Shlee

It's interesting to me that the name of that chapter is "Striding the Storm" That in and of itself seems to indicate that they are significant. "Light came from above, too steady to be lightning. Something was glowing on the plateau. Something that moved. It was hard to see, since water streamed off the side of the plateau above, falling in a sheet before their refuge. He swore he saw an enormous figure walking up there, a glowing inhuman form, followed by another, alien and sleek. Striding the storm. Leg after leg, until the glow passed." That doesn't sound like any description of any life-stage of a chasmfiend to me, but I've certainly been wrong before. Plus, rock-colored chasmfiends glowing would be a bit weird. And there's also this, a few paragraphs later: "Rain washed over them, blown in swirls, and he swore he could hear chanting out there somewhere. Some kind of strange spren zipped past their enclosure, red and violet and reminiscent of lightning. Was that what Syl had seen?" I'd assumed this was in reference to the Parshendi taking stormform during this highstorm, but they should have already had their spren with them when they did that, so now I wonder if those spren are drawn to or following those "inhuman forms" (or both) To drag us back on topic, all in all, after rereading WoR tonight, I'm less sure than I was before what to think of that sphere. Most things to do with Odium appear to be red, rather than black.We have no earthly rosharly idea exactly whose hands Gavilar was worried about it falling into or for what reason. I would tend to disagree with the unmade-in-a-box theory, for several reasons people have already brought up. Captive spren of some other sort, perhaps, but all the "evil" spren we've seen have had some kind of red, which I'd think you could see in a black sphere. I don't think we can rule out the possibility of it being from Cultivation at this point. That might be a good question for someone to ask. It's also interesting that Brandon didn't refute that it was a different "kind of light" in the WoB like he did about the amber one. So I'm not ready to rule out a separate form of investiture just yet either. I can't see Odium's minions wanting to rely on highstorms to recharge their powers....

Well, I don't know if Syl knows what she's talking about, but I just realized that she flat-out says in WoR that Honorblades are pieces of Honor. “The Honorblades are what we are based on, Kaladin. Honor gave these to men, and those men gained powers from them. Spren figured out what He’d done, and we imitated it. We’re bits of His power, after all, like this sword. Be careful with it. It is a treasure.”

I have both a Samsung Galaxy Tab and a Kindle Paperwhite. And I never, ever read on the tablet. I bought it mostly for using maps at work, and it's great for that, since my kindle obviously can't do color. But I check email on the kindle, and it will even do facebook (although poorly, and obviously in black and white). Plus, once you buy the kindle, no monthly data. I'd say a paperwhite or voyager, hands down, if you're only going to be browsing once in a while. My only knock against them is that the kindle keyboards would let you access the internet with the 3G, my current paperwhite will only let me use the browser when I'm connected to a wifi network. I can still go to the kindle store and download books with 3G but not actually surf the internet. Also, the Tab is much, much pickier about transferring books via computer, and mine frequently won't open things like the kindle app if it's not connected to the internet (and it won't let you open books without using an app, so therefore no service sometimes equals no reading). And the battery life is miles apart - one charge every few weeks for the kindle, one every couple days for the tab.

ha! I am growing more consistently reminded of why I make my own food, especially in foreign places. where I currently live, it's so I don't wind up eating something like dog or rat or gigantic snail. While "here" on the boards, it seems I shall be making my own things so as not to be a pawn of any sort....

