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Yeah, they would be thousands of years old. In my thinking, they aren't exactly Elantrians; they're whatever existed waaaaay back, before Rayse's catastrophic visit. The main reason for my idea is one them exclaiming, "Devotion save us!" or something along those lines. That expression did not exist in Elantris, nor did anyone at that time know anything about the Shards. The expression seems most likely to develop in a culture where they knew about their Shards, and the Vessels were still alive.

The description sounds like plain old Elantrians, though, except really old, which should be impossible. It could be the result of them maintaining themselves with that liquid while they're away from Elantris. Personally, I think that they're very old indeed and became Elantrians--or whatever they were called at the time--before Devotion and Dominion were splintered.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're on the right track, here. The question is, where's the second planet? Shallan thinks her mask looks like carapace, right? The thing is, it could be a material that would be completely unfamiliar to a Rosharan, and the carapace that she sees every day is the closest fit. Or it really is carapace, and since it doesn't seem like Hunters change masks ever, the second planet must have creatures like those on Roshar that would yield the material...

I knew that he had discussed a novella before, but this was the first I had heard that he was going to make it about Lift. It's not a 100% confirmation, but it sounds pretty likely. And, of course, this is confirmation that it will be included with the short fiction collection. As for your low opinion of Lopen, well, to each their own. He is undoubtedly a comic relief character, but that is the point. No matter how bad things get for everyone, Lopen is able to smile and laugh. And he's worse off than anyone else!

I'm not sure if this has been announced elsewhere, but I hadn't heard until I read the Brandon Sanderson newsletter just now. If this is old news, I apologize, but if not, it's very exciting. From the newsletter: Now, to me, that is really great news, but I Lift seems like a love-her-or-hate-her character. Those who are not jumping for joy about it will be disgruntled. Lopen, on the other hand--well, if anyone doesn't like him, they're afraid to admit it. So hopefully the Lopen short story happens, too.

I don't necessarily think that it's an Aon fabrial at all. I think it's just a straight-up fabrial. These guys are worldhoppers, so there's no reason to assume that they got their tech all in one place. That one fabrial in the first Rysn interlude is almost exactly the same thing as the one they use. Of course, this story happens before Stormlight, and if memory serves, most of the fabrials on Roshar are fairly recent developments. So that has interesting implications...

Well, there are a couple of possibilities, there. I seems that you're thinking that he's disguising himself because he's playing multiple roles on the same planet. That's not unreasonable, but that's not the only reason he might be doing it. One alternative is that, because he is often trying to be relatively subtle in his manipulations, he wants to take on a character that will make the people he is talking to think of him in a certain way. People's perception of him influences how they receive his message and are influenced by it. By making himself look like an old man when he tells a story, his words are lent the authority of the wisdom people would assume an old storyteller to have. Another thing is, there are people who do know he looks like, and they are trying to find him. It seems that he doesn't want to be found by them. Remember that he often disguises himself as a beggar. People generally don't notice beggars unless they make themselves noticed, so it's a good disguise. Also, by constantly being in disguise, he upsets his pursuers' ability to describe him to others. The one consistent thing they can say about him is that he has an arrow-shaped face, but he can hide that with a false beard or--as in Elantris--by covering up so that people never see his face.

About that (spoiler tags because I only know this from reading Mistborn: Secret History, but I'm not going to actually mention any events from the novella, so this may not be too spoilery for some folks),

That's it exactly. I guess that could be something other than a name, like saying, "Oh, Lord," or something, but I'm hoping that it's another Shardholder (or Vessel, if you will).

I don't think so. Your physical body can go places without breaking your Connection, Scadrian or otherwise. Cognitive shadows might have trouble straying too far from what they are connected to, but that's completely different.

Ah, okay. I thought he went by Topaz in that, but I I've only read second-hand accounts of its contents.

I'm not sure that I understand what you're saying about Devotion not being splintered. The timeframe of the novella is waaaaaay after the Selish Shards were splintered. I was just saying that I suspect that the Ire Elantrians were born a long time ago, before the splintering. One would think that those who had been alive pre-splintering would have more reason to want an intact Shard than those who had always lived with splintered ones. Regardless, I suspect that the Ire want their own Shard for the sake of having that power themselves, not to rectify the situation on Sel.

Did anyone make a note of the name Leras mentioned, as if she was a friend or lover or something? I was all excited about everything the story was revealing and breezed through without doing so, and now I'm regretting it. I even forgot what I'm pretty sure is Hoid's original name, but I managed to find that (and, yes, I have read the sample chapters for Liar of Partinel; I'm just assuming that Brandon wasn't married to the name in there).

