fiveAM

touche on the back cover quote. I concede that Shardwielding could possibly be a magic system, but i'm a bit reluctant to say it as a definite. The wording there is fairly ambiguous and i feel it leaves open multiple possibilities, probably what Brandon did on purpose. I wonder if Soul Casting could be a separate magic system from surgebinding. I know they mention that the Radiants had 2 Orders based around Soul Casting but I feel like the Lashings and Soul Casting are fundamentally different on how they operate. I don't see why the Radiants would be bound to only Surgebinding, especially if there are 7 different magic systems. I think Honor/Cultivation would be a good fit for it. You have to tell a truth, the more powerful the truth, it seems the more powerful of a change you can illicit. Although considering the danger aspect of the whole deal maybe Soul Casting fits better as Honor/Cultivation/Odium, and Old Magic is Honor/Cultivation. Old Magic seems more of a fair trade/slightly better deal to you (Av's Father) than having a malicious hateful punishment. Cultivation is growth and when a child is growing up, you teach them lessons, some which include punishments so that they learn; you only give things to the child for free all the time, it only spoils them and they remain a child (spoiled rich heir archetype). Such punishments hold no malice or hate in their intent but rather as a necessary component for the child to grow.

I don't know if I would say that Shardwielding is a magic system. Overall, we have yet to see any evidence of the old Shardplate and blades doing more or anything different than the current ones (other than implying very heavily that surgebinding was useable while wearing Shardplates before). The only place I can think of where the Shardplates did more than the current era's is in Dalinar's vision where he meets the 2 Radiants in the forest. One of them jump in a huge arc (described as something more than a simple Shardplate assisted jump, but it wasn't flying) which sounds very similar to the fight scene where Szeth assassinates the king of Jah Keved where he binds a part of his weight up to make himself lighter. Magic systems are inherent by the intent of the shards they are based on, the simple existence of materials isn't enough to be a magic system. I could see Shardplates and blades being an invention or result of a magic system but since there isn't a requirement nor is it an ability to use/wield Shardplates/blades, anyone can use them. Also, I like your connection of Shinovar as Cultivation's base, which would mean that the Old Magic isn't purely Cultivation's as it's further east, but I don't think Szeth's magic would be from Cultivation. There is a thorough rejection of Szeth as Truthless in Shinovar, it doesn't seem to stem from him killing someone or picking up a weapon, we've seen the warrior class in one of the interludes, which I feel the surgebinding that Szeth does seems to be a possible reason for it. If what Szeth is wielding is Cultivation's power, why would the Shin, if Shinovar is the center for Cultivation, reject it? Maybe the Horneaters have some connection too? They have a similar system of cooks and farmers at high importance and soldiers at low (the 1st son, 2nd son thing).

Hi! I came from a direction to Brandonothology from Stormblessed and fairly new to forum-ing. This is kinda long but I have split my intro into paragraphs by topic for your convenience reading pleasure. I'm from good old Southern California. I grew up all my life in LA and then South Pasadena (lots of cool movies were shot there, look it up! Like Scream2 and Role Models, I totally recognized the coffee shop scene place). South Pasadena is a funny little town, yes south, of the famous Pasadena. It's like 3 square miles, has no fire department, we borrow Alhambra's I think, and while growing up, had one tiny little Crown's bookstore that spent more time being renovated than actually open. It is also where a bunch of prude people many decades ago decided Pasadena was getting a positively Las Vegas esque vibe so they seceded and even eventually built a series of permanent roadblocks around the edge of the city to limit traffic going through. We also stopped the 405 freeway from being completed (which btw would have cut a 25 min. trip into LA to around 5). We also have over 100 historical landmarks (over 100 years old stuff like this well and like half the houses) so almost nothing is new. My sufferings of the harsh winters here and full 2 inches!! of rain a year (give or take) tells me my ability to cope with weather, well anywhere else would be an interesting showdown between my at most 2 layers of clothing and well, snow. Yes, I've never physically seen snow FALLING, but I assure you, my expertise of earthquake protocol would have helped a lot of people in New York a few months ago. I recently graduated from UCSD with a B.S. in Psychology after a slow and inevitable loss to pre-med, and am currently applying to PhD programs in social psychology in mostly out of state schools. Alas I shall return! Mostly for the weather, but also for the mexican food, and In-N-Out. I saw the Mistborn books in the school bookstore in college but never read them until I heard about Brandon taking over Jordan's A Memory of Light. It gave me that extra nudge to read it and I fell in love. I only own A Way of Kings so far, but I read Mistborn and Warbreaker in my 30min-1hour breaks between classes. Haven't read Elantris yet cause as it may, stupid college bookstores don't stock the same books for very long and Elantris disappeared by the time i finished Mistborn. Just saying... if anyone wants to gift me a signed copy of Elantris.... just saying... I'm a total book nerd, manga reader (no patience for anime anymore), and gamer (almost exclusively RPG, RPG/adventure, anything by Blizzard). I tried reading Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind when I was around 8 or 9, didn't understand 90% of it but I LOVED Ender's Game; and I have every Animorphs book, including the alternamorphs, megamorphs, and chronicles. Mostly, I'll be lurking (Starcraft broke me, I always imagine the unit; Pokemon also broke me, I type 'brock' half the time when I mean broke) around and mooching off the genius theories and observations of my betters, Chaos has opened my eyes (go Principle of Intent and Hoid wrote the Letter!). I try to be very logical and do a lot of reserving judgement until more evidence is provided deal, so the few times I do comment will probably be observations more than theories, or just be a question, although every blue moon a totally wild theory does strike me. As such, I am a noob at forum writing and have only recently learned how to spoiler tag things. Quoting still eludes me at the moment, especially having multiple quotes from different posts, and since I also don't own most of the books and am too lazy to physically find references, you shall see a dearth of quotations. But I got the spoiler tag thing down, don't worry. And as you can see, I also have a tendency to ramble on and end up pointing out holes in my own theories/comments/the poking of holes in other theories. So please bear with me =P If you've read this far, congratulations! If it makes you feel better, it took me waaay longer to write this than for you to read it (longest intro yet? give me an award if it is =D). I hope we can all get along stupendously and maybe even sing the Nyan Cat song together while giving each other high fives. (>'.' )ノ \( '.'<)

