Harkain

Collection of my thoughts a little bit after finishing the book. I'm almost certainly going to need to go back over this book. Glad we finally get to know who Zellion from the miniatures kickstarter is. Though oh boy does it make me fear for whatever is gonna happen through the Stormlight books. The Scadrian Scientists defaulting to Malwish as a civilised language makes me think the Southern Scadrian's are at the very least gonna be leading the charge into the greater cosmere. I have a sneaking suspicion based on this and sixth of the dusk snippet we saw ages ago that there's gonna be something specific about Skybreakers and going into the greater cosmere. Maybe something about their oaths or maybe something relating to their current status in Stormlight idk. Based on this and Sixth of the Dusk, progressively releasing small bits of technology + building a dependence on them seems to the Scadrian modus operandi. I might've missed it but also I'm pretty sure we leave the book without knowing why this planet is setup the way it is? I have a sneaking suspicion (if that is the case) it might become important in a later cosmere tale and by extension Zellion's link to it. Hoid is probably going to be incredibly interested with what Zellion figured out in regards to dealing with his torment. This book really puts into perspective just how abundant investiture is on Roshar.

King/Kingdom/Knights/Keeper of Wrath/Woe Personally I'm liking "King of Wrath" as a book written by TOdium cause that seems in character.

Honestly, I just don't let the idea of Kaladin being resigned to being tortured for the rest of forever as the way his story ends. I could see him becoming a herald (with the book 5 to book 6 break being a renewed oath pact situation), someone breaking at the start of book 6 and then a more permanent solution happening after that being pretty compelling tho.

The only reason I don't think this has happened is I can't imagine Sanderson making Kaladin suffer even more. In all honesty, I don't want Kaladin to end up suffering like that as well. Maybe as a book 5 ending, with it being reversed in book 6 but I really hope that's not the end point of the series.

Honestly, at the time of writing I was dead tired and had forgotten how quickly shardic intents eat away at their vessels.That being said I do think it could be enough to make a case for "if you go into the universe to save people you'll end up doing the opposite" that would be acceptable. (depends on how arrogant Taravangian is without the smart days and dumb days thing.) There is a little bit of potential foreshadowing during the Taravangian post ascension pov chapters near the end of POV. There was a line (I don't have books handy for a direct quote and it's not online from what I can tell) where he's first instinct is to go and destroy things but he then stops and corrects that. With Harmony we know that shardic intent can make it difficult to do certain things, even relatively early into a shard life span. I'm also not convinced how good of a match Taravangian actually is to Odium. Him having enough connection to the shard seemed pretty explicitly tied to Cultivations meddling so I'm not too sure. As with the Taravangian being bound by his agreement that's only really an issue while he's in active conflict with another significant party. To paraphrase a statement from Rodium breaking agreements leaves a hole in the vessels soul that leaves them open to attack. If there's no one to attack them (or you're deliberately trying to trap the shard and they're co-operating with that) then there's no harm in it. Tho yea, this does remain pretty firmly in the crackpot theory pile at this point. Honestly, I hadn't really thought of them going to a specific planet. That being said, Nalthis being the destination could also explain why there's so many people from that world as tertiary character's running around as well!

