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Would it be possible to use a duraluminmind to store Connection to other metalminds? That way you could have metalminds taking up entire rooms and not have to lug them around everywhere. Also, would it be possible to Compound enough Investiture with nicrosil to give yourself almost Shard-esque powers? Could you use the Spark of Life or other such Innate Investiture to fill a nicrosilmind? Could you store a Shard in a nicrosilmind? Could two Archivists use an unkeyed copper wire to communicate (i.e. one stores the memory of a sheet of paper saying “Hi. How are you today?” and the other taps that memory, writes down their response and sends it back)? And what would happen if you compounded a coppermind?

I just read Emperor's Soul for the second time and it was just as good on the reread even though the first happened a few months ago. It might be my favorite of his short stories (except for Shadows of Silence or Sixth of the Dusk or...). I have a couple of questions about how Forging relates to Hemalurgy. I'm guessing based on the Kriss essay on Hemalurgy that Forging ability could be stolen from a person. Could I steal some one's stamp? For instance, I could put Shai in a situation where she uses her warrior stamp then take it? Also, could Forging allow someone to switch/gain magical abilities? Like, could I reforge someone into being an Elantrian? P.s. I'm relatively new to the discussion boards so please forgive me if I missed some earlier conversations.

He apears just two times on the pages of RoW, but I still find him very interesting. First, we see him as steward during Gavilars feast, he speaks with Navani. Is mentioned he has many rings on his fingers. Second, we see him as corpse, as he is murdered by Mraize. We can assume its the same person. His eyes changed and his rings are gone. Also, we learn he had Aviar of some sort. So what he is doing here? And witch organization he served? Scadrian worldhoppers are associated with few organizations, each with other one. Demoux is from 17th Shard. Felt is independent. Axindweth is associated with Gavilar and Sons of Honor (probably) but is also linked to some other organisation (Set maybe? Dont think she is Ghostblood). Yiatil is Ghostblood. So who he is? Is he one of Harmonys agents? Is he 17th Shard? Why Mraize killed him? Is he rival Ghostblood?

Okay so considering the fact that Sazed picked up two shards at his Ascension, does that make him the most powerful being in the cosmere? Or would that title depend on which shards were combined? For example, the opposite nature of Ruin and Preservation make changes hard for Sazed. If someone, say Rayse, were to have shattered Preservation and picked up Ruin, would that be a more powerful combo? Regardless, would Sazed be able to contend with Rayse given he is Harmony (Ruin AND Preservation) and Rayse is only Odium?

Am I allowed to put this in the gallery? I was inspired by the end sheets of SA and thought it would be interesting to draw (hypothetical) religious art from Scadrial and Nalthis depicting Kelsier and Warbreaker. Not complete, but you should be able to see the issue. That’s marewill, btw, not the GB symbol. But I do headcannon the GB symbol as stylized marewill. Warbreaker will not be an issue, as none of his picture elements include spoilers beyond Warbreaker (the book).

Pretty much exactly what the title says; I just wanted a single topic/thread to discuss and theorize/hypothesize what stuff like the Pure Tones and Rhythms might mean for Investiture on other worlds. The main one that spurred me to make this thread is: Can you use the Song (Pure Tone + Rhythm) of Preservation to draw in and burn the Mists of Preservation, even if you don't have the same Connection to Preservation that Vin had in the Final Empire? We see that the Pure Tones alone can guide the Lights of the corresponding shard into different containers, so would adding the Rhythm and making the Song of Preservation attract the Mists strongly enough to be consumed by an Allomancer? ...Could you do the same with the Song and Mists of Ruin to fuel Atium Allomancy without needing physical Atium??? See, these thoughts are why I make topics like this, I need to know if I'm completely off-base or not, bring in some other thoughts and see if I'm onto something by thinking in weird directions.

