Zelly

So I found these 2 topics which mainly discuss Scadrial's potential FTL travel: But I'm curious about non-Scadrial FTL travel. Let's talk SCIENCE. Note: I don't know much about science! But I like it! Roshar is all about gems and storing energy within them. On earth do stuff with glass, prisms, and crystals I don't remotely understand: Crystals as data storage (wut) Liquid Crystal Displays that make up all our tvs, tablets, etc (huh) Don't even get me started on the uses of Quartz (what is this sorcery) Also back to sci-fi, Star Trek's got it's dilithium crystals, so I think we could have potential there. Get some gemhearts, cut em the right way, hook em up with some sort of frequency/resonance fabrial, mix in 2 tbs of stormlight and a captured star spren or travel/exploration spren. Bake for a few thousand years and voila, FTL. Elantrians I think could easily do space travel with the proper aons, but they'd have to do some serious growth in scientific understanding first just to get the basic knowledge to proceed. Nalthis is an unknown. Awakening is such a crazy ability. But like the Elantrians, I think the current science level is way off, as well as the current knowledge of Commands. Any science fiends out have any thoughts to contribute?

I can see Nale refusing it, though. Law is the only thing important to him. By joining with Yelig-nar I can see him changing to where the law was of less importance, which I don't think he wants.

I'm curious which races are actually "native". We know humans aren't. Horses and Ryshadium an oddball too, considering how everything else tends to be marine-ish. With as much Worldhopping that's happened, it could be the Aimians are also from a completely different place than both Roshar and whereever humans came from. Cremlings fit the planet, so Dysian Aimians seeming fit, except they're so weird as well. I wonder if Dysian Aimiams were different in the ancient past. Perhaps their....uh colony life thing....is a result of symbiosis with a type of spren.

So if Odium really is the shard of Passion (debatable what this means or if it's true), I was thinking what it could mean if one of the main characters took up the shard of Passion if Rayse loses it. Pure speculation at this point of course, and this is also under the assumption that the holder's intent/personality/desires has an effect on the general intent of the shard (also debatable). So it's the character + their passion, plus possibly that passion to a rather extreme degree (noted by^). If nothing else it's an exercise in vocab extensions. Kaladin = Protecting. ^Shelter Shallan = Drawing. ^Creation Dalinar = Unifying. ^Not sure, but I dunno if it'd be a good thing. Gives me hive-mind Borg vibes. If Leading instead of unifying, then ^ ??? Jasnah = Not sure enough about her character. Knowledge, but also Control. Preparation? (Jasnah is Batman). Adolin = Dueling. ^Competition Navani = Invention ^Scholarship, Learning Others? Disagreements? Etc?

1) The Dawncities are reversed underground cities of the cities of Roshar. The parts of cities we see now are tips of the iceberg. Things go crazy and the cities rise from the ground in their true form. Kholinar collapses because Azure chopped away at all the support beams to soulcast. 2) Lift is adopted by Bridge 4. Rock smacks her hand when she steals the cooking and Lopen makes her a cousin. Then they all die because SANDERSON and Lift is left to remember them.

I wonder if Kaladin will have to do what Szeth did and find a source of honor outside of himself, such as Dalinar.

We don't know the mechanics very well yet, but is it possible to overload or overfill a gem with investiture? The Radiants have been shown able to transfer stormlight to other objects. Would a gem reach capacity and stop accepting more or would it crack? I feel like we've seen instances of gems cracking, but I can't think of when. Could an overfilled gem be what is happening when Queen A and later Amaram when trying to digest/absorb/bond with Yelig-nar?

Welcome to the funhouse Fantagio! You can have one of mine. My life to yours, my breath become yours. Have a cookie. Or don't. The power is yours.

Welp I understood you both and think you two are clearly articulate and well intentioned, so don't be too hard yourselves. :-) That's Wit's job. But! To the matter at hand, as farfetched as it may be, I am curious if Odium has any say over King T's spirit of the agreement. Or if the city and people can be used in an unexpected manner.... If Odium has promised to preserve Kharbranth and a different army attacks it, will he be forced to help protect it? I'm leaning on the assumption that people brought up in a different topic that the Diagram might just be a tricky part of Cultivation's long term planning against Odium.

