Chaos

I'm putting this topic here since it may have some Mistborn spoilers, too, in order to bolster my argument. We all wonder what Shard the Almighty has. Well, maybe it's really simple. Dalinar always gets signals of "Unite them", over and over. This is almost identical to Ruin's "Kill them" for Zane. Both Shards in those cases could only send general messages, as they were inhibited (though the Almighty being inhibited by death is a little more extreme than Ruin's imprisonment). So, since "Kill them" had a direct tie with Ruin's nature, "Unite them" probably relates to the Almighty's nature. So, therefore, a few candidates: Unity Honor In my mind when I read WoK, I was thinking that he was Unity. Now, I'm backpedaling and going with Honor. Honor and Odium (effectively meaning Hatred) has a nice duality to it. Cultivation doesn't fit with that, but... maybe she came to Roshar later?

My Talent is overcomplicating things.

Holy crap, though. Elhokar is totally a Soulcaster. Awesome catch.

Yeah, I agree with Link here, that we should keep that hush-hush. We can talk about the Liar of Partinel sample chapters (or, say, Scribbler sample chapters), but since that book is not accessible to the public, we should limit our conversation about it. That goes for all unpublished works. So, I redacted some stuff. Sorry guys. (Though, it's pretty hilarious to read in its own right. "[REDACTED]... I didn't even think about [REDACTED].")

Quick note here. I'm pretty certain that the quote in question ("Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns") refers to the fact that there are three Shards on Roshar, and Odium is reigning. You may now continue with the debate Andrew pretty much sums up my opinion when he said:

Here's the link: http://www.timewastersguide.com/forum/index.php?topic=7882.0 This is really fascinating, and incredible that he broke the code. Also: spren and fabrials? Squee. Squee. So awesome.

I agree with your assessments there. Good to have extra support for the Midius theory. I'd never heard that Dalinar theory, either, but in retrospect, it certainly makes sense that he'd have to be a Knights Radiant if, you know, he needs to rebuild them.

Numbering your possibilities, Munin: 1. Jezrien 2. Talanel 3. The Almighty 4. Odium 5. Bavadin 6. Hoid In reverse: I think definitely not Hoid. Whatever power he holds, it's not that powerful. Hmmm, Bavadin? I think Bavadin is on a different Shardworld. He doesn't hold Odium, he's probably not the Almighty, and he's not female, so he can't be Cultivation. Unless, of course, Bavadin is the Almighty (hmm, there's a theory buried around in there), or Bavadin is suddenly a female name, which I doubt. So, except in those unlikely circumstances, Bavadin is somewhere else, and would have no desire to do this to Kaladin. Odium. This message is much more like a warning about Odium, so that suggestion seems very strange. The Almighty. Perhaps there is a similar journal thing for Kaladin (or at least this one vision) which Kaladin can see, as he apparently has Radiant powers. However, I have a problem with my own logic here, as I believe that the Almighty died before the Last Desolation, so he wouldn't have knowledge that the Oathpact was broken. How would he be able to make such a message, as Dalinar's visions are so fragmented? In a counterpoint to my own counterpoint: the Almighty seemed to know that the Knights Radiant needed to stand again, and put that in his journal to Dalinar... Talanel doesn't have the same "dying" issue that the Almighty has, and would have a vested interest in letting someone know about Odium. This seems more likely. Jezrien. I don't know, he seems kind of dead, unless he brokered some deal with Odium somewhere. Phew. So, short story: the Almighty or one of his agents, probably Talanel. It could be some other agent of the Almighty we haven't seen yet, however.

On any of these, I'd hope somewhere on here it would say "The Stormlight Archive" or something to that effect? Either that, "Brandon Sanderson", or "The Way of Kings".

A ketek. I... never noticed this either until you mentioned it. Certainly it explains the endnote how each ketek has five distinct parts Yeah, the Almighty didn't hold Cultivation.

That's why I'm here, dude This has to be my only complaint about the book and the reason it hasn't topped Elantris or the first Mistborn book as my favorite books of all time. Don't get me wrong, I loved The Way of Kings. It had an amazing climax that kept me up until six in the morning finishing it. The plot, while lacking the breakneck forward momentum that Elantris and Mistborn had, kept me interested to the end and caring about the characters. I don't mind that there are a lot of questions left to answer. I actually enjoy it. It's like a puzzle box that I get to toy with while I wait for the next book to come out. And the book's size made me feel very satisfied even though a lot of plot threads were left dangling. I'm very excited for the next book. It hasn't topped Mistborn in my heart, but I think the series itself will top all of his others.

