AquaRegia

Excellent, more books to read. Nora Jemisin is the only name on your list I'm familiar with. I'm a big fan of Larry Niven, Joel Shepherd, Vernor Vinge and David Brin (I'm more of a hard SF guy).

Welcome, fellow geezer! I'm 53 and started with Mistborn about 10 years ago. I've always been a fiction reader, and Brandon has clearly demonstrated that he's simply in class of his own - head and shoulders above everyone else as far as the craft of writing goes. My son might be very interested in your Stormlight/RWBY mashup. Who are some of your other favorite authors?

Just reread Interlude-5, where we hear Lift's recollection of her visit to the Nightwatcher and Cultivation. "I asked not to change," Lift whispered, opening her eyes. "I said, when everything else is going wrong, I want to be the same. I want to stay me. Not become someone else." Obviously, what she meant was that she wanted to remain a child forever; equally obviously, Cultivation chose to interpret her words differently. What exactly HAS Cultivation given to Lift, beyond the ability to convert food into Lifelight? I can't help but think that a god-given ability to "stay the same" will turn out to be extremely important at some point in the future. But how? Is it related to the Realmatic concept of Identity somehow? Any ideas, 17th Shard?

Not sure if anyone else saw this... but I enjoyed it.

Indeed this is true - I learned some stuff today! From Wikipedia: "Red Brass (85% copper, 5% each zinc, tin and lead) is an American term for the copper-zinc-tin alloy known as gunmetal, and an alloy which is considered both a brass and a bronze." I remember, after reading MB E2 for the first time, being surprised to learn that all those new alloys were real things. I had never heard of nicrosil, for example, and I knew the term "Wood's metal", but not "bendalloy".

Mind = BLOWN. AGAIN. How many times can Brandon do this to me? Hopefully many more LOL

I had completely forgotten about this scene. The first time through I simply gobbled up the book, in too much of a hurry to process everything. I knew in the back of my mind that there were things I didn't get, things I was missing... but I needed to get to the end!!!! I'm rereading slowly now, savoring it, but I'm only on ch. 44. I didn't even remember that this had happened. Thanks for posting it! I know I didn't figure out Testament until Shallan did. I'm not the mystery-solving type generally, preferring to wait and be surprised along with the characters. And this WAS a delicious surprise. It's almost heartbreaking now to see how tortured poor Pattern was; all he ever wanted to do is help his Radiant, but Shallan is so afraid of her hidden memories and doesn't know what she needs. He TRIED to tell her the truth, but he could see how much pain it was causing her. So he decided to go along with the lies. Now he finds that he has to talk to others behind her back, keep secrets from her, SPY on her, in order to try to help her. You can tell it's hurting HIM to have to do these things, but he's in a box and sees no other way out. And suddenly, there is Testament, in Lasting Integrity! Maybe seeing her will be the thing that allows Shallan to get past the lies. Maybe THIS what it will take to make everything all right. He makes the incredibly difficult and brave choice to show Testament to Shallan, hoping it will help, but KNOWING it will hurt. My eyes are literally tearing up right now, because I've been in that situation, fighting to make the right choice about how to help someone I love, someone who's in pain, and who may need to go through MORE pain before they can get better. When the person you love thinks you are hurting them, rather than helping them, it's agony like no other, and I think Pattern knows exactly what he is risking. Nobody can hurt you like the people you love most. Pattern knows Shallan can easily KILL HIM, simply by saying the wrong words. In this moment, Pattern is a storming hero. He chooses to risk his own life - AGAIN - in an attempt to help Shallan. But it doesn't work. Shallan bolts, choosing to run from the pain again. Pattern cuts his losses - Shallan is still in denial, but at least she didn't kill him yet. He lives to fight another day. Such a beautiful scene. Thanks for reminding me of it.

As a chemist, I applaud your self-motivated efforts to create an Allomantic Periodic table. As with the "real" Periodic table, many different schemes can work. Just because theirs is different does not make yours wrong! I will point out that your statement in bold above is not quite true. Alloys are complex and can be difficult to classify... but in general, brass = copper + zinc, and bronze = copper + tin. Some bronzes do contain zinc, but almost no brasses contain any tin, and for the ones that do, it's only like 1%.

