Rushu42

Ooh, this thread is interesting. While reading, I just assumed that it was "He Who Quiets", but the Raboniel and Almighty connections have made me reconsider somewhat. Here are my thoughts: Having El be Elithanithile seems a stretch - but not an impossible one. We've already seen historical figures conflated in Vorinism. However, Tanavast was around before the Fused were. Even if he hadn't been granted the title until after El was (which seems unlikely) would this be considered as granting a human El's title? I would be inclined to say no. As for the Voice of Lights - maybe. It seems like El was some form of scholar, and it's quite plausible that he had some connection to Raboniel. It seems like the sort of thing Sanderson would do, to potentially force a confrontation between Navani, who forged some sort of a connection with Raboniel in the end, and El, who may have been Raboniel's friend for millennia, and who will certainly be acting in an antagonistic way. However, that alone is not enough to convince me that "Voice of Lights" was his title. If there really were this connection between Raboniel and El, why would she give someone else his old title? Also, Navani being called Voice of Lights seemed to me to be a less formal thing than Moash being named Vyre. It was an expression of respect from Raboniel, but not really an elevation to being one of the Fused. It feels like it wouldn't be that big of a deal. And then we have He Who Quiets. This is top of my list, still. We know that there were arguments about giving Moash the title, we know that it's a very important role, and we did see El acting in precisely that role during his one scene. In fact, he killed the Pursuer in the same way that Moash had killed Jezrien. Coincidence? I think not. As for this argument: I would like to respectfully disagree. It's a good point, but Moash could very easily have slightly misinterpreted the linguistic customs of the Fused. It's not enough to disprove it for me. So, overall, He Who Quiets still seems like the most compelling point to me. I'd no longer be willing to bet on it, though.

I didn't get all the Moash hate before. Times change. Storming Moash. He does, in succession, the most horrible things you could possibly do to your friend. It's just beyond expression how terrible this person has become. He's one of the only characters that I've truly wished dead. And I don't just mean wanting him out of the story, which I've wanted for characters before. I mean truly desiring to see him die on screen. I was so disappointed when he lived. Storm you, Vyre. As for all the complaints about him being a flat character... I get it, and your arguments have a lot of merit. However, I would like to make two points to justify Sanderson's decision. 1. If Moash has become without nuance, I would contest that that is deliberate. We saw Moash, before, as a character with complex emotions, who has made bad decisions but who is clearly capable of making good ones. He was human. And then he, in a very obvious moment, surrendered that. When he let Odium take his pain, he gave up the ability to have emotions - the very thing that had previously brought him nuance. If he's a flat character, it's because he chose to be one. 2. To use a rather shallower argument, I think that it is perhaps okay that we have a character to hate without nuance. In this book, Sanderson repeatedly confronts us with difficult decisions. The singers are just liberated slaves seeking vengeance. The Fused have honor, and are wearied after so long at war. Extremely cool fabrials, including airships, come at the cost of trapping spren. Even the being controlling the force of hatred itself was once a man who just wished to save humanity. So maybe having one character that we can just despise is okay. Either way, I hate Moash, and I'm fine with that.

It's quite possible that a thread similar to this one already exists, but as I haven't seen any in precisely this format, here goes. The idea of this thread is as follows: someone posts a baseless theory - the more implausible, the better - and the next people in the thread must defend it as they would any true theory, with evidence and logic. For this to work, the theory has to be something that's possible in the hypothetical. If it's directly contradicted by the text, you obviously can't make a convincing argument for it. Beyond that, however, the limits are endless. You get more points for how well construed your argument is (there isn't actually a formal points system or anything, but you can assign theories points in your head). Good luck! Here's one to start us off: Tindwyl is secretly an aspect of Autonomy.

I'm not sure about that. I mean, you'd theoretically be aware that colors exist, right? If a blind person used stormlight healing, would they just turn invisible? Also, we know that Renarin used to wear glasses, and it healed his eyes - despite him likely never having seen through perfect vision. Healing vision with stormlight is certainly possible - and it didn't result in him looking blurry.

I would say Warbreaker, myself. When I first started reading it, I didn't immediately connect with any of the characters, so I wasn't as invested from the start as I've been with some of his other books. And then when it got to the first bedroom scene, I was worried that it was about to get more explicit than I was comfortable, so I stopped reading there. A few months later, I was in the ER with stomach pain (which thankfully wasn't appendicitis), and my mother offered to read Warbreaker to distract me. I enjoyed it more this time, and finished it on my own later. And the subsequent rereads just deepened my enjoyment. For example, I didn't like Vivenna much the first time, but I appreciated her arc so much more when I reread it. The magic system is also more interesting than I immediately gave it credit for being. The book still places after Stormlight and Mistborn for me, but I still quite like it now.

