Pagerunner

That was actually asked earlier this year: Source.

Moved to OB spoilers, per request.

That's a great observation, and probably the best explanation I've heard yet for why Odium used the plural pronoun there. I wonder if there's any connection to the end of Secret History, where Ati looks at Kelsier and seems to call him "Vax"?

Just to clarify, @Shardbound, would you like this topic to include Oathbringer discussion? If you do, I can move it to the spoiler board for you. In the main Stormlight Archive forum, it cannot include any Oathbringer spoilers, even if they are placed behind spoiler tags. Just let me know what you would like. I've considered other similarities between Shallan's and Shai's methods of transformation. Specifically, how they each draw upon the history of an object - most notably for Shallan, when she convinced the Wind's Pleasure to transform early in WoR, by drawing on the ship's history with its crew. I think they are very similar magic systems indeed.

Please use the report button if you believe content is in the wrong forum. In this case, I had already moved this topic here from 17th Shard Discussion, since it is about Brandon's writing style, not the cosmere specifically. So it is now in the right place.

Those are both addressed in the books, and it's important to understand that plants don't hide in the ground, but inside "shells" or polyps. Horses lick the outside of the polyps, putting moisture on the outside of the shell and "tricking" the grass into coming out for water. Grain polyps are broken open during harvest.

The Aviar was confirmed at the release party.

That's his Divine Breath, which he would have to stop hiding.

He's written that in some other peoples' books; it's one of his standard signing quotes. I guess he's moving towards using that one more, since people were either getting offended or looking for deep secrets when he would write "Are you listening?"

As long as it's behind spoiler tags, yes.

There's a new WoB floating around Discord that basically drives this home. Very prescient, Weiry. Nice work! But I'm struggling with Obrodai being First of the Sun, because I think there are clearly three aspects in the Letter, each on separate planets: The Receiver, the person Hoid tried to contact. This Aspect is "unable to respond." They are located on a world that is "insignificant" and "well-hidden" among "many realms"; which fits the Drominad worlds. This aspect appears to have had a "past relationship" with Cephandrius. The Sender, who is writing the letter. They "stand in the sea," which is now an obvious reference to the Pantheon. There is an invitation to "these waters," which is a world Hoid is welcome to come to. The Young, who is on Obrodai. Hoid is not welcome on that planet, but he has been there. I do not think that Obrodai can be These Waters; Hoid has an invitation to one planet, an admonition to another. Unless The Receiver is an aspect that shares a world with another aspect, then neither of those are the Insignificant World. (I can't outright discount the possibility, but it doesn't quite fit for me.) So which, then, is First of the Sun? Could all be different three worlds be in the Drominad system? I don't think so; only First has a perpendicularity, so how could Hoid have visited Obrodai, have an open invitation to These Waters, and sent a letter to the Insignificant World? We've only seen him exit Shadesmar through perpendicularities. Outside this letter, we know of one aspect, and theorize on yet another: The Sand Lord, on Taldain. I don't think they can be any of the three Aspects; Taldain is not Insignificant, really doesn't fit These Waters, and is not new at the time of Stormlight. Trell, who is moving against Harmony on Scadrial. Theorized, and after the whole debacle with the Unmade as the Listener gods, I'm very hesitant to push even a widely-accepted theory as truth. But I'll stand by this theory for now. But I don't think Trell could be any of the three aspects, either, for the same reasons as the Sand Lord. So, I'm not sure I can say what is referring to First of the Sun in Letter 3.2. I think there must be several worlds mentioned, and I think you can make a good case for both the Insignificant World and These Waters. But I don't think it can be Obrodai.

It's an actual RAFO. The phrase these days is more of a "no comment."

A mysterious character introduced in Brandon's final Wheel of Time books. She is quite a conundrum to theorizers, and even though Brandon answers questions about her with RAFOs, there is nothing further that he will reveal about her, and no more books to be written. She's a question that will not be answered.

Nakomi begs to differ.

Not that Blade, the knife he used to kill Jezrien. I think that's a small Shardblade made of Odium's Investiture.

You can certainly feel free to! Someone is recording this event, so we'll get a transcription eventually, but that's not stopping you from reporting what you learned if you want to.

Vibrance (which doesn't actually appear on the Shadesmar map, having been removed to make way for the word "Shadesmar") has been theorized as Nalthis.

We have .WAVs uploaded into Arcanum already. I think there's a 500mb limit, but we can work around that if need be. I'd recommend splitting the Express Line (if he does one) and the regular line into separate files, if you can, by stopping and restarting your recorder. The general Q&A group session would be another good thing to grab. I wouldn't worry too much about the Skyward reading or his lecture, since we've got those pretty well captured, although you never know when he's gonna slip some neat factoid in there. An event will appear in Arcanum the day of the event (or maybe the day after). When you are on the event page, you will see a button that says "Upload Sources." You can just click that button and drag-and-drop your file on the next screen, and then the Arcanists will get to work on it.

In an earlier draft, which Brandon read at a signing once, Gavilar explicitly mentioned that he had another sphere. It's just implicit in the published version.

This topic is not tagged for OB spoilers. Any Oathbringer comments must be behind spoiler tags.

Nothing further. According to the original report, it's not the 'survival' Shard. We also know that it was not referring to Ambition. So, we're still right where we started, no further hints.

Big news on a new WoB: That means the first letter cannot be from the Survival Shard. It would need to be either Endowment or Autonomy, and I know which one I've got my money on.

Hey, he had that cold when he got here, and we got him out at 8:30! (PM, not AM!)

I'm going through the audio right now. @Paladin Brewer, I was right behind you in the signing line! No wonder Brandon didn't seem too eager to answer my list of questions - he had just finished getting through yours! The ol' double whammy!

It was just pointed out on Reddit that the Heralds in the chapter heading of Interlude 8 are not mirrored properly.