Pagerunner

I need to do a thorough review of the previous prologues. Something's not adding up to me about the Sons of Honor. If they were trying to bring the Heralds out of hiding by restarting the Desolations... then what was Gavilar talking with two of them about? Without the rest of the Sons of Honor; this isn't the same secret meeting that Eshonai stumbled into last book. (Come on, Gavilar, step it up a little. How can you have had all these secrets when you can't get any privacy?) Was Gavilar merely using the Sons of Honor to further his own secret ends? But until I can put in the time for that, I'll just note a few peculiar lines that started gears turning in my head: Could be a throwaway line. Could be an Unmade influence. Again, could be a meaningless detail to give specificity to Navani's PoV. Or, is someone actively screwing with maps? I'm reminded of how Lin Davar and Amaram had extensive personal map collections. Could be a whiff of a conspiracy here, something big being hidden in plain sight by Stalin-ing it out of all the maps.

Looks like you got the transcription while it was in the middle of getting worked on. You may want to update your post once it's been completed!

Here's where you'll be able to upload audio files, once you've recorded them: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/395-icon-2019/ Signing lines tend to run long, so make sure you've got plenty of battery life in whatever you're using to record! Panels are nice to get, if possible; I suspect the Tuesday lecture and the Thursday Q&A would be most worth recording as well, with potential for updates/readings/juicy bits.

The schedule is up on Brandon's site; I updated my original post. Lots of signings, most of which are ticketed, so anyone going should make sure to figure out how to get a hold of tickets.

They've only been previewing it; still waiting for the Kickstarter to kick off. Could be any day now, now that GenCon is over.

TWG 100%: Brandon 100% (116/116), Peter 100% (116/116), Isaac 100% (75/75), Ben 100% (38/38) 17S 100%: Brandon 100% (102/102), Peter 100% (108/108), Isaac 100% (108/108), Ben 100% (97/97) Reddit 79%: Brandon 100% (131/131), Peter 100% (104/104), Isaac 100% (22/22), Ben 11% (9/85), Adam 100% (13/13), Store 100% (3/3) Twitter 42%: Brandon 100% (124/124), Peter 15% (19/124), Isaac 15% (19/131), Adam 35% (19/55) Blog 100%: Brandon 100% (211/211) Social Media Total: 81% (1431/1760) Theoryland Review: 10% (121/1183) Events and Signings Review: 0% (0/397) And just like that, we're back on target. Back to slogging through Ben's Reddit posts. This guy sure loves video games. I've only added one post so far: And, ironically enough, I also recently added this from Brandon This is what it's all about, boys and girls. All this stuff, these little bits, that have been lost and have to get asked again. Gives me the motivation to keep cranking. Because even the minutia is still relevant six and a half years later.

A little late, but the Stormlight Four reading and the Skyward Two reading have both been transcribed. (The latter could probably use a once-over by someone who read the first book.) Stormlight: Skyward:

No Kickstarter yet, but the latest update (attached to the OP) has a mockup of the shiny new dice: Anyone going to be at GenCon this year? Maybe stop by and get some more pictures? There will be a kickstarter-exclusive dice tray there that they'll be previewing. EDIT: die-by-die analysis. I could definitively identify twelve dice (based on the symbols), tentatively identify three others based on color and dice type (pure metals are done in a different style than alloys, with harmonium styled like an alloy for symmetry [I guess]), and there were five that I didn't want to hazard a guess on, since I don't know alloy colors well enough.

Brandon recently let it slip on Twitter that he'll be in France in October, for a signing in Paris and for an appearance at the Utopiales festival (which Google tells me runs from October 31st through November 3rd). There hasn't been posted on the website, so I don't know any details. But are there any French Sharders lurking around who could record one or more of these events?

