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I wish everyone could draw so then we could gush and gush over each other's mental images. What was your mental image of Mraize? I honestly didn't have one until I decided to make a sketch and read and re-read the passages from WoR. I'm so boring and obsessive that I try to keep my depictions canon-exact, and only use my own imagination where Brandon doesn't fill in the blanks. I even went searching through all the Words of Brandon to make sure I drew chouta the right way. And yes, I really love silly AU's. It's hard to see in a small picture, but the scars look scarier up close. There are ways to make scars look deeply carved in, by shadowing and texturing the skin on either side, and I made the eyebrow patchy where scar crosses it. But in low-res to fit the width of this forum, it's difficult to tell. Admittedly, I could have made the scars even bigger, but Shallan's first impression of Mraize was "I think I know this guy" rather than "run away screaming". And he is described as so charmingly affable, refined, and smooth that I figured that it was safer to go light on the scars than to go all the way into Uruk-Hai territory and make him completely disfigured. Mraize's Scars It was my impression of Mraize as easy to like that influenced how I drew him. If I had read the book and thought he was evil or annoying like Roshone or Elhokar, I think I would have drawn him less handsome. I will probably go back to the picture later and fix a few things, and adjust the lighting so the scars show up better. I have a habit of returning to older pieces months down the line, because immediately after finishing something, I am usually so tired of looking at it that I would do more harm than good attempting to fix it up. Good luck!!! Use lots of layers over what you already have, so you can delete them easily if you mess up. You can also do multiple paintings of the same thing, and compare different brush or lighting effects. I think that anyone who looks at a lot of other artwork and experiments with recreating and combining what they've seen will inevitably improve. It's just a matter of time. Dalinar pre-Gavilar's death was still Blackthorn Dalinar. He would have been more willing to lay the verbal smackdown on disobedient children than the moral and lead-by-example Bondsmith Dalinar - not that Adolin and Renarin were disobedient children. But at that point in time, Dalinar and Gavilar were exploring, and Elhokar was managing Kholinar. If Elhokar managed to get into trouble with Roshone, then Adolin would have had an equal (non-existent) level of parental supervision. Well, something must have happened between teen Adolin and Tinalar to make him challenge for a Shard duel. Is your mental image of his hair closer to this? It's the hipster undercut but with less styling pomade and no shaved sides. In fact, it's the same haircut as the classic vanilla Adolin hair in terms of length of and texture, just combed in a different way. It's messier, but would you say it's stylish? Adolin's Hair part 2 This boring hairstyle is in fact much easier to draw than other styles, since I can quickly shorthand it into "chunks" of hair when doing quick cartoon sketches or multi-panel comics where drawing in the individual strands will make you hate a character after a while. And speaking of mental imagery, I asked a couple of other Cosmere fan artists how buff and tall they thought Kaladin was, and there was no consensus, because most people had no idea. The whole "beaten and starved slave" thing makes a big impression on many, and that is why they draw Kaladin as skinny. I say that end of WoR Kaladin could outbench Adolin with or without stormlight. Gilbert is more of an Adolin, even though he has Kaladin qualities. One of his main (and best) qualities is loyalty, and he loved Anne for years even when she refused him, and promised to come back and marry her after he finished doctor school. Kaladin had opportunities to do what he dreamed of and what he promised Laral as a kid, but he's no romantic figure. He is more like the Mr Darcy who is grumpy and rude to Elizabeth, because he thinks her family are all gold diggers. Gilbert's story is way more romantic, especially because he's the childhood friend rather than the dark and mysterious shirtless Fabio that appears on the covers of cheap romance novels. And you love hurt/comfort storylines, nothing wrong with that. According to the laws of narrative causality, Adolin has to have a near death experience, or pass out after week on ridgebark, for Shallan to come to her senses and rush to his bedside. Regarding none of the Kholins angsting over Renarin being unmarried when Adolin can't land a wife - Adolin's mental monologue is aware that Renarin is weird to girls, but he and Dalinar don't angst over it, because it would require admitting that Renarin's habits are weird and there's something off about him that isn't just the blood weakness. They know he has been diagnosed with epilepsy, but not the autism. Adolin is obvious unicorn bait, but I still think he has kissed at least a few girls. He doesn't back off or push Shallan away screaming "GET THEE TO A NUNNERY, WITCH!" when she kisses him. It's pretty clear that he enjoys it, and suggests that if he is too prude to make the first move, he wouldn't reject a girl that he likes (and he likes all of them, at least at the beginning of every courtship) if she makes the first move, when no one is looking. For someone who slept in a cupboard and was abused and mistreated by his aunt and uncle his entire childhood, Harry is remarkably sane. The treatment has nothing on Kaladin's slave life, but Harry was raised in 1990's Muggle England, and the life where a young boy is fed on his cousin's leftovers and sometimes forgotten about altogether (at one point Harry during summer holidays is living off snacks sent by owl) is extremely shocking. Now that I think about it, young Kal's childhood moodiness comes from an internal and unconscious resentment of authority, which carries over to adult Kaladin and turns him into a surly, grumpy soldier. As a kid, his unhappiness was not from being forced to be a surgeon, because ultimately his parents weren't going to force him, but being told he has to be something and make something of his life. He doesn't even know what he wants to be (before Tien's recruitment) but the thought of doing what he's told is something he dislikes, unless he personally agrees with the decision. YMMV if it's a personality trait or a character flaw. Some people cheer on Kaladin's indepedence when he rejects expected social norms and does what he wants, and sometimes it is pretty cool, like bullying Gaz and Lamaril and organising Bridge Four into a team, but to me the same characteristic makes him needlessly abrasive. Kaladin is no diplomat. And Kaladin's depression could be said to be a character flaw as well. It is what limits his power, and combined with his internalised bitterness with authority figures, ended up stripping him of his powers. It's not an external or narrative-contrived plot point to nudge him into self-realisation and character development, but rather something from within that pushes him into mental low points that he has to actively struggle out of. If you are concerned that Kaladin is too overpowered, his depression could be the trait that is supposed to balance it out (it's up to your interpretation if it actually works, of course), the curse to his boon. In fact, mental illness or having atypical thought patterns in most of the Knight Radiants we've seen so far might be the narrative solution to keeping the Radiants away from the label of "god modding", as RPers call it. And a King can only be as powerful as the Highprinces allow him to be. And that king is Elhokar. Is suspect that in Renarin's life there were very few things he wasn't allowed to do, outside of combat training, and only because he might actually die if he has a seizure and gets hit in the head when he's not in control of himself. And added to that, he has so few expectations placed upon him by his indulgent father that a suggestion that he do something with his life, like get a job as a citylord or ardent didn't come across as a genuine expectation, but a soft recommendation that he can just say "no thanks" to with no consequences. Since Dalinar isn't giving him ultimatums, his impression of the situation is not incorrect. I wouldn't say he looks down on the positions; I'm sure he's perfectly aware that they are respectable jobs for a highborn young man. He just refuses them because they aren't the one thing he really wants. Renarin would rather wash dirty dishes used by ex-slaves instead of being assigned a permanent desk job. It says a lot about his character. And what everyone, from the readers, and the characters like Sadeas, and the characters like Adolin, make of the whole thing says a lot about them too. In Alethkar, there's no distinction of "teenager" as the interval period between child and adult. Shallan and Laral, who are teenagers by modern standards, are treated as adults in their society, regardless of personal levels of maturity. I think the "my life sucks baww" impression of Renarin's character stems from the fact that even though he is a legal adult, he has none of the accomplishments that society regards as what makes a man a man. In the beginning of WoK, everyone is freaking out that Dalinar, the legendary Blackthorn has gone weak. Sadeas makes pointed comments on him going weak. Adolin is mentally panicking at the thought. If you have an eReader and can search for the keyword "weak" it's all over those first chapters starting from Chapter 12, "Unity". Renarin's entire life consists of being considered weak, with not even a glorious past to hold up to the critics. And that is why some readers dislike Renarin. His angst is justified, but to some people, it's just too much angst for them to stomach. To others, it makes him endearing and relatable. Art Time With all that discussion of Renarin, why not start with a picture of Renarin? Truthwatcher Spoilery title, hahah. It's Renarin, his metal box thingy, and his spren Glys. I draw Renarin as much younger looking than Adolin. He's not as handsome, and I try to keep his features softer and more childish. I drew Glys as something in between Pattern and Wyndle. His "face" is like Pattern's, symmetrical and made of 10 overlapping glowing green leaves instead of Pattern's eye-twisting fractals. He has floating tendrils and sprouty vines like Wyndle, but I took a lot of influence from the description of Ym's spren. I have no idea what Ym is, but he's either Edgedancer or Truthwatcher with his healing magic, so I tried to include that. Just imagine that in this picture Glys is whispering to Renarin, "Those crazy visions are what will come to pass unless you listen to me". Renarin is creeped out but he can't tell anyone, and the only thing he can do is keep opening and closing his little metal box. Stormlight Noir - Veil in Amaram's Office After drawing Mraize, which was influenced by classic trench coat and tommy gun mobsters, I felt like the whole Ghostbloods storyline could fit well with a film noir aesthetic. Lots of sneaking around at night, hats and trenchcoats, rainy streets and dramatic spherelight. Replace spanreeds with typewriters and we'd have something awesome. You think I forgot about the headband? Remember that headband from Michael Whelan's first draft cover of WoR? Kaladin remembers. People think Kaladin is lanky-fit from his days starving as a slave, but apparently he is very muscular, which is hard to believe since you can't get huge muscles unless you are eating a lot of protein, which bridgeman gruel and soulcast stew doesn't really have. On another thought, how tall is Kaladin anyway? If Rock is 7 feet tall, how tall is Kaladin? How tall are Alethis? For the purposes of convenience, I make Kaladin around 6'5", otherwise his head would be cut off by the top of the frame in group pictures.

I ACTUALLY WENT AND DID IT. I had my digitally drawn picture open on my screen and eyeballed it while drawing the guidelines in with a water-based red felt tip marker. It was supposed to be washable. I traced the red outlines with a Sharpie at first but it smeared too much, so I switched to a Faber-Castell permanent marker, which actually turned out to be better, with a finer tip, less bleeding, and a more opaque black. I let it dry and rinsed my arm in water to wash off the red marker, but I couldn't get all of it off and I didn't want to scrub it and risk ruining the black lines. I continued on with my day as usual, and had a shower and went to bed and when I woke up, it was fading already. There's still a slight tinge of pink from the red marker, and the black ink is now grey. If I wanted to touch it up, it would be much easier than starting from scratch since I just have to trace over the old lines. I'm not sure if I want to, now that I know how high maintenance it is. Well, it was an interesting experience. Postscript: I showed my friends and they all said it looked fake.

Did you freehand this or mark out guidelines before you started? Whatever you did for the glyph worked, because it looks really great. I really want to do this too (with Sharpies of course) just to see what it's like, but I'm afraid that my hands are too shaky and I'd have it on me for a month. I'm really tempted.

