Random thoughts from my reread

[Aethling he/him]

1. Elhokar has the innate ability to soulcast like Jasnah and Shallan. He talks about seeing shadow people like Shallan sees.

2. The Shattered Plains look much like a halted version of what happens in Dalinar's last vision.

3. Continent where everything takes places is in the southern hemisphere of the planet. One of the characters specifically states that it gets warmer the farther north you go. That makes me wonder what is happening on the northern half of the planet. We already know that Sanderson has used the northern/southern stuff before, even most recently.

4. Probably highly baseless, but I got the feeling that Odium is a supershard. One of the chapter headings talks about carrying the burden of 9. It could also be talking about Taln, but if you start with 16 shards and subtract the ones we know exist and the ones we know are shattered excluding Odium, you get 9.

5. Hoid seems to be spending most of his time on Roshar. Elhokar states that he has left and returned before. I wonder how often that would correspond with the events in Elantris, Mistborn, and Warbreaker.

6. The death voices are from more than one entity.

Just a few of my observations during reading. Most probably wrong, but interesting to think about.

[Windrunner he/him]

I can't speak for all of them but there are a couple things I know.

4. Probably highly baseless, but I got the feeling that Odium is a supershard. One of the chapter headings talks about carrying the burden of 9. It could also be talking about Taln, but if you start with 16 shards and subtract the ones we know exist and the ones we know are shattered excluding Odium, you get 9.

Odium will not take up any other Shards. Brandon says that he could but it would alter Odium's intent which is very well matched with Rayse's personality. Here's the relevant quote

So Ruin and Preservation combine. When Odium slays the Shardbearers, why doesn’t he absorb the enemy Shards?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Because that would actually change the way he views the world. The Shard would actually start to influence him, and could actually ruin who he views himself as being. So instead of combining them all, his goal is to destroy them all and be the only one left at his power level.

QUESTION

So by his nature, he can't combine?

BRANDON SANDERSON

I mean he could, but it would change his nature. So he won't.

Source

Also if you want to subtract the Shards we know of aside from Odium there are Honor, Cultivation, Ruin, Preservation, Endowment, Devotion, Dominion, and Bavadin's Shard. (Which Brandon spoke of him currently holding). So that leaves 7 which when combined with Odium means he could only be holding 8 Shards total which doesn't match the 9 mentioned. So I'm fairly certain it's Taln who's speaking.

5. Hoid seems to be spending most of his time on Roshar. Elhokar states that he has left and returned before. I wonder how often that would correspond with the events in Elantris, Mistborn, and Warbreaker.

Not well I think. We know that there were 341 years between HoA and AoL which happens around the same time as TWoK. Then there are probably multiple centuries between HoA and the rest of the Cosmere books. So there's no way that Elhokar could remember events that far back. Hoid may be going to other Shardworlds during his disappearances, but definitely not for any appearance we've seen. (With the possible exception of AoL which happens a little after TWoK so it could be where he's heading when he leaves Elhokar)

[TruthlessOfEverywhere]

4. Probably highly baseless, but I got the feeling that Odium is a supershard. One of the chapter headings talks about carrying the burden of 9. It could also be talking about Taln, but if you start with 16 shards and subtract the ones we know exist and the ones we know are shattered excluding Odium, you get 9.

I wondered about this too. I don't think he has more than one shard, but why can he run around splintering things? Is this like Star Wars where hate is really strong and the Dark Jedi Shards (Odium and Bedavin (sp?)) have plotted long and hard to overthrow the Light Side of Adolnasium? Only time will tell I guess.

Also I'm pretty sure Hoid is Rand after after he takes Moridan's body in the last book..... Just sayin.

Edited July 4, 2012 by Windrunner
Fixed your quote

[Odium's_Shard]

If Rand is a character from WoT (I'm pretty sure he is? I'll really look stupid if it isn't), then I have to tell you that WoT isn't a Shardworld, meaning events in it are not Cosmere-canon.

[CrazyRioter she/her]

I'm pretty sure he was kidding......

[Odium's_Shard]

See this is why I tried to restrain myself from answering it. Well, at least I finished my to-do list.

