ZenBossanova

I have really wondered if that is essentially what the Old Magic does. It takes a bit of someone's spirit web, and reuses it into what it is that the person asks for. For instance, the part of Dalinar's spirit web where he remembered his wife, was reused for whatever his boon was. The accompanying curse isn't vicious. It is just a consequence of what the magic is doing.

The more I thought about Preservation's clue about 16, the more it really made sense to me. Not only that there are 16 Allomatic metals, but also how they were organized. If you have a being of vast or infinite power, it makes sense that things have to be balanced. External is balanced with Internal, Pushing with Pulling, etc. So, I made a chart of Allomatic and Feruchemic metal properties, but it was not entirely useful, but it was at times suggestive. So, I am going to try the prediction game again, with a few of the allomatic and feruchemic metals and the corresponding properties. Physical External Pulling : Charisma - Control others give you (Submission, Convincing are other possibilities) (Unconscious) External Pushing : Dominion – to have control of others (Conscious) Internal Pushing : Autonomy – to have control of yourself, (Conscious) Internal Pulling : Dream - Internal Freedom, or unconscious freedom to think or act. (Freedom is another possibility) (Unconscious) This one also correlates with tin, which involves the senses. Cognitive External Pushing : Word or Language or Communication – Communicate thoughts & feelings with others This one correlates with Brass (emotion and warmth) Inspired partly by Rithmatist. Yes, I know it is not Cosmere, but it was originally. External Pulling : Feel (emotion, intuition?) - Understand others thoughts & feelings This one correlates with Zinc (enflame emotion, mental speed) Internal Pushing : Endowment – to give something to others (Bronze ~ wakefulness) Internal Pulling : Devotion – to give up yourself for others or for a cause (Copper ~ memories) Spiritual/emotional External Pushing : Honor – To bring together External Pulling : Odium – to hate (pull apart) Internal Pushing : Preservation – to never change, inertia Internal Pulling : Ruin – to break things down, entropy Temporal External Pushing : Cultivation – External Creation for others External Pulling : Hunger/Consuming/Metabolism – to take something from others and transform it (this is inspired by Sixth of Dusk, and a comment Hoid made to Jasnah, that may or may not be relevant) Internal Pushing : Ambition – Internal Creation, Self-improvement, personal glory (correlates with Electrum, which reveals your future) Internal Pulling : Transcendence/Paradox – Internal transformation (Ashyn big maybe, WoB that might suggest it) Transcend in the sense that Einstein transcends Newton, or Jesus transcended Moses. This one was inspired by a WoB, about if Alcatraz had a shard. He doesn't of course... but if he did... I think the organization is much better this time. But I am not convinced on all the names.

How much can we correlate this with Allomancy and Feruchemy? Internal vs External? Pushing vs Pulling? Just how good was Preservation’s clue about 16? I don't think I have this organized just right, but I wanted to apply the External/Internal and the Pushing/Pulling distinctions in both Allomancy & Feruchemy. And while the Shards correlate with attributes of Deity, they also IMHO correlate with attributes necessary for Civilization. I am going to use some of Extesian’s wording and organization here. Cognitive External Pushing : Honor – the obligation to do what you say you will do, to be consistent External Pulling : Transcendence/Paradox – to be inconsistent, to change from moment to moment (Ashyn big maybe, WoB that might suggest it) Internal Pushing : Word or Language or Communication – to seek knowledge and understanding Internal Pulling : Knowledge or Truth – to have knowledge Spiritual/emotional External Pushing : Odium – to hate External Pulling : Devotion – to give up yourself for others or for a cause Internal Pushing : Transformation Internal Pulling : Sight or Insight Physical Internal Pulling : Endowment – to give something to others External Pulling : Hunger/Consuming – to take something from others (this is inspired by Sixth of the Sun, and a comment Hoid made to Jasnah, that may or may not be relevant) Internal Pushing : Autonomy – to have control of yourself External Pushing : Dominion – to have control of others Temporal Internal Pushing : Cultivation – to work on something other than yourself Internal Pulling : Ambition – to work on yourself External Pushing : Preservation – to never change, inertia External Pulling : Ruin – to break things down, entropy

Wasn't there a WoB talking about the shard on Ashyn? It wasn't a direct identification, but it made it sound like the shard was Self-contradiction or paradox. And considering what little we know about the magic system on Ashyn (The Silence Divine) that really would make sense.

I think the biggest potential mistake would be what robbed Ender's Game (the movie) of its real emotional punch - you didn't get to really see Ender suffer or struggle. Yes, it was alluded to, and they spend a few minutes showing it. But a few minutes and an attempt or two at battle school was all we saw. In contrast, look at Inigo Montoya (The Princess Bride). You see him fail like 9-10 times. You know he really wants his goal and when he finally achieves it, it is even better than when Wesley succeeds at rescuing Buttercup. Ender's Game would have been better if they had spent more time showing Ender really struggling, failing and trying again, until his success is as sweet as Inigo saying his line, "you killed my father... prepare to die". Shallow emotional development is the rule in Hollywood, not the exception, when it comes to SF/F and action. Ok, so what does this have to do with The Way of Kings? A lot of its emotional poignancy comes from Kaladin's struggle. He gets beaten down, suffers, fails, starved, beaten some more, and then enters Bridge 4, where it only gets worse. You can't skimp here, or you will just yawn when he succeeds at the end.

