littlemag126

So I go on a book rant about sanderson to a friend of mine on facebook at like 1 a.m. he responded with some degree of mild intrest. I had gone on many such rants to no avail so you can imagine my surprise when the next day at 4 p.m. he messages me "Warbreaker was freaking awesome" yah, didn't see that coming.

(MINOR MISTBORN REFERENCE SPOILER) Ok, so I really like a lot of the characters in this series, and with the knowledge of there being 2, 5 book arches i am a little terrified right now of book 5. Like for those of us who have read mistborn we are well aware that Sanderson is not afraid of killing main characters, and with the closing of the first arch occurring in book 5 i wouldn't be at all surprised to see a high death toll. Basically what I'm saying is that I really, really don't want certain characters, such as Kalidin, to die, but Kalidin's whole "protect everyone" thing makes him the ideal martyr/heroic death guy. I am pretty certain as well that Dalinar has a pretty decent chance of dying, as this is kind of "his overall story" being arguably the most important of the Radiants. So book 5 scares me. Thoughts?

eclipse, axis and allies, hannibal (rome vs carthage), twilight struggle, shogun, peurto rico, tigris and euphrates, dominant species, LOTR LCG, Game of thrones LCG, Game of thrones board game, lord of the rings coop, BSG coop, caverna, agricola, kemit, pirates cove, power grid, libertalia, merchants and marauders.... etc. lets just say i played my first game of axis and allies when i was 8 years old and haven't stopped playing games since.

gota say my favorite character is syl

it also simply makes sense if the spren are going to bond people that many of them would bond people close to a bondsmith, like if you have 2 candidates and one is next to all the action and one is off in the middle of nowhere... you choose the guy with more connections, like if you want to make a difference and save the world you bond people who are in a position to make a difference.

ok, so like every time i finish a long series it almost always feels like (to me) that there is not enough of a conclusion. Like i really dont care if the epilogue is 4 chapters long i just want to know what happens next. Like the characters usually just went through a chaotic time in their lives and im interested in how they move on. that being said i really dont even need formal writing on anything. Just give me like a list of the character names in encyclopedia format and give a brief description of what they end up doing. For example SPOILERS FOR MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN WILL TRY TO BE VAGUE at the end of the 10th book of the malazan you get a brief glimpse of some of the main characters at a funeral ceremony, and i mean brief, like 5 pages at most. i still have no idea where the heck the malazan armies are gona go, where the Parans are gona end up living, or even what they will do with the wrest of their lives. Like come on... i just saw these guys go through hell, now i want to see them get to relax, but i get nothing, all im asking for is something to give my mind a rest, like he went to letheri to serve in their military or some random stuff, i just always feel like there isn't enough closure, like 11000 page story with a 10 page epilogue, like lskjdf;lkj give me some more please, heck i could probably read like 150 pages worth of epilogue at that point SPOILER WHEEL OF TIME VAGUE like what the frick 14 book series with like the most pathetic excuse for an epilogue ive ever seen Anyone else feel like this? Like the series took so much time to reach the climax but then had no winding down what so ever? I feel like this is an issue with big epic fantasies that should really stop happening (although maybe wheel of time and Malazan is too small of a sample pool lol) The point is even though the final book concludes the whole series they only write an epilogue the size of a 1 book conclusion, rather than an epilogue for a ten book series. Semi-related: This desire for more content is also why i think more fantasy authors should write something in the style of the silmarilion, where it seeks to outline the course of history in the world and simply tell the reader what happened. Like the silmarilion is only 250-300 pages but it covers a thousands of years in the world and is extremely rewarding to read after the lord of the rings because that backstory gives you a better lens through which to view the main story. like if sanderson wrote a history of the Desolations in Roshar (starting from the beginning until sometime after the events of stormlight) with the style of the silmarilion i think it would be great.

So I personally think that the European covers are better than the American covers for most of Sanderson's books, I just like the feel of them. That said, does anyone know of a convenient/cheap way to get a hold of them in America?

