Stairdweller

Are we sure that the shielding metal is aluminum? There's a passage in chapter 100 that I think is the best evidence. Taravangian says that there are legends of a metal that can block shardblades. It's like silver "but somehow lighter" and falls from the sky. So, a couple of issues. Aluminum does exist on Roshar. Has no-one stumbled upon it blocking shadblades? I also don't know if aluminum commonly occurs in meteorites (how I interpret the falling from the sky comment.) And light weight is the first thing everyone notices about aluminum, but are we sure he means "not as heavy" and not "paler?"

So, that would mean that there were, at one point, four out of ten unmade hanging out in Kholinar? (Sja Anat, Ashertmarn, Yelig-nar, and a 4th trapped unmade.) Plus Nergaoul likes living in Alethkar. I wonder if there's a reason for so many unmade in this area? Side note: could Sja Anat be the trapped unmade, and that is why she appears in mirrors instead of physically like everyone else? @shawnhargreaves I like the idea of human monoculture "crops." I'm also kinda curious about the kinds of non-human introduced species we see. Some make a lot of sense - horses, cows, pigs, (domestic) chickens probably were introduced on purpose. Rats follow people everywhere. But what about mink and (parrot) chickens? And all the plants in Shinovar. It seems like that would be an incredibly complex undertaking. Did the introduced humans have help?

I jumped in at the end, so forgive me if this was already said. I think it might be relevant. In chapter 14 of words of radiance, (about page 224) Adolin wins a blade from a man names Salinor. He pulls the gem off the blade and crushes it, because Rawr! and then gives the blade to Renarin. Renarin doesn't want to take it, and grimaces when he does take it. I think this indicates that the blade was screaming at him. There are a lot of things to consider - he didn't react much. Is this because he's very stoic? Or because he's not very Bonded yet?

I just want to say. The trope in fiction where two people immediately clash and repel each other, and sonehow that means its true love? That's bonkers. I'm way more inclined to believe that Brandon would have characters who are going to be a romantic item... you know... like each other? Like Shallan and Adolin.

Yep. Shallan's necklace (the one she strangled her father with) was aluminum. When she is trying to buy Asha Jushu back from his loan shark, she offers the necklace in trade. The loan shark's clerk appraises it at 10 emerald broams because it can only be made by soulcasting. Chapter 48 of Words of Radiance, pages 561-562.

I also am suspicious about upcoming big reveals. Here are some I'm wondering about: 1. Urthiru. Why did they build it way up in the mountains like that? Why was it abandoned? Why did it start to "die?" (Before the KR abandoned it.) There's an epigraph that says it couldn't be built in Alethela for 'obvious reasons.' But, the KR from Dalinar's vision said they lived in cities across Alethela, even though the vision took place in Natanatan. 2. The Origin. What is the origin of storms? I don't think it can be anything to do with Honor because a. Highstorms are an imutable part of Rosharan ecology and b. the epigraph I mentioned said that Urithiru (west of jah keved) is closer to honor than Alethela (which is closer to the origin of storms.) Also Brandon has made a point of bringing it up pretty frequently - most recently Rysn's ship being called the Wandersail. 3. All the lovely people. Rosharans aren't just ethnically diverse, they're downright weird. Horneaters (crunch the shells!) and herdazians (flick my sparks!) owe their unusual features to Singer heritage. But why are Iriali golden? Why do Thaylens have long eyebrows? Why are Natans blue - and why _weren't_ they blue during Dalinar's vision? (I have a hypothesis about this.) 4. Rall Elorim. I feel like this city gets mentioned too much to not be important. Personally, I like to think this was the city built inside stalactites Kaladin saw during his storm vision in Way of Kings.

In Way of Kings, Kaladin's internal monologue states that Rock said his ability to see spren is something he was born with. I'll see if I can find the page reference. I think it's when they are out gathering rocks.

Well... Also I was going by Rock being able to hear the rhythms and see the true forms of spren. And having a "special heritage." Also in humanoids red pigmentation seems limited to horneaters and singers; I thought hormeaters may have gotten it from the singers. Given WoB on herdazians and horneaters, is there anything special about the heritage of the Iriali (metallic golden hair and skin)? Or the Thaylens and their mega-brows?

Derp! I was thinking of the part 1 epigraphs.

That makes sense given Dalinar and Navani's discussion at the end; written Alethi doesn't normally need a male "I/me".

Are we sure that horneater leadership is hereditary in the same way as Alethi? I ask because if Nuatomas are first sons, then gor generations A) they've been ignoring the prohibition on fighting to go challenge shardbearers and B ) the horneaters have been sending their farmer-lords to fight shardbearers! No wonder they didn't win any shards! Also.... Are we just going to gloss over Rock being part Singer?

I have a... kind of doubt-feeling? I don't know what to call it, that Nohadon himself is the one that sentbthat vision. Mostly because of the way he said "Oh, that's a common misconception" when Dalinar guessed that he walked to an oathgate, not all the way to Urithiru. Could Nohadon still exist as... a cognitive shadow or a sliver or something?

Eshonai heard the screaming clearly when she attuned peace, and when she grabbed the comet-spren that eventually look up residence Venli's heart. So, I think the sequence with Venli must be what he meant.

