Weltall

With the power of your imagination? xD More seriously, we know from the postscript that the essay on the Drominad System was written at some time before the events of Sixth of the Dusk so it's vaguely possible that between her writing the essay and the time of the story, they figured out a form of FTL travel that gets around the problems of observing worlds that don't have perpendicuarities or at least have ones that aren't easily/safely accessible. Though I do still lean pretty heavily on the side of 'the Ones Above are from Scadrial' since we know they're going to have FTL technology eventually.

Yeah, he's confirmed the sixteen original Vessels were all Yolenese so he was presumably RAFOing whether there were pre-Shattering worldhoppers. Other than Adonalsium, which we know about. And Brandon confirmed that Cephandrius was one of Hoid's oldest aliases but not his real name at a signing last year, so the name we got in the Liar of Partinel sample chapters is presumably still his true name until we're given reason to believe otherwise. Crack theory time: Hoid is actually his real name and the person named Hoid in Liar of Partinel who we assume Hoid named himself after was actually named for Hoid, who's much older even at that point in time than we were led to believe in the sample.

The WoB is pretty explicit on soulcasting having an additional restriction that other forms of surgebinding do not, so I don't think that breathing in the Stormlight would make a difference one way or the other. When Shallan soulcast the ship, she shattered the spheres she was getting her Stormlight from. We don't know what the gemstones were specifically but the fact that they cracked in exactly the same way that gemstones do when using a soulcaster fabrial (whether you actually need it or not) seems to confirm that yes, Radiant soulcasting has the same gemstone-based restriction as fabrial soulcasting. And Brandon didn't stick any qualifiers into his WoB and he explicitly called it out as a form of surgebinding so it's unlikely he intended for us to see a distinction between fabrial and non-fabrial soulcasting in this respect.

On the 'Hoid has feruchemy' thing, Brandon expanded his earlier explanation of how he gets where he needs to be at one of the signings. What he said is that the underlying mechanism that Hoid uses to know where a novel-worthy plot is happening is identical to feruchemical chromium but that Hoid isn't necessarily using feruchemy to achieve that end. He may be using a Yolish antecedent or some other form of Investiture that works on the same principle as feruchemical chromium, without needing to be a feruchemist himself. Of course he left himself wiggle room so that Hoid could indeed be a feruchemist but he doesn't have to be one to accomplish what he does. So the question of 'how did Hoid gain feruchemy?' is now mooted until we know if he's actually using chromium to plan his schedule or if he's got some other method that has a similar effect.

Stormlight Science Theater 3000, with Kaladin as the hapless test subject accompanied by his spren pals Syl, Pattern and Wyndle. And Jasnah and Shallan are the Mads who are performing the experiments For Research! Also, no Stick interlude and also no deleted scene from The Emperor's Soul with Hoid's appearance. Ah well, there will be other opportunities for those to appear in printed form.

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! Is it? I wasn't sure if that applies in Cosmere Theories. I don't have a solid explanation on why it wouldn't glow that can't also be used to argue for other theories (like 'metal with special properties') but it's the only thing that Kelsier calls attention to. The bolt from the camp stool that he tries to swallow and burn for example isn't remarked upon so I assume it was glowing, or Kelsier might have wondered about that too. My best explanation at this one would be that maybe an Awakened object like Nightblood 'sees' itself exactly as it looks in the Physical and so doesn't look any different Cognitively since it doesn't glow in the Physical. Kind of like Stick, but sharp and pointy. Edgedancer spoiler with some additional thoughts: Maybe it didn't think Kelsier would make an interesting conversationalist? I don't know, but I do know that Khriss and Nazh seem to think there is an Awakened object on Scadrial during Era 2 that could be mistaken for a tool, unless there's some other way of getting metal to talk back to you that we haven't learned about yet. This seems like the kind of subtle tie-in that Brandon enjoys, especially since Bands of Mourning and Secret History were released side by side. Now, I'll readily grant that the existence of another Type IV entity defies what we know so far (but see above, they appear to think one exists) and nothing we see the knife do screams 'it's Awakened' but we only have the one example. For all we know, one could create an Awakened knife with a less obvious property than Nightblood has. Or possibly it can't talk to Kelsier because he doesn't have a Physical presence for some reason. Just tossing possibilities out there. And as for why Nazh would give such a thing to Kelsier? Well, the poor guy gets sent on so many seemingly impossible jobs by Khriss that maybe he felt extra sympathetic to Kelsier and his seemingly impossible cause.

