MasterGhandalf

Sadly don't have a substantial update today, but I did want to drop by and let everyone know that I'm not dead and neither have I abandoned this project, I've just been having a couple of extremely hectic weeks for unrelated reasons IRL. But I've still been plugging away on Crimson Shadows in spite of that! For anyone who's curious, as of today I've been writing for exactly 140 days straight and have completed slightly over 180,000 words over thirty-three full chapters, most of another chapter, a prologue and five interludes. I anticipate that I'm now about two weeks off from wrapping this up, give or take a day or two on either side, so I'm in the home stretch and the end is in sight! At the moment, I'm guessing that the current draft will come out at almost exactly 200,000 words (so, for Cosmere comparisons, roughly comparable to Elantris, slightly longer than Warbreaker, and slightly shorter than Mistborn: The Final Empire). For those of you who are still interested in my updates here, I've also been working on a (very rough and in-progress) world map, and would like to be able to share that along with some notes on the worldbuilding, magic systems and a few more teases of some of the other projects I'm considering for this setting. Sorry again for the long delay between updates! 

Well, as of today I have indeed officially completed 120 straight days (or approximately four straight months) of writing on Crimson Shadows! For a reminder, I've been trying for at least 1,000 words a day minimum, which so far I've managed to stick to! Which puts me, for those keeping score, at 154,032 words over 29 full chapters, a prologue, and 4 interludes. I'd say that this means that at the moment I'm roughly 80% done with this draft, and remain on track for my goal of wrapping it up in late June!

Last time I posted, I said I wanted to go ahead and talk a bit more about some of my future plans for this setting, including my immediate plans for when I wrap up this draft. So here we go! 

First off, my next immediate plans for Crimson Shadows are to, as noted, wrap up the first draft in about a month. Then, following some writing advice I've gotten from elsewhere, I plan to let it sit for a while (several weeks at minimum) and turning my attention to other things to detox for a bit, then do a full reread with relatively fresh eyes before moving on to a second draft and whatever major revisions I feel the story needs. After that I'll probably start looking for beta readers (if anyone is interested!) and after that... who knows? 

But what about the other projects in this setting that I've been alluding to? Here I can go into a bit more detail about what's likely next on my agenda! 

Shade’s Saga Intro

So far in this thread, I've mostly been posting about the novel I'm currently engaged in writing, the tentatively titled Crimson Shadows. As I noted in my initial post, this story takes place in only one small corner of what I’m envisioning as a larger setting, one where I wanted to give myself a chance to play around with a number of different styles and subgenres of epic fantasy (authors having their own private setting where they put a decent chunk of their output seems to have been more common in the past than it is now, though it’s possible that’s because it just takes a while to build up enough stories in a given setting to make it obvious; but it still seems like either long single-narrative series or authors writing in a bunch of mostly unconnected settings is more typical these days). Crimson Shadows (and its hypothetical sequel, tentatively titled The Damned Saint) is a more modern style political/intrigue/adventure/romantic fantasy mostly set in and around a particular city-state (the sequel will likely get a bit further afield). I also have plans percolating for a more conventional Tolkienesque high fantasy trilogy throwback in a different region of the world.

What I want to talk about today is the third series I’m currently looking at for this setting, a sword-and-sorcery series I’m imaginatively calling “Shade’s Saga” (again, likely not the final title!) after its main character. Sword and sorcery differs from high fantasy in various ways. It tends to have lower stakes, focusing more on personal adventures than the fate of the world (though its scope can occasionally creep that high). Its installments also tend to be shorter; s&s tends to be more associated with short stories, novellas and shorter novels in contrast to lengthy series of doorstoppers the way high fantasy is, and its structure tends to be more episodic rather than having a single overarching narrative. Its heroes tend to be less clear-cut; though they usually possess at least some admirable qualities and can be rooted for, they’re often rogues, scoundrels, or tormented antiheroes more interested in treasure, revenge, adventure for its own sake or other personal agendas than fighting for a cause. And magic in such stories is often a dangerous, hostile force even for the characters who wield it. While high fantasy descends primarily from Tolkien and Lord of the Rings, sword and sorcery is generally considered to have originated with Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, with Lieber’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser and Moorcock’s Elric probably being the two next most notable and influential examples.

