Fifth of Daybreak

The solemnity of the group hung heavy in the air, the silence only broken by the clinking of chains binding Taravangian. The harshness of his fall was obvious on his face, already wizened with age, it sagged on him, a broken man in a broken body. Today however, his mind was not broken by either stupidy nor brilliance. Dalinar rode close by, and that weighed as much on the former king's soul as did his crimes. If only you understood Dalinar, what I did had to be done. He shook his head, as if not believing his own arguments. It was a very small group that traveled the road, just himself, Dalinar, Renarin, and his bridgeman-turned-captain Kaladin. The other Radiants hadn't liked it, especially the Skybreakers. Szeth-Son-Son-Vallano especially. He had petitioned Dalinar continually for the chance to bring justice to the ruler of Kharbranth, but Dalinar had refused every time. "He's too valuable, he knows too much. This diagram might have been born in evil, but we'd be fools not to learn what we could from it." Szeth did not press the matter, he personally knew the value of Dalinar's mercy. It was slow moving, Taravangian's chains weren't very restrictive, but he could not ride much faster than a slow walk, bound as he was. Kaladin seemed to be uneasy on his horse, making Renarin look calm, collected, and relaxed in comparison. That was an odd sight indeed. Dalinar's gaze was pointed towards the origin, a common occurrence after the events of the last few years. Taravangian let his focus wander, and stared unseeing ahead of him. Then, without warning, Renarin stiffened in his saddle, his knuckles going white from an unnaturally sure grip. Dalinar turned Gallant to him and rode next to his son, steadying him in his saddles. "What is it son? What vision comes to you?" He looked around anxiously. Renarin never had good news to share. Kaladin was already off his horse, watching the surroundings warily. In his hand, his spren had formed a shardspear, which glistened in the late sun. Renarin convulsed once, twice, then recollected himself, still tense in his saddle. "There is danger here. Sja-anat is coming." Renarin shook his head, "I'm not sure what that means, but I know it isn't good." Dalinar turned towards Taravangian, his eyes questioning. "He is one of the unmade. Ancient evil spren. All very dangerous." Dalinar nodded thoughtfull, recollection plain on his face. "I remember that name from one of my visions." The men dismounted, and put Taravangian at their center. Dalinar held a side sword, both Kaladin and Renarin with shardweapons at the ready. A dark shape appeared to their side, rising out of the ground. Dalinar gave a cry of alarm, and both of the other two turned to face it, their eyes hard, even Renarin. Taravangian wished they had undone his chains, even though he would not be of any help in a straight fight. Something about Sja-anat was tickling in the back of his mind. Something important. In a sudden flurry of motion, Captain Kaladin charged towards the dark shape shouting out a war cry. "Bridge Four!" He moved unnaturally quick, and was glowing, stormlight rising off his skin. Dalinar and Renarin held fast behind. The light reflecting off the spear glared into Taravangian's eyes, blinding him for short moment. It was then that he remembered. He dashed forward as quickly as he could, forcing himself between the father and son in front of him. They cried out with alarm and reached towards him, but Taravangian paid them no mind. I have to stop the bridgeman before it's too late! His old legs were no match for the younger surgebinder however, and when it was apparent he wouldn't catch him, he yelled towards the charging Captain. "Kaladin! Wait! You musn't use your spren against Sja-Anat. You musn't let it touch your honorspren! Kala--." He cut off suddenly, tripping on a rockbud that hadn't fully retracted, painspren wriggling into existence around him. Kaladin had reached the shape. He struck out with the spear, bright metal piercing the inky blackness. In that same moment, Kaladin let out a hollow, ragged scream that shook Taravangian to his bones. The spear evaporated from Kaladin's hands, fading to mist. Mist that was black. Kaladin tore at his head, pulling at his hair. The monstrous shape in front of him disappeared, except for a human sized blob. Taravangian scrambled to his feet and strode towards Kaladin. As he continued to walk forward, Kaladin fell to the ground, sobbing. In front of him, the smoke had swirled between several shapes. First, a mass of leaves rustling, then a ribbon that shot around Kaladin, before finally forming into the shape of a young woman. She stood as tall as Kaladin had, and she was pretty. On her face was a contemptuous smile. She let out a long haunting laugh, one that chilled Taravangian even more than Kaldin's scream had. The womanly figure gave one last scathing stare at Kaladin, then turned, floating away from him. Kaladin crawled after her. "Syl! Nooooo! Syl come back! Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Kaladin collapsed again, as the woman's shape transformed into a ribbon of darkness that shot across the sky.

