Pagerunner

I don't believe I made it onto the map last time I tried. But now I'm in a new place, so it doesn't matter. Beaumont, Texas.

The Scadrian essay gives a clue.

I do not think Ishar was merely wrong - I think he was lying. I don't think the Radiants' return causes desolations, I think Ishar's madness is causing him to 'make good' on his threat to destroy the Orders, though deceiving Nale and the Skybreakers. The diagram's reference to the 'secret that broke the Knights Radiant' makes me think the betrayal was indeed genuine, that the secret was so powerful it broke the Radiants wills, and they broke their Oaths. For Cognitive Shadows, the ones on Nalthis need to remain connected to their initial source of Investiture (giving up the Divine Breath kills them), while in the example seen on Scadrial the Shadow persisted after the initial Investiture had disappeared. I think Radiant Shades are more like the former; if they do not have that bond at the moment of death, they will not persist as Radiants. Bonds are not limited by geography; they occur in the Spiritual Realm. Seons in Elantris can travel away from who they are bonded to; I believe the spren can remain on Roshar and still be connected Spiritually to the Radiant over on Braize. The connection between Honor's Cognitive Shadow and the Stormfather is unique: Tanavast persisted because he was a Sliver, and the Stormfather already existed, and the two merged. I strenuously disagree with the merger of an individual and a piece of Investiture to create a Cognitive Shadow, instead holding the interpretation that the Investiture acts as an anchor, mainly because of what we saw in Mistborn. I don't think the Stormfather existed before Fleet. I think the Storm was a Splinter, plenty of Investiture, but no mind guiding it. Fleet, after his death, Ascended to that Splinter, becoming the Stormfather. The only mind in there is Fleet's. (Well, until he absorbed Tanavast.) I say the Oaths are between a Radiant and a Spren, but with Ishar acting as the 'lawyer' who has set up the contract. The only other place I see a hint of this sort of power comes in the epigraph where it talks about Melishi (who I think is Mel'Ishi, or Ishar) coming up with a plan to use the Bondsmith's unique abilities to destroy the Voidbringers. I don't think this is fighting - I think this is being able to fundamentally alter the protocol of bonding, preventing Listeners from bonding spren at all and trapping them in slaveform. I think, as Calderis said, the First Oath is fundamentally different than the other four Oaths. Its wording is particular and well-known: the other four Oaths are secrets intuited by the Radiants as they developed the relationship with their spren (which is why the Oaths vary from Order to Order, because the spren are different for each Order). It is an important part of my interpretation, but one that I had neglected to spell out explicitly in my original post. I addressed a similar concern above; I do not believe that a Cognitive Shadow is a piece of Investiture merged with an individual, but an individual anchored by Investiture. Stormfather, and other spren like Syl who have bonded Radiants in the past, can serve as anchors to more than one soul over the course of time. I'm not sure they would. When Lift (who is able to see somewhat into the Cognitive Realm) watches Nalan kill a girl in Edgedancer, Lift sees something very reminiscent of Szeth's afterimages: It appears to be her soul, which is there for a moment, and then disappears. Not unlike what a Radiants might do if they were called to Braize, or something shown in Bands of Mourning: I'm not sure everyone can see the pull of the Beyond, unless maybe they are experiencing it themselves. We only have one extended Point of View of the Cognitive Realm, and I'm not sure that experience is necessarily indicative of the general experience. I'm also confused about why people can only see some things when they enter to Soulcast: Jasnah didn't know what fearspren looked like on the other side (the grinders), but there were fearspren when she executed the muggers in Kharbranth, so why didn't she see grinders then? All that to say, I don't think we have the workings of the Cognitive Realm anywhere close to figured out. It's possible that it's as simple as 'everyone sees the same thing while they're there.' But I don't think we've seen enough of it yet to definitively say what Radiants would and would not have seen. Not just any human - a Bondsmith, or the Herald who served as a template for the Bondsmiths. Look at names of the other Orders: Windrunners Run in the Wind. Lightweavers can Weave Light. If anyone would have the ability to restrict bonds, it would be the Bondsmiths. I don't believe an increase in bonding requirements would be that different than the Mistborn example you stated, just in reverse. The Surges haven't changed, the Initiation of attracting a spren hasn't become something different. It has just made it more difficult to occur. Just that Shardplate is not a Surge. The historical pre-Radiants were Surgebinders: they had the ability to control the ten fundamental forces, as perceived by Rosharans. But did they have Plate? Did they have squires? There needs to be a separate mechanism for these parts of Radiancy that are not Surgebinding - when was it established? Don't get too hung up on this idea - they are questions that pointed me in the direction of intervention in the magical structure of the Radiants, not assertions that they are the only possible explanation. Yes, there is a symbiosis in Sixth of the Dusk, but it is unlike Roshar's: The word is the same, but the Realmatics of each situation are very different. Think of an oath as a contract. Once the terms are broken, the contract is void. We see this happen exactly in Words of Radiance: Kaladin reneges on his vow to protect by promising to help kill Elhokar, so his bond with Syl is broken. It is something inherent to the bond itself; it doesn't mean that "Honor will break your bond with your spren if you go back on your word," your continued upholding of the Oath is a requirement for the bond to continue in the first place. So no enforcement required. She says to avoid Braize, which is where I think the Radiant Shades actually are. Metatextually, Khriss probably does know many things which would be drastic revelations for future stories for Mistborn, Stormlight, Elantris, and the like. But Brandon will carefully write the essays to preserve those mysteries. She does actually mention the possible presence of Cognitive Shadows on Braize, but doesn't explain at all why she thinks they are Cognitive Shadows, so there are pieces of information that Brandon is keeping hidden. Excellent points all around. But a word of caution, I did intentionally post this in the Stormlight subforum, not Cosmere Theories. I have linked to this thread from other sundry corners of the internet and indicated that it only contains Stormlight spoilers, so let's be sure to hide any specific plot points from other cosmere stories. (Specifically, @Ciridae, you probably want to avoid using a particular name out in the open.)

