BeskarKomrk

@ccstat It's on the schedule page: http://www.boskone.org/program-event/schedule/

I didn't see an event thread for this yet, so I figured I would make one. This is a three day sci-fi/fantasy convention that Brandon will be attending as the "Guest of Honor", though it's not clear from either Brandon's website or the con website exactly what that entails. Here's a link to more info about the convention itself: http://www.boskone.org/

It seems like a pretty cool convention, and there are a ton of authors attending. I'd like to go but I'm holding off on buying a ticket until I can get more info about the schedule. Apparently, anyone can attend for free from 2:00 to 6:00 on Friday, with a pass for the entire weekend costing $55. The price will go up in January, so if you're interested I would recommend getting your pass sooner rather than later.

Anyone been to this convention before?

EDIT:

Here are all the recordings that have been posted so far. I believe we have at least one recording up for every event, though there may be duplicates floating around on the internet somewhere. I'll be updating with links to transcriptions and progress:

1. Friday Signing Line (2 h 18 min, 260 MB) (Transcript complete)
2. House War Q&A (22 min, 42 MB) (Transcript complete)
3. Rithmatist Q&A (55 min, 103 MB) (Video) (Transcript complete)
4. Career Panel (56 min, 105 MB)/Second Recording Note: no book-related questions
5. Reading/Q&A Session (Audio) (Transcript of the first reading and Q&A complete. The second reading has already been transcribed in other places.)
6. Sunday Signing/Second Recording with more questions (Transcript complete)
7. Sunday Post-Signing Q&A (Transcript completed, could use a second listen to double check everything)

There were two readings done. One was the prologue of Oathbringer, the other was a "goofy" interlude about two ardents reading romance novels. Some interesting tidbits in the interlude though.

9 hours ago, old aggie said:

What about the 2 "enormous" "glowing" figures "striding the storm" in WoR chapter 74? They must be important, as that description is the chapter title. Might they be Dysian Aimians, and Investiture from the storm makes them glow somehow? I really don't think they're all made of cremlings - we haven't had such detailed descriptions of cremlings anywhere else before.

The prevailing theory is that those are two of the Unmade.

34 minutes ago, ccstat said:

On a tangent: Arclo says the Sleepless have mostly ignored Lift, instead choosing to watch the"big four". Why on earth are they ignoring Jasnah? Does he think she's dead and therefore not worth mentioning? Or does the person who's been a proto-radiant for the past 6 years somehow not matter to the Sleepless as much as the ones who get to be main characters in the front five books?

They may not know. We don't even know how they've identified the big four as proto-radiants. Could be similar to Mr. T's method (look for people who survive when they shouldn't), in which case I don't know that there's an event with Jasnah that would identify her as proto-radiant.

4 hours ago, Joe ST said:

I'm always around to be asked questions about this stuff btw

Is this forum the best way to contact you? I often have question while trying to edit but decide they're too silly to make a post about. I'd like to get more involved in editing but I'm never sure how much I should change things without consulting somebody else.

I have updated my Cosmere Timeline to version 2.0! The new version includes Edgedancer, now that it's been released, as well as an event from one of the Arcanum Unbounded essays with a very rough estimate of the date. I also moved White Sand to be before Elantris based on a new WoB. I'd love to hear some theories as to exactly how long before it takes place; my guess is a fairly long time (like 500-1000 years). Thanks a bunch to @Yata for his persistence in asking about the timeline and finally getting us some new information!

I don't know whether to be proud or ashamed of the fact that I've managed to simultaneously necro the thread and double post. But I've also seen a fair amount of timeline discussion happening that I've contributed to, so I want to encourage people to discuss things in this thread as it helps me make the document better!

I really don't think the names of the gasgiants have anything more than a cultural connection to the Heralds. There generally aren't coincidences when it comes to the Cosmere, but not every piece of worldbuilding is related to the Shards or the Magic system. As somebody pointed out above, we also named the planets in our solar system after ancient gods. But there's no specific connection between those planets and the gods they're named for, and there's no reason there has to be on Roshar either. It's definitely possible that the planets play some role, but I don't see much evidence to support that yet. If we're taking bets on which planets in the system relate to the Oathpact, the Heralds, or the fact that Odium is trapped in the system, my money is on the three planets with sentient beings and a presence in the Cognitive Realm, especially the one of those planets that literally had two god-like beings Invested there. 

7 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said:

SA is about 20 years after Warbreaker, so he would be about 320 years old. I'm going to say that he's been there for awhile, at least by Rosharan years, since he trained Adolin in combat, must've had some reputation before that.

