skaa

Could you give an exact quote? Here's one (from a Stormlight 3 sample chapter) about a relative of Syl hunting a different type of spren, not Cryptics: *** As for Elhokar, he just doesn't seem to be Lightweaver material to me. Maybe he's a proto-Radiant of a different Order, one that grants the ability to see partially in the Cognitive Realm (e.g. the Willshapers) and therefore see "hidden" spren other than his own. I have no idea why Cryptics would be watching Elhokar, though there were also a bunch of them in Taravangian's castle and I'm sure not all of them were there just because of Shallan.

Some would even say that Chromium is the most invasive, especially if they're Copperclouds or Mistborn. Or Tin, if they hate being seen in the dark, or are paranoid/afraid of espionage.

If each Order only used a single stance when swordfighting, they'd be predictable and easier to beat by smart Voidbringers. Even if the Knights Radiant used the Essence Stances (which I doubt), I think they were obviously meant to be learned in their entirety and used as needed, though each individual may have his own favorite Stance. I always thought that the Stances were invented post-Recreance as the need for top-class non-Radiant fighters emerged in Alethela (soon to become Alethkar), and that the association with the Essences was cultural, though that kingdom's long history with the Radiants might've had something to do with it as well. As for what swordfighting technique the Knights Radiant actually used, it would have to have been something that utilized the adaptability of their spren-weapons and the benefits of Stormlight. They would probably be almost useless to a non-Radiant.

Of course, if there's gonna be a Sanderson convention in Chicago, the venue will have be made mostly of steel. Or I guess the organizers could just cover things up in steel-colored paint or wallpaper or something.

Yes. I'll edit the original post to make that perfectly clear. Maybe. I've been doing a bit of Googling and I now think Ivy is Uma Thurman. She was 42 back in 2012, and she portrayed Poison Ivy in the Batman & Robin movie. How about Armando? I think the actor must be a comedian. And he's also of Mexican descent, or have played someone of Mexican descent. I feel that avid movie-goers should have plenty of ideas as to who he could be, but I myself can't think of anybody.

If there was a SanderCon, I might finally have a reason to use my U.S. Visa. Get to it, American Sharders!

I won't. And my weakness is very difficult to find. You're all doomed.

I think most Lighteyes probably descended from those who obtained the discarded Shards of the Radiants during the Recreance. But you're right about Surgebinding not being exclusive to Dalinar's family line.

A few weeks ago in San Francisco, Brandon said something rather interesting about Stephen Leeds' aspects: Then last Saturday in Atlanta, he revealed that J.C. was inspired by Adam Baldwin. I only know of Mr. Baldwin from the T.V. series Chuck, where he plays a government agent named John Casey, which coincidentally(?) fits the aspect's initials.Apparently Kalyani and her husband are exceptions to the rule, as the real Kalyani and Rahul are Sanderson fans of Indian descent who aren't actors. So now I'm wondering which actors he used for the other aspects. I'm really no good with remembering actors' names, much less the speech patterns of the popular characters they've played. Maybe you guys could take a stab at this challenge. Which aspects remind you of which actors? Just in case it would help, here are descriptions of Tobias and Ivy, who with J.C. are the three most visible of the aspects in the two Legion stories so far: Tobias: Tobias seems to always speak in a scholarly but gentle manner. Could he be Morgan Freeman? He's far from the Tobias I imagine while reading, but I don't really know any other African American male actors who are old.Ivy: My mind persistently imagines Ivy as someone much younger than 40, so the Ivy in my head is obviously way off. There's so many blonde actresses who were in their early forties back when Legion was released. Does Ivy remind you guys of anyone in particular?Edit: Added Rahul as another exception to the rule. Edit: So, here are the confirmed aspect actors: Adam Baldwin as J.C. Morgan Freeman as Tobias Gwyneth Paltrow as Ivy (J.C., you lucky cremling! )

Ah. Pardon me, I didn't know how that theory started. *upvoted*

If Tien was a Lightweaver, maybe he had something to do with Kaladin's initial fighting ability. He could have given Kaladin the necessary "fighting spirit", which would later be augmented by Stormlight once Syl came into the picture. Of course, this assumes that a Lightweaver's modifications persist after the Lightweaver dies.

I always choose the character who explored his world's magic system the most as my favorite. In this case, that would be Vasher.

"Lightwielders" is probably Lightweavers. I guess this is another point for the "Tien was a Lightweaver" theory.

