Pagerunner

I just found a relevant WoB for when you wake up. The poles were the only habitable places on Rashek's Scadrial. So, I realize that this proves your point, that if the North Pole needed Ashmounts, then the South Pole must have needed something as well. But now you've opened up a can of worms, why does the Final Empire not have a screwy polar day/night cycle?

Contact form on his website, just request White Sand. I'd ask for Aether of Night while you're at it, too. His assistant Adam handles these requests, and how long it takes for him to get back to you will depend on how busy he is. I got it within a week, some people have had to wait for months. If it's taking a while, just send another request.

Interesting idea, but I think I see a couple of holes in it: I don't think primed ettmetal is sufficient to produce a feruchemical effect. You'd need brass storage, and lots of it. Brass doesn't occur naturally, so Rashek would have needed to create enough of it to last 1000 years (until power returned to the Well and he could empty out the stores). We learned that harmonium oxide can't exist, so ettmetal ore isn't a thing. God metals aren't naturally occurring; if there was a lot of ettmetal, it would have needed to be actively created by the two Shards (not by Rashek, since he only had Preservation's power) for reasons unknown, which Rashek would have coincidentially taken advantage of. Although Rashek didn't genetically modify the Southerners, either for climate or for social experimentation, I don't think that means they are physiologically identical to their pre-Catacendre days. The South Pole might have been slowly warming over 1000 years (or might have been extremely warm, but livable, to begin with), and the Southerners adapted to it. Sazed caught changes to the Northerners' lungs and digestive system, but he might have missed the Southerner's decreased metabolisms (or maybe they've even gone cold-blooded!). Although, no matter how you slice it, Southeners freezing on Sazed's watch does require explanation; is he not aware? Is he not able? Is he not willing? You take the second possibility, while I lean more towards the first (because of forces that are actively limiting his knowledge.) So, no smoking gun saying that your theory can't be true. But I see some gaps that give me pause.

I seem to recall hearing that we'll be getting Letters in all five of the first half of Stormlight, but I might be getting it confused with five different flashbacks to Gavilar's death. I don't think Hoid will be writing to Frost in this one. He's looking for help with Odium, and Frost made his position clear, and was even trying to change Hoid's mind. No, I think Hoid will be asking another Shard for help, and that the fourth book will have that Shard's response. ("I am, unfortunately, unable to assist you.") And then, third time's the charm, and whoever Hoid writes to in the fifth book will answer on-screen in a big way. That's my gut feeling.

I did lead in by saying it could be theorized, just to illustrate that even with our most extreme guesses, we can't account for all the Shards. But as long as we're going down this road... magic systems all draw energy from Shards, the end-positive ones at least. The power to push in Allomancy is coming from Preservation, the power to enact an Aon's program is coming from both Dominion and Devotion, the power that animates a Lifeless is from Endowment. Conservation of energy hasn't been broken in the cosmere, it's just been twisted through application of Investiture, which by all accounts we've seen is associated with Shards. If Hoid has used Lightweaving on-screen (in Warbreaker, or even in Way of Kings), then he is using energy, using Investiture, from somewhere to do it. Either he's 'hacking' it in like Vasher has done through using Investiture of a different Shard (i.e. Hoid still powers his Lightweaving through Stormlight), or there's a new source of Investiture for Yolen's magics after Adonalsium was Shattered, if a Shard took up the existing magic systems like Harmony now powers Allomancy. (This is necessitated on a difference in definitions between Shattered and Splintered. As far as I'm aware, only Adonalsium has been referred to as Shattered, and only Shards have been referred to as Splintered. A Splintered entity is still whole in some senses, like Seons are still of Devotion and the spren are still of Honor, and magic systems of both those Shards still function. But a Shattered entity no longer exists, and stops powering a magic system.) All that goes to say, magic has to draw on a specific something for Investiture. Yolish magic can't be powered by Adonalsium, since he's gone. It needs to be a Shard, either a local Shard through hacking, or a Yolish Shard that took up the mantle of that magic. (I am more taking issue with the possibility that Yolish Lightweaving doesn't draw on a Shard, not whether or not it's likely that Yolen has a Shard. Although I'm still pretty sure for other reasons that there's a Shard on Yolen.)

