Ailessar

I love the minifigures, they're perfect, you've even got Renarin and his spectacles. Seriously, that's exactly how I imagined Kaladin. I'd give you an upvote for each minifigure if I could. And the chasmfiend is wonderful! Next step -- Stormlight Archives: the Lego Movie.

Thanks so much, Inkthinker! I'll add my gushing to snote's and just say how awesome an artist you are. Your work has hugely sparked many an imagination here. (And I love that you added a glimpse of Adolin in the sketch. I would give you a hundred upvotes just for that.) So basically, I'm getting that the sketch is very much from a layperson's viewpoint. A lot like mine, as from someone who admires the sport of swordfighting because it can be beautiful as well as thrilling to watch. Thanks again!!

Welcome to the forum, snote! It's fun to speculate, and this is the right forum to do it! I'm not a swordsman, so I can't explain the "logic" of the fighting as described in the book (which is why I wanted to visualize these stances). Also, if you find a discrepancy, you can go to the Typos thread pinned above and ask Peter. There might well be more that have escaped editing, in a book this large. But I'm glad name_here was able to explain the discrepancy you mentioned. Hope you have fun joining in the craziness or forming your own theories! :-)

So Inkthinker is Ben?? Wow, I had no idea! lol I did email Ben on his website. And I'll PM Inkthinker here. Hopefully all my begging will wear him down. :-)

I've been following this thread and enjoying everyone's speculations. I keep coming back and hoping you've all unlocked the secrets of the maps. I may have missed this suggestion further back, but maybe a black hole? Like this image.

Although the signing last night was great, I got to meet other fans, and got my two books and Bridge Four patch signed, I was disappointed, though, that Brandon told me that I would have to email Ben McSweeney with my printout because he said the artist made the final determinations as to what the stances looked like based on Brandon’s descriptions. Brandon said that he could get them wrong too easily. Anyways I’ll email Ben. Sorry guys but it looks like we’ll have to keep speculating. So this really all comes down to the context in the books rather than real-world skills, as Inkthinker said. It might be a long time before I get any feedback, if at all. @AwesomenessSummoned, those are -- well, awesome! Upvote! I think your proposed names sound cool. Although the first one might be a toss between Windstance and Ironstance. For the last one, instead of “Victory/Success”, I thought that “For the Kill” or just “Kill” sounded apt. What term do fencers use when they score a hit? PS. This is an odd coincidence, but when I go to Ben's website, it's called Inkthiner.net.

Final votes: I’m thinking name_here’s argument for Ironstance and Windstance makes sense too (that’s what I thought at the beginning), so I’ll be on the fence and put both of them for each one. I know, I know, I’m cheating. But for the sake of our little contest the first choice is what should count. After all, I don’t want to get cookies via nefarious means. I’ve decided I’m going to do my best to go to the signing on Friday. I can leave early right after work and go straight there. It’s only an hour away, and I've been there before, so I should get there in plenty of time to snag my place in line. Barring the unforeseen, I’ll ask Brandon myself, since it seems Inkthinker has abandoned us. Or maybe Peter can end our uncertainty. Regardless I’ll bring the printout as well as a few questions. Meanwhile I’m busy working on my Mistborn cloak. I’m taking an old cloak and cutting it up into strips. I really want that Szeth figure! Edited: added final votes table

@rhandric, if you mean you have to buy a ticket to get in, then no, I believe it is free to come and sit in on the Q & A. But as NutiketAiel notes, it's a good idea to RSVP, just so they know how many seats to set up and how much space to give the signing. I think there will be a lot of people there. This is what the bookstore says about the book signing itself: I called them up and the lady told me that I can have up to three books signed, whether I pay the $5 fee or buy one book from them.

I checked the glyphs in the scroll that you indicated by blowing up the image and I didn’t see any of them that are identical to the illumination/light surge or the abrasion surge glyphs. Or maybe I’m not looking at them properly. At this point, I’ve had so much to do lately that it doesn’t take much to fool my eyes. @Wez, I’m not familiar with WOT, sadly I couldn’t finish the series even knowing Brandon was going to be at the end. I love the fighting in WoK and WoR, somehow the idea of knights in magical armor and with magical swords fighting like samurai gives me goosebumps. @abdf, good catch on that “sigh” in the sketch! Upvote! I wasn’t thinking that it might be Adolin, but that just makes so much sense. So we get a glimpse of Adolin’s face finally *sigh*. And I do agree with you now that #4 must be Windstance since it’s his favorite stance. Okay, because I was really confused, I had to make this table to get a clear idea of what you guys are voting for: Is this correct? I’m not sure about everyone else. So far the only ones we have solid agreement seems to be Flamestance, Smokesance, and Stonestance. (I’m wondering now if I should make a poll for other people to vote on.) I’m not even tackling the scroll not being the same as 4 or 2. My mind is, as expected, spinning right now. So the one who gets the most right, everybody else will be sending him/her cookies! Where’s Inkthinker? We need him to tell us which stance is which. Or I really need to go to the signing and ask Brandon myself.

It could be a form of Lightstance, possibly? Arcanist explained that the scroll depics a sparring match, and the stance we've been debating on is the first form on the top left. (I think it is Ironstance but there's been good points presented for it to be Windstance by PorridgeBrick and abdf.) We have no idea what the glyphs say. I probably should link that thread now. Do you have a link for the glyph for the illumination/surge on the KR chart endpaper? Thanks! Edited: added links to KR chart endpaper and to the glyph translation thread to the first post, as well as removed my votes for Ironstance and Windstance (I think abdf and PorridgeBrick may be right, and the post does look cleaner for it). Also added the pdf link that Arcanist provided.

Upvote on Two Steps From H---, eveorjoy! For me, pretty much anything Two Steps From H--- or Brand X Music apply. My Epic Music playlist is full of them. (edited: hehe, the censor kept turning H--- into 'calamity')

Hi Mailliw! Welcome to the thread, also name_here and Inkthinker! Mailliw, I did like your ideas and agree with most of it, but it seems Inkthinker might have put a twist in that. Inkthinker, yes please tell us! At least the ones that are mentioned in the book?? This is a good thing because I might not be able to make it to the signing this Friday. I was going to go in costume too. This week I’m starting a new job in addition to the freelance I’m doing. So—spill! Hehe Unless everyone wants to keep speculating? What do you all think? But even if I do get to go, I might still ask him for curiosity’s sake, unless you can PM me with the details? I feel a little nervous about asking authors for answers. I promise not to tell. Did he also happen to tell you what his influences were, whether Kendo, German/Italian longsword fencing, Kuk Sool Won, some other and/or a combination of all these? @TheArcanist, thank you for the pdf, I scanned through it but have not had the time to properly read. @abdf, good, well-thought out points all, that’s why I’m reconsidering my votes. I’m rethinking my ideas on Ironstance and Windstance as I ponder. At least we can speculate on the remaining stances by process of elimination! I like Lightstance too for Lucentia. Oilstance or Tallowstance? I like Sinewstance. Bloodstance sounds properly grisly. As well as PorridgeBrick’s image of Butcherstance, or possibly Cleaverstance? This could be #1, an overhead chopping motion. And I agree that #10 seems to go well with that image of a Shardbearer plowing through, say, a rank of Parshendi. I’ll have to link up that glyph-translating thread once they break the code, thanks Mailliw!

Kaladin as KR and his 'squires' sitting around the fire eating stew. I want to think that nothing has changed as far as their relationships, that they're still his bridgemen and he's their commander. It was a comforting constant in WoR, and I would like to cling to that through the undoubtedly many changes coming up ahead.