Tazren

I've always liked the idea that there'd be a shard called Enlightenment, whose Intent drives the holder towards understanding objective truths and promoting civil discourse. That feels like it'd work well for a Shard associated with Silverlight. Enlightenment could also combine well with other Shards, like Honor (Justice), Dominion (enlightened despotism), Autonomy (self-reflection/spritual enlightenment). Could be decently opposed by Odium.

Whether or not it moves into Science Fantasy will depend on exactly how much science fiction feelings the space era books have. Will they be like his regular fantasy books, just taking place on spaceships, or will they actually evoke some of the feelings you get from reading science fiction novels?

Wow. That's ... wow. For reference, A Storm of Swords (George RR Martin) is about 414000 words. A Memory of Light in Wheel of Time was about 353000 words.

But Harmony's Intent isn't really Harmony, is it? He's got both Ruin and Preservation driving his intent, so it's more of a balance between those two? He's meddling a little, but not too much. He can't create a perfect world, because the Ruin in him wouldn't allow it. So he allows Ruin to exist in the world. But he's not going all crazy at it like Ati. And we know he's doing something extra with his Ruin, but not what. I don't think he's perfectly aligned with both of them, but it seems to me that he's kept some sort of balance between both Intents for centuries. He is acting in accordance to both, to some degree.

I don't really think that people even know what they want from a god. Some people would undoubtedly want him to help them out more. The working class, for instance. Of course, the nobility would hate it if he helped them out too much. If he helps the Elendel Basin fix all their problems, everyone elsewhere is going to hate Harmony because he's favouring the Elendel Basin. He isn't omniscient, so he cannot do everything, everywhere at once. And he has a valid point regarding free will; if he prevented everything that he believes is wrong from happening, he'd be infringing on people's rights to choose, and a lot of people would hate that as well. Having a god that's truly omniscient and omnipotent isn't necessarily better. There are plenty of people in our world that hate that idea, even when there are people who believe in it. If Sazed faked being truly omniscient and omnipotent, you'd have the good old "How can he be an omniscient god if he allows bad things to happen?" argument happening. If he stops interfering at all, even a little here and there, people are going to stop believing that he exists since he isn't doing anything to prove it. And of course, if he just stops doing anything, Odium and/or Autonomy might just blow the planet apart. So even leaving might be a terrible option at this point. Whatever he does, people are going to hate him. There's no way to be a perfect god as long as humans have free will and are conflicted, because if you take action to help someone, you're putting another at a disadvantage. And if you do nothing, people will dislike you for that. Whavever he does, he's screwed on that account. The only thing he could do to make everyone like him would be to rule as a tyrant over Scadrial. He might be a good tyrant as far as such go, fair and just, but he'd be a tyrant nontheless. Just enforce his own morality upon everyone until there's no more people that disagree with him on anything he considers important. Then he'd be popular as hell.

Maybe snapping just requires the type of misery/pain that most people suffer at some point in their lives? A birh that's rough. Breaking your leg. Losing a loved one. Getting dumped by someone you love. Getting bullied in school. All things that can be painful and/or miserable, but something like that is bound to happen to everyone at some point. So then everyone would be able to snap.

Who is qualified to be God, though? Sazed seems to have done a decent job. He hasn't been optimal, but there hasn't been any real disasters either. The Elendel Basin was favouritism that's ended a bit poorly, but still, it's not disaster. Their world isn't worse off than what people manage completely on their own. He does protect them from some menacing, external threats, though. The other Shards that we know of aren't exactly stellar examples of perfection. Preservation thought TLR's tyrannic rule was good and stable, Ruin just wanted to wreck everything, Roshar is a bit of a mess in general, and Autonomy preaches isolation but acts completely contrary to it.

I merely pointed out that TLR should've known that Nicrosil existed, and what it did, and been more than capable of creating an artifact like the Bands of Mourning, as long as it was possible for him to mine or alloy all the metals.

