Kered

I think it's basically going to be a "slave to his madness" thing. A few moments of lucidity, maybe. Which would be him cursing the Stormfather and begging for death. But mostly him just thinking he's the best possible leader on Roshar to the point, obviously, of insanity. Or It's a lot like this.

As fun as it is to read, I'm not always in the mood for Lift's flippancy, Think the Shallan/Adolin team will be awesome. Would be especially awesome if the plot would be wrapped up with Adolin reviving Maya and this action itself is what moves the Honorspren to seek the oaths again. To be honest, now that I think about it, I think that'd be the only justification of Adolin reviving Maya this book that would be okay with me. Also, Old Man T needs to learn about social distancing.

From what Kaladin said, about there being 50 or so Edgedancers, I assume most of the orders are filled out. Most curious about the Dustbringers and if they'll all be a bit more loyal to old man T instead of the rest of the orders.

Just finished up Chaos’s vid, the spoiler free review of RoW and it got me to musing. Chaos says that the more cosmere aware fans will enjoy this book as we see more cosmere awareness related Easter eggs and tidbits. Got me thinking which ones I’d be most excited to see so I thought I’d pose the question here as well. So, what do you think would be some cool cosmere references to occur in RoW? Big or small. For me there’s a few particular ones: Odium having a discussion with literally any character and either make a direct or passive reference to one of the other shards he has shattered. Would be cool to see him articulate some of those events in his own words. Zahel/Vasher coming across Nightblood. I know a full blown reunion would be cool so see but for some reason I think it’d be hilarious if it was just a passing thing with one or two of “wink-wink-nudge-nudge” lines and Nightblood just getting straight curved. Though, one of my personal favorite tin foil ideas is Vasher wielding Nightblood again in a highstorm/everstorm to protect someone like Kal or Adolin If we get Kelsier in a interlude I’ll have a stroke. We’re getting to the point where we’ll have seen Nightblood more on Roshar than on Nathlis, page wise. So i don’t know if this should count as a cosmere tidbit but banter between Nightblood and Syl would probably the funniest thing we’ve see so far. Last but not least, Ash and Taln dropping factoids passively throughout literally the whole book. Along the lines of the kind we’ve seen so far, cosmere tidbits that aren’t picked up by the main characters.

Guard walking down the street when they hear a squeaking. Look down an alley and see Syl slowly trying to drag a rat from a garbage can. Syl: Don't worry! It's for Kaladin! Guards look at each other. Guards mutter "Radiants" and walk away. This is the interlude that not only we deserve but the interlude we need.

Sibling is a hive mind representation of a the "unthinking animal" spren. And it's sending sassy emails to Navani cus it doesn't want to "wake up" again and she's getting closer to the answer. *Removes tinfoil*

I've always thought this would be the 5th oath and the 4th would be something along the lines of "I will protect all even from myself". This would be a huuuuuuge character turn for Kaladin because he'd have to obey this oath which would mean he wouldn't let his depression and indecision cripple him anymore.

That's what I was thinking. Only thing that makes me doubt it is that I know Brandon has said Braize would be explored in more detail through the Heralds flashbacks in the latter half of the series. But I think him going there will for sure happen. Either in an effort to learn more about Odium and or the Oathpact or he'll be legitimately trapped there by Odium. In the current scope of the story, taking Dalinar off the board would be a huge blow to the Radiants and the Coalition.

I reiterate. If in this book we don't find out how Mem got the aether out of Mraize's pants, this will be darkest in the series. But seriously, I agree. Downward turn is overdue. And if it's anything like the impactful scenes Brandon is capable of(the 2 most recent Kal/Moash scenes being an example) then it's going to be a rough one. Personally, I think it's going to end up with one of the mains trapped and or captured on Braize. Probably Dalinar because it will significantly weaken the Radiants. Also acts as a neutralisation of Dalinars new OP power.

I don't know why but the Moash and Kaladin scenes in the OB chapter and this one have been the most emotionally powerful for me, in pretty much any cosmere book. So much overlapped impacts. Moash basically trying to get Kal to commit suicide is the darkest thing I can think of. Mostly because Brandon made it executed it as a gift not an attack, which is arguably darker. I was worried how Brandon was going to pull off the explanation of Moash spiraling so fast and not make the relationship with Kal going forward seem superficial theme wise. But after OB and this I think Moash and Kal are going to create some of the most emotionally powerful, resonate scenes in the series. The level of hopeless despair the OB scene and this scene invoke is literally insane.

Server lagged when I posted and accidentally posted this topic twice. My bad.

As we know, so far, Chemoarish is the Unmade we know the least about. Even the Unmade that haven't appeared on screen get a decent bit revealed about them from in world conversation and the epigraphs. Not the case with Chemoarish. Only two worth while pieces of lore is that she's sometimes referred to as "Dustmother" and is often times mixed up with the Nightwatcher. This could probably be explained as Brandon wanting a slow burn on some aspects of the Unmade. But a fun thought has occurred to me but it takes a few leaps to rationalize it logically. What if Chemoarish is a Herald that's defected? The biggest whole in this the 9 Honorblades at the so called final desolation. It means all the Heralds were present, probably, along with all the unmade. I have two possible explanations for this. 1, the less likely, the Herald operated as a spy and once the Heralds abandoned their duty, a Herald went fully over to Odium. Less likely because it doesn't answer the problem of Chemoarish already existing prior to a possible Herald defection. 2, the Herald replaced a defeated/killed Unmade. This one I think is the strongest argument, but still has a few wholes. Also, have no idea on the Dustmother bit or the Nightwatcher confusion. Maybe Chemoarish, on orders from Odium, tried impersonating the Nightwatcher to create confusion among humans? I'm not really firm in my belief that this will be a thing, but it is intriguing. Would be a pretty cool dynamic of seeing a Herald essentially become Odium's version of a Herald. Would be particularly cool once we get to the second half of the series where the Heralds and their backstory will be more on screen.

