Mulk

Lanceryn are larkin, as I see it. Change in terminology meaning the same thing is how I took it. They're not lanceryn/larkin though. The conversation with Nikli at the end makes it clear there's only three they are aware of, and Chiri Chiri is the only one who has grown mature enough to return to bond a spren.

I know Arclo's one. From how I read it, I interpreted that the twenty still with the first Sleepless included Nikli, that Arclo was one of the four who isn't, and that leaves three. Arclo's not harmless, but he's also not evil and he's genuinely curious, which is interesting to me. Whatever the giant things are, they respond to Sleepless control, which is why I thought hordeling. Maybe they're not. Maybe Brandon changed his mind. Or maybe these are in fact bred by Sleepless but aren't truly hordelings? I dunno. What you said about the scouring is all stuff I agree with, I just want to know what exactly the scouring was. I don't think it was merely the killing off of the lanceryn (though that's a pretty big deal in and of itself) because of just...the impression I got from reading the way the Sleepless who are old enough to remember it talk about it vaguely to Nikli, who is not.

On reread, Cord says her father drew the Bow of Hours in the Peaks, so it happened before Stormlight. So yes, Bow of Hours, I am not having the knowing of this thing! AND I NEED IT! 17) I was struck by just how good a listener Rysn is, and how good a judge of people and of circumstance she has become. How, for all of her struggles with self-doubt and worth, for all her frustration over her situation, how indefatigably optimistic she is in her actions if not in her internal monologue. She is intelligent, but it is colored with experience and consideration. She trusts, but with wisdom. She sees the problems and works to overcome them. She is able to see behind the surface to the things that are - the motivations and needs behind that things that are happening - and make connections between the need driving the action and knowledge and experience she has access to in order to change outcomes. She has, in effect, soulcast her crew from what it was to what it is now and won from them by merit the respect and honor due her for the position she already had. I really hope more is intended for her in the back five. Also, because I feel the need to repeat this: Vstim backstory, please? 18) What is this agreement Cord references in her challenge? I assume it refers to the story Rock told of how the Horneaters came to live where they do, but I really want specifics. 19) I really do feel for Nikli. At core, the problems the Sleepless have all revolve around one key thing - they do not, on any level, really understand humans. Not only how to act like them, but how they think, what is likely to pique their interest. He tries so hard, and is better at it than any of his kind apparently, and is torn by the respect he has for Rysn which grows through the book and the need to keep the Dawnshard hidden. It's one more example of fear (and let me say, this is a very REAL fear) impeding communication, and one more illustration in the difficulty in learning to trust when you have been hurt. Which makes the discussion of such early on in Dawnshard all the more poignant. 20) At some point we need to discover what exactly the Scouring was and how it rendered the Sleepless so...averse to trusting anyone. Arclo clearly had no fear whatsoever of Nale or his Skybreakers. So how in the world did Akinah and Aimia get...whatever it was that happened? 21) Who are the other three Sleepless? Have we seen them? What are they doing? 22) How do swarms get separated? 23) I missed this on the initial read through, but apparently the giant hordeling Huio and Lopen fight is one of NIkli's? Also holy crap, giant hordeling 24) My second pass at the ending makes me think that maybe the Sleepless have seen the use of the Dawnshards ending in destruction and terror on more than one occasion...perhaps their memory goes back to the Shattering?

That's right it was Adventures of Link - I keep conflating it with Link to the Past for some reason. Adventures of Link had two of the tougher boss fights I ever ran into on the NES, and they were basically back to back at the end of the game. Maybe I'd find them easier now, I don't know. I haven't picked I guess maybe that's an advantage of being my age, having grown up with Pong and Atari and all that, but still young enough to grasp and adapt to the newer console stuff as it came out? That I can downshift into 80s games without trouble and still enjoy them and then pop back up into ESO or HZD or whatever? Maybe. It can't be logically argued that games have more functionality and so much better graphics now, it's abundantly obvious. Story telling in games though, the knack of pulling you into the game and getting you lost in it, that seems to be an art that transcends tech generations. It has been something else to watch the tech jump from 8 bits to beyond 4k, let me tell you

I played the original and the first sequel to their completion multiple times. The original, I have both quests and their attendant level maps memorized, usually complete the whole thing without a death in around 3 hours? something like that. Never got that good at Link to the Past though. Unfortunately I never owned a Nintendo game system after the original NES. I got to play maybe 20% of Ocarina of Time and enjoyed that, but never got to finish and I've not picked up any of the others across the years.

