Until then, or even after it releases, I wanted to make a summary of the different versions to clear up any confusion some fans may still have lingering.

• The Prose version (noncanon) is a free download when you join the Sanderson Newsletter
  • if you already have joined, check the very first "welcome" email for the link.
    • Please see this post (it's not White Sand, but it applies the same) for techniques in converting the document to epub or PM me for conversion assisstance.
  • While some details are not canon, the important bits that are referenced elsewhere (so far) are all present and it is enough to give you a frame of reference
  • You could then read the Coppermind Summary or the threads in this forum that discuss the changes from the noncanon Prose and the Canon GN
• The Graphic Audiobook is (supposedly - I have not listened to it) the best version because it has both the changes to make it canon, and the description(s) that can be . . . lacking. . . in the Graphic Novel. 
  • My friends that dislike the GN tried this and spoke highly of it
• The three Volume Graphic Novel have become scarce and fallen victim to price gouging and buy-outs. If the problem is GN availability, note that the Omnibus edition re-release is now available. 
  • There are more than a few mistakes in the original GN trilogy, enumerated in many threads and WoBs
• The Graphic Novel Omnibus is now available from Dynamite (Hardcover, Trade Paperback and eBook) and will be soon on other vendors like Amazon. This version:
  • Fixes the mistakes from the three volume Graphic Novel
  • Adds in missing material from the original Three volume Graphic Novel (such as the Khriss Prologue)
  • Re-orders some material to better fit the timeline
  • Adds an "Ars Arcanum" as a series of journal entries intersperced with the story
  • Enforces the Slatrification RetCon (that's not really a RetCon since it was an unpublished piece that was never meant to be in the original Graphic Novel Vol 1 and had already been removed by Volumes 2 and 3)
  • Also, the Coppermind Summary is now based on the Omnibus, so you always have the option of reading the Prose (noncanon) version , then reading this summary to learn all of the changes.

If you are wondering why you should read White Sand:

• Currently it is the first in the Cosmere (Chronologically - at least until Dragonsteel releases)
• It is the Origin Story of an important Worldhopper (see below)
• It has many references in Stormlight Archive books 3-5
• It may have connections or interactions with aspects of Tress of the Emerald Sea

Slight Spoilers

what is special in that ? it can be achieved with some rope, pulley mechanism. they have build boats, making technology pulling some stuff up isn't much complicated for them

for fighting, there are better weapons available, and sand mastery fails many times with its flaws. they could not even save their own people because of their flaws 

is there more to their powers or they can be made redundant with advanced technology ?

On the third to last page of Chapter 3 the full name of Gevin is spelled "Gevaldin" when Khriss is speaking to Loaten on the eleventh page of Chapter 5 it is spelled "Gevalden".

WaT and Era 2 spoiler:

YaTNP spoiler: 

I thought to look at other places in the cosmere. Most of them are missing some details that would allow similar calculations. Taldain is, however, a very unique system. The planet is placed in the L1 lagange point of a double star system. Those stars are also known to be a blue supergiant and a white dwarf, which gives as an approximation for their size, masses, temperature and luminosity.

Assumptions:

• Dayside is a desert, and water evaporate pretty quickly when outside, so Taldain would be in the lower 30% of the habitable zone
• The Luminosity of the white dwarf is negligable (it's much weaker then the supergiant, and is surrounded by a particulate ring)
• The Luminosity of the blue supergiant is between 10^5-10^6 suns.
• The mass of the white dwarf is about 0.6 suns, and the mass of the supergiant is around 22.5 suns. The mass of the planet is negligable.

Using the same formula from the original post for the distance between the blue supergiant and the planet, we get that the distance between the planet and the supergiant is r=301-342 AU for a supergiant with luminosity 10^5 suns, and r=953-1080 AU for a supergiant with luminosity 10^6.

Using these distances and the formulas for the L1 lagange point i'ts easy to calcuate the distance between the dwarf star and the supergiant (r is the distance between L1 and the dwarf star):

• For L=10^5 we get R=379-430 AU
• For L=10^6 we get R=1199-1359 AU

Using this formula (time period for circular motion in a gravitational system):

The time period is:

• For L=10^5 we get T=37-45 years
• For L=10^6 we get T=210-254 years

Any thoughts?

I've just about finished my first read-through of everything in the Cosmere. I signed up for the newsletter and was unable to figure out how to get the PDF prose version of White Sand after quite a bit of troubleshooting and re-signing up for the newsletter, etc... I was wondering if anybody would be able to message me with a PDF of the white sand prose edition that had went out with the newsletter. I would love to finish out the current books, and would vastly prefer to read the written version to the graphic novels.

I would also love a copy of Aether of Night, if anyone would also be able to message me a copy; Brandon Sanderson's website indicates that copies of Aether of Night should be obtained via 17th Shard.

Thank you!

My goal was to see if I could invent a system that matched what we know about Taldain with minimal magic intervention. I couldn't invent one that could completely run on its own, but here's the one that got the closest.

Background info

In Arcanum Unbounded we learn this about Taldain:

•  It is tidally locked between two stars in a Binary system
•  The star that dayside faces is a blue-white super giant
•   From the planet, it looks like it is the same size as our sun (found with a little geometry)
•   The star that darkside faces is a white dwarf that:
•    has a particle ring around it making it "barely visible"
•    is bright enough to leave darkside in twilight but not full daylight
•    the UV part of its spectrum is enough brighter than the visible part that you can see plants fluorescing (When answering this question, Brandon states that it acts like a blacklight)

   
   
Additional info we have on Taldain:

•  it was put there by someone (who put it there is a RAFO)
•   magic can be involved in the planetary dynamics

The Blue-White Super Giant

Climate modeling is hard (weeks to months of super computer time), so instead I used these simple guidlines to calculate distance:

•  Over a 24 hour period, the center of Taldain should absorb the same amount of solar energy as a spot on Earth's equator.
•  Earth, on average absorbs 60% of the incoming sunlight, but deserts only absorb 30%. Sand, especially white sand, is very reflective.
•  If possible, the star should look roughly the same size as our sun,as it does in the graphic novels. (Aside: If I had to break any of these rules, this would be the first. Luckily, I didn't have to.)

Blue-white supergiants have a lot of variability, so when I was putting together the system I pulled in a list of stars with known masses, sizes, etc. and picked the one that fit best (9 Persei for those that want to look it up). 