Shade is a character I’ve known for a long time. I first conceived of the character more than a decade ago, driven by my long-term fascination with the “dark elf” archetype. My original conception was for a more high fantasy-esque tale, but told from the perspective of characters who would be villains in a more conventional narrative, with a somewhat ASOIAF-inspired plot arc – when the ruler of an ancient, malevolent empire ruled by a powerful nonhuman race is assassinated, her four children end up forced into exile and scattered around the world, where they would have various adventures in different lands before ultimately reuniting and getting their revenge on the usurper. I tried several false starts with this, but they never seemed to gain traction and go anywhere. However, it became clear that the character who most drew me was eldest sister Taerlyth, who would flee over the mountains to human lands where she would be forced to stoop to mercenary work to support herself while concealing her true identity and trying to find allies, taking the pseudonym “Shade” in the process.

Eventually, I decided to refocus the series entirely. Jettisoning the epic high fantasy setup, I decided to start with Shade already in exile in human lands, going through various episodic, smaller scale adventures in the vein of Conan or Elric with her backstory and true motives only gradually being revealed and her siblings as off-page characters whose fate is (initially) unknown. In hindsight, this seemed like a much more obvious approach for the character and her story. As I began creating my world for Crimson Shadows, it became increasingly obvious to me that this was also the human world into which Shade had strayed. Thus, the shared setting was born.

As I mentioned, “dark elves” as an archetype have long been a guilty pleasure of mine (I blame early exposure to Drizzt Do’Urden and Liriel Baenre, as well as to the Yuuzhan Vong, who IMO have one foot in “space drow” and the other in “space orcs”; alternately, I once saw them described as a comparatively - emphasis on comparatively - lighter-and-softer version of Warhammer 40K's Drukhari). Elric of Melnibone, whose people originated the modern “dark elf” as a concept (there are “dark elves” in Tolkien's Middle-earth of course, but they’re nothing like this; of all Tolkien's creations the Black Numenoreans are probably closer to the stereotypical concept, not that they’d appreciate being compared to any kind of elves!) is a classic sword-and-sorcery (anti)hero, making it all the more obvious to me that this genre and approach was the correct one for the character. And Shade, who for most of her stories will be a stranger in a strange land, traveling among a people not her own and to whom she is a creature from their oldest, darkest mythologies and a practitioner of strange and alien sorceries and shadowed by a tragic fate, definitely has some Elric in her. Though I certainly hope to give the character her own distinct voice and feel, particularly in bringing in some more modern sensibilities in terms of characterization and tone vs Elric’s pulpier ones.

At the moment, I mostly envision Shade’s Saga as being a series of short stories, though I have at least one full-length novel featuring the character building in me (featuring her homecoming and showdown with her family’s enemies); this would probably be considerably shorter than Crimson Shadows. I’ve sketched out basic ideas for around ten shorts already; I’ve written a few fragments of one as of last year but will likely jettison it and start fresh when I seriously approach these. At the moment, I intend to try and knock off rough drafts of a couple of Shade stories (probably between 5,000 and 10,000 words each) between the first and second drafts of Crimson Shadows, to try and get the character’s voice and the vibe I’m going for down (I’m hoping for something that feels like a throwback to old-style sword and sorcery tales, but with, again, a more modern sensibility). And while Crimson Shadows is mostly set in one city, Shade is more of a globetrotter, so this should also give me more of an opportunity to explore more nooks and crannies of my shared setting and flesh it out a bit more. The difference in location and subgenre will also hopefully let me shed a different light on some elements from Shadows; ie, that book takes place in a city-state where people largely understand magic (or at least, think they do) and treat it as a science, whereas Shade will get a chance to poke her nose into places where much weirder and more mysterious powers reside (and her own abilities stem from a form of sorcery most humans would find strange and creepy, and which she is not eager to explain).

At the moment, I have vague ideas for about ten+ books in the shared setting; two “Thea and Lys” novels – Crimson Shadows and The Damned Saint; two Shade books – a collection of the short stories and a full novel; a more ASOAIF epic political/military fantasy set in an empire that's sort of a mix of Byzantine and Ottoman elements (but with a dominant religion that's closer to Manichaeism than either Orthodox Christianity or Islam); and the old school high fantasy throwback trilogy that’s still in the distant planning stages. Of all of these, I’ve only done serious work on Crimson Shadows. Of course, I’m absolutely leaving myself open for more stories with any of these characters, as well as other stories to tell in other parts of the world, especially if I hit on other fantasy subgenres I might be able to use in it. Is all this ambitious? Probably unrealistically ambitious? Sure, but I feel like I’ve built up some real momentum in the last few months in a way I haven’t in a very long time, and it feels like a shame to waste it.

