Gagylpus

I quite like this idea. Very evocative. Is it right? Probably not, but we'll just have to wait and see. True, but the Lord Ruler could have forseen the usefulness of having access to all the Allomantic metals, and fashioned personal stores of all of them while he held the power of the Well. The problem with the Bands of Mourning being any of the Lord Ruler's metalminds is that only he would be able to access them, for them to be useful at all, and he's dead. :/ Something tells me that either we are going to learn something about how to access another Feruchemist's metalminds, or the Bands of Mourning will turn out to be something different entirely.

Fortunately, it is easy to acquire a copy of White Sand to read for yourself - simply send Brandon Sanderson an email using the form on his website, and ask him to send it to you! (I recommended it! Despite it being a rough draft it was an enjoyable read. This is Sanderson we are talking about, after all.)

I like to imagine what the movies could be, if they were created by someone who loved the books, was trying to adapt them as faithfully as possible, had an unlimited budget, and didn't care about making money. Who also was a great storyteller in their own right, and was collaborating with Team Sanderson, and had the ability to pull perfect actors for the roles out of the woodwork. Sure, it's never going to happen, but the hypothetical is awesome. So that's why I get excited about the potential for a movie of one of Sanderson's works. Because even if it wouldn't be perfect, there's a chance that it could approach that awesomeness.

If I recall correctly, the two parts of The Way of Kings were actually given distinct titles in the German publication - the first part was The Way of Kings, and the second part was The Path of Winds. So it would be quite easy to mislabel the first part of the second book as the third book in the series. (I wonder what Words of Radiance part two will be called in German?)

Thanks Khyrindor! I'll add the answers I got to these. This was the first time I've met Brandon in person, it was a very cool experience. He is very approachable and appreciative of his fans. Some of my questions overlapped with Khyrindor's and probably some with info we already had, but I either hadn't heard these before, or I wanted to get them clarified. These are all paraphrased. Also, no new readings (we got the ones from Skin Deep, Shadows of Self, and the Kaladin one from Stones Unhallowed) but he did mention that Shadows of Self will probably be the next adult book released, before SA3. Not sure if this is taking the place of the Rithmatist sequel. And: Lastly but most importantly, apparently Brandon still manages to get 4 hours or so of writing in per day even while at conventions. The man is a machine.

About the masked man chapter header - every chapter where it appears, Hoid is referenced in some way. Either he appears, or the characters talk about him or think about him. In the Mraize chapter, Shallan briefly recalls her encounter with Hoid from her childhood. So the masked man does not have to be related to Mraize at all, besides the fact that he reminded Shallan of Hoid.

I have a Word doc about 50 pages long, single spaced, detailing my magic system, so you'd think I would know how to answer your question, Cstryon. (I did manage to pare that down to an 8-page summary, thank goodness, which I might post here sometime.) But I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all outline for magic systems. It really depends on the angle you're approaching it from. Here's my approach, to add another suggestion into the mix. I started with some idea of what abilities I wanted and filled that out. I always like there to be certain symmetries in these kinds of systems, so that helped fill in gaps or come up with new ideas for abilities. (For example, in my system each element is associated with a colour; the opposite of an element is associated with the opposite colour on the colour wheel. Each element has analogous abilities, which helped to define the capabilities of the system.) Once I knew roughly what I wanted the system to be able to do, I started designing the metaphysical framework, figuring out the cosmology and the interactions between the physical and magical aspects of the universe, trying to work out how my system functioned within the rules of the metaphysics I was defining. Sometimes this helped to further define the capabilities of the magic system, or led me to modify the abilities to fit the metaphysics. This went through several iterations over the years (I think I'm on version 6 or 7), and I've probably spent way too much of my life thinking about it already. But the result is a systematic description of the magic system, consistent within its own metaphysical framework, where I have a good understanding of how everything works and what its limits are. I really enjoy seeing other people's ideas for magic systems, and the crazy inventive (and occasionally disturbing) uses people come up with for said systems, haha. Looking forward to seeing yours.