Do you have a specific source on the time interval between Warbreaker and Stormlight? Also Vasher would be much older than 320 if that were the case. The Manywar was 300 years before Warbreaker and he had already been Returned for at least a decent amount of time before that (long enough to worldhop to Roshar and see a Shardblade), and he was alive for some time before Returning as well.

On 10/29/2016 at 2:33 PM, djammmer said:

So I think we have a high level of confidence that we've only seen 3?  Taln, Ash and Nale?

I would say we have a high level of confidence that we've seen Ash and Nale. In Taln's case, it depends on how you interpret Brandon's insistence on only referring to that character as "the man who calls himself Taln" or similar phrases. Personally, I think it is Taln and Brandon is just messing with us, but there's certainly enough room in the evidence we have that it could be somebody else entirely (or some other thing with body-snatching/memory implanting/cloning/whatever X-Files nonsense you enjoy). There is also a high level of confidence that we have seen more than just those three, but there is not a lot of confidence in where those sightings are.

Here's all the info we have on the situation: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxnga0u/?context=3

So we don't know as of yet, but we will likely find out someday. Personally, I think it is more likely that Dalinar was feeling it in the present and imported it into his vision, as I don't know why the Unmade would want to aid Dalinar against the Midnight Essences (assuming that the Thrill makes him more effective in combat).

10 hours ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

Thanks! I'm horrible at finding these things a second time. Where was it?

It was a twitter question, I found a link to it on the Coppermind page about Forton. I usually check Coppermind before trying Theoryland or anything else as it's likely someone has already done the work for me!

20 hours ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

It's been confirmed that Forten's potions are yet another variant of Selish magic. (I KNOW I read that; finding where though...)

5 minutes ago, Sishal said:

Didn't a WoB say that the squires are for the Windrunners, what the mnemonic abilities are for the Lightweavers? But I'm not 100% sure... I'll look it up. 

But if your theory is correct... well... I would love to see the squires Lift gathers around her

Windrunners have more squires that are more powerful, and it's been suggested that other orders have them as well (though some do not).

WoB:

Quote

Argent

Shallan has this awesome Memory thing going on, Jasnah has this geolocation thing, Kaladin is a really good fighter - are those just their traits, or is there something supernatural going on?

Brandon Sanderson

There is something supernatural about those. Each Order... Well, how about this. If you look at scholars' interpretations, there are some scholars who think that these things are not supernatural, and some who think that they are. But, if you look, many Lightweavers had powerful mnemonic abilities.

Argent

So it's definitely tied to the Orders?

Brandon Sanderson

It's tied to the Orders. Now, I am not going to say that you've got them all 100% correct, but each Order, there are things that come with Order, things that do not add up from simple the "you get this power plus this power," there is something else going on. And I would say that for Windrunners, watch the number of squires and the power of the squires... these are abnormal for the Windrunners.

Argent

And each Order's squires are somehow different from the other Orders'?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeeeaaaa... some Orders do not have them.

Argent

But some have more?

Brandon Sanderson

Yea.

1 hour ago, johnnycage720 said:

Just a question. I have already bought all of the short stories that have previously been published in the Arcanum unbounded. I don't suppose there will be a cheaper version comprised only of the new stories? I know I will end up buying it either way, but I feel like that would be a fair option to a lot of people like myself, who buy basically everything Brandon publishes.

I can't imagine that they would want to print two different versions of same collection, especially since the only "new" story here is the Lift Novella (all the others have been published either online or in print somewhere). I would also say it's very possible that the novella will come out as a stand-alone e-book at some point (though that could be a year from now or more), and it's also likely that the collection will come out in paperback at some point. If you have a reddit or twitter account, you could always ask Brandon/Peter about the future plans for these stories. But I very much doubt that we will see a version of Arcanum Unbounded with different contents, especially since I'm not even really sure which stories you mean by "new stories".

41 minutes ago, AngelEy3 said:

Journey before destination -

"There are always several ways to achieve a goal. Failure is preferable to winning through unjust means. Protecting ten innocents is not worth killing one. In the end, all men die. How you lived will be far more important to the Almighty than what you accomplished."

This quote doesn't mean Taravangian's way of doing things is wrong; it's just a different set of ethics. Journey before destination is Honor's way of doing things, because, you know, Honor. Doesn't mean it's the best/only way of getting things done, and it seems likely that Cultivation did not agree with Honor about the best way to handle things. Because while how you lived may matter more to the Almighty than what you accomplished, the people who would be saved by the Diagram might see things a little differently.

