Argent

True (maybe - it's been a looong time since I read the book). I seem to remember that somebody specifically asked Brandon whether Szeth and Kaladin would belong to the same order, if they were Radiants.

Heh. All the URLs look like they say Broshar. Heh.

Ah, I didn't know Brandon actually read that. Makes sense, considering that parts of the other two unlocked Steelhunt chapters were also publicly revealed.

This particular tidbit has been spotted before. I believe it's just a coincidence, and the languages are absolutely distinct. I am about 80% of this.

Lift's interlude is a chapter included in the Steelhunt, it's not a reading he has done; and as such, it's only for people with Steelhunt codes (though the site staff seems to be working on some alternative solution). Once Team Sanderson gives us the green light, it will take about a minute to grab the interlude from the Steelhunt section of the site and copy it somewhere here. EDIT: How up-to-date is the first post in this topic? If not very, can we get an update, so we know whether there are things for the grabs?

I had forgotten about the book... Very well. I'll admit it's likely that either Brandon's original version of Elantris had Ien mean something like "healing." I'll see if I can get a response from Twitter (though I doubt it).

I am not sure I fully understand the issue here... The meaning of Ien is "wisdom," much like an Egyptian hieroglyph that looks like ~ might mean "water." Aons are not a full language, however, so some of them serve as cores for... spells, for the lack of a better word... that are not 100% literal translation of the Aon. Shao, for example, means "transform" or "change," but is used to create illusions - Raoden didn't actually transform or change the way he and Galadon looked when they were sneaking out of Elantris. Yes, Shao makes a little bit more sense than Ien, but not all Aons can be as literal as, say, Tia ("travel" or "transportation"). That's why the Elantrias rely so heavily on modifiers.

Light is not an exception - the universe doesn't play favorites. But I think we are interpreting the question differently - I am looking at it with the idea that, given a constant force and time, an object with higher mass will accelerate to a lower velocity than an object with lower mass (F = ma & a = v/t). You are thinking relativistically here - close to the speed of light, it takes exponentially more energy to produce the same change in velocity (e.g. accelerating an electron to 90% of the speed of light takes five times less energy than accelerating it from 90% to 99.99999%). Regardless. Not important. I think it's safe to abandon the "energy -> mass -> gravity" train of thought," since the amount of energy equivalent to a mass high enough to, for example, quickly and dramatically alter the path of arrows will enough to do some really nasty things. I am will to attribute this part of the magic system to "well, it's magic."

I am sure this will become common knowledge soon enough (if it wasn't already), but Graphic Audio will be doing one of their cinematic audio books for Mistborn. The Final Empire is coming out on December 1, this year. Warbreaker's three parts were released within a month of each other, but Mistborn is roughly thrice as long, as we'll have to wait and see when WoA and HoA will show up... For what it's worth, I've even got a Twitter reply from Peter confirming this. I don't know about you, but I am thrilled*. * I should've waited to make that joke for when (if?) Graphic Audio makes their version of the Way of Kings...

Baxil's mistress, assuming she is Shallash, could be destroying art in order to erase herself from written records - not necessarily because she is ashamed of her betrayal, but maybe because she doesn't want the world waiting for her, or even looking for her.

The other way around. Take photons, for example - they are massless particles (lowest possible mass) that travel at the speed of light (fastest possible speed).

Careful with the counts - the fact that Szeth can perform three Lashings doesn't mean this is the limit for Windrunners. Not only is Szeth not a real Windrunner, a lot of knowledge has been lost since the Recreance too.

Interesting... I've never actually questioned how those things will work out. It has been my assumption that, for example, Gravity comes with its own abilities, and Pressure comes with its own abilities, and the two don't mingle. In your words, one of the Windrunners' "neighboring" orders would be able to perform Basic/Reverse Lashings (plus whatever their other surge grants them), and the other neighbor would be able to perform Full Lashing (plus whatever comes from the other surge).

The Command to make someone forget is actually something only Vasher (and maaaybe a few other people) know. It's not an easy thing. Also, commanding living things, even of they are Darb, is nearly impossible, if not completely impossible. Breath - or BioChroma - is not the only factor that determines how a person behaves.

I like the idea of Honor tempting Odium into a deal in order to make him Invest himself, but I have a couple of issues with it. First, he wasn't exactly Splintering Shards left and right - he only had Devotion and Dominion on his record at that time, I believe. Both of whom were on the same planet, for added convenience - though Rayse could've chosen Sel because it had two Shards he felt he could take down. But second, Roshar feels like a shardworld Odium is actually kind of paying close attention to. He is, presumably, the cause for the Desolations, and there is no evidence of him getting so personal on any other world. Assuming that the Voidbringers and/or Desolations are somehow related to Odium's Investiture on Roshar, then I find it unlikely that Honor included said Investiture as a part of his deal. It sounds more likely that his requirement for the Oathpact would've been for Odium to lessen his direct involvement, not to start it in the first place. Also, in "he was killing Shardbearers" you probably want to say Shardholders - Shardbearers are people like Dalinar who have Shardblade and Shardplate; Shardholders are the people who pick up the Shards of Adonalsium.

Two questions: Why don't we have a Legion subforum? Is it because it's so short? Do we have an official name for the sequel, or do we just call it Legion II?

