Jetter

It's hard to give a summary without knowing the exact ending of the overall story. I think in about a decade we'll have a lot better summaries to provide lol. Mine I think will be: "We killed a god, now our drama is everywhere." Though if I could do it in the form of Haiku: "I understand now. SURPRISE! You're wrong! think again. Wait was that Hoid there?"

Taravangian - Even on a bad day conversations with him are deep and insightful. Denth / VaraTreledees - He was one of the five scholars and somehow over time he went from one of the most influential and powerful people alive to become a not-so simple sell sword. Lift - At first I didn't like Lift, but over time her attitude and humor eventually got to me. as Wyndle says her attitude can be both endearing and insulting. Rysn - I just love Rysn, she's my #1 favorite Thaylen and for some reason I relate to her a great deal in real life considering how little we have seen her. Wan Shai Lu - Shai's internal dialog, showing how she is always 3 steps ahead of her opponent is the best. its amusing to see a huge trap being sprung that we knew was coming from literally 3 chapters before. Ivory - my favorite spren, his speech pattern is interesting. it's as though the world is black and white to him, things are or are-not. Nazrilof - you almost have to include a world-hopper in this list, because lets be honest how can you not. Nazh is funny, interesting, and I want to see so much more of him. Also he's from Threnody, so that's a win,win,win. Axies - Amusing, witty, mysterious, knowledgeable, and slightly self-destructive. What's not to love about him? he's almost like Hoid but not as in your face about it. Sazed - After becoming Harmony I like seeing him progress beyond and show human emotions for a Deity. He gives the Shards a more humanized appearance to me. Ashravan - I genuinely want to see how he does and see him progress after the book ends. his conversations at the end were some of the most fascinating parts of the story to me.

Where do they come up with Shard names? in-tents! Why don't you see many birds on Roshar? Because they're all fowl

Hey Guys, So I’ve had an idea in my head for a while now and I haven’t seen anything on the forums regarding it. So I figured I should at least bring it up. I apologize if this has been discussed previously, I couldn’t find it anywhere. Lets start with some facts: Hoid is refered to as the “Bearer of the First Gem” in one of the letters. Gems can hold stormlight, a form of investiture Gems can also hold beings of investiture of varying sizes (spren and Unmade) The Unmade, Splinters of Odium, was contained inside “Kings Drop”, a perfect gem the size of a child’s head. Now for some speculation: What is to say that if someone was to have a large enough gem (I realize that it gets unrealistic to a point) they could potentially contain a whole shard. As I imagine that the Unmade hold a non-trivial portion of Odium’s power and a child’s head doesn’t seem TOO big considering the vast power. In the very first letter Hoid states that “the element” is safe. When compared to the later letters this could refer to the first gem. But why would Frost care if the gem would be safe unless it has vast importance and that specific individuals would want to destroy it. The only thing I can think of that would make a gem interesting enough that a shard would refer to it as a type of title would be if it were VERY large. Well or if it held some special type of investiture, but we haven’t seen investiture being special in this manner before. I recognize that it could be a title, but I feel that Brandon wouldn’t bring up something like that in this manner if weren’t a physical or real object. So could Hoid possess a gem, the size and cut so large that it could be a prison for a shard? Could the reason that he believes Rayse would level a very important city if he even suspected Hoid was there is not because he’s just been incredibly annoying to him, (or not just) but because he is the sole bearer of a “weapon” that can imprison a god or a piece of a god? Could it already contain one of the six shards we don’t know about or a piece of one? When your talking about volume of a 3 dimensional object if you increase the radius it will increase the volume by n^3 times. So if its 5 times as big (like a small boulder) it will hold 125 times more. Though that doesn’t take into consideration exactly how much larger a shard is than its splinters, or how it would possibly be created and cut I think the idea still stands as an interesting possibility. What do you guys think?

Hmmmm, your right. But I can't get over the similarities between Spren / Cognitive Shadows and Selish magic in general I guess. Which would make sense, because the Selish shards are stuffed into the Cognitive Realm via "Big O". Their magic in general seems like one huge Nahel bond with the world.

conceded.

