Cheese Ninja

Not entirely sure how much this will apply to the discussion, but there was a question about the gemstones in a reddit AMA back in April 2013. Link Here. It's interesting because BS states that structurally, emerald and heliodor are much the same, but that color alone makes a difference. Also, while diamond is said to be able to Soulcast quartz, and Amethyst is a a variety of quartz, I doubt that it's possible to Soulcast amethyst, given Shallan's comments.

Fun fact: Cortez said that "most" times the word "shear" is used in Way of Kings, it's for Shardblades. It's actually used for Shardblades for 16 of the 17 instances, with the possible unlikely exception of the Soulcaster. I made a post about a year ago. And two posts down from that:

The 5th Heightening seems like the simplest Cosmere method so far for attaining Immortality, but I doubt it's the mechanism that Hoid uses. From the all the comments I've seen, the Liar of Partinel is supposed to take place hundreds of years before the Dragonsteel books. I'm not sure when the Shattering of Adonalsium is supposed to take place, but I assume it is sometime between the beginning of Partinel and end of the Dragonsteel books. Since we know Hoid was at the Shattering, he achieves his immortality well before other magic systems have had time to develop, possibly even before the Shattering. The thing that bothers me is that it seems like the rest of the humanity is just made in imitation of the Yolen humans. That feels kind of tacky, like the Yolen humans are somehow superior. I prefer to think that Yolen humans would be more like a Jack of All Trades-Master of None. In that case, a normal Yolen human would be incapable of properly accessing the magic systems to the degree of a native, even if they somehow fulfill the other normal requirements, such as Breath for Awakening or a Nahel bond for Surgebinding. Hemalurgy could probably be used on them to impart a world-specific magic system, but I think that applies for any non-native magic user. But I do think there's something in Hoid's particular history that does impart greater access and abilities. Hmm, now that I look back through this thread, I see my post was mostly just repeating already stated stuff, probably why I post so infrequently lately. Note to Chlerma about the Hoid Feruchemy thing, it's how he knows when and where to be: It almost certainly predated his acquisition of the Lerasium bead.

Deleted: wrong thread

I thought those two lights winking out represented the Splintering of the Shards on Sel by Odium. I'm not sure how moon phases would help with figuring out the Chronology, since there are three of them, and we haven't been given the length of their revolutions around Roshar. I did try to figure out how much time had passed from Kaladin's resolution at the Honor Chasm to the end of the book, but I just used the given lengths of time between events. (Around 60-80 days.)

Axies is a Siah Aimian, I'm pretty sure just the Dysians (the more rare type) have the ability to take themselves apart and put themselves back together. Most Rosharians rarely if ever see either type, so they get the facts a little jumbled. Yeah, I also get the impression that Aimians and Parshendi are a bit similar to Kandra and Koloss. A Shard starts out with a human template, but after a certain amount of Investiture and modifications, the new beings don't quite count as human anymore.

I like to imagine that Hoid uses Luck Feruchemy, a dartboard on top of a cosmere map, multiple dice for years and months and days, and another darboard on top of a phonebook to figure out where and when he should be, and who he should be talking to.

Actually, I kind of thought the Soulcasting Orders would be exceptions, with every other Order besides them being able to hold Stormlight to get the strength/healing benefits. It didn't seem like Lift was able to use the Stormlight body enhancement in her chapter, she only uses her Surges, but that might just be because of either a lack of available Stormlight or her own unique nature.

Yeah, it was interesting to see in Lift's Interlude that it isn't just the Emuli who call the Heralds Kadasix, since apparently the Azish do as well. I wouldn't be surprised if that was true of some more of the neighboring countries as well. I figure Jezrien is closest to his actual name, since that was how Kalak thought of him in the Prelude. 5000 years is a lot of time for a name to break down into any number of derivatives, just look at the real world for comparison. I didn't realize Brandon pronounced Jasnah with a "Y" sound until just a month a go when I was listening to him reading the WoR prologue online. I figure "Yaezir" is rooted in "Jezrien", it's just the Azish derivative..

Chapter headings are Nan(2)/Vev(4), most likely for Nalan's appearance, and Lift being from Order 4 of the Radiants, the Edgedancers. Wyndle states at one point: “What did you ask for, when you visited my mother?” Which is probably a reference to the Nightwatcher. He also says "“Mother has given up on your kind,” he said. “I can feel it. She doesn’t care any longer. Now that He’s gone . . .”" Possibly Tanavast? So does Nightwatcher=Cultivation then? I don't know what she requested, but I think that her boon makes her Physical overlap slightly with the Cognitive realm. No good idea about her Curse yet. Oddly enough, she either doesn't know how, or is physically incapable of getting Stormlight through whatever an Edgedancers normal method would be. Mailliw73: I don't think it was intended as an aid to Surgebinding, I think that's more of a side-effect. The sequence of events makes more sense to me like that. She gets the boon, and then Ring realizes that would make her a good candidate for a Nahel Bond, instead of going solely off her personality as a basis.

Hoid would never put in an honest days work when a few minutes of trickery would net him the same result. Gloom: "Borrowing indefinitely" was the term I used in an earlier post here, but I think it's more along the lines of Hoid picking something up, saying "Who's really going to miss it anyways?" and then taking it home with him. For several centuries of heavily Invested objects.

I suppose he could have made one himself, but I'm still betting on him stealing one of Yesteel's creations. I just think that's more like what Hoid usually does.

