Cheese Ninja

We have the interior illustration that show the symbols for the Radiant Orders and the Surges. Each Order is connected to two Surges, and adjacent Order is connected to one of the same Surges. http://www.brandonsanderson.com/images/wok/tWoK_ENDSHEET-FRONT-1-webres.jpg Nalan (Order 2) is only used in one chapter heading in a chapter that features Jasnah. Palah (Order 5) is used 12 times. Learned is probably the most suited attribute for Jasnah. http://coppermind.net/wiki/The_Way_of_Kings/Headings It makes sense to have Shallan as 6 and Jasnah as 5, and the Surge on the bottom center left of the picture would be Transformation.

Normally I'd agree with you, but since it's Hoid we're talking about, he might just be talking about himself in the third person. @Alsenoth That interview with Lexie was back in September 2010. I can't tell for sure if the interview was conducted on September 21st, or only posted on that day. Way of Kings only came out on August 31st, so he may have been talking about the Interlude characters. I think a few people had noticed them, but Brandon may not have been aware of that. The other part, the "they were not very obvious before this book, they do exist, other crossovers do exist" is pretty notable though. I suppose one of those could the writer of the Ars Arcanum, if it's not Hoid.

The old "which Rosharian has the potential to learn Lightweaving" discussion... It takes on more significance now that we know there's an order of KA called Lightweavers. I always favored Sigzil, since I thought there must be some reason Hoid chose to apprentice him, when he has pretty much all of existence available in which to choose apprentices from. Also, I feel like the access to the Transformation Surge is too significant for Jasnah and Shallan's Orders to not somehow reference it in the names of those two Orders. Soulcasters seem like a pretty big deal after all. Someone earlier mentioned that it would be fun to see Shallan apprenticed under Shalash. I'm just imagining Shallan always trying to stop her from destroying valuable pieces of art depicting herself and supplying Shalash with a constant supply of sketches to destroy in various ways, and Shalash forcing Shallan to adopt new mediums of artwork once Shalash gets bored of ripping up and burning paper. Or requesting absurd artwork from Shallan: "Draw one of me riding a chasmfiend, while juggling torches and knives blindfolded." and then destroying it.

I thought I had kept it pretty vague, but good point. In WoK, there's a brief mention in Geranid's interlude about Reshi greatshells, which I had never noticed before.:

Whitespines are not greatshells, they're "reptilian creatures, as big as horses but with carapace across their backs" that have claws and tusks. One of them injures Roshone and kills his son. So there seems to be quite a variety. Stormlight 2 Spoilers The other aquatic variety of greatshell we were told about: Aimia is a fairly large island well to the west of everything else. It's notable for a few reasons, and it's implied that we'll learn more about it eventually. The Aimian races (Siah and Dysian) aren't quite human either, in much the same way that Parshmen/Parshendi aren't human.I'm pretty sure chulls aren't considered greatshells. They aren't described as such anywhere in the book.

I'm not sure how close I'm going to stay to the original topic, but I'll try. “The more people who know of a Forgery, the more likely it is to fail.” I think this is more likely a mundane example of failure to preserve a secret. None of Shai's other stamps depended on public opinion. She changed her bedroom from a storage space to the nicest room in the castle, after all. It's also worth noting that she says the Forging on her wall to make it a piece of artwork worked partially because she thought it would appeal to the wall more to be beautiful than to be boring. I am curious about how the interaction between Soulcasting and Soulstamping would work. For example, if you use Soulcasting to change a rock into bread, would it be easier to Forge it into a different type of rock or a different type of bread? I don't think it'll ever come up in the series. Kaladin's mother thinks of everything having a spren, which actually seems a bit closer to the whole "everything has a cognitive aspect" bit. When Shallan goes to Shadesmar, she thinks of the goblet's cognitive aspect as a spren. I think they might be a bit off the mark, because when we see spren, they're a bit more limited than that. There aren't any in Shinovar, where there aren't Highstorms or Stormlight, and Dalinar doesn't see any in his visions of the past either. Typical spren seem to be some combination of 'natural phenomenon' or 'thought/emotion' + either Cultivation or Honor. The coppermind wiki has a list of spren that are seen or believed. Some of these, despite being believed in, are never truly seen, (ex:Groundspren) which indicates that belief isn't everything. Also, if belief was all there was to it, we'd probably see a lot more variability between spren of the same types depending on region, which has yet to be mentioned. Axies seemed to indicate that the alespren could only be found in Iri, but he didn't go into enough detail for us to be sure about how it usually works. The Nahel spren (Syl and Truthspren) probably operate under a slightly different set of rules, but I'm not sure how different. After all, I think it was Nohadon's book itself that bound them into their current state that resulted in the Knights Radiants. When Syl expresses that "all spren are, in a sense, virtually the same individual" she was including herself as well.

