Sphinx

I'll bite. I'm going to stick the whole thing in spoiler tags for length/so that people who want to read the book themselves can. What an Esk is: I loved Ancillary Justice, but it took me a while to get into it. Once I finished the book, I could appreciate the choices the author made, but they definitely took some getting used to and it is definitely not a light read. And if it ends up not being your thing, oh well! Rambling about the narrator/main characters/use of she that shouldn't spoil anything but may help clarify. I'd be happy to answer other questions in pm or something if you want.

This list is incredibly fluid (if I posted tomorrow it would probably be about 50% different) and in no order whatsoever J.R.R Tolkien Dorothy Sayers C.S. Lewis Diana Wynne Jones Rosemary Sutcliff Gillian Bradshaw Jane Austen Connie Willis Lois McMaster Bujold Ursula LeGuin

Some of the female fantasy authors on my bookshelf that I've collected over the past decade or so: Katherine Addison: I haven't actually read The Goblin Emperor yet, but it came in second for the Hugo this year, and is on my to-read list. Gillian Bradshaw: She writes both historical fiction and what I would call "historical fantasy". Her Arthurian trilogy is absolutely brilliant (begins with Hawk of May). The Wolf Hunt is my favourite of the other books with magic. The Beacon at Alexandria and Island of Ghosts are the ones I love best of her more standard historical fiction. Marie Brennan: Author of a series about a woman who becomes the foremost expert on Draconology in a country reminiscent of Victorian England. Starts with A Natural History of Dragons. I can't speak to anything she's written outside of the dragon books (they have GORGEOUS covers and illustrations) Lois McMaster Bujold: I've mostly only read her science fiction (which is excellent, quite varied, some of it better than others), but I've been meaning to get to her fantasy. I've heard lots of good things. Olivia Butler: I haven't actually read anything by her, but she's on my to-read, highly recommended list, so I figured I'd throw her name out as well. Susanna Clarke: Author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, a really interesting book about magic and faeries in Britain during the Napoleonic era. Some people might find it a bit slow. Susan Fletcher: Her stuff falls under YA or maybe even younger. Her Dragon Chronicles are really lovely books. Shadow Spinner isn't really fantasy, but is about Shahrazad and the art of storytelling and is a comfort read. Diana Wynne Jones: So many excellent books, with a lot of variety. My favourite is probably a toss-up between Howl's Moving Castle and Hexwood. Her Chrestomanci series is a lot of fun. Her Dark Lord of Derkholm and Year of the Griffin are hilarious if you've read a lot of fantasy. Ursula LeGuin: I absolutely love the Earthsea books. I also really enjoy the Gifts trilogy (again a bit younger) Patricia McKillip: She has this talent for writing books that leave me a bit dazed when I'm done reading them, and feeling like I've just experienced a dream that I don't remember terribly well. Strongly recommend her Riddle-Master of Hed trilogy. Robin McKinley: The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown are both really, really, really good. I like a lot of her other books as well, but those are some of my absolute favourites. Naomi Novik: I really enjoyed most of the Temeraire books, and Uprooted was really enjoyable as well. Sharon Shinn: The Safe-Keepers secret series is probably my favourite of what she's written, but she has written a lot, and it's pretty varied. Sherwood Smith: I enjoyed Crown Duel. I haven't been able to get into the rest of her Sartoria-deles stuff for whatever reason, but some of my friends really like it. Rosemary Sutcliff: A lot of her books are historical fiction/fantasy than straight up fantasy, but they're absolutely amazing. Laini Taylor: I've only read her Dreamdark books, but a friend of mine says her Daughter of Smoke and Bone books are excellent. Megan Whalen Turner: Greek-inspired YA fantasy that specialises in unreliable narrators and trickery. Definitely read The Thief first. Martha Wells: I enjoyed the series she wrote that begins with The Wizard Hunters. Patricia C Wrede: Magic and Malice is a lot of fun: Regency period with magic and adventures and thieving. The Cecilia and Kate letter books are also fun, with a similar setting. I also really love her retelling Snow White and Rose Red in Elizabethan England with Faerie. Her Frontier Magic books are younger than her other stuff, but really fun.

I wasn't particularly suspicious of Trimat before, but I am now.

I used this

Edit: Didn't read carefully. I'm somewhat inclined to be suspicious of this Dreamwalker, given that Jain was a villager. Of course, they probably assume that. I'll agree that Jain was likely the first dreamwalker message

I'm inclined to believe Kaim's witness for Weas's playstyle Whether or not Jim Bob Dirt was a darkfriend, we can probably anticipate some darkfriends to have voted for him, possibly towards the middle of it. They probably also participated in the vote for Jain, but frankly Jain was behaving fairly suspiciously at that point. I'm aware that I'm likely under a good deal of suspicion due to my absence, which is fair. If I'd known how crazy everything was going to get, I probably wouldn't have signed up to a game I couldn't commit to. For what it's worth though, I'm usually pretty quiet the first few days. There seem to be quite a few newer people this round, which is keeping things interesting.

