Spoolofwhool

3 hours ago, Fanghur Rahl said:

Irrational, mindless hatred is almost universally considered to be a very bad thing, and that’s basically what the Shard or Odium is. 

Except that's not necessarily what the shard of Odium is. It's just how it's being interpreted as by its current vessel. To say that it's irrational is also fairly incorrect. A large part of Odium's actions is playing off of Rayse's fears and selfishness, which means that someone with different outlooks could use the shard in a more benign way. While it's true that Odium does seem leave a lot less room for positive actions than Cultivation or even Ruin, to say that it would be absolutely bad is very limiting in my opinion.

On Rayse and Odium

7 hours ago, Ripheus23 said:

That makes sense as far as an external reason to write several trilogies in one context. However, I feel like this isn't enough to make that final step to "and by the way the whole Cosmere endgame is finally grounded in this progression." I feel like MBE4, as such, would make a better, "And this is the second-to-last part of the Cosmere saga," with at least one ultimate finale book that isn't tied, even externally, to only a specific planet/magic system/w/e. Or, at "worst," have another Arcanum Unbounded with novellas that tell the story of the end of the Cosmere from the POVs of multiple Shardworlds, or whatever. Or, an AU with one super-novella included that is the final story, or whatever.

True, but I think that at the end, Era 4 won't be tied that much to Scadrial and the Metallic Arts, and there will still be significant influences from other series, so it won't just feel like a Mistborn story. Brandon has talked about this, and has said that approaching the end, there may be books which require significant background reading from multiple series to understand. 

This is pretty relevant and kind of explains why MBE4 will be significant towards the end of the Cosmere.

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Brandon Sanderson

As I was developing the Cosmere, I knew I wanted a few threads to span the entire mega-sequence, which was going to cover thousands of years. For this reason, I built into the outline a couple of "core" series.

One of these is the Stormlight Archive, where we have the Heralds who span ages, and which I eventually decided to break into two distinct arcs. Other series touch on the idea of long-standing characters. Dragonsteel, for example, will be kind of a bookend series. We'll get novels on Hoid's origins, then jump all the way to the end and get novels from his viewpoint late in the entire Cosmere sequence.

With Mistborn, I wanted to do something different. For aesthetic reasons, I wanted a fantasy world that changed, that grew updated and modernized. One of my personal mandates as a lover of the epic fantasy genre is to try to take what has been done before and push the stories in directions I think the genre hasn't looked at often enough.

I pitched Mistorn as a series of trilogies, which many of you probably already know. Each series was to cover a different era in the world (Scadrial), and each was to be about different characters—starting with an epic fantasy trilogy, expanding eventually into a space opera science fiction series. The magic would be the common thread here, rather than specific characters.

There was a greater purpose to this, more than just wanting a fantasy world that modernized. The point was to actually show the passage of time in the universe, and to make you, the reader, feel the weight of that passage.

Some of the Cosmere characters, like Hoid, are functionally immortal—in that, at least, they don't age and are rather difficult to kill. I felt that when readers approached a grand epic where none of the characters changed, the experience would be lacking something. I could tell you things were changing, but if there were always the same characters, it wouldn't feel like the universe was aging.

I think you get this problem already in some big epic series. (More on that below.) Here, I wanted the Cosmere to evoke a sense of moving through eras. There will be some continuing threads. (A few characters from Mistborn will be weaved through the entire thing.) However, to make this all work, I decided I needed to do something daring—I needed to reboot the Mistborn world periodically with new characters and new settings.

So how does Shadows of Self fit into this entire framework? Well, The Alloy of Law was (kind of) an accident. It wasn't planned to be part of the original sequence of Mistborn sub-series, but it's also an excellent example of why you shouldn't feel too married to an outline.

As I was working on Stormlight, I realized that it was going to be a long time (perhaps ten years) between The Hero of Ages and my ability to get back to the Mistborn world to do the first of the "second" series. I sat down to write a short story as a means of offering a stop-gap, but was disappointed with it.