I guess it's a PAFO.

It's great to see more discussion on the Dawnshards. I once speculated that Dawnshards were magical musical instruments. I find nothing in Words of Radiance that contradicts that theory, although I now suspect further that the Dawnshards, like the Shardblades, were also spren. As for the Stormfather, Cusicesh, the Nightwatcher, or the other Nahel spren being among them, I honestly doubt it, because Tanavast implied that the Dawnshards have been lost: Surely he would not talk that way if the cognitive shadow he left behind, the Stormfather, is one of these Dawnshards.

Here is my theory as to why they need to consume Investiture. To summarize: A BioChromatic manifestation that is actively powered by its own Breath (rather than a Breath that is still owned by someone else) is a form of unstable Investiture because it goes against Endowment's Intent of Investing the other rather than the self. A Returned's Divine Breath, for example, actively works on keeping the Returned alive; this eventually weakens the Divine Breath's bond with the Returned, who will die the moment the bond breaks. The Returned needs to acquire further Investiture to repair the bond. This is usually done by acquiring another Breath to do the repair, a process that is in itself another powerful "Self-Awakening", and so the acquired Breath detaches as soon as the Divine Breath's bond is repaired. It can be argued that Nightblood already owns the Breaths he has, since nobody can take those Breaths via "Your Breath to mine", and so the strange effects he manifests is a form of Self-Awakening. Hence the need to consume Investiture. What's interesting is that Stormlight itself is usually not a very stable form of Investiture because in most cases it leaks away (though we still need to see if full Knights Radiant really can hold Stormlight indefinitely). Apparently it's usable enough for Vasher and Nightblood's purposes.

Yeah, if Szeth w/ Nightblood vs. Stone Shamans w/ Honorblades happens in Stormlight 3, then perhaps Szeth flashbacks will be best. I wonder if the reason behind Brandon's sudden backpedaling on his earlier decision has something to do with this fight being moved to Stormlight 4, or something.

True. But it's no big deal if we predict wrong. This is mainly for fun, though I'm also interested to see if people can vote for someone who isn't their favorite among the three, or at least have a reason for voting someone other than pure favoritism. I agree that Szeth will eventually need to be more than "that insane guy", and that giving him the flashbacks would help. I think we're far from reaching the threshold for tolerating his lack of backstory, though. I mean, he's got sparking Nightblood with him, right? I guess it would all depend on whether or not his battle against the Shin will happen in Stormlight 3. If he spends the whole book training and doing Skybreaker stuff outside of Shinovar, then I'm sure his backstory could wait. To be honest, I also like Szeth better than either Dalinar or Eshonai. I voted for Eshonai precisely because I thought she is so far the least interesting of the three, and is in desperate need of a quick boost.

