Deano Stormblessed

Truthspren, much better. Why didn't I think of that? ???

I like it better the other way. Splinter the land => splinter the shard

Just reading Elantris and came across this quote concering the Roed: This quote seems to fit quite nicely with Hoid's letter: This is good evidence to support that Rayse/Odium caused the Roed.

They are obviously honestyspren. They feed off honesty which is an attribute linked to one of the ten essences, which is connected to an order of the knights radiant. Creativity is also an attribute of that same essence- which defines Shallan perfectly. That is why they follow her around.

I reckon all the Heralds are still alive in some way. I have no evidence to back this up, but its my gut feeling. Jezriem is the face Kaladin saw in the storm. I think the other Heralds are spread out among the 10 kingdoms of Roshar, with Shalash possibly being in Alethkar, since the statute was the only one missing in the prologue.

In the prelude, when they gave up the oathpact and all that, they mentioned one of them (talenel) all ready being dead and pretty strongly imply that he will remain dead after the oathpact is given up, so that's at least one we can relatively safely say is dead, though for good i suppose remains to be seen. In fact we know Taln is not dead as he makes an appearance in the epilogue and Brandon has hinted that he may possibly be a major PoV character in a later book. err, Does it actually name him in the epilogue? If so, i must have missed it, i thought he was unnamed (its been a bit since i've finished, maybe i forgot, and hoid is spouting his name every other sentence ) He says: I think it is pretty much implied that Taln and Talenel is the same person, both have similar names and both are heralds. The former is probably a nick-name, or maybe his original name, while the other one is the name given to him by the people and the Vorin church.

In the prelude, when they gave up the oathpact and all that, they mentioned one of them (talenel) all ready being dead and pretty strongly imply that he will remain dead after the oathpact is given up, so that's at least one we can relatively safely say is dead, though for good i suppose remains to be seen. In fact we know Taln is not dead as he makes an appearance in the epilogue and Brandon has hinted that he may possibly be a major PoV character in a later book.

I don't think Jenzrien is dead. In fact I don't think that any of the heralds are dead. I don't have any evidence to support it, except my gut feeling. I just think it would be cool if all the Heralds were still alive. Immortal, but can be killed. I really want another Kalak PoV chapter.

I think the bond exists on a spiritual level. I know Brandon has mentioned that the spirit realm is part of the magic systems of the Cosmere, though I don't fully understand what that means.

I think there is a definite relation between Aona and the land, but what it is exactly, I can only guess.

Join the club. Do it all the time...

Personally, I think the way that the letter refers to Ati means it IS after Mistborn. It says "what became of him". Not "what he became". And keep in mind that before the events of Mistborn, Ruin's actions were limited to... changing some prophecies. Not really noteworthy, in my opinion. Just to clear things up, I read somewhere (probably on someones blog) that Brandon himself said that the events occur in the order the books have been published. That means that Elantris is first, followed by mistborn then warbreaker and finally WoK. How far apart they are is anyones guess. Does anyone know the exact quote from the interview/Q&A or whatever it came from?

This is a quote I made on TWG on the same topic: It is specifically stated by Sigzil that Stormfather was another name for Jezrien. It's in Chapter 55 (pg 768 on the UK version) It does sound here that Jenzien has some great power. Whether it is something connected with one of the ten essences, or a splinter of the shard of the Almighty (whatever the shard is called), I can only guess. But maybe this implies that the face seen in the high storm by Kaladin is Jenzien. In addition, the voice Kaladin hears in his dream where he is riding the high storm (it tells him that the oathpact has ended and Odium reigns) may also belong to Jenzien. Odium himself would never say that, and the Almighty is dead, so who else does it leave? Thoughts anyone?

*Spoilers continued* I so didn't think about that. It would make sense that the windspren are just unbound honorspren, riding the wind to try and find someone to bond to. But does that mean that there are no such things as windspren, or cant people just not tell the difference between a windspren and honorspren?

Brandon has stated that each book will revolve primarily around one character. WoK was about Kaladin. I think book 2 will be about either Dalinar or Shallan in my opinion as both were set up quite substantially in the WoK. Personally I want it to be Shallan, and hopefully will shed light on her shardblade and murdering her father, as well as trying to learn soulcasting.

Symmetry is very important in WoK. I think we might find that the shard held by the Almighty might be something called Symmetry. Either that, or the sign of the Almighty might be symmetry (just as 16 was the sign of Preservation in mistborn). These small things are very important, as Brandon has said numerous times. Thx for picking that up, I actually missed it :-[.

I think the Odium visit to Sel resulted in the killing of the two Shards. The killing of Aona especially impacted heavily of Sel, causing the Reod. Definitely a new chasm forming in the land (on which the design of the Aon's is based) could be symbolic of the splintering of a shard. (shatter the shard results in shattering the land the shard is tied to). I think considering how closely the Aon's are based on the land, that Aona must be tied to the land. New thought: What if when creating Sel, Aona put her physical form into the land, and that why when they draw runes, they have to base it on the land. Thus if Odium wanted to splinter Aona, he might have to do something drastic, like causing an earthquake to tear open the land?

I am also new to this whole cosmere/Hoid thing. I remember each of Hoid's characters in each of the books, but I'm not good with names, and didn't realise that all those characters shared the same name (not surprising since sometimes I can hardly remember the names of main characters). Has anyone attempted to create akin to Encyclopaedia WoT.org for the Brandon Sanderson universe? I know that Brandon wants us to try and piece together the Hoid story from what he writes in the book, but having a central database which includes chapter by chapter synopsises, theories and links to annotations and interviews would make piecing together the Hoid mystery so much easier.

From the front cover symbols, I think ten big symbols are definitely the ten essences which forms the double eye of the almighty. Maybe the smaller symbols reflect the ten heralds. *Spoiler* Notice that in the epilogue Talenel calls himself Stonesinew, linking himself to two of the essences and each of the smaller symbols are linked to about 2 or 3 different essences. *Spoiler end* No idea about the back cover I do sometimes hate not being in the US. In Australia we received the WoK somewhat earlier than in the US, but our copy doesn't include any maps of Shadesmar or any symbols.

I don't think the element is Lerasium, for the simple reason as despite there being the overbearing theme of the shards, Brandon will still want to keep Mistborn separate from WoK. In all of Brandon's books, any epigraphs he uses are always in some way related to the actual story (though HoA did include hints about the 16 shards). Therefore when Hoid (i presume) mentions the element, this element will play some sort of role (i have a feeling it might be quite important) in the stormlight archive series. If the element was a bead of Lerasium, that would be bringing allomancy into WoK and would totally mix things up. (I hope that makes sense, I do tend to have difficulty explaining things :-[)