Clarity-Art

When invading Urithiru through the tunnels below the tower, Raboniel refers to aluminum as "ralkalest" during a conversation with Venli. Ralkalest is a Selish term for aluminum, originating from the Rose Empire. It's mentioned in The Emperor's Soul. This is a really small detail, but given that it's incredibly dangerous to travel to Sel through the Cognitive Realm, I wonder how the term reached Raboniel. We know Hoid has visited Sel, that he spent some time in the Rose Empire, and that he's interacted with the Fused before. Could the term predate Sel and Roshar as we know them today? Is Hoid messing with us again? Am I spitballing like crazy?

20 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

(Scadrial)

  Reveal hidden contents

So the Set is worried upon Scadrial technology going out of control due to technology, but they are helping to set free Odium?

 

No, I am sorry, but you cannot reduce the Stormlight Archive, very few things in the Cosmere indeed, into a simple good versus evil. People do not worldhop just to be evil. They need to have a motivation. She doesn't even have a mustache to twirl and adore her own eviltude.

That was oversimplification in the moment. To be fair, since we know nothing else about her, the fact that she possessed a gemstone containing Ulim was suspicious. The fact that she gave the gemstone to Venli and heavily persuaded her to accept it also warrants some eye-narrowing. Could she have been using Feruchemy to influence Venli in that moment? And how on Roshar did she know how to appeal to Venli's desire of wanting to restore her mother's mind?

Since Mistborn Era 2 takes place between the first half of Stormlight and the back half of Stormlight, I think that Axindweth's connections to Trell could go either way. The fact that Ulim was contained in a red gemstone seems to connect to the fact that red Investiture signifies corruption, and in Era 2, Harmony describes Trell's influence as a red mist surrounding Scandrial. Axindweth could be part of a precursor organization to the Set on Scandrial, or she could be something entirely different, as you stated. It would be interesting if she appears in Wax and Wayne 4 or future Mistborn works, since it seems likely she won’t be coming back to Roshar anytime soon. 

Because Axindweth occupied a position close to Gavilar, as shown in Venli and Eshonai's flashbacks, I believe she must've been part of the Sons of Honor. Even if she wasn't a part of the Sons of Honor, her interactions with Gavilar indicate a kind of familiarity that no average attendant could reach. She's most likely a Feruchemist, since her rings serve as metalminds, and she outright tells Venli she has a gift for learning and speaking langauges. Sounds a heck of a lot like Feruchemical abilities to me. 

The man who discovered her in the palace, the steward Gereh, is also Terris and a Feruchemist. I think he could easily be an agent of Harmony, or associated with an organization of the Terris that's dedicated to preserving secrets. My personal theory is that he's associated with the Worldbringers, who have ties to the Rosharan Worldsingers through Hoid. It would be plausible for individuals in both groups to be Cosmere aware, given that Hoid played a part along the way. 

I just finished Rhythm of War today, and let me tell you, Sanderson has done it again. I screamed, cried, laughed, and thrashed around like an eel. My reaction nonwithstanding, I wanted to ask if there would be a similar "update the Coppermind with RoW information" to the event that occurred with updating the Coppermind for Dawnshard. I've used Coppermind so much that I reckon I'd like to give back by updating the relevant pages. 

I've been paying close attention to Navani's POVs since the beginning of this book. After her amazing prologue, I was really invested in her storyline and what she had to say, so I've been carefully observing her notes on fabrials. Both her observations on the airship fabrials and the headers taken from her fabrial lecture mention metals. Throughout The Stormlight Archive, we hear that aluminum has weird properties on Roshar, which matches up with the fact that aluminum seems to meddle with all kinds of Investiture in the Cosmere. 

In Chapter 7, Navani says that the spren inside a fabrial gemstone interact differently with zinc and brass wires. Contact with zinc wires will make the spren manifest more strongly, while contact with brass wires will make the spren withdraw. These effects mimic the properties of their Allomantic counterparts: zinc Riots emotions, while brass Soothes emotions. I found it interesting that the metals' interactions with the spren parallels the Allomantic properties of the metals on Scandrial. 

While I'm convinced that Brandon is inserting these tidbits as a little reference for those of us who have read Mistborn, I have a strange feeling that something here is connected. Or Connected. I'm not sure. I could be reading too much into it, but then again, reading too much into things is how we have some cool theories on this site. 

