Twenty@20

Why are we assuming Ivory was OK with Jasnah killing the thugs in the street? Didn't Shallan say that she didn't see Jasnah soulcasting after she stole the fake Soulcasters- recall that before that evening Shallan used to see Jasnah soulcasting her notes into fire, water into crystal and other what nots. Couldn't it be that Ivory had indeed punished Jasnah like Syl punished Kaladin- that explains why Shallan didn't see Jasnah soulcasting after the alley incident. Then presumably Ivory forgave Jasnah before the hospital scene. Also it is possible that Jasnah had discussed the situation with Ivory and necessity of action earlier in the evening. While Ivory would probably be okay with killing the first assailant, it is entirely possible he didn't approve of the subsequent killings. However no spren will willingly put their Knight in danger by turning off their powers in a hostile environment. So Ivory let Jasnah kill the other assailants too and later punished her.

I am intensely loving the new Firefight theme of Brandon's website- the color scheme, the matching fonts look awesome. Well I guess that confirms I am a Sanderfan.

Awesome! Thanks for the update Peter!

<long sigh..> Peter I am seriously considering doing a long distance Vashikaran on you to just get a glimpse of the manuscript. BTW any idea when we can expect another newsletter from Brandon. Its almost 3 months now.

In Pattern's defence, he has no oaths to defend unlike Syl. Shallan from the onset jumps onto the "save the world" wagon, so Pattern didn't need to prod her into action like Syl had to do with Kaladin. Lastly, Shallan hardly ever did anything for pure selfish reasons during WoR. All her goals were to learn more about the Desolations and how to prevent it and Pattern was perfectly okay about it. Contrast her with Kaladin who was so caught up with personal grudges that its no wonder Syl had so tough time with him compared to Pattern's time with Shallan. So I think rather than looking at the spren in isolation, it may be better to assess the Knight-spren relations. A word about Wyndle. Just because he calls Lift Mistress doesn't mean that he is just her servant. This reminds me of Alfred who called Bruce Master Wayne for as long as I remember but their relation is so much more than that.

Gravitation the surge and feruchemical Iron. Both change weight

Some wicked thing of eminence - rarely has a five word phrase caused so much speculation. On first look the phrase looks like an oxymoron- a thing (not a person) both wicked and eminent. Eminence can also refer to a raised portion of ground (thanks to Google) - perhaps Urithiru. I am going out on a limb here without any textual evidence. Perhaps the conspiracy was to denounce Urithiru as a place of evil or linked to Odium. The Radiants were tricked into believing it by some cleverly planted evidence and felt sullied by association. I wish to be clear that this is only an armchair speculation. So I expect it to be quickly disproved. However on the far fetched hope that some of it turns out to be true I fully reserve the right to gloat to the end of my days.

What do get if you and your roommate use the same razor? A shar(e)dblade!

First impression. Sounds like a flintstone worn as an ornament..

Even a normal person will get dyslexic while reading this. Storm it

Elantris sequels (plural mind you) are interesting. Wonder what will be their connection to Mistborn. Will a glowing Raoden turn up on Scadrial? And since chronologically present day Mistborn will be after the entire Stormlight archives, I wonder if we can get some clues about Stormlight 2nd half? The dark one? Odium? Imagine Rayse as young adult

I think we are misreading Gavilar a bit. Agreed in his heydays he was a war mongering overlord like his brother. Additionally he was associated with the Sons of Honor and their lunatic schemes (infered from Amaram's comment towards the end of WoR). But I believe we are missing the extent of Gavilar's transformation towards the end. Both Dalinar and Jasnah have remarked upon this. Let me point out two glaring things Gavilar did at the point of death. One, he quoted the Way of Kings. This is the same book that caused such an effective transformation in Dalinar who was no better than his brother and also perhaps the reason behind Gavilar's change. What did Gavilar's quote refer to? Most probably the first oath. If Gavilar believed in the first oath then it is certain his relations with Sons of Honor were souring. Here we come to the second point. Gavilar suspected Restares, the leader of Sons of Honor, to be behind the assassination. This tells me Gavilar was probably actively subverting their agenda towards the end. Also notice he gives the black sphere to Szeth and tells him it must not fall in wrong hands - presumably Parshendi but can also include Sons of Honor. We cannot ignore the effects of the visions on Gavilar. They were warning him of a coming Desolation and showing him the consequences of the previous ones. Knowing that I hardly think he would want to hasten the very Desolation which was already coming. I get the impression from Amaram's comment, implicating Gavilar in his plans, that he was in dark regarding Gavilar's intentions and it is likely Gavilar was trying to subvert their plans from the inside. In nutshell I think it is not justified to judge Gavilar solely based on Amaram's comment.

