prognosis

You could be right, but we can't be sure since he hasn't thrown out codes at us before (at least not in the Mistborn trilogy, which is what I've read). From those books I feel that there would be some small seemingly insignificant detail hidden somewhere that would unravel the code. Adding to the list above, I'm also gonna look into the chapter title images. I haven't paid any attention to them yet.

I'm gonna go through every Taravangian scene in both books for starters. Then if nothing pops, I'll go through the epigraphs in both books again. I'll also look for a particular action of his that would be hidden in the code; such as a list of the people he had Szeth kill.

Brandon said that the key was in the book, correct? So perhaps we should be scouring the book for something that would pertain to this code, as opposed to trying to crack it like a conventional code. I think I'm gonna do that now...

It brings to mind Seldon's plan ( Foundation series ), wherein the broader picture would remain the same, while minor variations are accounted for by people who tend to the plan. But yeah, this particular plan can't survive so volatile an environment.

That's what occurred to me as well. However, him being a hundred times smarter than any other time seems to make his plan a bit unquestionable. As I understand it, his plan would be as brutal and evil as it needed to be in order to succeed, but it would offer the best odds of success.

I just finished it, started yesterday. Shallan was annoyingly successful, and Kaladin was still whiny. Through every moment of Kaladin decision-making my brain was going 'you-can't-do-this-you-shouldn't-do-this-this-makes-no-sense-whatsoever-oh-crap-you-did-it-anyway'. It was hard to sympathize with his misery after everything he did to make things worse. I was glad that Dalinar didn't have personality crises this time round. I loved Taravingian's background and his situation. The trouble is that there's no good reason I can see for anyone to stop him (which most likely will happen); unless the argument is something like 'his Diagram failed to account for human emotion', which would be bad. I need some context on Warbreaker's connection to this story. I've read the Mistborn trilogy, and I couldn't find any references to it aside from the name Hoid. Should I read Warbreaker? Do I need to? Roshar seems to have an endless supply of badass mysterious men and women - Mraize, Wit, Zahel, Taln, the guy who killed Ym and tried to kill Lift (same guy, right?), Nalan, Iyatil... off the top of my head, there are several more, I'm sure. I actually enjoy it; I'm not complaining so long as they're reigned in properly. It's hard to value the average person in Roshar with all the superpowers flying around by the end of WoR. TWoK didn't have that problem, especially due to the bridgemen plotline. The bridgemen seem somewhat devalued by gaining stormlight absorbing powers, but I'll withhold judgement on that decision until book 3. Back to Shallan... I had fun reading her, but I wished that everything wasn't so easy for her, especially the journey to the Shattered Plains. But I get why it was done that way, she's built up some much needed confidence over the course of the book. The worldbuilding was brilliantly done, especially through the interludes. Brandon's created a huge expansive world, one with much to discover. This truely feels like ten books -and more- worth of material. He never loses control of the threads, however. I haven't seen this level of plot mastery since the Malazan Books of the Fallen. It's also a pleasure to learn more about the magic system, which is as well designed as Mistborn's was, but with greater complexity and more possibilities. EDIT: I'm also wondering how the series is gonna last ten books with everything seeming on the brink of destruction by the end of WoR. It already feels like -WoT spoiler (Highlight to read, I don't know how to Spoiler hide it)- Wheel of Time at book 13, with all the major characters having worked through most of their personality issues, and in positions of serious power with a lot of battle prowess. Thoughts?