I think it would be a neat subversion if Navani turns out to be a Truthwatcher! A lot of people theorize she'll end up bonding the Sibling and become the second Bondsmith, but for some reason, thinking about that possibility just didn't fit her character for me. She and Renarin both fit the description of the Truthwatchers really well. Even if she doesn't become a Radiant, having her serve as that nexus helps her bring unity and parallel Dalinar's actions on a smaller scale. 

After some deliberation, I've decided to move my RoW musings over from the main discussion index and isolate them here. I'm always late to the party because I don't live in the Eastern time zone, and I'm insanely intimidated by all the intellectual discussion happening. I'm just a tiny little Truthwatcher who wants to record her findings, that's all. Anyways, onto some takeaways that I got from Chapter 6!

1. I'm not surprised that Veil supported Adolin's decision to assassinate Sadeas, even though the other personalities don't agree. There's a poetic sense of justice in her decision to kill Ialai. She does have a point in noting that Dalinar and Jasnah need to focus on Alethkar, but does Veil have the authority to do that? 

2. Leshwi, in a nutshell: Finally, a worthy opponent! Our battle will be legendary! In all seriousness, though, her battle sequences with Kaladin have been the most gripping ones so far. 

3. Getting a glimpse at Renarin's current situation and how his abilities differ from authentic Truthwatchers was intriguing. I'm a Truthwatcher, and I'd love to learn more about their order, their Ideals, and how their Surgebinding abilities manifest. 

4. A lot of people have been discussing Navani's ability to hear a "tone" when Dalinar opens the perpendicularities. This chapter shows that it's not something isolated to her, but I still feel like it's a massive sign of foreshadowing for her character arc in this book. Along with her quest to understand the secrets of the tower, I'm more and more convinced of the theory that Navani might stumble upon the Sibling in her research. 

5. Ew, Moash is here? I mean, it makes sense, considering he interacted with Leshwi in Oathbrniger, but why? Nothing good is going to happen as long as he's around. I've got a bad feeling about this.  

6. I feel like Leshwi is fast becoming one of those character whom you don't like, but you admire them for their actions and discernment. Although she and Kaladin are on opposite sides of the battlefield, Brandon characterized them so well that you can clearly see how much they respect each other. 

This week's observations are a bit short because there was only one chapter. Since chapters seven and eight have been released to the public, I'll probably skip over those and write my observations on Chapter 9. Thanks for reading these ramblings, Radiants! 

Hello, Radiants! Week Two of the Writing Roshar prompts over on r/stormlightarchive has come and gone, so here's my second shot at the prompt. This one doesn't have any spoilers for The Stormlight Archive, so I'll be copy and pasting it down below. Again, it also requires some heavy editing, but at least I remembered to include the spren this time. Enjoy.

Prompt: [No spoilers] As a woman with one dark and one light eye, you've always had an. . .  interesting life. As you lay on your deathbed, you begin to reminisce about your life.

I selected the no-spoilers prompt this time. Content warning for mentions of illness, blacking out, body horror due to spren, and verbal abuse.

Benla had always thought she’d go to the Tranquiline Halls after a fight, but not like this. 

The blood sickness had weakened her body to the brink of death, so she spent most of her days in her bed, letting her servants take care of her townhouse during the day. Her fellow thieves hadn’t come to visit that day, but she didn’t mind. As the leader of the thieving crew, she was in charge of organizing their newest marks, not helping them run day-to-day operations. Even if she wanted to help them, she was far too frail these days to think about stealing, thievery, and an active life of crime. 

With a wince, Benla looked out the window, down at the cityscape below. Farcoast wasn’t an unpleasant town to die in, and besides, she’d spent her entire life in the Vamah princedom. She was born here and she could easily die here. As a halfeye—her left eye was light violet, her right eye was brown—she hadn’t expected to live this long, or even die from a pathetic sickness. Most halfeyes were murdered before they reached adulthood, beaten to death by someone in the streets or sent away to starve by their own families. And if it wasn’t her halfeyes, it would’ve been her dark skin that drew suspicion; her father was part Makabaki, and despite his sheltered position as a lighteyes, there would’ve been someone who judged her for it. But she’d done well for herself as the leader of the crew. After all, when she’d first joined up with a merry band of thieves, it’d been one of the few avenues open to someone of her status. 

