Oltux72

That sequence would have required Charles to entrust a letter and a cup, which meant a lot to him, to a madman. That seems unlikely to me. If you really want to resolve it without introducing the problem of the Whistleblow sailing to the sorceress I think you will need to introduce a third ship between it and Crow's Song. In that scenario Hoid was cursed after delivering the first cup and before Ulaam arriving, which means that the rest of the attempts to find a bride and Charlie's subsequent adventures took about a year. That is reasonable.

Kandra names are strongly, even by the form they are written in, suggested to be a compund of two components. "Laan" is even a known component from another Kandra. In such a system you are bound to get names that share the second "Albert" & "Robert" or first component "Albert" & "Alfred". "Laam" and "laan" differ only in the last consonant, but so do "same" and "sane". That is no surprise. The evidence is inconclusive.

Then the mere fact would not be remarkable to Hoid. We can be pretty sure that TotES is at least a few decades after Era 2. That means that she would have centuries to recover and for Hoid to meet recovered Elantrians. And he was on Sel for sure, as he met Shai there. It would also mean that Hoid met members of the Ire during that relatively short time. But during those years he was on Scadrial, not in Shadesmar and he was busy recovering Lerasium.

That applies to every enlightened slaveholder. Debatable. He may see mortals as a step below him like pets or live stock. You do not have empathy with the latter. We have no idea how he would behave towards another dragon. He(? - the beard suggests it) may be a genuinely niece ... serpent. That may not be his own volition. For all we know he just wants no trouble with the 17th Shard, whose leader seems to be a dragon, too. No, definitely no. The planet itself doesn't matter. What has happened to the Aethers, however, is extremely significant. In fact they might even destroy all but the most advanced worlds. The question we should ask is rather why he is the only one to study them. Or is he? Or they simply have so much that adding to it is futile. He can feed, house and clothe a multitude of slaves at a remote location for centuries. He is certainly not poor. Ehm, sorry, but what is he doing to the spores in the first place? He is moving a few thousand tonnes of spores at a minimum. Do you want to propose that he uses different powers controlling the spores and the cloth? Fortune? Futuresight? Connection to the spores? Presumably Lumar has slave markets. The Eleventh metals comes to my mind (the substance, not the story) Frost Because they are rare? We do not know how Awakening interacts with the inherent Investiture of an Awakener. The awakened object needs to be invested with Breaths, but the awakener himself? There are multiple systems that could do it. Awakening, Surgebinding and probably AonDor. Yolen is known to have Microkinesis which looks like a superset of Stoneshaping. A Stoneward can use clothing as a weapon. That would seem to be the obvious solution. No strange color effects around him If it came to a clash, could he afford to let her live with him on the same planet possibly plotting for revenge? Suppose he kills her. Then what? If the Ire still exists, will they investigate? Will the other dragons look favorably on a fellow dragon who angers the Ire? Killing and war will become necessary from time to time. Preparation for the eventuality is necessary. But seeking them is a notion you should fear. Beings who do not do not survive for thousands of years.

Because then he would simply say "of your space ships". Stressing the landing part makes no sense. The star ships surely still have their computer when they start again. Yes, but presumably far fewer people know that aviars are used to hide from telepathic sea monsters. Though we cannot rule out that he is speaking in a lecture hall in Silverlight to a grouo of students from another world who would know the story or something similar. The evidence looks suggestive to me but far from definite.

And that is kind of the point. He is the chief advisor to the queen by now, yet is keeping the old title. Its meaning has started changing. It heavily implies that the ships landing on that planet do not originate on the planet they are landing on. Hence the technologically advanced planets can be ruled out. By the procress of elimination that leaves: Threnody, Sel and First of the Sun (and of course many planets totally unknown or mere names - but that is unproductive) And then there is the mention of somebody sailing around the world without aviar.

Would he know? Hoid is many things, but an engineer or merchant? The thing is that those spores have rather obvious applications. If they hadn't the native ships wouldn't carry a crewman dedicated to them. And to a technologically developed world they would increase in utility. Fire without fuel. A godsend (well, aethersend) for the environment. No air in your space capsule. Zephyr to the rescue. Emergency food for a downed pilot. Verdant does the job. Need to observe the inaccessible inside of a machine. Midnight will do the job. Why not sell them if you are literally floating in them? And if Glorf had carried a bag of crimson spores on her person? She needn't even throw them. Inside her pants and ready for suicidal urination would be enough.

Hence breaking your own strategy. Only that now you have a population that is not used to farming and will have to expand into areas the Singers have devastated. And the settlers to be would be quite likely to die. That will be excellent for morale.