So the world I'm creating has an elemental magic system that is fairly typical. In a nutshell, the magic is an innate, hereditary power giving the user the ability to perceive, manipulate, create, or destroy one of the world's eight major elements: Fire, Earth, Life, Water, Air, Spirit, Light, and Dark. At a glance it resembles a cross between elemental bending in Avatar and channelling in the Wheel of Time. (I might make a post discussing the system in detail at some point, but for now it's only relevant that it exists.) But I really liked the idea of a scientific or mechanical way to access magic that we see in Roshar's fabrials, and that is hinted to exist in southern Scadrial. So I started thinking about how something like that would work in my world, and this is what I came up with. The basic premise is in utilizing elemental energy stored in gemstones (which obviously must glow when they are charged) by imbuing the energy into geometric symbols which have (more or less arbitrary) spiritual connections to the different effects the energy can produce. Now, don't look at me like that. Sanderson isn't the first author to use gemstones as magic batteries. The magic system I'm developing here is not a blatant rip-off of fabrials. It only looks that way. I'm interested in what kinds of technology you, my friends, can come up with using this system. Airships? Railguns? Laundry machines? You tell me. Now, in more detail: there's a strong connection between light or colour and the elemental energy that makes up this world. The spiritual character of different substances causes this energy to take on different elemental colours. Here's an overview of the different colour associations. - Red: Hot gases and incandescent material undergoing combustion - Orange: Metal, molten earth, charcoal - Yellow: Minerals, salts, ceramics, soil - Yellow-Green: Wood, hair, silk - Green: Organic matter - Green-Cyan: Oils, fats - Cyan: Water, ice - Azure: Heavy gases and vapours, steam - Blue: Light atmospheric gases - Violet: Rational mental phenomena - Magenta: Vital psychological phenomena - Rose: Emotional phenomena - White: Visible light, elemental colour Once elemental energy acquires colour, it is restricted to interact with the associated substances. Ambient elemental energy pervades the world and takes on colour according to nearby substances. Importantly, the substances within living beings are protected from interaction with elemental energy by a natural magic associated with all life. Okay. So there's natural magic on this world which causes any transparent material, upon intense illumination by sunlight, to form into a reservoir for elemental energy. Further illumination causes the material to charge with elemental energy, with an elemental colour identical or at least similar to the colour of the material. Deformation of the material ruins its ability to store energy, so you need rigid, high-strength materials to create good reservoirs. Hence, gemstones. When a reservoir material is charged, it glows with the appropriate colour. Certain arcane symbols can unlock the power of elemental energy, expending it to produce different effects. These symbols are all built upon a circle and are referred to as activation circles. (You may be feeling an FMA vibe right now. As an aside, I'm thinking the basic elements of the symbols will be circular arcs inscribed in the main circle, rather than straight lines.) When a high density of elemental energy, such as that stored in a reservoir, is brought near such a symbol, the energy begins to flow through the activation circle, expending it and releasing its power. (Electrical analogy: the reservoirs are capacitors and the activation circles are resistors.) The symbols are discovered by experimentation or from ancient texts in reference to the innate elemental magic system. It is pretty difficult to discover new symbols. Modifiers can further specify the behaviour of the activation circles in some ways. Activation circles can be constructed from anything - they can be built from a material or carved into one, drawn on a surface with ink or chalk or whatever you like, formed from a shadow or a projection - as long as the symbol is there, there is some amount of elemental energy that will cause it to function. However, the circles function better if they are constructed from a material associated with the element, allowing the energy to flow through them easily. They function even better if they are made from specially prepared conduit materials, which are near-perfect conductors of elemental energy. (One of the kinds of activation circles can transform a material into a conduit for a certain colour of elemental energy; it so happens that this works especially well for copper, silver, and gold.) So one could build elemental energy activation devices to access the various effects for the different colours of elemental energy. For simplicity I'm going to call devices, activation circles that are constructed from conduits and powered by reservoir gemstones, fabrials. This is just for fun and I'm not planning on publishing any time soon, so I can change the name later, haha. Here is the list of the different possible activation circles: Perception - the circle stretches the energy within it into a perception field that extends throughout the vicinity of the circle. The more energy placed within the circle, the greater the range. When elemental material is detected, some of the energy is pulled back into the circle. This will either cause the reservoir to light up, or it can be siphoned away by a conduit to power another circle. Modifiers can focus the perception field in a certain direction, or create a strongly focused perception field within the circle (which has some uses later on). Attraction or Repulsion - the circle generates a force field, anchored on some elemental material at the center of the circle, that acts on similar elemental material in the vicinity of the circle. The reaction force on the anchor is equal, opposite, and collinear with the force on the outside material. Modifiers can focus the force field in a certain direction, or anchor the force field to the reservoir material within the circle rather than an elemental material. Energy is only expended when an actual force is being generated. The circle can be tuned to target a specific material by coupling it with an inside-focused perception circle containing a sample of the target material. Heating or Cooling - the circle expends energy to add or remove heat to elemental material within the circle. Bend Light - the analogous activation to Attraction or Repulsion for fabrials utilizing Light (white) energy, it can bend light towards or away from the circle. Creation or Destruction - the circle converts elemental energy into elemental material, or vice versa. This is extremely energy-costly, as there is a high activation cost on top of the large amounts of energy that go into making physical material. (Though you still gain energy from destruction, there is a net loss in converting from material -> energy -> back to material.) Creation circles can be coupled with an inside-focused perception field to duplicate the sample material, otherwise they create the most representative material for energy of the given colour. Modifiers can help to constrain the structure of the created material. Possibly, creation and destruction circles could be combined into a single transmutation circle that transforms the material while mostly keeping its shape. (Such transmutations have to stay in the same element, however.) Colouration - the circle expends energy to change the elemental colour of material within the circle. This is used to create conduit materials; it can also be used to protect material from interaction with elemental energy by supressing its elemental colour entirely. There may be activation circles for interacting with living beings, related to the elements Life and Spirit, but by necessity they would be incredibly complex. I may need to come up with a secondary process for generating these interactions, maybe by somehow capturing the essence of a natural process and replicating it. I'd like to see fabrials that can do healing or emotional manipulation. Alright. I believe that was sufficiently long. How does it look?

