Quantus

Have we seen anyone that wasnt in the process of Bonding a spren and becoming Radiant show that resistance, maybe Adolin? The Bond was what I always attributed Dalinar's more recent resistance as well as Kaladin's (Since Syl mentions that she'd already had a connection to him even back in Amaram's army), but that is just my own observation/explanation.

When you say they "They used the original agreement between shards to not live on the same world and mix powers, to convince the shard Autonomy" how do you imagine that went? I ask because I think it could be tricky to convince Autonomy on that basis without (potentially) running afoul of the fact that they also have a pair shards they (presumably) want then want to settle on their planet.

I cant wait to see the Scadrial tech progression across the era's, and WOB has mentioned that eventually Fabrial will become a generic term for magic/Investiture device, rather than being specific to Rosharan gem tech.

Do we have any direct evidence of this? That's a pretty specific Limitation of his power that I dont recall seeing. But that's more along the lines of actual Bloodthirst, not just Competitiveness.

Oh, I definitely agree that the Thrill's influence is a perfectly valid reason for the modern Alethi Culture to be "Competitive", and that at least in recent generations where we know the Thrill was present, it was a factor. I just think they had all the ingredients for that evolution long before the Thrill was likely a factor, and that Nergaoul's limited range of effect makes it far less likely to have actually "permeated Alethi society so much that that is the reason behind their competitive nature in all things". A factor sure, particularly among the militaristic leadership in recent times, but not the root of it throughout the culture. I definitely must have misunderstood your point then, because that's precisely the mistake I thought you making. :-p

The Radiant era then, whatever you want to call it. It was still the Radiant Organization in charge of the global coordination and structure, and there's nothing to indicate that they abandoned the pre-existing national organizations (right up to the point You're point (if Im not mistaken) was that the Alethela people would be so devoted to Discipline and Honor that they would have some sort of resistance/immunity to the Thrill. Im saying that "better" people of that era did worse things, and that your premise doesnt hold water. The Road to Hell is Paved With Good Intentions, and all that.

They were soldiers during the late era Desolations, thus they were from and/or trained in Alethela. They were then Deployed all over Roshar. Not sure I see the relevance of that. For the most part the Alethi always Thought they were fighting for the right reasons, that didnt give them any particular capability to resist the Thrill.

Another MAJOR factor that I was forgetting was the Hierocracy. They very intentionally scrubbed all knowledge of Shadesmar and the Radiants while they were conquering the world. That would have trashed basically any knowledge of Fabrials right along with it. The main exception was the Soulcasters, which WOB says were simply "too useful to give up", so instead they rationalized it, then wrapped it in as much mystery as they could and banned non-Ardents from seeing the process.

I would normally agree, but for the vision of the shard field immediately after the Recreance. They went pretty quick to murderous scrambling for Power. For that matter, the same could have been said for the Radiants themselves, but something happened to shatter their image of Honor, and that could have easily darkened the whole thing without an UnMade's personal involvement. They were dedicated to Honor, but from a certain perspective Honor betrayed and abandoned them. I suppose my point is that they were a founded as a dedicated War culture long before the UnMade could have had a significant impact on their culture as a whole, so the roots of their current competitive nature would have already been there (they were basically harvested and concentrated from across all of Roshar during the Radiant era). Past that there have been lots of significant cultural shifts that almost certainly had an impact on the development in all kinds of ways. The Recreance itself, and the following scramble for Shards as a military power. The Sunmaker being the one to finally stand up to the Hierocracy would both take and then promote a certain competitive drive. The Thrill certainly and inevitably is a major factor in what they became, especially given how many of their recent leaders were literally addicted to it. But it's also still spoken of only in whispers among the military. And it's influence is still a localized thing, so it would ahve had to be following the battles rather thna affecting the whole nation's population. TL;DR: It's certainly a factor, but I dont think it's influence is broad enough to credit for the national culture as a whole. Side Question: are there any theories about similar Influences of an UnMade having a long-lasting effect on a Nation? If the Heart of the Revel had stuck around Alethkar long enough it would have probably sunk in into the sort of overly decadent society that I generally associate with the Fall of Rome, for example. Moelach was around enough to spawn the Death Rattle legends (whispered among healers similar to the Thrill among soldiers) but I cant think of a nation whose culture would have been shaped by it (City of Shadows maybe?).

I dont think so. Alethkar is grew out of Alethela, the Silver kingdom that predated Utitiru and all that, and at the time of the Visions it was considered to be dedicated to the arts of war so that no other kingdom had to do so, it was viewed as their duty to protect all the other nations. People went to Alethela if they could fight or wanted to be trained. It was also the hereditary home of the Radiants, even though they (after debate) founded their headquarters in Urithiru. I doubt that an UnMade would have been able to lodge itself that much into the heart of the Radiants (of that era) without them noticing, but I could certainly see that sort of cultural concentration of Warriors evolving naturally into the War-focused Althekar of the modern era. The Thrill would certainly thrive there, and be more difficult to notice than say bureaucratic Azir, but i suspect that happened post-Recreance.

