WhiteEmporer

48 minutes ago, Frustration said:

While I won't say that's impossible, Why Sja-anat?

"It is noted that Sja-anat wants to be a god in her own right" from the coppermind wiki, and with a reference to the Sja-Anat viewpoint interlude from Rhythm of War. I don't remember the actual content  of the statement in that interlude, but heard the idea referenced in the Shardcast as well, which I think it why they postulated the idea of Sja-Anat bondsmith. 

58 minutes ago, Frustration said:

They might have unique abilities, and from bonds, but they won't be a Bondsmith

I'd be inclined to agree that you can't have a bondsmith for just any unmade. The spren for Bondsmiths are aligned in a special way (which I don't fully understand) with a shard or with a joining of two shards. I don't think all of the unmade are like the Stormfather and Nightwatcher in this respect. 

I think Sja-Anat could possibly attain this position as a dual Honor/Odium spren. It's also possible there could be a spren who is to Odium what the Stormfather is to Honor, in which case that spren could form a Bondsmith bond. 

A relevant point: it seemed from Navani's research in RoW that Odium may have at some point BECOME one of the "gods" of Roshar. I suppose before he was merely a visitor. But right now his tone IS one of the three "pure tones of Roshar ". So potentially some of these possibilities we're discussing weren't feasible until Odium was sufficiently invested in the planet. It seems like he is now, though, so I'd be on the lookout for it, especially once we get to the back 5.

8 minutes ago, Halyo_Alex said:

If there's any candidate for a Voidlight Bondsmith spren, it would be Ba-Ado-Mishram, right? I mean, the False Desolation was basically that, on the side of the Singers.

I also agree that there's potential for Sja-Anat to be the Warlight bondsmith's spren.

We also can't forget Ishar's Honorblade, though. That one's a real wildcard.

I hadn't even factored the honorblade in. I guess I sort of figured it would make him work like the Stormfather's bondsmith, but maybe it's more versatile.

By the way, for any who aren't sure what we're talking about with the lights: In the "Lights" Shardcast episode, they theorized that each Bondsmith can produce the Light associated with their spren (Like Navani makes Towerlight). So theoretically, A Sja-Anat Bondsmith could make Warlight--unless Sja-Anat is more of Cultivation than Honor. In that case, it would be whatever that hybrid light is called.

Also wondering if it's possible at the moment to have a bondsmith connected with Odium. It seems like the Bondsmiths are the most honor-connected, and Honor and Odium seem rather opposed at the moment. But perhaps with a new Odium things will be different.

So I just recently finished RoW (I know, super late), and have been listening to my backlog of un-listened Shardcast episodes. In one (I think it was "lights") the possibility of Sja-anat forming a Bondsmith bond with someone was discussed, which got me thinking:
We know that in the current system the Radiants  are really all about Honor and Cultivation, so the three Bondsmiths bond (respectively) a spren for Honor (Stormfather), a spren for Cultivation (Nightwatcher) and a hybrid between the two (Sibling). But Radiants like Renarin seem to show that there are other ways of doing things beyond the system. Is it possible for other representative spren to for bonds for bondsmiths? Could Sja-anat, an Odium corrupted spren previously of Honor, become a hybrid bondsmith spren like the Sibling, but for the new Honor/Odium light? Could a spren of Odium bond a bondsmith specializing in Voidlight?

Of course this hasn't happened before because anything connected with Odium was connected with an enemy. But one of the themes I picked up in RoW is that things aren't as simple on Roshar as good guys and bad guys. Also that the situation with shards can change very quickly.

I can theoretically see (probably in the back 5) a new situation where Odium's investiture is used for good, and "odious" bondsmiths join the ranks. Or, alternatively, if another faction like Odium or Sja-anat forms a Bondsmith to rival those of the Radiants. They don't all have to be on the same team (I'm looking at you, you dirty Skybreakers).

Whadda you guys think?

On 12/9/2021 at 2:05 PM, Jake Tenebris said:

Wait, would the fifth ideal mean that a radiant could not break their oaths? If only death can separate a radiant and spren, would breaking oaths not affect them? Or does breaking oaths not break the Nahael bond? After all, Kaladin did restore his bond with Syl in Words of Radiance after breaking his oaths.

The comment you're referring to in Oathbringer: re "breaking" of the bond that was being discussed was a: against the will of both spren and human and b: safe for the spren. The honorspren wanted to forcibly part Kal and Syl without breaking Syl. They implied that if Kaladin was at 5th oath, they would not be able to do this. But a knight breaking his oath would still do it.

On 3/2/2020 at 4:45 PM, DiePie said:

Hoid 2020

A true man of the people, willing to do whatever it takes to do what needs to be done. Associated with the radiants and with an incredible history in politics, he would be the best president for our beautiful nation... Much better than Kaladin, a man who's in league with the voidbringers. He reportedly spent weeks with one of their many bands "learning their culture" *scoffs*, how do we know he isn't secretly being paid off by the enemy? I tell you, he is trying to divide us and sell us to the enemy! I tell you!

