Child of Hodor

Kaladin is going there in part to help with Ishar’s mental illness. I think he’ll end up helping Szeth somewhat. Szeth freaks out a lot. Against Kaladin in their first fight he runs away. Somewhat in their second fight when Kaladin saves Dalinar. In OB he makes Lift go to Dalinar in the Thrill because he can’t handle the voices. In RoW he murders “Taravangian” in a rage. Yeah, Szeth’s family seems to have been in charge of the Honorblades at one point and Szeth has practiced with them before his exile then he had Jezrien’s blade for at least 6 years. He and Jasnah seem to be the most experienced with their powers of the non-herald POV characters. Now he has Nightblood and Nale told him he’d still teach him Division. Mass destruction.

Sazed pre-ascension. Post-ascension he'd be like "I can't bring myself to act that is why I never do the dishes" He is very even-keeled, he gives good advice, he's quiet doesn't own a lot of that would take up space. Only downside is he'd keep trying to tell you about a religion you should follow.

That's a good point. He also no longer can keep them from going back to Roshar after the Everstorm was brought to Roshar. He told Dalinar he literally cannot stop them which is why he can't agree to it as part of what he has to do if he loses the contest of champions.

The question came up on Shardcast: when during book 5 will the contest of champions begin? I am very confident it will start early on in Part 5 similar to how the battle of Thayen Field started early in part 5. In other words most of the book is taking place over the 10 days between the end of RoW and SA5. 1) This contest of champions was mentioned as far back as book 1 and agreed to in 3. It's the climax of the front 5 he isn't putting it in part 2 of the book. 2) This wob from 2020 talks about how Brandon did something in book 4 that sets up a difficult challenge for him and Karen (his continuity editor) in book 5. Karen is the keeper of the timeline. She makes sure the correct moon is out during a night scene, where the highstorm is and things like that. If most of the book is taking place over 10 days it will be very important to nail down who is doing what when and where in relation to each other.

I remember the sailors on the infinite sea! The infinite sea sounds a lot like outer space to me. My favorite Shardcast "What IS a ..." to date. What IS an arsonist? @Chaos Interesting you happen to mention Elantris was found fully built but unoccupied in this episode. It's almost like the previous inhabitants of Elantris just up and left. Obviously they could have all been killed but there were no skeletons or other remains found as far as we know.

As you may be aware, there is a theory that Shallan's mother was the Herald Chanarach. (Credit to @teknopathetic) Before the SA 5 prologue the only direct evidence was they both have red hair, there's all kinds of weird mysterious things going on with Shallan's family and Chana was known as "the Guard" yet she tried to kill her own child which would fit with the Heralds' madness manifesting as inversions of their divine attributes. Then some things happened in the SA 5 prologue that made it seem like Brandon was directly hinting at this being the case. Aaaanyways, we got this WoB from Brandon talking about how Shallan has extra abilities that Lightweavers don't get and some of the hints of its source should be kind of obvious now. If it's obvious then it is either that she has multiple Spren or she is the child of a Herald. If it's the two spren thing why not just say that? Does she have a third spren that's a truthwatcher spren? Is the extra future sight / ability to see in other realms more than a Lightweaver coming from being naturally more invested because she's part cognitive shadow??? Chanarach is the Dustbringer Patron which has no overlap with Truthwatcher powers and Chanarach can't surgebind without the Honorblade she gave up it would not make sense for Shallan to inherit those powers. I think Shallan's mother being Chanarach explains some things. Why all these secret societies were swirling around a country noble estate of little influence (until they get the soulcaster) Why are fewer female Heralds active (as far as we know) in front 5? Shallan killed one. Why give her a second spren after what she did? She "killed" her spren and years later she (justifiably) murdered her father. Yet they still chose to gamble another spren's life on her. Also, arguably, why Shallan was made a radiant so young? Yes, Lift was also young, but Cultivation directly altered her and that's why the Cultivation spren chose her for Wyndle (he whines about it in her WoR interlude). Tien was getting his powers fairly young, but he acts like more of child than he is. He was 12 or so when he started doing the "look, I found a technicolor rock" act. The age gap between Kaladin and Shallan is greater than him and Tien. I think she was closer to single digits in age when began the bond.