She reminisced about when she first became a part of the crew. It was right after the assassination of King Gavilar. Her father had enlisted as a soldier in Highprince Vamah’s army. He’d argued with her mother about it for ages, and at the height of their bickering, Benla had slipped out of the house. She wasn’t sure where she was going, but she’d run into a former schoolmate, a woman named Melyan. One conversation led to another, and Benla had told Melyan that she didn’t have many friends, much less anyone who was willing to employ her. So Melyan took her to a thieving den, where she introduced her to the crew. There was Sahi, a brunette from Jah Keved who worked as their resident intelligence gatherer. There was Kteth, a Thaylen trader with a sensitive heart but a knack for haggling. And then—most importantly—Natalah, a darkeyed Alethi lady from the second nahn. Back then, she’d simply been Natalah, or Nattie, or Nat, before earning the name of Natalah the Silent.

Benla had never considered the life of a criminal before then. She was well aware that she occupied a precarious position in Alethi society: with a lighteyed father from the eighth dahn and a darkeyed mother from the third nahn, her opportunities in both echelons of society were limited. Her darkeyed and lighteyed relatives were wont to associate with her. People from all nahns and dahns balked at the idea of letting her work in polite society. It was no surprise that after Natalah welcomed her into the crew, she dove headfirst into thievery and never looked back.

She coughed slightly. Her chest had begun to throb. The blood sickness, according to her physician, affected her circulatory and cardiac functions. Just last week, she’d had near-fatal heart spasms. If Sahi and Melyan hadn’t been at the townhouse, helping Benla count the loot from their latest theft, she would’ve died. All it would take was another spasm, and she’d be nothing more than food for a greatshell. Almighty, she wished that Natalah was still here. Nat had been the closest thing the crew had to a medic, and although she never finished her training to become a licensed apothecary, she knew plenty about anatomy, physiology, and medicine. She’d be able to help Benla with her blood sickness.

But that was in the past, and she forced herself to keep reminiscing, to keep remembering, to keep recalling her history with the crew.

For five years, they worked together, starting with small thefts and working their way up. She befriended everyone in the crew, but most of all, she sought to earn Natalah’s respect. Natalah was a darkeye of the second nahn, and in Alethi society, she had a higher position than Kteth, Sahi, and Melyan. Benla, who was of the ninth dahn, was the only one in the crew who outranked Natalah. They treated her as their leader for the longest time, until one day, Benla decided that things needed to change. 

Her father perished at war, cut down by Parshendi as he was trying to cross a bridge over a chasm. The soldiers under Highprince Vamah were unable to recover his body. While grieving, Benla’s mother eventually moved back home to Revolar, where she now lived with her sisters and brothers. She’d wanted Benla to make the move with her, but Benla had been so single-minded, so short-sighted back then. Her desire to make the lighteyes pay for his death drove her to seize control of the crew’s operations. Without consulting Natalah, she organized hits on countless lighteyed businesses, mercantiles, and estates, plundering their properties down to the last crem-covered brick. When Natalah’s back was turned, she took Kteth, or Sahi, or even Melyan with her, as an extra pair of eyes and hands to help her accomplish the thefts.

It was a profitable project, yet not the most discerning one. The authorities in the Wistiow and Aladar princedoms caught wind of their trail, and when Natalah heard the news, she’d confronted Benla. Even as the pain in her chest grew and grew, Benla drifted into her hazy memories, thinking about their confrontation.

They were back in their thieves’ den. Kteth was getting stagm from the market, but Melyan was there with Sahi, watching Benla take out her temper on Natalah. 

“You can’t do this anymore, Benla,” Natalah said. She adjusted her spectacles, which were beginning to slide down her nose. “I know you’re furious about what happened to your father, but he enlisted of his own free will. And the whole problem with Wistiow and Aladar—it’ll get us all in trouble. Do you want to languish in a prison for the rest of your life? Do you?”

“You don’t understand, you storming crem-brain!” shouted Benla. Natalah flinched back, and Benla pressed her advantage, advancing on her like a whitespine stalking its prey. “All your life, you’ve never had trouble with the lighteyes! Perfect Vorin girl from her perfect storming darkeyed family! Perfect thief with her ability to flawlessly forge art and writing! Perfect, perfect, perfect. And you’re second nahn, for the Almighty’s sake. Second nahn!”

