Jofwu

Familiar to Brandon. And we're talking further north than 60. (I think it was up near 70 for the Roughs?) The latitude isn't weird, but it's certainly weird (on our Earth) for somewhere at those latitudes having mild winters. Not sure about the directions. I would assume the compass is trustworthy, but the dominances ARE named oddly, knowing the directions they're supposed to be in. I don't THINK they'd do that with Elendel and Luthadel, but its wild enough that I'm not sure how I'd argue against it. XD Who knows, maybe.

I don't disagree that what they're using is confusing. This is all guesswork and assumptions. I just think 192 is a more logical number than 160. Being able take clean fractions of a circle is very useful. 192 presumes less error in the map and less deviation from the size of Earth. Just my opinion though. I'd certainly like to ask Isaac. As for Antarctica being forested a few million years ago... Sure. Like I said, I agree we can make it work with Elendel at a more extreme latitude if we want. I'm just extremely skeptical that this is what Brandon has in mind. I think Brandon is writing a story that takes place at familiar latitudes. Maybe not... But I'm personally going to need a WoB or evidence to the contrary before I go a different direction with my assumptions. I would guess it's more likely that Isaac just made up the numbers, if anything. I don't follow the question on units. There are extremely practical mathematical reasons for using angular measurements on a globe. (and again, an alternative wanders into the realm of me being extremely skeptical Brandon is doing something highly unconventional for no particular reason) Furthermore, I'd say the changing distance between lines of longitude is a pretty clear indicator that this is what we're looking at. As for using arc lengths like you describe, that's effectively the same thing as an angular measurement, for a given radius. In any case 256 divisions of any kind just doesn't really work. 256 of the divisions shown--at the scale shown--yields a planet much larger than Earth (or else implies the map is highly inaccurate). I don't believe either either intended.

(Oh, by the way, I did notice that the map of Elendel itself says it is also by the Canton of Cartography, and it's dated to year 341, so I think it's very safe to say the map itself isn't older. But I think it's reasonable to imagine they would use an older numeral system in some contexts. Sort of like using Roman Numerals in modern times. It probably lends the map a sense of gravitas.) I think the reason to use 12 over 10 is one of practicality rather than cultural. Twelve is a very convenient number while 10 is very inconvenient. Other than having ten fingers and ten toes, ten is really an awkward number unless you're using a base ten number system. (which they aren't) Twelve was used in a lot of old number and measuring systems specifically for this reason. (like 12 inches in a foot) It's also at the extreme ends of my error range, implying Scadrial is a good bit smaller than Earth or the map accuracy is really poor--and I'm just skeptical that's the intent I guess. (to be fair, very possible they just didn't look into these details so extensively... I think they gave it SOME thought though because it would have been easy to leave those latitude/longitude lines off the map or leave them unnumbered) But I would agree well enough to say that 160 makes the most sense after 196, to me. With regard to Brgst13's question, if you go with 160 that's still pretty far north... Elendel up at 61 degrees north or so, just north of Oslo. Maaaaybe it's actually that far north... and Scadrial has less tilt, and an ocean current keeps the area warm... Also, great point about how the lack of a moon is a rather glaring difference from Earth. It's very possible I'm taking my insistence on comparing it to Earth too far. But... I dunno... Note that the area of the Roughs where Wax lived is up at 70 degrees North (using 160). I don't get the sense the climate up there is supposed to be more "arctic" either. This ALL just feels to me like a big stretch. The idea of Elendel being so far north I mean, with lots of little arguments to explain the problems away. My read of the books is that Elendel is simply down in the 30-40 degrees North range on a planet similar to 20th century Earth (geologically). Maaaaybe up to 50 degrees with a favorable current coming from the ocean, like Europe enjoys. But that's just my gut feeling... It seems rather odd to me that their latitude numbering would start somewhere more arbitrary than the North pole... but I agree that it's plausible, and it would certainly put us into latitudes that FEEL more right. Hard to guess what the basis might be though, if it's something like this. I guess I still feel like the most likely situation is that these are implicitly a second set of 16. So... Okay, presuming they use a 16-based number for degrees really helps here. Let's say they use 192 "degrees" in a circle. That means 48 degrees of latitude from the equator to the poles, which is three 16s. Maybe the upper 16 is "arctic" (60-90 degrees), the lower 16 is "tropic" (0-30 degrees), and in between you have the middle latitudes (30-60). If this is the case, I feel like it would be very reasonable for them to number each set of latitudes separately. Not terribly different from the way we count 0-90 north and south separately rather than numbering 0-180 from one pole to the other. They'd have a way to note which set of latitudes they're talking about of course, but in a map like this where the context is clear there would be no need. And that puts the whole map of the Elendel Basin between... 34 degrees north and 43 degrees north, with Elendel around 36 degrees North. (North Carolina, central California) That feels really reasonable and fitting to me. If that guess about latitudes is correct, I'm getting something like this... (took the liberty of shifting longitudes over to the US)

