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Here on earth, the year is measured by how long it takes our planet to make one trip around the sun. On Roshar, the year is measured by the Highstorm cycle; 1000 days of 10 10-week months. This would imply that the characters in the Stormlight Archive are older than we might assume given the number of years they've lived. Let's take Shallan for example: In WoR, she says she's 17 years old, meaning she's been alive for roughly 17,000 days. If we were to convert that into earth time, that would mean that Shallan is about 46 earth-years old.

WHAT IS IT?? HAS ANYONE FOUND IT YET? Here is a picture. One, two, three, theorize!!

Humans existed before the Shattering of Adonalsium. We know this. Besides the existence of the original Shardholders that we know to have been human (Ati and Leras) and Hoid themselves, we know from Sazed's epigraphs in Hero of Ages that Preservation and Ruin created human life on Scadrial based on a form they had seen elsewhere. So, human life existed before Adonalsium was Shattered into Shards. This is established. But what about sapient races other than humans? Besides Adonalsium itself (most likely a singular being), every sapient species we have seen besides humans was either created from or by humans in some way (Kandra, Koloss, Elantrians, Nightblood), or are themselves splinters of a shard of Adonalsium (Seons, Skaze, Returned, most Spren), or splinters of Adonalsium directly (other Spren). Except on Roshar. The Listeners (or Parshendi if you prefer) are the first example we've seen of a sapient species that has no obvious connection to humanity or to a shard. Words of Radiance gives us much insight into the Listeners. I have transcribed a few choice bits: Words of Radiance, Interlude 5 (pages 395 and 396 in the hardcover edition). Listener Song of Secrets, 40th Stanza, epigraph of Chapter 28 of Words of Radiance (page 338 of the hardcover edition). Listener Song of Spren, 9th Stanza, epigraph of Chapter 32 of Words of Radiabce (page 368 of the hardcover edition) Listener Song of Secrets, Final Stanza, epigraph of Chapter 34 of Words of Radiance (page 385 of the hardcover edition) There's a common thread in all of the quotes I noted above- the idea of the Listeners having been betrayed by the Spren. On the surface, this idea makes no sense. The Spren have been identified by Jasnah and Shallan as being the product of human thought. So, if they were created by human thought, how could it be a betrayal for them to work with the humans? Many, if not all, of the Spren are splinters. We know, from the Word of Brandon, that many Spren are splinters of Honor or Cultivation, or some combination thereof (note). We also know that some are splinters of Adonalsium itself, directly, which he had left on Roshar intentionally (note). Humans are Children of Honor. Honor and Cultivation arrived on Roshar together. Odium arrived later. What evidence we have points to humans having been created by Honor, or by Honor and Cultivation. Honor and Cultivation are shards, so logically they cannot have existed prior to the Shattering. So, if there were no humans on Roshar prior to the Shattering, why did Adonalsium leave splinters of himself on that planet? I deduce that there was a sentient species already present on Roshar before the creation of humans- the Listeners. Either naturally evolved or, more likely, a creation of Adonalsium. Why do the Listeners see the Spren working with the humans as a betrayal? Because they, the original Spren, worked with the Listeners first. The humans came later, and some of the Spren, whether the older Adonalsium-based ones or the newer Honor/Cultivation based ones, chose to work with the humans instead. Why? Because Honor and Cultivation made the humans "meatier" for the Spren, as opposed to the brothy Listeners. So, when Odium came, and created Spren (or perhaps empowered existing Spren?) with his own splinters, in order to destroy, the Listeners turned to them as their gods. "Our gods were born splinters of a soul, of one who seeks to take control, destroys all the land that he beholds, with spite." Note that several passages confirm that the Listeners turned to their gods after this betrayal; I think this makes it abundantly clear that Odium did not, himself, create the Listeners (in case anyone wanted to argue for that). All that aside, we have this: The above quote is from the second letter in the epigraphs of Part 4 of Words of Radiance. It is, by my interpretation, a clear statement that Roshar (and possibly the other worlds in the Roshar System) were shaped directly by Adonalsium. All this seems indicative to me. I theorize that the Listeners were created by Adonalsium before the Shattering. This raises some interesting questions, if true. Why would Honor and Cultivation choose to create humans on a world that was already inhabited by sapient life? Were the Listeners changed by the arrival of the two shards? What was the relationship between humans and Listeners before the arrival of Odium? In any event, I am certainly interested in hearing thoughts on this theory, and on the questions it raises.