So when Odium makes his deal with King T to spare Kharbranth, he says It's been said that there are certain rules/laws that bind "gods and spren". I'm assuming that Odium will not only be held to his literal words, but truly the overall intent behind them as well. If so, it seems like a better deal for the humans as Odium has far less wiggle room to renege ("I said I would spare the city, but didn't say anything about the Fused!" "I said I'd save the people born into it, but not unborn generations!" evil laughter etc etc). Odium already called out King T on using the "save my people, oops I'm the king of everyone, now ya can't do anything" ploy. But I think the ploy may still be valid, but now it just applies only to the city of Kharbranth. Or, more precisely, the independent city-state of Kharbranth. Which is curious because I can't think of any other Roshar city-states who don't owe allegiance to a particular country or person (possibly some other cities in the Frostlands we don't know anything about.) I know it's pretty much built into a cliff wall on the sea, but with some clever city planning and heavy territory pushing into the Frostlands, maybe it could work? Just because Odium has to stick to his word doesn't mean King T does. City limits and domains are a completely manmade concept, and with Roshar's magic being focused on "living ideas", could the definition of the city be as simple as what the people believe it to be?

And this is why books are crazy amazing, how we all make connections. Also I will say that I didn't think about the implications of Adolin encouraging Shallan's other personalities and the potential for disasters that might occur with that. Could make for some interesting developments (and I've never dated anyone with multiple personalities, so no idea how that would go!)

I'm super curious about Kholin: The Wonder Years. We know Dalinar's repuation and then decline must have strained things between Adolin and Elhokar. Plus we know something sketchy happened with Jasnah as a child. Did Adolin and Elhokar have a good relationship growing up as cousins? Did Elhokar and Jasnah have a good relationship growing up?

Welp, I'm gonna dive in with some super personal information because I was pretty much Shallan in my late teens and I dated a Kaladin once. Just to clarify, I'm totally serious. I was geeky, artsy, and super shy. I had my share of crazy family issues. I wished I could be like the bold, clever, flirty girls from my books. Sometimes I tried, but it all felt pretend and then would fall apart. He struggled with serious depression and some physical ailments. He also tried to be everyone's white knight. If there was a position open or a person in need, he was there regardless the time or task. Or regard to his other tasks. Or me. His motto for everything was "It'll work out. We'll make it work." I loved him for his heart. Dunno why he liked him, but I assume it was because I was good at making him laugh, which he needed. We frustrated and exhausted each other. I talked him down off a bridge once (quite literally, yes). He would try to pull me into events and meet people and I would go into full introvert shut down mode. All I wanted him to do was take some time for him and us. Stop being a bleeding heart and live for himself. All he wanted for me was to open up to more people. In hindsight, many years later, neither of those things is bad and maybe we'd both have been better if we'd been able to change. But we broke up instead. What we were getting out of the relationship wasn't worth what we were putting in. We were constantly worried about each other and it wasn't healthy for us. TL;DR: I'm for S & A.

I think the idea of a spren being able to dual wield shard abilities (of Honor and Odium) is neat and plausible. Reminds me slightly of Venli's situation at the end of OB, where her voidspren gives her her form, but she's also bonded Timbre and has potential surgebinding. I've also previously thought that Sja-Anat might have some connection with Cultivation and/or the Nightwatcher, due to the similarity of their abilities and her "mother" aspect.

.........yes. But that brings an interesting question. The Skybreakers and a storming Herald are now sided with Odium. If another order also breaks to Odium or an unknown, we could suddenly have a Radiant War. And we had a Radiant War, who would the Aimians side with?

Sorry if someone else has already brought this up, I just made the connection. So we know that the Natan people are slightly blue skinned due to some mixed lineage from Aimians . (Technically his answer could refer to the Babatharnams but not the Natans, but meh). In OB, Wit relates his story of the moons to the crowd in Kholinar. The queen of ancient Natan tricks Mishim, switches places, and mashes potatoes with the blue moon Nomon. Thus the first blue skinned Natan is born. I always carefully crazy over-analyze read Wit's parts for something extra. So what could be the connection here? Any hidden truths in the story? Could there actually be 3 races of Aimians similar to the blue moons? Probably unlikely as Brandon has mentioned 2 several times in WoB answers. However, while 10 is a big Roshar number, there's also some 3s: the Shards, the spren Siblings & Bondsmiths, and the moons. Could Aimians be from the moon? (Also unlikely due to the fact that it's a moon, but then again do Aimians really need food or air?) Other theory related to Aimians, but not moons: In order to have enough offspring to create an entire people from hybridization, the two countries would have to interact a lot. If this was true, it's more likely that (unlike what is seen on the world map) Aimia is actually fairly close to the Frostlands (ancient Natanatan) globally speaking. Roshar would be a supercontinent, but wrapped around the planet so that Aimia would be slightly east of the Frostlands. That area is called the Endless Sea, but what if it's not huge, but merely dangerous and confusing to sail? Almost like someone didn't want people being able to sail in that direction and discovering things. Also to the East......where the mysterious Origin of highstorms is. Mmm? Edit: Found an older thread with some similar ideas:

