Ninth of the Night

Moonlight implies they've only had the technology for the past ~20 years. Doesn't SA5 take place before Wax is even born? Or is it just before Lost Metal? There doesn't seem to be a concrete answer to that.

I was starting to believe that Tanavast had a hand in the death of Honor. "Our shame" seemed like an indication it might be the case. This theory makes too much sense, I'm fully on board! Medallions aren't that common, they take a lot of effort to create. Southern Scadrians don't have genetic Allomancy either. Plus, what would that accomplish against an unexpected encasing in Radiant Armor? Something they would have little knowledge about considering there are only ~4 Radiants in the current cosmere who are of the Fourth Ideal.

Possibly. I think even if he is Aux, it doesn't mean Szeth's bond will be broken yet. Sigzil stumbles upon Aux after he obtains the dawnshard. These events might not take place until the back 5 Stormlight books. Sunlit Man occurs some time after those I believe. I mean, Szeth could be dead from old age in the time of Sunlit Man honestly.

I know most of us dismissed this idea since Szeth's highspren is uh, well, he's a jerk. While Aux as we know him is a wonderful person, one of the greatest cosmere characters around. Now take into consideration that we only have that impression of him based on who he is at the end of his journey. Long after he's already gone through much growth and change. If Aux didn't like who he used to be, then chances are we won't either. Regardless if he is Szeth's highspren or not, he's not gonna be a likeable person when we finally meet him at the beginning of his journey. Now granted, the ONLY reason I think these two might be one in the same is Szeth specifically noted he still didn't know his spren's name. Sure this could mean nothing, but it could also be foreshadowing. That gives us two options, either it's just a random highspren and his name will mean nothing to us, or it's Auxiliary. Take into account that we would only have the first option if Sunlit Man wasn't released and intended to be read before WaT, which increases the likelihood. I know this isn't much of a "theory", I just wanted to prepare myself and perhaps others. Aux is legit one of my favorite characters after only one relatively short book. Sad to realize he won't be as charming once we meet him in the present timeline.

Here ya go They met in Shadesmar. And it was supposedly a while after he left the Windrunners. He didn't leave one spren and then immediately bond another. He had no intention of bonding again.

I've suspected for a while that the death of Tanavast wasn't so simple as "Odium shattered him". It's always been a mystery how one Shard can kill another. Odium either had to be extremely tricky, or he had help. And yeah, "WE killed you" was a decently clear indication that he didn't do it alone. I was suspicious of Cultivation more recently, but I now believe it to have been some combination of a group effort involving all parties. Stormfather, Radiants, the three Shards... Maybe not the Heralds though, they seem to have really gotten thrown under the bus. Several busses in fact.

I think it's important to note that "leaving" in this case could have a broad definition, as it is the Sibling who said it. Much like the death of a spren isn't actually the destruction of their being, this could imply that the Night didn't just pack its bags and head off somewhere. What seems more likely (and this is based on the Siblings words) is no one talked or thought about the Night, so it had no perception to continue its awareness. The Night still exists, but its voice "left". Now since the Wind has started speaking again, I'm betting the Night will return as well. Which has me super excited, if you can't tell by my username I'm a big fan of the Night lol

There's a lot of time between now and when Sunlit Man takes place. Lots of possibilities. There could be generally something wrong with the highspren that gets fixed and makes them more in line with how Aux behaves. Or it could just be simple individuality. Let's not forget that Szeth also carries one of the most dangerous weapons in the cosmere, that which could easily destroy a spren.

We can say with confidence now that Hoid's plan wasn't solely to defeat Rayse, otherwise he would have been delighted there was a new Vessel. He seems even more worried now. I always figured his goal on Roshar was to keep Odium chained. Even if that means one planet has to suffer for eternity, is that really a problem to Hoid? It's an imperfect solution, but one he would accept if there was no other alternative. On the other hand, I do believe he genuinely cares about people. If Hoid can save Roshar he likely will put in the effort to do so, as he seems to be doing so far. But if worst comes to worst he will watch the world burn presumably to prevent Odium from escaping. As he still wants to keep the grander cosmere safe from the Shard's wrath. That only covers his short term goals for Roshar though, I can't even begin to guess as to what else he has planned for the future (other than possibly reforming Adonalsium). Regardless I can't believe he's actually up to no good, positive actions and kindness of his caliber can't easily be faked. Granted if anyone could be that excellent of an actor it would be Hoid.

