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What did people think of the movie? I'll be honest, I felt it was being hyped on the power of its multiversal cameos (so many spoilers coming) That said, it was definitely an emotional ride, which is what art is all about.

Well I am happy to say I got all my npcs created for the one shot. With motives, clues, and drama prepped in advance for my players to stumble across. Now to just get a map so they have a basic idea of the manor layout and refresh myself on the rules of character creation. Hope this will provide a good introduction to the setting for them and maybe get them to read the cosmere. Wish me luck

So, I have had a vague idea for a murder mystery one shot amongst a high class Elendel dinner for awhile. The players could be various individuals either of the same house (but different standings), various nobility, or wealthy merchants (or family members of them). A wealthy lord descended from the lord mistborn himself is having an overnight social to decide where to invest some of their assets. Only for him to not appear at dinner and be mysteriously murdered. Basically want my players to play detective and hopefully learn more about the magic systems (Alas I have yet to convince them to really get into the cosmere). Thoughts, advice, etc? Any comments are welcome to those who feel inclined to share. Thank you in advance for engaging with the topic.

Ok, hear me out. We know that Kelsier became a Cognitive shadow after his death because of Preservation. At the end of Mistborn: Secret History we see Kelsier wants to get back to life. We also know that the Ghostbloods want power. According to Mraize, they want Stormlight because it is easily transportable Investiture, and they will get rich off of it. That seems weak to me, because even though it would make them insanely rich, they already seem to be rich and there seem to be better ways than that. This is where my theory comes in. They want the Investiture so that they can turn themselves into cognitive shadows. We know that having a lot of Investiture can extend the time between dying and going to the Beyond. Any thoughts?

Okay so I’ve been really digging into the whole creation of Nightblood. Could a splinter of Ambition be involved someone how? Thus amplifying it’s “destroy evil” intent? I also believe the theories that this was apart of Ruins involvement as well.

Hello, everyone! This is my first post here on the 17th Shard, so please excuse if I mark anything wrong on here. I do not know if this has been said anywhere else, but while listening to one of the Shardcast episodes theorizing about who would die in Stormlight book 5 and who would survive to make it to the back half, I had this thought come to me. It is a common theory that Kaladin will not make it to the back half of the Stormlight Archives since so much of the front half has centered around him, and so much of his character arc has already been completed. Thinking about how complete Kaladin's character arc feels made me realize how incomplete Moash's character arc has seemed to me. I do not know if anyone else has felt this way, but throughout all of the books it has felt like Moash should be an important character, but comes across more as a side character that sometimes is heavily involved with the plot. In theory, Moash's character and story arc seem really important and impactful, but I remember not feeling that way completely while reading the books, like I was waiting for more to be done with his character. In short, if Moash's charcter arc ended anywhere near where it is currently, I feel like I would be left with the impression that he was not used to his fullest extent. In addition, Kaladin cannot just die in book five. If he does, he needs to go out in a big and important way. He is too important of a character for anything else. This leads me to my theory. I am not sure to what extent spoilers need to be marked, so I am just going to mark the entire thing as a spoiler. Thoughts?

This is a romance fanfic between Kaladin and a character I created. I intend for these happenings to follow events from the actual books. A secret romance if you will. The books touch on Kaladin’s love life a little, but it's never explored even when he has a partner! So this story is a way of filling that gap. Thank you for your time. It's a fluffy story. Let me know if you're interested in reading more! Feel free to let me know where to expand. I don't really write stories, be gentle

A Nahel bond is able to form in the... jagged (?) edges of a person's soul/spiritweb, right? They need to be at least a little bit broken for it to take hold, unless I've misunderstood. From what I've read, a spiritweb is cracked specifically by trauma. Would any trauma do, if the soul was sensitive enough, or only significant soul-shattery type ones? How else would, say, an infant, form a Nahel bond except to have been born susceptible to spiritweb cracks? [A specific example is below, with possible spoilers from Words of Radiance] Do you have any thoughts on this? Do you think a child be born with a cracked spiritweb, or must the circumstances of their life and emotional journey make it possible? Thanks in advance!