That puts Taldain's orbit at about 95 AU from the star (1 astronomical unit (AU) is the average distance between the earth and the sun). At that distance, the intesity would be comparable to the sun at high noon in the early fall for those living between 40-50 degree latitudes here on earth. Since the sun never sets, the air would be much hotter, but you wouldn't need as much sunscreen. Cool side effect of this set up: it would probably be beneficial to have lighter skin living on darkside so that your body would produce enough vitamin D and skin cancer would be a lower risk. (Those are the two main evolutionary driving factors for skin color on earth, which is why those whose ancestors lived near the equator have darker skin and those living away from the equator tend to have lighter skin.)

Having the main star be a blue-white supergiant adds some interesting options for an end-of-life for the system. Here are some potential future scenarios:

•  The most probable, but also the most boring: The star continues burning through its fusible materials, slowly inflates into a red giant, then goes supernova. This is far enough in the future that it probably won't affect any plotlines.
• The star turns into a Wolf-Rayet star: If there is enough heat and pressure in the core, the star starts fusing carbon. The extra energy from this makes the star start belching huge amounts of its surface hydrogen. At the distance Taldain sits from the star, Day siders would see a huge hot plume belch out of the sun, then have somewhere between 1 month to 1 year to get to Darkside. When the plume hits, Dayside is annihilated. The star will continue to belch out hot hydrogen, turning the area into a nebula. The neighboring white dwarf will start gathering up the matter, then sometime between 1,000-10,000 years after the initial belch, the white dwarf will have gathered enough matter to reignite, triggering a type I supernova. The only thing left of the entire system would be atoms and dust. There wouldn't even be an asteroid. The initial belch could come at any time (or could still be a million years away).
• The star becomes a luminous blue variable star (slightly less likely than a Wolf-Rayet star). These stars feature many supernova-like outbursts that can come one at a time or several in a small burst, then wait a few thousand to a hundred thousand years inbetween. Dayside is raized, but some of the life living deep underground might survive, depending on the outburst. They'll see the outburst about a month before it hits. Once again, the white dwarf is likely to go supernova eventually, but it will probable take more time.
• The star just goes supernova. It's rare, and we don't know why it happens, but sometimes blue supergiants just explode. Daysiders might be obliterated in the initial gamma ray burst, which would hit them without warning the moment the light from the supernova reached the planet. Or, it could be small enough that people who were outside get radiation poisoning. Standing inside a stone building may be enough protection. They would have somewhere between two weeks and a month to get off-planet before it is destroyed by the ejected gas cloud. The blue supergiant leaves behind a neutron star. The white dwarf probably goes supernova sometime in the next 100,000 years, but no one is around to see it.

Summary: There are a few world-ending scenarios that could easily happen within 1,000-10,000 following White Sand, all of which leave a race against the clock to get off the planet in order to survive.

The White Dwarf

White dwarfs are the left-over remnants of a burnt-out star that wasn't big enough to create a neutron star or a black hole. The intense gravitational forces that arise from having so much matter in such a small space makes their properties much more predictable. Therefore, instead of trying to find a real star that fit, I was able to invent one that fit.

The result: a white dwarf with a temperature of 100,000 K (180,000 F), a mass that is 17% of the sun's mass, and a radius that is 2.2% of the sun's radius. Solar units are traditional and make the math easier, but I think it's fun to point out that the white dwarf fits the mass of 56,000 earths into a sphere that is only 2.5 earths in diameter.

To create a semi-stable orbit, the start would be about 18 AU away from the planet. At that distance, there would be about 50 lux of visible light (think living room at night so you've dimmed the lights some). You'd be able to read,  but just barely. From the surface of the planet, it would look roughly the same size as the planet Mars does from earth, but would be much, much brighter.

In order to see the UV effects described, there would need to be something in the atmosphere that keeps ozone from froming on Darkside. That would make UV light 10 times brighter than the visible light and intense enough to make darker skin an evolutionary advantage. The people on darkside would face an exposure to UV that would be comparable to living in the mountains on the equator here on earth. 

It would also explain why plants have adapted to fluoresce. UV light has enough energy per photon that it can easily break many molecular bonds (which is why it can cause cancer). Plants would do much better with an analog of chlorophyl that absorbed some of the UV light and re-emitted it as a lower energy wavelength instead of breaking apart. It would both allow plants to make their own food and protect their DNA from the ionized chunks of molecules (free radicals) that would otherwise be produced.

It is very improbable that a white dwarf and a blue supergiant would naturally form in a binary system (see notes above about the type I supernova), and so it was probably placed there when the planet was placed as well.

Taldain - The Planet

In our made-up system, it would take Taldian 1,200 years to orbit its star. Also, the gravitational forces from it's neighbors are so weak that the supergiant would burn out billions of years before the planet could be tidally locked, but once locked it would stay there. That tells us that the placement and being tidally locked had to be done by whichever power placed it there.

The planet itself would have to sit in what's called a LaGrange point between the two stars. Generally speaking, the closer a planet is to a start, the slower it is. A Lagrange point sits where the second star pulls just hard enough on the planet that the planet can keep pace with the second star when it would normally fall behind. However, these points are what's called an unstable equilibrium. If there are any bumps or jostles (like the ones that come from having a moon orbit around it), the planet will fall out of the equilibrium into a new orbit.

The omnibus refers to this as "Wombear's saddle", which is a nice nod to physics going on. (However, the explanation of finding it through observing stable and unstable orbits around the white dwarf isn't feasible. The orbits are unstable enough that nothing that is big enough to see (even with our modern telescopes) would form there and stay there long enough to figure out its orbit.

Using some orbital simulation code I stole from an astronomer in our department, I found that Taldain would only be able to remain in its orbit for about 50-70 years without something else keeping it in place (most likely some form of investiture).

Which leads to the question: "What would happen if the investiture stopped holding it there?" 

Three orbital bodies create what is called a chaotic system where tiny changes in initial conditions can lead to wildly different outcomes. I ran thousands of simulations to find out. The most common (and boring) was that Taldain settled into a new, slower orbit, no longer tidally locked between the two stars. Also, Taldain is so much lighter than the stars that the stars never significantly altered their orbit.
 Other final orbits that happened:

•  Fairly common: Taldain is sped up and then continues to speed up a bit more each time it passes between the stars, slowly increasing its orbit until it slams into the white dwarf in somewhere between 5,000 and 100,000 years into the future.
•  Fairly common: Taldain starts orbiting around both stars in a figure 8. Everyone freezes to death within 100 years the first time it orbits the white dwarf. It usually happens within 5 orbits (6,0000 years)
•  Rare but super awesome: Taldain is slingshotted out from between the two planets at incredible speeds. Everyone freezes to death within 200 years. Before freezing to death, the acceleration reaches somewhere between 0.25 and 2 g's. If you were standing on the day/night line on one side of the planet, you would feel up to 3 times heavier. On the other side, gravity might not be strong enough to keep you on the surface and you would be left behind, along with rock and other rubble as the planet is torn apart. The lower accelerations aren't strong enough to rip the planet apart, but would be strong enough that you would have to lean into the direction of the acceleration to keep from falling over. Some people would spend their entire lives leaning in as the planet slowly got colder.