Brandon has said that Era4 will be a clash of cultures. We now know that this will probably involve a Rosharan/Scadrian conflict. And in RoW we’ve seen what may well be its beginnings. So this is what I think will be the heart of the Scadrian/Rosharan conflict. Scadrial is society created by thieves. They revere a conman, Kelsier and venerate am assassin, Vin. They naturally seek the mists, which actively work to conceal Allomancers. They are a society naturally drawn to the shadows. Fighting fair is NOT how they operate. Roshar is the opposite. Knights in literal shining armor, bound to honor codes. The most duplicitous of the Orders revolves around Truths. They’re practically designed for a straightforward fight; you can’t hide if you glow in the dark! I can’t imagine why the Rogue planet doesn’t get along with the Paladin planet... Chaotic Good/Neutral vs. Lawful Good/Neutral... We can see this with the Ghostbloods, which we now know are run by Kelsier. As I’ve pointed out on other threads, they’re on the same side as the coalition - quietly. They want Dalinar to win. But the way they’re doing it (leaving aside the actions of individuals) is not a method most Radiants could approve of. But it gets better. Scadrial is the world most like Earth. It utilizes mechanical industry and the metallic arts. It’s the type of industry that, as we know, can easily scour the land. On top of which, the allomantic and feruchemical arts are internal and intrinsic. And those two combined allow for fairly easy sharing of powers. And then there’s Hemalurgy. The ability to steal any power with the proper training - so long as you’re willing to kill. On Roshar, in contrast, industry is almost entirely Investiture based. And we now know that fabriels can be created by Spren, without needing to harvest resources. On Roshar, industry may very well follow a more symbiotic path; note that much of their nature and their major investiture system is all about symbiosis. The powers so granted, however, are not easily transferred. And while Bondsmiths can more easily manipulate Connection, there are some fairly strict limits (including an inability to travel). Hemalurgy lacks those constraints, being limited only by knowledge and morality. And there are no Oaths to enforce the latter. And what is the Shard of Scadrial? Harmony. What is the hypothesized union of the three Rosharan Shards? Conquest. Honestly, when you look at it, it makes a lot of sense that these two would end up conflicting. The natures of the worlds are inherently opposed.

Background Preservation & Ruin created the planet Scadrial together from scratch after the Shattering. Trell is a shard/or shard-like entity that is unknown to Harmony Trellium is the metal of a known shard: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/69-shadows-of-self-release-party/#e6261 Possible shard candidates (at time of WoB): Devotion, Dominion, Preservation, Ruin, Odium, Honor, Cultivation, Endowment, or Autonomy But not necessarily a shard: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/377-idaho-falls-signing/#e12232 Devotion and Dominion have spren-like cognitive splinters – seons and skai respectively Seons are ‘devoted’ servants to their masters Skai are described as ‘evil seons’ (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/247-ancient-17s-qa/#e5540) Avatars of Shards can be imbued with an intent and can operate after a shard’s vessel has died The Mist continued to snap people on Scadrial after Ati died Theory Preservation & Ruin pooled their Investiture and used a Dawnshard to create the planet Scadrial Ruin agreed to this use of Investiture on condition that he could destroy the planet eventually The Dawnshard that allowed for the planet’s creation is still on Scadrial and is currently being protected by Harmony A primary of Intent of Dominion shard is ‘to dominate’ The skai are evil counterparts to seons who are described as being helpful and obedient. The opposite of this could be 'dominating'. Trell is an avatar of Dominion Etymologically the word Trell is related to a Norse word meaning ‘slave or thrall’. This aspect fits as an aspect of Dominion that has an Intent to dominate Trellium is Dominion’s metal Trellium as a hemolurgic spike allowed for control over Paalm and the hemalurgic chimeras created by her. This fits with an Intent of domination. Harmony is unaware of what Trellium is and that it comes from Dominion because the Vessel of Dominion is dead. His knowledge of Shards and wider Realmatic Theory comes from self-study and from whatever the other Shard Vessels and people like Hoid tell him Trell's ultimate purpose is to get the Dawnshard on Scardrial Open Questions As an avatar of Dominion, Trell was able to move a large amount of Dominon’s Investiture off planet. Could this be connected to Kelsier (and by extension the Ghostbloods) goal to learn how to move large amounts of Investiture off planet? Could Odium’s decision to destroy Dominion (and Devotion) be influenced by what Dominion’s plans were? What (if any) is the connection to the man named Trell on Taldain?

