Chiberty

I've been trying to think of any more information we can get out, and... somebody tell me if I'm going insane regarding this next bit of reasoning. This was the 3rd RoW update, and the outline he gave here was different: 4 characters in Group 1, 3 in Group 2, and 2 in Group 3. The simplest explanation for this change is that he decided to move someone from Group 2 to Group 1. Since he was out of his main outlining phase, I assume that he had a very good idea of the story at this point, so it is most likely that this switched character was a minor PoV. This made me want try to see if I could predict who this character was, as they would be in a spot that we have not yet figured out. Since it's unlikely that a larger PoV changed here, I'll assume that Shallan and Adolin were both still in Group 2 at this point. The person that was moved would have to fit in their narrative. The possible characters are Szeth, Jasnah, and those in the list of Character1/Charcter2 candidates. Out of those characters, the only ones I could see as possible Group 2 members are Jasnah and Renarin (This is a big spot I need feedback; if you see others from the list that would make sense with Shallan and Adolin, please point them out). If this is accurate, it would narrow down our remaining unknowns in Group 1 to be: Szeth and Renarin Or Jasnah and 1 of (Szeth, Character1, Charcter2) It technically would only narrow things down if Jasnah was in Group 3. Note that this would not necessarily mean that Renarin is a PoV. It would just mean that if Jasnah is in Group 3, no other Character1/Charcter2 candidates than Renarin can be in Group 1. Like I said, this reasoning is really weird, so if anyone's confused about something here, thinks I missed a character that could fit this, or if you agree, please give feedback. Edit: Or if I'm just being insane.

Different people. Sadees was the guy that united Alethekar.

All we know about groups interacting is that they will be together at the start of the book, and what some groups are doing will imply interesting things for another.

Brandon unveiled a simpler Stormlight symbol for easier marketing that he described as a space-age symbol. The new symbol will still be used, but this one will be used if a simpler one is needed. https://www.brandonsanderson.com/alternate-stormlight-symbol-reveal/

That's exactly what I did. I didn't say anything about what Mastery can do, just how it is controlled, which is a form of it being initiated. It's not how the Sand Master is initiated, true, but it is how the use of the magic is initiated. I don't think the WoB you're talking about made a distinction between those two. Edit: He says that it has to do with the way is obtained, but allomancy is obtained through inheritance and snapping, which is not included in his example. His example describes it as the way the magic works (allomancy works by using Preservation's power as a substitute, preserving the allomancer's own strength). For Sand Mastery, I extrapolated off of his example, suggesting that Autonomy is relevant because Sand Mastery works by controlling sand by making it into entities similar to Autonomy's avatars.

It's the highstorms. Imagine Earth's history, but every few days, it gets hit by a category 5 hurricane. Of course, the intensity is less the farther west you are, but they are definitely what is causing the slower population growth. Remember, in Alethkar, they can only build cities in laits, or the highstorms will destroy it.

I wouldn't double-post, but I think that this info is separate enough from the last thing, and it was big enough that it caused a bunch of stuff to get narrowed down. Surprisingly, this information was from an OB update. I put the relevant paragraph in bold. In this paragraph, he at first talks about specific character stuff for OB, but then he says how it will extend for the rest of SA Arc 1. Characters other than Dalinar, Kaladin, Shallan, Szeth, Eshonai, Jasnah, Adolin, and Navani won't get a large number of viewpoints until SA Arc 2 (he says Eshonai, but it's clear he actually means Venli, since Eshonai died in WoR). These are the same characters we were sure of so far, so we must be doing something right. This rules out Character1 and Character2 in Group 2, which leaves only Adolin and Shallan, which rules them out everywhere else. Like I said in my previous post, our focus now should be on Character1 and Character2, but we're getting pretty close to figuring out the whole thing.

Just some extra evidence that it is Navani:

This type of discussion is much better suited to this thread: _________________________ I went ahead with locking down Kaladin's place, and I changed how I'm showing why stuff was crossed out to be using color, so let me know if that works. I think the next step should probably be figuring out who Character1 is, as that has the potential to narrow lots of things down. If anyone sees other likely candidates that I missed in that list, or if you can think of anything to help support or refute any of the ones on the list, please post those ideas.

I have no idea. This definitely increases the chance, but Wit has had multiple scenes in each book. Then again, the only PoV character he talked to on-screen in OB was Shallan. I think that this would be a good connection to keep in mind when making the final placements.

Good point. I had forgotten about that. The good thing is that it still rules out Adolin as a group 3 member, since group 3 doesn't get any viewpoints until Part 3. I'll fix that explanation.

So I've updated it some more, and now I'm considering locking down Kaladin as the group 1 3rd major PoV, but I wanted to know if other people think that there's enough evidence. I'm not sure because this evidence is more nebulous than what I have used previously in this post. Brandon said that the 3 major group 1 PoVs form the core arc of the book. This makes me think that the 3rd spot should be either Shallan or Kaladin, as they already have big character arcs going. Since group 1 includes Venli, this makes me lean much more towards Kaladin, as he already has unresolved points in his arc involving Singers. What do you guys think?