The spambots are spreading to people! It's contagious!

(Warbreaker Spoilers below) Welcome back to Monster Melee 5, or The Ballad of Roshone's Revenge; the thread where we debate and vote on which monsters would win in a fight, and then I write up a battle scene using your suggestions and a little bit of Roshone bashing. In case you're just joining us, here's a small recap of the story so far: So this week, we've got a group against a single large baddie, Kalad's Phantom's vs a Thunderclast. Kalad's Phantoms- http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/8775-magic-fuel/ (very little here.) Thunderclast-http://coppermind.net/wiki/Thunderclast (Not much here either.) This week again I'm going to without the voting until we have some battle parameters set. We'll need a couple of things set in stone before I open the polls: Setting-last week we left Jah Keved, and we need to continue our trek, (after all, movement gives the illusion that the story is moving forward.) The base of the Horneater Mountains. Number of Phantoms (Can't have the whole army, unless we want a bunch of Thunderclasts as well, but I think a group against one battle would be pretty cool here. You might be able to sway me otherwise.) Debate as of now is 20-25 against 1 Thunderclast 25 Phantoms Weapons the Phantoms have: Friggen Giant Warhammers Maces Meteor Hammers Flails Friggen Giant Boulders Bare hands-not be confused with bear arms Morningstars Also, feel free to throw in suggestions for future fights, ideas for moving the narrative forward, ideas to improve Monster Melee in general. I'm having fun doing this, but the thread is for you as well. If there's anything you'd like to see changed, let me know! The more participation we have the better it will be. I want to stress that I didn't come up with the idea for Roshone being involved, the Trolloss, Roshone getting spiked, that was all you guys, so please throw your ideas out there! Let the discussions begin! Here's the battlescene!

Excellent story, very well written. I'm definitely going to read the rest of your writing. One small quibble, would Renarin be an antagonist in that story arch? He and Kaladin are working together, so Renarin isn't working against the protagonists. Even so, that's just arguing semantics. Very well done.

I need to buy Pikaluke more swag.

The progression into this state was unavoidable. We have to work twice as hard to see growth on this thread. There's already been so much awesomeness.

I'm assuming that, like me, you're unwilling to risk a restraining order being taken out.

Philosophy with Master Hammond-sleeves optional. Metaphor Making with David.

So I've been thinking about the Cognitive realm and Shadesmar in general, and I think that the spheres might be native only to Shadesmar(Rosharan Cognitive space.) The cognitive realm is supposed to be something of a reflection of how people think about things, with the 'souls' of objects being represented by spheres, which makes sense for Roshar. However, if you travel to other areas in the cognitive realm the spheres no longer seem as relevant. So I'm proposing that the representation of Cognitive Realm objects is different for every planet, and the spheres are only in Shadesmar. The reason they are spheres is because of the relatability spheres have to every day life on Roshar, they are used for light, for money, for creating food, for decoration, I mean, these spheres have numerous places in every day life. That's why they are representing objects in the cognitive realm. Any ideas on what might represent objects on other planets? I also have a side thought that this could explain why Sel's cognitive realm is hostile, but I can't come up with anything past that. Could the cognitive aspects of Sel somehow be more dangerous? We've already seen how an ocean of those beads are dangerous on Roshar, so something similar with their representations could be happening there.

If we had paddles instead of sticky pads for our defibrillator, they couldn't stop me. "MWAHAHAHAHA IT'S ALIVE!"

