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Looks like whatever image you're trying to share can't be direct-linked on other websites. You can attach files directly to the post, instead. Everyone is able to attach files (and even upload stuff to the Gallery), not just those with Worldhopper Accounts.

Here are a couple good memes, for paying users only (cause I've seen way too many stolen memes).

In the past few weeks, I have been having a problem with the mobile version of the site. It loads for a few moments, and then Chrome stops working and closes. It happens more frequently when I go back to an open page from another app, but it still does happen when I go to the Shard for the first time. I use Chrome, for Android. Has anybody else experienced this issue?

This topic will have what you're looking for:

Brandon has a pretty good summary of the cosmere here on his website.

Since the topic is not tagged [OB], any Oathbringer spoilers must be hidden.

One way that Brandon develops his characters is through combining ‘seeds’: foundational attributes of history or personality. Lightsong is one good example, where Brandon combined the concepts of “someone who died, came back to life, and lost a piece of himself in the return” and “someone who could fit into an Oscar Wilde play.” This keeps his characters from being one-dimensional caricatures: these different inherent characteristics play off and contrast one another, making the characters seem more realistic. I think, for the ten Stormlight flashback characters, he has been developing his characters with additional layers of complexity. Aside from the normal defining character traits, these ten characters also will a flashback sequence that reinterprets much of what we know about them. There are three other categories where we see major character traits: some sort of neuroatypicality, membership in a Radiant Order, and something magical or realmatic that makes them unique among Stormlight characters. Here is a table summarizing the character traits I’m speaking about. Theories are highlighted in italics; some are a little more esoteric than others. I’ll describe each of those categories in more detail, as well as some specifics of each character, below the jump. Character Backstory Neurology Radiance What-in-the- Kaladin Surgeon-Soldier Slave Depression Windrunner Fighting Ability Shallan Artist Murder PTSD Lightweaver Split Personality Dalinar Reluctant King Blackthorn Alcoholism Bondsmith Unity Eshonai/Venli Explorer/ Willshaper Singer Szeth Believer Outcast Skybreaker Nightblood Lift Annoying Edgedancer Eating Renarin Weaker Son Aspergers Truthwatcher Voidbinder Jasnah Atheist Elsecaller Worldhopper Ash Herald Insane Dustbringer Herald swap Taln Herald Insane Stoneward Herald All characters have Character. I’m marking it out separately here, because there are important aspects of characterization that don’t fall on one of the other pillars. Except for Kaladin, we get to know all of these characters before we see their flashbacks, we are convinced to care about who they are before this previously unrevealed aspect of them is shown. (Disclaimer: the description above of those characters is obviously simplified. I’m not trying to reduce some of these characters down to basic words or phrases, but rather make space to highlight the systematic approach I see with regards to other types of characterization.) But these characters are inherently complex because of their Backstory, the content of their flashbacks. Each character has a hidden history that redefines the way we view them. It’s often inherently tied to their Character, but due to the structure of each Stormlight book, it is something that Brandon has specifically developed for each character. The third aspect, which is tied pretty well together with the previous two, is their Neurology. Brandon has made several explicitly neuroatypical characters, and I think that all ten will exhibit such a trait. Maybe it will be formally diagnosable; in the case of our Herald flashback characters, I suspect it won’t be. But Brandon has exhibited a specific goal to include that sort of representation in Stormlight, and I think that is something people will look back on as what makes the series great. Next, we get into the things that are somewhat more arbitrary. I subscribe to the belief that each flasback character represents one Radiant order. The Oathbringer ‘Avengers Assemble’ scene has been talked about in other threads, so I know there are differing viewpoints on the matter, but I hold that each character is also specifically a representative of a Radiant Order. With Szeth becoming a