I think they would have enough technology to determine longitude pretty well? I'm willing to bet their knowledge Scadrial comes via Sazed in the Words of Founding, but that's just speculation. Yeah, I think I mentioned this in the post. There was a bit of variation--seems like maybe up to 5 pixels in one case, though most were the same measurement, or within 2 pixels of it. There's definitely room for a few more percentage points of error there. Not enough to change the premise of the main mystery though, I think. Brandon has reiterated time and time again that Scadrial is very Earth-like, so I think we need to assume it's effectively the same circumference as Earth and that a Scadrian mile is effectively the same as our mile. With my measurement of 135 miles between "Scadrian degrees" (two lines of latitude), that gives 184 Scadrian degrees. As you pointed out... there's... I dunno, let's say a cumulative potential error of 10%? So we're looking at between 165 Scadrian degrees and 203 Scadrian degrees? @Oltux72 pointed out they're using base-16 (at least in Era 2), and it's probably more likely that they're using a factor of 16 than 10. So assuming my wild guess on potential error is correct, maybe they're using anywhere from 16*10=160 to 16*13=208 degrees in a circle? I don't think Oltux is right that it could be 256 as that's well outside the error range I'm guessing. The map would have to be extremely amateurish to have that much error in the scale and lines of latitude as they're drawn... I suppose my personal guess would be that they're using 16*12= 192 degrees in a circle. It's on the high end of my assumed error, but it's not unreasonable. 12 is a nice number with a lot of factors. You can divide up a 192 degree circle, with prime factors of 2^6 and 3. So if it's 196 Scadrian degrees in a circle, Elendel at 12.5 Scadrian degrees down from the north pole is the equivalent of 67 degrees north. So... just over the arctic circle. Doesn't help much. I don't think that's safe to assume. It's a reasonable assumption, but it's easy enough to imagine that the term persists into contemporary Scadrial. We haven't seen the word used in Era 2 like this, but that's not evidence to the contrary. I think it's just as reasonable to imagine they are just use an older style of numbering, for example. Lots of natural, cultural reasons. After all, the map uses lerasium and that's no less of a mystery to the Scadrians in the early post-Catacendre days than the metals Sazed alluded to. It's not just a climate issue. At the arctic circle there's a point in the year where the sun doesn't rise/set. It's possible Scadrial is less tilted than Earth and the arctic circle is higher... This is getting pretty weird though, and Brandon has always seemed very emphatic to me that Scadrial is VERY similar to Earth. Unless we get evidence to support something like this, I'm very hesitant to believe it.