This got me thinking. To take the logic further ahead, suppose a person mistakes the Honorblade for simple sword (unlikely but this is only a supposition), will the Honorblade start behaving like a normal sword? My personal feeling is that it is unlikely. What I trying to ask is that do we know how much the personal belief of a person can influence the abilities of a shardblade. Summoning a blade may depend on personal choice or belief but I think the intrinsic abilities of the blade can't be changed if the holder believes otherwise. So in my opinion a bonded Honorblade will grant surgebinding abilities through the bond whether the person knows about it or not. Another point regarding the missing shardblades from Recreance. Are we sure that all Radiants severed the Nahel bond with their spren in blade form? Is it inconceivable that many Radiants might have broken the bond with the spren itself? Then the number of missing blades might come down substantially.

The Adjustment Bureau warrants a mention here in my opinion. Its a one of a kind science fiction movie though it expanded the concept of the Philip K Dick short story. And every body loves Matt Damon!

Given that the original questionnaire is to identify alcohol dependence/abuse, it is quite suited for that purpose. I modified it in a lighter vein to make a humorous connection to Brandon's fan following. Also I noticed a few people describing their love for Brandon's works in ways similar to the 4 points of the test, so I thought some of the people may get a chuckle out of it.

Reading Szeth's PoVs I personally never got the impression that he was under any magical compulsion or mind control. He seemed to be in full control of his thoughts while he fulfilled his orders. Contrast this with Marsh's PoVs where we clearly get to see him being mind-controlled. Moreover, the fact that Szeth was able to flee without completing his orders after the first time he encountered Kaladin indicates that he is not magically controlled. If Szeth was under magical compulsion of the oathstone then there was no need for Taravangian to be afraid of him, when they met in Jah Keved. This quote indicates Szeth chose to obey, he chose to honor his oath. There was no compulsion other than religious ones involved. At least that is how I understood it. I would like to hear your interpretation too.EDIT Re: regarding collecting Honorblade. Even if Szeth was killed quietly, I believe it would be difficult to keep an Honorblade inconspicuous for long. Sooner or later, the Shamans would hear about a previously unknown Shardblade with mysterious powers. Then it would be only a matter of tracking it down.

No, I didn't say that Szeth would help the Shamans to recover the Honorblade. All I was trying to imply was that when Szeth has his epic confrontation with the Shamans he will let it slip that, he was defeated by a Radiant in Dalinar's army and from that the Shamans will deduce that Dalinar has the Honorblade.

When you get so very angry at the spambots for defiling this awesome site and go on a down-vote on sight spree against them.(true story)

As I understand, it would be impossible to poison a Mistborn or an Aluminium Gnat with Aluminium as they will simply burn it away. For everyone else who can't burn Aluminium allomantically will have to suffer the physical effects from its poisoning as usual. However I don't think poisoning an Allomancer who cannot burn Aluminium will affect his allomantic abilities for other metals I may be wrong in my assessment, so a confirmation from more experienced sharders would be great.

If you want to shut up people, a plain old knife would be enough to cut out their tongues. oops! Shouldn't stick out my tongue like that. Can anyone tell me why the idea of cutting someone's tongue with a knife sounds worse than the idea of using a shardknife for the same purpose? Is it due to the lack of blood in the 2nd case or some thing is wrong with my head?

Since Dominion is splintered, I doubt it has hardly any influence. Of course that doesn't rule out the people from Sel as the Ones Above- just that they are not acting under influence of the local splintered shards there. Are we sure about the time line of the events on First of the Sun, as in how long after Elantris or 1st Mistborn trilogy do the events take place?

I doubt the Shaman has a specific Truthless tracking mechanism. They would expect to eventually get the news in the event of Szeth's death- he is a notorious worldwide assassin after all. Or for that matter any Truthless with any Honorblade would gain some sort of reputation outside Shinovar. The person who would have killed him would become famous too and it would be easy enough to get information about him. Of course the entire chain if event would get delayed, depending on the degree of seclusion the Shaman maintains but it is only a matter of time. As it happened, I expect the Shaman to hear that Kaladin/Dalinar duo has possession of the Honorblade through Szeth himself. The oathstone is, I think, more of a cultural/ religious thing rather than anything magical.

Reading this thread, I get the feeling that this particular line "Our gods were not who shattered these plains." from the Listener Song of Wars, 55th stanza, is what rules out the Listeners or one of their Voidbringer forms as the cause of destruction of Stormseat/ shattering of the plains. I have an alternative theory about this based on the folklore of the two Purelaker God's- Nu Ralik and Vun Makak. As we know the Purelakers actually worship Nu Ralik while outwardly pretending to revere Vun Makak who they actually don't like. I guess the relation of the Listeners with their Gods is somewhat similar. While they actually don't love their Gods (they actively want to avoid their God's attention, a point which Gavilar ignored) nevertheless they still call them Gods. The wording of the song may reflect this dichotomy in their beliefs. So while they don't have any devotion towards their Gods they don't dare to openly blame them for the destruction they cause. Perhaps I am over analysing this but I find it best to let my theories out rather than have them ruminating in my mind.

Rest assured, you are not alone. I am doing hourly checks on Brandon's website in anticipation of the update.

When you modify the CAGE questionnaire for alcohol dependence to a test for Brandon dependence and get excited on finding out that you are certified cosmere and 17th shard dependant.