Could Cultivation help Nightblood grow and learn? For instance, could she teach him, Love Good, and Understand the difference between Good and Evil? If Nightblood has a character arc, will she be at the crux of it?

That WoB suggests to me that Nightblood is a greater danger to Odium, than vice versa. If it can drain a person, how much investiture could it drain, with the power of an entire shard behind it?

The Red Rip is the fainlife from Yolen killing not only planets, but entire stars. And it is expanding out into the rest of the universe. It is only a matter of time until it reaches the rest of the shardworlds. That is why Hoid was so determined to reform Adonalsium. And why Autonomy doesn't let anyone onto Taldain, lest they break quarantine. He will fail, but his efforts will be important for when Adonalsium returns.

Invested is not quite right and certainly crem and those other examples were all around long before the Shattering. But there is a pattern here still. Perhaps we should say that there seems to be a characteristic of the world that has unusual prominence for each shard. In the surgebinding chart in the Ars Arcanum, there are focuses for each surge. Perhaps we should call Crem a Focus for Cultivation.

Every Shard so far, has had an aspect of weather or climate associated with them. Mists, flowers, geography, etc. It would be odd for Cultivation to not be expressed as crem, especially considering how much she does to help Roshar be a vibrant planet, in spite of its storms.

Even if the pits were still there, there have been plenty of people burning metals around them since Elendel was founded.

I was really under the impression Kelsier made them, but there was a WoB that suggested otherwise.

Hiding in a highstorm would be a good place for an unmade to hide for an extended period. There is a reading of Dalinar at a feast during a highstorm in SA3 that may be pertinent to this discussion.

What WoB is that exactly?

Strictly speaking, entropy is not disorder. That is a common way to express and think of it, but it is wrong. Entropy is the number of possible states something can be in. For instance, there are a lot more ways you can arrange the pieces of a broken plate than an unbroken plate, so we say the entropy of a broken plate is higher, and unless we are very careful, broken plates are far more likely than unbroken. So, you can see how we get the idea of entropy = disorder. It is also the same reason it is hard to hit the bulleye when playing darts. There are just a lot of other places for the dart to go. The second law of Thermodynamics says that entropy will increase, or in other words, systems (closed systems technically) tend toward things that give them the maximum number of states. That means, if Adonalsium creates more worlds when shattered than when whole, then shattered is more likely. If there are more ways to shatter Adonalsium than there are ways for it to be whole, then shattered is more likely. In general entropy wants a universe with the maximum number of possibilities. If there were more good possibilities than bad, then good would be more likely. That could be trippy, but certainly possible. Alternate theory, the fainlife was created by demigods under Adonalsium, as an experiment in creation that went awry. It is now consuming planets, and even stars (the Red Rip).

We should probably cross-reference this with I suspect that either bits of knowledge have come from the Shin, or the Heralds have occasionally let things out.

Another good question is why. Even Hitler had a reason why. You don't invade a continent of creepy immortal bug people, just because they are creepy. And why have they not started rebuilding hives. Is there something they are now missing? Also, why did the scouring of Aimia involve killing larkins? What do they have to do with it? Is this a creature that Aimians would find particularly important? Perhaps important to starting a hive/nest?

Facts and educated guesses intermingled here: I suspect, that the fainlife that Kyriss hinted at is at the root of why 16 people decided Adonalsium needed to be shattered. I also suspect, that the Red Rip is that fainlife expanding even to other stars. That is why Hoid thinks it is so important to recreate Adonalsium, even important enough to destroy Roshar. While others look at this problem, and think the solution is more shattering, eg. Odium. Note however, Hoid has not made any effort to pick up an entire shard. He just gets little bits of investment, just enough that he can use each shard. Recombining each shard would be too difficult, because there is too much interferring investiture. But if you combine them when you are just a magic user, then combining shouldn't be hard. Once he has done that, it is just a matter of getting enough investiture.

All this said, I strongly suspect the Nightwatcher, who wields the Old Magic, is a dragon. I can't point to any one thing in particular. Just a suspicion. But if the Nightwatcher is just a super Cultivation spren.... what is it doing controlling the Old Magic? How?

I really wonder if Larkins were what was scoured in Aimia. And if they will be significant to the Aimians.

In book 3, Kaladin will have an epic smackdown with a Herald.... and win. The Heralds will be currently, powerful, but merely shadows of their former power.

My guess is, Shallan will feel lonely if Adolin is exiled, but Kaladin will be too honorable to make a pass at his friend's girl.

According to the same source, He had sold 15k in 2013, so he must be doing more like 2 million a year. So it stays at this rate, he will catch up with GRR Martin in 25 years.

At least Butcher should be closer.

Interesting! Be sure to notice the long, long list of very prominent authors he is ahead of, like Butcher, or Frank Herbert. But it is also worth noting, that not all of the authors ahead of him are putting out a lot of books. If we assume it is linear growth (which I am sure is wrong) then he is doing 1 million books a year. If growth is constant, then in 50 years (may Sanderson live forever) we will be in Star Wars and GRR Martin territory.