Earendil

I like the idea that the sphere is why Gavilar was killed, but I don't think I agree that Gavilar could summon Thunderclasts to aid him in the final desolation. Since Thunderclasts are, presumably, creatures of Odium, I find it hard to believe that they would be of any help while fighting Odium. Instead, I would expect things to go down more like they did with the Kolos in HoA if someone tried. This is quite aside from the fact that I think that it's a bit of a stretch to assume that it can be used to summon thunderclasts. Though I would be interested (scared, but interested) to see someone try and use it to soulcast...

I don't know that I agree with this (at least, I don't know that I think that AonDor can "directly" hurt things either--have we seen it happen?) My counter example would be soulcasting-- Jasnah caused one man to burst into flames, and two others to turn to smoke (numbers may be wrong, but the idea is right).

Yes. Kabsal talks about it on pages 510-511. Do we know if all glyphs are palindromes? I can't think of any that aren't, but that doesn't mean much. To the original post--good catch. On the other hand, there are few enough alphabet-style sounds that we may be reading too much into this. We at least know that the languages from Sel and Roshar are different, so I'll want to see more than one character before I fall in with even a related-languages theory.

Starting from a position of power also doesn't lend itself well to "stand up and cheer" moments. When Josiah finds the scriptures and brings the kingdom of Judah back to the Lord, it makes a nice lesson. When Gideon takes 200 men to take on the combined might of all of Israel's enemies, you stand up and cheer, because he shouldn't be able to win. We cheer for the little guy, because we've all been the little guy.

If this is anything more than a coincidence (and remember, Sazed basically lists at least one religion that worships everything), I'd be more likely to ascribe color as being something important in the "Grand unifying theory of everything" than evidence of world-hopping. Put in a meta sense, I find it hard to believe that Brandon was gutsy enough to put in a specific allusion to a book that he wouldn't write for three years, and existed as a pair of very rough stories at the time. It's not nearly as hard to believe that he would introduce themes (i.e., color as an aspect of divinity), however.

Having a group of individuals named the 17th shard is also pretty strong evidence. Calling a basketball booster club the 5th man wouldn't make sense, since there are five players on the court. Similarly, 7th man seems kind of random, but adding one gives at least some method to the madness. Thus, basketball teams have a 6th man club, and the shards of Adonalsium (sp?) have the 17th shard.

I don't know how confirmEdit works, but one possibility would be to only require verification if it was an anonymous edit.

That's true, but I see it as being because the city was almost the correct Aon. There was still some power trickling through, just not enough to do anything. In ten years, it built up enough power to unleash one aon, but it was working like filling up a water balloon with a really slow flow--it will get there, but once you break the bubble, there's not much pressure left. For the main question of the thread, remember that Aon Dor is not the only magic system at play on Sel. Both the Jindo and the Fjordel found ways to tap into a similar power source without using Aons. It seems likely that someone built Elantris as an amplifier, and then got some unintended consequences--establishing the Elantrians and eliminating the more egalitarian magic.

After thinking about this a little more, I can't help but think that the Reod wasn't the consequence of Odium's visit (at least not the consequence mentioned in the letter). Without getting into what shattering means, the Reod just wasn't important enough to be worth mentioning. Here's my reasoning: the Reod lasted 10 years. Assuming that Shards have a life expectancy of no less than 10,000 years (This number seems reasonable to me, although the Almighty might have had his life cut short), 10 years is the rough equivalent of 1 month of our lifetime. Compared with the two events mentioned explicitly (the death of Aona and Skai, and the shattering of their shards), 10 years of limited power for one of the factions on Sel just doesn't even seem worth thinking about. It's also pretty weak if we try to ascribe it to deliberate malice--the best the god of hatred can do is mess things up for 10 years? I could nearly cause that amount of chaos.

I would have asked this as a question on the blog, but Brandon doesn't allow comments. :-\ At the Way of Kings book signing, Brandon talked about trying to do two Stormlight Archive novels every three years (once he was done with the Wheel of Time series). Does anyone know whether this is expounding on that, or cutting it back to a more conservative estimate? Not that I'm complaining either way, since two 1000 page novels every three years sounds more than a little bit insane. Also, even if it is a little off topic, who else is excited for the Szeth/Kaladin Surgebinder Smackdown? With the working title of Highprince of War, I think it's safe to say there's going to be some epic action... ;D

He mentions that he considers the use of Stormlight for illumination to be profane, but I don't recall him ever mentioning whether his own abilities are considered profane. When Szeth first describes the lamps, he is impressed by the casual use of something sacred. Interestingly, it offends him much less than the use of stone, which leads me to two conclusions. First, the use of stormlight isn't proscribed, it's just regulated, so the casual wastefulness demonstrated by the Alethi is only slightly disturbing. Second, I can't help but think that the Shin revere stone as the physical manifestation of their god, since Szeth's name for the Alethi, Stonewalkers, implies that no Shin would ever willfully walk on stone.

