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earthexile

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Everything posted by earthexile

  1. That sounds like an absolutely miserable ending for Kaladin. Alone, unique, burdened with endless responsibility, slowly becoming more and more a creature of raw emotion. No stews with his men, no woman, no family. I guess he could still have Sylphrena but what would ascension do to their bond? To be Odium would be the loneliness and unfreedom that Kaladin has always dreaded. Whether or not he'd be good at it, no matter how much good he could do, I would be so sad to see it happen.
  2. I don't think Dalinar is a candidate at this point for a War shard. As of the later parts of RoW, he's sickened by war, and is prepared to bet his soul to end it, to say nothing of letting a bunch of countries remain under Odium's control. Anything to make the killing and destruction stop, even if it's just for some amount of time. He has sworn oaths to bring men together and do better than he has in the past. For Dalinar to become War, leaving aside all the magical nonsense that would have to happen for there to be a War shard, he would have to undo most or all of his character growth. Dalinar at 30 could be War. Dalinar at 60 wants no part of it.
  3. Music, or at least patterns of sound, seem to be woven into the behavior of magic and reality in the Cosmere. It would not surprise me one bit to find that music is an essential part of what Wit is doing with his stories.
  4. It's the use of art to convince spren (spirits, seons, whatever we're calling living bits of Investiture) to become something else. Yumi convinces generic spirits to become useful tools, and Painter convinces hostile spirits to become harmless objects. In both cases, a thing with its own will is shaped by human intent, by art, into something more suited for human existence.
  5. Total War: Roshar could be incredible
  6. This is an interesting question, because Nahel bonds seem to be based on things that the characters lack, or need, or don't yet understand about themselves. It's about growth and change. By my natural inclination, I'm an Edgedancer. I love the small and strange people of the world, and I would help them if I could. I want the healing power. I want to be graceful and kind. I care about what happens to the people that society and culture would leave behind. But that's already me. I don't need to learn it. So the question is, what don't I know about myself?
  7. I've said it before, but I think Mraize's aviar has the power to make people accept Mraize's presence as normal, even though he's a distinctive and unusual guy. Some kind of Spiritual Connection manipulation, like Dalinar's power to learn the local language in an instant. The final straw for me was when he infiltrated Ialai's guard, as though she'd have some scarred up weirdo who brings his pet to work as a bodyguard. It seems like he can get any job at the drop of a hat, to the point of having various nations' military uniforms at hand. He's doing the kind of stuff you pull off with a 20 Charisma score in D&D. It ain't natural.
  8. I wonder if Lift has any relation to Rayse
  9. Also, people don't live off their Breath for the rest of their lives, Jewels says her family ate for a year after selling her Breath to a god.
  10. I just find it horrifying that so many people wind up selling a precious and magical portion of themselves, the part that feels alive, that experiences color and music and joy, that puts the twinkle in a child's eyes. And where does all that life and beauty go? Thrown into the indolent necromantic abyss that is the Hallandren Court of Gods. Fifty two childrens' souls circumcised every year so some worthless mega-aristocrat can keep turning away the hopeful, drinking wine that doesn't affect them, eating food that doesn't nourish them, enjoying great art and then burning it, while poverty ravages the nation they "rule" from their playpen. Times the number of Returned there are. It sickens me. In Mistborn, the powerful burn metals or charge up their own attributes for later use. In Stormlight, power washes over the world like weather for anyone to use in a variety of ways. In Warbreaker, every time you see magic being used, you're seeing slightly emptier lives being spent like pennies.
  11. I think I'd make a good Endowment. I'd try to do a better job than Edgli, I think the whole Drab situation is awful, but I guess that's just what happens when you combine magic and capitalism.
  12. Yes, Soulcasting is ridiculously powerful. It literally transforms problems into solutions. Random rocks into healthy food. Latrine waste into clean air. Corpses into stone. Empty space into useful housing. It replaces entire industries.
  13. Anything that lies outside for a couple days gets eaten by the world. Blown away by storms, buried in cremstone. Over thousands of years, a lot of Shards have probably just wound up in the ground or the ocean. Stuff happens. Say your group gets caught in a highstorm or your ship sinks, that's it for any Shards.
  14. I still think the 5th Oath confers permanent Stormlight, or access to Surges without needing light.
  15. The presence of any outdoor statues in Eastern Roshar is pretty weird, isn't it?
  16. I disagree, and here's why: Because of everything you've correctly identified about Lirin. He exemplifies the qualities and mindset of a complete Windrunner in many ways. And so, because of the somewhat ironic nature of the Nahel Bond, becoming a Windrunner would not be a path of redemption and spiritual development! He does not need to aim himself in the direction of protecting others, he's been devoted to that all his life. He doesn't need to swear to protect even those he hates, he consciously chose to preserve Roshone despite knowing that the guy dying would be much better for him and his family. He doesn't need to internalize the idea that he will sometimes fail to save people, he made his peace with that as part of his surgeons' training. The Honorspren would say he's a cool guy. But they aren't going to see someone who needs them, and can be healed by them.
  17. Windrunner powers seem particularly geared towards recruiting, assisting, and defending others. We're already seeing the beginning of a Cult of Kaladin forming, and I think the 5th Ideal power will reflect that and enhance it: Allowing the Radiant to infuse others with temporary Radiant powers at will. Through Spiritual Gravitation and Adhesion, Kaladin could forge a connection with basically anyone but especially people who idolize him and paint his sigil on their faces. I imagine a burst of light washing over a crowd and leaving them all glowing.
  18. If all Radiants broke their oath on purpose, at the same time, we can safely assume that the broken oath must have been the first, because all Radiants have that in common. My hypothesis is that they became aware of some kind of long-term threat or goal in the distant future, which convinced them that the Immortal Words were in fact wrong, or that they didn't believe them anymore. Life Before Death? Not if you're primarily concerned with things that will happen long after you'll be dead. Strength Before Weakness? Maybe their own power became such a threat that it would be better to be weak. Journey Before Destination? Maybe in this case, they truly believed that the ends would justify the means. The question is, what did they see coming?
  19. Shardblades and Shardplate are very much not the same material, and don't work the same way at all. Blades are lighter than normal metal, completely impossible to harm, and can be summoned by the person bound to them, whereas Plate is heavier than the same amount of normal metal, can be shattered even by ordinary weapons and big falls, and you have to spend an hour getting bolted into it.
  20. I only think not because the Stormfather seems to find this sort of thing unfathomable. If it was something that had been successfully seen in the world, resulting in a whole society, he would probably have said so. Instead he's stumped and disgusted.
  21. Honor lives in the hearts of men. Also, it seems that the spren are themselves pieces of Honor's scattered power, or at least a lot of them are. Odium is talking about scouring Roshar of a LOT of what lives there.
  22. I love reading Shallan as a character in a story, but I think I'd hate her if she was a real person that I had to actually interact with. She's racist, classist, her whole personality pivots on a moment-to-moment basis, she keeps important secrets from everyone in her life, she's able to straight up murder people and then make herself forget she had anything to do with it. This is all of course thematically appropriate, because Stormlight Archive is about mental illness and trauma, and sometimes the effects of those things can result in a person who's really hard to love and be patient with. I have had to remove people from my life because of the way their mental illness caused them to behave towards me. It's not their fault they are the way they are, but that doesn't change what you have to deal with by having them around.
  23. I wonder whether Odium is even aware of the whole anti-Light concept at all. If Light is the distillation of a Shard's essence into material form, maybe their anti-Light would be invisible and unknowable to them. A hole in the universe where their essence does not flow.
  24. Shallan's entire existence must be rooted in a fascinating lie.
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