The list is: Roshar: Honor, Cultivation Braize (in the Roshar system): Odium Scadrial: Harmony (Ruin/Preservation) Sel: Dominion, Devotion Nalthis: Endowment Taldain: Autonomy Not on planets: At least two, one of which is Ambition Of other Shards we know, the only other piece of information is that there is a Shard that wants to hide and survive (although that's only tangentially related to its Intent). It could be the second Shard not on a planet, but it might not be. We can theorize that there are Shards associated with remaining magic systems we've seen hinted at (Yolish Lightweaving, and Aethers). Since all formalized magic systems are associated with Shards, it would make sense that Yolen and whatever world the Aethers are from have at least one Shard on them. We can also theorize that Silverlight is built around the second Shard that isn't on a planet. Silverlight is a city located entirely in the Cognitive Realm, not bound to a Physical location. Obviously, something screwy is going on, so many of us think there's a Shard there. Brandon has been closed-lipped on the subject. So, even with my best guesses, that still leaves at least one Shard unaccounted for, unless there's another doubling-up on one of the worlds. (Which I find unlikely, based on how Khriss calls that uncommon in Arcanum Unbounded. If there were three double-systems, one triple-system, and two not in systems, that would only leave 5 single-worlds, not even twice as many as there are single-worlds.) The Shards we don't yet know, Brandon is playing very close to his chest.

