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Ahoy, Thought I'd make my first foray into Cosmere forums with an actual topic as well as a general greeting. My interest below will concern at least the Stormlight Archive up to the end of Oathbringer, so spoiler warning?

Hello, long-time reader, first-time post. I am curious about an art credit I am having a hard time finding. Does anyone know who did the art that is featured as the "cover" illustration of the Warbreaker audiobook? I know that Dan Dos Santos is credited with the print cover and is mentioned in the acknowledgements, but I can't find any mention of which artist did the audiobook illustration. The image is listed in the Warbreaker art gallery on Brandon's website here: Thanks for any help! Jason

Do we happen to know what metal Nightblood is made from? Aside from that, has anybody thought of whether different kinds of metal might respond differently to Awakening?

So I love Brandon. I think he is a very good writer in general and great in some areas. He's especially good at connecting theme to story and world. He's on Pixar's level of connecting the world he's built, the story, and the characters to the theme he is exploring. (Seriously, Pixar is amazing at connecting theme to character and story, except The Incredibles which struggles to nail down a theme, but is still great.) But Brandon does have a flaw. A flaw that finally became clear to me after finishing another reread of Stormlight and rereading MIstborn (both eras): Brandon is bad at writing convincing romantic relationships. I acknowledge that my personal taste does not match everyone else' s. Romances I think work (they are narratively satisfying, I like both characters, I think they work well together, Brandon has done the legwork to set the up together) Vin and Elend: Brandon's most successful romantic plot. He successfully ties it into Vin's main theme of learning to trust people and learning to be her real self. Dalinar and Navani: Brandon cheats on this one and skips all the setup and we start at; they both like each other, but Dalinar doesn't think he can be with her. They work well together as two people who have both decided to be above the judgement of society and it's nice to see an older couple done well. Those are the two. Romances I'm ok with, but fail for one reason or another: Siri and Susebron: I debated bumping this one up. It mostly works I think, but it just seems too unbalanced. Siri, who is the only one we get to see, spend the whole first half thinking she is his prisoner. Then we find out they're both prisoners. Then Siri has to teach Susebron how to read and Siri is the one in power over Susebron. 2/4 of arranged marriages. Spook and Beldre almost work, but it's too rushed, and we don't know Beldre well enough. It's well implied but too far from the main events of the story. Beldre is a tertiary character at best and Spook is a strong secondary character. Raoden and Serene: Mostly good.They both work well as individual characters and I buy them liking each other, but they just don't spend enough time together. This is also the beginning of Brandon's troubling trend of arranged marriages working out. Vivenna and Vasher: It works on all levels... except, I'm not sure if we're supposed to think of the romantically. Are they a couple? Sazed and Tindwyl: This one mostly works, but it's a little rushed, and seems a little like Fridging, introducing a romantic plot for Sazed just to kill her off to give him a crises of faith. The ones that just don't work (either I don't buy them together, Brandon hasn't done the legwork, or one side is not set up enough) Wax and Steris: My main issue with this is the main issue I will be discussing later with another controversial opinion I have about a couple, is Brandon doing all the legwork to show us that Marasi is a better fit, Marasi works better with the eventual lessie reveal, Marasi has better chemistry with Wax, and then Brandon completely runs away from it in the later books. Wax had a "great love" and it was Lessie, Steris would work fine if there was no Marasi and Marasi and Steris would work with no Lessie. Brandon also runs away from the dynamic he set up a bit (he does this much worse in Oathbringer) but he spends a lot of time setting up a love triangle in book one, only to run away from it, and try to pretend he never did in later books. And another arranged marriage that works out... And we've reached my largest issue with Brandon's romance plots, the one that combines all my issues together... Adolin and Shallan: First of all, I will acknowledge that Brandon could make this work later through soom reveal in future books or by really selling me on them together in the future, but... My issues are: I feel like Brandon changed course between Words of Radiance and Oathbringer, and tried to hand-wave away the set-up he did there. The main event of all of Words of Radiance before the climax was Shallan and Kaladin in the Shattered Plains. I can buy that Shallan didn't really like Kaladin, that she just thinks he's handsome and that his intensity and absurdness of righteousness is more frightening to her than Adolin's simple loyalty and good-naturedness, but I don't buy that, no, it was really Veil who liked him, there is no mention of Veil in the cravaces, in fact it was the only time in WoR that Shallan was honest and open with another person. Kaladin is the only person she has ever told about her life and her father, up to this point no one else other than her brothers know anything about her life before she arrived in Kharbranth, I don't buy Kaladin's decision that he doesn't really like her, that he just thinks of her like Tien. Shallan is that only person that Kaladin has told about his past, she is the only one he tells the full story of Amaram to. It seems like Brandon changed his mind (which is fine) but decided to just undo everything he set up in WoR in OB by just declaring that Shallan is like Tien to Kaladin, and it was really Veil who liked Kaladin. I also don't feel like Shallan had reached the point in her arc to get married and resolve her romantic issues permanently. It is treated as a casual decision that she can make along the way to figuring out everything else about herself. Brandon handles this so well in Mistborn wit Vin and completely botches the same situation with Shallan. Shallan ends OB in a much worse state than Vin was ever in, but decides that getting married will help solve all her identity problems. If someone did that in the real world we would consider it a panic move that was doomed to fail. I think Shallan and Adolin's relationship is shallow, they think each other are pretty and Adolin knows nothing about Shallan's past, her family, or her dark secrets. Another arranged marriage. I know that all of these are culturally appropriate for the characters, but it just grates against everything I expect in a novel. Undermining expectations is good, unless you develop a pattern of undermining them in the same way four times in a row. My issue isn't that Shallan picked Adolin and Kaladin has moved on. I just don't think Brandon did the legwork to get us to the point we were at at the end of OB and I think he casually dismissed some things he set up in WoR. Maybe he knows this and Shallan and Adolin's marriage will not be the end of this issue, but it seemed like Brandon was tying everything up in a neat little bow.

