king of nowhere

or it could be the shard of agoraphobia and be avoiding populated planets for this

Someone could ask sanderson in the next signing maybe

sanderson has many stories in his head that he would like to write. what he does is sitting down at his desk and writing whatever he feels like at the moment. that's how he can write so much, by writing what he feels like and not what he feels compelled to. Still not sure how that can work, to me it would be like resting from carrying a boulder by carrying a different boulder, but it works for him. So, despite having a sort of schedule, and some contractual binds, he may at any moment want to write a chapter of something else, and then he will like it and will make it a new book.

anyway, one problem of the wheel of time is that too many characters were introduced. I think brandon is specifically trying to avoid setting up too many characters, especially in the form of secondary nobles who will make little plots that will never be devoted enough time and will leave most readers confused. we don't even know the names of all the highprinces.

I think kids just aren't mentioned. probably sadeas has sons, but they are not important to the story. or maybe they remained in the capital or family land to care for day to day business. EDIT: after all, we see the military leadership of alethkar on the shattered plains cause they're fighing a war, but there i9s still a nation to be cared for. it is mentioned the queen remained behind to take care of civilian business, for example.

If Vin hadn't killed him, the lord ruler would have taken the power of the well again, because the well was refilling anyway. Do we have any clue at what he would have done with it? Would he, with his increased experience in the power's use (after all, he had already used it once), have tried to fix his previous mistakes, and put an end to the ashworld - but still keeping himself as the head of the new world? Would he have have tried to fix the flaws in his power he left the last time? Stuff like extinguishing for good the genes of feruchemy, stomping out all remaining voices of what was before his reign, remove what few allomancy had gone to the skaa through interbreeding? Would he apply "maintenance" needed for the final empire to work? refill the ashmounts that would eventually go empty? alter his age, make himself younger so he won't need incremental amounts of atium to survive (which would lead eventually to a point where he cannot stay young anymore)? create a few new beads of lerasium to restore the original power of the allomancy? refill the mineral deposits that would otherwise go exhausted over time? Would he do nothing and content himself with having kept ruin at bay for another thousand years?

You are a lucky guy. When I feel very sleepy, reading makes me feel sleepier. but if I stop reading and try to actually sleep, I often find sleep elusive. Since I suffer from slight insomnia, this always work in the worst possible ways. Reading in the night before going to bed do not help me to sleep more or better, but I will have troubles if at work first thing in the morning I have to read a document with some level of complexity. And if I wake up at 4 am to take a plane, I'll be too sleepy to read, but not sleepy enough to actually sleep. In the old times that resulted in me being unable to do anything but get bored iin an uncomfortable seat for all the duration of the flight. Now I learned to not fight it, but rather use it; if I have to wake up at 4 am I just avoid getting any sleep in the first place, so I will be tired enough to actually sleep on the plane. Or I will at least be too sleepy to notice how boring it is staying seated unable to read or do anything.

I think that discussion about donating organs may be moot. in order to donate an organ you need to be at least partially compatible with the receiver, so that his immunitary system won't attack the new organ immediately (still a transplanted organ won't last forever, but I think if you're not compatible it last even less). since you cannot change your dna, you'd only be able to donate organ to a very small number of people. Or I may be wrong and it only applies to bone marrow? Not sure.

I read on some twitter that brandon did a Q&A at the release party for WoR. Is that available somewhere - possibly in written form, cause I find understanding spoken english from a pc speaker much more difficult than reading it? In general, is there a place where I can find an index of all the Q&A with brandon?

I see no one mentioning it, but since the moons orbit in an opposite sense to roshar rotation, that means that they have an orbital period of one rosharan day, which summed with roshar's rotation means they will make a tour around roshar twice during a rosharan day (considering the surface of roshar as a still reference system). that is consistent with all the other facts we have. if they had a greater orbital speed and made 3 or 4 or more rounds every day, they would appear more than once per night. instead with an apparent time of half a day they stay in the sky one per night and once per day, but during the day the sun is too bright and covers them up; also, they are much farther from the planet. people standing on the opposite side of the planet would still see the moons going up each night, but they would seem smaller, and they would probably be visible at all times since they would be in the larger part of the eclypse. Furthermore, they have all the same orbital period, but the ellypses may have different orientations. About the moons causing the highstorms with gravitation influence, I would rule it out. They are small moons, basically they are rocks two or three times the size of mount everest. which is pretty big as a mountain, but nowhere near big enough to make a significant influence on the gravitational field. You don't see water rising in the sky on the coast of india because of the gravitational attraction of the hymalaia range, which is bigger and closer than the rosharan's moons. For those we can estimate a distance from the planet of no less than 10 thousands kilometers at the perigee (25000 km is a reasonable guess for major semiaxis, roshar's density is unknown but unlikely to produce a big error, and it would take a really huge eccentricity to have a closer apogee than that). If there is an influence of moons on the highstorms, it is mystical, not physical. AS for braize, it may be on another orbit, in which case even at its closest would be a few tens of millions of km from roshar, too far to exert a significant gravitational influence, or it is in a lagrangian point with roshar, in which case it is always the same distance. this second hypotesis is more likely, cause if braize was in a different orbit, then it would likely be too hot or too cold to support life (not necessarily however: mars is colder than earth, but still warm enough that it could support life around the equator. if it had enough gravity to keep water and a thicker atmosphere). I'm now wondering at the composition of the moons. those colors aren't natural, and I can't think of many substances that give those kind of colors. certainly not substances that come naturally in phobos-sized blocks. they were crafted specifically to have those colors. I wonder what actually possessed a shard to craf some giant rocks of unusual composition and put them in those highly unlikely orbits, knowing that withing a few million years at most they would destabilize enough to crash on the surface. what's the purpose of that? Wait, totally crackpot theory: the moons are actually really big spren. that would justify their color and the fact that they follow odd orbits. It would also justify that they seem to have some mystical significance that cannot be explained with physical phenomenon. That's all I can think for now. Sorry if my explanations are a bit confusing at times; normally I have no problem expressing myself in english, but for this specific argument I did.

