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He actually talks about how he got his cooking experience in the chapter I got those quotes above: So it seems he enjoyed cooking even when he was fourth son working as a nuatoma guard.

It think it is very likely that Rock is now nuatoma of his Peak. Check out this exchange between him and his wife shortly after they reunited (Chapter 37): What was Tuaka trying to say? And when did Rock lie to the others? Well, I'm thinking he lied just a few pages ago in the same chapter: I bet Tifi and Sinaku'a were his brothers, and they are obviously not "well". The third brother, Kef'ha, was the nuatoma that challenged Sadeas and was murdered for it. Tifi and Sinaku'a tried to avenge their brother and met the same fate. So now Rock/Lunamor/Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor is the nuatoma. Tuaka realized this, but Lunamor doesn't want to accept that responsibility yet and so he insists on being a chef. I think eventually this is something he'll need to deal with in order to gain an honorspren bond, or (if he does gain a bond) at least to progress in his Oaths (i.e. to gain a Shardblade, and thus become king of the Unkalaki).

Ah, in that case thank you! And sorry. I should have worded that differently.

Indeed. Read the rest of the post you quoted.

Alright, I won't tag Zen here, but the question of Shallan casually drawing the Ghostblood symbol in her sketchbook is quite valid. I really don't think Shallan would do that on purpose. But then, Shallan isn't just "Shallan". If you notice the roughly-drawn figure on top of the symbol, I'm quite positive that this exact sketchbook page was actually mentioned in Chapter 99 ("Reachers"): Of course Kaladin, being blissfully unaware of the Ghostbloods, probably ignored the little triangular thing there that looked like a doodle. But notice Shallan's excuse for the juvenile drawing. Why would she "try out a different style" on top of her own beautiful drawings of gloryspren? It looks more like someone just carelessly scribbled over the page. My bet is that the "Veil" personality briefly took over at some point during their travel in Shadesmar and decided to troll "Shallan" by vandalizing one of her sketchbook pages. Notice the playful "Drawing is easy!" comment written next to the scribble. And to cap it all off, she put the Ghostblood symbol there as a sort of signature, to make it perfectly clear that "Veil was here."

It's okay. I enjoy making fantasy theories that feel awesome to me, even if they end up being wrong. It's nice to escape from the unforgiving real world that we live in where a wrong conclusion could actually harm people. Here, I get to enjoy both my fantasies as well as Brandon's. (Oh, and congrats!)

First of all, thanks to the guys on Discord (particularly @Pagerunner and @Windrunner) for pointing out that a small Ghostblood symbol can be seen among Shallan's sketches of Shadesmar spren. You can check it out in the illustration right before Chapter 108. As someone who tried and failed to guess the nature of the symbol twice (here and here), allow me to post a somewhat cleaner version of the actual symbol for everyone's enjoyment: As you can see, it does reflect both the WoK description ("three diamonds in a pattern, overlapping one another") and the WoR description ("triangle"). Apparently Isaac had to do multiple drafts of the symbol, and we even had a detailed description of one of the candidates that looked totally different from how it eventually ended up. Here's a version of the symbol that shows one way to draw it in one stroke, and I colored it in a way I thought was appropriate (Ghost=grey, Blood=red):

Fixed.

Let's not forget one very significant scene where Renarin was using Illumination (a non-Lightweaving application of it). It was in Chapter 120, when he defeated a thunderclast with Light: This was my favorite Renarin scene, to be honest. By the way, I bet this type of offensive/purifying Illumination was what Ym's spren had in mind when she urged him (in vain) to use Light against Nale back in that WoR interlude.

Mistborn spoilers: It's nice to know that the Intent of a Shard is more subtle than it may seem at first. I also feel that the only good solution to the Odium problem is to merge the Shard with another, to give Adonalsium's "passion" aspect a positive directing force.

Chapter 50, page 571 in the Google Play Books edition: Is that supposed to be "wandered"? Or maybe it's "Someone powerful had wanted to get into this room"?

Interesting. Well, I guess I won't be pre-ordering any e-books from now on...

And by the looks of it, it might be the Skaa. Thank God I followed my hunch. So, I pre-ordered Oathbringer last April on Google Play Books using a credit card that got deactivated last month. Apparently Google only charges people for pre-orders on the day of the release, so when it tried charging that old credit card last night (well, midnight), things went wrong. So that's the reason I was having problems. Solution: Add my new credit card to the Play Store, cancel pre-order, then buy the book. I now have Oathbringer! It even ended up being cheaper this way. But storm it! If I tried this last night I would've already been half-way done by now!