Take a close look at the quotes you provided. Neither says that the bond ends with the Radiant's death, just that the the spren is not damaged (read: death of the spren, like a broken Oath creating a Shardblade). The Radiants were active in the Rosharan Cognitive Realm, but I do not believe they went to Braize's Cognitive Realm, which is a dangerous place to be. If Radiant Shades are indeed called Braize (see the trumpet quote and explanation above), then I think it would be possible for the Radiants to be unaware of their fates. Khriss cannot be referring to the Heralds, since there was only one of them on Braize at the time the essays were written. If there are not Cognitive Shadows of some kind on Braize, then from a metatextual perspective the line is misdirection on Brandon's part. Which is possible, but it's a misdirection I would be content to fooled by. Assuming that there are indeed Cognitive Shadows on Braize, I have no other candidates for these Shadows (other than the Shades already referenced multiple times in the text). There's not much I can say to this point, since neither of our interpretations are inconsistent with the text. But the explanation that the Radiants were just organized Surgebinders has never sat well with me, because not all Radiant orders were all that organized. (I believe the Willshapers were the given example of individualistic Radiants.) I think there are aspects of Radiance that are beyond just Surgebinding (Shardplate being the most obvious), which is why I've begun to look at this quote differently. Nightblood granting powers is a theory. Seons, on the other hand, are confirmed: Source. They grant different powers, but they do grant powers. (I can see ways to interpret the final phrase 'the same power' to mean that they don't grant powers on Roshar, but then I don't know what it would mean to be 'treated the exact same way,' so I say that the phrase needs to be understood as "they grant different powers." As an aside, I do not believe the First of the Sun magic operates using bonds. Aviar like Kokerlii create a 'coppercloud' (or something similar) that protect multiple people, and Sak gives visions to Vathi on Dusk's command after landing on her.