Odium literally shows Taravangian the Plot Outline for The Stormlight Archive. Which I think makes Taravangian's inner monologue about how amazing and deep it all is, the most self-indulgent thing Sanderson has ever published. This isn't criticism. It is, however, hilarious.

I searched for discussion of this but couldn’t find a specific thread. Was Rock executed? In chapter 114, we find out that: “Skar and Drehy had relayed the news after returning to the Shattered Plains. It seemed Kaladin wouldn’t be seeing Rock again.” Maybe I’m being pessimistic, and Brandon wouldn’t kill Rock offscreen like that, but I dunno, sounds pretty definite. What is the consensus here?

Background So, I have just finished a reread of Elantris and something caught my eye. When the city was in its full glory enchanted items based on Aons made by Elantrians were used for a plethora of things that made the city more comfortable, light, plumbing, etc. As I thought on this a theory came to my mind, now I could be completely off base so please bear with me. One aspect of these items that caught my attention were aons put in people's homes such as the one for light (Ashe). Given that many non elantrians also lived in the city I assume they were also capable of using the ashe aon to alter the lighting in their rooms. Otherwise they would have to call an elantrian in to do it for them, which sound very inconvenient. So I began to wonder if they could utilize these enchanted items could this be expanded upon further? I should specify I don't mean that those non elantrians made the aon, but rather were able to utilize what was already present as made by the Elantrians. The Theory Essentially I began to wonder what would happen if Sel advanced far enough to enter the computer age? Could computers that were crafted specifically by Elantrians then be used to form Aons? Potentially even Aons useable by anyone as the initial creation would have been done by an Elantrian. If this proves impossible, as the idea of normal people using the enchanted items is speculation on my part. There is still a possibility of Elantrians being able to rapidly expedite their casting via a form of automation. Weak Points to The Theory I am aware that while Elantrians could use tools such as quills, sticks, etc to make aons and they still functioned. Ultimately they needed to use their intent as part of the process. I also concede that I may be completely off base in assuming that the Aons will function without being directly made by an Elantrian. Either way I thought the idea was interesting and I hope you do as well. Afterword Thank you for bearing with me there. I would love any and all thoughts on the theory, and look forward to the discussion.

Hey guys. I have not seen no way home so please no spoilers. I have only seen tom holland Spiderman movies. so Tom Holland is my fave right now until I watch other movies.

When Alcatraz turns the shaper's lens on his mom, it shows a world where the hushlands and free kingdoms live side by side. My thought is, if they live next to each other like that, it means that it would be impossible for the librarians to control information. Everyone would know about physics being a lie (or at least incomplete), and they would know about sands being important. She's taken all of the evil out of the hushlands. In a way, she's being less controlling than the free kingdoms, because she allows them a choice between our technology or theirs. In the fourth book, the King of Mokia tells Alcatraz that their way of life wasn't more advanced, it was just how they preferred it. Well, Shasta is allowing people to choose either the simple or the complicated lifestyle, or even a mixture of both. So I feel like Shasta isn't evil, and I was just wondering other people's opinions. Also, what were your thoughts on the black bubbling liquid she was trying to keep down? Was that the evil of the other librarians, or something warring inside of her? Alcatraz seemed to think it was the other librarians, and I suppose he would know, but it's possible he was mistaken. Honestly, I have no idea what I think about that.

So I just recently finished RoW (I know, super late), and have been listening to my backlog of un-listened Shardcast episodes. In one (I think it was "lights") the possibility of Sja-anat forming a Bondsmith bond with someone was discussed, which got me thinking: We know that in the current system the Radiants are really all about Honor and Cultivation, so the three Bondsmiths bond (respectively) a spren for Honor (Stormfather), a spren for Cultivation (Nightwatcher) and a hybrid between the two (Sibling). But Radiants like Renarin seem to show that there are other ways of doing things beyond the system. Is it possible for other representative spren to for bonds for bondsmiths? Could Sja-anat, an Odium corrupted spren previously of Honor, become a hybrid bondsmith spren like the Sibling, but for the new Honor/Odium light? Could a spren of Odium bond a bondsmith specializing in Voidlight? Of course this hasn't happened before because anything connected with Odium was connected with an enemy. But one of the themes I picked up in RoW is that things aren't as simple on Roshar as good guys and bad guys. Also that the situation with shards can change very quickly. I can theoretically see (probably in the back 5) a new situation where Odium's investiture is used for good, and "odious" bondsmiths join the ranks. Or, alternatively, if another faction like Odium or Sja-anat forms a Bondsmith to rival those of the Radiants. They don't all have to be on the same team (I'm looking at you, you dirty Skybreakers). Whadda you guys think?