If Dalinar has access to a Dawnshard right now, it would have to be because it's somehow included with the Stormfather or because Cultivation gave it to him on his visit. I don't really buy that either of those are likely - at the current time I don't, anyway. I don't think Cultivation would have given it up to someone likely to become a tool of Odium, and I rather think the Stormfather would have said something by this point if he had it. I think if Ishar had the Dawnshard (which I'm willing to say was a possibility), he brought it with him from Ashyn, and had it prior to being subject to Honor as his Herald if that makes sense. But how do you divest yourself of it? And why, given his position, would he have done so? And there's a part of me that just wonders, because you have to think Odium knows a Dawnshard is on Roshar. Maybe he's not pursuing it because he wants to avoid the possibility of having his Intent corrupted by the Dawnshard, but you'd figure he has a plan for trying to ensure it doesn't get brought to light and used by an opponent against him, right? I don't even know that he'd trust the Fused with this knowledge, as it might give said Fused the ability to enact a change he doesn't want. Or, I guess, with Honor dead and Aimia apparently destroyed he's avoiding bringing attention to it in any way so that no one accidentally discovers it? It makes sense that no one east of Aimia has any memory of this stuff, it's been thousands of years apparently since the Dawnshard was placed there and hundreds at least since the Sleepless took over guardianship. I don't think we've seen anything relevant to Dawnshards in the Diagram thus far, though that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Hm.

Well, I am aware of that. I've been hanging out off and on here for a few years, but I spend way more time in discord and even there my time is sporadic - being married with three kids and with a job that is really busy right now, my time is just too limited to interact like I want. I think, though, you sell short just how difficult for most of the populace writing that much that quickly is. I don't think even most professional writers can turn out what he does as often as he does, and you're right in saying that the real wonder is how good and original his work is - and that he turns out that much that quick and it's ready to publish. I'm just kinda flabbergasted at times. Yeah, Brandon changes topics to keep fresh, but he rarely isn't writing something. Like, he has to be writing to be happy, almost. Bless Emily and their kids for putting up with it. Brandon "I wrote this thing and I liked it so much it'll be four books before I'm done" Sanderson I came to this out of Wheel of Time. Basically, when it was announced Brandon would finish that, a buddy gave me Elantris to read to give me a feel for him and I liked it, then I absolutely loved his three WoT books, so I grabbed a trade paperback of WoK in Half Price almost as soon as I finished AMoL. Suffice it to say I'm hooked, lol.

I guess the more remarkable thing about this is that Brandon never seems to stop producing at this level. I honestly wonder what pulling fire from heaven would be like for him... I think I knew that about the origin of the sequoia name, but had forgotten it over the years - it seems familiar but there's no data there, as it were. I'll look him up.

