Fatling

@Ammanas your ranking right now is Dakhor Monk, lol

The White Sand prose is probably my favorite story that Brandon has written. If he had published it as a book, it would be my favorite book of his. That being said, I wasn't able to pick out any more cosmere-related information from it than any other cosmere book, and it isn't generally discussed, so if you are reading it just for the sake of that I would recommend waiting to read it until after the graphic novels come out (or if you like the graphic novels, maybe you don't even have to ever read the prose version)

Just finished reading Edgedancer:

Hemalurgic spikes can enhance an allomancer's skill if they can burn the same metal as that of the spike. Does it do anything for feruchemists, like increase their capacity to fill a metalmind or how efficaciously they discharge a metalmind? What about a compounder? I feel like that would be the supercharged combo, a spiked compounder...

Good catch! I don't know if we will ever know for sure, but it certainly seems plausible. Does that mean Mraize killed a kandra? I thought maybe the golden hair could be the royal locks from Nalthis and the silver knife could be from Thredony, but that's just me shooting at the hip, I haven't read any of the discussion on this. Plus I don't remember if the royal locks change color when they are cut. I just keep thinking about Tangled...

No, I haven't gotten around to it. But if you post it in one of those hidden boxes I'll come back and read it once I have

So I've been rereading Shadows of Self and I came across a potential worldhopper reference in chapter 2: To me this sounds like a reference to someone who travelled to First of the Sun or somewhere in that planetary system, but maybe that's farfetched. I know there has been some speculation about a connection between the visitors in SotD and Scadrial, but do we know anything more about that? Or anything about who this might be?

Seeing as how the first one was strictly mediocre and I've already read the prose version, I'm debating whether I should buy the second graphic novel when it comes out or not. I thought I would appeal to you, my fellow sharders, for advice. I kind of want to buy it just because maybe it will be better, and because I enjoyed the white sand prose, but then I kind of don't want to buy it because of the reasons stated above. I feel so conflicted!

Sorry I know this is a (kind of) old thread, but I thought I should bring up the fact that Lessie also swears by the God Beyond in Shadows of Self (in the prologue): That makes me wonder if SoS spoilers

Oh yeah, I always forget about that guy. You're right, I would like to hear more about him. Maybe he will try to assassinate Taravangian, that would be cool. Plus it would be even cooler if he was a radiant too. Good theory!

I don't know, I kind of like reading books just for the fun of the story the first time. And the second time. It's so much more interesting to find things you missed and make connections after you actually know (and like) the story than to hunt for details along the way but miss the big picture. I kind of did that with Elantris

Gawyn Trakand. Every time that guy did anything I was frustrated. I was always mad that Egwene liked him too. It just seemed like a total waste. Ugh. Also, Calvin from the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card, you always think he's about to do something good... and then he's worthless again. Card is really good at making characters that are super frustrating

Is your ability to store weight in iron dependant on the mass? Cause if not then you could get close to the speed of light by just using a single iron atom (though that still wouldn't be faster than light). I just always imagined Brandon would do something hand-wavey with the cognitive realm or something, I don't really get all that realm stuff but it seems plausible. Or he could just have Scadrians discover a new metal that somehow magically makes it possible

So is he implying that there are several metals that can take both the bird's power and the person's connection at the same time? As in 1 spike, multiple powers (from different species)? Also I just realized the cosmere gets kind of complicated when animals can be invested too... I had never really thought much about that. Like the name hemalurgy implies the thing would have to have blood to be spiked, but what about creatures that don't have blood, like Lifeless that are invested but have ichor alcohol, or sandlings that have some sort of gaseous blood?

Can Vasher suppress his investiture too? I mean, we don't know how much breath he has on Roshar, but I'm just curious if we know or not

I'm trying to remember if there are any references to colors brightening around him. In the Warbreaker Ars Arcanum it says you have to have at least 200 breaths to reach perfect pitch, and having that many breaths should be fairly visible. It says you can't see less than 30 without the first heightening, and that it would be difficult to discern the specific number of breaths a person would have, but it should at least be noticeable. Or do people with lots of breaths only bend light on Nalthis?

But well, Adolin isn't exactly a paragon of fidelity himself. So I don't see what's wrong with treading on his toes

I can't answer the other questions, and I don't actually know the answer to this one, but I think of investiture kind of like calories. Like, how much one person is able to do after consuming a certain number of calories depends largely upon their fitness. So with investiture there could be some standard unit, but it wouldn't be detectable in the way you're talking about. We know that the ability to wield investiture varies from person to person based not only on how much investiture they can draw, but also how experienced they are (think of how effectively Vasher could use breath compared to a beginner like Vivenna). I think there are other considerations that complicate matters too (compounding, heightenings, bonding spren, etc.)

That's true, in another thread I was talking about how I didn't know how he is ever supposed to become a major viewpoint character when all he does is make witty and mysterious remarks. But I don't know if I would say he's overhyped since he's apparently supposed to play such a major role in future books and such. But yeah, he gets waaaay more attention than he deserves for how little he has contributed to any of the stories so far.

So I haven't noticed anyone mention Lopen yet. Every time I hear the phrase "one-armed Herdazian" or something similar I roll my eyes. And chouta. Like it was kind of funny in the book, but when I see it in the forum it's just... meh. I mean, he probably isn't the most overhyped character, but he's still fairly overhyped

Yes! Reading this post is like panning for gold, you just have to find the good parts among so... many... words... no disrespect, I think I'm going to have to reread this in the morning, but I picked this out of it, and it's just so accurate. I'm thinking I'll take it in sections, maybe that's the right strategy

Huh, that's good to know, since that's a philosophy I generally share. I guess I'll just have to try out one of his books and see how I like it

I liked Straff, mostly just because he was always consistently a total jerk and you could always count on him to do something rotten. Like, at least he's consistent, right? Also, I've never heard of this Abercrombie guy, but maybe I should try reading a book or two of his

Sorry I'm cutting out most of your stuff out of the quote boxes to avoid mile lomg posts. So this discussion of background characters is making me think about Hoid. So far our exposure to him has been him popping up, making witty or mysterious remarks, or maybe doing something weird, and then disappearing again. I feel like writing Hoid as a major viewpoint character (will he be one in Oathbringer? Do we know? I know he will be in later books) could pose a considerable challenge, because he has to have some depth to him, but at the same time he has to be presented in a way that will let Brandon unfold all the mysteries of the cosmere little by little, even though Hoid knows so much. As a major viewpoint character he won't be able to just pop up and then disappear again. He'll have move beyond just being witty and mysterious all the time. Of course I'm sure the great wizard Brandon will amaze us once again, but how?

Yeah, Brandon's pretty good at turning the story quickly enough to give everyone whiplash, but usually doesn't drive it off a cliff. Taravangian is such a wild card to me, I just can't figure out what's going to happen with him. Best I can guess, he's going to get killed off by someone who's annoyed about him causing a bunch of problems, like Sadeas did. But it could be that one of the main characters somehow falls under his spell too. So hard to say...