If any of this sounds at all interesting and you have any comments or questions, feel free to let me know!

Thank you all for your kind words and your interest! As of today's writing, I just crossed 150,000 words, and am now at 151,031 words exactly, over twenty-eight full chapters, half of a twenty-ninth chapter, a prologue and four interludes (the prologue and interludes all being shorter than regular chapters). I'm still estimating it will ultimately come out to between 190,000 and 200,000 words total. So I'd say I'm continuing to make pretty good progress! I plan to have another fairly hefty post on Tuesday (since that's when I'll be at exactly 120 days of writing, or approx. four months) about the overall status of the project and a bit more on the sword-and-sorcery stuff I'm looking to do as one of the other projects in the same universe (as mentioned in the original post). But if there's anything more specific you'd like to know more about before then, feel free to let me know! Thanks again! 

For today, thought I'd go ahead and share the rough blurb for Crimson Shadows that I've been tinkering with (a bit longer than the brief elevator pitch from my original post).

Thea di Trevana is a princess. Heir to a wealthy and powerful city-state, she nonetheless finds herself stifled by the expectations of palace life. In her attempts to find freedom, she will become enmeshed in a long-simmering plot and forced to confront the sins of her city’s, and her family’s, past.

Lys is a thief. Born to a people considered cursed and outcast, she would do anything to escape her debt to a dangerous crime lord. When she takes a job from a mysterious patron hoping that it will solve her problems, she soon learns that actions have consequences and she’s become a part of something much larger and more far-reaching than she’d realized.

A chance encounter will bring Thea and Lys together… and leave the princess fallen from grace and cut off from family, position and privilege. Together, they will have to unwind the plots which seethe through their city and confront the injustices it is built on… and may be the only ones who can stand between an ambitious senator and the power he seeks.

Does it pique your interest? Or does it need more work? 

So, for my next thing associated with my Crimson Shadows project I'd like to share, I've been working on a music playlist to accompany my writing or help me get into the proper mood. For this one, I've been using Disney songs (and a few songs from a couple of movies that aren't technically Disney but in similar style) - hey, I've always found Disney songs good for getting in the mood, since they're already designed to convey character or narrative and are familiar enough that most people will get it when you reference them;). Each of these songs was picked because they reflect a character, idea, scene or sequence from the book (covering the whole story, including parts I've outlined but not actually written yet), arranged roughly in the proper order. Here is my current playlist:


1. One Jump Ahead (Aladdin)
2. I just Can’t Wait to be King (Lion King)
3. Reflection (Mulan)
4. A Whole New World (Aladdin)
5. Transformation, Phill Collins Version (Brother Bear)
6. All I Ever Wanted (Prince of Egypt)
7. Through Heaven’s Eyes (Prince of Egypt)
8. Look Through My Eyes (Brother Bear)
9. Streets of Gold (Oliver and Company)
10. God Help the Outcasts (Hunchback of Notre Dame)
11. Be Prepared (Lion King)
12. Once Upon a December (Anastasia)
13. In a Place of Miracles (Hunchback of Notre Dame, Unreleased)
14. Can You Feel the Love Tonight (Lion King)
15. My Lullaby (Lion King 2)
16. The Mob Song (Beauty and the Beast)
17. Playing With the Big Boys Now (Prince of Egypt)
18. Let it go (Frozen)
19. When You Believe (Prince of Egypt)

Or, if you'd rather jump in and listen for yourself, here's a YouTube link! Fingers crossed for it working properly.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?si=bdAfnuRfCh03TqXT&amp;list=PLS-GsNCdEMx5L2RdOcDOHB-Hh9sEKNV9r" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Or here.

EDIT: Gah, my attempt at embedding clearly isn't working! 

Thanks!

Okay, thought I'd go ahead and share some character designs for major characters from Crimson Shadows that I've been working on using the magic of HeroForge(tm). For some context, Thea and Lys are the main characters (Thea probably somewhat more prominent than Lys, though if I ever get around to The Damned Saint that will likely be more Lys's book). Grazia is also a POV character, though less central to the narrative. Meletius and Seraphi are supporting characters, and Senator Adreano di Torriani is an antagonist. For names, I mostly took names that would have been in use in Italy during the Renaissance, mixed in with a few Greek names from the Byzantine Empire for variety (and Seraphi's name is actually a stage name, fwiw). Hopefully this link worked; I was having trouble with it. Fingers crossed!