I can't really take the time to read through everything, unfortunately, with my job being what it is right now, and I need a spot to be a sort of coppermind for myself, or else I'm going to forget I thought these things. So questions, thoughts, reactions as they occur to me, probably to be amended later if I can find the time after a second read through. 1) Given what Cord said about stories of the Dawnshard having come through the peaks in the past, I'm wondering how we need to reinterpret some of Rock's stories about the Peaks and the Horneater people. 2) Bow of Hours? The Rock novella really can't get here soon enough. 3) Rysn really does rock. And she should meet Rock. 4) I assume this Dawnshard was used in the destruction of Ashyn. I wonder if it was used in the attempt to bind Odium in place, or if Honor was able to use other means, like say making the contest one that forced Odium to Invest too much to be able to leave. 5) What are the others and where are they? 6) I wonder if all four were used in Ashyn or not, and if it wasn't all of them, which ones were they. 7) I'm glad Yalb survived. I really liked him. Hope he pops up again sometime. I think knowing he lived would be a good thing for Shallan. 8) What in the Cosmere happened on Ashyn that Dawnshards were brought to bear? I feel like we're going to have to wait for the back five for this, but my curiosity on that is growing. 9) How often does Chiri Chiri need to return and how many times, and just how big does a larkin get before it is fully grown? 10) Maybe the Sleepless have been going about this all wrong, and they should have been breeding hordelings to be more humanoid instead of trying to stitch themselves together out of one? Or is that not possible? 11) Cord is misnamed, but to be honest, they don't really have the right flora on Roshar to have gotten it right. She's really a young sequoia. 12) Giving Lopen more depth is great. Having him understand what his attitude sometimes does to people around him is better. His interactions with Rysn are really interesting. 13) The more I read about Rushu, the more I like her as well. 14) Sleepless in the court of Urithiru will be really interesting to watch, assuming we get to see them. 15) Vstim backstory, please 16) Rysn's jokes made me weep a little and laugh a lot. There's more. But mostly, I enjoyed the heck out of this and wonder how in the world Brandon can just toss off a 55k novel/novella in the time he did. And then I remember he's Brandon.

with the idea that Hoid was a Dawnshard in the past and assuming he was for the Shattering, that means at least 17 people were present or party to it in some way. So I'm wondering if it took more than 4 to 'power' a Dawnshard, if you will?

Saying Hoid was a Dawnshard doesn't mean he was THIS Dawnshard, right? I have been pondering whether getting what he needs (his conversations with Dalinar earlier in Stormlight) included trying to find a Dawnshard or not, and also how he'll take the news once he finds out (and I have no doubt he eventually will) that Rysn is one now. Also, considering things in a new light, perhaps his time as a Dawnshard is the primary reason he didn't accept a Shard once the deed was done. And more humorously, perhaps the reason he really really wants this Dawnshard is to be able to eat bacon once more...

it's an interesting thought Gderu. If you're right, I think he's underplaying Cultivation's ability to possibly cause him harm. The whole thing has the feel to me of Cultivation playing a longer game than Honor did or was capable of, especially where the Diagram is concerned. The more I read the more I think the first arc ends with Rayse dying and someone else picking up the Shard. Maybe Dalinar, maybe Moash, maybe someone else. Depending on who it is, the new Odium would be the next round's villain, or someone else entirely, possibly Cultivation. It would be really odd if someone figured out how to take care of Odium and then Splinter his Shard on Braize.

I looked at it a couple of years ago or so, and the lack of an undo tool frustrated me so much I quit messing with it after a bit. It just never failed that I made an inadvertent click that undid/wiped out/rewrote a section that was difficult. Did they ever resolve that?

RAFO... kidding (mostly)! The other one I'm treating mostly as mystery for the time being in its specifics. In part because I've not spent nearly as much time on it, in part because what I have decided may change, and in part because that sort of mystery about things that may not be known lends a weight to such things and an openness to interpretation that I found attractive long before Brandon Sanderson was ever published. Here are the general details that are mostly all I share about the bottom side: There is land down there, there are people down there of a variety of races, who feel much about the other inhabited side as those on the other do about them. It's also more chaotic, less organized, the land being more archipelagic and peninsular than is true above, where there are several larger continents, and save for a few remote dwarven enclaves the ongoing skirmishing, fighting, raiding has mostly removed from them the desire to learn and know history or other more esoteric pursuits, in favor of seafaring, tech for assault and defense and such. Only the dwarves retain any communal knowledge of the world's history, and then only those that haven't fallen to the roving warfare of the intervening millennia. Comparing it to feudal Europe but with the land barons, dukes and so forth instead being seagoing pirates in nature and their grand fortresses instead of castles on mountains or hills being floating armadas and natural harbors wouldn't be too far amiss. Every couple of centuries or so someone gets swept over the western falls and somehow survives the trip to the bottom, or the same from the bottom up their analog on the other side of the world to the top, but as everyone 'knows' that no one can survive the trip, the rare people who do are treated as insane or eccentric, and even that assumes they survive long enough to make contact with people on their new side of the world - those coming from the bottom to the top often run afoul of the great rift nigh to Cristhorn and perish there, and those going from the top to the bottom are often seen as just another ship to be raided and are captured/destroyed. At some point I'd love to convert my paper map into some sort of map making program but I've not the time or resources for that so it remains a large amount of taped together notebook paper that I doodled on. I'll sketch in the nations as they currently are, alliances, trading and so forth. I never wrote the story I intended to write for this world, but I have run tabletop RPG games in it, so there's a lot of granular detail available.

