Pagerunner

I don't think this phenomenon is primarily about Brandon's use of death. Because Brandon includes so much foreshadowing and so many secrets, people are always looking to pull them out. So, every day on the Shard, we get a new crazy theory. Just looking through the first page of Cosmere Theories, I see: Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it's bad to go out on a limb. But when we're turning over every rock we can find to look for a secret, anyone who has died off-screen is going to be suspect, especially one like Helaran who has a story. I don't think its that readers don't expect anyone to stay dead. I think it's more just throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Welcome to the Shard! I just want to check, you're aware that Alcatraz and Reckoners are not cosmere stories? (And neither is Rithmatist, one of Brandon's stories which you haven't read.)

Hey there, welcome to the forums! If you're looking into the cosmere, I say basically publication order. (With an exception or two.) Here's why: when Brandon finished up Wheel of Time, he became a much better writer. I enjoyed Mistborn 2 when I first read it, but when I've tried to reread it more recently, I've found it much more difficult to get through. (Not that it's a bad book, I'll say; but next to his other cosmere books, I'd rank it as the weakest.) Before he picked up the Wheel of Time, Brandon had written five books: Elantris, the Mistborn trilogy (Final Empire, Well of Ascenscion, Hero of Ages), and Warbreaker. There are points to be made for mixing up the order; Elantris was his first published book, Final Empire is probably the best of the five, and Warbreaker is available for free on Brandon's website. But, as long as you read the trilogy straight through the order of these five don't make that much of a difference. Starting with Way of Kings, Brandon starts to play a lot more with the overall universe of the cosmere. You can very easily read his first five books with no knowledge that there are any connections. (In fact, no one on the forums was really talking about any of the interconnection until after Mistborn 3 was released.) With Way of Kings, some things become more prominent (not too in-your-face though), so if you're paying attention and asking questions you will naturally find out about the larger universe. These hints build as Brandon alternates between additional Mistborn books (following new characters set hundreds of years later) and Stormlight books. These, you'll want to read in order: Stormlight 1 (Way of Kings), Mistborn 4 (Alloy of Law), Stormlight 2 (Words of Radiance), Mistborn 5 and 6 (Shadows of Self/Bands of Mourning), and Arcanum Unbounded (a collection of cosmere short fiction). Although, I guess you could swap Stormlight 2 and Mistborn 4 if you don't want to break up a series. (But fair warning, both of them are ongoing; Stormlight will be 10 books, and there will be one more Mistborn book for now that will wrap up the current era.) I haven't read any of his non-cosmere stuff, but on the whole they're shorter, so depending on how long your commute is, one of those series might be better for you. Also, I'll plug the Wheel of Time. It's a good series; it might feel a little dated, since its first book was published in 1990 and the fantasy landscape has changed so much, but I don't think it detracts from the quality. And, let's be honest, it will take you a while to run out of audiobooks to listen to.

There are quite a few more drafts to go. Everything Peter and Brandon have said so far on social media indicate that they're still on track for a November release.

Star Wars Expanded Universe, all day. It gets a lot of flak, especially some of the earlier books that weren't necessarily of the highest quality, but there is a lot there and it's actually a pretty unique experience. I always tell people to read it through in publication order; while you could get away with reading some of the newer stuff first, I think it's emotionally much more meaningful when you experience some of the twists and turns of the galaxy as a whole (especially the way the New Jedi Order uses all the old Bantam era settings and characters). It's also has basically no graphic content. If you're interested hard sci-fi, the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell is one I haven't heard anyone talk about, but I love. I got a couple of the early books for Christmas one year when it was first starting and I stuck through it until the end. (Well, I have one more I'm waiting to get in paperback.) The six-book main sequence has an extremely good sense of tension through an arc that covers all six books (as the titular Lost Fleet suffers deterioration and the various captains of the fleet respond to changing circumstances). It's also extremely tactile, with real-life naval tactic inspiration combining with speed-of-light considerations in a way that feels very much like Brandon's First Law, where everything is so well-defined that it's extremely satisfying to see the characters game the system to their advantage. I haven't managed to get too far into the two spinoff series yet, though; but the main sequence, starting with Dauntless, is phenomenal.