I wrapped up a Dalinar portrait study recently with the intent of updating this: It's been sitting on my digital easel for a while as I basically procrastinated getting into finishing up the uniform and such, but I eventually decided to just let it be a face study and move on with life. So without further ado, here's my interpretation of Dalinar Kholin, one of my absolute favorite literary characters EVER. I feel good about this one, in that I feel like I'm learning and making progress with each portrait. It's fun/painful to look back and see where I came from, but hopefully I can keep up the growing and someday maybe Brandon will hire me to paint a piece or too (wink wink, Brandon Sanderson. Wink. Wink.) Lastly, I wanted to throw in a little preview of the next piece of fanart that I'm starting into. It's just a rough sketch right now (and I mean seriously ROUGH), but it's starting to take the shape I want, and I figure that if I throw 'er in here, I'll be held a bit more accountable to actually get the thing done in a timely manner. It's a scene that I'm kinda hoping to make into part of a series, and it'll be called Kaladin, Healer - 1. To be followed by future Healer scenes, and then things like: Kaladin, Warrior or Radiant or Betrayed, or whatever. If y'all have good ideas for scenes or themes to mix into the series, I'd love to hear them! Here's the rough: p.s. When I previewed this post, the little rough drawing is SUPER tiny. Anyone know how to up the size of the thing? I couldn't figure it out...

This is my First Theory post, please feel free to tell me if you think i'm horrifically off-base or if there's a WoB that I haven't encountered that disproves this. I'm working my way back through Way of Kings and something in Hoid's conversation with Dalinar in Ch. 54: Gibletish, struck me as odd this time through - Specifically the mention of Adonalsium. The general consensus, that he was just name-dropping the God-Shard's name to see if Dalinar knew it, leaves a crucial question unanswered: Why did Hoid think that Dalinar would have heard that name before? The obvious answer is that he knew Dalinar's visions were coming from Honor and didn't know what information was included in those visions. However, the way in which Hoid did the name drop stood out to me this time. "Wit," Dalinar said with a sigh. "I haven't the mind for this tonight. I'm sorry if I'm missing your intent, but I have no idea what you mean." "I know," Wit said, then looked directly at him. "Adonalsium." This seems like an odd way to go about checking if he knew that name, even if you ignore that Hoid is being a bit more direct than usual during that bit of conversation. To me, it seems almost as if Hoid is calling Dalinar Adonalsium, rather than just checking to see if the highprince recognized it. If that is the case, then the implication would be that Dalinar is somehow a reincarnation of the consciousness that was originally behind Adonalsium, and Hoid was calling him that to see if there would be any reaction. Is there something in how Dalinar is acting that reminds Hoid (who we know was present when Adonalsium was shattered) of the mind behind the being? So, what does everyone think? Am I just misreading it, or could this be a very real possibility? Or have I missed a WoB that completely counters what I'm proposing?

So we know that Southern Scadrial has used technology for allomancy, rather than organics. We also know that there will be a space trilogy in mistborn. So this brings up a few questions: 1: Will they be able to reach other planets in the Cosmere? So far, the only people visiting between planets are worldhoppers, presumably through use of shardpools. Is this the only way, or is it possible to reach other planets with a few years of travel? 2: If so, will there be a showoff between mistblades and shardblades? Southern Scadrial has had years to design and perfect technology. Surely they have had time to create superpowered swords. And if they have, then that leads to the all-important question: If Shardblades coalesce out of and into mist, will mistblades explode into shards when dismissed? 3: Does 17th shard have a headquarters, and if so, will Scadrial find it? If so, it would result in either a drastic increase in the numbers of 17th sharders or an all-out war. I'm hopeful for either one.

I just went to a book signing with Brandon Sanderson, and I asked him the following questions. I think you'll find his answers interesting. Me: Did any kandra survive the end of Hero of Ages? Brandon: Yes. M: Are there any kandra on Roshar? B: Yes. M: Is Axies one of them? B: No, but good guess. The Aimians are a different race. M: Did any Atium survive the Hero of Ages? B: Yes. M: We know that Hoid has a bead of Lerasium. Does he have any atium? B: He has access to atium, yes. M: Does Hoid use his feruchemical abilities with the atium to see the future? B: Ah ah ah, I haven't confirmed that Hoid had feruchemical abilities. M: You haven't? B: No, but most people think he has allomancy. (He grinned slyly when he said that, which may or may not be a red herring. You really can't tell with him.) M: Do Axies's and Jasnah's reversed shadows have a common source? B: Yes. M: Does it have anything to do with its draw towards Investiture? B: (After a pause) It has more to do with Shadesmar than Investiture. M: What does Investiture look like in the Spiritual Realm? B: Er, I haven't said anything about that yet. M: But is it important? B: Yes, it's important. M: Could you say that it looks anything like mist? B: Well you could say that it looks anything like mist. (He smiled here as well, but I think it was just because he was teasing me) M: Can you give me a hint about the Parshendi gods? It can't be Odium, right? Because it's plural... B: No, it's not Odium. The Parshendi gods... (he paused here for a while) are closer to what the humans would call "Heralds." There you guys go. I tried my best to remember his exact wording, but I may have gotten a couple words off. I wrote it down a few minutes after I talked to him. Good luck theorizing!

