Argent

Hmm. I guess. I just go to the global unread, scroll through, check out whatever I am interested in, and then mark everything as read.

I've found no use for them beyond checking for new unread content (and excluding a few forums from there). What do you found so glorious about them?

We don't, actually. Honor - through the Stormfather - suggests this to Dalinar, but even he is not sure whether it will work. It's a safe bet to assume Dalinar will try to force Odium, as per the instructions, but whether it will work out or not... only Brandon knows.

Why don't we start by telling us how much of the Stormlight Archive you've read. Because how far into the series you are will shape the way we answer your question.

I should remind you that the "son-son" thing Szeth does is really rare among the Shin, and the only reason he does it is because he doesn't want to shame his father with what he has done and become. Unless you have a specific reason to not want your parent's name connected to yours, you really shouldn't be "son-son" or "daughter-daughter".

Kudos to He Who Comes with the Dawn, I can't come until at least 10 AM.

I doubt it, actually. Not only does Brandon mention the highstorms and the strange Rosharan flora and fauna, it would also make for a pretty weak pitch. Keep in mind, this is meant to convince people to throw money at this movie, they want to show off the coolest bits, not a bunch of people talking about big swords and power armor.

Looks like DMG, the company that recently acquired cinematic rights to the Cosmere, is doing something interesting - they are using virtual reality to pitch the idea to investors. Now, before we get too excited, we are not talking about DMG making a VR movie or anything like that. But they are creating a 15 minute Stormlight pitch, which Brandon describes as: The VR pitch won't be available to us for quite some time, but eventually it will be, and I think we'll turn that day into a holiday. A holy day, even. All in all, pretty exciting stuff.

This seems... beyond tenuous. The Shards' mandates are all fairly common attributes and emotions, it's not difficult to find people who represent them, especially if you filter their description through a lens of that mandate. And even then, I disagree with some of your choices. But even if I didn't, what you are doing is fitting the evidence to fit your "theory", and that - to me - is just not sound theorycrafting.

Aren't we all...

Wouldn't that make Feruchemists tapping (or filling?) their metals susceptible to Ruin's influence? I feel like he would've been able to wreck a lot more havoc a lot faster if he had access to a few full Feruchemists. But other than this, I find it difficult to comment on anything and be useful. It's a mammoth of a theory - in fact, I think there are at least three different theories I can identify - and that makes it difficult to discuss without investing (heh) much time; it's a problem I had when reviewing @Confused's big ol' theory of everything too. As with him, had I known you were going to post something like this, I would've encouraged you to post each building block separately, let them simmer in people's minds for a few days, and then do a "the story so far" at the beginning of the next building block's thread. This being said, I think your idea is unnecessarily convoluted. I know that Brandon said the explanation wouldn't be straightforward, so I agree that we should be looking for something that's not very linear, but I think you've gone a little overboard here. I do agree that Hemalurgy probably has a role to play in the creation of unsealed metalminds, and the the Excisors are probably some kind of Hemalurgic artifact, and I found it interesting to consider storing a Hemalurgic charge inside a nicrosilmind, but I think your thoughts veered off in a direction I was both unable and in disagreement with after that. The entire section about the religious Connection feels off to me (though it was good to be reminded that there is something special going on between gods and their worshipers); my personal headcanon lies more in line with Edwarn's comments about splitting the filling and tapping of metalminds between pairs of people, I feel that's a slightly stronger clue to how the medallions might work. Then again, all of this feedback is kind of a "gut feeling" feedback, because it's so difficult to wrap my head around the entire theory without spending more time than I can afford to spend, so take it as you will.

I am actually hesitant to read much from the constellation map, as it was designed and drawn by Isaac with very little input from Brandon (as I understand it). I think a lot of the stuff on it is going to be red herrings.

Could you elaborate on this one, just for me? It's been some time since I read Shadows. This smells like a RAFO to me.

Yeah, that was my read as well - he didn't want to stick around. I guess once you live for a while you tend to want to just rest - unless you have unfinished business.

Fun fact: Amaram used to dual wield Shardblades in The Way of Kings Prime.

People have forgotten how to read the Dawnchant. Navani's work on Dalinar's visions is only the beginning of a pretty big effort. I think there is a far cleaner solution to this ambiguity - Renarin was essentially saying that Odium, the Broken One, would arrive after 62 days, but that version wouldn't make sense to anyone who doesn't know that there is a being known as the Broken (One) - such as Rushu - so they would probably interpret it as "Death" if the glyphs for "broken" and "death" are similar enough. With how elaborate glyphs can be, I can easily imagine misinterpretation.

I've found it comforting to avoid thinking about books in terms of their genres and think about them as stories instead. If the book is a portrait, then the genre is the background - useful for providing context, but not the focus of the piece.

Well, not even that. Steelsight is just weird to me - why see lines at all instead of feeling where the metal is? Why not see metal glow? Why do the lines connect you with source of metal specifically? Why are they affected by Cognitive Realm (e.g. when Wax, in the Shadows of Self prologue, switches from thinking about the bullet as a single piece of metal, to three distinct pieces)? And why do very strong pushes allow the Allomancer to see more than just metal - and what is that something? Overall it feels - to me - like a magical effect that looks deceptively simple, but works off of really complex realmatic mechanics.

Honestly, I'd phrase it directly: "We know the mechanics behind some magic systems' mechanics - Hemarurgy cuts/sews pieces of Spiritwebs, Awakening imprints an object with a new cognitive aspect. What are the mechanics that make Steelsight (and Wax's Bands-enhanced version) work?"

I just want to know how Steelsight works, you guys.

Honestly, her identity as Shalash is pretty definitive at this point.

I would be extremely surprised if it's different. At most there might be some formatting changes, but I see no reason for Brandon to do a revision pass on it.

Ah, I apologize - I hadn't read this thread in a while, and while I remembered it was somewhat similar to my own theory (which runs much more in line with your idea, @Radiant_Jaeger - i.e. the Heralds have turned into opposites of their former selves), I had apparently misremembered the details.

I mean... both this theory and my own version of it say the same thing.