What do you think of adding the quotes about Hoid using Shadesmar to hop between worlds, between different places in a single world, and a "time dilation" trick to speed up the passage of the time? (Think super-Cadmium, it's so that he doesn't have to live through the boring centuries. You already have a different part of the same quote listed.) I can understand if you don't want to put too much of a focus on Hoid, since I think Hoid can, if not break, at least bend the rules for magic systems. I think there were also some quotes about it being possible to use magic systems outside their world of origin, but that some were easier to get working than others. I can't remember if there were specifics given. I had imagined that Aons would be an example of a more difficult magic system to use off-world, and Awakening and Allomancy would be easier. Found it: Same Reddit AMA.

Except Sadeas says he experiences the Thrill as well. It seems the Thrill is pretty common among the Alethi nobility. -Starfalls It seems like the Thrill was an issue long before Shardblades ended up in the hands of the Uninitiated. Which I think is the problem, not that Shardblades are of a particular Shard.

Axies is a Siah Aimian, from his interlude it seems Siah is the most common type of Aimian. There is a line in his interlude, but I'm at work, so I can't bring it up. Sorry for going so far off topic.

Obviously, the overall Cosmere context of the quote is about Adonalsium and what would happen if the Shards were reunited, but it also is the only mention we're given of Dysian Aimians. What I'm not sure of is which part of that statement applies to Dysian Aimians as well, and which is purely hypothetical.

There's an upside to being alone with your opinion. If you turn out to be right, you get to say "I told you so!" to everyone. That's my motivation for Ishar=Thaidakar=Drunk Man at Beggars Feast. To get a bit closer to the original topic: I treat pretty much all of the Interludes besides Szeth's as info dumps, and pay them a bit more attention. Which I think is a good way to look at them. BS said that he wanted to put them in there to give an idea for the scope of the world without bogging himself down with extraneous major viewpoint characters. That one line of Ashir tells us: 1) The Ardentia is familiar with Shadesmar, and know it both as Shadesmar and the Cognitive Realm. 2) There are writings about visiting Shadesmar. 3) These writings are considered, by Ashir at least, to be worthwhile sources. From there we can speculate endlessly about whether these are recent or ancient writings, by Ardents or Radiants, and if they are by Ardents, whether it's still possible to travel there, the most obvious choice at this point being the Soulcasters, possibly with a preference to the Soulcasters capable of effecting all sorts of changes. There's some appeal to this, Shallan is a fairly well-educated young woman, but she has no idea what Shadesmar is when she finds herself there. She herself says everything about Soulcasters is kept highly secret by the Ardentia, and while trying to find out more, neither has much success nor learns about Shadesmar. Here we see an ardent casually namedropping the place in a private setting. I'll admit that it's possible that all high level Soulcasters are fakes, but it doesn't feel right to me. The Nahel bond seems like it is far too unpredictable to selectively gather those two Soulcasting Orders into your ranks if you're trying to be secretive about the whole thing. Then again, judging from Shallan and Jasnah, artists and scholars are the most likely to attract the needed Nahel spren types for it. Still, this doesn't fit the overall plot point of Surgebinding being gone until just recently. Now to go a bit far off-topic: Do you think Axies knows about Shadesmar? I think he should. From that quote it seems like Siah Aimians can live for centuries. Dysian Aimians sound pretty weird, but I'm not sure what part of that quote to take as an observation of them. If you read it one way, they sound a bit like Kandra.