The Moon

Taldain's moon constantly orbits the day-night line around the planet, and the residents count each orbit as a day. Due to conservation of momentum, the moon's orbit should drift around the planet as it orbits the larger star. From a space perspective, the moon keeps orbiting in the same plane as the world turns beneath it. We couldn't find any simulations (tiny tweaks in orbital angle) that would keep the moon orbiting the day-night line for more than 10-15 years. Whatever is holding Taldain in place would also have to keep nudging the moon in (probably why the cloud around the white dwarf blinks every seven days, according to the omnibus).

As far as figuring out the orbit goes, we're a lot more limited in the details. Since the text doesn't mention the moon having a tail, we know that it is probably rocky (rather than icy like a comet). If it was comet-like, the tail would always be pointed away from the supergiant, towards Darkside. For stability, we'd want the smallest possible mass that would still be round, which would make the Taldain moon roughly the size of Saturn's moon Mimas. Assuming Taldain is about earth-sized, and that 1 "day" is close enough to one earth day that it matches human biological cycles, the moon's orbit would be 4-8 earth radii away from the surface (which also makes it far enough away that it won't break up due to Taldain's gravity). Therefore, Taldain's moon would appear 1/4 the size of our moon at the smallest up to just a little bit smaller than our moon at the largest.

I know Sanderson stated he would have to put more Hoid in them than was in the prose version, and we also know Hoid appears in every novel, but concerning the graphic novel (since it's one story broken into 3 parts): will Hoid appear in EACH part, or just in the series?

-CQ

are those spheres magical ?

this part is never discussed again in the novel and nothing special happens because of it.

it is developed and then left, ruined

it could have been replaced even a written test 

Also I  know that the original people who bought it gor it 7 months late do you think it's connected?

• Destroying stone disks as shown in the Ch 1 Zo'Ken "game" (skill of speed and accuracy)
• Lifting progressively larger/heavier objects (skill of strength and endurance)
• Catching falling objects safely (skill of safety - prevent "Gwen Stacy" death when helping other guilds)
• Climbing with Sand (for reaching heights a normal sand jump cannot reach - it seemed the technique of "climbing" was intricate and unintuitive and therefore could be a testable skill)
• Catching "bolts" (in the battle I recall a Lestrall? mentioning that they could never do that when Kenton does)
• Defensive techniques (like walls) employed correctly
• Anti-Terken techniques (as Kenton devised over the course of the story - like the "Table-Fu")
• Sand Decoys 
• Sand Knotwork Art (skill of precision)
• etc.

What else might be a viable skill test?

Edit: When fighting the deep sandling (to save the Lord General) we see Kenton fall because he had to redirect his sand to other tasks. Maybe they could learn to use conservation of momentum (Mistborn Spoilers)

 What techniques that we have not yet seen might be developed and tested?

Do you think this new kind of Path might be something developed post-story?

I tried searching the Coppermind, but no luck there. So, . . . 

Does anybody know what font was used for White Sand (GN)? Specifically the Omnibus. It seems to have been used for Brandon's name on some covers - but I am more interested in the internal headers. Example:

So, it's a serif font - probably a Dragonsteel-only thing; but I hope I can find the base font from which this was developed so I can get close.

I'm trying to fix my epub from Dynamite, and one of the main issues is that the Forward, Introduction and Glossary are unreadable on my device** (Kobo Forma - though PC via Calibre works) so I want to turn the image for those pages into a background and use actual paragraph tags for the text and I am hoping to mimic the headers as closely as I can. 

Thank you very much for any assistance you may provide. 

**Note: technically the whole thing is unreadable because they set the "page" images to 640x985pixels - but changing that is the "easy" part. . . 

Personally, I think that Slatrification retcon was kinda unnecessary. I've seen people complain that Slatrification was game-breaking for Sand Mastery, which I completely disagree with:
A) you need White Sand in the first place, away from the Dayside desert, a Sand Master will have to carry around White Sand in a gourd like a discount Gaara
B )  the sand becomes inert after use and takes a while to recharge, with modern Investiture devices and/or just more abundant ambient Investiture this problem might be solved but that's another weakness and an opening
C) Slatrification would've converted sand to water. If the Sand Master isn't in Dayside's Kerztian desert that just reduces the resources the Sand Master has at his disposal. One does not get instantly rehydrated by drinking water and trying to do that might in fact kill you
D) Sand Mastery isn't very versatile tool compared to other Invested Arts users like Surgebinders or Mistborn, and   seems to be on the higher end of required training. Every level of power breakthrough is physiologically expensive and requires even more training to integrate into combat

I think there's sufficient cost to the magic without Slatrification

It would've been really amazing to see a skilled Sand Master trying to balance out Sand Mastery's rotating handicaps of sand, water & Investiture in the future.

Narratively, all it needed to be was a high enough level skill so as to be inaccessible to the protagonists, which it already was.

Slatrification also seems thematically very appropriate for the setting. Having the power to convert sand into water in the desert, as well as using an opponent's Investiture as fuel (White Sand recharges from kinetic Investiture), when Taldain gets into space-faring era.

Update: the retcon is now official. The edited version will be available in the omnibus.

So first off: Version 1.5. This may confuse some people but this is just the number I've decided to use between Brandon's Draft of White Sand and what we got in the Graphic Novel. On the page for the first Volume of the GA version of White Sand it confirms that a lot was cut in order to make the GN, whether this stuff is still canon or not someone should definitely ask Brandon one day. The Script used in the Graphic Audio version IS the original edited script for the Graphic Novel before things started having to be chopped. I decided to record some of the difference just to see how different they are. 

Now for the Differences, I'll try and be thorough but I probably will end up missing some things here and there. 

Volume 1: 

Kenton is shown running the whole gauntlet from beginning to end instead of picking up around the forth sphere. Unlike the Graphic Novel which makes it very hard to tell there are indeed both men and women in the Diem and they comment about Kenton throughout his trial. 

Khriss's story begin with her on the ship from Darkside and seeing the sun and port for the first time. We get to see some of the hostility between Baon and the soldiers due to Boan being in charge. 

