Twenty@20

While I may be entirely incorrect in my amateur theory, I am going to put foward my train of thought. The part 3 epigraphs about truthwatchers provide a detailed account of how Ba-Ado-Mishran was responsible for forms of power and was providing voidlight to the Parshendi even after the last Desolation ended. She was captured by Melishi, the last Bondsmith probably similar to how Dalinar captured Nergaoul. This is also hinted at the WoR epigraph regarding Bondsmiths. Gavilar mentions to Eshonai in the prologue how “Our enslaved parshmen were once like you. Then we somehow robbed them of their ability to undergo the transformation. We did it by capturing a spren. An ancient, crucial spren.” This ancient spren seems to be Mishran. According to the essay about Mishran in Hessi's Mythica she is the commander and highprincess of Odium's army. The fact that she is out of commission during the crucial battles in OB may indicate she is still captive. If we assume that the sphere which Gavilar gave to Szeth had a captive Unmade (thats a big assumption, i admit I cannot rebut the voidlight theory; though to me the size of a gemstone doesnot seem to be important in capturing an Unmade, only that it should be flawless) then it is entirely possible that it was Ba-Ado-Mishran. Szeth could have hidden the sphere well enough to keep her out of action.

Random thought. Did the sphere which Gavilar gave Szeth hold Ba-Ado-Mishran?

Had moisture in my eyes reading this. So many emotions.

Yes I was referring to this scene. I remember there was some talk around that time of a Jasnah novella about her Shadesmar travel. Thats sad but perfectly understandable. Thanks for the info Weiry.

Any news/update about it? Thanks

To expand on this concept, could a nicrosil ferring store enough Investiture which when tapped could allow them access to any other feruchemical or allomantic power? Then suppose he becomes a nicroburst temporarily and starts compounding Investiture. Could we have another TLR eventually. Apologies if this sounds implausible. This theory has been playing on my mind since I read Bands. PS:Alternatively a Soulbearer ferring could get a nicrosil spike with the same end result.

Emphasis mineSo using the band someone would have all the powers and can use them to make another band. After all that's how the Sovereign made the original band bypassing the skill problem.

So did Kelsier make the bands of mourning? If so,this raises so many questions. Secret History Can it be that Kelsier stole the bands from someone else and pretended to have made it. TLR could have made it before Vin killed him. During the 1st trilogy it was forgotten and Kelsier later dug it up once he learnt of its value. Other possibility could be that Marsh (does he have all the allo & feru attributes?) made it and then Kelsier stole it. Kelsier making the bands is the biggest surprise of the Mistborn series yet. A throwback to the Original trilogy with cosmere wide ramifications. Just imagine if he makes more of these bands? Can Wax or the Kandra using the band make more bands. Whoa. Game over.

Since no one has brought this up(I think), I have to point out this detail with cosmeric implications. When Wax was chatting with Harmony, Hoid was sitting on top of the carriage. Now that is definitely not a coincidence. Chances are Hoid came to Scadrial specifically for the chance to eavesdrop Harmony. So how did Hoid plan to hear the conversation since it was taking place inside Wax's head? Maybe he had spiked himself too? If Hoid indeed managed to hear Harmony how might he use this knowledge about Harmony's intent and limitations. What are the chances that Harmony took notice of Hoid? Hoid and Wayne were together for an entire ride and we don't know what they talked about. This scene is begging to be written.

So Lord Ruler's superspy fell in love with a lawman for hire. Beat that Romeo and Juliet.

I get a sinking feeling that all this speculation about Highprince succession and associated politics will come to a nought in the face of the Desolation. The neutral highprinces will folk towards Dalinar because they are out of their depths in the face of the Desolation. Among Sadeas' faction Aladar already jumped ship and Ruthar is disgraced through his son. Ialai will have a personal vendetta against the Kholins but she will be hardpressed to find allies. The power of being a Highprince will go for a toss when when the only job of a Highprince is to direct the war effort against the Voidbringers. And dont forget the Voidbringers will target the highprinces. Good luck to whoever wants to be a non-Radiant Highprince. Also its unlikely that Dalinar wll try to install Kaladin as a highprince because Kaldin will be much more valuable as a one man army. I think Dalinar will next try to unite the whole of Roshar and in that his next challenge will be Taravangian.

