Zarepath

Oh, you.

Salvation and Damnation

I think you'll find this behavior in most human beings, especially in war--we act incredibly honorably in certain spheres, and incredibly dishonorably in other spheres. Perhaps we're reading too much into their honorable behavior, and we probably do the same thing with characters as we try to line them into certain KR groups. People are complicated, even Brandon's characters, and they don't all necessarily have to line up perfectly into one caste or another, imo.

Guys, guys. What kind of promise would Demoux make that would have the potential to actually keep him around forever? First of all, it would have to be some kind of promise with someone who can grant immortality or some other kind of magical power. Now, answer me this: who does Demoux love even more than his wife? That's right; Kelsier, the Survivor. We know from Marsh that Kelsier's still doing mischief via the spiritual realm at the end of Alloy of Law, which timeline-wise is, I think, at least close to WoK. I think Demoux is doing Kelsier's work as the prophet of his religion and the physical hand of his will.

I really like this Nohadon theory. Especially because it relates to Dalinar's trajectory. He's constantly being told to "unite them," but it's not until the end of the book that he realizes that he can't just hope for people to band together; he's going to have to force them together. He realizes that Nohadon probably had to do something similar, and then afterwards he wrote the Way of Kings. If we follow the theory in the OP, the way that Nohadon accomplishes that was by dragging a Dawnshard to Urithiru and re-binding everybody to a new version of the magic system. What if Dalinar is meant to do the same thing? Fix the magic system by re-binding it according to rules of Honor? Maybe it's the only thing that finally gets Szeth to quit trying to assassinate him, too. Of course, where is Dalinar going to get a Dawnshard? I suggest that the original 10 shardblades in the prelude, abandoned in that rocky place, are the Dawnshards. That rocky place that could potentially be the original Shattered Plains. Dalinar is conveniently located next to the Shattered Plains. And the Parshendi do everything they can to defend and hide the depths of the Shattered Plains... possibly because there's a bunch of Dawnshards sticking in the ground there. So Dalinar, in order to unite everyone like his idol Nohadon did, will need to fight his way to the center of the Shattered Plains, get a Dawnshard, figure out where Urithiru is and how to get there, and then use it to bind everyone. I like this theory because I can see how that would work as a story, taking our character through a lot of Chekov's Guns and also leaving lots of room for great action scenes, conflict, and myth-exploration.

This is the most exciting theory I've read here, I think.

Jasnah can be seen as a Giving person. She allows Shallan to apprentice her (which, considering Jasnah's station, is pretty giving), and she gives of her Soulcasting talent to save Taravanggaigaviavnagivn's kid. In fact, all of her research is done freely for the good of the Alethi kingdom, despite not having any particular position of power or responsibility. /stretching

art by inkthinker

Calm down, everybody. It's clear that he was referring to the shaggy brown mare from The Wheel of Time.

Vivenna disagrees. I agree that Kaladin, despite his deep backstory and awesomeness, isn't that intriguing of a character. He's a lot more intriguing for what he does than for who he is. He's mostly just obsessed with hating Lighteyes. Dalinar, however, is badassery incarnate. Retired warlord trying to learn ancient magical religions so he can effing UNITE people, even though they all think he's crazy. Guess how many craps Dalinar gives? ZERO. The Blackthorne could take any of his haters ezpz any day of the week except during a Highstorm, when he's too busy having AWESOME PROPHETIC VISIONS and chatting with the Almighty. Oh, people say he's only hardcore when he's wielding a shardblade? Np, he'll just trade one for some slaves, and while he's at it, give some plate to his handicapped son ('cause you know that awesomeness runs in the fam). He'll just go pick up another pair from the lifeless bodies of his enemies. Speaking of enemies, even THEY'RE forced to acknowledge his uber sweetness (see: giant Parshendi shardbearer). King sends him on a wild goose chase? The Blackthorne slams him against the wall and makes him piss his pants. Did I mention that he made a pact with the Old God? So between all this badassery, what does he do for a break? Nothing -- he just cuts giant rocks with his sword and lifts the chunks out with his own hands. Oh, and in his spare time, he has a train of chicks coming to his tent all day to read ancient scripture to him, so he can live by an ancient moral code that nobody else believes in. Dalinar is a Sliver of the Awesomeness Shard.

