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Well, I'm going to be offline for the next three days, just so you guys know. I'll see you when I get back. I have a short story that will be published on Thursday, so enjoy that, I guess. See you!

You know there is nothing like a little kids gap tooth awed grin to brighten the rest of your entire day *me swinging in between railings on the stairs bc I’m bored and still watching chilluns* *swings forward and tucks legs to go faster* *swings off and lands in a half crouch to absorb the force* I wasn’t doing anything special or particularly cool and yet a little girl looked at me with that grin they always use and goes “whoa” And just like that all my less fun feelings disappeared Due to one little kid smile I love kids

You're looking at the two dimensional projection of the three dimensional space - the Z axis is completely missing from this map and you can't accurately estimate distances between stars. While Roshar and Scadrial might look fairly close on the XY axes, on the Z axis they might be separated by dozens or hundreds of light years and the opposite might be true when considering their distance to the Drominad system. And while we know this image represents a real sky visible from some location in Cosmere, we don't know where it is and how far away from other stars is that place.

Book too big. Make book smaller. It's hard to review because it's so big and has so many different storylines. I enjoyed the lore dumps of the new visions and Tanavast POVs. Kaladin's mission felt too videogamey go defeat the guardians of the temple to unlock the triforce type of thing. I felt like we didn't get enough of where people lived in Shinovar. The big loophole in the contract being capturing the capitals was a little disappointing. It was confusing how Taravangian can kind of fudge things in that regard, but Hoid is like "we can't change the laws that would be cheating". El didn't do much after a big buildup. BAM literally didn't do anything after a big build up. Rhlain and Renarin freeing her was a nice touch calling back to when she was trapped. I thought the ending worked well. Having Shallan playing Hide and Seek in the Visions felt a little redundant. We see the visions through Dalinar and then we see them through Shallan. I was definitely poisoned by Brandon saying the book would wrap up the front 5 arc and it didn't except for Dalinar. Looking forward to the Voidlight archives (Warlight whatever). Dismayed that it might be another 6.5 years before the new release.

Just posting a meme

The inevitable moment that I found this while sorting through artwork has come...

Had to make this one before @Ironwill2112 could get to it. (And hopefully the poll works out well, because it has been a while since I’ve made one and I’m doing it on mobile) So, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. The best secret project, and my favorite non-Stormlight book that Brandon Sanderson has written. Why? Well despite this book having moments that make me cringe extremely hard (Yumi’s first meeting with Akane, I’m looking at you) Yumi and Painter’s relationship hits hard for me, and the book’s high moments are incredibly strong. Yumi and Painter at the fair, Painter protecting Yumi from the stable nightmare, and the penultimate scene of Painter painting Yumi are all incredible, emotionally resonant scenes. I don’t want this to be too long, though there’s a lot more I could talk about, but I’ll add this: despite what Hoid might think about the matter, this book getting a happy ending makes it a better story.

A little while ago, I wrote a prologue for a story idea I had. I never even started the rest of the story, but I kinda like it on its own, even if most of the ideas for the story aren't there yet. Part of the reason I stopped writing for it was because I created two really interesting characters for the prologue... and then killed off both of them. And then the 'real' protagonist didn't seem as fun. Clearly I need to learn from Brandon, and make my Cenn character not as interesting as my Kaladin. Anyway here's the prologue (with profanity censored as to follow the rules of this site). Let me know what y'all think.

