Rasarr

When your database project for college is all about characters and places from the Stormlight Archive.

Yes, I meant chromium. Always confuse those two. @Oversleep, thanks for @-ing me.

Hm, I quite like the new cover. I'll be buying this one - even if I didn't like the first part (I did, actually, for all its little mistakes), I'm too much of a completionist not to.

Sadly, I am out of upvotes, but do know that this is an amazing explanation

Not if Batman is wearing aluminum-lined batsuit. Of course, the Law of Batman states that as the time he gets to perpare himself increases, the probability of Batman winning a fight approaches 1, so a hypothetical fight between Szeth and Batman needs a time limit set to make a reasonable guess.

I'm not Oversleep, but the gist of it is, chasmfiends are too big to be capable of carrying their own weight - square-cube law storms them over, basically. This is why they have symbiotic bond with gravityspren. It makes them lighter than they would naturally be, bypassing the tyranny of square-cube law and making a kaiju-sized crustacean plausible. However, kandra are incapable of forming this bond, so they're still subjected to full force of gravity and are incapable of lifting themselves off the ground. Back on topic of this thread, what I'd like to see is a kandra spiked with bonds to gravityspren, wearing a body of a Chasmfiend. And I really want a Cosmere adventure on the high seas. Or Cosmere mecha, with different designs from different planets duking it out.

@Sheridan_rd, you use [-spoiler] (spoilered text) [-/spoiler], just without the "-" marks. As for the theoretical Scadrian worldhoppers, I don't know if it would be possible for them to take Well's power beyond Scadrial, considering how invested Preservation is in the planet. This being said, if they modified their sDNA the same way Lord Ruler did and used their moment of absolute power to figure out how to worldhop with allomancy/feruchemy, they might go on a worldhopping journey. But then, why would Nalan kill them?

I suppose if they store their bodies the same way Shard Vessels store theirs, it's possible for them to reinhabit the same body. Scadrial has been several thousand years old when Ruin died, but Ati's body showed up fresh and whole, so we know it's possible to keep the body intact for so long. This being said, if Coppermind is to be believed, Shards' bodies are vaporized during ascension and then rematerialize upon death, meaning significant amount of power is required. Still, Tanavast could've found a way to use the same mechanic to preserve his Heralds' bodies while their souls are off in Braize. For an alternative, there was a theory put forth a while back that upon their return from Braize, Heralds possess some poor schmucks and use cognitive healing to get themselves their original appearance back. I personally disagree, mostly because I find this overly complicated and creepy, but I guess that's also an option.

It is! Funny thing is, the size of WoK is the only reason I'm a Sanderfan today. If it wasn't the biggest book I've ever seen in a bookstore, I would probably never buy it in the first place, and thus never discover the Cosmere...

For me, it's Shadows of Self. I like to have fun while reading books, and for some reason, during SoS, I just... didn't. Maybe it was because I guessed pretty quickly who Paalm/Bleeder was, and thus it soured the conflict between her and Wax for me, and the ending, revealing Sazed's manipulation, didn't sit well with me either. It's not a bad book (I mean, this is Sanderson), but I simply didn't enjoy it. I actually like White Sand quite a lot, in contrast to what I see in this thread. I had pretty low expectations for it, though, whereas they were pretty high with SoS, which might explain why I enjoy one and not the other.

I see I'm not the only one to have something of a passing crush on Nale Anyway, it was a pleasure to listen to you reading and commenting on Edgedancer. Pity there won't be Oathbringer Splintercast, but it's understandable that there are reasons. And now excuse me while I go listen to all the other Splintercasts.

Oh, certainly. In fact, I've never seen a dictionary that would be thicker than The Way Of Kings. You know you're a Sanderfan when the above quote makes you spend five minutes trying to remember all the dictionaries you've ever seen.

Wait, there is a chat-usable version of the Syl sticker? I need it.

Nah, I don't think so. The pair that asked the question were really excited about the Shalladin pairing, so that might've affected the answer. Pretty sure if they've been so excited about Shadolin, the answer would be "The will be Shadolin moments in Oathbringer". I'm all for the One True Threesome of Adolin/Shallan/Kaladin, myself.

He said Jasnah floating was artistic license. I didn't ask him about the stairs, unfortunately (I kind of assumed they were soulcast and captured here a moment before they fell to the ground, which would look significantly less cool).

Taln's interlude does mention everything being on fire, but you have a point here, too. It makes me wonder, what if "it was warm in the land far away" refers to "it was the time Odium broke out the fires and the Heralds were starting to break"? Granted, though, that's a pretty weak connection. Or it has nothing to do with Heralds and might refer to something like Odium's arrival on Braize causing some sort of global warming that's since subsided (I don't know if that's what would happen, but we've never seen a Shard arrive on the planet). Maybe he was trying to heat Braize up to blow it up. In this case "it was warm in the land far away" could refer to "it was soon after Odium arrived".

