PanicPug

Is there any information available about whether and when the two Story Deck stories Elsecaller & King Lopen will be released as eBooks? I only learned from the recent State Of The Sanderson that they were released as a physical book at all. Since then I waited a while, regularly checked the Dragonsteel online Store as well as other eBook stores, but can't find it anywhere.

For me the whole discussion really put a big dent in Jasnah's image of being super intelligent etc. I think it would've been way better to have the whole debate happen off screen and instead just describe the aftermath and Jasnah's self-doubt after being unable to protect/keep Thaylenah as well as Alethkar. The whole way of argumentation reminded me way more of modern-day political debate meant for uninformed masses rather than between the three characters. And yeah, I too would've taken Fen to be and react more like you suggest rather than how she did behave in the book.

How do you mean? Does he tell the story on a planet that has a month called December? Or is he telling it to an audience on Earth and in a culture that uses the Gregorian calendar? Because how I understand it it's neither. Instead he tells it on a planet that has its own name for the (last) month and that name is then, unlike most other names (without inherent meaning) in the Cosmere, translated to English so it makes sense for an audience familiar with the Gregorian calendar. And that kinda dampens the immersion thing for me personally. I mean fantastical names are one of the staples of fantasy and the Cosmere (point in case) itself. So many planets in that fictional universe have well developed geography (with fantastical names), flora and fauna (with fantastical names), casts of characters (with fantastical names) and time and date systems (with fantastical names) that it feels weird to suddenly not have a fantastical name here. And that's probably the point, but then why not straight up call her "Month" instead I don't know, it still kinda feels less immersive to me compared to what I'm used from the Cosmere. Maybe I'll come around when finally reading the whole story, but so far I'm still struggling with it (and I don't like that because the preview chapters already hooked me)

But Hoid is telling the story to an audience in the Cosmere so why not use the name of a (or better yet the last of their year's) month on their planet? It's just a bit immersion breaking as-is to me. A friend suggested that maybe it's told on a world with only ten months so December (as in the Roman/Latin "tenth month") would at least make a little sense. So maybe there's a slight hope for that, but I'm not holding my breath.

Isles Of The Emberdark is probably where you got that and interesting idea.

Those are good points you make and I get where you're coming from. Oftentimes it makes absolute sense to "translate" words and descriptions for easier understanding on the reader's side; though in the Cosmere I have the feeling that this isn't even super prevalent, seeing how many words are not "translated", especially in something like TSA with Fabrials, Chulls, Crem, etc. but also Boxings in MB, and so on. Names are a special case for me though and I think most of the time they're not (or at least less) "translated" in Fantasy and Sci-Fi. Otherwise Roshar would be named "Stormworld" and "Stormland" or similar, Scadrial "Metalworld" etc. Along that same line of thought I feel "Smoker" and most of the other Mistings and other Magic Systems' "Classes" are more a description of their role or skills than an actual abstract name of their "Class": Seeker, Coinshot, Skimmer, Windrunner, Truthwatcher, Awakener... Therefore if "December" in our world would instead be called "Lastmonth" or "Year's End" or something descriptive I'd be right with you, but even in English it instead has an abstract name; and the originally Latin descriptive one of "Tenth Month" doesn't make any sense anymore (due to Julius Cesar and some other Roman bloke iirc nvm that, it was due to January and February, which were originally not part of any month, being added to the calendar at a later date).

Oh yes, if the months are just the names of known characters I'm with you and that would also kinda defeat the purpose. But the Vorin Ishi would still be distinctive enough from Ishar and for Scadrial the months' names also feel distinctive enough from the characters they're based on: (as per the Coppermind)

Why not if I may ask? While we publicly (as readers) know the most about the Vorin calendar on Roshar, at least some of the other planets seem to have their calendars set (internally at Dragonsteel) as well. - The Scadrian Broadsheets have dates in them and the months in Era 2 are named after Kelsier's crew members. - Of the Aonic calendar a few days and months are mentioned in Elantris as are some of the MaiPon calendar in TES. - WS Omnibus has a dedicated Arcanum page regarding timekeeping on Taldain so maybe they also have the calendar worked out. - Several other world's/cultures/places' calendars are mentioned here and there, e.g. a Silverlight calendar (which might serve as a more universally known or standardized system later on the Cosmere and could make sense depending on when and where Hoid tells the story). With a universe and its worlds as clearly defined and built as Sanderson's I feel using an in-world last month's name would fit somewhat better. I know that there's always a lot of fictional translation going on with the description of things in fantasy worlds so we as readers have a frame of reference. But with such an important element of a story like the name of a character or even more the main character, this feels out of place in a universe where our earth doesn't exist; also compared to Tolkien whose Middle-Earth stories were meant as a mythology for our own world (especially Britain).

I just read the newsletter with the written version of the preview chapters. While I really like the premise and story so far (and am quite interested how the time travel will be explained, in a way that fits into the Cosmere), the name December bugs me quite a bit. While Sanderson's reasoning is that the name is a translation of a translation, why do we need that second translation in the first place? As with TotES and YatNP this new Secret Project seems to be a story that Hoid tells to an audience in the Cosmere. So why wouldn't he use the name of the respective world's or culture's last month? I really enjoyed how there were these subtle nods to the (lowercase) listeners of the previous stories (like the mention of Linji or eating marbles) and it's a bummer that it isn't happening here. I think something similar would really deepen the immersion of this story. On top of that even in our world this translation only really makes sense for the Roman/Christian calendar. Am I alone with this or how do you all think and feel about this?

We're talking Tension here (hardening naturally soft materials), not Cohesion (softening naturally hard materials), right? One amazing application I learned through the RPG books: Also it's one of the Bondsmiths' surges and those don't get Blade or Plate so being able to turn their clothes into invested armour and weapons sounds quite practical.

Just got a new Campaign Update and the release will apparently be earlier than expected, namely July 1st

Scratch that, seems to be fall after all, also for the eBooks. Fresh from the Backerkit Campaign: Digital files (i.e. the ebook and audiobook) are currently planned to distribute at the same time as the physical hardcovers! Once the books are ready to ship, we will be distributing digital rewards to backers as well. Keep an eye on our updates for more information on that exact timeline as we approach fall!

I think for the cross references, hints and reveals etc I would maybe even suggest the publishing order then. Because all that stuff becomes more (and gets put more into the foreground) with each additional book published.

From the last Weekly Update it sounds like the ebook (and maybe also audiobook?) will be released way earlier, namely this week or next for backers and a bit later for anyone else. The part relating to Isles Of The Emberdark is the last part of the video: Weekly Update Video

Is there an overview of each Fused's (known) active and passive abilities yet? Because I've seen a few topics about active and/or passive Fused abilities here then and when, but never a proper overview of both. On the Coppermind Fused page it is also not written/clarified yet whether the described abilities of each brand are the active or passive ones.