Weltall

We have Word of Brandon that such a thing is possible. He's been asked variations of the questions enough times that we know it's possible to survive, though he's said the result would be 'worse than being a Drab'. He's also said in various forms that someone with healing abilities could 'patch' the removed portion of their soul as long as their ability to heal wasn't what was spiked out of them.

Actually, there seems to have been a big push to translate Brandon's works into Spanish recently. I was looking through his listings at Amazon.com and saw a ton of Spanish editions including Warbreaker. I'm guessing that you won't find a free digital copy of it though, since that's something Brandon did for the English version but anyone licensing the work to translate and publish it wouldn't be beholden to that.

The outline he presented us last year was pretty comprehensive so I'm not expecting huge revelations this time but hey, if one happens I will not be the one to complain that we're getting more. So I'll be looking forward to it mainly for his commentary on the past year and if we're pleasantly surprised, so much the better.. ...again.

Doing the math, yes, there should be a missing lerasium bead out there. On the TImewaster's Guide, there's a Word of Peter where someone counted the number. They got nine for the founders of the Noble families (and totally not the Nine Rings...), one Elend used and one Rashek used. Peter said that count was correct plus 'at least one more' (which we know Hoid took from the Well) bringing us to twelve. Peter didn't explain at the time that Rashek didn't actually use that one bead so it seems that yes, at minimum 'Rashek's bead' is potentially out there somewhere. Now, I still suspect that The Lost Metal will focus in some way on atium since that's exactly how the metal is referred to in Era 2 Scadrial but the prospect of learning more about lerasium shouldn't be discounted as well. There's been enough teasing about the prospect of godmetal alloys with special note of lerasium alloys and we still don't have any clue what lerasium does on its own in Feruchemy or Hemalurgy, so we've almost got to find out eventually. Hopefully next book will give us something, though I wouldn't put it past Brandon to make us wait for Era 3 or even 4 if Metallic Arts-based FTL requires godmetal alloys.

Yeah, the spike needs to pierce an appropriate bind point to actually grant a power (Sazed comments in the relevant epigraph that where you place the spike is as important as the metal you use) and the blood is just there to keep the hemalurgic charge from decaying while the spike is outside a body. Even if such a thing were possible, remember that the blood has to be fresh... Points for thinking outside the box (or body) but I don't think it would work.

I'll reread books in preparation for a new release when I want to have all the details fresh in my memory, which kills some time while scratching the Sanderson Itch and you never know what new things you'll spot on a reread. And speaking of which, we're within days of getting the State of the Sanderson update which might have some new tidbits on future plans. And yeah, checking out authors Brandon recommends can be very rewarding. For a personal example, I started reading Jim Butcher after a signing where someone asked Brandon what he was reading and he mentioned the just-released Aeronaut's Windlass as one book. I figured anyone Brandon liked was worth a look and I wasn't disappointed.

The way he answered the question at the Chicago signing, I'm not sure if that means he planned for Hoid to have a little brother originally and forgot when asked or whether that's still the idea in his mind, though the way he started to answer the question (that he doesn't have any relatives for Hoid in his mind) suggests that whether he does or doesn't, it's not going to be significant or he wouldn't have forgotten which it is. xD And yeah, any reference to unfamiliar names by the Vessels is probably going to be revealed whenever Dragonsteel is written since Brandon has said all of them plus Hoid (and presumably Frost, if he's not a Vessel) will all show up there and we'll get to see what they were like pre-Ascension. So a lot of questions on the subject are likely to get RAFO'd until then.

Yeah, electrum is definitely a bit underrated. I mean, it's awesome on its own as an atium counter but it's got potential uses that the characters haven't really explored because they either didn't have the opportunity (the end of the world being a pressing issue) or they didn't have a need (when you have atium that also speeds up your mind to process all that future-sight, why devote time to mastering electrum?) and since we don't have any electrum-users in the Era 2 cast we probably won't see people do interesting things with it until Era 3. Miles did give us an example of a character trying to find uses for Allomantic gold and some Words of Brandon have hinted at other potential applications for that 'useless' metal so I'm sure we'll get more exploration of what's possible with lesser-used metals in future books.

