KidWayne

Good point, Dunkum. HA! Awesome snark Voidus. I can't say why, but you guys made me feel better about that. Thanks! (An upvote for each of you)

Odium may not go himself, but... Might he send a minion (who may or may not also be a sliver/splinter of himself) to sow chaos on Scadrial? Might he try to introduce an element of distrust between Scadrial and their god? Might he even manipulate other shards (e.g. Bavadin and/or Trell) to interfere with or disrupt Sazed's benevolent interventions? I think the answer to any and all of these questions is, "Yep, probably so."

I think that the argument over whether or not Sazed is being influenced is settled in the quote from the book above. He is being affected by the intent of his shards. I think it's a mistake to frame the question of "how is he being affected?" in terms of good or evil, though. The balancing effect on Sazed is causing him to be neutral in regard to saving and or taking life. Since the subject of morality (i.e. good & evil) has a lot to say over the taking of life (e.g. when it's justified, when it is good, and when it is evil), Sazed's neutrality is going to tie his hands in certain situations when he (that is his "personality") might want to take action. In Shadows of Self, we see Sazed working around the limitations of his neutral intent by choosing agents of Ruin (Wax) & Preservation (the kandra) to ultimately serve the will (or at least the goals) of his personality. Over time, I'm convinced that we will see Sazed slowly lose his ability to work around his neutral intent. I think that will mean less meddling in the affairs of men both directly and indirectly. The big question remaining in my mind is how does he react when threatened by an outside entity like Trell (whoever that is) or Odium? The only example of neutrality in real life is Switzerland in the World Wars. Here are some interesting facts from history: In World War I, Switzerland wanted to remain neutral. However, since Switzerland shared borders with two countries allied with the Central Powers and two other countries of the Allies, neutrality proved difficult. So, Switzerland maintained armies on its borders and even got involved in a few skirmishes before it became clear that the Allies and the Central Powers would respect Swiss neutrality. The number of Swiss troops deployed began to drop only after it was established that everyone involved in the war would refrain from shooting at them. In World War II - as a defense against invasion by Germany - Switzerland made a big show of military power. It set up fortifications and mobilized its entire military in only three days. They basically got lucky; the initial show of strength was enough to discourage the Germans. Later on, the Germans developed detailed invasion plans against Switzerland. Again, Switzerland got lucky; the Germans never acted on their plans and Switzerland was never attacked. So Switzerland - the only real-world depiction of neutrality I can think of - doesn't seem like a good parallel to Sazed. It doesn't seem like Trell is going to respect Sazed's neutrality. So what's an entity devoted to balance to do when threatened? Fight back; attempt overpower the attacker and enforce balance? Get in touch with his inner-Terrisman, submit to the attacker, and try to preserve balance as best he can? Attempt to live in harmony with even the most antagonistic/obnoxious divinities? Really, of all of these options, fighting back seems the least likely and the least in line with Sazed's harmonious intent (even if fighting back is the option I would prefer and the one that I believe Sazed's personality would prefer (based on his actions in bringing down the Final Empire)).P.S. Sorry about the double post. Each post was so different & lengthy I thought it was best to break them up.

To add some clarity to this argument and to augment what Stormgate said, here is Sazed speaking to Wax: Bold text was emphasized by me.One more relevant tid bit, we have this WoB:

Ooh! I wanna do this one! A. Which Brandon book is your favorite? I'm gonna go with Alloy of Law for now. Other favorites are Words of Radiance, Mistborn: The Final Empire, and Warbreaker. B. Who is that cat [dog] on your profile pic? That is my very own pet, Moose. Amusing anecdote about Moose: For no reason in particular, we nicknamed him "MooseBob FurPants." He's a funny little animal and somewhat unique in the fact that he has a legitimate anxiety disorder. I bought him from a working class family who had placed an ad in the local newspaper; when I arrived to look at the litter, there was a 6-8 year old little boy running around the living room - dressed in only tighty whites - shouting, "No! No! No! I want the puppy!" Moose was the only pup remaining of the 3 pup litter. The breeders had actually sold Moose's mother to the previous customer who had purchased one of his litter mates. Upon seeing all of this, I didn't even negotiate. I handed the woman of the house $300 and (in my mind/opinion) rescued this pitiful pup from those people. When I actually got him home, I noticed he had a broken tail that hadn't set correctly and an umbilical hernia. Somehow, that just adds character to the little guy. He is the most loyal and comically paranoid pooch I have ever met. C. If you were forced on pain of death to ship Odium with someone, who would it be? This is a weird question because Odium is pseudo-divine. So do we have to pair him up with another divinity or are lesser beings valid options. I'm going to assume that Sazed's crush on Tindwyl opens up the field to mortals. Top 5 Answers: [1] Venli (Eshonai's sister) -- because it honestly seems like a good match. There's a good chance Venli is already quite enamored with her god. [2] Vin's mom -- because living with a woman that crazy would be a pretty harsh punishment...ha! [3] Shashara -- this is another one of those potentially good matches; the woman started a freakin' World War (i.e. the Many War) on Nalthis and wanted to make knowledge of how to create weapons of mass destruction (i.e. sentient swords that feed on Breath) widely available. However, she gets 3rd place because I don't think her motivations were particularly evil or hateful. [4] Waxilium's sister -- oh the sweet tragedy of a plot twist like that... [5] Shan Elariel -- she was just a hateful woman - though in the jilted lover sort of way and less in the antisocial way - so she gets the bottom spot. D. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you like bacon? I'm gonna say 9. I encountered a sweet maple crusted bacon that I didn't care for so, I can't say I love bacon in every one of its incarnations, but BACON, OH SWEET JESUS, THANK YOU FOR BACON!

