Lewis Nethur

It wouldn't be an outrageous theory to propose that Honor and/or Cultivation lured Odium to Roshar, or intentionally goaded him so they could trap him there, but there's precious little evidence one way or the other.

I think there's a WoB that says something along the lines of: strictly speaking, a human could bond a voidspren, but in order to do so they would pretty much have to be bad/evil/up-to-no-good every second of every day, implying that it's not likely to happen in the series. I'll try to look around some more to make sure I'm not misrepresenting it, but I'm fairly confident right now. Szeth follows some strange beliefs about personal responsibility, but the remorse he feels upon killing (at least when he first started) leads me to believe he wasn't a raging psychopath before becoming truthless.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was something as simple as, "the trauma of dying partially wipes out a Returned's memory." I've suspected for a while that if the priests actively engaged and encouraged the Returned to remember their former lives and reason for coming back that they could regain their memory faster/more completely. This is largely speculation at this point, but it seems like a relatively simple and elegant solution to me. Though I'd still prefer @Landis963 be right if I had my way...

Please note, I don't actually think a kandra is going to swallow an island sized creature, that'd be silly for a great number of reasons, I just thought it was a funny image Slight BoM spoilers:

Agreed. Judging from their massive size and small populations, we can be pretty sure that they live extremely long lives (they also probably have incredibly high mortality rates among their offspring, but that's not really relevant). The ones that aren't targeted for hunting, IE: the Reshi "islands," Santhids, and Chulls (not a greatshell, but still), most likely develop a pretty positive opinion and comfort level with humans. Since there technically aren't any seasons on Roshar we wouldn't really expect these creatures to follow any kind of set migratory pattern, meaning that, once they're massive enough to no longer have any natural predators, they would probably just kind of...float around randomly and eat. Characters in-book speculate that these animals are exceptionally intelligent. It seems plausible to me that the Santhid was passing by on one of its random wandering trips, saw the ship full of people, and decided to just follow out of curiosity. When it saw Shallan drowning its natural response was to attempt to help. I'm not aware of any verifiable documented case of dolphins doing this in real life (though we've had legends about them doing it for centuries if not millennia), but there have been instances of lions and apes rushing to the aid of human children when they were being attacked by other animals or brutalized by other people (...though obviously it doesn't always work out great...). I'd refrain from attaching too much significance to the Santhid at this point; its behavior, while seemingly random or even arbitrary, doesn't seem particularly out of place or implausible. ...Then again...who knows, maybe we've just found our missing worldhopping kandra... Sidenote: If I were a worldhopping kandra, I'd probably eat a Reshi Island.

Welcome to the forums! I got hooked on the Cosmere by starting with WoK after reading Sanderson's work on helping to finish The Wheel of Time series, so I can tell you without hesitation that starting with the Stormlight Archive is absolutely feasible. I've included a chart of stories in the Cosmere; you sound genuinely interested in plotting your course through this complex world, so I'd recommend giving it at least a quick look through to get a feel for how things connect at the macro level. I strongly recommend against taking notes on a first, or even second, read through. If you feel inspired and like you really want to, that's a different story. If you miss something or get confused, which isn't crazy or unusual, I'd put the book down, try a different one, then start over. The Cosmere won't be finished for...I think Sanderson's last estimate was 20+ years...so you got some time to chill and take breaks as needed.

No offense was meant, so I hope none was taken. I don't think anyone who witnessed a miracle would contend that it was luck. I was merely commenting on how I viewed it as reasonable that Ishar could gain a reputation among his soldiers and followers for being lucky, as his divine attributes make him, in my mind, the most likely Herald to be consoling, encouraging, and conversational with his followers about the greater context of their war and how it will ultimately be resolved if they work together. Truth be told, this is utter speculation. For all we actually know Ishar could've been a drunken pub-crawling card-shark with a reputation for winning outrageous bets.