Skybreaker, Renarin bonding a corrupted Truthwatcher spren, and there being some pretty strong signs that Venli will be a Willshaper, the only controversial point of this is Ash as a Dustbringer. And lastly, there is something truly Bonkers about each of these characters, something that is magically or Realmatically significant, or just plain weird. This really jumped out at me during the Thaylen City battle, where Szeth and Lift played off of one another through these traits (when Lift fed Nightblood), using things that they don’t share with the rest of their Orders or with anybody else at all. I’d previously thought that a bond with Nightblood would somehow grant Szeth access to the Skybreakers, but Oathbringer seems to show that Szeth’s acquisition of Nightblood really has nothing to do with his being a Skybreaker. It’s just something cool that he’s got. Some of the experiences of Dalinar and Shallan in Oathbringer also identified them as unique among their Orders. I think each of the ten main characters has this sort of a WOW factor, completely aside from their history, character, and Radiancy, some major ability or attribute that sets them apart as unique heroes. Some of these are pretty obvious, as were listed in the table above. Here are the things I theorize or suspect: · Kaladin. What sets him apart, makes him more than ‘just’ a Windrunner? I think it has to do with his martial prowess. There was that strange, electric sense he felt when he first picked up a spear. And when he had temporarily damaged his bond to Syl in WoR, he lost much of his talent. For a while, I thought he hadn’t truly lost it, but it was just his depression getting the better of him; he was blaming it on losing Syl, but he was really just being mopey. Especially since we didn’t see any abnormal increase in fighting skills among Bridge Four as they were on their path to becoming Windrunners. But something in OB made me rethink that position. There is something unique about Kaladin’s status as a Windrunner: his spren. Syl is different, older, than the other Honorspren. I think there’s something unique and special about Syl that grants Kaladin his skill with weapons. I haven’t been able to nail down a specific mechanism or reason for this yet; maybe Kaladin is Honor’s Champion, and Syl is a special spren left by Honor for him. Maybe not; but, in future books, I’m gonna be keeping an eye out for Kaladin’s special skill with his spear. · Not much more to say on Shallan; she pretty explicitly embodies all five pillars. I think the end of Oathbringer showed that she’s not on a path to overcome her split personalities, but to accept that as her new normal. I imagine Brandon is exploring this concept as a mirror of Rand’s story from Wheel of Time. Rand had to accept and merge with Lews Therin; Shallan does not merge, but accepts her shattered personality. · I think Dalinar’s alcoholism is his brokenness; it’s a pretty defining feature of the person he used to be, and his turning away from it a major factor of how he became who is. So, let’s look at what makes him unique. “I Am Unity.” He pulled together three Realms, but he also did some uniting earlier, through reassembling the temple of Talanel in Thaylen City. I had thought it was the Surge of Cohesion at first, but it turns out I was mistaken as to the Surges the Bondsmiths have. I don’t think it’s Spiritual Adhesion: when we saw that in action, it was letting him learn a language through Connection. I think this Unification ability is something different, and he was able to Physically and Spiritually Unite the broken pieces of the temple, dragging them together the same way he dragged the Realms together. As to where this power comes from… that’s another thing I don’t know. It strikes me as similar to the magic we saw in the released Dragonsteel chapters, more of a direct Realmatic manipulation, rather than a modern formalized magic system. Maybe it has to do with him as a successor to Honor. I like the crazy ideas that he’s a successor to Adonalsium, somehow. It’s something else to keep an eye on, exactly what it means for Dalinar to be Unity. · Eshonai and Venli are unique, in that they are tag teaming this character slot. Eshonai gets the flashback sequence, but Venli is the one who actually bonded the Radiant spren. I don’t think we’re in a good situation to speculate much on them – I don’t have a good sense for Venli’s character, and I don’t see any signs from either of them for neuroatypicality. But I do think that Venli being the first Singer Radiant is what makes her unique; we’ll see if that grants her any special powers, due to having potentially different ways to interact