This is awesome. I certainly think that Shen is where we see the Parshmen/Parshendi evolution (remember, Pokemon is canon. Wait )

While that is certainly interesting, the exact quote is: It'd be more interesting if the word was "shattered". It's not. Also, that quote doesn't necessarily imply that the Almighty wasn't dead. If the Almighty was alive, why not just have him fight Odium personally? "Almighty above" could be metaphorical, referring to the place where the Almighty died fighting, maybe the Tranquiline Halls. I like this theory a lot.

Well, going from the Pokemon analogy, honorspren are just evolved windspren. ...Okay, maybe the Pokemon analogies can get out of hand. More importantly, how does an honorspren (or, like Deano suggests, a windspren) bind with a person?

Well, I'd imagine that since Jasnah was able to save Shallan's life quickly, that Soulcasting happens essentially instantly, much like how Aons and other foci work. I'd also assume that the ancients didn't have fabrials, so any ancient Soulcast structure was produced quickly, just like Jasnah's actions.

That's an interesting theory. I still worry that the quote where Elithanithile may refer to Adonalsium itself, not just the Almighty's Shard specifically. It does say that "the power by which the Almighty created Roshar," (or something very close to that. I'm paraphrasing) which would at least mean Adonalsium.

...Oooh. I like this. I'm not fully convinced, but hey, I can't exactly falsify that the name "Seventeenth Shard" has more than just symbolic meaning. It could very well refer to this. However, I'm not sure there's anything that signals Sazed's involvement with these Seventeenth Sharders. Elantrians, on the other hand...

I'm probably a source for that, unless he's said it at other signings. I've been revealing information from our 17th Shard interview with Brandon which has still yet to be edited. He revealed that information in that interview. Soon. For reals, it will be up. He said that for now, they are in chronological order. We've skipped books, however, so eventually we will fill in the gaps, and they won't be chronological any longer.

Cool, that's what I thought. I should probably whip up some guidelines for these sorts of things...

I like to believe that Raoden is Thinker, but he certainly doesn't have to be. I can't really think of a reason Raoden and Kula would be searching for Hoid, unless they were associated with Seventeenth Shard in some way. Hoid's cameo in Elantris was very small, and if I recall correctly, the only major character he interacted with was Sarene. Perhaps King Raoden eventually discovered evidence of Odium's involvement on Sel, which worried him. Then, he encountered either the letter writer or the addressee, which gave him more information on this whole Shard business, and eventually created the Seventeenth Shard. If the Seventeenth Shard is a separate entity, this fits. I'd think that the Elantrians on Roshar here need not be tied down with the same nonintervention policy that the letter's addressee is apparently bound by. Very clearly they are intervening in the process of searching for Hoid. "But why would the letter addressee give Raoden/Elantrians this sort of information? Wouldn't that imply intervening, and thus imply Hoid being the addressee giving them the knowledge?" Well, they probably wouldn't be searching for Hoid if he's the letter's addressee. I think it's fairly easy to assume that Hoid is either the writer or the addressee. In this case, it makes more sense for Hoid to be writing the letter. Giving knowledge away isn't inherently intervening. It's using that knowledge which is. The Seventeenth Shard Elantrians are probably not bound strictly as the addressee is, but the addressee has them convinced that Hoid is doing something wrong. Thus, they need to find Hoid. Meanwhile, Hoid is laughing at them for being oh so far ahead of their efforts.

Are those from the Liar sample chapters? If so, we can cite them. If they are from the actual book (to those extremely rare people who have read it), we shouldn't reveal such information.

Maybe. I was under the assumption that Brandon said that the Reod was naturally occurring, and not magical in origin. Perhaps that's changed. I'm really liking the idea that Aona put her power into the land, though. Maybe, maybe not, but it's a point which may reveal the nature of her Shard. Could it have something related to the land itself?

In the future, we're definitely going to have more resources for beginners to this greater cosmology. ShardCast is one of them, which we really need to get going on.

Hum. I read it that Sigzil was the Worldsinger, which was Hoid's apprentice. Though, that's an interesting proposition, where Liar is not the beginning of the cosmere saga, as has been suggested, but rather the end of the Hoid we know. I don't necessarily believe that, since I think it's more likely that Midius stole the name of Hoid, but it does turn the gears in my brain.

We'll go with that!