Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

Glory spren all around for that round! Your roasts were phenomenal Silva and Sorana! if I didn't have a dog in the race it would have been hard to vote this round. Zath, your roast was AMAZING, I think it was the best of far and away the best of this round! And lots of gloryspren for Ashpren too, those were awesome twists. That round was a ton of fun. Can't wait to see what you guys come up with for your Returned Names!

In Honor of the recent WoB confirming that Hoid has in fact ingested a lerasium bead and is now a Mistborn, I think it's time to cook up some interesting battles. So here's a summary of Hoid's power set (spoilered below, based mainly on WoBs, no new info here): He is limited in the fact that he can't intentionally hurt anyone, but he can intentionally allow someone to get hurt, sounds like enough wiggle room for the cleverest being in the Cosmere to figure out how to make any fight a fight to the finish, without necessarily doing the finishing himself. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to try and find a worthy opponent for Hoid, and to give this a narrative twist, say that he's dipped into one too many pots of investiture and our boy Hoid is starting to loose hold of his sanity. He thinks that to save the world he must first destroy it (he could potentially use the loophole that he is not directly hurting anyone he is just destroying the planet that just unfortunately happens to have a lot of people on it). I have a couple of different potential battle arenas in mind, I'll just list the first for now, but might edit in a couple more later. Feel free to have the fight take place wherever you want with whatever initial conditions that you think would make for the most interesting battle. Battle Arena 1: Aluminum Cage Match One of the Rosharn Gas giants, lets say Vev, has had the outer 100 miles of atmosphere Soulcast into a shell of Aluminum, and the rest of the gaseous/liquid hydrgen and helium have been soulcast into a habitable atmosphere similar to Roshar's. The outer 100 ft of the metallic hydrogen shell around the planets core has been soulcast to a garnet with a perfect crystalline structure and infused with Stormlight, descending from this shell to the surface of the planets core are tapering columns of similarly infused garnet, spaced at frequent but irregular intervals. The planets core is roughly .25 cosmere standard radii, and is a continuous primarily metallic metropolis like Cybertron or Corsucant. A large geosynchronous satellite intermittently Collects the rays from Roshar's sun and focuses them onto the outer shell of the Aluminum Cage Match planet, giving the planet a stable ambient temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit. It requires direct shardic intervention to enter or exit the Aluminum cage planet, and lets just say that Hoid and the other combatant(s) are transported to the surface by a shard and can only leave when the other side has been vanquished. For this arena victory by Hoid is complete and sustained immobilization or the death of his opponent(s) and lets say the same thing goes for the other side too, complete and sustained immobilization of Hoid or Hoid's death would constitute victory for your champion(s). You can pick up to two abilities to spike into your champion(s), but if you grant two hemalurgically stolen abilities to a single champion, there might be the real possibility that Hoid can control them with Duralimun boosted emotional allomancy. Also you can make 2 modifications to the Arena to give your champion(s) easier access to their preferred form of Investiture. Your champion, or each of your champions can have up to 2 unkeyed metal minds of any type that you want to specify. Let's say for this arena that Hoid has a bag of flour, one vial of Taldain sand and an unkeyed medallion that can store and retrieve mental sped (F-Zinc)

Nice @Firerust! I love the Inquisitors' sinister theme, Cornered was probably my favorite. Wax and Steris's wedding theme was really nice too, totally fits how Wax is thinking about that first wedding, would love to hear the theme for their second wedding. I was just re-listening to your other songs, they are so good. Looking forward to more updates!