My personal theory regarding number 4 is as follows. Since the last desolation, Shin have been forbidden to become Shardbearers, since the purpose for shardbearers (to protect against the voidbringers) was gone. The penalty for taking up a shardblade is to become truthless, the only thing lower than a regular warrior. Szeth took up the shardblade because he was convinced that the threat had not yet ended, possibly because of some kind of prophecy. Whatever the reason, he only preserves his honor if the threat actually exists, allowing a higher purpose to his actions. However, his punishment is only justified if the threat is gone--if there is still a need for shardbearers, than a punishment wouldn't be appropriate, even if servitude was. In regard to number 7, I don't think we need to concoct a case of mistaken identity to find the source of the feelings of betrayal. By quitting, the radiants essentially abandoned everyone to the chaos that would inevitably follow. Sure, it wasn't their fault, but it's hard to avoid the feeling of betrayal if the person you hold as a pillar of honor turns his back on the world.

While I can't speak for anyone else's intentions, the Almighty being unable to see spren would answer why Dalinar couldn't see spren in the visions, since he was seeing through the Almighty's eyes. Also, going back to original post, and nitpicking a little bit... While I definitely agree that the weather on Roshar has changed significantly since the Almighty died, I don't think it's fair to say that flimsy buildings are impossible in a world with highstorms. Rather, I see flimsy buildings as another sign of a fairly rural society, with little technology.

A couple more things we know: 1. Sapphires are worth more than Garnets (when Kaladin first goes in to buy antiseptic, he learns that Larmic mucus, at two bloodmarks a bottle, is much cheaper than Lister's oil, which costs two sapphire marks). 2. A Garnet mark is worth 5 diamond marks. 3. A Sapphire mark is worth 25 diamond marks (page 386). 4. An Emerald Broam is worth 200 diamond marks : (page 766)It's also interesting to note that bridgemen seem to be paid fairly well for slaves. After all, 3 emerald broams appears to be a high price for a slave, which would put the cost of the slave debt around 600 diamond marks. There's no chance for a bridgeman to live anywhere near that long, but given the 50 day month, assuming a 10 month year (it seems logical, given what we know of times), a bridgeman slave could buy his contract in a little over a year. Since Kaladin doesn't know of any slaves buying their contracts, this seems like it must be fairly rich pay. Yes, a full years wages is a lot, but given 10 years it seems like just about anyone could buy their freedom, if a clearmark a day was standard fare.

So, I'm now officially scared of Chaos' post count. As of right now, he has 221 posts, with a forum total of 1274. Yeah. He's written one in every 6 posts on the forum. On a (relatively) unrelated note, what happened on the 13th of August to get 89 people on the forums at once? There wasn't much going on when I first came here, and that was after Way of Kings came out.

So, when I mentioned this in the "Forum suggestions" board, Chaos shot me down, but I actually think it's kind of interesting. For a pantheon of "functionally immortal" demigods, we've been knocking them down really fast. We know there are a total of 16 shards. Of those, we know between 8 and 10 (probably 9--I agree with Chaos' logic totally there). Now let's talk about what's happened to those we know about, though. 1. Leras (Preservation) - died giving Elend hope. 2. Ati (Ruin) - dead, killed by Vin 3. Aona - dead, killed by Rayse. Shard has been destroyed 4. Skai - dead, killed by Rayse. Shard has been destroyed 5. The Almighty (name and shard title unknown) - tells Dalinar that Rayse killed him (I'm inclined to believe) 6. Cultivation - presumed dead (where three of sixteen ruled, now the Broken One reigns) That leaves us with: 1. Rayse, a jerk who holds the very worst shard 2. Bavadin (assuming Bavadin isn't Cultivation) - someone who's supporting Rayse 3. Endowment - hooray! We've got one (known) surviving kindly shard! Add to this that Rayse better be neutralized by the end of the Stormlight Archive, and suddenly shards seem a lot less impressive, since we'll have killed off almost half of the pantheon...kind of depressing.

Personally, I don't think Syl's hatred of shardblades is caused by Odium's direct touch. We know that Syl has fought before, and it seems very likely that she has fought with a shardblade (since all of the Radiants would have had to use them, in order to fight in the desolations). If you read carefully, at one point, when describing the shardblades, she says that there's something wrong with them. It's that wrongness that she doesn't like, not the blade itself. From Dalinar's vision, we know that the blades used to glow. Something was lost when the Radiant's abandoned their blades and plate. Here's my theory: The blades were given to men who were then put under oath to use them in defense of the world (something like the oathpact). This oath unlocked powers (you can see them in Kaladin), while imposing restraints. To a Honorspren, a spirit drawn to honor and binding oaths, what could be more disturbing than seeing the symbol of the greatest oaths ever made, being used by those who hadn't taken the oaths and used them in ways antithetical to the original purpose. I imagine it must be something like having the body of a good friend dug up and hauled around like a trophy. It doesn't mean that she doesn't like what the shards can be (well, any more than her natural dislike of violence, anyway), but it does mean that she doesn't approve of their current state. (It's late, so I haven't cited. Maybe I'll edit in the citations tomorrow).

