Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

This is spoiler tagged because it's about M:SH So this to me implies that the ability to become a cognitive shadow is directly related to the amount of Investiture that a person/vessel has held. The following is Spoiler tagged because it refers to Warbreaker annotations. So I think that the Returned aren't necessarily Cognitive shadows, they are more like infinitesimal slivers of Endowment, and when the Divine Breath is given, that infinitesimal sliver returns to Endowment to be given again. I do think that the Fused are Cognitive shadows, but I think that all is not as it appears. I had a speculative theory that I posted earlier (for the crickets and the tumbleweeds, it appears) that covers this in more detail: Basically, I think that the Fused are not the ancients of the Listeners, but rather Cognitive shadows of Odium's People (most likely the Alethi). Let's assume for the sake of discussion that the Void in Voidbringer is a particular manifestation of Odium's investiture in his people (like how on Nalthis every one of Endowment's people are given a Breath). Due to this inate investiture, prior to going to the Great Beyond, every one of Odium's people must get the cognitive realm send off from Odium. But picture if you will, Odium is currently Invested in Braise, and let's say he keeps a large collection of his investiture in a large pool on Braise. Odium's raw power, which we see in Venli's and Dalinar's meetings with Odium sounds like the very fires of hell itself. What if, before going to the great beyond, Odium forces the cognitive shadows to be immersed in his hell fire shard pool, thus tying them to his investiture and preventing them from going to the Beyond. Maybe the common sods from Roshar who have never held stormlight get sent directly to the great beyond, but the ones that have held investiture, the ones that linger longer in the transition to the Great Beyond, maybe they get tossed into the prison shard pool of damnation until they break and agree to become an agent of Odium. I think the realization that being a Knight Radiant whose heavy use of investiture makes you more likely to either suffer eternal torment or to be broken and become an agent of the enemy might be enough to have KRs throw down their shard blades and break their oaths. I feel like this is a case where the splintered Investiture of Ambition is left directionless to be taken up, and this primarily occurs in the cognitive realm. The section about what happens when a shade kills on coppermind is very interesting: This sounds functionally similar to shard blades (the withered flesh) and to Nightblood (turning the person to dust). The unique aspect of this is that if unchecked the injured person will likewise become a shade. A possible realmatic explanation of what is going on might be something like this, the Shade (a heavily invested cognitive shadow) is able to attack the spiritual connection of a person directly, and if enough damage is done to the individual's spirit web then the physical self loses cohesion (turns to dust) and then the cognitive shadow of that person is likewise invested with the same undissipated energy of Ambition that the Shade that killed them has, and the cognitive shadow thus invested can't transition to the great beyond. There is this further elucidation from the Coppermind: I think that this is because the initial attack by the shade is destruction on the spiritual realm, severing the individuals ties to Spiritual Identity and Connection. That is very similar to how the Listeners were turned into Parshmen, but functionally different because the cognitive Identity of the shade is probably unaffected. One last thing to consider from the Coppermind about Threnody shades is this: We know from a WoB that red (especially red eyes) is a sign of corrupted Investiture. So when these semi-invested cognitive zombies are animated by Anger their eyes turn red, and they try to create more shades. This sounds like there was a specific intent that went into splintering Ambition, and that maybe Odium might have contributed a controlling splinter of his own to Channel how Investiture from Ambition is taken up on Threnody.

Ok, here's what you should get your girls for Christmas Copic marker Gray set (~$39) Copic Marker Skin tone 1 set (~$32) Copic Marker Bold Colors set (~$30) 9 x 12 portable Light box (for tracing) (~$25) With the above set up you and your daughters can trace your original drawings infinitely and experiment with altering small details or can try out multiple different marbling patterns easily. That's four things on the list, one for each daughter. Hopefully they like to share!

Rad! I really like what your doing with the Parsh eyes and eyebrow ridge. Kind of predator like, but more interesting. I think your sketches are great, but for the gemstones in the beard, I always visualized them as thinner dready strands. Just my two cents, the faceted gem like carapace ridges look outstanding too.

Then Moash exhumes Tien's bones, constructs a bridge 4 throwback set of armor with said bones and Kaladin snaps. I really hope that Moash doesn't go back to Hearthstone, makes my heart hurt for Kaladin just thinking about it.

