Radiant Returned

10 hours ago, BeskarKomrk said:

Doesn't Lightsong say this in Warbreaker?

Oh yeah, I think you're right. Huh, it was on Goodreads under Final Empire. 

I like those. I'm going to post some I'm thinking about right now after doing some research on Goodreads. I think I want to go with a Kelsier quote so that I can have one of him, and then one from Vin and Sazed in the next two, but Sazed has some great quotes in Final Empire. So here are some ideas:

From Kelsier

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There's always another secret (credit to @CalypsoDreaming for first mentioning this and the next one)

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He smiled despite the grief he felt; he smiled because that was what he did. That was how he proved to the Lord Ruler, and to himself, that he wasn't beaten.

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Men rarely see their own actions as unjustified

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I am the one thing you can never kill. I am Hope.

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Do you stop loving someone just because they betray you? I don't think so. That's what makes the betrayal hurt so much - pain, frustration, anger...and I still loved her. 

Also some great ones from Sazed

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Belief isn't simply a thing for fair times and bright days, I think. What is belief - what is faith - if you don't continue in it after failure?

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Our belief is often strongest when it should be weakest. That is the nature of hope.

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The right belief is like a good cloak, I think. If it fits you well, it keeps you warm and safe. The wrong fit, however, can suffocate.

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Sometimes we just have to wait long enough, then we find out why exactly it was that we kept believing.

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Anyone can believe in someone, or something, that always succeeds. But failure...ah, now that is hard to believe in, certainly and truly. Difficult enough to have value.

And one last one in slight consideration from Breeze just because it's amazing. 

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Work is like fertilizer in that I'm glad that it exists, I just don't ever want to get stuck in it.

I worry a bit if some of these quotes are too long, as I vaguely remember there being a word count limit for the signature. Also while I found all of these quotes under "Final Empire" quotes on Goodreads, some of Sazed's seem like they were from future books, though it's been well over a year since I read them. 

It IS commonly accepted that Eshonai will be a Radiant or have a major role going forward in future books. But...in the right circumstances I could see Sanderson killing her off for plot reasons AND to mess with the people making those assumptions. If all the things we assume will happen actually happen then the books wouldn't be nearly as good.

It's also important to note that the WoB about if Parshendi could be Radiants was purely theoretical (presumably by someone who wanted confirmation for Eshonai being a radiant) and just because something is theoretically possible in Sanderson's world does not at all mean that it will actually be utilized. 

18 hours ago, 8giraffe8 said:

Thanks for clarifying. At first I thought you meant that a dead person would get a whole pov book lol

Brandon has said this is possible. So just because we know Szeth, Eshonai, Jasnah, Lift, Taln, Renarin, and I forget who else have future books planned for them as "their" POV book, does NOT mean they will stay alive until then. 

We're still 3-4 months away from the leather bound release of Mistborn: The Final Empire, but I'm already trying to decide what quote I would like Brandon to sign in my copy. I just started thinking about this, so I don't have any immediate ideas, but like I did with this Elantris quote last year:

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Pain loses it's power when other things become more important.

I want to, for all the books eventually, have a quote that is both relevant to the theme of the book, but also by itself is a motivating or wise piece about life. Any one have any ideas for their own copies?

@Oversleep it's very conceivable that Rashek could have sent some Inquisitors to rule/monitor the situation, as well as give them instructions on how to control armies of Koloss. Something along those lines seems a lot more conceivable to me than him ignoring the only real threat to his rule for a thousand years.

How the weight tapping works isn't 100% scientifically sound, as Sanderson admits in AoL annotations. It's not quite gravitational and it's not quite mass related. Here's the quote

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One thing I like a lot about Wax’s abilities is the power he has to manipulate his weight. There’s some realism to what he does—for example, increasing his weight doesn’t make him fall more quickly, but it allows him to do some powerful things while falling. Destroying the chandeliers is an example.

At the same time, I acknowledge that the weight manipulation aspect of Feruchemy is one of its more baffling powers, scientifically. Is he changing his mass? If so, he should become more dense, which I don’t actually make the case when it plays out in fights. (Otherwise, increasing his weight enough would make him impervious to bullets.) So, if it’s not mass manipulation, is it gravity manipulation, like Szeth and Kaladin do? Well, again, not really—as when his weight increases, his strength and ability to uphold that weight increase as well. Beyond that, Wax can’t make himself so light that he has no weight at all.

