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I'm pretty sure that a little note on the map showing Adolin and Shallan's route through Shadesmar is a major hint about where things are going in the series. In the lower right-hand corner, Nazh writes that there is an ominous storm brewing on the horizon.

Now, we learned in RoW that there has been an ominous storm in Shadesmar before--the Everstorm built up there for years before the Parshendi brought it over into the Physical Realm. It was, somehow, the method by which Odium circumvented the Oathpact.

This does not necessarily imply that any new Shards trying to Invest on Roshar would need to start storms of their own in the Cognitive Realm. But it sure could imply that. Certainly, the fact that there is now a new storm in Shadesmar implies that something is happening.

I started reading The Grisha Trilogy yesterday because I wanted to read Six of Crows and was told that it came first. As I read around, it seems that regardless of which came first, the two one take place in the same world and don't depend on one another at all, but whatever. I read the entire first book yesterday and didn't even spend the whole day reading, so it's not like it's a huge time commitment. 

Six of Crows is supposed to be really good, but this series is just okay. It's not bad; it just doesn't really have much original to recommend it. The setting is based on Russia, which sort of distinguishes it, but it's definitely something we've seen before in most respects. But the familiar elements are all there in an interesting way, so why not?

Jasnah is fifteen years older than Kaladin. Does everyone understand that? There's a major maturity issue here. I am about Jasnah's age, and I would seriously hesitate to date anyone Kaladin's age. This ship doesn't make any sense to me.

During the final battle in Oathbringer, one of the spren in Odium's forces looks like a humanoid form made of smoke. I think that a number of people notice it, but I know for sure that Venli does.

I had previously assumed, for some reason, that it was Yelig-nar, but I'm thinking that I may have been wrong, and this is actually something else being foreshadowed for a future book.

Anyone have any insight?

On 3/26/2018 at 10:55 PM, Ashspren said:

 

What if the Sibling was the Thrill? It is of Odium, and a "mindless" (I'm putting mindless in parentheses because we don't know how cognitive the Thrill actually is) force. Instead of being bonded to one person, it inhabits many people, trying to get them to make decisions to help Odium.

Nergaoul is responsible for the Thrill. 

RE: Why Azure's blade behaves differently from Nightblood. I think it just isn't as Invested (and has a different Command). 

Nightblood is@#$&ing DANGEROUS, so any attempt to recreate a similar Awakened object would necessarily include changes to the plan--a different Command and less Investiture both seeming likely modifications.

17 hours ago, Darvys said:

Without him the Blackthorn would still be stuck with that thin blooded Evi. 

Dang, son. That's cold.

I'm not convinced that Hoid grabbed that spren for himself. It almost doesn't make sense for it to be otherwise, given that he snatched up that bead of lerasium with no qualms whatsoever about--what? 300 years prior to this? It seems like collecting a radiantspren is just something that he would do.

But I don't know. We never know how invested Hoid is in what is going on around him because he's been alive for so long. When you've seen whole worlds rise and fall, the apocalypse doesn't affect the way it everyone else. It's just that Elhokar's arc was almost disappointing until his spren turns up at the end, meaning that now it wasn't all for nothing. It seems like that Cryptic could be meant to play a role in this story still.

Probably not, though. This is probably just an account of how Hoid collected another couple of powers and someone to keep him company consistently on all of his crazy journeys. 

Lift clearly has a lot of powers outside of what is typical for an Edgedancer. Even the Stormfather is surprised by her ability to jump into visions as she pleases. Anyway, we can discuss those at length, but I noticed a particular ability on second read that I missed at first.

Now, to be fair, this does seem to be a different version of what she does in Edgedancer, where she can immediately speak weird street slang that she's never heard before, and I think it's probably a standard Edgedancer ability, not something special.

On page 652 of the US hardcover (chapter 65, when Dalinar goes to Azir), Dalinar and the Stormfather are talking:

Quote

You've always worried about this, haven't you? the Stormfather said in his mind.

"About what?"

That the world would come to be ruled by pens and scribes, not swords and generals.

"I..." Blood of my fathers. That was true.

On the next page, Lift asks him, "You said something earlier. About men?" and Dalinar explains.

But he didn't say anything about men. He said, "About what?" and, "I..." Even if Lift can listen in on the Stormfather, no one ever said the word, "men." And yet Lift knew that was what they were discussing and asked about it.

EDIT: Okay, I was ignoring Dalinar saying, "The contests of kingdoms are supposed to be a masculine art." I guess this is Les of a profound observation than I thought. But still, it seems like Lift picked up on more than one might expect from that.

6 hours ago, Aleksiel said:

For example 'merciful domi' doesn't ring a bell at all  

It's from Elantris. People on Sel use that expression a lot.

