Argel

Sorry, I was equating quantity with saturation, and agreeing that saturation/quantity must be the reason. "Fresh" alone doesn't make sense because a membrane would suffice, so why spend extra energy collecting tons of additional water. Of course, it could also be Saturation + Fresh. Also, Brandon wrote this a long time ago and mentioned he doesn't think the whole turning sand into water thing works well, so it's possible other aspects were not thought through as much he would do today as well.

Quantity explains why those plants contain enough water for people to drink. If it was just "fresh" they wouldn't need as much water.

Everyone seems to be assuming they will be able to nail down Sadeas time of death to roughly when it occurred. But do we know they can be that accurate? If it ends up being "killed within the past 2-3 hours" then Kaladin may have had time.

We we don't have a good idea on how magic worked before the shattering. Was there one pool of magic everyone could dip into, vs. now where the limitation is to a shard or two? It's also lot easier to pull the shattering off if Adonalsium allows it to happen, which is what Frost implies in the letter (and again, Frost is a dragon, IIRC from a WoB, the oldest being we know of still alive). And let's not overrate the Ire. Kelsier was able to fool them into believing he was Ruin. I wouldn't classify them as highly powerful magicians -- there's an implied "has a fracking clue" that goes along with that. Raw power is worthless if you be can fooled that easily. The Five Scholars from Warbreaker are better examples. And Nightblood is the only item we know of that reduces the amount of available Investiture in the Cosmere, and Vasher killed his wife to keep that form of a Awakening a secret! And that was from two of the Five Scholars. I don't have any problem imagining that if the top 18 scholars/magic-users got together in present time that they could wreak some serious shattering/detroy the Cosmere havoc if they wanted to (or maybe partially by accident). Note: 18 because we know Hoid and Frost were involved in the plot but not the shattering. The better question is why did they band together to pull off the shattering, and we have much less info on that. Edit: OMG, I had typo'd a "Frosty" in there. I soooo hope Kelsier and Frost meet now. Please Brandon, make it happen!! Even if it's non-canon!!

No, it's just a theory, and we have seen other Heralds around doing things (like talking to Elohkar in the flashback to the night of Gavilar's assassination). I think those skeptical of it being the skybreakers are expecting the leadership of the remaining order to be more sane. Also, the Skybreakers feel a bit too obvious, unless it's one of those things meant for even casual readers to have a shot at figuring out. I'm leaning towards one of the existing organizations/factions we have seen, where the inner circle could be the remaining order, still operating in secret. Or alternatively, they mostly split up, functioning as very small sleeper agent cells. The Ardents could be good place to hide -- they have a lot of access and are kind of under the radar.

Very doubtful because a Kandra requires hemalurgic spikes. There are probably other reasons it's not feasible as well, but that's an obvious one. If the Returned had all the extra stuff it needed such as the spikes then maybe. But I think there are overlapping magic systems and Investiture needed from each that would make it difficult.

If that knife is never found (yeah right) or dealt with in a better way, then there is also the possibility that there is not enough evidence to act on from a legal standpoint, which leaves us with personal issues. Loss of trust. Does Adolin confide in someone such as Renarin or Shallan, etc. Does he start drinking more... Lots of opportunities for ramifications that don't involved legal proceedings.... Does he run away (e.g. volunteer for a mission)....

I don't think he's had the opportunity to try. There's no evidence there is a new shard on Scadrial. Significant interference isn't the same thing. Odium is trapped on Braize but he's still able to cause all kinds of mischief.

Emphasis not added.

Maybe not anger, but I think by the end he was at least obsessed with besting Dalinar. That is, that it was not just about power anymore. Good point about Kaladin thinking it through. But if he had followed through, that would just make it worse

W&W may overlap with SA5. I don't think Brandon has narrowed it down, at least not as of a few months ago.