Make an idiot of myself.

Check.

Edited May 26, 2012 by Odium's_Shard

[Yados]

1. Elhokar has the innate ability to soulcast like Jasnah and Shallan. He talks about seeing shadow people like Shallan sees.

True, but Jasnah doesn't see the symbol heads. She knows about them, but they aren't involved with how she soulcasts.

“What of the creatures with the symbol heads?” Shallan asked. She flipped through her sketches, then held up an image of them. “Do you see them too? How are they related?”

Jasnah frowned, taking the image. “You see beings like this? In Shadesmar?”

“They appear in my drawings,” Shallan said. “They’re around me, Jasnah. You don’t see them? Am I—”

Jasnah held up a hand. “These are a type of spren, Shallan. They are related to what you do.” She tapped the desk softly. “Two orders of the Knights Radiant possessed inherent Soulcasting ability; it was based on their powers that the original fabrials were designed, I believe. I had assumed that you… But no, that obviously wouldn’t make sense. I see now.”

Look at that, Jasnah relates what she does to the Radiants, but then cuts herself off before attatching Shallan to any of the orders. Now, I always took that as Shallan belonging to the other order of the Radiants, but now I'm rethinking that assumption. I don't think Shallan is in any way a Radiant. She hasn't done anything remotely honorable and hasn't attracted an honorspren, despite having developed powers.

I can't help thinking of the quote from Dalinar's penultimate vision.

“Our own natures destroy us,” the regal man said, voice soft, though his face was angry. “Alakavish was a Surgebinder. He should have known better. And yet, the Nahel bond gave him no more wisdom than a regular man. Alas, not all spren are as discerning as honorspren.”

While I think what's going on with Shallan and Elhokar is definitely a form of Surgebinding, I don't think it has anything to do with the Radiants, but instead these other Spren. What the significance of that distinction is, as of yet I cannot say, but I'd guess that the surgebinding that Shallan and Elhokar have developed resembles whatever the magic system looks like before Nohadon, the penultimate Desolation, and the Knights Radiant.

[Asha'man Logain]

While I think what's going on with Shallan and Elhokar is definitely a form of Surgebinding, I don't think it has anything to do with the Radiants, but instead these other Spren. What the significance of that distinction is, as of yet I cannot say, but I'd guess that the surgebinding that Shallan and Elhokar have developed resembles whatever the magic system looks like before Nohadon, the penultimate Desolation, and the Knights Radiant.

I was under the impression that different spren bonded to people causing the different orders. So windrunners would have honorspren, Say, whatever catagory Shallan would be bond with the Truthspren etc.

[Aeshdan he/him]

I was under the impression that different spren bonded to people causing the different orders. So windrunners would have leadershipspren, Say, whatever catagory Shallan would be bond with the Truthspren etc.

According to my belief. (We really need to get Brandon to settle this one way or the other.)

[Windrunner he/him]

We already tried to get him to do that Reader, he RAFO'd us with a couple small hints.

4. Zas: A question related to that. There’s an ideagoing around that all the spren that can Nahel Bond, all Knight Radiant sprenare called Honorspren, and then Nohaden talks specifically about Honorspren. Is that the case? You know, is it just the Windrunner spren, or is it all the spren?

Brandon: I’m going to deal with this in the next book. So I’ll just go ahead and let it be a literal RAFO. It is coming.

(interruption, leading Brandon to lose his train of thought)

So what we are dealing with here is that all Spren are indeed all pieces of the one who has gone, so those spren are all- except the Windrunner spren, the spren like Syl, have certain umm.

Zas: Nohaden mentioned that “All the spren aren’t as discerning as Honorspren.”

Brandon: So there has been dissention among them about who gets to call themselves Honorspren, if that makes sense, and there is some disagreement among scholars about which ones are really, you know “This is what defines an

But the spren you are running into are all (something) ofeither Honor or Cultivation, or some mixture between them. And you can usually tell the ones that are more Honor, and the ones that are more Cultivation. That should be able ot be (something).

[Aeshdan he/him]

Well, we only have to wait a year or so (until he releases the next TSA book). That's not too bad.