Argent

Really, I am more curious about how those letters get around...

Okay, I am really curious about those rose compasses now.

Oh, hmm. Turns out I forgot about this. Chicago signing is this Saturday, so there isn't enough time to send things in the mail (cheaply). Is there something digital I could print, and maybe laminated or something? I feel no shame about using the expensive printer we have at work for printing Brandon-related things

You might be better off digging through the Coppermind wiki and the interview database / signings reports in order to catch up on all the cosmere lore we now assume everyone knows about.

No comment Refer to my reply here for some scenarios that could explain what happened with the Honorblade. It might help you phrase the question better (though, if answered, its current form works well for me). You could ask if Bordin is truly loyal to Dalinar. You could also ask whether the queen has seen Taln and his Blade. I would also like to know that, but it's RAFO bait. My feeling is that you might get some hint about it by limiting the scope of the question. I can't give you an example, however... Good question, but it sounds like something that would be explored in a future book and is therefore literal RAFO bait. After I can't think of much you can ask that's not RAFO material, actual. But I'd be curious to find out why Szeth was employed by the Parshendi on the night of Gavilar's assassination. Because they decided to kill him on that very night. I also think it would be useful to know whether Brandon considers parshmen and Parshendi in the "normal" forms (war-, mate-, nimble-, worker-, and dullform) to be Voidbringers, or if he reserves that name only for those who bond with voidspren.

Right, that should've been "crutch," obviously...

This is the general consensus, I think. I am confident she is having a vision here, though how her Surges allow her to see distant lands (in what looks like the distant past) is beyond me. I originally thought that the woman was Jasnah, but that theory no longer makes any sense to me. So I am firmly in camp Shalash now.

"Gods" in the cosmere are not really dependent on worship - you get yourself a Shard of Adonalsium, you have the power of a god at your disposal. Whether sapient species acknowledge you is a matter of personality. Regarding the Broken One, it's unlikely that it's Taln (though he certainly must be pretty broken). Considering the context of this phrase ("Three of sixteen ruled, now the Broken One reigns"), it's probably a reference to one of the Shards - whom we know to be sixteen. We know that Shards Honor, Cultivation, and Odium have been active on Roshar, so it's likely that they are the three the Death Rattle calls for. And while the "Broken One" could refer to any one of them (Honor because he is Splintered, Cultivation because she is pretty broken up by the loss of her lover, and Odium because he is just psychotic), Odium is the one that makes most sense to me. Plus, neither Honor nor Cultivation seem to be doing anything serious ruling nowadays. Plus, Odium ruling is pretty ominous.

Fetich Emu, the Fourth Metallic Art! EDIT On a more serious note now. I think we have a WoB somewhere that, technically, you can use any Shard's Investiture (a.k.a. power) to fuel any other Shard's magic system. Except in most cases it's really really difficult (source). I think the first thing we need to do if we want to figure out how plausible Aonic Metallic Arts or Metallic Aons are, is to look at how those magic systems work behind the curtains. We don't know as much as we would like, and I know even less than that because I've been obsessed with The Stormlight Archive, but I'll try anyway. Part 1: Aons and the Dor The Aons work by essentially providing an outlet for the power of the Dor. We know close to nothing about the Dor, but last I checked we were treating it as the sum the free Investiture / power from the Splintered Shards of Devotion and Dominion. A little bit like Harmony, but without the Shardholder. This power, which is mostly spiritual in nature (but partially cognitive and physical as well), exerts some form of magical pressure on the cognitive and physical realms. The pressure on the cognitive realm is likely what makes Realmatic Transportation to and from Sel difficult; the pressure on the physical one is what makes Aons (and other magic in-world systems) work. As an Elantrian, Raoden can open a door, a conduit for the Dor by drawing an Aon - and the shape of the Aon determines how the Dor's power is going to manifest itself in the physical realm (as light, a blast of force, a column of fire, etc). It's worth noting that the Dor is a very localized source of Investiture, however - using it outside Sel will be damnation near impossible. And on top of that, it looks like you would need to have the right Spiritual DNA to draw Aons, except your sDNA at birth doesn't seem to matter - the Shaod takes care of rewriting you in a way that would allow you to stab the air and draw pretty lines. The other magic systems on Sel might not have the same requirement (e.g. I was left with the impression that anyone could be a Forger and anyone could turn into a Dakhor monk). Part 2: The Metallic Arts Now, the Metallic Arts - and let's look at Allomancy in particular. I am a little fuzzy on the details here (Scadrial is the world I know the least about), but if I recall correctly there are three components to a successful Allomantic "spell cast": The "caster" has to have the right Spiritual DNA. If you don't have the right genes, you will never be able to have dichromatic eyes. If you don't have the right "spiritual genes," you will never be able to perform Allomancy. The "caster" has to have Snapped. There is a ton of cosmere lore about Snapping, and I barely remember any of it, so I'll ignore this requirement for now. The "caster" has to have metal available. Assuming those three prerequisites are met, the Allomancer can proceed to burn the metal they have. I seem to remember that the actual realmatic explanation involved something about a lock and key model, where you need the metal is the Allomancer's key, used to unlock Preservation's Investiture. Similar to how the Aons serve as a conduit to for Dor, really. You burn a given metal, and that allows you to (temporarily) touch (a single aspect of) the power of Preservation. Note: somebody should really check my realmatic theory here. Part 3: Crossovers Assuming I am mostly correct in my brief summary of those two magic systems, there are certain things that would need to happen in order for a crossover between them to occur. If you want to draw Aons on Scadrial, you are probably screwed. Aon Dor requires proximity to Elantris, and if Raoden's Aons grow weak when he is in Theod, hen being on another planet is pretty much a no-brainer: he won't be able to touch the Dor. Using the Metallic Arts on Sel, now, that's more interesting. First you would need to have the right sDNA - either because you were born in the right family from Scadrial, or because you ate and burned a bead of lerasium (because it rewrites your sDNA to allow you to tap into the power of Preservation). Second, you would need to Snap - unless you went the lerasium route, then you are fine. Obviously, you would need some metals - maybe taken from Scadrial, we don't yet know whether any iron is okay for Pushing, or whether it has to be iron from Scadrial. The only thing left, you need to tap into the power of Preservation by burning the metal of your choice... and we have no idea whether that's going to work. My guess is that it will, because the Metallic Arts are not dependent on which region (of Scadrial) you use them from, but we don't know whether distance affects Allomantic strength. It's possible that it does. Hey, look, I wrote a thousand words to say what I could've said in a single tweet - it's probably only going to work one way (Metallic Arts on Sel).