It would be strange if they couldn't, considering dividing by zero is all I'm doing at Maths right now.

Heal Edgedancer, hurt Warbreaker. 6. The Hero of Ages -- 17 13. The Way of Kings --16 15. Edgedancer -- 2 16. Warbreaker -- 1

Heal Edgedancer, hurt the Way of Kings. 6. The Hero of Ages -- 15 13. The Way of Kings --13 15. Edgedancer --15 16. Warbreaker -- 5

Someone asked Brandon this exact question at a signing today. The answer, to paraphrase, was roughly that while it would be better for the Daysiders to have dark skin, the pale skin genes became more prevalent in the Dayside population than the dark skin ones, randomly so.

Regarding Jasnah flying (or hovering) in this scene, I've been to a signing today and asked Brandon about it. He said that she doesn't actually fly, and it's just Michael's artistic license. So there's the answer to this question.

I come bearing more WoBs! The event is over now, and it was absolutely awesome. The public Q&A was great - literally the first question from the audience concerned itself with spiking Parshendi to let them swap between forms quickly (RAFO on that, because the mechanisms involved might spoil Oathbringer). I've got a recording of the public Q&A - I'll put the link here, and get a transcription file started soon. I have some problems with playing the file from GoogleDrive, so please let me know if you can. I've stayed until the end and chatted with the fellow Sanderfans, so we shared some answers. I don't remember everything I've heard, but @Oversleep has been standing by the signing table, noting down all the interesting answers from the line, so expect full version soon. What I've got so far is, paraphrased: Q: What happened to Vivienna? A: She's looking for Vasher. Keep your eyes wide open when reading Oathbringer. Q: Will Kaladin and Shallan get together? A: There will be Shalladin moments in Oathbringer. Q: Will we see Hoid in White Sand? A: Hoid will become more apparent as White Sand goes on. Q: Can you slatrify sand into other liquids? A: *thinks a moment* I admit that slatrification is one aspect of Sand Mastery I'm the least fond of, because it doesn't mesh well with the rest of Cosmere magic. The comicbook writers are working with my original script, with very minor changes, but if we ever release White Sand in print - which we might do - I might end up changing it. So - I won't answer that, because I'm not yet sure if slatifying into water is possible. *laughs* You can think of the comic as sort of in-universe story about those characters, then. Q: Who would you ask to finish the Cosmere if you were unable to? A: Brian McClellan. He's one of my students and he also writes epic fantasy. Q: Whatever happened to those changed Parshmen at the end of the Edgedancer? A: I deliberately left that out, because it will come into play in Oathbringer. Q: Are there animals in the Cognitive Realm? A: Yes, but we wouldn't necessarily call them animals. Q: If a Leecher was holding a Shardbearer and burning aluminum, would the Shardbearer be able to summon their Blade? A: No. Q: Why don't Daysiders have darker skin? A: It's just how genetics on Taldain have played out. They should be darker-skinned, but there's always some randomness to genetics, so this is just how they played out in this case. The people who stayed at the end of the signing chatted with Brandon for a moment. He'll apparently appear at Warsaw Book Fair at some point in the near future, and he's not sure yet if he'll go to Helsinki WorldCon, because of his Oathbringer obligation. He'll be in Great Britain as part of his Oathbringer tour. And the people who stayed by the end got adorable Syl stickers!

So, the signing is still ongoing and it's super fun, but I figured I'll share what I've managed to ask before my memory evaporates. Q: Is Khriss on Roshar during SA? A: That's aaaa... RAFO. Q: On Oathbringer cover, Jasnah seems to be flying, but she never had flying ability before... A: She doeasn't actually fly in the scene, that's Michael's invention. Q: Could a Seeker detect a Shardbearer? For example, could Vin detect Adolin's Shardblade? A: Well, Seekers detect kinetic Investiture, Investiture that's being used, so when the Blade is summoned, you'd get a blip, but otherwise, no. Q: If you took a Parshendi... If a Parshendi was born beyond Roshar and never visited it, could they sense the Rythms? A: You mean Rosharan... Q: I mean, just generally Rythms. A: Well, Rythms are... it's something that permeates the Cosmere, and just manifests in a different way on Roshar. Q: Oh, so is it the same thing that Soothers and Rioters are using? A: Well, now you're straying into RAFO territory... So... nothing particularly juicy, I suppose. Also, @sheep! Your Urithiru Knights design on my shirt has been noticed and praised!

Thanks, @Khyrindor @Oversleep, I admit I'm not jealous. I do not want to know how the Cosmere ends. But holy crap, you must have some crazy brain-mining powers that Brandon just up and told you the endgame without even intending to.