Kinda weird question, but does anyone remember what exactly Kaladin is wearing when he swears the 4th ideal in RoW? I want to draw fanart for a friend’s birthday but I don’t remember the details and don’t have the books here to check. Thanks in advance!

Let me begin by saying that yes, I know that this book is semi-canonical at best, this is just for fun The two Shards on Vaeria were the Former and Decay (Former, as in someone who shapes and creates). They were later adapted into Preservation and Ruin. The Former and Preservation seem to have some differences: Preservation was said to not be able to create without Ruin, Former's Intent contains the idea of creating. This might be a contentious point though, as Preservation not being able to create without Ruin thing might've come about because without an agreement between the two, Ruin would have simply destroyed anything Preservation tried to create. It could also be that Ruin's presence allowed Preservation to create, without which he could not change anything due to his Intent. Ruin and Decay seem to be more or less the same Shard, both expressing inevitable entropy, but Decay appears to not have a magic system tied directly to him, unlike Ruin. The Fell Twins: Slaughter and Despair, Makkal and Agaris. They raise some interesting questions as to their nature. Were they Splinters, like spren? Or were they actual men who became Slivers? I think they were the former (pun intended). Their thought processes, or what we see of it anyway, seem kind of alien. They followed the letter of the rule laid down by the Former, but not the intent (also pun intended). Of course there are arguments against this: men can become just as twisted, especially over the course of hundreds of years of war, followed by imprisonment in conditions of sensory deprivation and memory loss. Then there is also the ending, where they appear to take on a human form... I don't understand who imprisoned them though The magic: Amberite, Bestarin and Night were created by Makkal (Slaughter) Verdant, Ferrous and Luminous were created by Agaris (Despair) Amberite - allows one to create and shape rose-coloured crystals into spikes, blades or armour, more powerful ones can create bigger structures. Takes the form of an embedded crystal in the back of the bearer's hand; Aether of the High Aedin royal line; end-positive. Verdant - allows one to create living vines, which are edible and nutritious though tasteless. One can also control the vines' movements to change direction mid-air, wrap someone up, find things to hold on to so as to allow the bearer to pull off a Spiderman or Tarzan impression. Takes the form of a moving vine wrapped around the user's wrist but can also grow to wrap around more of their body if the Aether or the Bond is strong; end-positive. Its source takes the form of a giant ancient tree. Bestarin - those with Bestarin bonds, when grievously wounded, can graft animal parts onto their bodies. Most notably, in the case of amputation, they can graft claws or paws and control these limbs as though they were their own; end-neutral. Ferrous - those with Ferrous bonds can build metallic architectural or mechanical structures which form around their body, trapping them within it forever. It seems that doing this also makes them functionally immortal unless the structure itself is destroyed. Other Ferrous bonded can communicate with them. A Corpate, a four limbed vehicle is a prominent example. End-neutral Night - the titular Aether, the source of which served as Makkal's prison. The well also served as the Aedin's method of public execution. The Aether of Night can be used to summon and control human shaped forms made of shadows as though the user's own body, meaning that their real body would have to remain immobile while they are controlling the shadow creatures. It can also be used to teleport oneself. It also seemingly strengthens other Aether bonds, though that may have been Makkal himself. Luminous - the secret Aether of the Vo-Dari priests. Its source also served as the prison for Agaris. The well was located in the Vo-Dari compound in the Aedin capital. It can be used to teleport others by physical contact in a flash of white light. It seems not to be true teleportation, in the sense of instantaneous travel between two points without having to traverse the distance between the two, as in the books the one being Sent can still perceive themselves "turn into light" and travelling at incredible speeds to their destination. I have a few questions regarding this: why was the Aether of Night so much more powerful than the Luminous Aether, despite them both being the divine Aethers? Are the Aethers alive? D'na's Aether certainly acts alive. Or is that just a quality of Verdant Aethers due to them creating living things? Or perhaps due to the Former mostly inhabiting their source. The creatures: The Gol - created by Makkal to be fierce warriors but changed by Agaris to be gentle lovers of art who could not create art themselves. The Shentis - humans altered by the Fell Twins, rendering them infertile, apparently the only effect aside from their physical transformation. Agaris created the virus and Makkal made its effects visible. They live near the Verdant source but never communicated with the Former or tried to form a bond with Verdant though that may be because they couldn't, perhaps due to Investiture interference The Worldbuilding The cultures were not presented in the novel very well. It was very planet of the hats and often far too close to too many real-world stereotypes. The honour-bound, the intelligent, the sensual/sexist/exotic, the religiously strict, the simple: no further characterizations, no indications that this may have been just the narrators' inexperience. The male lead's perspective on being honourable and dutiful was done well, a character archetype I usually find very annoying. The two plots problem was real: The tone of the story often did not match what was happening. At first I tried to rationalize it as the male lead seeking escapism from his responsibilities, upheaval of identity and end of the world, with the intriguing female lead would-be assassin but it became harder and harder to do so as the story went on. I did not see the plot twist at the end coming, but was quite unsatisfied with it. Religious fanatics murdering everyone, not a single Vo-Dari questioned what they were doing. It was quite difficult to sympathize with them, despite the fact that to them, their god told them to extinguish two entire Aether lines (each contains hundreds or even more than a thousand individual members). Their machinations and willingness to slaughter even members of the other two lines made them feel very flat. The conclusion to the bride problem was... problematic and not all a narratively satisfying conclusion, far too quick and "funny" series of solutions to a very tension-filled problem which could have been used to flesh out the brides and their cultures.

