Pagerunner

Here's a minor theory. SA has 10 flashback characters, 10 KR orders. But, how can we have one character from each Order, if both Shallan and Ash are associated with Lightweavers? Simple: Ash bonds a spren of either the Dustbringers, Willshapers, or Stonewardens. (I'd guess Willshapers. Is-He-Taln-Or-Not probably takes Stonewardens, and Eshonai seems like more of a Dustbringer than a Willshaper.)

Here's the source for relevant info about Nightwatcher and the Unmade from JordanCon: Not a direct quote, but a paraphrase. Nightwatcher is of Cultivation, and Cusicesh cannot be of Odium unless he is part of the Unmade. We also know from JordanCon (from the RAFOlympics) that Cusicesh is at a lower level than Nightwatcher/Stormfather: Lastly, we've known for a while that the Unmade can be bonded. From a WoR signing:

Hmm, that raised some interesting questions for me along a bit of a tangent... I don't think Cusicesh is just of Cultivation, but possibly a combination of Investiture from both Honor and Cultivation. Let me spell out a couple important points that lead me to believe this (and I unfortunately cannot source any of these right now, but I promise to do so later if asked): Stormfather is to Honor, as Nightwatcher is to Cultivation, as the Unmade are to Odium. They are all super-splinters that have achieved their own sentience. Stormfather absorbed Honor's Cognitive Shadow. That's why he acts like 'ghost' of the Shard. That means that Cultivation doesn't have to be dead for Nightwatcher to exist, and that super-splinters don't come from Cognitive Shadows. Stormfather is the exception, not the rule. There are only three spren that a Bondsmith can bond with. This is elsewhere in the Companion, I've heard; I haven't had a chance to look for myself. On Scadrial, you have a magic system for each Shard and a combination system for three total. So, that's why I think Cusicesh is the third Bondsmith super-splinter, a combination of Investiture from both Honor and Cultivation. The only Bondsmith at that time was bonded to him, and when the KR broke their oaths, it drove Cusicesh mad. Now, I hadn't considered that it could be a splinter of Adonalsium, something that Honor and Cultivation replicated with Stormfather and Nightwatcher... it's possible, but I suspect the spren need to be of Honor/Cultivation to fit into the Surgebinding system. (I suspect we'll learn more about other Shards' Investiture fitting into Roshar when we get Szeth's book.) But, aside from the thematics of the thing, I don't see any problem with it. Good catch. It definitely seems like there's more to Big C than I'd been giving him credit for.

Here's the quote in question, with Brandon saying that he was intentionally interpreting "force" very broadly, giving him a lot of wiggle room to answer those questions. He says now that he isn't referring to an anti-Adonalsium-type being. Furthermore, Khriss says in Secret History that sixteen people shattered Adonalsium, and that's what it appears Brandon was referring to; the alliance of 16 individuals as a "force." If you're looking for Hoid quotes, he hasn't been too active on-screen until Stormlight. Both of those books have a good bit of dialogue from him, as does Secret History. Bands of Mourning doesn't have a ton, but he does have some lines. I don't think he says anything significant in Elantris, Warbreaker, the original Mistborn trilogy, or the first two Wax and Wayne books. (And he's not actually in any of the novellas apart from Secret History, or White Sand [as far as I can tell].) Hope that helps narrow it down.

Can you please source that? I've seen speculation that that is the case, but not a direct WoB about having already seen a dragon on-screen.

There have been conflicting reports. The TOR cover reveal said excerpt from the graphic novel, Brandon on Facebook said it would be from the prose. We discussed it some here. If there's disagreement between the sources, I know who I'm going to trust more. However, it looks like the Coppermind editor in question figured out a way for both of them to be right.

Welcome to the Shard! Glad you can finally join us. First, a quick correction: if Sazed died, he would drop Harmony as a single Shard. We have confirmation on that from Brandon himself; the Shards are well and truly intermingled and combined. But, yeah, if you look at it from a certain point of view, it could make Sazed a "Seventeenth Shard." Although, there's speculation that a similar Shard-melding has occurred on Sel, the world of Elantris, which could mean that the Dor is the Seventeenth Shard and that Harmony is actually the Eighteenth Shard. But when Odium splinters Shards, did they actually become the Seventeen Shard through the Ten Thousandth Shard? And there were also Splinters of Adonalsium before the Shattering, so how do we number them? The terminology of Sixteen Shards refers to the specific result of the Shattering; Adonalsium was broken into sixteen distinct pieces. Those pieces have changed since then, splitting or recombining, but we can still identify the original pieces in splinters (like Seons/Skaze/Spren) or super-Shards (Harmony). (It's sort of like in American College Football, there's a conference called "Big Ten" that has 14 members and a conference called "Big 12" that has 10 members. The name doesn't match the current situation, but it refers to how the conference started.) But if you're trying to connect Harmony with the in-universe Seventeenth Shard organization... I think that Baon gives us pause. We've seen three members of the Seventeenth Shard: Baon, Demoux, and Galladon. Demoux could easily have been recruited by Sazed. As an Elantrian, Galladon is essentially immortal, so he could still be alive when Sazed Ascended. But Baon is a normal human (at least, as far as we know), and since White Sand is set chronologically before Mistborn, he would have been dead before Sazed ascended. So, I think the Seventeenth Shard predates Sazed's Ascension.