Ahhh, that's so sweet! I have 2 daughters and I've found out that there is no such thing as EXTRA cash, it has to stay around for awhile to be considered extra I think. You could get one of your daughters a Copic marker set for Christmas and then borrow them or have your daughters try and figure out how to do the marble skin patterns. I would suggest a set that has lots of shades of gray and red of course. They look pretty awesome going over a pencil drawings, here's a sample of what it looks like (this is from a thumbnail sketch of an exploded Lytro camera for Make: magazine): The Copic marker's pick up the lead from your sketch and kind of blend it. The effect is pretty awesome, and if you have 3 or 4 shades of gray you can do some pretty subtle shading. I love that last sketch you posted! The faceted, crystal like ridges that simulate the rough shape of hair looks great. As to how to draw the rough cut stones interwoven into the Parsh beards, I would just think of them like beads in dreadlocks:

Do you have Photoshop? If you do you can set your sketch up as the top layer, and set its layer mode to multiply. Then you can add color on layers below your sketch (it's kind of like painting over a sketch with watercolors, except with unlimited undos). I did a quick marble color study using your sketch above, I think your Parshendi design is freaking awesome! The beard-esque marbling on side of the jaw is probably too much, but if you do have Photoshop you can easily try out a ton of different marbling patterns.

Those are rad! The carapace skulls are really well done, and how their brows go directly into their nose is an awesome design. I especially like the first one, and would love to see a front view of that Parshendi.

I'm totally not double posting here (you can tell that I'm not because I explicitly state that I'm not), but I think these casting calls are really good, here's a link to my post that's on page one: It's totally worth checking out just to see Hercule-Son-Son-Poirot (for realsies).

We don't know when they met, but I think we can infer from the passage I quoted above from Eshonai's prologue chapter, that the voice that Klade heard was Ulim.

This is from the Eshonai Prologue in OB: In the above passage, voice is italicized in the text. In OB Venli complains about how she's been working with the voidspren for a long time to come up with new forms of power (storm form specifically), so I think that it's not too big of a logical leap to assume that this voidspren also helped her find Szeth (and who counseled also a personal removal from the actual discovery for the purposes of plausible deniability). With Gavialr's possession of two voidspren spheres, the two unintoxicated heralds at the party might have thought that an assassination was in order. I think the thing they are complicit in is something other thant this though, but like most good speculations I have to give myself a RAFO card.

Looking in Jasnah's Prologue chapter, here is the discussion between Kalak and Nale (I've added the names for clarity): From OB it was obviously a voidspren that led Venli and the other listener (don't recall his name) to Szeth, but what are Nale and Kalak complicit in when Kalak says "What we've done is wrong"? It's obvious from Edgedance and OB that Nale wasn't on the side of Odium at this point, so what is thing that they've done that they know is wrong? Also, how did Kalak know that Szeth had Jezrien's honor blade, I'm assuming it was well hidden while he was playing the part of a docile shin servant. This all hints at a hopefully big reveal coming in Book 4, I personally think this will be from a herald's perspective with Kalak being most likely, Jezrein being second most likely and Nale being the least likely (we got lots of reveals about the skybreakers and what their eventual motives are in OB, so unless there is some clever twist, I feel that this is the least likely).

I think that DMG, if they have the rights to it, should do the Emperor's Soul. It's a totally self contained story that has an incredible amount of tension, the pacing is brilliant and could translate to a movie adaptation incredibly well, and the magic system also has a progressive build that would reel in people that aren't self-described fantasy fans. For all of you talented aspiring writers out there, this is a challenge: Come up with an under 2 hr screen play for Emperor's soul. After your 7th draft, and possible 17th shard peer review, send it to team sanderson and see if they can sell it. Brandon just needs one story to break through the gauzy barrier between written fiction and film before every talent agent in LA and the world will be clamoring for more original stories. I think that this is his most approachable, self-contained work that hints at a greater story. If this was directed by Terry Gilliam (specifically in the same style as the Fischer King) or Ridley Scott (blade runner, gritty, alien world, but well lit and well paced), this might be one of the greatest movies ever made. The story is there. All the conflict, mystery, growth, redemption, etc. that you could ever want from a single story is there and I think that if this were properly done, it would convert a legion of new fans to the Brandonverse. Another pick for directors would be Christopher Nolan, because the breaking up the narrative into discrete days with a given timeline would be handled very well by him.

Would be interesting if the viewpoint character is Kalak, he's the herald of the Willshapers and this could be Venli's book (willshaper in the making). I voted for Jezrien primarily because of this comment on the Tor.com forum that was in response to the release of the Oathbringer endpapers, which showed Jezrien with his honor blade: No wonder you always see him in a drunken stupor, the King of Heralds had the perfect tool for opening the King of Beers. I do agree that seeing the pre-assasination scene from Nale's perspective would be awesome. He and Kalak obviously knew that this was about to happen (given their overheard hallway discussion), and Nale is an incredibly interesting character. Most of the other Heralds are objectively mad, but his insistence on following a code seems to insulate from madness perse, but also seems to hollow him out from the inside. Like he is the passionless avatar of what Honor could become separated from the emotional connection that gives it a deeper meaning. Also he might have a good reveal as to what the skybreakers have been doing since they went underground post Recreance.