We have WoB (here for example) that anyone worldhopping to Nalthis could gain Breath and perform Awakening (on or offworld) and that BioChroma is one of the easiest systems in the Cosmere to manipulate regardless of your origin, as long as you have the means to obtain a Breath in the first place. And in an additional example of color-draining that's clearly not associated with dyes, Susebron draining color from the stone of his palace to perform massive feats of Awakening. So I don't think there's a 1:1 connection between Awakening and the Tears of Edgli, the latter just works really well in fueling the former and was probably in some way caused by Endowment to make her magic system easier for people to access, given the name.

On Roshar and randomly in Dalinar's army? Plate. You get status from having either and the armor would seem to offer more benefits, what with the incredible protection, enhanced strength and speed. I'm under no illusions about how competent I'd be with a sword so if I'm going to paint a target on my back by having shards, I'd rather it be the one that gives me a fighting chance. Real-world though, definitely the Blade. You can carry it anywhere and it doubles as a tool even if the lack of Plate means you can't cut up boulders and hurl them away on your own, But mainly because it's easier to carry around than Shardplate would be. And you don't have to worry about running out of Stormlight. xD

Third time's the charm then? When asked about the dark lake in Alendi's journal, Brandon said that it's similar to the Well of Ascension and was a manifestation of Ruin's consciousness. And that it still existed in Vin's era but was moved underground. From context the 'other manifestation' he talks about pretty much has to be the pool seen in Elantris. So there seem to be two things at work here, the geodes that produce atium and the liquid pool and they're both implied to be in the same area. Not too surprising given that the lerasium beads were found in proximity to the Well of Ascension. http://twg.17thshard.com/index.php?topic=6655.msg129235#msg129235

Unkeyed metalminds are ones that anyone able to use the appropriate Feruchemical power can access. Wayne can use the goldmind Wax looted because he's a Bloodmaker, Wax can't because he isn't a Bloodmaker. We know how those are created; someone with Feruchemical Aluminum (a Trueself) and at least one other metal can store their Identity in an Aluminummind, then while they're in a 'zero Identity' state they store the trait associated with their other metal. The resulting metalmind has no associated Identity, which is how the metalmind 'knows' who's allowed to access its power, but you still need the underlying power in order to use it, or it's just a piece of metal. How one creates metalminds that anyone can access (and/or grant Allomancy, like the Bands do) we don't know exactly, aside from that it requires the Feruchemical properties of nicrosil. This is what the Southerners medallions are, metalminds incorporating nicrosil and other metals which not only serve as metalminds for one or more attributes but which also grant anyone the ability to use those Feruchemical abilities if they don't already possess them.

Harmony's godmetal is called harmonium, Word of Brandon is that it's not sazedium because Sazed didn't like that name. And we've actually seen ot and it definitely has different physical properties than lerasium. We're not even sure it can be ingested safely so it's impossible to know what its Allomantic properties might be. We're not certain if lerasium or atium could be produced now but there's so much potential in their alloys that I'm leaning heavily in favor of the idea that yes, they can still be created. I dunno, why did Brandon divulge that there are forces in the Cosmere working to bring about the creation of instant noodles? xD But yes, I suspect that at some point the fact that Rashek has at least one descendant still alive in present-day Scadrial will come up in the books, though maybe not in this era. Maybe it will be a totally incidental thing and a character finds out that 'oh hey, my great^great grandfather was the Lord Ruler... that's weird', maybe it will be the start of a holy war with believers in The Sliver* convinced they've found their new messiah, maybe they turn out to be a mistborn, go mad with power and become the serial killer antagonist implied for Era 3... or maybe it turns out that Wayne traded the position of Rashek's descendant for a pack of chewing gum. * I can't check right now but I think it was implied that there's a small Church of the Sliver or something like it in Era 2?

Brandon recently confirmed that Vasher and Nightblood were separated after arriving on Roshar but we don't know how that separation happened. And he's mentioned on a couple of occasions that he's got a database that Team Sanderson use to keep track of things. What I'd give to peek at that... That could be the case; we think that proto-Radiants get better at holding Stormlight the more Oaths they swear so it's possible Vasher is more efficient at holding light than the characters we've seen so far. Another possibility is that the Stormlight that Vasher consumes goes to sustaining himself right away. We don't know exactly how the body of a Returned consumes their Breath, maybe it's possible for someone who's really familiar with the process to 'feed' themselves early. That way, you wouldn't have to rely on having infused spheres handy on one specific day every week and could 'top up' as light was available. I have no idea if such a thing is actually possible but if anyone knows enough about Returned physiology to manage it, it would be Vasher.