Most of the Ceremony is the same for Kenton's sash, with the exception that after he blacks out, we cut to Khriss and company attempting to buy supplies in port as well as a guide. They discover that the language they'd been taught as Daysider is the Holy Language of the Priests.

The Story matches up quite well from here up to the ambush after the marketplace. The assassin's attack and Baon's acquires one of their casters. Kenton then explains how it works to him. 

Before they reach the city, We see that the area around it is very lush with life surprising Khriss.

Then the story switches to our favorite, Ais, who is planning to raid to capture Sherizane or their conspirators. It switches to Lokmlen who is trying to persuade his cohorts into a job. He's wanting to sneak into the Diem and steal what's there since the Sand Masters are no more. After get the others to agree, Ais and her team, with expert timing, enter and their operation. Lokmlen escapes much to Ais annoyance. The back wall then opens up and a kill squad begins to pick off the tracts.  Ais rushes the wall and grabbing the arm of the of men, then proceeds to use him as a battering ram to bring down the wall. She then picks off the shocked men and takes off after Lokmlen. 

The GN picks up with their chase and is completely the same except for one small detail: Aarik has sheath not a sword, as he had thrown the sword away years ago. 

Speaking of Airik, his introduction is actually a bit different in the GA version. We meet him on a boat heading towards Kezare to mourn his friend Kenton, whom he believes was killed. He talks to himself and the Gondolier driver questions whether he should have ferried him. 

From here the graphic novel and Graphic audio play continue the same, right up til Kenton reaches the diem, which is confirmed to be on it's own little island seperated from the rest of Kezare. Kenton enters the Diem and spends a good while searching. Every room that he could reached, screaming at the top of his lungs before he collapses at the entrances and Dirin Finds him. Things continue the same until we reach the Judgement hall. Where we see our musician friend for the first time, singing about the current situation to no one in particular. It is noted that he has long hair similiar to Aarik and that he reminds Kenton of him. 

The only other remarkable difference is that Ais has a bad habit of Digging her nails into her skin as a skin of frustration which is shown in the GN version, but is very hard to pick out.

The rest of the volume is the same with Kenton fighting it out with Drile, Aarik Arriving at the Diem, and  Khriss paying N'teese, going to meet people and eventually learning that Kenton is a Sand Master which she is none too happy about 

White Sand Vol. 3 is out today... sort of. The ebook appears to be available and some have reported finding the hardback in bookstores. (Though the official hardback release date appears to be October 1st.)

But hey, it's essentially out. What did you think?

1. Is there something that continues those events?

2. Do I have to read the graphic novels - are there any differences that are importnat?

3. Is White Sand non-canon, then?

Thanks!

TIA

I really liked picking up on the foreshadowing of who the traitor is.  Like there's the point before Kenton goes on the Mastrell's Run where Elorin makes a plea to the Sand Lord on Kenton's behalf and Kenton even comments on how sand masters are usually atheists.  And then Elorin tries to keep Kenton away from the big meeting.

I also liked the minor, one line, appearance of Delious (I think that's his name) he was my favorite character from the prose version.

Quote

Questioner

Can you tell us anything about the Darkside of White Sand?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. We are hoping to do a story set there once the omnibus is out. It might graphic novel, it might be print. There is some very cool stuff about the way that the other sun works, and the magic involves tattoos. It's very nifty. We will get to it eventually. So, there you go. 

Questioner

If you do a graphic novel, will you release the prose like you did for the first one?

Brandon Sanderson

There might not be a prose if we do a graphic novel. I haven't written-- One of my goals is actually, now the graphic novel's done, is to do a straight up revision of the prose and actually make it match the graphic novel and match current Cosmere continuity, and then actually release a print edition of it. I think it's more likely that we do a prose edition of the second book than a graphic novel, but I'm not sure which one it would be.

FanX 2021 (Sept. 16, 2021)

Tattoos apparently, so we were all wrong on what the Skycolors manifested: not glow-in-the-dark people, eye colours or a literal limelight shining from the sky or aurora but tattoos.

Edit: Brandon might not exactly be talking about the Skycolors (like Breath vs Awakening)

And the Skycolors do involve bioluminescence and something like the aurora:

Prose stuff

and it could be a mix of UV interactions, bioluminescence and magic. The Skycolors varying between people definitely points to weirdness. ~ extracts & points from Mori on Discord

Somewhat surprisingly to me, I think I might have to say that I actually like the graphic novel, when it comes to enjoyment. I don't like graphic novels, and most of the graphic novel had inferior dialogue, and I missed some of the deleted scenes, but the first half of the prose, and even a lot of the second half, was just so. painful. that I think it successfully (if that's really an appropriate word here) managed to outweigh every flaw of the graphic novels for me.

Going to reread the graphic novels tomorrow, because I haven't read them in a couple months, but I don't think that my ultimate opinion will change.

[Insert here my usual disclaimer about being tired, because for some reason I never finish a book before one in the morning, and using the tiredness as an excuse for typos or weird-sounding phrases.]

Is this a mistake? Can it be rectified?

If not, does anyone know the reason for dropping it?

In sand mastery, each of the grains of sand are covered in little pieces of algae like stuff. You give water from your body to these, getting them to move, and do as you command.

Which leads to why slatrification makes clear sense:

it isn't actually turning sand to water, per se. It is you tricking the algae, giving it a little bit of water, and instead of having it move, squeezing all the water out of it, getting water to drink, even if it is a bit sandy.

How this would work: the algae is able to compress the water, fitting in an incredible amount into a small space. So for every grain of sand, you gain about three times that much water. So when you do this on a large scale, all the sand settles to the bottom, and you're left with perfect water. Perceived as "turning the sand into water".

I feel like this makes a lot of sense, and would explain it perfectly.

This is something I am genuinely curious about, how many people have read White Sand?

And for those who have, how many enjoyed it?

What is the title of the prose version?

How can I obtain the prose version?

How do i obtain vol 2 and vol 3 of the prose version?

Seems a lot like Hoid. Anyway, being that he is the son of one of the Daysiders, that can't be...

Unless he fooled that person and just was a really good actor.

He seems like a very strong candidate for Hoid. Odds are he isn't , but if he isn't, who is? Hoid always appears!

I say this before I do any research because I tend to be wrong about these kinds of things. The original idea for it all came when I was watching Game Theory on Youtube because I was bored. I recalled a certain episode from the very channel about gravity’s relationship with centripetal force. Put simply, your weight here on Earth isn’t actually your mass multiplied by gravity. Your weight here on Earth is slightly more than your mass multiplied by gravity because another force—centripetal force—is preventing gravity from taking complete hold of you. I hope you feel better the next time you weigh yourself because you’re actually slightly fatter than the scale says you are.

