Pagerunner

Main character is going to be Lift. It's also a way of giving Stormlight fans new content this year, since we'll have to wait for 2017 for Oathbringer.

I find the comment sections this week to be hilarious. On one of the matches: you've got Malazan fans saying that the Mistborn fans were cheating and voting for LotR to snub Malazan, you've got the Mistborn fans saying Malazan fans are cheating and voting for LotR to snub Mistborn, you've got both sides talking about how people are "ruining" the match and how it's a shame it's a popularity contest or a battle between fandoms, not between characters. Nobody understand why everybody else hates their characters so much, and there seems to be a conspiracy to keep them from winning. Everyone's coming up with these complex schemes, which make sense considering the series involved. And then, in the other semifinal, you've got a bunch of people typing CAPS LOCK LATIN (or something that looks like Latin, at least) and other things I assume are quotes from the books. And then, someone just posts "*gobble*." They're having fun! No one over there is taking things too seriously, that much is for sure. I wish some of that levity found its way over to the other side. Also of note: Legolas and Gimli are about to go to the finals (Round 5), and their only match with positive comments about them is... Round 1. Round 2 had almost no attention (just someone noting they were going to fight Malazan), Round 3 was all "No chance for L&G," and Round 4 is all "No chance for L&G, and also you're all terrible people." LotR fans might be silent in the comments, but they are popular characters - let's take a look at the margin of victory for some of these events: Legolas and Gimli: Round 1, 88%; Round 2, 73%; Round 3, 49.53% (uh... I guess somebody forgot to close the poll, since they won this one.). Vin and Elend: Round 1, 80%; Round 2, 53%; Round 3, 68%. Rake and Envy: Round 1, 64%; Round 2, 52.3%. L&G have had some very big wins, even when there was no reason for Malazan or Mistborn fans to 'cheat' for them. I'm not sure what the turnout was for each event, though, since I can only see percentages... Voidus, you mentioned you could see the actual vote count?

Yes, that was intentional. Even an established author who is a master of rules-based magic systems, one who would be best equipped to actually weigh which was the more powerful magic, elected to write a humorous scene for the cage match. There's a time and a place for silliness, and I think the cage match is that time and place. Not exclusively, which is why I would like to see a good battle for the final match. (Thanks for checking, though!)

There have always been off-the-walls write-ups that don't take the battles seriously. One of the most egregious can be found here: http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/03/cage-match-2012-round-4-moiraine-damodred-versus-kelsier.html. But, yeah, it is a little odd that the semifinals consist of opposing characters complaining about their allies, and an eating contest. It's almost impossible to get a good frame of reference for some of these battles, like the one earlier this year where Mat and Tuon were fighting on a spaceship and approximately half of the text was Mat cursing. The fight won't make any sense, no matter how you write it, so the writers don't go for a power-based matchup. That's what I think of this week's fight: it wasn't about highlighting a battle between powers, but about a conflict of personalities. Gimli and Vin were captured very well. Legolas and Elend... not so much, but they are just observers to the real fight, so I'm willing to forgive them. Still not as cool as the Alice in Wonderland write-up, which might be my all-time favorite: http://suvudu.com/2016/03/cage-match-2016-round-1-anomander-rake-and-lady-envy-vs-alice-and-dinah.html. I said going into this week that this matchup wasn't very good for a battle, which would have been as quick and anticlimactic as the writeup for Vin and Elend last week (show up, kill enemies, walk away), because Legolas and Gimli don't have magic. I haven't read either of the series in contention on the other half of the bracket; does anyone know which one of them could support a technical battle against Allomancers?

I mean, I don't think you're necessarily looking for a WoB - I think what you're describing is contained in the Mistborn annotations, or possibly the trilogy itself, where TLR would compound atium and store all the extra youth in his bracers, which he would tap later. You might also look at Miles' points of view in Alloy of Law; he was compounding health from gold, and storing it in his gold minds, which he could tap later.

We learned that Autonomy is the only Shard in the Taldain solar system. Brandon has been quite tight-lipped about remaining Shards. Even for the Survival Shard, we don't know its Intent; Brandon has said that its actions are only tangentially related to its Intent. So, many of these remaining Shards are being saved for future reveals, possibly in Dragonsteel or the Mistborn Space Trilogy. Nonetheless, there has been some speculation as to what the remaining Shards could be. I'd encourage you to dig through some older topics - there are a lot of good ideas floating around!

Here's where we learned the length of the gap.

Wax and Wayne is set in the 15-year gap between Stormlight books 5 and 6. So, anything is possible.

I found some secondhand mentions, but no link to the WoB. Although, I did find a report that says atium savants can see farther into the future, which actually answers OP's question, but it doesn't help us track down any info on Marsh's Savantism.