“Parentage is irrelevant to this argument—” Natalah said, but Benla interrupted her with a slap across the face. Natalah stuck out her elbow to catch herself as she fell. Her spectacles clattered to the ground. One of the lenses shattered. 

“Get out,” said Benla. “You’re not in charge and you’ve never been willing to take charge. Decent thief, for sure, but a poor excuse of a person. Are you going to open your mouth and challenge me, or will you shut up and skulk away, Natalah the Silent? Like you always do, you quiet whore?”

Natalah lay on the ground. Then she put her broken spectacles back on and stood up. With nothing but a single glance at Benla, Melyan, and Sahi, she left the den. She only carried the clothes on her back. Benla held her breath and counted to ten, and when Natalah didn’t come back, she breathed a deep sigh of contentment. 

“Back to work,” she said to Melyan. “When Kteth comes back, start preparing supper. For now, we need to organize another hit at Highlord Paladar’s summer home.”

Melyan gazed numbly at Benla, but after a moment, she gulped and nodded. She darted over to the map of the Vamah princedom that Benla had pinned against the wall. They’d marked each and every one of their lighteyed targets with a dot of colored treb paste, with a circle drawn around the territory of Highlord Paladar. Sahi followed her over, deliberately avoiding Benla’s gaze. 

The aftermath was a blur, but Benla picked through the few moments she could remember. The frown at Melyan’s mouth when she was consulting the map, the hurt in Kteth’s eyes when she came home from the market to find Natalah missing, the blankness on Sahi’s face when she studied her records on Paladar—Benla could tell that something unspeakable had happened between them all. And she had been the one to cause the rift.

As she emerged from the maze of memories inside her head, she gasped, with tears streaming from her eyes. A gigantic crop of angerspren, no doubt fueled by her feelings from that past confrontation, bubbled around her feet. They emerged from her blankets like a massive pool of blood. The sudden, sharp pain in her chest had now spread throughout her torso, stabbing at her insides like a thousand tiny Shardblades. A blood sickness spasm. She tried to sit up so she could see the angerspren better, but her body went stiff and she sprawled against her own pillows. 

That was when the painspren began to swarm her. Tiny orange hands swarmed her body, crawling up from her carpet or pushing through the pool of angerspren. Benla tried to scream, but the painspren kept coming, latching onto her body with their sinewy fingers. Darkness crept at the edges of her vision as she struggled to breathe. It was like a scene ripped straight from someone’s nightmares: dying slowly and painfully, all alone except for a bunch of irritating, storming spren. 

The door to her room banged open. Her stewards were standing in her room, accompanied by Sahi, Melyan, and Kteth. Benla knew nothing about how, why, when, and where they had arrived, but none of that mattered, now that she was on the threshold of death. Though her vision was fast deteriorating into a mass of shadowy blobs, she opened her mouth, doing her best to call for help. Faintly, she heard Melyan shouting at Kteth and Sahi, telling them to send the servants for a physician. 

It was the last thing Benla remembered before she blacked out. 

2 minutes ago, Karger said:

We don't know that Ialai is not heading this particular contingent.

Sweet summer child as a phrase is from the 1840s.

I was not aware of that. Thank you for bringing it to my attention! Nice to know GRRM doesn't have a complete monopoly on the phrase, ahaha. 

Hello, Radiants! As usual, I've decided to show up three hours late to interrupt your regularly scheduled discussions with my own observations about the new chapters. I've blasted through Season 3 of The Expanse and my college course is coming to a close soon, but I still haven't started my entire Stormlight reread. Is that bad? I have no idea. Anyways, without further ado, here are my takeaways from Chapters Four and Five:

1. I'm not entirely sure if this is an actual Easter egg or me being sleep-deprived, but the Arnist method sounds like it's named after the honorable Alice Arneson. I could be wrong, though after the mentions of Isasik (Isaac Stewart) and frequent appearances of Lyn (Lyndsey Luther), I wouldn't put it past Brandon.

2. I find it interesting that Mraize's goal to get rid of the Sons of Honor coincides with Dalinar's goal to tie up the Sons as a loose, but dangerous end. Initially, I was concerned that Shallan/Radiant/Veil would have a hard time serving multiple causes. However, it's satisfying to watch her kill two chickens with one stone. It's interesting that the Sons decided to name Ialai their leader, although I will note that after Oathbringer, they were probably short on viable candidates. Also, what happened to Shallan's quest to recruit Sja-anat? I have a feeling we aren't finished with that subplot yet. 