I'm no expert on this, but as I was reading Words of Radiance, I noticed that it was common for people to have one light-eye and one dark-eye, as well as streaks of mixed hair colors. For a human on Earth, this would be very rare, and only plausible in the case of a mutation. Are people on Roshar different than people on Earth, and if so, will we see greater effects of it besides hair and eye color?

So reading WoR I came to a intresting conclusion. The heroes will have to go to Braize to eventually fight Odium. When do you guys think that will happen? I personally think SA 9 then someone dies and they finish it in the next book. Here are some questions I have: How the heck are the going to get to Braize- Answer: Hoid and other Worldhoppers Any comments?

So we have a WoB that goes something like this The only thing I noticed was the map is somewhat in the shape of a ying/yang symbol (or an Aes Sedai symbol!). Any of our supertalented spotters catch anything else? Edit: Adding a link to the physical realm map http://brandonsanderson.com/beta/wp-content/gallery/stormlight-2-maps-and-illustrations-2/WoR_endpaper-2.jpg Edit 2: Adding a link to the Shadesmar map http://coppermind.net/w/images/Shadesmar_%28TWoK%29.jpg Edit 3: Adding link to black and white Roshar map http://coppermind.net/w/images/Roshar.jpg Edit 4: Congratulations to Veil and Jensen for Figuring It Out on page 31! Summary/Things we found. Thank you to Veil for putting all this together! Here is her wonderful Summary.

Base Information Names (included for convenience) Personality The man in the Prelude to The Way of Kings has always interested me. This may in fact be the the seed that began this theory. His name is given as Kalak, Herald, Patron of the Willshapers. More than this, his attitude is startalingly similar to another man we have read of in Brandon Sanderson's works. A very old man, with a very youthful body. Bourn down heavily by the weight of his age, his knowledge, his sins, and responsability. Not a man who lives for himself at all; instead, a man who lives to correct the wrongs he wishes he had never created. The man who instructed Kaladin Stormblessed to "Choose the option that makes it easiest for you to sleep at night." After all, "That's what I wish I'd done."

If you have not read Words of Radiance, stop reading here. So, after reading a post about how the Listeners (or Parshendi) could have been the inhabitants of Roshar Pre-Shattering (found here), and thinking about the fact that Shards have been known to make humans (Mistborn - I don't have the exact reference, as I'm at college and don't have my books), I figured that it is likely that either Honor or Cultivation made humans. (I couldn't see Odium doing it) Then I remembered that in Words of Radiance, the Listeners seemed to believe that the spren left them for the humans or the humans stole them (again, I can't don't have the specific reference, but I will put them in ASAP). This makes it seem like they were able to surgebind the way the Knights Radiant can once upon a time. But now, they instead have the Voidspren. In another topic, I mention how the magic systems existed without the influence of the Shards (cite here, last thing Brandon says #5), but have since been modified by the Shard's intent, (found here). So here is my theory: Pre-Shattering, the Listeners lived on Roshar and were able to surgebind, or something similar. Then, after Adonalsium shattered, the shards of Cultivation, Honor, and Odium made ended up on the Greater Roshar System. Here, their influence, (specifically Honor and Odium as we don't have examples of Cultivation yet) changed the spren into the Surgespren (as I refer to Honor's spren), Voidspren, and possible some Cultivation version. Most likely, Cultivation, with some possible influence from Honor, made humans on Roshar. Honor became associated with humanity, Odium chose the Listeners. He drastically changed the spren the Listeners could bond, but Honor's spren still granted very similar powers, making the Listeners think that the spren betrayed them and that they had to turn to the Voidspren. Let me know what you think, and I'll work on getting those references in there.

