Pechvarry

I'm looking to go to one of Brandon's signings next week, and it's a ticketed event. My wife wants to come too. The problem is, she's still reading The Way of Kings! There's no way she'll finish it and WoR in time. So I think these events go something like open Q&A, a reading, and then the line with signings. Should I expect WoR spoilers in this open Q&A portion? Is it wise to hold my Cosmere questions for the signing line? Am I going to be really mad at myself if I'm a bit late? And how do I show the receipt of books purchased if I can't buy books from the store online?

Something derivative of Adonalsium has almost certainly affected the planet. Evidence: humanity. Perhaps their ancestors worldhopped there though, like with AonDor and their magic died on arrival. Possible, but not really a Cosmere story unless it involves Shards, Adonalsium, or a force those have/had contended with.

Just a quick theory on Radiance' Eve: Assuming light weaving is just an illusion, and operating under the impression that soulcasting is mostly limited to soulcasting either basic shapes or changing the material of an existing form, I believe we'll see Shallan "draw" some impressive illusions and then soulcast the air in them into something real. With the aid of someone who has studied enough human anatomy (you know he's a good surgeon by the slave's brand!), you could probably do this to completely build a human body. You know, assuming the deceased' conciousness is being lugged around by a spren somewhere (a microcosm of Honor reviving the Heralds: worth writing another day).

I'm not a huge fan of soundtracks, but all I listen to is instrumental music (I was thrilled when I saw a tweet from Sanderson where he said he was listening to Explosions in the Sky one day). I basically have instrumental music for every occasion and I'm not going to lie: I wish for opportunities to sell others on it. I will probably listen to Jakob (which is mellow but also very metal), some This Will Destroy You, and if I really want calming I'll go for some Helios, but they border on downright boring.

Am I a prude for thinking spoilers in topic titles, regardless of forum, is really inconsiderate for the first year after release?

Yeah but... Most of Stormlight Archives' cultures seem a lot more xenophobic than modern Murika. And that Baxil's Mistress looked assuredly not-from-around-here but had no accent.

1. Adolin/Kaladin/Shallan love triangle. As much as I hate that ploy. 2. Renarin will seek Old Magic. 3. Either most of Bridge 4 will get their own spren, or Syl will somehow share her connection through Kaladin (I'm rather fond of this as it ties them to Kaladin more directly). 4. If the above is true, this is how Shen will "awaken." 5. Renarin will be shown to have an obsession with normal seeming rocks. 6. Shaldolin (Shaolin). Because the 'shippers always seem surprised (and enraged, to my extreme delight) by the expected pairings. 7. Shallan will give her shardblade to Adolin, whose dual wielding will help offset the fact that he will never get a spren. 8. Shallan is a Herald (why not?) 9. Shallasnah. What? 10. Roshone is a Herald. I... ran out of steam at the end.

Mistborn had nothing like Szeth. Vin was a genius of intuition, and it showed in her slaughter, but no one on Scadrial was a student of "how to best kill an army" like Szeth. No training in a martial art, like he has. During TLR's rule, there simply were no warrior's cultures. Aside: thank you very much for remembering to spoiler tag your WoR spoilers. It's getting pretty frustrating how often that's been forgotten in the past couple months. --- To people mentioning "Stormlight also means Surges", remember that "Pewter also means the whole suite of allomancy" for several main characters. Indeed, Mistborn are more common during classic Scadrial than Surgebinders during the events of Way of Kings (this will almost certainly change). Hence, I'd prefer to leave Surges out of the comparison. I personally do not think the grace of Stormlight compares to that of Pewter. And I definitely do not think it comes close in physical strength. EDIT: also, that .7g of Roshar throws stuff off too.

And. It wouldn't be the first time Galladon's skin color changed...

I see mention of Hoid, but has anyone mentioned the timing of Hoid's departure? In particular, there seems a gap between his farewell at the feast and his conversation with Kal. This could simply be narrative timing, but it seems like Gaz disappears between those 2 events, which seems more than slightly suspicious. I'd make a theory about Gaz being Hoid, but even I wouldn't believe it.

Ugh. Crossovers. I would actually like to try to chart the difference between Pewter and Stormlight. Pewter gives: -Grace (Kinesthesia) -Speed -Strength (bucketloads) -Durability -Energy -Slight healing Stormlight gives..? I'm less sure about this: -less speed -less strength -I don't know how it affects your grace and precision, or if it even does (Kaladin's could be entirely himself, or it could be his Surges, which I'm omitting from this comparison) -Durability? I want to say less than Allomantic pewter... but then there's Kaladin's 40 foot drop from bridge into the chasm. It didn't crack his shins and then heal, Miles-style. It felt like a 6' drop. -Energy. Probably more than Allomantic pewter. -Healing. Definitely a lot more than Allomantic pewter. Obviously not as much as Feruchemical gold though. I think we'd need some good comparison points to make an informed decision.

Did anyone else find these strangely similar to some of the glyphs found throughout tWoK? I feel like we're seeing the dawn of this era's Radiant symbols. They will start as free slaves, but the meaning will change to represent servants and protectors of mankind. And that seems noteworthy to a worldhopper.