9 minutes ago, Brightshade the Cunning said:

Please tell me more on Special Relativity.

Also, do you feel I was accurate?

Space and time are a little more malleable than what you stated in your original post. They are dependent on the reference frame of the observer, in a addition to the gravitational effects mentioned by @Iron Eyes. Here's the Wikipedia article on time dilation, with my favorite example of experimental testing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation#Velocity_and_gravitational_time_dilation_combined-effect_tests

Have you read Mistborn: Secret History? We find out some things in that novella about how the different realms work with regard to time and space.

Also @Tariniel: the second link in your post doesn't seem to go to any particular post

Just now, Brightshade the Cunning said:

As everyone knows, the passage of time and space within the physical realm is rigid, as in it cannot be altered. 5 seconds is 5 seconds is 5 seconds, and 10 feet is 10 feet is 10 feet. This is a fact within the Cosmere, just like it is in real life.

Boy do I have some news for you regarding Special Relativity.

5 minutes ago, Brightshade the Cunning said:

However, space is fluid withing the Cognitive Realm. With people having the ability to Elsecall and Worldhop, space must be fluid within the cognitive realm. After all, if what is the benefit of Worldhopping if it takes you the same amount of time to get between worlds in the Cognitive Realm as in the Physical Realm.

We do have some insight into how this works; it's based on the amount of Cognitive activity in the region. So areas without any living things in them, like empty space, are contracted in the Cognitive Realm. However, areas of concentrated life, like cities and continents, span essentially the same distance. We do not yet know if there is a faster way to travel within the Cognitive Realm than walking.

7 minutes ago, Brightshade the Cunning said:

So Hemalurgy could potentially involve changing the past of the individual so that they snapped, thus giving them the powers. This would of course only work while the spike is affecting a person.

I think Hemalurgy is definitely a similar mechanism to Forging. Both involve altering the Spiritual makeup of an object or person. However, my impression was that Hemalurgy is much less elegant than Forgery. Forgery is very precise, and you need to change the history in believable ways or the change won't take. With Hemalurgy, it seems like you're basically using brute force to ignore the plausibility of a change and forcing it to happen. Allomancy isn't given when Snapped, but is present in the genes from birth IIRC. So while I think you could probably take somebody who had Allomantic potential but never Snapped and Forge their history so they had Snapped, I don't think you could take someone from another planet and Forge them to be an Allomancer. It's too big of a change, since you would first have to change where they were born. Hemalurgy doesn't have that restriction, so while they have some similarities (manipulation of Spiritual stuff), I don't think Hemalurgy does it in quite the same way.

Brandon answered a question regarding population sizes and densities of various cities around the Cosmere on Reddit earlier. In the answer, he references a city called Silverlight. I've don't recall this name in any of his books. I did a quick check through Coppermind, Theoryland, and the text of all the ebooks I have; I found no reference to something called Silverlight. Has anyone heard of this place before? I asked for clarification on Reddit, but until we get an answer, let's start madly theorizing!

Original comment here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormlight_Archive/comments/51u8qu/oathbringer_spoilers_stormlight_three_update_4/d8zbvvs

So what/where could Silverlight be? Personally, I think it would be a cool name for the worldhopper gathering place that we've heard about, which would tie into how he hasn't estimated its population precisely. What do you think it is?

9 minutes ago, Ardjet said:

Apparently my curiosity is not unique in this regard.
 

 

For some reason, I can't help but draw lines between Dalinar seeing this bright light, and Shallan with the "blinding light in Father's strongbox". I wonder if, perhaps, that bright light in Dalinars dream is related to either his Godspren bond in some way, or to something he blocked out(maybe witnessing his own Father doing something Ghostblood/Son of Honor-related?)

The bright light being related to something he blocked out is an interesting hypothesis. I'm gonna throw out something completely out of left field here just for fun.

Warbreaker spoilers:

At the very least, there seems to be a difference between the "blinding light in Father's strongbox" with Shallan and the way Dalinar's wife is removed from his memory. So I think it's likely that those two examples have different underlying mechanisms.

Someone in another thread (linked below) suggested that it may be a vision sent by the Nightwatcher.

Quote

“The voice faded. For a moment, Kaladin thought he saw shadows of a world that was not, shadows of another place. And in that place, a distant sky with a sun enclosed, almost as if by a corridor of clouds.”

