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Ok so the theory that the tranquiline halls are somehow real has been going around for a bit on the forums, and I like most people mostly dismissed it as extremely unlikely to be the case, however in light of autonomy’s actions within the lost metal it strikes me that maybe the theory should not be dismissed and I will outline a few reasons for this as well as I think the most logical version of theory goes. 1. Odium’s actions on roshar have been entirely non-conducive to his stated good which are a. Killing shards- it seems like once the fused were made odium had clearly given up on easily or quickly splintering honor or cultivation, clearly this was still on the table but his later stated plans seem to indicate that his main plan had switched from just running around and splintering shards quickly to his cosmere army plan. b. Winning the war- it also further strikes me that in light of how autonomy has just given her people all this advanced technology that Odium’s actions have not been helpful in terms of winning the war at all. If quick victory was what he truly wanted all he would need to do is introduce his forces to guns, even if the resources were somewhat problematic on roshar soulcasting renders that a non-issue. c. Training an army- from here it also seems like Odium’s plan to train an army is also incredibly stupid, because it seems as if without the desolation’s roshar would have nearly 7000 years of advanced civilization, they would be so far ahead of other civilizations it wouldn’t even be fair. now I think it’s fair to say that maybe he expected a quick war, but I think after the first desolation it should’ve become clear that killing 9/10 people on the planet every desolation wouldn’t get you an army, and yet he seemed pretty confident in this plan and taravangian seemingly approved. furthermore Odium’s plan just doesn’t seem to make sense because of those level of casualties, trained soldiers do not contribute to your army if they are dead. I will also grant that now it seems like Odium’s goal has become to just win outright, but I think that may be because it’s gone on longer than he would have liked and he needs it to end. but ultimately there are very few ways in which Odium’s plan can somehow manage to bypass these issues unless his goal was not to own the war but to draw it out as long as possible and the army he trained was made of the dead form the 7000 years of war and only now has he decided it’s time to end it after a far too lengthy gap(because odium was gonna win, if taln hadn’t done his thing). 2. granted all of this does not point to the tranquiline halls and Odium’s undead army so let me explain why I think that is a logical explanation for these discrepancies. my main point here rests on one question- what does the thrill do for odium? the thrill 1. Enhances the combat abilities of the afflicted, and 2. Opens them up to Odium’s influence. but based on what we’ve seen the first seems to hep odium only minimally and the second doesn’t seem to allow him to control them only to influence them and so doesn’t seem to have proved that helpful. however the things that are important here are 1. Where does the thrill manifest and 2. How do shards get the ability to go influence people. the answer to 1 is obvious alethkar and vedenar highly militant vorin nations, the ones with the myth of the tranquiline halls in the first place and the ones with the best most elite militaries. The answer to 2 is also fairly straightforward, by investing people. this leads to the conclusion that what the thrills actual purpose is, it’s to invest an army or the best warriors on roshar as they die and send them to Odium’s undead army. while this is still pretty crackpot, autonomies actions combined with the assumption that odium is not a total idiot and generally has a reason for the things he does/makes lead me to think that it may actually be quite plausible even likely.

Hey y’all! I almost never post outside the SE subforum, but I came across something interesting while reading one of my Greek texts for a class. It’s from Lucian’s True Stories, or Άληθη Διηγήματα Α’. Here’s the relevant passage and my (admittedly novice) translation: The parts of interest here are Lucian’s name for these soldiers (Ἀνεμοδρόμοι), which is literally a fusion of the Greek words for Wind (άνεμος) and Runner (δρομέας, here given the nominative plural ending), as well as his description of them as light infantrymen who fly without wings. Obviously the mechanics look a bit different with Brandon, but has anyone ever asked him if he got the concept of the name for this Order from Lucian? In the absence of a WoB, could someone bring this up to him who has the chance? I find this to be a startling coincidence