Do you at least concede the point? Coinshot/Lurcher 'rollercoasters' to give you the sensation of 'flying' through a recreation of Luthadel or Elendel (I'm sure they can do something with magnets), a haunted house ride with mistwraiths and Steel Inquisitors, a ride through a town in the Roughs a la Disney's 'Frontierland', maybe a water ride based on that one Allomancer Jak story, recreations of bars in Elendel with Wayne singing dirty songs...

My money's on the 'Lost Metal' being atium, since it's already referred to as such in-universe. Whether it comes from Marsh's cache or Harmony starts generating the stuff again who knows. But Kelsier did say it would take about three hundred years for the geodes to regrow and I'm not entirely certain that number is a coincidence. And Brandon apparently RAFO'd a question on that number with a smile on his face so... Easy, you swallow it and then you blow up. Yeah, he said that Allomancy 'genes' and Feruchemy ones interfere with one another. www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=632#1

Ahh, I was ninja'd as I was typing up more or less that exact same response. xD Well, I'll add that in addition to immortality via Fifth Heightening (either by acquiring more Breath on her own or hitting up her brother in law who has a rather large store of the things), Vivenna has another possible method of extending her lifespan. We're told that worldhoppers experience some form of time dilation and all the ones we've met repeatedly are still alive centuries (possibly millenia) after they should have died of old age. So Vivenna could probably take advantage of whatever method they use, maybe running laps around the Cognitive Realm and taking advantage of relativity in some way while waiting for Vasher to get done doing his thing, or hanging out in Silverlight, or who knows what. Anyhow, she could definitely still be alive. That said, just because we're going to learn about her 'soon' doesn't necessarily mean we'll see her or that she's even alive. I'd certainly prefer that but for all we know, Oathbringer will include a scene where 'Zahel' misses her and reflects on how long it's been since she passed away. If I were being cheeky, I'd say that revealing that sort of thing wouldn't be 'spoiling' the eventual release of Nightblood because... Journey before Destination. <still crosses fingers that Vivenna is indeed still alive, even if she's not on Roshar>

So far nothing Brandon has said (not that he's said much, mind you) contradicts the statement that the next era will have a Mistborn serial killer so it seems like they'll definitely return for that and there are several mechanisms by which they could emerge. If Spook had descendants who don't have any Terris blood (and thus none of the sDNA interference that Allomancy and Feruchemy have with each other) then it's possible one of them might someday snap and find out that hey, they're able to use all the metals. Or Harmony could deliberately make someone a Mistborn like he did with Spook. Or more lerasium could turn up; its 'rewrite spiritweb' properties and the Ars Arcanum entries in Era 2 on the potential of godmetal alloys in Feruchemy hint at other uses we might see someday. Or the theory that the Set has a long-term plan to breed a Mistborn could be correct (recent developments there notwithstanding), which could even explain how a Mistborn serial killer might come to exist. Or any combination of the above or some more things I probably haven't thought of. Brandon has said that Spook was made less powerful than a lerasium mistborn and by implication weaker than the Lord Ruler had made himself with the power of the Well. www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=727#4

That analogy isn't as good as you seem to think. Most souls in Wheel of Time are just the same as people who pass Beyond in the Cosmere, for all intents and purposes gone. It's only the rare ones who persist and can potentially interact with the living, just like there are relatively few Cognitive Shadows. Obviously WoT has its own setup where all souls persist in some sense so they can be reborn the next time the cycle of time repeats but until that happens, the souls of 99.9999999% of people who die are effectively gone 'forever' from the perspective of any given cycle. We get that there are characters we'd love to see again but if wishes came true just because we made them, we'd have the complete series by now, with annotations, appendixes and complete encyclopedias. And full movie or television adaptations. And Mistborn theme parks. And Soonie Cubs. And Stick would reign supreme over all! <deep breath> Okay, I'm better now.