I like all of your ideas, and hope we learn more about ALL those characters, especially Leshwi and Sja-Anat. I'm not a betting man... but if you forced me to bet all my spheres, I'd bet on Gavilar. Here's why:

Yes, it has been noticed and discussed, but without any particular resolution.

Present-day (RoW) Shallan does not see Testament until the trial - and does not recognize her at that time (ch. 90). Shallan realizes that the deadeye from the trial is HER SPREN only after Veil integrates, immediately before she decides not to kill Kelek (near the end of ch. 93).

I think this is incorrect. It's in Ch. 29 of RoW if you want to check again. Only Adolin and Maya see Testament in the town; Shallan stays on the barge to use the cube to talk to Mraize. There is no evidence of Shallan seeing Testament until the trial in Lasting Integrity.

I don't understand what ship you are talking about, and I see no reason to think Testament was in Lasting Integrity. The first time we see Testament is when Adolin and Maya notice her in the market, after the barge makes port. Her Inkspren friend says he has been caring for her here for a year or two, after finding her on an island far to the east - i.e., near the Shattered Plains.

I don't think there is any evidence of Testament being in Lasting Integrity until Adolin's trial. Her (unnamed) Inkspren friend found her - on an island far to the east (in other words, near the Shattered Plains, where Shallan had been) - and said she seemed to want to travel west (in other words, towards Urithiru, where Shallan then was). He is taking care of her, in the (unnamed) settlement on the shore where the expedition made port, when Adolin and Maya first see her.

I thought the same thing you did - the deadeye spren would end up in Shadesmar in the place corresponding to their location on the Physical realm when dismissed. However, it has been pointed out - correctly, I think - that this is likely not the case. First Captain Ico, then the Honorspren in Lasting Integrity, describe how the deadeyes are kept confined to prevent them from wandering off, in search of the human who is bonded to their corpse. There would be no point to such a confinement (in fact, it would be impossible) unless the spren reappear in the same place they left from when summoned. However, if I recall correctly, the number of known Shardblades is in the hundreds, while the number of Radiants (and thus Radiant spren) at the time of the Recreance was in the thousands. I suppose it's possible that there many hundreds (thousands?) of deadeye spren whose Blade form has been lost in the Physical Realm in the 4,500 years since, no longer bonded to any human, so they never get summoned anywhere.

Same for me - I got it just slightly before Sazed gets it. Kudos to your sis for her amazing SanderSkills! It's gotta be frustrating to have another whole book to wait before you can really talk to her about how awesome she is LOL I'm looking forward to hearing how she does on Era 2 reveals... because some of those blew my rusting mind.

Agreed. I don't have too much to add, except to say that I will be thoroughly unsurprised if we eventually find that Ulim has been around for as long as - if not longer - than the Heralds. I will be similarly unsurprised to find that Ulim had a hand in the ruination of Ashyn. That said, I find him to be refreshingly human. Sure, he's self-centered, grandiose, and manipulative... but in a very entertaining way. He's like the weaselly neurotic D&D party member who always has a new plan: "trust me, it's gonna be GREAT! All we have to do is..." and next thing you know, he's sneaking out the back door with all the treasure, giving you a thumbs-up, while you are surrounded by angry town guards.

It might be more accurate to say that RoW provided more - and stronger - clues, and that Brandon himself then CONFIRMED it.

I think we might be overthinking. Brandon is not an atmospheric physicist or a geochemist. But if it makes anyone feel better, here are some thoughts: Atmospheric energy budgets are HORRIFICALLY complicated - so much so that we, with all our satellite measurements and supercomputer models, still don't understand everything that's going on in Earth's atmosphere. Small particles high in the atmosphere can produce cooling no matter what color they are - they absorb visible light, get warm, and radiate infrared straight back out into space. Black particles might actually be BETTER at doing this, as they would get warmer faster. @cometaryorbit is right about sulfate aerosols. But... Volcanic ash is NOT uniform in color on Earth. Just like all rocks, it can vary from white to black, and every shade in between, depending on chemical composition. I have some ash from the Mt. St. Helens eruption in 1980, and it's a pale grey, almost like chalk dust. There is a WoB which says the ashmount ash on Scadrial was ferromagnetic in nature, and part of its activity was somehow due to that. (Again, Brandon isn't a scientist LOL) At some point, even the most critical reader should probably just say "well, it IS a FANTASY novel." I've had to get there myself on multiple topics.