I like to make my fanservice-y shipping pics as sweet as possible, because that's what fanservice is for. Oh man, Pompadour Adolin is great. Because of this post, I had to draw this: HEY, DOLLFACE! He can make anything look good. But Dalinar disapproves. Adolin: Dad, look at my new jacket! It's swell! Dalinar: First you wear grease in your hair, then you buy a leather jacket and listen to loud music all day. Son, you'll be worshipping Odium by next week. Shading it in black or with blue would have made it clear that it was part of the Shardplate or part of the padding underneath. It's kind of like those pictures of tennis players jumping about where they're wearing skin coloured tights underneath their tennis dresses and everyone on the internet is using their CSI enhance tools to zoom in and ogle. I think you did a great job for drawing armour without a reference. Keep drawing; it gets less scary when you break it down into rectangular sections of arms, legs, and chest and draw it piece by piece. Ah, another lurker has been revealed. Since it's usually the same people posting in this thread, I forget that there are other lurkers around reading all the crazy (and sometimes off-topic) things we post. I hope we don't sound too crazy. The strange thing is that I label the random sections at the end of my art dumps "Obligatory Silly Stuff" because I have a weird sense of humour and a lot of time the silly drawings are ideas that only sounded funny in my head -- that's why I call it "silly stuff". I'm glad to see that other people think they're funny too. And if there's an excuse for Shallan to draw shirtless Adolin, I think she would take advantage of it. Just in case people were wondering what it looked like up close. Oh wow, that work on the skin looks good. Those brushstrokes show texture, and that is exactly the rough but realistic effect I was talking about -- perfectly smooth skin in a digital painting starts looking like one of those clothing store mannequins if you're too perfect with shading. In terms of constructive criticism, I'd like to point out that due to the angle of the hand being slightly tilted, the gems should be slightly tilted away too, instead of facing the viewer face on. If you taped a coin to the back of your hand and tilted it, you would see that the coin is an oval shape and only perfectly circular if you were looking at it directly. The gems facing away from the viewer should look something like this, with the back facets looking narrower than the front ones, and the curve of the settings wrapping around and being invisible from the back due to the angle of the gems. EXAMPLE And some suggestions to make your painting "pop" and look more dramatic: using more and darker shadows and complementing them with highlights in specific points will make your painting appear more three-dimensional. Don't be afraid to experiment a bit and use a deeper brown in shadowed areas such as the place where the fingers connect to the palm, and highlight the highest points on the hand, which is usually the knuckles and the bones that connect them to the wrist. The areas closest to the viewer are lighter, and the areas that are farther away, or are blocked from the light are darker. And if you incorporate the background colour (the apricot-y shade) onto your subject, the result looks more atmospheric and cohesive. In the shadows I've used an apricot-y shade here and there. If you held your hand on top of a piece of red coloured paper, there would be reflections of red on your skin where it is closest to the paper. That's the effect I tried to replicate. If you are having trouble colouring in a metallic gold object, such as the bands on the fingers and wrist, I've added a colour palette for you to experiment with. Metallic objects reflect more than skin, so they have brighter highlights and reflect more of the surrounding colour. Gold on a blue background would have a similar but cooler set of shading colours. I hope this explanation was understandable; please ask if you want a clarification. You've done a good job so far, it's seriously impressive work. If you're drawing from life, you're getting pretty good at it, and when you do it enough, understanding and applying your knowledge on how light works becomes second nature. It gets easier from here! From what I've seen, everyone seems to imagine Adolin's hair as way more fashionable than my version. Long top, short sides, or undercut styles are very popular these days, but mine is the equivalent of vanilla ice cream. It's not too long and not too short, not too old and not too young, fulfills the criteria of black and gold and kind of messy, and doesn't really make a statement. I guess I am boring, because instead of a cool and fashionable pop star or soccer player's hair, I designed Adolin's hair to be a wholesome kid movie hero's hair, like Peter Pevensie from the Narnia movie series, or Taran from Disney's version of The Black Cauldron. Oh gosh, Gilbert. If you haven't read the Anne series and like historical drama/romance/slice of life books, you might like it. Gilbert is adorable and loyal and kind, but kind of stupid at how he shows it in the beginning. He only called Anne "Carrots" and pulled her hair because he didn't know what flirting was. If Mr Darcy is the Kaladin of romance novels, Gilbert is the Adolin. And Anne didn't even notice it for years and years. And Gilbo is Canadian, too. Adolin is one year away from how old Dalinar was when he met Shshshsh for the first time. At this point in time, he might be considered an older spouse, or at least close to it. The traditional age for being an "on the shelf" spinster was 25 in the old days. I think that at his age, people would not be shocked or appalled to find that he is not a virgin. Shallan didn't care about his playboy tendencies when the betrothal was arranged because it was only the marriage she wanted, and I don't think she expected unicorn bait on her wedding night. But there is reason enough to suspect that she has revised her opinion on him. He is very shy and doesn't like being kissed in public. That's one of the things she wished for while she was in the chasm with Kaladin. Harry was put in a bad spot by circumstances out of his control, because of Snape and Dumbledore and the prophecy. He's the victim of the situation, and would happily have traded being "the Boy who Lived" for his parents being alive. For that reason, I can forgive his moodiness in later books (being in the magical equivalent of high school with fellow high school students doesn't help) but Kaladin ... Kaladin was yearning for glory since he was a boy, and discontent with a comfortable life as the highest ranking darkeyed family in town because it was boring. Kaladin thinks he's the lead actor in what is really an ensemble cast production, and the people around him are NPCs or mooks who are incapable or can't be relied on to take action. Some are sympathetic, like Bridge Four and that guy Hobber who lost his legs, but they're still mooks. That's why he think it's his job to save the girl, save the day, and save the world. Some people would say that you will only get disappointment if you expect realism in fantasy fiction. But my opinion is that Kaladin has been set up since childhood at having a habit of excelling at whatever he tries to do, which is only balanced out by his really terrible luck. If Kaladin was bad at things and also the recipient of the universe dumping chull dung all over him, he wouldn't be the type of protagonist people like and root for. You hate the underdog characters, but the majority likes them, because they work -- they make stories fulfilling to most readers. At least there is one thing that Kaladin is bad at, and that is making one liners. I'll accept "Honor is dead, but I'll see what I can do" as cool because it's understated and mostly humble, but the whole "skies are mine" speech had me rolling my eyes all the way around. I assumed that being a landlord, Jakamav would fulfill the traditional requirements of being one, which is owning land. They own land within a princedom, but the land is theirs (or their family's) and they pay taxes and send soldiers to the Highprince, but they get to make their own rules on their own land. That's what I assumed based on how the Sadeas princedom worked, and how Amaram worked for Sadeas. It would also explain why Alethkar was united only a generation ago. All that autonomy for the landlords and the Highprinces makes it difficult to have an organised centralised government, which they don't have even now with most of the Highprince of Commerce/Information/Whatever jobs vacant. Renarin was being pressured to go into the Ardentia through most of WoK. He mentioned at one point that he didn't want that, and the other option was to be a citylord somewhere. From that I am guessing he doesn't own land and is not expecting to get anything unless Adolin dies. Yeah, the dahn ranking is a confusing thing when you have people like Jakamav who owns Shardplate, and holds land and the landlord title in his right, who happens to have the same rank as a second son who mooches off his dad and has no assets or prospects of his own. I can understand why all the lighteyes would hate Adolin when Renarin collects Plate and Blade within a few weeks of each other. Art time Character Design - Mraize This one was a bit of a challenge since there was barely anything to go off. But I read the chapter, and gathered my thoughts, and drew Mraize as a guy who is tough and intimidating but outwardly stylish. Black hair, sharp white suit, scars. My interpretation of his character was based on how he approached and threatened Shallan in Urithiru, and how he seemed likeable, polite, and civil when talking to her. The result was drawing him as inspired by classic mobsters. "Wouldn't it be a shame if your house burned down?" types. Peter Ahlstrom said Mraize's nationality was Thaylen, but no one mentioned him having big white eyebrows, so I drew them to match his hair. Maybe he trims them down and dyes them. Mraize - Character Portrait With a stylised Ghostbloods logo. I'm guessing that this is what the shape of the triple diamonds looks like, but the arrangement of diamonds was never specified in the book. He looks tough but Taln could beat him up. Process pic: I reworked the face multiple times because I couldn't get a good grasp of his features...minor characters are hard when there's not much to build on. Let me know what you think of this character design. I'm aware most people don't make clear mental images when reading, and the ones that do rarely do it for very minor characters who appear in like 3 chapters.

I am glad people want to know about how stuff works! I post process pics so you guys in this thread can see that cool arts start from very humble origins. I don't feel like I'm qualified enough that my answers are the ultimate answers, but I can answer a question or two to the best of my ability. I found an old example that shows the difference between airbrushing and textured painting. I think it illustrates the techniques much better than the hamfisted 2 minute job I posted earlier. The first one is a sketchy, textured painting done with chalk brushes. This kind of look has hard lines and exaggerates shadows, and gives a more stylised, storybook illustration type of effect. The second picture is the first one redrawn from eye (not traced, so it's not exactly the same) with a combination of airbrush and hard round brushes. The cheeks and chin are smoothed with airbrushes, and the nose and lips detailed with hard brushes. This gives a soft and smooth appearance which is good for portraits and photorealistic copying. Brushes are tools, and tools aren't bad. You need to keep working at it, so you can get better at using your tools to their full potential. An example is this one that I drew around 7-8 years ago. I used the airbrush to shade the arms and they look like tubes. I used the dodge and burn tools to shade and highlight. That's another tip digital painting - don't do that! It looks bad on skin, it looks bad on cloth. You think you have discovered the new pro-tip shortcut (that doctors don't want you to know about) but it's not a shortcut because it makes your paintings looks weirdly flat. The hard way works the best way, sadly. And now you know how long I've been level grinding to get to this point. And I still think I can improve. That Szeth one is awesome! I feel so sorry for poor King Hanavanahananahanahaha (gosh I can't even remember how his name is spelt.) It's so dramatic! Everything Szeth does is so dramatic and literal overkill and you showed it really well. As a note for the Shardplate, officially there are no gaps, and in between the big plates are small layered ones like scales. The way your drew it looks like there's bare skin showing underneath (I don't know if you intended it for it to be pants). So now I'm a bit concerned for poor Adolin's inner thigh area, the bits that aren't covered by the codpiece. Everyone draws Adolin's hair a different way. The description in WoK says it's a "messy mop of blond sprinkled with black" and it's vague enough that all artists take their interpretation of it, and I love to see how people do it differently. It's one of the things I enjoy about the Cosmere fandom, next to everyone's designs for the Bridge Four and Kholin Army uniforms. Michael Whelan drew it on the cover of WoR like a strange fusion of a utility jumpsuit and a Middle Ages doublet. Mine is closer to a Napoleonic era army uniform. @maxal and I had a long conversation a while ago about Adolin's hair , for artistic research only, of course. That is why I came up with this handy chart so you can see what best fits your personal mental image of his character and appearance. THE OFFICIAL ADOLIN KHOLIN HAIRCUT CHART The reason why I draw Adolin with the first style is because it's standard young man hair. The "Bieber" makes him look too young, like a boy. The "Dalinar" is the soldier's haircut to fit under a standard helmet and Adolin hated the standard uniform in WoK. So something that is in-between fits him when he is referred to as "lad" or "youth" through all of WoK. It's the same hair as Gilbert's from the Anne of Green Gables animated series. Well, I'm not even going to ask what sort of strange things poppped into your mind. I think my own imagination on that is more than enough. And a whitespine named Toothless is so deliciously ironic and so cute that even hipsters who don't do irony even ironically would like it, because everyone likes the How to Train Your Dragon movie. Everyone values their purity differently, and it's down to culture and then personal preferences. But generally speaking, for cultures where it is valued, it is more important for the woman to be pure than a man. Since there's no way to tell for men, so it comes down to the honour system. Alethi might value purity on wedding day for both bride and groom, but I don't think they expect it, not for a high ranking lighteyes that can get away with lots of things through connections. So Adolin must be an odd one out in his society for his purity, even though everyone is supposed to be proper and reserved in public. Dalinar and Navani are proper in public and he resents her trying to get close to him in WoK because it looks bad. Makes you wonder what Elhokar is up to . His wife lives in the capital and even if he doesn't miss her, he must be restless. Harry was marked as the "Chosen One" from birth and Voldemort kept following around for years trying to kill him. Kaladin chose himself by deciding that he had to be the one to stand up and protect everyone. Some readers praise his willpower and determination but to me it feels like he has a martyr complex. And his belief that he is responsible for everything and blaming himself if something goes wrong is ... tiresome . I don't think Harry got that annoying, even if he was as blind and unobservant as a flobberworm. Oh man, have we derailed this into a "let's complain about Kaladin" thread? I think most people who don't particularly feel an emotional bias towards Kaladin have criticised him for how fast he picks up Lashing skills. And I totally agree, it's way too fast - but I accept it because it's part of narrative convencience, like a training montage in a kungfu movie where they play "Eye of the Tiger" and have the student break planks with his face in slow motion. It doesn't make sense realistically, but if you get hung about it, you can't move on to the next chapter and enjoy the story. Adolin couldn't land a blow on Szeth twice, but in the prologue of WoK, Gavilar hit Szeth a couple of times, but Szeth healed each time. It has been commented in that duel with Resi (I think?) that Adolin is the best, better than Dalinar in his youth. Adolin in top form without panic-mode would therefore be able to land a hit on Szeth, even though he wouldn't be able to kill him. But of course he couldn't, because Kaladin needs people to protect. So the big question (which probably won't be answered because he's dead) is where Sadeas got his Plate from. If he won it from someone, then why couldn't repeat his performance? Unless people refuse Shard duels with anyone who has won one in the past, because they don't want to lose. I think Gavilar getting Plate for Sadeas of all people is a bit of a stretch. Uncle Toh and Shshshsh wouldn't give their family heirloom to a stranger. Shards are family heirlooms that go to family. You can't just loan Shards and expect them to be given back once your son is old enough to hit the practice grounds. And I would say Elit is around late 20's. He hangs with the group of young lighteyes, including girls that Adolin dated. It would be kind of weird for a 30+ year old man to be socially involved with young 20-something unmarried girls. Is there a difference between having a house under a highprince's banner and being a landlord? I don't understand the distinctions between the dahns and the requirements for each rank. Jakamav is a landlord at Dahn 3 which is the same rank as Renarin. Does Renarin have land under his own name? Or does his rank just come from having a highprince as a father? I don't get it, and it's confusing. When Feather sees the Renarin picture she will die. In other news, I cleaned up, repainted and coloured a picture that has been sitting around in my art folder for a while after I abandoned it. I posted it on Page 1 of this thread and wasn't happy with it so it got revised. It's now slightly better, but I think my monitor settings are off because it's more yellow than I intended. Oh well. Disgusting Shadolin Cuteness (pls close your eyes if you ship Shalladin or Shallastick) Original pencil sketch All of my sketches are messy as Braize. I draw with red coloured pencil then go over with graphite pencil, and when I scan it in the red pencil lines can be removed with some easy digital editing. I also adjust things slightly, moving and rotating lines around so things come out proportionate and symmetrical. The final piece looks a whole lot different from the original but the skeleton is the same. How big is a Shardbearer exactly? On Page 1, in the "Shardplate Proportions" picture, I estimated Adolin in Shardplate to be around 6'6"/200cm. So yeah, I based the proportions on that. And in Shardplate, when you touch things through your gauntlets, you can feel what you touch through the Plate. Lesson 1 of Shardbearing is jumping off the roof, Lesson 2 is eating dinner, Lesson 20 is hugging someone without breaking them.

