The Harlem Worldhoppers

Questioner The Herald of War at the end of Way of Kings-- I assume he had an Honorblade with him? Brandon Sanderson Yes. Questioner Okay... So when Dalinar had the sword that he gave up... Brandon Sanderson Yes. Questioner ...for the Stormfather it actually cried, which it typically happens if there's spren in the sword, which means that was not an Honorblade, correct? Brandon Sanderson Yes, and if you look they're described differently! Questioner Which means somebody else has the sword, correct? Brandon Sanderson The sword was switched out! Questioner Probably by Wit. I'm not going to ask you for spoilers, but... Brandon Sanderson Wit does not have the sword. Questioner No!? Brandon Sanderson But... I can't-- I dunno if I've told people whether or not he at one point had the sword... But he does not have the sword now. source So from this it is possible that Hoid was involved in the switch but he is definitely not currently in posession of the Honorblade. My money would be on the Ghostbloods currently posessing the honorblade. They are the only one of the secret societies on Roshar that includes worldhoppers that we know of and their knowledge appears to be more extensive than the Diagrammists and Sons of Honor, as shown when they know obscure details like Taln's location and his past relationship with Shallash. They have also been shown to have a collection of investiture related items from various shardworlds including what is believed to be white sand from Taldain, a tear of Edgli flower, Idrian royal locks, a silver knife from Threnody an Aviar and some unidentified objects. Picking up an Honorblade would make a fine addition to their collection. https://imgur.com/gallery/b4Pk9yv

I know right. I spent a while earlier going over every WoB on Lerasium on the Arcanum and I still haven't the faintest idea of what it does. I'm keeping a small hope alive that Lerasium is the lost metal in the Wax and Wayne 4 as that empty pedestal with 'Atium: The Lost Metal' seems a little bit too on the nose.

Just out of interest, do you have any theories as to what the effects of a mistborn burning Lerasium could be?

I think the pewter working especially well is mostly to do with his incredibly strong allomancy. Elend's allomantic abilities are quite a bit stronger in terms of raw power than Vin's. This is true as burning non God metals simply filters the power of Preservation while Lerasium itself is the essence of Preservation and it can be used to fuel the base metals as shown in Elend's fight against Marsh at the end of HoA. However, there are probably some more interesting ways that Lerasium could be used outside of Allomancy doping such as the use of Lerasium metal minds or Lerasium alloys https://wob.coppermind.net/adv_search/?query=Lerasium#10116

When you realise that someone who suffers from anaemia and lives at sea level is in fact an airsick lowlander...

Little did they know that the cookies were loaded with hemallurgic spikes. The bear became a Steel Inquisitor by the name of...Tim. Tim and Bart gathered forces and decided to seek world domination as nobody expects the Steel Inquisition.

I'd be interested to see if the hemallurgic spike grants an infinite communication range or if the range is excluded to the world in which the Shard is invested. This is also important to know as there are kandra worldhopper(s) on Roshar and we don't know if they are in communication with Sazed. My impression from Secret History was that Preservation was unable to communicate with Kelsier once he went off world. Given that humans on Scadrial have a tiny bit of preservation in them, similar to a spiked individual having a little bit of ruin in them, it would not be unreasonable to assume that a spiked individual has a similarly limited communication range. This is something that I would be keen to ask Brandon about if he ever comes to Oz.

I think it's likely that Kelsier has left Scadrial at some point in betwen Secret History and Mistborn 2. I'm largely basing this on Sazed and Wax's conversation where Sazed regrets that he no longer communicates with Kelsier. Kelsier and Sazed would no longer be able to communicate if Kelsier went off world. Also, it would be unlike Kelsier to lounge about in Scadrial for 300 years when there is an entire Cosmere he wishes to explore. Kelsier's will is probably stronger than the Cosmere laws which dictate that he should not be able to leave Scadrial