So I completely missed this section of the forum when I started posting recently but I figure better late than never. I've recently read all the cosmere books (within the last month and a half or so). I enjoy reading, board games, computer games, etc. I'm a comp-sci major. I also enjoy theory crafting and trying to figure out whats going on in the cosmere (if you also enjoy this I would like to take the opportunity to shamelessly promote my first theory, located in the cosmere theories forum somewhere near to the top, about adonalsium, i couldn't quite bring myself to directly link it so I guess I'm not completely shameless). Anyway, hello to all you peoples.

granted everyone you know now loves that show i wish i could make people i know read sanderson books

Q: If Endowment were killed, would the Returned still come? A: Somebody needs to hold the magic. If no one holds the magic, the magic will start to gain sentience. Interesting and bizarre things happen then, so I would say yes, but with the caveat that with whoever picks up the power or what happens with the power could end up changing that. i just noticed this quote, it gives some support for my theory about adonalsium, especially the way brandon says "interesting and bizzarre things happen then" as if it has already happened Q: Did Adonalsium deliberately shatter itself? A: Hmmm, good question! RAFO! this is also relevant

enmity: everyone can hate me for all i care honorable delay points: 325 12 sets of shards 300 a soulcaster two sets of heat fabrials spawn on the north side of the wall with my 11 trusted shard bearers go lews therin on them and ignore the rest of the world take my "100 companions" and go defeat shai'tan at shayol gul. erm, i mean take my shard bearers and go other-hunting into the north destroying whatever is the source from which they came using fabrials for heat and soulcasters for food, and lets face it the others wont be able to harm my shard bearers, we are too boss

My bad, i used the term dragonsteel because of the way the old blog post calls it "this new version of Dragonsteel chapter one."

http://brandonsanderson.com/new-dragonsteel-chapter-one/ here u go

To further answer this, I would propose that there would have been some sympathizers. The classic argument of can we destroy an intelligent life we just created that happens in AI plot lines could have happened. Adonalsium plots with these people to take the shards off-world to hide from the imminent threat. Perhaps this accounts somewhat for why the shards are scattered across the universe. It makes sense, shatter yourself into pieces, arrange for your sympathizers to take them to safety. You also arrange for your consciousness to survive, your sympathizers make the offer to maintain one shard, you turn them down. Once again, all highly speculative.

Q: Since Hoid is the Horneater god, are there, or at least implied, would other Shards... A: Hoid is not a Shard. that comes from a long list of WoBs someone else posted here http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6605-words-of-brandon-compiled/ as to where i remember the whole him being offered and turning down, i dont know where it came from, its just there in my head, i could very well be mistaken. I will say, however, that if people took up the shards, they would likely be those involved in saving it, likely people who had worked with adonalsium somehow, who could have made the offer out of respect. so yah, highly speculative, apparently not based in fact the problem with WoBs is that there are so many that i can't keep track of where ideas came from Q: Is Hoid human? A: Hoid was human a long time ago. Now... it's complicated. We would call him human, and so will pretty much everyone else, but he is not exactly that. this is another one that might support my idea that hoid had adonalsiums consciousness shoved into his head, if only very, very losely

