Senor Feesh

Spoilers for WoK and WoR follow.

Just as an additional point, Alendi was a Seeker. So Allomancy certainly existed pre-TLR. IF Endowment has an opposite (honestly I doubt it) it wouldn't be as simple as 'not endowing'. To Endow is to give. By extension, its opposite would be to take. I have no idea how this would manifest Shardically, but I suppose Abrahamic religions do have some precedent for the notion (the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away). The Shards are all considered divine in some respect as well. The second letter defines Odium as 'God's own divine hatred, separated from the virtues that gave it context'. So whatever the Shards are, they're all considered to be an aspect of God (which we can probably assume is a positive thing, but we'll see.

Zahel - speaks in metaphors to do with colour that no-one else seems to understand. Mentions a voice he hasn't heard in years. Is filled with regret (ok, that goes for a lot of characters). The first point is the most telling though. Given that there has to date only ever been one sentient sword in the Cosmere, and I can't imagine Brandon introducing another with the same physical characteristics (black smoke) and motivation (Would you like to destroy some evil today?) we can pretty much dispense with any notion that it's NOT Nightblood at the end of WoR. Seeing as Nightblood made it to Roshar, and Zahel exhibits the qualities outlined above, it stands to reason that he's Vasher. As to WHY he's here, that's easy. Stormlight. Much easier to acquire than Breath, no? The HOW is still a mystery.

I don't think the Shin sailor's quote IS a death rattle. I always read it as him being aware of his pre-death vision but not subsumed by it (perhaps this is something to do with Stone Shamanism?) and refusing to give the information to Taravangian's nurses out of disgust at what they're doing in the 'hospitals' ("I wish to sleep. I know now why you do what you do, and I hate you for it. I will not speak of the truths I see".)

Gah! That'll teach me for skim-reading, sorry about that. That's good enough for me, I'll keep an eye on the Crafty website - thanks for the info

Without having the time to watch the Vid myself right now, do they give any hint as to a release date?

Ah, I misread the original post. I actually thought we were discussing whether or not Forgery could make it so that the recipient of the spike had never actually received it. As in, if you were Stamping the spikee.

Yes, that's my point. I also referenced her full name in a previous post in this thread.

Difficult question (which means it's a good one). Investiture interferes with other forms of magic, and Spikes are invested objects. It's plausible that they would interfere with the forgery. It's been a while since I thought about forgery with any detail; do we actually know where Investiture enters into the system? Obviously it must be accounted for. I assume it's like the Dor, and it bleeds through filtered by the markings made on the Soulstamp? That sounds about right. Can't decide if a heavily invested spike would mess with that process or not, but it seems likely.

I don't believe that the Epigraph refers to the Parshendi as friends. I assumed Friends before' was in reference to Dalinar and Adolin, and the next line about 'the feast I must drink' is not directly referencing the previous line when it says 'their faces'. Could be wrong though.

I don't think Syl is the root word. I could be wrong, but I always assumed Brandon chose the name based on the word 'sylph', which is a kind of air or wind spirit.

Lichie, if you read my post in full then you'll have noticed that I think it far more likely that your actions and intentions attract the Stormfather (and thus the visions). I postulated that perhaps it was tWoK that inspired both Gavilar and Dalinar to try and live by the ideals which then attracted Skyface. I'll read your thread later, I suspect we're thinking along the same lines and I just hadn't read your post before.

Ok, so this is only half-baked (I'm in work, and very tired, so this will probably come out a bit patchy too as I'll be typing between calls). As always, please correct me if the following contradicts any of the facts; I don't have copies of the books to hand to reference. Anyway. Dalinar's visions, sent by the Almighty, actually came from the Stormfather, who is in some way a remnant of Honor. However, we also know that Gavliar was having the visions too. The only two people to have them, both of the same family, which may prove relevant, but also two men who ultimately went on to attempt to unify Alethkar. So, why not Elhokar? He is, after all, the King. Is it because he's such a shoddy leader? Was there some quality of leadership the Stormfather could see in Dalinar that Elhokar lacked? Something Dalinar DIDN'T have before Gavilar's assassination (back when he was the Blackthorn)? After all, the Stormfather could as easily have given those visions to Dalinar first. So, what else do these two men have in common, besides blood. Great warriors, leaders of men... and The Way of Kings. Dalinar only started reading tWoK after Gavliar's death. Gavilar used to read the same book too. I'm reasonably sure that Gavilar didn't decide to unify Alethkar until he started having the visions ("UNITE THEM"). So, my crackpot theory - either there is something inherent to The Way of Kings which is some way triggers the Stormfather's selection process for who to give the visions to OR - and I think this is more likely, given how the Ideals work - something about internalising the lessons of tWoK, and attempting to live according to those values, gets you the attention of ol' Skyface. So go on, be brutal - tear this apart as only dedicated Sharder's can

Also a lot of 'Understand?' (Kolo?)

Yay, another chance to plug Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series really interesting fantasy/clockworkpunk setting. I'll second Mieville as well. His language can be pretty obtuse at tines, but the quality of his writing is superb.

Legend, thanks

Just having a look over on Coppermind and I'm unable to find the annotated drawing from Shallan's notebook of Pattern. I only have the Kindle version, so I don't have a high-res image to try and make sense of the smudged text - any help?

Same as me then; does the workaround also work for you?

Now you're 80 and a Prelan

What browser and OS are you using? I find that if I click the 'lightswitch' icon in the top left of the reply box then the quote function works normally; this may work for you too.

Isn't there a more recent WoB that they WEREN'T all written by the same person? Perhaps it was true then but no longer is? Or he changed his mind? Or I'm remembering incorrectly?

Very small point, but Syl is short for Sylphrena, so I wouldn't read too much into that particular phonetic similarity. Also pretty sure I read in another thread recently that Word of Brandon is that all the planets had their names before Adonalsium was shattered.

Was going to ask if that was Kindle Fire, but I guess that's been answered My Paperwhite (my precioussss) has grey also.

I agree with Argent that it's only one type of intelligence. I'm only ok at learning languages, but I'm much better at numbers, and I'm reckoned pretty smart by most of my friends. Thing is, there are plenty of things I'm awful at - thinking laterally for example. I'm good at absract logic puzzles, but terrible at real-life applications to things. Does that make me intelligent or not?