So . . . well, at this point, the ability to explain it scientifically breaks down. I do like what it does, but I have to set its boundaries and stick to them—and accept that some of what’s going on is irrational. (And don’t get me started on what should really be happening scientifically when Wayne speeds up time.)

I'm not a science/astronomy guy really, so not sure how that affects the answer to this question, but thought it pertinent to have this out there. 

2 hours ago, thegatorgirl00 said:

If his parents are gone, I wonder if anyone will actually recognize him and believe his story. He left five years ago, and he changed a lot since then. What are the chances that they believe the surgeon's son got slave brands, a shardblade, and became captain of the king's guard? 

I think Roshone would recognize him, and if he did scoff at him, I mean, he's got a Shardblade, not to mention magical Radiant powers. The Shardblade alone marks him as an important person in Alethi society and probably makes him outrank just about everyone around. 

Yeah I think we're making the classic "It hasn't been said so it didn't happen" mistake. TLR was insanely paranoid about someone overthrowing him, so while all of MB has taken place in Northern Scadrial, that doesn't mean that he wasn't active in the South. He had god-like powers and almost unlimited resources. We don't know the system he had in place (and won't until at least "The Lost Metal", probably not until Era 3 Mistborn which takes place in the south) but I think it's out of character to think TLR just left them alone for that long. 

Personally, I bet at least one if not both of his parents are dead, because Kaladin can never be happy. On that same theme, I bet Roshone is alive just to piss Kaladin off some more. 

We also know it's not Marsh, you see him in Alloy of Law and while one eye is structurally damaged he has spikes in both eyes. He's acting as one of Harmony's tools on Scadrial and is worshipped by some as Ironeyes. 

So the person in the vision is either Kelsier or an imposter, but it's pretty commonly accepted right now it's Kelsier.

For anyone who hasn't read SH, I recommend it being the next book you buy. It's a great story and a great complement to the Mistborn trilogy.

15 hours ago, Blackhoof said:

The Duladell, having lead a popular revolution, could be stuck with Dereth for a time, but with the elantrians back.... maybe people's minds wil l change and they will turn against the priesthood.

This could happen, important to note that the sequel takes place in the capitol of Fjordell and revolves around Wyrn announcing the emminent return of Jaddeth. Will be interesting. I have a feeling a key part of the novel will be inciting rebellions in the city and around then empire. 

On 7/31/2016 at 4:01 PM, Naurock said:

1) Why can Elantrians channel the Dor via written Aons? Jindooese via ChayShan? Fjorden's via they're own version of the Aon script? Why do they all need their own system? Just something unique to their own land?

All the magic systems have to do with geography. I think it has something to do with the magic finding ways to Connect without a driving force now that the Shards are splintered. 

On 7/31/2016 at 4:01 PM, Naurock said:

2) Who discovered the Aon text? Same for others in 1.

I would bet the original Elantrians when they discovered the city and were first taken by the Sheod discovered it. 

On 7/31/2016 at 4:01 PM, Naurock said:

 

On 7/31/2016 at 4:01 PM, Naurock said:

3) How did the person who built Elantris know it would amplify all Dor Magic in the city? Did he/she draw the massive Aon, find out it worked and then just say yep, let's make a city on this and then make walls over it?

4)  Where did Elantrians go before the city was built? (I'm assuming ppl were taken by the Shaod before the city was built because Elantrians are the only ones that can write the glowing script)

They didn't know at first. I suspect Elantris was built by one of the Shards, because the original Aonic people discovered the city of Elantris already built. People started being taken by the Shaod I think 10 years after they started inhabiting Elantris. These first Elantrians I assume put together the magical city with their magical appearance and started figuring out the magic system. (This information is from the annotations from Elantris on Sanderson's site, also on the Coppermind). 

On 7/31/2016 at 4:01 PM, Naurock said:

5) How does the Shaod choose their ppl, kinda similar to Returned in (War Breaker).

Nothing concrete, but it's generally thought that those who were particularly Devoted to something (fulfilling Devotion's Intent) were taken by the Shaod. Raoden for his devotion to his country, Galloden to farming, Mareshe for art, Karata for her family, Saolin for his liege lord Eondel, etc. 