Malazan is great, I was really skeptical about the Esselmont books at first because I loved the Erickson main series so much, but he's a different writer with different strengths, and the world is so amazing that it's really fantastic having 2 different authors working on this. Esselmont as a more straightforward less poetic writer gives up more of the dirt, which is pretty awesome (really I've only read 2 ICE books, so take this for what it's worth). I think this could work, if Brandon continued to create the outlines for all of the works in the Cosmere and if the folks at Dragonsteel were still part of the process (wouldn't want any maps, or graphical elements to be created by someone other than Isaac, would definitely need Peter and Karen on board for editorial review/keeping it tethered to the internal wiki, and it's always great to see more of Ben McSweeney's artwork). One of the best things about Brandon's books is that you can count on the ending being phenomenal, so I think this should be a required feature for any work in the Cosmere. Like Argent said, as long as everything gets Brandon's seal of approval before being published I think this could work. And Alcatraz and probably Apocalypse Guard will be good test cases to see how this all works. Also, one possible route to the much vaunted goal of Brandon reproducing by asexual budding, not unlike a strawberry plant, is his Sci-Fi Fantasy writing course at BYU. He's actively Cultivating a new crop of writers, priming them with his methodologies of how to tackle writing problems, versing them is his interesting and patented trope upending non-formulaic formula to create interesting and compelling stories, and following their progress in the world. I could see a future where he has a couple of writers that trusts enough to give them the kind of creative leeway to work on cosmere stories that he had when he partnered with Wizards of the Coast to create the Children of the Nameless novella, and I think that he's a cautious enough person that he would make sure that everything was working before he would really turn someone else loose (in the very restrictive sense of the term with all of the above mentioned constraints) on the Cosmere.

Hahaha, after I read Briar King's response, I pulled that up. Don't know why I didn't think to look at it when I started the Novels of the Malazan Empire. That reading order chart was actually the one grain of sand that tipped the balance and got me to try Malazan out, so thanks again Amannas for posting that. Like that grateful dead song, what a long strange trip it's been. Totally worth it.

Got the ebook, thanks Ammanas that's an amazing deal! Thanks for the reply, I didn't notice this yesterday. That's crazy though, I was just assuming that RotCG was after the Crippled God. Laseen didn't have much time after the Bonehunters withdrew from Malaz city, did she? Hmm, so that moment In Bonehunters when Laseen is trying to get Kalam to take out Mallick Rel really was her last chance to be rid of Mallick, right? Because of the two protectors that he had... Seems like taking out Vorcan's daughter would have been a better mission for Topper than wandering the imperial warren, oh well, it's just hard really hard to read "First year of the Rule of Emperor Mallick Rel 'The Merciful'" in Stonewielder. It was jokingly foreshadowed in RotCG, but man that sentence makes my eye twitch... That's really funny about Onrack, the Eor of Malazan. But it's worth it when Trull sees him smile, right? That's one of the very few things I could do without in the Malazan book of the Fallen series, that strange friendship/platonic romance that Trull and Onrack have. Really, Trull Sengar as a character I never really got, all build up and not much there, so maybe he's the perfect compliment to the most depressing Malazan character.

The Sibling was sleeping during the Weeping while the Chimney Sweeps were Sweeping, but Kaladin had a Salad in the Shower of the Tower when the fateful Hour struck and the Sibling was unstuck from the lumbering of his slumbering and the power in the tower turned back on. I have a disease, similar to Tourretes, where whenever I hear alliteration of certain variety I have to compose a Dr. Seuss like bit of nonsense. Please continue your discussion.

Great, I am really excited to read these! I loved B & KB's small parts in Gardens of the Moon and especially in Memories of Ice. The scene where Bauchelain is interrogating Quick Ben is one of my favorite parts in the whole Book of the Fallen. I got an electric blanket for christmas and there's nothing quite as nice as getting wrapped up in an electric blanket on a cold day with a book your dying to read. Good times ahead, my kindle progress bar shows that I have over 54 hrs of Novels of the Malazan Empire left! I like Erickson's satire a lot, but he can get a little preachy at times. I generally agree with his politics, but a soap box rant (especially one you agree with) can get tiresome. The Willful Child series sounds like it could be incredibly funny or incredibly irritating, I might check those out when I am out of new Malazan to read. The one non-Malazan book of Erickson's that I am excited to try out is "Rejoice! A knife to the Heart", which has quite possibly the funniest title of any book ever. Just talking about Malazan has gotten me excited enough about the Bauchelain and Korbral Broach books that I went ahead and ordered the 2nd batch of collected novellas. Willpower is overrated.