It occurred to me today that the Elendel Basin map has a graticule on it... and we know that it maps onto the larger Final Empire map... And I don't think I've ever seen anyone do anything with that info. (If you're aware of somebody who has tried to do this, let me know!) I started to hail @Otto Didact and beg for him to do something with it, but I figured I'd take a stab at it myself first Here's the Elendel Basin overlayed on the map of the Final Empire. If it's news to you that they fit like this, I was not the one to figure this out. You can find several images of this overlay online. But I think I'm the first person to do it since we got a proper, high quality electronic upload of the Final Empire map on Brandon's website earlier this month. For the most part the match between these maps is dead on, but note the overlay isn't perfect at the northern edge of the coastline. Sazed must of made SOME adjustments beyond the Elendel Basin. (I mean, beyond raising the mountains around the edges of the Basin, tinkering with rivers, leveling the ashmounts, etc. etc.) Anyways, the fun thing I wanted to look at is the fact that the Elendel Basin map shows coordinates! So, if we make the big assumption that these maps are using the same projection, we can extend the Elendel Basin coordinates to the Final Empire map. It's not a terrible assumption, because the maps obviously fit very well ... But the Final Empire map is a lot bigger, so it's entirely possible that there's error with the overlay that's just too small to see at that scale, and the further we get away from the basin is compounds significantly. Generally, I think Brandon and his team prefer these maps to be intuitive, so I'm guessing the projections aren't terribly different. Longitude on the map seems to be quite simple. The numbers at the top of the page, from left to right, read "1, 0, 1, 2, 3" with the 0 longitude passing through Elendel. (Steel alphabet for reference) Obvoiusly they're using the longitude of Elendel as their prime meridian. But what's the interval exactly? I was going to guess that each of these is one degree, but the map also gives us a scale at the top left. I've measured the 100 mile scale to be 149 pixels. If I measure the distance between latitudes (which should be constant at all latitudes) I get something a little over 200 pixels (they vary slightly, which I take to be imprecision in the artwork). This means the lines of latitude are showing about 135 miles each. Now, Scadrial is supposed to be Earth, more or less. I think we can assume their miles are equivalent to our imperial/US miles for all practical purposes, and that Scadrial is the same size as Earth. If that's the case, I think this strongly suggests that each of these ticks is actually 2 degrees. The arc distance between latitudes on Earth is about 69 miles, or 138 miles between every two. I figure these numbers are too close to be a coincidence. So I'm going to assume that every line on the map marks every TWO degrees. The distance between lines of longitude varies depending on latitude. I measured the topmost line of latitude and got 96 miles and the bottom one to get 104 miles... Unfortunately, when I do the math on this it suggests these latitude lines are only 1 degree apart, with the map covering 46 degrees North down to 41 degrees North... And they clearly aren't, as explained above. They should span 2 degrees each. Anything else basically undermines the map scale entirely. I think my problem is that I'm abusing the scale. Scales on a map like this are always misleading because the scale changes depending on where you're at on the map... If horizontal distance a the top of the map is being stretched out and horizontal distance at the bottom of the map is being compressed (to give more of a rectangular grid) it means 96 miles at the top is too high and 104 miles at the bottom is too small... If I measure the distance between longitudes in the middle of the map I get about 101 miles, or 50.5 miles between degrees. This suggests that line of longitude is 43 degrees North. Taking every tick as 2 degrees, the top of the map is at 49 degrees North (and the scale here is stretched by a factor of 6%) and the bottom of the map is at 39 degrees North (and the scale is compressed by 3%). That's roughly in the latitude range of western Europe, so that seems reasonable. But then I'm seeing a snag with these latitude labels... The one I have at 43 degrees North corresponds to electrum, which is "12". And I'm struggling to reconcile those.... The latitude numbers down the side of the map are really weird. From top to bottom they read: "atium, malatium, gold, electrum, chromium, nicrosil". The last 4 are known to represent four numbers: "11, 12, 13, 14". You might assume atium and malatium represent 9 and 10, but in Era 2 they use cadmium and bendalloy for 9 and 10. I did find that Hero of Ages (original and leatherbound) just use ALL of the metal symbols (plus some unknowns) in sequence up to 23, and then repeat starting at 1 again. And in that case, they do use atium and malatium as the 9th and 10th. Maybe the map is just... using some older system of numbers? If we continue to assume every tick is 2 degrees, atium at the top would give 18 degrees and nicrosil at the bottom would correspond to 28 degrees. They're measuring latitude down from the geographic north pole, apparently. Using our system, this means the map spans from 72 degrees north to 62 degrees north. This means the map straddles the arctic circle, which... obviously isn't the case. So I figure, maybe these latitudes are implicitly the second set of 23? We're not going from 9 (atium) to 14 (nicrosil), but rather from 9+23=32 to 14+23=37. Assuming each tick is 2 degrees again and flipping to our system, that puts the map between 26 degrees and 16 degrees. Which... puts the map mostly in the tropics, which I also don't think is right. My best guess beyond this is that they're using some third system of numbers, which only counts up to 16 before repeating??? That would put it from 9+16=25 > 40 degrees north to 14+16=30 > 30 degrees. In other words, it fits right in the middle of the United States (in terms of relative latitudes). That fits well with the temperate climate... But that interpretation of the numbers is quite a stretch I think. My only other guess is that the metal symbols were just added for flavor. I was hoping to map the overlay onto a (earth) world map for comparison. Of course we don't know how much changed during the Catacendre... Does the former region of the Final Empire still look anything like what it used to, outside the Elendel basin? Does the latitude of the Elendel Basin region match with where it was during the Final Empire or did Sazed shift it? I don't we know for sure on these. So there would certainly be a lot of caveats... Unfortunately, with the latitude still a mystery it's hard to guess... Well... assuming my first guesses about latitude are correct (and the numbers on the side are nonsense?) I'm getting this: Curious if anybody else has helpful thoughts about what the latitude numbers might mean???

