DariusJenai

I think I remember hearing somewhere that the entire Stormlight Archive is supposed to be written by a 'historian' from after the series ends.  I would assume that particular 'blurb' was written by that in-universe author.

Peter, feel free to correct me if I'm remembering a different series.

I'd consider it unlikely.  Scadrial had enough problems up to this point without Odium's involvement.

If we see an Odium visit to Scadrial, I'd be willing to bet it'll be in either the second or third Mistborn trilogy.

Helaren? Who's that? Is that one of Shallan's brothers?

Her oldest brother, I believe.

(Aside: I wonder if your Spiritual DNA needs to be atypical in some way to pick up Shards. In the HoA annotations, Brandon isn't saying why Vin in particular is chosen, so I think there's something here).

Sazed gives his thoughts on why.  Not saying there isn't more behind it, but its a fairly long set of requirements that can't happen naturally too often.

I don't have a direct quote, but he says something to the equivalent of the requirements being:

1) Mistborn (an unusually strong one)

2) Early Snapping

3) Seeker Sibling

4) Crazy Parent

So, its possible that Vin was simply the first person in 1000 years to meet the requirements Ati felt he needed to engineer the overthrow of the Final Empire.

That being said, there's nothing that says that being a Mistborn (or Feruchemist in Sazed's case) doesn't automatically give you that special spiritual DNA to be able to hold a Shard.

So, the earthquake/Chasm creation caused the Aon formed by Elantris to be 'incorrect', causing all Elantrians, new and old, to take the new 'death-like' look (bald, wrinkly, patched, etc).

Was this then the original look of those taken by the Shaod?  The Elantrians before they built Elantris?

If not, why would the incorrectness of the Elantris 'amplifier' Aon result in the failure of the Shaod?  It had to have worked before Elantris was built, or there would have been no Elantrians to discover AonDor and create Elantris as an Aon.

Chapter 3, 4th Paragraph

Yet, of all the kingdoms on the Syclan continent

If it wasn't for his age, I would be a major proponent of Ron Glass as Sazed.  Maybe he could make a cameo as the leader of the Terris refugees, though.

As an interesting sort of question, I wonder if anyone has tried leaving a set of Shardplate out during a highstorm like is done with spheres?

Considering the high-value of plate, I'm considering it unlikely.

It's possible that the parshendi are holding stormlight, but I'm pretty sure that holding stormlight doesn't stop your heart from beating.  It only stops you from needing to breath.  Szeth summons his Blade multiple times while holding stormlight, and he never seems to have a slower heartbeat because of it.

I noticed this on a read-through looking for something else.  When Vin and Kelsier break into Kredik Shaw the first time, Vin winds up in a fight with an Inquisitor.  After burning her atium, the Inquisitor begins burning a metal that causes her to see infinite shadows.  Vin believes this metal to be atium, but there's a couple good reasons for it to probably be Electrum.

1) The inquisitor begins burning this metal without swallowing any new metals.  According to Zane, digestive juices destroy atium fairly quickly, so it's doubtful the Inquisitors were just walking around with a bellyful.  It's possible he swallowed some before, but since he seemed surprised when she stopped his attacks, it's obvious he wasn't planning on dealing with atium.

2) The Lord Ruler has his own particular atium plans going on, and I can't imagine that he was handing out nuggets to his inquisitors on the off chance that they would run into a Mistborn with atium.  Especially since they had their own private metal that could counteract atium while not having to give Inquisitors (who Ruin can control/manipulate), actual beads of atium.

Arguably, Vin's ability to escape at all could be taken as evidence, since he would have been able to forsee it and stop it if he was burning atium of his own, but since it never explicitly states when Vin stops burning her atium, it's possible that both were burning up until the time she was actually gone.

Sounds like a good theory.

I wonder if the common world is The Cluster, from Liar of Partinel.  If it really is a pre-shattering story, then it makes sense that it could be what eventually became known in Roshar folklore as the Tranquiline Halls.

I'm going to guess that Odium did something really weird, that is, he took on the Honor shard himself.  It would be a rather strange shard combo, and one that could prove rather interesting for an antagonist.

My only issue with that if Odium does that, then it makes it very strange that he didn't take Aona's and Skai's.  If Odium was going to take multiple shards, then he should probably want to get all of them, to become a new version of Adonalsium.  It's more likely that he's more of a Cosmere-spanning version of Ruin, that wants to end everything.