@king of nowhereHere you go. Mrrobot112 Eshonai is flashback character [for Stormlight Four], but she is dead in the present. So...who will be main protagonists in the main timeline? Hope for Dalinar, Shallan and Kaladin will be as important as they were in first three books) Brandon Sanderson Eshonai will still be the flashback character, and Venli will take a larger role to provide counterpart past/present. But, as always, you will find a focus on all five protagonists from this sequence. (I view them as Dalinar, Kaladin, Shallan, Eshonai/Venli, Szeth.) Mrrobot112 I heard it would be one year time gap(in world) between books 3 and 4, which make me think about structure of the book.Does it mean, something important could happen during this year, and then it will be explained in some form(maybe another set of flashbacks)?If so, it's hard for me to visualise the book structure: main timeline, Eshonai's flashbaks and another set of flashbacks for past year?Seems like a mess. Or it will be like Mistborn era 1 time gaps between each book?Main narrative just continues without getting stuck with one-year break, and nothing important happens off-screen. It will be nice to get some qualification from you, if possible.Cause now I'm a bit confused. Brandon Sanderson Right now, I've got it like Mistborn--we're checking back in a year, as I need to give some things time to progress in world. We'll see when I actually write it, though. Mrrobot112 Thanks! But please, don't do things like Alien 3-movie, if you know what I mean. It's when they did a time gap between two movies and at the beginning of the new movie they told you that your favorite character died during the time gap, deal with it. This is the worst thing ever and a reason I'm always a bit skeptical about time gaps in fiction. Just hate when things like that happen off-screen.Just don't do it with your books, please.At least can you promise you wouldn't?And what do you think about this trope in general? Brandon Sanderson I actually want to write an essay about that very trope (I call it the Newt Principle.) You might see it on my website at some point. Things will happen during the gap, I'm afraid. You might like it, you might not, but I do plan some of the flashbacks in the second half to help cover this time--so you'll see it eventually. If it helps, I'm pretty sure I understand the dangers of the Newt Principle, and how to not fall into that trap. source I agree with you reasoning that it is perfectly natural for two young adults to become attracted to one another, particularly in such extreme circumstances. However, this does not change the fact that a large part of OB was spent teasing their romance to no avail when it was already a large book that couldn't find space for something as simple as the Kholins reacting to working alongside Szeth.

Don't disrespect the disfunctional marriage that is Ruin/Preservation

Really? I've never seen a WoB on this and Kelsier is my favourite character so I'd appreciate if you or someone else could link this. I think there's a decent chance of this happening. At the end of Secret History, Kelsier expresses a desire to explore the Cosmere and gain Cosmeric knowledge. He ascended briefly and is aware of the intrinsic knowledge that Ascension provides so it would not be surprising to see him pursue a Shard or for a shard with no vessel to pursue him due to his very strong ideals. The shard of Odium is an incredibly long shot imo, as Odium is most likely going to be dealt with by the Rosharan characters. Kelsier swooping into the Stormlight Archive series and killing Odium would be uncharacteristic writing from Brandon as he wants to keep the roles of crossover characters smaller in the overarching narrative. I think that after having held the Shard of Preservation and sharing those meaningful conversations with a dying Leras and Vin will have made an impact on Kelsier as a character for the better. Pre Secret History Kelsier could definitely be described as 'hateful' or 'passionate' but this hatred has probably been put on a simmer after Kelsier's conceptions about his very existence was turned upside down. There are probably several shards other than Odium that are both more realistically attainable and complementary to Kelsier's personality.

Thanks for the response @Journey Before Pancakes. I just don't see why a romantic angle was necessary to explore this. Kaladin's respectful soldier/commander relationship with Dalinar achieves the same thing and his comeraderie with the light eyes in the Kholinar wall guard helped Kaladin overcome some of his prejudice. Shallan and Kaladin could have been introduced as platonic friends and the chasm sequence could have had the same impact in regards to Kaladin realising the hardship that some lighteyes have gone through. I think the Tien as a proto lightweaver theories had been around for a while before Oathbringer. I agree that it does something important which is that it highlights Tien's death as a cornerstone of Kaladin's personality. I suppose Shallan's feelings for Kaladin did push her towards further compartmentalisation and it did show the negative consequences of that. Shallan has still not confronted her feelings around Kaladin killing Helaran and she has dismissed 'Veil's' lust for Kaladin as having bad taste in men. Shallan's bullying of Kaladin throughout OB was completely uncalled for and to me either indicates that she is (a) letting subconscious resentment towards Kaladin for killing Helaran boil over or (b) attempting to smother her feelings for Kaladin and justify choosing Adolin by demonising Kaladin from her perspective. You made some good points but I'm still not convinced that a love triangle was necessary as many of these things could have been accomplished without the need for a romance angle. Shallan's platonic friendship with Kaladin would still cause her to compartmentalise her feelings surrounding Helaran's death and Kaladin's stigma towards lighteyes has been navigated from various sources such as Dalinar and the Kholinar wall guard.