Yes, but it's not a 1:1 change. It's absolutely possible? Converting from one currency to another is rather straightforward. You have to take into account differences in purchasing power, but that's not an uncommon exercise (much less impossible). The Wikipedia page about it isn't short. Generally purchasing power is based on comparing the costs of comparable goods and services. If bread costs 2 USD in the US and 4 CAD in the Canada, and the current exchange rate is 1 USD = 2 CAD, then we can say 1 USD and 1 CAD effectively have the same value. (if we are basing purchasing power entirely on a loaf of bread) It's basically the same thing as comparing the relative values of a single currency over time, with inflation in the picture. This is why I jumped towards looking at the price of bread. It's a very imperfect point of measurement to be sure. There's a reason that "market baskets" typically consist of a great many goods and services... But I think that approach to comparing value makes more sense than minimum wage. I'll fully admit this is pretty wonky though, and rather arbitrary, when we're comparing two different currencies across major time gaps. It's less like comparing the Euro to the US Dollar and more like comparing 2020 US Dollars to... Chinese currency in 1700. That I agree with fully

I think this basis is problematic though. Minimum wage in a modern nation–one of the richest in the world–seems rather arbitrary. We could pass a bill tomorrow that changes the minimum wage. And the median daily income worldwide is quite a bit lower than this. The poorest people in the work living on more than $2 a day seems weird to me.

Just an FYI for future reference, I've vectorized all of @Moonrise's symbols and put them into Coppermind. There's not really a great spot to put them at the moment, but they're sitting in a category: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Category:Nalthian_script

This is a really thoughtful list of ideas. Love it. I'm skeptical that we'll get any flashbacks from after Gavilar's assassination. Hiding Gavilar's sphere seems like a really pointless flashback at this point, and everything else is basically covered by the books so far. That's not to say Brandon couldn't fill things in with details... but we know the shape of it and there's just not much that feels like it would be very interesting. The only exception that I can think of would be something between The end of WoR and his first chapters in Oathbringer. (either before or after Edgedancer) But... even that doesn't seem necessary and it's hard to imagine how it would fit into a flashback narrative. I DO think that we'll get at least one flashback after Szeth has been made Truthless. He says int he WoR interlude that he visited Urithiru immediately after being exiled. I wouldn't be surprised to see that scene. Maybe one or two others... but I can easily see that Urithiru visit being the conclusion to his flashback narrative. So I think the first four you listed are very solid... then one or two after being Truthless maybe. But there's certainly going to be more flashbacks than that... So I'm guessing those first four you listed will be spread out more. (in ways that are hard to predict, given how little we understand the Shin) The Shin culture/environment is SO different from the rest of Roshar, so I could easily see at least 2 or 3 flashbacks that slowly develop Szeth's youth while doing a love of Shinovar worldbuilding. This will probably come early in the book because Kaladin and Szeth are headed there first thing and the context of the flashbacks will help... Then again, maybe them being there will allow Brandon to offload some of the worldbuilding onto the main narrative rather than the flashbacks... Hard to say. I'll guess: Helping out with the family sheep farm as a youngster A second flashback of Szeth as a young kid that develops his character and Shin culture (some interactions with people outside his family) Szeth's family being given to the Honorblades Szeth training with the Honorblades, focusing mostly on developing Szeth and his family. Szeth training with the Honorblades... and the beginning of a spren bond (the voice leading him to think the think the Desolation is coming) The spren convincing Szeth that the Desolation is coming (we can't go straight from introducing the spren in one chapter to Szeth claiming the Desolations will return in the next... That's a major claim--one that his religion is clearly resistant to--so I think we need a bit of time to see Szeth convinced that the voice is truthful.) Szeth trying to warn people about the Desolation -- he speaks to the Shamans Szeth named Truthless (I doubt this will happen in the very chapter that he makes the claim. They'll probably go deliberate about it, Szeth will be looking forward to what they have to say, and then it's a gut punch for him when they name him Truthless) Szeth at Urithiru, contemplating everything that has happened and deciding to accept his fate and the Shamans' lies.

