Kelek's Breath

We also have Amaram's POV at the end of WoR, where he speaks to Taln. And hears Taln whisper "the Desolation...". And replies to him without pause or remarking that Taln has an accent. The fact though that he responded and understood him, shows that there is a difference between Amaram's meeting and Dalinar's. And Amaram is not a surgebinder, although he does have a Shardblade. So Babel fish theory out the window? The plot thickens...

The above is exactly as it is in the book: "speaking perfect Alethi, no hint of an accent". I'm not too knowledgable but how does Hoid's Cosmere Spoilers

Nice post! Thanks for putting this together. Some possible info you may consider adding: Major group you have missed: the Stormwardens. Lots to say about them. And Restares is a stormwarden. There is also another group, the Vanrial who are a group of people that have collected information (after all, they have preserved The Way of Kings book as well as the dawnchant). As for the Skybreakers, they could be hunting anyone that may bring about the Desolation, not just the proto-Radiants, so that is where hunting Amaram fits in. Although, Helaran's actions do not fit in with even a broken Nalan. Helaran, nonchalantly kills any soldier that is in his path. I don't think Nalan would sanction that. So Helaran being a 'Nalan Skybreaker' should come with an asterisk. For the Ghostbloods, don't forget to mention minor members such as Kabsal, Lord Davar and his steward Luesh. Maybe make a Wild Card entry, for people we know belong to some organization, but we can't decide which one. Like Shallan's mother and her friend, who may have belonged to either Ghostbloods or Skybreakers, or even another, yet unnamed group. In the TWoK, there is another group mentioned by Sigzil, somewhere in the West, that also has collected info on the Radiants and awaits their return. related to the Envisagers. But I can't locate their name.

1)Besides his height (shorter than the Azish/Nalan with crescent shaped birth-mark/scar) and he squeaks and is whiny-from Jasnah 2)Alethi-looking and nervous (keeps glancing over his shoulder)-Szeth Wit also describes it as 'perfect Alethi, with no hint of an accent'. So, what Brandon is really saying is that the accent is important somehow, or else he wouldn't mention it every time Taln speaks.

We get a partial description in Taln's Interlude, from the dialogue between Bordin, Dalinar and Elhokar. They speak about his accent (heavy, Northern Alethi), darkeyes, dark skin, long beard and broken nails. Nothing about his size though. And why does he now have an accent, when he didn't have one when he appeared in Kholinar?

Well, TLR is a mountain man/herder. Flutes are the preferred instrument of a lot of human sheperds so it just might be a cultural thing.

Herdazians are also related to the Parshendi, but Lopen cannot see Syl unless she reveals herself to him. So maybe it is the lakes that are the difference.

I used to be fully on the 'it's not Taln' bandwagon. But, after a couple of re-reads I'm not sure anymore. Brandon might be playing with the fact that it's Taln, but he's not a Herald of The Almighty anymore, because something else may have Heralded the coming Desolation (remember the preceding monologue of Wit's about what men value most and timeliness). The only other possibility (in my mind) is that Taln has already shown up years before, and something has happened to him (he's been abducted, he's training a secret army of Chasmfiends, etc) and another Herald, sensing the Desolation approaching and Roshar not preparing, takes it upon himself to dress up as Taln to warn humanity.

Was re-reading TWoK, and noticed that whenever someone drinks rainwater, they comment that it has a metallic taste. I am dis-counting the fact that they may all be drinking out of rusted rain barrels (Dalinar comments on it after drinking from a flask and he runs an efficient army which would not tolerate rusted barrels)Now, I'm assuming this is Highstorm water, which more common and regular than regular rainwater (Weepings, local rainstorms). Metallic taste can usually mean one of two things in water (or both together) from what I've found (I'm far from any type of expert on any of this): 1. Water may be rich in minerals such as iron, manganese, copper, zinc, or bacteria from these metals once it is oxidized. 2. Water may have a low pH (acidic). There have been numerous topics on crem and water on Roshar, i.e. http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/4686-matter-circulation-on-roshar-some-predictions-and-deductions/or http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/4588-crem-is-the-body-of-cultivation/?hl=crem#entry73759, and I thank them for providing possible answers. Some questions I have: -Is the taste associated with the crem pH levels, which means that the crem is acidic in nature (possibly a phosphate-fertilizer) and might have an organic origin (could Cultivation have set up a 'recycling' process-dead animals/plants feed the living)? -If salt water is an alkaline, and there are no other major land masses east/west of the supercontinent, where does the Highstorm pick up all this water? -If the taste is due to mineral/metal content, is crem high in iron content and that is why it is very difficult to chip if it hardens? Is mineral bacteria the reason plants grow better? -Is ash acidic or alkaline, because what if crem is made up of ash particles from things that are burnt on Roshar (hence why you burn a prayer to the Almighty, burn the dead)? edit ash has a liming effect on acidic soils so it must be an alkaline. Anyone have any better ideas or answers?P.S. Sorry if someone has already posted something like this but I couldn't find it.

Well, Taravangian says it's been years since the Day he wrote the Diagram, and WoB says he went after Gavilar's death: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6815-updated-with-qa-anyone-going-to-the-dayton-signing-19th/ Small correction: when Adrotagia is calculating how smart he was that day, she only looks at the last 500 days (1 year?). As for if Cultivation took over his mind, I doubt that she was that overt, if only because as Honor says in the visions, they are bound by rules, and he constantly tells Dalinar he will give him what he can. Which may mean that Cultivation may have shown Taravangian the future (as Renarin can supposedly see) but the future is not set, but rather a probability Or she showed him multiple 'visions' of events and he had to write them down but also extrapolate from them (just like Dalinar does in his visions of the past).