The "Gibbergram".

I think a huge part of Ash's lucidity/giving Jasnah some relevant information will be rooted in the death of Jezrien. We see her pretty indifferent towards the whole conflict and only makes her way towards Dalinar because of Taln. Immortality and constant torture probably the cause of that feeling, which would make her resistant to helping the new Radiants. We see this after the battle, instead of meeting Dalinar, she attempts to kick rocks with Taln. The shock of loosing her father, the realization that the other Heralds(whom we know at least 2 she still kinda cares about) are in actual danger could be the catalyst to her assisting Jasnah. Or maybe Jasnah offers to try and help with Taln. Ooooooooor, shes a gibbering mess like Taln and Jasnah had to Sudoku the crap out of her gibberish.

I don't think Jasnah would have resorted to "enhanced interrogation techniques". Or if she did they wouldn't be very useful. Jasnah: Time to turn up the heat. Ash and Taln turn to look at each other and explode into laughter

I sense Syl peer pressure. Totally down for that flashback.

Scrolled back a few pages in the relevant areas and didn't see a topic like this before. It's something a few friends and I had cool conversation about so I thought I'd try it out here. Not for just seeing everyone's else favorite concepts but maybe seeing what peoples viewpoints on certain things will help you realize a new understanding of said certain things. Names could be character, cities/planets, powers, etc. Concepts is pretty obvious, things like surgebinding and allomancy. Favorite names are a three way tie: Cephandrius: Strictly because it's one of those words that sounds kinda cool but you see it in written form its just so much better looking, if that makes sense. vast: Kind of same thing as above but also I think Tanavast is perfect blend of a noble, fantastical name a name that could generally be acceptable in the real world. Scadrial: In my opinion sometimes it's a bit difficult for a writer, in terms of the fantasy genre, to come up with names that are so clearly different when it comes to names of planets/places and names of characters. Kinda like in the KKC with Elodin, which in my mind could easily be the name of a place or person if I didn't have any story context prior to seeing the name. Favorite concepts(these ones are all pretty obvious picks lol): Allomancy: Even the name is cool and I think this is one of, if not the best magic system in fantasy. In regards to rules and consequences, imagery, variations of said powers that make sense logically. Shards: Too often the same old tropes are used in fantasy when it comes to gods. Not necessarily a bad read but not a good one either. Other than NK Jem and the Inheritance Trilogy, I think Brandon has done the best job of creating a unique concept of gods. Not omnipotent or omniscient, are able to be present in the story while still retaining an air of mystery and also being able to be tempered by in world mechanics to not be overpower and hijack the story.

Don't know if this belonged in the cosmere Q&A section but I just recently signed up for Brandon's Newsletter. Is it to late to receive the Syl interlude chapter?

The level of banter between Taln and characters like Jasnah and Wit is going to be tier 1. Adolin: Can't believe father has us training all these troops, Taln. Torture ammrite? Taln slowly turns around

With the known time skip of a year between books 3 and 4 and as known from the back flap of book 4 we know that year has been filled with a lot of battle. We can probably assume the current landscape in terms of territory owned is a bit different from where left off. Nothing to crazy because Brandon probably wants to record any drastic territory change in the actual book. But with this being said I think it'd be a nice chapter/side-arc of Kaladin taking back the land given to him by Dalinar and setting up some kind of basic governing of the land. How do we think that's going to look and what is it going to entail? How do you think Kal is going to handle it. Personally, I think the lands and people in them are going to play a somewhat pivotal role in Kal swearing the next oath. Tinfoil a bit but it might even be the place he actually swears the oath. He might even charge some of the squires to specifically guard the territory and may put a few of them in charge. Also we know that Kal is probably going to resettle the people of Hearthstone in the lands. I think this arc is going to be pretty big in Kal's character development. Both in terms of protecting the people as well as potentially it being used as story justification to launch Kal a bit into the political sphere.

Q is for Quili V is for Vasher......kinda? W is for Wandersail Z is for Zatalef(cheated on this one)

Yup, gotta love auto-correct correcting a word spelled right. The whole reason I'm looking forward to it is that it's going to be pure comedy lol. Adolin is used to learning from Dalinar and Zahel. Now he has to take instruction from Lyft? It's going to be hilarious. It's going to be like in WoR when Renarin is learning his plate and keeps on breaking up the conversation between Kaladin and Vasher by just heaving himself off buildings. Except this time it's going to be Adolin trying to slide down the towers stairs covered in oil,

Some have already been said, but: Adolin becoming an Edgedance and trying to learn his surges from Lyft. Conversation between Hoid and Rayse. Surgebinders in the last Mistborn Era. Sazed and Odium conversation, with just Sazed subtlety flexing. A small thing compared to most of things in here, but the thing I'm most pumped for is Taln's book. I think the first Herald book is going to be a big turning point, and I'm stoked it's Taln.

If we don't find out how Mem got the aether out of Mraize's Azish cavalrylords suit, I'm gunna be pissed.