Who knew my name was so pun-able lol

Not at all. There are plenty of works that I think are not very good but still enjoy. There are works that I think are well done, meticulously crafted and just what the creator wished, but that I don't enjoy. The group that disliked the book has been pretty vocal about why, and the sum of their complaints (voiced or not) is what leads to the assessment of the book's quality. I have a difficult time seeing it as a sign of respect to immediately reject someone's stated reason for why they disliked something, and then assert a totally different reason they never expressed as the reason that is unquestionably correct. Rejecting a view out of hand is the opposite of taking it seriously. It doesn't seem like you're engaging in any inquiry about people's opinions (in this thread at least, which obviously isn't the only one and isn't necessarily representative), instead saying that a variety of expressed opinions can only be wrong both as descriptions of the book and also as description of their own preferences. And it's not like you're raising those points when people say they liked the book because the fight scenes were great or Kaladin is soo coooool or subverting structure necessarily produces great works or whatever. It's only the people who feel differently than you about the book that are told to justify their feelings and rationales to you, or else have them dismissed as false and irrelevant. As I read your posts in this thread I come away with the impression that you think people who disliked WaT mainly felt that way because they are addicted to the narrative structure used in the first three SA books, are incapable of appreciating or enduring that structural change, are incapable of expressing (or even knowing) that that change is what they disliked, and so blindly grasp at an arbitrary (and invalid) detail and wrongly identify it as the explanation, then utterly commit to it anyways in some sort of fumbling, belligerent ignorance. It's a description of someone foolish and shallow. Comments like "most people are very bad at understanding why like certain things over others beyond the purely superficial: if people find the plot boring, or are disappointed by the ending, the real question is why they feel these things" and "Naturally, this is going to upset the people, who feel attached to ideals being deconstructed, which happens to be a substantial part of the fandom. But since these people are not truly capable of the literary analysis to articulate why WaT discomforts them, they randomly latch on to superficial details that they did not like and fetishize them as being the reason why they feel this way" really radiate contempt and denigration, especially when dismissing those people's opinions (both their evaluation of the book as well as why they evaluated it that way). Maybe that's not your actual sentiment and we're dealing with forum-induced lack of clarity or poor articulation. I don't want to assert the contents of your own mind to you, but I suspect most people will read what was written as an intentional, proudly-delivered insult rather than a gambit in an open, good-faith discussion.

In this land of eternal life, it’s very easy to mix up the ghosts and the living.

I could have sworn this already exists, but since episode 9 came out I figure it’s a good idea to make this thread for enjoyers. If anyone else actually posts here, please spoiler any ep 9 stuff until it premieres on YouTube, as spoilers are dumb and ruin the show.

Spoiler period for Cosmere books is only 9 months, it's fine now.

I’ll claim the title of Ghost of Nalthis Past, since I was on Nalthis every pseudocycle but never wrote into the docs. Definitely got swindled by both Striker and coco for my breaths, and never ended up with any investiture of my own.

If they keep failing to submit the NK, I guess it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

I am sooooo excited for episode 9!

Scheduled The I now listen, to the song not heard— not played. The song from Her. Reading this next one ("Like Atlas") again, it kinda sucks. I definitely coulda done better... Like Atlas I feel sometimes an Immense burden— That of humanity. It weighs on me, And I feel guilty, And helpless. Doomsday "If the world ended tomorrow, and it could." "If I died, I'd be fine." But what did She have to say, about Doomsday? Nietzsche A name repeated at a glowing screen at two AM. Nietzsche. Nietzsche. Nietzsche. Gott ist Tot. [Illegible]. Not-moving— [I think that's what I wrote?] No-sleep, grinning is-strained. Not-sure-how-to-act, Sitting in that Grey plastic room in The corner of The room—my room. Staying Up Staying up only to Wake up early and Staying up late with Droopy eyes and A numbing brain that [?] Craves sleep. - Me

Hey dont stress me, it hasnt been a Day and I needed to think of one, also kind of Busy. So Clues 1. This Charakter is highly invested

Scheduled Paralysis I am not me— I cannot breathe, Nor can I think, For every thought thought Is two more worries wrought. Faded Bliss I can't remember her, Not how I'd like. Our brief friendship, The possibility for more. I try to remember, I don't want to forget— Despite the pain of regret. See Her I wish I could see her, gain. I wish I could be with her, once more. Am I better off forgetting? Déjà Vu I've been here, before. Lost a friend, never seen again. Can I regain it? Don't Know I don't know, If I loved her— Or if I still do. Is it ruined? Or is this just my mood? Sickness My head hurts, Sitting on this unmade bed with a pile of books at my feet— too much to read. Love Poems Sitting on this unmade bed with a book of poems to keep me occupied, but they only remind me of her. Of what could've been, what could be, what I don't have. I am sitting on this unmade bed, an aching head and book of heartbreak to keep me company in this foreign-familar land. Poet Girl I wish I were a poet girl, like her— a heartbroken poet girl, whose words drown me. Never Happened I didn't even get a heartbreak. Didn't get to get to love her. - No heart to break?