I voted for other, I think it would be interesting to see the Prologue from Jezrien's perspective. I don't think that he's as far gone as he pretends, and with the King of the Heralds just having been killed in OB it would be nice to see his perspective on the night of the killing of another king. This would have a very pleasant symmetry to it. Also he was in the hallway where most of the action that we've seen so far (overheard conversations) takes place. This would allow us to see more of Jezrien, which would be nice. King of the heralds, for some reason that sounds important. Obviously the most important herald, if we can trust the stormfather's assessment, is Ishar, but it would be nice to understand more of what the character of Jezrien is all about. Like the Neil Diamond song says his life was "Done too soon".

So many Ooklas. I did, but I was replying to your comment. Really, Gruntinar, err I mean Dalinar is a man of few words. The reconciliation I am sure was blessedly short. Szeth says you are my definition of Law, Dalinar grunts in an affirmative manner, then they have a deep understanding. That's how Dalinar likes it.

Nah, grunts don't take that much time...

I think Balat might pull apart the wrong cremling... Even if it's just a back up nose, a Dysian Aimian probably wouldn't take too kindly to it being slowly ripped apart, and there is probably at least one Sleepless in Urithiru. Shallan should convince him to pull apart shale bark or something. I agree though, still fractured Shallan is in a bad place for her reunion with her brothers, but who knows, they might be radiants in the making. Stormfather knows they have enough in their past to be broken enough for a couple Nahel bonds each. What type of Radiants do you think they would be? Quick guess, Balat, Dustbringer. Jushu, umm pass. Wikim, truthwatcher (he and Renarin should play chess together, I love chess by the way).

The wedding... What about the wedding night? "Mmmmm" pattern buzzed contentedly from the headboard of the bed talking to Syl, "Mating."

SZETH – Given his spot on detective work, and novel solutions to Skybreaker challenges, I think he should be David Soutchey (otherwise known as Hercule Poirot) and I think Sword Nimi would make an excellent Dr. Watson. The following has been photo-shopped slightly to enhance his shin eyes and to reveal the true genius of his detective work. DALINAR – This is totally who I see when I read about Dalinar, he has that rugged handsomeness of a crater filled moon, he looks like a freaking boulder and you can tell he is a total badass, Jürgen Prochnow, otherwise known as the captain from Daas Boot and Duke Leto Atreides from David Lynch's Dune. Also, I totally think Dalinar should walk around with the axe hound equivalent of a pug. THE LOPEN – This guy has that strange charismatic energy that reminds me of the Lopen, this is who I think of whenever I think of the Lopen, Alfonso Arau, El Jeffe from the 3 Amigos and Juan the superfan druglord from Romancing the Stone: SHALLAN – This one has a lot to do with the crazy unkempt red hair, but if you strip away the cartoony-ness of this, it's exactly what I see when I think of Shallan, and I think temperament-wise they are similar too. Merida from Brave: MR. T – The seer character in Krull is actually quite a bit like the real Mr. T, maybe that's why it's the first image that I associated with Taravangian after learning about his work with the Diagram, before this I would have picked Willoughby Gray like @Randall Thor did. But once you know just how EVIL Mr. T can be, then it's gotta be John Welsh (aka Blind Seer and the super grody would be finger nail assassin doppleganger): Here's another view, of the evil Black eyed Doppleganger version of Mr. T: KALADIN – Again, this comes from Krull, maybe I am exposing too much how instrumental this movie has been in forming my view of the world, or maybe I just really, really love Krull. But from WoK through OB, I've always pictured Kaladin as Ken Marshall. I know, I know, technically he's a lighteyes, but that's what my subconscious served up, who am I to probe too deep? A glave would make a rad spren weapon by the way, especially if the bond allows for alterations in flight paths (like how Colwyn seems to be able to mentally control the flight path of the Glave, seems possible). Look at Ken Marshall, put a slave and a shash brand on that forehead and he is totally Kaladin. AMARAM (POST YELIG-NAR) – You have to imagine some crystals coming out of unpleasant places, but I think this is pretty close to what old Meridas would look like after swallowing a bad gem, King Raoh from the anime Fist of the North Star: AMARAM (PRE-YELIGNAR DOUCHE BAG PHASE) – So I always saw Meridas, prior to his transformation into Gem and the Holograms, as one of the douchey characters from Nagano's Five Star Story manga. The character design is so interesting because the most masculine of characters also have an incredible femininity to them. I guess it's the mix of vanity and active dissembling that makes this seem like such a good fit for pre-yelignar amaram:

Slightly lighter weight paper. I just gave them both a feel, and Oathbringer is definitely made from lighter weight paper (though still high quality, not like the couple microns thick paper they sometimes print the bible on).

