Oltux72

The important thing seems to me that you stay at a certain heading. The distance between Azimir and Lasting Integrity is not trivial. It the point the compass points to is on Roshar, the heading should change.

We can only speculate, but Preservation and Ruin may be members of different subgroups of Shards Preservation and Ruin had a special history together Their war had lasted longer Vin did a suicide attack Generally speaking, the problem is not new. You should have asked why Sel still exists, too.

Whom for? I am sorry, but this question is almost meaningless. For the human people of Alethkar now locked up in Urithiru or under Parshendi rule it was definitely a bad choice. I am afraid I need to paraphrase Nohadon: Every decision hurts somebody.

The big wildcard are the Voidspren. They know that they owe their existence to some random nice humans. I really doubt that many will be loyal to Retribution. They might seek safety in bonds with humans. I think we may be seeing true Voidbinders all over the Cosmere in the future.

Sorry for the vague title. I wanted to avoid spoilers in it. Now for the discussion. It seems to me that there is a widespread almost universal attitude among the fandom the the Knights Radiant will struggle back after their horrible setback and spend the back half setting things right to finally triumph over Retribution. I am afraid this is not thought through. Let me list the factors that will in my opinion prevent that course of events Retribution has taken up Honor. In a sense he is The Allmighty. Roshar needs a source of Investiture. You cannot just splinter Retribution. They had a treaty. They have lost. The Singers have won. The other Shards will see Roshar as Retribution's seat and source of power. They will attack it as a whole. Hence I think the Knights Radiant will split into multiple factions. Those who accept Retribution as their god and the Blackthorn as their commander. The Resistance Those who follow Cultivation wherever she went Those who hold dear the old ideals but recognize that they've lost and a treaty is a treaty. They'll try to do good with their limited means or they'll go into exile.

Yes. It left me with a nostalgic longing. Brandon smashed something wonderful. I applaud his courage to do so. But it makes me sad. Roshar without the Highstorms is no longer Roshar.

I am very sorry, but somebody has to state the obvious. He is a traitor. He sided with Odium. He cost much of the inhabitants of Urithiru their homeland. Many people, possibly a majority, will simply demand that he be tried and executed. Now I don't think that that will happen, him being the scion of House Kholin. But he better never go anywhere without bodyguards. His life will definitely be very unhappy. People will spit at the ground he walked upon.

Now, after a few weeks, my digested thoughts. I am afraid, the book was among the weaker Stormlight books. Obviously it disappointed expectations. That is inevitable if you have that much hype and the freshness of the first books is gone. There are only so many plot twist you can add. But still it was weaker book. Why? The majority of the book was flashbacks. Sure, they were not called that, but using the Spiritual Realm to learn about the past amounts to the same thing by another name. Some plot lines (the Renarin/Rlain story line, Ghostbloods capturing a Herald, Shallan kelling Mraize & Iyatil had almost no relevance for the book) Two major plot lines (Thaylen City & the Shattered Plains) are resolved in such a way that much of what happens in the book is in vain (Scadrial) The introduction of Wind and the Oathpact 2.0 felt a bit like a deus ex machina Szeth's plot line was ended in an exceedingly creative way, but I did not like it.

He wasn't powered by negative emotions. He did what he had to do what it took to save Kharbranth.

Not really. If you want to keep an ally then admitting a failure to adhere to your principles will not do the job. You'd declare yourself untrustworthy.

It is. It is mentioned that Alethi peasants stress words differently. Among them Kaladin's name.

It would again say that you do not have language change. You have a prestige way of speaking "Alethi lighteye posh", if you will, dieing out. What you are getting is not language change but everybody switching to preexisting "street language". Something they at least understood perfectly well all the time.

We had that. We also had Shallan going slumming in a low class bar. There they didn't bother with dyes and just told it like it is. At the risk of repeating myself, wars cut away fluff. Compare the fashions of 1913 to the fashions of 1920. This goes further. If you had seriously proposed dadaism in 1913 you would have been taken to an asylum. Brandon had been breaking the setup since Oathbringer. Most of what we'd been seeing of Roshar up to Words of Radiance was, to put it bluntly, a decadent culture. Half your population kept illiterate. The other half unable to use both hands fully. Wages set by law. We already saw signs of the strain. Stormwardens inventing a new script. Women using gloves and learning archery. The nihilism of Au-Nak. It took one big push and the house of cards collapsed. Eastern Roshar was deliberately set up as in sort of a culture on the precipe of seeing what happens when a system is extended past its natural limits. Sort of 18th century Venice. Beautiful but rotten. Britain before the war was having ideological discussions. Come the war they socialized medicine without as much as a blink of an eye and unceremoniously went to universal health care in 1946. They were not alone. Germany expanded the public health insurance scheme for blue-collar workers to almost everybody in 1941 and nobody thought of protesting or changig it back after the war. Big wars are an enormous driver of change.

And had no problem permitting multiple genocides of Spren.

Retribution controls the supply of Investiture and the Everstorm. So you won't get smitten, but starved, blown away or drowned. That is not perfect. What we probably will see is a conflicht between the Fused and the rest of the Singers. I doubt they'll let ancient ghosts dominate them forever.

He also controls much of Shadesmar. And again, nobody cares about Natanatan.

Well, sorry, but no. Taravangian did not use the loophole in the contract. Not directly. He made Wit think that he'd use the loophole and forced the Coalition to react to the perceived threat. But he did not use that loophole to alter the result of the contract. Her merely acknowleged when the loophole was used against him. He attacked during the last ten days. That, however, was within the spirit of the contract. He then used a child champion. In fact we have no idea what he would have done, if hadn't gotten Gavinor into his hands. He does not want to take Thaylen city. He wants Thaylen city on his side. He is Rosharan. Rosharans are his people. They are the soldiers in his war of conquest about to come. Hence he wants collaborators, not slaves. Honor lost. The contest of champions is plan B. I doubt that Taravangian really convinced Fen. He gave her the excuse she was already looking for and a way out with something to salvage. She must have been aware of the economic arguments he made.

Yes, that means that Roshar will enter the wider Cosmere at a technological disadvantage. It looks like for now Retribution has left Roshar leaving behind El as a regent. Not just the Surges. And not just in Stormlight (now Warlight?). You have all those Selish people show up all over the place. If he wants to narrate how they got there, it'll have to be soon or it'll be beside the point.

The Cosmere is entering its modern age. Elantris II and Hoid's origin stories aside the books from now on will have tech levels of the second half of the 20th century at least (or be about cultures in significant contact with cultures that have it).

Given that Knights of Wind and Truth was written by an Elsecaller six years after the Stormfall, it looks to me like contact with the outer world will be reestablished within a few years. So there is no generation growing up under the bubble.

Did he also get that stored in Ire devices?

I stand corrected. Yet, one basic question: Why did the chapter with Hoid seeking employment come after the chapter with Shallan and Thaidakar negotiating? And secondary question: If Ulaam knows about the blockade of Taldaine, why do they need to send out scouts?

There is also a beggar's outfit that Hoid reactivates. I suppose in theory it could be the pre-catacendre garment we wore in Era 1. But it seems likelier that is the outfit he wore in BoM passing Waxillium the coin. In that case he does not apply for the job with House Ladrian, but another house and TWoK - RoW take place in between BoM and TLM.

I had the impression in TLM that the "golden-haired people" were new. That is they arrived in between BoM and TLM.

The Skybreakers whom Szeth was training with at the Purelake confirmed these oaths.