Child of Hodor

That's very thoughtful of you to do!

Not to disagree with a god like Harmony, but I think having multiple Shards gives one access to more investiture in the physical and cognitive realms at any given moment and can make a vessel more powerful all other things being equal.

Shards have infinite investiture only because on a long enough timeline it eventually recycles back to the spiritual realm and then flows out to the other two realms. But Shards rely heavily on what’s in the physical and cognitive realms which is finite in the short term. 

The reason Sazed holds Ruin now is because the Atium mistings burned all that Atium up. Ruin lost access to it until it recycles which takes time. Ruin couldn’t just pull as much investiture as he wanted out of the spiritual realm, this lack of available investiture weakened him and he couldn’t finish off Preservation because of it. 

Also, Preservation putting more of himself into humans than Ruin made Preservation weaker than Ruin. Because he can’t pull infinite investiture from the Spiritual realm at will.

COMMAND may be more than the order, it may also be command as in mastery. The Shard or Intent is the power and the Command is the will and understanding to use that power to it's potential. 

Quote

 

2a: the ability to control : MASTERY https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/command

I don't think Command is the new Focus. Focus is a way of accessing the power/ intent. Rysn is/has a Command now, but has no access to any magic system. She gets passive boosts to her senses from holding the investiture of the Dawnshard, but no magical powers she can actively use. 

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.

What an ambitious crossover, first Brandon finishes the Wheel of Time, now he is incorporating Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series.  

I do like the nod though. In 2001 A Space Odyssey the monoliths increase people's intelligence and this black monolith is in the Cognitive Realm, the land of thoughts. 

1 hour ago, Stars56 said:

How do you do that?

Hit the Eye icon on the toolbar at the top. 

These are incredible! I've always been envious of the Chinese covers, ever since I saw the Way of Kings cover. 

Thanks! You all have been putting out a ton of Shardcasts and other content. It is greatly appreciated. 

28 minutes ago, Chaos said:

I do not at all think it is referring to Urithiru. Also, each of the "levels" of Urithiru is eighteen stories tall, not ten. 

Fair!

I'm relying on that description being one of those things that's misremembered from being retold over and over for maybe thousands of years. Urithiru was made by the KR whose existence was inspired and later codified by the Heralds, not literally "made for Heralds".  Urithiru looks like giant steps from the outside, but the person probably didn't literally climb the side like they were stairs. (unless they were sleepless). The description is way off in a literal sense, but if you squint ...

We'll just have to see which of us is right in 15 - 20 years.  

On 7/24/2020 at 8:11 PM, Chiberty said:

One idea I've always liked about the poem of Ista is that the one "taking the Dawnshard" is a sleepless. They crawled up the steps, and the steps are ten strides tall. Who would measure height in strides? 

On 7/25/2020 at 1:32 AM, Chaos said:

Ooooo I like this a lot!

SAME!  

Are we in agreement that the 10 strides tall stepped structure with a temple on top "made for heralds" is actually Urithiru? It has 10 rings that are 10 stories tall each. The temple at the top may be the roof. They worship a god that rode the storms and we saw a wedding conducted up there, a ceremony often performed in temples and other houses of worship. 

What did the Sleepless do? Maybe make a binding agreement with the Stormfather that created a perpetual storm around Akinah? 

Lift and Kaladin team up! 

Fabrials are increasingly important in battle. More support for Navani as the stealth main character. 

Moooaash! *Shakes fist* 

Thanks, I've been starting to do this through itunes, but this extremely convenient!!

3 minutes ago, Chaos said:

Well, I sure wasn't expecting the Sleepless in Edgedancer given how cagey he was regarding the people who wrote the back of the books prior to that release. It's not out of character!

That’s true!

Or Odium popping up in Oathbringer to have conversations with Dalinar, Venli and Taravangian (little man) 

I’m kind of shocked that he’s getting into this now. As @Chaos made clear, Dawnshards has barely been touched upon. 