I enjoy making character designs! It's always a bit sad when I make one of a minor character with only a few lines of mentions and the next book adds new description that turns out completely different. But until then, I love using my imagination and seeing other people's designs and how they imagine things. For example, the Vorin havah - most people draw it completely differently, if they aren't following the Michael Whelan official endpaper illustration. The safe sleeve goes from as formfitting as a sock over the hand, to as flappy as a kimono sleeve. I have a folder of Stormlight fanart too...and like 90% of it is my own. I intentionally designed it as a fantasy weapon rather than something that was historically accurate, because I gave up trying to do the maths ages ago, haha. I try to be realistic when I can, for example, clothing designs that can feasibly be made without a sewing machine. But when it comes to Alethi arms and armour, I threw up my hands and just went "it's magic". I will agree it is useful to consider how much things weigh when depicting realistic weapons and their size relative to a human. When I first tried drawing Shardplate, I went and looked for descriptions of its size to figure out how much extra height Shardplate gave a man. When I saw the weight measurement, I was like "this can't be right" because it was in stones, and when converted, was enough to break a horse's back. Ryshadium are magic horses, and maybe they can carry the weight because magic, but Elhokar, Sadeas and Renarin all have regular horses. And these horses can carry them 4 hours or more over plateaus, fight, and then carry them back to their warcamps. What. So yeah, a smaller hammer would be more realistic. Something like this, probably: Jakamav's backup hammer But artistic license plays a part, and I thought a larger hammer would look cool. And Roshar seems to run off coolness when reality is just too limiting or too boring, like the whole stripy hair and spiritual DNA deal. Well, if you have a whitespine, and you're not going to leave it in a cage all day, you have to train it. Any animal that you can apply a "How to Train Your X" tagline to is perfect for being named Toothless. Some people go to a prostitute because they just are bored, and it's a novelty thing, or they don't think much of "purity" and just want to get it over with so when they have to do it "for reals" they aren't fumbling around not knowing what goes where. What we know of Vorinism is more about social hierarchy and Vorin Heaven than what they think of that. But Adolin isn't religious, open prostitution is an established thing and not a novelty like in Las Vegas or Amsterdam, so purity must have some personal value to him. It feels weird speculating on a fictional character's unicorn bait status. Yeah, the reason why I dislike the Seeker position so much is that you don't really need to train with your other teammates to be good at it. You just need to have good eyesight, decent flying skills, and stay out of the way of the other people. An 11 year old boy can do it. Compared to the other positions like Chaser, where you have to learn to fly formation with your teammates, everyone relying on each other and defending one another from the opposing team. The Seeker just feels superfluous. Here's a video of Chasers formation flying. Team sports are about the team and about the audience who pay to watch. Everyone wants to watch the formations. The Seeker just circles slowly around the pitch until just before the end of the game. That's why I thought the Keeper position would be better for Kaladin. Sure, he picked up Surgebinding in two afternoons, but the non-magical things he does like the spear kata and bridge carries are done through lots of hard work and practice. Is Kaladin's unrealistic skill level a result of Surgebinding being something that someone can be innately talented at? Do spren look for people who have innate talent as well as following their moral codes and being broken? Pattern wouldn't have come to Shallan if she couldn't draw. But she wouldn't have gotten so good if she hadn't practiced since she was a kid. But kids don't start drawing unless they like drawing. And now it's a chicken or egg problem. It's still weird that Sadeas, if he is physically capable of it, isn't participating in duels, since he is skilled and has years of experience. It could be that Shardbearers over the age of 30 settle down and get used to their cushy Fourth Dahn life and don't care about the rankings for honour duels, and don't want to put that comfortable position at risk to get a Shardblade if just the Plate works well enough with hammer or grandbow. But Sadeas is a highprince, and his Shardplate is his own and not a loaner, and he would still be highprince without his Shards so I have no idea why he hadn't gotten his own Blade years earlier. Other than narrative convenience to free the bridgemen. And balding can mean anything from shiny egg bald to hairline receding. I know one guy whose hairline started to thin at age 23, and one guy whose hair started going grey at 20. Receding hairline is still technically balding, but some people would just say that the person has a huge forehead since it's not totally obvious unless you know what you're looking at. Dalinar and Navani are going to stay a couple because both of them are willing to and are going to put in the effort to make their relationship work, Radiant-ness or taboo-ness or not. The reason why Radiant/non-Radiant couples break up, or never become a couple in the first place are for the same reasons why other relationships fail - because they're incompatible, uncompromising, uncommunicating, or a mix of all of these things. Not because of the spren. Radiants are human and magic powers in their spiritweb doesn't change that. I assumed he was a few years older than Adolin, but not that old. Maybe 25-26? And there are no requirements to being a landlord other than having the right family or owning a Shardblade. These lords hire stewards to manage their estates (Lin Davar had one, and how else would Alethkar be run when everyone is chasing gemhearts?) - and their wives do the paperwork. They don't need to do any actual work, so they don't need to fulfill any requirements. Moash, a darkeyed ex-slave, got to be a landlord. Adolin could have been highprince at 23, and would have been hilariously out of his depth if he had to do the work himself, since he can't read. Jakamav couldn't risk his Plate in duels so who knows if it is truly his. It could be that it's a family Plate and he's a landlord in name only. I just imagined him as really smug and cocky. Like how Adolin presents himself in company, but with this guy, it's part of his personality rather than a public persona. I think it's easier to get down the "feel" of a character if you can narrow them down to one or two main traits. Especially if there's not much text-description to go on. The important thing to skin is to understand the structure of the body. The muscles over the skeleton, and the planes of the face. Once you have the background information down, you can practice technique. One thing I learned to avoid when I first started digital painting was over-airbrushing and using the "blur" tool. It looks too artificially smooth and plasticky when you do that, like a really bad magazine cover featuring a person who has no pores. Skin has texture, so don't be afraid of brushstrokes showing through. It gives a bit of depth, and when I see them, I look at the brushstrokes, and think "I laid each one down, and it was on purpose". Here's an example of what I'm talking about: Skin texture - airbrush and hard round brush It's a really quick and rough job, I know, but the smoothness of shading wasn't what I was looking for. If you know what you're doing, airbrushing can look really good, but the effect it has is to give the impression of soft and smooth, perfect skin. It's good for painting the skin of younger characters like children, or something ethereal like fairies and other things fantasy, but it wasn't what I was going for in this piece. A good tip is to figure out the capabilities and effects of different types of brushes and densities and combine them. Hard brushes in high opacity for sharp edges, airbrush for smooth, and something in between to transition from one to the other. There are plenty of guides out there that can explain better than I can, I think. Art time Candid Shardbearers: Jakamav: "The worst thing about Shardplate is... ...what it does to your hair." I wanted Jakamav's design to show him as a stylish but vain sort of person. The type of person pre-WoK Adolin would have liked being seen with, part of the popular crowd who have reserved seats in the most popular wine bars, just like the "cool kids' table" in a high school cafeteria. Renarin: "Dad, does this Shardplate make me look fat?" "Is the Shardplate shrinking to fit supposed to feel this weird?" "I think I have a wedgie now." Just me playing around with colours and lighting and stuff. Jakamav is in green and yellow because he sided with Sadeas, and I couldn't remember what colours Roion has, since that is Jakamav's official liegelord. Renarin is in grey and blue because grey is the colour of Dalinar's unpainted Shardplate, and blue is the Kholin colour. Gavilar and Elhokar's Plate is officially canonised in the WoR Shallan's Sketchbook, but Dalinar's Plate has no official depiction, unless you count the weirdness that is the Michael Whelan cover of WoK. The in-text says that it's plain slate grey, no ornamentation, and has a high collar covering the neck. So I drew it with fantasy-RPG-style aesthetics, with the big ol' pauldrons. I watched the Warcraft movie not too long ago, so I was inspired.

Depending on whether or not Roshar has invented banking yet (maybe the Thaylens have it, if the Vedens don't, since Lin Davar's creditors seem pretty medieval), the Heralds could have made heaps off interest. Since, you know, they're immortal and it's been 4500 years since the last Desolation. Jezrien was a king before he retired. Maybe he set everyone up with something when they abandoned their swords. Maybe they have a secret stockpile of Shardblades and they auction one off when they're running low.

Adolin has had opportunities in the past to see a prostitute, but it seems he is uninterested. Or maybe he doesn't want to embarrass himself in front of a "professional" and have the gossip spread to her next customer. Name it Toothless? Rowling wrote Quidditch as a sport to make Harry feel valuable and part of a team after being lonely all his life. And that is why an 11 year old boy with no previous experience gets to be the Gryffindor team's star player and win the House Cup several years in a row. Now I see how very Kaladin-appropriate it is. Relis as a Chaser fits, I like it. He would probably be afraid of Dementors and fall off his broom if they wandered into the Quidditch pitch. I always thought Elit had premature balding. It seems that people who fight Shard duels and go on the rankings are all young men with things to prove and nothing to lose. As soon as their reflexes slow down, they don't want to risk the Shards they have and retire from duelling, which explains why Sadeas doesn't duel anymore even though he's been lusting for a Shardblade for years. If he is older than the rest of the group, I'd think Elit is still under 30. And high testosterone levels cause early balding, so that could explain why he is so angry and aggressive. Wit doesn't hate Adolin. He just thinks Adolin is just another puny mortal in a world full of insignificant puny mortal chess pieces. Considering that he's thousands of years old and has seen everything, I interpreted the scene as his attempt at humour (YMMV if Wit is actually funny) because life gets boring when you live forever and have all the powers. He's not favouring Kaladin or intentionally trying to hurt anyone. He just wants to eat popcorn and laugh at people. Being a Radiant doesn't make a person instant boyfriend material. If anything, all their duties and oaths them less desirable, because they have a spren partner who is always around talking to them, and they are too busy saving the world to spend time going on dates. Dalinar isn't going to dump Navani if another Radiant pops up. And Navani isn't going to get jealous if Dalinar the Bondsmith might happen to work with other Radiants who happen to be female. I imagined Syl was like Tinkerbell from Peter Pan when I first read WoK. It was easier to picture windspren and spren in general if I imagined them like magical sidekick pets that Disney characters have, like Mushu or Iago, because I was a noob who didn't know what Realmatic theory was and the idea of physical manifestations of concepts was just too weird to grasp the first time around. That first impression sticks around forever. Art time This is an older piece that I drew as a companion piece to "Eshonai's Victory" from a couple of pages ago. I intended to do it in a hypercartoon style to match Eshonai's but changed my mind and went for something more dramatic, because this is one of the most dramatic scenes from the book and it really sets the tone of the series. Szeth's Victory Extended cut (you have to keep scrolling forever lol) It's interesting, because it's the first time Shardbearers are introduced on-screen, and the impact is like POW! And then everyone who read it had to wait until WoR before they got to see an official depiction of Shardplate. Close up - Gavilar in Shardplate Process pic: This came from the movie posters thread, Jasnah Kholin in a minimalist-style artsy abstract poster. Words of Radiance - Jasnah Minimalist I really liked the design. There was something really epic about it and I wanted something worth printing an actual poster for, so I painted it. Words of Radiance - Jasnah Kholin illustrated It was a culmination of a lot of ideas and thoughts I had floating around. I took my old character face design and costume design, and the Soulcaster design, and what I thought Ivory would look like as a Shardblade, and melted it together. The polestone/gemstone of Elsecallers is Zircon and their essence is Oil, so I drew Jasnah's theme colour as yellow. But I have no idea because zircons come in all sorts of colours... Close up - Jasnah's Soulcaster You may be wondering why I made Jasnah's nails red. Well, in-canon, Jasnah is very glamourous and makes an effort to present herself well. Everyone I know who bothers to do the full face of makeup doesn't skip the manicure. And long nails (not the Lana Del Ray plastic claws) make her seem more elegant and refined and definitely not someone who works for a living. Alethi ladies only need to do one hand, so it's half the price of a full set. Jasnah is the Miranda Priestley of Alethkar. Process pic: Movie poster version: Speaking of movie posters, how about this? Stormlight - Team Adolin vs Team Kaladin I always wondered why the Twilight movie was so blue, but the New Moon movie was yellow. Here's the non-parody version: (Shardblades are described as silvery but I colour Adolin's Shardblade as a green-grey instead of straight grey because it's an Edgedancer's blade. ) Adolin and Kaladin Shattered Plains - alternate background Probably makes a better poster... Process pic: The first sketch always looks like absolute chull dung. I move arms and fiddle with the pose and proportions a bit because it's easier to do it in the sketch than try to fix a messed almost finished painted picture. That Shardblade is huge, man. I hate colouring Adolin's hair!!!! AHHH!!!! And no for something different... Character Design - Rock the Pacifist For some reason, everyone images Rock the same way when reading about Bridge Four. I always thought that for someone who says he's a pacifist, he's pretty good at using pointy things with sharp edges. Process pic: That first sketch ahhahahhahh Character Design - Jakamav He doesn't get much pagetime or description, but since he's a clotheshorse, I wanted to try designing some lighteyes' fashionable clothes. It's something sort of military-inspired but definitely not a uniform, with an Asian-inspired silk tunic with frog buttons and a silk scarf around the waist where a side sword would hang. The jacket is influenced by the "fashion folio" coats from WoR. And I added a Shardhammer, because I don't think anyone has drawn it before. It has a haft as thick as a man's wrist and takes two men to carry. So I went for something that's RPG-huge. After finishing WoR, I kept thinking what a sleazy friend Jakamav is, so I drew this (really really stupid) comic: Jakamav the sleaze: ...I think it was only funny in my head. Jakamav gets a ponytail because Sadeas has long hair and everyone knows Dalinar doesn't approve of long hair since it's against the Codes. It must really sweat up the inside of a Shardplate helmet, though.

