HUGE. Even authors with more clout than Brandon gave up pretty quickly. With that in mind, this is what Brandon says constitutes the new deal. Higher royalty rates for both exclusive and non exclusive authors The system will pay more predictably on credit spent, paid monthly rather than quarterly. They will provide a spreadsheet explaining how the money received will be split. Brandon does clarify this is far from perfect. The percentage gap between exclusive and non exclusive authors is still about the same. This change doesn't bring royalties up to the 70% he wanted in the first place yet, authors still won't have control over pricing, and they will always sell for the price of a credit, which won't be raised with inflation. He talks about how his agent, Joshua, spent months arguing for a 2% increase when Brandon was a new publisher to illustrate how important a small increase can be, even if this is bigger than 2%. And I hope this article has illustrated that as well. How difficult even getting them to move this much has been. Brandon explains that the Secret Projects will now be on Audible, and closes, thanking everyone for their support and the pressure they put on these issues. Part 7: Reflecting about how all this affects the publishing industry The publishing industry has always had this dilemma of art vs. business and where to fall on that scale. Treat it too much like a pure art and you get mentalities like the starving writer who does it despite not being able to sustain themselves. Treat it too much like a business and you lose out on the artistic value of works that won't sell as much in the moment. Works that sometimes become classics or will be praised critically but not be incredibly popular. My personal favorite example is Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. It's not accessible to a lot of people because of the layers and the prose, and how much mental energy it takes. But it is an absolute masterpiece, and I don't know if in today's market it would be published because of those commercial considerations. Sad as it is to say, the publishers left the door open for Amazon to fill the space because they failed to think for more than a second about the initial pricing of ebooks. And the way it's going, it only leads to more and more of a blockbuster model with publishers being risk-averse to new things because they are getting squeezed, it just makes the market harder for debut authors with new ideas and innovations, with more diverse voices. This year's Lee and Low Diversity Survey found that publishing is still 72% white, 71% cis women, 68% heterosexual, 83% able-bodied, and 58% living in the northeastern United States. And none of these numbers will change, like they barely did from the last time this survey was conducted, if we don't make an active effort to change them. That's why it is so important that Brandon stands up for these small authors, particularly those who publish independently. Traditional publishing isn't without its problems, but indie authors get affected the most by Amazon's policies that force them to be exclusive or take a huge loss to run ads as the only way to be discovered. Amazon says it's good for consumers by having low prices, but in the long run it isn't good because it will be creating this white noise where nobody stands out and removing quality and variety from people's options because publishing becomes more risk-averse. Not only will those potential classics, or books that are very niche, or that are being revolutionary, ahead of their time, be lost, but the quality on more commercial books will go down. We're already seeing this with controversies like the Iron Flame printing controversy. I hope that all these reflections about how it can affect our culture from multiple people will make an impact, and we'll start to see change. But we can't stay and do nothing. Even if you're not personally involved in the industry, there are still ways to affect it. Stay informed, use your local library and buy books in indie stores, preorder books, read more diversely, talk about the issues online, support indie authors. The list goes on and on. There is hope with a deal like the one Brandon has made. But we have to keep working for a better place, and better conditions for the artists we admire so much so they can keep bringing us amazing art. Part 8: Conclusion This article was originally just meant to go over the generalities of this deal and add information from the stream. But when I got my hands on it after a couple of days of discussion, I realized that it was a chance to talk about something I care about very deeply as a literature student and aspiring author, which lots of people may not know about. One thing I appreciate about the original stand Brandon took is that it showed people how bad the situation is, in a way that they wouldn't have even been aware of before. I hope that this article was a chance for you all to learn more about this beyond the endless paraphrasing of the same original article. And as pessimistic as I feel this sounded for a lot of it, what we need to take out of this is to make it known. Keep putting pressure on Audible to be better. Congratulate them for moving forward, but don't just let it rest here. Feel free to ask any questions and to start more of a discussion in the comments, I would love to know what you think.
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  29. Hi! Hope you like the birthday cake I just made for my son’s 16th birthday. No one in my family has any idea what it is, but they are impressed that it’s is so shiny….