While the interaction between Jasnah and Kaladin will be a dynamic one (guaranteed they will butt heads over everything), she else-called to a place where there are mountains to the west. Hearthstone doesn not have mountains (as far as maps and in-world descriptions go). However, Kholinar has rivers and also mountains west of it, which makes it more likely that, a)Jasnah is close by to the capital and b)when Kaladin makes his way there from Heartstone, they will meet there. Makes for a more dramatic confrontation, when 2 Radiants with different objectives (1 to protect, the other has no qualms about removing 'festering wounds') meet. At least that's how I would write it.

Sorry, I don't want to be 'that guy' but this is in the wrong forum (...pssst...you're in the Cosmere).

Well, if we go by the Ars Arcanum on the books, there are possibly 4 systems: the 10 levels of Surgebinding, 10 levels of Voidbinding, x levels of Voidbindings' cousin the Old Magic, and a 4th, more esoteric than Voidbinding, anonymous system. Curious why The AA calls the Old Magic cousin to Voidbinding. Because of the way they function or due to its descent? Because that would make it of Odium, or it would make Voidbinding of Cultivation...

@hoser, I think #4 and 5 need to be reversed, as far as we know from the books, as the Listeners went to Odium after the betrayal of the spren (as per their songs). As for the Nightwatcher, she has lost interest in humanity due to Honor's death, but I think the spren would know if Odium is influencing. Both Syl and Pattern react badly to the mention of Odium.

Thank you for fixing my spoiler oversight Moogle. Also,

WoR spoilers:

@Oudeis. Sorry hadn't really gone through all the posts and would have given you credit for expressing the same idea before me. I did forget about Jasnah, because we really don't know much about her. It could be that she was physically hurt by a man (and thus views them all in a bad light) and maybe because Ivory first presents himself as threatening and attempts to kill her in Shadesmar, that's why he's male.

If all we had seen were Vorin Surgebinders, I would have guessed that it was because of Vorin custom, just like a Lighteyed officer needs a wife to have as a scribe. so here goes a different theory. Well, what if the potential Radiant/surgebinder is choosing the spren gender subconsciouly, because of some 'need'? And maybe they project this cognitively on the spren that wants to bond with them? Once it manifests, it is locked in, in that gender. E.g. Syl appears female to all the members of Bridge Four. Renarin for example, really wants to be a fighter so his father can approve of him. He even holds a screaming Blade to prove his point, thus Glys is male. Lift doesn't mention knowing a father, so Wyndle could be a father figure. Shallan loves her father, but maybe even before her mother tried to kill her, her father was distant or violent, and thus Pattern is male. Ym feels guilty about the woman he poisoned and thus the spren is female. Dalinar bonds the Stormfather, because his whole life is dominated by Gavilar's death. Kaladin is the only difficult one to place, due to the female spren. Is it because Hesina always cheered him up or was supportive? is it because of Laral, or that other woman (name escapes me) that he let down?

http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/cssn5lb?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/cssn63g?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/cssn8bx?context=3 Answer number 2 certainly leaves the door open for Taravangian to have been influenced by an external force; Cultivation maybe who is better at seeing the future than Honor? http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/cstci8x?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/cstckxz?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/cstcn34?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/cstcots?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/cstcr3e?context=3

http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/csqm4wh?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/csqm8th?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/csqmc5e?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/csqmfne?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/csqm4dh?context=3

If Radiants are an indication of what happens to Heralds, then: 1) In the Feverstone Keep vision, Dalinar sees the Stonewards' shardplate glowing amber 2) In his first vison in TWoK, he sees a woman shardbearer that glows amber, thus is a Stoneward, and her eyes are light tan. Thus, Taln's eyes "should" be light tan, and the Stonewards colour is amber. Now, 3 things are possibly going on: 1)we are being mislead by the visions so that when the Herald shows up we can doubt if he really is Taln, although he is. 2)Subtle hints are given so we can make the connections ourselves that he is not Taln. 3)The visions showed Dalinar Stonewards for a reason, so that he can make the connections about the so-called Herald, but he has not figured it out yet.

Not a bad theory actually. Now, if we could see in a book if their shadows point the wrong way, it can be confirmed. I remember reading that the Selay have skin ripples, and the people of Babatharnam (considered Selay) have the above mentioned vein patterns that sit shallowly in the skin, but do you have a reference for the translucent skin? On a different note: Aimians= close to Cognitive/Shadesmar. Selay have skin ripples (Like rock or bark?). Long-time SoulCasters have rock-like skin. Coincidences??

And the answers keep coming... http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/csk0odd?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/csk0osj?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/csk0qsn?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/csk0rs3?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/csk0tcg?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/csk0u82?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/csk0w36?context=3

You are correct. My assumption is that since the visions are asking to "unite them" and re-establish the Radiants, they would be sent to potential Bondsmiths, who possibly serve that function. No WoBs. I was also under the impression that Taravangian says that Gavilar was having the visions too?

Some more answers today. http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/cshiuew?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/cshm9o7?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/cshtotd?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/cshtsde?context=3