Wisdom

Don't glory-spren sometimes fly around particular people (generally with Blade+Plate)? Considering how fast they move their sword it would probably be very easy for them to accidentally kill glory-spren while fighting.

Sazed is currently in balance because the Shards he holds, Preservation and Ruin, cancel each other out perfectly. Sanderson has stated this is not always true with all the others, although it seems logical that as a whole they must have resulted in perfect balance, they were after all merely aspects of one power - Adonalsium. As to picking up Shards, I think there is a problem with that. Odium doesn't pick up Shards because doing so would inevitably change his own personality. Sazed sort of has the same problem, adding a new shard would upset the balance he has - he would no longer be a free agent with his own mind but would gradually fall under the shard's influence. It also seems to me that those who have held and been changed by the Shards might not even be able to pick up others because of the change, they would suddenly have a new force inside that wouldn't fit with their current one and the one that has so dominated and moulded their psyche. It might even drive them insane. As to reuniting all Shards, I would theorise that this requires all or most of the shards to be free at one time and the receiver to be free of the influence of any Shard. Sazed fits this of course. It would also have to be over quickly, if they picked up a few and let them mould their psyche over the next few centuries they would no longer be able to take the other ones. Their is also the fact that uniting all Shards in the scenario you described above would require Sazed to betray his ally to gain their Shard - unless they gave it willingly which I'm not sure is even possible. Of course, this is all speculation. I hope I made sense in this post, I'm quote tired.

Combining two ideas, why not have a long corridor (no stormlight) with a ballista at the end you're trying to protect aiming down it. Bonus points if you can engineer the ceiling to slam down on the attacker - then just fire the bolt to force them to pause and activate the ceiling. Or even the walls, although you don't have gravity on your side then. Admittedly if Szeth noticed and was lucky in that he had rather large reserves of stormlight, he might be able to reverse the ceiling's gravity. Long shot though.

I was so angry when I saw the ending (I'd played through to get to it, didn't get it off the internet), that i literally felt like killing someone. I've calmed down now somewhat, but it can still get me worked up. There's a really great post here that sums up how I felt perfectly and analysed why people feel that way. There are numerous problems with the ending, beyond the cut and paste they seem to have done with each ending you can get. The rest of the game is brilliant though, and that makes it worse - I care so much about the character and story that I just feel cheated. At the moment, Bioware has sunk very low in my opinion.

Ah, sorry about that. My eyes skipped over the line, I was tired at the time. It would also explain where the idea came from .

Hmm, I wonder if the Nahel Bond is symbiotic. Say maybe the person and the spren "share" spiritual and cognitive aspects so both are greater than the sum of their parts. We haven't seen anyone achieve a full Nahel Bond (i.e. they've swore all 5 Ideals) in detail.

I believe that there has been speculation that innate Soulcasters are all female (and Elhokar is seeing a different kind of spren than Shallan). If this is true, then since they didn't have fabrials then if they built the city by soulcasting then literally no man could have worked on it. Another possibility is either Cultivation or Honor of course.

I can't remember exactly where, but I think there's been speculation that the epigraph you quoted was referring to the child Champion of Odium. Honor does state that Odium might choose a champion, and killing them before they reach adulthood would definitely benefit everyone. The phrase "everyone who lives" would include more than just all Shin, and they are definitely aware of those outside their borders so I don't think it could be purely Shin. As to the origin of Shinovar's fertile soil, there has also been speculation on that. Shinovar is protected from the highstorms by the mountains around it border, and combined with the reverence for farmers its been suggested that Cultivation resides there. Farmers could be so rich if just a few control vast tracts of land, and if Cultivation is in Shinovar then it would explain why fields are so sacred. Szeth being Truthless might just mean he rejected their way of life or committed some crime, although witnessing the secret rites would count as one I suppose. We just don't have enough information to be honest, we only have the first of ten books. It is far too early to start making sense of most of the epigraphs (and further books will add still more). Doesn't mean we shouldn't try though, and I don't think we can count this theory out yet. Sanderson has yet more stricks up his sleeve .