Didn't the Lord Ruler get a great understanding of the Metallic Arts when he was using the Well? So he would've known about all the metals. 10 metals were publicly known back then, but the Inquisitors knew about Aluminum as well. Doesn't feel farfetched that TLR would've known about Nicrosil and how to create it.

Feruchemical gold, to ensure good health and surviving accidents and such things. Feruchemical bronze, because optimising sleeping patterns seems like a good life enhancement. Storing wakefulness while commuting, lazily browsing the Internet, etc, to pull out great allnighters when necessary? Seems great. Allomantic brass, because Soothing would be a great supernatural benefit. Encourage cooperation, defuse tense situations, etc.

I'd be a Bloodmaker for sure on the Feruchemy side of it. Seems like easily the best life enhancement in our current world. Cure any serious illness, any debilitating injury, get rid of stuff like arthritis and other annoyances of getting older. Since most of us probably don't get shot at and beaten up quite as often as Wayne, it feels like it'd be possible to store up really serious amounts of health for when it's needed. I'd take that over the other cooler effects (wakefulness would be a close second, as would connection). Then I'd go for Soother on the other side, to get some everyday supernatural perks. I always like to try and be diplomatic and solve conflicts, so Soothing feels like the best way to go about it. Been wondering what kind of resonance those two might have. You're using Feruchemy to constantly heal your body, and Brass to manipulate other people's emotions. Could it give you some sort of emotional fortitude? The ability to overcome emotional trauma and distress very easily? Or perhaps some of that healing power would seep into Soothing, so that you could "Soothe" away mental illnesses in others? Permanently, and not just temporarily rid them of negative emotions.

What are you referring to, here?

I don't think that Jasnah's been alone because she's afraid. I think she may not feel the same social needs as others. Look at what Navani says, about how Jasnah never really needed her as a mother. Jasnah went her own way, even since she was little. If she's lonely now, it's probably mostly for two reasons: her atheism, and the fact that she's been consumed by extremely important work. Also ... I guess we're different there. I don't like the way Brandon has written romantic relationships in the previous books. I don't even like how some it has been handled in SA so far. He just has a tendency to write rather flat romances, imo. He doesn't hit the emotional depth many other writers manage.

Not everyone even wants to be in a romantic relationship. Just like some people are asexual, some are aromantic. Some people might prefer shorter relationships to life-long ones. It's all entirely individual. You can have a rich, meaningful life with or without, depending on what you feel. There are plenty of possibilities for Jasnah having platonic relationships with great depth and meaning. Shallan, for one. She could reconcile with her mother. There's Dalinar. And don't forget Ivory. Then there are other characters that might appear in the rest of the series. I would go so far as to say that a character doesn't even need meaningful relationships with other characters. They need meaningful connections to them. Szeth, for instance, doesn't really have any relationships, so far as we've seen. He does have a very meaningful connection with Kaladin, however. He'll probably have one with his herald. Would it be interesting to see something more of a (non-romantic) relationship? Sure. Necessary? No. The connections are sufficient.

I also imagine that almost literally having the weight of the world on your shoulders would make you prone to nervousness. Being on a boat, in the relative solitude in her quarters, while she can't really do anything else, would be as good a time as any to have a mild breakdown over that. Regarding her Elsecalling, I don't believe it was her first time. She must, at least, have known what that she could do it. I'd guess that she knows it's imprecise and dangerous, and that's why they took a boat from Kharbranth. With a boat, she was quite sure they'd make it to the Shattered Plains. With Elsecalling, she could've been afraid that both she and Shallan would end up someplace dangerous, or that they'd die in the process. So she for safety rather than risky speed.

Something else to keep in mind is that while some gemstones would be rarer here, some aren't as expensive. If we compare emaralds with zircon or topaz.

I saw that as Hoid just being very vivid in his explanation. We don't really know what Hoid is; we do know that he's powerful and difficult to kill, judging from his conversation with Jasnah. Perhaps he cannot die like a regular human, but Odium could likely put him in a state equivalent to death.

