Argent

I've always assumed it's for decoration. Far too many lines...

Not only that, but dead "Sprenblades" revert back to a sword shape when they "die" (as per a recent WoB). They started doing the whole Blade thing to mimic the Honorblades, so they turn into blades and not jewelry.

I wouldn't say he is harassing him... Hoid obviously knows that Kaladin is (going to be) important, and he has the habit of injecting himself in the lives of people with that capacity. But I agree he might be a little extra obnoxious every now and then, out of spite.

Shallan had been doing some Lightweaving before the accident with her mother. When she draws Pattern into the physical realm on the board of the Wind's Pleasure, the illusion she accidentally creates is of her sitting in her father's gardens, her spren's pattern visible in the specks of dust. This has to be from before the accident, as she shuts those memories down after her mother's death. Further, Pattern remembers Shallan creating illusions with sound, not just light - which has to be from before too.

As with every war, there isn't a single and simple explanation about why it works the way it works. I'll try to cover as much as I can, but there is a very good chance I will miss things too. First, a correction. The Parshendi used to live in the lands around the Shattered Plains, the former Silver Kingdom of Natanatan. It would take me a long time to find the exact quote, but if memory serves they decided to retreat to the Plains, (presumably) because it they knew the land there, and the plateaus & chasms landscape favors them over the Alethi. Second, the Alethi no longer think of this war as a siege. Yes, it is technically that, and yes, they are aware of it, but for them the war is no longer about defeating the Parshendi (which is why Dalinar's idea to unite the highprinces and actually go win the war is so controversial), nor is it about vengeance for Gavilar's death; though if asked, I am sure all of the highprinces will be quick to agree that the Parshendi must be defeated and Gavilar must be avenged. Here's the pickle about all this. The Alethi highprinces are quite comfortable with the "war" as it is right now. They sit in their warcamps, they go on plateau runs and win the very valuable gemhearts, all at a relatively low cost to them. Some of those gemhearts go directly towards Soulcasting and salaries, but a good number of them go in their respective treasuries. So... sit in camp and earn easy money for years, or push for a decisive victory and potentially lose soldiers, prestige, and valuable lounging and feasting time? Considering that the highprinces are, at least in some regard, the stereotypical nobles, it's not hard to see why they would choose the latter. Also, there is the part about the warcamps becoming the center of the Alethi culture, the seat of Alethkar's power. The king is there and all the important people are there. Hosting feasts, making deals, politicking, forging alliances, backstabbing (usually figuratively) opponents - this is what the highprinces like doing, and they don't need to win the war to do that. It's an issue of comfort, among other things. Winning the war will bring change, though I doubt anyone can predict what kind; so the nobles prefer to keep the current status quo, especially since it's not terribly inconvenient to them. It's like breaking out of a habit that you have no serious incentive to break out of it, not in the short term at least. Long story short, it's all about culture and economics. It's just about impossible to keep burning hatred going on for ten years...

One of Dalinar's visions from Words of Radiance (the one just before the "62 days" message appears) tells him specifically to reform the Knights Radiant. "Unite them" is ambiguous - Taravangian interprets it as "unite all of Roshar" while Dalinar started off with "unite the princedoms" and now seems more concerned with uniting, gathering, the Knights. So I guess that he is either seeing more visions (and so Gavilar and Taravangian just haven't seen the one where the Almighty refers to the Radiants), or they are all seeing different ones. Or Taravangian knows about the visions from Gavilar, who didn't keep him entirely up to date.

I liked this: now I must know more! Oh, look, this is Brandon being Brandon... I want to read this book so much! I didn't actually remember the mention of the God Beyond - but then, I've only read The Alloy of Law once. We've now seen the name pop up in both The Emperor's Soul and Words of Radiance. I definitely suspect Hoid for, if not starting, then at least propagating this trend throughout the cosmere. I wonder if he is subtly making people believe in Adonalsium as a part of his cosmere plan...

If I understand the logistics of it, people don't actually go to Shadesmar, they just shift their perception to see how it looks like around them. This being said, Jasnah can go in there, because she has control over the Surge of Transportation - which is probably what happened. She was stabbed, the mercenaries left her there confident she was dead (one of them drove a knife through her chest and it came out out from her back, after all), at which point she must have drawn in some Stormlight, healed up (at least partially) and Transported herself to Shadesmar.

A while back Brandon was toying with the idea of having one or two characters have a second set of flashback (Kaladin was one of them). As far as I know he hasn't officially scrapped this idea.

@Pattern & @Harakeke, want to coordinate deciphering efforts or something? I really want to figure (enough of) this out before the Chicago signing next week...

Sddsd?

The Shardhunters just unlocked the annotations for Chapters 2-10 of The Alloy of Law. Go check them out!

There was a thread somewhere where we talked about all the TWoK epigraphs (in the light of WoR's reveals)... I'd find it for you, but I am too tired right now

This.

We've been wondering about the larkin even since (a few months after) The Way of Kings came out. And really, we don't know anything about them, other than they are really rare, come from Aimia (?), and can apparently drain the Stormlight off people.

Each store organizes those things differently. Small bookstores usually let you in on good faith. Big ones, such as Barnes & Noble, usually require you to purchase the book the event is for (so Words of Radiance) before the actual signing. When you do, they give you a ticket stapled to your receipt, and you use that receipt to reach Brandon. You can attend and listen to him talk during the general Q&A and reading parts, but if you want to go up to him, you need a ticket. Either that, or you agree to wait at the end of the line, after all the people with tickets.

I am not sure I follow you here. How is it that the Soulcasters have the same effect as the Shardblades? Shallan's skin doesn't turn to stone and her eyes don't look like gems (as far as we know) when she Soulcasts. Kaladin doesn't show any of those effects either. And what makes you say the ardents are "soul bonded" to the fabrials? Do you mean in a way similar to the Nahel bond Radiants and their spren share? Because I am not seeing that either.

Heh, true that. But I'll remain a tiny bit skeptical, just because we hear the name from a person who is not a Herald. There is a very good chance the Shin have preserved the knowledge of the Heralds much better than the Alethi, but still...

Oh, I like! A couple of small things I would like to critique though - the "Stormlight Archive" label was a little hard to read ("Archive" in particular) and "Words of Radiance" could be much more awesome of it had, you know... radiance to it

I remember this about Vin as well.

Wow, big props to Talenel. I think the Adonalsium thing is a red herring - didn't we hear, from another signing, that he (it?) was shattered by an external force? Kaladin's brands, good to have confirmation. I think most of us suspected that this is the case, but I always delight in straight answers to good theories.

Where did that WoB come from? It's new to me.

It's how you are supposed to pronounce it. Jasnah sounds like Yasnah, Jah Kaved is Yah Kaved, and so on. At least in Alethkar and Jah Kaved.

And, boy, do we have expectations! And he delivers. Every. Time.

Kaladin is going to get so roasted...