Landis963

On 1/27/2018 at 11:14 AM, ghajan monk said:

I just read White Sand Volume 1 and I did enjoy it. I think the art could have been better and the graphic novel a bit longer, but I know this is just one third of the story.  As for the plot this was mostly the introduction, Khriss was not quite what I expected but I am looking forward to how she becomes the author of the Ars Arcanum.

Autonomy hating her own magic system is surprising, though I wonder if that is exactly true or whether Autonomy is spreading false information to create a balance of power so that the sand master's do not become dictators infringing on the autonomy of those without power.

I have not read the prose version so I might be wrong about this but is there some significance to Kenton finding six spheres instead of five?

I don't think this is Autonomy hating on sand mastery, per se.  I think this is more the Kerztians misinterpreting Autonomy's directives to achieve more autonomy for themselves (which she's fine with because it's the sort of behavior her Intent likes to encourage) and the people of Lossand getting tired enough of the diem's arrogance that they look the other way.  

8 hours ago, The Forgetful Archivist said:

What is it?

OB spoilers:

On 1/24/2018 at 0:26 PM, Alderant said:

I agree. I think we've done a fairly good job of containing it to...83 pages.

You say that as though that behemoth of a thread showed any sign of slowing down.  

5 hours ago, Ailvara said:

It's a bit of a sidenote, but it bothers me just a little that Kaladin is still a captain. It sounds well, but doesn't make sense anymore. He's been commanding a battalion for a while and now that the darkeyes' glass ceiling is gone, I would imagine some adjustments in ranks would be logical. And more practically meaningful than giving him a piece of land that'll probably be falling to Odium's forces soon enough with the rest of Alethkar. 

The darkeye glass ceiling is gone so far as Dalinar might be concerned, but the rest of Alethkar (let alone the rest of Roshar) don't exactly agree.  

2 hours ago, The Night Watcher said:

Wow... That story is a lot more depressing than I remember... I was very sad when Jezrien died. Mostly for Ash's sake. But after this...I kinda feel bad for the Heralds in general.

The Heralds have been getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop for a long time, for periods of "a long time" covered by most forms of immortality.  Aharietiam was them attempting to carve out some rest among all the madness and chaos.  (Which, of course, as you've seen from Taln's and Ash's viewpoints, not to mention the cameos from other Heralds, was rewarded by 4500 years of deteriorating mental state, followed by yet another Desolation whose staging ground isn't on another storming planet.  Yay Oathpact!)

In reverse order: All the Heralds have a resurrective-immortality deal, which is how they've lasted so long.  

All the other Heralds made the decision to abandon Taln on Braize (otherwise known as Damnation), because he'd died first and thus locked away the Voidbringers (or as we now know them, the Fused).  They'd noticed that if it was anyone else, they'd have cracked immediately and thus started another Desolation.  

The Recreance is a separate issue, but what the Stormfather is talking about is that when pre-Recreance Radiants twigged to the fact that oh, hey, humans aren't really the good guys here, Honor was always able to talk them down from the cliff.  However, at the time of the Recreance, Odium's splintering of Honor was in full swing and Honor's sanity was deteriorating to match.  Hence, when contemporary Radiants looked to Honor for guidance, his senile ramblings made things worse.  

Aharietiam is the Last Desolation, where Jezrien and co. left Taln to the Voidbringers' tender ministrations and told all the humans on Roshar that the Desolations were over and that the Heralds were going to retake the Tranquiline Halls.   a third event, one that we don't have all the details of but had something to do with the breaking of the ardentia's power.  (I think.  I could be wrong, I'm remembering this off the top of my head)  EDIT: Thank you to everyone who corrected me on this.  

4 minutes ago, Naurock said:

Thanks for the info @Landis963!

With that said, there are Mistborn spoilers that could provide a workaround, but they haven't happened yet in-universe as of OB.  BoM spoilers:  

1 hour ago, Naurock said:

I haven't seen that specific WoB, but what I find interesting is that he can't control his healing abilities. He just does, and needed something to stop it at the end of Oathbringer for his disguise. Coppermind states he is a Feruchemist, but normally they would need to tap what's stored up in their metalmind.

That Coppermind reference stems from a really old WoB where Brandon said that Hoid's plot-sense came from "an unknown application of Feruchemy" (referring to Fortune, long before we knew the term).  I wouldn't put too much stock in it.  

26 minutes ago, Alderant said:

Eh...I could see that with Shallan but I wouldn't call Kaladin's arc in WoR a regression. He progresses quite a lot in that book, more so I would argue than even in WoK. OB for him is definitely a regression, however. And Shallan's arc in OB is largely progressive as well. What frustrated me was

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the sudden "everything's okay now!" at the end.

 

I would, if only because Kaladin's issues in OB don't spring directly from his own mental state, but rather from the dilemma that he (and by extension all the Windrunners) find themselves in.  Kaladin in WoR, by contrast, allowed his depression and his hatred for lighteyes to kill his spren and stand aside while the king was murdered.  w/r/t Shallan, however: (OB spoilers)

19 hours ago, Fakeout said:

You know, I’m super pumped for a sci fi Roshar in Mistborn Era 3. Summoning a pistol or automatic rifle out of no where and firing in one smooth motion is gonna be soo slick  so hidden vote for shard gun from me

Firing might be a problem, as the spren can't make multiple pieces.  (Guns are also comprised of multiple pieces, but there's probably a Cognitive workaround for that)

EDIT: Assuming there's no live spren attached, I'd go with a Sharddagger.  Otherwise, the major draw of a sprenblade is its versatility, so I'd choose all of the above. 