It's probably also good to remember that Shallan would be risking screwing over her family pretty hard if she got with Kaladin. The ghostbloods have her brothers, and the ghostbloods are probably very pleased that the agent they are trying to groom (Shallan) is getting pretty tight with the royal family. If she seriously started sniffing around Kaladin they'd probably shut her down pretty quick with blackmail and threats.

You can tag them if you want to try to bring them into the discussion. I just don't think Kaladin could handle Shallan's lies and evasions, and she couldn't handle his need for control. Plus neither of them is ready for a committed relationship; they have a lot of rehabilitation before that can happen, and neither of them is exactly a "love doctor" (surgeon doesn't count in this case...)

To your first point: 1. Kelsier of the mistborn trilogy. He walks the fine line of the unrepentant murdererous anti-hero and nurturing mentor visionary with deeply good intentions. A favorite of many readers. 2. Vasher of Warbreaker. Without getting into spoilers, I can say Vasher is my favorite character in the cosmere, even though warbreaker was my least favorite book. It's a gamble, I won't promise you'll like it, but I'm confident you'll at least like Vasher. He's a believable, tortured, antisocial monster with a heart of gold. 3. Totally unrelated to Sanderson...but Dorrin of the Saga of Recluse. It's been a good decade since I put the series down, but iirc, he was the nerdy wizard engineer who was bullied and pushed too far until...well, RAFO To your second point, I judge female characters through a lens colored by an overwhelming majority of male heroes in fantasy novels. I'm not apologetic for this fact, it's hardly my fault, but I do try to be aware of it and point it out to others when appropriate. It's hard for me to say if Vin is a "good" female main character because historically we havent seen a lot of women well represented in the genre. This isn't a unique discrepancy, many groups have been under-represented. This response was probably more wordy than it needed to be...basically, Vin is a good character, but I leave whether or not she's a good "female lead character," for the fantasy scholars to decide. A subtle distinction, but one that is occasionally illuminating to recall. Tldr; diversity in fantasy is a good thing. If you disagree (which is okay), you probably just haven't read enough books yet.

If Ishar was teaching the people about faith, the almighty, and religion in general, he could very well have developed a reputation for...well...just being right about how stuff will turn out. Just like how Kaladin is perceived as lucky by his first squad. Maybe it's a stretch, but a core element of religions is often that, if you follow the righteous path, God (or karma or the universe or something) will see that you succeed, or are rewarded in some way. If you tell everyone, "don't worry, we're gonna win, the Almighty is with us," and happen to be "right" many times in a row, I could definitely understand earning a reputation for being lucky.

I think you're right and that it couldn't have been from an impact, at least, not directly. That sort of force would typically result in a crater rather than opening up rifts in the stone. Vibration seems like a safe bet. There are mountains all around the shattered plains which implies some kind of serious tectonic activity in the past. It could be that whatever, or whoever, shattered the plains did so by making use of the energy stored in the rocks in the form of tension/compression (releasers?). That would kind of help explain why it was the only place that was shattered.

@Rasarr probably no scythes, but er...they gotta be using something to break open all of those lavis polyps; maybe a stout mallet (or maybe just a rock...)? Huh...regardless, they'd almost certainly have something that could be improvised into a weapon.

"Herald of luck" doesn't make a lot of sense to me, I just chalk it up to evolution of the religion over millennia; I don't know that there could really be a rational reason that one of the Heralds is perceived as..."lucky." The sharecropping might've been a stretch, I just wanted to tie the whole vasallage/feudal system that the Alethi have held fast to to one of the Heralds and Chana seemed to fit best in my mind. I like your theory for Battar. The Alethi war codes (or something like them) would fit in the scope of practical philosophy that could be legitimately useful to the war effort.