My kids have a Yoshi (from Super Mario Bros.) plushy-backpack. It has a zipper down the back and a pocket to put stuff in. If you made the pocket sufficiently large, I could see someone turning the thing inside out. I mean, it would be ugly and lumpy if you did so; fortunately that's exactly the shape of a Mistwraith! So, it's definitely possible to make a reversible plush toy with plenty to squish

I actually just finished writing up my informal proposal to Peter Ahlstrom (Brandon's assistant). I have done a fair bit of research on how to bring a real product to market, and I've included some of that in my proposal. So, hopefully that will yield some fruit. @ EVERYONE ELSE -- Please keep posting replies to this topic. Your "I want a Soonie Pup" and "I would buy a Soonie Pup" comments are the strongest argument I can make to Team Sanderson in favor of actually doing this. However, only post it if you mean it! If Team Sanderson decides to do this, it will require a significant up-front investment on their part. So, they need assurance that there are customers willing to buy these things before they have them made.

SA3 spoilers: Yeah, I realized there was a possibility that Wax is wrong. Wax's comment isn't definitive proof. I was trying to make two points... Point #1: It is likely that a hole in the ground - which formerly held the Well of Ascension - probably still exists. This is evidenced by the fact that the Pits of Hathsin still exist; although, neither is likely to still be an active shardpool. Point #2: The mountial pool is not necessarily a shardpool; it could just as easily be a perpendicularity that allows for world-hopping. Perpendicularities may or may not be shardpools. I think right now the possibilities could be represented as a Venn diagram...

So, how is that consistent with TenSoon & Wax walking by the hut that Wax thinks houses the Well of Ascension when they are in the Kandra homeland? I mean, they escape from the homeland through the Pits of Hathsin! Now that is not to say that either the Well or the Pits are still active shardpools, but they are obviously still there (in the sense that they are still in existence). That seems to indicate that the suspected shardpool in the mountains must belong to either (a.) Harmony or (b.) the "other god" that MeeLan warns us about at the end of SoS. SA3 spoilers:

Hilarious! This earned a real LOL from me. Have an upvote, sir.

In my defense, I did say it would be a wild twist. In all honesty, I had forgotten about that. I'm not willing to give up on the fantasy just yet, though. It's not like we haven't seen characters lie in order hide their true motivations.

I kind of wonder if they aren't reinstituting a Terris breeding program, only one very different from that of the Lord Ruler. Wouldn't it be a wild plot twist if we learned Wax's grandmother was a member of the Set and that they were trying to recreate/breed another person with the Lord Ruler's abilities (i.e. a mistborn who was also a full feruchemist)?! Even if the Set weren't trying to breed a new human with those powers, SoS kind of lays the groundwork for a Kandra to have those powers via hemalurgy. So, the goals of their breeding program may just be to produce a crop of metalborn from whom they can harvest allomantic/feruchemical abilities. This only gets more interesting if you subscribe to the theory that the Set may be principally composed of rogue kandra who - like Paalm - reject Sazed's control (Mr. Suit... what better name could you give to a kandra?) If the unknown metal in Paalm's spike at the end of SoS allows her to use and steal any allomantic/furchemical ability (as some have speculated) then a rouge kandra could become an extra-invincible version of the Lord Ruler without the need for atium to prevent aging or the need for gold to heal from life-threatening injuries. Furthermore, the ability to change form would only amplify a super-kandra's fear-factor (super-kandra will be abbreviated as "SK" in the remainder of this post to avoid the pronoun difficulties of a gender neutral being... stupid English language); one day SK might choose to be large and imposing, on another day SK could go for a stately and distinguished look to bolster his/her public image. A kandra overlord could enforce conformity to his or her empire's facist thought-crime laws by imitating the house pets of suspected dissidents; alternatively, SK could simply employ other kandra minions to do this (like the Lord Ruler did with inquisitors). SK's kandra minions would basically be kandra inquisitors -- nearly indestructible, hemalurgically blessed enforcers of their master's will. Scary! EDIT: Fixed some minor grammatical issues and text color. No biggie.