Ever since I read Warbreaker, I have been wanting to re-read the chapters of the storm light archives, where "Ziehl (is that spelled right?)" And "azure" are in it... Because, ya know... But, I listened to the 3 storm light books on audible, so it's much harder for me to find what those chapters are, much less which books they even begin lol If anyone knows what chapters I'm looking for/where to find them, then plz let me know, thx!!

Soo Nightblood sucks up a persons spark when it kills, innate Investiture an all, and erases them on all three realms. What happens to Investiture which Nightblood sucked in, does it go to the user, does it stay in Nightblood, does it go to Endowment.. I'm quite confused on this. For that matter, what happens to soul sucked by Nightblood? I would imagine a Cognitive Shadow out of the picture

I would say the arena space would be a city. A open space would give kal a unfair advantage I think. Please say why you think who!

So I know that Wit is a World Hopper and his name is Hoid but I would also like to propose that Wit is actually from Warbreaker and is one of the returned. I mean at the end up the book he uses colours and he seems to be immortal. And on top of this I'm going to say that Azure is also from Warbreaker due to the fact that she doesn't act like a regular person from Roshar and asks for human like dolls to be made, although we never get to see the affects. We also see that the sword that Sezth has is really nightblood and it drains the colours from his arm and the sword also likes to scream "DESTROY EVIL"... so anyone else have any thoughts on this?

So... I’m doing a re-read of Warbreaker, and this thought came to my head. When awakening, can you lose breaths? To add some clarity, I’m asking that when you awaken something and retrieve your breaths afterwards, can you possibly lose some? Ex. You awaken a rope. It takes 50 breaths, you only retrieve 35 because some was ‘used up’. The book always says you get all of them back, but I’m just asking if it’s possible. (And as a smaller question, do non-Nalthians have Breath?)

I have absolutely no talent in art, but I want a specific peice of fanart made. This might be a bit hard to explain, but I'll try (this is based on a scene from warbreaker and one in words of radiance) - So, on one side of the page, Shallon is trying to turn the stick into fire, and it's resisting, (you may have you look back at the scene to see how it described her here), then on the other side of the page, Vivenna is trying to awaken the rope (in the scene where she's cornered by lifeless, once again you may need to look over the scene to see how it describes her)... You could change it up if you want, like make them back to back or something, whatever you want. If you do decide to do it, then can you put it as an attachment to a reply on this discussion, so it's downloadable? Thanks!!