This is definitely an interesting topic, even if, as you noted, we don't have a lot of hard evidence to theorize from. I'd guess that the Heralds would have focused mankind's education on things that would ultimately help them win their war. Things like logistics, establishing/maintaining supply lines and lines of communication, agricultural techniques, maybe even taxation or feudal government. As far was teaching goes, I'd say: Nalan - Law and order Chana - Conscription/vassalage/sharecropping Paliah - Taxation or maybe economic planning and logistics. Anything that puts scholars to work on the war effort Shallash - Recruitment and training of leaders, both for their armies and governments. The best leaders are often creative and honest, so I feel good about this one Battar - No freakin idea. Ishar - The Herald's religion; teaching the people about Honor and the return of the voidbringers. Basically putting the fight in context for everyone as a religious war so they understand that there won't be any sidelining or peace talks when things start getting really rough. Rallying and directing religious fervor

Honestly...I hope laral doesn't come back. She was thoroughly painted as a shallow jerk (probably because the narrator of her chapters was the subconscious of her depressed would-be lover) and I just feel like there's no rehabilitating her as a character...

Probably the use of fossil fuels... Real-talk though, that's an interesting catch...one I don't have a quick rebuttal for. It's totally possible with what we know of Roshar as a planet, but the context leaves it ambiguous as to whether it is a benign or significant detail...guess we'll...RFO

Truth. A romantic involvement would deplete kaladin as a hero long term. I suspect it's a temporary diversion. #baselessSpeculation

Jeez, I don't know that there's much I can add to what @maxal said...Shallan is...complicated. but she represents an important flavor of madness (my favorite is grape!) If you liked wheel of time then I'm guessing you appreciate the intellectual puzzle presented by a deranged hero (Rand weighs the pros and cons of killing everyone everywhere at one point for example...) Shallan and Dallinar aren't Sanderson's strongest characters in my opinion. I'd definitely recommend trying the mistborn books. In a male dominated genre, vin is a truly refreshing strong female lead (in my biased male opinion)

Haha, this sounds like one of those threads that's just about to explode. I'm pretty sure WoB on the subject is that, in general, he doesn't like doing love triangles in his novels (something about a tired cliché) but the hinting so far has been...shall we say...compelling? It'll be interesting to see if it evolves into a full fledged plot device or just remains a titillating fake out...

I would certainly think that the passing of the highstorms would have an enormous effect on the passing of the "seasons". The problem is, weather is really hard to predict, even on a really stable and happy planet like Earth. Throw in a few weird moons, screw with gravity, remove axial tilt, and stir in some planet wide super-storms, and suddenly the idea weather forecasting becomes a silly thing indeed. It's possible the seasons follow some as yet unidentified pattern, however, since the only mention of them in-book has been to point out how chaotic they are, I'm wagering that Stormwarden's time would be better spent reading tea leaves than trying to forecast the changes in seasons...

First attempt at fitting a real curve to days with highstorms, using 4 functions and the days with highstorms identified by the Diagram. Starting to look decent, but further refining will just have to wait until we have more data, because it turns out this is kind of boring to do. I'll try to keep some notes on my next read through in a month or two, but I suspect I won't be making much more progress until book 3 is out. For those interested, the equation I came up with is: f(x) = sum[ A_n *sin( pi*[x/B_n + C_n])] for n=0 to n=3 A = {2 , 1.2 , 1, 1.1} ; B = {5 , 7 , 9 , 33} ; C = {2 , 1.75 , 0.75 , 0.5} Very obviously not perfect, but, despite the relative lack of data, I hope it at least serves as a proof of concept that my original idea could work. (potentially) For any who didn't read everything above, points on the X-axis are days with highstorms, the red line is a fitted curve, the blue line is numerical data taken from in-book. Ultimately, the only thing that matters is where the lines cross the X-axis, the peak behavior is largely meaningless. (but just showing dots on a line isn't very flashy...) #RespectForStormwardens

The atmospheres of, relative to the Earth, small/low-gravity planets are subject to much greater changes in pressure and temperature and can be much more turbulent. The air on Roshar would be less viscous than we are used to because there is less gravitational force pulling it down; the extra mobility allowed by this naturally produces much wilder fluctuating weather patterns. Basically, "mild" weather would be very unusual on Roshar, it would have a tendency to usually be getting much warmer or much colder in relative short alternating cycles. Kudos to OP for noticing the weirdness and correctly identifying it as a deliberate and important world-building detail. Differentiating between the benign/unimportant and the intentional/significant isn't always easy in the Cosmere.