Okay, so far, I've found quite a few WoBs related to this, and I've connected the information in them to the group template. If anyone can find any other related WoBs, please post those, as each one can narrow down the possibilities significantly, and they've already been narrowed down quite a bit already. Although WoB information is the most useful, there is still information beyond that. If any of you guys are good at telling how the narrative needs to proceed, please post any info on that. If we don't look at that information, we probably won't be able to figure out the final placements or who Character1 and Character2 are. Also, if anyone can point out any connections between the WoBs that I did not make yet, that would be helpful.

The idea of this is that rather than replying with full guesses, everyone replies with any info, arguments, or connections on the subject they have or can find, and I'll continue to update the main topic. There's enough information now that we should be able to piece some things together with a lot of certainty. In making assumptions here, we want to make assumptions that narrow down the possibilities significantly more than they decrease the likelihood. I've numbered all of the WoBs I'm using in a spoiler at the bottom. Essentially all of these use RoW update 5 ([1]), so read that if you haven't. When I reference that update, the connection includes more than just the group format. What we know about the group format: Deductions: Character groupings as they can be determined from those deductions: Going slightly beyond WoBs - Likely candidates for Character1: Various archived speculation (now redundant or incorrect, but still contains interesting things to consider): WoBs:

This is getting further away from the "main character" topic, but I think it would be helpful to have a thread where we compile all the info we have on the groupings. Finding all relating WoBs and unresolved plot points to this can be confusing, so having it in one place would be nice. I think that we have enough information on this now that we can figure a few things out with a lot of certainty. It's up:

Yes, I know that there are problems with that. That is why I pointed out that it is not actually my theory. It was just an example. If you want to see my real guess, press on the link I posted further up. Edit: About Navani being in group 1: 1. She is not their chief engineer; she points that out in WoR. 2. Even if she was, I would guess that she is in group 1 because that is what lines up with the related WoBs (In my old post). 3. Although I do think that group 1 is the front lines, that might not be the case. For all we know, group 1 could be at Urithiru, so Navani's presence in group 1 doesn't necessarily mean she's on the front lines. (Just to make sure I'm being clear, I am guessing that group 1 is on the front lines, but I could be wrong, so any problems with that doesn't need to affect Navani's placement in the groups) Sorry if I'm being confusing here. I'm trying to defend my theory, but I think that I'm also accidentally trying to defend an alternate theory that I don't support, and that might be somewhat misleading.

Yeah, there is the possibility that I'm just completely wrong between groups 1 and 2. The main reason I put Kaladin and Venli in group 1 is because Brandon said that group 2 would be more narrowly focused, and I assumed that Venli's plotline would be one of the main things the book is about. However, with this new info, I see another likely possibility that also also fits all of our information, something along the lines of: 1: Navani, Shallan, Adolin, Jasnah, Lift 2: Kaladin, Venli 3. Dalinar, Szeth Although that setup does still fit our info, there are some things about it that makes something similar to it seem less likely to me (I would explain each of the changes I made in that example, but it's not my actual theory), so for now, I'm going to stick with what I had before.

Actually, this is increasing my confidence in my prediction for the groups. There are still a couple of placements I'm less sure about (Adolin, Renarin, and Szeth), as I could see them taking the places of each other in my prediction, but so far, it's looking pretty good. Edit: Something else that hasn't really been mentioned on this thread is the favorite scene Brandon talked about in the video. He said it's someone talking to Wit in part 4, and that this person only gets one viewpoint (unclear whether he means one viewpoint in just this part or in the whole book). Based on the outline visualization Brandon gave, this should be one off the lesser PoV characters in group 1. In my prediction right now, that would be either Renarin or Szeth, either of which I would be glad to see have a story told to them by Wit.

I'd put that at more than 80% for me. He was also asked which character was the most enjoyable to write, and he answered that it was this other main character. This matches this WoB very well.

Actually, because of the ways Pushing and Pulling work, this works even without feruchemical iron. We see this when Vin does the horseshoe trick in HoA. It's not a simple "define the force between you and the metal" mechanic. Check out some of the "broken physics" allomancy threads if you want to see some theories on that.

I don't think that that should be a comma. At least, I hope.

10 number cards, 10 orders, 2 male face cards, 2 male Shards, 1 female face card, 1 female Shard. It's perfect. EDIT: And you can make Hoid the joker.

I don't think that that would work because Lift believes that she shouldn't age, but does anyway, despite having very strong healing. Of course, that explanation assumes that regrowth or stormlight healing would work the same way as gold in this situation, but that seems like a safe assumption to make.

The thing is... Stick is a regular stick, but he is also omnipresent in all books. Therefore, by the definition of regular, most sticks are omnipresent.

The quizzes are not yet very accurate, especially for the orders we know less about, one of which is Stonewards.