I don't get it. I've conquered all the divine beasts. I've beaten Ganon. I've completed all the shrines. Guardians merely annoy me now. Even Silver Lynels, I have down pat. I'm just going through and finishing up side quests and armor upgrades in prep for the DLC. So why on earth do I still not know the controls for this game? Don't get me wrong, I know what every button does, I know what the character is capable of. But, for some reason, there are two things that I still do wrong all the time. First, I try to change armor using down on the d-pad. With all the armors that have separate abilities, there needs to be a quick way to change it out. I definitely change armor more often than I do bows, arrows, shields, or runes. (Only weapons get changed more often, and even then, it's close. Dress for the job, that's what I say.) So, it would make logical sense to have all four d-pad directions be item menus, with 'down' being what isn't covered by the other three directions: namely, your armor. But, no, it whistles for your horse. Something I have used exactly twice for that purpose. (Although I have used it to get enemies' attentions to fight on better terrain, and once even managed to drown a Bokoblin by whistling at him. Good times, that.) I haven't perfectly learned which d-pad button does which thing, since the rest of them all stop time. When I need to change out in a pinch, I just throw one down, and then think about which menu I'm looking for. (Oh no, Lynel, change weapons. No, I don't need to change weapons, I need to change arrows; that will be RZ and d-left.) Whistling on the d-pad is just so counterintuitive, and I've been killed before by standing there with my fingers in my mouth like an idiot as a Guardian comes tearing at me because my brain extrapolated that d-pad down must change armor and won't learn that it instead is the eminently useless art of whistling. But you could have kept whistling if you rolled all weapons and shields into the right d-pad (vertical choice of type, horizontal choice as it is now), and then used the left d-pad for armor. Either way, the lack of a quick way to change armor is a big missed opportunity. The other thing I do wrong is with horses. I don't like how the sprint button for walking is the 'get off' button for horses; on the rare occasions I find myself needing to use a horse, I never get anywhere, because my 'go faster' muscle memory just tells Link to dismount. Normally, not a big deal, but trying to complete one of the horse challenges, being a few seconds away from success, and stopping the horse and getting off instead of sprinting is frustrating, to say the least. (The mounted archery challenge is my least favorite part of the game, by far. Lots of yelling at my TV. And I still have to do it once more to round out my Knight's equipment. Not looking forward to that.) I'd have just used the 'jump' button for all dismounts, used in combination with the control stick to tell if you're jumping off or dismounting, and on which side. That would have freed 'A' up so you can actually interact with stuff on the horse. I learned on my way to Kakariko Village for the first time that killing chumps from horseback is no fun if you need to stop and get off to collect your loot. On the whole, just everything about the horse controls are a little off, and it's really discouraged me from using horses in general since it's not worth the time to learn an alternate control scheme. (Which doesn't make those horse challenges any more fun, either.) But back to the first one for a tangent. Not a controls problem, but I've noticed that the inventory system, as a whole, is pretty flawed. There is no way to organize things, armor especially. When I want to switch from climbing armor to ancient armor, I need to scroll through three pages which each have 20 items, picking out the specific pieces of armor that I want from an order that changes every time I upgrade something. There are colored symbols that are supposed to help you pick out what you need, but the armor itself is all so colorful that they get lost in the noise. Furthermore, there's no way to select a whole set, even though by the lategame that's all you're going to be doing. And there's no way to organize the screens, to get them in a useable order or pattern, without being absurdly organized pretty much from the get-go. (I've gotten it to the point where I only upgrade all three pieces together, but that doesn't change that my ancient armor is separated by my girl clothes, dark clothes, fully upgraded Hylian clothes, and unmodified Zora and Electric stuff I'm still working on upgrading.) And of course, dyeing doesn't change the order, otherwise I'd dye everything the color it normally is in a precise order to give me organized screens. But armor is nothing compared to materials. You've got food materials, potion materials, upgrade materials, and miscellaneous stuff (wood, flint, and octo balloons, mostly) that are all just lined up in the order you get them. I know why they didn't split them into separate screens; they want to trick you into ruining food by combining food and potion stuff, and upgrading armor uses both food and potion materials. But it makes it impossible to cook, since you have to scroll through eight pages to find what you're looking for. And, like I said earlier, the order changes when you use your last of something. When I try to actually figure out the nuances of the cooking system (I know it's all documented online, but I want to puzzle it through myself), I'm probably going to start by selling down so I have 1 of everything, then dropping and picking up it all so it's in a reasonable order (I've already made a key), and then go collect from scratch again and never use my last one of anything. Because, in the end, it will be less work than rummaging around through chaos to find my sizzlefin trout whenever I want to cook something with it. This could have been solved with two changes, one very easy, and one that probably wouldn't have been too difficult. The easy would have been to leave an item in your inventory at x0, so you could learn an order and never see it changed. The more complicated would have been to let you rearrange the order of things in your inventory. When you select something give it a 'Move' option, that will trade places with whatever's on its left or its right by using the control stick. Hit 'A' again when it gets where you want it. Probably not too hard to do, and then you could put all your Climbing armor together, all your Hearty food ingredients together, your three useable items on the first page. It wouldn't have given away information the game wants you to learn on your own (oh, I see there are two open spots for Hearty ingredients, one of which is a fish and one of which is a plant; I'll need to find them). But it would let you organize stuff however you would prefer. Maybe you want all the fish together, all the beetles together, all the shrooms together. You can organize it like that if you want. Maybe you make one recipe all the time, and want all the pieces on your first page. You can do that, too. Breath of the Wild, I loved at the beginning. Now, even though I want to finish everything, it's just taking too much busy work to do so. It feels like it takes longer to make a couple meals and switch out to my cold armor than it does to actually teleport to Hebra and fight a Lynel. I could just wear climbing armor all the time and drink potions, if potions themselves weren't so time-consuming to make. (A quick-cooking option, like maybe a stove in Link's house, would be another major improvement, but I'm sure someone else has said something about that before.)

From the June 2016 newsletter (emphasis mine):

Good question. I'd say it depends on the specifics of how medallions work and what Cognitive Shadows are, both of which are still mysteries, so I can't give you a true answer. I can see both sides, though. For: We do know that the medallions interact with your sDNA (and trick it into thinking you have abilities you don't), and even though Kelsier lost his abilities when he became a Cognitive Shadow, I don't think he lost his spiritweb entirely. As I understand them, Cognitive Shadows are when a Physical aspect of a person has split off, but their Spiritual and Cognitive are still being held together (due to effects of holding too much Investiture). So, as long as Kelsier still has a Spiritual aspect, he should be able to use medallions. Against: The Physical component is still important for medallions. It requires you to touch something, to come in physical contact with the medallion, and Kelsier can't physically touch anything because he lost his Physical component. Even if he could get abilities, many manifest on the Physical Realm; strength, weight, etc. Even if he could use Spiritual Feruchemy, I don't think he'd be able to use Physical Feruchemy. So, there are a lot of Realmatics behind this question, and I think either answer is plausible. We'll have to wait until we get more information on both subjects, medallions and Cognitive Shadows to know for sure. (Guess we'll be waiting 'til Secret History 2!)

