Realmatic Shadow

What about giving Hoid an infinite supply of Instant Noodles? My personal one along similar lines is explaining to Navani and some other Artifabrians (and Navani is a scholar and Artifabrian, despite what she constantly thinks), and just let them oggle our modern tech, and get completely freaked out that we did all this without Stormlight or Surges, and just used electricity and oil fuels. What would Hoid think of our universe, compared to the Cosmere? Just hearing some of their comments about it would be very interesting.

Maybe there is one Unmade each for most of our main character Radiants (and maybe a shared one between the two viewpoint Heralds, that relates to their insanities) that they are uniquely close to, and can thus trap in a perfect gem. Would be an interesting trend to set, though I do think it would get repetitive quite quickly. This could be a good way for the Coalition to discover the true destructive power of Nighthblood, and just how much of a threat that he can pose. I would be curious of any precautions that Odium may have taken since seeing Nighblood used in combat (as they can kill Rayse easily, regardless of the Shard he holds), and what the Stormfather thinks of the sword.

I'm of the camp that Kaladin's fourth oath will be along the lines of 'not everyone needs me to save them', specifically to deal with the way he is overprotective of Bridge Four, and views them as unable to protect themselves. I think it is more likely that, with his family now 'in town' so to speak, when the attack on Urithiru comes, he will be confronted with a situation in which he cannot protect someone from his family (maybe Lirin, who is so against violence), only for them to protect themselves perfectly in their situation, which may be the catalyst for him to eventually say the words. This is not really very good of a theory, considering what happened in Shadesmar during the Battle of Thaylen Field, and the context we have from the Gemstone Archive, but is still possible.

I think it will fall a little something like this: We already have a Syl interlude confirmed (see newsletter attached interlude) I think we will get at least one interlude from Moash/Vyre or Leshwi (maybe even one from both) I don't think there will be interludes from Szeth or Taravangian, instead they will both get some main story chapters (though not many) that tie into the story at that point We have the Rysn interlude that all the books have had so far, which seems to be a continuing trend Maybe another from Axies the Collector, to get some more information on Aimians?

Before Honor arrived would fall mostly into Pre-Shattering times, where Investiture was all of one 'Shard', Adonalsium. After the Shattering we can't be sure about what would've happened to the Investiture being distributed by the Highstorms, though a likely guess is that it started distributing some Investiture of all the Shards, as all the Investiture in the Cosmere had been divided evenly between the sixteen of them at the Shattering. I'm not sure how Honor, using only their Investiture, would change this to only be Honor's Investiture being distributed, but it is likely possible. It is also possible that, immediately after the Shattering, there was no Investiture being distributed by the Highstorms, and Honor just borrowed the mechanism that Adonalsium had used before that to distribute his own instead. Upon further consideration, this one makes slightly more sense, but I'll leave the prior speculation above, as it may still be interesting to others.

First of all, welcome to the Shard! So long as you stay out of series-specific sections (and the general cosmere section for the most part, because that is all spoilers allowed), you shold be able to avoid most spoilers for unread books. The moderators seem to keep quite vigilant about spoilers in titles, and people nearly always mark their spoilers appropriately in their posts and comments. That seems like a good lineup for what to read next, though I'd recommend reading specifically the Edgedancer short story (which is part of Arcanum Unbounded) after Warbreaker, because it is directly related to the main line Stormlight books, though you won't miss out on anything by not reading it until you go through all the Arcarnum Unbounded stories. The Stormlight Archive is not the most commonly suggested entry into the Cosmere, but I've loved it nonetheless as being my hook into the greater Cosmere works, and I'm sure you will as well. As a somewhat related note, what is your opinon on each of the main characters in Stormlight so far? (any characters you view as main, there is no hard and fast list for who is and isn't imo) Always like to hear new opinions on them.

