Stark

Why does this feel like a reference to the restaurant at the end of the universe? I hope it is, its a lovely reference, even though technically it was a restaurant at the start of the highstorm. At the same time, I can see Syl having fun discussing how to fly with Arthur Dent, who flies by falling and missing the ground. Kalladin flies by changing the direction of down and falling away from the ground. That would be a fun conversation. As for the more serious discussions of fabrial science, and how it could be used to make Rosharan airships to enter in the eventual Cosmere version of mario kart, well, my grasp of fabrial science is weak. I'll trust those better informed to figure it out.

Can you awaken air though? I was under the impression that you could only awaken solids - or liquids and gases if they were encased in a solid to give them form. I don't think this is a legit option. You are entirely right, if Susebron creates another nightblood on the spot, he wins. Or at worst, everyone loses. As for awakening everything around, its already been pointed out that TLR's compounded strength would make it virtually impossible to bind him with cloth.

In fairness, Rosharans are fond of sweeping generalizations. All insects are cremlings. All birds are chickens. All Azish are rule abiding. No middle-aged or older person with a tight-butt is to be trusted. A person's innate worth is determined by the colour of their eyes and the status of their parents.

Nice! That looks awesome! The endpapers look freaking amazing. Too bad he lied in his inscription to you - that's clearly ink and paper, not steel. I am very jealous - My inlaws got into town this week and made no mention of having a book for me. So I likely won't see mine until March or April sadly. Enjoy reading it, it looks stunning. I'm really curious what other bonus material is included.

I would also point out that in the description of the Red Rip on Scadrial that the coppermind postulates a few reasons why it is not mentioned in Era one. Between Ashfalls and the mists, few people ever see the stars. I remember a specific scene where Vin gets above the mists for the first time and sees the stars, with Kelsier I think. He talks about them, but there is mention that in myth, more was visible before the skies filled with Ash. I am heavily paraphrasing based on memory. Era one Mistborn has both the mists and the ashmounts filling the sky that made astronomy very difficult. If you could brave the mists enough to get above them, you could see the brightest stars on a 'clear' night, IE: one without ashfall, but by no means see all the stars in the sky. I think that may factor into the lack of mention in Era one. The lack of record in Saze's religions is far more interesting. It either points to the rip not existing pre LTR, or the rip not being part of the canon when Brandon wrote the series, or to it being there but not being relevant to Saze saving the world.

I always read them as a mix between a pleased or curious sound. Pleased is closer to a humming sound - which fits the vibration mentioned to accompany him sometimes. When it's more curious, it's a 'hmmm?' sound. But mostly I view it as a pleased, almost purring hum.

Definitely yes, she is dead. But also maybe not. She may be somewhere in between, only mostly dead. Her state is harder to pin down than Schrödinger's Cat when you aren't looking at it. Spren are weird. How do you kill an concept? You get everyone to stop thinking about it and forget it. But she is the blade of the most famous Alethi swordsman, no one will ever forget her. So she is definitely dead. But she is also maybe, probably not dead. Not entirely. Just enough to give hope. Death doesn't quite work the same way for spren. Syl was killed by Kaladin, and he is still apologizing to her for that. Oathbringer is dead, but it screams slightly less when Dalinar holds it. Dead things scream. Maya is dead, but she walks, follows and protects, yet sees nothing. She is angry, and she is dead. Her oath holder is dead, so there is no renewal of Oath's loophole that un-killed Syl, and all spren would consider her to be irevoccably dead. Even if she is walking around and screeching while being kinda creepy and gross. If you are getting a headache, you're in the right mindset. She is definitely dead. She also might be alive. Spren are weird. To better answer your question, maybe you should define what you consider to be alive, and what is dead, or non-living. Biologists have been struggling with a single, unified method to define something as living, or not. And they don't have to deal with spren. So when asking if a Deadeye is alive or dead, I can only really give an answer of yes.

