Gilphon

Really where I'm at is that it'd want to see what the spren think of it before passing judgement. Really there's probably room for nuance; like lots of Rosharan fauna depend on sprenbonds to survive, and that's probably the same principle as fabrials. And although it's not clear what the spren get out of it, the Mandra certainly don't seem like they're being forced to do their part. And the oathgate spren don't seem to mind being an oathgate. But meanwhile we've seen that spren have a big problem with people using dead Shardblades- the most tolerate among them recognize the practical value of it, but still find the idea creepy and really wish that the humans would stop doing it. And the less tolerant just directly call it slavery. And, of course, spren fishing is illegal is some places. So it's not totally black and white; I'd want to know how the higher spren actually see it before making up my mind. At the very least, we don't see Syl or Pattern or the Stormfather having the same viscerally negative reaction to fabrials as they do to Shardblades, so they don't consider it to be as bad as that.

No, yeah, he mostly certainly did not champion self-expression and freedom of choice for all.

There should be some survivors of the battle. Venli doesn't know what happened to them, but it seem likely that they're being used as spare bodies for the Fused. Also I wouldn't be surprised if some of the awakened Parsh managed to catch Odium's eye and got chosen to become a Regal.

Heh. I remember him hinting recently that title he was thinking of going with would get us excited. Now we see exactly what he meant by that.

So. Brandon really knows how to toss grenades at the fanbase. That's a much more 'sit up and take notice' title than Wandersail, isn't it?

Arcanum Unbound is a book that explains a lot of Cosmere stuff. As Karger said, it has a scene where Khriss gives a basic rundown of what went down, and the essays give broad overview of what Shards are on what planets.

I mean, Brandon has talked about how he regrets putting as much effort as he did into convincing people that Jasnah was really dead. If you're going to indirectly spoil something with your emotions like that, this is a pretty good thing to spoil.

Good Summary. It does feel possible to me that a Trans Returned could have their body changed to match their identity. But it's not guaranteed to work that way; they definitely transform to some degree, but it's not clear, at least to me, if they're changing into what they consider to be the idealized forms of themselves, or if they're being molded to society's standards of beauty. Transitioning via a Returned giving you their Divine Breath should definitely be possible in theory, but I feel like convincing a Returned to die for that would be tricky. Kaladin's reaction to Drehy and Shallan's thoughts about rumours surrounding Jasnah have always given me the impression of a society that was homophobic until relatively recently- Bridge 4's acceptance of Drehy always struck me as kind of defensive; a 'We better not catch anyone saying they have a problem with this' sort of thing. They're not homophobic, but they expect that others might be. And the idea that Jasnah might not be straight if treated as slightly scandalous- The resulting scandal that would be eclipsed by her atheism, but it would be a scandal nonetheless. Which, again, all kind of points to societal attitudes undergoing a shift in the recent past. But- I think a lot of this is stuff that Brandon's hesitant to delve into in any major way? It's the sort of thing I believe he wants to put a lot of effort into getting right before he attempts it. I think the most we can hope for in the near future is more insight into what's going on with the Singers.

So, we know that Shallan's family was influenced by an Unmade, and Chemoarish seems like the most likely candidate for that, on the basis that we don't know anything about Chemoarish and it doesn't feel like the right MO. But I've always the impression that the Davar lands where in the northern part of Jas Keved, so they shouldn't be too far from Mourn's Vault.

So- Scadrial's definitely younger than Roshar. But it's likely that Roshar is younger than worlds that appear to be natural, like Yolen and Sel.

Before the Quiz came out, I would've said Elsecaller for Sigzil. But now I think he's perfect for the Truthwatchers. With Rock... Edgedancer seems like the obvious choice, but I have trouble picturing that. Lightweaver is an interesting possibility.

I mean, the Windrunners have always struck me as all wrong for Rock and Sigzil. And also there's Rlain, who I feel like we don't know quite well enough for me to be able to guess which order suits him.