I have absolutely no talent in art, but I want a specific peice of fanart made. This might be a bit hard to explain, but I'll try (this is based on a scene from warbreaker and one in words of radiance) - So, on one side of the page, Shallon is trying to turn the stick into fire, and it's resisting, (you may have you look back at the scene to see how it described her here), then on the other side of the page, Vivenna is trying to awaken the rope (in the scene where she's cornered by lifeless, once again you may need to look over the scene to see how it describes her)... You could change it up if you want, like make them back to back or something, whatever you want. If you do decide to do it, then can you put it as an attachment to a reply on this discussion, so it's downloadable? Thanks!!

Can someone with the royal locks use their own hair as color for an awakening?

Can somebody list all of the worldhoppers from/in warbreaker? I've heard a lot of wishy-washy things, so please make sure to specify if it hasn't been confirmed

So I'm re-reading Warbreaker and couldn't help but pause when I got to the start of Chapter 54 where Vivenna is trying to get information out of a beggar named Tuft. Particularly, because of this description; The thing that jumped out was the lack of eye patch. Coincidence? Probably. But it was enough to give me pause and buy a ticket for the Crazy Theory Train. So here goes. - I've always assumed that Gaz has a) not worn an eye patch for a long time/ever within the camps, and b ) has developed this descriptive marker and can be identified by it Spoiler for Words of Radiance below: It's probably not too uncommon to see someone in the war camps with only one eye (or at least I would assume, as they are at war). But presumably (going off IRL convention) most of these soldiers wear eye patches, whereas Gaz distinctively doesn't. - Gaz' tic of looking to the side: most people I've read have taken this to be tied in with discomfort from his reduced perception, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a similar tic in someone who has lived on the street and who is constantly checking for nearby danger. - Gaz does eventually get an eye patch. But why? His issue (from the small amount we have from his POV) seems to come from the lack of perception in one half of his visual field and this doesn't change by adding an eye patch. However, the way other people see him might change. (Again, spoiler above) - Gaz' money problems could potentially lead to the situation where he's forced into the streets This is as solid as a block of Swiss cheese and even while writing this I was arguing with myself about things that didn't fit. But eh, I'm interested in this very unlikely, but *maybe* scenario. (Also if anyone happens to know of previous discussion re. this I would be forever grateful for links as I've been unsuccessful at finding anything).

I finally joined the 17th Shard!!! I've read both the Mistborn trilogies, the three Stormlight Archives, Warbreaker, and Arcanum Unbounded. Outside of the Cosmere, I've read the Reckoners and Legion. I can't wait for when he decides to write Warbreaker 2, but it sadly doesn't look like its going to be anytime soon.

Hi fellas. I have recently finished the stormlight books, which btw were my first cosmere experience. I was wondering what I should get my hands on next, so mistborn, elantris, or warbreaker? What are your suggestions? Mind you I've read "Alloy of Law", because I needed a book for a project also I thought about a new mistborn reading order, which goes by AoL first, then the original trilogy, and finishing with Wax and Wayne trilogy. Cheers!

So I was reading through the well of Ascension the other day, and I think that the religion of the Dadradah may have been influenced by Nalthian world hoppers. Here is the description of the religion when Sazed was pitching it to Clubs. This sounds a lot like the religion of the iridescent tones practiced on Nalthis. For example, when Lightsong would go over the offerings every day, he would look at art, which were said to hold prophetic visions of the future, which the Returned were said to be able to see because of their ability to distinguish hue and color so well. Not only that, but they would sometimes get poems written in the artisan script, which is a language made up of different dots and colors. I think someone from Nalthis may have gone to Scaladrial long before the Lord Ruler lived and influenced an entire region with the religion of the Returned, and it changed over time into the religion of the Dadradah. Other thoughts, or things that would either support or shoot down this theory?

My friend posted on my account.

My question is regarding Warbreaker. How can the Idrian royalty, sporting their Royal Locks, have ancient Returned blood in them if the Returned cannot reproduce? I thought that particular fact was made clear by the God King's priest and Lightsong's narrative. I'd love someone's help understanding what logical explanation I missed while plowing through this mesmerizing novel.