Emphasis mine. The Cryptics are all weird, not just Pattern. They seem fascinated by the mathematics that underlay reality, and are curious about why humans do the things they do. They accept that this experiment will most likely end in their deaths, and accept that this cost is worth what they will learn. So much so that: Pattern is not inherently dangerous, he is just extremely curios, like all Cryptics. The danger is the pursuit of that curiosity. When Shallan was pursuing Re-Shepnir, Pattern's concern was not for safety, but that she'd go do something stupid without him there to watch, because stupidity is extremely interesting. It seems like the cryptics, both in Shallan's drawings and Elhokar's mirrors were coming through to the Physical Realm in greater numbers than any of the other true spren at the beginning. I think Cryptics are not trusted because they are curious, and always experimenting, let the curiosity drive them rather than anything else. And that can be deeply unsettling to any around them that operate based on rules. Pattern is not a sociopath - he cares for Shallan enough to offer to die to help her heal. But each spren has a lure that draws them and binds them. Emotion spren follow emotion, honorspren follow honor and oaths, cultivation spren (Wyndle) seek growth, inkspren seek logic. Cryptics seek mathematical constructs. And what better theoretical construct than lies? Each lie you tell must be maintained - the greater the lie, the more supporting lies must be told to keep the plates spinning in the air. The more people who hear and believe the lie, the more work that must be done to sustain it. The mathematical equations for how to sustain lies must be ludicrously complex. Requiring the revelation of truths, that thereafter can never be lied about (Shallan could no longer suppress the memories of her truths and had to confront them) makes a lot of sense for a race of spren that want to learn. You've confronted this, now you must deal with the outcome and can't hide it anymore. That must be fascinating. Understanding that everything humanity uses is actually the corpse of something else, and that is just how we are was a mind blowing revelation to Pattern. And it allowed him to overcome his disgust at Adolin using a corpseblade. That is extremely rational, pragmatic and mathematical in its approach. And Pattern loves his math. Not dangerous, just an alien worldview.

Well, I think part of the answer came when they were storming the palace in Kholinar: So we saw that under the right circumstances, a spren can be pierced with invested metal in the physical realm. So you could probably corrupt a spren, or spike something into it in the physical realm. Spiking out is probably limited to the Cognitive realm however.

I'm going to disagree with you in this context. We use asexual to refer to a person who has no sexual attraction/desire, or action that has no sexual motivation. From a genetic perspective, Asexual reproduction results in a child that is the clone of the single parent. So a single cell dividing in two - no exchange of gametes or change to the chromosomes. As the parsh clearly have a male/female parent set when they reproduce involving two of the genders, male and female, and a child that is the result of chromosomal exchange - a blend of both parents. They also have the neutral genders, malen and femalen, described as asexual. In this context, even though it is a choice to take a form that is considered asexual, and given the WOB does not explicitly state that all forms can reproduce, I do not think the asexual forms can reproduce. Mateform is better at reproduction, but not guaranteed to succeed, and there are other forms that can reproduce, albeit much less efficiently, and there are the neutral, asexual forms that cannot reproduce. I would assume that warform falls under the later category. Your interpretation that asexuality in this case applies as it does in our own inter-human interactions, rather than a more genetic connotation may well be right, but I do not think so. In the absence of a concrete WOB, both options could be valid interpretations. But I'm biased towards mine.

Oooh, Can we also add the modifier of "Can I use the colour from an illusion to fuel my Awakening?"

I completely agree, and even pointed out the Adolin-Rand comparison was off for some rather superficial reasons. There are many reasons why the Rand Adolin axis does not work, and even the women break down under some scrutiny, but seem to have some links. And I like comparing Shallan's personas to the three ladies in WoT better than going basic psych and trying to declare Veil=Id, Shallan=Ego, and Radiant=Superego. That kind of works too, but I have more fun looking at links to other fiction. But other than having a magic sword and three wives, Rand and Adolin don't have much in common.

Understanding or not, you have answered my question. My question mostly came from the line: I'm curious which forms, including mate-, slave, and dullform were not asexual, as opposed to the forms that are asexual and incapable of childbirth. This confirms that not all forms can have children, which solves my question. Now I just want to know what forms, that we've seen, can or cannot reproduce. I'm curious if there is a pattern to what forms are reproductive-ly viable, at any level, versus completely asexual and non-viable for reproduction. Maybe there is a parrellel to the Shin culture, the one who adds versus the one who takes away, or the Horneater culture that seems to place a higher value on non-soldiers. Forms that add/build/create are viable versus forms that destroy/break down/remove are non viable for reproduction. I'd be curious to see if there is a pattern along those lines.