One thing that just came up so it isn't reflected in the article yet is that there's now some uncertainty over how Hoid's plot-detection sense works. Early on he said it was an 'unknown application of Feruchemy' which we assume to mean chromium (storing 'Fortune') but Brandon recently said that Hoid could be using something with the same underlying principle without it actually being Feruchemy that he's using, so that one's now a question mark and could be a Yolish antecedent or some other magic system. Hoid also obtained the Moon Scepter during the events of The Emperor's Soul, which Brandon has described as the 'Selish Investiture Rosetta Stone', letting you translate the different symbols from one system of magic on that world into the equivalent from another system and understand what they mean. We don't know exactly how that works but it makes it clear that Hoid is still interested in Selish magic even after trying and failing to become an Elantrian. Brandon also implied that the Scepter would make it slightly easier to use Selish magic offworld though it apparently isn't a magic wand to solve all the associated problems by itself. He's leaving the rest as an exercise for us and/or the Elantris sequels.

Brandon has said that a spiked person who survived the experience could heal the damaged portion of the soul but the result would be a 'patch', not the original soul. He was asked about Miles potentially being spiked for his Allomantic gold and whether he could heal that back with Feruchemy and said it might be possible, so perhaps you could steal an attribute multiple times or steal more than one attribute by getting the donor to heal between spikings. Trick is, first you'd need to spike them in a way that they survive the experience (possible but apparently not all that common) and second, the soul-healing would have to work in a way that it doesn't mess up your spiritweb when it comes to other abilities and we don't know enough about that to know whether or not it would be an issue. But I suspect we'll learn more since hemalurgical research has indeed continued.

Just remember what might as well be the tagline for the entire Cosmere: There's always another secret. Some things are always going to remain a mystery. Incidentally, coming back after dying pretty much always requires the divine intervention from 'fractional gods' (except for Threnody where it happens without any active intercession, but Shades seem to operate more on instinct than other cognitive shadows) and having something beyond even them fits in with the themes of the series. Only about three hundred have passed at this point and he doesn't appear to know more in Era 2 than he did at the end of Era 1. He wants to believe there's something to the Beyond but admits he doesn't know.

On Sel we get mention of Tooledoo and ShinDa which are respectively a card game from Duladel and a board game from JinDo. There's also a Svordish sport called Leky-stick, which is where Sarene's nickname comes from. Shai's guards are mentioned as playing at card games as well. And then there's the made-up game of Stones from the deleted 'Mad Prince' chapters but that only existed in the mind of an insane man. xD Scadrial has lots of entertainment options. Mistborn mentions Fets (a board game) and Shelldry (unknown) and if it's not the same thing Kelsier talks about card games and confidence tricks. Lots of Era 2 characters talk about cards as well (especially Wayne) and Steris mentions dice. We also know that they're eventually going to get motion pictures and in the meantime they clearly enjoy written pulpy adventure stories. Brandon has also implied that comic books will become a thing by Era 3 and we can assume broadcast music and radio dramas will show up as well once that technology becomes widely distributed. Nalthis, as noted, has Tarachin which Lightsong manages to win despite not knowing how the game is played. Vivi sees Parlin learning to play a game that involves wooden cards and Siri implies that card games are known in Idris as well since she remembers a soldier who spent all his time playing cards while getting others to do all his work. Roshar has Michim (a guessing game with colored rocks), Kabers (a card game) and Breakneck (which seems to involve 'throws' but also 'hands') and dice are mentioned in the context of Szeth finding odd the Vorin proscription on anything even resembling predicting the future. They've also got glass marbles.

Do we know he can't leave Yolen or that he simply chooses not to? Given his apparent non-interventionist stance and his belief that worldhoppers are mucking up Adonalsium's Divine Plan, perhaps he can leave the planet but simply doesn't want to. True, something could be constraining him more directly but we shouldn't overlook that he might be staying on Yolen purely out of choice.

I empathize most with Khriss and her quest for knowledge followed closely by Jasnah and hers, but Jasnah gets the nomination for now because she's more of a character at this point while Khriss is more like a walking, talking background event who's just starting to take shape as an individual.