My impression of the timeline was that the events of Interlude 5, where Eshonai goes out into highstorm to change into stormform (and is subsequently taken over by the voidspren), occur simultaneously with or even slightly before Szeth's attack. So there is another likely reason for Odium's presence during that storm, and thus Syl and Pattern's distress.

The problem with Vasher being the Ars Arcanum author is that Warbreaker takes place after Mistborn. We have very little indication that Vasher was a worldhopper in the time between his Return and the events in Warbreaker, and furthermore, Vasher would certainly be unfamiliar with Yolish Lightweaving, which is referenced by the Ars Arcanum author.

Some further evidence that Adolin may become a Radiant is that he no longer feels the Thrill by the end of the book. (See the section where he is fighting Parshendi before his fight with Eshonai.)

Nalan's dialog with Szeth. Just chilling. My favourite bits of it: Nalan: "You were banished by petty men with no vision. I will teach you the path of one uncorrupted by sentiment." ... Nalan: "I watched you destroy yourself in the name of order, watched you obey your personal code when others would have fled or crumbled. Szeth-son-Neturo, I watched you keep your word with perfection. This is a thing lost to most people - it is the only genuine beauty in the world." ... Szeth: "If I am to bring judgement on my people, I will face enemies with Shards and power." Nalan: "This is not a problem. I have brought a Shardblade for you. One that is a perfect match for your task and temperament." *tosses sword* Nightblood: Hello. Would you like to destroy some evil today?

Sorry... what is awesome about breaking up relationships and encouraging infidelity?

Fall 2016 for SA3? Noooo that's too far away! I was really hoping it would be less than two years...

In the next sentence it also refers to the Bondsmiths' spren with the plural 'them'... and we know it isn't a gender neutral singular 'they' because the Stormfather is clearly referred to as male. Unless... maybe that 'them' refers to the Bondsmiths themselves, and 'their spren was understood to be specific' indicates that in fact all Bondsmiths were bonded to the Stormfather?

Good catch! I think this is a valid speculation. Additionally: Willshapers are probably order 8, Kalak's order, which corresponds to the eighth sword stance, Ironstance... name of the first Adolin chapter and the stance he begins the first duel with.