I do have a fantastic evil laugh.

Peace! I knew that this was a high probability event, so I'm not upset. I appreciate you trying to protect my unspoilered mind, but if I get a spoiler, I'm sure it will still be an exciting read. But on the other hand, I did start this mostly because it is something that would really amuse me to read had I already finished the series. But I don't think you truly spoiled much. So you're both right! Actually, the biggest spoiler I've seen to date I did to myself when double checking how to spell Nynaeve's name. It listed her full name for me. Now I'm wondering how much soap opera angst those two are going to go through. (Lan already gave her the ring. These two seem more hopeless than me in high school.)

Why did Susebron get an iphone? So he could ask Siri questions whenever he wants.

Store identity so other sharders don't recognize you so you can run into them in dark alleys.

Well, no, the rest of the stormlight bound blood cells are continuing to be used as metabolic fuel by the other cells. What I'm proposing is that you can direct the reserve of Stormlight to the area that needs it, whether it be for a certain wound that was received in WoR, or for surgebinding purposes. It's about a 2 second delay before there's a constant supply of stormlight to where it needs to be, and that can be extended until the reserve is run dry. No reason to divert all the blood. This actually has naturally occuring precedents. When you go scuba diving and start to get further below water, the pressure builds up, and the nitrogen in your blood is compressed, allowing your body to transport it more efficiently. The same is also true for Oxygen in higher altitudes. It's not as compressed, which is what makes the thin air, and causes people to lose their breath more quickly. That's why olympic athletes train at high altitudes, their blood responds to the anaerobic conditions and produce more blood in response, so it can carry more of the less dense oxygen. If we're assuming this, we're pretty much ignoring all the physical laws concerning how things move and are stored in the body, or it would have to compress the stormlight to fit into the tissues. We also have plenty of references of stormlight dissipating more quickly when people are breathing. The lung tissues aren't designed to store things, they are simply an area where diffusion can occur between the lungs and the capillaries in the alveoli. The blood comes unoxygenated through the pulmonary artery and hits the capillaries in the alveoli, and the CO2 diffuses across to the lungs, while the Oxygen diffuses into the capillaries, which then moves into the pulmonary vein. (Fun fact, the pulmonary artery is the only artery to carry unoxygenated blood, and the pulmonary vein is the only vein in the body that moves oxygenated blood.) As for storing it in the other areas of the chest, that makes it less available to be transported throughout the body, whether or not its through the blood or through the metaphysical pathways. The lungs are the quickest way to get substances into the body, other than an arterial line. Even a central venous line would put substances into the heart, then the lungs, then the heart again. Except that we do have two distinctly separate uses for it documented in the books. The first is the unconscious control of it diffusing through the body to heal wounds. The other is when actively surgebinding, like the full lashing into the shield, or However, being able to direct the stormlight for active surgebinding I feel doesn't stretch the theory to the point of breaking. The blood is not a hard point on me for this theory, but it makes the most sense for it to affect the body physiologically on a global scale. As for the several physical impossibilities, Until my last post, I don't think I accounted for any of your counterpoints using magic handwaving. Would you mind relisting the impossibilities that you're referencing? I had thought I was fairly thorough addressing the various counterpoints you have raised. I do also want to reiterate that I don't believe the healing factor is an acceleration of natural processes, and it similar to Feruchemical gold. It just requires the stormlight reaching the area that required healing. I don't see how this doesn't work. The body has many natural processes that respond to stimuli within the body. If that stimuli is to push stormlight out of the body through a certain point, we've got an immediate pouring of stormlight from that area of the body, and the response to that is to continue to fill that hole, as you put it, with stormlight (moving from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration.) The body can do some pretty amazing things on its own, especially in the cardiovascular system. It can isolate areas that need extra oxygen and send it there, during focused exercise. I don't see it as much of a stretch that the body is responding to that need, and sending a larger amount of stormlight there to fill the need, in which you've only got a 2 second delay going from small stormlight infusion to large outpouring of stormlight. The body can respond to this need by actively dilating and constricting blood vessels to get more circulating stormlight to where it is needed. No tailoring, just the body doing its normal thing. The only active control is deciding where to release the stormlight from. (Even this is an imperfect approximation, because it is only taking into account the way Kaladin surgebinders. I imagine as I learn more about other surges, it will have to be modified. Lightweaving in particular seems to be strange and incongruent with this.) What in particular doesn't work. I'm not sure what you're referencing here. The time limit you proposed can be met with a normal, non-magically augmented circulatory system. It really doesn't seem we're that far off as far as the theory goes. My main problems with yours is there's no place to store stormlight in the lung tissue, other than the open space in the lungs. Most of the rest of this seems to be exactly what I'm proposing, just not using blood as a transport agent. I also think you were overplaying the degree of control to which I was proposing a surgebinder has. Again, it seems like were proposing the same thing. The only control I was referencing was that of surgebinding, and the weird Kaladin even referenced above. Also, the compression aspect of my theory also isn't central, but its a way of compensating for the transport limitations considering we don't know how efficiently stormlight could theoretically bind to blood. If the stormlight could not be efficiently transported by blood cells, I'd side with you, but given that it's an unknown variable, I'd rather have a theory based in medical science then just assume magic.Btw, do you have any formal medical training? At first I had assumed you had due to how well you were arguing, just not to the degree of training I had on cardiology and pulmonology, but now I'm thinking that you fooled me with your logic lol (Not in a bad way.) If you don't have any medical training, I'm very impressed at the level of medical knowledge that you have, which definitely seems to be much higher than an average lay person. Oh, i forgot one thing on my last post. You flatter me! I'm only a lowly paramedic, but that is latin for "beside doctor."

