Kurkistan

Hm. I can't recall seeing that. He's said he knows, but I can't find an instance of Peter shooting down or supporting any theory.

Oooh, question 5 is interesting.

Yes.

Yeah, actually: Ym has to have a female Herald no matter what. Both the Regrowth Progression Orders are headed by female Heralds (Palah and Vev).

Hmmm... not really... "Pulling the short straw" is an idiom, but it indicates that there was some distribution of outcomes, one or more of which was bound to be unpleasant, and that you out of some group got stuck with it. Like cleaning the toilets the day you tidy up the house or something. "Got the short end of the stick" is probably what you were going for, as it implies just unfairness/general ill-luck as opposed to necessarily being singled out in a group. When you get the short end of the stick, the bad thing that happened wasn't necessarily going to have to happen to anyone, but it happened to you anyway. Sorry, I felt idiomatically-inclined just now. I'll stop.

Oh, I agree. I just also don't believe a word out of his mouth.

I wouldn't have liked to say it myself, but I must say that I get the same feeling of callousness. Perhaps a compromise? We all know that repeated questions are the bread-and-butter of those less educated than us (*Snobily pushes up glasses, drinks tea, then scotch, then red wine (after smelling and swirling it) while smoking a cigar*), but maybe we could prompt the greenvines with some of the more interesting questions we already know the answer to? So instead of "What is the Realmatic composition of Investiture?", it would be "how did the Shattered Plains end up in the WoK?", or "what inspired the kandra as such limited shape-shifters?" Things we know the answer to, but that have genuinely interesting answers that don't require a bachelors degree in Realmatics to appreciate. That would also serve to draw people to a site that knew so many interesting tidbits.

What makes you think that? The Recipient is almost certainly a Shard (we may even have direct WoB on this, actually...), and Mraize certainly isn't following any non-intervention policy on Roshar.

First impression wise, I didn't dislike Shallan in the book. Her sections were well written and moved along and showed us more of the bowels of this war of information that's been brewing forever. And it's also clear that she's meant to show the "not square-jawed paragons of Honor and straightforwardness" side of the Radiants. Another thing of note is how the book's acceptance of the dubious morality of her actions/manipulations put how profoundly wrong such compromises were for Kaladin into stark contrast. Brandon's done similar things with "wrong for X, but not necessarily 'wrong'" with other characters, and it was nice and subtle here. I just don't really like her, at least not at the moment. When the Diagram said there'd be a traitor, I was just "probably Shallan". :\ I have to say that I could have cheered when Tyn died. I was positively dreading Shallan spending half a book being corrupted by this quite obviously not-very-nice person, or being blackmailed or the like. Once again, I don't dislike her, nor did I cringe to read her sections or anything. My denunciation of her manipulations aside, she's a far cry from an Elayne, to say the least.

Of all the quotes we have on the Ars Arcanum author, our most definitive is from the AoL release: Source: What follows is not based on much fact. More so on intuition. I think it fairly clear at this point that Hoid is the one and only AAA. The above quote indicates that there's only one, as does the similar tone in all of them across the worlds. Given that, I find that singular tone to be Hoid-ish and in line with his character as we've seen in the books, particularly the AAA's fascination with Hemalurgy paired with Hoid's general "gotta-catch-em-all" attitude towards magical abilities. Also the many many "friends" he can draw on for information, it would seem (assuming here that the "Nazh" sections are for Hoid's benefit, as well as the map of Elendel in AoL). The fact that the AAA explicitly compared Lightweaving (Hoid's "main" magic if he has one, by my understanding) on Roshar to that of Yolen and expressed his excitement about it pretty much seals the deal in my mind. Going forward, then, I think it fair for us to walk around with the general assumption that Hoid is the one writing the Ars Arcani. It could be wrong and could be overturned by evidence or WoB without Discontinuityspren descending on us all, but it feels right. Am I crazy here? EDIT: Oops, should have looked at the body of quotes more closely. They're all written by one person and Brandon makes a point of saying how they're in the first person in WoK.