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  30. Hey everybody. As you've no doubt noticed, over the past month there has been a serious drop in my own activity on the Shard. This is due to the fact that over the course of a month, my life has gone through a complete 180 degree change. I was broken up with by Luna (mutual, we're still homies), got into another relationship (which, I'll be honest, is actually better than the one I had with Luna. nothing against Luna, it's just... my new gf and I are taking it at a pace that's our own, and being slow and talking about it. she's also good at physical affection, which is HUGE for me), and I've just finished my first quarter of my senior year, and my last first quarter of high school. Tomorrow and Wednesday I work on college essays to BYU Provo, and continue to go about my life. I'm sorry I've been so inactive, I know there's things that I've been missing out on: I just barely this morning and the past like 2 days finally got around to posting on the Insanity Clinic- which by the way, Season 1 is OFFICIALLY CONCLUDED :DDDDDD- and I also haven't really been writing as much, because there's just so much happening in my life, and I've been in a bit of a writing funk. I'll figure it out, don't you worry. I'm not leaving. I'm still here. No EP updates; like I said, it's all under wraps until right before it's release, so y'all are getting nothing except maybe a couple SUPER cryptic hints. Insanity Clinic Season 2 should come in the next couple of days. Cheers, y'all. My life has changed in such a crazy way, with sooooo many things happening in the past month ALONE. But yeah. New job is going great, it's great pay, and my coworkers are all wonderful people, as are the customers. I buy all my Mistborn cosplay gear in like a week and a half, and then after that I buy stuff for my room. Still here. Still going. Things are just changing a bit. Love y'all <3
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  31. Found out today I'll be able to go sit in on a NY Phil rehearsal with their organist!! Also 3rd AP Done!
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  32. We have a sighting of @Toothless of Shinovar! (Or @Toothless In Shinovar. I'm not sure.)
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  33. I have no intention to create a political forum here. I have a few words to say and I'll leave it at that. I got married two days ago. To the woman that I love most in the world. A woman about whom I have written many a poem. I regret nothing, but the timing. As you may or may not have heard the worst war in the history of Israel. The carnage is unspeakable and sure to get worse. I almost felt wrong getting married amidst the death and slaughter. We were I suppose a light in the darkness that has fallen as a cloak so thick as to be blinding. Remember to be the light in the dark never feel guilty for being happy because you deserve it!!!
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  35. I sewed this chonker with my own two hands. ...and a sewing machine and a needle and thread and fabric and buttons and stuffing. But I created this. His name is Snoodles. That is all, thank you.
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  36. Some problems: We don't know what shape the universe is We don't know the one-way speed of light Time is only symmetrical if you don't have a lot of stuff Some ramifications of those problems: We don't know if our universe is symmetrical Light could be faster in one direction than another direction Time travel could be possible but not really? ... ...it is 2 AM
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  37. So My parents they dont exactly like the whole online talking thing And they found out about the Shard They're making me leave I'm sorry I'll miss you guys Thank you for being such great friends and for being there for me. I love you all <33
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  38. If you Google "personality test", you'll get about 879,000,000 results. There are a lot of them, and I've taken my fair share, whether for classes or on my own. I'm an ENFP-T, a two, a blue (tinted white), an Edgedancer, the Green Ajah (though actually, this one change fairly consistently), a Hufflepuff, a daughter of Hestia, etc., etc. These tests don't define me. They don't determine who I am. But there are bits of truth in them, things that I see and understand that I don't need them to tell me because I know they're true. I care. I will not forget you. I am here. But there are extremes to every emotion, and to be young is to live in a world of extremes and emotions. It's a strange battlefield, the mind of a teenager. Filled with hormones and hopes, dopamine and dreams, science that is desperate to explain that which cannot be explained, and gods that are desperate to convince us there are no true deities. And sometimes I care too much for things that only weigh on me; things like rep. I've fallen on the leaderboards, and for some reason that struck me; I am being forgotten by a world that I have cared for. (yes, that's overdramatic. As I said before, the minds of the young are extreme places. That's the thought that came into my head, and regardless of whether it is true, it's what my mind jumped to). I care about things like the rain, and the sunset. I have a waxed amaryllis on my nightstand. It started to bloom, and then the petals crumpled and died before the flowers ever opened, and I cried because I care for the little things. I've cried over bugs being stepped on. I cry because I care. But often, I care too much for the little things. And sometimes I remember. I refuse to forget the little things, and so sometimes my mind is filled with memories of a past that will never return, a past that I cannot bring back but that I cannot help but recall. And though I swear I will always be here, I sometimes am in too many "heres" at once. And once it becomes too much, I cannot stand to be anywhere, and so I cannot be "here" for anyone, because I