Or maybe Bob is just really, really busy, and they barely ever get a chance to talk to the guy, since they are spending their semi-retirement pretty far away from most other ardents and it's easy to say that you'll keep in touch by spanreed, sending birthday wishes and all that, but sometimes, you just don't feel like it, you've grown apart and don't feel like having to talk with them about topics that neither of you really care about. Ashir might think it would be easier to find in a book if anyone has eaten while in Shadesmar, rather than get into a long drawn out conversation with Bob about what's been going on his life lately. Maybe the universal Soulcasters do allow passage to Shadesmar. It would certainly explain the differences in capabilities. I do think they're real, and not some lie made up by Soulcasting ardents with Nahel bonds.

-Ashir, Geranid's husband. I don't remember if ardents can actually marry, but they're pretty much husband and wife.

I don't like it, mostly for the points Satsuoni mentioned. I especially like the whole "sending the mind to Shadesmar" thing, since it explains both why the ardents in the Interlude know about Shadesmar and why Kabsal thinks the whole thing is as simple as tapping the stones on the Soulcaster, when we can be pretty sure that it isn't that simple, since we see in another Interlude the scrap metal results of Soulcaster training. Also, I still think the easiest way to get feedback on a theory is to throw in a poll asking how much people agree it.

I like most of Chicken's points. About Axies (the spren collector), Brandon has a video of the prewriting session for one of the Interludes in the next book. There's not much to look at, but it seems to be about Rysn (Thaylen trader girl from another Interlude) running into Axies in the Reshi Isles (Coincidentally? where the old female Spren researcher Geranid lives) and getting advice on how to impress the Reshi. Something to do with jumping.

I don't agree with this theory. Honorblades are almost certainly of Honor, but typical Blades don't really seem to be of Odium, despite Syl's dislike of Dalinar's Blade. And if Szeth's Blade is the third type (which I do agree with), that doesn't really seem to be of Cultivation either. I do agree that the region of Shinovar is more likely to be of Cultivation than the surrounding regions of Roshar, but I don't think that Szeth's Shardblade exemplifies the Shin. I was wondering about Nightblood earlier today. Does it get any permanent gains from being fed Breaths and taking Color? I assume from the Warbreaker annotations that the sequel would mainly be about Nightblood and Yesteel. So to get back a bit closer to the main topic. Nightblood is probably different from "swords like Nightblood", but they are both of Endowment. Do "swords like Nightblood" necessarily have sentience? The same or lesser destructive capacity? The same requirement of constant Breaths? So even though both things are Awakened Swords, they'll still have differences. After all, the book is (tentatively) named Nightblood, so it's more special than the others. (This is seemingly faulty logic which I think is true nonetheless.) All the Shardblades could be "of Honor" and still be different. But writing this post has gotten me think that Hoid may have picked up Nightblood after the events of that book. Stormlight Archive is chronologically after Warbreaker. I wouldn't be surprised if he's either disguised it to look like the seemingly normal sword he's carrying in WoK, or has it stashed in his base. I still find it strange that Brandon said "You will someday know." when asked what happens if a Shardblade is used on an Awakened object. And then he went on to RAFO "What happens if Nightblood and a Shardblade hit each other?". I know that seems like a really, really dumb theory, but it's fun.

You know the Mistress from Baxil's interlude? That lady. Sigzil tells us that the Emuli worship the Heralds, Jezrien foremost among them. Baxil, an Emuli, makes a few prayers to the Prime Kadasix (Jezrien, leader of the Heralds). Hence, all the other Heralds are just "Kadasix". Basically, everything in that Hallowed Hall is a depiction of her (aka "Epan, Lady of Dreams"), but probably are not very good physical representations of her, because in that case I think even someone as dim as Baxil would have noticed. There's also a bit of theorizing that "daughter of kings and winds" might mean that she is Jezrien's daughter, since Jezrien is known both as the king of the Heralds and the Stormfather. Sounds neat. We're never told if Jezrien is dark-skinned, but maybe her mother was. @dj26792 She's not hiring people to destroy the depictions, she does it herself. She only hires people to carry her stuff and keep an eye out for other people coming by.

Shalash likes to destroy depictions of herself. Either she had just visited, or someone knew she was coming and decided to put it away for the night. The first option is a bit more likely. There are a few theories for why she does this, but I've personally settled on it being a combination of boredom and guilt-induced self-loathing. As to why she was in Kholinar in the first place? That's the real mystery. I'm always trying to tie the Heralds into the present day storyline somehow, but this really does look significant.