Also we can't take for granted that they have always been functionally immortal or if that is a part of the shattering. From Hoid's letter he states The use of "as you are now" makes the immortality sound like a newer development.

That's very interesting, I was wondering about that and didn't see that WOB. That makes the Emperor in Emperor's Soul very similar to a Spren or cognitive shadow then wouldn't it? I mean he would be bound to his location / world and be a creature created / shaped by investiture. would that make any individual who has a soul stamp effectively act like a temporary cognitive shadow while the stamp has it's effect going?

I read that as Brandon stating that we'll see what Division does when he writes about it. That was what the original questioner was asking about, if the surge of Division can split an atom. Brandon stated that Division will not be splitting an atom and we'll see more about what it does when he writes it.

Granted, you lose your body and become THE INTERNET! I wish to always be alert and never tired again.

I read the Southern Scadrian airship as more like a giant airplane with wings, a cockpit, and using propellers and such. Do we know if it was bigger or ship shaped? (heh ship shape) I don't recall any specific passages in the text. Navani's airship is more like a design for a full sized flying ship using surges. I don't think they are really influencing each other as the magic systems powering them are so different, and I think the construction design (materials / propulsion) is fundamentally different. I think this is more of a cultural naming convention as neither society have a better name for the device.

Granted, but you have to pay it all back down to zero every day. I wish to never be hungry again.

Granted, but your internet is now so slow you cannot read or post anything more than a paragraph in an hour. slow internet is worse than no internet. I wish to win the lottery!

Thank you @Scion of the Mists. That's what I was thinking but I wanted to make sure.

Hi Rushu, You need to ask for it in the request thread: It might take a moderator a little bit, but they'll take care of you there. It comes in a word doc and he has a lot of ideas that have been taken and put into other books. I found it fascinating seeing all the different literary plots that he uses in different books. So most all of it is non-cannon anymore, but some of the magic is still good. Which is the fun part. Just take it with a grain of sand. =]

I just finished my read through of Aether of Night and was wondering if Hoid makes an appearance within the book? I know he doesn't have to be included in each book, but I also know that if Brandon included him in the earlier books it was way more subtle. I didn't see anything about a white haired man or anything like that. Did anyone else see him or is he absent?

I would say Emperor's soul is my favorite of the novels. I love the internal dialog that Shai has and her subtle cunning and full understanding of her situation that puts her like 3 steps ahead of everyone else. You see that sometimes in books but I've never seen it from a POV character in that way. It's almost funny because the way it's done when a character does something that would otherwise have been a surprise. You, as a reader of Shai's narrative, are like "oh yeah, ok that was expected". I'm not a huge fan of forest of hell but I do love the world itself. I can just imagine some sort of magic system involving rule-breaking or rule-changing. I love how Brandon makes his magic systems, each one is independently a stable and functional magic and yet for me somehow each one builds upon just a single piece of what people would describe the magic a classic "wizard" would use. Like I see Allomancy for alchemy / potions, Hemalurgy for necromancy / stealing, Breath for spoken commands, stormlight for summoning, Elantris for written magic, Threnody for rules. Stuff along those lines. I know its really basic but I just see them as all a single piece of something as a whole. So we can't see someone making hand motions, speaking magic words and throwing a fireball, but you can get someone figuring out something functionally similar using a single aspect of those things.

That is what I had assumed. My take on the deepest ones were something along the lines of a person achieving "immortality" by becoming a cognitive shadow, but maybe everything they touch dies and becomes a shade which then kills and makes other shades. So I was thinking of them as sort of the original shades with a functional mind, though who knows what time would do to said mind (the shades degrade over time as well).

whelp... I did it.... I finally joined the 17th shard... here's to fully accepting my nerddom! I hope I can be a useful member of society here. I love the books and I would love to be able to provide helpful insight and discussions! I have read almost everything Cosmere by Brandon. I am just missing a few choice pieces like Dragonsteel prime and such. I try to stay up to date and cannot wait until the next book is released! I am a huge fan of Threnody and wish there were a full fledged book on the way soon. I will just have to sit on that and hope. If I were a twinborn I would be Electrum (augur) + Zinc (sparker). Though I have no idea for what Radiant order I would go to. I will assume one of the orders we haven't seen yet =P