Do we have confirmation on which forms are capable of breeding? I assume slaveform, dullform and mateform are on the list. Potentially workform as well. But if all forms are capable of mating, it makes me question the asexual nature of malen and femalen genders in non-mateforms. If all forms can reproduce at differing capacity levels, then why have a non-reproductive gender designation? I assume that warform, and likely many of the Regal or fused forms are incapable of mating, but it would be nice to get a bit more information on these distinctions.

So, out of curiosity, does anyone feel that the Adolin-Shallan relationship is a subtle mimicry/dig at the Wheel of time? Rand had three wives, so does Adolin, technically. One was Min, an unpowered spy/manipulator, like Veil was designed to be (low-born, not supposed to be Radiant). One was Elaine, the noble Lady with powers, like Shallan herself. And finally, we have Aviendha, the wise warrior with powers, like Radiant. Am I stretching too far to see this link? I know that the Adolin-Rand comparison is a bit off, Adolin was not a farmer, is not super-powered, still has both his hands, and as far as we know is not fated to be eternally reborn as the champion to duel Odium. But on the female spectrum, in both cases we have the Spy, the Lady and the Warrior. IS that a possible thing?

If someone gets the chance, I'd be extremely appreciative if they would ask a question or two about this quote: Given that the singers were trapped in slave- and dullforms for thousands of years, and that malen and femalen are completely asexual - how did the species survive? Is it that mateform makes it easier to successfully procreate, and the other forms it is possible, but not easy? Because if mateform is the only form with male and female traits and the ability to procreate, how did the species not die out? We know from Sah talking to Kaladin that slaveform could have children, so if mateform is the only procreation form, did Cultivation intercede on their behalf as a boon/curse situation to help them escape their gods? Remove their forms, and by extension their gods, but allow them to procreate in any form until mateform is rediscovered?Because if memory serves, the original council of five were all dullform, because that is all they had for generations?

It is. But at the same time, the Alethi were breeding the slaveforms. Which would be male neuter and female neuter. Similarly the listeners were procreating over the generations before they rediscovered mateform, while in dullform. So while neuter is a rather non-negotiable term, and should be a hard stop, if that were the case, they would have all died out within 100 years of the last desolation. The other options are that there a a select few forms that can mate, but it is easiest in mateform, or all forms can mate, but it is easiest in mateform... It is the only way for the species to have been able to survive the dullform/slaveform years. We do have some tangential proof of this, when Sah tells Kaladin of how his daughter's mother was sold, because she was a good breeder, while they were in slaveform. So mateform cannot be a hard stop for procreation. If malen and femalen are asexual, then there have to be a selection of forms that are male and female - mateform, dullform, slaveform and likely a few others.

So if you eat the cake fast enough, without thinking about it as anything other than a bunch of wheat and flour, you could eat before the disparate parts of the soul fuse together and become the soul of the cake? He says it does not take long, but that it takes time at all means you could change its form and identity again before it has had the time to reclassify itself internally as something else... It likely would not be pleasant. Eating cake straight out of the oven before it has time to cool or view itself as cake sounds painful and traumatic. For the cake. And the eater. I wonder how that mid transition transition would appear in the cognitive realm?

The Oathbringer preview chapters. Man, we talked those things to death. And in really, really short timespans, so much so that it quickly became unrealistic to read all the responses. But Storms was it fun to do at the time!

Yeah, he said he would be shipping all the simple personalizations to try to have them in homes for Christmas, but anything with more complex requests - questions or extensive quotes or limericks, those would be shipped mid January. I expect mine in February, as I had it shipped to my inlaws in New York, and I live in Montreal - So I can only live vicariously through your beautiful pictures for now.

