Child of Hodor

I don’t think Moash will get another novella length set of viewpoints like he did in OB. I’d expect him to get an interlude, but not 4 of them. I think Ishar or Nale will get 1 short interlude like Taln did in book 2. I don’t know who will get a series of interludes this time. Maybe Syl?

That's a good point. He want to shield his kids from the world. In OB he says he understood that sometimes soldiers are needed, he just didn't want his kids to be the soldiers. I do think Lirin will help with Kaladin's 4th oath. His whole "develop callouses" mantra that he's been telling Kaladin since he was a kid is a part of that. Do your best, but if a patient dies you've got to move on. As demonstrated with Roshone and his son, both needed surgery, he could only work on one. He saved the one he could and the other one died. He made a decision and acted, didn't let the terrible choice he had to make freeze him up. Lirin's experience as a surgeon has necessitated a pragmatic approach to saving people in his professional life. Kaladin will come to understand that approach. I'm predicting Kaladin and his family will be stuck in a Fused occupied Urithiru and Kaladin will swear the 4th oath which will make him immune to the power dampening fabrial tech. I'm assuming it's the plate that blocks it. Yeah it is totally alive. This sounds like a bodyworks exhibit where you are walking through a hallway that is made up like an artery or something. Those tiny holes remind me of heart valves or the esophageal sphincter, opening and closing depending on what was needed. These obstructions probably shifted when the Tower was active. Spoilers for the interior of the human digestive system ( ) This quote from the Lady of Wishes really sounds like the tower is the Sibling's physical form and the gemstone pillar is within the heart of the Sibling. The weird gem patterns running along the hallways would be the veins then.

That would be good. My first thought was of the Jezrien-killing knife because that sucked out his investiture and stored it in a gem similar to how the spears suck out stormlight from Radiants and fill gems. Jezrien being a cognitive shadow it killed him permanently or trapped his soul in a gem or whatever. That knife is made of a white-gold metal which I assume is Odium's god metal. I would think it is the same material being used by the Fused, but don't know that. https://coppermind.net/wiki/Vyre's_knife That knife seems like a deliberate nod to the Blinding Knife in Brent Week's Lightbringer Series. That also sucks magic out of people and fills up gems with it.

They were their own conduit when Honor was alive. Now that he’s gone they don’t work the same. They still give surgebinding to whoever holds them, but no more unlimited fuel. Szeth needs breath in Stormlight from gems to use the powers when using Jezrien’s blade. When Dalinar holds it he doesn’t get Stormlight from Honor. Moash has to breath in something from a gem a Fused gives him at the end of OB.

Coming out to backers in early November. Not ready this week. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonsteel/the-way-of-kings-10th-anniversary-leatherbound-edition/posts/3000671

Maybe. They have these prophecies and Szeth thought they were being fulfilled and their leaders said he was lying and made him Truthless. They probably didn't want to believe him because if he's right it would mean the end of the world potentially. They didn't want to deal with it.

I think your point stands as well. The Shin look different from every other modern nationality, very pale skin and "big eyes" (no epicanthal folds). They are very isolated from everyone else both by the mountains and their culture. Ash was either born on Ashyn or shortly after the exodus. She probably grew up in Shinovar during the brief time where the humans actually stayed in Shinovar, maybe that's why she hung out there later on. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/372/#e11945 As far as whether they get to Shinovar now, it seemed like their plan is to secure Emuli first to provide a better base to approach Shinovar from. This probably won't work out with the Fused wanting to attack Urithiru. They'll have to try to get back to the tower to fend off the attack or more likely they'll lose the tower in Part 2 or 3 and the rest of the book they'll be more focused on retaking the tower then on Shinovar.

I think Ash is wrong about the Oathpact. WoBs says it's not as broken as the Heralds think. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/160/#e2898; https://wob.coppermind.net/events/160/#e2893; https://wob.coppermind.net/events/127/#e5186 Plus why would Odium make a special thing to kill Jezrien if he didn't matter? In Jezrien's current, perpetually drunk state he's the least dangerous Herald that we know of as far as, likely to be of help to the heroes. Odium hates him, but what not torture him for fun if he's no threat. Why kill him in a special way so his soul or whatever is trapped in a gem instead of back on Braize if the Oathpact is truly done.