They wouldn't have a past identity capable of unsettling them yet. Like a second language, they'd probably use it better than adult allomancers. Also, I thought Vin snapped very young. Perhaps during childbirth. Though that's different from knowing and using those powers...

@Swimmingly: Not to get carried away in semantics, but Ruin wasn't behind most of them (or else The Final Ascension wouldn't make much sense). And I'm mostly referring to the moment at the very end of book 2 where the book says something to the extent of "And he knew right then that he could never believe in any religion ever again" which is wrong, because the "reveal" is that "there is an almost omnipotent entity that plays our lives like puppets." Which is exactly the sort of thing one would expect from a Greek-level pantheon. I don't know if you and Quazar are atheist, believe that any god that can be comprehended by mortals is therefore not a god (the Christian big-G God description), or just want to defend Brandon's work. I just know Ruin exceeds the criteria specified for something to be considered a god in several dozen of Earth's religions, and presumably, several of Sazed's own religions. Honestly, As Endra mentions, it's just that one moment of his faith shattering at the end of Well of Ascension that bothers me so much. And because of this foundation for his completely inaccurate atheism, it's so hard for me to feel good about his behavior throughout Hero of Ages. Contrast: Jasnah. An amazingly well-written atheist who should be Sazed's equal in terms of logical argumentative power. But to me, this just shows how much Sanderson has grown throughout his career.

Ok, I made a mistake here. Let's try again without projections of our own beliefs: If any normal and mostly logical person had 100% evidence such an entity existed, wouldn't it be strangely illogical for this person to profess atheism for the first time in their life as their very next, moderately logical thought?

This is sounding too much like a "personal beliefs" conversation, guys. Remember this is fictitious and about a fictitious group of people. That said, Ruin and Preservation are more omniscient than any Greek god ever was, and probably a lot more powerful as well. You have to admit that "created human life and can rewrite reality" seems pretty dang deific. If you had 100% evidence such an entity existed, would you profess atheism for the first time in your life as your very next thought?

This thread's not dead is it? Now that I finally decided to skim the WoR threads while trying to avoid too many leaked spoilers... no? Didn't think so. *Really hoping to see some of Sigzil's tests for Kaladin's surgebinding abilities. *See if Renarin will seek the Old Magic (a prediction of mine -- he grew interested in Way of Kings, I think we'll see more hints in WoR, and he'll visit in book 3 or 4). *Shallan and Jasnah's reactions to Dalinar's dreams. *On a related note, the scientific society's response to Dalinar speaking a dead language, and the ensuing translated Dawnchant or whatever it is.

Except for my first point: I think the flaw here is the assumption that if planets DO have essences, that there can be only one planet for each essence. If I said all dogs are brown and black and I have 2 dogs, that doesn't mean 1 is necessarily black and the other brown.

In some cases, your level of experience actually makes it easier to understand a game like MAG. People who come from a background of hyper-simulationist gaming oftentimes have a lot of trouble wrapping their heads around the lack of rules. You should've seen the bewilderment on my brother's face (who loves Shadowrun - a system everyone should RUN FOR YOUR LIVES from) when I proposed using a system that doesn't track character movement down to the meter. -- I'm tentatively interested, but I don't have a lot of free time. I'm under the impression this is play-by-post. It says PBP right in the title. Though I'm a pretty experienced gamer, I've always felt a little out of place with play-by-post, but it's extremely accommodating for schedule conflicts. I'd definitely be able to read for updates several times/day and make time to post once/day as needed. So I guess tell me your expectations and if I can meet them, I'd like to join.

Grats on being a ROCKSTAR, Skaa! A couple things I want to point out. First, @Skaa -- even if everything in your OP is correct, there's no need to limit it to 10 shardworlds. We already know there are more. But since there will be 10 "main" worlds and if your theory is correct, it's likely we'll see all 10 essences as you predict. Second, there's no reason to make a distinct separation between Essence, Focus, and Identity. Perhaps the Essence is why Scadrial formed that way. Or perhaps it formed first with metal, and therefore its Identity decided its Essence. Do Windspren cause the wind? I don't think it matters, here, and doesn't really impact the theory one way or the other.

Tough, not impossible. We also already have a Sel-born Worldhopper.

And this is how Worldhopper Shai (my vote for Seventeenth Shard Candidate 2014) will be awesome. I don't think it'd be easy, but a talented Forger like Shai would be very quick to grasp how to do this. And I think I like that.

For the sake of completion, I'll mention the most obvious -- Moash. I wonder if there are countless tWoK drafts where he died in numerous ways, all of which were edited out...

-Sazed discovers there's an omniscient force rewriting small bits of reality. -Takes this as oxymoronic evidence of there being no god. -spends the whole next book making the same shallow argument and never really changing. Continues to claim atheism while a dark god with an obvious opposite (the maker of the prison) has a very real effect on the world. I love Sanderson books through and through, but I have never been satisfied with his treatment of Sazed in HOA.

ALMOST certainly.But there are a lot of secondary superpowers at play here. The regeneration and boost of energy, the way Kaladin blurs when fighting, and I believe he gets additional benefits when fighting for those he chooses to protect (+5 attack/damage when an ally takes damage). Oh yeah, and Memory. So there's a lot to sort through, even ignoring the 30some powers directly labeled as surgebinding.