Now, I was considering this relationship, and then I suddenly remembered something from the Cosmere. An anomaly, to say the least: A planet trapped in one spot between two stars. According to Arcanum Unbounded, “Taldain is a tidally locked planet trapped between the gravitational forces of two stars in a binary system.” As a concept, this is pretty cool, and the fact that the planet is held in place by equal gravitational pull from two masses makes sense, at least in a pinch.

However, most planets in the universe tend to orbit and star and spin about an axis. Ours (Earth) is one of these. Our gravity is 9.8 meters per second. However, this gravity is fighting alongside this factor.

Factor: Earth is spinning about an axis at 465 meters per second at the equator.

What does this mean?

Well, what this means is that there’s a lot in play that gives us that sensation of being pulled down. In the diagram above that I heartlessly stole from the internet, we get a pretty good idea of what centripetal force does. If that blue dot were you and the axis the Earth’s axis, then by spinning around, your body will attempt to launch off the planet at thousands of miles an hour and be instantly cremated by the buckets of radiation lying around in space. However, your hundred-pound-worth of human flesh is kept firmly on the ground by another force: gravity. These two forces keep each other in check to make sure we aren’t glued to the ground by gravity or launched into space by centripetal force.

So what does this mean for Taldain?

Well… not much.

While centripetal force does keep gravity in check, nothing’s that much different without it. Assuming Taldain has the same gravity as Earth (which is plausible, as Sanderson’s gravity system is incredibly similar to ours), then 135 Kg at the equator with centripetal force amounts to about 134 without. If Taldain happened to have been spinning about an axis but suddenly stopped—which it didn’t—then there would’ve been some chaos (people at the equator being hurled due east faster than the speed of sound, either dying from hitting a mountain or getting severe whiplash followed by enormous tidal waves promptly eliminating everything), but seeing as how that never happened, then it can be assumed that Taldain is safe, right?

Wrong!

Taldain’s two stars are completely different from one another. The “Dayside” star is a huge supergiant star that provides constant noonday sun to the inhabitants. The “Darkside” star is hidden behind a mess of rings which prevents most of its heat from reaching the Darkside. What does this mean? Well, on the Dayside, everything’s regularly hot and dry, as shown by the abundance of white sands. On Darkside, however, everything’s cold and wet. And what happens if you put something super cold next to something super hot?

You get wind!

See, cold air is more dense than warm air. When something dense has the opportunity to disperse, it’ll take it. So the cold side of Taldain is going to constantly rush over to the warm side of Taldain, causing massive planetary winds that’ll blow through any barrier cities. Oceans? Forget about sailing. Those waves are going to be massive.

However… I’m going to give Taldain the benefit of the doubt here. Thousands of massive storms on the border between Dayside and Darkside isn’t actually very realistic. There would be high winds, yes, but there’s never any drastic temperature changes due to the fact that either side has a consistent heat source. It’s quite plausible that equilibrium had been achieved and maybe winds barely even show themselves. It’s possible that Taldain is fine as it is.

However, I have one more trick up my sleeve to hopefully destroy Taldain as we know it. And that has to do with nothing more than the planet itself; how it was created.

Creating a planet that just so happens to be in the perfect habitable zone for not one but two stars is a very strange anomaly. There aren’t a ton of ways to explain this but there are a couple methods.

Method 1: There were once actually three stars in the Taldain system. The one in the middle was of significant less mass than either of the other two. In fact, its mass in comparison to those of the dwarf star and the supergiant was so miniscule that its outer layers were actually sucked away by the other stars. The supergiant simply ate these outer layers, chomping them down like a bag of cheetos. The dwarf star, on the other hand, created a ring out of the collective stardust that it consumed. Once the outer layers were consumed, the star cooled, and what remained became a planet. I find this option intriguing and actually quite plausible—not like the next method, which is unrealistic but also really destructively cool.

Method 2: There were also once three stars in the Taldain system. One, however, had a lot more mass than the other two. This star did the opposite of the Method 1, and instead of getting its surface stripped away, chowed down on the stars nearby. Eventually, something (I dunno what) happened, and a ton of its mass was stripped away to form its moon. Over the process of time (a lot of time), this star cooled into a planet, but it continues to strip away at either star, as is the process of receiving Investiture from the shard Autonomy. This option is incredibly unrealistic because if anything Taldain should have the other two stars orbiting it, not the other way around. However, that could actually be a possibility, in retrospect—instead of being trapped between two stars, two stars are trapped by Taldain, who orbit it at such a perfect rate that they appear to be in the same place 24/7

Either way, though, I haven’t spelled doom for the Taldain people. At the end of the day, my clickbait title wasn’t true. Taldain is perfectly fine.

Unless I’m wrong, which I usually am about these things! Feel free to inform me about other forces caused by a lack of centripetal force or the consequences of being nearby a supergiant star! Until then, I’m going to continue teaching my seminar on High Imperial.

Sincerely,

Channelknight

I was going through the White Sand comics and there were faces in the sky. Not very subtle, that.

But I remember reading WoBs and theories where Autonomy is the sun on the Dayside of the Taldain system. About how strange the entire Taldain planetary/stellar system was, why Taldain's Perpendicularity might be blocked (because it's in the Sun), how the lichen of the white sands recharge after being used for Sand Mastery, the Skycolors of Darkside (Shifting Colors in the comics), etc. Autonomy being the Sun made perfect sense, but there are also theories on her being Invested in the atmosphere, and some of those theories still work with that.

So is Autonomy hiding in the sun or in the atmosphere? Did Brandon change his mind?

Also, what's up with, what looks like an Avatar of her, appearing before Elorin? What's this about Scythe (Skathan in the comics, the Emperor of the Dynasty on Darkside) possibly being another Avatar of her? I've read the WoB on Patji about it being an Avatar of Autonomy formed of her Intent but not quite Splintered off her, and I understand that bit but why would Hoid leave the letter to him? Was access to Bavadin blocked at that point due to her closing off Taldain?

I am watching 'The Library' episode of Avatar: the Last Airbender, and I just realized how similar the sandbenders are to sand masters. What do y'all think?

Taldain is the "other kind," and, as is stated in the article, the outer star can easily be darker.

What I'm saying is that Taldain is possible. Survival on Taldain would arguably be harder than on Roshar, but it's possible.

So I have read all of Brandon's Cosmere related works. And know enough about the Cosmere to consider myself at least moderate at it. However there is one big piece I am missing out on. Taldain and White Sand.