That's when I took a step back and asked myself how I really wanted to approach all of this. What I decided upon was that I wanted a new Mistborn series that acted as a counterpoint to Stormlight. Something for Mistborn fans that pulled out some of the core concepts of the series (Allomantic action, heist stories) and mashed them with another genre—as opposed to epic fantasy—to produce something that would be faster-paced than Stormlight, and also tighter in focus.

That way, I could alternate big epics and tight, action character stories. I could keep Mistborn alive in people's minds while I labored on Stormlight.

The Alloy of Law was the result, an experiment in a second-era Mistborn series between the first two planned trilogies. The first book wasn't truly accidental, then, nor did it come from a short story. (I've seen both reported, and have tacitly perpetuated the idea, as it's easier than explaining the entire process.) I chose early 20th century because it's a time period I find fascinating, and was intrigued by the idea of the little-city lawman pulled into big-city politics.

Alloy wasn't an accident, but it was an experiment. I wasn't certain how readers would respond to not only a soft reboot like this, but also one that changed tone (from epic to focused). Was it too much?

The results have been fantastic, I'm happy to report. The Alloy of Law is consistently the bestselling book in my backlists, barring the original trilogy or Stormlight books. Fan reaction in person was enthusiastic.

So I sat down and plotted a proper trilogy with Wax and Wayne. That trilogy starts with Shadows of Self. It connects to The Alloy of Law directly, but is more intentional in where it is taking the characters, pointed toward a three-book arc.

You can see why this is sometimes hard to explain. What is Shadows of Self? It's the start of a trilogy within a series that comes after a one-off with the same characters that was in turn a sequel to an original trilogy with different characters.

source

11 hours ago, Ripheus23 said:

Do we know that when he was a wee lad, Sanderson had Earth already permanently banned from the Cosmere? I started working on a story that was supposed to be multiple series all tied together, when I was 12, that had Earth in it, but by the time I was 15 I decided Earth was no longer in that universe, even as an otherwise obscure planet. There is a character in this story, who when I first made him up it was for a turned-based strategy computer game where you could make little profiles for some of the units (or at least assign them names), and then he became a peculiar mid-level villain in the version of the hyperstory with Earth still, and now he is one of the major protagonists (and the hyperstory is no longer intended to be a series of series of books but a series of films).

Rithmatist was originally planned to be part of the Cosmere as the token Earth story. As both Rithmatist and Steelheart came out in the same year, I suspect that at that point, it was well decided that Reckoners would not be part of the Cosmere, and that Brandon had decided that Earth in its entirety would not be a part of the Cosmere. Brandon has talked about Rithmatist bearing an example of an entity demonstrating a realmatic property that he wanted to go into more detail later on, but won't using that entity since Rithmatist isn't Cosmere. As far as I'm aware, I haven't seen any WoBs where he talked about pulling Reckoners out of the Cosmere. The general feel has always been that Reckoners would stand in its own continuum.

Relevant WoBs in spoiler

Relevant:

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zas678

You've said that Inquisitors could have children. Would those children have a better chance at being Allomancers compared to if they had the kids before they were Inquisitors?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, but there also could be...complications.

source

Personally, I don't think using hemalurgy to grant someone powers has the same effect as just introducing allomantic or feruchemical potential to their inheritance.

6 hours ago, LiquidBlue said:

Has anyone commented on the terminology that Khriss used? She referred to 10 "levels" of voidbinding. It is not conclusive, but that suggests that there is some sort of hierarchy in voidbinding, perhaps similar to the heightenings. 

 

I think it's just referencing ten different types, like the the different variations of surgebinding.

A human soul would likely interfere with standard awakening. At this point you're deviating from standard awakening which is imbuing life and some semblance of awareness into an unaware object with the enhancement of a human soul into a different vessel. Of course, this all assumes that a Bondsmith is capable of what you're suggesting, which I don't think is possible.

I agree with what @Weltall said. I think that the Radiants wouldn't have wanted Urithiru to be permanently abandoned, so they left one gate open, but in the most inconvenient place possible to prevent people from accidentally using it to get to the city. 

8 hours ago, Extesian said:

I thiiink he didn't know what it was until the plateau transported from this. 

Reinforcing the point further that it wasn't him. 