Good point. But Brandon is cryptic as ever.

We don't know, and when asked, Brandon did not give an answer. This mystery will be with us for a while, yet. There are several theories. Some think harmonium is involved. Some think the nicrosilminds carry the ability to tap themselves automatically. Some think it's a very advanced Realmatic interaction. There hasn't been a consensus among those of us who've considered this question before. But it's a good question to ask, nonetheless. There is much we don't understand about the medallions yet.

Separate sources, discussing the same broad topic, but having differences because the they were written for different target audiences... where have I heard that before? I agree that it's likely one of the songs was based on the other, but I wouldn't call it a 'corruption.' The Song of Secrets might have come first, and then when they were putting together the Song of Histories for everyone, they used parts of the Song of Secrets, interspersed with new information (which is why Histories is longer) and cutting out the secrets. On the other hand, the Song of Histories might have been first, and they took verses from the Song of Histories and changed them to include Secrets. Alternatively, they might both be drawn from another, older song, which has fallen out of use. But, either way, I agree that the specific repeated words and phrases is an indication as to the in-universe history and source of the Songs, even though they have different purposes and are for different audiences. EDIT: Secrets is probably the later of the two. In its first like, it abbreviates 'between,' since it apparently wouldn't fit with the cadence of the song. This indicates to me that the phrase originated in Histories, where it fits, and was slightly altered to fit into Secrets.

Have you read the Oathbringer blurb yet?

No Nicrosil compounders in there?

Leaving aside the question of who created them in the first place, you make a very good point. But, that holds true for either interpretation - to have a whole society survive using heat medallions, you'd need a lot of Brass Ferrings to begin with. Unless the Bands and the medallions both fill their nicrosil portion using Nicrosil Compounding. Then, either interpretation is tenable; you're either creating new instances of abilities by forming specific pieces of Investiture in nicrosilminds (in the Copper interpretation), or you're creating a nearly unlimited supply of Feruchemical man-hours (in the steel interpretation).

Ruin and Preservation haven't been Splintered, so yes, by definition they weren't shattered the way Odium shattered other Shards. The Vessels were killed by their direct interaction, but the Shards themselves were still whole. I'll disagree with @Shardbearer's suggestion (acknowledging that it was made over a year ago); although bad things would happen because the powers aren't being held by a mind, Splintering a Shard is something that requires knowledge and intention (the Ire didn't think Ruin knew how to Splinter Preservation, although he proved them wrong), so I don't think it would have happened on its own.

Ruin and Preservation are intermingled sufficiently that, if Sazed died, he would drop Harmony as a single Shard. It appears that something is required to Shatter in addition to the death of the Vessel.

An excellent question, and one that I've been considering since BoM was released. I don't think we have official confirmation either way. Right now, I lean towards a copper-like interpretation, both because it was my natural assumption when I first read the story, and because of how I currently understand the relationship between Investiture and a spiritweb that produces magical effects in a user. I don't think that the Investiture stored in the nicrosilmind is a consumable, the same way that a store of weight or speed would be. They need to refill the brass portion of the medallions after use, but maybe they don't need to refill the nicrosil portion. That being said, there are also good arguments that say it's a time-dependent aspect, that you store 50% of your Allomantic strength for an hour to let someone else be a full-strength Allomancer for half an hour. What we've seen in the canon isn't detailed enough to specify either way, and Brandon has been quick to hand out RAFOs on the exact function of the medallions, so as not to spoil any reveals coming in the final Wax and Wayne book.

We don't know that. I've theorized it, based on a detailed exploration of what I think the chemistry is like. But as far as I'm aware, I'm the original source of that idea, and it hasn't been presented to Brandon for confirmation at any point.

