Weltall

Clearly that is a dragon's head with a snout (the bottom symbols) and they have long ears (the top ones) and are wearing sunglasses (the middle) making them the coolest dragon since the Dragonaught. High-five for the reference. My thought was that if you had one more eye on the right you'd get the symbol of SEELE from Neon Genesis Evangelion but yours fits better with what's actually there.

We don't really have any evidence of temporal weirdness so far. There was a time when we weren't sure whether Elantris or Whie Sand happens first but that's simply because the God Beyond whose secret name is Brandon Sanderson hadn't nailed it down yet, rather than an in-universe discrepency. And by His Divine Fiat, other inconsistencies are sometimes changed via the magic known as 'revised editions'. We know of time-travel existing in the sense that relativistic travel is technically travel through time albeit strictly in one direction. I suspect that Brandon's going to confine any and all alternate timeline ideas to the multiverse that Reckoners, Apocalypse Guard and Snapshot are part of, given that alternate universes is one of the core elements of that 'verse but it sounds like the possibility isn't completely ruled out in the Cosmere just yet.

Yeah, you have a spren bond that alters the spiritweb (Spiritual) which then filters down to the obvious Physical changes with some Cognitive changes along the way. Some Forms clearly have more significant changes than others, like Envoyform which can communicate in any language; That's got to involve a bigger Spiritual component due to manipulating Connection. Similarly there's probably a bigger Spiritual change in Nightform since the Song of Secrets implies that this form had some form of prescience which we know is a Spiritual thing.

The point is that she's writing for an audience who already knows that there are multiple inhabited worlds and have at least a basic understanding of Investiture and the Shards. There's no way you can take from that the idea that Vax isn't an unknown to the broader Cosmere. To the people living in Silverlight, of course. It's a worldhopper city so they're going to have an amazing knowledge base to draw upon. But to go from that to say that "Vax must be something that can be known about in-between the less-developed/more-isolated Shardworlds" does not follow at all.

When Raoden uses it he's bluffing since 1) the magic isn't working properly and all he can do at that point is draw the Aons and 2) he has no idea what Aon Sheo would actually do magically-speaking so nothing he says can be taken at face value. Given the name one presumes that it kills, or maybe works like a Shardblade cut and causes Spiritual damage or something like that... but we really don't know. Actually, given the role that Death plays in tarot, I wouldn't be surprised if its main function in AonDor isn't literal death but as a part of more complicated Aon equations to represent change.

My guess is that one thing that might have prevented Hoid from making a godmetal/lerasium alloy is simply no access to whatever godmetal he wanted. Figuring out how to use lerasium to gain any Selish magic is likely to be a difficult task since we don't currently know if there is a godmetal he could use, or how you'd tell it which version of Sel's magic you want, or deal with the Connection issue... or the distance one. Perhaps this is part of why Hoid wanted the Moon Sceptre? We know he also wanted Rosharan Lightweaving but you need a living spren for that to work so even if he got a former Lightweaver's blade it probably wouldn't have worked. I wonder what that alloy would even do, come to think of it. Maybe let you inhale Stormlight for the passive effects without granting surgebinding? As he says to Kaladin in WoR, he knows almost everything... which can be a real kick in the teeth at times.

This is a complete stretch. Khriss is as knowledgeable as it gets in the Cosmere short of being one of the Shards themselves to the point that at least as far as Investiture mechanics goes, she far outstrips Hoid in awareness. She's also writing these essays for a very Cosmere-aware audience in Silverlight. We can't assume anything about wider knowledge of Vax from that. Ati himself is one of the Shards and so has had some ten thousand years worth of opportunity to 'explore' via the Spiritual Realm, plus whatever knowledge he gained in Ascending, whatever he knew before Ascending and whatever he might have gotten up to before he and Leras created Scadrial when he could still travel Physically. That he says it to a non-Cosmere aware Kelsier can't be taken as evidence that he expected Kelsier to know what he was talking about; as you say he wasn't of entirely sound mind at the time.

Yeah that's... not really news. Having some kind of crack in your spiritweb is pretty much a universal requirement to be Initiated into any system because it makes it easier for the magic to get in. And because it makes for more interesting characters to write/read about. The only system that we know doesn't require it in some form is BioChroma because the Shard literally endows you with the power when you're born and Breath has all the necessary Connection components baked in so anyone can receive and use the magic. All we really know about Vax is that it has a magic system and its method of Initiation is different from what we've seen on other worlds so far. Or at least, it's different as far as Khriss knows at the time she wrote that particular entry. Technically, we don't even know that Vax is a planet, though it almost certainly is.

Harmony suggests otherwise. We know from WoB that a Vessel leaves no permanent imprint upon the Shard and Sazed only got a vague notion that his two Shards were once part of somehing much bigger called Adonalsium; There's no inbuilt memory-transfer mechanism. Sazed can figure some things out from the Spiritual Realm but that's a far cry from inheriting the memories of Leras or Ati.