Yuppers that’s part of her inspiration in vibe/abilities

*gnaws on your wrist lovingly*

Well I was confused anyway so a whole lot of good that did

Yeah, I'm dead in the game right? So voting in orange was a way to differentiate that and help in not confusing you GMs. ed1t: sorry, didn't see the subsequent follow-up from wahr and also that the cycle is over >>

We all just start morphing into the spider-man pointing meme wait explain this one to me my brain tired and is not functioning to its fullest potential

That is legit genius yes I’m on board We still have a running theory that we’re clones of each other so I believe this YES

Why are you so talented at writing :

YES Ryntribution

There's some variation in Koloss output based on the host's attributes.

Hi! I’m bored right now, so I’ve finally gotten around to posting this thread. (It’s been months since I first thought of it.) I want to see what creative uses for soulstamps everyone can come up with, because it is the most concrete yet open ended magic system we have. If your scenario requires the magic to work a certain way, note the assumptions you’re making before you give the idea. If you can come up with a different trick that would do something similar if the assumption isn’t true, even better. 1. How to turn lead into gold. (No assumptions made) Although people appear confident that turning lead into gold is impossible, I disagree. My method requires two bars of gold, but makes three. First, you need a lead bar and two gold bars. Flip a coin to decide which bar of gold to mess with. Take your selected bar, and remove most of the gold, replacing it with lead. Keep that gold for yourself. Next, create a soulstamp, stating that you’d chosen the other bar to counterfeit. Apply it to the counterfeit bar, and cover the stamp with more gold. Sell both it and the gold you’d stolen, potentially using the money to repeat the trick. Alternatively, if you work at some sort of treasury, pocket the stolen gold and leave your fake bars. 2. Compact packing (no assumptions that I can think of.) Roll dice to assign the order you pack things into a small, cylindrical container. Among your things, include a wooden disc the minimum size required for a soulstamp. Create soulstamps that say the wooden disc was rolled instead, and use them to turn all of your items to small wooden discs. Remove the soulstamp when you want them back. I’m excited to see what everyone else comes up with.

Today I randomly learned that apparently there are exactly 10 officially recognised personality disorders Cluster A: Paranoid Personality Disorder Schizoid Personality Disorder Schizotypal Personality Disorder Cluster B: Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) Histrionic Personality Disorder Narcissistic Personality Disorder Cluster C : Avoidant Personality Disorder Dependent Personality Disorder Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder I wonder if they could somehow be mapped onto the heralds. I know Brandon hast clearly stated that what affects the heralds is supernatural not a normal mental illness. Still I was interesting in finding out if they somehow inspired it

wait a minute I leave for 3 days... summer begins... I talk about my overwhelming notifs and how i am not touching them... I don't touch my notifs... I talk about how no one responds to my SUs... immediately after: Everyone begins replying to my SUs! I found the secret formula I need to leave for 3 days during the summer and then complain about my notifs while not touching my notifs and how no one responds to my SUs more often

Nothing extremely wordy I’ve been only writing snippets recently, but still:

That is one equation, when tau makes basically everything else easier. Do you do trig? Also, as Chaos said, it aligns well with the kinetic energy formula. That is not a good reason... geocentrism is way older than anything else...

Really quickly I wanted to dispute this - roleplay does not demand that, many RPs on the Shard (especially lately) do have frequent short posts but others have longer, substantial writings. And both kinds of roleplay are a contribution to the Shard, as much as talking about the books directly is. I think you have good intentions behind this idea, but reputation points aren't necessarily meant to indicate the most content contributed, they're meant to indicate members' favorite content. Many things don't get replies of much substance, and yet are still excellent contributions on their own. Many replies are, to many people, worth just as much if not more than the original post of a topic.