Check out the "Visitors from Another World" section in the SoS broadsheet. It looks like Harmony's Shardpool is on the southern part of the northern continent.

Not an astronomer, but decent at googling. Check this out. Many moons are tidally locked with their planets, it looks like, but I don't know if that's guaranteed or not. If that's true, you're only getting true/true or shadow/shadow, no combination of both. So you're probably not terribly interested in that case. The gas giant will cause a total eclipse when the moon moves behind it; it's the coldest time on the moon, your True Night and Shadow Day. I don't think you'll be able to differentiate them, unless your moon is really far away or something like that. Some of Jupiter's largest moons orbit the planet every ~40 hours, ~80 hours, and ~160 hours, respectively. So, it all depends on how you want to (or can) match up your orbital periods against a 24-hour day. It's probably not unreasonable to say that they could have a normal earth day, but different parts of the planet have different kinds of days.

Oh boy, I see we've all been very busy while I was away! Okay, someone's devoted to someone. Either the Shard is devoted to their people, or the people are devoted to their Shard. My interpretation of Odium, he wants to be the only Shard left in the cosmere, the only god that can be worshipped. He is the embodiment of the latter, of people being devoted to a Shard. So, I interpret Aona the other way around, as a Shard being devoted to her people I don't think it's been officially debunked, but I think we've presented an alternate interpretation for the line that doesn't make it a Shard. The Ire said something along the lines of 'not every piece of good luck is someone drawing upon Fortune,' and the immediate instinct of many was to see that capital letter and say 'Aha! Fortune is a Shard!' However, some people (myself included) think it's referring to a Spiritual Realm property, so all four Feruchemical Spiritual metals interact with fundamental aspects of the SR (Identity, Investiture, Connection, and Fortune). Just like other magic systems can mess with Identity or Connection, there are other ways to affect your Fortune. Here's the WoB in question. Either Frost or Sazed is the most cosmere-aware non-worldhopping character. So, Shards can be understood as non-worldhoppers.

If you can find a WoB, I'll agree with you wholeheartedly. But I haven't heard that idea before.

Yeah, I'm gonna need to see the actual wrench on that one. Saying 'Ruin is compatible with Cultivation' doesn't translate into 'Ruin and Cultivation are opposites' in my mind, not by a long shot. (I think I agree with the underlying principle you're getting at, that the relationships between Shards are more complicated than opposite extremes of eight fundamental ideas. But Ruin and Preservation are perfect, polar opposites, regardless of how either of them would play with Cultivation.) And I have no memory of the 'four pairs' quote, so I'd love to see a source for that one. Citing yourself as a reliable source... well, to the rest of us, that's still hearsay.

Whoops, my mistake, I typed Devotion instead of Dominion. I'll fix that eventually. Devotion, the way you describe it, flows from the worshipper to the worshipped; and I think that's tied very much in with Odium, he wants to be worshipped and wants no one else to be worshipped. Flowing from the divine down to the mortal, you get love, grace, mercy, all that stuff rolled together in devotion, God wanting to do good things for his people. So, I've got an opposite polarity on Devotion than you do. I've looked very closely. We do not have official confirmation either way of Frost's status as a Vessel. I think that, if Hoid's looking for help against Odium, he'll be writing to Shards. We'll see who the Third Letter is addressed to soon enough... but I do see your point, and I'm not insisting that Frost is a Shard. That's just my personal hypothesis. Why do you equate the Seventeenth Shard and Silverlight? Silverlight has universities and sends expeditions to various places. The Seventeenth Shard is an organization that doesn't want Investiture to mix. Khriss is based out of Silveright, and she often works with the Seventeenth Shard so far as their goals align, but that doesn't mean the two are necessarily one and the same. So, I don't think Silverlight being built on a Shard precludes the Seventeenth Shard from calling themselves that. Justice and Purity, in my mind, are both tied to the underlying concept of absolute morality. Something is inherently right or wrong. Purity has more of a positive tack, while Justice would be concerned with what happens when morality is broken. But they could easily be two aspects of the same Shard. Morality seems like too straightforward of a Shard name, though, for that idea... maybe Conscience? I think that was if Alcatraz had a Shard. There are three Shards in the Roshar system, and we know all three of them.