Ages ago (well, like three years or so) someone prodded me to put details of my own homebrew world together into a post here. For a variety of reasons I never got around to it and these days I spend more time on Discord than I do here. But here we go. The beginnings of this go back to a piece of paper I started to draw on randomly in October of 1992. ------------------------------------------------ The world was once round. All the oldest records we can find agree on this, and they speak of being able to sail into the sunset until you come back around to the starting point. Now we are bounded by extremes we dare not or cannot cross...to the West lies the endless ravenous falls of Karkos, to the North and South the hideous cliffs fall away into nothing, and to the East the Sunrise Swell whose currents prevent all from approaching to see what might lurk beyond. While I and others theorize a planet of six sides, no one has returned from over the edge to tell the tale, so we may never know for sure... Elias the Wanderer. ----------------------------------------------- The planet has no name, per se. The Riven Lands is a convenient descriptor given the current state of the world. It was created by twin deities long back in time as a globe somewhat akin to hours around a sun similar to ours, before one betrayed the other and tried to claim the planet as his own. Their fight marred what is, what was, and what will be. When Kiroen took his last wound he fell unconscious and Creation itself arose in his defense, cradling Kiroen so he might heal, trapping the Traitor (whose name is lost) within a prison of pressure and fire and stone. It is believed that the fate of the world rests upon whether the world can hold the Traitor at bay long enough for Kiroen to recover or not, and that their bodies lie trapped somewhere within the world itself. Those with knowledge and wisdom teach that order aids Creation in its task and chaos harms it. The result of the fight was a misshapen world no longer globed in the midst of space, but vaguely cube shaped. Massive upheavals changed the shape and topography of all of the known landscapes, slew an uncountable number of people and animals around the whole world, and rendered the majority of the world uninhabitable, there being two facets of the cube that can sustain humanoid life, two others that can sustain some variations of plant life and some smaller animals and birds but nothing in the way or larger life forms, and two that are basically huge, rushing waterfalls that kill just about anything larger than krill that runs through them. Most history is told from the perspective of those on the top - the larger populations, the better known cities, were on the top of the current world, and they view the underside as a possibility, even a probability, but still mythical nonetheless because it may as well be the far side of space for all they can reach it. What ISN'T mythical is so strange as to be beyond belief in places: impossible cliffs, a giant rift in the middle of the ocean, plains lifted up far above sea level and other mountainous zones brought low, zones of rock that morphed into a much harder and denser substance, not to mention the changes to the humanoids and life upon the face of the planet. RACES First are the Oraen (the Ones), the oldest and proudest people of the world, and also the most powerful and longest lived, the eldest of them exceeding the span of a thousand years of vigor ere they begin to wane. Known as dwarves to the other races, they are powerful priests of the deep and of the light, of craft and of the heavens, and belief and tradition are wound into every facet of life and work from birth until death. For them, a mere two full life spans have passed since the great betrayal. Many of their race were twisted into a darker, slighter form that cleaves to the darkness under the world, despising the free air and the other races as they gnaw at the bones of creation. While the Oraen give them a descriptor simply meaning Not Us, to the rest of the world they are called darkeners, gnomes, vile-dwarves, rock demons and other even less hospitable terms. Next come the humans. Goraedos to the Oraen, living 90 to 100 years commonly and occasionally nearing 150, possessing skill in elemental magics, they are inventive, stubborn, persistent and more. Huge swaths of them were also changed, becoming what are known as the twisted ones, the goblins, ur-human, the Hordes. As