Felt is a Ghostblood sleeper agent. Way back in TFE: “Felt, one of the House Venture chief spies, climbed into the carriage, nodding his hawkish, mustached face respectfully to Elend, then Jastes.” Felt is a spy, originally from TFE Scadrial. He was present when Kell died, during the revolt and Elend’s speech, and the Catacande. And now he’s here, on Roshar. We know the GBs have a spy near the Kholins. We know that having an agent near prospective members is common practice. Felt has been by Dalinar’s side for years. He’s a loyal and trusted member of Dalinar’s forces. And now he’s on the Shadesmar trip, in the perfect position to ‘innocently’ question Kalak and discover the whereabouts of Ba-Ado-Mishram. We were all but told he was a worldhopper in Dalinar’s memories. And we know he’s tried to find the Nightwatcher before going on Dalinar’s mission to find her. His presence here, now, is remarkably suspicious - and no one suspects him at all. So: I posit that Felt is a Ghostblood agent in deep cover. Thoughts?

Hey, wasn't there a character called Tathindweth or something like that in the Wax & Wayne series? I can't find the reference now. For a second there I thought that was Wax's sister's name (instead of Telsin) and thought Axindweth might be Wax's mother and had a moment. Alas, it clearly isn't that. But still, I think there's a connection to be found, if fellow 17th shard-ians can help.

Apologies if I'm very late to the party with this, it's been some time since I frequented this forum, so I'm a bit behind on the current WoB's and theories. With Rhythm of War's chapter headings, we now know that I am eager to see your responses. Remember that Sanderson has a tendency for obfuscation when describing things, as evidenced by Roshar's wines, and Aluminum's many descriptors.

Hey guys, I was talking with some friends and someone came up with this idea. Join in anytime, I won't care too much what you do, but you know, try to be in character? Worldhopper characters are fine but I reserve the right to say things are too overpowered or just plain wierd. This takes place in Final Empire era Scadrial, so Radiants aren't around, but Elantrians, Awakeners, ... Sand Masters, I guess, and of course users of the Metallic Arts are all usable. Anyway, onto the expositionary introduction. No one knew exactly what had happened. The Lord Ruler had gone. Of course, he was normally solitary, but it had been months and he had not been seen. Rumors flew of an assassin who somehow overcame his divine abilities, or of him being called away to rule another world, or even if the return of the Deepness. But those questions were not asked. Not by noblemen, not by any obligators, and everyone was too afraid to ask the Inquisitors. The Inquisitors were acting oddly. It was hard to tell with those creatures, but they seemed even more insane to some of the obligators and noblemen that worked with them, snapping at unheard voices, breaking down walls and furniture, and even attacking a few who should have commanded them. If anyone connected this to the Koloss suddenly raiding the far towns near where they were kept, they didn't voice it out loud. The rebellion was small at the time, and while this change kept most skaa from joining, some saw it as a chance to throw off the oppression. And, while this timeline is very different from the one we know, some things always stay the same, as there were more and more rumors of a Survivor... The beginning Lord Tellen Nuell sat at the ball. He was new to Luthadel, having moved here shortly after the beginning of the Lord Ruler's disappearance. He was unusually blunt for a noble. Everyone already knew he was a Soother and was purportedly offering information on a mysterious intruder to Kredik Shaw for an exorbitant price. For now, though, he remains alone, reading a book over his food.

I tried to search WOBS but couldn't find this: does Aluminum Glow in the Scadrial Cognitive Realm Like Other Metals? If you etched a message in aluminum foil, could Harmony, or a being in the cognitive realm read it?

So tin can store senses. A lot of senses. I’d say perfect color recognition is not a sense. You need to see to use it. But it is definitely separate from overall sight. It is distinct in that matter. Is it distinct enough to be it’s own aspect in a metalmind? Same goes with perfect pitch. I’d guess so, but I’m not certain.

