AquaRegia

I interpreted those passages the same way @Llarimar did; the box was only "glowing" for Shallan.

I'm happy that others enjoyed it as much as I did, and I agree with pretty much everything you've said. I also loved the character of Raboniel. So nuanced, so believable... the only thing I didn't like is that now she's dead. I've sung Brandon's praises in other threads for how he's writing Shallan, so I won't do it again here. I have no doubt that Todium is going to be the BBEG in the Cosmere for a good long time going forward, and I found both Venli and Leshwi to be very satisfying characters. It was stunning how many AMAZING things happen in the last 100 pages of RoW. A perfect Sanderlanche!

There are WoBs stating explicitly that there were times when singers fought on the human side. Someone better at finding WoBs will have to post it, though.

I've very curious about how all you Ghostbloods are going to feel when if it turns out that "your" team is really just a bunch of selfish murderous conspiracy egomaniacs. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE Mistborn Era 1 and was rooting for Kelsier the whole time. But the evidence at this point seems pretty clear that he's not working for anyone's good but his own. What will it take for you to jump off the Thaidakar Train? Wholesale slaughter of innocents? A deal with Odium? I think either or both of those quite possible.

Given that Brandon is himself a Christian, it seems very unlikely to me that he intends anything that would be remotely problematic for Christians.

Agreed - I'm having some serious misgivings about the number of enthusiastic murder spies in this forum right now LOL Apparently I'm the only member of Team Harmony so far. "You make me sad." In my mind, he is clearly the ONLY "team leader" we know (with a reasonable degree of confidence) whose goal is the best interests of sapient life in the Cosmere as a whole.

I generally follow the rule (and recommend to others) that when approaching a new author, read the books in the order in which they were written. Brandon is making that into quite a puzzle, though, isn't he? And it's only going to get worse... who's going to want to stop in the middle of one awesome series to start another series?

Of course there is something else going on! Maybe SEVERAL somethings. Have you forgotten this is BRANDON STORMING SANDERSON we're talking about? LOL There is always another secret. The short answer to your question is "we don't know...yet." As our friend Lunu'anaki puts it, I'm also as confident as I can be that we will learn much more about Shallan's past that will make things more clear... things she may not know, and probably, more things she sort-of-does-know-but-is-still-hiding-from-herself. And THAT'S the truly impressive ability that makes her so irresistable to the Cryptics: lying to OTHER people is the easy part; lying TO YOURSELF about whole big chunks of your own life? It's a well-documented coping mechanism for dealing with childhood trauma, and it's really quite amazing. I think you are dead wrong about this. Again, Brandon Sanderson. He was planning out the end of the entire Cosmere saga before he wrote the first novel. He's got every detail figured out, and I don't think he just decides to add in major details on the fly. This is a good point. Cryptics are DRAWN to lies, but don't exactly understand them the same way we do. It makes sense that the ability to "believe in your own reality", even if it's not what we might call "lying", is attractive to them, and might make young children with rich imaginations especially so.

I think you have answered your own question here. Cryptics are LIESPREN. They treasure lies. And Shallan is THE. BEST. LIAR.

Well, I strongly disagree. The deal was this - Odium: "if you help me, I will save your family." T: "The DIagram will serve you, in exchange for the preservation of my people." That deal said NOTHING about what the parties may or may not do directly to each other. Why would Odium have any fear of old feeble Taravangian? Say we sign a contract that says I'm going to buy a car from you for $1000, and while I'm giving you the check, I steal your watch. That doesn't invalidate our contract. You can call the police because I stole your watch, but you can't claim I broke the contract, because I didn't. Taravangian and The Diagram spent a year doing everything Odium asked. The deal was fulfilled, the Diagram disbanded, and Taravangian was ready to meet his end. Then Rayse got careless and had an unfortunate accident. The deal between the Power and the new Vessel is still in force, in my view. But I won't argue any more.

@Rushu42 after some searching, I found that everything I wanted to try to do has already been done:

https://www.telescope.com/Telescopes/Dobsonian-Telescopes/Dobsonian-Telescopes-with-Free-Shipping/Orion-SkyQuest-XT8-Classic-Dobsonian-Telescope/pc/1/c/12/sc/398/p/102005.uts?refineByCategoryId=398 That's the current version of what I have. I bought mine about 10 years ago. I'd also recommend a good quality eyepiece in the 8-12mm range.

If you spin it THAT way, sure, I sound pathetic LOL. What I meant was that if I expect, say, my son to behave like Adolin, I'm setting myself up for a lifetime of disappointment. Just trying to avoid unrealistic expectations in my own relationships... everybody *I* know is a normal human who has bad days and is sometimes petty or selfish. But heck yeah, I WISH I had a best friend like Adolin. That's a fair point.

@Rushu42 I guess that makes sense. I don't think there is anything new about the moons in RoW that wasn't described in the first 3 books. I'm a little surprised nobody has discussed it here already.