WoB: I'd say that confirms stormlight is related to a shard, and my vote is Honor. Also, just to nitpick words because I think the way they're used in-world is important - we've seen spren captured in gemstones but never in a sphere. Although I will also concede that since there are gemstones in the spheres we see, it should certainly be possible to capture a spren in a gemstone and then put it in a sphere. I just think the terminology used in the story is parallel for a reason. Every interlude with the captured spren Eshonai uses, it's referred to as a being captured in a gemstone. Every mention of fabrials reference gemstones. I think it's telling that the only other time we see the use of the word sphere is in reference to that black one. Combine that with the fact that it's glowing.....Voidlight. Odiolight? What are we calling this? lol Also from the third book: However, the one knock I've seen against this theory is someone asked if the sphere had "lost" any of its light and Brandon said no (I'll have to try harder to find this WoB, Theoryland search is being a punk again.) And we know spheres infused with stormlight eventually become dun over a period of time. A second, less fatal blow, is that there is an in-world story of the Nightwatcher giving someone a very similarly-described sphere, which would be concerning, if it did indeed contain something like what I'm imagining. Unless of course, it wasn't actually the Nightwatcher, or she's not associated with Cultivation, as most people think, or Cultivation has some problems we aren't aware of, or it's a function of stories getting altered over time or .....any number of things really. Edited to add: My guess is you are correctly remembering a quote from Szeth in Way of Kings: "Stormlight could be held for only a short time, a few minutes at most. It leaked away, the human body too porous a container. He had heard that the Voidbringers could hold it in perfectly. But, then, did they even exist? His punishment declared that they didn’t. His honor demanded that they did." Just because he believes it, doesn't make it so, however

Huh, apparently I've been reading this WoB differently than most. I always assumed that he just meant there eventually wouldn't be enough pure metal for all the allomancers to have some if there were a great number of them. I guess I was applying the whole "matter is neither created nor destroyed" idea to it, it never occurred to me that he might mean that there would eventually be no metal. Also, I'm assuming you guys have considered, (and for some reason decided not to?) incorporate a WoB section into 17th Shard itself, instead of in theoryland? Seems like an organization like 17th shard would have a library Even if it was just a forum that only specific people could add to, so they could all be posted, but everyone could see/source them to the same place, and then the answers would also pop up in a forum search, as opposing to have to search both here and on theoryland? (which, I hate the search and the interface there, but that's irrelevant) I've seen similar things before, and I've seen a couple of attempts at compilation threads, but there are too many WoBs....It needs its own forum with limits on who can create new threads, and each interview be a thread with comments locked down so it's ONLY the WoBs, and discussion has to take place elsewhere.

My personal theory is that it contains the opposite investiture of stormlight, some kind of odium light, that can be drawn in by a voidbringer who knows how to use it, but is inert/useless to anyone else. I think the reference to it as a "sphere" is telling, since spheres are what is used to hold stormlight, and also the fact that it glows, as do things that hold stormlight. I think that just how stormlight is used to power the surges, there is something else used to power the capabilities of the voidbringers. There's just an awful lot of parallels there, both in wording and in how my brain thinks things should be working.

This^ So much this. I did that exact same thing. Even read them in the same order. But then after re-reading WoR, it's back at the top of my favorites list.

Welcome! Considering I am the exact inverse of that height..... Somebody had a hilarious question at a signing about whether shardplate would adapt to someone very small (3ft I think was given). Maybe that was you guys? Apparently, Brandon said shardplate could do that.....so if you just made the plate fit you and had an overlarge sword size (for you), I'd think it'd still be realistic. Also TWoR spoiler:

Ah gotcha. Makes sense. I totally had to google that crazy acronym, and what? That's a thing? I think my brain hurts now. Although that totally explains the sad pink pony hahaha. Nope, friendship accepted (although this pony thing, that's gonna take some getting used to....I like horses, and purple, so I'm sure I can make it work ) I already like you on your own merits. I'd also be pretty astonished if anyone on a fantasy-book dedicated site recognized that quote. Playing archers....yes, I'm a bit of a PC gamer, I'll pick up an RPG, on the rare, rare, rare occasions I find one I like. Anything 3-D and I instantly die/get trapped in a corner/fall off the world/get magically stuck on the one grass blade on the sceeen/etc. 2-D sidescrolling is the best haha. I like my old school games where everything is boxes and symbols, all these new games have pretty pictures and no substance. I never got to do any traditional role playing board games or anything like that because my friends/family/acquaintances are all decidedly non-nerdy/geeky *sad face* Mostly just if I had to pick a weapon, I'd have to be an archer, because I'd suck at any kind of hand-to-hand, and i prefer something that I can make myself, if need be (must be my minimalist, always living in the woods tendencies coming out) I will definitely have to check out some of the more community-esque sections of the site after I catch up on the backload of the important, book-related stuff!