It seems like a strange thing to me to choose what books to read or media to consume based on how closely the protagonist resembles me in personality. But I guess that is part of the differences between people, what they prefer, and what process they use to decide what they will read, and what they will like. For me, actively looking for books for similar personality characters, or reading into characters in series I’m already reading in order to find mutual experiences or character traits is something that I don’t think I’ve done more than a few times. That is the reason, I think, that explains why people don’t understand what you see when you write essays or speculate, and even when you explain, they still don’t see it. And in some instances, I can be that person, because when I read fantasy novels or fiction in general, I enjoy reading characters that don’t resemble me in any way, because it’s fantasy – you can be anyone and anywhere if the author is skilled enough. I actually had a think about the books I’ve recently read, and the reason why I liked them or didn’t like them. I think it’s a good exercise for a person to do, when they want to understand their consumption habits in order to narrow their preferences or at least write a review. I find story fulfilling if the world is thoughtfully built and carefully crafted, or the characters are well-fleshed out and believable. If the characters are flat, then the world building must be good, like in science fiction – space operas use planet scale or world building, and the characters tend to be an ensemble cast with regular casualties. If the world is flat, then the characters must be human and sympathetic, like in urban fantasy which is set in modern Earth, and the author often expects you to know what it’s like already, so doesn’t bother describing environments or social customs. If the books fail to meet my standards for world and character, and are poorly written (bad prose, plot holes, can’t suspend disbelief) they get dropped. And even if they meet the requirements for being readable to me, sometimes I find that they are not completely enjoyable. The reason why I like Brandon more than Hobb is that Brandon’s multiple PoVs and plot threads tie up in the Sanderson Avalanche, or “convergence”, where everything comes together in a satisfying way. Hobb doesn’t give me that until the end of the third book of her trilogy, and at that point I’ve been strung along for so long that it doesn’t feel completely satisfying. And this is why I’m very wary of multiple PoV stories, because it takes a high level of writing and plotting skill for an author to match conflict to closure in a way that balances neatly – too much on either side and it becomes unfulfilling, or seems a Deus ex Machina. It comes down to narrative pacing and preferences, I guess. Brandon guarantees a bit pacing payoff in the form of the Avalanche climax at the end of every book, for every major character arc, while Hobb dangles it on front of you for two and a half books and gives a bittersweet ending at the end of the third. Spend too much room developing and deepening the plot conflict, or expanding on the characters’ quirks and personalities, and you will have less room to actually move the plot along. Novel writers get more leeway in their pacing and world building, but in short stories and novella writing, you don’t mention details unless you are going to reference it again later on. Unless, of course, you are deliberately subverting expectations with a red herring when writing in the mystery genre, or experimental literary writing. And that is why I presume Adolin won’t be getting flashback sequences. He may be an important character two books in, but if he isn’t getting the “star treatment” with his own book, it gives the impression that he will not be a major character throughout the 5 book front half of the series. Adolin’s character was used as a narrative tool to contrast with Dalinar in WoK and Kaladin in WoR, and if his appearances were thrown in, it is possible that Brandon didn’t think it would affect the long-term storyline across the whole of the series. So apart from doing things in the “close focus” like killing Sadeas and leading armies, it would be safe to assume that Adolin won’t be doing “big picture” things like saving everyone in Roshar, worldhopping with Hoid, or becoming Odium’s champion. What backstory of his that is explored will only be dropped in bits in pieces that are relevant to the main storyline, and nothing more. It would be similar to what was revealed of Teft and Moash’s pasts – Teft was the one with the crazy cultist parents, which explains how is so knowledgeable about Surgebinding, which is taboo when Radiants are considered evil, and Moash’s dead grandparents who died because Elhokar was being a manchild. Each reveal explains why a character’s personality is a certain way, so their actions are justified within the story – but since they are not major characters, they don’t get extra paragraphs or chapters devoted to them, because then you’d be wondering if they’re important, or if they will become significant players later on. And if they don’t, it would appear like a buildup with no resolution, or a failure of pacing. So Adolin not getting flashbacks may seem like a disappointment, but that doesn’t mean he won’t get his character development coming full circle. Moash, a minor character, is someone who most people expect will have a change of heart, or go full bad and get dealt with in a satisfying manner (if you like tough guy fights and one liners). Based on the page space spent on Adolin, it would be a failure of pacing if there was no resolution for him. I do not doubt that Adolin won’t get his closure, because Brandon is too skilled and aware not to deliver on that, even if it might take 10 years to get there. It’s just that his past that will probably stay unrevealed when Brandon plans out his books with word limits in mind, and from what has been happening in-story, the consequences of Adolin’s present actions have more relevance to the plot than the person he once was. There was some of the “old Adolin” in WoK, when Adolin mentally disagreed with most of Dalinar’s ideals – for instance, when he admires his own Shardplate which is painted and has decorations bolted on, and compares it to Dalinar’s plain grey Plate, the only plain one in all of the warcamps. But in the time between releases, there’s always writing fanfiction or speculating. At least the benefit of Adolin being demoted to supporting cast is that he will never get a book cover featuring him. Your mental image will never be destroyed by high fantasy cover artwork where he is in a cheesy superhero pose wearing a hideous headband that does nothing but look atrocious. The reason why I seem so dismissive of speculating – and I’m not trying to demean you or your character analysis – is that at this point in time, years from the last release in the series, and years until the next one, most of the low hanging fruit in terms of fan theories have already been picked, so what people are throwing out these days are theories that are just way out there. I think you would call them “thin air” speculating, and you know what I mean, the ones where Kaladin’s father is secretly a Herald, and his mother is a Returned from Nalthis. And Tien’s body was taken from the battlefield and he was secretly inducted into the Skybreakers. These are the types of theories I dislike, because it’s not far from grasping for straws. Brandon is fond of twists, but he tends to do foreshadowing before the reveal. I’m not being maliciously disparaging of speculation, just these types, which make me roll my eyes, because occasionally there are good theories, thoughtfully explained with justified reasons supporting the author’s belief. The ones I dislike are the ones where instead of proof or quotes, the author of such a theory just says “WOULDN’T IT BE COOL IF IT WERE TRUE”. Yes, maybe it would be cool, but is there more substance than coolness value? In books with flat worldbuilding and cardboard characters, I will keep reading and suspending my disbelief if the writing is done humorously tongue-in-cheek. I think thin air theories are acceptable if they are funny. And anything involving the Stick automatically becomes unfunny. (I think Brandon’s April Fool’s short story featuring the Stick made it seem like it was a significant character (is it even a character?) but in reality it was only a couple of sentences in WoR, so can people get over it already!) I know I sound salty. I also think that people on the forums who are so fixated on being 100% canon-compliant that they demand quotes and page numbers for every assertion posted by other people can be pretty rude. And if rude is a strong word, then I would call them unpleasant. I like quotes because I refer to them all the time when I sketch and draw fanart, and it makes me feel satisfied when my illustrations match the description; it’s like I hit the bullseye when everything is neat and correct. To me, it’s fun. However, when people who post get verbally “attacked” by others who demand quotations, that is not very fun. Though I enjoy quotes, I know that not everyone cares or enjoys citing every sentence they write, and fiction and forums should be about what you enjoy, or else why bother? I’ve been trying to think of stories with characters similar to Adolin, but it gets difficult when it has to have a sociable, extroverted, preferably male protagonist with character development, be a fantasy, preferably a completed series, and preferably a series with multiple viewpoints. (That last one is difficult as any multi PoV series with an arrogant patrician tends to have other characters who are more humble and lower-ranking, often becoming Underdog Saves the Day protagonists.) I think finding similar stories comes from putting trope labels on either the character or the plot, or both. Would you read an “Arrogant Patrician” type character who learns humility in a “Fall From Grace” style plot that is either self-inflicted or caused by some outside event, like being shipwrecked or kidnapped? The only examples I can currently think of are scifi or historical, and they explore the world more than the characters. And disappointingly, the characters turn out to be more character archetypes than fleshed-out characters. The fantasy ones I can find just tend to be re-tellings of Beauty and the Beast in a different setting, and a romance plot that often has a female co-protagonist who is so generically beautiful and innocent that everyone falls in love within one chapter of meeting her. “Fall From Grace” style plots do tend to be predictable, because it is expected that the main character earns their way back through lots of hard work, or learns a lesson if it was self-inflicted. It is down to the author to make the journey enjoyable and entertaining, since the destination is going to be the same every time. Meek would be the wrong word – the dictionary defines it as “shy” or “submissive”. I don’t think the warlike Alethi would be described like that, at least not the lighteyed upper classes. They would be accurately described as aloof, and being seen as reserved and haughty in public makes them appear dignified and leader-like in front of other lighteyes and the darkeyed lower classes. In a society with a rigid social hierarchy, people are more aware of their place in it than they are in the modern day, which is why Kaladin is such a freak. He is supposed to speak when he’s spoken to, but he doesn’t. Even though Alethkar has a lot of Asian influences, I sense some Victorian-era British prudishness in lighteyes’ sense of propriety. Men can visit brothels if they want, and no one blinks an eye, but it’s shocking for a lighteyed girl to kiss her potential future husband on the cheek in public. It seems like having a stiff upper lip is the Alethi way, and being stoic and in-control all the time is how you display leadership qualities. Since Dalinar’s visions cause him to hit the ground and start twitching, to other people it looks like he is losing control of his body, and that makes Jakamav and Sadeas believe that is enough to make him unworthy to be a leader. It must be immensely restricting for Adolin when his whole life he is taught that his natural response to stressful situations is wrong, and not what real men do, or at least not what real Alethi do, when all he is doing is feeling feelings. Being a “real Alethi” must be a stressful situation in itself for him, since he has mentioned that people regularly comment on his hair, and tell him that his bloodline is impure. Self-deprecation for humour often is a way people deal with insecurities, and Shallan does it all the time. Honestly, if Shallan was more self-aware and perceptive she would have been able to tell that Adolin is not as happy as he outwardly presents. But she tends to focus on her own problems and only the very un-subtle gets noticed, like Kaladin publicly being a jerk. You could say that Dalinar is partially responsible in training Adolin to be the kind of person who won’t adapt well to changes like the return of the Radiants. I would add that even though Dalinar holds some of the blame for emotionally stunting his son and controlling him to the point where he feels uncomfortable accepting the responsibilities of independence and what passes for adulthood in Alethkar – Dalinar didn’t do any of this on purpose. He thought what he was doing was for the greater good, and it was changing his son into his own conception of what he considered a fair and worthy leader. And before the whole “Desolation” thing, before the visions, all Dalinar expected was that Adolin would eventually become Highprince after him, not be involved with supernatural conspiracies or saving the world with taboo magics. If the world went along according to plan, with Adolin inheriting, would you say that Adolin, without the outside plot-induced stresses, would be perfectly capable of holding his own in such a world? Hm, maybe rebellious is too strong a word, but Adolin appreciates having a choice, even if he does end up choosing the option that everyone wanted him to pick. Hence his uniform being more fancy than everyone else’s, and his duelling methods being unorthodox, using wrestling moves instead of the Shardblade-only combat approved by the Highjudge. I do not see him ever liking being forced into an ultimatum, because it has the potential of forcing him into a situation where he is completely unprepared, eg, when he fights Szeth both times and has trouble deciding if his life is worth more than Dalinar’s. Still, freedom of choice is something I imagine Adolin values a lot, because it gives him the security of knowing that he is his own man, which he projects in public, even though some part of him must subconsciously identify himself as his father’s son. He makes a big deal of his having his choice of wife, courting a new girl every 2 weeks or so, but inwardly, he wouldn’t mind it if he had a formal arrangement with just one girl. Those thought patterns are very strange and contradictory to people outside the personality type, I guess. But choices, actions, and consequences I suspect will make up a lot of Adolin’s character development. And ultimately, Adolin is responsible for what he does, not Dalinar, who formed the framework of his morality, but doesn’t make the decisions. Dalinar isn’t solely responsible for Adolin turning out the way he is. When Adolin was a child, his father was away conquering Alethkar, and Adolin didn’t get the join in the fighting until the War of Reckoning. Before that, it’s assumed he spent his days training in the company of his mother (before she died) and Renarin. And based on what is mentioned about Shshshsh, she doesn’t seem to be a bad person. Who knows, maybe it’s Shshshsh who unwittingly influenced Adolin into becoming an insecure, overstressed daddy’s boy. That could be a real theory there, since from what we know of Shshshsh hasn’t been that flattering of a description – Navani doesn’t think she’s clever, and since she was dragged along by her brother to a foreign land, I don’t think she can be considered a strong-willed, self-confident and assertive type of person, even if she is kind and well-intentioned. I don’t think she was the one who stole the Shardplate from Iri, and she is definitely not the person who came up with the plan to carry it to Alethkar and arrange for political asylum through a strategic marriage. She could not have been a good role model for young Adolin, if he was left alone with her for years while Dalinar was on campaign with Gavilar, since her whole life, like the lives of high ranking women, was to be a glorified secretary/bureaucrat who shuffles papers in support of a husband who makes the decisions. She, like Queen Aesudan, would be expected to “run the farm” and play a support role to her husband, if he was away. I do not think she is the type of character with the political acumen and dominant personality to demand equal status in a relationship like Ialai Sadeas. Ialai breaks conventions and eats men’s food at the men’s table. Shshshsh goes along with her brother’s plan to marry her off for political protection. Adolin is follows the rules and remains observant of social conventions. He doesn’t even realise it until he meets Shallan who does the completely unexpected. Alternatively, it could be kids his age who instilled in Adoiln the impression of being inferior because of his foreign and impure blood, as little kids on the playground or training arena tend to do, and young Adolin developed into a young adult who acts arrogant in public to compensate. Or it could even be the rigid Alethi society where the Asian concept of face is held to utmost importance, and any display of emotion is a sign of weakness that causes sharks to circle, because Alethis can be petty and cutthroat. I would be hesitant to say that it’s all Dalinar, because before Dalinar got his visions – I’m not sure about the timeline on this, so I’m assuming they started a year or two before the events in WoK, he was still mostly Blackthorn and universally lauded as an Alethi hero. In that period, Adolin’s posturing and hotheaded reactions to goading wouldn’t have gotten him into much trouble other than a disadvantaged duel or two. I’m still not sure why Dalinar banned duelling for officers if Adolin in WoK was still duelling for honour rather than Blades (with Sadeas, Elhokar and Dalinar commenting on how good he is, since he comes out untouched), if the whole purpose of the ban was to prevent potential injuries. It wasn’t until Dalinar got really into the Way of Kings enough to speak the words and get the visions that he considered paths other than standard lighteyed Alethi authoritarianism and being a backseat autocrat. So it could possibly be argued that Dalinar’s negligence with regards to Adolin’s training and education rather than heavyhanded-ness that caused Adolin to go off the rails at the end of WoR. Everyone was so involved with their own problems, and no one really communicated – the scene where Dalinar wants to abdicate and Adolin starts yelling at him is a prime example. They don’t exactly resolve their disagreement because of stubbornness and plot-induced convenience. “Do your sons mean so little to you?” I really wanted an answer to that question in WoR. What I’m really trying to say is that it could be Dalinar’s recent flip-floppy behaviour from Blackthorn to Proto-Radiant, from “NO DUELING” to “Win me Shards, son” and other events that happened in the background, like Szeth’s assassination attempt, that set routine-oriented Adolin off, rather than his father being too controlling. And in the end, it was his own choice to go off the deep end, since it was confirmed that it wasn’t Odium controlling him. Adolin has to have some awareness and control if he can think that, and spout out a one liner before knifing Sadeas. He is the one ultimately responsible for his actions, not Dalinar. Even though Dalinar will take it personally, and if he thinks Adolin is a failure for doing that, it is because he failed his son. I like characters having a sense of agency, and to blame their decisions on someone else is kinda disappointing in a narrative sense. Of course things aren’t that clean and clearcut in real life, but fictional character motivations are all down to perception and interpretation, and I prefer to see it as an action Adolin did for himself, with the added bonus of protecting the people he loves, rather than an explosive tantrum of repressed daddy issues. I never re-read WoK or WoR in its entirety, either. Most of the time I re-read a chapter at a time after wanting to find a quote and searching up a key word with my eReader. I always skip the interlude chapters because even though they are useful worldbuilding, I find them hard to get into because they are so different in tone to the main storylines. Especially that first Purelake one. The sudden contrast and setting-switch is jarring. Anyways, if you haven’t got the time to go through old favourites, you can at least pick up a book that you found hit your standards for the three main points of prose/style, plot and characterisation. That one book that you could immediately name as one of your top 10, and has been so for years. For me, it would be a book that I would bother owning in hardcopy and eBook edition. If you get to a point where you are actually going to sit down and write, it helps if you have that one book in front of you, so you can double check and compare your sentence structure and level of description. It’s a useful trick if you want to emulate a certain style of writing, and I used to do it in my old school days. I thought the writing style in Ender’s Game was serviceable. Descriptive without being elaborate, and carries the plot, but it is workmanlike in the same way as Brandon’s, but not beautiful. Now and then there are poignant moments, but overall it is blunt and definitely not poetic. The Eagle of the Ninth is more introspective and pays more attention to building imagery and relationships, with an old fashioned sort of charm that I like. And since it was written for kids, it doesn’t have the intrusive satirical comments on society or politics that many older authors liked to put in their books. Since YA wasn’t a genre when it was written, it is suitable for all ages to read, which is the best type of YA novel – one that you can enjoy as a kid and re-read as an adult and enjoy it just as much, or even see it on a deeper level. I think that’s the difference between old YA novels and modern ones with garish covers, supernatural love triangles, and teen protagonists who have problems respecting authority figures. I have recently read/skimmed a few YA novels, and the main thing I see in common is that they lack complexity. The conflicts are more black and white than grey and grey, the world tends to be some version of alternate Earth or historical Earth rather than something more original and alien, and focus is put on the characters first and worldbuilding second. Of the characters, each has one or two main traits (barely better than cardboard) with the obviously defined MC with the most development, but character arcs tend to be minimal and sometimes non-existent. Of course, this would not be something that would bother a child reading for enjoyment, but I would not be immersed, and I’d be rolling my eyes the whole way through. Having a simple world or simple characters is not a bad thing if the author does it well, and makes up for it in other ways, but modern YA published in the last 5 or so years rarely has any substance to redeem itself. My problem is that I’ve been spoiled by too many good books and now I’m too picky. Well, at least it means that it has forced my taste and my writing skills to improve. I have learned what kind of styles work, and what writing styles are not worth copying unless I want to write cookie cutter YA. If you can pick up a book and immediately dislike the writing style enough to be able to explain why it bothers you, then you have become a prose connoisseur. And if you can translate to skill to writing, you can consider yourself better than published authors. I don’t mind critiques! I think if they are written by a thoughtful reviewer (someone who can do a better job than writing “THIS SUCKS 1 STAR”) they help authors improve plot and pacing, because people who write things spend a lot of replaying scenes in their head and proofreading to the point where they lose sight of the impact of their writing. Twists aren’t