Preface: So in the formulating of my thoughts for this post I did look at what has been written in some related posts. That being said I certainly have not read all of the posts related to this, nor am I aware of every word of brandon. This is (in my opinion) a good thing, because it means my thoughts are my own, and could offer some unique perspectives. So please do not be upset if I reiterate what others have already said, as I believe I will say it with a different perspective and viewpoint. Also, if I say something completely wrong due to some obscure word of brandon, I would request you tell me politely, and also realize that WoBs are less than perfect at times, as Brandon could be saying one thing but meaning another. People often make, by mistake, inaccurate blanket statements when trying to answer questions in a way that doesn't "spoil too much." Brandon has probably done this many times already, if less than most people due to his efforts to keep his cosmere world comments rooted in the canon he has in his personal wiki. Intro: There are two main areas that I will deal with, which are both separate and related, the natures (or postulated histories) of adonalsium and hoid. I want to talk about them in detail, but some of what I say wont make sense if you don't know where I am heading. So here is my thesis apart from its arguments: adonalsium was a man-formed tool which developed consciousnesses, adonalsium took measures before the shattering of its being to preserve its conscience in a being whom we now know as hoid. Please do not discredit these statements until reading what I have to say. important quotes (red one is very important): “I learned it many, many years ago from a man who didn't know who he was, Your Majesty. It was a distant place where two lands meet and gods have died.” —Hoid to Siri on where he learned his particular method of storytelling.[17] As Hoid developed that type of storytelling,[34] it's possible that the "man who didn't know who he was" is himself. Also, "where gods have died"and "many, many years ago" seem to speak of the Shattering. (from the coppermind) "Nonsense. Balderdash. Figgldygrak. Isn't it odd that gibberish words are often the sounds of other words, cut up and dismembered, then stitched into something like them—yet wholly unlike them at the same time? “I wonder if you could do that to a man. Pull him apart, emotion by emotion, bit by bit, bloody chunk by bloody chunk. Then combine them back together into something else, like a Dysian Aimian. If you do put a man together like that, Dalinar, be sure to name him Gibberish, after me. Or perhaps Gibletish. ” —Hoid to Dalinar (after namedropping Adonalsium)[19] “I began life as a thought, a concept, words on a page. That was another thing I stole. Myself. Another time, I was named for a rock.” “A pretty one, I hope.” “A beautiful one,” the man said. “And one that became completely worthless for my wearing it. ” —Hoid to Kaladin[18] The power needed a consciousness to direct it. In this matter, I am still rather confused. Why would power used to create and destroy need a mind to oversee it? And yet, it seems to have only a vague will of its own, tied in to the mandate of its abilities. Without a consciousness to direct it, nothing could actually be created or destroyed. It's as if the power of Preservation understands that its tendency to reinforce stability is not enough. If nothing changed, nothing would ever come to exist. -mistborn hero of ages epigraphs (Edit: recently found and very relevant WoB Q: If Endowment were killed, would the Returned still come? A: Somebody needs to hold the magic. If no one holds the magic, the magic will start to gain sentience. Interesting and bizarre things happen then, so I would say yes, but with the caveat that with whoever picks up the power or what happens with the power could end up changing that.) The nature of Adonalsium and of Hoid: The two quotes that matter a lot to me in this section is the epigraph describing the nature of preservation's needing a conscience, and wits saying that he was a beautiful rock (for which he was named) that when he wore it made it "worthless." Let us postulate that pre-adonalsium there were many powers in the universe, (it is hinted that adonalsium had a potential threat in many WoBs). Lets also say that some people decided to create an incredibly powerful tool by combining several powers into one, new, massively powerful creation. Similarly to the way that Antium is the body of ruin, lets imagine adonalsium is a rock which is some sort of an alloy of many different power sources (this may be why the different shards appear to manifest in different physical forms). Now, the creators of this were looking to create a tool, a massively powerful tool, a "beautiful rock" that is adonalsium. They succeeded but failed to realize one thing. The power needed a consciousness to direct it (look at HoA epigraph). Wit describes himself as having stolen his identity from words on a page. I argue that adonalsium created a consciousness for itself from what he was able to observe in the world around him (if ruin could read and change writing, so could adonalsiums power observe it). This made the tool useless. As hoid states, in "wearing" the power, he has made it "worthless" or, in my theory, useless to its creators. Imagine making a massive global defense satellite system, only to have the supercomputer that controls it develop into an AI. You now have a massive weapon in the hands of an unknown and uncontrollable variable. Whoever created adonalsium obviously was very powerful and knowledgeable, and sought to destroy adonalsium through other powers in the world. Back to the computer analogy. If the super computer was stored at one sight, it is