hmm.. it's a hard choice.. I know I wouldn't want to be Grey or Red, and I'm not really driven to change the world (Blue). I'm a total bookworm, but I'm not super scholarly so Brown doesn't seem a good fit, although I am currently applying to PhD programs... =p In the end, probably a toss up between Green (BATTLE!!) and White. I know, that seems contradictory, passion vs. cold, hard, logic? I'm a very logical person, but there are a few things I'm VERY passionate about. I just feel that if i had the One Power, I would train myself to battle or heal, it just seems logical to do so . So I guess Yellow's cool too. @leinton WOOT for Dragonlance reference! Red Robes!! It's the 'gateway robes' to Black.

Really the first high/epic fantasy novel I really got into. I'd read good ole Tolkien before but I read it when I was like 10 or so, didn't really understand half of it, =p. I also read Orson Scott Card's Ender novels around then too, totally didn't understand 90% of the books other than Ender's Game at the time, even now... I grew up in South Pasadena and in the public library's fairly small adult fiction section, it was the only cover that popped out to my little 7th grader eyes (other than a couple Conan the Barbarian books, I think I first thought it was He-Man or something haha). I read the first 5 or 6 books I think it was (all they had), straight through. Still think the first book was the best one, I've re-read that one like 6 times. I had just finished the Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy and Second Generation (the ones that go Autumn of... Summer of.. etc.) think Raistlin is so awesome! even if he is 'somewhat' evil. But Jordan made me drop Dragonlance and do re-reads of the Wheel of Time instead. I actually saw Sanderson's Mistborn books at my college bookstore a few years ago but never got around to reading them. Then Robert Jordan passed away and I decided to read Mistborn when I heard Brandon was taking over the last book. I read Mistborn 1 hour at a time between classes, and have thus so far read all of them except Elantris because the bookstore stopped stocking it when I had finally finished Mistborn. Stupid college bookstores... Got to say though, Brandon has done an awesome job of The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight and is a worthy writer to finish up the Wheel of Time. Can't wait for A Memory of Light!! Both for the epic conclusion of the series and so that Brandon can focus on more Stormlight, and Warbreaker2 and pretty much every cosmere book! If you think about it, they're all having sequels.

really interesting points in here but i was thinking, does there really have to be mixes of the different magics on Roshar? Major cosmere spoilers in here. We are lacking in details of the magic systems right now but I'm sure it'll become clearer once the second book comes out. One question though: Is Voidbinding mentioned in Brandonothology? I'm pretty sure it's not mentioned in the book. Is it really what it's called or just a temporary name for the magic system of Odium? Okay, my quick comment transformation to blabbering and a lot more checking facts than originally planned, over. Edit: added spoiler tags (realized this is in Stormlight threads not General Theories... =p)

I'm supporting zas on this one, it's definitely an interesting theory but there is one major hole. In the last vision that Tanavast gives to Dalinar, he says that he personally witnessed many/most of the visions himself. I don't have the book with me but if I recall correctly, many of the visions already had the Radiants and I believe it's commonly accepted that the Heralds each founded the different Orders yes? Of course this goes into the whole chronology aspect of the visions, there's a thread in the Stormlight Archive threads but it seems mostly accepted that Tanavast was still alive at least partway through the Desolations if not all the way to the Last Desolation or the Recreance. Side note, just though of this but maybe the Hierocracy is a result of Tanavast dying and therefore Odium gaining more control over Roshar? We saw something similar in Mistborn with Ruin messing with memories etc. and what else causes more chaos than a religious takeover?

I just had a fun thought after reading a Silence Divine thread. The magic system described is about being handicapped = magical power, and that chronically injured people, such as people who are blind or deaf are the most powerful. Arguably, mental disorders could be even worse handicaps then physical ones, especially if you consider madness. What if there is some sort of connection? The Heralds are supposed to be uber powerful and the Silence Divine world and Roshar are in the same solar system right? So it doesn't seem completely impossible, or illogical, that there is some sort of connection there. Of course, without knowing exactly how the magic system in Silence Divine will work, can't really make any actually serious thoughts on it. Btw I'm new here so play nice if I sound redundant to previously discussed threads/theories.