Wrestlemania just got a whole lot more interesting.

I really like the thought process behind this idea, but I can't fully back it for one simple fact: He wields the gun that killed his father in the end, and seems to have no emotional backlash from doing so. Still, upvote, because that's a whole side of it I never thought about.

Haha, this statement compelled me to reread Argent's post like 5 more times.

Too good to pass up. Wonderful topic! FIrst one is short but sweet: Szeth doesn't cry. Now for the fun one: Yalb The deck swayed beneath his feet as Yalb stared across the deck at the lighteyed young woman sitting on her crate, sketching things. His eyes narrowed, and a deep growl started to erupt from his gut, unbidden, until he caught himself. At first, she had a been a fun game. The proper little unsoiled lighteyes, blushing at every word. Then she become condescending, forcing him to the role of a servant. No proud Thaylen sailor plays the servant for anyone. She had even the gall to give him an extroardinary amount of money for doing nothing, as if to rub it into his face that she could squander her speheres at her leisure, while honest men worked. The sphere's had made him so sick, he gambled them away to some guards before she came back. It had been months of course, since he had first met her, but that last day had burnt a hatred into his heart. The little amount of gratitude she showed him, even after saving her over eight broams at the bookstore? It was storming humiliating. She didn't seem to notice as his gaze grew even more hate filled. Had he not been so close to the situation, he might have recognized his jealous for the wicked thing it was-instead, he reveled in his odium. Tonight was the night he would strike back. He had learned of a plot to kill the brat's tutor, Jasnah Kholin, from the new sailors on board the ship. It hadn't taken much convincing for Yalb to get in on the job. They had all sensed his hatred for the lighteyed runt and her imperious teacher. They both will pay very soon. The captain came out, forcing the men-Yalb included-backt to work. He placed the hatred back in its place in the pit of his stomach, and waited for night to fall. Yalb watched the girl walk back across the deck from Jasnah's cabin, her hands glowing from the spheres grasped inside. He moved to take her then, to end it quickly, but a hand across his chest first. "Jasnah first, and we wait until they she is asleep. She can be dangerous." Yalb frowned at that, his brow scrunching, but he made no move to argue. Shallan had nowhere to run or hide on the Wind's Pleasure that Yalb couldn't find her, and going overboard was practically a death sentence, although it would rob him of the satisfaction. It seemed an eternity when they finally crept towards Jasnah's cabin, lighting torches as they went. The plan was simple, stab Jasnah Kholin in the heart. Start a chaotic situation that would confuse the others, then clean up. They had wanted Yalb to go with the few subduing the crew, but Yalb wouldn't miss this opportunity. Two lighteyed brats in one culling. A wicked smile spread across Yalb's face. As a unit, the men broke down the door, and the first one inside leaped forward, stabbing Jasnah Kholin, blood streaming out. She didn't scream, and her eyes soon glazed over. The man picked her up and carried her body outside the room. Yalb noticed there were suddenly a great number of spheres rolling about the floor, but he paid them no mind. Probably part of the distraction. The man threw Jasnah Kholin's body, which thumped to the floor in the most satisfying way. He turned towards their leader, a giant brute of a man. "Be sure." Yalb knelt, pulling out a wicked long and thin knife, a sailor is never far from one, and drove it home through Jasnah's chest. He felt it thump against the wood of the Wind's pleasure. A single