vulnerable, so what does it do? It moves itself into many different servers and locations to prevent anyone from targeting it and destroying it. When adonalsium perceived a threat to itself, he sought to prevent his potential destruction by shattering himself into many separate parts. However, he didn't want to die, but his consciousness, indeed his identity, was about to be shattered into 16 pieces, so what does he do? He makes plans to bring his broken consciousness back together into a new host. Lets look back at Wits discussion with dalinar about breaking a man into different parts and bringing him back together into giberish. I would argue that Wit talks about this in a sentimental way (name him after me part, and language like "bloody chunk by bloody chunk") as if he himself had that happen to him. Look also at the quote about someone who didn't know who he was, in which he was apparently also describing himself, it makes sense that his recombining would leave him incredibly confused. I would argue that adonalsium successfully managed to bring (at least parts of) his consciousness back together to form a "giberish" representation of his original self. However, he only did so for his consciousness. I remember a WoB that hoid was offered a shard but turned it down. It seems to me that someone who had once held all 16 shards together, and is now but a shade of what he was, a consciousness that had been torn apart and sown back together, would not want to hold but one aspect of himself, a constant reminder of the pain he had gone through. Hoid's goal may indeed be to eventually reform adonalsium's body, but perhaps his previous consciousness gave Hoid the task of first ensuring the shards potential threats were removed, so that he could be safely reformed. Notes: One interesting comment on the coppermind about hoid is that he is Brandon's favorite character, which, if my theory is true, makes perfects sense. Hoid would be, after all, the root cause of almost everything happening in the cosmere. Perhaps Hoids love of stories comes from the fact that his very consciousness was created from stories or "words on a page." Maybe his concept was some hero in a story, and he assumed a consciousness that reflected it. Note also that Hoid has a massive and extensive knowledge of stories. One whole in my argument is the unfinished work on Dragonsteel and its first chapter, here are some quotes from it: (edit: to clarify as someone pointed out "For clarity that is Liar of Partinel not Dragonsteel. While it was technically part of the Dragonsteel sequence", this is also a rather old work and certainly not cannon, however whatever does end up being written would likely share certain traits, so it can probably be "trusted" to give hints of hoids nature.) But there had been a story to Midius’s life, and Hoid loved stories. Midius smiled faintly, thinking of the old man’s temperament. Hoid would rather accept a wildman, bloodied and dangerous, into his company than the well- trained son of a wealthy man. The man of the wilderness had a better story. A wildman. . . . Midius thought. Yes. Raised by the Chan people. That’s who I was. He describes himself similarly to the way that the Warbreaker quote does, he loves stories and doesn't know who he was, "a wildman." Perhaps hoid loved stories so much because adonalsium formed his consciousness from "words on a page." Midius studied the words again, then carefully rolled up the parchment and tied the frayed string. “You were so close,” he said. “You could feel it.” He placed the scroll in a sack, then turned toward the corpse, resting on its shelf-like bed at the side of the hut. “I can’t solve the problem from here,” Midius said softy. “I’m not smart enough for that. Notice how he appears to have knowledge of the solution as if he knows how close his master was, but how could he know that? it appears the assassination just happened, and why wouldn't hoid tell his master? Also he says he isn't "smart enough for that." perhaps his return to consciousness left him without the knowledge that he had once held, only a dim shadow. No. No he didn’t. This was him. He told himself that forcefully. Perhaps he struggles with his identity, after all, in my theory he had pieces of a consciousness thrust into his brain bit by bloody bit. He looked up at he body. “And thank you,” he whispered. “For what you have done for me. I think you shall never really understand the new chance you gave me for life. For that, I shall try to see people as you did.” He says he will try to see people as his master did. Perhaps hoid hated people because at the moment of his forming consciousness people immediately plotted to destroy him and he had had to destroy himself to survive. Hesitantly, he reached into a pocket and pulled out a handful of dust. Then, he threw it into the air, imagining his master’s face and Weaving the light. That face appeared in front of him. Aged, wise, beardless. Alive. As Midius remembered him. Midius reached out, almost believing his own illusion for a moment. However, as soon as he touched the face, it shattered back to dust and sprinkled down to the ground. this could be considered evidence of objects that held power other than adalniusm, he appears to have to use this dust to light weave, even as stormlight is used. Perhaps this gives more basis for my assuming there were different objects of power that could have been formed together into adonalsium. Conclusion: obviously most of what I have just said is very far-fetched and based only loosely in facts. But heck, I had fun theory crafting, so now you guys can have fun tearing it apart "piece by bloody piece" and putting it back together into something new. Also, sorry for making you read such a long chunk of text LOL