Hello everyone! It has been far too long. Having just moved across several states, this has been the first Letter that I have been able to make since we settled back into our house. But now we should be back into the swing of things. Keep an eye out because I also have some new ideas for Brandon Sanderson content to come! I'm not going to say that there are any particular reasons why the topic of Heightenings might be good to review, but I feel it is good to take a moment and review this aspect of BioChromatic Breath. This is my first look at the Investiture of Nalthis, yet the impact that Breath has on the general Cosmere. Now, this is an introduction to the Heightenings, and won't dive into much theory. I do plan to follow up with a letter about Awakening which will have more conceptual notes. Once again, I hope to remind you all that this series is meant to be targeted for new readers wanting to learn more about the Cosmere rather than deep theories. There are other ways that I plan to share my thoughts and theories. But anyway, I hope you enjoy this latest episode and the beautiful art that others have shared with us: Here is the transcript if you want to see the written form: It is odd to walk through a home that is no longer yours. I have lost several homes up till now. Some were taken from me by ill luck, some by force, and some I fled from in terror. Thankfully today I am walking through the home I have sold off, along with all my holdings and trade ships. It still amazes me how much wealth one can build when he is for all intents and purposes, immortal. Nalthis is the home I never deserved. I washed up upon these shores as a vagabond, cast out from my ruination. I was lower than the beggars, and I knew it. But it was my nature to reach for stability and progress. I worked hard and employed all my varied skills to gain the upper hand on my fellows. It wasn’t long until I had become a supervisor for a small dye mill. It was there that I first tasted of Living Breath. On Nalthis, the stewardship of Endowment, the manifest investiture is known as Biochromatic Breath. When I first was brought to your employ, I was so caught up in the whirlwinds surrounding Roshar that I failed to dictate to you this most important of investment and Shardic intent. I do so know, knowing that my current existence would not have been possible without Breath. All people born on Nalthis is given a single Biochromatic Breath upon their birth. All living things in the Cosmere hold a small amount of investiture inside them, their life force or essence. On Nailthis they are gifted with something more. Alone this Breath is almost unnoticeable. If you were from another world and you walked the streets of T'Telir, the people would not appear to be different. But Breath is like people, one alone can only do so much, but with many together some amazing things can happen. By speaking the right words with the proper intent, the Breath can be endowed unto another. Although the value of a single Breath changes slightly over time, the rule of thumb is that the sale of a single Breath usually equates the value of a year’s salary for a lowly worker. This provides a free infusion of wealth that the poor can rely on during troubled times. The rich and mighty will often spend great fortunes to collect this Breath because of the metaphysical benefits that come along with A collection of Breath. These abilities are described in tiers of power called Heightenings. If one attains about Fifty Breaths you will enter the First Heightening. Besides extending your life about ten years, this gives the user the ability Aura Recognition. In other words, Firsts can discern the general amounts of Breath others carry and some insight into the health of that Breath. Most residents on Nalthis who desire Breath stop at the First Heightening. At around 200 breaths, Breath holders gain the ability to manifest Perfect Pitch spontaneously. This is the Second Heightening. The Third Heightening grants Perfect Color Recognition manifests with about 600 Breaths. This is a curious sensation that feels almost like perfect pitch for your eyes. Some may feel that this ability grants the Breath Holder the ability to see more colors than others, but this is not true. Instead, this allows for the stark distinction of color to be observed. I must admit, Color recognition and the understanding of hue and texture is intoxicating. At an approximate requirement of 1,000 Breaths, the Fourth Heightening is the beginning of the rare Heightenings achieved by everyday people. When one attains the Fourth Heightening, the wielder gains Perfect Life Sense. As one acquires more Breath they instinctually become more aware of the investiture held by the people. This life sense not only lets you feel the people around you but heightens your awareness of others who are observing you even if they are hidden or mixed in with the crowd. This has proved invaluable. With this ability, I find myself in control of most situations before they begin. The exception to this ability comes from Drabs. A Drab is someone who has given up all their Breath, and they are functionally undetectable via Life Sense. As I’ve grown more accustomed to this power, I find the undetectable nature of Drab to be disconcerting. It is here, at the Fith Heightening that one such as I have found the Cosmere shaking ability of Longevity. When you hold about 2,000 Breaths the body becomes functionally perfect. The body becomes immune to most toxins, (including alcohol) most physical ailments (such as disease, headaches, and organ failure) In fact after I attained the Fith Heightening, I no longer age and have become functionally immortal. Now, this is incredible, but by no means does this mean I’m free of danger. While natural causes of death are now eluded I can still fall to the sword like any other man or woman. With this lifestyle comes risks and I must be on my guard considering how often my information brokering I participate in. Thankfully I have been blessed with other talents that grant me far more advantages than mothers of the Fifth Heightening. I find I must pause here and relate to you briefly what inspired me to attain such lofty heights of Breath. I am ashamed to say that my hoarding of BioChromatic Breath was not fueled by a desire to live and experience the Breath and Depth of the Cosmere. I feel so now, but when I began my business on Nalthis it was out of a sense of desperation and addiction. My world had been shattered and it had left me adrift and broken. When I discovered this place I feverishly worked, attempting to drown my past in the frantic world of business and politics. Many government officials are expected to reach the First Heightening in order to access the nation’s civil