It's a lot more complicated than a simple square law; you're dealing with a planetary storm that already stresses life and habitability tremendously. Once the speed is high enough the water cycle would break down, ie: no more evaporation, condensation, and precipitation, but a turbulent mix of liquid-gas. Erosion and destruction of buildings don't operate on a square law; 100 mph gusts of wind can be tolerable, but 200 mph gusts of wind can knock a building over. When a building collapses into another building, you can create a chain reaction where, sure, only one building was weak enough to be destroyed by the initial blast, but everything still falls over anyway. Also, 600ish mph would just be the average speed of the storm normal to the planet's rotational axis. There would almost certainly be cross-winds and gusts that exceeded supersonic speeds. When it comes to a planet being habitable, there isn't as much wiggle-room as with most aspects of physics and engineering. Surface temperature, double it and everything dies. Distance from the sun, double it and everything dies. Gravity, double it and...well okay, things die off slowly, but huge swaths of the biosphere would probably be replaced by new species in a, relatively speaking, short period of time. I appreciate and respect the skepticism, so thank you. The point I'm hoping I'm getting across is that, once a storm reaches a certain level of violence, it doesn't dissipate or move on like a "normal" storm, the turbulence and chaotic conditions it causes actually begin to fuel its continuation and make it get even worse (Just ask Jupiter). Edit: Typo

I hear the theory of one continuous storm often, and I think that it's even supported as a theory by characters in the books, however, I've never seen anyone post anything to back it up as a truly legitimate possibility, so I feel like it often gets unfairly discounted. So, without further ado, I ran some estimates for the circumference of Roshar from the in-book maps with latitudes marked by cross-referencing them with maps of Alethkar that show distance scales and came up with a minimum of 11,000 miles (really small for a planet...) I believe Isaac Stuart, who drew the maps and next to Sanderson would probably know best, has previously suggested the real figure is closer to around 15,000-18,000 miles (Earth's is about 25,000 miles for reference). The two closest highstorms I've identified in book occur about 60 hours away from each other at the same location (shattered plains). This means that in order to circle the globe the storm would only have to be traveling about 250 to 300 miles per hour (slightly higher than the most violent gust of wind ever observed on Earth). These would be devastatingly fast wind speeds, capable of collapsing buildings and, with the associated changes in pressure, probably create the necessary lift to launch boulders, particularly those that are long and flat, high into the air. Basically, the math is all there for one storm, which is periodically speeding up and slowing down, to be circling Roshar. The best way to prove that there is more than one highstorm present on Roshar at a given time would be to identify an instance of 2 highstorms hitting the same location within about 30 ish hours of each other. I think there are in-book references suggesting things like this might occur occasionally (still looking to make sure) but to my knowledge it's never happened on screen. The wind speed required for the storm to circle the globe in that amount of time would be virtually impossible. They would super heat the planet's surface simply by the friction of their passing (also suck buildings off the ground, regardless of any tilt in their walls), creating a chain reaction of steam blasts (resulting in earthquakes) that further fueled the storm. Sea creatures would be boiled alive, land creatures would be buried alive and swallowed by the planet's crust before being drowned, mountains would crumble, and the final result would be a hot liquid-gas interface of an atmosphere where, due to the ferocious thermodynamics of the situation it would be entirely unclear where the boiling sea ends and the burning air begins. Basically, it would be Damnation. TLDR; Wind speed is a delicate thing. When you're talking about super-storms, a simple factor of two can take a planet from "devastatingly inhospitable" to "completely uninhabitable."