A pattern I've noticed with Stormlight books:  The book directly after a given character's flashback sequence will have that character regress in some fashion.  This is where Kaladin's arc in WoR came from, and it was where Shallan's arc came from in OB.  

2 hours ago, Stark said:

If someone gets the chance, I'd be extremely appreciative if they would ask a question or two about this quote:

Given that the singers were trapped in slave- and dullforms for thousands of years, and that malen and femalen are completely asexual - how did the species survive?  Is it that mateform makes it easier to successfully procreate, and the other forms it is possible, but not easy?  Because if mateform is the only form with male and female traits and the ability to procreate, how did the species not die out?

We know from Sah talking to Kaladin that slaveform could have children, so if mateform is the only procreation form, did Cultivation intercede on their behalf as a boon/curse situation to help them escape their gods?  Remove their forms, and by extension their gods, but allow them to procreate in any form until mateform is rediscovered?Because if memory serves, the original council of five were all dullform, because that is all they had for generations?

Well, we know that the parshmen (i.e. the singers in slaveform) were put out to stud whenever a fertile female was found.  And their masters were highly motivated to keep their workforce at a stable population. 

34 minutes ago, Ammanas said:

Not to nitpick, but I think you meant The Girl Who Looked Up.

He's referring to the chapter title, with Hoid and Shallan talking.  The Girl Who Looked Up was the first iteration of the story, that Shallan told Pattern back in Urithiru.  

18 hours ago, CaptainRyan said:

That's a good catch. I'll need to reread SotD to see if there are other hints as to how Vathi found the safe house or other hints of unique powers; e.g. when the monsters at the end are chasing them does Vathi react more strongly to the loud noises? It will be a fun reread! Have an upvote for giving me an excuse to break out Arcanum Unbounded again!

I'm fairly certain she had a compass, given to her by the Ones Above, which allowed her to track the Aviar.  

12 hours ago, Crazy1993 said:

I’m aware he can fight if pushed, and electrum and atium also both provide singular visions. I would think that, both being forms of foresight, they’d still interfere with each other enough to screw with Renarin; who I think can’t be argued to be better off in a fight compared to a mistborn who has any idea what they’re doing.

Oathbringer spoilers:

19 hours ago, Crazy1993 said:

They still have Electrum. It isn’t even close to as good, but at bare minimum it would storm with Renarin if he had the stones to actually fight.

Oathbringer spoilers:

Assuming that Elsric currently holds about 5000 Breaths (7th Heightening), Would it be off-base to assume that he's going to give half of those to Kassar?  After all, that would provide the both of them with ~2500 breaths, placing them both an easy distance past the 5th Heightening.  In addition, the possession of large amounts of Breath makes Awakening easier to grasp, which would expedite the training of a novice by an appreciable amount.  Possibly not to the leaps and bounds that Vivenna displayed back in Warbreaker, but still enough to make a difference in how quickly it's picked up.  

It's probably simply the fact that someone who was attracted to pre-Shard Tanavast would be repelled by Hoid, for a multitude of reasons.  (Not that those reasons couldn't collide in a variety of entertaining ways, of course)  I expect that this will be returned to during Dragonsteel.  

On 12/20/2017 at 4:21 PM, Farnsworth said:

What if you coated a stone with sand lichen, and left it out in a high storm? That would be really powerful. Or if you grow the lichen all along the ground and slatrified it, you could drown an army. 

Assuming of course that the lichen could withstand hurricane-grade gusts.  

On 12/25/2017 at 2:07 PM, animalia said:

Is anyone else hoping that the delay in the release date will be used to improve Volume 2 and make it better than volume 1 was?

Yes.  To put it mildly.  

1 hour ago, Nepene said:

It's another of Cultivation's plays, just like Dalinar. She returned his memories just in time so that Dalinar could resist Odium and crush his army, turning Odium's sword against him. She gave Lift incredible powers of stealth and deception to fool Odium. She made a diagram for Tara so that she could sway Odium from the inside.

Never gamble against a fortune teller's cards. Odium is making a big mistake. He should be seeking to take Cultivation's cards off the deck, not overpower them and sway them to his side.

She cut it especially close with Dalinar - How many days, exactly, before Thaylen City did Dalinar remember the Rift?  

2 hours ago, Kered said:

Do we know who it is that Brandon is referring to? I think think of anything off the top of my head. 

Probably Odium referring to himself as "Passion."  Which is technically true, I will admit, but only under a very specific frame of reference that - to put it mildly - doesn't hold up under scrutiny.  

I made it all the way until the book made it to my doorstep.  

On 11/15/2017 at 3:17 PM, bleedscarlet said:

and just wanted to update this since Peter was AMAZING and actually gave me a response (ON LAUNCH DAY no less!). Apparently they had some QC issues that went up to the last minute, so production for the physical media was delayed Still a bummer, but I'm floored that yesterday peter was hunting on all of the sanderson communities and helping people out.

Thanks for the update, but general board etiquette is to edit your initial post, instead of double-posting.  Welcome to the Shard!  

On 11/22/2017 at 10:14 AM, Wreith said:

Bureaucratic and Orderly don't necessarily go together

I would say the Vogons are more Bureaucratic.
I don't think the Vogons, had they followed Azish rules, would have been able to elect Gawx on the spot. I think it would have take significant research and paperwork to determine if a single 'miracle' could be classified as an application essay for the position of Prime.

While I think the Azish are more orderly largely because the Vogons' requirements for filing documentation for saving their own mother from the Bugblatter Beast includes losing the document and then finding it again.

And then having all the paperwork recycled as firelighters.