How do we know that Felt is from Mistborn? I strongly suspected him to be a worldhopper (heck, anytime a character thinks someone looks Shin, they're probably looking at either a Herald or a worldhopper), but I didn't have any clue as to his identity.

This is something of a tangent, but it was mentioned above at some point that the Fused don't seem as good at using the Surges as Radiants. I think we're probably basing that on how the ones with Gravitation seen less nimble than Kaladin. The thing is, they practice with Gravitation all the time, and they've been doing it for waaaaaay longer than any current Radiant. I think that they just seem more clumsy because they are Connected to Braize, and the gravity is stronger there. They lurch around more because that's just how it works when gravity is that strong. Anyway, carry on--that's just something to consider.

[EDIT - tl;dr: (at least of) The Fused might be from Yolen. 

Original rambling thoughts:]

I refer, of course, to the Fused. Are we sure that they're actually resurrected Parshendi heroes? I mean, I'm not saying that Hoid couldn't have had some worldhopping adventures that featured dancing with a Parshendi lady thousands of years ago, but...

I don't know. Doesn't it seem to have the same flavor as the comment about Tanavast being a good guy to get a drink with? Then you've got Heralds swearing by Adonalsium... Things might be pointing back to Yolen, somehow, in this series. 

Now, I'm not saying that Vatwha was human, necessarily, when Hoid danced with her. There was a third sentient race on Yolen, after all, and I don't know that the species we see in Dragonsteel Prime (based only on the chapters released on Brandon's website) is going to be it. But I do suspect that it happened on Yolen.

@Aminar The word you're looking for is "thunderclast." I believe there is some controversy over whether what Renarin did there was really Illumination or not, but it sure sounds like Illumination to me. 

I knew that name seemed familiar! I was too excited by the constant awesomeness to stop and look things up every time something tickled my memory.

I think that this probably happened not too terribly long after the Shattering. The Heralds swear by Adonalsium, suggesting that they were around in those days. When they say that the humans' wold was destroyed by Surges, they could just mean that it was destroyed by magic and lack any other word to describer such powers. Honor and Cultivation may have even shown up around the same time as the humans. The Dawnsingers apparently worshiped spren, stone, and wind--no mention of anything that would even indirectly point to Honor and Cultivation.

Huh. Well, if we're sure it's going to be Eshonai (which, as we all know, can change, given that we all thought OB was going to be SU for a while), then I have no idea what the book will be called. I think Szeth's book should still be Stones Unhallowed--that's a cool name--but Eshonai's book has to have an especially good title, being such a special case and all.

3 minutes ago, ROSHtaFARian2.0 said:

Honestly, I'm most intrigued by the implications that Vivenna is able to Awaken things on Roshar, given that Vasher according to WoB still has not figured out how to do the same. Is it a case of the student surpassing the master, with Vivenna having figured out a workaround that hasn't occurred to Vasher, or is it that Vivenna is working with others who have the necessary knowledge/skills to help her figure out a workaround ahead of Vasher. 

As I understand it, it's not that Vasher doesn't know how to Awaken on Roshar--it's that he doesn't know how to use Stormlight to do it. I don't see any evidence to suggest that Vivenna can do that either, but she still has Breath from Nalthis that she can use for Awakening.

In Vasher's case, I don't think we know whether he can Awaken or not--only that he has failed to discover how to fuel Awakening with Stormlight. Naturally, if he currently only has his Divine Breath, then he cannot. I don't know whether or not his ability to sense Kaladin coming in his WoR interlude could be explained without extra Breath, but I think so. Even a suppressed Divine Breath should still give you that much.

1 hour ago, SLNC said:

No, thank you. I'd rather keep my sanity.

Your profile pic indicates otherwise, you deceitful Cryptic-lover!

I have been thinking all along that because Nightblood is essentially an artificial spren, he ought to be able to form a bond on Roshar. That doesn't really seem to be the case at the moment, though. Szeth's powers do seem to come from a highspren.

I'm getting the sense that things don't quite work the way that we've been thinking--at least not for all of the orders. The highspren seem to have a different relationship to their Knights than the other orders. If the others' spren are like their childhood friends to them, then the Skybreakers' are like a work friend, the kind that you are friendly with on the job but never consider hanging out with outside of work.

On the other hand, maybe Nightblood's constant prattling has kept the not yet fully sentient, newly crossed over highspren at bay. Most of the newly crossed spren seem very timid, as well as being total dunces, so it would make sense for one to keep its distance with a frankenspren about.

41 minutes ago, winter devotion said:

Don’t you mean

a humerous misspelling? *wink*

All right, have an upvote--but I really shouldn't be encouraging such behavior.

