Cheese Ninja

I didn't see anything either. But it seems like a good guess to me. Everything in the annotations indicates that the next book would be about Vasher and Vivenna's conflict with Yesteel. We're told in the epilogue that Yesteel developed a new, more potent type of ichor-alcohol for Lifeless. Can anyone tell me where I got the impression that Jewels took Clod/Arsteel with her to seek out Yesteel to see if he could do anything for him? nvm: googled it, chapter 57 annotation That also explains why we thought that Arsteel would probably be the Lifeless viewpoint, if Yesteel is successful in restoring his memories and personalty to a degree.

Actually, the first post of the thread has all the relevant important quotes, just not that picture. My interpretation of that picture is that the Hierocracy itself was considered "the failure of Vorinism", which lead to a reinterpretation of the religion after that point. Another interesting thing from that first post is that Gavilar "had once revered" the name of the Sunmaker, so Gavilar probably didn't agree with all his views near the end of his life, and that doesn't speak well for the Sunmaker. The Sunmaker was almost certainly directly involved in the end of the Hierocracy, since he interrogated the priests involved and investigated the priest's messages between each other.

@Lyrebon, I don't think a tsundere has to be hostile, cold works just fine for the label. Also, Ranette is a lesbian. Also, you could argue that Rock is just as much a tsundere as Revy is. It might be why their relationship seems to progress so slowly. Alloy of Law end of book scene, Spoiler tagged for space. Even the book describes her as being "cold" up until that last paragraph. And if you wanted summarize that whole exchange and make it more tsundere-like: Steris: "Let's get engaged now, it wouldn't be a big deal anymore since you saved me and stuff, not that we have to, if you don't want to...?" Despite all this, I still think it's possible that Steris won't end up with Wax and that Marasi will instead, but I don't want that to happen. I'm still going with my statement from way back when Alloy of Law sample chapters came out and say that Marasi would be a good match for Wayne. Then Way and Wayne would literally be brothers (in law).

Tsuns don't have to be hostile and violent, cold and aloof work just fine. I'm actually a little bit annoyed at all the overly violent tsuns. Not as much as some people though. You know, the people who constantly complain about Louise (Zero no Tsukaima, which I never finished) and Mikoto (To Aru Majutsu, which I'm up to date on, and To Aru Railgun, which I am not).

Sure, Steris is a bit stiff, but she's actually kinda nice. She has a lovable sort of awkwardness. She tries, possibly too hard, to live up to expectations of others and carry the burdens of her family. WeiryWriter was nice enough to transcribe a reading Brandon did of a rough, preliminary version of the prologue to Shadows of Self. In complete honesty, it might just be that I like tsundere characters. Although we haven't seen much dere from her, mostly just tsun, which is within acceptable limits.

That seems to be a problem with it being the Soulcaster. Newest reading we've seen on here seems to suggest that Taravangian is taking a journey on a boat. I wonder if he's going to the Shattered Plains as well. I'm still thinking he might be Restares, even if he's not, I think we'll get some hints on who Restares and Thaidakar are, along with just general information on the plans and machinations taking place in the background of the series. The first book had a lot of worldbuilding, as the series progresses there will probably be less new information on the physical, political, and economic environments, and more focus on backstory and event progression.

It might have to do with the slightly different nature of the Investiture in Blade compared to Plate. Plate is more complicated, it acts as one-size-fits-all powered armor. All the Blades really have do is cut, they do it well, across multiple Realms of existence, but nothing fancy. Brandon has said before that Investiture tends to interfere with other Investiture. So two things with the function of "to cut" might just cancel each other out. Plate also takes up more physical space, so the Investiture isn't as concentrated as in the Blades, but I'm not sure that matters

Amaram's usage of "my friend" doesn't seem to the casual "one step away from being an enemy" usage, but rather one of actual friendship. Amaram may to have 3 major loyalties: a vassal's to Sadeas, a friend's to Dalinar, and a philosophical one to Restares. I wonder if Sadeas doesn't trust him, and that's why he didn't bring him to the Shattered Plains with him initially. After Amaram got a Plate and Blade, he became too valuable for Sadeas to leave him back in his territories. Amaram also has history with enslaving Kaladin and fighting against the Ghostbloods. He is probably in the most awkward position of any of the characters so far. If I'm right about Restares being Taravangian, then that makes Dalinar's continued life another conflict of interests for him.