We do indeed.

"Are you listening" is a reference to Edgedancer, it's been how he always personalizes AU. For the >3 Surges, we know that the Heralds had on rare occasion borrowed each others' Honorblades, so they'd be my prime candidates for who has done it in the past. Similar for who we'll see in the future; our main character Radiants have a hold of Szeth's old Honorblade, so anyone who's not Kaladin could use it to get access to a third or even a fourth Surge, depending on who is using it.

Nice work. For missing info, take a look at this page. Halfway down, you'll be able to get dates and locations for the TGS tour.

First of the Sun jumps to mind for the Shardpool as the obvious instance, but I think it would have to be a remnant of when a Shard had Invested in a system long ago, and we know that Odium doesn't like to Invest like that and when he did, he got trapped in the Roshar system. We only know of a couple other Shards that moved around: the Survival Shard could be moving and hiding, Ambition and one other Shard aren't currently on worlds. I'd think one of them would be more likely. Crazy speculation, I've wondered if Honor's perpendicularity is on another planet in the Roshar system, which is why it's mobile on Roshar (but it would be stationary on the other world). I had tossed it out, since we know Honor's pieces are all on Roshar, but if the perpendicularities can be on other worlds, then it opens the possibility up again.

Last I've heard, he hasn't decided yet. It all depends on how well the current run of graphic novels sell; if they're popular, then Brandon may continue the full White Sand planned trilogy (i.e. 9 graphic novels) in that format. If they're not, he might go back and do a new written version of White Sand (rendering the graphic novels non-canon). Although it's not as labor-intensive for Brandon as writing a real book, it does sound like it takes big chunk of work from his staff to make sure everything lines up. Personally, I would prefer to see everything in prose form, as well. We'll have to wait and see whether or not we're in the minority or not.

Duralumin and aluminum mistings are basically useless. Their abilities are only relevant when you have multiple powers. I don't think there's an underlying problem with F.Nicrosil or even F.Aluminum only being useful in the creation of unkeyed metalminds. As to the original question, the simplest answer is this: The Bands operate on the same phenomenon as the Southerns' medallions, but they grant every power, not just two. We don't yet fully understand the mechanics of how the medallions work. But whatever the answer is, it's the same for both.

Can you please spell this out in more detail, especially why you specifically identify Scadrial as where she was? The way I interpreted the bandolier was that there are Physical objects in Shadesmar, like what we see with the Ire in Secret History, remnants of Radiant waypoints or something in the Cognitive Realm. I'm not seeing why it indicates she has worldhopped.

There's definitely strong mytharc overlap between Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild. SS starts things off, and BotW wraps them up. Lots of references to Hylia and explicit mentions of the cycle of heroes and Link and Zelda being reborn. I'm not terribly knowledgeable about Zelda, but my understanding is that past games haven't been so big-picture, and that there's a more recent emphasis on the overall fight between Link, Zelda, and Ganon over the ages. So, analyzing older games for how they fit into the timelines, you can handwave stuff away as retcons. But for Breath of the Wild, it's built in from the get-go, so I'd say it's still relevant. As far as converging timelines, that makes no sense. Splitting timelines, you have identical histories that diverge at a specific point, where they are no longer identical and can in fact very quite drastically. To do it in reverse, you would have various timelines that would all become the same; the timelines get similar and similar, until they eventually reach a point where they're all identical again. But since there are references to all three timelines, that would mean that different versions of each game would need to happen in all three timelines, defeating the whole purpose of having multiple timelines in the first place. Not a literal merger of timelines, then, in my mind. But there are clear references to each of the three timelines, from characters to places to legends. Somehow, Breath of the Wild is drawing on lore from separate histories and combining them together. Sure, it may just be an out-of-universe phenomenon, where the developers wanted to reference everything. But I think it could be the in-universe reason as well; if Hyrule of Breath of the Wild is an artificial simulation designed to capture Ganon across all timelines. I'm still getting my details in order, but if BotW is the Matrix made by Sheikah who can move freely between the three timelines, then there's no problem incorporating references to games that did not take place in the same timeline. It fits well with all the time-freezing (he's just pausing the code for everything else), the teleportation, spirits, all that stuff. Link needs to recover his corrupted files (a.k.a. memories) before he can completely finish his mission (a.k.a. programming). Calamity Ganon is less human because he takes very different forms across all three timelines, and the combination of Ganon from all three timelines takes their least common denominator. Link and Zelda are always more similar across the games, so they're much more normal as embodiments of all three timelines' characters. And that would ultimately get back to the game's theme of Tech vs Nature. They can't just lock Ganon in a prison; they need to make an entire world to contain and defeat him.