Hello, all! Some of you may remember me as having posted a previous writing project of mine around here several years ago; that was my Realm of the Stars series (generic title, I know!) my “girl King Arthur in space meets Star Wars meets Dune” space fantasy saga. That was a passion project of mine I started during NaNoWriMo and continued afterwards; I ended up falling away from it when COVID massively disrupted my life and productivity, but I remain fond of it and would still like to go back someday and clean it up and maybe do something with it. But that’s not what I’d like to talk about today.

Back in late January of this year, I started work on another writing project of mine, this one a more straightforward fantasy that I’d been knocking around in my head for a while. I’ve now been working on it for 110 days straight now, with my goal being to write at least 1,000 words per day, which is relatively easy for me to budget into my schedule between other activities. So far I’ve been able to keep to that promise (most days I’ve gone over) and as of today I’m officially at 140,835 words, which I estimate puts me at slightly under three quarters of the way done with my first draft (I intend this to come out somewhere between 190,000 and 200,000 words, so roughly comparable to Warbreaker).

At the moment, I’m tentatively calling this Crimson Shadows, though I expect I’ll change it down the line (since it sounds too much like RA Salvatore’s Crimson Shadow trilogy, which is very different). It’s an action/intrigue/political/some romance fantasy set in a city-state loosely inspired by Renaissance-era Italy, very much intended to be in the vein of something Cosmere readers might enjoy (though my magic systems aren’t quite as crunchy), while also incorporating some other influences of mine and concepts I find intriguing, including magical transformation, characters being forced to wrestle with questions about their identities, and my own spin on beings similar to D&D’s tieflings. This story is intended to be something that could be read as self-contained, but I do have tentative plans for a sequel continuing the story, tentatively titled The Damned Saint. While I don’t expect this series would be more than a duology, it is set in a world I’ve been slowly assembling in the back of my mind for a while now, which I’d envisioned as a sort of sandbox where I could play around with different styles and subgenres of fantasy. I also have tentative ideas for a sword and sorcery series (a series of shorts and at least one full novel), a more Tolkienesque high fantasy saga (a trilogy, of course) an ASOIAF-esque political/military epic (probably a longer series?) and maybe an attempt to write a more modern take on chivalric romance (standalone) in different regions and time periods in this same world.

For now, my main goal is to wrap up my first draft of Shadows, which I hope to have done by late June if I maintain my current pace. After that, I may try to knock off a couple of the sword-and-sorcery shorts before heading back to do the second draft. I’m overall feeling very excited about this project, and I hope to be able to do something serious with it someday; fingers crossed! Until then, I think I might go ahead and post some of the various “asides” to Crimson Shadows I’ve been doing to help get myself in the proper mood and mindset. First off, the current version of my elevator pitch for the book:

In a city-state inspired by Renaissance Italy, a fallen princess and a streetwise thief are thrown together and must unravel a sinister conspiracy and prevent the city from falling into the hands of a tyrant. For fans of Mistborn and Brimstone Angels.

Does it sound intriguing? If it does, or if there’s anything else you’d like to ask about the project, feel free! Otherwise, in a few days my next post will probably be some character designs I’ve come up with. Thank you!  

It does. Thank you!

Hey, this may seem like kind of a weird question, but I know Brandon has released a number of his unpublished early works to the public in various forms. My understanding is that those are as follows, in the rough order they were written (an asterisk signifies works where I've gotten my hands on a copy myself and/or know where to find one): 

Dragonsteel Prime*

White Sand

Mythwalker*

Aether of Night

Way of Kings Prime* 

Is this list correct in terms of both content and order? IE, are there any unpublished but available early works floating around that I haven't included, and is this order essentially correct? Thank you! 

I was just looking back over the 2025 State of the Sanderson today and I found myself coming back to the section on potential future Cosmere projects, the ones that are far enough in the future Brandon doesn't appear to have concrete plans for them (and at least some of them likely won't ever see the light of day at all). Here's the section I'm thinking of, for context: 

Quote

Other Random Cosmere Projects

The Night Brigade, Dragonsteel, The Silence Divine, the Grand Apparatus, Mythos, the Aether World book series, Free Fall Seven Layer Burrito World, Caveman Heist, Unnamed Other Ashyn Book... My, my. This list keeps growing, doesn’t it?  That’s how it goes.  Most of these are just idle thoughts, and none are promised.  Many have been on there for over a decade, so I like to drop them into the list when I have something solid in mind, but I won’t be able to get to all (or even most) of them. 

