Windrunner

Because the wild chalklings don't die. They get messed up for a bit, but just reform. No matter how huge these chalkings are, they can't beat enemies that are essentially immortal.

Sorry for taking so long to respond, I took a quick overnight camping trip. It's not really clear at this point. Brandon's going to be doing flashbacks for the ten characters and they may be dead when the flashbacks happen. He also wants to focus the book on the character, so if one is dead, perhaps the book will simply deal with them a lot.

A slot for gems, but not spheres. It implies that they can move the Stormlight from gem to gem.

Same place we learned about the purification thing.

I tend to think that the Shardworld itself is what determines the physical aspect, and maybe part of the focus, rather than separating it into to different factors, like Isomere has done.

Brandon's responded to people's guesses about the number of Allomantic metals with things like, "nearly," so I think he probably has a number in mind at the very least.

I've never heard anything about a Bridge Four book, but here's the list as it now stands. 1. Kaladin 2. Shallan 3. Szeth 4. Eshonai 5. Dalinar The second sequence of five is a little less clear. I think that with the number of character's Brandon's mentioned wanting to have a flashback book for, Kaladin getting a second one is out. I think the same goes for a potential Adolin book. There's just not enough room. The second set will contain Jasnah, Taln, Navani (who presumably got pushed here out of her previous slot in book 4) Taravangian, and another unnamed Herald.

It'll get revived in the future, I'm sure. We just generally haven't had that much postable audio lately. The stuff I did that Josh and Mi'ch got had too much filler to be worth editing and posting, so I had to do that one. This is perfect for people to help out though, and I'd be much obliged to anyone who contributes a little bit. I know that Phantom, I was saying that that quote makes me lean toward Hoid as being the author, as opposed to the Seventeenth Shard.

Wow, I haven't had the opportunity to listen to this yet, but it sounds pretty cool. People transcribing it would be great. It helps me out so I don't have to transcribe it and then put it in the database. EDIT: Also, this probably belongs in the events section of the site, so I shall be moving it there.

I think that's also probably the best evidence we have that Hoid is the one writing the Ars Arcanums, because those are clearly scholarly documents on the various magics.

That's fair. I think the longer you hold the power, the more convincing you have to do to yourself to perform an action that at first glance goes against your intent. If you don't hold strongly enough to who you are, I suspect you'll end up like Ati and Leras, unable to do anything that goes counter to your intent.

I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't actually worked out what exactly all the god metal alloys do for sure. He didn't have Hemalurgy all set up by the time he was done writing TFE.

I think we just know too little about spheres at the moment. There's also apparently some way to transfer the Stormlight out of the spheres and into a set of Plate, like Dalinar did after the Battle of the Tower.

I think it all has to do with your intentions. Rashek moved the world and created the ashmounts with the intention of saving the world. Vin caused tsunamis and killed millions in her attempt to save the world. It reminds me of this quote: Rashek and Vin believed what they were doing to be "Preserving" so the intent didn't matter. (Also, this "show new post" feature is amazing!)

I think this might hint at an answer. When you become a savant, you've pumped up your ability to draw power through the metals (at a cost to yourself) to make it more powerful. If aluminum savants can cleanse the spirit, perhaps all regular aluminum does is a cleanse of the physical body? Removing all extra impurities or whatnot?

I agree that they've probably merged, but I think it's more likely to have happened post-Splintering. We know the magic changed after the Shards were Splintered, so this is perhaps part of it.

I just wanted to say that this is a super classy response. Not every deals so well with theories of theirs being likely disproven.

Good to have you here Carcinios! We have crazy theories galore, so you should fit right in And no... we'd never take your Breath, when spikings are so much more efficient.

I'm glad you're back, Feather!

I agree Phantom. I think there's a high likelihood that Brandon meant several other planets and not all other planets.

We know that all Shards don't have a perfect opposite Personally, I do think they have complements though, as one of my bigger theories hinges on that.

We don't really know if Seekers can sense other investitures, but it's been confirmed that one properly trained could Seek Feruchemists. It's tough to know whether or not Vin could have managed to Seek Lightweaving. On on hand, she hasn't had any special training. On the other, she's fairly advanced and powerful with bronze, and she wasn't actually sensitive enough to know it was a magic, she could just feel, "something".

I just saw this theory referenced and realized that I'd never had a proper look at it to see what it was all about. As I was reading it, I was struck immediately with the similarity to an old theory Zas678 made called, The Power of Creation. The stuff about the magic system crossovers and whatnot is different and still valid and interesting speculation. However, these two theories, (as well as askthepaperclip's theory) share the basic premise that Shards are not the source of the Power of Creation but rather a "door," "lens," "filter," or what have you that alters the power as it comes through. However, the reason Zach's theory isn't so commonly known anymore is that it was unfortunately disproved by this quote, which seems to be the death knell for these theories as well, unless I'm missing something. I didn't come here to necro this topic and attempt to disprove this theory to be a jerk, but rather because I figured you guys would want to know about this. If you think I'm totally wrong, and see a way around this quote that keeps the theory valid, feel free to point it out.

I don't think it's possible for two Shards being held by different people to merge. If they could have, why didn't Ruin and Preservation merge when they worked together to build Scadrial? It also could have forestalled Ati's descent from a kind and generous man into a monster. I think if it had been possible, they would have done it. From a practical standpoint, it doesn't really make sense to me either. How could two people hold a Shard at the same time? Who would it listen to? Would they have to always be in agreement? The Letter makes it perfectly clear that Skai and Aona were both alive when Odium came to Sel, so I personally doubt that Devotion and Dominion had been conjoined at that point, although it wouldn't surprise me if the two Shards have now fused into the Dor.

Cool, thanks for posting these questions, man! Too bad about your notebook, but maybe you'll get another chance to ask your questions, since Brandon's gonna be at ComicCon for a few days? Anyway, I think this is what you were referring to. I think you've misremembered it slightly though. Brandon's saying here that Hoid is somewhere in the chapter, but not as Slowswift. I kind of doubt, personally, that Hoid was one of the guards in the chapter.