Argent

Interesting about the drifting Roshar. Makes sense, of course. Maybe what is now the Origin used to be on the actual land, somewhere to the east. Could Stormseat be where Honor was Splintered? The Honorblade... Good to know we don't need to bang our heads, but I suspect somebody in Kholinar snatched it before Bordin got to it. Maybe someone in the queen's court...

Ooo. Juicy Herald info. I now need two know whether Taln's superspeed comes from Investiture or training.

You don't look at space porn for fun?

You had a typo in your post, I fixed it.

Hmm, no, I don't think this is right. Even if the site lists the pendant as jeseh, looking at all of those, there are just far too many lines for all of them to be screw you lines. Maybe if we ignore the the part in the middle that looks like a Blade in most glyphs... I think I would like to confirm it with Brandon this Saturday.

Not consistently, I think, but Harakeke is the one who likes to play with vowels. I've been focusing on the consonants alone. And I don't know if we can use the Heralds' names to figure out the glyphs. Jeseh and tanat work (first + last syllable of the full Vorin name, ignoring the 'Elin suffix), but that's only two out of 10...

I don't know, the timeline is confusing... If we look at the last Desolation, the one from 4,500 years ago, we have two very different accounts about what happened to the Voidbringers. In one version of the story the Bondsmiths figured out a way to take away the Voidbringers' spren, turning them into slaveform. In another the Last Legion voluntarily chose to abandon the forms of power given by their gods and embrace only dullform (and mateform) in order to regain their freedom. My guess is that both of those things happened, only in different places - i.e. the humans weren't even aware of the Last Legion (which probably settled in the lands of Natanatan). I think Stormseat must have been destroyed after this time and the Parshendi must have been blamed for it somehow - which means the humans knew about them, but if they knew about them, why would they let them remain free instead of claiming them for parshmen? I am sorry, I can't put the information we have in a coherent enough timeline even in my own head, and I can't start arguing history and populations before I do.

The one created by the 17S site? You don't need to do it, the content you'll find on it is already available on Brandon's site.

There have to be limitations. From the little we've seen, it looks like the spren has to physical touch its Surgebinder in order to solidify in a given shape (e.g. Kaladin cannot have Syl turn into a dagger, then throw that dagger and have it transform itself into a spear). Distance has to be another thing that factors in - back in The Way of Kings when Syl flew away to find the... blackbane? Kaladin had thrown away, she said she had almost lost herself, presumably because the Nahel bond was "stretched thin." This is not answering the question, however. Probably because there is no answer at this point. Though I am going to guess spren need their human's... intent in order to kill.

Fair enough, it's interesting. But we are in the physical realm, why wouldn't we be able to see the real shadow pointing in the right direction?

Maybe you can... And the map was commissioned by Gavilar, there is no relation to Shadesmar as far as we can tell.

That's actually exactly what I was looking for - except it probably won't help us one bit because 90% of the glyph is style and screw-youness. One of the lines is an extra. But knowing that this glyph is jeseh we might be able to make some semi-educated guesses about the rest. the Willshapers' glyph doesn't look too complicated. and neither does the Truthwatchers'. We'll see.

The pause before Jezrien could mean that he is Jezrien, or that there is something related going on. I am not going to explore this for now. What I am growing more and more interested in is his language and/or accent. He seems to speak perfect Alethi when he arrives in Kholinar, then reverts to a barely understandable northern accent, but goes back to perfect Alethi when Shallan goes to visit him. Another interesting point. He says that "Ishar keeps talking about a way to keep information from being lost following Desolations." Epigraphs and some thinking lead me to believe that this way manifested itself in the Knights Radiant - so at this point he has no memory of the Knights. But when Shallan draws some Stormlight in, he seems to break through the madness and recognizes her as "“One of Ishar’s Knights ... I remember . . . He founded them? Yes. Several Desolations ago. No longer just talk. It hasn’t been talk for thousands of years." Now he does remember the Knights. Is this Talenelat'Elin, Herald of the Almighty, but with mind jumping between the different Desolations? This is the best theory I can come up with. When he arrives before the gates of Kholinar he is himself, as sane as we will ever see him in Words of Radiance. He speaks perfect Alethi, because for one reasons or another, he can. Not important right now. Then he falls unconscious, some stuff happens, Bordin gets a hold of him and decides to drive him to the Shattered Plains. During the journey he continues speaking good Alethi, presumably, because when Bordin takes Amaram to see him (while Shallan hides behind an illusion), he tells Amaram that the ramble is what he has been repeating during the entire journey from Kholinar. When Shallan talks to him, his Alethi is perfect, and the only two times he seems to break from his madness is when she asks him about his identity and when she draws Stormlight. So far everything is pretty consistent - this is really the Herald Talenelat'Elin, his mind broken and wandering from the millenia of torture in Damnation, capable of forcing its way to the present only when prompted the right way - apparently his identity and Stormlight are two ways to maybe do this. The big exception to the rule is when Dalinar and Elhokar are first introduced to him, when Bordin arrives in the Planes. I need to look into this interlude and see if something about it seems off...

I am confused about why you are confused. It looks pretty clear that (Brandon wants us to believe that) Taln's return Damnation 4,500 years ago assured that no Desolations would come until he breaks. So now he broke. And here it comes.

For consistency.

The Shardhunters hit 225 codes a little earlier today, which means we get a new unlockable: Ringtones & Voice Mail Messages read? spoken? recorded? by Brandon himself! I am not going to lie, they are pretty wonderful. You can go and download (and use) one (or more) of the following: Ringtone, in which Brandon is insistently asking you to pick up your phone. Because he could've written 15 epic fantasy novels in the time it takes you to do that Mistborn-inspired voicemail message, which is pretty damnation cool. Your non-Sanderfan friends might never talk to you again if they hear it, but you don't care about them anyway A more generic voicemail message, in which Brandon explains why you are not picking your phone upA number of variations of the above if you are lucky enough to have a pretty common name

Oooo. Artsy stuff!

The gender pronoun could be just an artifact of how he thinks about the sword - it has a voice that sounds like male's, so it becomes a "he." I wouldn't read too much into it. Though there is some merit to your idea...

I actually never thought about it. Looks pretty though.

Oh, that's right, we also have the cover blurbs to think about... Damnit, we need more info!

I should point out that all things exist in all realms. Humans might be dominantly in the physical, but they still cognitive and spiritual aspects. This being said... spren shadows point towards Shadesmar's "sun" when they are in the cognitive realm too.

I suppose, @Swimmingly... You think he spiked Taln for his memories and gave them to somebody else?

Possibly. Likely even. I am trying to think whether any of the thoughts from the interlude indicate anything - because I am pretty sure the narrative there suggests that the person, whether he is Taln or not, has either been tortured in Damnation or has the memories of someone who has.

We usually do a thread for each signing.

I don't like the "person swap" theory. The madman in the warcamps is inhumanly fast and knows things no normal person should know. Some form of "multiple personality Taln" is my go-to theory for now. Maybe he is just insane. Maybe he had another personality shoved down his throat. Maybe he broke from torture and threw half of his mind into another personality (the one we see in the warcamps). Maybe Hoid did something to him, for one reason or another.