Pagerunner

I haven't been following this thread that closely, but it looks like this is talking about something different. Bonding multiple Shardblades doesn't mean being a member of different Orders; it means a Shardbearer could have two Blades. The "multiple spren bonds" referenced aren't the ones that let you Surgebind, just the ones that let you summon a Shardblade.

Can you link please?

http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=977#156 There are no small sprenblades; a live sprenblade can change size and shape, but the dead ones are all described as as tall as a person. There are one-handed sword forms, but they are possible because the blades are so light. Eye changes aren't merely light vs dark, but the specific color associated with the Order. Are Elhokar's eyes blue? Gold? That will indicate the origin of the blade.

Way of Kings originally provided two clues that Szeth's blade was not a regular Shardblade. First was its smaller size, second was that it did not permanently change his eye color. Elhokar's blade is large, so there is a point against. Elhokar's eye color should provide another indication, but I am not familiar with eye colors. But whether or not they ever change, and what color they are now, can provide a clue to Order and to whether or not it's an Honorblade. The fundamental glyphs do not appear to be limited to the Radiant orders, as their appearance in AU has them attached to planets. The exact origin and development of the glyphs are still a mystery to us, but the glyphs on the blade do not have to mean Radiant orders.

Knowing that Nale has taken back his Honorblade, all ten are accounted for.

It's an oldie, but a goodie. The pesticides, power plants, and tumors are my favorite parts. I usually see something like "You'd be hard-pressed to find a human being who doesn't have a severe physiological addiction to it; you can find it in all our food, and unexpected withdrawal is always fatal within a week." And something about how "All documented serial killers in the United States had ingested DHMO within a day before committing each of their murders."

The most 'natural' introduction to the cosmere, in my mind, comes during Mistborn 3 or Stormlight 1. I'd say you should wait until you've finished the first trilogy, then, to read up on the larger universe. Arcanum Unbounded, a collection of novellas and short stories, goes the deepest into the connections between books; you should definitely wait to read that (which contains Mistborn: Secret History) until you've read all the other books. Don't waste time researching right now. Read the books first! Once you're out of books, you can go hunting through the additional information Brandon has given in interviews and signings, or start trying to understand all the crazy theories flying around, or read up on some old unpublished cosmere tales . But finish the books, first, since they are the intended medium to enjoy these stories.

He hit Omaha on the WoR tour, and on the Rithmatist tour the year before that. So, there's definitely a possibility. Worst case scenario, Chicago is sure to get a stop, so you might need to make a weekend trip out of it.

Huh. I'm not aware of any major changes; just correcting typos and the like. Maybe the publisher wasn't aware this is an actual in-universe text, a kind of sneaky extra Interlude on the back of the book. So they edited it down to fit in a smaller book size, not realizing they were basically changing the lines of the book itself.

We know that Highspren are alive. Jasnah was seeking them out. We don't have absolute proof they are the ones who maintained their bonds, but there's a much stronger case for them than any of the other Orders. Edgedancer spoilers. I find it too convoluted for Nale to be running a Surgebinding group called the Skybreakers that is not the one Order that didn't disband.

Because Brandon is being such a little stinker on the matter. This is something you cannot pick up from the book. There are no hints that Taln isn't Taln in the text. That's why some of us think that Brandon is just trolling us, a signing-only red herring to keep us on our toes.

Honestly, I don't think this should be pinned. (And not just because that would mean I'd need to update it on a regular basis!) By the time this falls off the first page (which will probably be by the Oathbringer tour), all this stuff should be in Theoryland or one of the several WoB database projects going on right now. Sure, I've provided a few more WoBs than a typical signing would get. But I don't see any reason this thread would be more relevant than, say, the three recent Europe tour threads.

It's not our job to make sure everyone knows things. This is like when people get bummed out general Q&A periods at signings are filled with stuff we know, or aren't about the cosmere. That's not the point of either those sessions or these polls, to get information that no one has ever known before. It's for those who are actively participating. And, in this instance of participation, more people want to know about Taln's honorblade. This is the best way to disseminate that sort of information. I'll admit, I wish any of the other questions had been picked. But, hey, who knows: maybe Brandon will throw us a bone, a clue as to when it was switched out he's never revealed before. It might not be a total lost cause. And, some small consolation to me: even though it was dead last, my preferred question (glyphs) still blew away the 2.3% that the Kaladin = Peter Pan question got last month!

We voted, and we lost. No need to get worked up about it. These are supposed to be frequently asked questions, not deep new WoBs. The people who are voted are a representative sample of fans, and there are enough people who want to know this answer to win. This isn't a problem with the voting system; it's a problem with the fan base. And, actually, it's not even a problem, it just means that there are a lot of people who follow Brandon on social media but don't keep up to date on stuff from signings.

The current search bar is useless when it comes to searching with multiple terms. It wasn't always this way; I can't recall exactly when it changed, but it definitely did not used to be this way. Here's an example: I want to find when people talked about lerasium being green. I go to the search bar, type in "lerasium green," and here's what I get: Over 6200 results. It has everything with EITHER lerasium (3800 results) OR green (2400 results): When, really, I'm looking for the (3844+2411-6238 = 17) results that include both terms. I've figured out how to get there. If I edit my search, remove the "+", and replace it with a space, it will search like I want it to. But that's not what the search bar in the top right defaults to. I think it definitely needs to. Is this an easy thing to change?