3. The phrase "you sweet soft breeze" made me snicker. It reminds me of the "oh, you sweet summer child" phrase from A Song of Ice and Fire, but this take feels very unique to Roshar. The mere use of weather phenomena as curses and emotional expressions fits the worldbuilding well. (Edit: apparently, "sweet summer child" has been around for at least two centuries and GRRM doesn't have a monopoly on the phrase.)

4. What the crem? The Sons of Honor have a spy that's close to Dalinar? I strongly suspect it's one of the highprinces or someone close to the Knights Radiant, or even someone from the coalition of monarchs. 

5. Ash serving as a source of information about the Fused is unexpected, but not unwelcome. I guess this means she's recovered from whatever shock she suffered at the end of Oathbringer, upon realizing that Jezrien was dead. A lot must've happened in the year-long gap between Oathbringer and Rhythm of War, and I was under the impression she'd be in a coma or something. I'm glad she's fully awake and aiding the Radiants, though. It makes me wonder if Taln has recovered as well, even if thousands of years of torture in Damnation can't easily be erased with a snap of stormlight-infused fingers.

6. At this rate, the Windrunners will easily be the most prominent and largest order of Knights Radiant on Urithiru. I'm not particularly sure why there aren't willing honorspren that can initiate the Nahel bond between Kaladin's prospective Windrunners, but I think it comes down to two reasons. Firstly, there's a limited number of honorspren, perhaps far more than the spren of the other orders, because they're Splinters of Honor. Secondly, they must still be wary of bonding with humans after the Recreance happened, and though the Stormfather himself has bonded with Dalinar, the honorspren must be hesitant to trust people again. 

7. How often can Dalinar open perpendicularities? I'm fairly sure there's a limit on how often he can open a perpendicularity, but I guess this power is one of the perks of being a Bondsmith. It implies he can create his own perpendicularities instead of relying on the ones from the Shards, which is fascinating. 

8. I spy another cameo from a team member of Dragonsteel: Kara (Kara Stewart)! Again, maybe I'm sleep-deprived, but Brandon wasn't too subtle about this one. 

9. The reason why Ash can provide information about the Fused is because Jasnah has been interviewing her and Taln? That's intriguing! I think this certainly falls in line with Jasnah's character, since she pursues knowledge and scholarship. Despite her known heresy, she wouldn't pass up the chance to speak with millenia-old Heralds about the past and whatever information they have on Odium's forces. 

10. Sassy Syl is best Syl. There is no contest. Given enough time and training, she'll be insulting people like Wit in no time. 

11. Teft's concern for Kaladin shows how far that Teft has come as a character. I think everyone was moved by his storyline in Oathbringer, regardless of their opinion on the overall book, and seeing him as a fully-fledged Windrunner in action is inspiring. For real, though, Kaladin actually needs to rest. Lopen and Teft have a point: it seems like after Oathbringer, Kaladin hasn't been in the best state of mind, and he's beginning to become burned out by his leadership of the Windrunners. His depression is probably taking a significant toll as well.

12. Aww, it's sweet that Adolin and Shallan (and Pattern, because he's the "chaperone") are working together to bring down the Sons of Honor. So far, we haven't had any cute married-life interactions between them, but I sincerely hope we see them have a conversation in the next few chapters. Adolin seems very supportive and embraces Veil and Radiant as well, though I wonder if their collaboration is actually more of a risk-filled contingency rather than a cute couple activity. 

13. For the Stormfather's sake, Kaladin, PLEASE TAKE A BREAK. You can't fight the Fused and Leshwi if you haven't gotten enough storming sleep. Someone please get this poor man a bed and some hugs. He needs rest now, more than ever. 

14. I think it's endearing and kind that Lyn decided to check on him, but again, Kaladin takes it the wrong way and reacts like he did to Teft and Lopen's inquiries. I genuinely feel bad that their relationship didn't work out, even if it was for the best. Kaladin bears an immense burden of responsibiilty for everything that's gone wrong in his life, taking the loses personally even if it isn't his fault. It's adding to the mental and physical drainage he feels, though I suppose it's also foreshadowing his path to potentially swearing the Fourth Ideal. 