Shai would be a lightweaver; I think that one's fairly obvious. Hrathen would be a Skybreaker, and Dilaf might be a Dustbringer, perhaps? I might also argue that Spook would be an Edgedancer.

A man stepped in front of Aln, and she stopped in her tracks. He started rambling about a metal shop, but Aln was barely paying attention. Her sister was only a few feet away, surely about to turn and notice her. Acting quickly, Aln inhaled stormlight from a nearby shop window and covered herself in Illumination. It kept her clothes the same, and her rough shape, but altered the face enough that she was unrecognizable. "Aln?" Pel asked in her mind. "Why have you done this?" It's too dangerous, she sent back. I was just attacked, and we still don't know why. I'm not bringing my younger sister into this. "I see," said Pel. It wasn't the full reason, Aln reluctantly admitted to herself. A memory once again flashed into her mind, of Temeria stepping into the guild, anger on her face. Hatred in her eyes. Aln wasn't sure she could face that again. The man from the metal shop - he had introduced himself as Poller - would need an explanation. "Please say nothing about the lightweaving," Aln said quickly, voice low. "I'm fleeing an attack and don't wish to be recognized." It was true, of course. Aln hated lying. Even wearing a false face felt uncomfortably deceptive. Hopefully he wouldn't ask why she had only just now donned the disguise. "You said you work in a metal shop?" she asked, an idea coming to her. "Would you happen to have any aluminum I could borrow?"

Yeah, I'm not really sure what's going on with the main plot at the moment. The people running it haven't been very active, or very eager to give out information, so we're all just kind of waiting. My character's been regaining her memories, and hasn't been captured, but I haven't gotten any information on what I'm allowed to do with her now. And the person I was planning to RP with has just said that she'll be inactive for a while. So I'm not really sure what to do next. Should we try to push the plot?

Exactly - if there were an easy way to do so, then the Sleepless would never have let Rsyn leave with one. The idea of hiding it in a mortal would imply that you can't just look at a mortal and tell if they are one.

I mean, I'm sure that she was pretending. I wasn't proposing that she was actually possessed by the Voidbringers - just that she had a suspiciously good idea of what being possessed by a Voidbringer might be like.

I'm currently in the process of rereading Stormlight in preparation for RoW, and a moment from WoR caught my eye. Shallan and Iyatil are sneaking into Dalinar's camp to catch a glimpse of the "madman" imprisoned there. To get inside, Shallan claims that Iyatil is possessed by a Voidbringer. Iyatil then does this: Now, maybe this is just a standard pretending to be possessed performance. Maybe it's just based off of vaguely accurate legends of what the Voidbringers could do. But the combination of hearing voices that told you to be aggressive, and the humming made me wonder whether Iyatil knew a little bit more than she was letting on. It just seemed a little bit too similar to what happened to Eshonai for me to just move past it. Thoughts?

I think that this was just a dramatic description of Rock killing Amaram with the Shardbow, but I agree completely! I'm still unclear on how exactly the Dawnshards work, but I don't see how "Change" would bind someone. Is it possible just because of the amount of Investiture, or was there a different Dawnshard at play? I'm very excited to see Rysn riding a dragon-sized larkin as a Dawnshard in the final battle. I mean, can you get more epic? Seconded (as you can probably tell). I was a little worried that I'd end up regretting the choice of this username, as I made it when she was still a very background character, but I just ended up loving her even more.

I'm not very good at making memes, but Dawnshard is too good not to try.

I agree that if anyone is going to, Huio is one who has the most overlap of our current characters. However, I think that he serves a better purpose as a representation of the variety of people that can belong to a single order of Radiants. The idea of having scholarly Windrunners opens the door for Truthwatcher warriors, for example. It seems an excellent way to avoid turning the orders into caricatures, which is easy to do when sorting characters into groups like this.

Indeed, that is interesting. It's possible that there's some greater connection here, but I think it's also likely that this is a general pattern of how the magic system works. In some way, both of them are able to convert energy from the Physical Realm to energy from the Spiritual Realm (or vice versa). Clearly this implies that both have a much higher connection to the SR than the normal invested being, but I'm not sure that it necessarily means that there's a connection between the two of them.

Ooh, I like the Dawnshard in tWoK theory. We don't have enough information on how a Dawnshard is stored to draw perfect conclusions, but is it possible that the Dawnshard is in the Way of Kings in general rather than that specific copy? We know that the Knights Radiant, the unified order of Surgebinders, were founded based on the book's ideals. We also know that Nohadon never originally planned on writing the Way of Kings. What if Nohadon somehow became a Dawnshard, and it influenced him to write the book and then transfer the Dawnshard to it, as a way of preserving the unity of the Knights Radiant? Of course, Honor did seem to imply that the Dawnshards were lost when he spoke to Dalinar. Could this be just referring to the fact that the Way of Kings is no longer widely read? Or maybe the loss of the Dawnshard had something to do with the Day of Recreance. I realize that this theory is a stretch, but it would be cool if it were true.