Another one of my random ideas occurred to me recently. Everyone is focusing on how the contest of champions and the agreement relating to it is going to decide the future of Roshar. I agree that it is almost certainly going to be the deciding event in book 5, but there will obviously be a lot more going on than just that. So I've been wondering what else might happen that could cause conflict between the various groups on Roshar, and I think I found a good one. In order to find out as much as possible to be able to fulfill his plan to make a deal with Odium, Tarravangian abducted people from his hospitals and slowly killed them, with people he trusted standing by to record any death rattles that the dying might speak. As far as we know, the only people to know about this are the members of the Diagram and Szeth. Tarravangian revealed that he had sent Szeth to kill Dalinar, but as far as I know, the King of Karbranth never revealed that he was using people like this. So what would happen if this information were to be revealed to the people of Karbranth. As of right now, Karbranth is neutral in the conflict between the forces of Honor and Odium. Odium is supposedly bound by his promise, to Tarravangian ironically, not to touch Karbranth, and Dalinar is currently uninterested in attacking them due to their insignificance. But what would happen if the city were to go into a rebellion, upon learning that their former ruler, the father of their current queen, was abducting citizens and killing them for his own twisted reasons? If that somehow got out, I can only assume because of Szeth, and there was any kind of evidence to support it, it's not hard to imagine the city being spurred to revolt. Now of course, there are a couple of issues with this theory. First of all, since the two people who made the deal to protect Karbranth are now essentially the same person, is that deal even binding? I brought up that very point with someone who had a different idea (and arguably an even better one) about how to turn the Karbranth protection deal against Odium. I don't think we know enough to really answer that question, so we'll have to wait and see. The second issue is how exactly this would get out and why hasn't it before? Well, as I said, Szeth is the only one outside of the Diagram organization who knows about what they were doing to hear the death rattles, and as we learned with the anti voidlight sphere, he's not always the most forthcoming with information except when directly asked. And if a conversation regarding Tarravangian's other actions, such as him having Szeth kill monarchs across Roshar, were to occur, it's not unreasonable to assume that something regarding the death rattles were to pop up. The next problem is how would anyone get proof (if any is left), and the only way that I can think of is for someone to infiltrate Karbranth, which I think could make for a a good mission for some characters, maybe some of Shallan's agent LightWeavers, to go on. The biggest problem with this theory is that until someone figures out Tarravangian is Odium, there's not really a good reason to stir up trouble in Karbranth. If and when it gets out, having Karbranth on the verge of collapse, disrupting the very thing Tarravangian worked to hard to prevent, would be a fantastic way to expose his corruption and cause a huge distraction for the newest Shard. Not to mention it would be a great twist, doing to Tarravangian the exact same thing he did to Dalinar in OathBringer. But as it stands right now, the only person not under Odium's command that is likely to find out about Todium is Hoid. And while he might very well decide to cause such a rebellion as a way to help indirectly, he'd have to find out about Todium quickly enough and make it to Karbranth in time to expose things. I'm trying to think of other reasons good enough for the Radiants, or even another group like the GhostBloods or even the Listerners, to stir things up in Karbranth. So far, I haven't come up with anything.

Fullborn vs bondsmith unchained (with shardplate)

Hello, I have written this story as a gift for my husband's birthday, he enjoyed it and said I should post it here. I thought it would be great to get some less-biased feedback (there is no telling how much of his enthusiasm is about the story and how much about me writing it for him, haha), and agreed. So here we go. A few notes on the fanfic (here is the Link). First, it takes place between the second and the third books of the Stormlight Archive. It assumes that you are familiar with Roshar and doesn't spend page space describing either the magic system or the world. Second, even though I had a very specific target audience and most of the characters are reminiscent of people in our lives, it is fiction enough to be read by any Stormlight fan. I hope you enjoy it! Third, it is 39,000 words, half detective story, half romace. P.S. it is the first piece of fiction I have ever written, so constructive criticism is very welcome. I intend to keep improving on this

Throughout the Stormlight Archive, Gavilar does a bunch of different things, he unifies Alethkar, but also brings back the voidbringers and the desolations. Although he does this to restart the knights radiant, you have to wonder whether all of that bloodshed was necessary. There is also the fact that he looks up to the Sunmaker, who is genocidal tyrant, and yet is still looked up to. I'm just curious what your opinions are.

I have a theory that pertains to things from The Lost Metal, Secret Project 4, and Stormlight 5. Where do I post this theory/prediction?

Could you gain muscle as a Radiant while using Stormlight? Because it says somewhere that it repairs torn muscles, but tiny tears in the muscle are what help you gain muscle. And if your self-image is someone not muscular... then you can't get ripped. Very sad. Am I reading this right?

Can a radiant (some non-windrunner/skybreaker) absorb the stormlight that they are being lashed with? Relatedly, can a non-lightweaver/elsecaller absorb the lightweaving stormlight?

Hopefully, there will be faithful movie adaptations of Brandon Sanderson's works in the future. I think that they would be live-action, but I would also love it if they were animated! I'm interested to hear your opinions on the matter, and what form of film (or tv show) you would like to see.