Has anyone managed to get it from Google Play Books, yet?

I just noticed that while the Google Play Books app has the Read link (which doesn't work ), the Play Books website shows a "Cancel Pre-order" link instead. This, to put it mildly, is annoying. I'm sorely tempted to click on that "Cancel Pre-order" link and just order somewhere else, but it doesn't seem to be available on Kindle Store either. *sigh*

I'm willing to wait, but boy did that Read button get my hopes up!

Aaargh! It's already November 14 here in the Philippines (a few minutes past midnight) and Google Play Books already shows a Read button for my pre-ordered Oathbringer e-book, but tapping it gives me a "No sample available" error. Stoooooorms!!!

That WoB makes things a bit tricky. It makes me think Thaidakar isn't in fact Kelsier, but it's quite possible that the Ghostbloods are just the Rosharan branch of a bigger cosmere-wide organization. We'll see what happens.

It certainly is in the Tenth Anniversary Edition. You could look up what the other Aons look like in the Coppermind article.

Upon re-reading the Ire chapter, I have to agree. You're right about how he got that ability. Thanks for the correction! Also from re-reading, that Elantrian device that detects Threnodites looks awfully like an alerter fabrial. Could the Ire somehow be powering a Rosharan artifact using Selish Investiture? Okay this is getting off-topic...

Yeah, that was said to the Lord Ruler. But Kelsier referred to hope and even his self-proclaimed association to it all throughout Secret History. Here are just a few other notable examples: Lastly, when Ruin was tempting Spook to kill Beldre, Kelsier was there, repeatedly whispering "Hope" to Spook until the kid found the strength to fight the temptations and pulled his spike free. So yeah, hope is a very important concept to Kelsier, perhaps as much as survival is. i think it's quite reasonable to imagine him using a symbol of hope as an insignia, even if the symbol was alien in origin.

Well, if you're sure... He encounters a group of Elantrians called the Ire in some sort of fortress in the Cognitive Realm. The Ire were waiting for Leras to die so that one of them (Alonoe) could take Preservation using a glowing liquid that could briefly create enough Connection with Preservation to Ascend. Kelsier learned of this plan, stole the sphere containing the Connection liquid, and basically used the Ire's plan for himself. This is how Kelsier took Preservation. Aside from that, he also witnessed an Elantrian device that could detect the presence of people from Threnody (though perhaps it could also be set to detect other races), and a huge, long cord that apparently connected the fortress to some far off power source (probably Elantris). More importantly, Kelsier as a Cognitive Shadow had the ability to magically learn the meaning of words just by seeing or hearing them; this was how he understood what "Ire" meant, and how he deciphered the Ire's plans which were laid down in a book he found inside the fortress. That book contained lots of Aons, so afterwards he would have known the meaning of a bunch of them, perhaps including Aon Ati.

Once again, congratulations to @Chaos, @Mestiv, @WeiryWriter and all the Arcanists! I regret contributing very little to the project, but I would love to help transcribing stuff in the future.

Yeah, I know. That's why I'm not certain Iyatil worshipped Kelsier. But I think it's likely that her South Scadrian ancestors did, so there is still a possibility that she has been similarly indoctrinated. The point I was trying to make is that worshiping Kelsier, as Demoux did, is not necessarily indicative of Kelsier's connection to one's group. Demoux could have joined the 17th Shard for other reasons. Iyatil may not worship Kelsier at all. In the end our theories have an equal chance of being correct.

Good point! As I said previously, I think the Ghostblood symbol is a "Rosharized" Ati. Imagine the Aon Ire's Scadrian form: the wave-like lines of the original became the crescent shapes used in the Steel alphabet. Note that both the Aons and the Steel alphabet are writing systems. Because of this, I was actually looking for a way to connect Aon Ati with Alethi glyphs, but obviously failed so I just dropped the writing system connection from the theory. Thanks for showing me a much better (certainly more obvious, in hindsight) Rosharan writing system connection. That's interesting! Note, however, that it was Hoid who referred to himself as a drifter to Kelsier. It's possible that he introduced himself similarly to another person who then went to join the 17th Shard, hence the Roamer moniker. As for Demoux' role in Survivorism, that's a wonderful point, but Iyatil's people also worshipped Kelsier. I will acknowledge the possibility of your headcanon being true (after all, we don't know if Iyatil herself worships Kelsier), but I still kind of like my idea more.