shocking twists when you’ve read over it two dozen times trying to make it sound right. I want to get better at writing so I know what to avoid and what to use the next time I decide to write something. One theme that I really enjoy reading (and writing) is friendship. I enjoy heartwarming stories as much as I enjoy a good romance, and I wanted to explore friendship within a relationship, which is something that many modern romances lack, because they run off “hey ur hot, let’s have sex” relationship development. The Power of Friendship is cheesy as heck, but if the friendship is well-written and develops organically, then it’s one trope I unashamedly love. The lack of platonic or sibling relationships involving trust and communication in WoR was a disappointment to me, because it would have solved a lot of problems, or at least kept them from turning into massive problems. Kaladin, Adolin and Shallan don’t have friends that last the whole book, and only start to become friends at the end. But hey, fanfiction is authors writing what they want to read, and a lot of what I wrote was author appeal. I guess it says a lot about me as a person, hahah. Shallan is around 17.5 as of the end of WoR, so it might be closer to 5 years’ difference between her and Adolin rather than 6 years. To Rosharans, the age difference in-story doesn’t seem to be a big deal and no PoV character has commented on it, so no one thinks it’s unusual or immoral for Adolin to be dating someone Shallan’s age. Lin Davar considered marrying Balat off to a 50 year old woman, which would be socially acceptable since everyone understands that the marriage would be in the nature of exchange, as most high ranking marriages are. They thought it was too much because she’s twice his age and probably is too old to have children, but it is still perfectly socially acceptable, if unusual. Balat would have been a trophy husband in that instance. In the second flashback, Shshshsh was 18 or 19 and Dalinar must have been around 24, which is a 5-6 year age difference, which again, is not commented upon. If they married at age 21 and 27, would you consider that too much? Because if Adolin’s relationship preferences turn out to mirror his father’s (as they seem to be turning out to be, the more gets revealed from SA3), I could see he and Shallan getting married at that age, if they decided to get married at all. She would be a legal adult in all countries by Earth standards, if Brandon wanted to avoid the squeamishness of readers who dislike the thought of teenagers doing “things”, or teenage pregnancy. Though he has written about it before in Warbreaker, with Siri was around 17 and Susebron who was biologically (but not physically) 50 years old, and a prime example of being a manchild. If Susebron (the tongueless version) was the measuring stick for being a manchild, I would say that Adolin is very far from that. He may be emotionally stunted, suffers from PTSD and lives in a strict society with no therapists and no friends, but he has adult responsibilities that he is capable of managing himself. When he rescues the prostitute from being beaten up in WoK, and she offers herself to him no charge, he handles the situation calmly, and I have the suspicion that Dalinar wouldn’t call Adolin out for visiting a brothel. Dalinar isn’t the type of person who could comfortably talk about “those things” when he can barely discuss them with Navani, so I doubt he would confront Adolin if he did. Susebron in comparison didn’t even know how that stuff worked. So I would not say that Adolin is “trawling for teens” because that makes him seem creepy, as it was Jasnah who suggested the match, but rather looking for “the one”. And if the person who might turn out to be “the one” happens to be a teenager, what is he going to do about it? Dump her or tell her to come back in 3 years? What exactly are the symptoms of Adolin’s manchildness? The wandering eye, playboy behaviour? The fear of commitment and eventual self-sabotage? Seems like standard personality flaws rather than being the Rosharan equivalent of a modern neckbeard who lives in his mum’s basement and plays World of Warcraft all day. I think it’s just your modern perspective overlaying your reading which results in such a dislike of the age gap. Some of my friends told me that they thought 18 and 22 was too much, but to me, it’s so subjective and honestly, best judged on an individual level rather than with a blanket Yes/No. Years later, these same friends seem to have changed their minds and have admitted that someone a bit older and with a more “settled” way of thinking would not be a bad thing. I think most fanfics lose me within the first 4-6 paragraphs due to being OOC or just not having an interesting plotline that is sometimes helpfully summarised by the author’s blurb. In those cases, I only finish the first chapter and close out. It is the very best fanfiction that makes me want to hit “Next Chapter” as soon as I finish the last, which happens very rarely. Mostly because many fanfics are short one-shots or incomplete and hanging in writer limbo. To be fair, I am just as picky with published fiction, and first chapters are important for cementing the style and tone of a written piece. If your first page doesn’t grab me, then I will struggle trying to immerse myself into the fictional world. OT3’s are love triangles, but instead of having the conflict of the girl choosing which one is better, she gets to have them both. Even if Alethi society was accepting of such an arrangement (they probably would not care, as long as no one knew about it), I have the feeling that Adolin and Kaladin are the type of people who would prefer a monogamous relationship. It looks like fanfiction authors are writing Shallan as someone with a voyeur fetish. Well, it’s a bit unusual, but I wouldn’t say it doesn’t fit her character if you stretched your interpretation a bit. She does enjoy watching shirtless sailors, lets Pattern spy on people, spies on people herself, and likes doing life study drawings. If Shallan happened to stumble across Adolin changing his clothes in the locker room, her reaction would be more of interest than embarrassment. Her drawing skills and memory make her the ideal stalker and peeping tom in a setting without modern technology. Oh, Dalinar. I have serious doubts that Dalinar was a virgin at 27 when he married Shshshsh, and that he was a virgin at 24 before he had even met her. It must be hilariously hypocritical to forbid such “intimacy” for his son, especially in a modern setting where education about these things starts early, and where the “consequences” of a mistake would have been extremely shameful in a medieval setting, can be taken care of in the modern day without too many questions asked. How does a father even enforce such rules on a son without keeping him locked in the house? How would a father even find out if his son got to second base with a girl? Kids don’t talk about these things with their parents (how uncool is that) past the mandatory educational speech everyone gets at around age 12, and even if they did mention it in the presence of others, there is always hip slang that grownups don’t understand. I don’t disagree that Adolin is a virgin – I’m pretty sure he is, if a kiss on the cheek makes him blush. If he has kissed girls before Shallan, there wouldn’t have been very many of them, and I assume that he didn’t get any farther than that. But I believe that his “purity” comes from his own choice or own inability to make a choice rather than his father’s view on marital morality. Dalinar would probably be glad to see his son had finally settled down. In WoK he has mentioned before that a good wife would be useful, to Adolin as an officer’s secretary and to the family as a whole, since the only person so far who can be trusted fully with writing notes is Navani. …And that brings up another question about Adolin’s fears of getting married. He’s afraid of not being able to do it right. Is it even possible to do it wrong? I don’t know if you picked up on it, but when I wrote Adolin in my story, I wrote him as one who is intimately inexperienced. In the last chapter, the Epilogue, I tried to make it clear that he and Shallan were doing the things. Even if you start out inexperienced, I don’t think it’s that hard to figure out what goes where. I tried to walk the line between tasteful and humorous without going into explicit, and writing it made me laugh pretty hard, because the reason why Adolin avoids Shallan for a few days after his first time is that he thinks he broke her or something silly like that. If I had written the story with Adolin’s PoV, I would have included a mention that afterwards, Adolin went to Kaladin for doctor advice on how to “unbreak” Shallan because he was freaking out about finding some spotting on his bedsheets. I remember you saying a while ago in this thread that Adolin’s lack of experience would make his first experience cute and sweet. I personally thought it would turn out to be unintentionally hilarious. Jeez. Your story gets dark pretty quickly. It seems to fall into the genre of literary fiction or family drama than fantasy, if that’s what you were aiming for. With family dramas, it is easy to accidentally turn it into soap operas if you have too many viewpoints going on at once, without keeping in mind the balance of internal character exploration and the overall narrative. But if you do it well, it can turn into a heartwarming family story. Are you planning to write it out properly, or is this just a mental scenario? I think I am the kind of person who feels bad for putting fictional characters in depressing situations. I would feel guilt if I had to write a “Fall From Grace” scenario where a character ends up in a bad place, especially if it was all self-inflicted. I feel bad reading about the ways Kaladin was forced to run bridges and get strung up in a highstorm, and I felt bad for every bad thing that happened to Fitzchivalry. I admire writers who can convincingly write characters at the worst point in their lives, because I don’t think I could do it. I’m just too soft-hearted, and I need hope spots or else I can’t pick up the book. Even now I hesitate to re-read books that I know explore depressing character arcs because it’s a mental rollercoaster for me, and I can’t handle the feels. Kaladin and Adolin as roommate would be a cute idea, if they develop a bromance like they had going on at the end of WoR. When Adolin went to jail as a protest after the 4:1 duel, he and Kaladin were basically roommates. I’m a very boring person who enjoys fan service in the form of simple “slice of life” stories instead of high drama, so a story about roommates who do mundane, everyday things like grocery shopping and going to the gym together would be something I’d find enjoyable. I know it’s boring, but sometimes I like a little light reading. If Adolin gets over all the drama and ends up doing simple things that make him happy, I think I would be fulfilled with such an ending. I know other people who have read fantasy novels featuring farmboys who are given magical swords of destiny expect the farmboy to end up as a king at the end of the day, but I like it when the farmboy retires and goes back to his farm. I do not see Adolin wanting to become friends with Shallan’s brothers. They are secretive people because of the whole “cover up our parents’ death” deal and the abusive parents thing has traumatised all of them to certain degrees. Adolin wouldn’t know the reason for their being so evasive, but he’s such a good judge of character that he would pick up on the fact that there is something wrong with them, something that they’re not telling. He would find it hard to trust them, and he would struggle to befriend them, since Balat is a cripple and can’t participate in Adolin favourite hobby, duelling. It would be annoying for Adolin if Jushu runs up gambling debts and tells his creditors that Adolin will pay the bills. But the Ghostbloods are trading Shallan’s brothers in exchange for her participation in their schemes, so an actual introduction of the Kholins and the Davars is likely going to happen SA3. How exciting! Oh man, Kaladin’s arrogant and presumptuous attitude really annoys me. We all know his terrible past and abuses he went through in the past with Amaram, when he refused the Shards Adolin offered him and didn’t really give an explanation, that must have felt like a slap in the face to propriety and polite behaviour. To me, it was something like Shallan telling Adolin she doesn’t need his protection, but doesn’t explain why. Adolin is left with the awareness that something bad happened, and he doesn’t know what exactly it is, but he still has to step around it carefully like Legos in the dark. If that scene was a Tumblr post, it would have a trigger warning. I think Stormform Parshendi would be the most common Desolation mook, since they are slaves in every rich person’s estate. Lin Davar, in rural Jah Keved, and Wistiow in the small farming town of Hearthstone had a couple of Parshmen slaves. No one knows how Thunderclasts and Midnight Essences pop up, if they need an Odium spren to come out of the ground and attack people, but Parshmen just need an Everstorm to change their forms. I guess we’ll have to wait and see the rarity rankings of various Voidbringers, but in the Shattered Plains at least, with its close proximity to Narak/Parshendi hometown, would have the most number of Voidbringer mooks. If Honorspren hate dead spren blades, I would not assume that all Windrunners would hate them too – it is only Kaladin who is extremely biased against them due to his traumatic past. If there were other Windrunners, they would feel uneasy when close to a dead Blade, and they would hear screams if they touched one, but I do not think they would attack the owner of a dead Sprenblade and force them to break the gem bond and throw the Blade down a chasm. Let alone Radiants forcing Shardbearers to go into hiding. Shardbearers aren’t criminals just for owning a Shardblade, and since Radiants are into doing the “right thing”, for all flavours of morality, I just can’t see it happening. A Shardbearer could say he got rid of Blade and never summon it in a public place, and no one would ever know. It would take years for a bias against dead Blades to spread from Surgebinders/new Radiants to the whole population, since most people know Shardblades as mythical blades of the ancients that are worth kingdoms, and are immediately bestow rank and status to darkeyes. Little kids in rural farming villages know the stories and legends of Shardblades. They would not immediately accept the dead Blades as TOOLS OF EVIL. And even if Shardbearers are kicked out of the army (which is a stupid idea tactically when the Shardplate doesn’t cause screams, and grants extreme mobility, strength, and endurance and immunity to lightning) because Surgebinders think they’re bad people, the majority of them are ambitious, powerhungry Alethis who still feel the Thrill. Instead of teaming up and fighting Voidbringers with the new Radiants, the Shardbearers would go back to the Princedoms and fight border battles with each other, trying to take lands that aren’t being watched due to all the chaos of the Desolation. And if the Soulcasters, they don’t even need to follow standard rules of supply and logistics that military actions usually require. The Alethi upper classes are that petty and selfish. I think people immediately believing Shards are obsolete is unrealistic, but that’s just me. News doesn’t travel that quickly in a medieval type setting, when only rich people can afford spanreeds that require gems and Stormlight to operate, and only females are allowed to read. The warcamps’ messenger system involves young women riding horses and reading the announcements to the men within earshot, over and over. That’s not very efficient, and can’t cover a country the size of Alethkar within a month or three, which I’m expecting is the timeline covered by SA3. I think we just disagree about the impact and presence of dead Shardblades in the Desolation. I agree in a narrative sense that it would create lots of delicious narrative drama and conflict for newly discovered Radiants who ascend from humble origins and can now go toe-to-toe with the established ruling class noble Shardbearer families. It would make for a great read seeing how people manage to work together and overcome their differences. But in a realistic sense, I just don’t think it would be something that could pan out over the 3 months or so that each SA book covers (excluding the flashback sequences, of course). Would you like the books less if I told you that Marcus in Eagle of the Ninth was 21 when he met the love interest girl Cottia when she was 14 years old? And Sabriel is 19 while Touchstone is biologically over 200 years old. Both books were ones I enjoyed reading as a kid, and enjoy re-reading, because they focus on adventure questing with the romance as a very minor plot that you can ignore if you aren’t interested in it, while still acknowledging that it’s there and that the characters aren’t total robots. I think it’s because they were written in 1954 and 1995, years before YA became the genre it is now, and both blur the lines between adult fiction and youth oriented fiction. “Sabriel” is one of the classics of rules-organised magic systems, and Brandon has definitely read it, because he references the author Garth Nix in his Alcatraz Smedry series. I’ve recently read pulp 1980’s fantasy, one of those cheap paperbacks with the terrible cover pictures that never seem to match with any scene in the book, and they tend to use inscrutable classic wizards with robes and staffs who have seemingly limitless power and never explain anything. The reviews say that it was good for its time, but in this day and age, readers are so aware of tropes that to use the classic ones can be boring and predictable. Which is why I enjoy Sabriel as an example of a strong female protagonist who saves the day, and saves the prince. It also features necromancy and zombie apocalypse without veering into grimdark territory. Brandon’s writing of battle scenes is more violent than standard YA fare, but I’d say it’s pretty typical in terms of tone for a fantasy series. It’s not squeaky clean; it’s visceral and bloody and gets across the point that war is not pretty or glorious, especially when the PoV character isn’t running on adrenaline or the Thrill. But compared to grimdark fantasy, or hardcore military scifi/fantasy, Brandon doesn’t revel in the bloodshed and linger on the gory descriptions like other series do. When you read it, you get that it’s a dirty job, but you aren’t retching while you read. When I am physically cringing while reading a violent battle scene, that is what I’d call genuinely grim and disgusting. This is where Kaladin realises how bridges work for the first time, and is one of the things that makes him want to hit the Honor Chasm. It’s descriptive, but not overly emotive. I can picture what’s happening in my mind (one of Brandon’s strong points in writing), but I don’t feel it. Compare it to true grimdark: It’s a well written series with great twist endings, and it’s so descriptive sometimes that it hurts. I like Brandon’s books, but there are things that other authors are better at writing, and when I read other things and later come back to Cosmere works, I find I can appreciate them more. Adolin in WoK didn’t like the idea of a darkeyed slave saving him and the remnants of his army from the Tower. But he’s pragmatic when he comes down to it. In the heat of the moment, he would definitely do a heroic last stand. When he calms down afterwards, he’d be eventually appreciative of the effort taken to save his life. I think it would be something that would strain his and Shallan’s relationship if it actually happened, but Shallan wouldn’t regret it if it saved someone she loves. Shallan is selfish for good reasons, like stealing Jasnah’s Soulcaster to save her family. She knows that Jasnah wouldn’t like it if someone took her stuff, but she just doesn’t care, because she considers saving her brothers worth the risk. I wanted to emphasise that Shallan, even though she is “good”, however you interpret it, she can be a person who is not conventionally nice. She’s still selfish and self-centred, and the fact that Kaladin is willing participate in her schemes shows that he’s not completely goody-goody either and understands that Adolin being alive is beneficial, and not just because they both value his friendship. I also wanted to hint that Kaladin is still not completely over his crush on Shallan, and even when she decides she doesn’t like him romantically, she still compares how different he is to Adolin. Brandon does it in a superficial way in WoR, when canon Shallan thinks of Kaladin as rugged rocks, and Adolin as kind and genuine. Come on girl, you can do better than that. This is why I take a break and read romances, because they get deeper into the emotional development instead of the relationship being a minor sideplot to saving the world. I tried to explore the relationship between Shallan and Kaladin in the direction that I felt SA would develop given enough time. Shallan and Kaladin can have a working and functional platonic-only relationship, because they have so much in common, but if they tried to base a relationship on it, Shallan would bail because she would rather move on instead of linger in self-pity as Kaladin has a tendency to do with his grudges. I do not see Adolin being interested in maintaining a platonic-only relationship with Shallan. He would put effort into a relationship if it was important to him, whereas Kaladin is such a workaholic that he would take it for granted, do other things, and come back wondering why his relationship is crumbling. I think I’m much better at writing romance than the family drama genre. Sigzil, a darkeyed slave, can read. So can Renarin and Dalinar. Adolin knows enough to recognise some basic shapes of glyphs, but he can’t read. I would say that most lighteyed men can read glyphs, or else they wouldn’t print café menus in glyphs – if it was for women only, all the writing would be in the squiggly women’s script. Some higher nan darkeyed men can too, if it is relevant to their trade. Adolin is the odd one out for being illiterate when he hasn’t learn the writing that is allowed to men. Which goes onto prove that Renarin is perfectly capable of holding a supply position as quartermaster, and contributing to the Kholin army in useful and constructive way. He just doesn’t want to because he’s too single-minded and inflexible about being a proper Alethi “real warrior” and going to warrior heaven. For someone who so adamantly refuses to go to the Ardentia and become a priest, he sure does get fixated with those crazy Vorin religious beliefs. I always figured that Renarin’s dislike of Adolin being around Sadeas was because Adolin is normally friendly, flirty and easy-going. When he is around Sadeas, it’s essentially an OOC moment for him, since he keeps his twitchy moments (summoning Shardblade over and over, highstorm nervousness) to himself most of the time. I didn’t think Renarin’s Truthwatching powers manifested in a way that let him predict that Adolin would end up ruining his life killing Sadeas 2000 pages later, but rather that he knows his brother and his habit of doing stupid risky things out of impulse. It could just be confirmation bias, but the more I look into Renarin’s character quirks and compare it to Dalinar’s, they really are alike. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that both are on the autism spectrum, but Adolin has previously mentioned that he and Renarin’s grandfather had mental illness that gave him visions/hallucinations in old age. Renarin and Dalinar care a lot about control and try to keep themselves perfectly composed, because if they don’t, they feel like their weakness is exposed to the world. To me, it seems like a conscious effort to present outward calmness and control, and their perception of themselves comes from how well they hold their control Adolin in comparison values what other peoples’ perceptions, and puts on his confident playboy act naturally and subconsciously. He doesn’t become aware of how fake it is until Jakamav rejects him and he realises he has no friends and no one really cares about him. Seems like Dalinar putting his own framework of Codes onto Adolin instead of letting Adolin interpret the Codes for himself is like shoving a square peg in a round hole.