Hey all, so I'm thinking the Oathpact might be more simple than we've, or at least I've, given it credit for. The way I see it, Honour and Odium have a chat. Maybe after Odium hits Braize and forces H/C to Roshar. Honour proposes a contest. He will pick ten of his best to face any trial Odium can throw at them, if they fail Odium gets a shot at Honour, or Roshar. Odium, being tricksy, rightly points out that Honour could just never said champions to face Odium's challenges. No challenge is no failure, and thus Odium never gets a chance. Honour is like "fine, if they don't return after a while you get another shot" Odium decides fair is fair and thinks torture is the best way to challenge Honour's champions, perhaps not necessarily in keeping with Honour's understanding of the oathpact or intent but the deal has been made. The reason why the Desolations were getting fiercer over time is because with each desolation Odium gets a better idea of how to attack and make use of his resources. Just as the Spren and Heralds seem to get a better idea of the proper game plan. However, with Aharietiam the Heralds throw a wrench into this plan as Taln is too stubborn to break. Odium eventually gets frustrated and just decides to throw the deal to the wind and go at Honour. Because he's no longer acting within the bounds of the deal honour can bind him, in this case to Greater Roshar/Braize. Of course, Honour is dead, so that sucks. The way I see it, the Oathpact is the specific name for the deal Honour made with the Heralds. Thus why it doesn't include Odium as a binding participant, as per WoB...probably. In this model the Oathpact is like a contract of employment between one company Honour and ten people. I've some thoughts on Parsheni and Odium Influence that I may share later. So, that's it. If anything here is mindnumbingly simple just feel free to cruise on by.

Ok, I've already had 1 crackpot theory shot down, so I think it's time for crackpot theory #2. (I have a hard time believing no one else has come up with this theory, but I did a forum search and haven't been able to find a post about it, so I'm writing it now.) To me, one of the most fascinating aspects of WoR was being introduced to Eshonai and actually being able to learn more about the Parshendi and their society. I think there's still a lot more about them we don't know, but one thing that's clear is that somehow, in the ancient past, they lost most of their knowledge on how to create most of the different forms that used to exist in their society. We also know that the newly-discovered storm form basically changed Eshonai into a completely different personality, which wasn't really the case with the other, "milder" forms that the modern-day Parshendi had been using to that point. So, my theory is this: the spren that the Parshendi have to capture to change into storm form is Odiumspren, and once they change into that form, it's analogous to being spiked by Ruin on Scadrial. Odium can overwhelm their personality and pretty much make them do whatever he likes. Also, since Odium is not splintered like Honor, there aren't just millions of little Odiumspren floating around in the cognitive realm. Instead, Odium "releases" (or otherwise makes the capture of an Odiumspren available) in a highstorm when he knows a Parshendi is waiting to receive it. In this manner, he doesn't lose control of his own essence, but he is also able to directly control the Parshendi, much like I'm presuming he did in the Desolations of old. I don't know that I've quite thought through all of the ramifications of this, but the point that the Parshendi are being "spiked" by Odium seemed pretty clear to me when you see how radically they change when they enter storm form. It makes me wonder if there are other beings that Odium can awaken out of a "dullform" state. Like, for example, chasmfiends... EDIT: So, the WoB's that inexorablePanda quoted below make it clear that the spren are not odiumspren, but are instead spren that have been "spiked" by Odium. That's close enough for me to think that the effect is generally the same, though, with the exception that Odium can't directly tell the stormform parshendi what to do. Maybe they are just imbued with Odium's intent or something.

Hey guys, don't know if this thread has already been done but i wanted to make a new Topic all about the Easter eggs in each of the Cosmere books. I've been doing a great reread of all the Cosmere books and thought it would be a good idea to have them easily accessible for everybody, So if you find a Easter Egg please feel free to post

So, tor.com recently finished up their Way of Kings reread, and commemorated the achievement by allowing users to ask Brandon questions. One of the questions is this, buy user Phantrosity: "In The Way of Kings, we see a lot of worldhoppers on Roshar. Have you already seeded worldhoppers FROM Roshar in your other works?" Brandon responds "Yes, you've met several." So, which Rosharian characters have been worldhopping to other books in the cosmere? There are a couple of obvious picks here: Nalan - He got Nightblood, enough said. Mraize (and/or some other ghostblood members) - Again, fairly obvious given the large assortment of trinkets in their meetingplace. But what other stormlight characters have worldhopped to other places? Honestly, I'm not very sure. For my money though, I'd wager that ancient radiants likely did with some regularity. Are there any characters that you guys would like to add?

I was thinking about the connections between Warbreaker and The Stormlight Archive and I stumbled on an interesting fact. We have WoB that Nightblood will kill its wielder by consuming the wielder's Innate Investiture, which can include the wielder's Spiritual aspect (in whole or in part). We also have textev that Honorblades consume dangerous amounts of Stormlight. This suggests to me that if an Honorblade is wielded in the same way that Nightblood can be, it will eventually kill its wielder. Does anyone think this is plausible?