(Oh my goodness, I'm being Ninja'd so hard right now. I spend way too much time typing.) Have you looked through these two threads? You might find some answers, or find that some questions haven't been answered. Some questions I can provide answers to: (Not sure if you've read Mistborn: Secret History. I'll hide spoilers from it, just in case.) Brandon has said there is a worldhopper Kandra in a published novel. Due to the nature of kandra, identification has been extremely difficult. But there's one out there somewhere. In Secret History, Brandon has intentionally RAFOd this question. He wants to show us, not tell us. But he has killed at least one Shard we haven't seen, aside from Honor, Devotion, and Dominion. He's also RAFOd if a Shard has changed hands, other than Harmony. Kokerlii hides minds, while Copper hides active use of Investiture; it appears the predators have something closer to Nalthis's life sense, as opposed to Bronze. We've yet to see the Aviar interact with active Investiture. Metals are not a source of power, they are a key to power, like an Aon. The power comes form elsewhere, and the metal shows how the power is to be used. Soulcasters can create Allomantically pure metals (copper, iron), but alloys (pewter, bronze) are not necessarily the correct mixtures. Zahel (a.k.a. Vasher from Warbreaker) has successfully hacked the magic system to consume Stormlight instead of Breath. He has not been able to use it to Awaken, however. The actual "magic" might be done in Fjordell, charging the individuals with Investiture they can take elsewhere. By sacrificing one of their members, they access the magic that was stored in him earlier. As an interesting side note, the potion that Hrathen uses is also Invested, from a different magic system, and functions fine in Elantris. There is a distinction between the Shards and the mortals who Ascended to hold them. Ruin and Preservation are the Shards, and the physical embodiments of their power can appear in several forms: solid in metals, liquid in the Well of Ascension, gaseous in the mists. On other worlds, there are similar embodiments of the power: Stormlight is gaseous Investiture from Honor, the lake in the mountains near Elantris is the liquid form of the Shard Devotion. In Secret History,

I just saw the movie, and I loved it. I think it's a little unfair to read a plot synopsis and say that it's a bad movie, since there's so much more to a movie than a blow-by-blow of what people do. To answer your questions point-by-point: Now, stepping out of the plot, I'd like to mention what I thought of as the major theme for this movie. The last redeeming feature is actually the depth of story behind the story of the movie, something that reminds me a lot of Brandon's writing, with Secret History and whatnot. Well... that's a lot of words. Suffice to say, I think there is a lot to think about in this movie, both from a thematic point of view on what makes superheroes "super," and from an overarching Justice League plot point of view. I'd recommend seeing it, and look beyond what is happening to figure out what it all means. I don't think you'll be disappointed; I certainly wasn't.

If it weren't for the explicit statement (IIRC in one of Dalinar's visions) that "Odium reigns," I would agree with you wholeheartedly, Jondesu. Honor makes much more sense as the Broken One, since he's been actually shattered. It just seems like too straightforward a connection, without enough wiggle room on what "reigns" means.

Vin and Elend make it to another round, despite another very one-sided writeup... In all three scenarios so far, Vin and Elend have been caught unaware, letting their opponents get the drop on them. (Although, for this last one, it seemed to fit quite well with their adversaries.) They've also been drastically lacking metals, apparently, since they're not using Allomancy. First had a single Ironpull that also killed Vin, second had a few Pulls and Pushes that were somewhat effective, and the third had a single failed Pull. Maybe it's just because of the matchups they're against - a vampire, gunslingers, masters of stealth, so we haven't seen any powerful magic go at them. I'd like to see an actual battle, although I don't think Legolas and Gimli are the ones to give it to them. (Even if the writer says L&G win, I'd like to at least see V&E fight like Mistborn, do some flying, use some Mental metals. I could buy Legolas at a Pewter/Tin level, and Gimli stronger than Pewter, so I can believe our Mistborn would be outclassed in sheer strength and need to try some other tricks before eventually being overcome by sheer experience.)

imriel gets some nice tidbits in his signed books - there's another one that is directly relevant to your speculations: Source: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/52731-confirmation-adonalsium-was-a-living-being/ It presents a direct cause-and-effect between the Shattering and the killing. This tells us that Adonalsium was definitely alive, and that he is definitely dead. (Granted, death doesn't always mean the end of the story, in the Cosmere.) Another WoB of relevance: Source: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/2955-seattle-signing/?p=49044 When Ruin tried to Splinter Preservation, he was not destroying Lerasium in the Physical realm. So, I don't think Adonalsium started out as a gemheart-like embodiment of power that was Shattered separately from killing its holder. It is telling that Preservation did not splinter on its own after Leras died, but to draw a direct comparison between Adonalsium and Leras would be to say that Adonalsium is a Yolish human. It's definitely a possibility; however, if Adonalsium was an actual deity, or something akin to a super-Spren (wait, I think we're already calling Stormfather a super-Spren... mega-Spren? ultra-Spren? turbo-Spren?!?), then his consciousness might have been more closely tied to the power than it is with a human holder of a Shard. So, the way to kill Adonalsium is different than the way to kill a human Shardholder, and that difference also Shatters the power that is being held. (Now that I mention it, though, it is interesting that the Ire didn't think Ati didn't know how to shatter Shards... obviously, he did, since he tried it, but did the Ire know that he was involved in the original Shattering of Adonalsium? Maybe they have some sizeable gaps in their understanding of the Cosmere...)