Hey all, I'm also an amateur astronomy fan. Of course my sky was COMPLETELY overcast on the 21st, and days before and after... but it was cold out anyway, and I saw plenty of Jupiter and Saturn all summer! @Rushu42 I own the exact telescope you are saving up for, and I LOVE it. My Orion 8" Dob is easy to set up and take down, light enough to carry around and load in a car, and with a good array of eyepieces gives great views for relatively little cash. The main downside is no motor drive, which means stuff wanders out of view pretty quickly (stupid rotating Earth, never quits), and, of course, no long-exposure photography is possible. But honestly, I bought it LOOK through. No matter how good my pictures might be, there are always better ones online. I can't afford the Hubble Space Telescope.

Hey, astronomy nerds! I'm a chemist and science educator (retired) by profession, but I consider myself a hobby-level astronomer. I would LOVE to have a discussion about the orbits of the moons of Roshar. Should we do it here, or should I start a new topic? If so, in which forum?

STORM it... now I want to go back and read every instance in every novel where someone swears a new Ideal and see if there's a Herald around, and, conversely, every scene with a Herald and correlate Radiants swearing Ideals. I don't have TIME for this! I have WORK to do LOL Nicely done, @Necessary Eagle !

No theory, just a few thoughts: 1) Highspren are the sentient spren of the Skybreaker order, and, of the ten, they are the ones we know the least about. We know almost nothing about their personalities, their motivations, their ideals - other than unwavering adherence to law. 2) The Recreance was, essentially, breaking the law. The Knights Radiant made Oaths, and chose (with the agreement of their spren, sure) to break those Oaths. It may be that the Skybreakers simply could not abide that; from their point of view, it was EVERYONE ELSE who were "traitors".

I feel bad that I have not responded to this amazing set of questions yet... and I STILL can't LOL. It's just too big a project, and we may need to learn more before we truly understand how awesome a given Interlude or set of Epilogues is. It will take me at least a week or two to go over all the material and make intelligent arguments for my choices. So kudos for a great topic, but I'm just not ready to dive in yet. One small clarification: I think we can be confident that this Interlude was, in fact, the first appearance of The Mink. Are we agreed?

I wish I knew more of the humans you do. Instead of seeming "human" and "real" to me, Adolin comes off as impossibly, SUPERHUMANLY caring and supportive, to the point where he's almost become a parody. At best, I can view him as an ideal... but I don't know a single real human who matches it. Don't get me wrong, I love the writing and I'm glad there are legitimately good characters in the series. But I hope we don't all start expecting our real-life loved ones to live up to the Adolin standard, because that's just not reasonable.

Say what, now? How do you figure that? The deal in question was (if I recall correctly, pending looking it up again - I don't have OB handy) "I use my Veden army to betray and attack Dalinar when you say, and in return you preserve the people of Kharbranth." Looks to me like Taravangian absolutely held up his end of the deal; he did EXACTLY what Odium told him to.

Another topic in where this question has been discussed at length: Short answer, the Testamentblade acts like any other "normal" (dead) Shardblade: is nowhere in the Physical realm until the wielder summons it.

From a narrative point of view (and I seem to be doing that a lot lately - mighty presumptuous of me to try to get into Brando Sando's head LOL) I think it's unlikely that Lirin becomes a Radiant. I feel like Kaladin has resolved his "father issues" to the point that Lirin is no longer needed as even a minor character... and we've got too many better characters to follow anyway. Besides, EVERYBODY can't end up as a Radiant. In the unlikely event it DOES happen, it will be mostly offscreen, as with so many other recent Radiants. From a Realmatic Theory point of view, though, it's certainly a possibility. We know that spren are more attracted to members of the same family (coughKholinscough), and to people who spend time together (Bridge Four). The only orders which have access to Regrowth are Edgedancers and Truthwatchers, so if his destiny is as a magical healer, it would have be one of those two... and from what we know about his personality, I don't see those ideals as a good fit. We also know there can only be THREE Bondsmiths, and two of those spots are taken, so, unlikely. There are WoBs, I believe, to the effect of "Bondsmith squires swore Oaths, KNOWING they would get no benefit from them." Skybreaker seems to fit best with his strong principles and rigid personality... but I don't see it happening.

Do we have any hard evidence of the actual amount of time Shallan was without a living spren bond? Is it possible that Pattern showed up the day after the bond to Testament was broken? I know SHALLAN feels like it was a long time between bonds... but she's clearly not a reliable witness. The first time someone SEES a spren does not necessarily coincide with the first ARRIVAL of the spren, as evidenced by Syl knowing about things Kaladin did weeks (months?) before he first sees her. We know the Cryptics, as a group, are watching Shallan closely; we know they decided as a group that she needed a spren bond; and we know they are willing to risk their lives to make it happen. I think we have to consider the possibility that Pattern was sent immediately (or very soon) after Testament became a deadeye.

So it is possible that the singers used axehounds, chulls, whitespines, even chasmfiends (as seen at the end of RoW) in their armies... that's pretty cool.