Don't forget that the titles are in-world books as well. So unless someone is writing a biography of Szeth, this is probably not it. Doesn't necessarily have to be a biography of Szeth specifically, could instead be a recounting of the events of his cleansing of Shinovar (which he swore to at the end of OB). If it was based off of phonetics more than strictly the letters, I would like Cleansing of the West better, but it wouldn't be very intuitive to some for tWoK, WoR, O, RoW, CotW to be a symetrical title (the same can be said for KotW at the last one, but we can always just sans out the 'the' on WoK and KoW and that works fine)

This was the big point that tipped me from an undecided stance on Adolin reviving Maya, to fully supporting it. I'm also very interested to see the dynamic of a bond between someone who we've not really seen much evidence for being 'broken' and a spren that we've been explicitly told is 'missing something', and how the sort-of-inversion of a typical bond would reflect on their relationship and how the Surges work between the two. If Adolin even gets the Surges at all, considering the ability to draw in Stormlight and use the Surges associated with each order seems to be caused by the spren's investiture getting into the 'gaps' in your spiritweb and filling it out. With Adolin and Maya, it is more likely that Adolin will 'donate' some Investiture of some sort to fill in Maya's spiritweb, and that probably wouldn't cause him to get the surges in the same way, if at all, though we might see some weird consequences of this in Maya. (Maybe this whole spiritweb filling the wrong way around will be a key point in the narrative around the Sibling, and how their bond is weird?)

While it may seem like a bit of an anti-climax, I would actually love if his entire reason for it is "I didn't want a Shard to just hold one power, I wanted a piece of them all to hold all of the powers. They said I couldn't have that, I'm proving them wrong". So basically "Screw only using one magic system, I want all the magic systems!"

There is probably a relation between the inverse oaths that you've mentioned and the specific Passions they need to exemplify. While Honor's system is based off of oaths, and Odium's likely is based off of emotions, they both access the same powers (or at least ones that work off of the same basic principles).

Not quite sure how our resident Flying Bridgeboy will react to that. On the one hand, probably happy that nobody else will have to go through that in future, and those that are currently suffering the system are allowed to live more freely; but he might also see it as a slight to those that have worked through the system and survived until now... You can very easily see how Szeth will end up in Shinovar next book, with a key focus of theirs now being consolidating their power in Makabak, and pushing into Shinovar to discover what they can about what they know of the surges, to see what they can do with their resident Bondsmith.

We have more than a few WOB about AI and how they would interact with different properties in the cosmere (Their representation in the Cognitive, do they have a spiritweb, how would children work? (was a weird question)), so Brandon at least has some thought put into it somewhere Found the actual WOB that references children, was comparing the creation of an AI to that of having a child. Seems I remember that quite differently (spoilered for length, highlighted relevant part)

Shalash? I would be partial to Teft being involved, as the Windrunner Super-Radiant. Maybe Nale comes around to Team Radiant in the end and takes part?

Skybreakers do have access to Gravitation, so they can fly... Wind does somewhat fit there

You say that, but the French WoK covers are amazing (by far my favorite of all the covers there) and the new Polish covers are ones that I am very tempted to re-buy the whole series so far just to get. If I could get those covers on English printed versions...

Please never say anything like this again. I do not want any inkling of the idea that that monster could have a spren bond! On a more serious note: This is somewhat viable, though I don't think its very likely. The trouble is that he isn't representing the ideals very well currently, and if this is to be a successful bond he would need to do better. And I refuse to think of the possibility of Yunfah being killed by this bond, even if it would be something Brandon might do. The trouble with Leshwi isn't so much Odium's Investiture, but her connection to his side (and her Connection, but that probably only causes trouble when an bond is even considered), many Radiant Spren may not even consider a bond with a Singer, and especially not with one of the Fused, and that means that Investiture and Connection interfering may not even play a part.

By using Rosharan ecology as a reference, I'd probably go for something like "Santhid's Shell". I'd probably still go for that even if I could use wider Cosmere or non-Cosmere references, because I love Santhids. Joke answer, because that is always required for this stuff: Hackerman Plot-Armor

The Amaram pun is horrible, but also very good But Evi... it's still too soon ;-; I don't think it will ever not be too soon

The Big Stabby Knife More seriously though: Soulblight, because it sounds cool

I would actually look more at them having some Koloss blood in them for any potential crossover, than an imprecision in the Kandra's imitation. Only real reaction to the chapter is that the I find the light being bent around Gavilar's sphere somewhat related to the way that large masses bend light around them. It is likely that, for some reason or another, the sphere is more Invested than it should be (maybe holding more Voidlight than should be possible?)