functions regularly. I remember taking on those first Breaths, and the euphoria that came with it. Each Breath filled me up, making me feel alive in ways I had never felt before. I found myself driven to capture more Breath. Feverously I would claim more and more wealth, using my powers to gain information I should never have know and to take things I had no right to claim. I was worse than a back ally thief but performed my heists on the grand scale. And every bit of profit I made I poured feverously into getting more Breaths. For almost twenty years I gathered my riches in invested souls while building a fanatical empire. And before I knew, I was turning 40 and didn’t look a day over 25. Slowly my work had filled the gaps in my life and given me purpose. I settled down and began to focus on the dye mills and weapons forges that had built my fortune. And there I remained until your messenger arrived, and pulled me from my holdings. But I digress, just because this is where I stopped collecting Breath doesn’t mean There are not more Heightenings to learn about. At the amassed Fortune of 3,500 Breaths, the wielder gains Instinctive Awakening. Breath is not just about hoarding and collecting personal enhancements, but about giving a form of life to normally inanimate objects. By infusing Breath into something, usually something that had once been alive like cloth or corpses, you can give them a measure of automation. This Infusion of Investiture along with a clear command phrase spoken in your native language the object can be given temporary life shaped by the desires of the holder. This investing art is called Awakening, and it is a complex and virtually boundless. The difficulty faced by a wielder of Breath boils down to two things, amount of Breath available and the Commands that you know. The more complex the order of the larger the object in question, the more Breath it will take to animate the material. When an Awakener achieves the Sixth Heightening, they begin to have a natural mastery of Awakening, allowing them to instinctively understand and wield basic Awakening commands without training or practice. This also opens up the pathway for greater command research as this instinct provides a light along the path of discovery. As I write to you today, I find myself temporarily experiencing the Seventh Heightening. Although this is very temporary, I have allowed myself this temporary treat of seeing just how much color there is to observe at this level. I can confirm that the strange ability granted from holding over 5000 Breaths is Awakening Sense. At this level, the nature of Endowment’s Investiture becomes incredibly fine-tuned. Not only am I aware of the people around me, But I can feel the life of the objects that have been awakened. At this level, it is like seeing a ripple of heat encasing all things that hold Breath. Very few have ever held this level of power, and so even with the wealth, I have gathered over hundreds of years, the secrets of the last three known heightenings are based on historical accounts and basic realmic theory. At the Eight Heightening, which reportedly requires at least 10,000 Breaths, comes the ability to Break Commands. While I do not think it is possible to steal Breath from other Awakeners or the objects they infuse, It is possible to tear down their intent and potentially change the commands they are given. While this is possible without the eight heightening, it is so difficult it is rarely attempted. But at the 8th Heightening Awakeners can achieve this by instinct, although I hear it is still an exhausting process. Once we step beyond the Sixth Heightening we are stepping into a level of Awakening and Biochromatic Breath that is hardly observed. The few in history to have attained such levels rarely showed others what they could do, so some of this is guesswork. For instance, at the Ninth Heightening which is achievable at a staggering 20,000 breaths, comes the ability to perform Greater Awakening. Tales of this type of awakening mostly come from the myths and legends of the past. Tales of Stone warriors destroying armies, and of living metal that cuts through armor as if it didn’t exist. Regardless, the awakening of matter that never was alive takes an incredible amount of Breath to Awaken and is impossible to attempt until the Awakener archives this 9th Heightening. The Tenth Heightening is the Highest ranking of Biochromatic Breath that we have. There may be other heightening levels beyond, but if that is the case no one has ever discovered it. Once the threshold of 50,000 Breaths has been attained, all scientific and historical information becomes as useless as blind guesswork. At this point the color surrounding the Awakener cannot be contained and begins to bend the light via Light Distortion. Colors seem to bend inward, almost glowing of their own accord. And anything that appears white will give off a fractured rainbow of light similar to the effects of a prism. When someone uses Breath to Awaken, color is drained from nearby objects, acting as fuel to the investment. At the Tenth Heightening, this draining ability is enhanced to a Perfect Invocation which draws all the color out of an object, turning it white instead of the usual grey. Most impressively this Heightening comes with the ability to Awaken without having to give a verbal command. This Mental Command almost defies the rules of Awakening although it is apparently difficult to learn and master. There could be even more powers and instinctual abilities that come with the Tenth Heightening, but I am not aware of them. While this is a decent summary of the Heightenings, bear in mind, that the art of Awakening is difficult to define. For instance, it is entirely possible to reach a heightening at more or less than the listed amount. The strength of each breath is different from person to person and the small differences of each breath can influence exactly how much is needed to attain a different heightening. I feel there is still much-untapped potential to be discovered in this art. For now, I am content to hold the Seventh Heightening for a few more hours. This additional Breath has cost me everything I own. I will no longer hold a position here on Nalthis, although that may change in the future. It was obvious to me that once we made our way back here, that there was something far more precious to me than my holdings. I can’t wait to finally explain all of this to Kassar. After all, I did this for her sake. After she has been trained in the arts of Awakening, we will be moving forward. I wish this was only a mission of scholarship. Yet the actions of Odium have sealed fear into my very being. I cannot be content unless I can see what is going on. Until the next Letter Elsric