I bet Brandon thought the same and therefore decided to postpone Szeth's flashbacks to the 5th book. I remember him mentioning in one of his tweets something about deciding whose flashback would take the story forward the best in book 3. And he decided on Dalinar. One can suppose in the same vein, he kept Szeth's story for book 5 because he thinks it would contribute to that book's plot the best. So I would say we can definitely expect some "aha!" moments in the his flashbacks. I wonder what you think about the Listeners as a culture. If our knowledge about their culture was limited to Dalinar's perspective only, perhaps the Listeners or their leaders would also appear despicable for killing their ally on the very night of signing a treaty with him. What I am trying to suggest is that lets not prejudge Szeth and the Shin untill we hear their side of the story.

Brandon started the Dalinar flashbacks on 16th June and finished them on 16th July. Thats a month to write 13% of the 1st draft. i think you have to revise your estimates. Roughly we can expect the 1st draft to be completed around mid February. Let me start by saying I personally would like to know about Szeth's past. I was happy when Szeth's flashback was planned for the 3rd book. Book 2 ended with Szeth starting afresh and I thought his flashbacks and his upcoming expedition to Shinovar would have provided a kind of symmetry to book 3. I would say that Szeth becoming a Truthless was one of those defining moments without which Stormlight Archive wouldn't have started rolling. Szeth is the first character we come in contact excluding the WoK prelude. As much as Brandon talks about years of planning about Dalinar and Kaladin's stories, I am sure he has kept some surprises for Szeth's story as well. Even though we have got some hints about his past, its definitely going be heartbreaking to watch a good honest guy being turned into a killer. If its going to be anything like Eshonai's arc in WoR- a story of manipulation, missed opportunities and evil smothering the good, I look forward to it.

My morning looks so much better after reading this.

He he, I was planning to point out this since I was pouring over the Alethkar map few days back in another thread. Anyways I thought maybe there is another explanation for "Taln's" wetness. What if he was drenched in sweat due to physical exertions during his journey. The fluid loss resulting from sweating can also account for his exhaustion in the same scene.

If you look at the Alethkar map closely, there a small mountain range just east of Hearthstone. Probably Jasnah appeared on the other side of that mountain. There are also quite a few unnamed streams near-by draining into the bay. So Wit and Jasnah would have to travel west, crossing the mountain and they would reach Hearthstone. Anyhow this is all guesswork and your guess is as good as mine provided Jasnah meets Kaladin sooner than later.

Have been thinking of replying for a couple of days. So here it goes. At first sight this looks like wishful thinking. I mean doesn't Jasnah appear somewhere in the Unclaimed Hills east of Shattered Plains probably near Shallan's landing place. Because Wit mentions hills and the fact that they are at least a week away from civilization. Also as Jasnah mentions she was somewhat pressed at the time of her departure from Shadesmar so it make sense to just reappear beyond Shadesmar's land into Physical land closest to where her ship had drowned. That's a convoluted way of saying that she mostly likely had reappeared close to where Shallan was rescued by the slavers. So I am assuming she escaped Shadesmar somewhere near the Expanse of Vapors. However a bit earlier in the epilogue chapter Wit mentions This mention of a river along with the fact that rivers are rare in Roshar is important because a map of Alethkar and Unclaimed Hills in WoK shows exactly two rivers. And one of them flows right by Hearthstone. Hurray. So if Jasnah left Shadesmar from the direction of Expanse of Broken Sky, there is every possibility she appeared on the Northern coast of Alethkar near the Windrunner river. And if the map is any indication Hearthstone should be about a week or so away from the sea. So fingers crossed. And by the way, Stormlight 3 is at 9%.

