Am I meant to understand what’s going on hindsight?

[Munazir]

I’ve read up to oathbringer and now I’m rereading WoR. Am I meant to know what’s going on now? Thaisakar and Restares. I don’t think I’ve heard of them before. Im assuming the one who listens is Taravagian. The creature in Tukur is he one of the heralds  and he’s fighting the Emuli. And what does Mraize knows about other species of humans. Is he talking about worldhoppers or is he talking about the people made up of cremings in edgedancer and dawnshard.

NO SPOILERS FOR RoW.
“We will need to find how much he knows.” Mraize’s voice. “You will bring these pages to Master Thaidakar. We are close, but so—it appears—are Restares’s cronies.”
The response came in a rasping voice. Shallan couldn’t make it out.
“No, I’m not worried about that one. The old fool sows chaos, but does not reach for the power offered by opportunity. He hides in his insignificant city, listening to its songs, thinking he plays in world events. He has no idea. His is not the position of the hunter. This creature in Tukar, however, is different. I’m not convinced he is human. If he is, he’s certainly not of the local species. . . .”

 

[ScavellTane]

Those questions are further touched upon in RoW.

Edited November 3, 2022 by ScavellTane

[Returned he/him]

To some degree you are, but a lot of those sorts of things are supposed to be thought-provoking as the series progresses. It may never be 100% clear what those references mean (though these are not the most obscure we see), and even if they are definitively revealed I wouldn't count on all of them being definitively known until the end of book five at the earliest. Given how interconnected the Cosmere books are, and how focused fans are on figuring things out through questions for Brandon, it's difficult to approach this sort of question while also avoiding spoilers.

[Firesong she/her]

These are expanded on a lot in RoW, but I will say they are mentioned before. Reread the prologue of WoK, they are mentioned there. 

Also, you should know this by now, but Mraize is a Worldhopper, you see a lot of trophies from other planets in his trophy room. Like some White Sand, an Aether, etc. 

Bands of Mourning Spoilers: 

Spoiler

And Iyatil is a descendent of Southern Scadrians, you can tell by the mask, and Brandon has confirmed that she is descended from some Southern Scadrians in Silverlight. 

 

[StormingTexan he/him]

Yes you will get answers to most of these. One will need additional reading though. Have you read all the other Cosmere books? 

[Munazir]

27 minutes ago, Firesong said:

These are expanded on a lot in RoW, but I will say they are mentioned before. Reread the prologue of WoK, they are mentioned there. 

Also, you should know this by now, but Mraize is a Worldhopper, you see a lot of trophies from other planets in his trophy room. Like some White Sand, an Aether, etc. 

Bands of Mourning Spoilers: 

  Reveal hidden contents

And Iyatil is a descendent of Southern Scadrians, you can tell by the mask, and Brandon has confirmed that she is descended from some Southern Scadrians in Silverlight. 

 

“He was in conversation with two men, a dark-skinned Azish man who had an odd patch of pale skin on his cheek and a thinner, Alethi-looking man who kept glancing over his shoulder.”

is this the reference?

 Thanks for the spoiler warning I haven’t even finished mistborn era 1.

 

[Munazir]

Just now, StormingTexan said:

Yes you will get answers to most of these. One will need additional reading though. Have you read all the other Cosmere books? 

Only final empire. I do plan to first the cosmere. Should I read the rest of it before RoW

[AltonicKeys he/him]

I suggest loosely reading them in release order. There are some references and cameos that I wish I understood then.

[Firesong she/her]

 

16 minutes ago, Munazir said:

“He was in conversation with two men, a dark-skinned Azish man who had an odd patch of pale skin on his cheek and a thinner, Alethi-looking man who kept glancing over his shoulder.”

is this the reference?

No, Gavilar says the names while he is dying

Quote

"you can tell... Thaidakar... he is too late"

"I don't know who that is."

"...Then who? Restares? Sadeas? I never thought..."

Slightly abridged version of the interaction I am speaking of.

[Returned he/him]

2 hours ago, Munazir said:

“He was in conversation with two men, a dark-skinned Azish man who had an odd patch of pale skin on his cheek and a thinner, Alethi-looking man who kept glancing over his shoulder.”

is this the reference?