We don't know about the Heralds specifically, but Jasnah does mention that each Radiant's powers were tied to the spren (page 979), and since Jasnah isn't seeing honorspren, it's fairly obvious that each order of radiants used a different spren. That makes it likely that the Heralds also got their powers from spren, but there's enough that we don't know that there could be an alternate explanation.

Talenel still being around, though, isn't proof that the others still are. Remember, just by virtue of having died, Talenel didn't break the oathpact. He's been living (dying? not sure how to put this) in a state of continual torture for the oathpact for the past 4,500 years, so it seems to me that the others could all be safely dead, and Taln would still be around.

One I've just thought of--Spoiler free? On the whole, the wiki is going to be chock full of spoilers - there's no good way to make it otherwise. But it makes sense to me to have some pages (such as a page about a book) that are at least relatively spoiler free--they contain no plot information that you wouldn't expect to get by spending the same amount of time reading the back cover, front pages, etc. in a bookstore/library while browsing. Making a clear delineation of what pages don't contain spoilers will make it easier while editing and nicer for people who are just trying to find out what this 'Elantris' book that the guy who finished WoT is about. Maybe we should make this a category as well, so it's easily searchable. What do you guys think?

Actually, on further reflection, this is surprisingly accurate. Take the original shards, and subtract the ones we know have died: 16 - 2 (Ati, Leras) - 2 (Skai, Aona) - 1 (The Almighty) = 11. If we assume that "Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns" refers to the death of the Almighty and Cultivation (seems likely) than we get down to 10 of the original shards remaining.

I don't want to just be contrary, but I do want to respond to the idea that the addressee is worried about lerasium from a "non-intervention" standpoint. First, I have to admit that this is the only argument for lerasium that I can't dismiss out of hand. If that seems like a pretty weak admission, well, it kind of is. Most of the arguments I've read for the element being lerasium follow the line of "The element is a cool, powerful thing. Lerasium is a cool, powerful thing. Ergo, Element=Lerasium". This argument is predicated on the belief that Brandon can/has only come up with one cool, powerful thing, which I don't buy. Now, to addressing the argument that allowing lerasium out would be intervention. Before we can deal with this, we have to define what we mean by intervention. Obviously, the addressee is okay with a certain level of intervention, since he set the 17th shard to chasing down the writer of the epigraphs (probably Hoid, but let's keep an open mind). Therefore, we must assume that there is some level of intervention in human affairs that is okay with the addressee, even if it is just enough to try to prevent others from intervening. **HERE THERE BE DRAGONS** This section is purely my theory, not well supported by facts at all. Take it for what it is, but it seems likely that the intervention that the addressee is worried about is direct world-to-world intervention. My guess as to the narative goes something like this: Sixteen fairly ordinary people suddenly find themselves holding elements of creation. Alone, they can't really create anything, but together, they can essentially become gods. The only problem? They can't agree on how things should be run. At this point, the shards themselves are probably only partially influential, and the personalities of the people who gained the shards are more dominant, but either way, they find themselves fracturing. In the interest of not starting a cosmic war between creatures of unimaginable strength, they come to an agreement. Each person (or group) is allowed their own world, to do with as they please. The only rule? You can't intervene with anyone else's world--no meddling because they're doing it wrong. This setup makes sense, given what I know both of the Cosmere and time-honored epics. Plus, it will make for a pretty awesome knock-down drag out fight, once everyone realizes that Germany isn't going to stop with Poland... ;D **Back on the map** Either way, we have to place allowing a rogue bead of Lerasium loose on Roshar against the continuum of intervention. Compared with sending in the 17th shard, I can see how it would be a step up. But even if a full Knight Radiant ate Lerasium, it seems to me that containing the threat would be fairly simple (especially at the beginning). Even this level of "intervention", however, pales beside going head-to-head with Rayse, which is what the author is advocating. Finally, you have to consider who's writing this letter. The writer has been taking steps to insure the safety of the element, and is reassuring the addressee that he will continue protecting it. The writer doesn't care about non-intervention--he's advocating direct intervention! Since someone for intervention thinks it's important, and someone against intervention thinks it's important, it's far less likely that it's important because of the potential for intervention.

The only issue I have is with the star background image. I feel like it has a bunch of compression artifacts around the stars, and it's kind of distracting. I don't know if there's a higher resolution version, or if it wouldn't go well with the rest of the site, but that's my 2 cents. The actual forums look really nice, I like the muted colors. Well, that and the fact that there aren't sixteen shards in the 17...

Also, remember that Jasnah was able to soulcast a boulder into smoke (essentially thin air) in a single, instantaneous action. I don't imagine that it would be significantly harder to reverse the process.

This is kind of off topic, but... From HoA: (chapter 82 page 716-717 in the paperback). I also believe that in one of the epigraphs, Sazed specifically mentions that the Lord Ruler changed humankind, rather than trying to change things back (he mentions it as evidence of the influence of Preservation).So yes, human physiology on Scadrial was different, but there's no evidence that that difference continued after HoA (from what I've read). This doesn't invalidate the theory that only someone from Scadrial could use Lerasium, however, since everyone on Scadrial was created using the combined powers of Preservation and Ruin--possibly attuning them to these powers in the future...