Okay, I see I should have clarified a bit. (Sometimes I go for unnecessary subtlety...) What I mean is that the chain of events is slightly ironic, in that Darkness and those who follow him could easily see it as justification for their beliefs. I was not implying that Darkness was actually right in thinking that if he successfully killed all the Surgebinders, the Desolation would not have begun. Obviously, even if no Surgebinders came, Taln would still have finally given up under the torture, and Odium would still have begun to move. Venli was obviously already under his influence, so stormform would have arrived nonetheless. Really, its kind of interesting what the different groups think about the impending disaster. Nalan kills Surgebinders because he thought it would prevent Voidbringers from coming back. The Sons of Honor and the Envisagers were trying to bring back Voidbringers because they thought that would bring Surgebinders and Heralds back. Besides our heroes, it seems like Taravangian is the only one with a reasonable position on this subject - he recognised that the Desolation was inevitable.

Rosharan mythology suggests that all humans on Roshar came from another world... perhaps the Heralds came from there?

SPOILERS!!! (Sorry forgot to put it in the title) So Nalan/Darkness went around killing nascent Surgebinders, saying that their existence threatened the onset of a new Desolation. And in a way, he was right. Seeing Kaladin Surgebinding was one of the factors that pushed Eshonai and the other listeners over the edge, resulting in their decision to take up stormform. With their mass transformation to stormform, Odium was able to use the listeners to start the Everstorm. So... chalk one up to extreme prejudice and irrational dogmatism, I guess?

Actually junior, if I was picking up on things right, the book hints that the Davar family has a history of involvement with the Ghostbloods. Although that could just refer to the fact that Shallan's father joined up with them some time after Helaran left, it may indicate that Shallan's mother and/or her mother's lover was involved with them.

I was just about to post on this topic! I noticed the incongruity in the description of Taln's blade and the one Dalinar holds, and the fact that Dalinar's blade seems to be a regular old fallen Shardblade when he is speaking to the Stormfather. I totally forgot about Wit's antics on the route to the Shattered Plains. I think you're right! Wit must have taken the Honorblade and replaced it. For that to have worked, though, I think he must have made the switch almost immediately after Taln's arrival. Otherwise Bordin would have noticed the switch. (Or he would have needed to do a lot of Lightweaving.)

Huh. And here I was for the whole book thinking that Zahel was one of the Heralds, probably Ishar. But it totally makes sense for him to be Vasher, with all the colour references. And - oh! Zahel was away at a trip to the Purelake. Where we saw him in WoK. Was the character in the Purelake interlude ever confirmed to be Vasher before?

Better yet - store zinc and steel while waiting for Words of Radiance, then tap once you have it. Finish reading it after 20 minutes and then use any excess zinc to start churning out theories for book three. Also put all of the Cosmere books and every WoB in your copperminds.

There you have it... I bow to your superior knowledge of the Mistborn books. Those poor W-bosonspren and Z-bosonspren, so symmetry broken and slow compared to their cousin the photonspren! I feel for them. And the gluonspren. You can always count on them to stick together.

From the books I got the impression that you did get stronger pushes off of large pieces of metal in the way described (with the weight of the anchor being another issue), or at least that it was easier to get stronger pushes that way. But if that is not the case, my 'Allomantic charge' theory would have to be modified to say that the effect of burning iron or steel is also to put charge on the metal, as well as the Allomancer him/herself. (This actually makes more sense, in the long run.) The total amount of charge being put out would still be proportional to the burn rate. I would argue that the visibility limit is not a real effect, just a psychological one. You clearly don't need to have line of sight, just to be close enough and to know that the metal is there (courtesy of the blue lines). The 'close enough' restriction occurs because the force diminishes with distance (and I am guessing that the intensity of the blue lines is proportional to the force you can exert on that metal). But you couldn't change your angular momentum at all (at least not predictably). Anyways, I'll concede that. Ah yes! That makes sense. I'm still uncertain about whether the stability region is larger than a single point (if the coin were displaced a tiny amount, would the forces hold it there or would it go flying away), but you've explained how the coin gets flattened (stretched, really) quite nicely. I don't remember Kelsier being able to push/pull on different parts of an object differently, but I definitely hope that's the case, 'cause it would be rather useful. It also lends support to the notion that the Allomancer puts the Allomantic charge on the metal, rather than the charge pre-existing. Edit: Tal pointed out the reference, thanks. If you want to get technical - 'surface forces' are no more real and no less real than 'surfaces' themselves. At the quantum scale, of course, everything is electromagnetic and weak and strong interactions, and Pauli exclusion, and there are no clear boundaries between one object and another because everything is particles/waves/fields. But we're working at the continuum scale.