Yeah, I've seen some very poorly handled love triangles which really did not add anything to the story and spat in the face of character development up to that point. How many dumb love triangles could be solved by two people just having a conversation? I am not against love triangles out of principle as they can be satisfactory if done well but this is not the case most of the time in my experience. There's some truth behind romance being put on the back burner in times of great strife, but war can progress at a turgid pace and there can be a lot of downtime between major conflicts. After all, there is a one year time skip to the start of SA 4 so there can't be too much happening in between. I completely agree with this sentiment. Well developed characters lose every ounce of nuance when you subject them to this trope, and for this reason I was cringing a bit like Brightness Teshav with that cheesy dialogue between Adolin and Shallan pre-wedding. I suppose my main gripe with the love triangle is why it was made in the first place. I would have been completely fine if Adolin and Shallan had been paired up with there being no sexual tension between Shallan and Kaladin or vice versa. If Adolin and Shallan we're fated to marry one another why would so much screen time be Invested into the love triangle arc. I'm glad it's over like many here but I just can't reason out why it was written like that in the first place. If someone could explain that to me then I would be more satisfied with Oathbringer in it's entirety.

I agree that she will become a dustbringer at least. Another piece of evidence for this is that Shallash is also called Ash and the dustbringer spren are called Ashspren. Something interesting to consider is that Cultivation and Ruin have complementary Shardic intents according to Brandon. We know that the Knights radiant are a mixture of Honor and Cultivation, giving access to two surges while the Fused seem to only access one as only Odium provides their surges. I posit that the surge of division comes from the more destructive side of Cultivation. The attributes of dustbringers are brave/obedient. If Shallash dies as you think she might then she will probably die in a sacrificial manner, maybe to save Taln. 'The strength becomes my weakness' could have to do with her romantic involvement with Taln and how his determination gives her strength. Her feelings for Taln are both a strength in driving her forward and a weakness for obvious reasons. Mraize is aware of this so who is to tell that a near omniscient being such as Odium couldn't use this to his advantage.

It could be used to stay conscious and alert in cases of severe injury where you might pass out from blood loss. Pain and pleasure are intertwined so there are some... interesting ways that could be used.

If only it did, things would be much simpler...

I can imagine this being really controversial though. Kinda like blackface. Contact lenses can obviously be used for eye colour so that's no issue. I wouldn't really care if they got a white actor to play someone like Dalinar as you need a marquee actor playing that kind of role to attract an audience, kind of like how Sean Bean attracted people to game of thrones. Most big name actors are white so they would probably have to whitewash characters a bit.

When you see someone make an incredible prediction and wonder how they did so without access to Fortune or the Spiritual Realm

'There's always another shard'..

It won't lead to a healthy long term relationship in my opinion. You can't build a relationship on a foundation of lies and Adolin has no idea that Shallan killed her own parents and is involved with the Ghostbloods. The relationship is a temporary solution to some of Shallan's long term issues. In my opinion Kaladin is very close but not quite there yet. The scars on his head haven't healed due to his negative self perception. So long as he hasn't forgiven himself for Tien's death he will still bear those scars, both physically and emotionally. I think Kaladin will have to accept his previous failure to be able to swear the fourth windrunner oath and we know that Kaladin is already close to swearing it so he is also close to being ready for a relationship. Kaladin's mental wellbeing is on an upward trend and Syl is largely to thank for this. Syl and Kaladin share a strong bond as shown by how concerned they get for each other. Meanwhile, Shallan's bond with Pattern appears to be deteriorating and she may kill him (again) at the rate she is going. This is because by lying to herself she is breaking the lightrunner oaths based on truths and self awareness. Shallan has yet to hit the nadir of her current storyline in my opinion.

