Windrunner

We just have reference to the fact that the Black Lake existed and that it was moved underground. If it didn't work like the Well did, it's interesting to understand why. I'm not really speaking of common heritage, as that appears basically biologically unlikely, I'm more hoping for confirmation that there's more to it than Brandon not caring about how biology works. That being said, the Unkalaki one is the one I'm least interested in of the three. Anything about Ambition-based magic would be cool to know.

I've got a few you could try. You've stated that Ruin's Perpendicularity (the Black Lake) had been moved underground by the time of Vin's birth. Was that lake somewhere deep beneath the Pits? How was it impacted by Kelsier destroying the atium crystals? Did people need to actually enter the pool to transition between realms or did they just need to be in the Pits themselves? Was there a full manifestation of Investiture (magic system) on Threnody before Ambition and Odium's fight? If so, was it related to Ambition? We've seen a number of human/singer hybrids (Unkalaki and Herdazians) and even human/Aimian hybrids (Natans). How is such a thing possible biologically or is there some outside influence there? Those are ordered in my approximate interest level from most to least, but feel free to pick any or none that are interesting to you.

To focus discussion in one place, I'm going to close this topic. Feel free to continue speculation over there!

I'm not sure what you mean by the cosmere decal being official. It's the symbol on the cover of Arcanum Unbounded, so it's been canon for a while now. You could try shooting Team Sanderson an email about when they'll be back in stock, but unless Peter happens to stop by, no one on this website works for Dragonsteel Entertainment, so your guess is as good as ours. I'm sure it won't be too long, they probably sold out for the holidays.

I'm going to close the thread so we can have the discussion all in the same place.

I understand what the OP said, no need to explain the Shardblade swap to me.

I wrote a large part of the Shardblade article. I’m not sure who put in that Taln’s Blade was stolen by a Taravangian but I’ll get rid of that, as it’s incorrect. As for the issue with the Shardblade that Taln showed up with, it is unlikely to change. It’s difficult to tally and tabulate unnamed Shardblades, but this system is the best I could figure out and Taln was the last one to hold that Blade, even if it wasn’t bound to him. It doesn’t seem misleading at all to me.

Topic moved. Please be more careful with future topics.

I am certain it’s Yelig-nar. The motif that he is given is black smoke/wind whenever he appears onscreen. It’s just waiting there for Amaram to swallow the gemstone.

Very interesting theory. I particularly like the theory about where gemstones tend to collect, as that should be predictable like you indicate. We really don't know much about Rosharan mining at this point, so I'm curious if they end up digging into the actual granitic bedrock or if they're just digging around in the crem for gems like you indicate. One interesting thing I noticed from the Kaza interlude is that there are a lot of gemstones around there with the greatshell corpses, yet they seem to not have moved far from the bodies. Perhaps the location of Akinah is already near one of these barriers that the gems are moved towards? Very interesting theory!

I wouldn’t be surprised if Team Dragonsteel has developed some sort of symbol for Nalthis, like they did for the other cosmere worlds that appeared in AU. We didn’t get a story set on Nalthis, but I bet the symbol exists. Perhaps that will be what we see on the cover (although that begs the question of what will eventually appear on the cover of the Nightblood leather bound, but that’s probably 15+ years out xD)

From a financial perspective, it was a huge success. Brandon is aware of the graphic novel’s flaws and has his own issues as well.

Welcome to the forums! My personal read on it is that Harkaylain is an ancient Bondsmith. He seems to have been wise and in a position of authority. The fact that he could potentially help with a problem with the Nahel bond (which is what I think would cause some sort of malfunction to Shardplate) also implies Bondsmith to me, that he could potentially help them get around whatever problems with a bond a person might be having. I could even see a Bondsmith having helped someone like Kaladin in book two, who was really struggling with their oaths and bond and putting their spren at risk of death.

I'm not sure how worried you are about spoilers, so I'll tag this for Oathbringer. There's nothing plot related in here, but if you're sensitive to knowing too much about how much screentime a character gets or who the book is focused on, don't open the tag. Also, if you want to get more specific on what you're struggling with in OB, I'll have to move the topic to the spoilers board, although we can add a note that it's just through part one or something to the title of the topic.

