Jofwu

Szeth's knowledge is a real mystery. Or perhaps just the Shin (shamans?) in general?

The referenced text is from The Way of Kings Interlude I-3: I definitely wouldn't be surprised if Taravangian digs up the sphere. It would almost be surprising if the Diagram didn't say something about it.

No, Szeth isn't wrong. Szeth only has the honorblade which, presumably, doesn't grant this ability. We don't know a whole lot at this point about what powers are granted by the honorblade. Kaladin is able to heal from a shardblade cut because of his bond with Syl. He isn't using the surge of Regrowth, it's just some kind of innate ability that a surgebinder gets (at some level) because of the nahel bond. If I remember correctly, Szeth gets really upset when Kaladin heals from the shardblade cut and returns to the fight. It seems that Szeth realizes what this means. He knows that Kaladin's powers aren't just coming from an honorblade because that recovery implies he is a surgebinder.

Recently heard this joke by Brandon: Got me wondering if there are other one-armed Herdazian jokes floating around out there. Do you guys have any good (or bad) one-armed Herdazian jokes?

The second to last paragraph in the Highstorm article states that modern Stormwardens believe there are multiple storms constantly circling the planet. But the referenced text in WoR chapter 87 (in Shallan's section, just after she approaches Dalinar) states they believe there is just one storm. It seems to me that the article on Coppermind should read:

Is it possible that the 2011 interview cited above is being misinterpreted in this thread? (the WoB naming Adolin, Navani, and Taravangian) The question just asks about main PoV characters, which all three of those are. Just seems like something might be getting lost in translation there.

I also heard about Brandon through Wheel of Time. I had heard multiple times that Mistborn was what led Harriet to ask Brandon to finish the series, and a lot of people tend to recommend Mistborn after finishing on the WoT subreddit. After a second reread of that series I was itching for something fresh, and decided to finally give Mistborn a shot. It was alright, but not as good as I was expecting. Nothing like Wheel of Time. But then I read the beginning of Stormlight and discovered exactly what I had been itching for. Then I heard about the Cosmere and I got swallowed up completely.

See his edit. Brandon included her in a February 2015 list of the back five. That's Shalash's nickname.

He mentions a Dalinar reading "tomorrow" early in the Q&A. Is this posted somewhere?

No, the orders and surges are all interconnected. And the orders are patterned after the Heralds, of which there were 10.

I still don't see how you're making this jump in assumptions. Adolin doesn't behave this way "because he's an extrovert". I know plenty of extroverts who don't wear their hearts on their sleeve. I know plenty of introverts who are utterly uncomplicated people and whose biographies would not be particularly interesting.

I don't think he meant it that way. My interpretation was that, with Adolin, what you see is what you get. He wears his emotions on his sleeve. He doesn't have a hidden or complicated past. He doesn't say one thing and do another. He's just simple in this sense, so it just doesn't leave a lot of room for interesting discoveries about him.

Well you know what they say... Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to odium. Odium leads to suffering.

Yeah, someone just posted this quote in another thread I was reading... I'll bold the relevant bits:

So, regarding this discussion on Adolin and Dalinar sharing space in TWoK, Brandon actually said something really interesting about this on Reddit a little while back. Apparently Adolin was never planned as a POV character at all. But as Brandon wrote the Dalinar chapters he kept feeling like Dalinar came across as incredibly inconsistent. He wanted you to feel Dalinar's own self-confidence, but he also wanted you to understand how crazy Dalinar's actions appeared to everyone else. And it was difficult to do both of these from Dalinar's POV. So Brandon actually came up with the idea of using Adolin as a POV character simply so that he could serve to cast doubt on Dalinar's confidence in that first book.

Yeah, the Cosmere 101/102 articles are great... But they're more intended for people who have read most of the key books already, or for people who just don't care about spoilers. I'm imaging something for people who are totally new, or who have only read a few books before hearing about the Cosmere. Something that people who really hate spoilers wouldn't be afraid to use. I had considered mentioning Adonalsium and the Shards to some extent, but even that was cut for the sake of letting people figure it out themselves. I should probably put a link to some things like Cosmere 102 though, as a recommendation for when you're all caught up or deep enough in that you don't care about spoilers for some books.

I think you're hitting a bit on the difference between "opposite" and "contrary". There was an interesting diagram in Red Mars concerning something similar... (a "semiotic square" is apparently the term) Cultivation (growth) and Ruin (decay) are opposites. In the context of the books, I would argue that Preservation is contrary to Ruin. Preservation is "anti-decay". Preservation is the double-negative of Cultivation. Preservation and Cultivation are generally complimentary... Though it would be interesting to present a situation where Preservation disagrees with Cultivation, because some conservative action must be taken for the sake of preserving which does not allow for growth. In this sense, opposites can really coexist. You can find a balance of Cultivation and Ruin. You just get this mutual push and pull. Something very Wheel of Time like. Heck, they might even get along really well because they give one another infinite work to do. But Preservation and Ruin cannot coexist. If one is working on some point then the other cannot be working there. They don't need, or want, one another at all. (despite, I think?, some things Sazed says) I'm not sure what the contrary version of Cultivation would be (anti-growth). Something that doesn't care about decay, but doesn't want growth? Suppression perhaps? I'd be surprised if this is an intent though, because I have a hard time seeing how such a concept would be part of "the powers of creation". But then again... Holy crap... How crazy would it be if the 16 shards essentially made up 4 of these semiotic squares? Theory time...

