robardin

I dunno. I went back to check and Oathbringer was released on November 14th, 2017. A Tuesday, again. And before that, Words of Radiance on March 4, 2014 - also a Tuesday.

We have it from Preservation's Ghost himself that Allomancers, and Mistborn especially, stick around longer in the CR before passing Beyond because of their deeper Connection to him. While Rashek, like Leras, could refuse to pass Beyond indefinitely due to having Ascended in his life, and Kelsier would later on, at that point Kelsier-as-Mistborn would have been pulled Beyond eventually. But he convinced Preservation to merge him with the power at the Well with his antics. What Kelsier did could not have been managed by another Mistborn simply by virtue of being Mistborn; it'd have to be another Mistborn who used his longer time in the CR to make a run for the Well of Ascension, dive in, and then manage to have said and done the right things to Preservation for Him to act to Preserve him in that way. I suspect it has something to do with what happened to Kelsier at the Pits of Hathsin, where as he finally passed, Preservation's Ghost implies he touched Kelsier. Perhaps even making him Mistborn, where he had never Snapped before even though Marsh had. After all, Kelsier must have figured in Preservation's Long Game to Preserve Scadrial from Ruin's destruction after his own passing, yeah?

You know, assuming you're planning to sleep tonight, you could spend this evening reading the Prologue and 19 subsequent chapters of Rhythm of War already released online by Tor. There would be no break in reading. Just sayin'. I wonder why they chose a Tuesday for a release date. This really messes up my work/sleep schedule! Why not release it on a Friday?

Yes, this is one of the scenarios I picture as likely... Dalinar and Jasnah lead the coalition forces to "pin the Voidbringers" against Tukar, who then instead are reinforced from that side instead of pinned. Oh, and then tens of thousands of the human coalition forces from Kharbranth also turn sides.* And if they are so lucky as to pull out of there and retreat to Urithiru, they find it full of Fused, and their own Radiants powerless there. I mean, that's got to be what Team Odium is planning to spring. And I really don't see a good way for our guys to avoid it. *Actually, I would think after what happened at Thaylen Fields, unless all of Kharbranth and Jah Keved are "in cahoots" with Taravangian's shift of allegiance, I kind of think they would refuse to side en masse against the Radiants and humanity without a Thrill like effect plus a "you killed our highprince" grudge thing going on like with Sadeas' troops. But of course just pulling them back would be good enough to cause chaos, and ultimately the real goal is to seize Urithiru, not to crush a coalition army in Emul - satisfying though that would be for them.

Well I would agree that my theory is that Formless was "formed" when Shallan was a child... Whether or not that means that identity has been locked in at that stage, I couldn't say. It's a very interesting prospect, though.

I kind of like to imagine it went something like this. "So, Eshnak, Inflictor of All Agonies. Your monthly status report, please?" "Ah, yes. Um. So, my Lord. Ah. The Herald Taln has continued to withstand my... Techniques." "Still." "Yes." "Tell me, Eshnak, what is the number of this status report?" "..." "Put down the deck of cards and answer the question. NOW." "Er, this is report #39821." "At ten months per year, it's been... Oh... Nearly FOUR THOUSAND YEARS?" "Yes, my Lord Odium." "You realize this is the ONLY JOB you have to do here. To break this ONE Herald, so that we may return." "Yes, my Lord, but he is the one who's never broken! There were folders on all the other nine that --" "ONE JOB." "...Yes, my Lord." "You're not being creative enough. Have you called a staff meeting? Had a whip round for fresh approaches?" "My Lord? Staff? I am the only one left." "You are torturing Taln... By yourself?" "All the other Agonizers have gone insane." "All eighty of them?" "Yes, my Lord Odium." "They spent four thousand years torturing him... And they went insane?" "They... Couldn't take the way he would just lie there and take it all. It ate at their souls." "And how are you holding up, then?" "..." "You've just been playing solitaire in that torture chamber for the past few hundred years, haven't you?" "Er... Yes, my Lord." "Perhaps your failure can be used. Have you given him a deck of cards as well?" "Um... No, my Lord?" "Release him. Let him play solitaire as well. But give him.. A DECK OF FIFTY-ONE CARDS!"

Well now that's getting a bit meta, isn't it? I mean, turn it around. What would you do, if someone came up to you and said, "Yo, you look just like Your Name is described in one of my favorite books!" "Um, I am Your Name." "And did you grow up in X, have Y happen to you, etc., etc.?" "How... Who... What?" On the one hand, the revelation that your life and reality as you have known it is actually a structured narrative may not be so earth-shaking - many people essentially believe this anyway, at some level, consciously or otherwise. On the other hand, discovering that you're a Named Character in it has got to be a big ego boost, eh? Well, until you find out that you're the IRL equivalent of someone killed by Sadeas or Szeth that Kaladin goes nnoooooooo over, and that was the Big Purpose of your life.