Woah, Bort, that's... way out there. No, sorry, you are misremembering things pretty hardcore - Odium is a Shard of Adonalsium (which is as close as beings get to being gods in the cosmere). The Radiant - Herald, actually - left behind was Taln (or Talenel'Elin, or Talenelat, whichever form of his name you prefer). Sounds like you need a nice juicy reread

I too am not convinced that the Dawnshards are the third type of Blades. Shallan's comment could easily compare them to Honorblades only in terms of value and mysticism. The quote about them being bind to bind creatures both mortal and voidish makes me think that we haven't seen anything that's even similar to the Dawnshards - note that Jasnah's notes speak of binding creatures, not binding with creatures. This sounds more similar to the gemstones' ability to trap spren (except, you know, not for spren. Probably.) than the spren's ability to bind with humans and listeners.

I think you are overlooking the thing about the fonts - I am pretty sure that's just how the font was designed, so it can feel unique and all. The part about the letters intersected by the compass' lines, that you may be onto something. Now that I look at it, there are many letters that look different - to the point where I have to wonder whether you are onto something, or what you (and I) are seeing is just a product of the map's coloring. I am going to assume, for now at least, that this is the major thing Peter said we hadn't noticed, and look into it. Going ray by ray is probably the most organized way of enumerating all the weird letters. Also, I think what we are looking for here is lack of shadow behind the letters, or a much lighter shadow than is present in the other letters of the given name. Yulay, for example, fits the pattern, but Azir and Zawfix don't. So I don't know, seems a little erratic...

I'll see if I can smuggle the question in. I am probably going to post a list of questions I am considering in the next day or two, see if forum discussions can help me narrow them down a little. I definitely want to ask for hints about figuring out the Alethi glyph writing system... But this is all stuff for another thread.

Ah, that's a good question. The Parshendi food supply seems somehow dependent on the gemhearts, but looking at their diet and the lack of Soulcasters, they don't seem to be using them for Soulcasting food out of thin air. If memory serves, Eshonai mentions that her people are accelerating the growth of... rockbuds?... using Stormlight, so that could be one way gemhearts are tied to food supply. Another option could be trading, though who (and how) would trade with the enemies of the most dangerous nation on Roshar is beyond me.