scream pierced the night, one of the other men turned towards the sound yelling "hey!" The door to the cabin slammed shut, and in a moment they were there, pounding on it. The door soon burst open, unable to contain their fury. There was another scream, and this time, Yalb was sure the voice belonged to Shallan. Looking inside the cabin, he saw a faintly luminescent shape, although Yalb couldn't make out any features. She can't be glowing, it's a trick of the torchlight. The shape ran through the crowd, no one seemingly able to catch it. Yalb hardened his stare and gave chase, pulling out the same dagger, still wet with blood. The shape ran straight to the edge of the ship, and fell over the side. Yalb growled, gritting his teeth-he had been hoping to avoid this. He pulled the goggles out from the small pack he had on his back. He had pinched a pair earlier during the brat's little stunt. That had been yet another strike against her. How dare she order the captain about on his own ship, as if she had any real power! He secured the pack again, tightening straps, ensuring nothing would float away on impact, and then steeled himself, preparing for the cold of the water. He shoved the dagger in his mouth, gripping it in his teeth, sharp edge outward, and dove gracefully into the water. When he came up for air, she was gone. She can't have drowned already? Why would she jump overboard if she couldn't swim. He searched fruitlessly, then started swimming back towards the Wind's Pleasure, the cold seeping into his muscles. He was only a few paddles from the side, when the boat disappeared. Yalb barely had time to register what was happening as the giant ship suddenly changed to water, and then expanded in a rush. Yalb was swept along with the current, water cascading into his lungs. He burst to the surface and choked in the smallest of breaths before the current took him again. Yalb fought the current with all might, but soon, his vision grew fuzzy and he began to black out. His last thoughts before losing consciousness were of his hatred for Shallan.

I didn't expect to get proven wrong so quickly:

I would think this is plausible, but dangerous. The big problem with storing it like this isn't being able to bulk up when storing strength, but if you ever get separated from your metalmind. We know the reaction the Lord Ruler had to losing his atium minds, and there'd be a similar effect to this, the dangers of reverting to a normal body that can't support the state that it has been forced into by the magic. In the Lord Ruler's case, it's because of his age, in this case, you're going to bulk up way past the point of being safe of comfortable. With moderation I think this is a good theory, but anyone who takes this and overdoes it can be in trouble. So let's say you've been storing this for years, running at 25% strength, but you've also been working yourself to the point that you're just as strong as you used to be before you were storing that 25%. I actually think you might be in trouble anytime you're not tapping it. It shrinks your muscles, and you're still a big bulky guy. As soon as you let go of that 25% storage, your body mass is increasing by 25%-with no magic to fight the bulkiness or the disproportions. Depending on how much you've been working out and how big you've gotten, you might not be able to move-your muscles are too inflexible, and the bulk literally gets in the way. Even when you tap strength, it's only going to increase from there, so it won't solve any of the problems I just outlined, just give you more strength with those same limitations. So now you've got someone who's however many times stronger than a normal person, but they can't move because of bulk. So I'd say this has a very limited application. You'd have to balance it to be sure you aren't causing more problems for yourself this way.