Excerpt From: Sanderson, Brandon. “Words of Radiance (Stormlight Archive, The).” iBooks. Page 926

This is all the description we get the first time Kaladin changes gravity. @marianmi, I just looked through Kaladin's fight with Szeth at the end of WoR and didn't see any mentions of the Cognitive Realm or the strange sun. 

I asked a related question on Reddit and got an answer:

Quote

1. I mentioned in another post that I'll wait a bit to give you exact numbers, because I want to make sure Peter has run all the right calculations. But yes, changing the orbit had an effect on things--though official calendars didn't need to change, as they'd been used since before the original shift happened anyway. When we talk about 'Years' in the Final Empire, it's original (pre LR) orbit anyway. I knew I was going to go back to them later in the series, and when characters were actually aware of things like the calendar, it would be close to earth standard.

2. Though, since you mention it, all numbers mentioned in their respective series are in-world numbers. This makes things tricky, as Rosharan years (with the five hundred days) are blatant enough to start the average reader wondering about these things.

3. Mostly, Roshar is the big one (not in actual deviation--I think a Roshar year is only 1.1 Earth years--but in how the scope and terminology of the novel will make people start to notice and ask questions.) Other planets have deviations from Earth, but it's not as noticeable. We'll give specific numbers eventually. I promise.

Source

You can infer from this answer that the length of a "year", as people on the planet think of it, never changed from pre-TLR length. You can also infer the the orbit time around the sun did change. However, I agree with @The One Who Connects that the time to refill the Well is based on what the local people consider a year, not the orbit time. Having a numerical symbol isn't much use if it's in a different unit than the one everyone uses (hence the use of percentages as a symbol for the mist-sickness, which are unit-less).

You can take a look at the rough draft of a timeline I've put together here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JJtJhHwpKdow01n2-bsT3scVvqJd6lZh4uvpNwcslv8/edit#gid=0

Warning that there are spoilers for all the books to varying degrees.

@Tariniel Kadasix is definitely the Azir word for Herald. Here's the relevant quote from Lift's Interlude:

Quote

“The Kadasixes have spoken,” said one of the scions.
“The Heralds?” Darkness said. “They have done no such thing. You are mistaken.”

Excerpt From: Sanderson, Brandon. “Words of Radiance (Stormlight Archive, The).” iBooks Pg. 1399

3 minutes ago, bleeder said:

Perhaps also the Unmade? They trace back to ol' Odie too.

Definitely possible. They could have been made to mirror the Stormfather and Nightwatcher.

On 10/9/2016 at 8:49 PM, Turbonator said:

And then each chasmfiend would control a horde of chulls, each of which controls a whitespine. 

I myself really think that all greatshells will be turned into Voidbringers. Even whitespines, which might turn out to be scarier than chasmfiends. Heck, skyeels might turn evil too.

This is actually pretty similar to a theory I've been developing, which is related to the whole topic as well. I personally believe that the various "evil" things we've seen in various parts of the books (Stormform Parshendi, Thunderclasts, and Midnight Essences) are created by Odium somehow with a form based off of a normal creature of Roshar. In the case of the Parshendi, he directly changes their form and controls them. Thunderclasts seem very similar to chasmfiends (both are described with "arrow-like" heads), but we see a Thunderclast being created directly from the stones beneath the Purelake. In this case, I think it is only the design that is based off the chasmfiend, rather than Odium taking control of an actual chasmfiend and shape-changing it. The third section of the theory is that Midnight Essences are based off of whitespines (both are extremely agile predators that hunt primarily by smell and work in packs). I don't have a ton of proof other than "Hey, this seems to fit, sort of", and I'm still working on an underlying theory component (which creatures, how, why, etc), but I figured I throw it out there and see what people think.

My first guess at the rationale behind this is that Odium likes to take things that somebody else made and make "corrupted" versions of them somehow, because he hates people and all that. Thus, the Parshendi bond with the voidspren is like a corrupted version of the Nahel bond, and the thunderclasts/Midnight Essences are like corrupted versions of normal creatures. This could possibly tie into the fact that chasmfiends have a symbiotic relationship with spren as well, which may be how Odium chooses the creatures to corrupt. I don't believe we have any information either way on whitespines, which makes it hard to verify that part of theory. But I will be looking out in future books for more evil creatures and whether they correspond to regular creatures in some way. My current candidates for Odium to corrupt include skyeels and Ryshadium (as both have a spren bond at some level).

These creatures could also be related to the Ten Deaths, as someone pointed out earlier.