tried to be here for everyone. I'm going to change gears for a moment. Studies have shown that human brains have the same chemical reaction to leaving the office at the end of the day as baby chimpanzees do to being torn from their mother's arms. That's...kind of a crazy thing to think about. Something so simple as ending a day affects us so hugely. We, as humans, fear endings. We fear goodbyes. We fear simple change because maybe it'll be a permanent change, and maybe what comes next will hurt. Maybe we're doing it wrong, and we'll make one mistake and never be able to undo it. And I...I care. I am not alone in this, and I am not alone in my fear of endings. Sports teams cry after state; casts cry after closing night; many seniors cry when they graduate; breakups bring so many tears even if everyone knew it was coming. We fear what comes next and so we don't dare say goodbye to what we have now. But...but look at how powerful that is. Isn't it wonderful that we have something we love so much that we are scared to leave it? Isn't it wonderful that we have the ability to care for so many things? It hurts, yes. It hurts like Braize itself to leave things behind. And being young...well, we live in a world of change. The only thing that's consistent is that everything that makes up our todays is going to be different in our tomorrows. It's terrifying. And it's beautiful. So...is there a point to all of this? No. And yes. I fear being forgotten. I fear missing things I could have had. People often say to leave your foot in the door; to hold it open just in case you have a chance to open it later. Well...I must have hundreds of feet. I'm holding a whole lot of doors open. But the funny thing is...when you're so stretched trying to keep doors from closing, you can't really open any of them. And I need to let some doors close so that I can open others. Now, I'm not leaving the shard. Not yet. Not completely. But that won't be true forever. It could be a few months. It could be years. But the shard is a world that moves so quickly. It's...to those of you who have read The Fault in Our Stars, it's that third place. Where even if you're sitting on your couch, you aren't really there. You're somewhere else, a place that cannot exist outside our minds and our technology. And it's a place where, if you do not feed it your time, you grow outdated so quickly. It's a place where we can be forgotten so quickly. Most of the people who were here when I joined aren't here or aren't active anymore. And that's okay. And someday, possibly someday soon, I'll join them. But not today, because for today I am afraid to say goodbye to another thing I love. Anyway. This is not only the longest but also the most redundant SU I've ever posted. But, ah, yeah. This has been a bizarre and deep roller coaster with your friend Eddie Rue. TLDR: emotions are weird. Saying goodbye is scary. I'll leave the shard eventually, possibly soon, but not today. One family.
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  39. Dragonsteel 2023 is behind us, leaving in its wake plenty of Words of Brandon, a whole new book release (have you finished Defiant yet?), and, unsurprisingly, a ton of news. If, like me, you haven't been able to travel to the lovely Utah this year - or if you were there, but lost your memories to the con flu - here's a summary of all the announcements. Of course, you can watch most of them in the Defiant release event. A quick housekeeping note before we begin - there will be great many pictures in the article, of somewhat small sizes. You can zoom in by clicking on them. New Stormlight Archive 5 Reading Yes indeed, we have a new Stormlight Archive 5 reading! It's an unnumbered interlude, and if you're wondering what happens in it, let's just say... it's weird. If you wanna check it out, you can look it up in the Arcanum, right here. You can also watch it here; the link should take you to the right time stamp, but if not, skip to 1 hour 25 minutes. As for the overall book, it's about 90% done - which puts it on track for release on December 7th, 2024. New Releases and Re-Releases The con also saw the release of a new Cytoverse short story, Hyperthief. Co-written by Janci Patterson (who, of course, wrote Bastille vs the Evil Librarians as well as the Skyward novellas, and is writing Skyward Legacy at the moment), Hyperthief was distributed during the second day of the con. It's not widely available just yet, unfortunately, but you can purchase a bundle that has it on Brandon's site. Presumbly, there will be a digital release sometime, but there's no info on that currently. The Words of Radiance Leatherbound Kickstarter launches on March 5th 2024; almost exactly ten years after the book's original release. The design for the leatherbounds is apparently all done now - in fact, the books have already been printed. And as for the rewards? Well, for one, we'll be getting Dragonsteel Prime. This very, very old book of Brandon's has so far only been available for those who'd visit the Brigham Young University over in Provo, Utah. It's the origin of the Shattered Plains, the Bridge 4 plotline, and cosmere dragons, so it should be quite a treat. For the other stretch goals... feast your eyes on this beauty: Yes, this is in fact concept art for a Syl plushie - and it won't be alone. The plan at the present is to let the backers order plushies of spren from different Radiant orders. I don't know about you folks, but I'm real curious what the Bondsmith ones will look like. White Sand prose will be getting an official release. Or, well... re-release? Remake? Re-edition? Whatever we call it, this is, if you're keeping count, the fifth version of White Sand that we will be getting, after the original prose (still available by signing up for the newsletter), the graphic novels trilogy, the Graphic Audio adaptation, and the omnibus. This prose version should be the final one, though. Maybe. Possibly. Probably not. After all, there is always another White Sand. And finally, a bit of bad news to wrap