Would a sphere with stormlight in it weigh more than a sphere that doesn't? If so, do the different lights (Voidlight, Warlight, Stormlight, Towerlight, Lifelight, Cultivation+Odium's light) have different weights? And do the lights have mass? If they do, do they have different masses? Thanks ya'll

Is the “void” in “voidbringers” and “voidlight” just a fantastical stand in term for the “bad” or “hell” or something or is there actually a property of the “enemy” that makes the meaning of the term “void” particularly applicable? from Merriam-Webster online The only in-story property that immediately comes to mind that vaguely makes “void” relevant is the near ultraviolet nature of “voidlight,” making it maybe slightly analogous to an absence, or lack of light. My motivation for exploring this is that our expectations on just what “Voidbringers” means have already been violated twice, so maybe another shoe is bound to drop. Also the loose ties to ultraviolet light are just an unsatisfying reasoning for the term “voidbringer” to me. So either I’m missing some other, more valid reason for the term that explains what we already understand, it’s just not that important, or we are missing something fundamental that the term reveals about the true threat of the “void.” Some other mysteries that may tie in We still don’t know what was so scary that the old Knights Radiant perpetrated the Recreance We don’t know how the original Ashynites (Particularly Ishtar) ruined their own planet. Oh, or how they apparently heel-face turned (tvtropes link) and became the forces fighting the Void. More speculatively related, we don’t know what was rocking the original 16+ that they thought killing Aldonasium was the best option to deal with it. I bring that last up because I suspect the Dawnshards were related to all 3, and it makes the question possibly even broader. We have been contentedly identifying the “void” with Odium, and his not entirely understood motivations, but there may be a more significant big bad that’s been hiding right under our noses in the term “Void”

Exactly what the title says: Would a sphere in a chasm charge during a highstorm? Thanks ya'll Sorry, I accidentally made three because it wouldn't load.

I was thinking last night about the significance of broken oaths and damaged bonds on Roshar, and how Adolin has helped with some of those on the back end. His relationship with Maya is the most obvious example, but I also think that his relationship with Gallant is similar. Dalinar's modes of action no longer have much use for a courageous Ryshadium and so Gallant ended up kind of abandoned in a paddock at Urithiru. Adolin recognized this and came to spend time with him, which I imagine was good for Gallant, and ultimately Gallant even allowed Adolin to ride him (something Ryshadium essentially never allow for anyone but their chosen rider). I think that this was underplayed in Rhythm of War. I don't think that Gallant was damaged in the same way as Maya, nor to the same degree. But we now have two examples of Adolin helping rare, strong-bonding beings not through the formal commitments those beings normally make but instead by dedicating himself, his time, energy, and compassion to them. And in turn he's getting things from them that, we've been told, simply don't happen-- a deadeye who can think, act, and speak, as well as a Ryshadium's respect and service (or at least assistance). In Cosmere terms these things really make me think of Devotion, though I know we don't have a lot of information on how she behaved before she was Splintered. Adolin is a devoted person: to his family, his friends, his duties, his swordsmanship, and probably other things as well. I don't think that Adolin is going to take up the Shard of Devotion, if only because that's already getting too common in the books and typically fails to resolve much. I doubt that very many long-running, inter-book plotlines are going to converge on that same outcome. And I don't want to get ahead of myself with specific predictions on matters about which we still lack basically all detail. But given that Devotion's Splintering (along with Dominion's) was reportedly an unusual type, and wound up with Devotion being crammed into the cognitive realm and its Vessel killed, I see some parallels. Radiant spren becoming deadeyes was (theoretically, once) irreparable, and yet Adolin has upended that through a method totally different than anything Honor might have promoted. Maybe something else broadly thought to be impossible, even for Shards, is in the works. The Splintering of Shards is going to be addressed at some point in future books, and what Adolin has been accomplishing has already started to rock Roshar. I think that his actions' significance will continue to be impressive, surprising, and important, and that his characterological alignment with Devotion, conceptually, is ultimately going to matter for that too. Does anyone here have any other thoughts, evidence, critiques, or anything else for discussion around the topic?

