AquaRegia

Not sure why you think air resistance would suddenly stop at Mach 1. Meteors routinely enter earth's atmosphere at Mach 60... and they heat up and vaporize.

Here's a link to a previous thread about this topic: Also, this particular forum is "Tress only", with no Cosmere spoilers, so you might want to edit your title and keep the discussion going in the other thread instead.

I think one piece of the puzzle might be that because Brandon writes books that celebrate ideas like true friendship, diversity, and inclusion, he naturally attracts an audience that treasures those values as well. So of course we have a friendly, diverse, and inclusive fan base. (Is my amazingly awesome modesty showing? )

I see, that makes more sense... thanks for posting. I agree we don't seem to know enough yet, and it's very Brandon for in-cosmere characters to be confidently wrong about stuff. I do worry about how WoBs get spoken (sometimes poorly, often distractedly), recorded (sometimes badly), and transcribed (sometimes misleadingly). There can be an awful lot of room for error and lost meaning in that chain. Is it possible that when he said what he was THINKING was "all the Investiture that Adonalsium held at the time of the Shattering got assigned to one of the 16 Shards"? If so, that would not preclude there being Investiture NOT associated with Adonalsium, and thus not now associated with a Shard. Given that WoBs are not canon, this one's from 2017, he does sometimes misspeak or get misquoted, and he sometimes just plain changes his mind, I think it's at least possible. But you are right, overall that quote seems to be pretty clearly saying "all Investiture that exists is related to a Shard".

Nightblood's sheath is canonically aluminum, at least, according to the Coppermind. Again, no. He wanted silver to have the "internal pulling" spot, the one which amplifies the senses. He even named said Mistings "Silvereyes", which is objectively super storming cool. Later, he found out that pewter was mostly tin, with little or no silver, and had to bump silver out and replace it with tin. So we got Tineyes instead. I think it's an awesome story - silver is unique throughout the Cosmere because some 1980s hobby shop employees didn't know what pewter was.

Well heck, I hate being wrong. But thank you! My ego does need periodic deflation. I guess if Brandon tends to use a term incorrectly, Khriss is likely to as well. ;-)

moons ≠ sun LOL As noted by several others, this is almost certainly just a case of an electrical device with solar charging. @Oltux72 for the win - 3/3. The role of water in Aether magic is paralleled by that of metals in Allomancy. I'd love to see any evidence you have for this. My understanding was that Aethers 1) predate Adonalsium, and 2) represent Investiture wholly separate from the Shards.

I dislike the use of the word "catalyst" in this case. In chemistry, a catalyst increases the rate of a reaction (usually by providing a lower energy, i.e., easier, pathway) but is not itself consumed in the reaction. This does not match the role of water in sprouting Aether spores; water is definitely consumed. Same for Sand Mastery. It reminds me of the role of metals in Allomancy. The metals are consumed and need to be replenished, but they are not directly transformed into Investiture; instead the metals are described as being a "key", unlocking the Investiture somehow. Nobody ever refers to Allomantic metals as "catalysts". And correctly so. The idea of the Midnight Mother being an Aether or an Aetherbound entity is certainly tantalizing... and it seems very On-Brandon for "this thing we've seen on one planet" to turn out to be a version of "this other thing we've seen on a different planet".

I agree with @lacrossedeamon. We know from both contextual clues and WoBs that TotES is "far future" Cosmere, decades or centuries after MB E2 and SA E1. For whatever reason, whether it makes sense to us now or not, I think Brandon wants us to know that by Tress' time, Marsh-as-Death has a Cosmere-wide reputation.

I have no problem accepting that The Sorceress could pull off a Lightweaving like that. I have no idea what the reptilian creature is.

I don't disagree that TotES would be a reasonable My First Cosmere Novel™. But it's a fair point that a reader who is not familiar with Elantrians or AonDor might very well finish reading the final showdown and have no clue what just happened. I'll also agree in principle with the OP: seeing the same characters (or clans thereof) over and over does strain credibility. But I don't think the Cosmere is nearly as bad as Star Wars ended up getting... in terms of callbacks it's more like Star Trek. ;-)

Sorry, I neglected to actually make the point I intended to. Very true, and I agree with your estimates. A sailing ship that small traversing ~30% of the planet should take several months, not a few weeks. But given the number of other physical impossibilities we see in the cosmere, this one seems like small potatoes. Fine, it's a Mars-sized planet whose atmosphere is magically retained and/or renewed. Maybe it's more dense than average, for higher surface gravity. I don't recall any mentions in the text of how long the day/night cycle is, so that could be significantly different than cosmere standard as well. The size of Lumar and the stability of its atmosphere over astronomical time are open questions, agreed. They bother me less than the twelve streams of spores being endlessly dumped on the planet... and don't forget that said spores must be flying UPWARD from the surfaces of the moons somehow. I guess my real point is that the number of things for which the answer has to simply be "magic" is VERY large for Lumar.