Also, the thick layer of crem sealing the chamber makes it extremely likely that no one has actually used the Oathgate in awhile. Either way, in an earlier interlude, Szeth talks about using lashings to leave Urithiru. 

34 minutes ago, IllNsickly said:

Where is the water going?

The highstorms probably are giant siphons when on the other side, sucking up water.

On 8/23/2018 at 9:18 AM, Serack said:

4  WoB is that Hoid uses Feruchemy to know where he needs to be.  source

This WoB has been held to debate regarding how accurate it is and my opinion on it is that he does not have the ability to naturally perform feruchemy, and that that paraphrased WoB was due to a misinterpretation of Brandon. Most damning is this later WoB, which while still paraphrased, more specifically has Brandon saying that he uses the same underlying principles, not necessarily feruchemy itself. A fair number have taken that to mean that he might not have natural ability. That doesn't mean that he can't perform feruchemy though, as Brandon has said that he does have unkeyed metalminds, but he could've obtained it in an artificial manner, such as with medallions.

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Xyrd (paraphrased)

You've mentioned before that Hoid ends up where he needs to be.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, and usually without knowing why.

Xyrd (paraphrased)

Is chromium involved in that?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes. Well, he's not necessarily using chromium, but the underlying mechanic, yes.

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Steeldancer

Hoid. Does he have more unkeyed metalminds?

Brandon Sanderson

Hoid has access to lots of different things, so, yes he does.

source

30 minutes ago, Fanghur Rahl said:

I agree. I was just pointing out that it’s wrong to assert that because an author says X that X is necessarily true.

True, but as long as there are not contradictions or inconsistencies, what the author says is truth, at that point in time. 

10 minutes ago, Ripheus23 said:

I think that there is something else going on, here, than just "the molecular structure" and "resonance" of specific metals

That's fair, but in the absence of any other information, Brandon can't be wrong on this subject. At most, he hasn't explained more on the matter that he has conceived. 

22 hours ago, Ripheus23 said:

EDIT: Sanderson can claim that the "molecular structure" and "resonance" of a substance is relevant, here, but I think he's (a) wrong or (b) incompletely explaining things [not that this is wrong on another level, though, for Team Cosmere has itself said that these matters are not decided just by authorial fiat, it seems?].

How can Brandon be wrong about a made-up system that he made-up? There can be aspects of the Cosmere that you don't agree with because you think there better-fitting explanations. There are some parts that I don't agree with at all, but his explanations are ultimately absolutely right unless he corrects a prior statement.

13 hours ago, Naurock said:

Seeing this made me just realize Nohadon is almost perfectly symmetrical. IMO, that adds to your thought.

Per Vorinism, Nohadon is perfectly symmetrical since 'h' can be used as a wild character to balance out others while having a different sound. Like Dalinar said though, it isn't his real name, and he shouldn't have responded to it at the time, so whatever that vision was, it was a a lot less real than the ones Honor made.

4 minutes ago, Fanghur Rahl said:

If she already has her Plate then why wouldn’t she have summoned it during the Battle of Thaylen Field? Or against the Ghostblood assassins for that matter? If ever there was a time to summon your armor, it’s when you’re being attacked by an army of Voidbringers.

The scene during the battle where Adolin finds her with fading geometric shapes has been thought by some to be indicative of her dismissing her shardplate. Maybe she didn't want to stand out more than she already was. 

Seems unlikely to be something natural since it involves such an extreme deviation in realmatic nature.

10 hours ago, MountainKing said:

I wonder when you soulcast a flame of the substance just becomes a highly flammable object, I wonder what essence flames fall under

Essence of Spark. It's been described as turning the object into actual fire, and if you made it into a highly flammable object then it would still need an ignition source somehow, universally over the whole volume that burns quickly while releasing hardly far less energy than a substance of that nature would normally release.

4 hours ago, SzethIsBadAsHell said:

Another ability Lift gained from the nightwatcher / Cultivation  was the ability to touch wyndle. I’m not sure if this is the ability or a byproduct of another ability . I’ll explain . What if what she gained was the ability to partially exist in the Cognitive realm? This would explain how she physically touch Wyndle. And this would also explain how she entered the Stormfsthers Visions with Dalinar and the Aziz emperor. So theoretically she can touch all spren and not just Wyndle

Yeah, that's what Wyndle proposed in the interlude. Touching Wyndle might be more than that though, also a product of being bonded to him, since she hasn't made any note, that I recall, of her touching other spren.

