Weltall

Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

@TheCremling Travel the cosmere, see interesting places, it's a perk of the job. As long as she eventually bought him that new coat.

First, where are you getting that they're selling more copies? I still see them saying 52. Second, even if they do sell more as long as they stop taking orders after printing and don't do more after that point, you're not really harmed if twenty or so more people have a copy of the book than you were expecting to. It's still a limited edition nobody else will have and everyone paid the same amount, it's just a limited edition of slightly more. Good luck proving harm. Third, I'm trying and failing to think of a polite way to point out what a colossal chull it makes you look like to consider some kind of legal complaint over a Brandon Sanderson book, by a new press that he wanted to give some publicity to.

Dalinar out-Dad's the Stormfather and gets a (giant) Shardblade after all. He drops it on a Voidbringer army like a colony in a Gundam show. And Ashyn is Alderaan, so that's why the planet is so messed up!

Nice find on the origin of the word! As for the Parshendi transformation issue and Edgedancer, there's a recent WoB that's relevant:

@dyring Actually, Brandon has stated that she works with the Seventeenth Shard but she's not a member (though her former companion Baon is). On the subject of the other party to the Letters, while Brandon has not (so far as I know) directly confirmed it, he's said enough things in combination that we can be more or less certain that the other party is Frost. He's said the other party is older than Hoid and he's stated that the two oldest characters are Frost, then Hoid which pretty much acts as a confirmation, along with mentioning that Frost has not been seen in person but has made an appearance of sorts and has a non-intervention policy, just like a certain 'old reptile'. Actually, a paraphrase of a WoB (here) suggests he may have confirmed it directly but we'd have to ask the original questioner or someone else who was there for the exact wording to be sure.

David would be all over this topic like a jellyfish with a toothache.

Devotion (as a synonym for Love) is even more diametrically opposed to Odium and it's entirely possible that Aona found herself second/third on Odium's Murder List for precisely that reason. The fact that she was working together with another Shard also makes her dangerous to him for a similar reason that Harmony's dangerous. I like the theory that Devotion and Dominion were taken out by Odium and Autonomy working together to take out their opposing numbers and Brandon has hinted that this sort of thing might just have happened offscreen at some point (WoB). We don't need to read any more into Odium's stuffing their power into the Cognitive Realm than 'he wanted to make absolutely sure nobody would take that power up again'. Ambition was wounded in the space between worlds in the Threnodite System and finished off somewhere else so its power was really dispersed but the Selish pair might have been taken up again at some point in the future if that power remained available. Odium might indeed have tried doing the same thing to Honor except that 1) there was another Shard on the planet he had to worry about and 2) the Oathpact might have constrained him. Thus, I don't think we need to read anything special into the manner in which Odium dealt with Devotion and Dominion and there certainly isn't enough to use that as the basis for thinking they were his parents. 'Being willing to murder the guy who currently had the God gig' is the only qualification we can determine at this point, with varying reasons for why one would participate so we can't use that to narrow anything down.

We have other WoB that Odium would be willing to work with other Shards provided he gets to be in charge and Brandon has implied this has already happened in the past. Given that we know Odium is afraid of Harmony because he's potentially strong enough to splinter him, it's not too much of a stretch that Odium would call in help to take down his newest potential challenger. And some of what's going on in Era 2 Scadrial certainly looks like Autonomy's handiwork while others look like Odium's...

The Old Magic does seem to have a heavy emphasis on the Cognitive Realm, with Lift's boon (or curse, or both), Mr T's seesawing intelligence and compassion, the one man who ended up seeing the world upside-down for the rest of his life, Dalinar's lost memories and inability to hear his wife's name... and yeah, really want to know more about it. Given that Oathbringer is Dalinar's flashback novel, our odds are looking pretty good.