SEMI SPOILER: DISCUSSING SETTING OF The Way of Kings So in TWOK you have a long drawn out war against the parshendi. The war has been treated like a game by the high princes, a sort of competition over gem hearts. Coincidentally this setting would be really easy to turn into a board game. Each player would play as a high prince of a major house, and the game would center around a competition to acquire the most gem-hearts. You have in place a classic war/competition with other players theme. There is also tons of room for other elements such as: -political intrigue: vying for the favor of the throne -management: managing everything that goes into the war camps -arena fights: pitting your shard-bearers against each other for honor and fame I am a big board gamer and think this could be a lot of fun. Thoughts?

So book 1 definitely had an emphasis on windruner bindings with Kalidin and the assassination scenes book 2 had an emphasis on lightweaving with Shallan's growth story book 3 might end up not being centered on another Radiant (eshonai could be the focus) but I still think we will see plenty of surgebinding exploration. With windrunning and lightweaving explored decently well so far, I think we are going to get some new stuff. The obvious possibilities are Jasnah, Renarin, and Dalinar. I personally don't think we will see much of Dalinar's abilities as he will be performing administrative duties and is going to get his stuff thoroughly explained in book 5. I think it likely that both Jasnah's soulcasting and Renarin's progression will be explored a small amount as both characters should receive a decent number of chapters. However, those two abilities have already seen brief explanation so i dont think we will see too much material focused on exploring them. Perhaps we are going to see an all-together new Radiant with unexplored abilities, Sanderson certainly didn't seem to have a problem with bringing in new Radiants left and right at the end of WoR. Something like a Dustbringer or Stoneward could be interesting. Dalinar is seeking to unite the new knights so the discovering of a new Radiant could be a decent sub plot, and perhaps we could get some early interlude chapters from the Radiant (possibly fighting the parshendi/voidbringers) to explore his abilities/spren before he is found and brought to Urithru. Maybe Kalidin or Jasnah are going to discover him/her? I feel like its a decent way for Sanderson to bring some new ideas and fresh material to the world, as well as to provide more world-building/magic-building note: we could see Lift, but given that she is getting her own book (likely) in the second set of 5 books and since we have explored her abilities, i think it less likely.

Yes, but i dont want a bead that you eat, i want a freaking awesome sword thing. It seems to me that there would be many ways for a shard to "give" its power to people. I simply want harmony to mimic honor because swords are more interesting that beads.

So from what I understand, shard blades are blades formed from the power of a shard, examples being spren. For example, Syl is a piece of the Honor shard, and can form into a blade, thus the blade is essentially made from a shard. Honorblades were the original tool given to the heralds to allow them to use certain powers associated with the honor and cultivation shards. Now, this is a little silly and wouldn't fit well into the stories, but its WoB that Harmony is having issues doing anything because of the nature of his two shards. I want to see him make some preservation shard bearers and send them around to be his "hands" in the world. Like imagine an Honorblade that gives the powers of allomancy, a Preservation-blade. I think it would be pretty boss. None of this would necessarily fit well into the cosmere narrative but i think the idea of the Honorblades would mix well with some of the other magics.