Corax

Hey, can anyone tell me if there's a way to get a hold of the revised Words of Radiance ending, and if so, would you kindly point me it the right direction? Thanks!

Exactly, ParadoxSpren. It certainly rolls off the tongue better than "people who have gained access to Investiture." eta: I suspect that Vax might be the world where Dark One will occur.

I'm still reeling from the SFO signing, but here's the new information from the new Ars Arcanum in the 10th Anniversary copy of Elantris that has my eyes bugging out currently: Heck, just the choice of capitalization on the words "Initiated" and "Decision" are interesting. But... Where in bloody Damnation is the planed Vax?!

The question is a bit garbled, but I'll re-listen later. It had to do with whether Renarin would get a Rhyshadium, but I could be mistaken.

I like how he perks up at the Renarin fans. I'm glad I'm not alone in that.

Here's the half-hour I captured, for what it's worth: Here are a couple of clips from the open Q&A: https://youtu.be/zd-qSV75Y9A https://youtu.be/LBkZRgPF0p4 Please forgive the awful quality... I'm very new to this recording business!

I'll upload the half-hour's worth of line q&a tomorrow, in case one device picked up something more clearly than another.

So, when transcribing what q&a I can, where should I put it? Can someone point me at the right thread, please? Thanks.

The event was awesome! I have now confirmed that I suck at asking questions, because I become a giddy fangirl. That being said, I've at least confirmed that crem IS spren poop... well, Shard poop... well, some sort of Shardic leavings. Eta: and met awesome Sharders too. I'll post the WoBs I managed to catch, but apparently my memory was only good for half an hour of recording. Limelleth and Firstselector will have managed more than I did.

That's a good point, Weiry. For my part, it's mostly that I have no idea how to go about things in this situation. Advise is always appreciated.

Hi there! I'll be recording the open Q&A if I can, and my own and my husband's signing line stuff, but I wasn't planning anything beyond that. If you like, I'd be happy to coordinate with you otherwise. This is my first Sanderson signing too, so feel free to come say hi to me. I'll be the woman with the service dog kandra. See you there!

Posting from my phone again, so I'll be brief... Could Vo have been Derethil? I would need to go back and read about the islands Vo was said to be sailing from, but it could be interesting. Also, Vo himself needen't personally have traveled to other worlds or, indeed, survived beyond his alloted week to have influences events on Roshar (and other places). All that would be necessary for that are his followers or friends to spread the word, as it were. Other rrew of the Wandersail, maybe. Or the woman who joined them.

I think I didn't phrase my thoughts correctly; it seems to me (and of course I could be wrong,) that if you are stuffed with enough investiture, potentially using any method, you become functionally immortal. Maybe it's because at that point you punch though to existing more solidly in all three realms, and ideas are—as have been mentioned—hard to kill? That was meant to be more of a sort of joke. Hoid's nature is probably drastically different from an average human, so I was just playing with the idea of it. Being a Lightweaver himself, I wouldn't be surprised if he could do something that was functionally similar... akin to Awakening a doll with a very complex (and probably clever) Command. But it wasn't really meant that seriously in the first place.

I think it's fair to say that he definitely doesn't have to be a Shard to have acquired immortality. We've seen that there are already multiple other ways to become functionally immortal. Gold Compounding, or as was noted earlier, holding enough Breath. I suspect that you just have to have enough Investiture in one way or another. Yeah, but how funny is it to imagine Hoid saying little snarky prayers to Frost? In 'reality,' though, I suspect he's using some spren-like cognitive messenger. (Maybe he splinters off mini-Hoids. If so, I want one.)

Oh, I like this game! How about spending years and years on an intricate Soulstamp... to do your hair and nails?

I think you've got an interesting idea (heh) here... It's almost like a large-scale version of Awakening. The Shards each have a 'Breath' (spiritual aspect), 'color' (physical aspect), and 'Command' (cognitive aspect). The spiritual state of each seems to be the strongest, and the most intertwined with Investiture. The body, we've seen, sort of sublimates, at least temporarily, so it would be hard or impossible to attack, so that leaves their cognitive aspect. I'll need to reread HoA (oh dear me) but even Ruin was sort of 'drawn out' so he could be attacked, right? It was only then that Ati could be shuffled off. Perhaps this is related to why Dalinar is told to force Oduim to choose a champion? To enact a similar gambit?

That's a good point, of course, but the spren began bonding humans independantly and seem to have been something of a surprise to the Heralds. Their ideals don't necessarily apply to Tanavast's implementation of Honor. Reading over how the Heralds speak about their trials in the prologue and the bits and bobs we've been given elsewhere, it seems like they are... almost sponges. I'm looking particularly at a couple of passages here. and Yeek. I think they might be soaking up something Odium-ish (Odi-yummy?) and then are purged (or something?) in Damnation. By leaving Taln alone in Damnation, they managed somehow to syphon whatever taint/madness they would normally draw to Talenel instead. The point of my title (which I realize I forgot to actually say) is that perhaps they're called Heralds not because they are attendants of the Almighty, but because they or their very presence foretells a coming Desolation.

