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Cosmere Theory My Partner and I have a Nahel-type bond: Much like every Radiant in the Stormlight Archive, we made our Oaths in good faith, but we learn both the true nature and the true power of that Bond only through shared experiences. Unlike the Skybreakers, we cannot be told simply what the ideals are; we must discover them ourselves, and we will either know them and progress, or not. To really double-down on our Sanderson Nerdosity, during complete Pandemic Lock-Down (before Rhythm of War), we adopted two cats: One orange female, and one grey-white-speckled male. After looking through dozens of mythologies and legends for famous or historical red-haired females, we decided upon Shallan as a perfect name for a very young cat who makes questionable choices. On one hand, our grey-and-white male appears to be partially Norwegian Forest Cat, and has a magnificent mane of floof that is perpetually in a (fashionably) messy state. On the other hand, as he has grown, his pattern has constantly changed, while somehow still remaining the same… Pattern. We named our other cat Pattern, because our human child thought ‘Adolin’ was too regal-sounding for our derpy floof who still has difficulty interacting in the Physical Realm. So, I’m walking through our house, and commenting on how our feline Shallan has a Spren (Pattern the Cat), and my Partner corrects me: “Shallan has TWO Spren. Which one is Testament?” Well, this began a roil of thoughts in my head that I began to spit out as soon as I could think: There is constant reminding of Compounding as a mathematical and magical trait in the Cosmere. We are given the phrase ‘Compounding’ specifically as early as Alloy of Law, wherein Miles Hundredlives is using both Allomancy and Feruchemy to get a different effect from what would normally be the result of 1 +1. We are also told --repeatedly—by Khriss that Roshar has evidence of several symbiotic Bonds that produce different effects that what they historically created. We know that the Cosmere has a great deal of crossover, *particularly* revealed in Rhythm of War, where we see Aviar with Talents from the Pantheon, The Iridescent Tones from Hallendren, and the influence of Thaidakar. So, in as many words as possible, I’m getting around to this: Compounding exists. Holding Two Shards Exists (Sazed/ Harmony) It is possible to bond to two Spren simultaneously (Shallan w/ Pattern and Testament) Stormlight, Lifelight, Voidlight, Towerlight, Warlight, Anti-Voidlight, and Anti-Stormlight all exist. The Tones of Roshar and the Iridescent Tones both exist on Roshar. Dalinar is Bonded to Honor (Via the Stormfather), cultivated by Cultivation, and both groomed and in a pact with Odium (the Power, if no longer Rayse). What makes this compounding, alloying, and directing of and by Shards most interesting is that Cultivation gave Taravangian the capacity to take Odium’s Power. That isn’t the same thing as Sazed claiming both Preservation and Ruin, but it is an example of a slightly different dynamic: Cultivation has her tendrils in both Dalinar and Taravangien, and despite the Will of Odium, that has to count for something. Even if it takes 6 books for that Cultivation to bear real fruit. Raboniel was able to create a weapon that could kill a god, while (presumably) being tied only to Odium. Dalinar has strong ties to Honor and Odium, yes, but the power of Cultivation cannot be understated, particularly when both the powers of Honor and Cultivation will inevitably come into play against Odium (and that's before assuming that extra Shards don't weigh in for the next 5-book arc!)

I was just curious to know what kind of voicing you gave Nightblood as you read his dialog in Warbreaker and his appearances in Stormlight Archive. Almost immediately for me, the voice that came to me was Kristoffer Tabori's HK-47 from Knight of the Old Republic. IMO, Nightblood as a character was comically detached and had a naive bloodthirsty worldview that only a soulless construct could have. So that filtered, morbidly cheery sound from HK-47 is what really fit for me. Naturally, I was a little thrown off when I heard Michael Kramer's rendition of Nightblood's voice in the Stormlight audiobooks, but that isn't his fault. So I'm curious what other readers think. Who or what was your muse when imagining Nightblood's voice? Who do you think would fit as a voice actor should there ever be a film adaptation?

SPOILER WARNING: Write-up contains spoilers for events till Crossroads of Twilight. A little more than a month had passed since Egwene had tricked and manipulated the Aes Sedai into a war against Elaida. They had tried to disagree and interfere of course, but once the war was declared, the Law of War firm stood. Maximum control of the tower resided with the Amyrlin Seat. They had opened a portal to Dragonmount, and preparations were being made to launch the siege of the White Tower, in case the emissary sent to negotiate with Elaida failed. Egwene had just finished the meeting in which she had suggested an embassy to travel to the Black Tower and bond with Asha’man. Following the events at Shadar Logoth, they could no longer afford inaction. Of course, the suggestion shook the core of the Aes Sedai, but as she had hoped, enough of them were scared by the events- more scared of it than whatever awaited them at Black Tower, to spur them into action. In the end, her gamble paid off, as her call for vote was answered with a greater consensus. Glad, but tired from the night’s proceedings, she heads to her lodging, without a clue about the horrifying events the night had yet to offer. Welcome to QF 50: Return to Tar Valon! This game was supposed to be a rerun of QF22, corrected for the problems mentioned by @Wyrmhero in the aftermath. Well, what ended up as the final product does not look like the original game at all. So consider this as a heavily re-modeled, re-flavored version of that game. This game will be run by me (@TJ Shade if you want anything), and will be moderated impartially by the wonderful Araris (@Araris Valerian). I'll be posting the rules below, but if you're need a doc version, here you go. Signups will end on Thursday, January 14th at 23:30 IST [GMT +05:30] and the game will begin as soon as I can get the PMs and Cycle 1 posted. Rules: Player List: Spectators: Pinch-hitters: Clarifications: Quicklinks:

This is really something that just came up in my mind, but I thought I'd share it here, even though it's likely been asked before. How I think that atium functions is that it lets a person see someone else's relative spiritual aspect, or something along those line, as I don't have proper terminology to explain it how I wish. Anyway, as we know, Szeth died near the end of Words of Radiance, but was subsequently resurrected by Nin-son-God. However, his soul didn't reattach properly, and so lagged behind his body when he moved, especially quickly. This raises the question; would the atium shadow track his physical body, or his soul which is lagging? And if it tracked his soul, would that mean that he'd be largely able to cancel out the effects of atium foresight?

So, Adonalsium. The essential God of the cosmere, shattered into the sixteen shards. Or, was he really a God? My theory (not backed up with particular evidence) is that Adonalsium is not really God himself. After all, how would a true God fall to a weapon made by (at least relatively) mortals? My theory is that Adonalsium himself was/is something akin to a shard of an actual god, but not a god that was fully shattered, per se. (so now that i write this out it sounds kinda wack) This would make all of the shards of Adonalsium essentially be shards of shards. It would also be a neat explanation of why we don't have Investiture, as that would have been taken by Adonalsium. I put this on here just so that I could clear my mind of this idea. I would like to see what the community has to say on this, although it's likely that big Brandon has already answered a question similar to this. I don't quite have the time to go looking for evidence right now, but the idea just popped into my head when I was reading Oathbringer and Evi was talking about the One, as I kinda think that that religion may be a corruption of an ancient religion that worshipped the Big Adonai himself.

My signed copy of Words of Radiance arrived today, after a good two months, but it was worth it! I asked the question: If Elendel is named after Elend, who is Luthadel named after? This was just a question I thought of during a re-read of Alloy of Law. I just thought that I'd find a cool bit of trivia that could be put up on the Coppermind or something. But then... I have a feeling that the identity of Lutha or Luthad will become important later on in the Alloy of Law arc. What do you guys think?