Im more homing in on the use of "Pure" which is generally not something spren seem to go around attributing to each other.

This is a bit of a different philosophic side point, sorry for the sudden change in direction. You're point is that you have a very strong Faith in the idea that everything, including Emotion, is rooted in a Scientifically explainable Universe, thus someone with perfect Scientific understanding would be able to explain things like emotions and emotional responses in scientific terms (chemistry, atomic interaction, etc). Please correct me if Im misstating you position. My point was more of the Epistemological argument that even if you understand every possible fact regarding Blue, you will never be able to describe Blue to a blind person such that they will know what it looks like compared to Green or Red. It is an example of a type of Knowledge that can ONLY be gained First-hand.

That's a fair point too. The Science of acoustic sound is well established, but it doesnt do anything to explain the subjective and/or emotional effects of Music.

That's what I said.

That quickly becomes a philosophic argument about Hard Determinism, the nature of the Self, etc. rather than anything like settled facts.

I like it. I think you are on the right track but it might go a step further: rather than being specifically their Deficiencies, I think it has more to do with their Interests and/or preoccupations, which may or may not be about their own deficiencies. Cryptics are mathematical entities, so very idea of original Creation makes as much sense as inventing the number "Preleven", and Lies having real Power to then is just saying You do the Equation Incorrectly, but Incorrect in the Right Way, and awesome stuff happens". That makes no sense to a math-brain, but is observably fact, so they are trying to understand. Inkspren seen similar in that the idea of Subjective Truth seems entirely foreign to their mindset, but is observably Real, so they are trying to Understand, and think a Bond with a Human will help, and since they were ultimately born from Human and Singer minds (particularly the Vessels) they are probably right. Wyndle himself isnt really looking for anything specific that I can tell, but the Authorities that Assigned him to Lift certainly are. However that could be as much about her uniqueness and apparent Favor of Cultivation as any sort of Self Betterment. Honestly I think Wyndle just wanted the Bond so he could come explore the Physical Realm with his mind intact and see all those Chairs in in their natural habitat. Similarly I dont think the Stormfather was personally looking for anything, and actually wanted to resist the Bond entirely, but he had Orders from Tanavast to pass the Visions and find the next Bondsmith so he felt he had no choice. Like Wyndle he was ordered by a higher authority. The Highspren and the Honorspren both seem pretty set in their own ways and seem more interested in spreading their Mindset rather than rounding out their perspective, though. They represent the Letter of the Law vs the Spirit of the Law, but if they were interested in their own deficiencies I tend to think they would get along better and be trying to learn from each other, rather than coming into conflict so often. In their cases, I dont see them as being after personal betterment or understanding so much as different kinds of Enforcement. You know, looking back at this list, I wonder if their relative Ratio's of Honor Vs Cultivation has anything to do with? It would make sense if those breeds with higher ratios of Cutlivation would be interested in Personal Betterment more, while those with more relative Honor in them would be more about getting everyone on board with the Rules.

Not even Radiant Soulcasting. So far the only times the gems seem to come into play is with Fabrials, Soulcaster or otherwise. Some of it is a holdover from an earlier draft. Originally every order was going to have limited Soulcasting (similar to the way every order gets "limited" healing, compared to those with the Surge), but would be restricted to their Order's accociated Essence. He said he chaged it because it felt like they became too similar.

I think the "Inevitability" will increase with overall available Investiture, but can be wildly changed and/or suppressed based on the cultures involved. Roshar is probably top of the list since the realmics are so very In Yo' Face with the Spren and natural Stormlight Cycle. Scardial by comparison had two feuding Shards, but even the New Vessel was basically unaware of the wider Cosmere until he was influenced and/or contacted by the outside. Sel spawned the Ire, but then managed to almost entirely forget even the basics of Elantris and AonDor. And your lesser shardworlds could easily have nothing supernatural enough to ever get them started on Realmics in the first place, leaving good ol' fashioned Science to pick up the slack.

"Deleted Scene"?

Oooh, yah let me second this one. Fantastic series and a great setting. It starts at a more normal YA series, but ages up pretty nicely with the characters. Two quadrologies with a 4 year time-gap between them, then a standalone novel several years later when they are hitting adulthood. The first said it was aimed at the 9-11 demographic, the second gets a little darker as they have to deal with more adult problems and themes, and even more so in the stand-alone. Notable in that it has almost no romantic subplots with the main character (some side plots with the adult supporting cast) until the final novel when they are adults themselves. EDIT: Turns out there are 3 standalone novels. A sequel to the one I knew about, and a prequel that fills in one of the story gaps between the standalone and second Quadrology (delving into a War that was mentioned).