I recently concluded my Stormlight reread, in preparation for the new book I’m sure you’ve all heard is coming out. I paid special attention to several topics, like the religious tenets of Roshar and their perception of the afterlife. I need to start by crediting FeatherWriter for her well-construed theory about the Rosharan afterlife; without it, it’s entirely possible that the observations I make below would have passed me by. But, though she did write a good theory, a lot has happened in the cosmere since the publication of Words of Radiance, like Mistborn: Secret History and the Rosharan Essay in Arcanum Unbounded, that give new clues to life after death in the cosmere and the principles that govern such behavior. Her topic is not a prerequisite to understanding this one; I intend to build every point up from the ground, to come to a more specific interpretation. But since her work was an inspiration, it would be a disservice to neglect. Reflections of Radiancy Vorinism. The religion of Eastern Roshar, the home of the Knights Radiant. As seen by Dalinar in the vision where he fights alongside two Radiants: Radiants were not evenly spread over Roshar; they were centered in the east, in ancient Alethela. I believe that their proximity to the eastern nations led to the local religion to emulate the Radiants; when you have such deific figures present nearby, it would make sense for not only Alethela but the also bordering nations of Valhav and Natanatan to base their religious customs around them. There are several Vorin traditions, first presented in Words of Radiance, that have obvious ties, from the reader’s perspective, to the trappings of the Radiants and their mission. The first is explicitly laid out by Shallan: She connects the formal right to open borders with the ability to travel through the Oathgates. Though an astute observation, I believe she has mistakenly reversed the causality of the matter. Instead of the Oathgates being a natural progression of the Right of Travel, I think Vorin beliefs were initially formed by the ease of travel made possible by the Oathgates. (I believe the Oathgates may be responsible for the original shaping of the ten Dawncities through Realmatics, and the intentional abuse thereof by humans the method of the destruction of Stormseat. But that’s a tangent, and not terribly relevant at the moment. Suffice to say that the Right of Travel is drawn from the Radiants and their Oathgates.) Another Vorin tradition we learn about is not understood as a connection to anything deeper by the characters, but I’m sure any wary reader of Stormlight will recognize the reference: The Right of Challenge is a Vorin tradition that Sadeas used to duel Yenev during the reunification of Alethkar, and that Adolin almost successfully used to duel Sadeas on-screen in Words of Radiance. But I think it is apparent that the ancient tradition they reference is not primarily a thing of Rosharan culture; instead, it is almost assuredly referring to the ‘rules’ that Tanavast says Odium is bound by, and the reference to a champion. There is admittedly much consternation among the fanbase as to the meaning of those lines about a champion and who may potentially be a champion for Honor or for Odium. But, as with the Right of Travel, the key principle is that modern Vorinism has traditions that are based on much older rules, reflections of something broader. Glyphwards may be another similar reflection. In the present day, their prayers to the Almighty are written out as glyphs and then burned, or drawn in flammable ink to form a glyph out of flames. This is reminiscent of glowing glyphs of power in the old days. From one of Dalinar’s old visions: I’m curious if there was magic behind ancient glyphs. If there was, that could be the inspiration of modern glyphwards: glowing glyphs granted power, so the people would make glowing glyphs of their own by using flammable inks. Which then devolved into just lighting them on fire, because people are perpetually unimaginative in all areas save methods of destruction. One further reflection that I see is embedded deeper in Vorinism, in the Devotaries: A single ideal; just like the Radiant Orders would pursue. Before Words of Radiance was released, I thought that Dalinar was going to become a Stoneward, because his Devotary was associated with Taln; as it happened, he became a Bondsmith, so I suppose he’s like Ym and would have been attractive to multiple kinds of spren. But back to the topic at hand, Vorinism adopted the Radiant concept of ideals and oaths. The ardents Elevate people in their Callings as they progress; Adolin was unable to be Elevated because he wasn’t allowed to duel during Way of Kings. This is too much to be a coincidence; it must be a reflection of Radiant traditions in Vorinism. Shades of Truth Formal Vorinism is not the only place to look for hints of the Radiants. Darkeyes don’t spend much time with the ardents, aside from vocational training, but their beliefs are made evident through their daily speech. Specifically, through their superstitions and through their curses. I will not attempt to document instances where Vorin individuals, upper class and lower, curse using the Almighty, the Heralds, or the Stormfather. If anyone doubts that such phrases occur, then I would encourage you to open to nearly any page in either Stormlight book, and you’ll almost certainly find