Brandon will be at DragonCon this year, starting on August 29th. No specific details yet, that I could find. Here's the page on his website. https://brandonsanderson.com/upcoming-events/#18021. Is anyone planning at attending? Anyone willing to record signing lines and/or panels? UPDATE 2: Here's where you can upload audio, if you record signings or panels. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/394-dragoncon-2019/ UPDATE: Here's the schedule. Thursday, August 29th History of Fandom & Crazy StoriesTime: 6:00–6:30 p.m.Location: Hyatt Embassy EFWith: Brandon Sanderson, Bill Fawcett (M) Time for those “Drink & Know Things Stories” as our panelists tell stories that may not fit into a typical panel. The History of Fandom is very much an oral history passed down. Circle round & listen to the tales of our history & legends. Friday, August 30th Male Stars of Fantasy/SFTime: 11:30–12:30 p.m.Location: Hyatt Regency VI-VIIWith: Nancy Knight (M), Kevin J Anderson, Michael Stackpole, Robert J Sawyer, Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher The best of the best tell their secrets of successful writing careers The Heroes of High FantasyTime: 1:00–2:00 p.m.Location: Hyatt Regency VI-VIIWith: Jim Butcher, Marie Brennan, Mercedes Lackey, Aleron Kong Legendary authors of High Fantasy meet and tell us their tales of adventure and derring-do! SigningTime: 4:00–5:00 p.m.Location: Marriott International Hall South 4-5This is a ticketed event. Booth SigningTime: 5:30–7:00 p.m.Location: Amerimart Booth 1513This is a ticketed signing. You can pick up your free ticket at my booth (1513). Saturday, August 31st Writers Of The Future: Story prompts, short fiction…Time: 1:00–2:00 p.m.Location: Hyatt International SouthWith: Brandon Sanderson, Tim Powers, Larry Niven, Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Robert J. Sawyer, Jody Lynn Nye How do you become one of the 12 winners to be published in the annual anthology? Writers of the Future judges discuss the Contest, tips on story prompts, and short fiction. Then in the 2nd half, enjoy Q&A with the judges. Come to this panel and learn how it can help you. An Hour With Literary Guest of Honor Brandon SandersonTime: 4:00–5:00 p.m.Location: Marriott Imperial Ballroom Booth SigningTime: 5:30–7:00 p.m.Location: Amerimart Booth 1513This is a ticketed signing. You can pick up your free ticket at my booth (1513). Sunday, September 1st Warbreaker 10th AnniversaryTime: 2:30–3:00 p.m.Location: Hyatt Centennial IWith: Brandon Sanderson, Dan dos Santos Would you like to destroy some evil? Or perhaps you’d rather talk about Literary Guest of Honor Brandon Sanderson’s stand-alone novel & preview some of the gorgeous artwork commissioned for the 10th anniversary edition? SigningTime: 3:15–5:00 p.m.Location: Hyatt Art Show w/ Dan dos SantosThis is a ticketed event. Crossing the Age Boundaries: Line between YA and AdultTime: 7:0–8:00 p.m.Location: Hyatt International SouthWith: Brandon Sanderson, Jody Lynne Nye, Tamsin L. Silver, David Weber, Christopher Morgan (M) Monday, September 2nd Booth SigningTime: 1:00–3:30 p.m.Location: Amerimart Booth 1513This is a ticketed signing. You can pick up your free ticket at my booth (1513).

TWG 100%: Brandon 100% (116/116), Peter 100% (116/116), Isaac 100% (75/75), Ben 100% (38/38) 17S 100%: Brandon 100% (102/102), Peter 100% (108/108), Isaac 100% (108/108), Ben 100% (97/97) Reddit 72%: Brandon 100% (131/131), Peter 95% (99/104), Isaac 77% (17/22), Ben 0% (0/85), Adam 62% (8/13) Twitter 37%: Brandon 96% (119/124), Peter 11% (14/124), Isaac 11% (14/131), Adam 25% (14/55) Blog 98%: Brandon 98% (206/211) Social Media Total: 79% (1382/1760) Theoryland Review: 10% (121/1183) Events and Signings Review: 0% (0/397) A very busy summer caught me kind of unexpected. I'm currently catching up on the past six months or so of social media updates, before I can get back to working on the backlog. Here was a pretty cool thing Brandon said about the Iri recently:

The Szeth card was for something else entirely, not the Stormlight board game. That's a bummer that this Shattered Plains game is dead. I wonder if this had to do with a license expiring sort of thing. I know some fans have been working on their own board game prototypes; maybe this a sign one of them will get a shot? Or maybe a consolidation under Crafty (who I think has only the MIstborn rights right now, but I may also be making that up.) But regardless of what's going on right now, I expect something will happen (either a revival of this game, or a new board game) if and when a Stormlight movie or TV show comes out. The Shattered Plains is almost tailor-made for a wargame, and once it's been depicted on screen, I'm sure there'll be even more money in it for whoever can manage to pull together a good game.

Don't know how long this has been up on Brandon's site; I just saw it today. The convention is longer, but Brandon will only be doing events on Friday, it appears. Here's a copy of his schedule: Anyone able to record? Obviously, the signing would be the most important, but I can imagine some interesting tidbits coming out of his 4:30 panel, as well, if something reminds him of a planned or unpublished story.

This might be the first we've heard about this particular Lopen story. Brandon has talked about a short story between WoR and OB, with Lopen and Elhokar laying low during the exodus to Urithiru and Lopen legally becoming King of Alethkar for a brief period of time. But unless he misspoke here, this would be something else, set between WoK and WoR. But there's not too much of a gap there, not really room for anything exciting to happen with Lopen. I'm curious what such a story could possibly be about.

The dot to the left of a topic title, when you're viewing a forum, is what you're looking for. (It will appear as a star for topics you've posted in.)

