Argel

No spoilers at all for General Brandon Discussion. Not sure about the other two.

Lift's novella is supposed to be on the long side, borderline novel. I could definitely go for something like that down the road.

Stagnating implies little to no change. Liars of Partinel spoilers

Yeah, if Nightblood had been referenced half-way through, Zahel would have been much, much more obvious.

This is the one that I see being violated a lot. I'm pretty sure I have even violated on occasion and I try to be careful about it. The problem to is that once you are heavily Cosmere aware, you start taking for granted what could be a spoiler. Very mild Mistborn Era 1 spoiler If your reply above was posted in each forum, that alone might go a long way to helping the situation. There are also the occasional posters that get ticked off when being reminded about spoiler tags that they are clearly violating. It just seems a bit too Wild West lately. That's also why I mentioned a technical solution -- it's really easy to have someone mention e.g. Mistborn or Warbreaker in the SA forum on the second page of a thread. If not in spoiler tags, that could be a good time to allow readers to tag the post with e.g. "Spoilers: Mistborn, Warbreaker". Once implemented, the community can self-police itself. Anyway, not saying that level of effort is needed, but imo a reminder from the moderators is warranted at this point. Edit: Add to your list that unplublished works (including teasers for upcoming books) must always be in Spoiler tags (even in Cosmere Theories).

Ove the past several months we have seen an influx on new posters who are not aware of or just not following the spoiler policies of the site. This is particularly obvious in the Stormlight Archives forum. Could the moderators e.g. make soem posts about the spoiler policy in each of the forums, reminding users to make use of spoiler tags? It feels like it needs more awareness. I also wonder how hard it would be to allow readers to have a sub-header for threads for spolier tags, and allow other readers to tag the thread. For example: Title: Why does Nigfhtblood leak investiture? (posted in Warbreaker) Spoilers: Mistborn, Stormlight Archive, Elantris. This would allow the readers to self-police threads. Anyway, just a thought!

Dang people. Mistborn isn't Warbreaker. You are supposed to be spoiler tagging Hemalurgy. Keep in mind that people reading Mistborn Era 1 for the first tiume have no idea what it is until Brandon reveals it, so even seemingly innocuous references can actually be significant spoilers to new readers.

Have you read any of Mary Robinette Kowal's stories? Glamourist Histories is a 5 book series that is Jane Austin with illusion magic. The last two books are the best, and you may like the 5th book because of the West Indies setting and all of the intricacies that introduces. My introduction to her was via the writing excuses book that includes Sixth of the Dust. I also really liked Forest of Memories. She can be really great with prose, and I find her a very nice way to balance out e.g reading Steven Erikson's Fantasy-Military Malazan Book of the Fallen series epic fantasy series. Her latest book (the about WW1/2 nurses collecting info from the ghosts of dead soldiers) is supposed to be good.

I also caught Nightblood right away. I may have had to look up the details, but I knew it was a Cosmere reference right off the bat. I missed Zahel till I read about him here and of course had a facepalm moment. I didn't catch the game at all though, so good job and thanks for bringing it up. Agree that it's more confirmation that Zahel is Vasher (though at this point we have WoBs on that).

I think he's speculating that was the reason, not that we have any WoB for or against it. That idea has come up before, because there does have to be a reason for good people to work with e.g. Rayse to make it happen. So it's not a power grab. I think there may be a WoB about he vessels having different goals? Certainly some have hinted at that.

We see him close to 300 years after Mistborn Era1 -- is it really that hard to believe that 1) his views could have changed upon reflection of the Mistborn era 1 events and/or 2) learning about the Cosmere and how much bigger things are, and/or 3) views of his wife could have swayed him? Also, even if the goal is non-intervention, he is taking an active role in achieving that. The job only gets boring if they manage to actually put a stop to Hoid's antics. I don't really see a problem here -- the most important thing in my mind about the crew Kelsier put together is they actually did have principles and a goal that went beyond crime. What would imo be out of character for Demoux is if he switched to a life of crime. I don't really see it as that odd that he has joined an organization with a set of principles revolving around the fate of the Cosmere. It's also possible to make the case that looking back at Mistborn Era 1, while things did work out, they put Scadrial at great risk, and he may see the merits in being more cautious. Anyway, I think the real question is what is it about the 17th Shard that Demoux related to the most -- what convinced him to join?

Good point, I forgot about that. Or maybe cracks are easier to create/form at a younger age? For example, getting lost in the woods as say a 4 year old could be significantly more traumatic than as an adult, who may e.g. use the time of day plus angle of the sun to help figure out where to go. Or remember that the house is at the top of a hill, so hike upwards. Or climb a tree to get a look around. Dang, Shallan drops her two scopes of ice cream, tears and wailing ensue, and *bam* she's a proto-KR!! On a more serious note from the ice cram, we probably should not rule out child abuse, such as physical beatings. The only thing bothering me now is why did she become a proto-KR and her brothers didn't? Her artistic talent?