Since they were used as part of the trashing of Ashyn (Tranquiline Halls) and at least 9 of the 10 Heralds were born on Ashyn per Brandon, I resigned myself to Dawnshards not being explored much until the back 5 which Brandon said would focus on the Heralds much more.

Super pumped to find out what exactly the Sleepless have been hiding so fiercely (see Kaza’s interlude in OB)

 

Is that a stylized version of Chiri-Chiri on the cover? 

Chiri-Chiri is a Dawnshard! As I've always thought  

Storms it's so beautiful ... 

7 hours ago, Personification said:

This whole thing was amazing. I just have one question: When does the tenth anniversary leatherbound version of the forum come out?

LOL

Congrats on 10 years! This is a great forum website. The Coppermind is the best media specific wiki I've encountered and Arcanum is a great resource. Really appreciate all the work that's been put in. 

On the different eyes of humans:

Many of the Heralds have epicanthal folds for instance Jezrien, Ash, Taln and Nale. No one in modern day looking at them remarks on them having “Shin eyes”.
 

Dalinar remarks on Jezrien looking almost Alethi in OB Ch 42. 
The only thing he found weird about Jezrien’s eyes is that they were dark.

Since the Heralds were born on Ashyn, except maybe Ash, some had epicanthal folds were on Ashyn. 
 

Maybe everyone but the pale big eyed people left or maybe people like Jezrien started the desolation and many expanded out. Some that looked like that stayed behind, but the pale big eyed people were like “this is your fault” and wiped out /exiled the ones that looked different.

It would fit with their “banish the truthless to go kill”. They punish people  by making them leave Shinovar and do a solo-desolation. 

I think Szeth will be working at /running the prison. Given he’s a Skybreaker Law & Order is their thing.

Szeth also had very strong feelings on how a prison should be run in Oathbringer.

19 minutes ago, Use the Falchion said:

My Body Board Is Ready

LOL!

I'm hoping for "I accidently wrote a Stormlight Novella last weekend so look for that over the Summer" or something equally insane. 

My only qualm with the book is that we did the “Spensa joins a flight training program and they have to learn to work together” plot again with different characters and it was a big chunk of the book.

it would be a little like SA2 being “Kaladin is in Iri and has to get Siege Tower 7 in shape!”

It’s either Yolen, Vax, Silverlight or a Dawnshard.

*dusts hands off* case closed!

31 minutes ago, Govir said:

I didn't understand the debt explanation either, but your talking about it made me think of a possible explanation that makes sense to me.

They call it a "debt", but if you think about it more like a savings account (because it does earn interest) then the in book explanation makes sense. So the merchants are keeping an account for the Sand Masters, which the Sand Masters can call upon whenever. However the merchants don't actually have that much money (or it's a sizable amount of their wealth). So when Vey is giving his personal money to the Sand Masters, they're turning around and depositing it the account, which raises how much interest needs to be paid (thus making the "debt" ever increasing).

Definitely some logical jumps, but at least it makes sense to me now.

Yeah, I agree. They are acting like a bank and it's like a long term savings account that they were to maintain, but they blew the money. If the account holder wanted to withdraw it all at once they'd be screwed. 

I think it is more interesting if Gavilar knows he is talking to Heralds. We've seen that Gavilar played things very close to the vest. He didn't tell Navani, Elhokar or Jasnah anything. He probably didn't tell Amaram everything so his ignorance isn't necessarily proof Gavilar's ignorance. 

I don't know who Gavilar thinks he is talking to otherwise. He knows Braize is where Odium's forces are bottled up and he knows these people have a Connection that can be used to go back and forth. We have seen that the Stormfather is willing to talk about the Oathpact to Dalinar and how the Heralds never left. 

These two Heralds seem to be looking for a way to leave the system. Maybe Nale is OK with Gavilar bringing back the Fused as long as he is not around. Nale knows it was their planet to begin with and even thinks the Singers are the rightful rulers who he must follow now.