Unless the intent that was involved in splintering the shard somehow matters.I mean this is a god splintering another god, in a cosmere where intent is in immanent quality in that god. This totally is a what if, but I think it's a pretty cool what if. What if Hatred Destorys Dominion to splinter off the component of Dominion that aligns with Hatred? What if Hatred destroys Ambition in order to splinter off the component of Ambition that aligns to hatred (one of the big goads for doing evil is the power that the underlings of said evil scheme desire, that seems like ambition)? All of the primary intents have something that they could give to Hatred in order to make it stronger (with the exception of harmony, unless this would decompose into is base Ruin/preservation pairings and then further decompose into other more useful attributes). Just interesting to think about really.

The WoB referenced does say anything in regards to absorbing paricular splinters of a shard, the point of that WoB, at least how I read it, is that Odium doesn't take up the full power of the shards that he has defeated. This could be because he is attempting to break apart the constituent intent of the shard and ONLY absorb the components of that shard that agree with the intent of the original vessel (Rayse) so that he could create a more Odious shard. I am not well read on WoBs, but I think that this is interesting idea and would explain why Odium is so intent on splintering rather than the outright destruction of other shards. There are some big assumptions in this theory to be sure, the primary one being that a shard would have the volitional capacity to selectively absorb some splinters of a shard but not others, but I think this is something interesting to think about. Also given Dalinar's big Unity ascencsion, couldn't something similar be going on. The intent of what he was doing when he obviously assumed some of the previous powers of honor, with a well formed intent prior to seizing these powers makes me think that this might be possible. Like if Rayse splintered Devotion and Dominion while focusing on his hatred, could he have also pulled some aspects of these divine intents that are aligned with hatred into his shardic influence/power? All speculation to be sure, but we have 4 years to speculate so why not aim for the sun as Hoid would say.

This is an interesting aside. What if each of the vessels that picked up their shards after the shattering of Adonalsium had no idea what they were getting? Imagine that you shattered a rock into 16 pieces, how would you know what the composition of the individual pieces were before you inspected them? Say that just by picking up the piece the vessel ascended. This is an interesting thing to speculate on, and here is the more interesting speculation part. What if Rayse's original shard was Passion? What if his journey through the cosmere splintering shards was an attempt to more closely align his power with the intent of the original vessel? What if when he splintered Devotion, Dominion and Ambition, he was actually trying to gather specific splintered elements of each of those shards to push the nature of the intent of the shard he possessed so that it was more closely aligned with his intentions prior to ascending. What if he is trying to create the ultimate evil in the cosmere by selectively taking up that which makes his shard more Odius? He self-describes himself as Odium, almost as if he is PROUD that he has become Odium. Also interesting to think about, did he take anything from Honor when he splintered him?

Totally just my reading of how this works but I think that the void mentioned in the voidbringers is a loss of individual identity. When Odium was trying to convince Dalinar to give him his pain, he was trying to take something away from Dalinar other than his pain. He wanted to take Dalinar's sense of Responsibility for his actions away from him, and this seems like an attack on his identity. One of his main virtues as a person is his sense of responsibility and the drive to do his duty (which is heavily dependent on his sense of responsibility). Moash says multiple times that he's not to blame, he has discarded his sense of personal responsibility for his actions, and becomes instead a mere vessel of Hatred. Dalinar realizes that the pain he feels is part of who he is, and that the pain is his because he was responsible for causing it. He's not not taking the Rationalization feel good pills that Odium the pusher is offering, instead he accepts who is, so that he can do better in the future.

This doesn't seem to me to be the way that it works. I think that the void is really self abnegation, the destruction of the self in service of the Hatred. I think that Moash is the prime exemplar for how Odium works. Moash at this point seems to be a husk of a person, a mere vessel to contain the one thing that he still feels, which is a hatred that drives him to vengeance. The part that was telling was that he felt no emotion after killing Elohkar, the goal that he had tried for so long to accomplish. I don't think that this was a case where his passion for vengeance was consumed, more that the person he was, his identity other this drive for vengeance was consumed on his road to reach his end goal.