We have some suspicion that one of the Ones Above is a kandra and/or someone with feruchemy because of what we hear in Sixth of the Dusk but we never actually see the Ones Above 'on-screen'. We do however know that they're a people we've seen before. The evidence for them being Scadrians is definitely stronger than the evidence for them being the Ire, though the possibility of them being from Silverlight is interesting and something that we could really only start thinking about just now that we've learned more about that location and the people to be found there. I can answer that if you don't mind a bit of material from the Arcanum Unbounded essay

Someone at last night's signing asked whether it would be possible to create a Shardblade (or other weapon) with multiple parts from a single spren, like two smaller swords. The answer (paraphrased) was 'technically yes but that would require splitting the soul of the spren and it wouldn't like that very much'. The person who asked said he guessed this meant no Shardnunchucks and got a good laugh from the crowd. So yeah, for a Radiant who likes bows, you'd have to pick between making your spren the bow or the arrow. Not sure what benefit you'd get out of making them into a bow (because they already have 'Shardbows' that are made to be used by people with the enhanced strength of Shardplate) aside from not having to hand-carry the bow around everywhere. But then you wouldn't get any of the special cutting properties of a Shardblade.

I was fond of the idea that there were eleven Unmade (because that would be a deliberate poke in the eye to Honor in a 'ten is holy to you, hah, I'll do you one better' sense) but wotj Braize having nine-centric numerology according to that WoB then nine Unmade it is. Now to wait for Oathbringer so we can learn more...

Last night at a signing I got the chance to ask Brandon if the reason Nazh's knife doesn't glow to Kelsier's eyes was because it wasn't made on Scadrial or if it was some property of the specific metal it was made from. The exact quote I was wondering about: I didn't even get to finish the question before he got a grin on his face and I knew I was about to get a RAFO. That got me thinking and unfortunately I didn't ask a followup question that might have made this theory stronger ('Does he want his knife back?') but alas, this theory only occurred to me today. What theory you ask? That Nazh's knife is Awakened, a Type IV BioChromatic Entity. This might explain why the knife doesn't glow to Kelsier, because it's already heavily Invested with something he has no Connection to and can't process. We also have Word of Brandon that Nightblood would be one of the hardest things to affect with Steelpushing owing to how heavily invested it is, so there's already confirmed 'interference' of a sort between Allomancy and Awakened metal. That however isn't the reason I think Nazh has an Awakened knife, just the reasoning I applied to my original question after the brainwave hit me. The serious evidence I think we might have for this theory is hidden in the New Ascendancy broadsheets in Bands of Mourning. One of the advertisements there reads "Do your metal tools speak to you? Your neighbors probably don't want to hear about it. But WE do! Visit 27 Ralen Place. Ask for K or N. Bring the talking metal with you." Obviously, Khriss and Nazh think there may be Awakened metal on Scadrial at this point in time. I can't see this as being a question about hemalurgic spikes because while one of those might have been repurposed as a tool, it would only 'speak' to you if you stuck yourself with it. So, Awakened object on Scadrial. The only such thing we know about is Nightblood and while it might plausibly find its way to Scadrial (based on Era 2 Mistborn happening between Stormlight 5 and 6, so for all we know it's no longer on Roshar by that point) it could never be mistaken for a tool. It's a sword, it's really good at the stabby slashy stuff but you can't imagine building anything with it. But a knife? Now that could be mistaken for a tool. I think that Nazh wants that knife back and is hoping that somone on Scadrial has found it or can give him clues to its whereabouts. Now, we know that the knife was left in the Cognitive Realm when Kelsier Ascended but Nazh doesn't necessarily knoiw that and we have no idea what happened to the knife later. If Nazh knows Kelsier is now running around the Physical Realm again, he might also suspect that the knife came with him, or that it was retreived from the Cognitive Realm some other way in the past three centuries and is on Scadrial waiting to be found. So, thoughts?

