teknopathetic

As many people have noticed, the magic from Whitesand looks a lot like an Aether magic system. 1. Sandmasters on Dayside mentally connect with the sand much like Tress does with her spores 2. People exchange water in order for the ability to use the abilities. 3. The sand and the spores change colour to grey when depowered. 4. Just like in Tress, the investiture comes from outer-space from an object in the solar system. The smaller Sun on Taldain is said to be surrounded by particulates. Hmmm, sounds a bit like spores. Could the pulsing be the pulsing of something like an Aether? 5. Sandmasters must hand the sand to an initiate to begin a new "bud" within a Sandmastery initiate. This handing of the grains must occur like in Aether of Night. We know that Aethers are contemporary with Adonalsium, so it stands to reason there would have been Aetherbound on Yolen. And if there were Aetherbound on Yolen, then those people likely would have been strong enough or informed enough to get involved with something like the shattering. It actually would be odd if no Aetherbound were involved in the shattering, either as antagonists to the 16+ conspirators, or a part of the group itself. An aetherbound Shardholder might actually act quite a bit like Autonomy does: the idea of granting your powers to other people (avatars) but still having them be a part of you sounds A LOT like how Aethers work. Basically, Autonomy is growing buds of herself similar to how an Aether bud might grow in an aetherbound person as we see in The Lost Metal. An Aetherbound might also see Autonomy as something granted by power, as the Aetherbound gained power from her aether but was able to use it autonomously. Aethers also have a fluid identity that incorporates and individual and autonomous aspects, and as aethers likely do not have human genders, the we/he/she/i could be an Aetherlike gender-expression. If Bavadin were to be an Aetherbound, perhaps ascending caused some very very strange things to occur for both her and the Aether she was attached to? This could explain why Bavadin seems to have her own "bone aether", but that the Aether is not one of the original 12. TINFOIL-ER IDEAS This could also explain some tensions we have seen in Taldain's history? Perhaps the Aether and the Aetherbound do not always see eye to eye. Perhaps Dayside and Darkside are split as some sort of compromise between the two beings and the two invested stars? As a larger tinfoil, what if Bavadin and the Aether eventually broke their bond and had a nasy breakup? This could explain why Bavadin locked down the planet (to keep the Aether Out) and why a Dark Aether seems to have appeared in recent history (the Aether that had been part of the Ascension to Autonomy).

Would it make sense if Bavadin was an Aether or an Aetherbound of note? The idea of granting your powers to other people but still having them be a part of you sounds A LOT like how Aether's work. Aethers also have a fluid identity that incorporates and individual and autonomous aspects, so this all sounds a lot like an Aether to me. Could also explain why there appears to be Aether-like aspects to the magic without it actually being a known Aether.

We still are not sure if the "unite them" has anything to do with the Stormfather. The Stormfather claims to have never heard the "unite them" voice at all.

Amazing as always! I agree with Overlady that I’d prefer a more serious tone, but in the end enjoyed the book. Audiobook Ulaam was too much for me though and might have to stick to paper version with this novel because the “Oooooh myyyyjyyyyy” affect was far too distracting. Huck was amazingly done as a voice though!

Let's say the Aethers predate humanity or mortal-type life, then their 12 essences would be very focused on their own experiences in the universe. To an aether, maybe "sharpness"would be a core aspect of the universe. And likewise, "meat"would make absolutely zero sense to an aether as something inherent to the universe.

Her inborn power is increased mental speed, so perhaps that let her get around something?

I wonder if the reason the Crimson Sea has random rainfall is because there is an immortal scientist living under the sea and screwing around with the ecology. It would be interesting to know if the Crimson Sea was always this unstable or if it got worse in the recent past. Sort of related, but is that maybe why the Iriali left? Maybe their island was on the Crimson? Charlie seems to know a lot about the Iriali, so maybe the Irali were on a neighbouring sea.

Well we have an unanswered question as to why the 12 moons are even on Lumar. Maybe the sun actually is invested in some way? One would think constantly dropping spores would take an energy source beyond the tiny bits of water that get sent up.

Another huge thing is being the child of a returned and things like the Royal Locks. Is this difficult to do, or could people start creating a lot of magical inherited abilities?

