Havoc

Ooh! Thanks for asking this one, I'm sure I now know who Blunt is. So we should be looking for a woman who wears a lot of jewelery. Any thoughts?

From the descriptions given in the text, Calamity seems to be visible as a fixed point in the sky from Newcago. Does that mean that someone on the opposite side of the planet, say Australia, wouldn't be able to see Calamity at all? If so, would they have any Epics? I don't remember any mention of Epics outside of America and Europe.

How about another potential theory that hasn't been falsified: Steelheart needs a 'Normal' and an 'Epic' acting together to hurt him. In the bank, Deathpoint was trying to attack him at the same time David's father fired the gun. At the final showdown, David + Steelheart took down Steelheart.

Conflux doesn't ever actually use his powers himself, does he. He just gifts them to others.

Seems like Sanderson has done it again. Another classic. Steelheart's weakness was quite appropriate, and in hindsight I'm surprised no one anticipated it. The reveal of the Prof's true nature was also satisfying. I'd expected that overuse of the tensors was giving him powers, not the other way around. It's mildly disappointing that the Epics are all evil because of a magic side-effect of their powers, but I suppose there was no other way to explain why they were so few exceptions to the 'evil' rule. I can't wait for the David vs. Megan showdown in the next book.

This theory was way ahead of it's time. We now have confirmation, straight from the man himself. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/the-great-salty-one-an-interview-with-brandon-sanderson/ (Warning: Steelheart spoilers at the link)

The new site looks really great. Clean and easy to navigate. The progress tracker seems to break layout at my resolution (960x1080). This is just a 1080p screen with two windows side by side, so I expect it's a common enough layout. Here's what it looks like on my computer: http://i.imgur.com/bLoyuyv.png

White Sands is pretty good. If you can get Brandon to send you a copy, I'd recommend having a read. I'd say the quality is on par with Alcatraz or Rithmatist.

I read that as saying that it could possibly be even later than March, if revisions don't proceed as smoothly as expected.

The file I received was a Word file. So long as you don't change things, it should have the same page numbers on all computers. Alternatively, you could have some factual questions: 1. What is the most common beast of burden? 2. Who is the first named character? 3. What is the colour of 'used' sand? 4. How often does the word 'vengence' appear in the text? The idea, as I understand it, is to keep out most readers that haven't had a chance to read this book. If someone is determined to get in, by asking friends for answers or continued guessing, they just end up spoiling the book for themselves.

I really like the idea of a separate, locked forum. How about an old-school videogame like verification question: What is the x-th word on the y-th line of the z-th page? On the cosmere side, (mild spoiler)

Is there any place to discuss White Sand? While the novel is unpublished, Brandon seems to give it out freely enough, that I'm optimistic we can get a good spolierific discussion going.

The prologue is a great read. I think your theory on protection is quite likely, but then again this is a Brandon Sanderson book. Some more theories: 1) Only grazing shots work. (Unlikely, since if there's automatic fire, surely some of them would have grazed him.) 2) You have to be deliberately aiming at someone else. 3) An Epic and a Normal need to be trying to hurt him at the same time. This is my favorite theory for now. With all Epics on the evil side, it should be interesting to see how the Reckoners get one to cooperate.

We've seen in the book that non-Rithmatists can use acid to wash away chalklings. If acid does work this way, wouldn't it be extremely easy to set up an acid-filled moat outside the Nebrask tower? You'd need a lot less manpower, as you could just fill it at one end and let it spread out evenly. Rain would just dilute the acid somewhat, which can easily be countered.

I've been following this game since quite a while; it's really cool to see it mentioned here. The dev team are really awesome and have a great vision for this game. The gameplay is a bit like Terraria, but only in the way Half-life is like Wolf 3d. Everything is dialed up to 11, with 6+ races to play as, spaceships, procedurally generated weapons, monsters, dungeons. The dungeons themselves range from airships, to living trees to a cross between Portal and 1984.

So long as that said person doesn't then go on to lose... Imagine how glum Szeth would be if he does defeat the one person who can equal him.

It seems clear that Kaladin has a greater affinity for stormlight than Szeth. I wonder if he could 'breathe' in stromlight that Szeth was holding, leaving him with just his Shardblade to rely on.

I got the impression that stormlight sustains the body while held, reducing the need to breathe. That's why Kaladin thinks, "That could be handy." EDIT: Found the relevant quote, again from the prologue.

Experience could well be an important factor. However, Kaladin does seem to have something going for him that allows him to fight like an experienced spearman without having gone through all the necessary training. Then you add the fact that his bridgerunner team seems to have host of tests ready for him to discover the limits of his abilities. If Kaladin were to somehow get his hands on a Shardspear, I know who I'd bet on.

Here's another interesting quote, from interlude 1-6: I read this as saying that he could choose to stop obeying the bearer of his Oathstone, but that would mean that he stops existing when he dies. Szeth seems to prefer eternal torment to oblivion. Thoughts?

That's interesting. Seems like with Kaladin should be able to wipe the floor with Szeth, if all his powers have scaled up alongside his ability to retain stormlight.

Thank you kind sir. So much for possibility #2.

When a Surgebinder absorbs Stormlight, how quickly does it leak out? There are two (mildly) inconsistent descriptions in the book: Prologue: Chapter 59: So Szeth thinks stormlight can be held only for 3-5 min, while Kaladin can comfortably hold it for more than 15 minutes, even while pouring some into rocks to climb up to the bridge. There's a few different ways I can think of to reconcile these: Author error Given what I've read of Brandon's writing, I highly doubt that this is the case. An hour on Roshar might not last 60 minutes Still, unless an hour is as short as 20 minutes, we still have an inconsistency. The Knights Radiant can hold in stormlight longer than others The Kaladin segment above is just a couple of pages after he first speaks the First Ideal, putting him on the path to Radianthood. But this raises a lot of questions. Can a full Knight can hold in stormlight perfectly? If so, do the Shin consider the Knights Radiant to be Voidbringers? How is Szeth so powerful without even the First Ideal to power him? If Szeth were to speak the Ideals, how powerful would he end up, and would that free him from his curse?

This is my first post on the forum, but I've been a keen reader since a while. I'm currently on my second read of The Way of Kings and there's a few interesting things I noticed. I don't think these have been mentioned on the forum before. 1. Eshonai: We know, from Brandon's recent reads of Book 2 that Eshonai is the Parshendi general and a Shardbearer. I thought that that reading was the first time I'd heard her name. On my re-read, I noticed that Chapter 68 is titled "Eshonai". Surprise, surprise, this is the very chapter she defeats Dalinar, before he is rescued by Kaladin. I believe that this chapter title is the only time her name appears in the book. 2. Chapter 19 is a treasure trove of good information: In Dalinar's vision, we hear a woman swear to three gods. Did they believe in Honor, Cultivation and Odium at the time, before the current monotheistic religion came up? Seems a bit odd that they recognize three gods, but call one of them 'All-mighty'. 3. Chapter 19 again I think this could explain the whole lighteyes/darkeyes divide. Perhaps one of the changes she mentions is the lightening of ones eye color. This ties in with how claiming a Shardblade is supposed to make you a lighteyes. The Shardbearer's attitude above lines up with the references we've had of lighteyes serving darkeyes in the past, as well as with the Shin attitude to warriors. Unfortunately, once the Oathpact was broken, these warriors no longer remained as selfless as they had been. In time, their descendants were more warlike and ended up conquering the nearby areas, and began to think of themselves as superior. The region the Knights lived in remained most agressive, explaining the high rank of both warriors and lighteyes in Alethi society.