I didn't mean that he has to be the main antagonist, but he certainly doesn't have to be good. He could just be in it for himself. Or he could work for a "greater good" where he'd destroy one planet with a second thought if it saved two others.

I agree that a character with no *close* relationships would (generally speaking) be a weaker character. But you can have close relationships without them being romantic. You have family ties and friendships, for instance. I think that Shallan would fill that role really well. After all, they are somewhat similar, both in their scholarly interests and their Soulcasting. But they are still different enough for each other that Jasnah could get something out of the mentoring type of relationship. What I don't want is some sort of romantic drama with her, because I just feel that it'd undermine her character. Not all romances have to be dramatic. Some can just .. be. Especially if they aren't a central part of the plot. If she befriends someone and this then leads to some sort of romantic relationship, then maybe. I don't want her to become defined by that relationship, which is sadly something that tends to happen too often. The reason I am extra worried about this here, I've just never been impressed with the romantic relationships that he writes.

3. Hoid did say that while he didn't mind helping out in WoR and didn't have any grudges against people there, he'd see Roshar burn if that's what it took to achieve his aim. The second letter also implies that Hoid has left chaos in his wake. That he has been helpful to the protagonists so far seems more concidental than anything. They haven't been in his way. Until one of our protagonists is, we don't really know how far Hoid's seemingly good intentions go.

Kaellok: Yeah, I know that. I just assumed that Jasnah willingly shattered the Smokestone (I think that's the one) after her rather serious display of power, put keep up appearances. Or that you can shatter gemstones the way they're used for Soulcasting, as long as you're drawing Stormlight from it. But I could certainly be wrong.

She seemed to care about Shallan. She kept that picture Shallan drew, remember? The reason I'd rather not see Jasnah with someone is that love is often so overdone ... like, everyone has to have someone, because without a romance a character can't be good. I just don't like that. And Jasnah particularly seems like someone who has more important things to do. I wouldn't mind it if she met someone, really. I just don't want her plot to become a romantic drama.

Also, I wouldn't say that the biggest concern with Soulcasting is the rarity of gemstones, but the lack of Highstorms to charge them in Kind of like how AonDor or Awakening would never work on Earth ...

Does inherent Soulcasting really need specific gem stones? I was under the impression that that was just for fabrial, and that Jasnah just pretended to need to corresponding gems. And that Jasnah typically carried her Soulcaster with what allowed her to transform crystal, smoke and fire (but she still managed to transform all the food and stuff). But maybe I missed something.

I guessed that Jasnah would return when I realised the whole "neighbouring surge" thing in relation to the Orders, and that Jasnah must've been an Elsecaller. It also would've made little sense to kill her off after giving her that PoV at the beginning - which would've felt very pointless, if it would've been the only PoV for her. It's also a nice reference to Tolken and Jordan, whom Brandon has said he's been inspired by. Jasnah is definitely the most Gandalf-and-Moiraine-like character in SA. So he made her do a Gandalf. Cliché, but it works really well in that context. I think you are abusing Occam's Razor. While faking her death is certainly a possibility, Occam's Razor doesn't eliminate the (in my mind) more likely scenario that she was simply taken by surprise. We don't know that Ivory watches Jasnah 24/7. Not even Syl does that. Jasnah could've asked Ivory to do something else, for instance. Jasnah needs to sleep. If men stormed her room quickly, she could simply have been taken off guard. If Ivory was someplace else, she wouldn't have been able to summon him as quickly. She might not have had time to soulcast. Jasnah is human. She is not perfect. Once stabbed (or right before) she could've inhaled Stormlight to keep her from dying instantly. After the second stab, perhaps Ivory coaxed her back to consciousness, enough for her to Elsecall out of there. Perhaps Ivory guided the effort. After that, I figured she spent some time in Shadesmar recuperating. If she didn't have enough Stormlight in her to heal the wounds properly, it would've taken some time. Perhaps Ivory brought her to his domain, and it caused all manner of political upheaval (Wit indicates something like that), and she had to deal with that.