It will also be available in print in November in Arcanum Unbounded. But yeah, SH aside, the scars on his arms and the "SURVIVE" make me definitely sure it is Kelsier. 

We know from other worlds that Investiture can make you immortal age-wise (compounding in Scadrial, achieving the 5th Heightening on Nalthis, possibly being an Elantrian on Sel) so it's not a stretch to think there is a way with Stormlight to achieve agelessness. I don't think it applies to all Radiants and/or I don't think it is complete agelessness, because otherwise we'd have a lot of Radiants still around even if they weren't in power. But it's certainly possible. 

In case y'all didn't know, Sanderson has already posted the first Kaladin chapter from Oathbringer, it involves his initial return to Hearthstone. Doesn't cancel out completely any speculation you guys have said I don't think, (and I'm not sure I guess we're allowed to talk about this information? Released by Tor so). Still, I'll let someone who's more experienced on this forum use this information, I don't want to accidentally ruin anything for those readers who want to go into a new book without any sample chapters influencing them.

For those who want to read: http://www.tor.com/2014/09/30/brandon-sanderson-stormlight-archive-book-3-first-chapter/

As far as the original question, Sanderson doesn't mind killing characters off, but it's when it comes to POV characters it always has a purpose and it has always been highly climactic. Eshonai dying there doesn't fulfill either of those. So I highly doubt she's dead. The only thing you accomplish by killer her there is ridding the story of the only Parshendi PoV character that you just spent a whole book building exactly for this purpose. Would take away from a lot of depth in Oathbringer and in future books. 

We don't really know what the differences between humans and dragons are in this series, so it's impossible to judge based off Intent. 

It's even possible that dragons live a lot of their lives in human form and aren't usually in "dragon form" or something like that. So even if we've seen a human Shardholder it's not 100% guaranteed they're actually human. 

Definitely think Honor and Cultivation used their combined power to imprison Odium on Braize, something went wrong and led to Honor being shattered and now Cultivation is unable to actively help humanity because all her power is focused on keeping Odium imprisoned. Makes the most sense to me. 

Szeth isn't safe until Book 5, Sanderson has said he has no problems killing characters that will eventually have a flashback book. Szeth is the primary candidate for that because the closer we get to the series finale, the more relevant his back story will be to the plot, but he may not be as essential as other POV characters. 

I think it's important to remember that the annotation says "if deep down they believe" they are evil then they could be at risk of Nightblood killing them. So even if Szeth has excuses for his actions that he tells himself, if he doesn't satisfactorily believe them then he's still in danger. 

I think a Savant could yeah, Wax shows the ability to pick and choose what parts of metal he's pushing on at various times throughout his books, so I think yeah a Mistborn could theoretically do that, but it would take a lot of practice and intentional specialization in those two areas that most Mistborn didn't do. 

Yeah I like the theory, it's very well thought out, but I think it just means that the intent isn't given context, like Stormgate said. Like if you had all your different aspects of your personality shattered and separated, and only your hatred for things given back, you wouldn't have the capability of hating certain things, you'd hate pretty much everything, and you wouldn't have the other emotions to keep that hatred in check or contained. It would dominate your mind until eventually that's all you are. 

I've never liked audiobooks so we differ there, I don't know how much that affects things. The beginning is slow (Rothfuss has said before that he thinks that's the books biggest weakness) but when I read it I still love it, it's written so beautifully and it builds up so many important things in the story. The draccus bit is a bit long but not abnormally to me, and I though the climax to that scene in Trebon was amazingly done. 

And I can't agree with you on Denna. The story/interaction between the two of them is the most perfect romantic story I've ever read. Personally has a loooot of great quotes and moments that make my life lmao. 

Definitely a thread hijack, but for anyone who hasn't read it, Rothfuss also has a very great, scientific magic system with a deep world and beautiful writing. 10/10 recommend. 

Different story but your description immediately made me think "Ryshadium?"

You have to separately store different senses (hearing, feeling, sight, taste, smell) and access those selectively but as far as anything else I don't think there's any info on that.

It struck me as just a cultural device by Brandon to separate the people of the two regions. But knowing how Sanderson works I wouldn't be surprised at all if it had a deeper meaning/use.