Vote Hoid, and you won't be disappointed!

Mr Hoid, what are your thoughts on the bombshell recording that was recently made public? Your opponents claim that it proves you don't have our nation's best interests at heart, do you have any answer for that?
[plays recording]
 

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"You must not trust yourself with me. If I have to watch this world crumble and burn to get what I need, I will do so. With tears, yes, but I would let it happen."

I for one want to know if there's anything significant about those gas giants. Conveniently ten of them, named after the Heralds.  And Brandon says 10 is important to the Rosharan system...

Just based on general scumbaggery, I chose Sadeas. He just is excellently written as a repulsive, detestable person who makes your skin crawl simply by his prescence. 

Writing-wise, I don't actually hate any of those characters. Sadeas is well-written for the very reason that he's so eminently hateable. Same with Amaram. I even like Moash as a character in the story. I think he fills an important role as a foil for Kaladin, and also for Dalinar in OB.

While I don't think i particularly hate any stormlight character from a writing perspective (Brandon does good characters), the one that irritates me is, believer it or not, Jasnah. But that's mostly because I can't stand condescending people. I admit that she's objectively awesome. But she still grates on me horribly, and I'm waiting for her to finally get knocked down a peg (Brandon has to do it sometime. She can't always win.)

Sadeas getting a good face punch would have been immensely satisfying. Unfortunately, he is dead, and punching dead people just isn't the same.

I'm just seeing Brandon see GotG 2, yelling "storm it!", then dashing up to his study, where he pulls out a manuscript, furiously scribbles out a name, the writes "Ambition" underneath. He walks out, muttering "nobody better take that one."

I have been in the Moash vs Kaladin camp for some time myself. Not everything has to he a narrative curveball. Some things are built up to over several books. 

I'd like to see Kaladin swearing oath 4 (about accepting failure or some such), so that his climax in book 5 has him swearing the 5th oath, which will involve being willing to kill someone he cares about (i.e. Moash) if it is necessary to protect others. 5th level Kaladin vs Moash with honorblade and who knows what else. 

Kaladin will eventually win, of course,  but he will die heroically in the process. 

That's my speculative headcanon, at least.

4 minutes ago, Quantus said:

The Identity isnt an issue, once you get spiked your identity shifts to encompass the new piece of spiritweb that's been grafted on.  Your identity "muddies" the identity that came from the original user  [WOB]

Huh. Interesting.  Thanks for the WoB, I'd never seen that. Although it still seems plausible that the "muddying" Brandon talks about could interfere with compounding. Perhaps not, though.

I've wondered. Can matching A and F powers granted by hemalurgy be compounded? It occured to me that the different identities could interfere with using them together that way. Kind of like the limiting factor we saw for the medallions in BoM.

Any WoBs on this?

I like the idea of flashbacks for a POV character showing them through a different person's eyes. Venli flashbacks from Eshonai's perspective. 

I think perhaps a mix might work best, though. 

1 hour ago, Karger said:

Yes or at least Khriss says so and as she is the Cosmere magical expert I am inclined to believe her.  Also I think a seeker could tell if they were a different class of metals somehow.  Aluminum is almost certainly not a godmetal.  As to it being a different class of metal I am going to say that Occam's razor recommends against that.

I'm pretty sure Occam's razor sometimes is dull when it comes to epic fantasy.

The precedent of Atium is compelling. That WAS listed in the Ars Arcanum of the mistborn trilogy as one of the 16, even though we now know it doesn't belong in that spot. So we know that just because we see something on an allomantic table (or another metallic art) doesn't mean it actually belongs there, at least in that specific spot.

Actually, the way Aluminum interacts with other investitures seems to indicate that it is different from other allomantic metals. The other allomantic metals only have investiture significance because of their interaction with Ruin and Preservation (Brandon has even indicated that the metal does not glow in the CR because it has power, but because of the power seeking to come through it).

Simply put, unless you're a worldhopper using preservation's investiture, pewter is just pewter on Roshar. Tin doesn't do anything on Sel. Brass doesn't have any effect on Nalthis, etc. BUT: Aluminum has an effect wherever you go. That sets it apart, and makes it not quite fit with the rest of the metals.

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Also I think a seeker could tell if they were a different class of metals somehow.

Seekers could sense atium being burned in the final empire days. Despite that fact, the Steel Ministry still placed Atium (and Malatium) as one of the temporal metals, where Bendalloy and Cadmium actually should have been. Bronze can identify the metal, but can't tell you everything about how it fits into the magic system. 

P.S.: Is there a place, other than the Ars Arcanums, where Khriss is actually quoted as saying Aluminum is one of the 16 metals? I don't recall, but if there is one, please provide the quote. That would certainly put a hole in my theory.

