Argel

If Ashraven's Soul did not move on the the Great Beyond then I think the OP has a valid point. I suppose a case can be made that the connections were severed and Forgery is just not able to reestablish those connections, but then what has Ashraven's soul been doing for the past three months? And can he ever get back to his body? I think it just works better/is cleaner (and less tragic) if his Soul passed on the Great Beyond and thus cannot come back. Silence/Threnody spoiler

Bricks have a soul, but create a wall out of those bricks and now the wall has a soul. Dismantle the wall, and we're back to the bricks. Similarly, a person is a body + a Soul (with a capital S). The soulstamps Shai uses on herself modify her Soul. The assassins actually kill the emperor -- specifically, his Soul moves on to the Great Beyond. So now all that is left is the emperor's body, which the resealers are able to heal. Shai could Forge the body into believing the killing blow did not occur, but Forgery cannot bring the Soul back (and the resealers already healed the body....). So the trick is to convince the body that it's a person again. To pull that off, she has to fake the emperor's Soul enough that the body will believe it's the real Soul. The above is my interpretation and a bit of an oversimplification to avoid getting into Cosmere/Realmatics and Cosmere spoilers. However, it is supported by the text (emphasis not added):

Quebec.....

I think Brandon is talking about the real world in that quote, not the Cosmere. TWoK Prime was written before Elantris had been published, hence his comment about the connection going back much further than we would expect -- it goes back to his pre-published days! And readers see Vasher as a Warbreaker/Nalthis character making a cameo in SA. But it turns out he started out as a TWoK Prime character, creating a much stronger connection that, again, goes back to Brandon's pre-published days.

Actually, it has been confirmed that Vasher visited Roshar before creating Nightblood during the JordanCon RAFOlympics 2016: Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J43km7wrrZnOuM2WJe2DpBsk_C0E6yLJ8bDxqfen-P4/view

There's a worldhopper colony out there, so it's possible it's common knowledge. If Khriss knows the trick then, her being so big on freedom of information (Brandon compared her to Ed Snowden), we can probably safely assume it is common knowledge among most worldhoppers.

Many of Kaladin's chapters have been hard reads for me -- too much brooding, depression, etc. Plus the racism grates after awhile. Though when he's cool, he;s really cool. He was much better in WoR till he lost Syl. Ugh. But with that said, I liked him much more by the end of WoR and looking forward to seeing what happens with him from here on out. Shallan was and still is my favorite, though I'm worried about how Veil/Ghostbloods will play out. I always liked Dalinar, but I agree with everything else you said. For all his preaching about the codes, I do not think leaving Sadeas alone was the right -- or honorable -- thing to do, and Adolin ends up cleaning up that mess for him. I know Adolin was added to give us a different perspective on Dalinar, but he also shows us (along with Sebarial) that not all lighteyes have to be arrogant, racist jerks. I'm with maxal in wishing for a stronger arc for Adolin.

He's a bit of a tragic character though -- thrust into a position he's not really qualified for, likely being manipulated by various highprinces, etc.

Has there been another print run? Even with the Kindle ebook version I had to open a support ticket with Amazon so the update was pushed out (ditto for Elantris anniversary edition). The biggest change is Kaladin doesn't kill Szeth (but the storms and or the fall does instead).

Eh? Vasher thinking of Roshar as home? He has too much of a "nowhere is home these days" vibe to him for me to buy into that one. More so if he went to Roshar to try and track Nightblood down.

Wow! Just finished it. I think the footnotes were put in there for eBook readers -- makes it look like there are several more pages to go -- I thought the acks, etc. were fake, till I hit the footnotes, and then I groaned, then started clicking the next page button to blaze through them in the hope that there would be something at the end. Brandon really outdid himself with this series. I wonder if we will get 5 Bastille books to loosely mimic SA....

FWIW, there is no mention of a "fabrial" being used to resurrect Szeth. The new wording does not rule it out, but I wonder if Brandon made the change because Nale used a different method.

Let's not forget about Vasher. No reason to believe he is using Feruchemy. Brandon talks about Hoid and Vasher as if they are using the same trick/magic to pull it off. Of course, Hoid was on Nalthis as well.... But it also sounds like most worldhoppers are using this trick. So it must be easy to figure out.