a “Kelek’s breath” or “Nalan’s hand.” These curses are not merely superficial: one, in particular, by the leathery-faced bridgeman reflects the dark secret that nine of the Heralds bear: His knowledge of that particular piece of information is quite puzzling to me, since I cannot fathom how awareness of the Heralds’ betrayal has made its way into vernacular expressions. But regardless of the specific explanation for that line, it shows that the common people of Alethkar do somehow know of Heraldic things, even only in an unconscious way through their linguistic expressions. Very telling to me is one piece of superstition that is brought up three separate times by darkeyes: the Shades of the Knights Radiant. First when Kaladin was in the slave wagons, second when he watched Gaz recover his spheres after a Highstorm, and third in a flashback with Kaladin and Tien talking about a home that was destroyed during a highstorm. The presence of the Radiants in the Highstorm is significant because the eye of the storm is not entirely in the Physical Realm; as best I can understand, it is the eminent candidate for Honor’s mobile perpendicularity. When Way of Kings was first released, the only glimpse we had of an afterlife was the Returned in Warbreaker, where the dead returned in physical form. Further elaborations in Mistborn and Arcanum Unbounded will prove relevant, but I will hold off to discuss the specific realmatic phenomenon I believe is happening until further below. For the moment, suffice to say that there is mechanism for souls to remain in the Cognitive Realm after the body has died, and that a window to the Cognitive Realm through the highstorm may provide a method for those souls to interact with the Physical Realm once again. The Heraldic Forces Having thus established the concept of Vorin beliefs potentially being drawn from the traditions of the Radiants, the time has come to evaluate the most prominent of Vorin doctrine known to us, one which is repeated time and time again throughout the text. There are many references in Way of Kings, and to a lesser extent Words of Radiance, to the Vorin belief in the afterlife. I will not attempt a comprehensive compilation of such quotes, but I will present the most complete citation I could find: Vorinism teaches that the dead fight the Voidbringers in an army called the Heraldic Forces (the name being the only piece of theology that isn’t explicitly laid out in the above quote). Is there truth behind these teachings? I do not believe it is literal; too many of their other teachings appear to be truths about the Radiants, turned into theological principles for the common people. I strenuously doubt that a follower of Vorinism, no matter how devout they may be, could attain to join the armies in the Tranquiline Halls. But I do think the Heraldic Forces are real. I just think they are comprised of Radiants. Let us the a mechanism in the cosmere for souls to remain after death. In all the cosmere books, there are similarities between the fundamental principles; in fact, on one planet, they are even called Shades! But the technical term for these ghosts is ‘Cognitive Shadows.’ There is something very important required for this to happen, for a soul to remain in the Cognitive Realm after it has separated from its body: a large piece of Investiture. There is debate, both among readers in our world and scholars in the cosmere, as to the exact function of this piece of Investiture. When someone dies, separating their soul from their physical body, that soul will move Beyond after several moments disappearing to a place of great mystery, the true afterlife. But a large piece of Investiture can cause the soul to stay in the Cognitive Realm without moving on; it may be that the Investiture serves as an anchor (as is my belief), or it may be that the Investiture imprints on a soul and copies it such that the being effectively persists after their soul has moved Beyond. The exact nature of the piece of Investiture can vary. We’ve seen a shardpool allow this in Mistborn, a Splinter of Endowment (divine Breath) in Warbreaker, and a splinter of Ambition in Shadows for Silence. Khriss writes in the Rosharan Essay in Arcanum Unbounded that there may be Cognitive Shadows on Braize. If this is the case, how did they get there? There is no mechanism for pedestrian individuals to be connected to a large piece of Investiture. But there are Splinters of Honor and Cultivation (and various mixtures of their Investiture), on Roshar, which tie themselves to someone’s soul. Spren, who bond with Radiants. There is precedence which I think shows that Radiants, suffused with Investiture and tightly bound with their spren, can remain as a Cognitive Shadow, joining the Heraldic Forces. But we also need to understand the totality of the requirements. What determines whether someone has a strong enough bond to remain, if their ties to the Investiture are sufficient to allow them to persist? Look back at the Vorin belief: only the best join the Heralds. They need to have fulfilled their Calling. I think this means that Radiants must have said all five Oaths; only then will the bond be strong enough to tie them permanently to the Cognitive Realm. There is more that can be drawn from Vorinism. Just like the Heraldic forces are so much more than soldiers, the Radiants aren’t all combat-focused orders. They all have a place in the