Now in one sense this is a dumb question. Obviously, you can burn Aluminum for an allomantic effect. But is it one of the 16 metals?

We already know of two metals (and their alloys) that are not part of the standard sixteen: atium and lerasium. These are in a different category of godmetals (and their alloys).

Removing Atium and its known alloy, malatium, from the chart made space for another two metals. Come era 2, where we thought there were only two metals left to discover, there were actually four! 

I dont personally think aluminum is a godmetal. However, it does seem to be in a different class. It doesnt just interact with the metallic arts, it interacts with all kinds of investiture, implying it has a more fundamental nature to the cosmere as a whole. And since it interacts with all investiture, of course is interacts with the metallic arts.

If this is the case, and aluminum and duralumin are "bonus" metals, could there still be two enhancement metals we dont know about?

Stickform.

You can never change back.

You are a stick.

There's this WOB from a 2013 signing, that I've never been able to figure out, as I wasn't on the Shard at the time.

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Joshstormblessed (paraphrased)

What is the stone that Gavilar gave to Szeth before he died?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Good question, there are clues to what it is. (I'm going to try to get this answer right) if you decode [Navani's notebook] in the beginning of The Way of Kings you will find some significant clues to what the stone is. The [notebook] has already been decoded over at the 17th shard but I've never confirmed that those clues are in fact there. So go tell the 17th shard I confirmed that and they will love you for it. 

By the way, if any old Sharders know what this is about, I am ravenous with curiosity.

It could be an expression. The word shard has bounced around Roshar for millennia after all. 

3 hours ago, Nnatel said:

 

With this 'us' I definitely agree, it is most likely about all the Avatars in general but in the quote I repeated there is this part: 'you located us upon this world'. This feels like different 'us' if you get what I'm talking about. This one world - First of the Sun - and many Avatars. Or I'm misunderstanding this. 

It might not mean all of "us" are on "this world". They could simply be,  in hive mind speak, referring to the fact that a part of "us" is on that world.

If an avatar of autonomy is on First of the Sun, the Autonomy can refer to (them?)selves as being on that world.

As a minor evidence for Trell being connected to Autonomy, check out this thread. 

I don't yet,  but it would probably be a good idea. I haven't actually done much cardsmithing yet, except in my head. I have plenty of ideas, through.

Edit: @Turin Turambar Here's one. The stormlight mechanic is like energy from the Kaladesh set, only attatched to permanents. I degrades over time and must be replenished by other cards (like highstorm cards). One variety of shardplate (there may be more). Forgot to add an equip cost. 4, maybe?

(And yes, I need an icon for stormlight counters. Just using $ for now)

All right, fellow Sanderfans! I know there are other Magic, the Gathering enthusiasts in your number besides me. In fact, they seem like they should go together, Brandon being such a big MTG nerd himself. One of the things I like about MTG is that the game is based on such an in-depth fantasy universe with highly developed lore. I also love fanmade MTG cards based on other fictional worlds. And who else has made an in-depth fantasy universe? Brandon. It's a match made in the spiritual realm.

Unfortunately, despite my searching, I have yet to find a well-made set of cards based on the world and story of the Stormlight Archive (there is some pretty good Mistborn stuff, though). So if anyone else is interested, I propose that we design the set here on the 17th Shard.

Here's my thoughts so far:

There should be a few different sets. The first I'd like to call Storms of Roshar. It will cover the world and story on Roshar from the beginning of Way of Kings up to the advent of the everstorm at the end of WoR. This will have very little in the way of surgebinding of course, but those cards can come later. We'll want to base cards and game mechanics off of some of Roshar's more interesting features: The Thrill, Death Rattles, Fabrials, Stormlight and Highstorms are some that I think could look cool in gameplay.

Set two would be Everstorm, based (so far) on Oathbringer. Now we could get into making cool cards based on surgebinding, radiants, and oaths, as well as the fused and voidlight, and a host of other cool things that we see after the desolation begins (including a card for Nightblood )

Assuming Brandon continues to expand the Knights Radiant as the story develops, it might be worth making set three Rise of the Radiants (after a couple more books come out).

Any takers? Let me know your ideas!
P.S.: If you want to design any actual cards, mtgcardsmith.com is a great place to go.
 

Couple of options. 

The boring, tedious option is to have people constantly re-reading or re-learning the same information, then storing it again and again, like a memory assembly line. This is the one method that I can think of that is certain to work.

The less certain method would be copper compounding. Less certain because we don't actually know what it does for sure. However, I have seen it theorized that a coppermind, if burned, would multiply the memory, allowing it to be stored in multiple copperminds.

I'm going to be old fashioned and put in a plug for Lord of the Rings. Tolkien is practically the father of the fantasy genre, so he's an important read for any fantasy lover. The first book starts slow but it's well worth getting through it, because it gets very cool.