StrikerEZ

Well, the Scouring of Aimia was far more recent than the False Desolation, so I doubt that was the initial cause of the Sibling retreating. It probably had an impact on the spren, if it is the spren of stone, but it was too late for it to be the cause. I really want to know when the shattering of Stormseat happened. That would answer so many theories.

Ooooh, that sounds really interesting! That'd be an amazing scene part of the climactic showdown in book 5. The only reason I think it might be unlikely is the fact I think that the Sibling is the same thing as the spren that powered Urithiru and is also the "stone spren." How would shattering Stormseat affect the Sibling enough for it to have to go into hiding?

Yeah, that would be interesting. What really intrigues me is what percentages make each type of radiant spren. Is it an exact percentage, like with the allomantic metals? Or is it more of a range of percentages, and as long as the spren fits in that range it becomes that type of spren? What happens if you put a little bit more of Honor's Investiture into a cultivationspren?

Yes, that is precisely what it means. Each spren would have a slightly different shardbalde metal.

I wonder how powerful a pewter compounder would be....

@RShara Maybe mandate or motive? Or purpose?

When I finally do my SA reread this summer, it's gonna be freaking awesome. I've already read OB twice, but it'll probably be so much better the third time around. Also, I'll be rereading WoK for the first time since I read it and I'll probably cry even more the second time reading through Tien's death.

Sell. Kelsier would be too much for Brandon to explain and he wants to keep SA mostly separate from Cosmere stuff. All of the flashback characters in the back 5 will actually be dead by the time we get there.

@The One Who Connects @MountainKing The One Who Connects is right in that Vapor controls gaseous water, and the control of the water trio is based on how close to water the liquid (or solid or gas) is. However, a new mechanic I've been working on is how perception of the elements effects all of this. If no one knew that blood is actually 92% water, they wouldn't be able to control it. There is the potential for it to be controlled, but not without the knowledge that it is mostly water. Even then, it will take slightly more energy to control blood than it normally would for water. Also, I've finally decided on the 17th element: Spirit. This one is really interesting because it messes with the greater universe's magic. I'll be making a post about this later, but basically everyone has an Aura which is representative of all of their Connections and who they are as a person. Someone who can control Spirit could literally alter their Aura to give themselves all sorts of abilities, such as flight, super strength, super speed, etc. Of course, it's not permanent and only lasts as long as the Elementalist (that name will probably change) because the change requires a constant input of energy. This power gets even more interesting once you start interacting with other beings and objects. A good example of what a Spirit Elementalist could do would be to heal someone by replenishing their Aura. The Aura will not remain charged forever, but the person will automatically heal as long as it is. Once the person is fully healed, their Aura will naturally replenish itself without magical help. EDIT: I've realized that I forgot to mention that I made Heat one of the elements as well.

You kind of have the right idea, but the wrong terminology. What'd you want to spike out is the Connection to the Shard. Even then, Brandon has said that the Shard itself would probably have to do something as well in order to make it work.

This one isn't very combat oriented, bur brass compounding would be really fun. It would be the perfect way to calm down kids. South their fears away while tapping/compounding warmth to be like a big, warm teddy bear for the kid. Iron compounders would be insane. Compound tons of weight, pull down an airplane, store most of your weight, and then pull on metal behind you and skedaddle while the plane crashes. Allomantic pewter and feruchemcial gold would be insane. Or allomantic pewter and feruchemical iron. I freaking love coming up with twinborn combos.

Yeah, I can definitely understand that part about Shallan and Kaladin. But, for me at least, their mental problems feel very real to me. I understand Shallan's struggle with pretending to be different people because I definitely act differently depending on who I'm around, where I am, etc. Of course, I'm no where near as bad as her, but I can relate to her struggles. As much as it pained me to read her struggle so hard, I felt that it was really well written. As for Kaladin, I really relate with his depression. Even though I haven't been clinically diagnosed with depression, I feel like I can relate with Kaladin's struggles and how he feels is very similar to how I feel when I feel depressed. It's that constant struggle of not feeling happy, even when you have every reason to. And when something bad does happen, like what happened in Kholinar, I can definitely understand the state he ended up in.