Yeah, you're right; BS will have to increase their powers. He has pretty much signaled that this will be accomplished through two means: (1) Hemalurgy and (2) technological methods of using the metallic arts -- e.g. the Southern Scadrians. So, yeah... We're going to see some power-ups. They just might not come in the form of traditional allomancers/feruchemists.

How about this one: Will you pretty please take the plunge and have the Soonie Pups made? A lot of people want one, see this post.

Ah, well it was worth a try... I haven't emailed him yet. I'm trying to get a few more replies/upvotes to my post before I attempt it. But thanks for the reply!

Neat! Since you have some inner circle access, I'd like to introduce you to my pet issue over here at this post. If you have a chance, please twist an arm or two to get Brandon to seriously consider getting some Soonie Pups made. Thanks!

@ teknopathetic Go re-read the original Mistborn novels. The purpose of the kandras' contracts were not to avoid being mistwraiths. It was to give them a purpose so that the Mistborn didn't hunt them down. Furthermore contracts were limited time jobs. We are told that Paalm was fanactically devoted to Harmony after TLR's death. So she sought out contracts because she didn't know who she was unless she was imitating someone else. Then Wax comes along. She does her duty but later has huge regrets about it, which drives her into a depressive episode. Later, her depression gives way to anger and she seeks vengeance against Sazed for her suffering. This likely sets her up to be exploited by an agent of Autonomy. So she goes on a misguided attempt to free everyone from the benevolent nudges of Harmony which autonomy finds offensive (threatening?). You see, attachment leads to fear of loss, and like Yoda said, "fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering" Paalm did a full Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader transformation (but with much better dialogue).

Well either way let's see if we can change his mind. Everyone who wants one of these things leave a reply and we can use this post to prove there's enough demand to have Brandon place an order! ...or license them to me or someone else who will have them made (assuming he's still willing to sell them on his web store).

Ok, so that seems like Brandon's saying "no." Again, I did the research and a simple version of the toy purchased in bulk - say an order of 500 - could easily make a handy profit with an MSRP of $25. Especially if he rolled it out with the release of Bands of Mourning. I mean, this could easily help increase his reader base, increase fan loyalty, and make Kaymyth's day, lol.

I loved the gag in SoS where the broadsheets advertise "Soonie Pups" and how it obviously aggravates/embarrasses TenSoon that they make stuffed toys based on his historical exploits as Vin's bodyguard wolfhound. Here's the thing: I want one. (See the attached image if you aren't sure what I'm talking about) Would anyone else be interested in purchasing one if I could get Sanderson & Co. to have a custom stuft animal made? I found a company that will make individual custom stuft animals for $80, but [a] I'm worried about copyright issues and $80 is a lot for a single stuffed animal. I'll make the pitch to the folks at Sanderson & Co. if there is sufficient interest.

Thor → A native Taldainian (with the magical talents of that planet) world hopped to Scadrial and learned hemalurgy. Then he augments himself with a Steel spike (coinshot), and Iron spike (lurcher) and a Pewter (thug) spike. Finally, he worldhops again to Roshar where he obtains a shardhammer. After his trip to Scadrial, he is now a worldhopper who can fly with any of his allomantic abilities (pushing. pulling, or just throwing the freakin' shardhammer and holding on). Using his talents from his homeworld on Roshar, he should presumably be able to use his Taldainian magic to control invested elements (e.g. highstorms) making him able to throw lightning. ... and that's how we get a THOR in the cosmere, folks. *takes a bow*

SHADOWS OF SILENCE IN THE FORESTS OF HELL SPOILERS:

I'm limiting my post to cosmere stories only. I think Sanderson himself underrated Aether of Night (one of his unpublished early novels - he will send a copy to those who send him an email requesting it) since he trunked it and cannibalized certain elements of it. In terms of narrative style and quality, Aether is easily equal to Elantris. However, Aether's story, setting, and magic system are (in my opinion) much more captivating. My favorite - as a stand-alone story - is easily Alloy of Law but I'm not familiar enough with how it is regarded by others to say whether it is over or under rated. The best story Brandon has told in a single book is the first Mistborn novel followed closely by Warbreaker. I'm sure that The Stormlight Archive will as a whole eclipse either of these individually, but I think that is where we are at right now. I was the least impressed with Shadows of Silence in the Forests of Hell. When compared to The Emperor's Soul - his other cosmere novella of note - it is simply underwhelming. Also, I feel like The Well of Ascension is a little slow; getting more time with Elend as a Mistborn would have been satisfying.