Brandon put a short new passage from the series on reddit: Amaram and Dalinar, I had no idea they were friends. I'm still more interested what happens when Amaram eventually meets Kaladin and Shallan.

Hmm, some of humanity could have left Yolen pre-Shattering, or even post-Shattering, but still before the Shards themselves came to a particular world. Either of those would work. Those initial humans leaving Yolen could have even been assisted by the Shards. I'm actually more confused by the whole thing about Ati and Leras making humanity on Scadrial. How many different humans did they start with in the beginning? What were their sources of of genetic variation? Did they just make copies of Yolen humans, but with only Ruin and Preservation as part of their Spirit Webs? Brandon later said that if Ati and Leras's bodies would have been interesting for the the Scadrians to study, but I can't remember if it was for genetic reasons or Spirit Web reasons.

Maybe if you store all your Identity in an Aluminumind you register as a 'blank', and can draw from other people's metalminds? I would think you'd still need to be able to use the Feruchemical ability in the metalmind before you could do anything with a stranger's metalminds. This thread is both interesting and confusing. There's more fleshed out Nicrosil Feruchemy information than I realized, but there's still a lot of room for new twists and information. We've been told that the more modern-day era Mistborn trilogy will be about a Nicroburst, and I still think that some event will involve them becoming a Nicrosil Twinborn. And then we would really get to see what Nicrosil compounding could do.

But it's also true that we haven't been explicitedly told that one Roshar year = one revolution of Roshar around their sun. The most straightforward evidence we see of Earth's revolution around the Sun is the seasons (also evidence of axial tilt), but on Roshar that doesn't seem applicable. Roshar seasons are really wierd lasting only weeks at a time and switching back and forth, it's possible that Shinovar has normal seasons, but Peter has already wrote "You're assuming Shinovar has seasons." earlier in this thread, so I wouldn't think that it does. Roshar years are 500 days, and the beginning is marked with the Weeping, if there's no axial tilt, there will never be major climatic differences throughout the planet's revolution, so the planetary revolution could be of any length, and completely independent of the 500 day year. Back to the main point, Meg pointed out a line of Adolin's from chapter 58 "In the last few months, my father’s saved not only Sadeas’s life, but that of the king himself." But that line doesn't necessarily mean that he saved Elhokar a few months ago, it's just a range of time. It would also be correct to say "In the last year" or "In the last few years". He's in a fairly relaxed social setting, and trying to make that point that his father is both competent and honorable. I'm not willing to go past 3 months of time, and would rather keep it at or under 2 months. Also in chapter 58, on the same day, Dalinar refers to chapter 18 as "several weeks ago" and in chapter 18 the Chasmfiend hunt is referred to as "last week".

Found it: It's very light on the details, but yeah, that seems to be what he's saying. I can't remember if there's a comment specifically about Odium's state after splintering Aona and Skai.

I like Steris better overall, and for Wax in particular, but we haven't seen a whole lot of her so far. There's not much love for the tsundere here. Her businesslike demeanor to everything developed because she had high expectations placed upon her by her family's station. She was an interesting counterpoint to Wax who decided to turn his back on his family to live in the Roughs. Her particular response to marriage and relationships was influenced by her own father's infidelity to her mother. She didn't include a clause for mistresses in the marriage contract because she wants her husband to cheat on her; she just came to expect affairs because of her mother and father's relationship. Still, she and Marasi seem to care for each other, so I don't think she held that against her half-sister. I think all that BS was hinting about Marasi is that she wasn't the right girl for Wax, partially because she was a lot like his ex. I wouldn't mind if Marasi ended up with Wayne or something. I imagine the next book will involve the people from the other continent to some small degree, and the kidnapped women from the first book is still a viable topic as well. I'd also like Steries and Wax to get married, but I'm in no rush.

