Search the Community

THIS THREAD CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR STORMLIGHT ARCHIVES, SILENCE DIVINE, AND ARCANUM UNBOUNDED. And I don't know how to make spoiler boxes. So, Ashyn. The first world from the sun in the Greater Rosharan system, with no [current] Shard and disease-based magic. And a novella (The Silnce Divine, which may be renamed) which will hopefully come out in the next five years or so. There are several theories and some (but not much) information about. Hopefully, this thread can be the base for that theorizing about, and a place to collect all those elusive WoBs. So first, the major facts: 1. It is the first planet from the sun in the Greater Rosharan System, with no known moons. Humans live there in upside-down, floating cities and farm the few fertile patches. 2. At some point in its history, it suffered a major cataclysm which destroyed most of the planet's surface- hence the few fertile patches. The reading Brandon did described the surface as burning, lines of red writhing across the surface. 3. It currently has no Shard, although Brandon RAFO'd a question on if it used to have a Shard. 4. The magic system is disease based. The diseases grant certain magical abilities, with prophecy and flight/floating being shown in the story. Second, the [major] theories: 1. The most prominent theory is that Ashyn is the basis for the Tranquiline Halls in Vorinism on Roshar, which, if true, indicates some contact between the two in the past. 2. Another theory suggests that Cultivation used to live on Ashyn before the cataclysm, and then went to Roshar. The problem with this is that there are people still on Ashyn, so why she would abandon them is unclear. 3. Yet another, not so important theory is that Ashyn is the Reya's Tear star seen from Roshar. Planets do look like especially bright stars if you don't know the difference, so it is possible. Actually, there is not much talk about Ashyn. Not much information either. Ah well.... My first theory: 1. Ashyn's magic system bears a resemblance to First of the Sun's magic system. Both use symbiosis to grant powers through natural means, unlike the various Shardworld system that we've seen. This indicates that First of the Sun's and Ashyn's magic systems may have been designed by Adonalsium, and therefore predate his Shattering. 2. The Vorin legends on Roshar indicate that Ashyn's cataclysm may have been caused by Odium (the Voidbringers kicked mankind out of the Tranquiline Halls). However, a passing mention of the danger of the diseases in the reading indicates that a disease-granted power may have been the cause. Any other information or theories? Please post it here! Here is the transcription: [Eelyell?] was awakened by the whispering of the dead child who followed him.“Haszh betaszh bejzak” The girl’s words were often gibberish, though usually he could make out a few of them. Tonight he couldn’t even understand a single one. Which made the whispering even more eerie.[Eelyell] sat up in his cot realizing he had fallen asleep in his uniform again. He looked across the darkened room, seeking out the child. There, she hid in the shadows beside the wooden bin that held his canes. Small, maybe four years old, she had long straight blonde hair that hung down by her face, ears peeking out like rocks in the sand.She met his eyes, “Haszh betazh bejzak,” she whispered. It would be nice when that particular Echo passed.[Eelyell] rose tugging at his crumpled jacket, still enough of a soldier to feel ashamed at its state. His father would have had [Eelyell]]’s head if he’d seen such a uniform. Climbing from bed [Eelyell] took the cane beside it for support, then walked out onto the balcony. He put his back to the dead child, she was a figment, an echo, a side-effect from an Incubation he’d done a few years back. It was so long ago that he was losing hope that this Echo would ever fade. He might be stuck with a hallucination, for good.He stepped out onto the balcony, using the cane by habit though he was currently strong enough that he didn’t need it to walk. He was recovering from his Incubation two months back. The grind from that one had finally worn off. In fact he was probably too strong, he’d been getting too much sleep lately, eating too well. He needed to keep a certain level of physical weakness so he could be open to Incubations, assuming he wanted to remain effective in his duties. And he did want to remain effective, for his own reasons, if not for the Corps themselves.Outside on the balcony, the sky burned. It smoldered high above, deep red lines, the color of a serpent’s tongue, like rips in the air. The magma cast a warm red light across the city of [suigmaat]. As always the air smelled faintly of smoke, though he only noticed it when he was first stepping out of the building into the open air. He knew logically that the burning place he saw above was actually the ground. He knew [suigmaat] flew in the air, a city reversed, one of the few bastions of life left in the burning land. [Eelyell] was the one who was upside-down, as were all of the city’s inhabitants. It didn’t feel that way to him, he’d lived here too long. Upward was towards the burning ground and the land, downwards was toward the sky and the sun. Things he never saw except on the rare occasion he was called upon to visit the farms and orchards on the city’s sunward side.[Eelyell] stood for a time, holding to the cast-iron railing, staring up at the burning swathes high above. Molten rivers, a land destroyed. A warning flag, raised to them all. Omnipresent. Undeniable. The city itself slept beneath that scarlet glare, bathed in red.“Hiszh betaszh druk,” the girl whispered from behind. She’d crawled out onto the balcony and now sat there looking up at the air.[Eelyell] glanced at her, “Kareem’s gaze you’re a creepy one,” he whispered, “What must I do to be rid of you?”