I didn't interpret this as the requirement for using a Dawnshard, but rather an explanation of how the Dawnshards were created. "To make such Commands", it says. Plus, Nikli seemed to be describing the nature of a Dawnshard, not the way that you would use one. The full passage is spoilered below.

A very interesting theory. I might make the case that Autonomy belongs in the "divide" section rather than the "unite" section, however.

The characters in Dawnshard were excellent to a man, in my opinion. I loved learning about Huio's personality, and I agree that Rysn's inner dialogue about her disability was a nice piece of representation. Getting so many different viewpoints in one story just deepened it so much. And (as you might be able to tell from my username) I was a fan of Rushu when she was just a background character - I loved seeing more. I know everyone's really excited about all the Cosmere lore, which I agree is awesome, but my favorite part of it was just how realistic the characters felt.

Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by Huio. It would have been easy to just leave him as Lopen's cousin who's not great at speaking Alethi, but instead he was given a personality very distinct from the other Windrunners. It gives Bridge 4 so much more depth, in my opinion.

I had always interpreted both of those rattles as references to Taravangian. He's made a deal with Odium that essentially sacrifices the world for his own city (which I'm pretty sure is going to backfire in some way), so he could easily be watching his homeland (meaning the world) fall to dust. Plus the "child crying" bit could be referencing the way that he's far more empathetic when he's less intelligent. As for the second one, the parallel seems even more obvious to me. He's been systematically draining people of blood to further his goal of preserving humanity.

Aln ran through the city, her thoughts finally beginning to reorder themselves. Somewhere behind her, she knew, monsters were tearing apart her beloved library. Guilt twisted her insides every time she thought of how quickly she had abandoned it. And yet, what could she have done? She was no warrior, and the creatures had not seemed like simple beasts, easily deceived by a clever use of Illumination. No, this had been a coordinated assault. But what mind was behind it? What goal did they pursue? As pressing as these questions were, they did not occupy the forefront of Aln's thoughts. Instead, she concentrated on an even more perplexing puzzle; the abrupt appearance of a lifetime of false memories in her mind. It was already becoming difficult to separate the recollections from what had really happened. Multiple times, as she thought through potential explanations, a passage from a book she had never read came to mind, or an image of a place she had never visited. It seemed that in this alternate timeline (as she had begun to think of it), the other Aln had dedicated even more of her life to research than she had in truth. Aln felt herself marveling at the scope of the remembered travels. She had recorded dozens of firsthand accounts, performed scores of experiments, and hunted down enough books to fill a library. And yet, the more memories Aln brought to mind, the more she was struck by how unhappy this other self had been. She saw hours spent in research, but when was the last time that this woman had laughed? Or even smiled? She could feel the loneliness and fear that had been present beneath the surface of each remembered day. It took effort to remind herself that it wasn't real. Aln suddenly noticed that her lungs were burning. Engrossed in her own thoughts, she had run further than was likely necessary for safety. She slowed to a stop and took in her surroundings. This was a part of the city that she rarely found cause to visit, a residential section near the center. Ahead, a sign on one of the buildings declared it to be a recently opened boardinghouse. Unbidden, another of the false memories rose to her mind. A conversation with . . . Temeria? Aln raised an eyebrow. All news she had of her younger sister reported that she had vanished, presumed dead, years ago. What did it mean that her fabricated recollections included her? Aln's gaze drifted from the boardinghouse to the rest of the street. It wasn't very busy; only a couple of people were visible, standing to one side of the street. One, a woman, turned her head, and - Aln felt a spike of shock. No, she thought. No, it can't be. She stepped forward, eyes still fixed on the figure. The closer she got, the more her certainty increased - as did her astonishment. There, a sword on her hip and a basket on her arm, stood Temeria Sheneth. Somehow, the false memories in her head had known of her sister's presence before Aln herself had. @Sorana (I'm also tagging the people from the Scholar's Guild thread in case you want to know where Aln went) @kenod @eltruT @Kings_way @AmazingGoob

Aln's stormlight ran out, and she stumbled by the mouth of an alley. I have to find Trent, she told herself, trying to regain her former desperate sprint. We can stop and analyze this logically, and he can verify the true memories, and then we can go back to the guild... She froze in place a couple streets away from the guild, earning confused looks from the other pedestrians. She didn't remember the way to Trent's house. Aln spun in place, searching for some visual clue to return her brain to its natural state, but there was nothing. All she could remember was the name of a small devotionary on Roshar where Trent had decided to pursue his studies of fabrials. No, where he hadn't. The memories were a lie...weren't they? Aln started running again, this time heedless of a direction, just letting her feet fall automatically as she retreated into her own mind. She had to figure out what was happening.