Elegy

That depends. Like I said, Oathbringer is still a "future book" in Rhythm of War, technically, and I'm sure it won't even be released in the time frame of book 5, given that Jasnah still needs to write the annotations. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Rhythm of War end on the last day before the Final Ten Days? So El's musings on the first of those are not within the timeframe of this book anyway.

First off, I'm not a music theory expert, so please correct me if I'm wrong or misguided, because both could very well be the case. I believe that they would end up with a similar scale. That's because the Thaylen scale is described as having 12 tones and being "mathematically pleasing" to Navani, so the tones seem to be consistently paced, which would make the scale basically the same as the typical Western Earth music one. Since this one, the pentatonic classical Rosharan scale and the ancient three-tone scale are all refered to as "scales", I believe that means that they are not completely distinct concepts, because then they would be referred to as "temperaments" instead. Which leads me to believe that the 12-tone Thaylen scale -- the analogue to the Western scale -- includes the five tones of the classical Rosharan scale, and that scale on the other hand includes the three pure tones of the ancient scale. Which would suggest that the three pure tones can be placed on our 12-tone equal temperament system. So the answer to that would be: Yes, it seems we could define those intervals with the basics of our music theory. As to the relation between the tones, I don't think we can determine that, but maybe my understanding of music is just too limited. In our understanding of music theory, it's difficult for a scale to feel stable without the root note's overtone, but I don't know how much that applies to non-Western definitions of music as welll. The fact that overtone singing is a tradition in many cultures all over the world makes me believe that this might be the case. Generally, as a Western music listener, of course the first thing I think of is root - third - fifth (the fifth being the overtone), but maybe Rosharan ears perceive the relations of frequency differently. Maybe they wouldn't perceive, say, a major triad as consonant? I think we would need more information to make good guesses. I also wonder whether the tone of a Shard shifts and aligns depending on where they're Invested. Maybe Odium's tone adapted to Roshar, so it naturally formed a triad by the definition of the Yolish vessels' way of perceiving music?

What I meant was "the back 5", not "book 5". I can totally see why you'd misread that though. If Renarin and Rlain become (and stay) a couple, Rlain would be the love interest character of one of the main focus characters, similar to Adolin or Navani in the front 5. As it's planned right now, book 7 will be the Truthwatcher and Renarin flackback book.

Yep, one of the most exciting things about this is the high probability of Rlain being a key character in the back 5. I also wonder whether he has the same combination of powers as Renarin - or if he has Illumination and another power instead of Progression, so the other way around.

Welcome to the Shard!! This part of the forum (the Rhythm of War section) is completely full of spoilers, so beware. I recommend reading the rest of the book first. That said, I think your conclusion is a logical one to make at this point in the story.

He said he'd probably be a Bondsmith before the official test, but once that one was out, I think his result was Elsecaller instead. He goes over all the answers in this video, along with Dan Wells:

There you go:

Thought this was an interesting bit when I first read it, and now it appears in a bit of a different light. A quote from Rhythm of War, chapter 79: "In the face of it all--the frightened humans, the mistrusting Regals, the occasionally awed ordinary singers--he wished he could simply be Rlain. He hated that to every one of them, he was some kind of representation of an entire people. He wanted to be seen as a person, not a symbol. The closest he'd come had been among the men of Bridge Four. Even though they'd named him "Shen," of all things. That was like naming one of their children "Human." But for all their faults, they had succeeded in giving him a home. Because they'd been willing to try to see him for himself."

YouTube and Twitch, and I think he streams them on Facebook and Twitter as well, all simultaneously.

Judging from his new Facebook post, he seems to be taking questions directly from the live chat exclusively this time. I wonder why. (Thought I'd share this just in case.)

That list was compiled from the Coppermind pages. That doesn't necessarily mean that the characters are mentioned by name, just that there is a Coppermind page for them. It was the easiest way I could think of for a semi-complete list of persons in the Cosmere that we know of. Technically, a character could have a Coppermind page with only mentions in interviews/Q+As, and that character would still count. As far as I remember, Frost was not mentioned in the books by name. He was only referenced in the letters.