this section up: there's no Cosmere movie coming up. The odyssey of trying and failing to adapt the Cosmere to the big screen continues, and once more, the news is that there is no news. Although Brandon and his team have apparently reached a point where people in mistcloaks were having script reads together, between the actors' strike and the writers' strike, the adaptation has been postponed yet again. So, if you're hoping to see Mistborn on screen in the near future - don't hold your breath. Future Writing Projects So what's the release schedule for the next few years? Well, White Sand the Final Definitive Prose Edition is the project Brandon will start working on as soon as he's done with revising Stormlight 5. And after that? Mistborn Era 3, semi-officially titled Ghostbloods. While writing that, Brandon also intends to write Elantris 2 and 3 - all before the first book of Ghostbloods even comes out, so the White Sand re-re-re-remake might be the last Brandon cosmere project for a little while. The wait will be even longer for Stormlight Archive 6, as Brandon does not intend to work on that until both Ghostbloods and the Elantris sequels are complete. I said "Brandon cosmere projects," as other than Brandon's stories, there will also be books coming up in both Cytoverse and the cosmere that won't be written by him. There is, as mentioned already, Janci Patterson's Skyward Legacy, the sequel to the main Skyward series. In addition to that, Isaac Stewart is writing a Nikki Savage book (that's the character from the newspapers from Mistborn Era 2 books). This one's apparently pretty far along already, though Brandon has yet to see the manuscript himself. Dan Wells is also working on his own cosmere project, though this one is in very early stages. Stormlight Roleplaying Game If you've been following Brandon news recently, you are probably aware that Brotherwise Games, the company behind the Call to Adventure: Stormlight Archive game and the Stormlight miniatures Kickstarter, is working on the Stormlight Roleplaying Game. This tabletop RPG is based, naturally, on the Rithmatist... no, not really. It's the Stormlight Archive game, of course, and folks attending the con had the chance to watch it be played live, as well as see some of the art that will be present in the final rulebook. So, what do we know about the game so far? It's a d20 system (for the unfamiliar, this means you roll 20-sided dice and have to roll higher than a specific threshold to succeed), a touch similar to the perennial classic Dungeons & Dragons, albeit instead of classes, characters follow paths, with each path having its own skill tree and each character being able to freely spec into as many paths as their heart desires. The system so far encompasses only Roshar; it's not compatible with the Mistborn Adventure Game, the earlier cosmere RPG (which was developed by a different company, Crafty Games). We've also learned a bit more about the team behind Stormlight Archive RPG, which includes people who worked on the Star Wars RPG (the Fantasy Flight one), Legend of the Five Rings, Dungeons and Dragons modules, and MCDM rulebooks. You can see the full announcement below; you might notice a few... familiar faces there. The game is still some ways off from release; its publishing will be funded by a Kickstarter campaign, which will launch sometime in the latter half of the year 2024. If you're looking for more details about the game (and more cool artwork from it), plenty of outlets far more knowledgeable than myself about the world of tabletop RPGs have covered this topic, so for in-depth reading, I would encourage you to check out articles by Comicbook and Polygon. Other Games If you thought that the Stormlight Roleplaying Game will be the last cosmere tabletop game, think again. There are no less than two other projects coming out in the future. First up, we have the as-of-yet unnamed Mistborn deckbuilding game, set to release in late 2024. Little is known as of yet as to the exact mechanics; you will be taking control of Mistborn Era 1 characters, and "purchase" cards (in-game, not with actual money) to conduct high-speed Allomantic battles between them. We also have another card game coming out, titled Shards of Creation. It's based on - you guessed it - the Shards of Adonalsium, with each suit of cards representing one Shard (though it's possible that not all the Shards will be represented). It will be a trick-taking game; if you're unfamiliar, trick-taking games are ones where each round (or "trick") each player plays one card, and one player wins, "taking" the trick. That's about all we know about Shards of Creation for now; no release date has been given at the moment, and the only artwork out there is what was shown during the announcement: Other News Dragonsteel 2024 date has already been decided: December 5th through 7th, 2024. That's Thursday to Saturday, which should hopefully be easier to attend for people. Like this year, it will be taking place in Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, and will coincide with a new book release - that being, of course, Stormlight Archive 5. Finally, Dragonsteel is using all that money we're throwing at them to build itself an HQ. Known so far as "the DS project", "the Dragonsteel construction project," "Dragonsteel village," "the castle," and probably a few other names, it will be a mix of corporate headquarters, Sanderson bookstore, and a "destination for fans". Who knows, maybe the future Dragonsteels will be held there instead of the Salt Palace - but that's still in the far future. For the moment, the castle exists only as a bunch of sketches and 3D mock-ups. And that's all! Lots of news, lots of announcements; sufficed to say, between the upcoming books, games, cons, and Kickstarters, being a Sanderson fan is going to be a busy job over the next few years. I'm certainly excited for what's to come (particularly, not gonna lie, the Stormlight Roleplaying Game), but what about you all? Anything you're looking forward to?