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“Somehow, you are partly in the Cognitive Realm,” Wyndle said, coiling beside her and raising a twisting mesh of vines that could make a face. “It is the only answer I can find to why you can touch spren."

- Words of Radiance, I-9. Lift

An interesting thought, but I think voidbinding is Roshar, and since magic systems are the result of a shard's power interacting with the world, this means that for voidbinding to have been used on Ashyn, it would've had to have been brought there from Roshar and used. 

8 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

This one is debatable. If you are an archivist, you can be expected to have your copperminds with you in any working environment. It's an advantage you have over common people, but it's an advantage that you can reliably have at all times and that comes at no cost for anybody, so maybe your score should reflect that.

In the real world they also wouldn't expect us to memorize a massive amount of information on a normal basis. Exams are usually poorly written in that regard. 

2 hours ago, Ripheus23 said:

Would we speak of 10 Voids in addition to 10 Surges? (Absences/decreases and presences/increases?)

No, voidbinding would still make use of the same Surges, just in different ways.

Nightblood was created on Nalthis.

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Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

One question I've been thinking about a lot, and that is the black bladed sword. Is there just one sword, or is there one for each world, that [works with?] different...like Shard powers, or is it just one sword that can work with all?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

[Nightblood] is something special. A long time ago, some people from the Warbreaker world came to Roshar, saw Shardblades, thought, "We can do this," went home and tried to make one. And that is Nightblood. And it went horribly horribly wrong. And so they didn't make any more, except now, Azure's sword is somewhat related. But that is the origin of Nightblood. Trying to make a Shardblade out of a different magic system.

source

9 hours ago, Weltall said:

Well, presumably the creation of the Honorblade qualifies as exactly this sort of thing...

True, good point. However, that did just involve a shard making their godmetal, which is the main case we know of investiture converting directly into physical matter, other than the gemhearts in greatshells. Not sure how well it can apply to a shard making a non-godmetal material, like the gem in the dagger, assuming even that the main metal of the dagger is a godmetal.

On 8/8/2018 at 8:30 PM, Juanaton said:

Ash and Taln are standing in line to take the Oathgate out of Thaylenah when Jezrien dies. Ash’s POV makes that clear. I THINK there was some mention about how much time had passed since the battle ended and it wasn’t a matter of minutes but at least the next day.

I don’t believe Nightblood and the antiherald dagger are as similar as the theory proposes, BUT I don’t think the timeline argument is as convincing as it has been made out.

I mean, how long do you think it would take to reverse-engineer a revolutionary new process, design a way to use it, then construct the dagger? Even if we assume that Odium did all the first two steps easily on the side, the actual construction of the dagger should've taken time. Like I said earlier, I don't think Odium just realmatically created the dagger from investiture, so the Fused would've had to have made it, which surely would've taken time.

11 hours ago, Leuthie said:

You don't believe a Shard could build an invested knife with a gem in its hilt with the snap of a Spiritual finger?

I don't think Odium made the dagger. I'm fairly certain it was the Fused under his instruction. First of all, we've never seen a shard do anything like that. The only physical manipulation we've seen performed by the power of shards is the creation and rearrangement of Scadrial, and none of that involved the creation of physical matter, simply rearrangement of what was pre-existing, or the very slight things Ruin did where he affected written texts. Nothing on the scale of creating a highly complex invested object.

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Questioner

Can Odium or any other [Shards] edit text like Ruin could? ...Or is that a special Ruin thing.  

Brandon Sanderson

This is possible for others as well. The trick about it is, [Ruin] saturated everything on Scadrial in a way that not all Shards saturate their planets.  

Questioner

Okay, what do you mean "saturate"?