So with Nightblood being in Oathbringer and now being in the possession of Szeth, what does that mean for the planned sequel to Warbreaker? The main thing that I'm wondering is how Nightblood got to Roshar as the sword was still on Nalthis at the end of Warbreaker. Is Nightblood the book going to be the story of how the sword landed in Szeth's hands? The continuity piece here is quite interesting. Since Nightblood didn't really say much to Szeth about how he got there, I just wonder the whole story behind that. Blackwatch Double Stomp...

For obvious reasons these three people will be coming together over a common thread: Nightblood.What face-time Szeth gets in book 4 will surely be dominated by his multiple commitments: Dalinar as the subject of his third oath, his fourth oath and the purging of the Shin, reforming the Skybreakers, and Nightblood. By bearing Nightblood Szeth will eventually draw Vivenna and Vasher. This seems the most certain to happen in book 4 and especially before the end of book 5 (I hope, I pray), although I can absolute imagine being teased for a full 10 12 books on Nightblood's fate and influence so I won't will get my hopes up. Whenever it happens, these three will either be enemies or intimate, depending on Vasher and Vivenna's motives. The crux of this conflict will lie in Nightblood's chain of custody and the creation of Vivenna's Type IV BioChromatic sword. The last we saw Nightblood before he showed up in Nale's hands, he was with Vasher and Vivenna at the end of Warbreaker. We've been promised a sequel which should clear up these custody issues, but regardless of how (at least) three two Nalthians and their two sentient swords ended up on Roshar, we know they're all coming into conflict. This whole post started from speculation on 'shipping Szeth, so I'll end with a twist. How will the two swords react to each other when they meet for the first time? Nightblood is ostensibly masculine, and Vivenna refers to her sword as she. Can we get some Type IV BioChromatic lovin' on?

Doesn't Oathbringer sound like a name of one of the Returned? It has the two word compound name. Light-Song Blush-Weaver War-Breaker Oath-Bringer I mean it fits, but what it could mean, I got no clue.

Kalak's Breath, what if that's a reference to Nalthis?