My takes on movie posters. Words of Radiance Minimalist artsy poster. For those midnight screenings at indie cinemas. Shows something of the "flavour" of the movie, while being artistically vague. It's Jasnah with Soulcaster, Shardblade, and safehand. I've always admired minimalist advertising, like the Glinda and Elphaba posters for Wicked. Way of Kings Blockbuster Hollywood style teaser poster. I'm no good at taglines, but at least I didn't spoil the end of the book with a trailer or poster. cough cough Ender's Game I couldn't find the official font they used for the SA cover titles, so I just guessed. It's not exact, since the real Way of Kings is in all caps, but if you didn't notice it until I pointed it out, then I was pretty close. And those actor credits, hahah. Words of Radiance - Adolin Stage play or Broadway musical playbill-style character poster. Old art, but this picture was specifically made to emulate old-fashioned advertising material, so I think it's relevant. The kind of poster I actually want to see for SA: vintage advertising. I love this retro, colourful style. I would very much like to see Rosharan regions depicted like this - it would make me go print out a poster to hang on the wall. "Visit Urithiru" or "Tvklav's Unclaimed Hills Caravan Tours". Maybe I'll do it when I have the time to experiment.

I made a lurker reveal themselves. Feel free to post in this thread, I enjoy the discussion. The more you practice a new technique, the more you refine and streamline your drawing process, and the faster you get. What takes you 12 hours to finish will take you only 4 hours a few years from now. I used it think it was crazy how speed painters could do so much in an hour or two, especially the ones who title their pieces "quick midnight scribble", but then I watched their videos and there is a logical procedure to how they start from a rough concept to a finished picture. I used to be really slow, because I agonised over colour palettes and colour placement, always worrying if it looked weird or if I was doing it wrong. Becoming used to drawing and using digital painting programs let me get more confident about my abilities, so I stopped second-guessing myself. I draw fan service-y fanart for my own entertainment, so there was no reason to get stressed about it. It's all a learning process. You'll get good soon. And when you get good, you'll want to get better. Do you mean like this? Syl without Kaladin Link to download. She looks so lonely without her Kaladin. and more Syl if you want it. Light and Dark Syl Link to download.