I wonder who else could have had access to the Honorblade. I don't think Amaram has it - Dalinar is quite certain he had bonded with "the madman's" Blade, so the Honorblade must have vanished before that little fiasco. But Taln had it when he appeared before the gates of Kholinar - so it must have been swapped sometime between his appearance and Dalinar's trick. This is quite the time period we know nothing about, but I believe we can narrow it down a little. Rereading Taln's interlude, in the scene where Bordin first arrives in the warcamps and meets Dalinar, Papa Kholin says: The fact that Dalinar doesn't know the ancestry of Blade (and he probably either knows or can have Navani research every known Blade), combined with how Bordin doesn't remark on the Blade looking different, leads me to believe one of three things: The Honorblade was switched before Bordin got to see it. Nothing suggests that he was on guard duty on the gates when Taln cut through them, so there must have been a time window between Taln's appearance and Bordin's arrival at the gates (presumably after one of the guardsmen there fetched him) during which the whereabouts of the Honorblade were unknown. If someone had switched it then and there, with another unaccounted for Shardblade, then Bordin would've assumed that the Shardblade on the scene was Taln's. He then drove the Herald to the warcamps, sharing the first few days of the trip with Hoid, met with Dalinar, made his report, and Dalinar put his plan into motion (he tells Bordin that he is going to need him for something related to the Blade). The Honorblade was switched sometime after Bordin got to see it, but before Dalinar saw it. If Dalinar had seen the actual Honorblade, he would've also noticed that the one he summons when he confronts Amaram is not the same one - and while that particular scene is from Kaladin's point of view, and Dalinar could've just went with it without remarking on the different Blade, I find this very unlikely. In this scenario, the Blade must have been switched somewhere on the road - and if Hoid didn't do it, the only other suspect is Bordin himself. For this to work, however, Bordin must have taken the Honorblade for himself, bonded with it (and that's a can of worms of its own, because I believe we have a WoB that Honorblades cannot be bonded with), and then procured the second, unaccounted for, Shardblade to present to Dalinar. I kind of like the "Bordin is a double agent / traitor" vibe of this theory, but it just feels so very implausible to me... Finally, the Blade Dalinar saw when Bordin arrived was the actual Honorblade. It means Dalinar stashed it somewhere and then procured some other Shardblade that he actually bonded with and gave to Bordin to hide and eventually Amaram to. I like this theory too, but there are obvious holes in it. Most notably, why would Dalinar go through all the trouble of stashing the Honorblade - which, to him, was just another Shardblade - and then planting another one in its place? Long story short, scenario #1 is the only one I could see happening, but there is virtually no support for it, and that bothers me. I can't imagine where else the Honorblade would be, but I also can't imagine why it would go missing when and where it did. I think I might ask Brandon if it's actually possible for us to divine the location of the Honorblade given what we've seen in the book...

Ewww! I would probably check with the store personally, because Brandon usually has no issues staying after the general signing (for which those, or similar, rules tend to apply at every event) and sign / personalize pretty much anything you hand him.

@DragonReborn, let's be mindful of spoilers. I can't think of a way to paraphrase that scene vaguely enough so it doesn't reveal anything to people who haven't read The Gathering Storm, so you might want to delete it altogether. Either that, or hide it behind a spoiler tag and note the book it comes from. If you don't know how to do spoilers, here's a quick primer: [spoiler]Spoilers go here.[/spoiler]

More theorycrafters, more chance of getting something right!

I think we are mostly of the same opinion, but express those similarities differently. We both agree that there is some geography to Shadesmar - how closely it resembles that of Roshar is a subject to (a pointless, for now) debate. Still, let's assume that at least the general shape of the "land" is the same, because that's kind of what the map suggests. This is cognitive realm with no connection to the physical one. Now, we add the physical realm, with all its things that have a cognitive aspect, and roughly link the two, so that an object at location (x0, y0) in the physical realm - say, a ship called Wind's Pleasure - can be found at a location not far away from (x0, y0) in Shadesmar. There is perhaps something odd going on with the z-axis, but I am going to handwave that for now. Regarding the fish though, I maintain that I am correct. The minds of living - sapient, I should say - things from the physical realm are reflected as lights in the cognitive one, not spheres. Human minds float in Shadesmar, they don't seem subjected to the cognitive gravity thing going on. Actually, since the text is not clear, I am going to say we are both wrong about this. Perhaps the minds of fish are not actually underneath the obsidian "floor," but they are certainly not spheres rolling around Shallan's feet either.

Am I the only one who doesn't see anything even remotely close to words?

I think the same glyph shows up on the fighting stances scroll. I haven't examined it closely (on the phone atm), but ot looked similar. Nazh's name as a glyph maybe?EDIT @tareth, I believe the reason physical land corresponds to cognitive ocean and vice versa is because even on the smallest piece of land, there are MANY things with cognitive aspects. Take a beach - it's possible that every single grain of sand is an individual sphere in Shadesmar. Add some buildings and other non-animate matter (furniture, for example), and it's easy to see why Kharbranth, for example, would be an ocean. There are just too many spheres. Furthermore, when Shallan Soulcasts the ship, she drops on what looks like ground made of obsidian. Devoid of cognitive aspects. Or, if you want to think of it this way, the entire ocean is a single gigantic cognitive piece; we don't think of oceans, lakes, and seas as a collection of drops of water, we see it a single entity. Plus, the small minds she sees there, what she speculates to be fish, float beneath the obsidian surface.

You know, I've been thinking... We might be misinterpreting the Diagram here. Here's the actual epigraph: We've been thinking about broken people, I guess because of the book's description on the website, but even that is not a certain reference to the candidate Radiants. But Shallan doesn't quite fit the model (at least given the level of knowledge we have at the moment), and Ym certainly doesn't seem broken.

Yea, so going to print all three maps tomorrow at work and then figure out a way to spend my day folding and overlaying them.

Right, so we all believe she is alive. Good. Main reasons for her survival: Shardplate Stormform Stormform's rumored immunity to the highstorms' destruction Plot reasons No corpse

You have a personalized book with an answer to a cosmere question? You can snap a photo of it and then just use the forum's built-in picture uploader (the My Media button). Or you could upload it to an image hosting website (imgur and flickr come to mind) and then just provide a link.