i guessed he just stood in bed, eyes closed and shutters down, not sleeping but not really doing anything. you know, kind of what you do when you are sick and you feel too weak to get up and can't summon the concentration to read.

When you would like to be a high schoool physics teacher so you could give problems like "the planet roshar has a gravity of 0.7 g and a day last 20 hours. calculate the radius of its geosyncronous orbit" or "assuming that roshar has the same albedo as earth and the same average temperature, and assuming that the total energy irradiated by the sun is directly proportional to its surface and the surface is directly proportional to the mass, calculate the mass of roshar's sun and roshar's orbital radius"

yeah, we know the orbital period is one rosharan day (20 hours for us), and roshar gravity is 0.7 g, so we should be able to calculate geosyncronous orbit. I'm too lazy, and too rusty on that, to do it myself. I also don't know how eccentricity fits into it

I won't be able to read the book until easter, and I am thus surrounded by awwthissucksspren. Starting from march 5, I will see spoilerspren everytime I'll visit this forum. Then, when I'll finally be able to read it... is there a finallyspren?

I work abroad. my brother is a sanderfan too. we preordered the book, but they will go to my family home (my brother want to read it as much as me, and he complains that they may get damaged in the plane trip if I get them and then bring them back with me) and I won't get to read them until I go home for my easter holiday. I considered ordering another copy of the book for me, but with expedition cost it will be quite a lot, and with expedition time it won't arrive to me much sooner than easter anyway. Now, if I were to actually find a copy of WoR on the local booksteres here, I may even consider buying it just to not wait, but I feel it would be quite silly to own two copies of the same book. Thank you, I never knew I could do that. Now I feel more ready to resist the spoler temptations

With all the anticipation for words of radiance, I'm thinking being a cadmium misting would be damnation cool. I have some savings that will be enough to execute my plan: 1) stop the rent for my apartment, leave my job and cut all links to society. 2) buy food for a few months, and enough cadmium to pull out the rest of the plan 3) find a sheltered place that is close enough to a bookstore (maybe a small cave). store cadmium, food and some clothes there, plus one mattress and one pillow 4) grab my copy of way of kings, go to sheltered place, lay on the mattress, start reading, burn cadmium. 5) finish the book, all the while burning cadmium. 6) By the time I finished the book, the next book in line should have come out. So drop the bubble, go to the near city, go to a bookstore, get my coopy of the next book, go back to shelter, repeat 4 and 5 7) repeat 4 to 6 until I finished the whole series in one go. On the plus side, once done I'll be 20 years in the future, which will probably be slightly better than the present, cause, you know, progress. On the down side, everyone I've ever loved will have long forgotten me. If I'm particularly unlucky, I've been declared dead andd my bank account will have gone to my closest relatives.

The guy who made that post must be another book nerd like us. wanting to fill the space between books is exactly what brought me to forums in the first place. Still, the hard part for me will be that I'm not getting WoR before easter. So starting on march 4 I'll have to read all your excitement knowing I'll still have six weeks to wait, and who knows how many spoilers I will accidentally pick just by reading the thread titles on "most recent topics" in the main page (for example "I'm so sad X died"). That not counting the possibility that I may just give in to temptation and go read the tvtropes page for it when it will come out. If I could set my pc to block my access to this site until I actually got my copy, I'd do it.