war against the Void. The specific powers associated with the Heraldic forces above seem like Surges; the farmer is using Progression, and the soldier may be using Division. This makes it appear that the magics persist in the Rosharan afterlife; this is not what we see in Mistborn, but the piece of Investiture that allowed that character persist was not what gave him magic in the first place. In Warbreaker, they can use their Splinters to accomplish magic; their Divine Breaths appear to just be larger versions of the normal Investiture of that world. Radiants vs Surgebinders But if Vorinism got their concept of Callings from the Radiant version of Ideals, where did the Radiants get their doctrine from originally? Several characters, like Jasnah and Kaladin, insist that they are not Radiants, even though they are definitely pursuing the Ideals of those Orders. I think the attainment of the fifth Oath is a final qualification of Radiancy, when they become a true Knight Radiant, but any Surgebinder is limited by the Ideals of an Order. The difference between Radiants and Surgebinders is just that a Surgebinder hasn’t said all the oaths yet. But I don’t believe this has always been true: The “precepts and laws” must be the Ideals; you cannot be a Surgebinder without following an Ideal, joining an Order. That much is plain. But examine the specific chronology: there were already Surgebinders for Ishar to threaten at the time he established the Orders, meaning that, at one point, it was possible to be a Surgebinder without first saying Oaths! I believe Nohadon lived in this time, during a Desolation where they fought thunderclasts, and not yet the Void-bound Listeners: I think this passage predates Ishar’s alignment of the Orders; I think that spren could bond whoever they felt attracted to, without the specifics that we see in modern Roshar. There are further elements of Radiance that are missing in this passage; Nohadon refers to himself as a Surgebinder (unless there is another explanation for his ‘divine gifts’), but he stands in a war zone without Shardplate. It is possible that Shardplate, Shardblades, squires, all the other trappings of the Knights, had not been laid out yet, and Nohadon merely bonded a spren and gained the ability to Surgebind. In fact, I don’t believe there is any fundamental difference between a bond between a Radiant and their spren, and what we’ve seen in Elantris with the seons: Source. Seons, Splinters of Devotion from Elantris, can grant powers if they go to Roshar. Nightblood, essentially an artificial Splinter of Endowment, appears to be bonding with Szeth. Splinters, regardless of the world they are from, can apparently bond with humans. I think that it’s a quirk of the planet and language that the Rosharans actually have a word for this – spren symbiosis is such a common thing on that planet, with greatshells, skyeels, and Listeners all forming bonds with spren, that they came up with a name for a bond between a splinter and a human. Other planets just call it a bond, because they don’t need to be any more specific, but I think they are all Nahel bonds. But there are extra things going on in Roshar. There is a popular theory that the bond is the Focus of Surgebinding, much like metals are in Mistborn. I like that idea; the kind of bond you have, the kind of spren you are joined with, determines what powers you get. But there is an additional restriction, one that Ishar imposed. He apparently had great power of the fundamental behavior of Rosharan magic, and he limited the spren of Honor and Cultivation so that they could only grant powers and progress their bond if their bondsmen met specific requirements: the advancement of Oaths related to the Heralds’ behaviors. This not only granted them the advancement of the bond with their spren and associated Surgebinding power, but presumably the other formalized benefits of their Order, like creation of Blade and Plate, and the ability to bond squires. By placing these limits on Surgebinders, he was able to restrict Nahel bonds so that they would not advance to fulfillment unless a Surgebinder behaved essentially like a Herald; nobody of questionable character would achieve a strong enough bond to remain as a Cognitive Shadow, and join the Heraldic Forces. Where are the Halls? So, I hope I have firmly shown why I believe the Radiants who have achieved the fifth Oath remain as Cognitive Shadows and continue the fight against Odium’s forces in the Cognitive Realm. But one question remains: where do they fight? Khriss notes that Braize may contain the Cognitive Shadows, but Braize is Damnation. The Heraldic Forces should be fighting to reclaim the Tranquiline Halls, the place that the Voidbringers cast humanity out form in the first place; they should go to the Halls, not to Damnation. They certainly don’t remain in Roshar’s region of the Cognitive Realm; according to mythology, they are called elsewhere: Were the Halls on Ashyn, the planet closest to the sun in the Rosharan system, which has suffered a cataclysm to rend the surface of the planet? Or was Braize the true Tranquiline Halls, captured and twisted by Odium’s forces to become Damnation? Here, I believe that the teachings of Vorinism are twice wrong. Not only do they misidentify who is fighting, but I think they are mistaken as to what the fight actually is. It is through no fault of their own: they were lied