Roshar days are 20 hours long, and the hours are a minute or two shorter than Earth hours. A Roshar Year is approximately 1.1 Earth years. http://coppermind.net/wiki/Roshar FireArcadia made a Google Spreadsheet with each day of the Roshar year on it. A few months before that, I put number dates on all the epigraphs. They are all in chronological order, except the one describing Kaladin's bridge leap, that epigraph is delivered the day after the epigraph following it. Might or might not be significant. All the epigraphs after (and including) take place at least a 1000 days after the initial epigraph.Oh yeah, and the book itself seems to take place sometime in 1173, mostly in a 2-3 month span from Kaladin's arrival on the Shattered Plains to the end of the book. Navani's "Map of the Battle of the Tower" is said to be circa 1173.

The books that take place within the Cosmere are all related, but until he starts writing books that really tie it all together, it's not too important in regards to appreciating the novels. It's just an interesting note about the setting and backstory. Like Anne McCaffrey's Pern series taking place in the distant future after humans decided to go into space and colonize different worlds. Or Saberhagen's Book of Swords taking place 50000 years after a nuclear apocalypse, and the demons are coalesced anthropomorphic clouds of radiation. Or Weis and Hickman's Death Gate Cycle being post-apocalyptic. You don't really need to know those things to appreciate the series.

As far as relating the Purelaker gods to other beings goes: Vun Makak seems more like Odium, and Nu Ralik a bit more like Honor. But I wouldn't try to stretch these too far. 1.3 More Cosmere than Stormlight: I think most of the Shards themselves are humans from Yolen, like Hoid himself. (Yolen is also where Hoid's origin story will take place, and a thousand years (?) after that, Dragonsteel.) After the Shattering and the taking up of the Shards by the various humans, there may have been a diaspora. I don't know if the Shards brought humans to the new worlds with them and altered the humans, or if the Shards chose pre-existing worlds with already existent human populations. We're told that Preservation and Ruin both Invested themselves into the humanity on Scadrial. I think that all the humans came from one place originally, but I don't have any idea how long ago they all inhabited a common world. Note to self:Brandon says they all came from Yolen. It's possible that it was before even the events of the Hoid origin story. It's notable that there are a few races derived from humanity that no longer are considered human: Aimians, Parshendi, Koloss, and Mistwraiths/Kandra. Of these four, Aimians and Parshendi are the most humanlike. Ishikk still recognized the Seventeenth Sharders as being human, and at least one of them each were from Scadrial (Demoux) and Sel (Galladon).

Somehow, "the element" sounds even more special than a bead of Lerasium. "Let me first assure you that the element is quite safe. I have found a good home for it. I protect its safety like I protect my own skin, you might say." It looks like he's making a joke here. I think he may have absorbed the element into himself. As far as it being that sphere of voidlight, I don't think so. How does giving it to a king, who gets assassinated, who then gives up the sphere to the assassin, and then the assassin hides it away somewhere count as "a good home"?

English isn't Meg's first language, so he/she has a few little quirks in their vocabulary. Meg is still much better at English than I am in any language that is not English, so please don't think I'm being critical. Main Topic: It's an interesting theory overall, and does seem to fit with what Brandon said, but I'm not sure the timeframes match up. Dandos wrote his book at least 300 years ago, which is a pretty long time, but might not be enough time for safehands to have become such a deeply seeded custom among Vorin societies. Then again, fashions in our own world can change quite a bit in a few decades time, and customs from 300 years ago are very different from customs today. It mostly depends on whether their pace of changing customs in Roshar is as pronounced as ours is. It's easy to think of societies in fantasy series as being slow to change with time.

I honestly don't like any of the theories involving either Jezrien or Gaz that I've seen. Gaz doesn't seem as special as people try to make him and it seems to me like people keep trying to force Jezrien into the scene. Those are just my opinions though. I had forgotten that Geranid was on a small island in the Reshi isles. I wonder if Axies stopped by there to talk to her.

That sounds about right. I don't think Radiants get a lifespan bonus, but we can't be sure yet.