While looking for WoBs on allomancy unrelated to this topic I stumbled upon something Brandon said on the topic of Vin and the power of the Well. He said that if she had tried to take the power and become a 'good' version of the Lord Ruler, she probably wouldn't have ended up any better than he did, because she was already 'tainted' by Ruin. But note that this was specifically if she tried to exploit the same loopholes Rashek did to become immortal and rule the world until the next refilling of the Well, not in the context of what might have happened if she took up the power but lived out a normal lifespan afterwards. Incidentally, he also said that Vin would have needed hemalurgy to pull off the immortality trick, so apparently she couldn't use the Well's power to give herself feruchemy the same way Rashek gave himself allomancy. I guess because feruchemy is from both Preservation and Ruin. http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=727#43 Anyhow, thought this was an interesting tidbit to share.

I heard you ask those (I was waaaaay in the back past the cafe) and I love that you thought to ask about the perfume. And he said that's one he does plan on answering at some point. The mystery deepens... Oooh, nice. I love learning anything about Yolen. For my own reactions: Brandon is amazing. By the time I got to signing and asking questions, he'd been doing it for the best part of three hours (already past the time he said he expected to be there, during the Q&A) with probably sixty people after me and he was going like he could keep doing it until dawn. And he didn't even flinch when I brought out a stack of books. He said some people early on brought twenty, so I guess that relatively speaking, I wasn't too demanding. And apparently someone at a recent David Weber signing at Borderlands brought multiple carts worth of books, which just boggles the mind. So, my questions: - I asked if someone who had a lot of Breath would have it weaken collectively, in the same way that the single Breaths of children are more vibrant than others and move one slightly closer to a Heightening, then weaken as they grow older (and contribute slightly less towards a Heightening). He said that it wouldn't be noticeable once you accumulate enough Breath and, for example, Hoid wouldn't find himself suddenly losing perfect pitch as a function of time. - I asked if Nazh's knife didn't glow to Kelsier's eyes because the metal wasn't from Scadrial generally or whether it was a metal with some particular property. I didn't even get to finish the second half of that before he got that smile and I knew what was coming next. Sure enough, I collected a shiny RAFO card. Incidentally, is that a recent thing? Because the last signing I went to was a bit over a year ago and he didn't have those then. - On the less serious side, I asked what Hoid's favorite flavor of instant noodles is. At first I think he misheard me asking what his own favorite is ('spicy Korean ramen' apparently, though I don't remember the exact specifics) so I clarified. He said that Hoid is looking forward to instant noodles but they aren't Yolenese and he knows about them via the same method that he knows where he needs to be in the Cosmere. - That gave me the opportunity to ask one last question, about feruchemical chromium and whether storing fortune would cause you to risk experiencing really improbable things, like the entropy curse in The Dresden Files. He said he wasn't going to answer questions about fortune, that the MAG shouldn't be taken as gospel on this point (I don't remember how it works there and didn't mention it, he brought it up on his own) and that he's planning something different than we might be thinking, for how that mechanic will function. I left a couple other questions on the table, so the sixty or so people behind me could have their turn. Lots and lots of very dedicated (and patient) fans there.

Yep, it's commonly been speculated that he's using 'luck' to get where he needs to be. Actually, this was confirmed just yesterday at a signing when someone asked a question on the topic and the answer they got was that Hoid isn't necessarily using chromium feruchemy but the underlying mechanic of how he gets where he needs to be is the same. And that he gets places without knowing why he needs to be there at first. Welcome to the Shard!

Yep, especially since his first conversation seemed like it could be an attempt to get Lift to think about where she fits into the world (an issue she raises herself) and that sort of nudging is the kind of thing Hoid has done multiple times before. And then the pleasant/horrifying surprise to learn that... there was another secret.

If you want, you can post the questions you're thinking of asking here and we can give feedback. There's also a big list of questions if you're looking for new ones (and the topic itself is a good place for discussing questions) you might like to check out. And if you do ask a question and it gets RAFO'd, don't feel bad. It happens to all of us sometimes; in fact the first signing I went to, that's exactly what happened to me.