15. WHOA WHOA WHOA, slow your ROLL. CORD WAS IN AIMIA?! I know we'll probably get our answers to this far sooner than we think, with Dawnshard on the way, but stormwinds. My guess is that Cord will probably be a central character of Dawnshard and might get her Shardplate during that novella, though I'm probably off the mark. 

Windrunners, Fused, perpendicularities, Sons of Honor. These chapters were jam-packed with everything I've been looking forwards to in RoW. I enjoyed the new information and plot details immensely, and the characterization was amazing. Keep the hype train going, Radiants! This show is just beginning, and it's swiftly shaping up to be a blast. 

After rereading the prologue and Chapter One obsessively last week, I was way too excited for these chapters to drop. They're easily becoming the highlight of my week. Is it sad that I don't have much better to do besides finishing college coursework, slouch around while eating trail mix, and watch The Expanse? Probably. But this is sustaining my hype for RoW, so here are a few takeaways that I gleaned from Chapters Two and Three. 

1. The Fused's tactic in stabbing Kaladin repeatedly to sever his spinal cord was well-reasoned. Go for somebody's central nervous system, and even Radiants will be having a bad time. Also, the name reveal for the type of Fused that parallels the Windrunners was interesting! I've heard people theorize that the reason why the Fused have nine orders and not ten is because they lack an order that's analogous to the Bondsmiths, since Odium doesn't focus on Connection. That seems more and more accurate as we learn more about voidlight, the Fused, and the singers.

2. I feel like Syl is growing into her own role and becoming more of an independent, expressive character. She was very unique before, but she seems more personable and less. . . spren-like, if that makes any sense. Her interactions with Kaladin's family make her seem more like an adoptive sister than anything. Additionally, when Kaladin notes that she manifests with a new style of dress due to Adolin's fashion pointers, I found that super endearing. I'd love to see more interactions between Syl and Adolin. Fingers crossed!

3. Veil, Radiant, and Shallan are coexisting in relative harmony, as indicated by their ongoing internal dialogue. After the events of Oathbringer, I'm glad that Shallan found a balance between her own identity and her other personas, but I'm hoping that she doesn't develop a fourth personality in Rhythm of War. While I don't think she would, and she certainly would be able to deal with it much better than before, it's still a concerning prospect. The hunt for the Sons of Honor seems to be going well though. I'm curious to see who's now in charge of the Sons, now that Amaram is dead. 

4. Kaladin can't even have happiness in his love life? Storms. Well, I hope he continues to work on himself while being a strong, independent Windrunner. At least he has a loving family and the cutest little brother ever. 

5. Roshar is now one step closer to space travel. Give Navani enough time and she'll be on the path to inventing something like the Rosharan version of the Epstein drive. I think her airship's name is a nice homage to Bridge 4, and I'm glad that working on the fabrial technology helped her process the grief of Elhokar's death. Speaking of Elhokar, I wonder who's watching Gavinor. Now that the people of Hearthstone are leaving for elsewhere on the airship, is there a chance we could embark on the path towards an Oroden-Gavinor bromance someday?  

6. Aluminum has even more special properties on Roshar, especially when paired with fabrial technologies. Considering how many worlds throughout the Cosmere have unique Investiture-related reactions with aluminum, we might as well declare aluminum Adonalsium's god metal and call it a day. (I kid, but seriously, aluminum is something special. Brandon is up to something.)

7. The Mink is already great. He and Dalinar seem to be getting along well, since they both value being straightforwards in terms of communication. But Dalinar disregarding Navani's insistence that Fourth Bridge was hers? That's irksome. I hope that their marriage doesn't deteriorate into the same relationship she had with Gavilar. Dalinar seems to be doing alright with his newfound leadership, but as we've seen a thousand times over, he could easily begin shunting aside his family in favor of better running the Radiants. 

I'm also happy to see that there are more Edgedancers, most likely trained and pushed into awesomeness by Lift herself. A potential collaboration between the Edgedancers, Lirin, and other field surgeons would be amazing. As for Navani's airship defenses, I can't wait to see them in action next week! These chapters provided a lot of information about the timeskip between Oathbringer and Rhythm of War without overwhelming us through giant infodumps, and I enjoyed them thoroughly. All aboard the RoW hype train, Radiants!

Hello there! Welcome to the 17th Shard!

So far, who are your favorite characters in the Cosmere? 