“Hiszh beaszh diruk.”He tapped his finger on the railing and then strode back into his quarters, splashed some water on his face, and checked the sword blade of his walking cane. Seconds later he was out the door.The offices of the Corps did not look as a police station should. A police station was supposed to be a box like thing, stable and functional, designed to indicate to all who visited that this was not a place where nonsense was permitted. Those ornamented columns, etched with the silver serpents of [Mokdeelor], those golden doors, those soldiers with ridiculous feathered helms. Those were not the symbols of efficient law-keeping. In [Eelyell]’s opinion they were quite the opposite.He walked up the steps and approached the guards, who were at least armed with functional halberds and two foot-long pistols at the belt. They saluted him by raising fists to their sides. As an incubator he outranked everyone in this building, except of course the ones who actually mattered. [Eelyell] felt a moment of lightheadedness at the top of the steps and was forced to pause there, gripping the railing and leaning on his cane. So he wasn’t completely well, good. Neither guard stepped to help him, weakness was expected of Incubators, one of the marks of their station and being near one of them at the wrong time could be dangerous. One need only to look upward at the burning land to be reminded of just how dangerous.When his head cleared, he continued up the steps, cane clicking, and passed the men without returning their salute. He stopped just inside the building however, coming alert. Motion. Lesser watchmen calling to one another in a large room, aides carrying stacks of paper. Red eyes and yawns accompanied both groups. Many of these people had been called up unexpectedly, despite the very early hour.“[Eelyell]?” A woman rushed up to him through the bustle. [Cual] wore the yellow and blue uniform of an Incubator, like his own but better fitting and far better cut. “You look like ash man,” she said, “Aren’t you still on grind leave?”[Eelyell] looked back at the hall, reading the motion of the bodies. Nobody was going to the weapon’s locker, though riot gear had been set out to the side. Large metal shields and larger swords cordoned in rubber from trees that grew on the sunward side. The people here were getting ready for something, but he didn’t know what yet. A prophecy, he guessed.“I still can’t believe they called you up,” [Cual] said, “You deserve some relaxation after--”“I will visit [Patseepa],” [Eelyell] interupted, striding through the room and leaving [Cual] behind. He tried not to let himself be carried away in the chaos. The event that he was waiting for would come eventually, but this might not be it. [Patseepa] made prophesies with some frequency, that was why the Corps maintained her, and why she carried her terrible burden.It was difficult not to feel tense however, in the rooms frenzy. Nearby a scribe turned and accidentally knocked over an hourglass, smashing it to the floor and spraying sand across it. He spared the sand a glance, it always drew his attention, but he otherwise ignored it, focussing on a set of doors at the back of the room. This must have been an alarming prophecy in deed to cause such a fuss. The guards at these doors were even more flowery with feathers on their shields after an old fashion style almost no one used any longer. The [Moknee] people were now as advanced a people as [Eelyell] had ever known. His own browning-tan skin and dark hair blended in here well enough that he could have passed more [Moknee] himself, assuming he didn’t open his mouth. Which he was never good at doing.These guards let him pass too and no scribes or watchmen beset him in the hall beyond. Only Incubators were allowed in here. Unfortunately while they presented a more solemn group, it was no less unruly in its own right. Some two dozen of them clumped together at the other end of the darkened hallway like a clot of hair in a drain. [Eelyell] strode forward passing doors on either side set with glass. The small, well-lit rooms beyond weren’t exactly cells, just like their occupants weren’t exactly prisoners, they just couldn’t leave. With the hallways dark and the rooms lit, each window glowed, like they looked into other worlds. Other worlds inhabited by the sick.It was hard to think of it that way, after so long in this land. The people in those rooms were not simply ill, they were lay Incubators, their job was to stay in those little rooms, bearing their afflictions until they started to recover. Whereupon another individual would be brought in to catch their malady, ensuring the Incubation itself didn’t vanish. It was good money, assuming you didn’t mind the discomfort, which could range from the sniffles to deadly fevers, depending on the Incubation you agreed to receive. And of course there were... other benefits. In one room he passed the occupant, a young man, hovered in the air, reading a book and in another an elderly woman idly tapped on a cup, changing the color of the liquid inside with each tap. In [suigmaat], in fact on this entire land, every disease also granted a special capacity. That ability lasted as long as the ailment did. Many of these blessings were minor, while others were grand. Some few were very, very dangerous. Hence the existence of the Incubators, and of the Corps itself. In-depth look at the reading: The mention of pistols, and the whole floating-city thing, indicates that they may possess some amount of technological advances. However, they are still using swords, helms, and metal shields, so this may be magic-based in nature. It does mention glass doors and rubber, which are fairly recent advancements. There are only "a few bastions of civilization left", so there are probably not that many floating cities. Also, the food supply probably severely limits population growth. The city "suigmaat" (spelling may be wrong) is one of these, and is home to the Moknee people. The feather decorations and black hair/browning-tan skin may indicate a Native American-esque influence. The other cities possibly possess different cultures and levels of technology. Sunward side: Indicates that the planet may not be rotating around an axis. May or may not pre-date or have been caused by the global cataclysm.