This is because White sand is a graphic novel. I am blind, which makes me unable to read the novels.

I have tried to search for an audio version but of course there is nothing to be found. I have asked Graphic Audio if there are any plans of dramatizing the series, but they responded in the negative.

I am really desperate to read this. I can perfectly afford a copy of the novels, but the problem comes with reading it. Thoughts? I have found no choices and am stuck. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm sorry if this looks out of place. I just thought to ask for help and see if you have any more avenues for me to try.

Regards.

P.S: I have no problems at all with reading text formats; in fact most of Brandon's book reads for me were text, not audio. I'm just stuck because graphic novels are completely unreadable for me.

Chapter by Chapter Breakdown (spoilered for length)

Unique POV Breakdown:

That's sounds like it's begging for a second half of a reference there, where somewhere in the book someone is separated from something important by hair in a panel. An I could have sworn that on this board I remember discussion about something like that. But now I can't find it.

Anyone got anything? A previous discussion, or an idea of what art page completes the reference? Or am I just making things up?

But the way Sand Mastery is used doesn't make much sense for Autonomy. Chaos has suggested that Autonomy's Intent applies in how Sand Masters exercise their autonomy in Overmastering to gain more power. However, this application's relevance is a stretch. It would be more geared to a Shardic Intent of something closer to Sacrifice.

Rather, I suggest that Autonomy's Intent applies in how the sand is controlled.

Quote

It was as if the sand had its own consciousness--a consciousness that had no form until he gave it direction. However, with the slightest command from him, it moved, seeming to understand his orders without his needing to complete the thought. Holding the sand somehow expanded his mind. The sand itself became his mind--not in a sense of ability to think or reason, but more in the way it processed sensual information. It divided his concentration, allowing his mind to focus on several different tasks at once.

Up until that moment, Kenton had never understood the true potential of sand mastery. With so many ribbons hovering around him, sand mastery became less focused on control or domination. He didn't master the sand so much as become a part of it. One being.

This description of Sand Mastery is suspiciously similar to how Autonomy's avatars seem to be: autonomous entities, each with their own consciousness, but in a way, still one, shown in the Oathbringer letters when

*This would have probably been a better post for Cosmere Discussion, but that quote from White Sand prose fit way too well for me to not use it.

I really want to know what's going on with scythe, he sounds very Lord rulery to me.

White sand (prose) is one of favorite cosmere stories and it ends on such a cliffhanger! I hope he goes back to the world some day.

I subject that Hoid either got or has the guitar in White Sand, the very one we see in fact, took it with him on his Cosmere Grand Tour before eventually managing to awake it on Nalthis. 

I also believe that by the end of Part 3, that Guitar and Musician will have a role to play. But we shall see. 

1. Baon can master.  Khriss cannot.  What is up with that?  What determines who can and cannot master?

2. Elorin relates meeting the Sand Lord and from his flashbacks it looks like he is speaking literally.  Who did Elorin meet?  I would guess the avatar of Autonomy took physical form for some reason but it could also be the A'kar using sand mastery secretly.  Also if he took form why?  What is up with him?

3. Satisfaction is no longer a thing but Kenton still thinks it is.  Could this please be cleared up?

4. Why did Kenton let Khriss into the Deim when he previously said that doing so was wrong and why is he letting her go away to Darkside with the express intention of creating sand masters outside of the Deim's control?

5. What strange ability is Kenton using to feel the entire sand during his duel?

Feel free take make a guess or two(although keep your aluminum hats off).

If you disagree, leave now, highly opinionated vitriol follows.

I loved the prose version of White Sand, it wasn't Brandon's best work, but I didn't expect it to be. But holy crap, I suffered through volume 1 of this monstrosity, with it's horrible art and truncated nonsensical dialog, but really to expect us to buy 2 more volumes of this horrible crap, to get a watered down, insensible version of the prose story, who does he think we are? For reals?

Dedicated fans that will sift through the weird combination of baroque/neoclassical/renassaince/pashtun imagery in order to find some small hint about something of the deeper cosmere,....Admittedly, that is the case, but never before did dedication to a greater goal come at so high a cost. I hate this book, but I am compelled by forces greater than myself to read it, which makes me hate reading this particular book even more. 

I am a fan of graphic novels, but this is NOT a good graphic novel. Firstly, you shouldn't have a graphic novel where the major hinges of the plot are political and require book length sections of dialog. I'm an illustrator and I know that kind of thing is torture to draw. How many different angry expressions of the interlocutors can you draw before people get tired of the idea that the people who are talking are not happy about what they are talking about. This is totally general criticism of the whole series, but let me get into some of the specific criticism of this particular volume (volume 1 shares a lot of the same faults, but I will limit myself to criticism of the 2nd volume).

1. Brandon said in Arcanum Unbounded that sand mastery lends itself to the graphic novel format. This would be true if sand mastery wasn't depicted as Flying with a crappy swirly line around Kenton and some little "magical" plus signs. I agree that sand mastery would be awesome if properly depicted in the graphic novel, unfortunately it's one of the weakest parts in the prose version as well. It's a magic system kind of specifically set up to make the sand masters look like egotistical jerky show-offs. It works far better in the prose version, they all seem like jerks. What is unforgivable in Vol. 2 is that the illustrator has seemed to have given up on depicting the actual sand, instead he just draws a glow around Kenton and some magical looking plus signs which indicate that some magic stuff is happening.
2. Scratchy line drawings:
   The characters are not cohesive. Kenton looks 10 years older or younger from panel to panel, this is poor execution. The illustrator is using an aesthetic dodge, the reason the lines are so scratchy and hard to distinguish is because the illustrator is unwilling to commit to a specific presentation. His backgrounds (especially the natural environments) are awesome, but he gets less sure the closer the "camera" gets to the subject.
3. Panel division:
   This is so poorly done, it is consistent from volume 1 to 2, but why divide the page up like that? It doesn' add anything to the narrative. It doesn't look good, it just makes the reading order of panels unnecessarily hard to determine. It seems like it's done as a further attempt to hide the fact that the illustrator is unable to create anything intrinsically compelling.
4. What the heck, this is ridiculous?
   Ok, so this is going to be admittedly the biggest entry in this bulleted list, because it is going to have examples (spoilered so you don't have to look at them if you don't want to):
   A-Delius? What the crap is this depiction supposed to signify??????? This is one of the worst drawn characters I have ever seen. He is eating his wine like a pig at a trough!
   Spoiler

   

   WTF? Does he drink with his nose too? This is not just hyperbole with intent, this is just plain bad art. Can he drink more wine if he shoves the whole "baroque" goblet up his nose??