All very interesting and edifying thanks @Ammanas. Did you read the last 3 of the Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas by chance, and if you did what did you think of them? I really like that series, but I know it's not for everybody. I like Erickson's gallows humor a lot, and it doesn't get much more gallows than the unrepentanly evil pairing of a Gentleman Necromancer and his psychotic serial killing eunuch friend, who also happens to be an insanely powerful necromancer. Throw in the affable but unlucky manservant and you have a bizarro universe version of Jeeves and Wooster. Also, he's not holding anything back with the over the top names in the B and KB novellas. Lamentable Moll, Emancipor Reese, Agin Again (the demoness of Lust), Stul Ophan, Ghust Hubb, Baby Saint, etc. It's like Johnathan Swift writing macabre fantasy, I think it's brilliant stuff.

Thanks for the replies! Oh, no I meant that Vorcan's daughter was described as being only partly human Hmm, so why was Topper killing Claws then? Or were those supposed to be Veils? Or was he expecting the Crimson Guard to attempt to travel by Imperial warren? Also, he seemed to be completely crazy, there was the one scene where he killed what I took to be a claw that tried to escape using Meanas, and then he was saddened that he killed her, are we supposed to know who this was?

really cool to know that can you write simple HTML tags in square brackets. I was wondering how you could get horizontal rule lines for a while. Those are some very interesting points @Solomonster, but one thing to note is that Garnet's are also red. Though we haven't an onscreen description of Shallan's eye color changing when she summons pattern as a shardblade, her eyes should change to red as well. So I think this might be a case where dustbringers eyes are expected to change to red and unlike Lightweavers (which are the artistic outliers) Dustbringers get more of the negative connotations of Red Eyes because their powers are so destructive., Corrupted investiture is shown when something that wasn't supposed to be red suddenly is red (like the eyes of Amaram's troops during the battle of Thaylen Field). (sorry this is in the ruled line bracket, can't get rid of the bottom rule. C'est la vie.)

Just finished Return of the Crimson Guard, holy crap, what a good book! I got about a 1/4 of the way through RotCG, listening to it in audiobook form, and I was really struggling to get into it. Then the part that hooked me, and made me decide to give it another go was the scene where Iron Bars commandeers the ship. Also I read the first collection of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas, and they were so amazingly good that I decided to give ICE another chance. I got the full set of Novels of the Malazan Empire on my kindle and he's a much better author when you can untangle some of the strange ways that he formulates his thoughts. There are pretty big reveals packed into oblique comments, dense single lines that are only tangentially related to the rest of what is being said, etc. He's a great writer, and RotCG is much better written book than Knight of Knives and the sheer scope of the book is mind boggling. He's definitely more in the "cinematic" than "poetic" camp of writing, and really it's pretty awesome to get both. This series is so freaking good and like you said earlier @Briar King, the ending is amazing (it's really the last 3rd of the book, ha) I just have a couple of questions about RotCG for you seasoned Malazan veterans, spoilered below. Also, as a huge fan of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach (and of course Mansy the Luckless) I was wondering, have any of you read the whole collection, specifically Crack'd Pot Trail, the Wurms of Blearmouth and Fiends of Nightmaria? I got the first 3 in the First Collection of B and KB, but was wondering what your guys' opinion was on the second set (really I'm probably going to buy it soon, but if you are super hyped about the 2nd collection I might have to buy it today). I loved Blood Follows and the Healthy Dead, and thought the Lees of Laughter was really good (just didn't like it as much as the other two).