Just remember to step back once in a while and do other things if you feel sucky for too long. If art is your hobby, and you aren’t enjoying it, it’s a hint that you should take a break. Otherwise it would spoil art and drawing for you for months or years, so that every time you pick up a pen you associate it with frustration (it happened to me when I had an art teacher who yelled a lot and was not veru far from goosestepping). It’s good to strive toward improvement, but I know that sometimes it doesn’t feel very good when you are referencing other artists and feel like chull dung. My solution is to not take myself too seriously, because at the end of the day, it’s all just scribbles on a page. I think that’s where all my silly art comes from. Some people make their hobbies SERIOUS BUSINESS but I am not one of them. The reason why I post process pics in this thread is to show every cool looking piece starts out rough and messy. It makes attempting larger scale pictures seems less scary. When you see the steps in the process, you think “I can do all those steps, why can’t I draw something cool too?” I would prefer that the designs be posted and shared so that people can go to their local print shop and get t-shirts or other merch made on their own. For me, and many people who do not live in the US, it is annoying to have to pay for international shipping and wait an extra few weeks for stuff to be delivered from Brandon’s merch warehouse. I don’t want any monetary compensation for my art, I just want people to wear Cosmere themed clothes proudly in public, so that one day I might see someone on the street with a design I drew. Then I will spend the rest of the day smiling because who wouldn’t, it’s awesome! I’d love to see an IRL version of Kaladin’s Sylphrena skateboard!!! Even if it just an “inspired by” piece, it would still be amazing. The detail in the “AU casual clothing character design” sketch wasn’t very good, and half of it was covered up by Kaladin’s arm and hand, so here are my old concept sketches for the skateboard deck design. It’s very rough and would probably have to be adjusted because I think the axles for the wheels would cover up her face. But it’s still a closer view of what it was supposed to look like. And the “Blackbane variant” is for the edgy folks who paint their nails black, hate sunshine, and ironically enjoys poetry slams. Discussing subjects of intimacy would be as awkward for Kaladin as it would be for Adolin. Kaladin would be aware that every bit of help he gives means that Adolin gets closer to the girl he’s crushing on. And he probably feels guilty that during the time he and Shallan wandered around in the chasms, he has probably spent more time with her than Adolin, who only got 2 dates which got interrupted by a highstorm and Amaram. In fact, the night he spent cuddling Shallan in that hole is as close to a girl than he has been since Tarah, which is more than Adolin has had in his entire life. Prickles? Spiky? Spiny? Any of those names would make Kaladin roll his eyes. He doesn’t like nicknames, since he told his parents to stop calling him “Kal” when he was a kid. The scoring for Quidditch is just one of those things about HP that shows how much it runs off amusement and quirkiness rather than logic for the first 3-4 books. And don’t get me started on Time-Turners. I guess it says a lot that we are posting on this forum rather than one for any other series. Relis and Elit Ruthar would make good Beaters! They would practice beating in the Quidditch pitch, and in the school hallways, and probably in the bathroom too, when there aren’t any prefects watching. They are smug and rich and like showing off, which makes them perfect Slytherins. And they are the type of the rival who would make Adolin’s eyes bulge if they flirted with Shallan. I know you hate Wit for encouraging Kaladin to flirt with Shallan in WoR, but if it actually happened, I would laugh way more than if intimate advice was discussed. Here is a pink version, in magenta pink. Unless you prefer salmon pink or lavender pink or some other shade. Why pink? Whitespines are supposed to be white, or else they would be called pinkspines. Kholinar Whitespines - Pink Edition CLICK HERE to download full resolution. I think it would be easier to have it printed on a t-shirt. There are more t-shirt printing services than custom sports jersey makers, which can be pretty expensive. And t-shirt places often have women's sizes, which fit better in my experience than women's sports clothing. Some art now... One more team logo. It’s enough to have a sports league now. Kharbranth Heralds CLICK HERE to download full resolution. It’s Jezrien or Jezerezeh, the daddy Windrunner with the Honorblade that Szeth used to own. I copied the chapter header picture from the books, and the crown is as accurate as I could get it. Since it doesn’t show what he’s wearing, I drew robes, because one of Dalinar’s flashbacks showed him talking to Nodadon, who was described as wearing robes. Rosharan kings have to wear robes. Process pic: I drew it in the shape of a bell because Kharbranth is the City of Bells. I hope someone noticed. And because Sylphrena was mentioned earlier, one last piece of Kaladin and Syl art. It’s an older one that I left plain because I thought the minimalist look was better for a desktop background, which was why I originally drew it. That and the fact that I rarely draw Syl outside of her pocket sized mini form. This was inspired by something in WoR that made me feel sad. I'M BROKEN I draw big Syl with floating Rapunzel hair to mimic her “ribbon of light” appearance when she’s in her windspren-like form. It must be very weird for people to see Kaladin talking to the air like that. Super big desktop background version HERE.

I chose chasmfiends because of the alliteration in “Kholinar Chasmfiends”. It sounds cool! And Kholinar is not just Adolin’s hometown, but also the hometown of Dalinar and Elhokar, who would think that chasmfiends are way stronger and more fearsome than whitespines. You can put a whitespine in a cage, but no one has actually put a chasmfiend in one. …But I made it anyway. If you get a shirt made of it, take a picture and post it in the thread. I’m pretty sure Kaladin has been in more serious relationships than Adolin. And being a darkeyes, he doesn’t have the prudish reservation that Adolin’s lighteyed peers have. Jakamav has probably had girlfriends in the past, but it’s not like he would ever discuss the details. Kaladin, with his surgeon training, is guaranteed to be familiar with the human anatomy and can probably answer any questions that a young man would be afraid to ask his dad. Wit wanted to name it Fluffy, but there are no bunny rabbits or baby chicks in Alethkar so Shallan and Kaladin scratched their heads because they didn’t know what fluff was. Animals with fur? What kind of weird alien world would have such a thing! If the poor lost whitespine is wandering around the warcamps, I would feel sad if it ate Lopen’s freshly regrown glowing arm. A lone wolf participating in team sports. Oh, Kaladin. I don’t have a problem with Kaladin being Seeker or Keeper or Chaser or anything, it is just that the Seeker position is one of those fun worldbuilding ideas that Rowling used to make wizard sports seem more quirky than organised muggle sports, but it is more of a complication than a benefit to the game’s design. Because a snitch adds the element of a completely randomised game time – from a couple of minutes to days for one game. And the sensible muggle side of me cringes at how disorganised it can get. Prepare a cooler full of beer? Don’t even get to finish one by the time the game is over. That’s the story of my life. If Adolin is a Hufflepuff Chaser, Relis Ruthar is probably Slytherin Captain, and he and Elit are Beaters. With Jakamav as Slytherin Chaser. Would anyone get mad at Shallan for wearing a Hufflepuff scarf in the Slytherin stands? It’s disappointing how the Harry Potter series is so Gryffindor-centric that you never get see what kinds of interactions happen within the other houses. Slytherin House is presented as the Death Eater recruitment pool, and that’s pretty much it. A lot of other people’s art makes mine look like a 14 year old’s. The first step to getting good at art is to accept that it’s okay to think you suck. Because EVERYONE thinks they suck. When you think you suck, it means you know you can get better. You know you have room to improve. And the path to unsucking is through grinding, meaning you have to observe, practice, and experiment. When you “git gud”, as they call it in gaming forums, you are training your mind to more accurately translate a mental image to a visual medium. Part of that process is seeing what tools you have available to you, whether it’s pencil and paper, or oil paint, or digital paint, and using them over and over until you are completely familiar with them, then going past that point, and experimenting with new techniques, mixed media, or unique subjects and composition. I’ve spoken about this before, I think. For every nice finished piece you see on the internet, you have to remember that the artist who drew it was a noob once, and may or may not think they’re still a noob. Heck, even the stuff I draw looks like chull dung the first time around. It is only because I have practiced so much, and developed habits of being self-critical that I can recognise where things can be improved, neatened, and redrawn to the point where it looks okay. And then a year later, I will see more places where improvements can be made that I hadn’t noticed earlier. That’s how you know you got better. A Process Pic One of the key skills is learning to be critical of yourself. When you think you suck, it means the only way to go is up. This is why artists have a reputation for being angsty, tormented souls. ART TIME!! STORMLIGHT SPORTS LOGOS If anyone else has (or is going to have) these turned into t-shirts, post a picture in this thread! No need to ask for permission to use this art. I just want to see people wearing Cosmere-related things in public. Urithiru Knights - redrawn Neatened the outlines, made it symmetrical, and changed the font of "Urithiru". Overall design is the same CLICK HERE to download full resolution. Kholinar Chasmfiends Dalinar and Elhokar's hometeam. The shape of the chasmfiend over the shield is supposed to echo the silhouette of the crown and tower in the Kholin family glyphpair. This has a lot going on compared to an IRL Earth sports team logo, but chasmfiends are pretty detailed and I didn't know how to condense it stylistically while still making it a recognisable chasmfiend. CLICK HERE to download full resolution. Kholinar Whitespines An alternate team for Adolin, which @maxal prefers over the Chasmfiends. The image was copied from the whitespine picture drawn by Ben McSweeney in WoR. Whitespines are crazy cool, but insane to draw. Hopefully I did this original justice with this stylised sports logo rendition. CLICK HERE to download full resolution. Hearthstone Whitespines An alternate version for those Kaladin fans out there. Somehow, I don't think Kaladin would want to cheer the team from his hometown. CLICK HERE to download full resolution. Character Design - Team Jerseys Team logos - Process pic I originally sketched a full chasmfiend crawling over the logo, but it was too much going on at once. Too busy. So I cut it down and only used the top half for the logo. I wanted a diamond shape for the whitespine, so that is how I sketched it. I originally planned the logo to be a rhombus shape, but eventually settled on a shield so there would be room to fit in the town name text on the top. Again, if you make a shirt from these designs, the only payment I want is to see your photos posted in this thread! It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Well, if you ever go to a Sanderson signing, you know what to wear. In my country, old sports clubs have the old-fashioned logos, and newer clubs, or very small regional and amateur teams, use modern stylised logos, most of which are designs stolen from somewhere else (Google Images probably) with the club name pasted on. I've always admired the sleek graphic designs of modern sports logos, which is why I came up with the Urithiru Knights design after a lot of scribbling and messing about. If I manage to figure out how to fit a chasmfiend into a sports logo, I'll make an alternate design for the Kholinar Chasmfiends, Adolin's hometeam. I hope more people steal my design. I want more people to wear Knights t-shirts in public. That way I can convert people into Cosmere fans. I initially thought Shallan should go into Ravenclaw, but I looked at the HP wiki and it said that Ravenclaws were noted for their intelligence and wit. And I've always thought that Shallan is neither as witty or as clever as she thinks she is, but she can be manipulative in her own way, while at the same time ignoring advice from Jasnah and Tyn. She's not malicious, but she is still deceptive. Not all Slytherins are born evil, which is something that Harry's PoV has trouble recognising. Good thing that Adolin, as of WoR, has Kaladin for helpful advice about girls. If he asked Kaladin for what present to give to Shallan, Kaladin would remind him of things that Shallan liked in the past, like the trip to the menagerie, as a hint that he should get her coloured pencils or art supplies. But Adolin thinks of the whitespine. Shallan would call it something cute, like Prickles. I wonder what happened to the whitespine in the zoo when everyone went to Urithiru. Did the owner abandon it? Maybe it is wandering around the empty warcamp or something. I was thinking of the time Kaladin sucked all the Parshendi arrows to the bridge and his shield in his slave days in WoK. Since he is Kaladin "I protect things" Stormblessed, I thought he would make an excellent Keeper. But I will admit I am biased in this. I do not like the Seeker or the Snitch in Quidditch, because I feel like it is the most useless position in the whole team. The only purpose of the Seeker is to end the game, and if you replaced him/her with a clock or an hourglass, you would lose nothing from the game. In fact, it would probably be a good thing, because you wouldn't have games that go on for days at a time because of rain and snow where no one can see a thing. And in terms of game design, for a team sport like Quidditch, having someone that doesn't participate with the rest of the team because he is just flying around looking for the Snitch isn't very team-like. It is one of those things that I never thought about as a kid reading HP for the first time, but just seems really silly as an adult, because I would hate it if I bought tickets to a game and it ended in 10 minutes because one Seeker owned a souped up Firebolt 2001 and the other didn't. Because Kaladin's Order's trait is Leadership, I picked Keeper because it allows him to be more involved with fellow team members, practicing and in-game, like how he lifts bridges in his days off with Bridge Four. If he was a Seeker, he wouldn't have to learn formations or tactical plays with the rest of the team. I'm sure he would be a fantastic Seeker if he wanted to be, but I personally thought he'd choose Keeper, even if it is not as flashy a position. Adolin as Chaser, I like the sound of that. I thought Adolin would participate in Lockhart's Duelling Club, but he can play Quidditch too.