So, the detail about individual Bondsmiths getting different powers. Do we think that's just a matter of the Nightwatcher giving different powers than the Stormfather, or would two Stormfather Bondsmiths manifest different powers?

Another power we've seen Shallan use that I think is an Illumination thing is a kind of clairvoyance thing; we saw her make sketches of Yalb and Shalash's current whereabouts once. I've always believed that that's something that Truthwatchers are better at than Lightweavers. Being able to just kind of watch people they have Connections to at a distance and stuff.

I would not expect there to be much to see there beyond the Oathgate platform. Urithiru is roughly the middle of the Shadesmar ocean, remember.

Which matches with the calculations above- a single lashing would let him travel at a maximum of 180 mph, and multiple lashings would let him go faster than that. And it's possible that Adhesion could reduce the air resistance and let him go even faster.

I don't think Aluminium armour is gonna be enough to survive the Dor. It's just not a durable enough material- maybe it could protect you from the direct effects, but it's still gonna dangerous is slightly more indirect ways that aluminium can't save you from. Like how Aluminium won't protect you from a shardblade because although it's not magically cut by it, we're talking about trying to block a sword with a really flimsy material. Also, surgebinders can't survive anything that would kill a person instantly, so a shardblade to the brain is definitely not gonna be survivable for one.

I believe there's a WOB to that effect, but it's too 2 am right now for me to be willing to put a lot of effort into finding it.

Hoid chose not to pick up a Shard because that power changes you- He prefers to remain himself, and just gradually gain by power by hacking his way into the magic systems. It's totally possible to gain additional Shards- the tricky part is doing so and remaining yourself. Which is why Odium shattered the Shards he kills instead of claiming that power for himself.

And here's a WOB saying that while Elsecalling out of Shadesmar is possible, Jasnah doesn't know how to do it: So she clearly couldn't have done that in that instance.

I mean, Hoid can certainly get on and off of Sel just fine, so he must be capable of surviving in Sel's CR. And we've seen a good number of Elantrians off-world, so it must be survivable for them too. Miles strikes me as the least likely to survive, because he has the weakness of being reliant on his Goldminds. But I still tend to think he could survive as long as storms don't completely obliterate him.

Actually, this touches on a question I've always had about Kaza's situation; was she actually disintegrating, or she just turning into smoke? Which is to say, was she constantly losing mass, or was the smoke that used to be part of her fingers continuing to hang around near her hand?

Oh wow. That's a terrifying thought. It also sounds cool and theoretically possible, so that's three points in it's favour. But to be honest, I find it more likely that they'd just toss the gems into the ocean or something- their priority is gonna be making sure nobody ever manages to get Jezrien's soul out of the gem, so they'd want it somewhere hidden and inaccessible, not on an obviously important weapon.

I mean. I feel like if the girl who looked up was a real person, it's likely that she's Ash. And- while certainly there are parts of the story aren't literally how things played out, it would surprise me if they weren't based on real events. And, therefore, it would surprise me if Ash didn't play a significant role in causing things to go south. Like remember that a good portion of that story is likely to be told to be us through Ash's flashback chapters. The idea of her being an important player in those events feels like a safe bet.

My theory is that the knife is combination of Hemalurgy and the unnamed magic system that Fabrials belong to. Like it's almost certainly made out of Odium's god metal- which I believe we should probably be calling Raysium- And stabbing somebody with a godmetal knife in order to drain their soul sounds extremely hemalurgic. But it's also got that gem in the pommel which lit up once Jezrien died, which is characteristic of Fabrials. Maybe the idea is to make sure the Herald's soul is stored in the Gem, rather than the knife, like how Hemalurgy would normally work. That way, they can swap out the gem every time they knife a herald, and so they can get the job done with a single Raysium dagger, and Odium doesn't have to spend the Investiture needed to make a full set of ten.