Women, most likely. It is the Alethi Women's script, so I would assume Navani, Jasnah, Shallan and the others can read it fluently. Dalinar is getting there, and his Connection ability is likely helping him learn faster. Yes, I know, you meant IRL. But you offered me a delightful opportunity to be deliberately obtuse, and I could not pass it up. Realistically, I don't think so. You need to read a lot of a given script to achieve that level of fluency, especially a script using a different alphabet. I would assume there are some out there in the shard and on team Dragonsteel who do practice with it and delight themselves in composing 'secret' messages for each other in this script - but at that point it is still more of a code that needs step by step translation than a fluent reading. I assume some people are dedicated enough to be approaching literacy, but I don't think we have enough extensive texts to get there, yet. Unless someone is creating documents in this text themselves. (Cue mental image of a dedicated sharder translating the Stormlight Archive, line by line, into the Alethi script.... I would totally buy that translation if ever it got published)

@WhiteLeeopard I would assume the parsh children have a neutral form that is static, between nimble and work forms. We would call this childform, if it exists. I would guess that they are constrained to this one form until puberty, when their gemheart forms. Their first form change would be a coming of age ceremony, and also speak to the type of person they will be based on what they choose their form to be. None of this is canon, or confirmed anywhere, just my assumptions. I would assume that slaveform has a hack to it that allows them to procreate sans mateform, which begs the question - Are the parsh only capable of procreating in mateform, or do they only feel the desire to in mateform? Because the listeners were in dullform for generations before they rediscovered any of the other forms, so they must have been able to procreate in dullform, even if they had no real drive to do so. Mateform probably makes procreation more desirable, and safer for childbirth. But I assume that the children are either born into the same form as their parent - mateform, slaveform or dullform based on what we've seen, or, if born by mateform, they have childform which they keep til there first change, but can never reclaim. I hope Brandon addresses it, I'm really curious.

We heard hints from a few spren sources, and from the translation of the Eile Steele that Humans came to Roshar after as refugees after destroying their own world, likely Braize. We have hint that they did not shatter the planet, but they 'scorched the earth' in some fashion as to make the surface uninhabitable, forcing them to take to the sky. But the planet itself is still there, capable of sustaining an atmosphere, as seen: I am shaky as to whether humanity had access to the surges before the Nahel bond, which we know came after a number of Desolations, to imitate the Heralds. But whether pre-Roshar humans were capable of surges or not, somehow they destroyed their world. We saw in WoR, that enough binders working in concert were able to bring the Everstorm into being, though admittedly, these were Voidbindings. So what would each Order be able to do, working in concert, to create a significant enough event to be considered Natural disaster or extinction level events? This is not using Dlainar's Stormlight supercharge, but potentially done at the height of a highstorm for the limitless Investiture temporarily flying around.I don't think all orders are capable of causing extinction level events, but here are my thoughts, please add your own: Bondsmith (Tension and Adhesion): On their own, not much. These guys are the Blue Lanterns of Roshar - they can supercharge the other orders, like Shallan's map. Windrunner (Adhesion and Gravitation): I don't have much for this group, but I could see them using gravitation to create a singularity. Numerous lashings all pulling inward, focused on a single point. Or lashing things together with adhesion and in separate directions with gravitation to tear them apart. Create hurricanes? Skybreaker (Gravitation and Division): With enough stormlight and Skybreakers working together, they could replicate Ultron's plan from the MCU, splitting off a chunk of the planet with division, and lifting it with gravitation, to meteor drop it on the planet. Dustbringer (Division and Abrasion): With the ability to divide and control friction, this order could trigger all kids of natural disaster, from earthquakes and tsunamis to volcanoes. They could split the crust of the planet down to the mantle, and possible rend the world in two, with enough power to manipulate. Edgedancer (Abrasion and Progression): I feel like something sinister, along the lines of Poison Ivy style venomous plants take over the world could come from Edgedancers, but I don't have much else. Truthwatcher (Progression and Illumination): Similar to Edgedancers, I don't have much for this group. Lightweaver (Illumination and Transformation): Any targeted Soulcasting could cause no shortage of issues, but can't think of specific examples. Maybe large scale soulcasting on the stone-to-air or air-to-stone spectrums to create concussive vaccuum's or explosive air releases? Mass creation of highly flammable, low flashpoint materials, like hexanes, or reactive metals like cesium? Elsecaller (Transformation and Transportation): Soulcast nuclear material and transport it to create nuclear blasts?. Willshaper (Transportation and Cohesion): Don't really know enough about these surges to theorize about what disasters they could cause. Stoneward (Cohesion and Tension): They can melt mountains. Create mud slides, volcanoes. Massive waves even. SO, what do you guys think? How do you think various orders could destroy the world as the spren fear? And more importantly, where am I wrong about the powers or science available?