I honestly don't see the problem. He can dislike one aspect of a planet and like another one. If he likes willows and bunnies, it's hard to blame him for not liking that landscape just because of some music. I initially thought this would be about him calling out Ruthar for being sexist, yet he ... still seems to find it odd to encounter a female person not interested in sex? Now that one I could get behind.

There's this WOB:

I'm not an e-book reader normally (I love paper way too much), so I don't know if there are better sources that I'm not aware of ... But it's avaiable to buy online on Amazon and Brandon Sanderson's shop site.

Didn't that Inkspren keep her in Nameless? That's where Adolin found her.

I was initially joking when I said it on here a few days ago ... but I've started to really want them to ride to the Azish Oathgate via starspren. I want that cheesy sight and the fan art it would spawn!

That's not weird! For example, Brandon himself agrees with you in his interview with Dusty Wheel. I understand that the original Star Wars trilogy is a 6 hour story and they didn't have time for anything more, so it doesn't bother me much. But if the super-indulgent and character-heavy, soon 2 million words long Stormlight Archive doesn't deliver on thorough, meaty redemption arcs as soon as it does those, I'm going to be disappointed. Because that's the standard Brandon set and the style that he chose. If you make 3000 pages of intense Moash hatred end in "well, I saved my ex-best friend, guess I'm redeemed now", that's not a good look.

Exactly, and that's putting it very lightly when he killed that friend and his spren. Those things can't simply be rationalized with "he's a drug addict". Being addicted to drugs alone doesn't make you slaughter your friends and try to make them kill themselves. He's sunken far lower than that.

We don't know anything about him except for the little we got in that one paragraph. There's a bit of discussion in here:

It's avaiable as an e-book. It was initially sent to the Way of Kings 10th Anniversary kickstarter backers a bit earlier than the official digital release. A physical release is also planned for some time next year, but there isn't a release date yet.

Brandon doesn't seem to plan a specific magic for darkside Taldain: Maybe he's immortal as a result of a specific interaction with the ecology though. But I find it very plausible for him to be an avatar of Autonomy. After all, his politics are strictly isolationist (which fits what Autonomy seems to be doing with Taldain as a planet as well).

They're not included in the Statistical Analysis pages on the Coppermind, so no, not for some time at least. I would like to have them in here though, so hopefully one day. I've also considered adding the Ars Arcani and Arcanum Unbouned essays as Khriss POVs. Also the epigraphs, although I guess the latter would complicate matters. Would I add every gemstone archive entry as "Unnamed Knight Radiant no. x"? I haven't decided how I'd handle that yet.

Thanks! I didn't include the graphic novels since they're so different as a medium. I personally don't feel like it conveys quite as much to compare Kaladin's POV word count to, say, the word count of Kenton's dialogue. (It's also much harder to count words in the graphic novel format, since the text is imbedded into the pictures.) I have done a Statistical Analysis of White Sand Prose though, so you can compare those numbers if you're interested. I've always considered adding that one's data to this table, but was reluctant to do so, since White Sand Prose isn't canon. Maybe one day! For now, as soon as I feel like returning to this table, I'll probably just add Rhythm of War and Dawnshard to this one. That's definitely on my to-do list!

Brandon has said that he'll never confirm the existence of the Beyond, so no. He can do what he wants, sure, but he sets boundaries for himself to keep himself from cheapening the effect of his stories. He's extremely careful with breaking these boundaries, which is why there will never be backwards time travel in the Cosmere, or parallel universes. I'm sure Brandon knows that adding random exceptions for Nightbloods destructiveness would weaken the impact of Nightblood as a weapon in the story. It wouldn't be as effective anymore, not as scary. So I doubt he'd do anything like that. Especially thinking that even Hoid is afraid of Nightblood, as per WOB.

It wouldn't be a first: We got the Oathbringer excerpts in the first part of that book. The in-world book still isn't finished by the time of Rhythm of War. Similarly, Navani's journal in part one of Words of Radiance describes events that happen at the end of that one's fifth part. All of the epigraphs up to this point have always been some sort of documents (with the letters to the Shards being somewhat debatable, uniquely), so it seems logical that these musings have been collected somewhere. Also, El talks of Odium in the third person, so he's not talking to him (Edit: Oops, no, he doesn't. I somehow missed that! Sorry for that). To me it seems like some sort of journal like Navani's aforementioned one in Words of Radiance.