Rose, Chaos and all other moderators, you have been associated with this wonderful website way longer than me and I completely trust your judgement on this matter. I know stopping new members from making new topics would hardly deter a determined spammer. The best it would do is cause a temporary decline and after that it would be business as usual for spambots. Therefore count on me to hit the report button regularly.

Perhaps we could have a trial run for a month or two. New members can post a reply in someone else's topic in Introduce Yourself and then open their own topics there if they want. New members can be informed about this while signing up so there is no confusion.I agree it's a stop gap measure. However if helps the moderators in fighting spammers then great. If this doesn't work or a better system comes along then it can always be abandoned later.

So I have been hanging around the Oneplus forums for the past week (recently bought a Oneplus One, no surprises) and I noticed a few good things about that forum. Firstly it's design is very good. Lightweight, hence fast. Our mobile site is very fast as well but the desktop site is only moderately so. (I stay mostly on 2G network, so I feel it more) Second point I noticed is the Oneplus forum doesn't have separate mobile and desktop versions. So the site has full functionality. The editor is fully loaded. No need for BBcodes. That's a real boon. Now I know we are expecting a major overhaul of our dear site and its going to have all these features. All I can say I am eagerly awaiting it. Lastly about the spammers. The Oneplus forum doesn't allow new members to start a discussion or thread. They have to post once in another thread to become eligible for opening a discussion. This set me thinking and I realised it's the very thing we need on our forum to stop spambot because guess what they always open their own threads and never post in another thread. So what do our moderators think. Can this be done?

My memory is a little rusty but don't modern fabrials have spren imprisoned inside them. While we have seen Radiants of old using fabrials based on Surges, those fabrials most definitely didn't have spren trapped inside them. Since the Soulcasting fabrials used in present day are Surge based fabrials, its unlikely their technology has been reproduced yet. So these soulcaster fabrials are most likely relics from an older period in Roshar's history and considered holy as well.

Of the bat I would say you don't need Adhesion to "coat" an object with Storm light. Infuse would be the appropriate word to use here as per examples from text. And Adhesion is not necessary to infuse objects with Stormlight. We have seen Shallan infuse spheres with Stormlight. Second point would be Reverse Lashing is always "external" in the sense that Szeth or Kaladin when full of Stormlight have never pulled objects towards themselves. Best example would be when Kaladin used to Reverse lash Parshendi arrows to the bridge he was carrying. Not once did the arrows hit him. Otherwise the story would have been too different.

Interesting topic. I believe its a demonstration of Jasnah's expertise at soulcasting. Changing only a part of the paper instead of the whole thing means Jasnah is at her peak of soulcasting expertise. On the question of whether it's should be actually possible or not to do something like this is debatable. While I have no definite idea how to force only a part of a paper's cognitive aspect to change, I think it's only a step up from changing the whole thing. Here let me point out the example of half lashings which means only half of an object's spiritual bond is changed. Granted lashings and soulcasting have entirely different mechanisms (one is spiritual other is cognitive) yet we can draw some parallels between a half lashing and selectively soulcasting portions of paper into fire. Disclaimer: posting after a long gap. So naturally I must got a few things wrong. Just don't eat me OK.

I have been following this topic and decided to post after a long gap. I would like to suggest two simple modifications to the downvote mechanism to minimise downvote abuse. First, the colour of the down vote button can be changed to some neutral colour like blue or yellow. The red down vote button and red coloured negative reputations do look very damaging in a sharder's posts and profile. Changing the colour would go a long way in alleviating the negative implications of the downvote. Second, the downvotes can be excluded from the reputation count - both total and for individual posts. The forumwide reputation can be comprised of total upvotes only while the downvotes shouldn't be counted at all. This will let downvotes to used as originally intended - as a criticism of the specific post- and useless as means of personal vendetta if anyone is inclined to do so. That's my two cents.

I thought of something similar few days back. So yeah I can agree with you.