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  40. I don’t know where to put this, so here we go: I don’t know what to say, so… Thank you everyone, I love you all too. You guys are the best.
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  42. If you’ve been with us for more than two years, you might recall that once upon a time, we ran a poll asking you, the users, to judge us, the staff. The original plan was to make the Staff Review an annual event, but, well, 2022 ran away from us. Still, the Staff Review has returned for the year 2023 - so how about we look at some charts? We have so many charts to look at (and some of those charts are rather small by necessity, so if you have trouble reading, you can click on the image to zoom in). First off, let’s talk demographics! During the first Staff Review, we received 146 responses; this time, it was 157 - a small increase, especially compared to the rise in the Sharder population. We also asked you to declare which of our two main platforms - forums and Discord - you most commonly use, so let’s start with that. While we expected the majority of you to be Discord mains, I do admit that this majority was not as large as we expected. A third of you still prefer forums to Discord - something we will definitely have to keep in mind, as most of the current staff is primarily active on the latter, and from your other answers… well, it shows. With this said, let’s move on to our regular questions. Quality of Moderation The first is quite simple - on a scale of 1 (awful) to 5 (amazing), how do you rate the quality of moderation on the 17th Shard? And it seems like the majority of you rate us quite well indeed! More than 70% of you gave us the highest marks at 5, with less than 4% rating us below a 4. This is a notable improvement from the last poll, where that number was almost 8%. Interestingly, there is almost no variation between ratings given to us by forum and Discord users, with the average rating being 4.67 for Discord, and 4.66 for the forums. With that, let’s move on to the next topic: do you think the staff members are in tune with the general 17th Shard community? Here, "1" means we are completely out of touch, while "5" means we are just like the rest of you. The response was a bit more tepid this time around, though still overwhelmingly positive. It is important to us that we’re active members of the community, so that we can accurately tell what you want to see from us. And much like with the demographics question, it’s obvious we should focus more on the forums side of things; while both Discord and forum users rate us highly, the forum ratings are visibly lower than the Discord ones, with an almost 0.2 difference in averages. Moving on, we have a returning question from last year: how strict do you think the mods are as a whole? For this chart, "1" means that we are too strict, and a "9" means we are too lax. As was to be expected, you consider us to be more on the stricter side of things, with around 40% of you voting on the "strict" side, while another 43% believe we’ve attained a happy middle. This being said, compared to two years ago, the needle has moved marginally towards the "lax" side. This might be thanks to greater participation of forum goers, who have, on average, rated us as less strict than Discord users. Next up, let’s talk conflict resolution. This is something we have been thinking about recently, so we’ve decided to ask: what do you think about the way Staff members resolve conflicts and problems on the Shard. In this case, "1" means we suck at it, while "5" means we always resolve all conflicts perfectly. The results are, overall, quite good, with over 90% of you rating us as either very good or excellent at it. This being said, this is obviously an area in which we could further improve, as you have made clear in the next two, open-ended questions, in which we asked you to talk about any particular incidents or staff members that have caught your attention. While we will not cite the exact answers here, there has been plenty of valuable critique that will, hopefully, help us improve in the future. There were also several compliments! It seems you rate us highly when it comes to transparency and communication - an improvement compared to your opinions the last time we ran the poll. Plenty of you have appreciated our efforts towards inclusivity, and making the Shard a safe, welcoming place for everyone - a commitment we very much intend to uphold. Spoiler Policy Our spoiler policy is something we spend a lot of time on, hoping to ensure both veteran and new Sanderfans have a good time, so we obviously want to hear what you think about it. Here, the differences between Discord and forums are definitely beginning to show clearly. While the vast majority of you believe that the policy is fine, it seems there is a difference in how we enforce it on each of our platforms - on Discord, people lean more towards calling us overzealous, while on the forums, we’re more likely to be considered overly lax. The percentage of people who don't understand the spoiler policy on the forums is also concerning, and something we should definitely look into. Communicating with the Staff We also had two questions for you regarding the way you communicate with the Staff. As a