*Realizes I forgot to run the credits* ONE SEC

I have great news! As y'all know (or know now), I have been accepted into college, and the college just accepted my residence application. Now, I must study to prep.

yay Self care

I think I know who it is, its that guy from the Warbreaker Prologue whos gives his Breaths to Vasher before being killed by him.

Rynverse Yall are all variants, ‘cause we’re all twinums

I love how this formed an almost perfect bell curve. My stats brain is very happy right now.

go put on some lofi or smth chill and make a cup of tea and go read 'a lesbiana's guide to catholic school' or 'roll for love' or some equally gay, lighthearted romance novel outside

I just got back, I need to go to bed But there is something about eating tortilla chips at like, 10 PM, that is so fricking addictive. Like, I am crawling on the floor, dehydrated and about to die, but I can stop whenever I want. Hello, and Goodnight. I may be awake for like, 2 more seconds on PMs, but I AM NOT reading my notifs, ill let them move from 92 to 500 when I wake up tomorrow.

Tau is so much better. It'd make learning the unit circle far easier. Half the circle would be tau/2. Way better! In basically every physics formula, it's always 2pi. That really should indicate that 2pi is the correct one. I mean, when the hell do we even is C = pi * d? Use the radius! The radius is the important one. You might say, "But Eric what about A = pi*r^2?" To which I'd say, A = 1/2 tau*r^2 is very symmetric with the kinetic energy formula. That 1/2 should be there anyway, due to integration. In fact, I thought that one argument against tau was that the standard normal distribution had a single sqrt(pi) rather than sqrt(2pi), but nope! It does have a 2pi. I guess the integral from -infinity to infinity of e^(-x^2) has the sqrt(pi)... So anyway, I'm a math professor who loves tau. I'm not at all a fan of pi day, and I won't stand for this pi propaganda merely because "well then we can have pie on pi day". Lame. I spend pi day in my math tutoring center explaining why tau is superior.

There’s another Video now btw. I don’t have a link right now but it’s called: “Additional Insights: Hearing God’s Voice in an Age of Artificial Intelligence” Haven’t listened to it yet(doing so right after I post this) but I expect it’ll be good. I’ll edit in my thoughts afterwards edit: I loved that. Especially the part about letting your covenants determine your relationships (sealings(Both family and marriages), covenants with god, etc) And for one, it lets you know that those are the most important relationships, with your family, with god, and your eternal companion. I’m not in a situation to do most of that, but I can still let my covenants with god define me, and help me. I can let those be what’s important to me.

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end" So I guess ive decided that ill be leaving the Shard. I feel like I must move on to the next stage of my life as I soon leave for a mission and then on to college. I don't think I'll be returning to the Shard, so I wanted to say Thank You to all the people who have been so kind to me and made my time on the Shard enjoyable. I can't put into words how much my time on the Shard has meant to me, becoming a place where I could laugh, create, have fun, and honestly escape life for a little bit. I just want to briefly (or maybe not so briefly) thank those who have made my time on the Shard enjoyable First off @Experience thank you for introducing me to the Shard and getting me to make an account in the first place, youre awesome!!! @Channelknight Fadran thanks for making an amazing Great Houses RP that sparked my love for the Shard and kept me coming back @BlueWildRye, @Lotus Blossom, @Through the Living Hope, @The Stormfather thanks for making the hunger games so freaking awesome, I will never forget the memories made and stories told @strmblsd thanks for making me lose the game so much (btw you just lost the game!) and also being fun in BftS @Ink and Embers, and @NerdSandwich thanks for making the Battle for the Sandwich so much fun, even though it has slowed down significantly @Edema Rue I didn't really know you too well but from what ive heard from other sharders and my brother your amazing! also thanks for being awesome in hunger games. (I officially dub thee not a nerd) @Through the Living Elan I don't think ive ever told you this but I look up to you so much. your super awesome, and I am grateful the times in the hunger games with you, all the times youve made me laugh, and your strong faith that youve displayed @Through The Living Glass thank you for being so so awesome whether it was during the hunger games, in BftS, or in TLT I will always remember your awesomeness. thanks for making the shard a more enjoyable place @strmblsd, @Vyzkel, @BlueWildRye, @Through The Living Glass, @Doomslug the Arcane thanks for being the og battle for the Sandwich group, you guys made stealing the Sandwich so delightful and I looked forward to taking it back every day And to anyone that has made my experience on the shard the amazing time that it was, Thank you so much!!!!! Bon Voyage and Adios!!! @Unintelligenius singing out