I don't think we should assume what applies to Szeth applies to the Heralds. For example, the Heralds may be able to make use of all that extra stormlight or not require as much stormlight. More to the point, I don't think an honorblade is what makes someone a Herald.

Ugh! I forgot about the political games going on there. Adds a lot of confusion on how to interpret things, and use of "soil" could be used to imply something such as ties to Roshar. The "on foreign soil" one could be a Roshar to English translation (much like how puns would be translated into something that makes sense here). Shallan uses "soiled" twice. In TWoK it is used figuratively so could be a Roshar to English translation: In WoR however she uses it literally (or at least close to literally): On the other hand, her family has/had quarries or mines (that ran out, which is why they needed the soulcaster). And mines are not unusual on Roshar -- not sure if the word "soil" would come up at a mine, but worth considering it as a possibility. I would think "dirt" would be more likely myself. Anyway, I do agree that it seems a bit odd, and likely hints at something.

Have an upvote @The One Who Connects! Interesting theory, and also suggests that at least the intent to do good may be enough\, at least for some orders. @maxal: I don't recall any POVs for Elhokar, so I do not think we can say for sure. And I do not think he would have opened up to Kaladin if he was as selfish as you claim. How much of how Elhaokar's behavior is because he believe it's expected of him? How much from knowing deep down he's not a good ruler (alcohol comes to mind)? If you want to go with "selfish as in self-pity" then I could go with that one, but that's more of a childish kind of selfishness than e.g. the kind Sadeas exhibited. Hopefully we will get some flashbacks with Elhokar in them showing his early days as king. Has to suck that one day you're in line for the throne and the next, your father is dead and the throne is yours. And other than Navani, probably not too many to protect him with politics at court. Certainly not Dalinar from back then (and even the current Dalinar struggles). Elhokar is a victim of circumstances trying to do the best he can in a role he's probably not cut out for. Maybe the current crisis will give him a chance to do better. Or maybe he will abdicate the throne, in-effect turning Alethi forces into KR forces. Or if he becomes a KR, then they could brought in that way. Either way, might be useful to have military forces "loyal" to the KRs. Would be worth it just to see how Taravangian freaks out. Anyway, he could be as you (maxal) says, but without some PoVs, we stuck interpreting things, just like Renarin.

The Diagram only predicted there would be proto-KRs and what to look for. Taravangian connected the dots to the bridgmen because of reports he read about the happenings on the shattered plains.

I think we just had a WoB from DragonCon that Larkin feed on Investiture. So more take then give.

Could be that Yolish children born (or perhaps conceived) on a new-to-them planet gain access to that planet's magic systems. So their parents may not (or may need to hack it), but maybe their children become native magic users.

Yeah, exactly. They both make perfect sense. Or even, "I give you the capacity to save the world, but not the empathy needed to make the correct choices to actually do so".

Maybe it's both the boon and the curse.

Yeah, mods give you a decent starting place. Skyrim may be a bit too 1st person oriented to make e.g. lashings easily work (you can go 3rd person, but it looks clunky). On the other hand, there are several mods out for it including magic mods, which may be worth a look. Gary's Mod (http://store.steampowered.com/app/4000/?snr=1_7_7_151_150_1) may also be worth a look. The problems with mods are why also why I mentioned adventure games and gamebooks. Might be easier to start there, though story becomes the focus then.

I think @jofwu is correct -- the 2011 is about PoV characters, which many not necessarily be book focus characters. There's no contradiction if interpreted that way. I think what he is saying there is that he is not planning on introducing tons of new PoV charterers left and right, unlike, say Malazan Book of the Fallen (which partway through introduces a completely new cast of characters).

It could be how powerful you are. A sharholder may be able to pick up another shard regardless of intent while someone closer to mundane needs more help to pull it off.

Or alternatively, try and make a MOD for an existing game such as Skyrim. Edit: or e.g. one of the adventure game engines out there. Also, the engine used for gamebooks such as 80 Days and Sorcery is available at http://www.inklestudios.com/ink/ if you want to go that route.