That is a good point. Brandon evidently wanted to write Lift into the ambassadorial mission. He is the author so what he says goes, but as a good author, he also realized that from an in-world POV, "Dalinar and Navani would never have chosen her to be one of the envoys". That doesn't mean he changed his mind, plotwise - just that it wouldn't be plausible for the characters in-world to send her. So she doesn't not go on the mission. Just... Wasn't sent by Dalinar and Navani!

In Chapter 17, we see "the Mink" analyzing Team Dalinar's forces in Emul in a tight conflict with the Voidbringers there: And his conclusion: This is relying heavily on Tezim being, if not an ally, at least one that would push back against any Voidbringer pressure on their border with Emul. Earlier in Oathbringer, at the moment when they got "Tezim's" reply to join their coalition and the Stormfather revealed that Tezim was none other than Ishar, "Herald of Luck", had been leading the Tukari in "waging war" in conquest against the Emuli. But now that Emul was a batteground between the Voidbringers and the Radiants, he has... Pulled back to the former borders and "been quiet?" After all, per the SF, "He curses me at night, even as he names himself a god. He seeks death. His own. Perhaps that of every man." Aside from the fact that Taravangian has apparently just succeeded in getting both Dalinar and Jasnah out of Urithiru via this assault in Emul, where Urithiru is the "real objective" for Team Odium - it doesn't feel like even on the ground in Emul that things will go as Dalinar and Co. might hope. I've got a bad feeling about this.

Not sure about #1 - we see Taravangian looking "sharper" at this meeting and Navani reflects on how he's ditched the "slow of mind" routine, but we don't know that he doesn't just seclude himself on his "softer" days. The "gentle, kind, and slow of mind" persona was always one he'd projected as a consistent cover, not just when he really was that way in a severe way due to his "affliction." As for #2 - as other people have pointed out before, it's not yet known if the things we saw happen between Adolin and Maya at Thaylen Fields - brushing his mind, coming to his hand in fewer than ten heartbeats, possibly even enabling what to me looked suspiciously like unconscous Stormlight healing when he just walked off from having a building collapsed on him by a Thunderclast, similar to how Dalinar "sensed he had done before" in knitting up serious wounds when he finally did it consciously - was something that only happened because Dalinar had supercharged everything Realmatically by bringing the Three Realms very close together for most of the battle. But certainly it would seem Adolin is eager to see or to interact with Maya as a spren again, even if he hasn't been in continued dialog with her semi-zombie version since Thaylen Fields.

I would think of something like this as "translation convention", like when Elend refers to a "hat trick" to Vin in Mistborn; or the occasional use by characters in Stormlight Archive of the term "dozens" to refer to "a bunch of stuff" when in fact, Rosharans would have a unitized collection term for "tens" that wasn't as awkward sounding as "tens" is in English. It just makes for it to be more natural for us to read "weekend" meaning "a regular but brief period of off-duty leisure time, measured in days". (ETA: Hey, that last one was actually directly addressed in a WoB!) As for its in-world structure, I'd guess it was on a 10 day cycle, either 9 on 1 off, or 8 on, 2 off. It could even be 8 on 2 off, but staggered (so that roughly half of people are off on any given "weekend" of a 5 day week), and of course there would be some set of major festivals or holidays being observed by everybody "being off" and celebrating.

That is absolutely how I read it as well. Raboniel said back in Ch. 14, In terms of trapping the singers against Emul, do we know if Tukar has been fighting them and Dalinar both in a three-way war? I am forgetting already!

Right, I thought I remembered reading something in the early RoW chapters about the Oathgates transporting to Shadesmar and thinking, "hey, you can't just leave it at that!", but there it is.

Adolin "has wanted to get back into Shadesmar for months now." To see Maya as a spren? To check on her condition? Have I missed something? How are Navani's scholars able to check on things from the Shadesmar side, and how are they planning to enter Shadesmar with their expedition to Lasting Integrity? "...many who had broken off from mainstream Vorinism were treating [Dalinar's] autobiography as a religious text." Whoa Nellie. Dalinar is not stupid. He recognizes that he and Jasnah may well be getting pulled out by Taravangian to Emul for a trap. What he doesn't realize is that the trap is not for them.

Hmm, with Navani openly sharing her artifabrial knowledge with all allied human kingdoms and inviting the same... What about Taravangian? They don't trust him, but can they freeze him out of such an open call, considering he had the half-shard technology to share already? (Which of course means the Fused would gain insight into the advances that led to the construction of the Fourth Bridge?) Rushu speaks of inspecting the fabrials "from Shadesmar" - how are they doing this? With Jasnah's help? Because the Oathgates are still forbidden from transporting directly between the Physical and Cognitive Realms, are they not?