Cool list. Some things I found issues/questions with: Domi is not related to Dominion - it comes from Aon Omi, which means love. I'd strike this from the list entirely. The cameos in Alloy aren't necessarily worldhoppers (although they might be) - they two superfans (and founders of this from, if I recall correctly) who got married IRL, and Brandon gave them a cameo getting married in Alloy. As far as I know, there is no further significance to the characters. In the Shadows of Self broadsheet, it's been confirmed to be a Southern Scadrian, not a Parshendi. Can you source the "Sun" in Shadesmar being the Spiritual Realm? I don't think I've heard that before, and I don't think it matches what we saw of the Spiritual Realm in Secret History. Iyatil is Southern Scadrian in the same way Brandon is Danish; she has heritage from Scadrial, but she was not born there. (She was also not born on Roshar; we haven't seen the world she was born on, yet.) Aethers may not remain in Liar of Partinel when it is eventually rewritten (they were originally from a different unpublished novel, and Brandon tried them out in Liar, but didn't like how it turned out), so I think the reference in the second Letter to the "gemstone" is referring to Hoid's name of "Topaz," something you mentioned as a WoK easter egg.

Source: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6587-san-francisco-signing-audio/page-2#entry114024

http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/52790-calamity-tour-chicago-naperville/page-3#entry408298 is where the info about Yolen is from. It looks like it's the second item in your list.

Are White Sand Prime spoilers allowed? Or should this discussion be continued in the PM thread?

Ryloth was depicted in many EU sources (such as the X-Wing novels) as being tidally locked. However, a Clone Wars episode about Ryloth portrayed the planet with a normal day-and-night cycle, so the previous depictions were, unfortunately, retconned away. Just one of many ways the new TV show didn't play nice with all the older material.

Chaos, I think the first issue you raised is somewhat self-defeating. You want to retain control over who has access, yet you also want to avoid manually controlling the access through use of a password. I don't think there is a way to confirm that someone has the book without case-by-case verification. Agreed, it's not ideal, since it would require someone to be a point-of-contact to add people to a group, which is what the current situation is with the White Sand PM thread. But I don't think we can have our cake and eat it, too, unless you would be satisfied having a pop-up that warns anyone entering the forum that there are crazy spoilers and unpublished info. (With an option for signed-in members to permanently dismiss it, maybe?) But I think it makes sense to want tighter control than that. Is it possible to create a sub-forum that is not linked to anywhere else, and does not show up in the Recent Topics ticker (like the Introduce Yourself! sub-forum)? It would technically exist on the site, but the only way to get at it would be through having the direct link. (Or Googling it, I guess. Unless you are able to hide results from Google, too? I don't know much about these kinds of things.) A pinned post in Cosmere Theories could include who to contact to get access, and that mod could verify that requestors have received the unpublished book and are aware of the risks. But I don't know how complicated that gets, compared to a password-protected part of the site. As far as naming the forum to distinguish the graphic novel from the unpublished version... it might be time for a White Sand forum for the graphic novel content only, with the secret Unpublished Works forum to discuss the prose version, along with Aether and Liar (since some parts of Aether were put into Liar.) Heck, I'd probably post a topic about Mythwalker. (My particular issue is that I've read Aether, but I'm intentionally not requesting White Sand, because I think it will be a more rewarding experience for reading the graphic novel. So, even in an unpublished works forum, I'd still have to tread carefully to avoid White Sand spoilers. But I may be an oddball in that regard, and would glady take that responsibility on my own head to talk about Aether.) But no matter how you slice it, once a sub-forum is made for the White Sand graphic novel, it will be a challenge to keep prose spoilers out of it. Take Secret History as an example - how many topics had to get renamed and moved? It seemed like it was at least one a day. For White Sand, it's just the nature of how this book has been distributed; it's a unique case, how the full text is available upon request, but the version in stores only goes a third of the way through for now. It will present unique challenges, regardless of what is or is not done in terms of an Unpublished Works sub-forum. Once all three graphic novels have been released, the prose version could be discussed in the forums the same way Final Empire Prime or Mistborn Prime are (a.k.a., not at all). Until then, I think you should definitely limit the White Sand forum to the graphic novel. So, to summarize: You're not gonna get better than a password-protected subforum, or something in that vein, without losing control over access. Don't let prose discussion in the graphic novel forum until the adaptations have all been released, regardless of whether or not there will be a forum to discuss White Sand Prime.