Just a thought I had, but it was mentioned that Rand's mind was more corrupted by the taint than any other Nynaeve had seen and Rand body switches with Moridin at the end. But wouldn't Moridin's brain be in an even worse state than Rand's given how liberally he used the True Power. Or is the poisoning done to the soul then manifests within the mind. But then wouldn't Rand's mind still be tainted? I don't remember but it isn't ever explained what the light stuff within Rand's head was either. I kind of remember his mentioning that the protection on his mind wouldn't last forever, but then again it has been awhile and my brain might be making up things. Ok so this is a little messy but essentially, why is Rand's soul/brain ok after the body switch?

I will start this off with a warning that this thread will contain spoilers for most if not all of the Cosmere so I recommend turning away now if you aren't caught up, with that being said let's begin. *WoB/Sources/Quotes in spoiler sections to help reduce length* 1. Odium is the wrong name for the shard. I propose Odium's true shard name should instead be fear and that he excepts being called Odium and being seen as passion and hatred to hide this. Multiple WoB references Rayse as being both afraid of other shards and afraid of taking up shards since they may change him and in his mind that is no better than being destroyed. 2. It is well accepted that at least Rayse-Odium's main goal was to splinter all other shards and become the sole god of the Cosmere though he seems to be zoning in on exactly what that means based on the different methods of splintering shards. Devotion/Dominion being splintered and pulled into the cognitive realm to form the Dor though this seems to have displeased Odium since the power is still accessible through inhabitants of Sel. Ambition who's splintering seems to have been very messy although I suspect was much more intentional. We know Mercy was involved in at least one of the clashes between Odium and Ambition so perhaps the condition of her request was that in helping splinter a shard he was not allowed to go as far as before in pulling them through to the cognitive so Odium instead created or helped shape a pseudo vessel for the shard's power in the form of the evil that would constantly leak the shard's power forming shades to prevent it from ever completely reforming into a full shard. This brings us to Honor who I believe knew what was coming and perhaps even knew he could not defeat Odium so instead decided to lean into the process and splinter himself as much as possible before Odium could in order to create the most useful tools for after his death. I believe the largest portion to be the Stormfather since he was named Honor's heir and transferred as much of himself as he could over creating what I will call the first subshard, essentially something in between a full shard and a sliver and split the rest of his power into 9 other subshards perhaps each one appears as a spren such as the stormfather and each order has one of these subshards. 3. Honor shattered himself? If I am correct in the assumption that Honor intentionally split his power I believe he did it in the hopes that he would actually be stronger divided and splintered than as a whole shard. Harmony specifically states that having two shards makes it more difficult for him to act, a sentiment Rayse-Odium seems to at least somewhat agree with since he refuses to take up a second shard. Perhaps Honor attempted to mimic the shattering of Adonalsium upon himself to create even smaller shards in a hope that it would grant them greater control over their powers. I believe this is the reason the Dawnshard of change is in the Rosharan system at all, since the 4 dawnshards were involved in shattering Adonalsium perhaps Tanavast used this dawnshard to further shatter his shard. After all, Harmony seems to act much more like a single shard than as two separate shards combined so perhaps the days of 16 shards have been over for quite a while today