Welcome to the Shard! Hope you enjoy your stay. And oh boy, are you in for a fun time as you keep reading xD If you've had multiple answers it's probably because they're from different time periods (since we get at least one new Cosmere work every year or so depending on Brandon's schedule) or because the responses were giving different treatments of the stories contained in Arcanum Unbounded (which contains eight short stories/novellas, most of which had been released in some other form previously, plus an except from a ninth story) or they're including/not including extant but not strictly canonical works like Dragonsteel Prime and Aether of Night. The Cosmere's a very busy place... I made a post in another topic that goes into a bit more detail on all the various Cosmere works including unpublished and future projects that you might find helpful. The only change between when I wrote it and now is that the second volume of the White Sand graphic novel has been released. And remember, there's always another secret...

In addition to how Hoid speaks of her, it would be hard to imagine Cultivation having a new vessel since we know that Honor and Cultivation were lovers and we have a WoB that Cultivation in some ways thinks of the Stormfather in the same way as a certain person. That only makes sense if present-day Cultivation and the Vessel who held the Shard when Tanavast was alive are the same person. But yeah, cultivating a future Vessel for her Shard seems like something she might do. Alas, the letter that Endowment sends to Hoid in Oathbringer is clearly from someone who knew Hoid before the Shattering. She references some material we know refers to things in Dragonsteel and she calls him Cephandrius, just like Bavadin and Leras do. Otherwise, that would be a pretty cool idea for a Shard that impels its Vessel to endow its power to a new bearer every so often.

Ashyn is the original homeworld of the humans now living on Roshar. The 'forced people into the skies' bit references the floating cities that Khriss mentions in Arcanum Unbounded and that we've seen (or heard) described by Brandon when he read out a draft for the prologue of The Silence Divine which is set there. In other words, Braize is the odd planet out in that it was inhospitible and not known to have any life at all until Odium showed up and made it his base of operations.

She was, but I wouldn't take that as a sign that she's trying to carry out the ideals of the Order she's the patron of. Remember that the Heralds are not bound by the Ideals so while their personalities and historical actions may have influenced the way their associated Order developed, it's not a 1:1 comparison and nothing is forcing Vedel to act at all like an Edgedancer. We know from the in-universe Words of Radiance that the Stonewards were the most like their patron Herald in temperment, which lets us know that there were orders that were less obviously following in their patron's footsteps. Jezrien was leading nothing and protecting nothing (certainly not his liver...) prior to getting shanked by Moash, Ash is destroying artwork of herself rather than promoting creativity, Ishar's guidance/piety association has been twisted into him being a religious tyrant and Nale is fully aware that he's insane and shouldn't be relied on, the opposite of 'Confident'. We shouldn't assume Vedel is doing any better.

I like the idea of Ash becoming a Dustbringer in the future and I suspect that she's going to survive long enough that she's actually alive for her viewpoint book. Taln I'm not so sure of as far as surviving to 'his' book goes. Broadly I suspect that Nale will be one of the first to go since it's not going to be that hard for Odium to find him and I doubt the fact that he's still teaching things to Szeth will sit well with the big guy. He's quite possibly playing some sort of long-term game here (like how he prevented Szeth from swearing an Ideal that would force him to join the rest of the Skybreakers when they pledged themselves to the singers' cause) which would give Odium another reason to get rid of him as soon as practical. There's also incentive for Team Honor to do the job themselves, both to deny Odium the chance to repeat what he did with Jezrien (not that they know about that, but Jasnah's already decided killing Heralds could be a Good Thing) and because it might free up those Skybreakers who chose to swear their Third Ideal to Nale an opportunity to reevaluate their position. Ishar's also not exactly hiding and if Odium doesn't already know where to find him, he will soon enough. He's also an obvious military threat to Team Honor right now so they've got incentive to go after him too. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Odium goes after Ishar solely to prevent him from spending any time talking directly with Dalinar and co. Even insane, there's a lot of information that he could reveal that might help Team Honor. I do want to believe that Ishar started out with the best intentions for Roshar and like Nale pre-Edgedancer, still believes he's doing good. But I don't see him living all that much longer either. Kalak seems paranoid enough that he might survive for a long time even if Odium is actively looking for him. Pali is hanging out in Kharbranth but we don't know whether or not Taravangian knows this. The exact words of the bargain he and Odium struck probably exclude her since he specified only people born into it or their spouses rather than everyone living in it, but if she keeps under the radar she might evade notice for a long time. We know Taravangian thinks that Dova is Battar (or at least wishes Dalinar to believe he thinks that) which might be painting a target on her back for Odium. We don't know about Vedel and while we know we've seen Chana at least once we don't know any more than that with certainty, so it's hard to predict the next steps with them. Brandon's been almost gleeful in reminding us that just because a character is known to be the focus of a future book, that doesn't guarantee they'll actually be alive at the time the main events of the book take place. The earliest example I found dates back to 2012. Eshonai just makes it really obvious that he wasn't kidding.

Yeah, you can build decks using all the colors and there's even a nonstandard way to win the game using a card that gives you the victory if you have one land and one creature of each color in play.