Thanks for all the suggestions.It's nice to see people so willing to be helpful. I should have clarified - I've been lurking long enough, I've seen how to use them all, it's just not easily intuitive, so I was wondering if perhaps I'd missed an old thread about how to use the forum, or something, and had the thought that it might make it a bit easier for new people. Especially those that aren't accustomed to forums, like me. There's also that whole Quiver/Archer thing you've got going on there, I didn't even notice the picture. Probably because I can't tell what most of them are so I seldom look at them haha. Also, instant friendship to anyone who recognizes the source behind my tagline (although the drink has been altered from the original quote )

I'm not sure what, exactly, you're saying no to, but I would like to point out that even after Preservation died, the mists on Scadrial still "worked" I'm not saying that there might or might not be differences, and honestly I think the stormlight is more analogous to the mists than the Honorblades are, but I have yet to see a reason why it's impossible for honorblades to cease working after Honor was splintered, even if they were a part of him.

Thank you to all of you. I'm excited to have new friends. Mine would be accurate to say I read it during a ridiculously long weeping I'm a biologist, and at the time I was living in the rainforest far far away from anything civilized. It rains every single day there, even during the "dry" season, so I spent a lot of time in my tent. That book amused me so much, because where we were there were around a dozen kinds of crabs and they were EVERYWHERE, they would steal my shoes from outside my tent (the big crabs would) and then there were little hermit crabs and a bunch of different kinds of ocean ones, so it was just a funny coincidence that Way of Kings was also infested with crustaceans, because I felt like I was under siege by them sometimes. Warbreaker was my favorite - after I found it, so for a time Way of Kings was. Actually, TWoK jumped to the top of my all time favorites list almost as soon as I read it, which makes me a bit ashamed it took me another year or so to read anything else by the author, and then it was on accident. (In my defense, I probably didn't have internet access for about half that time, but still!) And you having an archer-themed profile, when that is the character class of anything I always play as, and what many of my favorite literary characters are.....I think perhaps I like you Plus, Jasnah! Thank you! I think I'll pass on the bamboo cookie as well, it's an incredibly difficult-to-digest substance.... Thank you! I got a bunch of bananas, a loaf of bread and some pictures of the people I work with - international birthday presents are entertaining sometimes! Uh-oh, expectations *runs to hide in tent* Just kidding. Thank you. I'm very much looking forward to having people to talk to. Especially since my English is suffering terribly right now since I have to say sentences like "I am having some problem with *insert random thing here*" in order to be understood locally where I'm at! One more thing, is there a list of forum commands/posting tips grouped together somewhere, like for inserting images (I saw the button though) and spoilers (no button?) and such? I searched and couldn't find it. If there's not, that might make a good sticky for newcomers.

The source link is http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1078 The text of the pertinent part is: WETLANDER Please explain what you will about Shards and Splintering and Slivers. BRANDON SANDERSON An event happened long ago which destroyed something called Adonalsium into 16 pieces. And 16 people took up that power. QUESTIONPeople? BRANDON SANDERSONI call all intelligent species people. If someone takes up the power and lets go of it, it has the effect much like a balloon that's been stretched and then the air is let out. I call that a Sliver; based off of the Lord Ruler calling himself the "Sliver of Infinity". The Lord Ruler is someone who held the power and then released it. And so, current Slivers are the Lord Ruler, Kelsier, and there may be others around who at one point held the power and let go of it. A Splinter is a term used by certain people in the cosmere for power of Adonalsium which has no person caring for it, no... no person holding it, which has attained self-awareness. WETLANDERSo is that like the mists and the Well? Are they... BRANDON SANDERSONThey are not, because they have not attained self-awareness. But, the Seons are self-aware. So, any piece, for instance there were some spren on Roshar before Honor and Cultivation got there. Those were already Splinters of Adonalsium where he had left power which attained sentience on its own. So, it can be intentional is what I am saying, does that make sense? You have seen other splinters. WETLANDERAre the highstorms related to the splintering of Honor? BRANDON SANDERSONThe highstorms are more related to the mist from Mistborn which terminology we have not discussed yet. You have seen splinters quite a bit on various planets.