Once you know how it's not hard. Independent Koloss from Era 1 can do it, and they're absolute meatheads. I suppose that's true, but I think they'd still feel a broader range of "human" emotions that would eventually lead to them breaking with sufficient losses. Unless we're also comparing to Era 2 Koloss, in which case their craziness advantage probably goes away. Why not use Rosharan humans to build your Koloss? Or transform Singers in Warform or Direform to become elite Koloss brutes?

“Professor Plum, you were once a professor of psychiatry specializing in helping paranoid and homicidal lunatics suffering from delusions of grandeur.” “Yes, but now I work for the United Nations.” “So your work has not changed.” —one of my favorite bits from Clue

A lot of the major points of contention have already been mentioned, so I'll add that there is a lot of great stuff in WaT but that the execution was poor. Lots of great individual moments but poor connections and structure between them. Especially when compared with other SA books. A lot of stuff is technically there, in a check-the-box sense, but it was a less elegantly written book than the earlier volumes (a problem I feel has been increasing across Cosmere books, generally). Judged only by itself, it's maybe a 3 star book, 4 depending on personal taste and generosity. Judged as a SA book against the other four, it's probably more firmly a 3. Judged as a SA book and the scope of expectations it set up, I'd rate it as a 2.x. "Fine" is a damning assessment of a book which caps a well-regarded flagship series. A lot of the dialogue was weak, but more significant for me was how much most characters speak in the same way now. Gaz and Shallan should speak differently, and they used to. Characterization suffered a lot, particularly in more subtle writing that the previous books had. There was filler and bloat which was mechanically imposed. People can argue about what constitutes "filler", but it became clear long before the climactic portion of the book that none of the separate plot threads were going to resolve, or even change much, before the others-- the fighting at the Shattered Plains was not going to be over any sooner nor any later than the fight in Azir, nor the spiritual realms exposition, nor anything else. It drained a lot of the tension and investment to know that none of the characters' situations were going to really change for the next few hundred pages. The buildup for plot events was enormous, but much of what actually happened was pretty flat in comparison. El's huge, game-changing stratagem for which Taravangian was willing to pay such a high price was... bring more soldiers to the front (and it failed!). The contest ended up being a pretty minor and dull event. Some of that is by design, I think, as its conclusion was meant to repudiate the cycles of violence and conquest that had governed Roshar since the Desolations began. But it also lacked a lot of strong narration-- there weren't moments like Kaladin leaping onto the Tower, or Dalinar walking alone out of Thaylenah with only a book in his hands. Exposition dumps abounded. Dalinar and Navani's stories over almost the entire book were nothing but watching a historical documentary about Roshar, and that also removed them from events. The Shinovar portion was just a tunnel, with Kaladin and Szeth moving from points A to B to C to D to E (etc.). Few, if any, decisions for the characters to make, few surprises, little suspense. The fight sequences were cool and exciting. But I really expected more than that for two of the series' most important and dynamic characters-- in terms of character development and depth of presentation, there was nothing for them on par with Way of Kings or Words of Radiance. A lot of the novelty and creativity about Radiant powers had already been used or was already reserved for future revelations, and the power inflation of characters had already reached extreme levels. That's not the book's fault, but it still makes for a rougher comparison to other SA books. And some characters were just removed from the field entirely. There is a lot to like about WaT, and I suspect I will enjoy it more on re-reads than I did during my first pass. I don't think that anyone who loves it is wrong to do so, but I don't think that it should be that shocking that others feel differently. There's quite a bit of rough around the gems, though the gems are as valuable as they ever were.

Why do you care about reputation anyways? Its only purpose is to show which posts are popular, and which are not. I understand that getting likes can be addictive but tying them to anything other than popularity, will only lead to further perverse incentives.

Delivered without much comment. Revisions are for Draft 2