to by those who should be the most trustworthy: Nothing, save the existence of the Almighty, should be assumed as axiomatic. But Vorin teachings fall apart when you remove a foundational concept and realize the truth: the Heralds are liars, and they did not defeat the Voidbringers. The Voidbringers aren’t in the Halls. They are in Braize, where they have always been, and the Radiants are partaking in the same age-old war that has gone on since the creation of the Oathpact. It is between Odium, trapped on Braize, and Honor’s forces on Roshar. Just to satisfy the curious readers, I do believe many historical elements of the Vorin mythology of their origin are true, but that several concepts have been conflated. There is the war by Cognitive Shadows, which takes place in the Cognitive Realm on Braize, known as Damnation. There is the origin of at least one branch of humanity, the Tranquiline Halls in the Physical Realm on Ashyn. And the final destination of the soul, the Beyond (which is itself conflated with the Spiritual Realm on occasion), where Odium’s influence prevents the normal passage of souls (as evidenced by those who sleep until the Halls are supposedly reclaimed). But the truly important conclusion is that the Heraldic Forces may not fight to reclaim the Halls, but instead reside in Damnation. The Wicked Thing of Eminence The Radiants abandoned their oaths at the Recreance because they uncovered something. A secret so powerful that it caused nine of the ten orders to Forswear their oaths, the tenth order remaining to join their Herald in exterminating other Surgebinders. The Diagram commands to “hold the secret that broke the Knights Radiant. It may be needed to destroy the new Orders when they return.” What is this secret? A secret that would cause thousands of men and women to forsake their god and their Oaths would not remain a secret, even if most of the Radiants were killed soon after they forswore. I think the truth of the afterlife, that Radiants partake in a war beyond the grave, is truth that was discovered. The knowledge, once revealed to the Radiants, made its way into Vorinism and their concept of the afterlife. But the truth has again been lost of what the First Oath really means: LIFE BEFORE DEATH STRENGTH BEFORE WEAKNESS JOURNEY BEFORE DESTINATION As I have commented elsewhere, I find it very telling that the oath is not LIFE UNTIL DEATH. I do not believe Teft’s interpretation of the First Oath is accurate: it is tilted towards the Windrunners. He says a Radiant always protects life, but the Skybreakers currently seek to extinguish lives, and yet they live sufficiently according to the First Oath. Instead, here is what I believe to be the true meaning of the Oath: The LIFE of a Radiant is filled with STRENGTH as they progress along their JOURNEY. But it does not end, because in DEATH they go to Damnation, fighting in WEAKNESS at their final DESTINATION. The Radiants do not understand what they swear themselves to when they say the first Oath. They believe they commit to following ideals through their lives, without realizing that they have consigned themselves to eternal battle and torment, souls that will not slumber until Odium has been finally defeated. Which, with the abandonment of the Heralds and the death of Honor, may never happen. Such a deceitfully imposed requirement could surely be enough to cause the Lost Radiants to forswear, and abandon their Oaths. And I can easily believe that the Radiants of today will feel much the same way. Be careful what you wish for. CODA: The True Nature of the Stormfather This is almost entirely unrelated to the conclusions I drew above, but the discovery was similar in method, and the as the citations below deal with the dead they could be considered relevant to the discussion above. I do not believe they concern Radiants, but I shall present them anyways, along with my conclusions. Three quotes guide a truly speculative interpretation. The first is the story of Fleet: A Cognitive Shadow associated with the Storm. I find it interesting that the story does not mention the Stormfather; it does mention the God of Storms, which may be the Stormfather, or it may be Honor. The second was musings of Kaladin early in Words of Radiance: This was a concept otherwise unseen, of Cognitive Shadows on Odium’s side. The last is from Rlain, speaking to Dalinar of the Parshendi gods: The Unmade are Splinters of Odium. Why does he refer to them as such? Together, these three quotes paint another picture of the powerful dead. Not of the Lost Radiants, but of Cognitive Shadows who have become Vessels of Splinters. The Storm existed before the Fleet, who I think died and became the Stormfather. Voidspren are largely mindless; the minds of the Unmade, the most powerful of his spren, are drawn from men, Cognitive Shadows of ancient Voidbinders. Thus far, we have only known of Shards as having Vessels. But what if any sufficiently large piece of Investiture could support a human mind holding it? Not just a bond, not just a Sliver of Infinity, but a full Vessel inhabiting the Splinter, with the power of that Splinter guiding the actions of the Vessel? Fleet must now run with the storm forevermore and channel Investiture, and those who Unmade themselves now forever work as Odium’s generals. An admittedly fantastic interpretation. But nonetheless one that encompasses several troublesome quotations.