I forgot that decayspren were one that was also a popular candidate (also completely forgot they were a type of spren to be honest), but they certainly seem to fit better than flamespren for being associated to Division, though I do think that flamespren are more closely tied to Ashspren than decayspren are. We haven't really seen enough of the Dustbrigers and them using their surges to get a proper idea of what a cousin spren for them would be, so I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing some more of them in RoW

Agreed on both these points, I am a big fan of the way Brandon avoids sexual scenes (Very much not a fan of them, though I can understand why some people enjoy them), it makes it much more fun to read his books. I felt that the entire book could be split into two separate pieces, with the dividing line falling just after the first time the shadow people are defeated, with a big hook at the end being them rising again out of the pool. Given the extra space between then and the end of the book as it is, there could've been much more exposition on the world, and better foreshadowing of the outcome and the twist of the Vo-Dari working for the big-bad of the story. Moving events around like this also gives much more space for the political machinations in the first book to be explored, and more overall characterization to the bride offerings.

aside from these specific points, I actually really love the ending to this book. Though I could see that this could've been split into two separate books, with the first ending slightly after they defeat the Forgotten at the city walls, with the final scene being the sequel hook of them climbing back out of the pool, and the second book follows the few day rush they had to confront the, now much more threatening, Forgotten attack that is imminent, with much more space on the pages to fit in the exposition of the world and the proto-Shards that were in the story. I would also have liked to see the other three sort-of-Shardpools for the Aethers, to see what they look like and such. This would make it very similar to the first two books in Mistborn Era 1, with the "We've defeated the threat! Oh wait, there's a bigger one", then the "Well now that that is done, can you fare against the whims of the Twins?" being very similar to "You've defeated The Lord Ruler, now deal with the consequences of your actions" followed by "You've united the nations and formed a peace, but you also accidentally released The Big Bad, good luck!"

A connection I see with a lot of the cousin spren of each order is that they all seem to have some association with one of the surges that the order uses Windrunners: Windspren, who appear to use Adhesion Skybreakers: Luckspren, who manipulate Gravitation Truthwatchers: Lifespren, who are attracted to Progression and appear to somewhat use it (see: the organic fabrial in Chapter Fifteen) Dustbrigers: Flamespren, who are likely more associated with Division, with the belief that fire 'consumes' stuff Edgedancers: No real clue to be honest, but it would be one associated with Abrasion given this trend Lightweavers: Creationspren, who are attracted to Illumination and the creations a Radiant can make Elsecallers: Not much idea, but it would be to do with Transformation or Transportation, I'm leaning towards Transportation, given their name, but this leaves Transformation without a spren (Lightweavers are the other order with Transformation, and they have to take a spren associated with Illumination, given Truthwatchers have one for Progression) Willshapers: Probably something associated with Cohesion, though it could also be Transportation instead of Elsecallers, their essence is also of Foil, so that may be important too Stonewards: They have Cohesion and Tension, but I'd be inclined towards the one related to Cohesion being associated here instead, given the way the different spren and orders line up above, and the idea that the Stonewards are considered the most strong and dependable order, after their Herald Taln, likely making them excellent for morale in combat, allowing increased cohesion between troops. Bondsmiths: We have good evidence that this is gloryspren, but this is where my whole theory falls right down, as I don't see how they could be associated with Tension, Windrunners have already taken Adhesion, and I'm loathe to just go 'Bondsmiths are weird and special so they break the rules' and ignore this. If there is some glaring issue in my logic here, or an obvious point where I've completely gone out on a limb in a way that isn't really intuitive, feel free to critique. Hopefully this makes some sense to someone else, and I'd be interested to see what people come up with for the unknown orders.

we also have: So any possible affairs couldn't have been the parent for Shallan. Though I do think there is some basis for a theory along the lines of "Only Shalland and Heleran were actually children of Lin and his wife, the other three children came from the affair her mother was having" and that this could somewhat play into what her next truth is.