reminder - if you have something to report to us, we always welcome a ping, a report or a private message! It’s not bothering us; we can’t be everywhere, so we have to rely on user reports to assist us in moderation. With that being said, let’s get to the first of our two communication questions: what is your preferred method of contacting the Staff? Once more, the discrepancy between forums and Discord is readily apparent. The number of people unaware they could contact us in the first place is worrisome - especially on the forums, where over a quarter of responders stated that they did not know it was allowed. Likewise, a fifth of forum users would rather not interact with us at all, as opposed to only 8% of Discord users. At a guess, this is another effect of the staff having increased presence on the Discord, making us more visible (and, perhaps, more approachable) there. Onwards to the next question, this one exclusive for Discord users: have you ever used @Staff to ping us? Here, we gave you a list of pre-made responses, as well as an option to write your own. It is quite encouraging to see that almost 80% of you have either pinged us before, or felt no need to do so. It is a little less encouraging to see that almost a tenth of you are scared to contact us. Again - nothing to be afraid of! If you have something to report, ping away! What about those “other responses”, though? Without quoting the exact statements, there are three trends we’ve noticed: You are unaware that pinging us is an option (which comes back to the problem we’ve noticed in the last question) You prefer DMs over a public ping (which is perfectly valid!) You use the function to report spam bots (which is appreciated!) The next two questions let us tell us what you think directly and anonymously, and it was quite nice to see all the positive messages for us - we really appreciate you. Likewise, we appreciate the people who took the time to point out what we could improve on; we hope to put those lessons into practice. There were also a few… interesting responses, such as: “Ramen noodles are delicious” “Brownies make your day better.” “Actually, this form is written by six people, and we’d rather not explain it (it involves a Kickstarter and a Splintered group).” The People’s Mod Awards Finally, we’ve reached the question you’ve probably been the most curious about, and the one that inspired the whole concept of staff review in the first place: who is the people’s favourite moderator? Once more, Argent snags the top spot, followed closely behind by Ene! In third place we have Chaos, as well as Feather, who rose an entire sixteen spots since the last poll, pushing Rasarr down to fourth place (or is it fifth, if two people hold the bronze medal?). But wait, there’s more! Now we can sort the results by platform! In the forums category of People’s Mod Awards, Ene wins by a landslide, racking up 30% more votes than Argent; on the Discord front, Argent keeps his overall first place, followed closely behind by Feather. So, what next? Well, that about does it for Staff Review 2023. We certainly learned a lot, both in terms of what must be done (it seems we all agree the #cosmemes channel over on Discord needs another look), what you think of the staff (I do need to get my TTRPG schedule in order, for sure), and in other matters (why were there six people filling in the poll together, anyway?). Hopefully, by the time we come back with Staff Review 2024 (and hopefully, we will remember to make Staff Review 2024…), you will see tangible improvement on our part. Until then, thank you for being part of the Shard! We might be the ones tasked with herding this pack of giraffes, but it’s you, the users, who make this place great.
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  43. Aah, summer is finally rising over the horizon, the US enjoys a long weekend, students are getting ready to relax during their summer break... but we, we do not rest. Having wrapped up the March batch of commissions, it is time for the April piece (May is in progress), and boy is it a good one! Spoilers for The Lost Metal below! Y'all wanted to see Shai - sorry, Moonlight - become and Elantrian, and we were more than happy to oblige! Your artist for the evening is Caio Santos whose gorgeous work you might recognize from... well, take a look at their Coppermind page, and then go scroll through all their socials, it looks like Zelda might be on their mind these days. As far as this piece goes, their depiction of the Shaod (is it even Shaod if it's on Scadrial?) gradually transforming Shai turned out absolutely gorgeous, down to the metallic sheen and soft glow. Everything else is great too, but that transformation has been, mm, *chef's kiss*. Go give them the likes and the follows!
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  44. me: *looks at my profile page* also me: *sees i’ve won 64 days* also also me: hehe >:} a stack of days.
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  45. Not exactly a meme, but I didn't know where else to post it. I saw this on Reddit. Honkai Star Rail made a Mistborn reference.
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  46. Status: Mouth bleeding. Got punched in the face during gym class Yippee
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