I seem to recall Peter saying he wouldn't be coming, but I'm not sure. I just asked Peter and Isaac on Twitter; I'm hoping one or both of them will be in Houston, because I've got some questions about languages and glyphs that Brandon probably wouldn't be able to answer (and definitely not have the time for).

This also comes up in Bands of Mourning, where they try to give ReLuur someone else's blessings to restore him. It should be noted that he has pewter blessings, which are not one of the four kandra are known to have. (Pewter Hemalurgy steals Feruchemical powers, by the way.) Something odd is going on, and it is possible the kandra are intentionally lying about a great number of things. Not an accidental plot hole, but an intentional discrepancy that points towards a greater mystery. It's also possible the difference is that TenSoon was never just using OreSeur's, but always had his own. As long as you have your two spikes, your own identity is fine. But if you don't have both spikes to firmly ground you as you, maybe someone else's spikes will do funky things to you.

That's another thing that isn't 100% airtight, except this is a topic Brandon has been intentionally evasive on. 'Did he eat the bead?' 'He is an Allomancer... So there's your answer.' Very shifty. I think a lerasium spike (or neck, even a lerasium tattoo) could fulfill both WoBs, but since we don't have the slightest inkling of what either would mean, Brandon is intentionally keeping us in the dark.

The other parts of the epigraph in question (and the one before it) are talking about Hoid's names - that of his old master, his current name of Wit, just 'my old friend.' The quote is the only legal place to establish Topaz as a name of Hoid (since we can talk about WoBs, but not Dragonsteel itself). I suppose it is possible that Frost went on an unrelated tangent to tall about a different topic and an unrelated gemstone in the middle of his discussion of Hoid's names. But knowledge that Hoid went by the name of Topaz once makes the meaning abundantly clear, in my opinion. It would be the same as arguing that Frost is not the person writing the letter - strictly speaking, we don't have an airtight case for it (as has been pointed out to me), but the conclusion is so overwhelming that it would almost require specific misdirection on Brandon's part to be something else.

Honest question: how is reading sample chapters, as long as they are straight through from the beginning, a different experience than a regular read? Sure, you need to wait until the next part is released, but nobody can actually read through the whole book without needing to stop at some point. You need to sleep, or work, or go to the bathroom (unless you use Adolin's tried-and-true method), so you'll have to stop when you want to keep going, no matter if you're reading previews or not. But the way you experience the plot is completely unchanged - it's not like you're hearing later chapters before earlier ones. My TV watching preferences have been changing recently; I don't like binge-watching things anymore, since I'll forget most of what happened. I like watching shows live as they premier, even if they're not that great, because each episode is memorable and I have time to absorb everything from it (instead of forgetting what happened in the last three episodes as I get blown away by a mid-season finale, or something like that). The way that these preview chapters are dished out mimics that very well, and it really revs up the fandom to provide free social media advertising. I also like that they'll go to the end of Part 1; it felt a little cheesy, ending Bands previews in the middle of a gunfight. But I just don't see how waiting for all the chapters is any better than waiting after each chapter in turn. You're still waiting in either situation, and you'll actually be waiting longer for Oathbringer (because by the time you start the prologue, I'll be reading Part 2.) We'll also be able to do some pretty intense theorizing that will have a quick payoff (as opposed to the years we normally have to wait to validate Stormlight theorizing). I just don't see what you would get out of waiting. Can anyone explain it to me?

