sheep

I'd probably say that Orannis is at least a Shard by itself. It caused the equivalent of zombie apocalypse and Desolation rolled into one, and did it to multiple planets before it got to a planet and found some resistance in the Seven. I'm unsure how many the shards the Seven would be, as they invested into the Great Stones, the three bloodlines, and the Wall as well as the Charter. They all have distinct personalities that would have trouble fitting under one intent. You can use music to control Charter Magic and Necromancy, since Sam had pipes and you had to whistle to steer a Paperwing. The difference is that you can't get baptised in Free Magic as a baby and can't access it on whenever you want to. In the Chlorr of the Mask prequel it was revealed that the way people got access to Free Magic was by binding Free Magic creatures. Free Magic isn't evil, I would say, but just very powerful and unrestrained with alien mentalities, and used by bad people to do bad things. Just like Voidbringers.

If you want a build a social pyramid for a feudal society, you have to use something that can be easily seen and not easily changed. If it was something simple like clothing, for example, or little star shaped fabric patches, people could just take them off or turn their coats inside out. You wouldn't like it if riffraff could just come into your exclusive treehouse, wouldn't you? Eye colour is an interesting marker for your status in the hierarchy. Most of the time it's usually something along the lines of skintone or accent.

Also no one seems to think much about the little sprens that float around, until the plot twist is revealed - the Heralds genetically engineered some of them to become Shardblades which can cut through the souls of evil Threadbringers. And for some unknown reason Ad'lin likes grabbing Shallan by the shoulders and shaking her. She doesn't mind because he's hot and his dad is the Weyrleader.

If Jane Austen wrote The Stormlight Archive, it would be a fantasy of manners with the Desolation happening in the background but being commented on now and then as a mildly troublesome inconvenience, equivalent to the merchants not being able to get fill orders on violet wine due to the blockade on France and Napoleodium. Adolin would be Duke of Kholinar Court, nephew to the King. He'd be a playboy with an impressive win-list for pistols-at-dawn, very fashionable and flirty but looking for "the right one". One morning his second (The Hon. Jakamav, Esq. - what a cad!) whom he met at Eton decides not to show up, and his physician, Dr Kaladin, takes on the job and helps him win another duel. Adolin's cousin, Countess Jasnah of Ivory Lane, arranges a betrothal to a rural Scottish girl of Clan McValam. Jasnah arranges for Lady Shallan to travel to Kholinar Court. She is met at the village coach house by Dr Kaladin, whom she mistakes for an estate servant and teases by pretending to be an Angloalethiphobic culchie who speaks only in broken Gaelic. Upon meeting His Grace and seeing his estate for the first time, Lady Shallan is smitten by the lure of wealth. Duke Adolin and his family possess a considerable fortune whilst the Davars of Clan McValam only put up the front of having a modest income. The late Laird Davar mortgaged the family estates in support of an Irish-independence faction who ran off with the money. Duke Adolin turns out to be a first-rate gentleman of charm and temperance and not at all like the skirt-chasing rake she was expecting. Dr Kaladin, however, turns out to be a properly educated man of letters. He was educated at the Kharbranth Academy as a charity student and was forced to tutor wealthy but stupid children by Headmaster Roshone so now harbours a grudge for the gentry, even though he earns a handsome salary on top of his share from the duel bets. Lady Shallan can't help but feel attraction to him since he quotes Lord Byron, whilst the only books Duke Adolin ever opens have large pictures. But Kholinar Court alone brings in an agreeable sum of 60 000 spheres sterling per annum, Dr Kaladin only makes 2 000, and while it is enough for a tidy and well-staffed townhouse, that house is far from a Grand House. And worst of all, he has to work for his living! Anyways, lots of romantic misunderstandings ensue after The Hon. Jakamav is very pointedly uninvited from the next Feast, and Dr Kaladin is brought in to fill in the gap for the obligatory cotillion. And because he is a man well respected by Prince Dalinar, he is assigned to act the chaperon to his son's outings.

I've already named it "Surgebonding". I thought about a title with some variation of "chasm" in it, but the word is hard to mix into a phrase without having too many syllables in a mouthful.

From this description, Kaladin is shaping out as a typical tall, dark, handsome and mysterious love interest. He has the brooding stoicism down pat. Expect the next book's cover art to have an Everstorm background with a shirtless, open-vest Fabio Kaladin holding a swooning Shallan in the front. This is how I imagined it in my head. Kaladin's hand is in a potentially off-limits place but it's all right as long as it's not the safehand.