a whole they war with humans and any they find on the lands, save at one place in the whole world. Those we would call elves are known to the world as the Kelldorae, the Kind Fae, they who are one with nature. Possessing many shamanic and nature based magics, they are less numerous, longer lived than humans but less than the dwarves and taller than either though a dwarf pound for pound would be stronger. Their twisted kind became the Uilleach, the troll, the Wicked Fae, the Hunger of the Swamps. Much more rare than either of their other warped kindred, they made alliance with the goblins near the land in which they live and raid together with them. RECENT HISTORY The cataclysmic events that warped the world are far enough back they are beyond living memory of even the longest lived and so are depending on where you are in the world a matter of recent history (if a dwarf or gnome) or a matter of legend (if human, elf or their twisted variants). Of more relevance to the current state of the world, around a century before the present one named Dolen Oraenacus came to power in dwarf lands, and after consolidating nearly all of the dwarves under his rule (a process which took more than fifty years, dwarves being dwarves), led them on a rule of terror and destruction such as had never been known at the hands of that people, becoming known to all others as Dwarfendark. A charismatic speaker and demagogue extraordinaire, the dwarves threw aside eons of discipline and order and became a rampaging horde, culminating in the utter destruction of the powerful and formerly allied human nation Tirimar. Their remnants planned and carried out a raid to assassinate Dwarfendark, after which the dwarves fell to infighting, and then to abject horror at what they had done. The Tirimarian raid escaped in the chaos following the assassination and fled across the ocean. Roughly two-thirds of the remaining dwarves returned to their roots vowing never again to do as they had done, while about a third of them maintained the ways Dwarfendark introduced. The schism between the dwarves is hot and bitter, but the dwarves are so scattered apart and so resistant to being ruled by one voice anymore that the more honorable dwarves cannot gather the forces to effectively deal with their cousins, and knowing this the dark dwarves are unwilling to press too hard at any one location lest they arouse enough ire to invite their own destruction, so they are more a danger to nearby non-dwarven nations than to other dwarves. Unknown to the rest of the world, the survivors of the destruction of Tirimar escaped entirely and found a new home, well hidden from much of the world. They also founded a new organization to work for order and against chaos, named rather grandly the Knighthood of Cristhorn, though three parts of this order are not classical knights and one whole branch is more devoted to trade and intrigue. Even their military arm is as aimed at covert consulting/support for allied nations, spying and weapon and tactical development as it is toward classic open warfare and pitched battles. MAGIC Magic has evolved along four different lines in this world, in a total of nine different magical schools. The first is priestly magic, drawn from the essence of Kiroen, and is primarily but not exclusively the realm of the dwarves. The second is elemental, the schools of fire, water, air, earth, time/space, thought. This is the realm of the humans generally, though other races do occasionally draw from it as well. The third is nature-based magic, magic that channels and draws upon the power of nature and natural entities. This belongs to the elves - no other race has ever learned this magic without an elven teacher, and few other than elves or very ancient dwarves achieve true mastery of it. And fourth is sorcery, magic drawn from the essence of the Traitor and able to be enhanced by devouring the life force of a chosen sacrifice, nine realms in all. Sorcery is addictive and darkening in its very being, those who begin this path are eventually warped by it physically and mentally, and while return out of the darkness is possible, it is harder the deeper in you get. Sorcerors are hunted by nearly every living being on the planet, saving those forces who buy into the desire for power and back them up, and are usually solitary (not meaning only one at a time, there are quite a few of them around, there just aren't groups of sorcerors in general anywhere)