I hadn't even considered how good it would be for weeds. Way better than Round-Up. Thistles, dandelions, clover... Can't really use it if the weeds are interspersed with the plants you want to keep, and you'd always have to be careful to avoid nicking the roots of other plants. But it's great for breaking down a fallen tree into manageable chunks without resorting to a chainsaw.

A lot of good stuff in that transcription. Thank you. About the Heralds: I thought the Shalash thing was one of the obvious ones, but until we get further in the series, we don't really have any way of knowing which characters were the red herrings. Anyone else thinking possibly Cusicesh, the Protector? Also, confirmation that Adonalsium was either wielded as a whole, before it was Shattered, or did something entirely on its own. That Death by Pizza thing about the protagonist dying and coming back to life 5 times over the course of novel reminded me of the backstory of Enemy Combatant no. 37564 from Narita Ryohgo's light novel of short stories Hariyama-san, Center of the World.

Wax and Steris. And despite the age difference, does it seem to anyone else like Vivenna/Vasher might end up being a thing? And to a lesser degree, Wayne and Marasi. Wax and Wayne could literally become brothers-in-law. There's Eshonai/Dalinar/Navani shipping. That sounds fun and I see how we could get there from the Eshonai WoR chapter.

And for so long I was sure that Jasnah would be in Order 5 with Learned/Giving instead of in Order 7 Wise/Careful... I lose an imaginary point. I don't understand why Palah's face was used in chapter headings of the Jasnah and Shallan sections of Way of Kings so much more than Battar. I've only seen the transcriptions, but I don't mind the Steelhunt spoilers too much, since it doesn't really seem like there's a whole lot extra there. Mostly more stuff with Lift and that mystery prologue guy.

The problem there is that a lot of the more mundane spren don't seem to be any more of Honor than they are of Cultivation. http://coppermind.net/wiki/Spren Lifespren, for instance, seem like they'd be almost entirely Cultivation.

I'm just going to think of the spren as the children of Honor and Cultivation. Some take after their father, and some take after their mother. So here's the thing that's bothering me, if the spren have been influenced by the Splintering of Honor, shouldn't that effect some of them more than others? If there's two separate categories, one of Nahel bond spren, one of environment/situational spren, which is what I've been thinking, that still doesn't help explain anything. Poor Nightblood, it's not insane, it's just Vasher's and Shashara's fault for giving it a very complicatd Command to follow. ("Destroy evil.") Although I wonder if it still would have developed sentience if it was a simpler Command.

The book spells out the Emuli religion pretty clearly, if you carefully read through both Sigzil's comment and Baxil's thoughts to himself in the interlude chapter. Not the Shalash thing, that's not entirely confirmed, but it's got a ton of evidence behind, so it's around 95% likely. Any interview comments we've seen from Brandon are just icing on the cake. Sigzil says the Emuli worship Jezrien as their only god. Baxil makes a couple prayers to the Prime Kadasix. Baxil and company are in "the Hallowed Hall, the place where a wealthy man placed images of his Kadasix for reverence."

Q: How many shards have ever been on Roshar? A:*Brandon repeats question." Okay, Oh boy, Um...I... Um....ehh...um At one point, all of them were on Roshar, which is technically true. Q: How many shards have invested their power on Roshar? A: Technically, all of them did. It's amazing what he'll give us as far as spoilers go, so the answer to this question must be both/either pretty major to the plot, and/or fairly complicated.

Cool, thank you. Oh, that's interesting, in case you guys don't remember those two from the Way of Kings Prologue: As much as I hate it when every we turn every minor character we encounter into possible Herald-in-hiding candidates...these two are possible Heralds. I might have to give up my super crackpot theory for Ishar being the drunk guy and Thaidakar. "Ash" sounds like it could be a nickname for Shalash... And we already know Shalash was in the palace, she just destroyed a statue of herself. "That creature carries my lord's own Blade." Is Szeth's sword really Jezrien's Honorblade? I've always been resistant to the theory that his sword is an Honorblade, since it goes counter to the "3 types of Shardblades we've seen in Way of Kings", but that's a pretty damning line. I'm blaming her Nahel Bond spren taking an early interest in her. Compare it to the behavior Syl exhibited around Kaladin and the Cryptics around Shallan. Minor theory: whatever Gavilar did that the Parshendi feared would awaken their old gods, also had the effect of making Nahel Bond spren active again for the first time since the Recreance.

I'm surprised how many people here haven't had to listen to annoying, overzealous fans. You could even put a fair number of posts on these forums under that category. I think it's ultimately a matter of perspective. Plenty of authors get away with vaguely defined magic systems and/or shoddy worldbuilding, and some of them still write great books despite that. Brandon himself argues that the main reason to define the magic system is that it makes using the magic to resolve situations feel less like deus ex machina. There's plenty of readers who don't want nitty gritty details, and instead just want the overarching story and characters.

IceBaka Sigzil simplified things a bit too much. The Emuli worship Jezrien as the Prime Kadasix, but they still worship the Heralds on a lesser, more individual basis as simply "kadasix". That's where Shalash was destroying the artwork of herself in the Baxil Interlude.

I don't think Taravangian is working with the Ghostbloods. I think he's Restares, and thus working against the Ghostbloods. Their murdering habits just seem very similar from an outsider's perspective. We really don't know much about either one's goals at this point. And if Restares and Taravangian turn out to be different people, we know even less.

damnation it Dalinar... He also looked away when all the darkeyed soldiers were claiming Shardblades for themselves during the Recreance, leaving us with only the secondhand comments about eye colors changing. Dude would have settled so many of arguments if he only didn't keep turning away from plot-relevant details.