My interpretation of the whole thing was not to assume that Adolin is going to be her crutch. Shallan's working on mastering her personas right now, and Adolin caught her in a moment where she had lost her control. While she was reasserting control, he recognized who she was at the core. My read of it was in that moment she realized that Adolin really understands her on a level that Kaladin simply doesn't and that made up her mind. I don't think this is leading to Adolin being the person that she needs to reassert her control every time or anything. I think that he'll try to help, and maybe even succeed in helping sometimes, but it's not going to be that easy. If in SA 4, Shallan is hanging on Adolin's arm to maintain her semblance of self, I'll accept that I read it wrong, but I really don't think that what Brandon is driving at here is the implication that Shallan is going to be dependent on Adolin for her mental health.

I’m not sure if you’re correcting me or if you’re agreeing with me, but this is basically what I was trying to get across in my post.

My opinion is that when Szeth was still at the Purelake, he had already attracted a spren. He was at the point of swearing the Third Ideal before Nale interrupted him. Szeth must have had a spren, as he and Nale went to Thaylen City whereas the Skybreakers seem to have remained in Marat. That is far beyond the distance that his powers should have faded. We also know that Szeth can’t be getting his powers from Nale, as squires are specific, as seen when Rock does not heal until he is moved nearer to Kaladin, despite the fact that Teft, a full Radiant with his own bond was within feet of Rock. (You can make the argument that squires work doffeeently between orders, but I think that’s silly without something to indicate it.) Therefore in my opinion, when Szeth arrived at Thaylen City, he already had already attracted a spren bond, despite not having yet sworn the Third Ideal.

I tend to agree with Calderis as well. I don't wish to put anyone down or anything, but I think it's highly unlikely that these are oaths, aside from "I will take responsibility for what I have done." Brandon has really ratcheted down on giving out oaths lately, wishing to save them for the books themselves. "You cannot have my pain" and "My Glory and my Shame" are both really significant lines in the book, which are things Brandon tends to use as personalizations by default. They don't read like Ideals in my opinion. Still very cool though, congratulations on getting to meet him!

I think it’s sntirely possible that this was a test of loyalty. I’m not sure why the Fused didn’t do it, but I saw someone point out once that this would be an uncomfortable reminder for them that they too are mortal and potentially vulnerable to that weapon, which I think is an interesting idea.

Well, I mean the Lord Ruler creates them for the specific purpose of spewing ash, so if there were a way to optimizing that, I’m sure he did it. And the ash isn’t typically a meter deep. That was only after Ruin had been freed to influence the world. Before that there was some, but not too much. They were raking it away from the crops but it wasn’t burying the entire surface like it does in HoA.

From conversations I've had, the general feeling that I've seen is that this Blade is Nightblood 2.0. It seems to lack some of his more terrifying effects and function more like a regular Shardblade, except for the summoning. Perhaps she got it from Yesteel, or learned to craft it from him.

Also, please refer to the spoiler policy that can cleary be seen in the announcements. You failed to use the [OB] in the topic title and you put a major book spoiler in the topic title, which are both not allowed. I'm sure you didn't mean anything by it, but please try to be thoughtful and respect those that have not yet finished the book. Thanks!

I think Eshonai is dead. The spren at her corpse is a lightspren that was in the process of bonding with Eshonai that Venli inadvertently picked up. Timbre mentions her grandfather being killed by the Radiants, that doesn't make sense for her to be Eshonai. I want Eshonai to be dead, we've had enough lucky breaks for our characters.

Exactly my thoughts as well! I would point out that we don't know how long the Voidlight was in those spheres. Gavilar has them on hand and gives them away casually. We've not seen Szeth's or Eshonai's since. It's possible that they've gone dun in the intervening period. In my mind, if they were perfect gems or Unmade trapped in a gem, Gavilar would not be handing them out like party favors, in my opinion. A regular old sphere full of Voidlight is much less valuable. The Stormfather specifically mentions what the visions are for. Gavilar may not have gotten as far along in his bond, he may not have sworn any oaths yet, but there is no doubt in my mind that he was a nascent Bondsmith.

Unfortunately Brandon has confirmed many times that any of his stories that touch on Earth at all are not a part of the cosmere, as he doesn’t want Earth to exist in the cosmere. Sorry, good idea though!