Yes, technically there are already two other threads about this. I still started this one, since it's a little different topic: instead of speaking mainly about fabrials, here I wish to discuss the connection between every application of any metal in the four magic systems: allomancy, feruchemy, hemalurgy and fabrials. I might've lost myself in the middle of that sentence, I hope you understood me. anyway, what we've seen so far: Iron - A: pulls on metals. Fe: stores weight. H: steals strength. Fa: changes polarity (whatever that means)/attracts attribute. Steel - A: pushes on metals. Fe: stores physical speed. H: steals physical allomantic powers. Fa: same as Iron. Tin - A: enhances senses. Fe: stores senses. H: steals senses. Fa: diminishes attribute. Pewter - A: enhances strength and balance. Fe: storing physical strength. H: steals physical feruchemical powers. Fa: expresses attribute. Zinc - A: riots emotions. Fe: stores mental speed. H: steals emotional fortitude. Fa: manifests the spren more strongly. Brass - A: soothes emotions. Fe: stores warmth. H: steals cognitive feruchemy. Fa: makes the spren withdraw. Copper - A: hides allomantic pulses. Fe: stores memory. H: steals mental fortitude, memory, and intelligence. Fa: unknown. Bronze - A: allows to hear allomantic pulses. Fe: stores wakefulness. H: steals mental allomancy. Fa: warns of things getting close. Aluminum - A: wipes internal allomantic reserves. Fe: stores Identity. H: removes all powers. Fa: cuts connection, no other known function. Duralumin - A: quickly burns any burning metals in powerful burst. Fe: stores connection. H: steals connection and identity. Fa: unknown. Chromium - A: wipes out target's allomantic reserves. Fe: stores furtune. H: might steal destiny? Fa: unknown. Nicrosil - A: enhances allomantic burn of target. Fe: stores investiture. H: steals investiture. Fa: unknown. Gold - A: shows past self (or alternative present self). Fe: stores health. H: steals hybrid feruchemy. Fa: unknown, probably known in-world. Electrum - A: shows possible future of the burner. Fe: stores determination. H: steals enhancement allomancy. Fa: unknown. Cadmium - A: slows down time. Fe: stores breath. H: steals temporal allomancy. Fa: unknown. Bendalloy - A: speeds up time. Fe: stores energy. H: steals spiritual feruchemy. Fa: unknown. Now, there are patterns inside each magic system, if you look for it, though so far only allomancy and hemalurgy have sensible division for each metal. For now, it might be better to stick to discussing only the lower metals - the first eight, since we understand those the most, and know mostly all of their applications in the magic systems (lets use the acronym MS for that) in discussion. Tin is irregular because it's the only one that does exactly the same in the first three MSs. I can't actually see any thorough connection between one metal's applications in all the MSs, and it's a little late at night in my country, and since I'm also lazy I'll leave you to think over it.

Trellium is described as a silvery metal with a red cast to it, and dark red spots similar to rust. There exists another substance which is described to have a similar appearance: Soulstone, which is noted to be a whitish fine grained rock with flecks of red mixed in. Could these two be the same substance? I know the texture of the two don't really match, one is described as being metallic and the other as being a soft chalk like rock that hardens after being baked in a fire. But the red dotted markings... It could be an indication of Corrupted Investiture, perhaps?

Let’s say Wayne puts up a speed bubble. Generally if a bullet is shot out of the bubble it’s directional velocity will get changed. If Wayne were to have an aluminum bullet, would he be able to aim and shoot accurately without the bullet getting distorted? There is a quote from Brandon saying if there were an aluminum tube were at the edge of a bubble, then the bubble would collapse. My hypothesis for the bullet situation is that he could aim and shoot accurately, and as soon as the bullet hits the edge of the bubble, it would collapse. The bullet would be unaffected and stay on track to hit its target.