I've pulled some quotes together in this topic, which you may find helpful:

What how is it May already I could have sworn April just started a few days ago. No progress this month.

The Advanced Search can search for members, and if you put in no criteria you get everybody. https://www.17thshard.com/forum/search/?q=&type=core_members Granted, this is 24 per page and over 22,000 users, so it's not an easy list to look through. And a good chunk of those are banned spam accounts, which you probably wouldn't feel particularly inclined to base a username off of, anyways. (But, hey, you do you.)

Hmm. An interesting question, who the nine "main" characters are for this book. Let's engage in some rampant speculation on the subject. I think we can start with the ten flashback characters (swapping Venli for Eshonai): Kaladin Shallan Dalinar Venli Szeth Lift Renarin Ash Taln Jasnah At least one of those characters, and possibly more, aren't going to be part of the RoW list, aren't going to get a ton of viewpoints. I think Lift is being saved for later (or, if I'm being honest, I hope she's gonna stay out of the way). And since we last saw Ash and Taln together, I suspect that they'll still be together in this book and that they also have a lot of their arcs being held in reserve until later books. So if one's gone, both is gone, and I think both will be gone. So that leaves us with seven flashback characters who we can expect to have a good chunk of screen time in Book Four. What two other characters could round out the list? I'll go with Adolin and Navani, both of whom were once considered as candidates for flashback books. So, let's see how these nine could get assigned to arcs. I think the Primary Arc must include Venli, who is still with the singers. The book's title is about the singers, the flashback character is a singer. But who else could go with her, and what sort of a "place" could this be that has these apparent enemies together? Some sort of a battlefront, perhaps reminiscent of the Shattered Plains from WoK. (Heck, it could even be the Shattered Plains, with the singers on the offensive out of Alethkar.) Kaladin, though his OB arc and through Rlain, has a lot of connections to singers, so I think he'll be there on the battle lines. And two other main characters will be with him; I'm guessing Renarin and Szeth, but that's more process-of-elimination from whom I will assign to the other arcs. I'm thinking the Secondary Arc will be higher-level, political intrigue sort of stuff, centered around Dalinar, with Jasnah and Navani as the two other characters. This could involve maintaining the existing human alliance, attempting to expand it to include Shinovar or Iri, refounding the Knights Radiant as an organization, researching lost secrets of the Radiants and the spren, uncovering new fabrial science, all sorts of stuff. It's the secondary arc, but it's the big picture of the series. The Tertiary Arc is the Romantic Getaway Quest. I'm thinking Shallan and Adolin are off somewhere random doing something. Maybe working with Sja-anat? This arc could be Ash and Taln (in which case, I'd bump Renarin and Szeth from the Primary Arc and put Adolin and Shallan there), but I don't expect we'll see enough of them for a full book yet. Maybe they get the Interlude sequence. Or it could be Dalinar and Navani, (and I'd probably toss Shallan and Renarin in with Jasnah, and put Adolin on the front lines), but I don't think Dalinar's in a position where he could get away like that. I like the parallels this division of arcs would have to Way of Kings, in terms of its three characters. Kaladin, on the front lines of a battle. Dalinar, dealing with the broader war. And Shallan, off on her own. Very reminiscent of a ketek.

TWG 100%: Brandon 100% (116/116), Peter 100% (116/116), Isaac 100% (75/75), Ben 100% (38/38) 17S 99%: Brandon 99% (97/98), Peter 99% (103/104), Isaac 99% (103/104), Ben 99% (92/93) Reddit 75%: Brandon 99% (126/127), Peter 99% (99/100), Isaac 94% (17/18), Ben 0% (0/81), Adam 89% (8/9) Twitter 39%: Brandon 99% (119/120), Peter 12% (14/120), Isaac 11% (14/127), Adam 27% (14/51) Blog 100%: Brandon 100% (206/207) Social Media Total: 80% (1357/1704) Theoryland Review: 10% (121/1183) Events and Signings Review: 0% (0/397) Made it a ways through Theoryland this month. Didn't get to any of Brandon's stuff. And I'm not able to make it out to JordanCon, so I didn't push too hard to try to get through it. I also knocked out Isaac's and Adam's Reddit histories, which were both extremely small, and had nothing new added. Turns out, Ben has, like, 10,000 comments on Reddit, more than everybody else combined. He uses it more as a personal platform, so the vast, vast majority is unrelated to the Cosmere, and a good chunk of what's actually about the Cosmere is just him being a fan (and thus won't get added to Arcanum). But, for the sake of being thorough, I'm still gonna put eyes on each and every one of those posts, make sure there's nothing useful in there that's missing. So that might hold me up for a little bit. Since I didn't add any new WoBs this month from the review, I have nothing to share this update. Sorry! I don't like it any more than you do.