He's hinted we'd learn something about Vivenna soon. It could have been any number of possibilities, from a throwaway reference by Vasher to actually appearing on-screen in Stormlight or even a Nalthis short story (I'm still waiting for the missing Nalthis AU essay to appear on Brandon's website by surprise any day now). Now we know we will see her on Roshar, searching for Vasher. Just feels anti-climactic to get it all laid out in a WoB like that months before the book is out.

Some very interesting stuff so far. I think I can guess at the end of Stormlight and end of Cosmere, only because there are some fairly common theories that would lend themselves well to your unredacted phrasing, @Oversleep, but I'll refrain from going into detail. I'd actually recommend reducing it even further; there's still a lot that we can glean from what you have up. (I'd actually recommend not posting anything at all when you get something off the record like this; I've got a piece of info like that [but nowhere near as important], and up to this point, I haven't even mentioned I know it, much less given any hints as to what it's about.) Not that I don't appreciate learning this fact; don't take this the wrong way, it cements my opinion of how everything will end. But I think if you want to respect Brandon's request, you should go a little bit farther in not sharing anything about it, no matter how exciting it may be. Cat might be out of the bag for now, but I'll encourage you to stay firm in handing out your own RAFOs to people and not passing out any more cryptic hints, no matter how much fun they may be. (Myself excluded, of course. Feel free to PM me everything!) On to the rest: Rhythms off of Roshar is a very interesting concept. I don't think it will map to bronze pulses, since those come from Kinetic Investiture, and I don't see any of that with the Listener Rhythms. (Even if the Rhythms were connected with powerful spren, we just learned you can't sense a Shardblade, which is a spren.) This makes me think that the Rhythms are from the Spiritual Realm, the pure embodiment of certain emotions. (Platonic ideals, not manifestations of ideas like spren are.) On Roshar, they manifest as Rhythms, but they'll be part of the metaphysical underpinings of Realmatics all across the cosmere. When you feel an emotion, you interact with a Spiritual 'Rhythm' analogue. (And when you interact strongly enough with one, it can Snap you on Scadrial.) Vivenna being on Roshar is good to know, but I personally feel a little spoiled. This probably should have been a RAFO; I don't think we get anything out of knowing it now, with Oathbringer well on its way. But, hey, I probably shouldn't complain about new info. I know this isn't the first time Brandon has said slatrification doesn't really fit with cosmere magic, but it's really interesting to see that he might completely rewrite White Sand and do some drastic changes, like pulling slatrification out. Honestly, I'd like to see a revised White Sand released in print; I haven't been thrilled with the comics. So, it's encouraging to see Brandon float the possibility. (Other possibilities he's floated like this were leatherbound collector's editions and a cosmere short story collection, both of which came to fruition pretty quickly. I think there's a good chance of seeing White Sand Revised at some point in the future.) Who are our inter-planetary kids? Iyatil, perhaps? Or maybe this is referring to one of the great cosmere migrations (like maybe the Iri have Innate Investiture from outside of Roshar, and Adolin and Renarin could be of mixed Investiture)? Jasnah not being cosmere aware helps set some of her arguments in their proper context. She doesn't know of Shards, she doesn't know of the true history of Roshar (since Adonalsium created it). There are a lot of things she's said that I find suspect, and this provides some confirmation. Yolish Gods not being Shards makes sense. I'm gonna have to reread the Liar chapters... we're getting a lot of indications that the events therein are still canon and important, even though the Liar duology probably won't be written.