with her spren. · Szeth is another one who is kind of hard to speculate on. He does have character, I’m just having a hard time describing it. I almost think he has PTSD, but that’s what Shallan has. Nothing inherently wrong with multiple characters suffering from it, but I suspect there should be something else up with him. Maybe we’ll see some more when we get more Szeth POVs in the next two books. But his acquisition of Nightblood is part of what makes me think each of these ten characters has something crazy going on with them – he just gets Nightblood out of the blue, and it doesn’t help him become a Skybreaker or anything. It’s just something funky going on with Szeth. · I’m gonna jump ahead and do Jasnah, because I think I see some hints, especially in Oathbringer, of interesting secrets going on with her. First is her brokenness. We learned she suffered from an illness when she was younger, but we don’t get many details. I suspect this is the source of her brokenness, some long-term physiological effects of this disease. She gives no sign of any physical handicap (the crazy idea popped into my head that she’s unable to feel, but I haven’t looked to see if that’s consistent with the text, regardless of how thematic it might be), but I’m reminded of Helen Keller, and how a childhood illness left her blind and deaf. Her backstory is another peculiar aspect, since I get the feeling we’re in her backstory right now. Jasnah is hiding things from the other characters and from us as readers (her possible Shardplate in Thaylen City being the most egregious). It makes me think her flashback sequence will not end where we meet her in Way of Kings, but extend through the first five-book arc Secret-History-style, possibly including the planned gap years between SA5 and SA6. Oh, and lastly, the WOW factor. I’ve seen it floated that Jasnah seems like a perfect worldhopper candidate, right in the vein of Khriss. I think that would be a fitting way to set her apart from the other Elsecallers. · Lift is one we both know a lot about, and know very little about. I’m not a huge fan of her characterization; I almost find her to be sociopathic in the way she views the world around her, treating very dangerous things as games. But I won’t go so far as to suggest that’s a diagnosable mental illness; it may very well be just a part of her normal characterization, and I’m merely not fond of it. But, sort of like Jasnah, I don’t think Lift has lived her flashbacks yet. There’s a bit we don’t know about her early childhood, but I don’t know if there’s enough mystery to fill a flashback sequence. · There is much still mysterious about Renarin’s Voidbinding, but he’s clearly still a good guy, and pretty distinct from the other Truthwatchers. And his disability is the most explicit of all the characters. He might have enough for a flashback sequence with his current life experiences, but I suspect he’s another one who will progress during the gap, since I feel like Sja-anat can’t just fade into the background for a few more books. · Lastly, the Heralds, Taln and Ash. As discussed above, I identify Ash as the Dustbringer, which is her WOW factor. Taln being the Herald of that Order, never abandoning it, is his WOW factor. Maybe he still has a direct connection to Honor, or what remains of him, and can use it to power his eventual Surgebinding. And for both Heralds, the brokenness is going to be their insanity, whichever flavor it is for either of them. Flashbacks will be nuts and cosmic in nature. If you’ve paid attention over the years, there were several characters who were floated early on as being potential flashback characters. I think they had WOW factors, but were ultimately cut as flashback characters for others with stronger flashback sequences. But I think you can still identify their WOW factors, which are still big parts of the story even if the characters don’t get a book to themselves. I think these characters may even continue on to become Radiants anyways, so I’ll include my speculation on order, although I will admit these are primarily drawn from the overall systematization, rather natural outflows of the characterization: · Adolin: Edgedancer, Reawakened Blade · Navani: Dustbringer, Fabrial Expert · Taravangian: Truthwatcher, Diagram · Second Male Herald: Willshaper, ??? (I suspect this was referring to Kalak, as the Willshaper slot is open, but it’s possible that he had an order swap planned for another Herald instead of Ash at one point. Very little to go on here.) So, my aspiring Mendeleevs, what patterns do you see? Any thoughts on the cells that I left blank? Any replacements for some of my theories?