Even though the magic feeds on stormlight and gems, Awakening feeds on colors, and yet its focus is Commands.

Cross-Cosmere Questions: 1. Can a Tineye burn tin from Roshar and get the same effect as if he'd burnt Scadrial tin? 2. Can an Awakener use colors on Sel? 3. Do Elantrians have Breath? 4. Could Shallan and Jasnah access Shadesmar if they were on Scadrial? Would there be a Truthspren for Shallan to tell a truth to, or would the lack of spren prevent it? (4a. Do we know how Jasnah accesses Shadesmar? I get the sense that she doesn't see Truthspren, so does she have a different way of getting there that we have any details on?)

Yeah, Sazed didn't make up a new shard, he just handles multiple shards at once like a boss. No other shardholder's got anything on the Hero of Ages, what.

I'm pretty sure that the third guy isn't native to Roshar. Not sure where the quote is, but I'm pretty sure someone's said that all three of them are from other, different worlds.

what is this i don't even I think that we'll be getting the most interesting information from Taln. With all the timeline and history debates, and discussion about the ten orders and such, you'd think having one of the original Heralds as a main character should help.

Well, that's just great. Thanks for delaying everything, Sir Read-a-Lot.

Anybody else disturbed by the writer's stance that Hemalurgy isn't evil and is probably the most useful to the Cosmere when it involves stabbing magic users and killing them? That's some moral ambiguity right there. I'm fascinated to see Hemalurgy on a Cosmeric scale, however. Would you have to use Scadrial metal spikes, but then you could use them on a Returned or an Elantrian... and then would you have to stick the spike back into someone from Scadrial, or could you stick it in anybody on the Cosmere?

When she stuck around, I was almost certain she was a spy for Sadeas. She also happened to be around while Navani and Jasnah were spanreeding, I'm fairly certain. She's been around for some sensitive stuff, and we know that it's odd for Adolin to have a girl around for a while, and she's taken on a job that will keep her close to important things in Dalinar's house.

One thing to consider is the fact that not every single person on Roshar can be pegged down into two specific attributes. Perhaps Jasnah belongs to a specific order, but her personality is actually quite different. Does being in #5 necessarily prevent Shallan from having any of the attributes of the other 9 orders? Additionally, does being in #5 mean that Shallan could never cultivate and develop the attributes of another order, attract its spren, and become a Knight Radiant of an entirely different order? Are these orders predetermined for these characters, or do they depend entirely upon the characters' choices? So I think the question isn't what attributes define Jasnah, but how this magic system decides which attributes to file a person under.

Also worth noting is that perhaps the Parshendi ARE the voidbringers, but that their goals aren't in line with Odium's anymore for this Desolation. Somebody mentioned in another thread the idea that the Parshendi are engaging in this stalemate war with the Alethi (provoking through assassination, only matching their war efforts to keep the war going, fighting with honor, their shardbearer respecting Dalinar) to prepare the Alethi for the coming Desolation -- to get a big military force marshaled together and powered by all the massive gemstones they mine out of the Shattered Plains. If such were the case, I'd be inclined to think that the Parshendi were operating very contrary to how evil Voidbringers might before a coming Desolation. It would imply that they know something's coming (which may just be b/c they're Voidbringers), but also that they're playing for a different team this time around, so to speak.

I've always been of the opinion that Dalinar actually requested to lose the memories of his wife -- that his loss of memory was actually the boon, not the curse. The memories were just too painful for him. The reason that he wonders what Renarin would think of this is that the curse was Renarin's bad health. It seems like the kind of twist that Brandon would write.