I don't recall if this was ever discussed at all -- though it must have been, sorry I missed it if that's the case. We know Cultivation probably had Nightblood in possession at one point (or at least access to him) as the Nightwatcher offered it as a boon when Dalinar visited. Then we know Nale suddenly has it ready to pass on to Szeth. Who then conveniently ended up in just the right place for Cultivation's pawn, Taravangian, to wield the sword's uncanny ability to kill a Vessel, taking the Shard of Odium unto himself. So this wouldn't be possible unless either 1) Cultivation planned this down to the letter, meaning Nale was acting on her behalf. Or 2) Cultivation has a crazy amount of Fortune and simply knew which pieces of the puzzle to subtly prune in order for them to all fall in the correct places. I'm increasingly growing suspicious of her lately. Not saying I agree with the theories that she could be the true "villain", but that doesn't mean she's all that great either. It doesn't seem like she sincerely cares about the people of Roshar. Then there's that bit from Sunlit Man, where Sigzil says he'd "settle for no gods intentionally thwarting [him] for once", plural gods. Seems clear to me that he's had trouble with more Shards other than just Odium. Maybe Cultivation isn't working with Odium, but I don't think she's truly working against him either. I'm starting to believe that all Shards are bad... Anyway I realize I went off on a tangent and completely forgot about Nale (ADHD is fun). Regardless I have a lot of questions/thoughts and not enough attention span to coherently type them all up right now. And maybe we just don't have enough information to really discuss this idea at the moment. I'm just gonna hit the post button now!

I'm thinking Shob is a Ghostblood. Mraize would definitely want a spy among Shallan's Lightweavers. And I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't already have one implanted. Sure, there was already a subplot about this in RoW but it could still be unresolved... Hmm.

Syl was drawn to Navani as well. According to Kaladin, all of the spren had a new strange way of behaving when in her presence. So that could possibly explain why a random Mistspren was hovering around her. Probably unbonded, sure, but I doubt that means it wants to bond Navani specifically. As mentioned, it could have just crossed into the Physical Realm leaving it barely self aware, so it just followed the source of a good feeling. Chances are once it wakes some more it'll find a new Radiant to bond with.

I am fully convinced those were Skybreakers. We can at least say for almost certain that they weren't Coinshots. Otherwise Brando probably would have just told us they were, but he somewhat dodged the question. There must be some way for certain Skybreakers to get off world at that point, I don't know what, hopefully we get an answer by the end of WaT. Regardless I'm not gonna believe they were anything else until it's confirmed one way or another. Sorry this post isn't really adding to the conversation, just stubbornly stating my unshakable opinion lol

My first thought when starting chapter 14 was "dang, this day is STACKED with character POVs!" I fear that we will be losing at least one of them before the day is up...

Yeah with everything we've learned about Taln since he first showed up, I never would have thought of him when reading that Death Rattle. He was beyond relieved when he learned the others abandoned him to handle Braize alone. Heck if they had just run it by him from the start, Taln probably would have gone along with it regardless. He was the only one who never broke, logically he was their best chance to get a longer reprieve than just a few months. Funny that he ends up (probably) breaking the record of all the other Heralds combined. Anyway yeah that Rattle does not fit Taln at all. He loves sacrificing himself for others, it's like his whole thing.

I'm starting to believe Cultivation will end up getting Splintered by Odium. It seems likely to me.

There are two types of Mist, one for Preservation and the other for Ruin. My guess is Wax has drawn more from the latter, as Harmony's Sword he Ruins as much if not more than he Preserves. Do we have any confirmation on which moments he was enhanced? The bullet deflect in AoL maybe, and the staircase massacre in TLM for sure.

I'd say go ahead and start your SA re-read. Especially if you've only read them once, they get better a second (or tenth) time through. Tress and Yumi can wait for later, they're more standalone than the rest of the novels. Still definitely worth reading eventually, they're also relatively short. Sunlit Man however I recommend reading after finishing Rhythm of War. It's got lots of tasty cosmere bits.

Eh I wouldn't give up hope yet, there was a WoB confirming that Canticle was built by a very powerful being. He left it open to interpretation, but could it really be anything other than a Shard? And if Sando wasn't planning on revisiting Canticle I kinda doubt he would continue to keep secrets about it. We may not see these same characters again, I'm still betting we'll see the planet though. Likely set even further into the future than Sunlit Man.