Hello! It is probably best to start off by associating my name with walls of text, so I shall tell you my story. I am a voracious reader who accidentally stumbled across Way of Kings while living in a tent in the middle of the jungle in early 2011 (seriously). I had broken my kindle (and the 4,000 plus books I'd brought to read on it) three days into a six-month expedition so I was scrounging around for anything to read and by some weird fluke, someone had picked it up in the airport and it was one of only a handful books in camp. And it was epic, awesome, and I probably read it twenty times or more in that six months. (And also the Time Traveler's wife, The Hunger Games, Born to Run, some David Sedaris book, The Field Guide to African Mammals, and the Old Testament, because that was what we had). Honestly, I probably would have just read TWoK over and over except other people wanted to read it too, and took way, way longer than me! After I came home, I added to my "must read" list, which is about a thousand books/authors long, and decided I'd wait to pass complete judgement til the second book because said list is so gigantic. Somewhere up above it on that list was Wheel of Time, which I accidentally timed perfectly and started right after the last book came out.....and never noticed that the author was the same as someone else on that giant list. Until I came back around to Brandon Sanderson sitting on my to-read list a month or so later. And then of course, I did some searching, found everything else, realized the books had to be interconnected (thank you, Hoid), began lurking, and have now read every published thing he has. Unluckily, none of my friends or acquaintances or coworkers are major readers, so my interactions thus far have been limited with lurking, my giant compilation of WoB and personal wiki on my laptop, and rereads. I've been hesitant to dive into the fandom because I'm so frequently without internet for long periods of time, but I've decided I can no longer continue talking to only myself about the Cosmere (Note to self:I am uncertain about this 17th Shard group, but I will attempt to gain more information. What if I find out I do not agree with their motives?? I like Hoid!) and still maintain the pretext that I am sane, so here I am, on this forum that I swear exists inside a black hole along with that dwarf galaxy. I also don't like cookies, even in real life, so you can forget your nefarious plans, and anyone caught tampering with my Dr Pepper will be executed. Fortunately, it conveniently comes in aluminum cans that I have further magically protected against tampering. My favorite book is Words of Radiance, with Warbreaker being a close second. I overuse parenthesis, I'm sorry. I'm going to join Feather in the Renarin love/defense club, so beware. Jasnah is my favorite, because I can relate to her the most. There, that shouldn't leave much of anything open for question! I'm excited to finally be able to talk about things without getting the "you're crazy" looks I'm so accustomed to. *I swear I posted this when I first got here, but apparently the Ghana internet spren pulled it into the cognitive realm, as it has been doing with many of my posts (and worse, occasionally spitting them back out several hours, and therefore posters, after I submit them) *sigh* My apologies for the delay if you've seen me elsewhere. ~Shlee