RoW chapter 49 (1st print hardback page 626)... I spotted at least two uses of "basic gravitational Lashing". I think maybe this should be "basic Gravitational Lashing"? There are definitely uses of "Gravitational Lashing". There's also the "Basic Lashing". Perhaps there's an argument that these uses should be "Basic Gravitational Lashing"? But either way I don't lowercase is right.

I'll tag @Frustration in case he's curious, or either of you see something I'm missing... I don't think this is a continuity error. I don't think that "I have discovered the secret of stormform" in WoR-I-1 implies she has captured a stormspren. This is something I would have argued even prior to RoW, because of how many highstorms pass (i.e. opportunities for Eshonai to go try stormform) between WoR interludes 1 and 5. It suggests to me that interlude 4 (where Venli presents the captured stormspren) was a few days/weeks after interlude 1. If you look at RoW chapter 86 I would say that Venli explains "the secret of stormform" to Ulim there. There's two ideas that she shares with Ulim, either or both of which could be considered the secret: If you are able to capture a few spren of one type, it's easier to draw others of that type The way to get a stormspren is to go hunting for one in the highstorm (I think this is probably the "secret" she's referring to) And at the end of RoW chapter 86 Venli goes out into the storm hunting stormspren for the first time. So I think she clearly knows the secret at this point. It's not clear whether RoW-86 is before or after WoR-I-1. Feels like maybe it would make more sense for RoW-86 to be before the interlude, and then Venli can tell Eshonai with more confidence that she has figured it out. Or maybe she felt confident enough to make this claim to Eshonai before going out in the storm. Either seems reasonable. Whatever the case may be, RoW chapter 88 would be a few highstorms later. It says in this chapter that she has gone out in a few storms at this point with no luck. Now in chapter 88 she finally succeeds. Then we see Eshonai with the captured spren in WoR interlude I-4, where she meets with the Five and they make their decision for her to try it out. And she goes out in the next highstorm (or maybe the 2nd one), which is interludes 5 and 8.

They haven't explained very much... But off the top of my head, Isaac has mentioned (1) removing all the electric lamps, (2) removing the horse in v2 ch6, (3) removing the IV bag in v3 ch6, (4) removing the "boombox" in v1 ch2... Which would make me assume they've done a lot of small fixes and clean ups. Off course he's also mentioned a prologue and other new content. Something like 40 new pages? Can't wait to see it.

I enjoyed them pretty well. I read them that way long after reading the graphic novels several times, so I'm not sure how much that shaped my opinion. Because I'm able to come into it with all of the visuals in my head already. I'm not a big graphic audio fan--the music and sound effects are overdone for me, and this wasn't really an exception there. I particularly got sick of all the "walking through sand" sounds. But it probably wasn't as bad as usual, just because it's being translated from a different medium than a prose novel. There were a few things I didn't like... Some of the character voices felt odd. I remember hearing a "nighttime" scene with owl noises or something in the background that was a funny mistake. There's also some additional scenes, as well as narration that the graphic novels are lacking. For the most part this is a good thing. They add to the story well. A small part of me is not sure what to do with them since the lack of them in the graphic novel means they're not entirely canonical I guess??? But whatever. I'd choose graphic novels over graphic audio, generally speaking, but the graphic novels have so much wrong with them (until the omnibus is out at least...) and the graphic audio is a really solid alternative with a bit more fleshed out and much fewer issues.