and in fact, there would only be 1 great shard(Harmony) the only double shard we know of and while theoretically stronger has less ability to act. Possibly followed by the Dor which seems to be something similar in the mixing of Devotion and Dominion but without a true vessel and leaking far more into the physical realm. Then followed by the 10 remaining full shards Then the splintered shard of Ambition which I believe is in a semi vessel called the evil that is leaking similar to the Dor in Sel but instead by creating shades and enforcing rules to purposefully hinder humanity from becoming to advanced to itself be a threat to Odium, and finally my theorized 10 new subshards of Honor that would be the last thing on the power scale of shards with slivers being close behind although to distinct from shards to be considered in this Hierarchy. In the end, this would mean there are 23 "vessels" of Adonalsiums original power at this point although taking many forms from the original 16 shards. 4.Taravangian Odium-I believe the new Odium is going to attempt to escape the Rosharan system by tricking Dalinar into thinking that since he is a new vessel he should not be bound to the system any longer and instead be allowed to leave and set up his own system. Whether this will work or not I have no idea but most likely even if Taravangian tries this and means it at first I believe the fear of the shard would soon corrupt him and he would begin destroying other shards again out of paranoia. 5. The downfall of Odium will inevitably be due to something less than a shard I believe. I think his fear is driving him to focus too much on the other shards and his fear of Harmony furthers my belief in this since Harmony is likely the smallest threat to Odium being so powerful that he can actually barely act and could do no harm to Odium. Instead, I think the new set of subshards of Honor will be his downfall. The bridge between shards and humans allows absolute control of the shard's full extent by unifying together. Individually they may be weaker than Odium but theoretically, if Dalinar connects the other 9 subshards(him being one since bonded to stormfather) together then this will be the true end of Odium since they will have all the power of a shard but be able to use it without the restriction of intent binding them such as Harmony. 6. The end of the Cosmere- since Odium seems to be the primary antagonist of the Cosmere I theorize that the true end of the series will only occur once Odium is either himself splintered so far that his shards power no longer poses a threat, he ends up combining with other shards that actually mellow out the fear and only by becoming more powerful does his rampage stop, or Odium succeeds in splintering every other shard then proceeding to kill most of the intelligent life in the Cosmere in fear that it could also oppose him since after all it was mere mortals that shattered Adonalsium. Perhaps the only race left will be Dull form singers or his fused that are either too weak to resist Odium or bound and controlled by him explicitly like how Harmony can control Hemalurgic Constructs. Side Note: Odium's arc seems to be associated with the trope of creating your own downfall by being so afraid that he will be taken down that he becomes a harsh tyrannical god that everyone wants to take down whereas if he had just gone and invested his own system from the start likely would have been fine. I apologize if this wasn't well written or if I missed anything/didn't use enough sources. I happily invite discussion and will try to update and improve this as I go since this is my first attempt at theorizing and is only a first draft of my ideas.

Memes! you know what to do. I'll start us off!

As the title suggests, I'm a little concerned about accidentally plagiarising ideas. For example, I have plans with some of my projects that might edge a little too close to Shannara and Horizon Zero Dawn What concepts would you consider to be inextricably linked with a particular work?