... I totally thought there was another 12 hours to the day. Woops. *goes back to reread everything*

"Ma!" Senna Wefan didn't bother to glance up as her daughter burst into the house, the dressing of the great loom she reserved for special projects occupying the majority of her concentration. "Don't shout, Lien." Senna admonished, "and leave me be. This must be finished before the meeting, or it'll be all to do again." She had been so busy with smaller, hardy weavings, that she'd had no time for anything fancy until this most recent commission. Cloaks and bandages were all well and good, but this hanging, this hanging would be art. Senna was not a frivolous woman by nature, but it had been a long time since she had woven something purely for the beauty of it. Of course, beauty took work, and concentration, and steadfastness, something that she wasn't sure her daughter would ever learn. "But Ma!" Lien said,setting the basket of bread she'd been out to fetch on the scrubbed table, the urgency in her tone finally catching her mother's attention. "He's dead! The mayor's dead!" the twelve year old proclaimed with wide-eyed excitement. "They're saying the travelers did it, but Sim says no, that it's the trollocs!" Senna carefully tied off the warp, and straightened, a little painfully, to stare at her daughter, her expression grave. Her daughter, at least, seemed more excited than fearful, and Senna felt a stab of hope that Lien was mistaken. "Are you sure?" She asked, then shook her head. Of course Lien was sure. "I had best go. Stay inside until I'm back, and keep Robbie with you." Lien nodded, moving towards the room where they slept to check on her little brother. Senna took her cloak from its peg. She had woven it herself, half a decade ago, as a present for Dereth, woven with a pattern of the trees he had loved. After his death, a year later, she had kept the cloak. She'd trimmed it some so it would better fit her smaller statue, but it was still plainly too large for her. A large crowd was gathered around the Town Hall, and Senna politely shoved her way through it to reach the steps, and then wished very much that she had not. She'd seen death before, seen ugly death before. But this, this was something else. The stench alone made her reel, and Senna made a hurried grab at whoever was closest to retain her balance, clinging tightly to their arm until her head stopped swimming. Thank the Light that I left Lien and Robbie at home. But home would not likely be safe too much longer, if the perpetrators of this horrific deed were not caught soon. One quick question, will roles and alignments be revealed upon death?

Some stuff from here is interesting, particularly

oh why not Senna, village weaver

Do we know what happens if there's a tie for the lynch vote?

Nixi slipped through the streets, trying to steer away from the shouting, the clashing, the screams. Her freehand stung from where she'd scraped it on the cobbles when she'd tripped earlier. Everything, everything had been going so well, and then suddenly chaos. How could that ardent have done what she did? Surely, surely such an action went against all that was holy? But she'd been an ardent, and now the divisions were spreading rapidly. I had something lengthy, went to post, and lost it all. So you get the redo of the first paragraph, because I need to post something. Teach me to not write things up in at least notepad first. Blaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Thanks for hosting, Mailliw, it was definitely interesting and fun to participate.

If people make a claim to be a member of the 17th Shard, or any other role, must these claims be true?

I think the argument is that we have nothing to show us that red eyes is any more due to albinism on Roshar than violet eyes. Albinism is never mentioned in the books, that I can recall, and while no one we've yet seen has red eyes, that may be due to entirely Rosharan reasons. The bizarre mutations seem to suggest that eye colour, including red, won't follow the rules we are familiar with. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that all other eye colours would be a bizarre Rosharan mutation, but red wouldn't be.

There seems to be some evidence that a lighteyes and a darkeyes who have children together will most likely have lighteyed children. (Kaladin's parents hope that he will be high enough nahn to marry Laral, and then have lighteyed children. I don't remember the exact quote, however, and if it implies the possibility of darkeyed children) Heterochromia seems to also be a possible result (the ruler of Jah Keved's bastard). There's significantly less evidence about how different eyecolors interact. I think this suggests that eyecolor does not follow the genetics we're familiar with, and that becoming lighteyed fundamentally alters the genetics and mostly overrules darkeyes. Do we know if Moash's eyes would remain light were he to lose the bond with his shardblade? I think if they remain light, we can expect that he would have lighteyed children. If they didn't, it might be more up in the air.

Space is probably partly an issue, as is food and manpower. Any pregnant horse is a horse you are having to feed, house, and care for, and you can't use it for the horse's primary purpose, warfare. Rosharan pastures don't really exist, most horses are probably fed primarily on soulcast grain. So in addition to the number of horses that you use for battle, you have to have significant numbers of breeding horses to maintain a viable diversity and continuous supply of new horses. Without the infrastructure for this in place it probably is more cost effective to buy them from Shinovar, as expensive as that is.