So let me just preface this with some stuff: 0) This will also be obviously shaped by my experience of queerness as a white Ace Bi Transwoman from Switzerland, so maybe keep that in mind as you read this. 1) This is also not supposed to be a dunk on Brandon for his inclusion (or lack thereof) of queer characters. While I wish there was more in his work (and I’ll talk about how you could do that in the cosmere), it’s not like there is none, which is already more than many other Fantasy writers have. He is also not queer himself (as far as we know) and I can respect it that he doesn’t want to include harmful representation in his books (as he has stated before). 2) I’m mostly writing this because I got a friend (who has not (yet, as I hope) read any of the Cosmere books) to take the Knights Radiant Quiz (I guess mostly by saying it’s essentially the Sorting Hat Quiz). Following that I realized I truly had a lot of thoughts about the Cosmere at large, but since none of my friends is into the Cosmere, I had no one to talk to (it’s much easier for me to talk to friends than strangers online, so I didn’t really want to go on Discord and start a conversation, so I’ll just plop it down here and let people decide whether they want to be part of that conversation or not). 3) This is essentially me rambling, there’s probably going to be holes or stuff that I missed or aspects of queerness that I did not think about. Calling it “Queerness in the Cosmere” might have been a bit ambitious, but I honestly didn’t know what else to call it. I’m also not really active on here, so maybe other people have already said all of this, but I had a desire to write this. 4) I think this will mostly concentrate on Roshar (specifically Vorin culture), Scadrial and Nalthis so I’ll structure it accordingly. Nalthis and Scadrial will also probably much shorter than Roshar, both because we know a lot about Vorin culture compared to the others and because the Magic on Roshar gives a bit more to talk about. To start with, let it be said that there is a WoB that clearly states trans people can use Investiture to change their body (he specifically says this with regards to Bloodmakers, Stormlight and the surge of Progression). So let’s start with Nalthis. There’s not that many Characters to begin with and none of them appear to be queer. Of course, many characters have their own situations going on where we don’t see anything regarding their sexualities or identities (Vasher and his history with Shashara, Denth being consumed by vengeance, Vivenna being brought up with the singular purpose of marrying the God King with the implicit understanding that she would be killed eventually, etc.), so I can’t talk about what is, because there isn’t any. As for what could be: the interesting thing for me on Nalthis are the Returned. We know their bodies change upon being returned and we also know that they have the ability to shape-shift to a certain degree. This is confirmed by Vasher (in deeds and words) and also evident in the Court of Gods, where Returned tend to fit their given domain (Blushweaver being extremely attractive, Lightsong being muscular/toned) physically. You could easily fit trans people into further Nalthis works via Returned and their place in Hallandren society. For one, you could have person return and in the process have their body change to one matching their identity. Now, we don’t know whether the Returned consume investiture when they shape-shift. Given that investiture is highly quantized on Nalthis, this seems unlikely. However, as the process of Returning is a result of direct shardic intervention, this investiture could easily come from Endowment directly. This would be a bit more complicated in terms of non-binary, agender or genderfluid people (as well as other marginalized identities which I don’t know about), but this goes beyond my experience and I don’t want to speak for them. Once you have a trans Returned, this would obviously have an influence on Societies where Returning is viewed as a divine act (e.g. Hallandren and Idris (I’m actually not sure whether Idrians see it that way, but I do believe so)), legitimizing their existence beyond doubt (as clearly, God says trans rights). Even if this is not the case, the process of bestowing a divine breath on someone to heal has also implications regarding trans people. Healing in the Cosmere generally works, as I understand it, by restoring the body to the spiritual ideal, with possible influence on self-perception (see Kaladin inhaling Stormlight doesn’t fix his slave scars as of now). From Renarin we know that you can be born with a body that does not conform to this ideal (his bad eyesight was corrected upon inhaling Stormlight). We don’t know whether bestowing a divine breath requires the Returned in question to know what they are healing, although considering Brandon has described this process as “supercharged healing” my guess is not. So it is easily possible that a Returned will bestow their breath and give a trans person a body they are comfortable with, at which point, again, God says trans rights. From there, you could make Hallandren either a very trans acceptive place or (and I personally don’t want that, but it’s a legit possibility) a place where you have to “medically