Uhh, Frost is a dragon and we know he was involved in the plot. So more than humans is already established. Additionaly, magic existed before the shattering. For example, Hoid uses Yolish Lightweaving. Is it hard to believe that 16 powerful magic users plus others (e.g. Hoid and Frost) figured out how to pull it off?!

It might be odd if they did not hang out together so much (guard duty). More importantly, along with Dalinar, they fought Szeth together, and then of course there is the duel. Consider how long it took Adolin to cross the arena at the end. It's hard not to respect Adolin's dueling skills and tenacity. And Adolin stays in jail while Kaladin is after the duel. Obviously treated better, but it was still an inconvenience and not something many lighteyes would do, which counts the most. And Adolin doesn't like hunting or for that matter slaughtering the enemy -- recall how glad he was when Eshonai showed up near the end, and we know Kaladin has similar misgivings about the battlefield (why he wants his men on patrols for a year). Anyway, they share some ideals and have had opportunities for some male bonding. Adolin trusts Kaladin more than most by the end of WoR. Anyway, if nothing else, it's even harder for me to imagine him letting Kaladin take the blame for Sadeas' murder.

Yeah, there are different ways to run with it.

Could Brandon being wiggling out of that one? That is, even if Trell is a "new to us shard", since we have heard of Trell, we already know of him? Well, there's the really obvious cheat -- we know of the 16 shards. Not sure how much we should read into that answer.

Shallan did actually help out with the planning for the duel though I guess that could technically be in her interests as well. She also sent Pattern to help Renarin during the dual. Don't forget she's really big on her family -- I think that would transfer to the Kohlins if she married in.

Don't forget Amaram actually believes it was for the better good and Kaladin is surprises when he recognizes it. I think that may play a factor in how his feelings shifted. Kaladin does understand actions based on convictions. Greed is easier to hate. It's also not clear how much of an immediate threat Amaram is. Adolin definitely hates Sadeas, but it's also clearer that he is a perceived serious "immediate" threat. It's hard not feel it was justified. Guess we will see what the price for that will be. I don't think Adolin was the only one with anger issues though. Sadeas was goading him on -- some serious hatred for Dalinar had devolved. Kharma for Sadeas, fur sure.

Except that's exactly how Adonalsium was shattered!! Additionally, we know both Hoid and Frost were involved in the plot to shatter Adonalsium and Frost may be the leader of the 17th Shard. He was good enough to plot against a god but not good enough afterwards?? Edit: Granted, stopping Hoid seems an impossible task....

This just popped into my head while responding to a mega-spoiler worldhopping thread in the SA forum. The title mostly says it all. The idea is that the worldhopping colony (affectionately referred to as the Restaurant at the End of the Universe in a previous thread) is using the Yoda trick -- picking a place with a lot of investiture in this case -- to help hide their location. This could also explain why Frost doesn't mention this shard in his letter -- it kind of undercuts his point about all the pain caused if there is a thriving community there. I figure it's a long shot, but thought I would throw it out there to give the vultures something new to feast on!

We don't know that, and I actually do not believe it. Frost seems to be the leader, or heavily involved (assuming their goal is non-intervention). If Frost is in charge, then his goalis to let whatever Adonasium has planned out play out without e.g. meddling by Hoid. Of course, unless Hoid's meddling is a direct result of the shattering, one would think Adonalsium factored it in (but then, maybe he factored in the Frost would reign Hoid in...). Assuming Adonalsium foresaw what was coming and planned for it (which Frost's letter strongly implies). The rest is a bit spoilery. Not too much so, but I do mention some non-SA stuff.

There's also the problem of a shard creating something based on something that already existed (presumably created by Adonalsoium). There's no need to limit thatto just the humans on Scadrial. So it's really hard to pin down who created what.

IMO, there is still interaction going on, so there would still be interference.

Great stuff as always. I think you really hit it out of the park with Jasnah. I mean, finally, beautiful looking, but with a scholar, take-no-prisoners face.

Presumably, the worlds other than Scadrial were created or heavily influenced by Adonalsium, so similarities are bound to occur.