Wanguu

41 minutes ago, Leuthie said:

The access and limits to Surges are now fully defined by Retribution and whatever old spren the Heralds can protect.

What about Cultivation? 

I personally don't think that we will get new orders/surges. The only radiant order that we fully understand the surges of is Windrunner and maybe skybreaker.

Thanks for the answers everyone, I think that helps. Though this has made me realize, I don't think we've yet seen a planet that doesn't have a shard or an avatar of a shard (or aethers) claiming it (Except for maybe UTol?) Canticle doesn't seem to have any shard claiming it, but it does have something strange going on.

Hi, I have been introducing some friends to the cosmere and they have questions about shards that I haven't been able to answer.
1) Each shard has an intent. How does this vary from a prototypical god's domain? For example, Zeus is the god of lightning and storms, etc. It is implied (to my knowledge) that all storms are from Zeus. It doesn't seem like Honor mediates every contract however. We know that Odium can take away people's emotions, but those are only those given to him; he's not responsible for emotions (or do emotions only exist because of Odium?)

2) In many fantasy worlds, Gods receive power / are created by the belief of people. Are shards at all affected by the thoughts of people (not their vessels)

3) If you lived on a world that has not been invested by any shards, would the shards even matter to you? Do they only affect places that they invest?

17 hours ago, Cocoa said:

If Moash does get a redemption arc, I suspect it's going to be heavily wrapped up with Gavinor (though that doesn't discount Kaladin from playing a role too, given Moash's status as his foil). Here we have two men that are, at this point, about the same age, who've both sold themselves out to Odium, and who are on opposite sides of a blood feud. Gavinor's driving motivation up to this point has been avenging himself on his father's killer, while Moash's was avenging himself on Elhokar (of whom Gavinor is a splitting image) and by extension his family in exchange for the deaths of his grandparents. If the story themes hold, one of them is going to have to break the cycle, and that's going to either force the other person to confront what they've become and repent, or it's going to cause them to snap and try to kill the one doing the forgiving.

Oh wow, what an amazing point. I was wondering what Brandon was going to do with adult Gavinor (poor poor Gavinor, who even knows what Odium had shown gavinor in the years he spent in the spiritual realm) and having Gavinor vs Moash as both servants of Retribution makes sense. Both of these characters have a very strong reason to get revenge against each other! 

I think our Dalinar is dead and gone. But like how @Sparks put it, I think The Blackthorn, evil general he is, will be unable to resist the change that real Dalinar went through. I don't see him uniting the shards or anything, but I do see him turning tail on Retribution (if it's still Retribution then, and not more shards put together) in the final battle after learning a lot about OG dalinar and going through similar experiences.

Having just read wind and truth, the final Ketek hit me like a punch. I decided to (finally) write my own. Feel free to share any you've made as well.

 

Quote

 

Forgiveness...

Understanding...

Not Odium.

Lost? Won?

Lost.

Odium Not Understanding Forgiveness.

 

On 12/1/2024 at 9:05 AM, Dofurion said:

I was just thinking that the Rosharians have the perfect tools to do the relevant tests on high entropy materials.

Haha, this is possible if they can manage to soulcast inidividual atoms at a time! High entropy metals are so hard to pull off because you need to have a homogenous while amorphous mix of metals. If they're somehow capable of soulcasting individual atoms at a time like that, then they would likely be better off at soulcasting nanomaterial structures. It's unclear if radiants using transformation can transform anything into any other element, or just the 16 allomantic metals.

If anything, Soulcasting would be most useful to convert one material to another - you could 3d print something out of plastic (which is faster and cheaper than metal 3d printing) and then convert that to metal.

This, however, leads to a question that will likely never be answered. How does soulcasting transfer the microstructure? We know that soulcast wood still retains the external texture of wood, but if you look under a microscope would it be solid metal? Would there be cells? If not 1:1, would there be grains in the metal, or single crystal?

Sorry for the rant - I am a materials engineer and have long wondered about how soulcasting works at the microscopic scale.

Interesting theory, but this line does strike me as a "Brandon Forgot" moment considering it hasn't been mentioned since TWoK. 

1 hour ago, Stormwalker said:

My pet theory is that the Lifebrother is Ba-Ado-Mishram the unmade, and brother to the Sibling.