Hey, can anyone make any sense out of the border of the kholinar map? I thought they looked like glyph pieces, but they seem to me to say "h l f h th" which seems pretty non-sensical

Are we sure the thing in the highstorm is a spren? Dalinar saw it too, as a youth outside in a highstorm. Being outside in highstorms isn't unheard of for soldiers (per Kaladin). So, probably lots of people see it. We know the high storms are relevant to the lifecycles of shellbeasts like chulls and chasmfiends. Could not the big thing in the high storm not be an impressive but natural creature?

Rock introducing his children. "This is Rock jr., different kind of rock, small rock..."

I feel like the 4th oath for every order is going to be sonething that will seem contradictory to the previous 3. Something that is legitimately difficult for the Knights, given their previous oaths, but something that is needed to differentiate a leader among radiants from the rank and file. But maybe I'm wrong - as presumably every knight we see with armor has sworn their 4th ideal. Side note: I've been nursing a theory that the reason Kaladin killed Syl when he fell into the chasm was that he forced something out of the nahel bond that was not allowed by the ideals he swore (and his adherence to them), and I've always thought that thing was shardplate.

I have a few thoughts. Odium is the void that the voidbringers bring. He absorbs peoples pains and passions, leaving them empty and guiltfree. Axies said cusicech left him feeling "drained." I don't know if Aimians are emotionally similar enough to humans for him to react the same way to something odium-like. But! After the cusicech sighting an urchin stole Axies waist wrap, leaving him to be arrested for public indecency, and no-one spoke up for him, including Axies himself who was just like "oh well, jail again." Although that might just be Axies personality. But I feel like the crime might be relevant. Question: why does is spren face the origin? The stormfather called the 3rd sibling "they," and said "you've done enough to them." That might be consistent with the many faces thing. About the Brandon comment... it honestly seems kind of ambiguous to me. He also says that Shards are spren. Is Cusicech one step down from a shard? I have a theory about Odium-s spren. I think the Knight's Radiant bound Odium's spren, and this was what broke the singers' connection to the other realms (or whatever is wrong with them) and made the "slaveform" parshmen. I think that's what the stormfather meant when he said "you've done enough to them." Now, I know there are issues, like obviously the fact that odium came with the humans, so how did parshmen work before? We're missing information about how the humans and singers switched shards. Also - did the everstorm free odium's spren? Or did it "fix" the parshmen with a different mechanism? If it did free that Spren, it seems like it wouldn't have happened until the everstorm reached western Roshar for the first time - after its first pass through new natanan. And why exactly were the parshendi exempt from the parshmen's issue?

Other than the epic, emotionally uplifting or emotionally devastating obvious choices, I have two "little" favourites. The first is when Bridge 4 worriedly tell Kaladin that they are worried Renarin is learning how to read and Kaladin is like "Yeah but Drehy's gay!" and they're all like *eye roll* "Sexual orientation isn't the same as gender, Kal. Storms, you used to be deevy." That made me really happy. There's a somewhat similar scene where Shallan puzzles about the fact that Jasnah does "being a woman" really, really well even though she has some super masculine tendencies/interests. The other favourite moment is when Dalinar visits the Azish and latches onto a servant so he can borrow speaking Azish from him. And the serving man's reaction is "Aah! What do I do? He's got me!" I like this because we're used to Dalinar. We first met epic, honourable, chasmfiend fighting Dalinar, and any new information we take in light of the man he became. But that's not how the rest of the world sees him. He's basically a nightmare to the rest of Roshar. It's be like getting grabbed by Vladimir Putin.

In WoK, when Shallan is being evaluated for suitability as a ward by Jasnah, she says that she is trained on the zither and the pipes. Also in WoK, Kaladin encounters Hoid playing a flute, which he thinks looks strange becausr it is a transverse flute (like what we would call a flute today) and the instrument he thinks of as a flute is more like what we think of as a recorder. In WoR, when Shallan infiltrates Amaram's base of operations, the cook tells her to go dust Amaram's flutes. Shallan assumes these are musical flutes and thinks its weird that Amaram has a flute collection, but we never actually see the flutes. Later, Kaladin describes Hoid's instrument as "a strange instrument of taught strings and wood" - so he isn't familliar enough with stringed instruments to compare it mentally to something similar, like with the flute earlier. So, all together I think this supports the idea that stringed instruments exist, but are expensive and therefore rare.

I am curious about the nature of the danger-o-Shadesmar in Sel. Is it that the nature of Sel's Shadesmar is dangerous, or is it the trasition between realms on Sel that is difficult and/or dangerous? What I mean to say is, is it more problematic to leave Sel, enter shadesmar and worldhop than it is to come from say Roshar, enter Shadesmar and then migrate to Sel?

Wayne - I'd take his face clean off (with a good roundhouse.) Side note, is this thread not delightfully slumber-party-esque?

Do we have any other examples of a Shardworld religion that features a named god (Not one called God or the Almighty) where the God's name is not the name of the Shard? Sazed's records name quite a few, I believe. On the other hand, do we have any cases where a religion formed around a God with the same name as the Shardholder? Were there any Scadrian religions that followed a God named Leras or Ati?

When I hear "scribbler" I think of a cheap notebook, especially the kind I used in elementary school. I'm Canadian, though, we say odd things.

Use your Aimian body-sculpting powers to repair a chipped fingernail; conversely, use that same power to shorten your nails when they get too long instead of clipping or filing them.