I think I can answer without giving anything important away - yes, he is a kandra, and we don't learn the answers to any of your other questions. Enjoy!

I've also been bothered by the astronomical "realities" of the Lumar system. Back in the "SP1" days, there were several discussions about it; I'll pull over some quotes. @cometaryorbit @platnumkid This entire topic, kudos to @Ixthos, @Oltux72, and others: FANTASTIC work by @Oltux72 here: Flat-topped: this configuration has 3 fold symmetry: 4 offset rings of 3 moons each. I'm fairly confident that this is closest to what Brandon has in mind. Each moon has 5 closest neighbors, consistent with each sea being a pentagon. Among the many problems, of course, are that they are impossibly close to the planet (Roche limit), and moving impossibly slowly. If they are big enough to "cover 1/3 of the sky", they must be practically touching the planet. Not only do the various "facts" we have about Lumar and its moons not make sense, they literally cannot be made to make sense. Even with "magic", we're really stretching things.

If there is one character in SA who would care absolutely ZERO about how his hair looks, it's Kaladin. That said, Adolin is frequently jealous of how hot Kaladin looks (without even trying!), so it follows that his hair must be consistently good.

I would love nothing more than for Kelsier and Marsh to have a serious character arc together ONSCREEN in the future, especially given the way they might find themselves in opposition. "You know how I feel about you, brother... but you are wrong and I can't let you keep going." It's hard to imagine a scene packing a bigger emotional punch. Perhaps my skepticism regarding whether we'll actually GET that story is really just me trying to protect myself from disappointment. I looked forward so much to TLM, and for the most part, my high hopes were dashed. I don't want to get burned again. Storm it, past Brandon is ruining both my enjoyment of present Brandon and my anticipation of future Brandon!

I see what you did there

Hot take: Wayne is, and has always been, a dragon. I'm honestly not sure what one would have to do to earn "trouble with the 17th Shard". Just because they choose noninterference does not imply that they hold anyone else to their standard. They don't seem to be opposing any of the forces who are trying to take over various parts of the Cosmere in any way. If the spores are (as described) falling continuously from the lunagrees, and if the spore oceans are not rising, then it must follow that spores are being removed from the oceans by some mechanism. Since no reported surface phenomenon explains this, it makes sense that it may be happening at the bottom of the oceans. Knowledge of the recycling of matter/investiture (via aether spores) on Lumar could very well be consistent with learning how to control them.

My gut tells me that Tress takes place later than other major story lines. Harmony has released the Kandra? An actual honest-to-shard spaceship? Hoid finally becoming an Elantrian? All these things seem "new" to me.

He was glowing at the end, and Riina backed down, essentially admitting she was no longer sure she could take him in a fight. I think it was pretty clear that that was the payoff for winning his bet.

That's a GREAT point. I may also have subconsciously noted that Tress and her co-conspirators specifically chose THAT ship, at THAT time, for important reasons, to execute their complicated plot. What are the odds that out of all the ships in the Emerald Sea, Charlie would, just by coincidence, happen to be on that very one? Rusting Fortune. It's like the opposite of Occam's Razor.

I enjoyed the book. I'm worried, though, about how much of Brandon's writing has taken on a "Young Adult" tone. I'm glad that such works exist, and I celebrate the variety he's obviously aiming for... but I crave the fully realized characters and emotional depths of Mistborn Era 1 and the Stormlight Archives. He's SO GOOD at it! Both recent novels - Tress and The Lost Metal - seemed disappointingly adolescent to me. I hope we get more grown-up fare in at least some of the remaining Secret Projects.

I'm also pretty dense when it comes to book puzzles and reveals; so many things in books often DON'T make sense that I usually don't bother trying to figure anything out in advance and am happy to just go along for the ride. I felt fairly confident Huck was more than just a rat, but never really thought he might be someone we know until they reached the Sorceress' island. I also completely took the bait on the fake Charlie. So I guess I didn't get it until Tress did. I do recall thinking at one point early on "I bet Captain Crow turns out to be the Sorceress." Obviously glad I was wrong about that LOL

My first glance at the title made even LESS sense: "Moash Becomes an Aviar". I read the first two paragraphs thinking "wait, do we know Moash is immortal now? And how is a Rosharan invested by Ruin?" LOL To the point... I'd like to think there is a plan for Marsh going forward, but the events of tLM give me little faith. I like your idea, but seems like Marsh's future is more likely a fade to legend with possible occasional cameo. I hope I'm wrong.

The Coppermind entry for Lumar includes the following list: Known oceans[edit] Emerald Sea (made of verdant aether; also known as Verdant Sea)[11][12] Crimson Sea (made of crimson aether)[11] Midnight Sea (made of midnight aether)[11] Sapphire Sea (made of zephyr; also known as Zephyr Sea)[13][14] Rose Sea (made of roseite)[15] However, both the oven and flare gun make use of "sunlight spores" that produce heat and light. Does this not imply the existence of a Sunlight Sea (and therefore a Sunlight Moon)?