Because Odium in turn gave his forces more firepower presumably. In fact the bestowal of the Surges onto the Fused may have been exactly that counter. Think this through. You do that consequently for years. Singers settle the abandoned lands. They reproduce. What will happen after a few decades? This is a beautiful example of a sound tactic being awful strategy. They doubtlessly did. But to more than the current radiants. Look at the remnants like the barrier seen in Rhythm of War in Urithiru or the old fabrials. All that took time. But that was not limited to one side. No bioweapons so far for example. Imagine what combined arms teams of Reals and Fused who have Futuresight can do.

Interesting that we named all planets hundreds of years ago.

Both true, but by that time Hoid wouldn't need to explain to her what a computer is. Roshar is one of the (two) big powers of the Cosmere in the late stages. People in those cases know more about those foreign governments than you might assume. Just as you both knew who the British monarch or the leaders of China and Russia are. I also assume that you know how the heir to their throne is titled, who the British prime minister is and where he resides. We cannot rule out that the King's Wit has become a title like Prime Minister and that normal people in other countries know their titles. For all we know Hoid goes under the name "Hoid" only on primitive worlds. And there is a sad aspect we have to face when talking about dates. Where is Design?

Trade between Lumar and the rest of the Cosmere as compared to trade between the natives of Lumar and other worlds are distinct concepts. For all we know Riina was running an awakend ship collecting spores and shipping them offworld with all the profits ending up in her pockets. Well, see, the problem I have here is that somebody who has a healthy sense of self-preservation would choose a world, where taking a deep breath can kill you, without a clear goal.

Her minimum age at that point would be around 400 going by the Iriali reference. Now, she could be a worldhopper, but then he would not need to explain concepts like a laptop. Are you British? If not, do you know who is the king of England? These points apply on every developed world with oceans at the time in question. Unlikely bordering on impossible for timing reasons. It would mean that the Iriali reference is really misleading. The Iriali left around 300 to 350 years (converting into standard years) ago. They must have spent at least a few decades before that on Lumar. And it would mean that Sazed has to release the Kandra immediately at Era 2 time. Interstellar travel has to be common at that time. Again, timing. Tress knows that. That means the legend has to spread.

Yes. That limits her profits. If she takes too much, either somebody powerful will come in and remove the obstacle, or the aethers are not so valuable and demand will dry up. OK, altered theory. The spores are valuable. So the spores must flow. This is an Arrakis situation. She is the neutral party the big customers have agreed upon to meet the spore quotas, as they cannot let one of their own control so important a resource.

They are reported to not smell. The air on the open qcean smells better than a bit of preindustrial smog.

In TatES Hoid becomes an Elantrian. And Design does not show up. (Secret Project #3) (Secret Project #4) From that I would conclude that this is the youngest of all Cosmere books, perhaps only postdated by First of the Sun. Perhaps even not that, if the talking minds in visiting ships have not yet shown up.

I took this as a real world reference to Stanislaw Ulam

Of course. I completely understand that one needs a hobby. But if you are into the evil overlady stuff - and I refuse to comment on whether that increases her allure - you 'll have to wear black leather and have some slaves to command and torment on hand. These explanations concerning trade on the planet, while correct, are probably not worth the effort. She had ambitions to become a god. She is not seriously taking up extorting preindustrial primitives as a business. I'll consign them to the hobby category. Now the spores may be valuable off planet. But the planet is known. It regularly gets visitors. Blocking trade with a valuable commodity is not conducive to your safety and health. This just is internally contradictory.

The ships openly use fire. The planet would explode.

They are also slave soldiers. That makes their loyalty questionable. The more time they have the more they'll scheme. And Odium had already lost one.

White Sand needs a source of Investiture to recharge. The Aethers tap the Spiritual Realm like in the Metallic Arts. Nalthian arcane arts do not need recharge. This thing looks like technology and seems to simply recharge electrically from sunlight. The sand is not the only Invested Art on Taldaine.

Then why not land on an inhabitated island and turn a tenth of the population into flatulent slime moulds and make the rest lick clean marble statues of her?

OK, now to a true reaction to the whole book. This read like Secret History as told by Allomancer Jak. I loved them, I loved this book. It was better than Lost Metal and Rhythm of War. However, I can see that this is a more extreme style. You either love or hate it. Brandon really used the sauce of Cosmere stuff here. This is a book for nerdy fans.

Given the time the, if we know the audience, it will have to be either First of the Sun or immortals. Given how Hoid talks about religion it seems to me that he is speaking to a group.

But we are talking about a large fraction of a planetary surface and most of the time.