Brandon said recently that he's now undecided as to who the flashback character for Stormlight 3 will be. Remember that he previously said it will be Szeth. He even had a title in mind, "Stones Unhallowed", though he did say it wasn't final. "Skybreaker" was also a possible title for Stormlight 3, in reference to Szeth's new role as a follower of Nalan. But now that Szeth being the main POV is no longer a sure thing, I've decided to create a poll, just for fun, to see who you guys think the main character should be.To help you decide, here's what I think will most likely happen to Szeth, Dalinar, and Eshonai in Stormlight 3, and how these things relate to the past (in other words, what their flashback scenes might be): Szeth Szeth+Nightblood will kick major shin. Szeth's beliefs, and how his religious leaders betrayed him in the past, will definitely color his interaction with Nightblood. It will be interesting to see the development of his views on what "evil" is. Nalan will show Szeth what it is to be a Skybreaker in modern Roshar. If Szeth accepts the role of being a Knight under the Herald, this will signal a conflict with Taravangian, his previous master. If Szeth no longer feels any obligation to follow the holder of his Oathstone, he might actually kill Taravangian for his crimes (this was predicted as a possibility in the Diagram). A flashback scene in Szeth's POV, depicting the start of his Oathstone-based servitude, would serve as a nice contrast to his showdown with Mr. T. Szeth will return to Shinovar with the intent of vengeance for being wrongfully made Truthless. If Stormlight 3 is going to be his, then the circumstances leading to his becoming Truthless should be part of the flashback sequences. DalinarDalinar will resume his mission to unite the Knights Radiant to fight the Desolation. He will have to unite people from different countries, many of whom might not be willing to follow an Alethi Highprince. Dalinar was in a similar position before when he and his brother Gavilar were trying to unite Alethkar. It will be nice to see how Dalinar the Bondsmith might handle this problem differently from Dalinar the Blackthorn. Kaladin's Squires, knowing that their leader is a Knight Radiant who is therefore higher than any normal lighteyes, might start doubting Dalinar's authority over them, especially if Dalinar commands them to do something they think Kaladin might not like. Remember that Kaladin's Squires can use Stormlight, so Dalinar's status as Knight might mean little to them, especially now that he has no Shardblade. Again, the current Dalinar would probably handle this differently from Blackthorn. At least, I hope so. EshonaiIf Eshonai is still alive, then she will probably continue her struggle with the voidspren controlling her. There might still be a chance that she will break free from Odium's grasp (I'd hope so, or she'd just be another Marsh). Her flashbacks would focus on her dreams of traveling as a youth, and the her feelings of being trapped by her people's isolation from the world, which led her to set out on the expedition that would expose her people to the Alethi. If Eshonai is dead (or presumed dead for most of the book), then the focus will be on how Rlain and any remaining (non-Voidish) Listeners will escape being transformed by the Everstorm. Rlain's bond to Kaladin might be helpful here. If they decide to fight in the Desolation, then they will go against people of their own race, people now controlled by Odium. The flashbacks would probably depict the various discussions Eshonai and the other Parshendi leaders had with regards to their hated gods and the Alethi threat, perhaps revealing a secret contingency plan that might save the world even when their gods do return. ***Myself, I vote Eshonai. She may not be the most interesting Stormlight character in my opinion, but that's only because we haven't really seen much of her. She was barely in Way of Kings. And in Words of Radiance she was, frankly, kind of pathetic, being mostly a tool for Venli's ambitions. I fear that if Stormlight 3 doesn't make her more interesting, she'd be wasted as a character. That's why I hope she'll get the flashback sequences.

I agree. Brandon said that Vasher hasn't yet figured out how to do it, which implies there is something to figure out in the first place. I believe the key to Awakening in Roshar is finding a suitable spren for the Awakener to bond with, one that grants a Surge compatible with the mechanics of Awakening (i.e. infuse an object with Investiture that has a specific behavioral Intent set by the user). We'll need to see what the other Surges can do, but right now I feel that Gravitation is a promising prospect for the "hack", assuming Vasher can persuade an honorspren or a highspren to allow such a modification.Edit: It just occurred to me that Transportation, the Surge of motion, might be more apt (I'm thinking of the scenes where Jasnah commands Sharesmar beads to move at will... or is that Transformation?), but again we definitely need to see more of the Surges in action.

As a former fan of Naruto, I have no problem with the concept of cognitive shadows existing while the original person is alive. (Yeah, I know, it's not a perfect analogy.) *** So, Windrunners' quirk is that their squires are extra special. I wonder if Windrunner squires can actually use Surges the same way Knights can. Like, imagine if one of Kaladin's squires could use Progression to heal other people's wounds the same way Edgedancers and Truthwatchers do. I guess a possible limitation is that each Squire can only use one Surge instead of two. *** Brandon's already admitted that during interviews he might get things wrong if a question is about something too "obscure". Makes sense; coming up with answers to obscure and nitpicky things is Peter's job, after all. We'll need to take that into account when planning what questions to ask or when analyzing WoB. I just wish Brandon would make it a habit to say "PAFO!" when he's not confident with his answer. *** We've seen Sanderson's Zeroth Law before, but it's nice seeing Brandon bring it up again. I myself have embraced this Law when forming my Cosmere theories; I try to only post theories that I think make the Cosmere more awesome, even if they don't always have a lot of evidence to back them up.

"Skaa: Tin and Ash", eh? I just might start playing MAG because of this.

I don't think Regalia knew that David was afraid of water. She wanted him to get water powers in honor of Waterlog, the Epic killed to make the spyril, which Regalia has seen David use. It's something she requested Calamity, not something she deduced. From what we've seen so far, the nature of an Epic's power does not necessarily relate to his weakness.

In case anyone's interested in the unpublished novels, pink crystal Aethers also exist (albeit with certain differences) in Aether of Night. Both stories call the pink crystal Aether "Amberite".

Get off my lawn, you young shardlets*! *shakes fist* *shardlet: n. a new Sharder; not a reference to Shardlet, who is neither young nor new here.