Because we won't read about them anymore. And because their friends will miss them. Now, back on topic, I think you guys are arguing over different definitions of what a "god" is. IF we go by the concept most diffused in the western world, of a god omnipotent and all encompassing, then the shards definitely do NOT qualify. Neither did the greek pantheon. If you go on the easter concept of a venerable supernatural entity (as far as I understand it; I'm not an expert on the field) then they definitely are. so are the greek pantheon, and maybe even sentient spren like syl. Me, I would veer toward naytheism: those are extremely powerful beings, they are something I cannot explain with science (yet!), I can fear their power and respect their wisdom, but I wouldn't see them as "holy". Being a shard in particular carries no moral autority, except for a better capability of predicting the consequences of an action (which is important to decide if it is wrong or not). If ruin was a god in the stricter definition, then his desire of destroying the world would be moral and it would be wrong to oppose it. Actually, thinking about that, I don't think I'd accept anything as god under that definition. I just cannot accept the idea that something is right or wrong because someone says so without further explanation. I could accept a statement like "doing that will have all kind of consequences that are too complicated to explain, but my superior mind could come to the conclusion that in one hundred years people will suffer for it", but not "I declare this thing unholy because I don't like it". So, to me ruin is not a god. it's just a very powerful being who created life on earth and could snuff it out in moments. If an extremely advanced alien race had created life on earth, could see anywhere with spy satellites, and could snuff us out in moments with some weapon of mass destruction, I'd definitely not see them as gods. I have imagined sci-fi stories with civilization more powerful than ruin, and they certainly were no gods (although they could have easily convinced us that they were, if nothing else by rewriting all of our brains) Back to sazed, yes, he wasn't rational in that book. for example, he dismissed the terris religion as filled with clichè, not recognizing that it actually explained everything - what was the thing in the well of ascension, what was happening in the world, and especially why the believers were not blessed. Sazed was going through a bad time, you have to forgive him.

I read that spoiler knowing full well that I would not trust it very much. wouldn't be the first time someone would think to make a joke on a forum by spreadung false spoilers. Unfortunately, I think likely jasnah will go sooner or later. She gives me the same sensation kelsier did: that she is too competent and, if not killed, will solve the plot too soon and too easily. I hope I'm wrong, I really like her character. Brandon said he wanted to save kelsier to break the stereotype "the mentor always die". he killed kelsier anyway. now jasnah is a mentor, he has to spare at least her! Aside from her, dalinar is likely to sacrifice himself to accomplish something great, and pass the testimonials to his sons, who are likely to survive. Elhokar is the only one I don't care about, but he's the most likely to survive since his death would throw alethkar in disarray. damnation, now I'm sad. I like the kholin family and many of them will die soon

we don't know how big is the main ocean of roshar, but as far as i understand from the map, roshar is smaller than earth. the continent roshar is probably something like 10000 kilometers large, while earth has a circumference of 40000 km. I think most likely roshar is a bit smaller than earth, with about the same density. other people before me already gave the notions for rosharan rotation and orbital period. We also know that in roshar system (I know it is easier to remember, but using the same name for the planet, the continent, and the star system can be confusing) there is another planet supporting life, which is a pretty big astronomical coincidence. I don't think we know if it is closer of farther from the start, but it must have a very different duration of the year. About sel, nalthis, and scadrial, I don't think we were ever given detailed informations on the duration of the year and of the day, so I would assume they are roughly equal to that of earth until proved otherwise

sometimes it's frustrating to see a topic, thinking up some good answer, and see someone already used it. I wonder if there are pterryspren, hand-sized spren shaped like a disc supported by four elephants standing atop a turtle that turn out when someone makes a discworld reference. if so, this forum should attract at least a few

that's just cause we're using hard magic instead of soft magic. IF you want hard magic, i.e. magic the reader can understand, you have to have a limited number of effects. as a result, the "wizard" cannot just stay back and cast spells, he has to rely on a combo of his powers + physical abilities, and here you have mistborns, windrunners, etc. Or, you need a 14-book epic to get the readers used enough at how the magic works. I prefer it that way. I never liked wizards and elves, and I actually got into fantasy mostly for the worldbuilding. Therefore I prefer by far a hard magic system that fits into the world, rather than some vague magic that will drive the plot in a sort of deus ex machina way

from what I see from the books, stormlight givves better reflexes than pewter. szeth was able to stay in a room full of soldiers and evade all attacks. that's something someone with pewter, no matter how badass, would manage to do. So, i assume stormlight gives better speed. It also gives faster healing. I don't know about strenght, and if it gives balance at all.

It doesn't? I assumed it did, and birds would only need to land and seek shelter during storms, but if that's the case... maybe there's still some winged creature? maybe the symbol comes from shinovar? are they skyeels instead of wings? EDIT: good point stroniax, maybe it's a windspren

Intersting to see how the gliphs are shaped. freedom is two wings, a symbolic association with freedom common in many cultures. bridge 4 is the stylized shape of a man carrying a bridge, and i guess the sort of X over it stands for 4. I can't understand is sas and nahn have any meaning, as well as kholin and tanat. Also, is there any reason why kholin is almost a specular image of tanat? About the 17th shard, I wonder how they can be around all important events. either they have a spy network to put the CIA to shame, or they are adept in the ancient magic of spoiler-reading