For me, it's hard for me to choose a favorite. I like WoK because the story was just so good and the ending was fantastic. Plus, Tien's death is still the first and only time a book has ever made me cry. I really like WoR because it just increased the awesomeness and scope of the story and still had a fantstic ending. I like OB because, in spite of all of its flaws, the good parts of the story were freaking amazing. The Shadesmar sequence, Dalinar's flashbacks and Unity at the end, Adolin and Maya, Venli, and Kaladin's arc of trying to accept failure were my favorite parts of the book and, in my opinion, more than made up for the flaws in the love triangle and the slight pacing issues near the middle. Even though Shallan isn't my favorite character and it was hard reading her go down that dark path, it felt very believable to me. I feel that she will become a better character by the end of the front 5, at least, because of this. And though I do agree that the marriage was perhaps a bit too early, I think it will make for a better story for Shallan and Adolin to make the relationship work-both the good and the bad. My favorite book based on pure content alone would probably have to be WoR, if I'm honest. But OB is my true favorite because it has so many epic moments and arcs and makes so many more promises for interesting developments in the coming books.

Order and Chaos will be represented, but they are no longer part of the elemental system. Plus, they felt too different from the others. That's also why I got rid of Mind. It didn't fit, and it messed with certain rules I have in place for my universe. I came up with all of these roundabout explanations, but none of them really made sense. Silt could probably just be controlled by Sand. I don't really wanna do Lava because that'd be so uncommon and would require so much energy to summon it. As for Heat...I dunno. A lot of the lines between the elements are drawn based on perception. For example, all Elemancers (that name will definitely change eventually) have a certain range where they can sense their element. Elements like Metal or Water have larger ranges than elements like Flora or Light. If a Metal Elemancer didn't know carbon was a metal, they wouldn't sense it until they knew it was. It's a bit more complicated, especially between Air and Sound, and Light and Dark.

Yeah, same as @Calderis I actually had to stop reading for a couple minutes to process that information.

Well, Darkness is basically already Shadow. And I'm not gonna be messing with time magic because that gets really funky.

So, I have a magic system I'm developing that I've talked about before on here, but I'm changing things up a little and need some new ideas for elements. There needs to be a total of 17 elements for wider universe reasons. Here's what I have so far: Fire, Water, Ice, Vapor, Air, Lightning, Sound, Stone, Sand, Crystal, Metal, Light, Darkness, Flora, and Fauna So, I need two more. These elements need to be things that would be easily understandable to people who don't understand how the world really works, so no gravity or magnetism.

Dude, this is really helpful!

Dude, this is so cool! I'll have to check it out soon!

Alternatively, the divine attributes could be based on the Resonance. I think Brandon has talked about the fact that the chart with the attributes and essences is more of a human explanation to something they don't fully understand.

Yeah, I agree. It's sooo cool. I definitely think that KR have never been required to be moral, as long as they followed the oaths. Even then, different people have different morals and definitions of what keeping the oaths means.

Well, I don't think even KR are necessarily the good guys. What even makes someone a "good guy"? We've seen KR that are definitely not on the main characters' side, like the Skybreakers or King T's Dustbringee (I can't remember her name). Even different orders of the KR disagree on Journey before Destination. Brandon has said that Machiavelli could make a good radiant for certain orders. I don't think Brandon is making a one true good v. evil here.

Yes, I indeed am alive. It's nice to be back.

As a bisexual guy, I might be able to add some extra context to this. I'd never really thought about Kaladin being gay or bi before, but in hindsight I can kind of see it now. For me, I only focused on my attraction to females until I realized I was bi, and I always wrote off my attractions to males as not being that, if that makes any sense. Plus, I totally considered being gay or bi bad for a long time simply because I was told it was bad, so it would make perfect sense for Kaladin to think it's a little weird if it's not a normal part of Alethi society or if he's never heard of it before. Also, the way he talked and thought about Adolin throughout OB does kind of feel a bit like a crush. It might never develop farther than that, but there is definitely the potential for some attraction there. Slightly off-topic, but my personal opinion on the love triangle would be for Shallan and Adolin to get divorced so Kaladin and Adolin could hook up. Of course, this would only happen as Shallan realizes she is just not ready for a relationship. I've already got way off topic, so I'm gonna stop now.

@IronBars I know this thread is really old by now, but I feel like I understand why you think everyone is getting mad at you. I just spent about 6 hours reading through this thread (it would've been far less, but that accounts for stopping to eat, do chores, etc.). One thing I've noticed that you've been doing in this thread is that you've been very hypocritical. You claim that people are simply saying things without evidence (which is not true, by the way), when you generally tended to do the same thing. It surprises me how much you claimed that forums like this are supposed to be about discussing these books, but you are just so unwilling to budge on most of your opinions. I actually agree with several of your complaints about the book, but I don't think they are as bad as you claim them to be. And as for Dalinar, I'm not even gonna bother arguing with you about him since you seem so convinced that he was fundamentally changed by Cultivation when all she did was take away some memories, allowing him to make the change himself. I should probably stop now before I get too mad.