Brandon's Reading in Toronto

[Stringbean he/him]

Hey Folks,

Long time lurker here who decided to take the plunge to give you all a special treat. I went to Brandon's reading in Markham today (just north of Toronto) and he read the wind scene from AMoL, but also surprised us with a reading from a new Stormlight chapter. The Q&A portion was a little light, but the chapter was worth five thousand golden question (in my opinion). I did happen to record it and plan on transcribing it, but have posted it below. Fair warning, there are crying babies and random noises from a gentleman leaning on a keyboard.

Obvious warning, there are spoilers involved:

[v Sim CO]

I lurk here to lol, I was also at the Markham signing, the stormlight 2 reading was awesome...!

[Yados]

Well that sure explains a few things about Parshmen.

[Kaladin_Stormblessed]

Hey everyone. Just wanted to drop by here and let you know that I got video of Brandon reading from book 2 of the Stormlight Archive here at World Fantasy Con.

Enjoy!

Edited November 4, 2012 by Kaladin_Stormblessed

[dyring]

Lovely. Nice info on Parshendi. +1

[lDanielHolm he/him]

Full of good stuff! My mind is a-tinglin'.

[Lightflame he/him]

I so called the Parshendi using a music-based magic system! (On the chatbox.)

So they have about 100 lost forms? I wonder if Kaladin will help them find any.

Also, I think Eshonai might turn Shen into a Parshendi.

[Kurkistan he/him]

Nice. Thanks for recording it.

*Spoilers, obviously*

So, "Slave form" for normal Parshmen, then, with a shift into "Odium form" or perhaps just "War form" triggered each Desolation?

Edited November 4, 2012 by Kurkistan

[Kurkistan he/him]

Some mergery needs to happen here.

http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/2553-brandons-reading-in-toronto/

[dyring]

Doubt its that easy. that will only be book 2. We wont have all the answers that early;)

[Windrunner he/him]

It will get done. I'd do it now, but I don't have power over the events board, which is where this belongs, so I can't move or merge it with the other topic.

Let me just say, I had chills listening to this. The Shattered Plains had a city at one time, and from the sounds of it the whole area was populated. I'm leaning towards this being the old capital of Natanatan. And "hundreds" of forms?

This wait's gonna kill me.

[Kurkistan he/him]

It will get done. I'd do it now, but I don't have power over the events board, which is where this belongs, so I can't move or merge it with the other topic.

Okay, I just wanted to draw attention to it.

Let me just say, I had chills listening to this. The Shattered Plains had a city at one time, and from the sounds of it the whole area was populated. I'm leaning towards this being the old capital of Natanatan. And "hundreds" of forms?

This wait's gonna kill me.

As far as generating spren merge with and so get forms goes, I imagine that a friendly human or two to generate the spren would be helpful.

Or even spren-trapping fabrial gems could work, if the Parshendi don't have a way to keep the spren in place until the next storm once they're attracted.

Edited November 4, 2012 by Kurkistan

[Kaladin_Stormblessed]

Sorry about putting it in the wrong place. It was 3am and I was pretty exhausted.

[Windrunner he/him]

No worries dude, it's not really a big deal. It's super easy to do anyways.

[zenous]

It will get done. I'd do it now, but I don't have power over the events board, which is where this belongs, so I can't move or merge it with the other topic.

Let me just say, I had chills listening to this. The Shattered Plains had a city at one time, and from the sounds of it the whole area was populated. I'm leaning towards this being the old capital of Natanatan. And "hundreds" of forms?

This wait's gonna kill me.

The countdown has begun. A city in the Shattered Plains, and a Parshendi view point. This book is going to be crazy. And I haven't even wrapped my head around the "Hundreds" of forms. Thanks Kaladin Stormblessed for posting this.

[Lightflame he/him]

I'm voting on the city being the place where the Uvara lived, due to the presence of the tower and what not. I should compare the Shattered Plains stuff with what we hear about the Uvara's homeland.

[FlashWrogan he/him]

Spoilers

I have a hard time being convinced that the Parshendi are associated with Odium at all, despite Jasnah's theory. This excerpt strengthens this for me. The Parshendi seem no more controlled by Odium than the Alethi are with the Oathpact. Their quest for change and the general's longing to be elsewhere hint this to me.

[Sunblesser]

Spoilers

I have a hard time being convinced that the Parshendi are associated with Odium at all, despite Jasnah's theory. This excerpt strengthens this for me. The Parshendi seem no more controlled by Odium than the Alethi are with the Oathpact. Their quest for change and the general's longing to be elsewhere hint this to me.

yeah, this makes it seem more like they are of cultivation than anything. they're trying to cultivate artistic talent to attract spren, which i think is what powers the change between forms. possibly in combo with stormlight or gemhearts.

another cool revelation is that the shattered plains are a city, and the plateaus not just natural rock forms. urithiru anyone? (not really in the west though, hm?)