   B-Sand mastery visualized — I bet Brandon had no idea that the grace and majesty of sand mastery would end up looking like this. Very rarely are ribbons of sand depicted, it's more of a magical nimbus of light with little magical plus signs to show spooky action of sand mastery.

   Spoiler

   

   What the CRAP is going on there? it looks like he is being swarmed by mitichlorines.

   C-Continuity, continuity, continuity. This illustrator, not content to represent the lossandians as straddling merely three different eras (classical greece in the Diem, Loius the XIV's France in the Admiral's quarters and Florence from the Italian Renaissance in the Artisan's quarters), also unfortunately decided to be free and loose with the simple particulars of a given scene (like the one spoilered below where Ais kils the Kerztian assassin). She fires all five of her arrows at the Kertzian assassin at point blank range, but how they are depicted embedded in the head of the assassin doesn't make any sense, he looks like a pincushion. He has arrows in both temples, one up his nose and an arrow in each eye! How the arrows are arranged it looks like he was hit by 5 different archers from five different positions.

   Spoiler

   

   and in more detail:

   

   What the heck???

    

Brandon writes incredibly cinematically, his prose visualizations would lend themselves quite well to the graphic novel form, but he should write specifically for the medium not have some other people try to shoe horn a complex political dialog packed thriller into this format.

Sorry about the above rant, I don't usually like tearing things apart like this, but I needed to vent because I am compelled to read the entire Volume of this travesty (though it pains me deeply to do so). If I didn't care so much about the content of the book I would have stopped reading this volume after the 2nd page.

Not looking forward to volume 3 at all, hopefully the illustrator that finished Volume 2 will be back to do all of Volume 3, his artwork, while not perfect, at least has the continuity down and the weird era straddling backgrounds are toned down substantially.

Is the "White Sand" entry in "Arcanum Unbounded" the same as "White Sand" (vol 1)?

So. we know that Baon and Skathan are both Liarian, and we know that Baon has seen Skathan.  We know that both Skathan and Baon have beef with Loaten--specifically, we know that Baon sees Loaten as a traitor, and that Loaten previously served Skathan, and that Loaten clearly seems to recognize Baon.  We know that Baon speaks with "eloquence" that seems out of place with his position as bodyguard.  We know that Baon mentions "traitors" and "betrayal" many, many times--this seems like the kind of preoccupation that an immortal emperor would have.  We know that Baon has seen Skathan do "impossible" things, but that he conspicuously avoids talking about Skathans "abilities" or "magic", making us wonder if those abilities are in fact the result of investiture, or something else--similarly, we know from WOB that Baon is uninvested, although we've seen him seeming to use sand mastery.  We know that Cynder and Acron were both fetching saltpeter for Baon, acting like his servants, despite the fact that he was supposedly socially inferior to both of them--and we know that they reacted awkwardly when Khriss saw them doing that.  We know that Acron, who acted servile towards Baon, was serving Skathan.  Gevin, while apparently looking past Khriss and towards Baon, tells Khriss that she is more "involved with" politics than she was in her homeland.

Most important, we know that Skathan is eternally youthful, and that White sand is chronologically the first canonical cosmere book, but Baon still looks youthful several generations later on Roshar.  Even during White Sands, Baon seems to have mastered more skills (like sailing) than a man of his apparent age should have been able to.

My best guess is that Skathan is hot for Khriss, but wants her to value him for himself rather than his title.  Hence, his repeated urging for her to look at people instead of titles.and ranks.  He more or less straight up tells Kelton that he is his enemy during their discussion of Raakens's death, although he couches it as a hypothetical.  This could be both because Kelton is his love rival, and because the "sand mages" are, in fact, a danger to Skathan. Just before the Epilogue, Baon strongly hints that he disagrees with Khriss.  What's the disagreement?  Could it be over whether Elis should be part of the dynasty? Finally, in the epilogue, the Witty minstrel tells us that the "creator" and "creation" are separated by "the breadth of a hair", just before a panel where Baon and Khriss are separated by Dirin's highly-visible red hair.  Skathan has been carefully crafting Khriss' worldview, shaping her into the kind of person he wants her to be.

So, there's the theory.  Thoughts?

And since it was changed, why were the gender dynamics on Taldain also changed from prose to the graphic novels?

Wouldn't it have made for a stronger characterisation of Ais if she had to deal with being a Trackt, a Kerztian and a woman within that society? Why change that?

Why did we get handwaved gender equality? The Daysiders, the Kerztians in particular were very patriarchal, the Darksiders were more advanced but were still patriarchal like on Earth. Why was this changed in the graphic novels?

1).Ok so in the comic u see a female face in the clouds watching the actions going on below. I know it's autonomy but does it signify anything , like is autonomy seriously interested in human affairs ? or is it just that the artist thought it would be cool to give obvious Clue's to the greater nature of the Cosmere ?

2). How come Baon is way more powerful at Sandmastery than even Drile ?

3). If overmastery leads to increased power , could Drile use it to eventually control as many as 50 or more ribbons ?

Could Kenton learn to control 25 or more ribbons eventually ?

4). Why did the Diem keep this knowledge a secret ? I mean , sure keep it secret in the training years but after that let it be known. For example , after testing kenton's determination and his success even when restricted to a single ribbon , they could have easily told him the secret and made him powerful .

5). I'm guessing the singer at the going to darkside is Hoid. What in damnation is he doing in Taldain ? I thought Bavadin stormin hated him . I thought he would never risk going there. 

I mean roshar is one thing. Odium was kinda lying low and I guess the other shards cloaked or  protected him intentionally or not. 

Besides Rayse had a lot of other stuff to deal with , so he couldn't focus on hoid. 

But taldain is a mono-Shardic planet and autonomy is pretty free .

Hell he got found out by endowment and she warned him off. I'm sure bavadin won't be near as generous. She even says her child/avatar on obrodai is programmed to hate him .

Check it: https://www.amazon.com/Brandon-Sandersons-White-Sand-3/dp/152411006X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1544615315&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=white+sand+vol+3

Because I don't remember seeing him at all

Now, these 3 graphic novels are an adaptation of White Sand (Prose), which in itself is a rewriting of both White Sand Prime and Lord Mastrell, Brandon's first and third novels, and was supposed to be the first of a trilogy. Brandon talked about this before, saying that how the rest of the trilogy would be released would depend on fan reaction, and about how there could even be another story set on Taldain after this trilogy.