Needed to dig this up to post this WoB from earlier in the month: I'm quite pleased that it fits with my timeline theory on the previous page. Aside from just clearing up the general idea of how much time passed, I think this completely refutes the idea that the gemstone archive was mostly recorded during the Recreance. Maybe a few of them were, but there's no way they made a snap decision to abandon Urithiru, did research on what was happening with the Sibling, and.... everything else... not to mention setting up the whole gem archive thing, all over the course of "days".

The special prison refers to the gem they captured her in. (but I guess you're not asking that) As for "why Melishi", my guess would be because he is the only one knowledgeable enough about the magic involved. The Honorblade gives anyone Bondsmith powers, but that doesn't mean they know how to use them. I imagine whatever they did was a little bit complicated (probably not as simple as dealing with the Thrill, if only because BAM is sapient) and I imagine Melishi had the prerequisite experience with his Surges. I definitely don't think you should toss out the idea that BAM was... Connected to all of the spren in some way? The nahel spren at least? Or something like that? The fact that they become deadeyes now isn't coincidence. I expect that the issue here is the "in the same way" bit. They definitely may have been affected. Just "not in the same way"... whatever that means exactly. Now THAT is a spicy quote to keep our eyes on. I definitely think that's key to understanding what happened with BAM. Nice.

Yeah, so... here's my somewhat detailed thoughts... I was definitely thinking the other spren might have been affected in a very similar way. I'm really intrigued by a line from Jasnah and Ivory in Oathbringer chapter 47: I'm trying to puzzle out exactly what Ivory means there. The simple interpretation is that they're just saying "the Recreance was the end of the Radiants" and "Well, for all of them but the Skybreakers." But what the heck does it mean that the Skybreakers and/or their spren "lived in death"? Sounds like deadeyes, but then that applies to ALL of them Actually, highspren were the only ones that didn't have any of their number turned into deadeyes. Furthermore, it's interesting word choice to say that Ivory "agreed" when it sounds like he's disagreeing (if only partially). It had me wondering if the spren who were around during the Recreance were wounded. It made me think that perhaps what they're saying is Jasnah: "they all got turned into deadeyes" followed by Ivory: "Well, all but one order got turned into deadeyes.... but they were still affected (in a way that could be called "living in death") so you're not technically wrong." Does that make sense? Anyways. To step back from this particular quote... When Navani and the Sibling are talking about BAM's imprisonment Navani asks about other spren and the Sibling isn't able to clarify why none of them have mentioned it: And of course you have Kalak's journal saying that BAM needs to be released "for the good of all spren". So it certainly feels like BAM's imprisonment is affecting other spren. It's not entirely clear whether it directly affected ALL spren or if it just has a big enough effect that all spren are affected by the collateral damage? Like, maybe only some spren are affected, but the impact on them is effectively an issue for all spren? I tend to think ALL of them are affected, and they just aren't necessarily aware. Doesn't fit as well with the Jasnah/Ivory quote earlier, but there's one major point to make: the existence of deadeyes. As long as BAM is bound, spren can get turned into deadeyes. It affects all of them and was clearly some consequence of BAM's imprisonment. Why? Hard to say. Why don't the spren seem to know they have been affected? Hard to say. Maybe they've just always lived under these effects (most of them) and just don't know any better? It's weird. But I'm rambling.... I DID suspect that other spren were affected in a way similar to the Sibling. It's rather strange that they weren't. Maybe the honorspren are wrong and Melishi WAS bonded to the Sibling when it happened? Maybe the Sibling is just wrong about the cause, but I doubt that. Maybe the Sibling and BAM had a unique relationship? It's quite a puzzle. I will say I regret not thinking through the question more clearly before sending it to Pagerunner. Because "in the same way" is rather vague. Brandon's answer doesn't say they weren't affected at all. Just that they weren't affected "in the same way". So... what "way" was the Sibling wounded exactly? Is he saying that only the Sibling was wounded such that they can't hear Honor's tone (but all the other spren still can)? Or is the Sibling's ability to hear Honor's tone something unique to the Sibling and thus not an affect they would experience regardless? At least the second half is somewhat clear? Not all spren were affected by BAM--at least not directly. I'm curious for that to be clarified. Which ones were affected and which ones weren't? @Pagerunner and I were talking about that over the weekend. He referenced the quote about no Bondsmith being around and we toyed with the idea that Melishi was actually Ishar. That would explain how he could do magic after unbonding the Sibling. The name certainly fits. Feels really odd to me that the Sibling wouldn't know or mention that they were bonded to a Herald though. That's just... all kinds of weird. I don't like this. But perhaps Melishi was using Ishar's Honorblade. I haven't been able to go research whether this is possible. Szeth is surprised that Ishar has it at the end of RoW, so it hasn't been missing for centuries.... But hey, the Shin were just one nation among the others during the Recreance, so perhaps they simply loaned it out to Melishi and then took it back into their possession?