Woah, woah, can you provide that quote? It's one thing for highstorms to predate their arrival (not arguing on that point); are we sure that Stormlight predates them, too? Also, how is the ecology Stormlight-based; it's all designed to deal with Highstorms, but I can't think of any plants or animals who use Stormlight. (Larkin absorb it, but it doesn't appear to be a survival mechanism.)

I'm a little rusty on the first one, so I won't try to answer. But, for #2, Raoden added the chasm line to fix the city. Elantrians are 'made' by the Aon formed by the city of Elantris. That Aon was missing a chasm line, so it didn't match the land anymore. By drawing the line, Raoden fixed the Aon formed by the city, which then fixed the Elantrians.

If you're referring to this, then it's not part of a standalone novella, it's just a scene. It might make it into SA3, or it might be like Mistborn: Secret History where we the readers don't learn about it until well after.

HoA Ars Arcanum says Aluminum steals Allomantic Enhancement Powers. (And Atium steals Allomantic Tmeporal Powers, but we know from WoB it can steal anything.) MAG lists Duralumin Hemalurgy as stealing Enhancement Feruchemy. (Very poorly worded in my mind, since the Allomantic Enhancement metals are the Feruchemical Spiritual, and 'Feruchemical Enhancement' doesn't mean anything.) MAG powers are grain-of-salt canon (especially since it has contradictions with Bands of Mourning). Tangent: I'm not sure it's accurate for Duralumin to steal F.Spiritual powers, since it doesn't fit the pattern where, of a metal/alloy pair, only one steals powers, and the other steals some kind of natural trait. Granted, Aluminum is the only pure metal that steals powers, so it's already going off-script. If we assume the pattern is reversed on the bottom of the hypothetical Hemalurgy chart, then Duralumin shouldn't steal Ferchemical powers, it should be Chromium that does that. But that's just me speculating.

Well, there's a WoB where Brandon challenged some for making assumptions, which that takes the assertion as fact. There were two assumptions in the question: that Hoid doesn't like Cultivation; and that Purelake is Honor's Shardpool and Horneater Peaks is Cultivation's. Further questioning was whether or not Horneater Peaks could have been Honor's Shardpool, so there wasn't really anything conclusive about the first assumption. It could be right, which is why Brandon didn't mention it. Or it could be wrong, and he chose instead to speak about the other assumption rather than clarifying this one.

Cool. If Inquisitor turns out as bad as I fear, I can just make my own. It might defeat the point of Promos, though, if people can just recreate them...

This new add-on doesn't seem like a great idea... I don't expect it will get too many takers, at $40 for new tokens (although they look like really nice tokens). Unless the game's getting a ton of use, I don't think it needs these high-quality of tokens. I'm considering getting a generic set large enough to be used with House War (Black for Ruined and Blue for Workers? Or Orange for Ruined and Black for Workers?), but that could also be used in any number of other games I have. (I've got an idea that would make Small World a lot simpler, though replacing those tokens would lose most of the art, which is one of the best parts of the game.) But, I would like to say that I would absolutely love to see PennyGems for the KR orders. I'd buy a set of those with zero hesitation, even though I can't fathom a reason I'd have to use them.

The latest kickstarter for the board game is giving out free digital editions at the Prestige level. There are probably a good number of supporters who already have all the digital versions, so I'd ask in the kickstarter thread or on the Crafty forums if anyone wants to pass along their extra download code.

It comes with the electronic version download. If your purchase included a digital download, and you just haven't used it yet, then that would give you the novella. It's around 150 pages, but I didn't get past the first few pages since I found it to be... like summarizing the world for those who haven't read Brandon's books. But, of course, it won't do it as well as the Big Man himself.

Ah. The world has transformed to look very much like 1800s United States, with a lot of influences from the Wild West and the large cities of the day. While the frontier aspects are fairly intuitive to those of us from the States, they probably don't go so smoothly for those from other countries. The urban portions are probably more universal, and they feature more strongly in Shadows.