[Windrunner he/him]

Here's a natural question. If forms are created by bonding a Parshendi with a spren, what spren are needed for the five (not counting slave since it doesn't have a spren) forms the Parshendi already know about? I'm really not sure although I might hazard a guess that creationspren would be useful for the art form their attempting to find. It sounds like if they're bringing this spren with them during a highstorm they're probably trapping them in gems. What would happen if a Parshendi tried to bond with a musicspren? Considering how musically inclined they are already, it seems like something cool would happen. Could a bond with a potential "odiumspren" make them into Voidbringers?

Here's a list of the forms for everyone. What spren are they bound with?

• Warrior - The Parshendi with the carapace armor
  
• Mating-Pretty self explanatory, has trouble concentraring on anything but mating
  
• Work-Unknown shape, has trouble commiting violence
  
• Thin-Dextous and careful
  
• Dull-Unintelligent in some way, sounds like the initial Parshendi form
  

[Kurkistan he/him]

Here's a natural question. If forms are created by bonding a Parshendi with a spren, what spren are needed for the five (not counting slave since it doesn't have a spren) forms the Parshendi already know about? I'm really not sure although I might hazard a guess that creationspren would be useful for the art form their attempting to find. It sounds like if they're bringing this spren with them during a highstorm they're probably trapping them in gems. What would happen if a Parshendi tried to bond with a musicspren? Considering how musically inclined they are already, it seems like something cool would happen. Could a bond with a potential "odiumspren" make them into Voidbringers?

Here's a list of the forms for everyone. What spren are they bound with?

• Warrior - The Parshendi with the carapace armor
  
• Mating-Pretty self explanatory, has trouble concentraring on anything but mating
  
• Work-Unknown shape, has trouble commiting violence
  
• Thin-Dextous and careful
  
• Dull-Unintelligent in some way, sounds like the initial Parshendi form
  

I would guess that "Mating form" is a combo with passionspren.

As for the rest, I can't really figure anything out. One correction, though: Dull form is not the same as Slave form (the "formless form," as it were), which is what Parshmen are in.

[Windrunner he/him]

I didn't say they were the same. As my first paragraph says, I didn't count slave form. Slave form is nothing, simple Parshmen. I was speaking of the original Parshendi form, the first "thinking Parshmen" (although I've no idea how they became bound with whatever spren in the first place). This is what the excerpt says, "There were two other forms, though the first, dull form, was rarely used. It was not a keen minded form. It was a relic of the past, before they'd rediscovered something better". Sounds like, to me at least, that the first Parshendi were of dull form, who then managed to discover some of the other more useful forms, so dull form has now been mostly abandoned. Does that make sense to you?

[Kurkistan he/him]

I didn't say they were the same. As my first paragraph says, I didn't count slave form. Slave form is nothing, simple Parshmen.

Oh, really sorry about that. I read your post, thought "I'll try to pin spren to each of these!", got distracted, then came back 10 minutes later and was like "Silly Windrunner, Slave form is for Parshmen!"

I was speaking of the original Parshendi form, the first "thinking Parshmen" (although I've no idea how they became bound with whatever spren in the first place). This is what the excerpt says, "There were two other forms, though the first, dull form, was rarely used. It was not a keen minded form. It was a relic of the past, before they'd rediscovered something better". Sounds like, to me at least, that the first Parshendi were of dull form, who then managed to discover some of the other more useful forms, so dull form has now been mostly abandoned. Does that make sense to you?

Yes, that makes perfect sense.

Dull form is interesting, since it must be a simple spren to capture (what with a slave-form Parshendi/Ur-Parshendi being able to do it), but not that simple, since Parshmen in the broader world haven't captured the spren in question.

It could simple be because Parshendi have to go out in Highstorms in order to change Form, while the human owners of Parshmen would not expose their property like that. On top of that, the Parshendi probably take special steps to be sure not to die in Highstorms when they change Form, so the odd Parshmen stuck in the wind would not be likely to survive the process and come back in Dull Form.

Unless there was some Shardic intervention, I would guess that the very first Parshendi was a lucky slave-form who managed to survive a Highstorm and bond the appropriate spren; that Parshendi would then go on to convert all of his brethren more safely.

Side note: Thin Form would work with Windspren, I guess.

Edited November 5, 2012 by Kurkistan

[RenegadeShroom]

I'd also wager that the Mating form is a bond with passionspren.

I'm interested to see if the symbolheads and Honourspren can bond with Parshendi, and how that affects them. Or would it just be the same as when one bonds to a human? (The symbolheads with Shallan and Syl with Kaladin.) Argh, but since we don't know anything about it, could they also potentially bond with firespren and rainspren? And could they bond with deathspren, or the "bindspren" -- as Kaladin called them -- that happen when a Windrunner sticks an object to another? So many questions. . . . Cusicesh the Protector? The spren that emerge from dead Chasmfiends?

On a side note, a potentially funny one could be alespren. :3

[FlashWrogan he/him]

Random question. I was thinking of transcribing the chapter and posting it, just because I find it easier to analyze in text form. Is this a problem with copyright and such, posting an entire section of Brandon's work?

[Windrunner he/him]

I don't know about the copyright, but if you're transcribing one of these, make sure it's the youtube one, as Stringbean says he'll be doing he recording himself.