Kelsier (well, his cognitive shadow) got the tar kicked out of him by Hoid at the Well of Ascension, so he figured that Hoid was bad news. He warned Vin by screaming and yelling about needing to stay away, and he was able to get through to her just a little bit. All of his freaking out penetrated to the Physical Realm in the form of a vague uneasy feeling about Hoid.

Hoid was his master's name, and he started using it. The sample chapters from Liar of Partinel are not canon, but they do tell us something about the original Hoid. I expect that it is some version of what the original Hoid was like, even if a lot of details change by the time a canon version of the story is released. There's nothing about how the Hoid that we know took on his master's name, as I recall. I think that the "incarnation" word choice is a reference to Hoid constantly changing the character that he is playing and is not supposed to be literal. It would be tough for him to literally be reincarnated repeatedly, as he is almost impossible to kill in the first place.

I always wondered why Brandon played so coy about why Vin had a weird feeling about Hoid and wouldn't talk to him. Nothing I could come up with was very compelling, and others' theories seemd pretty weak, too. It drove me crazy because I couldn't figure out why this would be something that should have to remain secret. I mean, the first trilogy was long over. Couldn't we at least have a hint?! And now we know! And it makes sense why it had to be a secret! Also, the Ruin-posing-as-allomancer bit always seemed really odd to me. I need to find the original account and reread it for clues that it was Kelsier at first because I remember that part always seeming a bit off to me. The explanation makes everything come together. Man, this novella was so awesome.

They don't quite look like the Elantrians in Elantris--more like an aged version (which shouldn't exist). It's interesting that they mention Devotion, given that no one on the Sel that we read about in Elantris and The Emperor's Soul seemed to know anything about the Shard. Of course, one would expect worldhoppers to learn additional things about the Cosmere. However, the character uses "Devotion" in the context of an exclamation, something that would be cultural and reflexive. I think it probable that exclaiming, "Devotion protect us!" was part of these aged Elantrians' original culture. So my guess is that they are really old--like before their Shards were splintered old--and it isn't quite accurate to call them Elantrians. Rather, they are the original version of the manifestation of Selish magic that now shows up in the form of Elantrians.

I just read BoM, too. I don't get my hardcover until Friday (I doubt know if it sold out or if the local blizzard has messed up shipping), but I read the ebook on my phone. Sadly, I couldn't really read the broadsheets, but that'll save something for Friday. Definitely some great stuff in the book.

Besides White Sand itself, there's also Peter Ahlstrom's quote in the "Who is Khriss?" thread, where he says that someone from Roshar would think that she looks Makabaki.

Sweet. I figured as much, since that's going to be pretty late in the super-series. Nice to know it's definitely happening.

Do we know that for sure?

I've read The Black Prism, Assassin's Apprentice, and about 400 pages of Gardens of the Moon. I gave up on Gardens because I still had no real idea of what was going on with the world, and I hated all of the characters. I'll get back to the series some day, probably, but I haven't yet. I love most of Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings books. I didn't like the Dragonkeepers serie. There are 4 books in that one, and I just quit in the middle of the first one. I found it boring. The others are great, though. I actually read them in the wrong order by accident, but it didn't really matter that much. I read the Farseer trilogy first, then The Tawny Man trilogy, and Liveship Traders after that. It turned out that the last series took place in between the first two, there, but it happened in a different country, with very little overlap between plot and characters. I read Lightbringer about a year ago, and I thought it was a really good series. I think that Weeks' writing is in the same school as Sanderson's in a way that one can't really say about any other author but Brian McClellan. I'm excited for the last volume to come out.

I was saying that he has bonded with someone before, and he actually was willing to become a Shardblade then. After the major betrayal of the Recreance, he isn't so keen on entering the Physical Realm so concretely anymore.

I don't think Hoid is going to become a major character in Stormlight, personally. It will probably turn out that his meddling set up some really major things (already, he encouraged Shallan when she was young and despondent, told Kaladin stories at pivotal times, did something when maybe-Taln showed up, and was waiting when Jasnah popped out of Shadesmar), but I don't think he'll play a very direct role in anything. On the other hand, while I would bet money on that being the case for SA 1-5, I wouldn't want to gamble on the back 5. I can see him persisting as an occasional cameo-type character, even then, but we know he's got to become very active eventually. It all depends on how the pacing turns out for the entire Cosmere mega-epic. I suspect that Hoid won't start showing up as a major player in stories' climaxes before people are showing up on alien Shardworlds in magic spaceships, but it would be cool if it doesn't take that long.

I don't think we necessarily have any reason to believe that no Bondsmith ever had any Shards. Not only might it be particular to the Stormfather, but it also may be something he just recently decided on. He was pretty upset about the Recreance. The way he asks if Dalinar is willing to be a Radiant without Shards suggests that maybe this has never been asked of a Radiant before.