and I think there may be a fundamental aspect of this that you're missing. Say there is, for example, a stick on Roshar. It exists simultaneously in the Phsical realm as the collection of matter that we would recognize as a particular stick and as a cognitive entity that is the abstract collection of all of the qualities and attributes of that particular physical object as it has been perceived. On Roshar's sub-astral this cognitive entity would be a glass bead, on Scadrial's sub-astral this cognitive entity would be a misty insubstantial stick. Cognitive entities are created by sentient thought, they are abstractions based on material reality and they are linked to the items that they have been abstracted from. Transitioning to the Shadesmar while holding this stick would not have any effect on the bead that represents that stick. Spren are interesting cases because they are sentient pieces of investiture. They started out as investiture and were created in the Cognitive Realm, so they are basically living abstractions. It's been one of my long running theories that the reason Spren form Nahel bonds with Humans is to gain more access to the Phyiscal Realm. This is just my own understanding of realmatics, so take it for what it's worth, but here goes. I think that there are basically 4 classes of objects/beings in the cosmere, Physical Objects, Sentient Objects/Beings, Living Ideas, and Spiritual Entities. Physical Objects are matter and primarily exist in the physical realm. They can become associated with or develop a cognitive apsect based on perceptions or thoughts that have been thought about them or directed to them. Sentient Objects/Beings are entities capable of forming perceptions about the material world. These thoughts are in a sense bits of god's power to create, these thoughts and perceptions collectively have the power to create in the realm of Abstract thought, the Cognitive realm. Thought requires energy, energy does work, and because matter is convertible to energy, and energy is convertible to Investiture, these collective poolings of thought energy have a creative force, similar to how Shards and Adonalsium create and shape Physical reality, except that these thoughts and perceptions create/alter cognitive reality. Living Ideas are beings that started out as ideas or as self perceiving condensations of investiture (Seons, sprens). They exist in the cognitive realm and occasionally manifest in the Physical realm (when a collection of thought energy exists in strong enough magnitude that is inline with the nature of their abstraction (like pain spren drawn to a battelfield)). Their other route to the physical realm is to form a connection with a sentient being (like KR spren and Seons). By attaching to the spirit web of a physical realm being they are granted a better purchase in the PR and a route to increased self-awareness by increased opportunity to have novel experiences. Spiritual Entities are entities that exist primarily in the Spiritual Realm, these are the Shards, and possibly Living Ideas when they are forming a conduit to allow the sentient being that they are linked to to channel investiture to do work (not sure on this part, but this is my working theory at least). This is from a post that you can find in my signature about the Nature of the Cognitive Realm, and I think this a reasonable explanation for why the different sub-astrals look as differently as they do: Also, I read your Sphere and Mist post @Ixthos and it was really good, if you are interested there's some great discussion about similar topics about the Cognitive Realm on this thread: All of this does lead to some very interesting thought experiments which would be fun to ask Brandon at a signing. What would have happened if Adolin had been transitioned into Shadesmar while his shard blade had been summoned? Would Maya have retained the shape of a shard blade, or would he have been holding Maya by her feet? Nightblood is a pretty terrifying sword, once it's widely know what kind destruction he is capable of, and therefore becomes widely known and thought about on Roshar, would a glass bead of Nightblood appear in Shadesmar? If so, what would happen if Nightblood stabbed the bead that represented his cognitive aspect? What would happen if you transitioned to shadesmar with a stick, found the bead that corresponding to that particular stick and used stormlight to make the cognitive aspect or bead "manifest" in Shadesmar? Would there be anything perceptually different about the physical stick that you brought into Shadesmar? Could you soulcast the Manifested stick? If yes, what would that do to the physical stick? Here are some interesting WoBs on the subject, spoilered below for length:

Honored that mine was the first upvote you took, you sly Unmade you. Storms it great to have a lyrical genius as a teammate, brillaint roast @Zath!

Great roasts Silva and Sorana! Your themed attacks on T and Sja-Anat were great. Youch! I loved this part! Great work, this is a fun round.