We saw Pattern go between knife-sized and typical Shardblade-sized in Words of Radiance without Shallan commenting on a change in weight so this seems to be an established thing the spren can do. Not sure how a sentient concept can 'partially' become a physical thing while the rest of them is floating around in the Cognitive Realm but Syl did say that physics on Roshar is more like 'an agreement between friends' to not break the brains of the puny humans so who knows. xD

We know that holding a large amount of Breath does have postmortem effects, as Clod retains more Cognitive functionality than a normal Lifeless because of the amount of Breath that Arsteel had when he died, per WoB. However, that doesn't say anything about being able to survive when you give away the Divine Breath. I mean, maybe if you had enough extra Breaths to reach the Fifth Heightening on your own you could somehow trick your body into thinking you weren't aging but if the Divine Breath is what's keeping your spiritweb going in the first place I doubt that would actually work, and it would go against Brandon's concept for the entire Returned system, of a one-shot healing miracle that requires you to sacrifice your life to do it. Also, a Divine Breath isn't 'just' two thousand or so normal Breaths in one, it's a deliberately crafted Splinter of Endowment so it's got properties that are (so far as we know) utterly unique. Not to say such a thing is completely impossible because there's so much about BioChroma that's still unknown but my instinct is that it's unlikely. As far as looking at the personalities of Shashara and Vasher go, remember that Manywar-era Vasher isn't the same person that we know, three centuries later. It's basically stated that Vasher started the Manywar and only had a change of heart after seeing Nightblood in action. He doesn't see himself as a hero even now and back when Nightblood was created, he definitely wasn't one. Oh, and welcome to the Shard. xD

Two days until the event. So, who else is going? I'll be there with a stack of unsigned books, a stack of questions and my 'This coffee is making me Awesome' cup.

Eh, I needed a number so I pulled one out of thin air for how long I figure it might take them to get FTL and reach the final era of the Mistborn series. Feel free to substitute your own.

We've seen what Rashek looks like to the eyes of people burning Malatium and there's no difficulty recognizing his past Terris packman self and the Lord Ruler as being one and the same. It doesn't seem likely that he transformed himself, he just happened to be one of the Terris who could pass well enough for Khlennium to allay any early suspicion (at least, any early suspicion that he didn't overcome with the counter of 'I have a very large army so you just nod and smile') and after he finished conquering the world, nobody was around who could say he wasn't Alend. And I don't think he transformed the Terris people either (aside from the ones who became the kandra) since they're noted to have a range of skin tones. Given how he upended the world, the only thing he really needed to do to obscure his past was enough time and he had that to spare. They're not unique, though. It's mentioned that there are other peoples on Scadrial with dark skin.

He's got a pretty good track record so far xD But yes, he conned Preservation into letting him stay and then he decided to remain when Vin and Elend went Beyond because there are just too many juicy secrets waiting to be uncovered for his secret-loving self to resist. So I'd think it's quite safe to say that Kelsier puts 'seeing Mare again' at the bottom of his priority list. Now I'm imagining the very end of the franchise when he runs out of things to do and finally passes Beyond... Mare: Do you have any idea how long I've waited? Kelsier: <does sums> Ummm, eight hundred years? That's nothing, Hoid waited thousands of years just so he could get some instant noodles... Mare: You're lucky 'time' is a meaningless concept in the Spiritual, buster.

My money is on his talking about the Unmade; what little we know of them sounds like they could fairly be called demigods by someone with Nale's perspective, or indeed by most people in Roshar generally.

I have no doubt Lift is going to run into Wit!Hoid at some point in the future and it will be a glorious moment.

There's some evidence that they can, from the beginning of Way of Kings now that we know what Szeth's Blade was. The description of his sword doesn't match that of Jezrien's, suggesting they can change in at least some ways. At this point, since Nale's Skybreakers appear to be the real deal and he exhibits traits we associate with surgebinders, I'm willing to provisionally assume he was the Herald who retreived his own Honorblade until given reason to assume otherwise. I also have a suspicion that the highspren might look skeptically at someone abandoning their oaths seeking to bond one of their number when their whole 'thing' is following the law, so I'm not entirely sure he could bond a highspren even if he wanted to. Maybe Jasnah will have some information for us since she seems to have spent time with them offscreen during the events of WoR.

Given that Wyndle spent about half the novella begging Lift that if she was going to get her self killed to please do it in ways that wouldn't be uncomfortable for him to witness, he'd probably transform himself if it even looked like Lift was going to cut herself on him. That said, Shardfork. I had to put the book down when I read that. It's just... a thing of beauty and a paradox at the same time. Just like Lift.