We've actually known about WoK Prime for years. Here are (most of) the WoB's on the subject, not yet including all the newest stuff and here are the excerpts he's previously released, mostly from the Altered Perceptions anthology and focusing on the character who became Kaladin. Sounds like you had a great signing experience. xD

To add to what @Leyrann said about the mechanics of the system, we actually have WoP that the moons of Roshar are not in a stable arrangement. However, that's on literally astronomical timescales, not the timeframes we're dealing with in the books. Brandon has acknowledged much the same thing about Taldain and then mentioned Roshar as well. When you're Adonalsium and you're creating systems or tweaking planets for fun (or for whatever Master Plan he may have had) you can do that sort of thing. And I'll also add that on the question of gas giant moons, the chart in AU was produced (or at least commissioned by) Khriss who does have the kind of knowledge of astronomy necessary to work out this sort of thing regardless of whether or not the locals are aware of the facts. The chart for the Selish System shows moons around an uninhabited world in the system (ie, one that nobody on Sel is going to be creating any Cogniive representation of) and the essay discusses some Physical Realm aspects of another planet. If the gas giants in the Rosharan System have moons, they should be on the chart.

And after a couple of seasons we could get Oathgate Urithiru, where the team discovers how to activate another function of the gates that allows transport outside the Cosmere. This could be the perfect vehicle for examining the question of how Investiture functions outside the star cluster that is the Cosmere and whether Adonalsium was involved outside as well. And allow for a new cast of characters like Jasnah McCay and Vasher Dex to take the stage.

Consisting of Kelsier O'Neill, Shallan Jackson, Khriss Carter and Roc'k, perhaps? Supported from Oathgate Command by General Dalinar? With gods like Ba'autonomy?

Hoid's letter to Frost in The Way of Kings says that he suspects he's being pursued by 'your friends of the Seventeenth Shard'. There's definitely some connection there even if they're not directly working for Frost.

One other thing to remember about Nightblood: It drains Investiture at an ever-increasing rate as long as it's unsheathed. Even if an Elantrian has enough incoming Investiture from the Dor via an Aon or combination of Aons such that they could hold an unsheathed Nightblood for a little while without dying, there will come a point (very quickly) when the amount of Investiture being drained exceeds what the Elantrian/the Dor can sustain. Also, that WoB that @Calderis provided makes it clear that an Elantrian can't draw Nightblood safely using just their own connection to the Dor, so regardless of how much Investiture they're getting from the Dor regularly it's not enough for Nightblood. There's not much room for discussion here.

If we take The Traveler at face value, I susoect that while he has informants he's also got some means of Spiritual Realm access. Hoid seems to have come straight from Scadrial with news of Leras and Ati's deaths (to the extent that he's still in his 'skaa informant' guise with ash in his hair) and even if he left as soon as he could after the latter's death he should have arrived at the same time as any message sent from Scadrial, not after it. Yet despite seemingly making a beeline for Yolen, Hoid's beaten to the punch in delivering that bit of news. One other possibility is that someone he's communicating with possesses a spanreed or similar device, since Brandon apparently (paraphrasing being what it is) suggested those could be used for FTL communication. Though if so, clearly Hoid doesn't have access to it because his correspondence with Frost is being delivered the old-fashioned way.

You'd think that if he wanted a nice quiet place to retire he wouldn't pick the world that's known to be trapped in an Apocalypse Moebius Strip, even if at the start of SA it's been thousands of years since the last Desolation. I mean, Odium's in the system, you've got to know that's potentially a problem with your sweet retirement setup. Vasher may be doing exactly that but he doesn't really have much of a choice; he needs a steady supply of Investiture and the only other world where we know he could easily obtain it is the inaccessible Taldain. And even without factoring in Odium or access to Investiture, I have to imagine that Roshar isn't most people's idea of an ideal vacation spot. See Hoid's referring to the place with the parable of the 'piece of wet slime and a disgusting crab thing with seventeen legs (slinking) across the rocks together on an insufferably rainy day'. xD

Welcome to the Shard! I assume you mean 'the Evil' on Threnody is related to Dominion? Sorry but Dominion was splintered by Odium before anything happened to Threnody so he can't be responsible. Khriss says outright in Arcanum Unbounded that what happened on Threnody was due to Ambition's power being strewn about during the clash with Odium warping things. Oh, and per Brandon the Shards themselves are not inherently evil, not even Odium.

The bit about not being able to Soulcast polestones comes from WoK when Shallan thinks that if/when she steals Jasnah's Soulcaster she'll be able to make valuable mineral deposits but not gemstones, because that's supposed to be impossible. It doesn't actually confirm that soulcasting polestones is impossible, it's just what Shallan's been told. Narratively speaking I have to imagine that it's at least phenominally difficult to make gems via soulcasting, if not actually impossible. Reason being, if you can easily soulcast a large rock into a gemstone, the gemhearts suddenly become a wasted effort. Brandon's said that soulcasting anything other than one of the Ten Essences is harder and really sophisticated stuff requires a Radiant who has much finer control: That said, we know that synthetic gemstones should work on Roshar so... I'm really not sure.