For the longest time I've only had the audiobook of The Way of Kings, so for my birthday I decided to get a signed copy. Since I heard that you could ask a question when you got it personalized I asked: "Is the Rear Endsheat about Cultivation's or Odium's magic system? Does it involve Fabrials, Gemhearts, or Voidbringers?" This was my response: For the record I don't think the current theory about it being Odium's system for Voidbringers is correct. I think that it is Cultivation's magic system, involving the use of gemhearts from certain greatshells to create the fabrials that replicate the various surges. Unfortunately, when I tried to make my question fit within the character limit on the personalization, I left the question a little to open ended. I'm trying to decided if this tells us anything new, so I'm posting it here for help. There is also a mark on the top of the book near the Interludes between Part 3 and 4, but I don't think that means anything. If Peter or Brandon reads this, I would like to say Thank You. I know asking for this right near the release of WoR couldn't have made things easier, so I really appreciate you taking the time to do this for me.

As some of you may know, Alaxel is... on an enforced break from the forums for the next while. The circumstances surrounding his absence aside, Alaxel got in touch with me via email (apparently I'm one of the few people who has an email address on record ) and asked me to post some info on his behalf. I am ever eager for new WoB, so I agreed to serve as his agent in this matter. Without further ado: Alaxel got a personalized copy of WoK, and written in it was "Odium and Hoid were once friends." I would like to publicly thank Alaxel for sharing this info, and say that I take this as a good sign that we can turn over a new leaf and avoid hurtful/heated discourse going forward. ----- EDIT: So far as analysis goes, this indicates that Hoid's hatred of Rayse now is the fruit of some poisoned friendship rather than a lifelong rivalry.