Just like the title asks, Who are the Envisagers? Teft mentions them when he discovers Kaladin is a Radient. Quote, "I need to tell the Envisagers ... The Envisagers were gone. Dead, because of what he'd done." So, Who are the Envisagers and what did Teft do to them? Thanks ya'll

Hello, 17th Shard! I have an idea. A very bad idea. I want to make MTG cards based on Stormlight. Unfortunately, I can't do art. If only there was a Sanderson forum website with a positive, supportive community and tons of awesome artists... Oh, wait. So yeah! I'll be using a website called Cardsmith to make the cards, and I need art. If you want to submit a piece, I will credit you with your username, or something else if prefer. I need art for: Most of the major characters. Random soldiers. Rosharan animals. Major moments in SA. I would be really thankful for art. This probably won't work, but it seems fun to try. And hey, Journey before Destination! Thank you so much, - NerdyAarakocra

First, apologies if there's a better forum this could've gone into! With the Stormlight miniatures Kickstarter closing today, I'm wondering how many people here will be picking up this great hobby for the first time! Is there a desire/need for how-to information for beginners and things to watch out for? There's already a ton of information out there, but I'm more than happy to share what I know if it will be helpful to people. I've been painting minis off and on since the late 90's and pretty seriously since last summer. I've tried most of the techniques and products available and if it will be helpful to people, I can try to compile it all!

Hello! I'm new to the forums and I saw that there was a role playing section so I wanted to see if there was anyone available to rp with me for Stormlight Archives! I don't really have a particular story in mind, so if there is a storyline for your canon or oc characters that you'd like to to try out, I am definitely open to suggestion! I have been rping for years and I do tend to feed off what is given to me in terms of length and literacy. I prefer moderately literate with 2-5 detailed paragraphs, but I have no problem writing more. I typically play female characters, both canon and oc. I have a few that will easily transition into the Cosmere. I do well with romance and emotional scenes, but I can do action as well. P.S.: If this isn't how you find RP's or isn't allowed, please let me know what to do differently! Thanks

So i'm re-reading Stormlight an stumbled across this beautiful scene: This joke flew right over my head the first time. Last week I was reading that scene during my break at work and that one got me off guard. I literally start laughing and then had to explain to my coworkers what was so funny in my book. I just didn't remember that Pattern is the centre of such good jokes. On the other hand, it has been a while since i last read these books. Just wanted to share this memorable moment with you. That said, i hope you all have a nice day

So basically the kandra had red eyes, and I was talking to somebody and they mentioned odium and how he and autonomy were working together. So maybe if trell is a avatar of autonomy, then could odium send fused to help trell take over scadrial? If so, it would explain red eyes and the willingness to die.

Okay, so I had this idea after reading RoW. It's a little out there, but I was thinking it might be a way for invested people on Roshar to travel off world. Thanks to Navani's experiments, we know that stormlight and voidlight are connected to the tones of Honor and Odium, respectfully. Almost certainly the same of lifelight and Cultivation. I wonder if it's possible to transmit that in some way long distance, like a radio. Now, I don't that radios don't actually transmit the sound itself. The sound is encoded into radio waves that can be received and translated back into sound on the other side. Maybe if two gemstones were conjoined like span reeds, then a constant source of stormlight could be transmitted. Or maybe gemstones cut in a certain way could receive the tone sent out by a large gemstone transmitter or something, like car radios receiving a signal from a radio tower. Such a thing would need to be limited, only so much stormlight could flow through at a time, but a constant stream of stormlight could maybe act as an anchor to Roshar. Kind of an out there theory, like I said, but it could be a way to get stormlight, and possibly radiants, off of Roshar.

Hello, assorted sanderfans! I have just finished reading the first few chapters of The Lost Metal, and it looks like things are getting spicy. I'm pretty convinced that the Set is following Odium at this point. Odium is preparing for conquest of the Cosmere, and Scadrial looks like his first target. Here are some reasons why I think so. As Taravangian ascended and became Odium near the end of RoW, he decided that the rest of the Cosmere was ruled by ¨impostors.¨ In classic villain logic, he decides to take over the other worlds to ¨save¨ them. As Lost Metal is the first major Cosmere book to be released after RoW, narrative flow would make it a good target for invasion. At the end of Bands of Mourning, we saw someone with red eyes, working for the Set and disguised as a human. That sounds a lot like a Fused. Lord Ladrian's internal monologue indicates that it is disguised, and there's an order of the Fused who have that as their sole ability, so... yeah. From the blurb, we know that Harmoy's prescience doesn't work in a particular town, which is being influenced by the Set. That has served as an indicator that another person/shard who can see the future is in the area, and Odium is the best shard for seeing the future. Please respond if you think differently!