Over on the Stormlight subreddit, u/wtfevenisthis69 recently started a series of writing prompts with the intention of encouraging people to explore Roshar through their own writing. I haven't written fanfiction in ages, or at least not any fanfiction pertaining to Brandon's work, so I decided to participate! What I wrote was completely spontaneous and unedited, as of today, but I worked up the courage to share it over here because I thought it would be entertaining. It still requires heavy revisions, especially in terms of characterization and set-dressing, but overall, I'm quite satisfied with the end result. The entire work is contained in the spoiler tag below, since it contains some mild Cosmere and Oathbringer spoilers. 

Hello there! Welcome to the 17th Shard! Besides Brandon, who are your favorite authors?

On 7/13/2020 at 7:16 AM, Use the Falchion said:

No problem! Notes are ALWAYS welcome, especially if there are particularly good nuggets in the video. And after the Dark One exclusive chat, one never knows if/when streams will be watchable after the fact. 

There were definitely some good tidbits in the video that had me on the edge of my seat. Listening to them give writing advice was fantastic, and hearing them discuss their personal lives was very endearing. I'll link my notes here in case anyone wants a condensed version of their talk (it was a spoiler-free event on both Brandon and Tammy's ends): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WcTV-2DjCP6nLnLEv6z8mVC1T3787vovB8qghYQ94cY/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks so much for the link! I was actually taking notes on everything Tamora and Brandon said during the event, ahaha. Totally forgot it would be available on YouTube afterwards. 

AAAAAND THE DUCK WALKED UPON TO THE LEMONADE STAND AND HE SAID TO THE MAN RUNNING THE STAND

Okay, I apologize for the outdated Internet reference, but upon seeing the forum title, I just had to. Huge props to your brother for having the patience to drag you into the Cosmere fandom. Glad you're here to join us on the journey!

Who's your favorite Cosmere character and why? If you can't pick a favorite, then list your top three. 

12 hours ago, Ciridae said:

Oathbringer was crazy full with children. We got Oroden and Gavinor which I absolutely think will be friends. We met all of Rocks children, Sah’s daughter, Taravangians grandchildren were mentioned too. And Lift and Gawx are already pretty prominent characters. Those two especially I think will be important in the second half, but I think most children from OB will be relevant characters after the gap. 
If someone has read A Little Hatred by Abercrombie:

  Hide contents

I could see it being similar where the next generation are the pov characters but still interact a lot with their parents. 

Obviously we already know the main povs for the back five, but I appreciate Brandon setting up other characters this early.

I haven't read A Little Hatred yet, but I totally know what you're talking about. I blasted through the whole First Law trilogy a couple of months ago, and I have to say, Abercrombie knows his stuff. He's definitely earned the title of Lord Grimdark. 

On 7/9/2020 at 5:44 PM, Karger said:

I am interested if he will be able to have a relationship with his aunt Jasnah and what that relationship will be like.

Over on Reddit, I had a discussion with some people about how Gavinor will most likely be the heir to the Alethi throne, considering Jasnah's desire to avoid marriage. Jasnah is obviously not a touchy-feely, motherly type, but I could see her empathizing with Gavinor and being a strict yet understanding parental figure. From what we know, Jasnah underwent some trauma when she was still young, and that most likely led Ivory to form the Nahel bond with her. Gavinor seems to be on a similar course, as of Oathbringer, though we won't know for sure until Brandon shows us his path in greater detail. 

On 7/9/2020 at 5:42 PM, Karger said:

We IDed them and put them on the coppermind if you don't want to hunt them all down yourself.  I really liked Edgedancer.  It shows the real power of someone who has enough empathy to sympathize with a murderous madman.

Stormfather bless, that was powerful. Being able to see how strongly Lift empathizes with those around her, even if it's not obvious at first, was one of the major aspects of Edgedancer that changed my opinion on her. Although the quiz says that I'm a Truthwatcher, I also ranked pretty high as an Edgedancer, so sharing a Radiant order with Lift makes me happy. 

On 7/9/2020 at 9:04 PM, Frustration said:

Ah man. At least she still has food.

Ahahaha, always. Life is fleeting (no pun intended), but pancakes are forever. 

Thank you to everyone who encouraged me to read Edgedancer on my previous thread! I finished it a few days ago, and now that I've had time to gather my thoughts, I have so much to say. 

