earthexile

I would be astonished if Dalinar is still facing the questions about his sanity or goals, after everyone saw what happened in Thaylen City. His political position should be stronger than ever.

The Reshi Isles sound like my kind of place to live, with all the tropical debauchery and bloodless conflicts. Naked ladies of every ethnicity sounds nice too.

That's what I mean though, Rosharans mostly think of all birds as "types of chicken." Dalinar sees a bunch of little black chickens flying around in a flock. Shallan sees a colorful chicken that can imitate human speech. Rock knows what a goose is.

I've been very suspicious about the Horneaters ever since Rock's narration mentioned that they fletch their arrows with "goose" feathers. What's a goose, Rock?

The uncovered hands of the women, and the ethnic diversity of the group, both suggest a pre-Vorin metropolitan society. There are also a lion and a dragon across the top of the art, neither of which exist on Roshar. The piece definitely seems to be depicting the migration of a world's worth of people onto Roshar.

I approach it this way, I am an atheist, so what would I think if I met a being such as the Stormfather? What if, like Jasnah, I was able to discover reliable information about the nature of these beings? I'm sure I would be very impressed, probably even awestruck, but I feel that way about the ocean or a thunderstorm, and I never feel the urge to worship them.

I can't decide whether that seems like a conscious action on behalf of the spren, or if it's just part of the suite of apparent technology that Plate always has. It's very smart armor. It conforms automatically to your body, listens to your mental commands, augments your natural strength, speed, and endurance, makes part of itself translucent for a visor, rebuilds itself with Stormlight, and so on. Doesn't really surprise me that there would be some kind of orientation assistance too. I wonder if, because the spren that comprise Plate seem to be lesser spren than the Blade spren, and are not as closely connected to the Radiants as their bonded spren, they're somehow "less dead" than the deadeyes. That might explain why dead Plate is still so delightfully useful.

I believe the Dawnshards are epic-scale fabrials, designed for the purpose of terraforming. Roshar is covered with what looks to me like the scars of human experimentation. I think structures like the Windblades and Urithiru were probably Soulcast, or otherwise constructed with gigantic surges. The Purelake is also suspicious to me. And clearly Shinovar itself was Soulcast into being a piece of an entirely different world. Now there's a cache in Aimia of these ultimate devices, and anyone who used one as a weapon would be able to cause absolutely ridiculous levels of destruction.

If you're prepared to spend some money, check out the Graphic Audio version of Oathbringer. It's fantastic. Background music, sound effects, different voice actors for each character. They are like the old radio plays. Very engaging.

I doubt anyone could stand against Odium's forces for a year without serious support from Radiants. Mundane Rosharan forces just don't have what it takes to go up against lightning attacks and thunderclasts. We can assume that either Herdaz has allied with Urithiru, or they've collected their own patriotic Radiants. We know they've been appearing all over the world.

I've worn glasses for twenty years and they still feel like a silly thing hanging on my face. They never started feeling like a part of my identity. I wonder if a delusionally narcissistic person, healed with Stormlight, would become more attractive than they were before.

I would love to see what an extremely powerful and experienced Awakener can do on a Rosharan diet of Investiture. Apropos of nothing, since Shardblades used to be alive, does that make them corpses that can be Awakened?

I don't understand

I always interpreted that rattle as a reference to Nale. He spent years murdering potential Radiants in order to postpone the Desolation, I can see him standing there over a baby and convincing himself that killing it would be the right thing to do. Or it could be a metaphor, the suckling child could represent the potential Radiants, collectively. Not sure.

The Words seem to come as a sort of magical inspiration in the moment, for most of the Radiants. The only ones we've seen coldly examining their Words in a relaxed setting are the Skybreakers, which makes sense since their whole thing is to be dispassionate and premeditated.

I've just re-listened to the Kaza chapter and something occurred to me. We have seen the effects of Soulcaster use, transforming the bodies of the user over time, with stone, grain, and smoke. This is all obviously deforming and creepy, and eventually deadly. But what happens to a person who Soulcasts a bunch of flesh, or water, or blood, which are normal aspects of a normal human body? Does a Flesh Savant become more... meaty? I am interested in everyone's thoughts on this.

That's one of the things that's going to make this Desolation different. Taln notices it immediately, when he has a lucid moment; this is the most technologically advanced that Roshar has ever been.

I suspect they'll be able to make Wheel of Time-style "gateways" by making distant points so similar that they become the same point.

I love how one of the Cosmere constants is that protagonists are usually as grossed out by seafood as Brandon is. He's amazingly open minded when it comes to religion, politics, philosophy, but his descriptions of shellfish are always repulsive.

I think Rosharan life evolved according to some kind of Metaphorical Selection

I don't think Brandon would shy away from a rape as part of her backstory, there's certainly enough of that in Mistborn. But it doesn't fit with Jasnah, I think. From the hints we've been given, it seems more likely that she suffered from some sort of horribly mismanaged mental illness as a kid. A lot of societies used to treat mental illness by confining the patient in darkness, which we now know is just torture.

I think you're thinking in Earth terms with that road idea. Couple of things- the ground on Roshar, other than in Shinovar, is bare stone. It would not be a simple matter to carve channels into it. The Highstorms also fling around boulders and other heavy stuff, which would make the maintenance of ceramic roads a real struggle.

Dalinar might as well change his glyph pair to DEAD and MAN. He's got every possible target in the world of literature on him. He's just achieved enlightenment and become the best possible version of himself. He's come to terms with his past and literally made peace with his demon. He's become so ridiculously personally powerful that he can single handedly turn the tide of a battle. He has married the one who got away. He has written his autobiography. He's also a Moses archetype, communing with the Almighty to lead his people, using miraculous powers. And that means he's not going to set foot in the Promised Land. We'll miss him, but if anybody was ever at the end of their arc, it's Dalinar.

I think Jasnah would see the Shards for what they are, Human beings with a metric crapton of Investiture allotted to them. She has access to some of the fundamental forces that were attributed to the Almighty, and the ability to see into multiple layers of reality. She's seen behind the curtain, so to speak. When someone else in another Cosmere novel gained the powers of a Shard, he named himself God. But I think if Jasnah gained a Shard and ascended, she would see herself as Woman With Incredible Power. It's a matter of what do you think a God is?

I think it's really interesting that Iriali secular society would have a problem with homosexuality, despite the local religion approving of it. Usually in a given culture, sexual mores are at least related to religion and/or philosophy, if not explicitly outlined by it. It's very interesting to imagine a culture where the religious people are hippies and the atheists are conservatives.