Pagerunner

Taldain only has one Shard, so I don't think it can be another magic system. As a side note, do we know if Darkside has a different source of illumination? Because if there was a moon that was only reflecting UV light from the sun (or maybe a bizarre planet elsewhere in the system), then they could still harness light from Taldain's sun on Darkside, just without the visible portion of the spectrum.

The source for that speculation may not be referring to in-universe chronology, but rather out-of-universe order, i.e. which book was written first. As you can see here, Elantris was written before Dragonsteel, and both were written before White Sand. So, when Brandon said that Elantris and Dragonsteel are the first two books in the Cosmere cycle, he might have just meant the first two that he wrote.

Sounds good to me.

Why do you think it's an error? Does it turn black in the prose version? (Am I even allowed to ask that?) EDIT: Never mind, I see your post in the Typos thread.

I don't have the book in front if me, did it turn black when Kenton poured water on the ground?

Interesting idea, but I think there's more than just the natural lifecycle of the sand-lichen in play. There must be a magical component to 'activating' the lichen and turning the sand black; if it just required water, then any time the sand got wet, it would turn black. I think we see an analogue in other magic systems for how the water is required: Sand Mastery consumes water the same way Allomancy consumes metal, Surgebinding (some Surgebinding, at least) consumes heat, and Awakening consumes color. So, it requires water for a Sand Master to access the lichen's Investiture, but where would that Investiture come from in the first place? I don't think the lichen can generate Investiture on its own; as with all magic systems, the power must come from the Shard (just like Allomancy wasn't powered by metals, but ultimately by Preservation). With the widely held theory that Autonomy is the sun (supported in WS1 where they discuss the sun as the manifestation of the Sand Lord), then the sunlight could be the mechanism of Investiture transfer (possibly gaseous Investiture, like Stormlight or the Mist), and the lichen merely stores and releases it. So, while I agree with the main thrust of your argument (that white lichen dies when used, turns black, and returns to white as the new lichen grows), I think it requires Investiture to grow (not just sunlight), and the water isn't what specifically kills it (it's the act of a Sand Master drawing on the stored Investiture). I think the difference has implications on Sand Mastery in the rest of the Cosmere. If it's just sunlight and water, then the lichen is specifically adapted to Taldain, and I don't think it would fare well in a water-rich environment. If it thrives on Investiture, then I think the lichen could absorb Breath or Stormlight or Mists or whatever to recharge itself, probably much more quickly than it would normally take the sun on Taldain. Moving beyond that, I wonder if the lichen has anything to do with how Sand Masters are Initiated. What if there's a symbiosis between lichen and human in the Sand Master's body, and the more lichen you have, the more you can control? When the Sand Masters lost their power, it was because the poisoned water killed the lichen in them (which, as it died, sucked the water out of them)? Kenton, with the smallest 'symbiote,' didn't feel its effects until much later, and then he got a new colony when he regained his powers? (Please be kind, those with the prose version, and don't laugh at me too hard behind my back...) Oh, and @Landis963 , the lichen isn't mentioned in the graphic novel. As Pathfinder mentioned, it's something Brandon talked about in his latest newsletter, which he recently sent out.

Well, there's historical precedent for discussing the exclusive content, as long as it's not shared in its entirety. That's my defense if I get busted for talking about Edgedancer.

When I signed up for the newsletter, I received the most recent newsletter the next day. Either I picked a fortuitous day to get onboard, or they send you the latest newsletter when you sign up. So, I think you can still get it.

He has said he has no plans to release the prose version, and let the graphic novel be the 'official' version. If the graphic novels get a bad reception, though, I wouldn't be surprised if we get a prose version so Brandon can do the sequels as normal books. (We'll see how the population at large takes them. We're a bunch of non-graphic-novel readers complaining about how it reads differently than a book, but if it has a wide enough appeal then I wouldn't fault Brandon for moving ahead for more graphic novels.) Also, is anyone else bothered by how the graphic novel is taller than a hardcover novel? I was so excited that I'd be able to pull the paperback Emperor's Soul off my shelf in November and everything would match, but now White Sand will throw it all off.

Welcome to the Shard! As a quick, non-spoiler summary, the cosmere is the shared universe in which many of Brandon's books take place. They are each set on a different planet in the cosmere, and there are underlying fundamental principles of this universe (i.e. other worlds have their own form of Shadesmar, they have deities like the Almighty and Odium, and things like that). Each cosmere book or series (right now, there are 6 Mistborn books, 2 Stormlight books, Elantris, Warbreaker, White Sand, and a bunch of short fiction) is designed to stand alone, so you don't have to know the whole cosmere mythology to read and enjoy Stormlight. But there are secrets hidden in the background of the books (especially in some of the Stormlight epigraphs), and some minor characters who cross over from book to book, so that is there as a hidden 'stealth story' for those who are aware of everything.

I found the Tashikk religion more interesting:

It didn't feel like a lot, but I guess it's because it went so fast. It's definitely a different format than text - I don't naturally look at the images, just go from text to text, so reading it is much quicker-paced than reading a novel. I feel like I didn't get a good handle on the terminology, either, since it only came up when they were actually speaking it. But that's all just me having to get accustomed to a graphic novel and slow down, appreciate the scenery. The only real issue I had was with the scene-changes; they seemed a little abrupt, to go from a climactic point of one story to a fairly lethargic part in another. That kind of transition works well in novels as chapter breaks, that leave you with a cliffhanger, but I think the graphic novel needs smoother scene changes. About the mysterious tech... I assumed that it's something from Kenton's mother, from the Darkside, and that there's some kind of secret alliance between the Lord Mastrell and someone on Darkside. We'll see if that gets born out (no spoilers, those with the prose!).