It seems like when a Shard gets killed and Odium forcibly Splinters the power of the Shard, a few different things happen. 1. The Shard can't be picked up by anyone. 2. The Shard's power is diffused across the area it was Splintered. This is most noticible in the Cognitive Realm, which is why Shadesmar is more dangerous on Sel. 3. Splinters created by the Shard pre-death serve as release valves for its power. In Sel, this is limited to Seons and Skaze, which are few in number. In Roshar, this is mostly occupied by the Spren, which are much greater in number and form, and so Shadesmar isn't nearly so dangerous there. 4. The Shard could be put back together, but it isn't easy, and has yet to be achieved in the series. I could see Dominion and Devotion become a bit like merged background noise after they had both been Splintered. I'm wondering about whether Cultivation is Splintered as well. Honor's words in WoK seems to imply that she was still alive when he died. Then again, we've also been told that spren are of both Cultivation and Honor, and I would think the spren's characteristics would be different if only half of their progenitors had been Splintered, because of their release valve nature for Shardic power, and that half of the spren would be behaving differently from the other half.

Congratulations on finally getting that answer Kurkistan, I thought you were insane, but Brandon proved me wrong. Guess I'll contribute a few. Q: Can normal Returned have children? A: WoB says yes, the God Kings can have children, and there's nothing special about them compared to other Returned. It seems to involve supplying Breaths to the child while it is still in the womb, perhaps even as early as conception? Yeah, I just included a question in my answer, but I'm not just not entirely sure. Q: How do Returned like Vasher and Denth use Awakening? A: They make sure to keep a tight grip on their Divine Breath, and just carry accumulated Breaths like any other Awakener. It is possible to use a Divine Breath for Awakening, but that would almost certainly kill them. Q: Who is Clod? A: Arsteel, Denth wanted to try out make a former Returned into a Lifeless, and Arsteel was a great swordsman, so it was a win/win for him. You know, if he hadn't already had a loss of an ally and great fighter. So more of a loss, into a partial win/win.

I think there is actually a Brandon quote out talking about how he pulled the Shattered Plains from it and combined it with stuff from WoK Prime to make Way of Kings, along with some style changes/improvements that he's made over the years, both from writing on his own and finishing up Wheel of Time. It seems like it would be fun to read, but it would probably make things even more confusing with its familiar characters (Or maybe just Hoid?), but non-canon status. OOoooooH! MAGIC!

I agree that you "resemble that first remark", but I think you meant "I resent that first remark". Actually it was from an Adolin viewpoint (chapter 28): It was a lighteyed archer though, so no help to us. I agree with you on the whole "lighteyes as leaders" origin thing, and I don't have even any good arguments against, so I can't even play devil's advocate. I don't think beginning Radiants usually got Blades and Plates, I think that those were given either as the reward for full Radianthood (All 5 Oaths) or at some point along the path to being a KR. I think the glowiness and glyphs on the Plate were the result of the Plate and Blade being included in the Radiant/Spren Nahel bond, which probably isn't possible until at least the 3rd Oath. Couldn't the Radiant in Dalinar's vision have been holding Stormlight, instead of it being an effect of having had a Shardblade? (A Highway to the Sun, Chapter 52) "His eyes were of the palest blue. Unnaturally so, in fact—the irises were nearly white." It was the same way in Dalinar's vision in Starfalls (Chapter 19). "The woman had light tan eyes that almost seemed to glow in the night, and she wore no helm." "The Shardbearer stood with his Blade resting on his armored shoulder, and he inspected Dalinar with eyes of such bright blue, they were almost white. Were those eyes actually glowing, leaking Stormlight?" I thought that Kaladin's eyes glowed if he was holding Stormlight as well, but I can't find a quote from the book to confirm this.

Oh man, I had fun with that Q&A, I went a bit overboard on the amount of questions (7), but they were all deserving of only brief answers and all got brief answers. He answered 5 of them using only 10 words total. He would have needed more words if he wanted to correct my assumptions, so either I guessed correctly or he was just holding back. My main argument was that we are told of two curses in Baxil's chapter (no feeling in hands, and everything looks upside down), and Link von Kelsier Harvey (I think that's his username) guessed that Taravangian's curse was fluctuating intelligence (which seems like a brillant shot in the dark to me), and that was confirmed. So we have 3 curses, all of which are neurological in effect. We also have Dalinar, who can't remember/process information about his dead wife. I argue that that was the curse, and we haven't really seen what the boon is, or if we have, it hasn't been obvious. I'm much more partial to Renarin's health being the boon instead of the curse, and that without it, Renarin would be in a much worse condition. Edit: I never replied to the original post. Can the boon and curse be the same thing? Sounds interesting, but the only concrete example we've been given of a boon is "a bolt of cloth", so there's almost no foundation on which speculate.