I saw this quote on Dragonmount: So this either means that Szeth didn't have a Shardblade or that Shardblades didn't used to have the "thou shalt not cut the living" specification. I'm leaning towards the latter, due to Szeth needing to take on a Shardbearer at the end of the road, which would have been slightly more impossible with a normal sword. Theories about Szeth's Truthless-ness and/or powers being tied to the sword also wouldn't work if it was a normal blade. I like that Brandon changed it. I wouldn't have fainted or anything if there had been gore, but it does provide a nice thematic resonance--stated outright several times in the book--in that Shardblades were never really meant to be used against people.

In light of this thread (which I stumbled across quite accidentally), a way that Shardplate could work has occurred to me. Here is the relevant Q&A: We know that you can "regrow" lost parts of a set of Plate by feeding it Stormlight. This means that Plate almost certainly already has Stormligh locked away inside of it. Since we know that, the phrase "locked away" is interesting. That implies that the Stormlight can be released. We know that Shardplate derives its power from Stormlight in gems embedded in it, but what if that power is only accessed indirectly? By that, I mean that the gems could simply be feeding into the Plate's reserves as they diminish, maintaining operational power levels while the Plate itself did all the work. Like a wasteful laptop design that always draws power through the battery even when plugged into AC. (I take the above as fairly obvious, while the below is speculation. You have been warned): I would posit that Shardplate is capable of acting as a perfect or near-perfect "battery" of Stormlight, and that the current use of Plate leaves its "Stormlight levels" at only the absolute minimum amount of Stormlight necessary to retain its integrity, with large amounts of storage yet to be used. Presumably, this is a design feature so that Plate can repair itself while not being used, but not then go on to suck the life out of it's environment. It could also be the case that Plate stores Stormlight less and less efficiently the more it has, leveling off at the "default" state we see in WoK. The reason modern Plate needs infused gems embedded in it, then, is because Plate's "power armor" attributes draw upon those Stormlight reserve. It was necessary, then, for non-surgebinders to "hack" Plate and attach gemstones to it so that it could use power. Presumably, Plate refuses to use power that it absolutely needs to maintain its integrity. It also seems that Plate can only siphon a relatively small amount of Stormlight out of infused gems at any one time. So as Dalinar's Plate became more and more damaged, its movements grew weaker and weaker (IIRC) as more of the Plate's "gem bandwidth" was redirected to maintaining integrity. Back in the days of the KR, then, Plate did not have any gemstones embedded in it (thus getting around Szeth's problem). So surgebinders would simply put reserves of raw Stormlight into their Plate--"supercharging" it and producing the glowyness, glyphs, and disappearing helmets of Dalinar's vision--and then both Surgebinders and the Plate itself would draw upon that spare Stormlight as needed. On the matter of Dalinar glowing, Szeth disliking Plate, and Elokhar's gems being cracked: Dalinar's Plate glowing could be a case of him unconsciously drawing upon the gemstones on his person or in his Plate and then re-infusing them into the Plate directly, either at a much higher rate than or, at the very least, in addition to the normal flow of Stormlight from the gems. Elokhar, if he is drawing on his armor's gems instead of being sabotaged, could be doing the exact same thing, perhaps continually emptying his Plates gems every time he uses it, putting them under undue strain and leading to the excess cracking (pg 758). Szeth. I hate that guy. He could be wrong, the gem-hack that modern plate uses could be what interferes with his Lashings, instead of the Plate itself, or I could be wrong. Assuming the second option, Dalinar isn't exactly Lashing things left and right, so it could be that Szeth would be perfectly capable of re-infusing stormlight into a set of Plate, he just prefers being able to use his Lashings. I know I'm posting a lot of thread lately, but I don't recall this particular postulation (though my track record lately isn't a very good indicator of the quality of my memory) and I wanted to get it out there. TL;DR: Plate is natively infused with Stormlight, which infusion can only be effectively increased and utilized by a surgebinder, and the current "gem powered" system of Plate is a hack so that non-surgebinders can use it.