As I linked to above, we have confirmation that Ars Arcanum author (Khriss) did not write the back-of-book blurbs. Whoever writes them refers to the Heralds and KR as abandoning "us." I don't think the Heralds abandoned the Spren; they abandoned the people of Roshar. That makes me think it's one of the secret societies. Whoever wrote it doesn't necessarily have to have lived back then; they might just have knowledge of those days. Same with the 'souls of men' line; the author is referring to mankind, rather than himself personally, as having been abandoned/turned against/world-became-theirs. Taravingian is out; he wasn't watching Kaladin until after he started exhibiting his Windrunner powers. I don't think it can be the Ghostbloods, either, since they weren't aware of Shallan's powers. Same with the Sons of Honor, since Amaram was surprised by Kaladin. Don't think it can be the New Skybreakers, since their Herald did not abandon them, and he's trying to stop Surgebinding from returning. I don't think it's Worldhoppers/Seventeenth Shard/Frost, either, since the Heralds didn't abandon them. I think that runs the gamut of known secret groups, and doesn't get us anywhere. Hasn't Brandon given some sly RAFOs about Nohadon? About him maybe still being around?

Brandon expects 1 year between graphic novels. Source.

Huh. The announcement from Tor said it was an excerpt from the graphic novel. This makes a little more sense, I guess; it'd probably be more difficult to include comic pages in with regular text pages. In the thread discussing the Arcanum Unbounded announcement, Peter stopped by and said it was being released to pique interest in prose-only readers about the graphic novel, since if they only read Brandon's Tor books there's a good chance they don't know about the graphic novel.

Is the text on your paperback the same as this version?

The back covers of the Stormlight books are in-universe. When I was tracking down the quote that said so, I found the answer to my own question - Stormlight back covers are not written by Ars Arcanum author (Khriss), or by Hoid. They're by an in-universe group of people on Roshar. As for Khriss's motives and alignment with the Shard, Brandon's referred to the author as a Seventeenth Sharder way back in 2011, so it can't be that recent a development of her character. But here's the most recent quote on the subject, which makes it seem like she's a part of the Shard, but won't limit herself to only working with fellow Sharders:

MAG elements are not necessarily canon, especially Spiritual Feruchemy, since Brandon had not given them info on how the powers actually worked. They came up with powers that they thought would make sense (especially Nicrosil Feruchemy, which is a very neat game mechanic to have), but that is being contradicted by how we're seeing those powers actually function in the novels. So, I wouldn't base any canon theories off of how MAG rules work.

We've known since January 2015 that it's a Seventeenth Shard member from an unpublished novel, which made Khriss the only obvious choice (especially after seeing her in Bands of Mourning). But, it is nice to finally get the official confirmation. Now that I think of it, do we know who wrote the blurb on the back of Way of Kings? Was that also Khriss?

Hmm... this sounds familiar. I agree, that I think that Excisors are hemalurgic spikes. The name fits: to "excise" means to cut out (like excise a tumor). Spikes excise parts of the target's sDNA. This let's you spike in powers, since you can't fit too many in a medallion. I also suspect that they compound to fill medallions (for reasons I've laid out elsewhere), so Excisors could let them combine 5 or 6 powers into a single person

I selected free shipping, and they're telling me July 5-11. You get what you pay for!

It was the other way around, actually - the magic system from Aether was reused in Liar. It may get cut, though, if Brandon decides to rewrite Aether or drastically change Liar, since he felt it wasn't a great fit. Third race is called Shodel, but I don't think we know anything about them. LoP Spoilers:

Have you taken a look at Brandon's pre-published history as a writer? He's done some blog posts about how the Cosmere originally came about, and I find them quite fascinating. And relevant to many discussions - for example, Elantris, White Sand, and Dragonsteel were the original group of Cosmere novels. He wrote them, and shopped them around to publishers, but no one wanted them. So, he kept writing, tried a different, lighter kind of writing style, and ended up with a bunch of books he didn't like. When Tor finally decided to publish Elantris, Brandon took a bunch of pieces out of the books he didn't like and wrote Mistborn, and then things just went downhill from there. All that goes to say, although the annotations were put online in 2006, the book was written much earlier, around 1999; I suspect the annotations were written closer to that period, as well. It was before he had written Mistborn, so the concept of Shardpool may not have been fully developed yet. Brandon played around with the concept of Shardpools in one of the unsuccessful books, Aether of Night (which you can get as a draft by emailing him!), before eventually incorporating them into Mistborn in a big way. So, when the annotations were written, there wasn't much of a concept of Shardpools, apparently. He must have really fleshed it out when planning Mistborn, and then tied it into other places (Stormlight, Sixth of the Dusk) as more of an overarching concept. Which all may have started from an obvious plot device in Elantris. EDIT: Oh, and @Landis963 and @WeiryWriter, latest WoB I could find on the subject said RAFO. But it was from the SoS tour, so there might be something newer out there.