Asking about identifying references like this while also requesting no spoilers is a difficult set of preferences to satisfy at once. It is very likely that a habit of that sort of thing will end up with you getting information you would consider a spoiler. (You can do whatever you want, of course, I'm just pointing out that given how many of the Cosmere books you've read and how interconnected they are you generally are much more likely to have some things things spoiled than you are to get satisfying information which does not do so). Even being told that the answer to a question would be a spoiler for a given book gives information that some would consider a spoiler for that book.

2 hours ago, Munazir said:

Only final empire. I do plan to first the cosmere. Should I read the rest of it before RoW

It doesn't matter too much-- there will always be quite a few details that you'll only catch after reading one or another of the different books. I recommend reading a series segment at a time (so, for example, Mistborn era 1 in sequence but not necessarily Mistborn era 2 immediately after), ordered by how intrigued you are by that segment. Following series that are directly connected in time and with the same characters is (in my opinion) the best way to notice details which form connections to other books.

Edited November 3, 2022 by Returned

[StormingTexan he/him]

1 hour ago, Munazir said:

Only final empire. I do plan to first the cosmere. Should I read the rest of it before RoW

I wouldn't worry about it too much at this point but once you do I think it will answer some of your questions. As said above it is really hard for us to say too much without spoilers. I think though you will have a good idea who the people you asked about are once you finish RoW. 

Edited November 3, 2022 by StormingTexan

[Munazir]

5 hours ago, Returned said:

Asking about identifying references like this while also requesting no spoilers is a difficult set of preferences to satisfy at once. It is very likely that a habit of that sort of thing will end up with you getting information you would consider a spoiler. (You can do whatever you want, of course, I'm just pointing out that given how many of the Cosmere books you've read and how interconnected they are you generally are much more likely to have some things things spoiled than you are to get satisfying information which does not do so). Even being told that the answer to a question would be a spoiler for a given book gives information that some would consider a spoiler for that book.

It doesn't matter too much-- there will always be quite a few details that you'll only catch after reading one or another of the different books. I recommend reading a series segment at a time (so, for example, Mistborn era 1 in sequence but not necessarily Mistborn era 2 immediately after), ordered by how intrigued you are by that segment. Following series that are directly connected in time and with the same characters is (in my opinion) the best way to notice details which form connections to other books.

I have a horrible knack for accidentally spoiling things for me.

For Stormlight 1-4: ( I haven’t even read 4)

Moash killing Elkohar ( I was Googling what the bridge four salute looked like and I saw a meme that spoiled this )

Kaladin flying and sprenblades from concept art before I read any of the books

Gaz is a light weaver and Rlain is a truth watcher, Kaladin getting shard plate- although these were in passing so I might have misunderstood the spoiler 

for the final empire

kelskiers death

 

 

 

[Treamayne]

While I would never suggest a new-to-the-Cosmere reader start with Stormlight Archive, I've known a few who have done so and it usually takes a few re-reads (or time on the Coppermind after finishing the published works) to find most of the connections/interactions.

Also, while posting in the Stormlight Archive forum, just mentioning no spoilers for RoW should suffice (as spoilers for any other series should already be under a spoiler tag based on the Forum Spoiler Policy). Keep in mind though, that if you post in the Cosmere Discussion thread, you will need to mention what series you have or have not read if you want to avoid other spoilers.

10 hours ago, Munazir said:

“We will need to find how much he knows.” Mraize’s voice. “You will bring these pages to Master Thaidakar.

Thaidakar is the leader of the Ghostbloods. You will get more information on that individual in RoW

10 hours ago, Munazir said:

We are close, but so—it appears—are Restares’s cronies.”

Restares is the leader of the Sons of Honor. You will get more information on that individual in RoW.

10 hours ago, Munazir said:

“No, I’m not worried about that one. The old fool sows chaos, but does not reach for the power offered by opportunity. He hides in his insignificant city, listening to its songs, thinking he plays in world events. He has no idea. His is not the position of the hunter.

This is commonly believed to be about King Taravangian, leader of the Diagram.

10 hours ago, Munazir said:

This creature in Tukar, however, is different. I’m not convinced he is human. If he is, he’s certainly not of the local species. . . .”

This is beleived to reference the god-priest Tezim, leader of Tukar. You will get more information on that individual in RoW.