Being in the throes of depression (I can't speak to DID at all) often means you don't have the capacity to focus on whether someone is putting on a front for your sake or being genuine. I doubt Kaladin has the presence to do much 'analysis' of Adolin's current circumstances and capacities. I'm going to guess he's told Shallan about what happened with Maya, thought I doubt Kaladin knows. We'll see - there's a lot of book left to go and we haven't seen much at all of Adolin yet, especially from his point of view.

I hurt pretty badly reading this. Depression is so real. Kaladin is so real. When I hurt so badly I need to cry but can't, when I want so badly to be alone but know it's bad for me and longing for someone, ANYONE to call or knock on the door and drag me out of my hole but completely unable to voice it....sigh. My thoughts about Shallan and the Three are a muddle right now beyond thinking Shallan's not actually progressing. Adolin is the sort of friend I wish I had more of - the kind who isn't asking me to cheer up or be other than I am, but won't let me rot in despair either. Rock saying good bye possibly permanently (at least within SA itself, I know we still have the novella ahead) was just slime icing on a crap sundae for me. Don't misunderstand. I loved the chapter. It just hit so close to home I had to cry for a bit after I was done reading and I still tear up some thinking about it. I've spent most of the pandemic being strong for those who needed me to be, trying to hoist people who've never been this down before out of their own darkness long enough for them to breathe and recover and I'm running out of strength.

the New World Symphony is...45 minutes or so, narrowing that down would be a little difficult. If I had to guess ,maybe the fourth and last movement, Allegro con fuoco, though my favorite piece of it has always been the Largo.

the New World Symphony is...45 minutes or so, narrowing that down would be a little difficult. If I had to guess ,maybe the fourth and last movement, Allegro con fuoco, though my favorite piece of it has always been the Largo.

One way you can level the playing field is by giving those without guns more difficult terrain to live in. From the real world, WWII era Switzerland can be an example. Switzerland wasn't the only neutral country at the start of that war, but they were the only one near the main axis of fighting whose neutrality was (mostly) respected. While part of that was no doubt good fortune, I think part of it was also that it was understood forcing the passage would have had a pretty sizable cost in both time and casualties. While their tech wasn't sub par in most places, they didn't have a huge store of tanks and in a flatter country like Belgium, they would have been easy prey for a blitzkrieg attack. But Switzerland isn't a flat country. Almost no part of it is flat, and you have to cross the some of the largest and steepest mountains in Europe to pass through it. The Swiss had a very large standing army relative to how large the country is, and a large series of tunnels and stores set up for time of need; actually taking it or forcing passage across it for army units would have been murderously expensive, which is undoubtedly a large piece of why it never happened and why Belgium was rolled over instead. Fighting the inevitable guerilla war that would have ensued across the Swiss Alps in places you can't get tanks or artillery very easily and if you try, you have to approach via a few very well known spots? Ouch.

A shard-ladle, clearly.

Credence may not know that Graves was Grindelwald. Or he may have taken the apology at face value. I think the whole you're a Dumbledore thing is a convenient lie and nothing more. Wouldn't surprise me if the phoenix in question turns out to be Fawkes. Grindelwald is trying to get someone strong enough to fight Dumbledore while hitting Dumbledore at his most vulnerable - the family he loves and feels so guilty for not treating better. I've seen and read nothing of Grindelwald that suggests he wouldn't try something like that if he thought it would help him win against just about the only wizard he harbors doubts about defeating. He also has to be a gifted Occlumens - I wonder if a future plot point isn't going to revolve around his control momentarily slipping in Queenie's presence, thus causing her to learn something that makes her question what she's doing. Maybe around this very thing, when he discovers that the charm(or whatever you want to call the thing the Niffler stole) is missing.

Oatmeal raisin cookies are the traitors of cookies. They look enough like chocolate chip cookies at times to bait me into trying one. They taste of pure disappointment and hatred, the Odium of all cookies. So close to the perfection of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and yet so stormingly far.

The Hobbit. I read it at...six or seven I think. Tried Fellowship at that point, wasn't quite ready for it, came back at 11 and it was all over at that point. There's so much I read on the way that helped cement it. C.S. Lewis, Raymond Feist, Stephen Donaldson, Hickman & Weis (Dragonlance) and a whole host of others along the way. But the Hobbit was the first. That story and that map have captivated me for most of my life.

I'd imagine Drax doing a suicidal bull rush on Thanos and getting wiped out, honestly