Nice catch.

I'm almost willing to bet that Sanderson wouldn't have introduced something a double glyph like that by accident.  Anyone gonna be at one of his signings before the WoT tour that could check with him?

The agreement to allow Ruin to eventually destroy everything also did not take place until after they created humans. There was no such agreement when they were creating balanced life.

You positive about that one?  I could swear the deal was that they would create, and Ruin could one day destroy it all.  Preservation broke the deal by sacrificing part of himself to trap Ruin.

I'm almost positive that creating sentience was something Preservation did in the hope that humans would one day be able to destroy Ruin.

Is it going to feature pizza?

The Necro Pizza Story is a different one.

I'm sure Tor will publish it.  At the very least he may pull another Warbreaker with it.

Well, according to Brandon, the "short story" just hit 40k words, which now makes it a "short novel".

I'm with happyman on this one. All of the magic systems we've seen make me think of mistborn. The only one that's really got me stumped is Soulcasting. I can't figure out how it relates to any of Brandon's previous magic systems.

Think Elantris.  The Elantrians were said to be able to feed all of Arelon by turning rocks into grain by using Aons.

I was under the idea that Midnight Essence were the creatures that were black and ferocious that Gavilar fought off.

I considered that as well.  The description is way too close to the creatures Kalak names Thunderclasts to be a coincidence, though.  Also there's the fact that the Radiant says she doesn't know who released it, not them.  Since they've already fought more than one, it seems more likely that the Essence is something separate from the creatures themselves.

Without the Chasm line they weren't working at all.  They would just flash and fade.

Once the Chasm line was added, they worked, but had a very minor effect.  I think something to the effect that an Aon that Raoden said he shouldn't even be able to look at barely provided enough light to read by.

So, I've been wondering what the Sphere that Gavilar gave Szeth was, and I've come up with a possible idea.

The Dark-Sphere is the Midnight Essence, which allows the Thunderclasts to be summoned.

From Dalinar's Vision

The impression I got was that Elantris was basically a big amplifier for Aons. They work without it, but they're much, much weaker.

I think this is the right answer.  We see Raoden using Aons before Elantris is 'fixed', but they're exceptionally weaker than standard.

Only problem with this theory is that Shallan hadn't blinked to memorize the scene there.  She was just staring at it sketching.

She stopped humming and opened her eyes. The stick had not changed. So much for that tip, she thought, setting the stick aside with a sigh. She

Well, for all we know, the magic of Dalinar's order doesn't use Stormlight the same way, and therefore wouldn't crack gems.

Also, I can't imagine that the Radiants drew their power from the gems in their armor.  First, Szeth had to physically remove Gavilar's armor to get at the gems to draw from them.  So, being inside the Plate probably prevents them from being drained. (This doesn't necessarily mean that someone inside the Plate wouldn't be able to draw on them, which brings us to number 2)

Second, since the strength of the armor itself seems to be based on the gemstones, it wouldn't make much tactical sense for the Radiants to intentionally weaken their armor to fuel their abilities.  You'd get what is effectively a temporary boost in power for a reduction in the damage your armor could take.  Bad idea in normal circumstances, probably a fairly fatal one when fighting Voidbringers and Thunderclasts.

So, I was doing my second or third readthrough, and I noticed this.  For reference, these are all from the battle with the chasmfiend in chapter 13.

No! he thought, getting a gauntleted hand beneath himself and heaving, using the momentum of his slide to throw himself upright. As the sky spun, something seemed to right, as if the Plate itself knew which way was up. He landed

Syl never refers to the Oathpact.  The only time we see it outside of the Prelude is in chapter 46, while Kaladin has his highstorm dream, when the voice says (twice) that the Oathpact is shattered.

(Interestingly enough, in my copy, the text says Ooathpact)

CHILD OF TANAVAST. CHILD OF HONOR. CHILD OF ONE LONG SINCE DEPARTED. The sudden voice shook Kaladin; he floundered in the air.

THE OOATHPACT WAS SHATTERED.

The booming sound made the stormwall itself vibrate. Kaladin hit the ground, separating from the storm. He skidded to a stop, feet throwing up sprays of water. Stormwinds crashed into him, but he was enough a part of them that they neither tossed nor shook him.

MEN RIDE THE STORMS NO LONGER. The voice was thunder, crashing in the air. THE OOATHPACT IS BROKEN, CHILD OF HONOR.