Hey watch it with the double posts, buddy. Flattery will get you nowhere around these parts! (In all seriousness, using the "+" button to the left of the quote button will let you reply to a multiple people at the same time. And thanks for the kind words.)

The reddit poster said this was from 5 or 6 years ago. That's before WoR, before we saw Hoid had Breath or Allomancy, before we he tried to become an Elantrian, before he stole the moon scepter, before we were told he has Scadrian medallions, before we learned that Adonalsium had been Shattered intentionally by the original Vessels and that Hoid had refused a Shard. Discounting an idea because it's too obvious is a very dangerous road to go down. If the data points are forming a line, you don't fit a ninth-order polynomial just to make it look cooler. This falls perfectly in line with the increasingly popular idea that Hoid is attempting to reform Adonalsium, but was from well before we had most of the evidence used to support that idea. Don't overthink it!

A reminder for new users: please do not double-post. Use the edit button instead to add onto a post. I really like this idea. It's the one I've been ruminating on for a little while now - that the Surges aren't just imitations of natural forces, but the actual way that natural forces manifest in the Roshar system. The Surgebinders, whatever magic system they are from, redirect the Surges to do their bidding, and if they redirect too much gravity, per se, there's not enough gravity left to hold the planet together.

Dear Mortals of the Forums If you have an issue with other users' posts, please use the report button to bring them to the moderators' attentions. We are unable to stay on top of every post the old-fashioned way, especially during the holiday season. Since you say there have been repeated instances of rude behavior, feel free to collect them and PM to me all together. This spoiler board is absolutely the place for baseless speculation, with the caveat that Brandon has revealed lots of tidbits beyond the books that throw wrenches in all sorts of ideas. Users are expected to be gracious both sharing and receiving such information during discussion, and any condescension or name-calling is not acceptable. Again, use the report button if anything like that occurs. Topic Closed

Moved to Oathbringer Spoilers. OB Spoilers are not allowed in the main SA board, even behind spoiler tags.

Sounds like some of you lucky fools are getting your WoA leatherbounds already. Just like we did with OB, we're going to create a thread where you can post pictures of questions and answers, if you're willing to share. The best format is to have both the packing slip with the question and your personalization in the same image. You can also feel free to upload images directly into Arcanum, in the Signed Books 2018 event. An Arcanist will convert those images into text entries. Images posted in this thread will make their way into Arcanum, but it might take a little longer. If you took the opportunity to order some other personalized hardcovers from Brandon's site, feel free to upload pics of them in either location, as well. The more the merrier!

This is the place to discuss Star Wars Episode VIII: The Lost Jedi. Out of respect for those who have not watched this movie, do not post about spoilers from this movie anywhere outside this thread. This is a major worldwide media event, and we do not want to ruin anybody's experience. For those who haven't seen the movie yet, Spoilers will follow. Flee from this thread.

Brandon deferred to Peter, and Peter said that Bondsmiths do not have Cohesion. There's not really anything for us to discuss - Team Sanderson will have to look into where the error was and make sure it gets addressed going forwards. But no Radiant aside from a Stonewards has actually used Cohesion yet, so there's no true contradiction.

Two WoBs that had been hidden in Arcanum, since Brandon had referred me to Peter on them. But they're live now, with Peter's remarks: Slaveform did not exist before the False Desolation. The Stormfather implies that Dalinar can use Cohesion, but this appears to be "an error in the text."

Quick Arcanum clarification: the Pending Review tag is not for transcription concerns. Peter will be reviewing event transcriptions going forward, to make sure Brandon didn't misspeak and contradict canon, or something like that. That's what the marker is for - WoBs that Peter hasn't had a chance to veto yet. (Granted, I've got no idea how he can veto a RAFO. But that's what Pending Review actually means.)

If any of you Utah or near-Utah residents want another go at Brandon, he just put two signings up on his website for later this month. Salt Lake City on the 16th, Orem on the 21st.

For the time being, we have no effective way to see and approve suggestions. So, you could edit it yourself, but it might not go live for a little while. You can still feel free to post corrections in this thread, and an Arcanist will put them in.

You can upload it yourself on this page:

Good observation! I've brought this point up myself; I'm trying to remember where I thought she got the gold from. This scene takes place after a ball, right? If there were gold-plated utensils, or some nonsense rich-person food that bad bits of gold in it as a show of ostentation, that could be where she got the gold from.

That's exactly what he would say if he said something important and was trying to keep it a secret! We'll dig it out, don't worry!

All you have to do is find the event page from this list and upload it. We'll take care of the rest. Thanks for recording!