My prediction for the nature of "the Demon" Lifeforce had inside him is he is a twin of Lifeforce who was absorbed in the womb. Sometimes when this happens the surviving person will have two sets of DNA in them: their own and the twin's. There have been cases where the twin DNA is in the blood specifically, which fits with how the Demon / Deathwish is described and how it was transferred to Paige. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics)#Humans The Epic powers are DNA based as shown with the all the motivators requiring DNA of the Epic. The absorbed twin's DNA got the powers which created a sapient entity within that wasn't exactly Lifeforce, thus the separate entity inhabiting the blood. Sentient blood, that's a new one to me!

TL;DR, since chronologically speaking Mistborn Era 2 goes after the first 5 books of the STA, is there any spoiler in Mistborn Era 2 as to what happens in the first 5 books of the STA? So, a quick intro. I read TWoK of the STA without knowing anything about the cosmere. I got hooked, but I couldn't find the second one in my local libraries (in Chile so in Spanish). Fastforward, I've been living in the UK for a few years and so I remember this book. I read it again, as well as WoR, and after that I figured out the cosmere. By then I was hooked on the STA so I read Edgedancer and OB. Then, waiting for RoW, I read Warbreaker, The Mistborn original trilogy, and Elantris, alongside with the Arcanum stories associated to those (Emperor's Soul, The Hope of Elantris and The Eleventh Metal). I'm always low on cash so most of the books I get second hand. Since RoW is too new for that, I thought I would now go for Mistborn Era 2, but then I found out that, chronologically, Mistborn Era 2 goes after the first 5 parts of the STA. Now, as I said, I read the 3 first books of the STA before Elantris or the Original Mistborn, and although they go chronologically later, I didn't feel like I was spoiled in any way. Like there was no info on the Mistborn Era 1 on the books of the STA that I read. Is that the case for the rest? Is there any sort of cross-series spoiler on Mistborn Era 2? I imagine no, but there is no harm in asking. Also, the Arcanum Unbounded says that "Mistborn: Secret History" has minor spoilers for Bands of Mourning. How minor are they? WillI affect my experience of Bands of Mourning if I read Secret history before? Thanks! and sorry for so much writing.

So as per usual with me I have been contemplating another order of knights radiant and what qualities their spren look for. This time truthwatchers caught my eye. Now we know the basics from the official description. Truthwatchers are generally quiet introspective and eager to discuss the nature of truth. Yet, from the truthwatchers we have seen so far I cannot recall much active pursuit of said truth. Now renarin being a corrupted truthwatcher could of course play into this. Yet even the regular ones we have seen rarely do much beyond helping children (which is a very kind and wonderful thing to do). One trait thing I think we can look to for further insight may be their herald. Not even going to attempt to spell her name. But her attributes are learned and giving. This I think gives an idea of what truthwatchers may be aligned with. They watch, they listen, and they aid however they can. Might not be as flashy as a skybreaker or windrunner but very important all the same. I think compassion may be a trait mistspren look for along with a shared willingness to see from others' perspectives. As i wrote this i actually found it funny how the edgedancer character (Lift) spent more time seeking answers that we are aware of than the regular truthwatchers (who spent time remembering the forgotten orphans and helping them). Anyway, feel free to comment and discuss below. If yoy disagree I'm happy to chat anyway as I doubt I'm any sort of expert. As always thanks for engaging with the topic.

So following the recommendation of brandonsanderson.com and many peers I bought the Licanius trilogy. I have not been so disappointed by a book this acclaimed since the Sword of Truth before everyone knew Goodkind was a plagiarist. I am halfway thru the second book and just cannot 'see' what everyone else does. There are so many parallels between Licanius and SoT it is mind boggling. I find it really irritating that the characters are all insecure and frustrated in EXACTLY the same way. Let alone the authors obsession with conversation to explain everything rather than point of view exposition. I am here to ask a simple question, if I dont like it now, is there really something that will change my mind coming soon? It is literally PAINFUL to read these characters that are literally identical naratives with different names.