Quote

Iceblade44

The original White Sand was the first of a trilogy so i was wondering what is your plan for the other two books? Writing them as books, graphic novels, or are you just to busy to actually do anything about it right now?

Brandon Sanderson

We'll decide when the graphic novel is done and out. Basically, we have to gauge fan response. If sales are good, and fans want more, we'll likely do them as graphic novels.

When I write more in Taldain, I intend to construct a new story, taking place after the events of the trilogy. (Whether or not we actually do graphic novels of the other two originals.)

Stormlight Three Update #5 (Nov. 29, 2016)

The question now is, what will happen with those 2 (or more) other books?

Well, in the State of Sanderson 2018, Brandon said about White Sand that "I have no immediate plans to do sequels to this in graphic novel form, though you can expect stories set on Taldain to happen in the future." So if we're getting those 2 sequels in novel form, it's probably not happening anytime soon, seeing as Brandon is working on a lot right now and has a full schedule up until at least Stormlight 5 and probably has no time to work on other main cosmere novels.

However, to me, when he says "you can expect stories set on Taldain to happen in the future." is sounds a lot like he's talking about the "new story after the end of the trilogy" he mentioned in the WoB, not a direct sequel to the graphic novels. Does this mean these 2 novels are cancelled or put on hold for the foreseeable (without using any voindbringer powers, of course) future? Is he going to try yet another medium to tell that story in now that the graphic novels didn't work out? Maybe he plans on coming back to it after the Dark One graphic novel is out, if that one has a better reception, and using what he learns from that experience to make it better the second time around.

Honestly, I have no clue, and I don't even know what I want to happen with this series. Switching back to novels would yield 2 really good books but also a very weird series that starts with 3 graphic novels and somehow transitions into 2 more regular novels, which would probably be very hard to pull off and create a bunch of problems for how those books are writen. I've seen some people say they wanted the graphic novels to be wiped from canon and to just start over again with a regular trilogy of novels, but that's really unlikely, and I don't know if I'd want that either (it would also pile up even more work on Brandon's back and nobody wants to overwork the guy any more than he already does himself).

So, what does everyone think is most likely to happen from now on? What would would be your prefered way out of this whole mess? I really like this series, despite all its shortcomings, and want to see it finished one way or another, and I'm sure there's some important cosmere tidbits we still need to learn from it too!

But hey, it's essentially out. What did you think?

We know that Taldain is currently unaccessable:

Questioner

This is about certain people from Nalthis... living on Roshar and how they are living on Roshar. Could they also do that on Scadrial?

Brandon Sanderson

Scadrial would be a lot harder because getting the Investiture out of things on Scadrial is tough, there are ways you could do it but it would be much more difficult.

Questioner

Does that have to do with the Investiture being more directed?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, it's more the genetic component is a big part of it. The directed component-- In Roshar its just flowing around all over the place. For instance, if he could get to a Shardpool he could feed off that, but then he's at the Shardpool and that's kind of dangerous and things. Roshar is really the easiest place in the cosmere for him to consistently get this sort of stuff. Taldain would not be bad either, that's the White Sand world but it is inaccessible currently in the cosmere

Salt Lake ComicCon FanX 2016 (March 26, 2016)

So how long has Taldain been inaccessible? And how did Khriss leave Taldain and become a worldhopper if it is supposedly inaccessible? I didn't think that perpendicularities could be one way, but I could be misinformed.  

If you've found any faces, point them out here.

Quote

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

You mentioned White Sands Volume 3. Do we have a release date for that?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

We do not have a release date but the script is done. We like the script. We've fixed slatrification, we hope. The ending is much improved over the novel in our humble opinions.

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

You published that as part of Arcanum Unbounded...

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Just the sample. If you want to read the whole prose edition, just sign up for the newsletter. It sends you a link to download it. Or you can just ask from the 17th Shard. I let them distribute that. The ending of that has one really good element and one really bad element, and we took out the bad element and focused on the good element. I think it really kinda came together.

source

The thing is, I'd prefer an epub or pdf so I can read it with calibre. But when I try it just opens it in WordPad (I haven't got the Microsoft Office yet). (Also, when opened in calibre, title changes to 'Dragon Steel').

Anybody could help? I'm afraid to look at anything in that subforum, cause spoilers.

EDIT: Also, what's up with the underlined words?

Also I considered that maybe that was how Autonomy's magic systems work because she has an Avatar on First of the Sun but that seems weird to me both because it seemingly goes against the Shards Intent and doesn't account for Ashyn (assuming Ashyn is canon and that Autonomy doesn't have an Avatar there)

• Elodin's betrayal - there's definitely something sinister going on there. I got the impression that he didn't want to do what he did, but was being forced to by some outside force. Autonomy maybe, given that he "saw the Sand Lord," although it seems against Autonomy's Intent to influence/control someone.
• Darkside magic - what can Scythe do and how is it related to sand mastery? I'm assuming that further books in the series will delve into how Taldain's magic system works on darkside.
• The A'Kar - how come he has become so active and powerful recently?
• Tidbits about sand mastery - why does mastered sand and sand that touches water turn black? How does slatrification work?

So I have not read the graphic novel yet. Taldain is my last stop in my first read through the Cosmere. That just means I get to read again. Anyways, I read the White Sand graphic novel excerpt and the 1999 novel version in Arcanum Unbound. The graphic novel excerpt was good, but the novel excerpt was more compelling? If only because you got more detail throughout with words instead of pictures. My question is, do we know if Brandon will ever write or release a White Sand novel or are the graphic novels like it? Don't get me wrong I enjoy graphic novels, but after reading both excerpts I fear that it might not work as well as it should? Khriss pops up everywhere and I guess my fear is that things will be lost in the graphic novel that maybe wouldn't have been if it was a novel instead. I'm still going to enjoy it of course. I guess I was also wondering does anyone else feel this way about White Sand or am I just being super picky?

Just wondering, has anyone made any attempts at "cleaning up" the manuscript? Even if it's not perfect, it would be great to read a version with 50% fewer typos. I have no interest in reading the graphic novel.

If any of this goes against Sanderson's wishes, please let me know. I don't want to disrespect his work or intentions in any way.

This is a brief summary of my theories and observations and questions for White Sand. This is one of three subtopics of a larger post in the subforum Cosmere Theories (as of this it has not yet been posted)

Also, please note that the main topic will contain Oathbringer spoilers, so please don't visit it unless you have already read Oathbringer or want to have certain parts spoiled. This topic will not contain any Oathbringer spoilers. Due to this, some parts of the topic will be contained in the main topic, but in a tangential manner.