I agree with your main point here. I DO think that the Odium quote suggests the Everstorm is what makes it defunct, because the paragraph is all about how the Everstorm has changed things. It could be some final thought that takes the paragraph in a new direction, but I think the cleaner interpretation is that the defunct state of the Oathpact is another thing he's attributing to the Everstorm. I don't think anyone is saying it is gone. Seems like Odium is just saying that it's irrelevant now. It used to be a wall and now it's a wall with a hole punched through it. Dalinar himself calls it "impotent" in RoW 47. It's not gone. It's simply broken to the point of being powerless. I guess others have made this point--started typing before reading all the way through the thread. XD As always, there's the "Ishar is crazy" factor to consider. That said, we got his comment on this during an apparent moment of lucidity, one in which I thin the narrative suggests we can trust what he's saying there. Ah, I see. I think there's an argument that Rlain is just reassuring her and doesn't fully know what he's talking about. (because I'm not sure where Rlain would get that knowledge from in an entirely certain way) And I don't really see why this implies Rlain thinks it was more than one thing? You can read it as "well, it could have happened multiple ways and one of them was bound to happen" but you can just as easily read it as "well, this one particular thing was bound to happen sooner or later--if you didn't trigger it, someone else would have done it instead."

What are you referring to here?

(this image is a lie, I lose sunglasses more often than Adolin changes clothes)

My guess would be that they'll ask people to only take one signing slot. But I could be wrong.

Hey everyone, we're planning to have a 17th Shard meet-up on Saturday at 2:30 in the afternoon. I'm going to tentatively say we will meet in the Game Room, but location is TBD and might be a last minute decision. We picked this time so that it doesn't overlap with any of the other Sanderson Track panels or the Dragonsteel signing times, so hopefully people are relatively free. Everyone is welcome to stop by! We will probably be hanging out until it's time to make our way to the Cosmere Speculation panel at 4:00. I'm sure some of us will meet up and interact before this, but we wanted to make sure to have at least one "official" 17th Shard hangout time so that people can schedule around it if needed! Keep an eye on the #events channel in our Discord server to stay in the loop on location, or in case we need to change times. And note that #events will be temporarily renamed #jordancon for the duration of JordanCon. Feel free to use that channel for meeting up (for this or other times), asking questions, or anything else related to JordanCon.

Word on the street is that Brandon will do... a few signings? from the Dragonsteel booth. Not sure when that will be, but I'm sure it will be made clear enough sooner or later. Outside of those opportunities... If I saw him just casually hanging out then I wouldn't hesitate to walk up and ask... But I think it's likely that he'll be busy every moment that he's in public. So... might be able to spot him in a moment that doesn't feel rude, but otherwise I'd just ask when those signings will be when you get there! (if they aren't announced ahead of time)

The fight to save Notum was right after, so I'm not sure if they had time or not But they certainly had a lot of time between then and the end of the book. I was talking about this question with my wife and she proposed this as a way for her to have a child between books even if Adolin dies. It's a bit cliche, but it could certainly work.

Quote marks don't go at the end of a paragraph if the same speaker continues in the next. Just a heads up so you don't feel the need to report more, as there should be quite a lot of these in the book(s).