I mean the answer is clearly Wax, even aside from his feat of deflecting a bullet with another bullet, he has so many instances of expert marksmanship throughout Era 2. He rarely if ever misses and casually headshots foes on multiple occasions. Even when in full motion either on ground or flying through the air. To be fair there hasn't been many other shooters in the cosmere with as much exposure to accurately compare. Kelsier is a contender if we're not talking solely about guns. I believe once we get to the age of shardguns we'll have more to discuss. Can't wait!

I thought I read somewhere that you could fill it while sleeping, though it makes sense that you would have to be conscious to fill a metalmind. Regardless I spend enough time being drowsy that filling a bronzemind wouldn't be a challenge. You're right about A-Bronze being useless though, even if we were in the Cosmere it'd still be low on the list of abilities I would desire. Either way I certainly wouldn't want to be awake 24/7 even if I didn't need the sleep to function, it's convenient just to pass time, plus I wouldn't want to miss out on dreaming as mine are often quite enjoyable.

That's me! Compounding Determination would be a huge help personally as I often struggle with motivation. Breath would also be neat if only so I could scuba dive as much as I wanted without ever needing an air tank. Although I'd still probably have to worry about underwater pressure unless Cadmium somehow protects against that as well? Also thinking more about it, if I WAS in fact a Brass Twinborn, I would certainly use the Compounding to explore Arctic biomes. Probably just live there permanently. As for Copper, maybe you could store a memory then Compound it to Spiritually relive the experience instead of just recalling it to your mind. Perhaps even the whole day that the memory comes from? I dunno, but as someone with a terrible memory I could see it being very useful regardless. Infinite Wakefulness doesn't actually seem very fun, I enjoy sleeping too much. It would be nice to have a Bronzemind so I can tap it in the morning to instantly get rid of the chronic grogginess. However I doubt I would ever really need to Compound it. So I think I'm changing my answer to Bronze. I considered leaving Nicrosil and Aluminum off the poll since we don't know much about how Compounding them would work, or even if it could. But ultimately I decided to include them and see what others might think of their capabilities. And honestly if you were a Nicrosil Twinborn there's no reason you couldn't find another form of Investiture to store if innate Investiture isn't enough (which I believe it would be). As for Aluminum, if it's possible to Compound then you could probably change your identity whenever you wanted. Like Wayne, but much easier!

For me either Iron or Brass would be my least favorite to Compound. Not many situations where weighing a ton would be beneficial. While Brass seems like the only one that could actively be detrimental to your health, burning alive would be no fun at all! Although I would certainly love to have access to a Brassmind, no need for A/C and never need to worry about overheating. I just would very rarely feel the need to Compound it. So I would still prefer to be a Brass Twinborn overall, more useful than double Iron, but as far as Compounding goes it's probably the worst for me.

Just a slight correction on this, the scene where he holds his guns above his head is because he's using a much stronger Push in a ring around him to clear the surrounding area of tables and debris. It's not the same as his bubble, which he used even before this part. In fact I think he uses it in the prologue.

I agree with you completely. After several rereads I have grown to appreciate Amaram more and more. He's not among my overall favorites, but I see him as someone with good intentions who was heavily misguided. To the point that his ultimate fate is one of the saddest in the cosmere. If it wasn't for the outside manipulation he could have turned out to be a true hero, unfortunately he took the wrong path. I also feel similarly about Moash, in fact I feel that way about every villainous entity in the cosmere. They're all just a product of one bad day. Makes them much more complex and interesting and that's why in order to list my favorite characters I gotta split it up between heroes and "villains" (of which I don't believe there are any truly evil characters in the cosmere... Except people like the Cinder King I guess). The "good" guys 1. Kaladin 2. Hoid 3. Vin 4. Dalinar 5. Pattern 6... Lopen, Kelsier, Adolin, Shallan, Jasnah, Wax, Aux, Nightblood, Teft, argh too many fantastic characters! Now for the "bad" guys 1. Lord Ruler 2. Amaram 3. Odium 4. Moash 5. Captain Crow? Enchantress? I dunno, cosmere needs some more bad girls I think List is subject to change on any given day, aside from Kaladin who is locked in at #1.