Windrunner

It's a really good question Collin. Form is really important in Investiture, especially on Sel, like you mentioned. The Radiants too, once had glowing glyphs on their Plate.

Brandon talks about the people of Southern Scadrial living on a continent. So there's that.

Some people think that the ardents who started the Hierocracy had experienced these visions. It's a rather excellent theory. I'd go with the Ghostbloods being involved with that ardent's comment though. From Kabsal, who appears to be a real ardent, it's entirely possible that they are some faction within the ardentia.

Well, if what you're trying to do is assign each Shard a distinct hue, then white has already been taken by Preservation.

I think I have a plausible explanation for why Odium hasn't been on Scadrial (to our knowledge at least). Brandon has said that Odium's goal is to be the only one at his power level, so he has to take out the other Shards to do that. For millenia, Ruin and Preservation were all but gone from Scadrial, with Leras's mind dead and Ati's trapped. They weren't going to be challenging him anytime soon. On the whole scale of the cosmere, this whole Harmony thing has only been going on for 341 years or so. Odium's in full on attack mode on Roshar, he won't be turning his attention to Scadrial so quickly. You could make the argument that he should have destroyed Ruin and Preservation utterly while they were weak, but I disagree. If you're in a fight, do you go to kill the unconscious guy (Leras) or the guy who got the weapon knocked out of his hands (Ati)? No, you go for the ones still able to fight, and Devotion, Dominion, and Honor must have been first on his hit list, with the possible exception of other Shards that he's Splintered in unpublished Shardworlds.

Elwynn, that was brilliant. I think you hit the nail on the head with the visions. Also I just realized we have 2 discussions of this story going on currently, so I accidentally made some of the same points there as were made in here. My bad. The other topic is shorter, so I may close it or move it over here.

Well Brandon said that for sure, Honor still lived at Aharietiam, when the Heralds quit. Since he managed to give Dalinar visions of the Recreance, I think he was alive for that as well. Sure he could have used his future sight to see it happening but it seems odd to me, he could have gotten things wrong. What I really want to see in the next books are the visions that "are born out of [Honor's] fears". I almost want to wonder if his death and the Recreance are tied somehow.

Liar of Partinel is Hoid the Worldhopper's origin story, set on the world of Yolen. It is as of yet unpublished but here is the longer version of the sample, since this link is broken on the other topic that JamesW linked you to. One thing to remember when reading it, is that the Hoid who dies in the beginning is not the Hoid we know of, that is almost certainly Midius that we see in all the other books. We really don't know what Andonalsium is, or even if it was conscious. All we know is that it Shattered into the Shards we see today. We figure out this stuff through subtle clues in the books, as well as from interviews which are all archived here (Along with Robert Jordan's WoT stuff). Lightweaving is a magic from Yolen. It uses dust and some unknown trick to create illusions. As it was said in the other topic, you don't need to read Wheel of Time to understand the Cosmere, the two are unrelated. (although it is a great series). You don't have to read all of the Cosmere books to understand but it is extremely helpful. At the very least, Mistborn and The Way of Kings are a must. Hope that helps and feel free to post any other questions you might have.

Most of these questions are answered in the Cosmere 101 topic, the rest I'll answerer here in just a second. Welcome to 17th Shard, and remember you can always edit your original post instead of double posting. Topic locked.

"In the Top Room"? This is going to be one of those "Honor is Dead" scenarios where we're missing something obvious and crucial, isn't it?

It's my job to keep the admins lazy so I might as well help you while I'm at it Here's a quote for you.

Well theoretically that could mean that the people of Roshar never have to harness electricity for power as their technology level grows. They could use Stormlight for their power source, and have each place simply siphon off some highstorm power. Clean energy. But then that brings up the constraint of how large they could get the gems, since a gem can only hold a certain amount of Stormlight. It's seeming like the chasmfiend gemhearts are the largest stones, but then again Roshar's myths speak of a city made entirely of gems, so who knows?

I think Odium's plan really amounts to an eternal highstorm, as the name Everstorm implies. I think TWoK actually says the storms are growing in strength. I'll check. EDIT: Found it! For a second there I thought I was delusional. It's only a quick throw away mention.