My question here being, which of these are you most interested in seeing, or would most want to be sure would be completed out of this list? Here are my rankings: 

1. Dragonsteel. I don't think this is particularly unusual, since this one has been hyped for a long time as part of the "Core" Cosmere saga, would have the backstories for Hoid, the original Vessels, and likely other prominent characters, and would give a chance to finally see Yolen, which sounds like a very interesting setting from what I've gathered about it so far. Easy number one. 

2. Aether series. It feels like it gets pretty heavily hinted at in The Lost Metal that there's important stuff going on regarding Dhatri, and like Yolen it sounds like an interesting setting and with Aethers having been popping up in various Cosmere works lately, I'd really be interested in digging more into the lore around them. 

3. Night Brigade. I've been itching to see a return to Threnody ever since "Shadows for Silence" (Final Empire-era Scadrial remains one of my favorite Cosmere settings in terms of atmosphere, and Threnody has a similar brooding, sinister post-apocalyptic vibe, to a somewhat greater extent even) and especially with all the teasing about  about the Night Brigade as a group in Sunlit Man and the Evil's appearance in Emberdark. 

4. Ashyn books. Listing Silence Divine and the other unknown Ashyn book together for simplicity's sake - these don't grab me as strongly as the previous ones, but Silence Divine in particular is something Brandon has been teasing for so long now, and checking in on Ashyn and seeing what's going on there and learning more about it definitely does intrigue me (though I imagine we'll be getting some of this in the second Stormlight arc as well).

5-8. Listing the remainder (Mythos, Seven-Layer Burrito, Grand Apparatus, whatever "Caveman Heist" is) together because we know so little about any of them it's hard for me to get that excited or to rank them against each other. Mythos might intrigue me the most, just because of when and how it got namedropped in Mistborn and what a blank slate it especially is. But I don't really have anything more concrete to say about any of these for the moment. 

Well, that's my list. I know it's very unlikely we'll see all of these projects completed, but I do hope we get some of them, especially the ones I ranked in the top four. Anyone else have thoughts? 

Great! Thank you!

This may or may not be the best forum for this (I debated where to put it) but thought I might as well ask here. As far as we know, what are the next few Cosmere projects that Brandon is going to be working on, just to get straight in my head what we should expect and roughly when? I know Isles of the Emberdark is going to be the immediate next one (per Amazon, it looks like the ebook will release this November, and then the physical edition in February) and my understanding had been that next after that will be the revised prose White Sand, and then the Ghostbloods trilogy and Elantris 2&3 alternating. Is this understanding accurate, and is it still the immediate plan as far as we know? Thank you! 

I would assume so, as Nightblood seems to take Breaths from his wielder over time while drawn, not all at once the instant he is drawn, based on what we see in the climax of Warbreaker (he drains Vasher progressively over the course of the fight where he's used). But I'd doubt that it's possible to draw and then sheath him again so quickly that he wouldn't take any Investiture at all. After all, Nightblood's always hungry. 

IIRC, the very first we ever heard about Adonalsium was in the Hero of Ages epigraphs (which alludes to the shattering but doesn't really spell it out explicitly) and the online Q&A session that followed HoA's release. 

Per WoR, Dalinar realizes while fighting Szeth at the climax that he couldn't have defeated him that night; I'm inclined to defer to Dalinar's judgment, so I voted for Szeth. 

IIRC, it's explicitly mentioned in Alloy that Hinston's death wasn't planned and he was supposed to take over the house for his father and run it on his behalf - he died unexpectedly, but Edwarn's plans to fake his own death were already too far advanced at that point to stop, so Wax becoming heir and coming back to take over House Ladrian then became something Edwarn just had to deal with. Hinston's article on the Coppermind is backing me up.

