Aeshdan

So I find myself in need of advice on how to recover from a major writing mistake, and this seemed like a good place to ask for it. I am in the process of writing a fanfic on another site, and have been posting the chapters as I finish them. Unfortunately, I now realize that I have made a major structural error in the fic. Roughly put, I skipped ahead to the beginning of the major plot too quickly, both in and out of universe, instead of spending a few chapters and a couple of weeks setting the stage with world-building and character development and letting the characters get to know each other. Now, I know pretty much exactly what I need to add and change to fix this. The problem is that, as already mentioned, I've been posting the chapters as I finished them, and I didn't realize the mistake until a couple of chapters after I'd made it. So in order to fix the mistake, I will need to make major retcons to the story, retcons that would be blatantly obvious to anyone who read the story before the changes. Basically, the question is: Do I bite the bullet and rewrite what I've already posted, or do I go forward with a story that I know is flawed? Thoughts? Considerations?

Doesn't seem that paradoxical to me. I mean, the same thing is sort of true of humans: We lose and gain individual cells all the time, and that doesn't change who we are.

I get Willshaper, with Elsecaller a close second.

I believe that Brandon has mentioned a couple of times that Skyward, though not a Cosmere story, takes place in the same setting as one of his other published works, and that revealing which one would spoil part of the plot. I am guessing that Skyward takes place in the same continuity as Defending Elysium. Partially because it's Brandon's only sci-fi story with verified aliens (as far as I know), and partially because it just kind of feels right. Obviously, we won't know until the book comes out, but I wanted to get my guess on record now just in case.

Two other ideas WRT this: First, Dalinar is now both the man holding the remnants of Honor's name and power and Odium's chosen champion, giving him a legitimate connection to both Shards. Second, one of the epigraphs (in WoR, I believe), talks about how Odium "holds the weight of God's own divine Hatred, separated from the virtues that gave it context". So being linked with Honor might help stabilize Odium.

With the release of Oathbringer, we now know that "Adolin" is derived from "Adoda", meaning "born unto", and "Lin", meaning "light". But his last name is "Kholin", which also contains "lin". Which prompts two questions: 1) What does "Kholin" mean? 2) Is it a coincidence that the family whose name is apparently connected in some way to Light contains such a disproportionate number of Radiants?

I kind of suspect the 4th or 5th Windrunner Ideal will be something along the lines of "I will not protect others from the trials they need to grow strong". It would fit as kind of the capstone of what it means to be a Windrunner, the ability to not only know when people need protecting, but to know when protecting would, in the long run, only hurt.

Also, recall that on the Honor's Path, the honorspren captain said that it would be possible to break the bond between Syl and Kaladin without permanent harm until the Fifth Oath was sworn.

That is a good point. Maybe somebody will point this out to him and force him to switch sides once more!

I think this is the one you're looking for:

I looked it up recently, and I don't think it's described other than that it looks different from his Honorblade.

That is a good point, actually. We know he has a second Shardblade, in addition to his Honorblade, but that might be a deadeyes (I don't know if Szeth would know the difference between a living and a dead Blade).

According to one of the Hero Of Ages annotations:

I should note: It's actually quite possible that the stamp will last indefinitely, or at least longer than 24 hours. There's just no way to know without actually trying it and seeing how long Ashvaran can go between renewals. Remember, this is (as far as everyone involved knows), the first time something like this has been attempted. Also, another interesting fact: While Essence Marks (which affect the mind and soul) wear off, evidently a Resealer's stamp doesn't (otherwise, Ashvaran would need to be restamped every so often anyway). Which implies that it's the sapient soul that makes the difference, that Essence Marks fade because the human mind wears away at them.

Another idle thought that may be relevant: Back in the Feverstone Keep vision in Way Of Kings, Dalinar notes that there are less than a hundred known Shardblades in Roshar, whereas there are at least two hundred just being held by the Knights in front of him. And those knights only represented two Orders. Even assuming that those two hundred represented the entirety of the Windrunners and Stonewards, and that the other seven orders (less the Bondsmiths, for obvious reasons), only averaged half that (fifty Knights apiece), that's still upwards of four hundred and fifty Shardblades completely unaccounted for.

