Weltall

Given that this involves non-Warbreaker material, spoil-tagged:

Warbreaker and its planned sequel take place before Stormlight Archive and Brandon has said that he plans to include some clues as to how Vasher and Nightblood got separated on Roshar in the book Nightblood (he's implied that the two had some sort of 'falling out') but that the separation itself happened after the two arrived on Roshar, at some point before TWoK started. And while we know that the sword we see in WoR is definitely Nightblood, Brandon has opened up the possibility that the sword may not be unique any more. Specifically, he said that there was a point when Nightblood was the only one of its kind and that may still be the case. It also may not be, or Brandon just wanted to imply that it might not be in order to make us tie ourselvs in knots. He's evilAwesome like that.

I think you're going to run into the same issue as your classification of magics topic, where virtually everyone recognizes Intent so you're going to have to keep pointing people back to this topic to explain your preference for a different term. And since Brandon has used Intent in the way that you're using Mandate (and added that Splinters can have their own Intent), it seems perfectly fair to use that term pending either a change in a published source or a confirmation. Brandon has on occasion been specific about when he's using a tentative term (Resonance for the interaction of multiple magic systems) or when he repeats a fan term but doesn't necessariy endorse it as canonical (Shardpool) but he's never put in a disclaimer like that when talking about Shards having Intent. @Bridge Boy Brandon has stated that Ruin could and did provide the intent necessary to create the spikes (one example) so in that case no, the person didn't intend to create a hemalurgic spike but they were guided by something that did and that's all that was needed.

We have multiple WoBs that Vasher and Shashara were aware of the existence of Shardblades and intentionally set out to create one of their own, using a different magic system. So Vasher knew about Roshar to some extent before he travelled there and it's part of why he ends up going there (it being easier/less distasteful to obtain Stormlight to live on than Breath). We also know that Vasher and Nightblood came to Roshar together and Brandon has described them as 'having a falling out'. We might learn about this in Oathbringer, though Brandon had an earlier comment about planning on putting some hints in Warbreaker's sequel so he might want to get that out before giving us the explicit reasoning.

Since there seems to have been a simultaneous post of answers, I'll respond to the first followup question and let the second stand for the next person. Taldain, it seems like a really neat planet and it's entirely survivable as long as you know how to get water and how to avoid the sandlings. Plus, possible visits to Darkside. Yolen's tempting but I think I can wait until Brandon reveals it to us and then learn about it safe in the comfort of my reading chair. And for whoever's next:

Does anyone know offhand how much Brandon had trimmed in past SA drafts? His comments about the projected size even after several more revisions have my eyes bugging out (in a good way). Eight months and the Everstorm comes...

Brandon being Brandon, he could have phrased that deliberately so we think he's talking about Adonalsium when he was actually referring to Raoden, who 'dies' at the very beginning of Elantris (sort of) and ends the work 'alive'. Okay, technically there's text before that but it's the prologue rather than the first proper chapter. Yes, there's some hair-splitting going on there but if there's anyone who's a master of tetrapyloctomy it's Brandon. xD Now, if he intended those sentences to run into one another and by the first sentence he means the first chronological Cosmere work, we have a problem (or an opportunity for really crazy speculation). Because we know that the Shattering is going to happen during Dragonsteel but The Liar of Partinel is going to be set before it, so Adonalsium can't die at the start of Liar unless the entire Liar/Dragonsteel series is told in flashback form. Now, the opportunity for crazy comes from what we know Brandon at one point considered the appropriate beginning of Liar (how much of it will be retained, we don't know). Spoiler for the sample chapters and the usual caveats about how we can't rely on them for much

It's just a generic term for anything he's told us outside the books themselves. The biggest and most organized source you can dive into is Theoryland which started out as a collection of interviews and signing reports for Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time series. Once Brandon was tapped to finish the series it became a collection of things he's said as well. You can also check out the Events and Signings board here for immediate postings and reactions to specific events before they get compiled and put up on Theoryland. Other WoBs sometimes make their first appearance on individual boards where someone's gotten a book personalization with interesting information, or spotted Brandon saying something on Reddit or other things of that nature. But Theoryland is the best place to start.

@joesleepsalot There's also the skaze in Elantris 10A that insists on calling him hoed instead of Hoid, one wonders why... But on the theory that Hoid used to hold 'Adonalsium' (if we treat it as sort of a super-Shard) there's one major issue. Well, two but one relies on the noncanonical Dragonsteel and not being one of the elect few who have read it I'm working entirely secondhand there. According to the Coppermind, Hoid called himself Topaz (hence 'the gemstone' in the Letter and his talking about being once named for a pretty rock) at some point during that story. Brandon confirmed the connection here. Setting that aside and going with published sources, Secret History has Leras identify Hoid by another alias (Cephandrius) and makes it clear that they knew each other prior to the Shattering. So Hoid was running around on Yolen under at least two names after the Liar of Partinel arc and during the events of the 'main' Dragonsteel story.

Brandon confirmed in a WoB (here) that Hoid's storytelling method in Warbreaker doesn't have any connection to Taldain. So we don't need Liar's sample chapters (dubious as they are) to know that. That said, Hoid has been to Taldain because Brandon confirmed he'll appear in White Sand. Though that means he's been there before Autonomy interdicted the world and we don't know if he's been back since.

@Lwarch While Reckoners itself obviously can't be Cosmere, something like it could certainly fit in the cosmere without too much difficulty. Calamity spoilers And I'd love to see some form of crossover if only because David and Wayne need to meet. I'll second this one. I didn't read them until much later but they are indeed magical.