On my phone, so this'll be brief, but it seems pertinent to the discussion. Frost is confirmed to be from Yolen, yes? And recent WoB (from the absurdly long AMA) confirms that Frost is not a worldhopper. Therefore, frost is still on Yolen.

Here's the quote about Ruin and Cultivation: NEPENEI have a question, if you are willing. Would Ruin be more compatible with Rayse, would he pick up that shard had he visited Scadrial and shattered him? All the shards we have seen that he has shattered seem rather different in intent than him—Honor, Cultivation, Love, Dominion. But Ruin seems more in line with Odium. Rayse has ruined the days of quite a few people. BRANDON SANDERSONTechnically, Ruin would be most compatible with Cultivation. Ruin's 'theme' so to speak is that all things must age and pass. An embodiment of entropy. That power, separated from the whole and being held by a person who did not have the willpower to resist its transformation of him, led to something very dangerous. But it was not evil. None of the sixteen technically are, though you may have read that Hoid has specific beef with Rayse. Whether you think of Odium as evil depends upon how much you agree with Hoid's particular view. That said, Ruin would have been one of the 'safer' of the sixteen for Rayse to take, if he'd been about that. Odium is by its nature selfish, however, and the combination of it and Rayse makes for an entity that fears an additional power would destroy it and make it into something else.

These are good points. But we do know that the Heralds go willingly into Damnation between Desolations, so there is some interaction with Odium on that level. Furthermore, there is a WoB that states that if the Heralds just stayed around, their very presence would cause another Desolation. There is something linking them tightly together. To the second point, the act of cultivation often requires pruning and weeding. Cultivation's intent had been said by Brandon (I don't have the link atm) to be similar in some ways to Ruin. So that seems to me to fit just fine with periodic "pruning" of humanity's tech levels. PS: Here's the quote about the Heralds and Desolations: QUESTION ()What caused a Desolation to end? Was it just the defeat of Odium's forces? Because the Desolations start when the Heralds break under torture. BRANDON SANDERSON Because the Heralds can no longer be in existence. There is a certain period of time that they can be there, and after that, if they're there, they will start a new one. So the Heralds do need to leave for a Desolation to end. QUESTIONOh. So they've got a time limit. BRANDON SANDERSONThey do. Otherwise the Desolation will start again. What they discovered is not all of them have to. As long as one remains, the Desolation will not start again. QUESTIONSo, by the nine leaving, did that actually break the Oathpact for them? Did it change the cycle of Desolations? BRANDON SANDERSONThey have not completely broken the Oathpact, despite what they may think.

This seems like and interesting theory, and also similar to the Iriali religion as well. Something else that could be related to the literal meaning of the 17th Shard, well... did Adonalsium leave behind a Cognitive Shadow? Because that would make a hell of a non-Shard Shard.

Forgive me if this has already been discussed, (and point me at the thread!), but what if the Heralds didn't exactly protect humanity from the Desolations. What if they protected humanity from Odium by causing the Desolations? Odium is hatred, loathing, disgust and all the things that have brought near-constant war to Roshar. So long as those wars are fought with swords and spears, the death toll is contained and the Desolations ensured that humanity was brought back to the bronze age (at least) each time. Without the Desolations, though, humanity has been able to progress. If left too long, humanity could invent weapons of greater destruction than even the Shardblades and Shardplate. Just imagine what humans influenced by odium could to if they progressed technologically to WMDs? My foilhat theory here is that the Heralds brought the Desolations in their wake, their goal to see that some humanity survived the planned culling of any technological progress that had been made, thereby cultivating a sustainable population even though they were likely to be subject to Odium's influence. Okay, please feel free to poke all the holes in my weird ideas.

This is back on the original idea, and off-topic from the compounding discussion, but it seems like the right place to put in a very rough aluminum-foil idea: Where's Vivenna? It would make sense that she'd end up in a nearby location to Vasher. Could she be Iyatil? Now, I know Iyatil has an entirely different look, but (if I recall correctly) WoB says that as she has Returned blood in her, it could be plausible that she could alter more than just the appearance of her hair. That being said, another WoB might as well debunk that, since Iyatil's people are stated by him to be from a different planet than Iyatil was born. So maybe not... (I do like the older post that mentions that she could be Sebruki). ...but now I'm on a Vivenna-hunt in Roshar!

Oh, I agree. And we know that Brandon wants to avoid revolving-door death. I can't recall off the top of my head how much we were told about the Shardbearer who died. Thanks for pointing out that we know he was a redhead (but as was said, it's a fairly common Veden trait.)