Is there a way for the Transliterated Alethi to be Transliterated back?

The Bible/Torah wasn't written in the way WoK was, we actually get to see Kaladin's thoughts and internal struggle. The people around him however, don't get to see his doubts and fears, so to them he probably seems more resolute. It is probably the same with Joseph. Besides, wasn't a part of Joseph's story that his unbreakable faith in God led to his success - with a message like that you can't have him doubting himself as it would be akin to doubting God.

There's an epigraph (although I can't remember where) that says something to the effect: "Just got to Urithiru and the tolls are up, the Knights Radiant are finally showing their true colours" (paraphrased as I can't remember exactly what it says). To me this suggests that the Knights Radiant were becoming corrupt, is this possibly the influence of Odium?

Hmm, the first Herald that sprang to mind for the last book was Kalak, then Jezrien and then Shalash. I'm sort of hoping it's Kalak because it would in a sense have come full circle, considering the first book starts with him. Or maybe if he's in the epilogue, that would be good too. Heralds are going to be coming out the woodwork fairly soon I think when they hear about Talenel'Elin returning. Random Challenge: Say "Talenel'Elin" 10 times really fast.

Ha! A true British man is never without a top hat - it is up there with the towel as one of the essentials.

Wow, 60+1+60 words that have to read the same forwards as well as backwards. That's an average of 24.2 words per section. If someone manages to make one, I will eat my top hat .

I don't know whether this is possible but I was wondering if the website could be formatted to support the Alethi script? Not necessarily typing it in but copying it. I have no idea if this is an utterly impossible idea or not though.

If it's possible can when a post in a thread has been last edited be displayed. I was thinking either that editing a post would update the thread's "last posted" time or a new "last edited" category be created. At the moment if someone edits their post it's easily missed by those who read the previous version because they're likely to start from where they left off.

On Szeth: chained honour, silent hatred overpowers sanity, regretful sanity, overpowering hate silencing honour - chained Regarding the palindromic numbers, I was considering suggesting another layer of complexity where they were palindromic square numbers, until I saw that that would go, 0,1,4,9,121,484,... leaving nine as the only viable number left (unless someone can split a 4 word poem into five sections )

Memories of hope shattered, the dreams bitter and cold of glory fading, remembering faded glory, of cold and bitter dreams, the shattered hope of memory. I was thinking up that one for around 40 minutes on the bus today. It has a certain poignancy to it I feel. On another note I would like to suggest another addition to Featherwriter's criteria purely for fun - that is if the number of words is itself symmetrical (i.e. 11 words, or 22 words, 33 words etc). If someone can achieve that as well as forming a proper ketek then they are far better at it than I . EDIT: Edited after Featherwriter's suggestion made me look again at the ketek and decide this time that "the shattered hope of memory" still got the message across. I had previously decided otherwise. (see Turos' quote if you want the previous version )

I would like to announce 2 things. One is that i've just managed to reset my password, and the other is that I've finally read Elantris - which is much more important obviously .

Ah! Another Englishman, welcome! You know, I've always been disappointed that the universe saw fit to conspire to have Brandon Sanderson be born in the US. If he'd been born in Britain he might actually have spelt Honour correctly! *runs away and hides*

I would like to announce that the power of the internet has triumphed over Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic! I can finally play it at my native 1920x1080 resolution .

Ah, my eyes never stray down that far. Thank you for sharing your deep and mysterious wisdom oh mighty Eerongal. I apologise for any offence I may have caused with my up-repping Peter, your strangely hypnotic Avatar made me do it I swear.

I second that Featherwriter, Kaladin>Dalinar>Shallan is the way to go . On another note, you remind me of Julius Caesar, Featherwriter. Apparently when he was visiting Greece as a youngster he lamented the fact that he haden't emulated the achievements of Alexander the Great yet - and conquered the known world . Some people just don't know when to be satisfied.

I second this On a similar vein does anyone know how many members there are? I can't find any indication.