I also found it discordant that Rlain was missing from part five. I do hope he is working on finding the survivors of Narak, but I don't know how he would know of them. I do think, that going forward this conflict will shift, and it won't be humans versus singers and human collaborators. That is too black and white, and lacks nuance. Given how many spren distrust humans and don't want to work with them, I see book four shifting the lines of battle, so we will have the Radiants and Listeners/Singers who reject Odium versus the followers of the fused and worshippers of Odium. And Rlain, even in warform, with Radiant Venli, will be a good start to that movement. I think the reason why Rlain has never manifested as a squire is two fold. First, Kaladin has had to practically be clubbed in the head and notice/include him since the beginning. You see that from the debate as to whether Rlain gets a spear or not. "Am I Bridge Four, or am I a slave?" (Heavily paraphrased) Kaladin sees him as part of bridge four, but has a degree of reservation. Much of that left after travelling among the singers, but he still has to view Rlain as a squire. The other half is Rlain himself, who views himself as apart from the group, like Renarin, while trying to be part of it. This starts to be fixed when Kaladin asks him to try to describe the loneliness, but it is only a start. He will eventually be a squire, I think. But his dynamic with Kaladin, and both of their thought processes need work for it to happen. It is like the Stormfather told Dalinar about the soldiers eating speres. They are doing it backwards. You must approach Radiance, then the light will come. You can't eat the light to gain Radiance. If Rlain does not believe he can become Radiant, he will have a far more difficult time approaching it. It will help if he gets a chance to see Venli in her Radiance. I think this will happen. Not sure about him becoming a Bondsmith though, or a Windrunner. He needs to figure out his intent before he can attract a spren. Right now, it feels as if he is with Bridge Four because he has nowhere else to go. He thinks his people are dead, or worse, changed. He has nowhere else to be. This is as close to family as he will get, and even they fail to understand him in fundamental ways, and are casually racist about his people, although they apologize. He is there out of loneliness. Loneliness is not a desire to protect, which does not make him a Windrunner. One could go the philosophical route that he is protecting the image and memory of his people and who they were among the Alethi, but I feel that is more esoteric than the Windrunner Oaths usually go. So he must overcome his current depression, because he feels depressed to me. Not to the same extent as Kaladin, but depressed all the same. IF he can pull himself from the darkness, even temporarily, and focus on an intent, he may well attract a radiant spren. And then we will see him come into the role of bridging the two peoples, humans and parsh. Or, you know, he will focus to much on the concept of bridge in the highstorm, attract the wrong lesser spren to his gemheart, and adopt Bridgeform. At which point Bridge Four would have to carry him everywhere, but feel too guilty to use him as a bridge, or worse, side-carry him. And his conversations would reduce to stick level: "I am Rlain. I am a bridge." That would be bad. I do not want that to happen. But I do want to see more of him and see how his story will progress. And know what he was doing during the battle of Thaylen City. Unless he was captured by the diagram when they stole the blade. And no one noticed because they are used to him fading into the background of training and everything else. Except Rock and Renarin, who include him. But Renarin was in Thaylen when that went down, and Rock was too injured until they got to Thaylen city to notice he was missing! Could Rlain have been captured by the Diagram or the Fused?

I counter this by pointing out that when Rock made his offering of Stormlight to the assembled spren, the leader accepted his offer and consumed the light. Between being a Windrunner Squire already - therefore already being of interest to at least one Honorspren, and that he made an offer that was accepted, I think it is clear he will be a Windrunner. I think he will have the most difficult Oaths to swear. "I will protect those who cannot protect themselves, even if I must use weapons and kill to do so." That will definitely craack his soul to let a spren in, if Shardbowing Amaram didn't already. Next would be: "I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right, even if I hate myself for doing so."