transition” before you are treated as your real self (as in get a Returned to bestow their breath) and where the Returned essentially judge your trans-ness (as in, if a Return doesn’t bestow their breath on you, you’re not “really trans”, as otherwise they (and by extension God) would have given you their breath). Again, that would suck as much as that attitude sucks in real life, but it would at least be something that isn’t cooki-cutter Fantasy stuff “gay people bad and gender binary rulez”. Awakening itself might also provide people with the mechanism to shape-shift. There are “mental commands” that Vasher uses to make a girl forget Trauma, so there is a possibility there to apply this also to “physical commands” that change the users body in a certain way. Let’s look at Scadrial, specifically Era 2 onwards. For starters, we have lesbian rep with Ranette (although I guess she could be Bi), we have disaster Bi rep with Wayne and kandra, who are an interesting subject with regards to gender identity (even further, we have TenSoon, a kandra who spends most of his time as a dog). They are probably the queerest books in the Cosmere and as such, there is not much that I want to talk about. The kandra are super interesting, because they have a distinct gender identity. This could obviously be a remnant of either the spikes that are used to give them thought or because they were human at some point and then transformed by Rashek (this point depends a bit on whether mistwraiths can procreate or whether all mistwraiths were once terris people). Still, they are a super easy way to introduce queer characters. You can easily have a kandra that uses they/them pronouns or who presents differently at different times (apart from the fact that they do this anyways in Era 1 to spy), so they are always the same person, but switch between male/female presentation including pronouns. I hope we get to see something like this in the future. Bands of Mourning and the medallions the southern scadrians use have a huge implication for trans people. In essence, you could build an industry (healthcare should be free though!) on providing unkeyed gold metalminds. If they are charged enough, they would allow trans people to change their bodies. This could also be added in the background, like an ad in the newspaper pages Era 2 books have every now and then or that a character reads in the newspaper. I’m not sure how that would impact a society. Like, in real life there are many medical tools that allow transition, but our society is still incredibly transphobic. So it is not a given that, even though the effectos of healing would be impossible to ignore evidence that trans people are real and valid, there would not be effort to deny trans people access to unkeyed goldminds. You could then still, through Wayne for example, show that there is a black market going on where trans people try to get access to them. So, Roshar. More specifically though the Vorin nations and the singers. Again, Stormlight healing and healing via the surge of progression allow for very easy ways to introduce trans characters, either only as background characters (like in a scene where Renarin heals people) or in a more direct way as a Radiant that changes upon inhaling Stormlight the first time. Apart from that, Vorin culture allows for very interesting explorations on queerness. Vorinism heavily enforces gender roles through the book “Arts and Majesty”. It’s not really clear how this system reacts to the emergence of new professions. It might be the same as with stable hands, where it’s not part of the book so everyone can be one. It might also be that it gets amended, similar to how the bible was changed at various councils. That may sound like it’s beside the point, but whether or not it can be changed does have implications on queer people. Like, could it be changed to include the existence of non-binary people? Or gender fluid ones? That is something I think could be touched upon (assuming Vorinism survives much longer). As the system is right now, there is an obvious (and I think boring) way how Vorin culture treats marginalized gender identities: It’s a heavily gender segregated, binary society and thus, moving between the two camps or outside of them will be suppressed as heretical. However, it could also naturally support trans people, but only as long as they conform to society. You could show this by having a man that can read (maybe in an emergency situation or through subtle reactions in a span-reed conversation or like this) but doesn’t do it openly because it’s unmanly (the implication being that he was taught as a child an came out after). Or maybe there are professions for people that don’t identify as either male or female, but transitioning from one to another is not possible. I think the heavily segregated Vorin society is a really cool playground on queerness, which I hope Brandon will explore a little bit. If there is any fanfic of this, I’d be glad if you could recommend them to me! I also want to shortly talk about homosexuality in at least Alethkar (but I assume this is again a Vorin thing). There seems to be no real prejudice against it. Kaladin does have bit of a different reaction, where he finds it weird how uncomfortable Bridge 4 is with Renarin