Yeah, it would be completely in character for Kaladin to steer well clear of pursuing Shallan when she is already paired off with Adolin. The emotional maturity he demonstrated in the aforementioned scene made me respect him even more as a character while I was frustrated with how Shallan dealt with it. I do think that his feelings for Shallan are tied to her as a person as he enjoys the banter and arguments that they share and shows an interest in her scholarly pursuits (the corrupted shame spren in Kholinar comes to mind). Yeah, Adolin is the only one of the three who is mentally stable and in any position for a relationship. I think Shadolin makes sense given where our characters are in their stories, there's just no way you can have a healthy, functional relationship with not one but two emotionally and mentally unwell characters. Someone on the site had a great analogy where they said that Adolin is Shallan's Tylenol, allowing her to function and come to terms with her past which will cause character development. However, what Shallan needs is surgery which would be the integration of her personas. As Brandon has said, she is on the right track to recovery in Hoid's opinion but she still has a long ways left. Perhaps upon integrating her personas she may have to come to terms with how she romantically views Adolin and Shallan respectively. Agreed. You can't found a relationship on an unstable foundation. They both need to work through their respective issues before either of them is ready for a relationship, hence my hesitancy with Shallan marrying Adolin. Thanks for contributing in spite of it. I've heard these threads can devolve into personal attacks but I just started this one to hear people discuss their perspectives rationally and to start a discourse on something I felt the need to talk about.

My response was getting a bit too long so I decided to start a new topic on it. It's just my two cents on the matter if you care to read.

Let me preface this by saying that I do not think that Shallan and Kaladin should have ended up together in OB but I do think they will end up together in the future. This is also going to be a long post detailing my rationalisation of the love triangle so buckle your seatbelts. Credit to users @SLNC and @Dreamstorm for writing on this topic far more eloquently than I ever could. Before you dive in I would recommend a quick read of this for in-text evidence (credit to @Ailvara): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VqLjiUojkPqIfLJLyu7OnykTP3i-LG0f5f1KjRSJE6A/edit?usp=sharing The love triangle in OB was probably the most frustrated I have been left feeling by any of Brandon's writing to the point where I have barely re-read OB while I have enthusiastically re-read most Cosmere books multiple times. I disagree with the notion that the trope of love triangles is always indicative of lazy or low quality writing; I feel that it can be a very effective narrative driving tool if done well. However, you only need to glance at the locked love triangle discussion thread to see that a large portion of the community was left disappointed with how everything was handled. One of the things I keep coming back to when trying to rationalise the situation is this: What was the point of the love triangle in the first place? Brandon is my favourite writer and I feel comfortable saying that his writing has improved consistently over time. Everything from the structure to the prose to the fine details of magic systems and foreshadowing has been dialed up that extra little bit as his writing career has progressed. This pattern is what left me feeling most confused with the love triangle as I felt it was poorly handled (assuming it is a done deal). The narrative purpose of a love triangle should be to drive character growth and development yet I feel that none of the members of the triangle experienced tangible growth and it could even be said that some of the characters regressed (Shallan). Examining the effect of the love triangle on character development: Kaladin: The main thing that could be discussed here is how his prejudice against lighteyes was challenged by discovering the hardships that Shallan has faced, thus pushing Kaladin towards overcoming his spiteful attitude towards lighteyes. However, this character arc has been targeted from multiple angles with only the Shallan angle having any romantic implications. Kaladin's deep respect towards Dalinar, his friendship towards Adolin and his comeraderie in the Kholinar wall guard all help in tearing down the walls Kaladin has built up. A romantic angle is completely unnecessary to catalyse this process and would be poor justification for the love triangle. Kaladin's assertion that he never really loved Shallan and that she simply reminded him of Tien comes off as disingenuous to me. Kaladin is an honorable dude and he would not step in the way of a happy relationship, especially between two people he likes. This scene to me felt like Kaladin was trying to suppress his feelings and get on with his duty. Adolin: He really gets shafted by this entire narrative arc. He is a secondary character that was always meant to be a secondary character. Adolin is as close to a Mary Sue as we have seen from Brandon in my opinion. He is probably the most well rounded and least troubled human on Roshar for storm's sake, and therein lies the issue of developing his character. I personally like Adolin but I have not liked how his story has been handled recently. I thought that his murder of Sadeas might set him down a more interesting path so the lack of consequences so far has been underwhelming to say the least. Moving on to his relationship with Shallan; Adolin has no idea what he is getting himself into. The issue here lies in his identification and interaction with Shallan's personas which I think is putting a band aid on a very messed up situation. Shallan: I feel like Shallan regressed due to the love triangle arc. A point to realise here is