Trell is probably not a god independent of Adonalsium but one of the Shards with a propensity for meddling and for alter-egos. Though you'll need to follow WoBs to actually know about that since it's not obvious from the books. Arcanum Unbounded spoiler As far as other gods go though... maybe. Hoid uses the plural when talking about learning his storytelling art from a place where 'gods have died' and we have several reasons to believe he was talking about Yolen. Though whether we should take it to mean that there were multiple Adonalsium-like entities or if there were other things the people called gods (along the lines of super-spren like the Stormfather, or extremely powerful individuals like the Hallandren God-Kings or the Lord Ruler) we don't know. Brandon has not been forthcoming on the topic of the God Beyond so we really can't say anything about it other than 'it's something people on multiple worlds believe in'. For all we know, since the non-Cosmere aware think of their local Shards as Gods, the God Beyond could even be Adonalsium by another name. Or it could be Adonalsium's cognitive shadow (if it could have one) or it could be something completely unrelated. Or it could not exist and just be a belief that's sprung up independently and we're only seeing the same term on multiple worlds because of translation convention. We really can't say. Myself, I rather like the idea that the story Ym tells the orphan in Way of Kings ('the One who became Many') is actually a memory of Adonalsium. In that reading, he would have allowed himself to be Shattered so that at some point in the future he could be recreated with a Vessel who had truly experiened the world. There are some parallels to real beliefs that God (in one variation or another) created the universe in order to attain self-knowledge. It sounds like the sort of idea Brandon would be interested in playing with.

We know Hoid's relationships with the Vessels came in all types. Leras thought of him as an old friend but was hoping he'd stop meddling in their affairs, something before the Shattering made him have a grudge against Rayse and Bavadin (maybe for independent reasons, maybe linked), he seems to have rather liked Tanavast and he never got along with Cultivation's holder. So for all we know, this one mystery Shard could have been taken up by someone Hoid liked, someone he doesn't think much of one way or the other or someone he hates with a fiery passion because he once stole Hoid's instant noodles. That said, what Brandon has clarified about the 'Survival Shard' is that it's aware what's going on in the Cosmere and that's why it's keeping its head down and hoping everything will pass it by. Someone with that kind of mindset is highly unlikely to be sending out a multiplanetary team of worldhoppers to do... whatever it is they're doing. We know the Seventeenth Shard has some specific purpose but all we know of that is that one thing they're trying to do is find Hoid. And they have some connection with Frost.

The inhabitants of Tukar, a kingdom on Roshar bordering and currently at war with Emul. This is of some interest because the Emuli capital of Sesemalex Dar is one of the oldest cities in the world and some think it might be a Dawncity, ie dating back to whatever event in history is behind the story of humanity being driven out of the Tranquiline Halls. And the Tukari specifically are of special interest because in Words of Radiance Mraize talks about 'that creature in Tukar' (presumably its priest-king Tezim) and thinks he's either not human or, if human, not one who was born on Roshar. Which could mean all sorts of things and obviously makes him and by extension his kingdom and people a matter of interest to us.

Brandon has repeatedly RAFO'd questions about Copper compounding.

Dalinar's wife was actually named shhshhssshh Flangria is people! Adolin does not become an Edgedancer or a Dustbringer. Instead he becomes an ardent and retires to a life of quiet contemplation Vasher really came to Roshar to hide from Vivenna, who threatened to take Nightblood to his stupid perma-scruff. He's waiting until she cools down before trying to go home. Roshar used to be known as Kobol

@Extesian I know terminology around the Southerners technology is a bit imprecise right now but in that answer I think he's talking about a metalmind anyone can access, rather than one that anyone with the right Feruchemical power can use. Mostly because 'more unkeyed metalminds' implies that the questioner was thinking Hoid already possesses such a thing and the only one we know about is the Coppermind coin which anyone can use, and Brandon's response suggests that's how he interpreted the question as well. So I don't think that necessarily proves Hoid independently has Feruchemy. I mean, maybe he does but I don't think that WoB necessarily proves it either way.