If it's a choice between the Dalinar-Stormfather bond starting up a bit informally—through the amount that they interacted and "proximity", if nothing else—and accepting the rather large mess of contradictions inherent in Dalinar's new Blade being the Honorblade otherwise described to us, then I think I'll go with the former. Isn't it Awesome?

I doubt he got Shardbladed (new term. It's gonnna be a thing), but I also seriously doubt that his arm was chewed off by a monster. It's Lopen of all people who tells us this fact. Probably something a bit more mundane.

POSSIBLE WOR SPOILERS TO FOLLOW AFTER THIS POST Care to tell us what it was that had you so amused, Peter?

It threw off the pacing a bit for me, I'll admit. I anticipate my re-read going smoother, though.

Ah yes, Stormlight healing. Looks like I was quite thoroughly wrong here. I do stand by my past self in that seeing it like Allomantic pewter was most reasonable before WoR, but that's clearly absurd now. Beyond that, even, Stormlight does indeed seem to be one of the most powerful healing magics in the Cosmere. Probably on par with Divine Breath and no other. I was prepared to brush away Lopen's arm healing back as him being really stubborn about seeing himself as having an extra arm, but then Renarin fixed his eyes (a feat that permanent Resealing, non-specialized AonDor, and presumably Feruchemical gold would all fail at). So I see two options: Either we fall back on Forms and WoK's "Stormlight perfects" line ought to be taken literally as Stormlight bringing about the ideal image of a person (which leaves Kaladin's scar's as somewhat odd) or, just maybe, The Lopen was just crazy enough to think he still deserved a second arm and Renarin used specialized Regrowth to fix his eyes. ---- My thoughts exactly. Four Order and four Herald-faces in a chapter titled "The Four"? With two of those Heralds representing modern KR's in that chapter? It's definitely between 5 and 10 for Dalinar and Renarin to fight over, and "Bondsmith" does seem far more aligned with 10's Surges and Heraldic attributes than "Truthwatcher". It may be a highly atypical case, but Dalinar certainly bonded a male spren.

Yes, I was thinking Nalthian for Zahel from the get-go because of the color-metaphors, then the Lifesense (and spren-sense, it seems) pushed him over the edge. Then he thought about a voice in his head and I was just "Vasher."

I made a point of paying attention to the chapter-headings when reading WoR, and so was quite surprised to see Hoid's symbol (the masked man) in the arch above a decidedly Witless chapter. The chapter in question (WoR Ch. 43) is the one where Shallan meets with the Ghostbloods in a the Creepy Cellar of Doom. In that cellar, she finds, among other things, an odd flower and some sand. I'm not up on my unpublished works (and don't wish to be) but doesn't sand come into play in one of the magic systems? The flower hints at Hallandren. Some of the other items tickle at my mind, but I can't place them. Is it possible, then, that The CCD was Hoid's base (or at least one of them)? If so, we must ask if he gave the Ghostbloods the key and if so why. EDIT: That'll teach me to post before looking. Havoc already has a nice little cosmere-connections thread, though he didn't go down this path. He hazards a few guesses at the items, though.

Thanks for that, Matey. More interestingly, this implies quite strongly that Hoid was using Allomantic bronze to detect Shallan's Surgebinding.

Though it might not clue us into size, I think you're correct that we should look at stars and seasons. Forgive me if someone else mentioned this in the last hundred posts (), but I noticed something rather interesting in a recent reread of WoK: This season. Stars. With seasons being based on highstorms. This means that, unless Kaladin (our POV here) is a true deceiver and just means "this time of year", Roshar's topsy-turvy seasons are actually such that they affect the planet's orientation relative to the stars.

And so I return. (I read fast )

I'll be going; my first signing, actually.

Now's kind of the time for us to figure out who's still active and who's not. Could anyone who hasn't posted yet please do so as soon as their able, if only to say "I'm still alive and paying attention to the game"?

Too late, I suppose. :/

I'm informed. Peng got in touch with me before his untimely demise and said that he suspected you. Goodbye, Aspren.