Interesting conjecture @Ixthos, but we have seen an awakened object in the Cognitive Realm, namely Azure's awakened Sword. I believe it looked the same as it did in the Physical Realm (it's been a while since I've read OB, so correct me if I'm wrong). Dead shardblades manifest as deadeyes in Shadesmar, but then again they are caught between two worlds not permanently existing in either. An awakened object, I think is an object first, so it's primarily a physical construct. The only other time we've seen into another shard world's cognitive realm was Scadrial's sub-astral in MB secret History. We saw raw investiture from the Dor being piped to the Ire compound to make the physical realm manifested items (bricks, etc) more durable and solid (though Kelsier could still will himself through them), but there was no hint that these manifested bricks were gaining sentience though they were literally being pumped full of Investiture. It would have been interesting to see a Seon, but I don't think we did (maybe somebody who's doing a reread of MBSH could look for signs that one of the people in the Ire compound is in fact a Seon??). I think that awakened Objects and metalminds are both physical objects that have been combined with Investiture, and the investure becomes part of the physical structure of the item, just like water becomes part of the organism that drank it. Spren are different because they developed solely from investiture their self-conception is distinct from the object that the Nahel bond allows them to transform into, namely a sword (or whatever weapon their radiant is envisioning within limits). And even in this altered state, they are still composed of Investiture. So I think it would be counter intuitive to think that metalminds and awakened objects would somehow have a different apparent manifestation in the Cognitive Realm (though most Investiture is described as luminous, so perhaps they would have a tendency to glow a bit?) I think there is a large gulf between an awakened object and a sentient awakened object, and I think this gulf in sentience is similar to the gulf between a sentient awakened object and a self created sapient manifestation of investiture (i.e. a spren or a seon). I think Nightbloods frozen development (i.e. still talking about Shashara) is a clue that an awakened objects sentience is limited to some upper bound. Nightblood has a functional limit to how much experience he can get, as he spends most of his time in an aluminum sheath, and really only gains knowledge of the outside world through telepathic communication. Also when he is unsheathed and consuming investiture he seems to black out (like a person who has had too much alcohol). So his two states are functionally blind living vicariously, and an insensate state caused from overconsumption. I asked Brandon at the Portland signing for OB what would happen if Nightblood stabbed a bead that represented a castle in the Cognitive Realm, and he said "If you can get Nightblood into the cognitive Realm, then it would destroy the castle", but this implies that it's difficult for NB to transition to the CR. We know Azure's sword made it, and we know that to transition to the CR physical matter is converted to Investiture, so would this inability to transition be because of Investiture's innate tendency to resist other investiture? And if this is true, how the heck did Nightblood (one of the most heavily invested non-shards in the Cosmere) get to Roshar. I suspect Nightblood was only able to do that with direct Shardic involvement (Edgli most likely but possibly Cultivation (kind of suspicious that the NightWatcher offers to give Dalinar Nightblood)). Sorry for all of the parenthetical asides (but sometimes it's nice formatting, right?)

Thanks @Rhapsody and @Sorana, it was actually really fun writing this with the twists. As always thanks for setting this up @Ashspren, really excited to see how this tournament plays out. Can't wait to see your raps Sorana and Silva! and of course, I can't wait to see Zath crank it up to 11 with his Sja-anat roast. Fun times ahead on the ol' shard for sure.