How powerful book scenes affect me has almost always been a direct result of how cinematic they are. If I can easily see it in my head, and if it feels like it's going to look badass on the big screen, there is a good chance I'll get the goosebumps. The only other (significant) requirement is that the scene has to include display of power, very preferably personal. This being said... Mistborn: Kelsier vs. Inquisitor. I think the description of the battle includes the phrase "whirlwind of steel" and that's something that has stayed with me. Elantris: The moment when Raoden completes the chasm line in Elantris and finishes his (and everyone else's) transformation. Warbreaker: Susebron awakening the palace. In terms of raw display of personal power, few scenes rival this one. That's a scene that puts God back into "God King." The Way of Kings: Kaladin jumping over the chasm, but more specifically the moments when he draws the stormlight from the Parshendi's jewels and then lands in a small explosion of stormlight. While not as spectacular or rich with raw power as Susebron's, I find it much easier to recall this scene and get the chills. Dalinar summoning Oathbringer and offering it to Sadeas was also a nice one, though I wouldn't have thought of it without help - I experienced a "hoooboy, the brownie is about to hit the fan..." for a moment when I was reading it; was close to Soulcasting the nearest object into popcorn. The Gathering Storm: Rand's scene on top of the Dragonmount, just before he goes all zen. I have never been as concerned for a living human being as I was worried that Rand might go bad. And then when Outside of Brandon's worlds, there is only one that comes to mind. In Raymond Feist's Magician: Master, Pug/Milamber essentially obliterates a coliseum full of people while channeling the prime elements and declaring "Tremble and despair, for I am power!"

I was under the impression that "surge" is Roshar's rough equivalent to "natural force," only theirs are... less refined. So while we have unified, for example, electricity and magnetism into a single force (cleverly named electro-magnetism), for them those would still be two individual surges. (Do we know all of the surges, by the way?) And as long as you are taking questions, I am curious whether Brandon will answer "How many parties were involved in the Oathpact?"

This is interesting. Self-sacrifice is generally considered honorable, so I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that a part of the Oathpact included a deal between Honor and Odium, the terms of which bound Honor to playing a sacrificial lamb in exchange of Odium agreeing to a formal way of being defeat, something to do with the Heralds. So, hypothetically, Honor would walk up to Odium and say "Look, man, you want my Shard and I know it. How about we save ourselves a few centuries of messing worlds up, and I just lay down here and let you Splinter the life out of me. In exchange for making things easy, you'll let my Heralds fight against your Desolations, and if this and this happens, you are screwed. Oh, but give me a couple of days to leave a few visions for somebody in the future too." What Honor gains out of this is not at all clear, because we don't know anything about pre-Oathpact Roshar, but it's easy to imagine it's something to do with either Odium's ultimate defeat, or easier life for Roshar's current and future denizens. And another thought, a little crazier. I wonder if the Tranquilline Halls and Damnation are the same thing. The Heralds' conversation from the beginning of the book makes it sound like the torment they endure is deliberate (and almost personal - you don't use chains and hooks to make a crowd suffer, you use them on individuals), but that aside I think it would be an interesting way to tie their recurring return to Damnation and the Vorin idea that dead warriors go to Valhalla the Tranquilline Halls and fight the Voidbringers there (who have, presumably, made the place damnation unpleasant).

I keep confusing Cognitive and Spiritual (for the longest time I kept thinking Shadesmar was the Spiritual...), like I keep confusing Sel and Scadrial...

#3 is a good question, I think, and so are #5 and #7. I'd be surprised if the answer to #1 turns out to be "yes." #9 is probably going to get "Good question, RAFO!"

A typo. Fixed it. But yea, considering that Endowment does create Splinters of itself, Cultivation should be able to do it too. I completely walked over this fact...

Goddamnit! It was an issue in my previous thread, it's an issue in this one as well. I am putting a sticky note on my monitor right now! EDIT: I do not lie.

I am sorry, @Darnam, I misrepresented my idea (happens when I try to watch a movie and post here at the same time...). I was trying to suggest that the two merge, but the Divine Breath, the Splinter, remains the dominant one, while the human soul (Spiritual aspect? form? entity?) turns dormant. In fact, it may be possible that the Divine Breath transforms all three aspects of the human it brings back to life - reshaping the physical slightly, strongly replacing the cognitive, and... modifying to an unknown degree the spiritual. @Isomere, doesn't Kelsier's soul reside in the Spiritual Realm, but can touch (very slightly) the Physical?

@The Question, he didn't actually say Mark XVII, I am afraid. Flawless theory otherwise. "Number 17" might've been closer. This made me think of something. Seons, Skaze, and Honorspren obviously have conscience (though it may be different from that humans have). It wouldn't be too big of a stretch of the imagination to consider the idea that the Divine Breaths of the Returned, on the account of them also being Splinters, also have it. Which would explain why they return with no memory of their past lives - the Returned themselves are really Divine Breaths / Endowment's Splinters inside a body, a husk. And the memories they do sometimes regain could be based on purely (plus some magic?) physiological processes - for example, since memories are encoded by way of neuro-networks in the brain, if a person Returns before his or her brain has had a chance to degenerate, those networks will still be present, just "locked away" by the Splinter's "personality."