I didn't like Lift very much, but after reading this, I have a newfound appreciation for her character. Brandon captured her voice, mannerisms, and behavior so well, and her character development was fascinating to follow throughout the novella. He gave us glimpses of her more Edgedancer-esque side in her interactions with the orphans, Szeth, and Arclo the Sleepless, so getting to see the depth of the person who she's becoming and who she'll be was truly moving. The scene where she hugged Nale on the rooftop of the Tashi's Light Orphanage legitimately gave me chills. 

Although Brandon specified in the Arcanum Unbounded postscript that Tashikki won't have much of a role in the series going forwards, I liked the way he explored the culture and society there. The non-Vorin countries on Roshar have drastically divergent views on the Heralds than the Vorin countries do, and learning about Tashi and the Nine, along with the ten varieties of pancake, was fascinating. I'm especially intrigued by Arclo's presence and abilities, so now I'll have to keep a paranoid eye on any random cremlings that show up in unprecedented locations in the future. 

Overall, this made me hyped for the next Stormlight novella that's supposed to be included in the TWoK kickstarter rewards. I have faith that it'll be on par with Edgedancer, perhaps even better. 

I think that people have discussed this before, but I'm curious about where Gavinor Kholin's character will go in the future. Over on Reddit, there's been a lot of discussion about him growing up alongside Oroden, with them becoming good friends and striking up a bromance grand enough to rival Adolin and Kaladin's bromance. People have also proposed the idea of him becoming a Knight Radiant in the future, most likely because he's undergone serious trauma at such a young age. Thoughts? 

14 hours ago, MyAegis said:

Hi, I'm Aegis, I go by he/him pronouns. I've read every cosmere book excluding White Sand, but I've began reading the prose.

It's nice to meet everyone!

Hello there, Aegis! I hope that you have a blast reading White Sand. It's definitely a bit offbeat compared to the rest of the Cosmere works, but I found it interesting and enjoyable, especially because of Khriss. 

8 hours ago, Eggdogg said:

Thanks for the props on the name. Dont really have a favorite ship. I can say that going from the wheel of time to cosmere was refreshing though. Wheel of time ships were absurd to me almost across the board. Brandon is better at writing ships. Sazed's ship was bittersweet and felt real to me. 

Hello there! Welcome to the 17th Shard. I finished Wheel of Time a few months ago and I partially agree with your verdict. A lot of the ships in the Wheel of Time series seem contrived or cheesy, though I absolutely love Nynaeve and Lan. I remember being heartbroken after what happened with Sazed and Tindwyl: that was a good romance in the making. 

This was an absolute delight to read! We haven't spent a lot of time reading chapters or interludes from Sylphrena's perspective, and I'm especially excited to see where Brandon takes her character arc after this chapter. There were so many tidbits here that piqued my curiosity, but here are a few moments that really piqued my curiosity and got me thinking about what Rhythm of War truly entails. 

1. The fact that Kaladin has apparently been sleeping better and has new duties of some sort

Hooray for Kaladin sleeping better, but also not hooray for the fact that he seems more emotionally perturbed. Syl says that he has "two brains" like she does, which are his "light brain" and "dark brain", and observes that he'll continue to have the dark brain if he continues on his current path. We saw that Kaladin was backsliding and struggling near the end of the previous book, so will he keep on spiraling downwards? Hmmm. 

2. Syl's conversation with the Stormfather 

According to the conversation, Syl believes that Kaladin will be Dalinar's champion, and thus, she needs to be the best spren that she can in aiding him with the battle to come. I'm curious as to how she arrived at this conclusion, considering that Kaladin seemed to be in dubious shape after the events of Oathbringer. 

3. Syl's conversation with Dalinar

I think it's adorable that Dalinar addresses her as Brightness Sylphrena. She thanks Dalinar for something that he did in forcing Kaladin "to change", which calls back to her previous musings about his new duties. At this point, I'm fairly sure that the "change" involves Kaladin taking up more missions involving field medicine or other forms of aid. When and how did Dalinar decide to facilitate this change? I feel like he hasn't taken Kaladin's depression into consideration, as far as I know, so what exactly prompted him to realize something was amiss? Also, her talk with Dalinar about him Connecting things together seemed to foreshadow an even greater act of Connection in the future, one on an even grander scale than him uniting the Realms during the confrontation with Odium.

I haven't thought a whole bunch about the role that Syl's going to play in Rhythm of War, so this got my wheels turning quite a lot! Super fascinating.