Argent

The following (snipped of a) Reddit conversation might be interest to you (unless you've been a participant in it, then this is going to be really embarrassing...): It doesn't give much in the way of answers, but it clear some things about how Brandon approaches all this.

A Rosharan year is about 1.1 Earth years.

I remembering noting this when I was reading the book, but I signed it off as the building resembling the building beneath the Lord Ruler's palace, where Kelsier and Mare confronted the Lord Ruler. If there is a resemblance, it could easily explain why Kelsier would react to it. This being said, I don't actually remember how that building was described back in The Final Empire.

It wasn't clear which "book 3" OP was referring to. I suspected they meant The Hero of Ages, but it's unusual to refer to Hoid as Wit in the context of the greater Cosmere. So I figured a clarification was necessary.

Book 3 is not out yet, boss Your time traveling device must've sent you to us a little too early. So I am not sure what you mean. Wit, a.k.a. Hoid, was an informant in The Final Empire and in The Hero of Ages. He is (mostly) just the King's Wit in the Stormlight series.

That's a really good question, and the response it got makes it even more so. It probably won't change much about how we theorycraft, but we know so precious little about Adonalsium, every little bit feels enormous.

I think it could go either way. You can make the argument that the healing needs to follow the healer's guidance - so, for example, if Lift was healing a burn victim, she wouldn't know to restore their birthmarks; so she wouldn't. On the other hand, a healer cannot possibly know everything about their patient, so at some point they need to let the patient's body do some work. In fact, a Surge called Progression - not Restoration, or Healing, or anything like that - suggests that the Surgebinder is, in some ways, accelerating natural processes (one of which is healing). So Regrowth might very well be the act of granting magical healing to someone, and letting them, all of their Realmatic aspects, handle it as well as they can. Maybe with some guidance. Obviously, the answer could be a mix between the two extremes. The healer's knowledge (e.g. awareness of how infections how) and the patient's... self-knowledge, the natural (at least for the Cosmere) awareness of the body of what a healthy state is. I am personally in favor of one of the last two options. I don't think a Surgebinder with control over Progression does all the work when they Regrow someone; I believe they (mostly) allow the patient's natural healing ability, magnified by the Surgebinder's magic, to handle things on its own. So Lift probably wouldn't be able to heal Kaladin's scars, no more than he can.

It is odd, but Brandon has been tight-lipped about Shallan's childhood before her appearance in the Words of Radiance flashbacks.

Harmony helped.

I think I recall something similar too, yes. Hey, look what I found!

I just get no reply. You do need to know that I've only asked him about this online though, so it's a difficult silence to interpret. Nothing of that sort, I'm afraid. I think he recognizes me both in person (from the signings I've attended) and online (from both Twitter and Reddit), but probably not much more than that.

Looks much better now

Every time I ask Brandon about the pre-Final Empire Scadrial, he goes silent I would love to learn more about it, but I am starting to doubt it will happen. Maybe we'll get some glimpses from WoBs, but I now doubt we'll get even a short story, let alone a full novel.

The details on this are not entirely clear, but I believe it is generally accepted that Shallan had attracted Pattern at a very young age, and had advanced far enough in her Knighthood to be able to have him materialize himself. I don't know if that necessarily means Third Ideal, maybe it could work differently in some circumstances.

This thread has fallen to madness. It must be put down.

This conversation took a turn I did not expect...

In honor of this (now a little dated) revelation, I have two Tumblr posts for you. One about Brandon's growth as a writer, and one about (and I quote the attribution line) Shallan thirsty-like-the-rest-of-us Davar. The latter being a phrase that will stay with me for life.

Oh, I had completely forgotten I had won something! *rebels*

It's hard to confidently agree with a statement like this when we don't actually know what a Voidbringer is. I think we might get some nasties coming out of the chasmfiends' chrysalises in Oathbringer, with the Alethi no longer being on the Plains to kill them, and the Everstorm bringing a regular dose of bad. But would those nasties be classified as Voidbringers? I don't know.

That's lead poisoning for ya Ah, you are one of those "I would rather not be treated as an object on the table" people. I hear your movement is gaining momentum, this must be exciting But to take us back on topic, you know what else peeves me? A little bit? When people don't italicize the names of works of writing. Like, typing Warbreaker (when referring to the book) instead of Warbreaker. But it's a very tiny irritation, far superseded by the ones I mentioned before.

I believe this is taking it too far. Connecting glyphpairs and Realmatics was already a stretch, extending this to spren and symmetry... therein lies madness.

Not having seen any one of the four times you've raised this very point, seeing this thread leaves me... confused. There is context to your idea, but I don't have it, so it looks a little like a pile of messy thoughts. Perhaps you could revise a little, with clarification in mind?

Let's make sure we don't bring politics into this.

Not mutually exclusive Hence the pet peeve Though I have Jim Butcher to blame for this one, I hadn't realized the difference (or at least I hadn't internalized it) until I read one of the latest Dresden Files.

I've actually been thinking about Surgebinding itself as a mix between Honor and Cultivation. By default. But it's weird there, because the Surges are very much like the fundamental forces, so it's the control over them that's the magic, not the Surges themselves. I don't know, folks, I've been trying to wiggle myself out of this thread for a couple of days now, leave me alone