Ookla

1 minute ago, alder24 said:

There is a difference between those two things - the chapter made a point about it. I think the difference is that anti-light was in her body, but was not "touching" her soul. She could try drawing it in (breathing it in) and that would make it interact with her soul, annihilating parts of it. 

Here is the WoB I've mentioned before. It said it's survivable for highly invested individuals, but it did suggest anti-investiture would interact with the soul, annihilating parts of it - the bolt should be devastating to Shallan and yet nothing but pain happened to her. 

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Questioner

What would happen if a Mistborn ingested anti-lerasium or anti-atium, assuming they don't explode?

Brandon Sanderson

If you are not highly Invested yourself, and you get the anti[-Investiture], it's not gonna be a fun time. You won't explode, but it will kill you, almost assuredly. Not a fun time, but not an explosively not-a-fun-time, just a regular old not-a-fun-time. Maybe a little bit like pouring molten metal down your throat.

Dragonsteel 2023 (Nov. 21, 2023)

 

As an Elsecaller, she could just look into CR to see where the real Shallan went. 

Hmm... one of those WoBs seems to disprove my Radiant-becomes-walking-Investiture-bomb idea. How unfortunate.

1 minute ago, listerfeend said:

We seem to be making a distinction between Fused and Humans in this case. Raboniel didn't need to "breathe" the Anti-Light in to annihilate her soul, but for some reason a Human would. I'm not entirely sure why that would be the case, except maybe a Fused's spirit-web is more accessible through the physical body than a normal human's would be?

Thanks! That helps a bunch! 

1 minute ago, the_archduke said:

If Mraize/Iyatil/Lieke are Elsecallers that could be terrifying.  Scadrians with access to soulcasting!  If you can soulcast metals, it makes allomancers with nigh-infinite ammo.

I just realized that Hoid can do this, because he is both Mistborn and a Lightweaver. We probably haven't seen it because of the whole can't-harm-things restriction he has, though. 

2 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Shallan got hit with anti-Stormlight gemstone, surprisingly she was mostly fine because she didn’t breathe it in.

I'm a little confused. The chapter says she felt it inside her; no, she didn't breathe it in, but why would that make a difference if it's being transferred into her by an external force? I don't think I'm catching the point you're making here. Please elaborate.

Kaladin's making soup for Szeth! Kaladin's making soup for Szeth!

Also, fascinating tidbits about Anti-Stormlight. The fact that Shallan can take it in without causing overt harm to herself is particularly interesting. Could potentially mean that a Radiant could turn themselves into a walking nuclear/Investiture bomb if they wanted to. 

This. Is. Insane.

Amazing work, mate!

8 minutes ago, Confused said:

If there are twins, we already know their names: Radiant and Veil!

I didn't know I needed this until now. It's SO unlikely, but it would be awesome! (Please Brandon please!)

7 hours ago, alder24 said:

You can create aluminum via Soulcasting, but you can't Soulcast aluminum into something else.

Does that mean that if Soulcasters aren't careful, they could Soulcast too much aluminum and never be rid of it? (Sorry for the tangent; just genuinely curious here )

35 minutes ago, The Stick said:

I have to agree, this is a spectacular ace in the hole. The only way I can think the Radiants could stop this is to Soulcast an entire aluminum cube around the battlefield, to trap the Fused souls in.

Is aluminum Soulcast-able? I know it's pretty rare on Scadrial, but what about Roshar?

4 hours ago, BinarySecond said:

I think the battle in the shattered plains will lead us into the last legion 2 - abandonment boogaloo

Do you watch Hermitcraft? This sounds like a play off something familiar... 

3 hours ago, Arlin said:

Not technically cosmere and didn’t make it but I feel it still deserves to be here.

 

Tress

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That sounds like something my D&D group would do!

On 9/20/2024 at 10:08 AM, king of nowhere said:

ghostbloods are mostly pictures as evil on roshar. on scadrial, in the lost metal, they are the good guys.

So the Ghostbloods are good for Scadrians, but bad for Rosharans. 

This thread is hilarious. Just in case y'all didn't realize that.

[Appreciation] Also, I love the idea of adding tone to text this way! No idea if I actually have the patience to use it all the time, but I do quite like reading it!

58 minutes ago, Inevitability said:

I appreciate the legwork!

This one was debunked…. 

Looks like we were both wrong, but it was a fun discussion while it lasted.  

1 minute ago, Inevitability said:

Wow, you are correct about Radiant being blonde. I won’t surrender my take on it

Let’s just pivot this theory kool-aid to Shallan’s mum, a herald, being of the Royal line from Nalthis and being able to change her hair color at will. 
Let’s drink deeper and theorize that her mum is actually the daughter of a certain Scholar present on Roshar and that Shallan has a grand father roaming around that she hasn’t bumped shoulders with yet

Take another sip of the kool-aid, the Scholar’s daughter being a herald would provide one explanation why he returned to Roshar to aid in the research. He could be motivated to find a way to free his daughter

And let’s be real - wouldn’t it be awesome to pair Shallan and the Scholar on a journey? Why haven’t we had this combo yet?

It's a little out there, but Brandon has been known to do crazy things in the past.  My question with this edition is how the timelines line up. We know that this certain Scholar is very old--but is he tens of thousands of Rosharan years old? I think that could be one of the biggest obstacles to this working. 

49 minutes ago, Inevitability said:

One thing I’ve been watching through different books is how Shadesmar is different in different systems.