WHOA WHAT AN ABSOLUTE BEAST YOU ACTUALLY GOT A SHIRT MADE Have you worn it in public yet? What are you going to say if someone asks what sport the Urithiru Knights play? When I made the design I had no idea what sport league it was supposed to represent, and I don’t think there are any named organised sports in SA. Unless you count duelling or hunting, but they just seem like recreational activities. Carrot is one of my favourites, even if most people dislike him because he is perfect to the level of Gary Stu-ness. I think most fantasy written for adults lacks unambiguous good characters because dark and edgy makes for drama, so reading Carrot is somewhat refreshing. He and Kaladin are both good, honourable people, but their take on morality is approached from opposite directions and seeing it clash is the reason why buddy cop movies exist. And they’re both around the same age and close to 2m tall, and Carrot’s inherited non-magical sword is pretty much a Shardblade, so they would make an awesome chull-kicking team Some random art pieces: Amarasnah The ship that will never be a ship because it will be even more of a trainwreck than Elhokar and Aesudan. The reason being that both Amaram and Jasnah are actually competent. I imagine that if they were on the same side (the good side), Urithiru and the Oathgate would have been found years ago.’ Lashed the Ceiling 2.0 The first time I got bored painting it before I was finished, and when I looked back at it, I got annoyed how the borders weren’t even. So I went back and repainted bits, and made the facial features more consistent with an earlier painted picture of Adolin I did a while back (it’s in my Gallery somewhere). I go back to old pictures on a regular basis, because I can look at them with fresh eyes – it can be dull to work and re-work on a small section for an hour, and all the colours blur together. I am also aware that Shardblades cannot be Lashed because they’re invested, but let’s just handwave that with some good old artistic license. Multiverse Crossover Alethkar School of Witchcraft and Wizardry It seems like a rule of the fan community that for any franchise or series, as time goes on, the probability of having a Harry Potter or My Little Pony crossover approaches 1. Minimalist version Painted version Which one is better? Yes, Kaladin plays Quidditch. Probably keeper, if he can use Reverse Lashings. Shallan is good at Charms but struggles at Transfiguration. Renarin thinks Divination is stupid. Adolin’s Patronus is a whitespine. For assigning the houses, I went by one main trait rather than all of them, since I find the Sorting Hat personality test can be difficult when a person is in between houses. I wanted to represent all four houses, instead of lumping everyone into Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, which some people might think to be more fitting. Gryffindor – Heroic. Kaladin, no question. Hufflepuff – Loyal. Adolin was a born Hufflepuff. His hair comes in the house colours! The other characteristics are hard-working and kind, which fit him very well. Ravenclaw – Intelligent. Renarin. He likes fabrials. He’s not afraid of Wit. There’s really not enough known about him. Slytherin – Resourceful. I know most people would instantly sort Shallan into Ravenclaw because she’s a scholar, but house sorting comes from the Hat knowing what traits a person perceives to be valuable, and what they aspire to, rather than what they have (because come on, these are 11 year old kids), and there’s also an element of choice. I think when Shallan’s first plan of action was to steal Jasnah’s Soulcaster instead of, you know, approaching her and asking her how to fix her busted one, and stealing Kaladin’s boots, those decisions were pretty Slytherin. Shallan is the most Slytherin character relative to anyone else, and I wanted one of each. Her Radiant order is the exact opposite of Kaladin’s, so I thought it was appropriate. How would you sort SA characters into houses? Obligatory silly stuff: A Gift for Shallan Adolin’s gift was never mentioned by name, and Shallan never got anything, so maybe it was off-screen. Adolin doesn’t know what to get for a girl who isn’t like the other girls, so baskets of melons won’t do. But Shallan likes animals, and one of Adolin’s endearing personality traits is that he is mentally direct. It’s the kind of thing that makes Kaladin facepalm and shake his head, which makes Adolin get nervous, thinking there’s something wrong, and maybe he should have put a bow around it before giving it to Shallan. But Shallan loves it anyway. I copied the design of the whitespine from the WoR sketchbook pages, and tried to get the size proportions right for a whitespine lying on the ground. When standing up, the whitepine’s back (not counting the spines) should be around chest level to an adult man. Canon sketch from Ben "Inkthinker" McSweeney. After drawing it, whitespines, structure-wise, are like some unearthly mix of a velociraptor, a shark and a kangaroo. With six legs. I'm not sure how whitespines look from the front because the reference pictures are in profile, but my version looks like the ugliest dragon in the multiverse had a baby with a pug dog and then had its face squished on a wall or something.

When you are trying to break down a story into emotional “beats”, as you call them, you can either look at the story as a whole, or chapter by chapter, or look within a chapter. Every chapter should have a main point (or multiple) that carries the plot to the next chapter or part of the story, through building character, narrative, or world, or some combination of it all. Your climax should resolve the conflict within the story, and if you are having trouble with that, you can go and break it down through chunks of several paragraphs at a time, or paragraph by paragraph. So when you look deeper at the story, you should be asking the following questions: What thoughts and impressions do you want your readers to have during and after reading? If you have a plot outline marked out in acts, and within those acts, you have chapters, there should be some main purpose to each. For example, in the lead-up to your climax, should readers be feeling anxious, tense, suspicious, confused, or thoughtful? In the climax, or the “avalanche” bit if you plot like Brandon, do you want to feel triumphant, defiant, horrified, or shocked? It comes down to knowing what genre you’re writing, what the readers’ expectations are, and how you will either use them or twist them to make the story better, deeper, and richer. If you have already written or drafted your story, and shown it to your alpha/beta readers, What thoughts and impressions are they actually feeling? This is where feedback comes in handy. If there was something that you felt bothered you, some main emotional or dramatic linchpin, you can specifically point it out and ask your readers to state what they feel after reading in one or two words. If you have no idea what is wrong but you know something’s wrong, you could ask what paragraph or chapter or sub-chapter/scene your readers felt was the most important or dramatic, and if there wasn’t one, the point where they felt bored. And then finally, Why are they feeling this? What words and phrases are contributing to this impression? Is there a disconnect between your intentions and their impressions? This is where you break down your story into its components, to single paragraphs if there are specific problems with your narrative that you wanted to address. If you have written your story already, this is the place where you start tearing it apart and building it back, better. If you have not written your story and it’s only plot outlines so far, you can do an inspiration bubble thing and map out what words and phrases you think sum up your intended emotional response. There are certain words that give strong impressions to readers, due to their connotations and associations. What emotive words are you using? Examples: “despair”, “tremble”, “fierce”, “exultant,” “oily”,” “pensive”, “wondrous”. Each one sends a different mood to the reader. If a sub-chapter, scene or chapter falls flat, perhaps you aren’t using the emotive language, or the right emotive language to carry across your intentions. Use description and emotion to SHOW actions and responses in characters. Emotive language is stronger than just saying, “he was brave”. And what emotive imagery are you using? These are phrases with strong associations, that build atmosphere and tension in individual paragraphs, colour your fictional world, and form an impression of the actions and setting within your story. Examples: “his heart hammered”, “their skittering claws”, “violently garish”, “rode the clutch”. I don’t think this is something that you absolutely need a tutorial on how to do, since authors have been doing this for years without the internet, and it basically comes down to what you’re feeling, and why you’re feeling it. You gotta feel with it, man. Don’t think, feel. Then after you feel, think. The tl;dr of it is: What response do you want? Why or why aren’t you getting that response? P.S. – I wrote an epilogue for the SA: Regency Romance story, if you haven’t read it yet. It’s now officially finished for reals.

Try refreshing and waiting for the whole page to load. This thread is pretty image heavy, and can take a bit if you have slow internet or you're on 3G. Make a shirt! If you do it, you should post a photo here and send one to Brandon! I've uploaded a higher resolution copy of the "Urithiru Knights" logo HERE, because the thread automatically resizes large pictures to fit the frame of the forum. I originally drew it really messily since it was just meant to be a one-off for AU_Kaladin, as you can see when you zoom in. So if you are seriously going to go ahead and make the shirt and need a perfectly smooth version, I can do a cleaner version when I have time on the weekend. It depends on how big you're printing it. I have a tumblr here but it's not completely up to date. I like Veil, and was a bit disappointed by the canon illustration in WoR, since it just looked like a faceless cowboy. Brandon prefers no faces in the artwork so everyone can make up their mind based on their imagination. So I got the itchy fingers and roughly sketched what I saw in my head. I wanted to draw Veil as someone who wasn't as old and hardened as Tyn, but not as soft and cute as Shallan's outward appearance. It took a couple of tries. Prototype Veil 1: Costume Design Prototype: Nothing fancy. I like to do a lot of pencil sketching when trying to get my thoughts and impressions of a character ordered and cohesive. Then I switch to digital because it's easier to work with and edit when colouring and painting. I often go through a few iterations from a scanned paper sketch and it's pretty cool to pick out and see where the finished picture resembles the original, but way, way improved. Navani original sketch: Shadolin original sketch: This was inspired by the Shardplate sketch page in WoR where there was a little Adolin face and *sigh* written next to it. He had his Shardplate helm up with his sweaty helmet hair hanging down over his forehead, and for some reason that detail stuck to me. Probably because it's cute. WoR canon sketch: My finished version: As you can see, I take artistic license and tend to draw Adolin as more cute than the hot "Young Elvis Presley" version that it looks like Ben "Inkthinker" McSweeney seems to favour, I still try to get the details, like the Shardplate, correct. Adolin's helmet has little cat ears, lol. Because you asked, here's some pure Adolin fanservice. This should have been the ending to WoR, instead of Adolin wandering off and ganking Sadeas in the dark. I figured since Adolin's hair is black and blond, and his beard grows in black and blond, his eyebrows would be the same weird colour. It looks weird as heck when drawn, though.

Reasons why people don’t like Navani CYNICAL EDITION you can actually take this approach to every character from anything, it's pretty fun. She’s only a minor character so she’s not as well developed as the headliners. Her purpose in the story is to elaborate Dalinar’s backstory. She appears in a handful of Dalinar chapters, and gets only half a chapter in her PoV in WoK. And what comes from her PoV isn’t that flattering either. You think she’s cold? She thinks she’s cold. Readers like Dalinar. Dalinar hates Blackthorn Dalinar, but Navani keeps bringing it out, unaware. Therefore people who empathise with Dalinar dislike Navani. Their relationship was established for questionable reasons. Dalinar wants a relationship because he wants someone who doesn’t think he’s crazy. Navani wants a relationship because she feels sad, lonely, useless and needy. Her attraction to him seems superficial and somewhat hypocritical, since she turned him down the first time because she was scared of his intensity. …And she toys with him when she flirts and acts like a flighty girl. Readers just can’t relate to her. Her backstory is pretty much a “traditional love triangle” between one teenaged girl and a handsome Ace Pilot Prince Sunraiser 2.0 and his brooding and intense brother. Dalinar is around 50, Navani is 3 months older, and Jasnah is 34 in WoK, so Navani’s romance must have happened when she was a teenager. Most people don’t pick up epic fantasy for the teen love triangle melodrama. That’s why paranormal fantasy exists. Their whole relationship is a frustrating side plot. WILL THEY? WON’T THEY? AHHH!!!! THEY COULD HAVE JUST SOLVED EVERYTHING IF THEY JUST TALKED TO EACH OTHER 30+ YEARS AGO. If you’ve been in a relationship before, this type of sitcom/soap opera behaviour isn’t romantic. It’s plain frustrating. And completely inexcusable if it happens in a story or TV show where mobile phones exist. To some readers, nothing would have been lost if the “Navani_as_love_interest” characterisation was taken out. Navani is not a bad character – she’s just veering uncomfortably close to the edge of being a cardboard love interest, when you’re reading WoK for the first time. She serves a purpose within the story, as a scholar and artifabrian with science and translation skills. Her sketchbook pages do some world exploring the level of engineering tech just as Shallan’s sketchbook pages explore Roshar’s nature. Her presence justifies injecting AWESOME into the story in the form of water repelling fabrials. She is an exposition character, explaining Stormlight-based technology like Halfshards and Grandbows and Painrials in a way that you would never get from Dalinar and Adolin’s PoV because they’re not science people, or Shallan or Kaladin’s because they’re poor. But the “decades of repressed drama and romance” angle can bring on the eyerolls to certain people, and YMMV, but the story would probably have had the same ending without it. Then again, it could all be a long-planned set up for stuff that happens in SA3. Who knows. I don't hate Navani, but wow, writing that was cathartic.

Navani comes across as unlikeable because in the first chapter where she appears, Dalinar doesn't really describe her in flattering ways, even while he knows he's physically attracted to her. He's just too jaded with her because of their troubled youth, and the mental monologue in his PoV chapters make her seem like a bad person. And that first impression tends to stick around until the end where she paints the giant glyph on the ground and proves she's not such a witch. Not very nice, right? And Navani's persistence, from Dalinar's PoV, comes across as very annoying, especially as he makes it clear to her that what she wants is incestuous and wrong according to Vorin traditions. In his mind he wants to do bad things, but what he ends up saying is "No". But she keeps coming after him. If you overlay your modern sensibilities to this situation, and gender-swapped the characters so that it's an extremely persistent male going after a female who refuses his advances, yes, it seems pretty dodgy. It shouldn't matter what gender you are - saying "no" and "please go" should be an indication that you aren't interested, but sometimes it takes reversing the situation to see how socially inappropriate it is. I am guessing some readers pick up on this subconsciously (or not) and that is why reading the scenes with Navani make people feel uncomfortable, and therefore have trouble thinking she's nice or likeable. This impression comes from the fact that Navani interactions mostly feature in Dalinar's PoV, and their "history" makes it hard for him to say nice things about her, at least from the beginning. She doesn't seem to have trouble interacting with Adolin, Renarin, Elhokar, and other minor characters in the story in other PoV chapters. But first impressions count for a lot and sometimes you just can't change them. Oh, and one last gemstone of an excerpt: Naughty Brandon.