I edited the U to the I, but I am not sure what you mean by some of the other changes. Is this correct?

I have been to Roshar...who would've thought it's actually our own planet?! ...and the buildings actually ARE made of crem!

So, I am listening to the audiobook for WoK, and was listening to the part near the beginning when Kaladin is in the slave wagons and hopes that spring will come again, with the narrational aside that the seasons were unpredictable. This got me to thinking: how could seasons be unpredictable? On earth, the distance from the sun and the tilt of the Earth's rotational axis combine to give us seasons. What could be going on for Roshar to be having a random (to Kaladin) distribution of distances from the sun? My first thought is that perhaps Roshar orbits some sort of binary star system. (Perhaps locked in such a way as to only show one of the two suns at a time, but the differing distances causing irregular (but maybe predictable through math by stormwardens) seasons. This may also explain Braize, as it could be getting both suns, making it a place of fire and heat and eternal day. Thoughts?

It seems that all worlds share similarities of end positive, neutral, and negative or some other versions of them such as creating, transferring, and destroying. The most prominent example that comes to mind is Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy. However on Roshar and Sel there are examples of this too. On Sel the end negative is the Drakhor i.e. to transport themselves they kill one of their own, an example of end neutral is when at the very end one character uses motion in shapes to do things (I can't properly quote now), and end positive would be the Aons where very little is needed on the users part. On Roshar it can be broken down also with Honor being the positive/creating and Odium as negative/destroying. Personally, I think that the Nightwatcher is the end neutral with her boon and curse which supports her being a form of Cultivation. The difficulty is in Warbreaker but it still seems that end neutral is where you can put Breath into an object and retrieve it, end negative if you create a Lifeless because you can't retrieve the Breath back. I can't think of anything end positive for it. It may be that end positive is actually when you create a Lifeless since that's only 1 Breath and end negative if it's inanimate as that would be 1000. Also, I looked on the forums and it didn't seem like anyone made the comparison so if you see something please refer me to it.

Ok, so from what I understand from the moons thread, the moons of Roshar are three in number, have very similar orbits with a period of one day, and orbit in the opposite direction as the sun(from the perspective of Roshar, I'm not advocating a Rosharcentric view of the universe). In addition I believe it was determined that they are quite small and have extremely elliptical orbits. This makes me wonder about tidal forces. IIRC there was WoB that the seas didn't have much tidal variation. This would make sense. With such a short tidal cycle and such small objects distributed across the sky, there wouldn't be much work being done on the sea water. However, seas are not the only thing affected by tidal forces. The atmosphere is as well. On Earth this is what drives some of our prevailing winds IIRC. I would expect the gaseous atmosphere to be much quicker to respond to tidal forces. However on Roshar the tidal system would likely be much more complex with 4 bodies pulling on it (the sun has a tidal effect too) and all in a synchronized manner. My theory is that over time, the tidal forces on the atmosphere result in a sort of resonant pattern of super-waves, resulting in the highstorm(s). Supporting points: 1. We know they are periodic. The Stormwardens can predict them mathematically. It would appear they have a period of 1000 days? 2. The moons are almost certainly placed in those orbits by design. Whoever placed them there may well have had a thing for resonant patterns(see cymatics and the dawncities) 3. Highstorms travel from east to west, same as the moons This may not be the strongest of theories, but it seems there's something there.

"Shardpool is a non-canon termused to describe a liquid essence of Shard. It is characterized by a Shard's Cognitive aspect." - coppermind.net/wiki/shardpool From what I can tell, for every Shard, there seems to be a Shardpool. I don't think I've seen a list, however, of the "known" Shardpools. Here's a list of Shardpools and their locations from what I can theorize. Feel free to give your thoughts and/or additions. Nalthis (Warbreaker) Shard: Endowment Shardpool: Beneath Hallandren? (Something to do with the Tears of Edgli?) Scadrial (Mistborn) Shards: Ruin, Preservation, [Harmony] Shardpools: Ruin: Dark lake beneath the Pits of Hathsin || Preservation: The Well of Ascension || Harmony: N/A (Not one of the original Shards, and relatively new) Sel (Elantris, The Emperor's Soul) Shards: Devotion, Dominion Shardpools: Devotion: The Lake (The Pool) || Dominion: Swamps of Dzhamar Roshar (The Stormlight Archives) Shards: Honor, Cultivation Shardpools: Honor: Emerald Pools (Horneater Peaks) || Cultivation: The Purelake