Reminder: this is the Stormlight Archives forum. Information from other series like Mistborn and Warbreaker are supposed to be in spoilers tags. Or the title could be updated to indicate e.g. "Cosmere Spoilers" (since we have Warbreaker and Mistborn spoilers in this thread). Going by the Mistborn End of Era 1 spoiler:

I think it was designed with that in mind. Also to show the proto-KRs can be killed, but I think also to set up Darkness/Nalan/Nale for Lift's Interlude, which requires an emotional impact.

Wow! I never expected so much to spawn from that question or the answer! And your theory actually sounds believable! Probably not likely, but it wasn't crazy! (Even the Hoid/Trell theory sounded far more believable than it should). @maxal, I like your weeding theory.

Yes, the only other thing I mentioned was begging for something new about Adolin for SA3 (he will wear a different outfit than his Kohlin soldier's uniform). Now we have just a tad more to speculate on and we know for sure now that Returned, Lifeless and Forgery share similarities. Has Brandon confirmed that in the past? Edit: Sorry for the double-post -- since the previous one was upvoted, I didn't want to add a bunch of new content to it or replace the contents.

FWIW, here's an excerpt of the Ashravan specifics: comment reply[Oathbringer Spoilers] Stormlight Three Update #4 from mistborn via /r/Stormlight_Archive sent 18 hours ago argel1200 (me): Regarding Ashraven... Would it be correct to say that memories are part of the mind/CR aspect? Assuming so, was Shai forging a new CR aspect to in-effect reconnect Asharaven's Soul (SR) with his body (PR)? I was thinking this could explain how she got his mannerisms correct -- i.e. that those are timeless SR aspects, so she didn't really get those right but instead, the SR connection was re-established? Brandon: Regarding Ashrovan: The problem here is that I don't want to get too deep into these sorts of things, for reasons that I want aspects of the magic to remain subject to discussion for a while yet. Suffice it to say that when we talk about Returned and lifeless in Warbreaker sequels, you'll have more ammunition for understanding what happened in Emperor's Soul.

FWIW, here's an excerpt of the Ashravan specifics: comment reply[Oathbringer Spoilers] Stormlight Three Update #4 from mistborn via /r/Stormlight_Archive sent 18 hours ago argel1200 (me): Regarding Ashraven... Would it be correct to say that memories are part of the mind/CR aspect? Assuming so, was Shai forging a new CR aspect to in-effect reconnect Asharaven's Soul (SR) with his body (PR)? I was thinking this could explain how she got his mannerisms correct -- i.e. that those are timeless SR aspects, so she didn't really get those right but instead, the SR connection was re-established? Brandon: Regarding Ashrovan: The problem here is that I don't want to get too deep into these sorts of things, for reasons that I want aspects of the magic to remain subject to discussion for a while yet. Suffice it to say that when we talk about Returned and lifeless in Warbreaker sequels, you'll have more ammunition for understanding what happened in Emperor's Soul.

Hah! He did give an answer!!

There's always Veil though.

Rings a bell with met too. Maybe from a book personalization?

Except no one takes him seriously as a duelist, so there is more going on there. Maxal is obviously inferring a lot, but it does seem plausible. Maybe we will learn more in SA3. You are also sort of corroborating what Maxal suggests -- Dalinar kicks in the codes and suddenly Adolin finds himself without friends. In other words, he didn't have any good, close friends to begin with. Which leaves him finding closer friends among outher outsiders like Kaladin and Shallan. If you are not comfortable doing that then you could also just ask about one thing and see how that goes. Though Brandon might be impressed if you went into details. He does like interacting with fans, and if fans see something he doesn't, he may appreciate learning about it.

Ym and Adolin, but more of Ym since he was a proto-KR for sure and seemed to be devoted to being very charitable. Adolin has that whole soldier thing, so less time to be charitable. Though I suppose you could make a case that his miltary career is his selflessness, though personally I think that his military career was so expected of him from such as young age that I doubt he would see it that way. It would be interesting if Ym turned out to be a proto-Edgedancer as some have speculated. I dunno, there must be some "normal", less traumatized people out there, right? Though the anger issues -- trauma over the loss of his mother that he's buried away instead of addressing? Interesting though about the powerlessness. Though it seems less clear-cut for Shallan, though I think it works for her -- it was a long time before she finally killed her father and she was more powerless when it came to protecting the rest of the family from her father. There's also the "can't choose your parents" angle. We don't know enough about Jasnah, but she was obviously powerless to save her father. I'm trying to recall -- has Brandon ever brought up rape in any of his stories? That's one obvious place to go with Jasnah's hints about problems with men.

I thought Vorin religion taught some of that? And Jah Kaved seems to be bigger on Vorin religion than most regions.

And we do not know what happened to Renarin, Jasnah (though strong hints about men, so she could be tragic), Lift, or Ym. If anything, Ym seems fairly well adjusted. I wonder if enough empathy for others can also create openings (not sure if I would call them cracks)? Or selflessness.