Man... these previews are just not getting me hyped. Maybe it's because I'm not usually a comic reader. Maybe it's because these aren't the first pages, so there's some background info (Mastrell, slatrify, Kerla Winds) that I'm missing, since I haven't felt this thrown-off by Brandon's made-up words since I read the Mythwalker excerpts. Maybe there's stuff that will be explained soon, like what exactly Ribbons are or what the difference is in depths of sand (the page in this year's State of the Sanderson said that the area of the test was too shallow for the Kerztians, but now there's a patch of deep sand?). But compared to reading sample chapters of Alloy of Law or Words of Radiance, I am not feeling the same levels of excitement. Although I won't say the Sand Masters are knockoffs of Assassin's Creed like some commenters have been doing (yes, I know this was originally written well before Assassin's Creed came out in 2007, and the similarities are just "Cool guys in white robes with a hood"), the sandling seems like a fairly straight knockoff of Dune's sandworms. (Okay, this one has legs; it's still a huge predator that tracks you through vibrations and lives under the sand.) I know Brandon likes to put his unique spin on fantasy tropes, but there's no unique spin yet. I'm not so turned off by it that I won't buy it. (Let's not get crazy, now.) But I certainly hope it gets better.

I don't think we have a clear definition of what Brandon meant when he said there were 10 major Shardworlds. OP defined major Shardworlds as having a Shard on them. I interpreted it as: we will see 10 worlds in the main series of novels. It's possible that they are 10 worlds that will have the most influence in the rest of the Cosmere, like how Roshar has a whole mess of Worldhoppers on it. There are a lot of ways to take the original quote. Needlessly excessive rampant speculation: And that goes to show that you can get drastically different ideas based on a different interpretation of Brandon's original post. It might be a good idea to get a new quote, asking if he still has 10 major Shardworlds planned, and what the definition of a major Shardworld is.

Minor Secret History Spoiler: The upcoming short story collection Arcanum Unbound will have a star map of the Cosmere; I suspect we will see some new names, and hopefully a distinction of which worlds are "Major."

Ashyn may be considered a major Shardworld, although its Shardic influence is probably from either Honor, Cultivation, or Autonomy. Aether of Night is in a bit of flux; elements have been taken for Mistborn, and the magic system was borrowed for Liar of Partinel (although it probably won't stay there). So, its world may not be part of the canon list. One of its Shards was Decay, which turned into Ruin in Mistborn, so that might be throwing off your Shard count, as well. Dark One may or may not be Cosmere; it's been referred to both ways in various State of the Sandersons over the years. That leads me to believe it's not set on a major Shardworld. According to WoB, Odium has splintered at least one Shard that we haven't seen. Also, you added two worlds when talking about Yolen (10/6 to 11/8, when it should have been to 11/7). I suspect Vax is another major Shardworld, based on how Khriss refers to it alongside other major planets in the Elantris Ars Arcanum. There's also Iyatil's homeworld, which we have not seen yet. It might be Vax, it might not be.

The way I've always liked to describe it to people was comparing it to a video game RPG. Each character in a game has different kinds of skills; some are better at attacking, some have special abilities that no other player has, some can "unlock" different conversations with NPCs. These mechanics play out in various pre-programmed challenges and scenarios. With a pen-and-paper RPG, the events and NPC scripts are all generated by a single gamemaster, who presents a world and its characters to the other players. This gives a lot more flexibility to the stories. Have you ever played a video game and felt frustrated by the "invisible fence" stopping you from entering a certain building? Ever wished you could write in new conversation options? In a pen-and-paper RPG, the players aren't limited by what has been pre-written. (This obviously presents challenges to the gamemaster, who needs to be able to adapt a story to fit what the characters are doing. It can be kind of tricky to think faster than four other people, all of whom are trying to derail the mission as best they can!) Also, instead of one main character, there will typically be several main characters, one for each player. (Often recommended to have 3-6 main characters, depending on the game system.) Depending on the specific game system you're using, the play experience can be drastically different. Dungeons and Dragons is very focused on combat; you spend a lot of time fighting monsters, you collect different kinds of items and equipment, you gain new abilities that are very specific. For the Mistborn Adventure Game, each character is not as well-defined; each player gets some "traits" that describe who they are, and those are used to determine how well a character can respond to situations or pull off tricks. But, at their cores, video games and pen-and-paper games can be very similar: they both use rules to describe what the characters can do. Pen-and-paper just take it out of the computer and into rulebooks and the players' minds.