Just a quick tidbit that I found in the interview database: It was filed under the Alcatraz section, which may be why it has (to my knowledge) been missed so far. I would guess that this is going to be a plot point in the planned Warbreaker sequel, probably involved in whatever war needs to be broken next (pun! ). I also found a Mistborn factoid on the same trawl.

I honestly cannot recall if this has been settled yet, so feel free to slap me down, but I remember discussions about whether it is decisions or actions that attract spren/bring about magical ability on Roshar. As a result of skulking over on the WoT boards (don't ask why), I found this little gem: "[brandon] talked about the link between his magic systems. One of the core principles is 'investing'. In l lot of his systems people are trough some mechanism invested with magic powers. In Elantris trough the Shaod, In mistborn it's genetic, in tWoK it depends on what some one has done." So it is actions, not just decisions or intentions, that take the day. Aristotle would approve. This does leave open the possibility that the actions have to be taken for the right reasons (netting maximum Aristotelian approval points), though. Personally, I think that you do have to act for the right reasons. Kaladin protecting young soldiers so that he can start a murder-cult probably wouldn't have attracted Syl. Discuss.

I'm not sure if this is old, old news, but I just noticed this tidbit from the interview database: If this isn't simply Brandon misspeaking, then this implies that only Scadralians can actually use Hemalurgy, at least to one degree or another. It could mean that a Scadralian needs to be the onle to place the spike (in the victim and/or the recipient) and/or it could be that a Scadrialian is the only one who can benefit from a spike. We already know that spikes can steal anything they please, so you don't need to be special to be a victim of Hemalurgy. Any way you slice it, it makes spikes a bit less "oh, you got a metal splinter? There goes your magic!" and a bit more deliberate. I'm inclined to think that this means that only sentient Scadralians can actually create Hemalurgic spikes, and that they must be in contact with the spike at the moment when they use it on their victim. This would explain why bullets haven't spiked out Mile's Augur or Bloodmaker abilities yet, at the very least. We then have this possibly conflicting bit: Eh. Could go either way. He doesn't specify Hemalurgy as the one that people could discover by accident, so it could just be that you'd need some worldhopper DNA before you could do anything. --- Just wanted to get this out there and spur some discussion, back the Shardblades and Hemalurgic decay!

Hey guys/gals. I know you're probably getting tired of my time bubble threads by now, but now I have actual new information, so stuff might start happening. I asked some time bubble questions on the Q&A, and here are the answers: In general, a large object going through a time bubble is not going to notice. An object is either in or out, and it depends in part on how the object views itself. People inside the train would be inside of its influence, and wouldn't notice the bubble. The spear would go from one to the other, but would never be in both. We have definite confirmation of objects always being entirely in/out. We also have the example of a passenger in a train being unaffected by a Cadmium bubble which the train passes through. This might fall under my distension theory, with the train distending the bubble away from it's passengers, but we also have the intriguing statement that it "depends in part on how the object views itself." So a passenger who doesn't view him/herself as "on" the train might be affected? Or is that too broad an interpretation for "in part?" Don't worry, I won't subject you to a mega-post (yet). Theorize away!

Taking a gander at the Google+ Hangout with Brandon back on the 17th, this tidbit is in the comments: There you have it! The Caton shall rise and take over the Cosmere starting in 2034. Only 22 years to go until then! In fact, the Rise of the Caton (tentative title) will probably be Sanderson's Cosmere-spanning series, showing us all of our favorite worlds and characters being defeated and spiked by the Caton. Victory is in (very distant) sight!