 

She/Her pronouns for Ba-Ado-Mishram, just saying

Strength before weakness (not that you're weak!). Szeth now knows that he is right, although I suspect there is much more going on. You will make it!

11 hours ago, IcaroRibeiro said:

Sanderson likes structure, so he will keep the groups divided into 10 parts.

It doesn't mean we need all groups of characters to be presented in all parts. I believe only Kaladin and Szeth will be permanent characters across all 10 days. The others can take a backseat, and some of their narratives can happen in the background and only be quickly mentioned.

Day 2 had the absence of all three groups responsible for the war, i.e., Adolin, Sigzil, and Jasnah, since chapter 22, I think. I believe all those characters will be POV characters in day 3.

Eventually, there will be some Lift chapters in Urithiru, but I don't think this will be a focal point of the story either.

An Azimir (i.e., Adolin) chapter is certainly happening on day 8 because it was already stated that there is an alliance army marching to get there in 6 days, but the first clash is happening sooner than that:

 

El's interlude released today gives me the impression that the Shattered Plains will be a focal point, while Azimir and Thaylen City will be more like side conflicts. The Shattered Plains also require Venli, who is a main POV character, so I guess we will see more of her and the union between humans and Listeners against the Fused. My guess is that the definitive battle for the Shattered Plains will happen on day 9

A solid argument for that is Sigzil being the face of this conflict, since he is there the existence of (Sunlit Man spoilers)

  Reveal hidden contents

a Dawnshard

...in the Shattared Plains is likely, which is why Taravangian-Odium is so desperate to claim that lands even at high cost

There is also an unmentioned POV that needs to be addressed, which is... Lopen. He's flying with the Minsc to Herdaz. According to them, the Windrunners can get there in a day, so maybe he will have a POV on day 4?

 

So my guess is the book will be divided in:

 

Day 3: Kaladin&Szeth, Adolin, Sigzil, Jasnah

Day 4: Kaladin&Szeth, Venli&Sigzil, Dalinar&Navani, maybe Lopen

Day 5: Kaladin&Szeth, Shallan/Renarin/Rlain, maybe Lift/Lopen

Day 6: Kaladin&Szeth, Adolin, Dalinar&Navani

Day 7: Kaladin&Szeth, Venli&Sigzil, Jasnah, Shallan/Renarin/Rlain

Day 8: Kaladin&Szeth, Adolin, Dalinar&Navani, maybe Lift/Lopen

Day 9: Kaladin&Szeth, Venli&Sigzil, Shallan/Renarin/Rlain

Day 10: Every whose POV was not solved by day 9

 

Hey, all good points! I forgot about the herdaz invasion - and it seems maybe Odiun did too! So perhaps Dalinar doing something Honorable will really help in his plan. We saw from the last interludes that he has plans to take everything that's supporting honor (except Aimia and Reshi, but maybe he considers them unimportant?)

I think Adolin and Yanagawn will have a few POVs together in Aizimir, and while Brandon likes to hold Jasnah close, I think we will be getting some of her as well. 

So far we've gotten two interludes between each day, with one belonging to Odium - do you think this will continue?

58 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Two Shards missing? Did anybody see a Shard somewhere?? One is probably Ambition because of her Splintering, but Valor? Is Valor the Shard who wants to stay hidden from WoBs? Is she the survival Shard? However, Sazed was able to contact her and she said she misses Hoid’s letters so Hoid can do it too. Why is she hidden only from certain Shards, but not all?

Could it be Virtuosity, since they splintered themselves? Or could it be the unknown shard?

And for everyone discussing El killing Lezian and Jezrian, El was using two different anti-lights, Anti-Voidlight and Anti-Stormlight. 

These were great interludes! I'm again bothered by the prevalence of anti-light TWO DAYS after it was discovered! And I wonder what Cultivation was showing Odium that he ignored?

Anyways, it's been amazing ride. I'm glad I was here for the preview chapters this time and got to discuss with everyone! Cheers!

1 hour ago, Calten_Gnomercy said:

Being trapped in the SR actually feels a lot like The Nowhere that Spensa goes to in the Skyward series. Issues with time and such.

Thats how it feels to me anyway.

(You mighty want to spoiler this - I don't think this board allows Skyward spoilers, however mild)

Yes, I can absolutely see that. 

1 hour ago, Darvys said:

The more rationalizations I read, the less this makes sense, Nightblood can instantly vaporize and absorb entities whose investiture dwarfs the amount held in that tiny sphere, but somehow extended contact with the sword had a far milder effect than the loss of a sphere's worth of light ?

