Earendil

Actually, images are now uploadable, thanks to the generosity of Chaos!

Thanks! I've uploaded what I have as png images -- turns out I never got around to making Tin, Atium or Lerasium (guess I have a project for this weekend ). If we can get permission to use actual artwork, that would be awesome, but these are at least a fair-use placeholder.

It's amazing the things you pick up the second time through. For instance, I just noticed that Elhokar shows signs of being a soulcaster! From chapter 58 (page 826): Compare that to the creatures that Shallan draws just before she soulcasts for the first time (Chapter 45, page 643): Also, since it seems likely that powers run in families (like mistborn, plus Hoid mentions that there is some reasoning to the establishment of lighteyed aristocracy), and Jasnah (Elhokar's full sister) is a soulcaster, the only explanation I can think of is that Elhokar has the potential to become a soulcaster. Which leaves me wondering--how much of the Alethi aristocracy has the potential powers of Radiants? Or is soulcasting completely separate from the radiants, and just an ability passed down in certain families?

You're reading way too deeply into Teft's origin story. Later in the book, Teft describes growing up with a group of people who awaited the return of the Knights Radiant--the envisagers. He also describes how he broke off from the group when he was a young man, and from his repeated comments, it seems clear that he inadvertently betrayed them to destruction. Certainly, there were plenty of people angry at the Knights Radiant, so it seems likely that the Envisagers were not a state sanctioned religion, and may have even been under condemnation in Vorin lands.

This requires pulling together several theories, but it's what I thought when I read this passage: What if "the element" was what gives Hoid his powers (at present, we only know about functional immortality and world-hopping, but it seems quite likely that there are others)? From what I understand, Brandon has said that Hoid is not a shard, but gets his power from something else. From the snarky voice of the epigraph, it's fairly clear that whoever wrote it has made "the element" a part of themselves. Hoid, with a mysterious power source, fits that bill quite nicely, and is witty enough to enjoy the joke. For the Lerasium argument, I have to admit I just don't see it. Our only real experience with Lerasium was with Elend, and while he became a powerful mistborn, he was still very human. The element is something powerful enough to worry someone who has been around since Adonalasium shattered, most likely someone who has held a shard since then. Ruin (Ati) certainly didn't seem very worried about Elend's power when he was confronting Vin.

Is there a reason file uploads are disabled? I made some simple line art renditions of the symbols for allomantic metals a while ago, and was going to add them to the wiki. Since file uploads are turned off, I can't do that :'(.

I've been wondering about this ever since I finished the book. Honestly, I think there's only two valid options - the letter is either written by Hoid, or addressed to Hoid. The mention of the 17th shard makes it seem more likely that it is Hoid writing the letter, but the general tone (trying to convince someone who has been basically observing to take a proactive role) makes sense when you consider it addressed to Hoid. After all, every other time we've seen Hoid, he's been a cameo player, surrounding himself with the action without really getting involved, which has changed dramatically in the stormlight archive. Also, the 'friend' addressed in the letter has 'essentially immortal'. Of course, the dry, witty tone of the epigraphs should probably be enough to convince me that they are written by Hoid. Which begs the question, who is he trying to get involved? Whichever of the shards organized the 17th shard (though that does seem beneath them)? There's obviously still a lot going on that we don't understand. ;D

As for why they're not human, I can give a few reasons. 1. Skin colorings - the parshmen and parshendi both have distinctive skin coloring, far beyond the normal human range. Though the majority of their skin seems to follow natural human colorings, their skin is covered with red lines (giving them a firey appearence). 2. Armor - Whatever enslaved the parshmen also robbed them of both this and their psychic abilities (number 3), but the parshendi are capable of growing their own armor. 3. Psychic abilites/hivemind. The Parshendi can communicate non-verbally, though singing appears to have something to do with that ability. All of this pales, however, when faced with number 4: Orange Blood. 'nuf said

Hopefully I'm not messing anything up by starting work on the Wiki (I couldn't find any pages at all, so I just started making them, and figured it was better to ask forgiveness than permission). Anyway, given the number of characters involved in Brandon's works, I've made a meta-page to keep them all--http://www.17thshard.com/wiki/Dramatis_person%C3%A6. I still haven't added the characters from Warbreaker or Way of Kings, but I think I've got all the major characters from the Mistborn Trilogy and Elantris. I'll be working my way down the list, but if anyone else wants to jump in, I'd appreciate the help. Also, I've been pretty bad about citations (everything I've written has been directly from the books), so if anyone wants to start throwing those in, I'd be ecstatic.

So, I may be completely wrong in my theory, but I can't help but bring it up. It's much more about why than how, though (personally, I don't think we have nearly enough information to have real debates as to how Hoid's power operates). The more encounters we have with Hoid, the more convinced I am that he is Brandon Sanderson. Hoid is the storyteller who gets to wander between worlds, observing and informing, but never directly effecting events (this might be starting to change with The Stormlight Archive, though). In a lot of ways, Hoid is like old Alfred Hitchcock movies--those in the know look for him every time they get a new book by Brandon Sanderson. I was especially convinced of this when I read Hoid's conversation on the nature of storytelling in The Way of Kings. Especially when he mentions that 'It's not for the storyteller to give answers, but to ask questions' (not an exact quote). Anyway, you're all welcome to point out all the obvious flaws in this idea, but I was about ready to burst after reading the end of WoK, and so I figured I'd post this instead. Thoughts?