Not every RAFO hides a secret; it's just that Brandon isn't obligated to answer every question. He might have a nice little scene planned between Kaladin and Elhokar in Oathbringer, and will touch on the topic there. Or it might just be something that he's fine with being vague on.

It is referring to Topaz, which was his name in Dragonsteel.

This will be it for the US: Brandon says it's shorter than usual because of the holiday. https://mobile.twitter.com/BrandSanderson/status/892844687312039936

So, signing in Houston. I'll be there, I'll be square, and I'll have a copy of the Mistborn board game with me, so I hope there'll be some space to play it. I'm new to the Texas area; any advice from those who have been to this venue before? It looks like you need to purchase a copy of Oathbringer from the store in order to go through the signing line; anyone can come listen to the general Q&A, but they only give out signing line numbers to those who have bought the book from them. Signing line gets OB and 3 older titles signed; I might need to bring Alloy and Elantris 10th Anniversary, since they're thinner and I need space in my backpack for the board game! I can't decide if I should take off work on the 14th and drive over (I'm about an hour and a half away) to buy my copy in the store, or just get an ebook to read on Day One and buy it online from them. Has anyone ordered from them before? If I preorder a book, will it get there on release day? Has anyone typically recorded the signing line in the past? I'd be down to buy some equipment, if no one else already has that covered. It would give me a good excuse to sit around playing House War, and maybe slip in some extra questions at the end. EDIT: Full transcription of the event can be found here.

What?

One of the other Seventeenth Sharders called Demoux by his name; Ishikk understood it as "Temoo," but he just heard it wrong. That, the scar (earned during the end of Hero of Ages), and the fact that Demoux is based on Brandon's old roommate Micah, clued people in enough that someone was able to get confirmation at a signing.

When you trust your own memory, you can accidentally conflate theories and facts. I have seen it happen with my own theories, people passing parts of them off as canon. In this particular instance, all I've been able to find on the Shard is a theory: No, this isn't an 'academic' paper, but when you refer to a WoB, you should always be ready to verify it. It's the only way to keep discourse free of false ideas, since that kind of incorrect tribal knowledge can be very harmful. Yes, it can be challenging to source some of the more recent stuff, since Theoryland hasn't been updated since December. (Which is partly why the Shard mods are hard at work on their own system.) But every WoB is still in the Events and Signings forum, so they are still accessible, even if you need to wade through some other discussion.

Considering Sel has 2 Shards, no. You may be thinking of the Scadrian Essay in Arcanum Unbounded, which calls dishardic worlds rare.

Can you source that last line? It's news to me.

We had been discussing the game over here, but that topic is kinda old. I believe @Herowannabe is in the SLC area; he might have plans. Brandon will be in GenCon late August, so he might do something with the Crafty Games team there. But the only way to make sure there's a party is to throw one yourself!

The Sons of Honor haven't been seen to have a large network of agents (or any secret agents at all). Contrast that with the Ghostbloods, who already had agents (like Kabsal) in the Ardentia. Pai's motives seem to align very well with the Diagrammists; Taravangian doesn't want Alethkar united under Dalinar, so maybe he or another follower of the Diagram is acting against the Queen. I would suggest either of those societies before the Sons of Honor, although I don't think it would be unreasonable for Pai to be genuine, that Aeusudan is the real reason for the uprising.

Those are Shardpools, man.

Protodermis is Mata Nui's god metal.

I'm still a pretty new fish in the pond. Check out skaa, Kurkistan, or Argent.

Don't drag me into this.