Edit: Apologies for repeating many things, I wrote this after #4 posted, but I am in Ghana and the internet apparently just now decided to post it, so much of what I mention has already been covered by others Or does Szeth's honorblade only work like a "modern" (dead spren) shardblade because that's how he (Szeth) THINKS it should work - since we know already that that's basically why he can't heal wounds from a shardblade - because he believes he can't and his beliefs and intent and how he sees things greatly affect how the magic works? I'm curious as to how Szeth could have bonded with it at all - that seems to imply that when the Heralds left the blades, they didn't just leave them, they unbonded them.....is this perhaps what is contributing to the heralds' attributes getting perverted? *crackpot theory with no supporting arguments* Perhaps instead of the "spren" dying - which remember, they don't truly die, they just lose their minds and become mindless - this is what's happening to the heralds, just in slow motion? So the Heralds were bound to the blades, and when they broke their oath instead of the spren losing its mind/regressing/dying, the heralds are instead? And are now trapped in their own minds and can't escape? Lol, okay, major ridiculous tangent there. But seriously, that's a very good question, I'm going to do some searching for WoBs on honorblades. There's also no time limit (ten heartbeats) to summon an honor blade in the prologue, so I don't think you'd have to worry about not getting hit with it - if you dropped it, I think it'd disappear, and you could resummon it instantaneously, a la Kaladin/Syl. But since the blades themselves seem to be able to convey powers, I think that points to there being some sort of greater power at work there, like the blades themselves are powered, rather than the person. The closest thing in my mind is Vin being able to use the mists, which would tie in with someone else's theory over in the Stormlight thread that honorblades are a physical manifestation of honor. I'd tend to vote more that they are a cognitive representation of honor that can be drawn into the physical somehow, since they seem to spend most of their time "dismissed" Although as far as we know, they are not spren, they could perhaps be more strongly associated with the cognitive realm in some way we aren't aware of, like the mists could disappear and reappear..... Basically all I have is a bunch of off-the-wall off-hand theorizing, but you guys bring up some good points and got my brain spinning and now I'm off to bury myself in all my notes again, and the giant compilation of WoBs. I need a personal coppermind.

From A Hero of Ages: "By the time Elend saw the “mist spirit,” Preservation must have been barely coherent. I wonder what Elend would have done, had he known that he was in the presence of a dying god—that on that night, he had been the last witness of Preservation’s passing. If Elend had waited just a few more minutes on that ashen field, he would have seen a body—short of stature, black hair, prominent nose—fall from the mists and slump dead into the ash." I'd say it's pretty hard to dispute that the mist spirit was indeed, Leras, for a time. I don't believe we ever see it manifest itself again after that point either, although there are obviously still mists. This is from the epigraphs however, so it is subject to the understanding/POV of their writer (Sazed, after ascension, who should theoretically know what he's talking about) That set of epigraphs also give a pretty good account of how the whole "Preservation-sacrificing-his-mind" thing worked. I think it has been confirmed that the mists afterwards were a cognitive shadow of Preservation although all I could find rapidly to support that was this paraphrased WoB (perhaps I missed something in that forum discussion you posted): QUESTION (PARAPHRASED)So what happens when Shards die? BRANDON SANDERSON (PARAPHRASED)Well, it depends on how long the Shardholders have held the Shard. After they dies, the Shard is often able to continue acting, a kind of "Cognitiveshadow". For example, the mists were able to continue doing what Preservation wished in helping out Vin and snapping people. With the Stormfather, he is that Cognitive shadow, and he's semi sentient. It's that power, but no one is actually holding it. We also see this on Threnody. I'd think it would be exceptionally difficult to put a shard back together, since they have aspects on all three realms - cognitive, spiritual, and physical. I'm not sure we've seen anyone yet who can access the spiritual realm at will, and it seems to me that you'd have to somehow "gather" the shadows from all the different realms and I'd think the splinters as well, in order to put it back together. I don't know that we've seen anyone or anything with that kind of capability yet, except perhaps another shardholder/intact shard. *insert crackpot theory* maybe that's why Hoid is gathering all the magics he can, so that he can magically repair shards with a combination of all the magical essences of the shards.....

My theory was that reading The Way of Kings and then more importantly beginning to truly believe and follow the codes was what triggered the visions. (And to my way of thinking, began the bondsmith bonding process as well, which is partially why I think the bondsmiths were originally bonded to some component of Honor somehow)

I'm glad you brought that up, because after posting this earlier, my brain went off on a tangent and now I have convinced myself that what Ishi'Elin applied rules and precepts to was not the Knights Radiant and their oaths but rather the spren and their bonds. Specifically, the Nahel bond. How he would have done that or had the power to enforce it or "destroy each and every one" I have no idea. Perhaps he had a dawnshard! Thank you I've been a long time lurker, somehow TWoK was the first Sanderson book I stumbled across and I read WoT after, but I waited til WoR confirmed my thoughts on how epic this series was going to be before deciding to jump into the fandom because, in reality, 17th shard and this dwarf galaxy is located in a black hole........