I don't know the answer to that one offhand but we know with Oathbringer that he changed up his usual process and did second draft revisions in the course of writing the first draft. And yeah, he's been committed to a November release for a while now. It's unlikely to be moved up even if he finishes everything early (extra time to go over everything or just to account for unknowns never hurts, especially when you've already told everyone to expect a particular month) and I think he's got a good enough handle on everything after ten years to know that it's not likely to take him much longer than he's already planned for now that he's at the point in the writing process where things stand today.

Uggh, I really hate the new board's treatment of quote and spoiler tags, it makes it really difficult to respond to lists like this without awkward cutting and pasting. Anyways.... - Spook would probably have been more confident since Lurchers are more obviously 'useful', but then he wouldn't develop into the person he became in HoA and probably wouldn't have become the savior of Urteau, wouldn't have learned about spikes and sent that message to Vin, Marsh wouldn't have read it and then things could have ended very differently. Though given Secret History, I'm sure a backup plan could have been arranged. - Scadrial wouldn't exist because Preservation and Ruin created the place from the ground up. If another Shard or combination created a world in its place, we have literally no way of knowing how it would have developed. - No skaa rebellion, Vin dies when the Steel Inquisitors catch up with her old crew, world's probably screwed. Which is why it's a very good thing that Preservation planned ahead with a vengeance. - She would have been useless to Ruin because he couldn't nudge her in the direction he wanted and she wouldn't have been able to sense the Well of Ascension. Preservation would probably have foreseen this and nudged her to do what needed to be done anyways and if not, someone else would probably have gotten the job, found the well and repeated the cycle until eventually Preservation's plan could be carried out. - Wayne would just complain about Wax ruining his favorite shirt and heal. - Steris becomes Harmony's next Chosen One and turns out to be the true protagonist of The Lost Metal. And being the only known Mistborn and thus the most obvious source for Mistborn sDNA, her descendant how ever many generations down the road Era 3 happens winds up being the Mistborn serial killer Brandon's told us about.

No, I am the Stick of Ultimate Reality that shall beat your headcanon. Stick>All. <Joins you in your headcanon regardless because I'd like it to be that way too>

Brandon has made it clear (WoB) that the Spiritual Realm =/= Beyond so we can't really use anything we know about the former to deduce the nature of the latter.

So essentially a spike that stole F-Aluminum? I want to say that it might not actually work at all in that situation, here's how I'm getting that: A is the original Feruchemist, B is the first spikee and C is the second spikee. A gets spiked, resulting in a Hemalurgic spike containing A's ability to use F-Aluminum. B uses that spike and stores their own Identity in a metalmind (IIRC, we don't know that aluminum can steal Feruchemical enhancement powers so you might not be able to store in the spike itself but I don't think it affects the reasoning either way) C somehow gets ahold of B's spike and metalmind (if the two are separate). Now, they have A's ability to use F-Aluminum and have a metalmind with stored Identity. But that stored identity is B's Identity, so C shouldn't be able to tap it because they aren't B. The spike is still A's F-Aluminum but the Identity stored in the metalmind is neither A's nor C's so it shouldn't be any more useable to C than any other metalmind. Now, assuming I haven't comitted some Realmatic blunder in my logic, the original idea could still happen if you cut it down to just A and B, with A having previously stored Identity in a metalmind. Then B could access that metalmind because 'B's Feruchemy' and 'A's Feruchemy' are one and the same. And that's the point where I'd throw up my hands and say that I have absolutely no clue what tapping someone elses identity would do. xD