1 hour ago, TenthPancake said:

Is Venli's sprena radiant spren or a sja - anat one?

Regular Radiant spren, I believe. There was no evidence of Sja-Anat being active until recently (that we saw). Even though she isn't an "area effect"-type Unmade, like Moelach and Nergaoul, this makes her effects even more localized because she's more like a single person than a huge force blanketing an entire area. If any had been spreading out at all, they likely would have been noticed. It had been around a while, as it was also the spren that wanted to bond Eshonai [aside: my phone attempted an unfortunate, if humorous, autocorrect right there, as I narrowly avoided missing "bond" being falsely corrected to "bone"]. I believe the explanation she gives Venli is that she was traumatized by her grandfather's death in the Recreance and therefore sought a Listener host instead.

3 hours ago, StormingTexan said:

Wow....(again). So dang...This part was a really slow burn at least the Kholinar chapters but man those ending chapters though.. Brandon pulled no punches. Absolutely gut wrenching...

Venli- Be careful what you wish for!!! This was pretty cool to see how the fused use the Listeners bodies.

Dalinar- Oh man what a roller coaster.. It was amazing seeing him realize that the surges can be used for a lot more than fighting. I really liked that he sent for Renarin to heal. Blackthorn! So traumatic.. Still really want to know why he suddenly has his memories back. 

Kaladin- Man I feel so bad for what Brandon is doing to you! He finally seemed like he was chasing the depression away and then this.. On the bright side Veil digs you. 

Shallan- She was starting to get to crazy level 1000 with her multiple personas but Wit came to the rescue. These were some amazing scenes. The girl that stood up was beautiful (btw I guess the story was simple a metaphor for Shallan that as sharders do we read WAY too much into). Too bad you didn't head Sja-anat's warnings.. Btw she told the truth it seams...Hmmm...

Adolin- Not much to say except it was nice to get a POV. 

Elhokar- OMG JUST WHEN I WAS STARTING TO LIKE YOU!! Man one word away.. You really should have listened to Jasnah btw.. Hope his son is ok and they don't turn him into Chucky or something. 

Azure- <--- I see what you did there Brandon. Ok I was like 50% sure this was Vivenna and 50% sure we were meeting a proto-Stoneward but Kaladin's comments on her blade made me start thinking no then we get our first colors reference and I was like dummy look at her name it says it right there!! So she has Nightblood 2.0 it appears... 

Mr. T- Thanks you for getting all smart and deciding not to kill Dalinar. 

Random thoughts..

OMG! The Bridge 4 salute is the "Friendly Finger" from Friends https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naOyG_1VZS4

These giant spren in Shadesmar are they the siblings? 

What is up with the third spren in Shadesmar? Is this Adolins blade? 

Loved the Urithiru audible clips! Lots of knowledge bombs there. Even more questions.. Confirmation plate at 4 oaths. 

LIFT ATE DALINARS LUNCH LOL

Unmade CAN for sure bond with a human...

Was Vivenna using awakening when she put her cape on her arm? I seem to remember Vasher doing something similar..

Whew.. I feel like I need to take a little break before starting part 4. I am emotionally drained. 

I think the two enormous son are Sja-Anat and Ashertman, but who knows? I figured that the last humanoid spren was probably Azure's sword, but I guess we'll find out. But man! If that's true, I  really want to know what Nightblood looks like in Shadesmar.

And, yeah, Vivenna had to be Awakening, there (assuming it's actually Vivenna, but come on).

4 hours ago, Marethyu316 said:

Mine was delivered with a huge dent in the binding, since the box had no protective packaging in it. They are going to send me a new one, plus gave me a $4 refund that I didn't request (I have to return the damaged book.)

You got the refund because of price fluctuations during the preorder period. 

To encourage preorders, Amazon gives you the lowest price offered while you wait. If there was a random "Order now and pay only X dollars!" special after you preordered but before release, that would become the price you actually had pay when it came out, even if it goes back up before the release date.

But! When it's released, they charge you the full price listed at that time, then refund the difference between that and the aforementioned lowest price. Then you feel like you got something special. 

I got the $4, too, even though they didn't mess up my order (the 6pm delivery time was pretty close to qualifying as messing up my order, though). Even though I'm wise to their games, it did make me kind of feel like I'd gotten something special.

Yeah, I think that was something important that Hoid threw into his trademark confusing monologue, spoken to Shallan on pg 679 of the US hardcover (somewhat near the beginning of chapter 68, for those reading other editions):

Quote

Some men, as they age, grow wiser. I am not one of those, for wisdom and I have always been at cross-purposes, and I have yet to learn the tongue in which she speaks.

If I were a betting man, I'd put money on Wisdom being a Shard.