Either Odium's magic or a way to get out of the system with both a sprenbond and whatever Odium magic he picks up. It's not easy to do. I still think he will help Odium in exchange for something. I don't know if he's done it yet. There's a tiny bit of support for him being Mraize's spy. Hoid is bonded a Lightweaver spren and in RoW Chapter 13: That would dovetail nicely with @Bliev's suggestion of Sja-Anat. He's got a radiant spren bonded that has some cultivation and honor, Sja-Anat could presumably add some Odium investiture. Mraize wants Sja-Anat. An alliance of convenience.

Yeah good call. That's what I thought of too. I hope the Mink isn't double-crossing them. I guess since his wife and child were killed in a war with Alethkar (or implied to have) he has a lot of hate in him and motive to hurt Dalinar. RoW Ch. 16: He did withstand the Singers onslaught surprisingly well. Maybe a little too well. Like they've been building him up as this great general, when they are letting him live and get minor victories to increase his reputation. I'm hoping he's a secret radiant or something and not a villain. It is his idea to attack, but it's based on troop movements. This could be a coordinated thing between the Mink and the Fused. I hope not though.

He hates Hoid, but things haven't been working out for Odium on Roshar. His 50+ year long project of making Dalinar his champion didn't work out and Dalinar ascended. "Dalinar was not suppossed to Ascend" OB Ch. 122. Odium thought he had a get out of jail free card with Dalinar, but now Odium needs to win the hard way, whatever that entails. Hoid is probably right Odium would have killed him before, but now he might be open to it. Odium hates everyone, and Rayse has history with Hoid, but he also "cares not for the shape of the tool, so long as it cuts".

There is a WoB saying the Oathpact is not as broken as the Heralds think it is. Ash is wrong.https://wob.coppermind.net/events/160/#e2893 Seeing that Wit is in the "inner circle" convinces me he's the spy.

We know there is a spy for Odium / the Fused in Dalinar's "inner circle". It's probably not his children, Jasnah, Shallan or Navani. It's probably someone close to one of them. Now we know Wit is in those meetings and very close to Jasnah. Ahem: To sum it up Hoid is gathering up powers from around the Cosmere, seems like he's gathering up magic from each Shard. He told Dalinar not to trust him because he'd watch Roshar burn to get what he wants. He said he came here seeking an "old acquiantence" but spent his time hiding from him instead. He was hiding from Rayse/Odium. He's got a radiant spren now and all of them are a mix of cultivation and honor. He needs magic that is of Odium. He's cut a deal. EDIT: Could be Mraize's "Lightweaver" spy https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/92688-the-spy/?do=findComment&comment=1102204

She's the best! I guess Jasnah didn't share with everyone that Wit new the Herald's and gave them accurate drawings of them. She'd have a lot more specific questions about him if she knew that.

"Stormfather, enhance!" Dalinar and Shallan making the map:

Same! Not knowing the exact date of release has me antsy. Yeah, I don't think it will be of huge importance as far as stuff that happens in RoW. A lot of interlude and tertiary characters in the main books get a chance to shine here. My only expectation for it is as far as lore is I'll have a better understanding of what Dawnshard is than I did coming in. Which is an extremely low bar since we know almost nothing concrete about them. I expect Dawnshards to be a back half thing, maybe book 5, I dunno.

EDIT: Word of @Argent or WoA (pronounced "Whoa!") Having the Returned die without being given Breath each week encourages people to give more which serves her purposes. Maybe after people kept not figuring it out in time and most returned died in a week she gave more of hint and that led to the religion. Either that or something changed in the Cosmere that made her want to increase the odds of her Returned living long enough to fulfill what they are being sent back for.

When Veil mentioned yet another awful secret I thought “Oh, this is her whole arc, I guess. She must have 5 secrets one for each book /ideal. She must have been a full radiant at like 10 and forgot it all.” Be nice if her 5th ideal was achieved another way. It’s hard to top killing your parents in two separate events. Did she murder her baby sibling who has never been mentioned by the rest of her family because it’s too painful? Running out of awful things she plausibly could have done as a kid while still keeping her a protagonist people want to succeed. I will say I like that Shallan is different from a year ago. I wouldn’t call it progress or regress, she just gets by or The Three do which is interesting.