SETTING: In a theater in the lower levels of Urithiru, the assembled heads of state of Roshar and the cream of Alethi society sit waiting for the first round of the Cosmere Character Roast Tournament of Champions to begin. The soft whispers of behind the hand conjecture ceases as an aged man in robes of orange and white slowly makes his way across the darkened stage. As he reaches the center of the stage a spotrial of diamond white light shines down on him from above, casting dark pools of shadow across the hollows of his eyes.The seemingly animate corpse lifts his face and smiles beatifically as the white light twinkles in his kindly pale grey eyes. Thank you all so much for coming, some of you are positively Radiant (nods to Dalinar, Shallan, Malata and Bridge 4) Forgive my old fingers for drumming In my work, I've scarce made a dent I stand on that bridge between life, and the endless ocean of death* Sadly, it is I who must hold the knife and weep as you breathe your last breath Taravangian violently kicks over two barrels filled with infused garnets, splashing lurid red light across the stage, making his face and robes look like they are soaked in blood. I might have to kill 5 out of 10 to save 1 out of 5 from the void But 'tis better for one man to sin than for a people to be destroyed* A smokestone spotrial lights up the seat in the theater next to High Prince Adolin Kholin where a plump Thaylen woman sits. She jumps slightly and shields her eyes from the glare of the turbulently swirling argent light. Ah yes, there sits sweet little Yokska An accessory to a foppish young twit Tell me my brave little tailor what have you done except knit? You gave the Kholinar crew some intel and your home to use as a base But there's one truth to you I can tell though it might be difficult to face The only use for your mindless prattle Would be to bleed you out until you death rattle That's it for you, your round is ova Grab her, Mrall, and send her to Dova An emerald spotrial bursts alight, shining on a seemingly empty chair occupied by a white wig. Now to take down a myth, The Girl Who Looked Up, I'll give it a shot This one's covered in the Diagram with, The Psalm of the Full Chamber Pot "They'll take a girl, an explorer who decided to climb up a wall Then they'll adulate and adore her 'Cuz she wasn't afraid of the fall But what's there to laud in dumb curiosity and pride? I for one will not applaud when they should have just spanked her backside She Unleashed rampant destruction to bring the world what, a little more light? Seems she failed to make the deduction that the status quo was alright." Three spotrials cycling on and off, garnet, topaz and heliodor, paint Taravangian's form as he walks slowly towards the front of the stage. His form flashes red, blue and yellow white, his shadow spins around him as he lurches forward underlit by the the scattered field of garnet spheres. As he reaches the edge of the stage Taravangian slowly raises his hands like a crucified saint and the heliodor spotrial alone shines on him, bathing him in blinding yellow gold light. As he lifts up his head, his cheeks streaked with tears, his shadow slowly revolves towards the spotrial until it stretches out and blankets the audience and two pale eyes appear within the inky blackness of his shadow that is pointing the wrong way. As you can see this is no contest the true game here is the fate of Roshar It is time now that I confessed and told you who some of my friends are The Assassin in White, he worked for me but was alas, an inferior tool The Future, Moleach has let me foresee by means admittedly cruel. Look now at the golden cubes 'round my head, know you what this portends? Opposers of the Diagram should quake with dread Sja-Anat too, is one of my friends (gives a quick nod to his shadow, which winks back at him) Know too that I glory only in saving the remnant of a remnant of a piece Of the sad lot of all human kind and know that my pain for my crimes will not cease I'm a pragmatic man, more so than some And only on certain days could you say that I'm dumb I knew I couldn't beat them, so I had to join 'em to save what I can from my associate Odium So go ahead and curse me as the world is burning I'll shoulder the burden my actions are earning But know as your hypocritical insults are hurled I am the monster who will save this world* *All quotes are from WoK, Chapter 71 Recorded in Blood

This is actually just something I learned, doing some research for a Cosmere Character Roast. I've always known that the SLA was incredibly well written and that Brandon is the master of the long game (with his amazing outlines), but the sheer subtlety of some of the foreshadowing is amazing, and the thematic parallelisms. So I am looking up quotes from Taravangian, and in OB, during the scene where Dalinar and T are discussing the hanged man problem from the way of kings (where 3 people are guilty of murder and one person is innocent), T describes the utilitarian thinking behind his answer of "hang all 4". He basically says that ultimately the people in charge have to do reprehensible things for the good of the governed. And he has this line, which is complimentary yet functionally opposite of Dalinar's oath from the I am Unity moment: This is the story of two competing world views, both characters are struggling to do what they think is right, and what is super fantastic about this particular thread is that Dalinar wouldn't have been able to stand if T hadn't pursued his plan (which is most likely being orchestrated by Cultivation) fueled by the blood of the innocent. Brilliant stuff.