I always wondered in Endowment had changed vessels. Partly because the magic on Nalthis seems to have just started one day out of the blue, and also because the shard Endowment may want to be given to others in some intent-like sense.

I was very surprised Brandon wrote: "...since Sazed released the Kandra". Why wouldn't Brandon obfuscate a huge Era 1 spoiler about Sazed by just saying "Harmony"instead. But then it hit me that maybe Discord has taken over and Brandon CANT say Harmony anymore.

But the seons should map to a physical location. In The Lost Metal, we see an "Elantrian-ish" using new lines in order to connect with Elendel. And the Aeons of Elantris have famously been greatly changed. So is it that the Sorceress is somehow still connected to the old shapes? Or is this simply an error? Or is the "Elantrian" in The Lost Metal doing something extremely weird because of a hacked-connection to start with? So many questions!

But shards may be able to tamper with the magic system. Preservation was able to do some swapping with a couple of metals. I wonder if that was something extremely taxing to do, or if it is essentially at a shard's whim to make changes like that to whatever magic system they are saddled with.

One weird thing is that the art does not show any chasm lines in the aeons. Is this an error, or do pre-shaod Elantrians not use modern Aeons?

I wonder if the 10 Essences from Roshar could be a clue into what the other Aethers may be. As far as I know, this chart spoils nothing for Stormlight Archive. 1. Interestingly, there is a "bone"essence to match the mythical "bone aether". 2. Aethers are not people, so I doubt there would be a "blood"one. But maybe Blood is related to the Crimson Sea?

Though, she can repress it somewhat. Crow is said to have lived much longer than she should have, so maybe her repression of the aether allowed her to live longer. Maybe someone could use the aether's more actively but at the cost of a low lifespan.

When she grabbed Faux-Charlie, I thought: "damn, I guess the rat wasn't Charlie after all. I guess she is going to dump him for being bland!". But I should have known that the final secret is almost always LIZARD PEOPLE

I was thinking that the sorceress might be the Nightwatcher since she deals with curses and the closest thing to “sorcery” we know. And then I ended up being super disappointed that the sorceress was an Elantrian. I wanted to learn more about Lumar, and getting some throw away Elantrian was meh IMO. I wish we had gotten something more relevant to the world itself and not just a nod to another book. Plus, I listened to it with my non-cosmere partner over a road trip, and he was very confused why none of the origins were explained for all the worldhopping characters.

I liked it but I really think Michael Kramer was the wrong audiobook reader for this piece. I’ve finished maybe 200 audiobooks and in Tress the voices were … a lot.

I caught it when Hoid said “you have everything you need” But I was dead wrong that the sorceress was the Nightwatcher somehow offworld.

Perhaps the Unmade were unmade from aethers?

I think she hears “????-light” in her language. It’s a compound word and I think a Scadrian would get the half they do understand.

I dont so much think Sazed is faking it as much as I think people underestimate how powerful his "people in the right place at the right time" ability is. I feel Sazed has trouble moving, but his precision is absolutely unmatched when he does manage to move a piece on the board. Autonomy herself says Wax is a "masterpiece", and this masterpiece was crafted with very little to work with. I think the trouble is that no one believed Sazed when he says "I had it convered with the peices I was using". Much like Vin and the hero of ages being a plan laid down 1000s of years in advance, I dont think Harmony needs to act so much in the moment as have people ready to react to a threat. Preservation's ability to "get things ready beforehand" is impressive and likely stronger than most other shards. It reminds me a lot of Hoid and his "know where to be but not exactly why he should be there" power.

Sort of. He said no one had gotten their spren off Roshar. It is still possible the Skybreakers have hacked the magic system in some way to no longer need the spren around or are Voidbinding Skybreakers or something. I agree the wob makes it less likely, but Brandon did not say the group were not Skybreakers. A lot is and can change on Roshar. And heck, we all though Shai couldnt Soulstamp offworld or Soulstamp a new magicsystem, but here we are! Maybe peopel have figured out how to do the old surges from Ashyn ad this group considers themselves culturally still Skybreajers? A lot is possible.

There really isn't very much to catch. The story seems to be very isolated from other events we have seen. You absolutely don't need to read anything before SP1. It seems to be stand alone. There are very very slight connections to something on Roshar and something in The Lost Metal, but these are not needed in any way.