A couple things to note: A Reddit AMA happened on Feb 10th. Just so you're aware, there might be nothing happening on Mar 10th. Ambition is not the Shard that Brandon had previously hinted at, which wasn't on a planet. I specifically asked this question on the AU tour; Brandon was clear that there are two Shards that aren't on planets, Ambition and one other one. I think your methodology of assigning Shardpairs is inherently flawed. Odium could have had many opposites, and Honor could have even been a natural pairing. 'Not all Shards have perfect opposites' doesn't necessarily mean that they have opposites that just aren't intuitive; I think it means the relationship is more complex than paired opposites. I think the key takeaway is that the Intents of Shards are in conflict. Together, they compose a well-balanced breakfast being. But, when you split them up, you start to get these individual attributes driving towards goals that are extremely conflicting. Some of them, like Ruin and Preservation, are inherently Ying/Yang-y, with exact opposites, but some like Odium might need to be tempered in many ways, and be very prone to abuse outside of an appropriate context. Devotion, as a synonym for love, might include Mercy. (I like how we can finally understand the irony in the question, that the questioner thought Devotion could be Aona's Shard when it was actually Skai's.) That all being said... If you're gonna tie Ambition to something like 'hope,' then I can kind of see where you're going. I think we need a better definition on some of these Shards, namely Autonomy and Ambition, before we go too far down this road. I like where you're going with Autonomy/Dominion, but I think Frost holds a Shard of Non-Intervention (one of my many crazy ideas), so I interpret Autonomy as much more of a... personality of God, I guess. As C.S. Lewis wrote about Aslan, 'he's not a tame lion.' So, I'd push Autonomy out of that slot. Or maybe pair Non-Intervention with Cultivation or Endowment. Enlightenment is an excellent Silverlight Shard, and I like the name you've chosen. I was going with Revelation in my ideas, but that one's good, too. I've long tossed around Justice, which I think fits with your idea of Purity. A lot of people react to that by throwing Skybreaker comparisons and saying it's a part of Honor, but I think it's too broad an understanding of Honor that would encompass that. Honor is keeping promises; the Skybreakers keep promises for Justice, the Elsecallers keep promises for Enlightenment, the Windrunners keep promises for protection (or Devotion, maybe?). Just because the Skybreakers are just doesn't mean that Honor encompasses Justice. Tribulation is another one I've thrown around that could be an opposite face of Cultivation. Cultivation grows things to make them stronger, Tribulation tests things to make them stronger.

Can you source that, please? Last I've seen, it's its own separate phenomenon, separate from Surgebinding/fabrial science/Voidbinding, but he's definitely counting it as a magic system.

Yes, all of those theories have been proposed before. No WoBs on the subject. Not really anywhere to go with the ideas, just wait and see what comes up in the future. The other ones that people identify is that the crumbly crystal is connected to Aethers, a magic system that hasn't been published yet but will come up at some point, and that the hair could be Royal Locks from Warbreaker.

It depends on exactly how Feruchemy from Hemalurgy is inefficient. If it means that you get less out of your metalminds than you put in, then potentially. If it means that you are capped at the speed of storing and tapping, then not so much. I don't know if we've learned specifically how it manifests. Compounding is applying energy from Allomancy to a Feruchemical usage. You don't need much of a Feruchemical charge to key in the compounding, so as long as you're even getting a little bit of power out of your Allomancy, you should be fine. (i.e., If burning a bead of tin gives you less raw power than you lose by storing in that bead for a few moments, then yes, compounding might not be for you, since your tin is just so darn weak.)