Well I dunno about soulcasting meat, but we do have limited access to cultured meat, which is pretty much grown in a petri dish from cells. Supposedly tastes ok too. It is the opposite of cheap and mass produced though. As for cremling claws, there's always the delicious lobster. Or scorpions, which are eaten in plenty places across the world. Lavis, not sure. Rice? Quinoa? Wheat? Barley? Thinking we could make fried lobster meatballs or maybe meaty arrancini. But the dark gravy throws me off, because I then I want tomato sauces. I got unexpectedly sucked into this topic XD

I am a serious sucker for soundtracks. Well placed music sends me into waterfall mode. The end of Braveheart had me ugly sobbing for like 30 straight minutes. The Lord of the Rings trilogy movies in several different places. Hand shoved onto my face in the theater trying not to make noises. The soundtrack hit me so hard. The end of the book Marley and Me. Cause dogs. Dogs are the best. Oh man, I'm crying right now thinking about. The Lion King occasionally will still hit me hard. 1) Mufasa 2) the end with the ascension to Pride Rock with the rain and the MUSIC ahhhh

I wasn't part of the 17th Shard when Tor was doing it's OB Tuesday pre-release chapters online, but I was reading them as I assume many of you were. I really, really, reallllllly liked them. It helped me slow through a book. And not choose reading > sleep. What was it like here? Were you all allowed to discuss the chapters on the spoiler board as they came out? If so, I like the the concept even more. It's like a book club gathering. Nobody's knowledge is overwhelming the others and the conversation tends to be highly focused on that particular week's offerings. Edit: Ran out of poll questions: Would you read an ENTIRE book this way? Specifically, would you read one of Brandon's doorstops novels this way?

Agree with others, seems like a pacing and volume thing. OB: Several "super amazing WOW 10/10" moments in an otherwise large lukewarm bath. BoM: Pretty steady flow of "hey cool!" moments, but didn't occasionally make me freak out like OB did. So I gotta tip my hat to OB. Plus I'm Stormlight biased.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Whoa. That is beautiful! You did an extraordinary job and have some serious talent! Do you do the instruments, writing, composing, the whole shebang?

A calm night at home with a restless Dalinar..... "Navani, gemheart, where's my Shardplate?" "What?" "Where. Is. My. SHARDPLATE?" "I...mmmm.... put it away." "Where?" "Why do you need to know?" "I NEED it!" "Dalinar Kholin, don't you think about going out in that highstorm. I've been planning this fabrial experiment for two months!" "The world is in danger!" "My evening's in danger!" "Storms woman! We are talking about the greater unification of Roshar!" "Greater unification? I AM YOUR WIFE. We are the most unified thing you're ever gonna get!"

I never really like Steris. She seemed too caricature for me (though Era 2 in general seems to have some wackier personalities, tbh).

I drew a picture of a crab for you but can't figure out how to post it. Woe is me for technology. Edit: Pardon my rudeness as I use your welcome thread to finagle tech. Ah. Here you are. Ugly crab thing with too many legs. It has been sad as its dearest friend, the wet slime who slunk across rocks with it on rainy days, has vanished. He appreciates your affection.

I wonder/worry that books 6-10 are going to be like Radiant Generation 2.0. Like maybe there's still characters around, but they've shifted to that mentor type of roll and we'll get some new faces or at least older young faces (I'm looking at you Lift. You're the leading lady of the next gen.) Other worry/wonder is that a lot of characters I love are going Beyond. Will book 5 be the Culling Book? As a crazy unlikely theory: All the characters from the Interludes become the major characters. Current major characters become interludes.