 

How I think about it:
Nightblood is simply drawing the investiture away, at a very fast rate. This draw of investiture away caused the perpendicularity to destabilize and then close. It's like destabilizing a vortex in a sink by putting a stick in it. 

The antilight is a different mechanism - it is actively annihilating light via destructive interference. This is far more energetic (but not as energetic as annihilation between matter and antimatter) and is more like an actual explosion. As for why things are drawn in, I suspect we will learn by the end of the book, but I hypothesize that it is like a vacuum instantly forming, drawing things in (not accounting for any sort of shockwave)
 

2 hours ago, Darvys said:

The whole interaction between light and its opposite stinks of plot device material, inject a body that's suffused with light and it just smokes a bit as the soul is slowly destroyed but put the two in a sphere and you've got yourself a bomb, where does the extra energy come from ? Magic I guess. At most it should crack the gem or something, not blow up a damn room. 

I think it has to do with the pressure, as stated by Navani in RoW. A gemstone is stuffed full of light (which behaves something like a gas) and is more concentrated. In a radiant shallan who had breathed out all of her stormlight, it does nothing, because there is nothing for it to annihilate with.

If you take the explosives out of a grenade and set them off with no containement, it will make a loud noise but not cause much damage. The danger of explosives comes from all of the energy being contained, causing it to release in a short time. Think a pressure cooker, which can explode violently.

2 hours ago, Darvys said:

Edit: One more thing, if anything the effect should be reversed, the tone of the anti-light sphere should be what disrupts the portal, which is what it did to Mraize's illusion with its mere proximity

I think the antilight probably does disrupt it slightly, but there is so much investiture and it is (relatively) far away that it does basically nothing. Bring it close, then the damage happens. Many fields and such in physics have an inverse square decay.

4 minutes ago, Ninth of the Night said:

Speaking of which, I think Hoid confirmed that Lift is a Dawnshard. What else could cause her to be so highly Invested?

Direct intervention of a shard, perhaps.

On 11/21/2024 at 10:19 AM, Wanguu said:

I predict that the next chapters will end Day 2

So far so good! Although, it's not like this was a hard thing to predict.

2 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

I guess the next thing we will have to see is the people of Urithiru understanding that they have no way of mounting a rescue mission, because that would require a perpendiculaity.

Maybe they make an expedition to the Horneater / cultivation's perpindicularity? Or perhaps they can elsecall there?
 

2 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

In addition, the fight between Shallan and the Ghostbloods is not over. Nor does it seem to be in the Ghostblood's interest to see Odium set free.

I believe that they will be in the SR as well. Dalinar and Navani seeking Honor's power, and the others seeking BAM.

 

2 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

• Why doesn't Dalinar just reopen the perpendicularity? The original mission has become moot, hasn't it? Or, worse, he does open it and there is a complication.

I think it's unclear in the text for how they are to return.

 

2 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Lift and Gavinor. They were not bound to the stone. Is there any reason they would end up in the same place as Navani and Dalinar?

Proximity? Or everyone might end up there. Truthfully, there's no knowing.

 

2 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Rampant speculation: What happens if Dalinar does open the perpendicularity and they end up on Ashyn?

I'm not sure if that's possible, but this is the spiritual realm, so who knows.
 

1 hour ago, Stark said:

I mean, we might get nine batches of interludes, nine being the number of Odium, which would be subtle structural change to indicate Odium wins.

 

Good point, we did only get two interludes last time. We usually get 12, so maybe we get 18?

I am writing this after the release of chapters 31 and 32, and we currently only have two chapter releases until the book releases. I predict that the next chapters will end Day 2, and we will not hear from our spiritual realm adventurers until Day 4. Day 3 will mainly be Kaladin and Szeth, and we will also jump between Jasnah, Sigzil and Venli, and Adolin (and Yanagawn the First, formerly a thief known as Gawx, is the Prime Aqasix, king of Azir, and emperor of Makabak). I think the structure will be similar to TWoK or RoW where we have finished our first arc and now we are moving on to the several parallel arcs where we will switch between PoV characters.
 