I'm gonna go ahead and asterisk the theories I think are more out there, just for funsies. Mat annoys me sometimes, but I think he's got the greatest room for growth as a character, and that draws me to him. Especially since I have very limited information on what the properties of the dagger are, beyond corruption. What really drew me to it is that the Dark One notices it enough to put it on the representations. Both of the other two, the Dark One notes about what protects them, and in Rand's case makes him vulnerable, so I feel like there's something about the dagger that protects Mat from the Dark One, especially considering the fade/trolloc reaction to Shadar Logoth. I really like Elayne. She strikes me as the strong female archetype that I look for in a book. Nynaeve is a little too bitter for me, and Egwene is just a little too frivolous. Her jealousy and manipulation of Rand turns me off from her character. I enjoyed Min too, but I felt like she was hinting at a physical relationship, and not an emotional long standing one.

Just holding stormlight uses it, as it is a surrogate for oxygen and other metabolites in the body (you don't need to breathe when holding stormlight. This goes back to the efficacy of stormlight in individuals, even when at rest. I think you're undercredditing Kaladin's physical shape. He did spend a good amount of time (approximately 4 years) in the army, and when he arrived at the Shattered Plains, they note he is still in very good physical condition. He then spends time training on the bridge. Not just sparsely carrying a bridge. On that note, bridge runs are hours a piece, one way. On its own, I would agree with you, but they spend hours a day training the bridge as well. They've also been more than a month. Way more. By the time they attempt the side carry for the first time, Kaladin has done more than 2 dozen bridge runs, which has to be more than a month, because they get a certain amount of rest time if they go on a bridge run. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ilHpE5JZ9HeZyH6nnPDoJI04FlaB7IfJqBVLXayvqOA/edit?pli=1#) I knew what you were using for heart rate, but you ignored the stroke volume aspect of it in your original post, which can be as much as 200ml, which is where the 40L calculation came from. This is still taking into consideration that it takes 5 cycles of blood to become saturated with Stormlight? Where are you getting that figure? My original theory takes into account that stormlight is: A:Compressed when it enters the bloodstream, meaning that there's more of it available for use when bound. B: Stormlight expands the blood vessels to their largest size. C: Stroke Volume and Heart Rate both immediately increase, increasing cardiac output. D: Because of the supernatural healing of Stormlight, the body can actually be pushed past its normal limits, and perform above them (blood vessel size, myocardial contractility, heart rate, muscle strength.) Now, unlike in regular cardiovascular movement, you have some degree of control of stormlight. For instance: Intent and perception have a lot to do with the magic systems in the Cosmere. Kaladin wants to perform a reverse lashing on his shield. He cognitively wills the stormlight to his hands, and then into the shield. As a reaction to this intent and cognitive direction, the stormlight compresses itself down and disolves into the bloodstream, and directs that super condensed stormlight to his hands. From there, it leaves through the hands and infuses the shield. There's no real need to have all the blood transport to his hands. I don't see the need to re saturate the entire blood stream for every action, the stormlight is going to permeate the body very quickly with the amount needed to perform whatever function is being carried out, the rest is being stored in the lungs, ready to move to where it needs to go. It has a response time of only a few seconds, as soon as it is needed. Why does the blood need to circulate 5 times for this to be feasible? Why does the stormlight have to resaturate all the blood? My assumptions on the physiology, is that all the stormlight stays in the chest, other than what is minimally needed to sustain the body. Once the reserve of stormlight has been used (such as in the reverse lashing on the shield) the rest of the stormlight is used up by the body's natural metabolism by the time it reaches the heart again. Again, you're ignoring variables we have no way of knowing, and in the case of your recirculation stipulation, actually adding in a constant that I can find no real basis for that assumption. How much stormlight can 1ml of blood carry? How much further can the body dilate the vessels taking into account the supernatural healing? How much more blood can the heart pump when not under the constraint of normal myocardial elasticity? How much faster than normal can the heart pump with the help of stormlight?