Yes, we know for sure it's Dalinar and Eshonai.

I'd call this confirmation. Not sure if that's what you already have, though.

I've also done some predictions over here. I built in plenty of slippage room, and it looks to me like he'll be able to finish between ages 70 and 76. As long as he doesn't have any problems with illness, he should be fine. And a serious illness could strike at any time, so I try not to worry about that when it comes to authors aging.

Why don't you think she pays him?

I think it's an interesting approach, that other bonds on Roshar still deal with Surges. I like the concept, but I disagree that they are all Nahel bonds, even those with Parshendi and greatshells. Which has to do with how the bond is formed, the specific oaths, that make the Nahel bond seem like something much more structured. That being said, we see one of Kaladin's Surges manifesting as bindspren, I believe they were called. They are the spren of that Surge, of Adhesion, the Investiture embodiments of one of the ten fundamental forces of Roshar. Kaladin commands these spren, but they are not the spren he has bonded with; he's bonded with an Honorspren. I can see greatsheels being directly bonded to gravityspren; maybe those are the arrow-spren, and they directly manipulate the force of gravity on a greatshell using the Surge of Gravity to keep it from crushing itself. But I wouldn't call it Surgebinding, or part of a magic system proper, without seeing evidence of Intent from chasmfiends. I think you could make your case stronger if you tried to connect Listener forms to Surges somehow. And I think that might be difficult to do, because the Surges are all physical phenomena, while the Listener forms we know of seem much more cognitive. For example, what kind of Surge would be produce mateform? Lastly, there is no inherent connection (at least as far as I can see) between the Radiant Spren and the Surges, conceptually speaking. Why would bonding a Highspren let you control Gravity? Please, don't let it be just for the sake of the pun. The connection that I've seen is that there's another step between them; Radiant Spren are attracted to people like one of the Heralds, and the Heralds are connected with two specific Surges. The whole Copying What Honor Did. So, I don't think Honorspren could grant the manipulation of Surges before there were Heralds. I know I said the last paragraph was my last point. This is still the same point, so don't worry. Seons will produce powers on Roshar, but not the same ones as spren. This could mean two things, the way I see it: Seons will create new Surges, or Seons will grant a different combination of Surges. Either way, there's nothing inherent about the Seons that grant these powers, since they won't do it on Sel; it's only because of an interaction between Seons and Roshar. There is something special about Roshar about bonds granting powers powers. I won't argue against a Seon bond and a greatshell bond being the same sort of thing (although I do think Roshar's spren symbiosis is different than what happens on other planets, since we don't see any physical transformation in those bonded to Seons), but I will argue that the Nahel bond is fundamentally different than either of those because of specific actions because it is designed to mimic Heralds, and its association with the Magic System of Surgebinding. But the Surges are not inherent to Surgebinding. That I can agree with, and I think we can see subtle uses of Surges from specific spren as various Rosharan creatures interact with spren in their natural ways.

This game's a blast. I've only played a couple of hours, and I just barely made it off the starting plateau, but I've really enjoyed the freedom to do whatever I want. I've heard the experience greatly improves when you turn off the HUD, so I think I'm gonna try that next time I'm playing and just look at the world around me. The last game I played, Lego City Undercover, I wound up doing the same thing; stopped looking at the map, and started learning the landscape. For this game, I anticipate it will be much more rewarding. Controls are a little iffy, though; I keep firing arrows on accident, and I have a real hard time switching between weapons. And I think I understand why; the controls seem intuitive if you're freewheeling with JoyCons (oh, of course my shield is in my left hand). But that doesn't carry over to the gamepad. Skyward Sword was super instinctive for me; the way you swing the controller is how Link swings the sword. This feels like a step back, but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.