 

i don’t think all shadesmar everywhere is beads. I don’t have the time right now to find the quote but Melaan’s observations at the end of Lost Metal do not mention beads. I’m guessing it has to do with how investiture is perceived by the local system. Maybe the Scadrian cognitive realm has seas of particles (a la metal flakes/ particles)

Makes me more intrigued for Emberdark. Is that ship flying through like a space ship? Is it sailing through like a boat? Is it a submarine type vehicle?

 

hm. Also makes me wonder - is Shadesmar the name for ALL the cognitive realm or just the cul de sac of the cognitive realm in the Rosharan system…

You are correct, the Shadesmar on Scadrial is very different from the Shadesmar on Roshar. I'd recommend reading "Secret History."

I have no idea if 'Shadesmar' is a Roshar-specific term or not, but I know for sure that the technical, Cosmere-wide term is 'Cognitive Realm.'

1 hour ago, LewsTherinTelescope said:

Mostly because Brandon told us point blank "he's not a secret agent" lol. Apparently we never considered he could still be an unsecret agent!

Ooh, tricksy wording! Clever of him, to throw is off with semantics. 

12 hours ago, Inevitability said:

I think you are on to something, although maybe Adolin isn’t the target. 
I think Radiant is the personification of her mother and I think at some point Shallan substantiates Radiant as a real person. When a Fused recognizes Radiant, this will lead to Shallan’s next reveal that her mother is a certain red headed Herald

I like your thought, but isn't Radiant blonde?

23 hours ago, Inevitability said:

I like the line of thinking but I think I’d actually take this in the opposite direction.
 

Recognizing that is is not in a Cosmere thread, I’ll be vague in reference.

In a Stormlight adjacent secret project, there is some language used to describe the relationship between a man and spren as Knight and Squire. If you know, you know… 

What if what we are seeing with Adolin and Maya is something in that direction? Maybe this is where they realize that this is possible

(Edit: this is totally me clarifying for my own brain) Interesting! This may mean that (Spoiler following; if you didn't know what was going on for the previous post and dislike spoilers, please don't read)

11 hours ago, FollowYourMuse said:

I am not sure I can agree with the Lifelight theory, though it is interesting. 
But This I so hope, because in addition to all the lead up to it,  I keep imagining training sessions with Adolin and his "instructor"  Lift. 

Are we sure Lift would actually teach him Surges and not just turn him into a passable food thief?

1 hour ago, Master Silver said:

And Kaladin said goodbye to them. A very scary thought but too much evidence against it. 

(Relieved sigh) Oh, good. 
 

Though that doesn't preclude Brandon doing something with that later on in the book, now that the foreshadowing foundation has been laid...

18 hours ago, Dragonheir said:

In my opinion, Sanderson's only books that don't quite live up to the expectations created by Mistborn are Elantris and Warbreaker.

Oi! I love Warbreaker! Best single book in the Cosmere, in my own opinion.  

For series, though, The Stormlight Archive is my one true love. I don't think Mistborn even comes close after the first book ends. Then again, Mistborn is a little dark for my tastes, personally (and I'm speaking to subject matter; I find certain aspects of the magic system deeply disturbing).

For other places to start, once you've finished Mistborn, you may enjoy Tress of the Emerald Sea. Some people might recommend reading more of the Cosmere first; however, I think it's a great place to get into things because it'll leave you with some questions about the wider Cosmere while still feeling like it's own book. Otherwise... Stormlight. Always, always Stormlight.

On another note, if you could choose any character (from the Cosmere books you've read) to be your college room mate, who would you choose and why?

When I check on the price for WaT on Amazon and find out it's cheaper than the $25 gift card I have on my account, so all I have to pay is shipping, and it's due to arrive the day finals week is done! I'm so excited guys; I get to spend my whole Christmas break devouring that book!!!

1 hour ago, CtrlAltDepressed said:

I agree that the preview chapters specifically have felt.....disjointed. However, after some reflection, I may be able to explain that. 

 

For me, at least, this is the first time that I am a part of preview chapters for a Stormlight book. All the others I read back to back, close to 12 hours a day, until they were finished. 

 

However, with WaT, we are only getting small bits at a time. Each week the context of the previous chapters is lost. You only have a small chunk of text each week, and no author has their best words in every chapter. 

 

I went back and read all of the preview chapters in one sitting back to back, and they felt MUCH better. If you have not done this, I would highly recommend. 

 

Preview chapters are fan service. They are not how Brandon intended this book to be consumed for the more casual audience. 

 

All put together, it feels much better paced. 

 

Well said! As someone who only remebers to catch up on sample chapters every few weeks, I don't think I would have noticed any problems for this exact reason. Thanks for articulating it so well!

3 hours ago, Lord Spirit said:

It says it’s obsidian, but obsidian isn’t that strong (despite what Minecraft claims). Could you theoretically break it? If so, what would be underneath? Or would it just be endlessly thick obsidian?

Aye. Obsidian is hard, and so it's difficult to scratch, but it's basically just glass so it'll shatter fairly easily. If you want something tough and difficult to break, the research I've done says jade is a better option. So... it might be possible to break it?

And if it is breakable, and it isn't infinitely thick, I'm tossing my vote in for the underneath being some Hidden-World-esque birthplace of spren. I mean, it's the Cognitive Realm, so if we're going deeper down into the realm of thought itself...?