Definitely want to pile on to the "Read Kingkiller", even unfinished it's entirely worth it. Also, the Slow Regard of Silent Things short story is one of the strangest but most compelling things Ive read in a long time. Zero dialogue, and also somehow THE most personality Ive ever seen from inanimate objects. The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay (my all time favorite fantasy series, from the 80's) Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (Urban Fantasy at it's best) Codex Alera by Jim Butcher (literally started as a bet that he couldnt combine Pokemon with The Lost Roman Legion) Cinder Spires by Jim Butcher (Airships and crystal power and plot-relevant Tea time and talking cat mafia, what more could you ask for?) [more to come]

Definitely portable, though I doubt Ill be able to (safely) have as much current as that Marx stack picture so it will be a thinner/weaker arc. I shouldnt need a full backpack size battery. The battery chemistry is going to be the deciding factor there, I need something that is tolerant of high current and quick discharge. I cant use normal alkaline batteries, but I have had good luck with rechargeable Nickel–metal hydride before (ran a similar system off 8 energizer AA's once upon a time). The vaping trend has led to some great strides in small, consumer available Lithium-Ion which are perfect for what I need (vapes are basically just blasting as much wattage as they can through a heating element) and they are getting better, safer, and cheaper by the day. Worst case I can get some low profile Lead Acid batteries at the local Batteries Plus store, I was pleasantly surprised at how small some of them are, I'd only ever seen the big brick style for engines. Picture time, my crystal Transformers have arrived! I have some bare ones, but I on the advice of a helpful redditor was able to get a pre-built driver circuit that were made for laptop screen backlighting. I have to figure out what all the input pins do, which will be a whole other puzzle (that Im going to try crowd-sourcing to reddit). GRound is easy to figure out, but I need to figure out the main power rail and it has a power control/trhottle in there somewhere. I've been able to track down a datahsheet for the main control chip (the big square one) but it has a lot of options and Im not sure which they are using here. Oh, to be clear the coil in the middle is a balancing inductor, the actual crystal transformer is the black thing on the far left

Spoiler free and in no particular order: Sazed's whole Crisis of Faith and it's resolution. Lightsong and his Priest. Paalm. Adolin and Sadeas. The True Voidbringers Nale's outlook Nightblood (and Friends) cameo Dalinar's Memory

Im of two minds on this. On the one hand the three Godspren are by all accounts wildly different, and it would make all kinds of sense for their Oaths to be similarly Unique. On the Other Hand they are building/proving the same general Bond and Surges, so by that logic they should probably follow a common theme. We know form the other Orders we've seen that Oaths can sometimes be wildly individualized (Lightweaver Truths being the most, but the Skybreakers Crusade Ideal etc are equally personal). I tend to suspect it will fall somewhere in the middle, with each Godspren having a very different Perspective on the same general theme, which will likely only make sense in retrospect.

I absolutely agree that it doesnt need to be a central part of her Character by any stretch, I was just surprised that @Honorless said "Ranette's sexuality was the dominant character trait, as much as her skill at making guns and ammo" when at the time the only personal detail I could name was that she was uninterested in Wayne specifically. I mean, I was aware of more gay subtext with Shallan than with Rannette, though to be fair that was pointed out in WOB questions or I probably would have missed it too. So, for the case of Ranette I think Id still argue that it's not pivotal to her character, simply because it's entirely extraneous to her narrative purpose of Experimental Gunsmith. She could have preferred women, men, both or neither and it wouldnt have altered any of the scenes she was in or what she was there for. For context, I am an engineer so that is a trait that gets highlighted/amplified in my mind for any character regardless of other factors, because it's something that I very personally identify with (#NavaniRULES). Drehy is probably a different case. He has had relatively little specific narrative role beyond being another founding member of Bridge 4, although that in itself aint nothing since he's had way more screentime than other arguably more significant characters. He's also on the short list of those that have sworn the Windrunner 2nd, and is one of the two that rescued Gavinor so he may get a larger narrative role relating to the kid (there's been idle speculation that Bridge 4 will 'adopt' him). He was a relatively major member of Bridge 4 in the sense of having more developed personality early on than many other members (who often didnt survive, granted), long before his sexuality was mentioned. And even if his prime narrative role so far has been to highlight Kaladin's (and by extension Vorinism's) preconceptions and prejudices, there are several others that are playing the same role (Lyn, Rlain, etc), and I think it fits the narrative since Exposing and Exploring Prejudices is a fairly major theme throughout. On the overall topic, one place I feel like Ive seen whole topic being handled well is the tv DC/Arrowverse shows. There are quite a few characters that are gay and also just normal characters, and their relationships are given just as much or as little focus as a straight character in the same narrative place. The Flash's captain was gay and mentioned his boyfriend/fiance/husband occasionally in passing, and we met him when the captain was hospitalized, but that's exactly the amount of personal life that Im used to getting from that supervisor role in any other procedural cop show. Other gay characters like White Canary that are central leads get all the same relationship subplots that you'd expect of the genre (and these days TV is willing to let character have healthy relationships, which is awesome for everyone). And then there is Constantine that flirts with literally everyone, which has long been the character in the comic books; while NBC shied away from it when they had the character for a seasons, CW embraced it for the overarching plot-lines: He met a nice man, fell in love and settled down, only for his Demonic past to catch up to them and make it all go to pot (ie. comic book standard).