Taravangian: King of the World is one of the few suggestions I’ve seen that sounds natural. Can we have a free-floating The? “The Way of Kings” is the actual title if the The counts it should be at the end. Although if it counts we have too many words to fit the form. I guess the The is invisible. I’m good with your suggestion though. So the O can be swapped for an h word? The O is what makes it hard to me. Hard to think of O words that fit well and that aren’t Of. There are WAY too many Brandon books titled “______ of ______” already. Like 80% of Cosmere novels, even the unpublished early works like Liar of Partinel and Aether of Night.

That’s what I am banking on. The Bondsmith spren are on another level of power than the other radiant spren. Either they a broken Oath doesn’t do as much damage to them or the Siblings “withdrawal” just prior to the Recreance reduced the damage it took. The Bondsmith spren also very different from other spren. We don’t know their “rules”. We didn’t know Jasnah could hold her breath indefinitely with Stormlight and take a knife through the heart, but she could. Always another secret. EDIT: The Sibling isn't necessarily unbonded either. The Stormfather began bonding Dalinar without him knowing it for quite a while, Navani has been living in that tower the Sibling is so closely associated with for over a year. A bond could have begun. The Sibling seems the most unique spren since they are a They and don’t have a name. Or that name was Urithiru, but everyone calls the tower that so the Spren now goes by The Sibling. AKA elaborate sleight of hand by Brandon to not give away that the tower and the spren are basically the same. RoW Ch. 14: The Fused use Sibling almost interchangeably with the word tower. They aren't the same, but they're close. The gemstone pillar isn't the Sibling's heart, but it is inside the Sibling's heart. That whole giant fabrial that extends throughout Urithiru (the tower) might actually be the Sibling's form. The Sibling might be able to transform into gems. Sounds weird, but so is the Nightwatcher. That's not necessarily compatible with Gavilar finding a piece of the Sibling, unless the Sibling is in multiple places.

LOL! Amazing. I’d respect it if they committed to the bit and all Era 1 were just a gradual zoom in on the same drawing of Vin. Era 2 is one drawing of Wayne with 4 different zoom ratios.

@robardin The main reason a lot of Roshar spren never liked Odium and wanted to help fight against him is that Odium's explicit goal is to kill and splinter their mom and dad. Wyndle refers to Cultivation as mother repeatedly. Stormfather says "my siblings" to refer to Nightwatcher and The Sibling (OB Ch. 64). Nightwatcher calls Cultivation mother. They're all related, all the radiant spren are a mix of Honor and Cultivation. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/29/#e2114

Yeah, I know. Let's be super judgey about them all while I'm here: That UK cover actually feels appropriate. The Polish one is super generic for sure. With the Japan cover every piece of it look at least OK on their own, but looks like a meme factory put it together The characters are plopped out there unmoored in the middle of it and they look like slightly melted action figures (I do like the gold armor upon closer inspection). My goodness what glorious metal nun's habit that guy is wearing! Wow! The way he's tilting his head and causally leaning his sword on his shoulder ... imagine feeling that cocky while wearing that metal hat. Nothing new to say here on the OB ones. I really dig the Germany part 2. A little "Son of the Mists" volume 3 as a palate cleanser:

You can, but not until November most likely. He said something about making sure all kickstarter people got their copy before it's released to everyone and on the 14th he posted on the Kickstarter that backers will probably get it by the end of October. "I’m hoping to get you the novella before the end of the month, and it looks almost certain that will happen at this point. Even with it being a tad longer than expected, we should have no trouble getting it edited, revised, and proofread before November. The print edition is a little more tricky. We’ve been told at this point by our printer that there’s really no chance we could get it back by December. COVID has interrupted printing schedules and paper delivery far too much."

Yeah, ebook will be the only way to get it pre-RoW and he said they are going to make sure all the kickstarter backers that paid for it get the ebook before they release the ebook for everyone. On October 14th he updated the kickstarter to say they are on track to get it to the backers by the end of October. Wide release is possible before RoW, but not clear when. The printing process is backed up due to the pandemic so physical books won't be out until January. .