possibly learning to read but they have no problem with Drehy courting a man (Dru) and Bridge 4 reacts very strongly in favor of the relationship. (I just checked as well, according to Brandon Vorin culture doesn’t have a problem at all with homosexuality). To me, the acceptance of homosexuality seems at odds with Vorin culture, which heavily reinforces the relationship of man-woman not only in a personal sense, but also a professional one. The fact that only women can write and read means that they are pretty much essential in almost any profession (as seen by the fact that Alethi at least reeealy like their ledgers). In my head canon, at least one of the Heralds was gay and this persisted as a part of Vorin society even past “Arts and majesty” (which might have been written after the fall of the Radiants, as they were open to all people). With Sigzil, we’ve seen that at least the Azish are not so supportive of gay people. In his own words, Drehy would have to apply for “social reassignment”, which is exactly what it suggests according to Brandon: You can’t have a gay relationship, instead one of the involved parties has to “socially transition” and would henceforth be treated as their opposite gender (in a WoB, Brandon references ancient India as a inspiration, although let it be said that Iran for example still does this today). This might suggest that, while being wildly homophobic, Azish culture might actually be trans-supportive (in a certain sense). This is also something I hope we get to see more of. There are also the Iriali and their religion of the One. According to Brandon, the more conservative/religious Iriali are supportive of gay people (and I think that would extend to any other marginalized gender identity) on account of them all being part of the One. I very much like the inversion happening here: the “modern” Iriali have outlawed it, but the “conservative/religious” ones accept it with no problem. The singers have 4 distinct gender identities. I know that this is sometimes contested, whether they are really genders or not, but we have not seen much of singer society as of now. Brandon promised that we would get more of that, so I guess we will see. I don’t think Brandon would call them gender identities if they weren’t such, but again, he is a cis man, so his view on “gender identity” might be flawed. I think you could do some interesting things with the singers. They are explicitly shape-shifters, taking on forms as demand dictates. Again, you could easily have a singer that is femalen in one form and malen in a different one or even change from malen to female in the same form (this all depends on how forms exactly work; we’ve only seen a limited amount, and gender seems to be tied to some). This could also indicate how singers would treat, say, non-binary people. This ties in with the Sibling, who we know does not identify as male or female and also not as malen or femalen, so they are either older than the singers and thus not shaped as much by their perception, or it was enough of a part in singer society for them to pass it on the the spren, as it were. According to Syl, some spren do have 4 gender identities, which I think Brandon has confirmed is because of the singers. I also think it would be neat if singers would be referred to as they/them if they are children or even teenagers, leaving it up to them to decide. At least, I guess you could say the first time they go into the storm to adopt a form would determine their pronouns. Again, we don’t have much information on singer children, so we don’t know what form they have when they are born. Also, I love the idea of an entirely Asexual race (well, mostly). I think Brandon has alluded that not all forms are Ace, mate form included. Personally, I think this does Ace people a little bit of a disservice. Lots of Ace people have sex, some enjoy it themselves, some enjoy it because their partner enjoys, it really is (as always) a spectrum. At its essence, Asexual only means that you do not experience sexual attraction and is not tied to sex drive or the desire to have sex. The singers could easily all be Ace and still reproduce enough. I… guess this is all? If you’re still here: thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed my rambling thoughts! Maybe this starts a discussion on queerness, maybe not. But I wanted to post it regardless because I've been thinking about it, like, a lot. (I hope there are not too many spelling or grammar errors.)

So I visited https://cosmere.es/, and they have a really cool wallpaper that shows five Shardworlds. The middle one is Roshar with it's easily recognizable supercontinent, the left one is probably Scadrial during the Final Empire as it's basically a hellscape but I can't figure out the rest of them. I'm barely a beginner in Spanish, so I can't quite navigate their site either (& not getting great connection in the monsoon season so the auto-translation isn't working well, & I'm slow at tech) If they do answer the question somewhere on the site itself could someone link me to that please?

The flute I'm refering to is the flute that Hoid gives to Kaladin and he leaves in the camps. This question was prompted by this WOB So do we know anything about this? Can someone find where TLR is described?