Who's "everyone"? It's 4.5 stars on Amazon, par for the course for Brandon. 4.2 on Goodreads, a little on the low side for Cosmere books but still tied with Warbreaker and above Elantris. Alloy is small-scale, since it was intended to be a short story that turned into a novella that turned into a full novel. It's interesting to see Allomancy and Feruchemy in a different setting, but it doesn't have the in-universe ramifications of the original trilogy. But I think it's still a fun read. I wasn't a huge fan of Shadows of Self. It felt much slower-paced, with a lot of political tension and some personal drama. The ending left a lot of unanswered questions, which prompted some really good theorization here on the forums, though. Bands of Mourning was phenomenal. Definitely worth powering through the other books if you don't like them, just to get to this one. It's very high-octane and fast-paced, with some incredible secrets coming out of the woodworks. Everything these books should be as self-contained, serialized adventures. And then, the novella Secret History. It's currently only available as an e-book, but it will be included in the short fiction collection Arcanum Unbounded coming later this year. Brandon recommends you read it after Bands of Mourning, but I don't think it would be the end of the world if you read it after Hero of Ages. It's geared towards those who follow all the Cosmere books, not just Mistborn, but I assume from your username that you've at least read some Stormlight. You might recognize a few things, if you've been paying attention...

Here's his latest comment on the subject. His plans have changed - in 2011, they looked quite different. Navani was supposed to get a book in the first half, and it looks like she was replaced with Eshonai. Taravingian was getting a book (whaaat?!?), which seems to have turned into Lift's book. The second herald was referred to as a "he," and Brandon had to think about it to confirm he was in WoK. Either Brandon slipped up and was referring to Ash, or he had planned for a different herald (Nale or Ishar, since the other two men were featured prominently in the prologue).

Here's a link to an old interview where Brandon confirmed that there were only Ruin and Preservation on Scadrial. Have you read any of the Wax and Wayne books, and are wondering about something in them? Or are you referring to how there are three magic systems, so we would expect three Shards? Feruchemy is actually a magic belonging to both Shards; there have been some interesting discussions in recent threads like this one that have some explanations as to how the two Shards produced three magic systems (Allomancy of Preservation, Hemalurgy of Ruin, and Feruchemy of both of them).

Does White Sand occur before or after Elantris?

Wait, are we in agreement or disagreement about White Sand's place in respect to Elantris? Because while we knew Elantris was the earliest in-universe of the published novels, I don't think we know that it was the first after Dragonsteel (especially since Brandon has referred to White Sand as one of the very earliest). Basically, the Coppermind article posits that Elantris happens before White Sand. I don't think we know that for certain; it's certainly not impossible, but I was under the impression that White Sand happened before Elantris (and this was reinforced by the existence of Elantris's Ars Arcanum). Brandon has been intentionally iffy on the chronology, so I haven't seen anything to definitively state one way or the other. I can't make a definitive case for my interpretation, but I don't think the other side can make a definitive case, either. If there's a new WoB to bring to the table to say that the Elantris Ars Arcanum was not written roughly concurrent with the events of the novel, or that Elantris is the first novel post-Shattering, then I would love to see it. Because, from what I've seen thus far, I think it could go either way. It might be a good things to add to the Ultimate List of Questions and see if we can get a definitive quote, now that at least a portion of White Sand has been published.

Is this or this what you're looking for? All they say is that Elantris-Mistborn-Warbreaker-Stormlight happened in the order they were published in, but that there will be future Cosmere novels (i.e. Dragonsteel, White Sand) that will be set before Stormlight. (He must be talking about publication, because he wrote Way of Kings before Mistborn.) And, actually, I just discovered a WoB that indicates White Sand's place in the timeline wasn't finalized as recently as April of this year. Not sure if it's a "Is it before or after Elantris?" or a "How far exactly is it set between Elantris and Dragonsteel/Mistborn?" So, I guess it isn't really conclusive for this argument.

Was it this analysis of the linguistics that supports Harmonium? They translate ettmetal as "One Metal," and imply unity (Harmonium, combination of Atium and Lerasium). Actually, if taken another way, it could be referring to the first metal on the Periodic Table - Lithium.

The ettmetal bomb does not necessarily add water to ettmetal to cause the explosion; it could be an Investiture-powered explosion drawing on the ettmetal (like a giant Steelpush in all directions). As to Point 3, pure lithium doesn't exist in nature, either. According to Wikipedia, all three metals were first isolated in the early 1800s, with Lithium being discovered 10 years after Sodium and Potassium. I'd expect Sodium or Potassium to be more prevalent, since they occur more frequently in nature in RL.