Dear Peckish in Portland, The problem with your appetite is that the pairing of competitive prices and the availability of your favorite bagel shop is a parable about how you feel about the delay in getting the most profound effect from the little things that you can put in your hand. The problem with your weight gain can be made to be a pivotal don't, but I think it's a good plot device. I recommend that you think of the time of day, and that you have to recover from surgery and the simultaneous alternative between the pages of my favorite recipes. Hopefully we can get a free shopping trip to Luthadel, and I can see why you decided to execute the best possible deal of money to pay for the gentleman adventurer heading up to the Northern frozen expanses. Sincerely your own chains of compulsive indebtedness, Google Dear Google, When you come to my house, you are always incredibly slow. Can you please get me pictures and videos of cats faster. Sincerely, Frustrated in Eugene.

You know, a lot of the consolidation of this series can come just from the fact that TV is a visual medium, you can have Perrin give his little speech about how his current problem is like trying to work a blacksmith puzzle apart once and then for future iterations just have him fiddling with the blacksmith puzzle, and you can show Nyneave tugging on her braid. Those two conversions of words to visual explanation alone would probably cut the wheel of time page count down by about 300 pages. Similar visual streamlining can occur, and I think you can easily cut out So. Harbor, almost all of the Shaido bits (especially the rescue of Faile) and significantly streamline the rebel white tower plot. This is one of the greatest series of all times, to be sure, but there are some incredibly loose threads that can be judiciously snipped without any major alteration to the main weave of the story. I think the Queen Elayne sub-plot in Andor can be significantly trimmed as well, and for god's sake can we cut the Gaylen Lukas traveling sideshow and menagerie bits? Please, please, please! I really like your rough outline @Jofwu, but I think realistically if they are going to do this series right, they should probably aim for 6 seasons, with the Eye of the World as the first season (shador logoth as the mid season cliffhanger), then continue through The Great Hunt until Egewene is captured by the Seanchan and Leashed. And I would introduce the Seanchan by roundabout means throughout the first season, and maybe just show them once before the season ending episode (3rd to last episode, maybe right after the battle with Aginor and Bathamael show the scene where Dain Barnhold dies in Falme). I don't have time to divide the rest of it up right now, and WOT books are not as rigorously structured as Sanderson books, but I think with 14 total books, the seasons should really be anywhere from 1.5 books per season to 3 books per season. And with a realistic season count of 6 seasons, the likelihood that we'll get a complete series is higher (the inertia of a big project where most of the sunk cost would be paid for up front is more likely to hold through 6 rather than through 10 seasons). Honestly, I just hope they get a very talented screenwriter and showrunner that understand what makes this series so compelling, the settings are amazing, the characters are great, and the Chosen and the extended network of Dark Friends are probably the best group of antagonists in any book series. I am really excited to see what they do with this.

(Cultivation off screen, talking to Odium): Autonomy's avatars just keep getting weirder and weirder... Ok, here's one with Hoid, a Mink and Cultivation, whadda ya got?:

(The real reason for the shattering) Hey guys, if we knock off Adonalsium we can have all the candy in the Cosmere!

I'm telling Autonomy! Honor and Cultivation *sniffle* trapped me with an Oathpact *sniffle sniffle*

At the point that Dalinar hears Evi's voice, the barrier between the 3 realms is very thin, and I am pretty sure that Dalinar, with access to the Spiritual Realm, was able to get forgiveness directly from Evi before she died. Time is not an arrow in the spiritual realm, and spatial position has no meaning. It's like if all of reality were compressed into a single point. Distance is meaningless, and the dimension of time is most likely carried into the spiritual realm as a function of the limited understanding of the vessel or entity experiencing the spiritual realm (due to their preconceived notion that time moves only forward, and non-axial motions in time are beyond their ability to comprehend). In the physical realm (the realm of perceptions) space is fixed and time is an arrow moving forwards as sentient beings experience it. But time and space aren't similarly constrained in the Spiritual realm, so Evi's soul, on it's transit to the great beyond existed in the spiritual realm, just as Dalinar touched the spiritual realm when he combined all 3 realms. The timining of the transit through the spiritual realm is irrelevant, just as is the distance separating Thaylen City from the Rift, they both existed outside of time and space, and in that place, Dalinar received forgiveness directly from Evi.