It took some convincing, but I am now 100% on Team “Gavilar is definitely coming back”. I’m not going so far as to predict he will be Odium’s Champion, (although I think it’s quite likely)... but I will be SHOCKED if Gavilar does not make some kind of present-day (non-flashback) appearance in the next SA novel. Consider the overwhelming preponderance of groundwork that has been laid: We see the day of his assassination in the prologue of every single novel. We’ve had POV accounts from Szeth, Jasnah, Eshonai, Navani, and also, in a RoW flashback chapter, Venli. We’re obviously supposed to infer that this event – and thus Gavilar himself – is very important. I fully expect that the prologue of Book 5 will be Gavilar’s own POV of that day, setting the stage for us to see how exactly he avoided permadeath, and his return to a physical body. He’s a huge part of Dalinar’s flashback arc. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say Gavilar is the single most important reason Dalinar is the man he is today. A confrontation with his brother is the obvious pinnacle of Dalinar's journey. Gavilar has also had direct and important influences on Navani, Jasnah, Elhokar, Venli, and other critical viewpoint characters. We know that he was trading information and making deals with Heralds; that he was involved with the Sons of Honor, whose goal was presumably the return of the Desolations – which we still don’t fully understand; that he knew about Thaidakar and the Ghostbloods, another hot topic we have MUCH to learn about; that he had access to both Voidlight AND Antivoidlight years before anyone else knew about them. Finally, we know that he was Cosmere-aware, likely importing items and/or Investiture from offworld, and learning about the Cognitive Realm and Realmatic Theory. Mraize claims, in talking to Shallan, that Gavilar travelled to Braize himself and brought back Voidlight, and that he was "testing the movement of Light between worlds". He obviously knew Thaidakar wants this knowledge. What other reason would he have to assume it was Thaidakar who had him killed? There are multiple reasons to think he was Invested when his body was killed, and we all KNOW what THAT means. He is literally THE CENTRAL FIGURE of just about every mystery in this entire 5-book series, despite never (yet) having a single POV chapter. I don’t see how anyone can even doubt that he’ll turn up somehow.

I agree that his use of specific kinds of language, and specific words, IS noteworthy. We don't know exactly why, but Brandon seems to have reasons for every choice he makes, even relatively minor things like this. I expect we will, at some point, see some important reasons for these minor things. Another topic with similar musings:

Getting back to the original question, I will make two additional observations: 1) El and Lezian are certainly speaking their own language in that scene, not Alethi or any other human tongue. So what we are reading is (as it ALWAYS is in the Cosmere) a translation of another language into English, with Brandon acting as "translator". It may not pay to read TOO much into a single curse-word choice. 2) That said, we can assume that the most ancient beings on Roshar - i.e., the Heralds, the Fused, and sentient spren from way back like Sja-Anat, Ba-Ado-Mishram, and Ulim - have known each other for a long time and have a lot of shared history: on Roshar, on Braize, and possibly even on Ashyn in some cases. It would not be surprising to find similarities in the ways they speak which reflect both their age and their common "culture".

OK, I accidentally misrepresented my experience. We did NOT listen to the Michael Kramer audiobook, we listened to the Graphic Audio dramatization. I did a quick Google search and found some online comments that made it clear we were not alone:

You had better hold on to that book - it might be worth a billion dollars some day! Sorry to hear you missed some of the story, and no, I have not seen any discussion of this. If you are near a library you might check out a copy.

I think it's definitely a Braize thing. I've noted many of the characters who spend the Desolations locked away on Braize have noticeably different speech patterns from the "full-time" Rosharans... and they definitely read as more "contemporary"... in other words, more like modern earthling idiomatic English speakers. Examples include Ash, Kelek, and Ulim. I have NO idea whether this comes through in the audiobook version. My wife and I tried a few chapters and we COULD NOT GET PAST Kaladin-as-a-redneck-hick LOL