Unless you mean the Surge of Division... Which, since we haven't seen it in use, we don't know much about. We recently learned it has to do with intermolecular bonds, as opposed to splitting an atom. Some of us speculate that the WoK prelude has a hint, of the Dustbringers releasing a lot of energy.

I'll just throw my two cents in real quick. We've been assuming that malatium does something that atium cannot. With good reason; other than Brandon's cryptic comments that we don't understand atium's full potential, it would appear that malatium is a Pushing/Pulling pair with atium. But, just like an atium spike can be used for any Hemalurgy (even though they only knew how to steal temporal Allomancy), maybe the full use of atium includes malatium's ability? Or how lerasium makes a full Mistborn, but alloys make a specialized version, a Misting? Atium and lerasium may both be Spiritual metals; the former External, the latter Internal. Atium looks at Connection or other properties, while lerasium lets you modify your own Spiritweb. They would each have a lot of functionality, but you would need to know exactly what you're doing. Alloys would have a more limited application, for those who aren't Realmatically savvy enough to use atium to its fullest. So, alloy it with gold, you only get to look at someone else's historical Connection. What if atium could accomplish the powers of any of its alloys, though? The only one people know of is the atium/electrum power, so that's all they ever use it for? That's how I reconcile a clear connection between atium and electrum, with atium's place as a god metal. That atium is behaving as its own alloy, since no one knows any better.

Look in the scene where Vivenna first gets all her Breath.

Dude, I'm thrilled you're using the WoBs that I put together. But you don't need to tag me every time you use one! But, yeah, it's a pretty common assumption that the two are one and the same. We recently confirmed that the terriswoman worldhopper is the nurse in Warbreaker; I don't know if there's a description of either Aslydin or the nurse that you could compare to try and get something even more concrete.

All magic needs to be powered by a Shard. In some cases, like Allomancy, there is a direct connection to the Shard in the Spiritual Realm, so it can be used anywhere. (Magic from Elantris is a rare exception, where you can only draw on the Shard's power in a certain location.) Some magic systems require you to locate a source of Investiture in the Physical Realm; Surgebinding and Sand Mastery both need some provision of Investiture (either Stormlight or Invested Sand), and when you run out you can't use that magic any more. There is the possibility of 'hacking,' of powering one magic system with another Shard's power (like Awakening with Stormlight instead of with Breath), but I don't believe we have seen anyone do that beyond Vasher consuming Stormlight instead of Breath. The second part of your question deals with Initiation, how to access a magic system. This also varies by system; some are genetic (Allomancy, Feruchemy), some can be done by anyone (Hemalurgy, fabrials, Awakening), Surgebinding requires you to act in a manner to bond a spren, and we don't actually know what's up with AonDor yet. (It's still a mystery why some people become Elantrians.) There are some methods to 'hacking' here as well, that seem to be related to a Shard's direct essence. Lerasium can make anyone a mistborn; anyone with an Honorblade can Surgebind. So, for a Rosharan mistborn, yes, that is possible. But there are limits; you can't use Soulforging to make yourself a Surgebinder, for example.

I have a chemical engineering degree; I can barely remember what level of chemistry is appropriate for high schoolers. My first thought was mass spectrometry to identify a mysterious alloy, but that's definitely way above what these kids are doing. What are some of the more specific topics you're looking for? Ideal gas law is a thing; you could fit soulcasting into that. (If you could convert 1 kg of stone into 1 kg of air, how much volume would it take up at normal atmospheric conditions?) I don't know how much you get into reaction rates, but you could view the consumption of dye during Awakening as reaction and do stuff with the concentration of dye molecules. But I would definitely hesitate to use atium or harmonium or some other made-up element. A big part of chemistry is learning about and memorizing the behavior of specific elements. While harmonium is an alkali metal, it would do your students a disservice to replace a real sodium or potassium in an example.

If you sign up for his newsletter, you will get a link to download the entire unpublished manuscript. (Check to make sure it doesn't get sent to your spam folder; for some reason, that happens a lot.)

The metal that Paalm used is from a Shard we knew in 2015 (which is all we know now, excluding Ambition). That's a strong implication that Trell is a Shard we know of (although there are some other schools of thought, like Trell being a powerful worldhopper using pieces of Dominion he brought from Sel.) The best case I see right now isn't actually Odium, but Autonomy. Compare these quotes: Source. Source. That, combined with Khriss's revelation in Arcanum Unbounded that Autonomy interferes worlds other than Taldain, seems to point very strongly to Autonomy being behind Trell.

All in-book artwork is on Brandon's website. Look under the Artwork tab.

Not in Theoryland yet, unfortunately. I'm sure it's on their to-do list; nothing since the end of the Arcanum Unbounded tour has been put in. (That's the four Europe signings, a Provo signing, a BYU event, and two cons, Boksone and Ad Astra [although we're still waiting on recordings of the latter]. And, of course, the Reddit AMA that's still getting pinged every once in a while.) Theoryland is an aggregator. If you're aggregating on your own (like I do), my best suggestion is to stay atop the Events and Signings forum and add stuff to your database as things get reported. If you just want to check every so often for what new stuff has been added to Theoryland, there's no way to apply date filters to Theoryland. You could check what new interviews have come up since your last visit, but you wouldn't be able to combine that with tags.