With SA 5 release date and um whelming title? I thought it would be fun to riff on Brandon book titles. Personally, I think Brandon should start really mixing it up with the titles he uses Blank of Blank too much generally. I've recently learned of a fun fiction novel naming convention for novels about wives (I assume). Wife Location Literature. Covers hidden for length. The Wife Between Us The Wife Upstairs The Wife Next Door The Spren Between Us The Ghostblood Upstairs The Worldhopper Next Door The Shard in the Shed Tuesday's With Marsh The Lopen Between Us

I'm always going to hear "What?!" when I see WaT. It's not an interesting title on it's own AND it doesn't fit the Ketek. According to Shardcast the in world book will still be Knights of Wind and Truth, but what's the point if you are changing the actual book title? Someone putting them next to each other and see how it goes back to front and saying "huh, that's neat" is the only real payoff possible to this whole tortured exercise. Ah well.

Wind and Truth is better than Knights of Wind and Truth. Barely. Diceborn is a good name. Gets the idea across pretty clearly at least to me. I really appreciate all the work everyone does!! Happy Holidays!!

Yeah, Taravangian wrote the diagram all over his room in one day when his intelligence was at a level it as never at before or since and then he had it copied into book form for him to revise on future sufficiently smart days.

Storm you both i was gonna do Stick. I could see Kelsier Brandon has said he’d be a villain in most stories. I hope it’s not him though. What is the final conflict going to about? Whether to use the Dawmshards to attempt to recombine the shards and bring back Adonalsium vs people that don’t want that? Some shards want it others don’t. Are protagonists might be on either side of that. Or they accomplish the recombination midway through the series and the result is bad and our heroes must deal with the consequences of their own actions. So maybe Bad Adonalsium or a new personality that rises out of a recombination of all that investiture without a vessel.

Great catch on the timing. I read Lost Metal and didn’t think about that connection. It’s still just a draft! He can change it to chouta during later revisions.

It has to be a thing they can break or else them upholding their oath doesn't have any meaning. I don't think Honor told them "hey you can stop at any time" when they took it up. This is Jezrien trying to justify his decision to quit. Sort of like "Nowhere in the rulebook does it say a dog can't play basketball" from Air Bud. The oathpact probably doesn't say that they can't quit, but Honor assumed they wouldn't because he isn't great at seeing the future and thinks bonds and oaths are the most important things.

We have this WoB from Brandon about who made Canticle. My guess is that Invention made the planet. Mostly because you basically need advanced technology to survive on it for very long and it encourages you to keep making better technology. The sun hearts provide portable fuel source. I'm mostly working backwards from the result of the Chorus being created. A bunch of beings that are already dead so they don't need to sleep or eat who are constantly making advanced technology. A long time ago I made meme of how Invention would want to create a scenario where people had to constantly innovate to survive. I was thinking Invention have a giant spaceship society. Everyday is this scene from Apollo 13: The Grand Apparatus sounds like something Invention would be associated with. I don't know what voice Brandon is referring to. Who mentioned a future Cosmere planet? Ati saying Vax? The planet is being slowly destroyed by the Sun and the life expectancy of the planet can't be very long so that fits with Ruin. But we know Ruin can't create much on it's own which is why a Preservation team up was necessary. Did they make Canticle? I don't think that makes sense. Again I can't recall another voice mentioning a future planet.

So Cusicesh cycles through all those faces in WoK and does that every day. Is it cycling through all the Iriali? Sort of a demonstration that all are One. Or it’s just showing all the people it’s draining, which is mostly Iriali. Still I wonder if it’s a metaphor for all really being part of one whole.

Yeah, I think they are getting out of town before whatever is about to go down happens. I’ll be curious to see who actually decides it’s time to go. It’s mentioned that similar portals are appearing in all major cities. Cusicesh seems like it is just carrying out something handed down to it. Perhaps by Honor since Honor’s perpendicularity is being used?

We just got this WoB This is a surprising RAFO to me. I thought this was answered when Taravangian wielded Nightblood at the end of RoW. Is Odium’s golden room not a cognitive realm creation? It’s not Shadesmar, but it’s like a mind palace of sorts like the Visions. Body stays in physical realm but the mind is in the golden room. Well if Nightblood has a cognitive realm form other than as a sword I will go with creepy victorian ghost boy. Or the titular Boy from The Boy.

LOL I haven't reread the series since the last full novel came out. I had a similar reaction "wait she's part what now?"

Good job laying out how ridiculous the series of decisions that led to living on this planet were. OG Zellion was like Jigsaw. This whole thing is a lethal teambuilding retreat. Reminds me of the Envisagers that Teft's parents were members of. Salvation through deathtraps.