 Back of the book blurb from the Wind and Truth coppermind page for evidence:
 

Since the book is very parallel instead of sequential (as in we are always on the same day, going in chronological order), it could be more like oathbringer/WoR where everything is happening in series. However, since half of our cast is (likely) stuck in the spiritual realm where time is all wibbley wobbley, it would not be a stretch narratively for them to miss an entire real-world day. This would also allow the story space for our three main war fronts to take center stage next to Kaladin and Szeth in Shinovar (which we didn't get much of in Day 2). After their first days there, the three fronts may step back as there is simply a day of fighting, or something similar that doesn't need to be center stage.

As for the rest of the previews, I predict that next week we will get the end of Day 2 with chapters 33 and 34 (or just 33, or 33 - 35, no predicting how that will shake out) and the last previews will be another batch of interludes. However, I don't think we will get 9 batches of interludes (between every day) so I think it is likely some of the days will be grouped together, such as 'Days 4 & 5' being next. Imagine watching Dalinar, Navani, Shallan, Renarin, Rlain, and maybe even Lift and Gavinor (who I think was hiding in the vent with her) being sucked into the spiritual realm, and getting to the next day and seeing Days 4-5, with their names missing! It would add a lot of suspense.

I don't think any of Brandon's other works have had a similar narrative structure, so please feel free to cite other works for evidence for / against this.

TL;DR: Day 3 will NOT include the spiritual realm characters, and will instead focus on Shinovar and the three singer invasions. The rest of the book will have a similar structure to TWoK or WoR where story lines are not present in certain parts because nothing of note is going on at the moment.

I saw somewhere in this thread (can't find it now, oops) a discussion about what would happen to Dalinar and Navani's bodies with their minds being stuck in the SR. Assuming their bodies aren't completely blown up, I think towerlight would heal them. We know that unconscious radiants can still breathe in light to heal (kaladin after being strung up), so I believe that their bodies would just heal, and they will remain in a coma until they come back. The spiritual realm seems to be weird and we know you can still have a connection to things in the physical realm while you're there (Kaladin's Tien vision), so the bondsmiths will probably still be attached to their bodies.

We're getting really close to Dec 6th (only three chapters left), which makes me wonder - Are we going to end off with the end of Day 2? It almost feels like that the next chapters will be the end of day 2 (if not this one) so we will get the rest of day 2 and then interludes, meaning when we get our mitts on the book, we would start with Day 3. Thoughts?

28 minutes ago, Little_Dagger said:

I loved the casual lore drop on Shinovar! Also, Navani's reaction was golden!

 

Lost in Roshar's going to lose their minds when they talk about that line haha.

2 minutes ago, Isilel said:

 So, the long-standing theories about the roots of stone veneration by the Shin are wrong. It has nothing to do with the humans promising to stay in Shinovar. Too bad that we likely won't see the scene of their arrival on Roshar now.

I think we're still going to see that. Dalinar and Navani still have the rock (probably) so I think they'll get pulled there. But Hoid might also be with them too. Strange...

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

Taln is in Azimir, abandoned and forgotten by the Coalition.

Didn't they bring Taln and Shalash back to Urithiru with them? I don't see the coalition forgetting about heralds

17 hours ago, teknopathetic said:

She specifically says she only saw 3 people on the boat. There should have at least been 4 figures if there really was a True Spren. I know it sure did look like they used a surge, but that specific "3 figures" line is odd

Wow, this is an amazing spot - I just glossed over this line when I was reading. I don't think Brandon would've overlooked this, so hopefully we'll get an explanation soon.

1 hour ago, AnthonyC4 said:

As for the aluminum, you could in theory just have allomantic aluminum on hand in a vial, drink it, then burn it that way. I'm not sure if aluminum takes time to destroy metal reserves or not.

I was more referring to the fact that there's no allomantically available aluminum in the planets crust, and it seems that's true for Scadrial as well. A mistborn cannot swallow a ruby and burn the elemental aluminum present in the ruby (which is mostly aluminum oxide)

On 11/11/2024 at 5:28 AM, Xiahida said:

so would a gemstone on Roshar get lighter because the Stormlight is leaking out?

Yes, if Investiture has mass, then as a gemstone is drained it would lose mass. A balloon filled with air has a higher mass than an uninflated one!

I hope that it's that Shallan can slip into shadesmar, but not come back without a perpendicularity. I do think that Transportation seems to be one of the weakest surges, by a wide margin. It must have a use beyond getting stranded in Shadesmar until you can find a point where the two realms overlap.