Oh yes, lots to learn. There's always another secret, etc etc. Enjoy the journey!

There needs to be a Shard of Bacon, dedicated entirely to creating glorious Shardbacon and spreading the gospel of the holy ham. Adonalsium must have loved bacon, if he didn't then he's not fit to be called a God. More seriously, I'm not sure a 'hive mind' Shard would fit if we think of them as being divine attributes that used to be part of a unified whole (which is more or less stated by the Second Letter) since Adonalsium wouldn't have anything to be in a hive mind with. There could be a Shard that has an Intent sort of along those lines (Unity, say) but I think that something like that wouldn't necessarily lead to a hive mind if it invested in a world, unless that's the specific way the Vessel decided to interpret the Intent. And they'd probably have to pull a Scadrial and build the world from the ground up to make that work on humans, I think. For the Aimians, I suspect we can account for the Dysians as an outgrowth of the insectoid life already found on Roshar, whether Adonalsium had a hand in their creation pre-Shattering or if Honor/Cultivation did something afterwards.

Yeah, I know what's what you meant. And I did go back to look at the dates again because I was curious and there are definitely rattles that were recorded after this one. The epigraphs are given to us in chronological order so for example the one in question was recorded on Kakashah 1173 (8th month, 6th week, 5th day) and a couple rattles later we have the one that mentions Dai-gonarthis, recorded on Tanatesach 1173 (9th month, 1st week, 3rd day) so we know that was recorded about twenty days after our Shin sailor told off the silent gatherers

It's not the last one, or at least not the last one we read in the epigraphs. I haven't paid enough attention to the given dates to know where they fit chronologically in-universe. But even if it was the last recorded it wouldn't be the last actual death rattle because we see they're still happening in Words of Radiance.

The only thing that would make an Inquisitor Shardblade-proof would be if they have F-Gold and a large health reserve, because we know Bloodmakers can theoretically heal Shardblade wounds. Under normal circumstances however, they'd be just as dead from Shardblade-to-spine as anyone else. Oh, and setting aside that Inquisitors aren't soulless and so that's a nonstarter, even if they were it wouldn't make them Shardblade-proof; if they're not considered 'alive' then the Shardblade would just cut them on the Physical plane the same it does anything considered 'dead'.

@Secrets Psst, followup question.

The hoed option because you end up with all the perks of being an Elantrian (immortality, extremely versatile magic, being on Sel to learn whatever cool developments will happen there) after the suffering versus being something 'worse than a Drab'. Would you rather have to map out the entire Shattered Plains (chasms included) or have to memorize the nickname of every possible Twinborn combination?

I'm firmly in the camp that the speaker knew he was being killed to provide a death rattle; either he intuited it or something he saw in his last moment gave him the idea. Remember that the people they kill deliberately are in a room with everyone else and someone who remained completly lucid at the end could probably have figured out that the seeming nonsense others sometimes say when they die is the reason they're all down there. In other words, this speaker was telling the silent gatherers they could storm off. The fact that the comment notes that the 'sample' is considered useless is key too. If they thought it was Moelach speaking I think they'd be very interested and anything they considered a genuine death rattle would probably not get that kind of comment.

Having the not of geography, wasing the ways of fish sticks.

Neat theory, I like it! @strumienpola Liar hasn't been abandoned per se, Brandon's still planning on writing it. It's just that we can't rely on the sample chapters available to us because he's stated he wasn't happy with the original effort (including some characters specifically but he won't say who) and he's especially called out his inclusion of Aethers as something that's probably not going to make the final cut, now that he's planning on rewriting the book they originally appeared in as well. That said, we know fainlife is still going to be part of Yolen's backstory because the AU essay on Scadrial talks about how that planet was made in Yolen's image and the flora and fauna found on the former resemble that of the latter 'aside from the fain parts'. Which doesn't prevent some variation on that theme from being the source of the Evil, especially as Threnody is a minor shardworld and unlikely to get the kind of deep development as the major worlds, so a bit of conceptual recycling is probably okay. @The One Who Connects I don't remember that WoB but assuming it's the case for purposes of argument, if you want to get really picky about it since Odium was the one to wound Ambition, we could call him the 'cause' of the Evil as much as Ambition and we knew about Odium before Shadows came out.

Unlike White Sand (Prose) and Aether of Night it's technically publiclly available even if you have to do some digging to find it so under the site rules it's okay to discuss what we know from the sample chapters. However, given everything Brandon has said about it, the discussion wouldn't necessarily lead to much since we can't be sure what he'll keep and what he'll jettison in the ultimately published version. Aside from AU making it clear that fainlife in some form is definitely canon.

I have a feeling that 'not being on Threnody any more' is all the bribe she would really need and everything else is an added bonus. But maybe I just have an unhealthy paranoia where lands featuring murderous ghosts and something called 'The Evil' are concerned.

Yeah, he uses Lightweaving to blend in (for example, passing as Terris during the events of The Well of Ascension) and since everyone treats him as a lighteyes on Roshar that means he's got the epicanthic fold or someone would surely have commented on it by now. Whether he has it naturally or not we can't say, just as we can't say much about his real appearance. Though when he shows up in Secret History he clearly wasn't expecting company so if there's ever a time yet when we've seen him and he's not Lightweaving himself a disguise to some degree, that would be it. Which doesn't tell us much since 'angular features', 'sharp nose' and 'white hair' are pretty common in his guises as well.

They sent out an email about two weeks ago saying that the book was with the printer and that they'll start shipping copies once they get them, no firm date but 'soon'. Probably sooner now since I got that on the 25th. Edit: According to the email I just received, it sounds like they're expecting to have the books ship in April.