Listen, I don't know how you got here, but assuming you have a way to get back... TAKE ME WITH YOU. ...Just let me pack a few things. (Grabs as much aluminum foil from my kitchen as possible)

I would not assume that "reforging Adonalsium" is the long term end of the Cosmere story arc. For starters - it's kind of too obvious, isn't it? I mean the execution of it would be the thing, of course, but given how much time Brandon spends upending primary fantasy tropes, it'd be surprising for his life's masterwork spanning decades of writing across multiple series to end up being "you must repair that which was broken to restore balance to the universe" or something. As for Harmony, that is a single Shard now - if Sazed dropped it, it wouldn't revert to Preservation and Ruin: And yes, P&R are still the natural "splitting" of it that were to happen, though it would be possible with a lot of effort to make it come out differently:

Not exactly a typo, but in my Kindle rendering of the .mobi file at least (and viewed through the app on my iOS devices), I would have expected the Stormfather's side of his "dialog" with Lopen about his Third Ideal to be in SMALLCAPS. THESE WORDS ARE ACCEPTED. IT IS THE RIGHT TIME. I TAKE OFFENSE AT THAT. BE GLAD FOR WHAT YOU HAVE.

Or is the only one with a living former bearer in Hoid, who has been spiritually "stretched" thereby. A former bearer... In Hoid, who was addressed by Frost as "Bearer of the First Gem". Hm?

That's what it would seem like, except it would seem there is a long-standing ancient prophecy and attendant agreement that the right "gods" are bound to respect, except that she wasn't sure if the Ones Who Do Not Sleep counted in that group (apparently not). Oh, and earlier, when Cord was surprised that the luckspren (Apaliki'tokoa'a) showed themselves to Rysn as they guided them under the water to the air pocket chamber/cave, "My father has always had the blessings of spren. They used to strengthen his arm, when he drew the Bow of Hours in the peaks..." So this Bow of Hours may or may not be a Shardbow, but he the might task of drawing it before he left the Peaks.

Right. Everything there is what I would have said before myself. This is my point. If Dalinar was predestined to be Odium's champion absent her pruning, why would she consider what she was doing to be possibly be "providing for him a weapon" rather than "denying him a weapon"? And how is removing his memories of Evi both the boom, and yet part of the cost? Or be something that receded with time instead of being permanent? Put the two inconsistencies together and perhaps something deeper was going on. Something that may tie in with the also unexplained things about Dalinar, like his warm non-Honor visions. And maybe even his ability to renew spheres. They think it's because he's the first to bond the SF after he upgraded with a Splinter of Honor, but that may not be the whole story.

I just thought of something. Cultivation said to herself as she considered what she did to Dalinar: "IN DOING THIS, I PROVIDE FOR HIM A WEAPON. DANGEROUS, VERY DANGEROUS." She then describes the boon and the cost as "WHAT I TAKE FROM YOU WILL GROW BACK EVENTUALLY. THIS IS PART OF THE COST. IT WILL DO ME WELL TO HAVE A PART OF YOU, EVEN IF YOU ULTIMATELY BECOME HIS." Dalinar is later confused when hiis memories of Evi begin to return, as no other account of the Old Magic has either the boon or bane be anything other than permanent. So either it's different when Cultivation Herself does it... Or she had more going on in mind? The returning memories were part of the cost. Not a wearing off of a boon, where the boon isn't supposed to be temporary. And even if you thought of it as the return of pledged collateral on the interest paid to get something for a while, like at a pawnshop - if giving up the memories formed the collateral, that yielding can't also be the boon itself, right? And what is this "very dangerous weapon" she is potentially providing for Odium? Giving him years to recover from the haunted memories and making him stronger? But Odium was counting on the pain from those memories returning to cause him to fall - as if their return were not something of Cultivation's doing, but his. (He knows Dalinar met with Cultivation and lost his memories, after all.) ... Or was she taking his memories temporarily, knowing they'd return, while also making Dalinar a Dawnshard?! (And here I'd thought the Nightwatcher offering him Nightblood for a boon was astounding!) That's the permanent boon. And the permanent cost? She evidently still has "a part of Dalinar", something she'd have retained even if he'd fallen to Odium despite her pruning, and would "do her well" in that eventuality. Hmm?

He won a full set of Shards by killing Amaram, in saving Kaladin's life at Thaylen Fields. In fact he won two Blades in so doing, but returned Oathbringer to Dalinar, as the blood price that was paid for saving Bridge Four from Sadeas' clutches.

Kind of ironic that a species that is symbiotic with luckspren would be hunted nearly to extinction...

Yeah, those visions with the warm light he gets that people (myself included) have been speculating or assuming was related to his "pruning" by Cultivation, may be some aspect of this. That would be something, eh? The same man - Dalinar Kholin - not only being an Alethi highprince by birth and a Full Shardbearer in his youth, but eventually becoming a key Investiture Pawn for Honor (Stormfather/Bondsmith), Odium (first choice of Champion), Cultivation (cursed/booned to thwart Odium), and also possibly endowed or involved with a Dawnshard? Ta'veren, I tell you!