Basically, all Elwynn is saying that we can't be sure. This whole thing would be settled if Dalinar had just bothered to note what happened to eye color when people picked up the Shardblades during his vision of Feverstone Keep and the Recreance. I think the characters are correct about the act of claiming a Shardblade lightening eyecolor, but it's true we don't have any first-hand accounts, just stories with a great deal of belief behind them. Hoser was actually saying that the fact that Lighteyes exist at all is proof of Shardblades lightening eyecolor, in the past, and then carrying that effect onto the descendants. I agree with that, but it's also possible to argue that lighteyes have always existed, and that there simply was no reason to distinguish them separately in the past. Hoser also thought that Elwynn was saying that Szeth's shardblade eyecolor change was typical, which isn't something Elwynn ever actually said. That's why he made that confusing line about eyecolor changing for Lighteyes if they pick up a different Shardblade from what their ancestor had in the past. Basically, Elwynn isn't theorizing, and just stating facts in a long and confusing way, and hoser is theorizing, and stating facts and theories in confusing ways. All that aside: I wonder if there are different rules for Surgebinders, could their pre-existing Nahel bond prevent the eyecolor change? It would be interesting if later in the series Kaladin gets a Plate and Blade, and it confuses everyone when his eyes don't change color.

The scepter is the only known thing, but it's Hoid, you can't trust him around stuff. I'm betting he pocketed a Seon and a Skaze while he was there during Elantris.

What about Feruchemical Compounding? That seems like the biggest way to cheat the system. You can get out more than you put in, the only limiting factor is your supply of metal. In this case, it isn't so much the amount of Investiture, as having enough Investiture from 2 different, opposing Shards. I think the more types of Investiture that are accessible, the greater the overall ability to cheat the system. Which is why I find Hoid collecting all those different Invested objects so interesting.

I would argue that "nearest" has less possible connatations than "closer". "Closeness" has a number of possible meanings, some being metaphorical. "Nearness" tends to get used a bit more geographical/directional sense. If you say two people are 'near' each other, that tends to be comment on relative physical locations. However, both are open to interpretation. True, the KR served all of Roshar, but If they had a method of instant transportion, the location of Urithiru wouldn't really matter. The Oathgates sound a bit like they could connect any two places. Also, Aimia just seems important at this point. I'd like to know if the Scouring happened in recent history, or centuries ago. Axies said it wasn't long ago, but he also considers centuries to be an acceptable amount of time in which to catalogue spren. Other fun things from that epigraph. "...obvious that it could not be." Why is it obvious? "a way to translate the Dawnchant" Thanks to Dalinar's visions, this is actually possible now. I hope Navani gave Dalinar a list of words to recite in order during one of his visions, so that she have a solid starting word bank.

And we're back to the Scouring of Aimia, once again. Is anybody else wondering if Urithiru was in Aimia as well, you can't get much further west than Aimia? Perhaps the Aimians are Honor's constructs, and the Parshendi are Odium's constructs? From the chapter 35 epigraph:

Now I'm wondering if Szeth knows that his method of accessing the Surges is different from a Windrunner Radiant. He doesn't say a whole lot one way or another on it in his PoV chapters in WoK. I still maintain that it comes from his Shardblade, there's no huge indicator, but 5 or 6 little things that make it seem likely. 1. Turns his eyes "Sapphire" when summoned, the associated gem/color of WIndrunners. 2. Different appearance than other Shardblades. Shorter, double-edged. 3. Taravangian calls it "a monstrosity of a Shardblade". 4. WoK-Prime Szeth analogue had neither a Shardblade nor Windrunner abilities. 5. WoB explicitly tells us that Szeth is getting his powers from something other than a Nahel Spren, and the Blade is the most prominent candidate. It's possible that Szeth thinks his method was what all the Radiants used in the past, it would hardly be the biggest misapprehension we've seen in the Stormlight Archive so far. After that AMA, I think the chance of a Szeth/Kaladin fight in WoR went from "Likely" to "Nearly Guaranteed".