Another possible variant of #2: We know that part of the Oathpact's effect allowed the Heralds to spread the pain among themselves, for the stronger to take some of the load off the weaker. We also know that "The Oathpact isn't as dissolved as the Heralds would like", and that the nine Heralds on Roshar have been gradually going insane over the eons. What if the bond between them was still in effect, and Taln was able to share his torment with all nine of the others? Since none of them were being tortured, they wouldn't have had any pain to send back the other way, so Taln could have held out far longer than any of them ever managed before.

Wouldn't surprise me if "Be Sword" was something very close to the Command used to make Azure's Blade.

I agree that under normal circumstances one Breath probably doesn't pay for fully raising a child. The book says that one Breath goes for about enough money to feed a peasant family for a year, so a child's Breath could probably pay for several year's worth of support for that child, but not for the whole childhood. However, the existence of Breath would still change the economics of parenthood immensely. The Breath could allow parents to raise children that they could otherwise never afford. Also, I imagine that a sufficiently clever person could set up a large-scale orphanage so that it would be self-sustaining off of Breath money, taking advantage of economies of scale. This actually reminds me, there would be another source for multi-Breathers. In any large city, you're going to get a certain number of people dying from violence or accident every day. And if even a fraction of them have their Breaths, and even a fraction of those who have Breaths pass it on (either to a friend, or even to someone completely random just to keep it from going to waste), that adds up to a Breath or two given out every day.

So in Oathbringer, the human's worldview was shaken by the revelation that they are not native to Roshar, that they were the original Voidbringers, refugees fleeing a dying world. We know that humanity was given Shinovar to settle in, but that at some point war broke out between the humans and the singers. Everyone assumes that it was humanity that started the war, but what if it was the singers? The passages from the Elia Stele certainly contain a great deal of anti-human racism from the singers, implying that because humans don't feel the Rhythms they feel no emotions, that because they have no gemheart they have no heart. Is it not at least possible that some among the singers might have grown to hate or fear humanity, and launched an assault upon us to try and wipe us from Roshar? Especially if they were falling under the influence of the newly-arrived Odium? This would certainly explain why Honor was on the side of humanity and Odium on the side of the singers during the Desolations. If humanity started the war, you'd expect it would be the other way round, that Honor would stand with the singers and Odium with the humans.

Hmm... Syl becoming an arrow might actually be really effective, since Radiants can resummons their Blade instantly. Fire the arrow, and then just call her back and fire again.

Uh, you're missing Shallan. If Navani, Aesudan, and Evi are all counted, then she should be as well. I would love to know who voted for Aesudan.

Well, according to this I am an Elsecaller. I love to fly, so I was hoping for Windrunner/Skybreaker. Oh well...

And I could be wrong, but I think that's just because dyes made from the tears are unusually vivid and resilient, compared to other dyes.

So, in keeping with Sanderson's Third Law, I've been trying to think through some of the economic implications of the Breath system, and a couple of interesting thoughts have occurred to me. 1: Multi-Breathers: So say you are a regular Hallendren citizen. You don't have the funds to consider buying Breaths, but you have a reasonably prosperous job and work hard, so you've never had to consider selling yours either. Now you are old and on the verge of death, and you still have this valuable Breath. So you give it to one of your children, who now has two Breaths. If you have a decent job and a good work ethic, then you probably have found decent work for your children and instilled them with a solid work ethic, so they don't need to sell their Breaths either. Additionally, the partitioning technique is fairly advanced, so he would need to sell both Breaths at once, which is probably far less common. So eventually whichever child you gave the extra Breath to grows old in his turn, and gifts his Breath to one of his children. As a result of this whole technique, I'd expect there to be a fair number of people running around in the 2-10 Breath range. Not enough Breath for any real Awakening, or even any really noticeable passive boons, but just enough to raise them above the common citizens. 2: Orphanages: On Nalthis, every child comes with one Breath. One extremely valuable Breath. And that means that there's probably a whole trade in the Breaths of disadvantaged children. I imagine the whores at the brothels are encouraged not to use protection, because if they get pregnant then the child's Breath can be sold. The whores might raise their children, in the hopes of selling their Breath once they are old enough to understand. But I also imagine that orphanages might buy children from whores and poor women and others who can't afford to raise their own children. And then later on, once the child is old enough, they are encouraged to sell their Breath. The child gets a fraction of the Breath's value, and the orphanage pockets the rest to cover expenses. Similarly, I imagine that the Court of Gods puts a lot of money into orphanages. If you're an orphan in T'Telir, and you know that it is the generosity of the gods that has provided you food and shelter and education in a trade, you're going to be more willing to give your Breath to one of those Gods.