Hey all. I recently started a reread of Stormlight Archive and decided I wanted to pay some more attention to the chapter headings this time. At the start of Chapter 3 "City of bells" there's the death rattle "A man stood on a cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust. The waters surged beneath, so far beneath. And he heard a child crying. They were his own tears." and I had the thought that it would be a very Sanderson thing to do to have that city be Kharbranth given it's the chapter where it gets introduced. So I started thinking about what sorts of cool scenes could involve "a man" watching their Kharbranth crumble into dust. Now we know there's a very important character who has a very strong emotional connection to Kharbranth who is currently the vessel of Odium. You guessed it, the burden obsessed, murderous and calculating Taravangian. Now, one of Taravangians' first thoughts upon ascending was how he could save everyone in the cosmere. But we as readers also know in the long run that's a lost cause and he will inevitably give into his shardic intent and want to start destroying things. So how could Taravangian save the cosmere from a unleashed Odium? Well, he could trap himself on Roshar and do everything possible to throw away the key. Things like forcing the entire population to leave, destroying the landmasses, hurtling it into space, etc. Knowing Taravangian he would probably cry as he did that, but also knowing Taravangian he would also 100% do it if he thought it was the best path forward (which imo it very well might be). He very well might even start with Kharbranth. It's entirely possible that this outcome is exactly how Cultivation intended to deal with Odium and why she setup Taravangian to be the new vessel and trained him afterwards. Imo, the idea of Roshar being locked off from the rest of the cosmere in the future makes a decent chunk of sense as well. It could explain why we don't see investiture from Roshar saturating everywhere in what glimpses of the cosmere's future we have. I've also got some other thoughts in spoiler below Secret Project Spoilers Also, because I want to get it down before I forget. I have a sneaking suspicion we're gonna see some shuffling around as to who the antagonists are/the nature of the conflict for the back 5 will be. I could imagine trying to deal with a Taravangian losing the plot/convince them they're losing the plot and them going off into the cosmere to save everyone is a horrendous idea being a compelling plot (mixed in with other things of course). I could then imagine at least one other shard (either honour, Cultivation or both) not exactly being happy with the idea of sealing Odium on Roshar + throwing away the key and what that would entail. From there, protagonists could be working with an increasingly unreliable and destructive Todium who might even potentially flip back into antagonist mode at the end due to the shardic influence. I mean, how do you escalate from fighting one shard with the backing of another? Well you then fight 2 shards with the backing of another. How do you escalate from there? Well what if you made the one backing you incredibly unreliable and increasingly a detriment to your cause. How could you possibly escalate from that? Well you could just flat out fight 3 shards at once. Well, there you go. I hope you all enjoy my midnight crackpot theories!

1. SP1, I am in love with the tone. "A jawline so straight it made men question if they were", come on people some of the lines in this are gold. 2. SP 2, only reason it's not 1 is cause I really like the broader world aspect of cosmere books (i.e. the Iriali Cup) 3. SP 3, just a really cool idea I'm interested in seeing how it'll play out 4. SP 4, while I am keen this is definitely the one that peaks my interest the least out of all of them. Sure it'll give us a lot of really cool cosmere tidbits but I feel it'll be the one I enjoy reading the least.

Only issue with Wax travelling to Roshar is that that Mistborn Era 2 happens after the first 5 Stormlight books. So it doesn't really make sense for Wax to appear in Stormlight book 5. My guess is it might have something to do with Future Sight shennanigans (so some motivation in book 5 is a future sight thing predicted which we see play out in Mistborn Era 2) or it's figuring out/solidifying what particular groups are like in Mistborn Era 2 (*cough* Ghostbloods *cough*) so he can make sure they end up like that in Stormlight 5.

Tbh this. Absolute worse case is Brandon now gets one of his characters in an incredibly popular video game.

Thank you! I honestly don't know how I feel about this. We'll see I guess. Better than a cosmere themed theme park tho.

Nvm I did not notice the announcement had come out...

"If we see you running our employees dressed up as shades will try to kill you"

Honestly thinking on it now as things stand a cosmere themed amusement park would not be a pleasant place to be. "Come to Rosharland where we'll periodically belt you with rocks and water, or visit the land of First Era Scadrial where we rain ash on you"

Saying it now. My money's on something relating to a mistborn tv series or movie for Thursday's announcement. Thinking on it He's been sitting on a script for quite a while now He's probably gotten a good bit more contact with the right sort of people through his Wheel of Time Work. From what I understand Netflix's adaption of Shadow and Bone is doing quite well which should show there is a market for that sort of young adult style fantasy fiction. Based on the above I think it's a reasonable bet. Tho that being said, I am sorta hopeful I end up surprised!

I actually really like this idea. Tho with Shallan being as unreliable of a narrator as she is we can't really know for sure until we get the next book or some sort of confirmation or disconfirmation.