Sorry if this isn't the right spot for this. Wasn't sure of the best place to share... If there are any good introductions to the Cosmere floating around out there, they aren't very easy to find. Brandon has an FAQ post about it on his website, but it doesn't give much direction. And most other references to the Cosmere are loaded with spoilers. There just isn't much help for curious new readers. I started this discussion yesterday and it seemed to receive positive feedback. I took most of it and dumped it into a Google Doc that anyone is free to edit. I'll probably share it a few other places as well. I don't plan to keep it up forever, but I figure it's a good way to put something together right now. I'd like to get the final product posted somewhere that's easy for new readers to find. So I'd like any feedback you have to offer. Comments and edits are welcome. I'd particularly like some help in filling out the "Guided Tour" section towards the bottom. /u/Xyrd did a fantastic job getting it started, and I'd like to see the concept fleshed out for the newer books.

@FeatherWriter Not sure who to report this to... I feel like there's an error with the forum. Or maybe it's set up this way intentionally, I dunno. I was playing around on another forum that uses the same software and found some options that are missing here. When you open up "Unread Content" here you have a lot of filters you can apply to narrow down content. If you make changes to these, a button appears asking if you want to "save as new stream". You then also have the option of making this new stream your "default", which replaces the functionality of the "Unread Content" button. And you can name the stream. But there is no way to access other saved streams aside from your default. So I got on this other forum and it turns out they have some additional options at the top of the page, right under the main tabs. There's a dropdown menu titled "my activity streams" which lets you access any that you've created. This functionality sounds awesome... It would be nice to set up different streams for different series for example. And the fact that this forum lets you create streams but not access them afterwards seems broken. Any chance we can have access to these options? Who should the request be sent to?

Ah, so I found the settings @FeatherWriter was talking about. It's under Notifiation Settings, shown when you click the notifications icon once. It seems that you can tweak the "activity filters" and optionally save them as a "stream". You can change your default stream so the "unread content" button opens up that custom stream instead of the generic unread content. But I have a question... How do you see the streams that you've saved? I can only see the default.

This is all super helpful, thank you! The Cosmere filter you made does work for me. In fact it names you as the one who made it and tells me how to save it for my own use. @Argent That is helpful, thanks. How do you do this?

I got into Mistborn a little over two years ago, after a Wheel of Time reread, and then wandered over to Stormlight before discovering the Cosmere. I've been hanging around the forums because there's not enough discussion on Reddit to feed my appetite lately. Plus I want to stay on top of news and the theories that are getting kicked around, especially as Stormlight 3 comes along. I'm not particularly savvy with traditional internet forums like this. Anybody have some tips on how to forum like a pro? How do I make the most of this website?

That doesn't sound right. Szeth was made Truthless at 27, assassinated Gavilar at 29, and is now about 35. What has "Taln" been doing for the last eight years before showing up at the end of TWoK?

This discussion about pronunciations is interesting. I guess it sounds like Brandon wouldn't be directly supportive of such a thing, but is there no unofficial list of common pronunciations? I'd prefer to pronounce things the same way as other people, so that if I ever have a discussion with someone or hear Brandon speak then I'm not completely lost or bothered. I, for one, would be happy to put in some work on a pronunciation guide, assuming Brandon isn't outright opposed to such a thing. It would have to find a good balance between common/popular usage versus proper in-world usage, I think. For example, I would expect to see Jasnah with a soft "J" (i.e. "Y") but then Elantris with "eh-LON" rather than "EE-LAYN".

Not to deter further discussion about the ethics of Adolin's actions, but to comment on the original topic... I can't stand love triangles. I mean, a little bit of teasing to make us wonder what will happen is great. But I don't like reading about teenage drama, which is what ever love triangle seems to degrade into. If the Shallan-Adolin-Kaladin triangle is still around by the end of book 4 (at least) then I'll be disappointed. I personally prefer Adolin. Mainly because it feels less cliche. I also think there's more room for growth of a Shallan-Adolin relationship. If it just continues as it is then I'd certainly be disappointed, but there are all kinds of ways that Brandon could introduce some interesting conflict and development into their romance. If you think Shallan and Adolin make a boring couple or a bad fit then you're ignoring the potential that they have, I think. Shallan and Kaladin, on the other hand, are both heavyweight characters. They've got their own stories to tell. I honestly don't see how anyone can think there's ROOM for a Shallan-Kaladin love story. It would be completely eclipsed by their personal story arcs. And the two of them (along with their romance) would totally hog the epic story that Brandon is telling. No... That just doesn't make sense to me from a storytelling standpoint. Adolin is a fascinating character, but he's not so strong that he'll get in the way of a romance story on the side. Yes, Shallan and Kaladin both had a difficult past. And they certainly shared a powerful experience being stuck in the chasms during a highstorm. That absolutely explains their awkward relationship at the moment. It doesn't at all mean they're good for each other. Kaladin could certainly use her optimism and all... But I'd much rather seem him conquer his own depression (or learn to live with it better) rather than just be paired with a woman who can patch up the problem. And after everything else... he (probably) killed her brother. I can see Shallan making peace with this, certainly, but I absolutely can't see her being romanced by Kaladin after discovering this. It would make no sense for her character. And Shallan and Adolin DO have a lot in common. Heck, they've both murdered people because they felt it was morally justified and necessary. I'd like to see Adolin being broken in some way, considering he's lived such a smooth and privileged rich-boy life up to this point. He needs some depth for Shallan to connect with. But there's plenty of time for that to develop. Heck, it's likely coming right up, given his final actions in WoR.