So I thought it might be fun for everyone who's already read through the series to see what I think might come to pass after reading the Eye of the World for the first time. I know I enjoy hearing what people think about books and series as they are going through them. First, I want to say that I'm very frustrated, as I had a lot of theories coming through the book that were pretty much confirmed by the end. For instance the Lan/Nynaeve relationship budding, Rand being the dragon reborn, Thom Merrilin not being dead, Rand using the one power. (I caught that after learning about the symptoms from touching the one power, putting that together with the scene in Baerlon, when he got lightheaded talking to the Children of the Light.) I had assumed that Moiraine was the missing queen from Camelyn, but the end chapter for her paints a different story. So, with a greatly reduced list, here I go: Rand and Perrin will continue to credit each other on being the better ladies man, and eventually Matt will end up better with women than both of them. *Thom has been gentled, which is part of his distrust towards the Aes Sedai. *The inkeeper at the Queen's Blessing is Thom's brother, and it was his son who ran afoul of the Aes Sedai. *I'm guessing that his nephew heard from Thom what Gentling was like, He tried to resist forcing the Aes Sedai to kill him. Perrin and Egwene, (I'm trying to keep myself from getting attached to these two as a couple, after the travesty my hopes came to in Harry Potter.) Padan Fain will have a huge redemption arc. Maybe even last second. He seems to be the Gollum equivalent. Rand and Elayne. A daughter heir gets what she wants. Loial will grow into a very powerful magic user through his tree songs. I was very much struck by the power he commanded at the end of the book when he preserves the Green Man's grave. The Green Man mentioned how hard it was to keep the blight out, so what Loial did had to be some pretty powerful stuff. Loial will eventually reclaim the ways from the black wind. Again, he seems a lot more powerful to me than he gives himself credit for. Moiraine also struck me as way more powerful than she should be. I'm not saying as an Aes Sedai wielding the one power, but on a whole different level. She's wielding the three Ta'veren to basically weave the pattern herself. The Green Man was very surprised to see her twice, but she knew without a doubt that she could find him again. So she basically broke the known laws of magic, and had no doubts that it would happen that way. Lan will never develop a sense of humor. Waylaid kings take themselves way too seriously. Logain is Rand's biological father. Most of Nynaeve's animosity towards Moiraine, at least towards the end of the book, is jealousy because of her relationship with Lan. *Thom has been captured by the Dark One, but will eventually escape on his own, because he's just that awesome. (Seriously was disappointed he didn't appear again in this book. I thought Thom was the most interesting character. Being a court bard for a queen involved with Aes Sedai can only explain so much about his knowledge.) The Children of the Light may have members whose intentions are pure, but the command structure has been completely tainted by Darkfriends. *Mat's dagger will actually become an asset. He'll learn some sort of control over it, which he can then teach to Rand to stop him from going mad due to the taint on the one power. So, in conlcusion, I thought it was a great read. At first it struck me as a Lord of the Rings clone, but the elements already have diverted enough that I barely notice it, and I'm excited to see where it goes from here. I did choose to post this where I know spoilers could leak in, so I won't hold it against you if they are posted on this thread, but bear in mind I will still be reading through. I'm just starting up the Great Hunt today. Hopefully my thoughts give you guys a kick.

I think you pretty much covered the majority of my bullheadedness, between you and Smurf(Formerly crystalbodies), and kaellok consider me properly chastised So let's retool the thread. What would be the deadliest combos of shard weapons, and feel free to specify weather your particular combo would be against regular infantry, a partial shardbearer, or a full shardbearer. (I think the real problem we had, other than my almost fanatical devotion to the rope dart, was we were phrasing in different battle terms. As far as devastating with the rope dart meant, I had originally intended that to be against normal infantrymen in a large battle.) Edit: For multiple quotes I generate quote bubbles and copy paste.