Dalinar definitely has a vision in which he sees a windrunner fall from the sky and lash himself while wearing blue shardplate glowing with glyphs. Dalinar also makes multiple mentions of how "modern" shardplate looks different (is not glowing and has no glyphs) from the shardplate he sees in his visions. So I'd say there's definitely a difference. There's been much speculation about how to get "real" shardplate, most commonly I've seen people suggesting that as radiants advance levels they will eventually get it, like they did the "real" shardblades, but there is considerable debate as to how it works and whether it is spren based, gem based, etc. We don't appear to have enough information yet. I'd still like to know where the idea for it came from to start with.

I would tend to agree with you as well, mostly because it's never mentioned at all that I can find, but that still begs the question: Where the heck did the radiants get the idea for plate then? Also, we know that the Radiants of old could make their plate disappear or at least parts of it, so it's possible that since we only see the heralds after the battle, that they have already taken their plate off (Although, I think this is far-fetched) On the flip side, I think I would find it odd if the Heralds were fighting things like thunderclasts with no armor on, although I suppose Kaladin does just fine without much armor in more scenes than I care to count.

Actually the more I think about this, the more I wonder. If the shardblades were patterned after honor blades, it seems logical to follow that shardplate must have been patterned after SOMETHING, since all the visions we see are of very primitive peoples, not the type that would have had plate, much less as elaborate of plate as shardplate. If not the Heralds.... then what or who? The missing Dawnshards? I don't recall ever seeing that these were necessarily blades, although that seems to be what most people assume. *off to search for dawnshard topics*

Does anyone know if the Heralds had plate (I don't recall ever seeing it mentioned, but neither do I recall ever seeing anything that contradicts that idea), and if so, was it the same as the radiants' plate? Because if the blades were a physical manifestation of honor, maybe their plate was a physical manifestation of Cultivation. It makes sense that the two of them would be working together, and plate regrows, even from small pieces of itself, which makes me think Cultivation surges.....

I sort of think the bondsmiths were involved with getting the Heralds to sponsor the orders. Since we know that that didn't happen all at once, from the quote about Nalan being the last one to take on patronage of an order. I see the bondsmiths as being sort of the go-between between the heralds/Oathpact and the various orders Knights Radiant after their formation. Perhaps the bondsmiths were the only Radiants who knew exactly what the heralds' Oathpact contained. They are the guiding and pious order after all, which makes me think their purpose was predominantly leadership and making sure that the knights stayed on the right path and what they were actually doing was in-line with the oathpact and helping Honor. Especially since Ishar is the patron of the bondsmiths and we also know that Ishar is the one who originally came up with the concept that became the Knights Radiant: To me it seems logical that his order, the bondsmiths, would in some capacity continue this sort of purpose. Also supporting the idea that Ishar's order could have understood more about the workings and consequences of the Oathpact and perhaps, breaking it: This seems to point to the fact that the heralds themselves don't necessarily understand the ins and outs of the pact, but they seem to think for some reason that Ishar is the authority on the subject. My guess is that the bondsmiths were bonded to some part of Honor itself before it shattered, and had a much clearer idea of what was really going on.

I always read it that way too. My interpretation of his failure was that he never really told Tarah how he felt and then when he was made a slave, he lost his chance to (but she wouldn't have known what happened, just that he was gone, and thus he "failed" her, similarly to not being there for his men, but differently as well). I've been hoping for a reunion there for quite some time (hopefully one in which she tells him that she'd never believed he would have deserted, unless she got told he was dead haha). I just can't get behind shipping Kaladin with anyone else. Jasnah reminds me of me, and I'd want to smack that boy every two minutes or so, and Shallan just doesn't seem to fit him (plus, Adolin's going to need some support here soon!) And Kaladin deserves to not be alone (Syl doesn't count!) So there's my female sap added to the war book lol