that the personas Shallan constructs are exaggerated aspects of her personality. I can't find it right now but a user here had a great analogy where they said that the 'True Shallan' is the sum of her personas where she has fully integrated them. In this system, Radiant as the shallowest persona has a value of 1, Veil as a more developed persona has a value of 2 and the 'Shallan' persona has a value of 3. The Shallan that we as an audience see is in fact a persona. We have never truly seen the real Shallan. The 'Shallan' persona is denoted fShallan for fake Shallan, not to be confused with feruchemical Shallan. So tShallan= Veil+Radiant+fShallan for a combined score of 6. Brandon has said that Shallan's personas would be seen as a single individual in the cognitive realm which shows that they all herald (hehe) from the same original individual, tShallan. You could write a thesis on Shallan's psyche and someone here probably already has, and I simply do not have the time or willpower to do so myself so I will summarise the implications here; Shallan and Adolin identify the personas as separate individuals which allows Shallan to ignore her psychological issues. Shallan pushes her problems that she can't deal with onto her personas, as seen with Veil's lust for Kaladin. Shallan's willful ignorance of her true feelings could potentially lead to the death of Pattern as Lightweaver oaths are based on truths and self-awareness which Shallan needs a healthy dose of e.g. dismissing her feelings for Kaladin by saying that 'Veil has poor taste in men'/ Conclusion: I admire Brandon's qualities as a writer too much to believe that he would construct the love triangle arc for seemingly no purpose. If someone could explain why the love triangle was written in the first place then I could rest easy. The love triangle did not stimulate appreciable character development and left a foul taste in the mouth of many readers here which begs the question of why it was done in the first place. The most rational explanation I can come up with is that the love triangle is not resolved and Brandon's foreshadowing will have a big payoff. Addressing the fans who are content with how the love triangle has panned out: I am not trying to personally attack any of the groups I mention here. I am simply sharing my own though process and encouraging others to reflect on their own. There are a large number of fans who were satisfied or indifferent to the romance in OB so I will attempt to persuade you below. These groups are: Non Romance fans: Some readers do not care for romance arcs in their fantasy books. I personally believe that romance is an integral part of storytelling. Many say that literature is the exploration of the human experience, and the human experience is incomplete without that spark of intimacy that romance provides. Sure, there are those who are asexual, but that is not the norm and it could be argued that Jasnah is a good representation of an asexual character. Fantasy as a genre is simply one of many storytelling mediums, a medium where fantastical elements interact with our relatable characters. So while Stormlight Archive is a fantasy series, it is the characters in the series who we fall in love with as fans. A good character has flaws and experiences challenges which resonate with the audience on a profound level. Romance is a natural part of life that helps ground characters in reality, thus improving the quality of storytelling. Adolin fans: I did not like Adolin very much at first, but he has really grown on me and has become one of my more liked characters. Many Adolin fans want the best for Adolin's character, which they equate to a happy relationship with Shallan. I would argue that Adolin is getting screwed over by his marriage as he does not know Shallan nearly as well as he thinks he does. He does not know that she killed her parents and does not know the depths to which she is broken. Neither he nor Kaladin know of Shallan's dangerous involvement with the Ghostbloods which may come back to bite her. I want Adolin to get a happy ending as much as anyone but I simply don't see it happening through his relationship with Shallan. Those who think Kaladin should remain single: I don't see Kaladin as an asexual character or a character that will always place duty over love. Kaladin's lack of romantic involvement stems from his own lack of self-worth. He blames himself for the loss of Tien and his men which is the likely reason why his scars have not healed as they are marks of his failure. I absolutely agree that Kaladin is not in the right place mentally for a relationship right now, but this is a temporary state of affairs until he manages to forgive himself in his pursuit of the fourth windrunner oath.

Yep, people seriously understate the importance of perception in the Cosmere magic systems. Brandon has even said that it would be possible for an iron ferring to decrease/increase the weight of part of their body rather than their body as a whole, showing how perception of oneself and one's abilities can cause limitations in how you make use of a magic system. The behaviour of Szeth's honorblade due to his perception of what an Honorblade should behave like is further evidence of Perception limiting potential. I for one am curious to see what some of the surges are capable of when these limits are pushed, the surge of Illumination being a prime example of this.

Szeth's backstory is bound to be intriguing. I'm very interested to see this 'giant spren of stone' Szeth has talked about and how that plays into the Stone Shaman faith. Also worth noting that you can duel wield Honorblades to stack surges. Kythis Can you hold more than one Honorblade at a time? Brandon Sanderson That is theoretically possible. source Shinovar would be a likely target for both the Fused and the Radiants as the Honorblades are such powerful tools. Imagine a battle between Szeth with Nightblood and his shardblade vs Moash duel wielding honorblades...