I think I'll go ahead and give this a shot. Nixi signing up

it's worth pointing out that there are some pretty creepy and disturbing lullabies in the real world. "Rock a bye baby, on the tree top", "Alouette", and one about dying in your sleep spring to mind off the top of my head. The Shattered plains were discovered and explored by the Alethi beginning 15 years ago, but that doesn't mean that they were totally unknown or unheard of before that. The song might be a hint of lore about the shattered plains working its way into some sort of mainstream culture or possibly be a result of Odium's influence on Lin, which would certainly be an intriguing possibility. Or perhaps they refer to some other chasm entirely. After all, it's doubtful that they're exclusive to the shattered plains. I don't think you should read too much into the mention of darkness, rock. or storms in the original song (where they are not capitalised). Most lullabies reference darkness or night in one form or another, and rocks and storms are pretty much universal experiences on Roshar. I would assume crystals refers to gemstones, which ties back into the storm infusing the stones with light while the wind rocks the baby's basket. Edit: We have actually seen chasms in other places, during Kaladin's dream sequence riding on the winds, he flies over a city that's basically built into the walls of chasms.

Taravangian tells Szeth that one of the seven honorblades the Shin have in their keeping is missing, and suggests that it might allow progression, explaining Kaladin's ability to heal. Taravangian is lying. There is absolutely no evidence that he has received any such reports, because if he had, he would probably be a tad more concerned about them. If he had, Adrotagia would not compliment him on his ability to deflect Szeth the way she does. If he had, he would not be so adamant about Szeth avoiding Kaladin (there are two reasons for this, he doesn't want Szeth to discover the truth, and he doesn't want to put Kaladin in a position where his bond can deepen). So the Shin still have seven honorblades. Szeth/Kaladin has one. Taln has one (even if we don't know where it actually is right now). According to WoB, one herald kept his honorblade. Most people think that this person was Nalan, although this hasn't been a hundred percent confirmed. That means that all the honorblades are accounted for, with the exception that we don't know exactly what is going on with Taln's honorblade. We can be confident that the Herald with the honorblade is not one of the progression honorblades, because both of those are held by female heralds. It's also very likely that this herald "kept" his blade by taking it almost immediately after abandoning it. Nalan used some sort of progression soulcaster/fabrialthing to heal Szeth. He pretty much says so, and you can see it as he is putting it away. This is correct.

Thanks for responding, Faialen. I think that leaves Saritu

There's a few possibilities. One is that they assumed that a noble with a painrial would be protecting him, and that they therefore had a better chance of going after someone else. Or that he has some sort of self defense item, and is trying to bait them into an attack that will reveal something about them. Alternatively, they were more invested in setting up Tion as "innocent" by having their first attack be on him so that everyone would trust him and potentially go for his making him a shardbearer plan or his protecting him and leaving Ace open to attack plan. Yes, I am suspicious of everyone and everything. Particularly people who are clearly lurking, and who did their best to distance themselves during the previous day, while making vague allusions to suspicions. Let's see if Faialen has anything to add.

If the Painrial is known to be protecting Tion, then there's a decent chance that Ace is going to be the Ghostbloods' target tonight. If there's multiple painrials, we may be in luck, but unless they are somehow able to coordinate, that's not something we can rely on. Alternatively, there's a possibility that the thief, if a ghostblood, has stolen it for the ghostbloods. Or that the thief, if not a ghostblood, stole it to make it so that we didn't know where it was anymore. Alternatively, the thief might have gotten lucky and nabbed someone else's item by random guess. While it would make sense to think that people wouldn't be passing around items just yet, given how many people are quickly declaring heirs, I'm not sure we can state with confidence that everyone has their original items. It is probable that whoever has the shardblade and whoever has the grandbow still has them. The odds of the spies hitting the two out of thirty people with them either last night or tonight do not strike me as particularly promising. Even worse is the fact that the spies may not all be nobles. I think the spies are going to be most useful if they hit on a ghostblood who has gotten the deceased person's items (but only if we know what items that person had in the first place, which is something people may wish to keep in mind when writing death cries). This is a game where the most concrete confirmation we will get of if someone is a ghostblood or not, is people using the emotion bracelet and discovering either a ghostblood making the ghostblood kill, or someone giving items to someone under a heavy cloud of suspicion. Or someone with an alerter getting lucky, although I'm unclear whether the alerter will tell someone the person who tried to perform the action? There is no way to determine someone's innocence with perfect confidence, unless they started out with one of the main shards. All this is to say, it is even more important in this game than otherwise that we push for discussion, as passive accumulation of information is going to be quite poor. That said, I need to go think/stare at the previous day before I start throwing around particular names.

It looks like someone used a reverser on Tors, changing his vote from Jim Bob Dirt to himself.