Are we sure all the Dawnshards have one word commands like CHANGE? It fits with the Shard intents also having a single name, but these are commands. Seems limiting if they are all one word. I'm looking for a classic Brandon trick of letting us assume a thing that is never stated. On a related but separate line of thought: Doesn't CHANGE seem the opposite of what Brandon is saying above? It is not specific or narrow at all. I'll add the caveat that he is talking off the cuff and he's only sort of answering the question from @Chaos about Dawnshards by giving a Warbreaker example, but he picked the same term Command for a reason they shouldn't mean vastly different things. Then again we've never seen one used. There may be more specifics involved when one wields a Dawnshard. The other thing with CHANGE is that when we try to guess the other commands we think of things like Connect or Form. Isn't connecting things inherently changing them? Almost everything falls under change except SURVIVE or similar command telling things not to change at all. Destruction is a change. Maybe CREATE, but investiture and matter can't be created or destroyed at a fundamental level. Create can only be altering existing things which is a change. I could see EXPERIENCE, FEEL or LIVE which could refer more intangible things like emotions. How about THINK? Adonalsium shouting "THINK, STUPID!" at a bunch of rocks . That's still a change though . Wait one is not like the others in some way. What if 3 of them are CHANGE because it is so broad you can do almost anything and only one of them is a different command? But why would Adonalsium create 3 of the same thing when there is only 1 of him? Maybe he kept losing them? The 4th one is FIND so he can find the three he lost, but then he lost that one too? Adonalsium had ADHD, confirmed. So do I and that's probably enough of me riffing with myself. Thanks for reading

I see your point that looking at the back half all but Lift are royalty (Jasnah, Renarin) demi-gods that were part of an ancient invading force (Taln) or both (Shallash). Lift is now among the elite by virtue of her magical abilities and she is extra special because of how Cultivation altered her. Compared to the front half where Kaladin & Bridge 4 were all slaves, Szeth was a different type of slave, Venli is from an offshoot of a displaced and then enslaved people. It is a potential negative of Brandon's books that the primary purpose is to explore and explain the magical worlds and magic systems he creates. By volume these books spend a lot of pages explaining and demonstrating magic. The plot usually hinges on characters mastering the magic or solving a physics or math problem within the magic. Meaning most of the major characters that drive the plot are going to be magic users which automatically makes them more powerful than most and not all that marginalized regardless of background. That's not to excuse him if he does social/political considerations poorly, but that's never struck me as a primary reason he writes these books. I would be more moved by the need for more diverse POV If this were a story involving real world peoples whether in fiction or nonfiction. To me there is a big difference between the importance of centering Osage voices and accurately depicting the Osage people in Killers of the Flower Moon and the need to center Listener voices. Same goes for a fictional story involving any real world groups. Hearing more from more dark-eyes is hearing more from Brandon. Versus Brandon depicting indigenous people in Rithmatist 2 which has never been completed because he doesn't feel he knows enough about these actual people and cultures to responsibly write fictional people of that group. Again, not to excuse him if he writes a work where it feels like oppressed people don't matter or implies they shouldn't be so angry about it. And I do respect your objection to his approach and lack of POV from relatively powerless people.

I think the critique of societies on Roshar will continue in the back 5. Even in book 4 with an active war on multiple fronts Kaladin found time to say "Wow, we treat mentally ill people terribly. I will try to change that." Jasnah is queen (in every sense ) and we know she has a dim view of Vorin society. I expect she will try to reform Alethi society in the back half when they are no longer a nation in exile. The Singer - Human relationship will probably change from purely adversarial soon and that could be an interesting societal change.

I think it’s this. His current Spren is killed and he attracts a Skybrealer Spren the next time. He is a stickler for rules and laws. He complains to Kaladin that a gay couple didn’t file the proper government forms in OB. He’s cool with them getting married but anmoyed they didn’t fill out the form correctly. A very Skybreaker-esque concern.

On the question of why are the Scadrians so terrible in future Cosmere? There is an exchange in Way of Kings ch. 40 involving Sigzil and Kaladin that I think is relevant: This ship of Scadrians are jerks, but I don't think we can apply it to the entire populace.

Makes me think of how cognitive shadows are “stapled” to the physical realm. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/183/#e3895 Anchoring could mean the anomalies rip the person’s consciousness / cognitive aspect out of their body and this chain prevents that.