Malatium is basically just the external application of A-Gold so it shouldn't do anything in conjunction with Atium or Gold. And given how uncomfortable burning Gold is generally described as being (even if you don't try touching the gold shadows) I doubt you'd want to try burning that metal anywhere near a fight, which is where you'd be most likely to burn atium. Accidentally touch a gold shadow, get sick, suddenly see all your possible futures end in you getting your chull kicked. Edit: Storming profanity filters... Malatium/Duralumin might do something similar to what happens in Secret History, since we know that Atium/Duralumin gives you a peek into the Spiritual Realm so the effect might be similar to flaring Malatium at the moment of transition. But that's just a guess. Gold or Electrum and Duralumin might boost how far into your past/future you can see but again, that's just a guess. Waste perfectly good atium, I'd wager. If you're burning Bendalloy then everything outside the bubble is moving super-slow to your perception; as we know from Era 2 you have plenty of time to figure out how to react to stuff outside a speed bubble under normal circumstances so you don't need atium. And with Cadmium everything moves super-fast to your perspective so the atium shadows would presumably be sped up as well and while you might be able to process them (since atium expands your mind normally) there's little reason to do that when you could just burn the atium normally and not have to worry that you're effectively frozen in time from the perspective of everyone around you. Not sure what exactly you're asking here, could you clarify it?

Probably not. Iron found in chemical compounds (ie what the body needs for nutrition, we don't consume iron in its pure form) wouldn't be perceived as burnable so it shouldn't be an issue.

Atium plus Electrum can show you going through the area where the fake boulder is without being harmed and can show you how Lightweaving illusions of people react or don't react like a real person should. And creating a mass illusion like that would take a huge amount of Stormlight and we already know that the Heralds burn through it faster than Radiants do. TLR shouldn't have much trouble waiting out a Herald if it really comes down to that since their Surgebinding, healing and enhanced (past whatever they can already do) reflexes all depend on Stormlight while TLR's powers each use an independent reserve. Even if a single coin or button doesn't do much more than inconvenience a Herald, each one requires healing and that will drain more Stormlight until eventually they run out. Not sure how you're not seeing that he did indeed say that soulcasting a person is hard. Emphasis added: Ergo, Soulcasting an ordinary human is harder than soulcasting nonliving matter and Soulcasting someone Invested is harder still because the two Investitures interfere with one another. Again, TLR is about the most Invested you can get aside from being a God-King, ergo TLR is about the hardest thing in the Cosmere to Soulcast. Brandon implied that TLR did indeed know about Chromium. We know for a fact that he knew about other metals like Duralumin and Electrum that he kept secret and we also know that less than twenty years after his death, the Bands of Mourning were created with all sixteen metals, including by necessity Chromium's alloy Nicrosil. So yes, we have every reason to assume that TLR knew about Chromium.

We have WoB that soulcasting an ordinary person is very hard and soulcasting someone with Investiture is even harder (here). Now factor in that TLR is one of the most heavily-Invested people we know about (along with the God-Kings) and you've got someone much harder to soulcast than an ordinary Mistborn, who's already noted as being harder to soulcast than a human. Brandon doesn't flat-out say that it's impossible but... it's probably impossible. Especially when that person is not only invested to the gills but has had a millenia worth of built-up Cognitive self-perception to overcome. On Chromium, we don't have firsthand evidence that it works on other forms of Investiture (Brandon RAFOs questions like that) but if we can take any part of the Nicki Savage story in the BoM broadsheet at face value, then one can indeed Leech other Investiture, as the titular character temporarily disables a gun used by Nazh which appears to be powered by/employ Shades from Threnody. Whether a Larkin could absorb other Investiture or if its biology is keyed to only certain manifestations, we can't say. As for what TLR can do offensively, bear in mind that with both forms of Pewter going he doesn't need any flashy abilities, he just needs to get close enough to punch you in the head. We know from the Jasnah chapter released online that a crushing blow to the head will still kill you even if you've got Stormlight healing and while that chapter doesn't sound like it's going to ultimately be in Oathbringer, there's no reason to doubt that bit of mechanics trivia. And unless the Heralds are somehow inherently immune to emotional manipulation (the fact that they're all various degrees of insane suggests not) Duralumin-boosted Zinc or Brass can shut them down pretty effectively too.