Here is Defending Elysium and just in case you hadn't seen this as well, here's another great sci-fi short story of Brandon's Firstborn.

The magic of Roshar is known to play an important part in its ecology, even if we aren't sure specifically how. There are mysterious spren who emerge from dead chasmfiend, who Brandon has admitted have some magical solution for the problem that chitin isn't strong enough to support them. It seems possible that these spren reduce gravity and are part of some sort of natural fabrial with the gemheart of the creature. Skyeels are also surrounded by clouds of "luckspren" who are postulated by Shallan to be attracted to something entirely different then luck. I imagine these relationships with the Investitures will become clearer as we get better ideas of how spren and fabrials work.

The Silver Kingdoms are on the map on the front endsheets. (That sounds funny ) They are Alethela, Iri, Rishir, Sela Tales, Valhav, Natanatan, Thalath, Shin Kak Nish (that might be one word) Makabakam, and Aimia

I really really don't think the red and gold thing has anything at all to do with Devotion and Dominion. There's just way more evidence, in my opinion, that links them to the people of the southern continent, who are confirmed to be of Ruin and Preservation. Brandon doesn't want to start mixing the Cosmere worlds too much at this point (3rd Mistborn trilogy is a much more likely candidate for this mixture). Also we don't "know" anything about them being complements, its only my theory at this point, and not confirmed in any way shape or form.

If that's the point he's trying to get across, then I find it very unlikely. Dalinar already wants to finish the War of Reckoning, he's not going to start a war with Jah Keved, Kharbranth, and whatever the other Vorin Kingdoms. Regardless of venerating lighteyes, Jah Keved won't just roll over anyway, even weakened as they are, the war won't be an easy thing. Kharbranth would be a tough nut to crack as well. Until Dalinar has his own country united, I don't see him even considering warring with the other nations.

Interesting list Feather, I'm sure you're right about the "there's more" part. Just so you know though, the attributes you have for Nalan and Palah (2 & 5) need to be switched. It's an Ars Arcanum error from some of the earlier copies.

I'd always assumed it was the mist spirit as well, although the fact that it's "creatures" and not "creature" is intriguing. I think either he saw Preservation multiple times and assumed they were different or Ruin himself was also capable of a limited presence similar to the mist spirit and Alendi saw them both. My gut says that it's not a spren, though I can't back that up with anything.

Hey Wayne, I see that this is your first post here, so welcome to 17th Shard! It would be great if you made a post in the Introduce Yourself topic, so all the other Sharders around here can give you a proper hello and meet you. In response to your question, the unfortunate answer is that it's a little bit mysterious what would actually happen if you burned a Hemalurgic spike. We have two instances of him discussing what would happen, and they are seemingly contradictory. In the first one he calls it impossible since the spike would have to have killed you in order for you to be able to burn it. (like how you can only burn metalminds you made yourself) However this is invalidated by the fact that you don't have to die when a Hemalurgic spike steals your power. Also the second instance of Brandon speaking of it has something more interesting and up to date. Hope this helps answer your question and again, welcome to 17th Shard. I hope you'll enjoy your time here

Sorry to disappoint, but I think getting Kelsier centered books is pretty unlikely. Brandon has said in a couple of places that he builds his stories with a past and future. They both matter to the story taking place in the present, but he doesn't intend to go into them in greater detail in other books. That's why he's said that he doesn't intend on writing Alendi books either. As well as the fact that he's said that he doesn't like prequels very much. You may or may not know this, but there is a rather excellent short story about Kelsier that Brandon wrote for the Mistborn Adventure Game. I can attest that while it is not extremely long, it is excellently written and well worth the price.

I'm afraid I'm not following at all. By "ruin god metal" do you mean atium? Atium will not grant magic to someone. Hemalurgy and Allomancy are vastly different systems. Brandon actually structured Hemalurgy to steal other powers so he wouldn't have to introduce even more powers to Scadrial, he believed it would be too confusing. So he's not going to build yet another system into that world, or alter Hemalurgy to grant unique powers (beyond the Human attributes of course). Atium doesn't bestow the ability to use a magic system on a person. Atium and lerasium don't have to both give people powers. Atium does have a "side affect" but Brandon RAFO'd it.