Brandon Sanderson

Creating it, does that make sense? And so this was partially an aspect that everything on that planet, every atom was, y'know, had him in it... I mean he didn't create the atoms, let's say that, but yeah... The whole planet existence and particularly the people on it are [Ruin], attuned to [Ruin].

source

Secondly, any sort of direct manipulation like that, which I'm sure is possible by a shard, I think would require an extension of his being which he cannot or will not do. There's a reason he isn't directly interfering with events on Roshar and is forced to act through human, singer, and spren agents instead. Either whatever Honor did is preventing him from directly acting, or to do so would involve making him vulnerable to Cultivation and actions she might performed, a position he would be unwilling to put himself in.

On 8/1/2018 at 1:13 PM, ScavellTane said:

Doesn't say it's canon (quite yet). There was that reference by Taravangian about star metal(?).

I guess I simply assume that the Fused had some knowledge of aluminium since its not an unknown metal on Roshar just rare? Unless they don't, then forget everything I said.

Hoid showed up with a cart full of aluminum and no one really knew what it was. At most, what we've heard of is that aluminum is rare and has value because it can only be soulcast. 

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“Simple, but of aluminum, which can only be made by Soulcasting,” the man said to his boss. “Ten emerald.”
- Word of Radiance, Chapter 48

Though there has been indicated as some other things going on there, which could be a hint at it being more known in the past. 

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Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

So, I'm intrigued by aluminum, especially the fact that it can only be found by Soulcasting on Roshar. So, how was it discovered in the first place?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

...Did I say you can only get it through Soulcasting?

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

In the Shallan flashbacks, she has the pendant.

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Don't take what she says at 100% truth.

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On 8/1/2018 at 1:42 PM, Leuthie said:

The first point makes you sound confused.  Heralds have been available to be killed for 4000 years.  The presence of Fused only matters for my point: that Odium needed to see a Fused permanently killed to create a way to permanently kill Heralds.

And for 4000 years, Odium has had no agents on Roshar who could've implemented any plan to permanently kill the Heralds. We have yet to see any real agents of his which could've accomplished what was needed to make the dagger other than the Fused. 

On 8/1/2018 at 1:42 PM, Leuthie said:

As for the aluminum: I have no doubt that every heavily Invested being that's been around for 1000+ years can spot aluminum from beyond the horizon, knows its significance, and will covet it.  A Fused stealing a chunk of aluminum is expected and doesn't mean that anyone knew what Nightblood can do.

Why would being heavily invested make it easier to be able to see aluminum? Also, once again, nothing has indicated that aluminum was ever used in the past by the Fused in their fights. 

I also have one more major argument against your idea: Timeline. Assuming the sections with Moash are happening chronologically in-line with the other sections around it, Moash was handed the knife and commanded to kill Jezerien immediately after the battle. This means that Odium saw Nightblood kill a Fused and figured how to use that to kill a Herald, and had the Fused in Kholinar make the dagger in the time between Szeth's arrival and the end of the battle. While it's not unbelievable that Odium could've figured out the theoretical knowledge in that time span, I find it highly unlikely that a weapon which could enumerate some of Nightblood's abilities could have been constructed in that short a time frame. At the very least, the materials to make it would've had to have been gathered already. 

11 hours ago, ScavellTane said:

The 'Edgedancer-Fused' would've taken the aluminium regardless

Yes, but you haven't explained how they knew the sheath is aluminum. It's just a sheath, and the only main clue which could possibly point to it being aluminum is that it's silvery in color. Also, aluminum, canonically from what Brandon has been saying, may not be an actual viable defense against shardblades. See here: 

Also keep in mind that at the time of the Aharehtiam 4000 years ago, there were practically no dead shardblades, so guards for the shardblades that we see now were likely non-existent, and they're probably not aluminum anyways. Furthermore, you're assuming that using aluminum to defend against shardblades is some sort of standard practice that the Fused engage is, when we haven't actually seen any hint that that is the case. 

10 hours ago, Leuthie said:

or at least done so once Honor was put out of commission.  He didn't kill a Herald until after the sword that lives killed a Fused.  There's narrative significance in those two actions.

He didn't have any Fused on Roshar until now after Honor's death. Also, you're assuming that there might be a narrative significance, when in fact that there might not be. The weight assigned to Nightblood killing the Thunderclast is in fact far less than the weight assigned to Jezerien being killed, so there really isn't much of a link.