Sweet. The signing lines are the most important ones to record, if you can throw down a phone or a recorder on the signing table. Be warned, they tend to run long; although I see they both start at 8:00 at night, so maybe they won't go too late? Panels are nice to get, but since Brandon doesn't have a solo feature, I don't expect there'll be too much. Maybe a reading at the Brandon Sanderson/Brandon Mull panel on Saturday. But if you're there anyways, and you've got the battery and the memory, might as well. Limits are set by whoever is hosting the event, in this case the con. I think it will depend on how many people are in the line. If it's out the door, then you may have to get a few signed at a time and go to the back of the line. If you wait til the end, or if there's not a lot of people, you can basically get whatever you want. If you bring along all your books, I expect you'll be able to get Brandon's signature on all of them, one way or another.

Details are sparse, even though this is less than two weeks away. Brandon's site says there's something on noon on Friday: https://brandonsanderson.com/upcoming-events/#17941. The FanX site says he'll be there Friday and Saturday: https://fanxsaltlake.com/guests/brandon-sanderson/. Is anybody going to this event? Anyone able to record a signing line or a panel? EDIT: Here's the schedule, from Brandon's site.

I think you've hit on a pretty key theme across the books of the Cosmere. Brandon, as a religious individual, has discussed some of his views before, specifically in how he incorporated some of his personal views into Sazed's arc in Mistborn, most importantly "each religion having a piece of truth." But, if there is an Aboslute Truth, and if only pieces of religions (non-Mormon religions, from his point of view) are true, then there's a lot in them that is false; and the Shards and the Vessels seem to be, in a lot of ways, an exploration of the mortal's faulty understanding of the divine. He's set up the Cosmere with its own Absolute Truth (Adonalsium and its nature), and is now presenting us with all of these diluted and malformed interpretations of it. There's the aspect you talk about, where the individual Vessels (humans, dragons, or Sho Del) have their character flaws that can make the Shard and its actions worse. I think this was exhibited best by the views of Rayse espoused in the various Stormlight letters, how he was viewed as a bad person even before taking up a dangerous Shard. It's pretty easy to find parallels for this through real-world religion, both modern or historical, of where individuals had a negative influence on religions (whether well-intended or maliciously). Like that old bumper sticker, "I'm a fan of God, but I could do without his followers." As mortals interact with the divine, they inherently become a filter which affects others negatively. (Because you're not gonna be better than God at being God.) This theme also plays pretty heavily with individuals who aren't Shards, up to and including main characters like Dalinar and Kelsier. (Maybe a bad example... let's say "characters who, as of right now, don't hold Shards, yet still maintain significant religious influence." I'll cover my bases.) But there's another aspect of this topic, which is the misunderstanding of the divine itself. There's a philosophical question known as "theodicy." Basically, if God is all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful, why is there suffering? If you take away any of those attributes, you 'resolve' the issue of suffering, but you diminish God in the process. I'm not going to try to answer the theodicy question here; I think it's a little bit outside the scope of the topic (or even the entire forum). But I bring it up because that's exactly what is happening with the Shards. We have sixteen pieces of Adonalsium, each of them diminished in terms of divine nature, overpowered by a single imbalanced attribute. That's what we saw with Ruin in Secret History; Ati was a good man, but he was overpowered by something of the divine that sought to bring about destruction. Adonalsium didn't have that issue, because he had fifteen other parts that all worked together in harmony (lower-case "h," let's not get too crazy here) to appropriately balance it out. The exploration is relevant to real-life because of earnest people who lack a proper understanding of the totality of God. You may get "God is Love," to the exclusion of everything else, and that comes up with a religion or denomination. Or "God is Just," and that comes up with another. God may be both Loving and Just; but Team Love and Team Just, only having a piece of the truth, wind up disagreeing on all sorts of things, even though they both start from fundamentally true concepts. All that to say, it is an astute observation, and something that I agree is intentional. As a religious student of religions, Brandon is writing these situations to explore the ways that mankind misses Absolute Truth, either through human fallibility or an incomplete view of the divine.

It seems to be that Khriss left while there was still a functional perpendicularity on Taldain. Thus, what she says in the Arcanum Unbounded Taldain essay: This is a "recent" change, something that must have happened after Khriss left. The earliest we see her offworld is in Secret History; even though she has an Ars Arcanum in the latest version of Elantris, she doesn't specifically reference the events of the book in any way, so it may have been written well afterwards. Since we don't have a firm timeline for the books (we know what order they happened in, but no estimates on many of the intervals between), we can't really narrow it down much more than 'between White Sand and Mistborn Era 1.' If I was gonna put money down on it, I'd lean earlier rather than later, something that would happen during potential White Sand sequels (and could thus occur on-screen) and instigate Autonomy's change in plans.

Are you signed in? You have to create an account, if you haven't already - it doesn't share a user database with either the forums or the wiki.