And so, it's time for the last(?) installment of our little series - Stormlight 5, as based on the opening lines of the prologue Brandon has already posted! Of course, some would say that seeing the future is of the Voidbringers... but if so, the Voidbringers would seem to have some very, uh, interesting ideas about what lies in store for us in the next volume (and go into first person for a few paragraphs for some reason). And like previous incarnations of the bot, are struggling with what, exactly, characters' relationships to each other are. But at least Bridge Four seem to be well-fed this time around. Spoilers (?) to follow: 

And now, it's time for Rhythm of War, once again using the opening lines from the prologue! In which Gavilar (who has apparently renounced his throne to become an ardent) and Navani talk politics, business, and sorcery, while the bot is very confused about the exact nature of characters' relationships. 

And now, for Oathbringer! In which Eshonai leads an invasion, Dalinar has trouble with people who like pointy hats, and apparently Bajorans are involved somehow? 

The original Mistborn trilogy (Final Empire, Well of Ascension, and Hero of Ages), the currently ongoing Era Two/Wax and Wayne series (Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, Bands of Mourning and, coming this fall, Lost Metal) and a couple of short works in Arcanum Unbounded (most obviously the novella "Mistborn: The Secret History") are what's out now. At least two more full arcs, Era Three (modern/urban fantasy) and Era Four (space opera) are forthcoming. And of course the rest of the Cosmere is set in the same universe as Mistborn, but not actually on Scadrial. 

On 5/11/2022 at 1:56 PM, MasterGhandalf said:

And now I present to you part two, Words of Radiance! In which the bot somehow knows Shallan is the main character this time around, but we somehow go from a ball to a battlefield halfway through, and both the bridges and people pretending to be other people make their return (as does cutting off in mid-sentence)! Warning for violence and some strong language in this one. Initial text was the opening sentence of the actual book: 

Spoiler

Jasnah Kholin pretended to enjoy the party, giving no indication that she intended to have one of the guests killed.

 

It might have taken a little doing to get the invitation from Zaliek, but he wasn't the only assassin working for her.

 

Somehow they all seemed to know her by sight.

 

Jasnah pretended to do as she was told, smiling, laughing, even batting her lashes at the men of her class.

 

They don't have anything on me, Shallan thought with a rueful smile.

 

I can steal any suit of clothing I want, and make it look like I bought it.

 

But I still can't climb up a rope like Jasnah.

 

She watched Jasnah lead more people to a side balcony to talk, though Shallan had never seen that balcony before.

 

The view seemed rather grim, and the highstorm seemed a good distance away.

 

Those highstormspren were still very much present.

 

Jasnah had been so busy entertaining, Shallan had nearly forgotten the marath'damane Jasnah talked about.

 

The woman.

 

Not the stone.

 

She was the woman.

 

Shallan waited for Jasnah to leave, then looked up the stairwell, picturing what she'd have to do to open the balcony doors.

 

A spot of relief washed through her.

 

Maybe I can persuade the woman to open the doors!

 

The problem, of course, was that Jasnah would realize Shallan was up there, and wouldn't want that image of herself to go to her political enemies.

 

Shallan could try to sneak out.

 

She found a safe spot in the crowd, then started working on the sliding glass doors.

 

She couldn't fool a smith to make her a latch, but her window was wide, and would be easy to reach.

 

Most people didn't pay much attention to her, and for the first time in her life, she didn't think she was being judged by them.

 

They wouldn't care to see her caught and taken to the highstormspren.

 

So long as they didn't look at her strangely, she'd be fine.

 

She moved in and out of the crowd, feigning confusion.

 

I'd better get into the habit of slipping food to the men.

 

The door groaned open, and Shallan slipped into a side corridor.

 

Through the noise of music and conversation, she thought she heard a shout.

 

The doors at the end of the hallway swung open, and a group of highstormspren crawled out.

 

They formed in a tight semi-circle, then split apart, creeping toward Shallan and Jasnah.

 

Fascinating, Shallan thought, feigning embarrassment as she turned to speak to a man nearby.

 

And what would happen if the door to Jasnah's balcony opened?

 

It'll probably make the spren crawl toward me, so I'll probably have to kill it.

 

A sudden, distinct whistle from outside cut through the room's din.

 

Shallan looked toward the side balcony, then spotted a slender woman in white like Jasnah, leaning over the railing and pointing up at the sky.

 

"They're in the city, Skar," she said.

 

"There are spren in the air."

 

Shallan cursed her sudden clumsiness.

 

"I-"

 

The woman nodded, pointing with one finger at the highstormspren.

 

"The ones with...that blue dot.

 

Shallan, they're the spren."

 

Yes.

 

She saw them before, during the sprenstorms.

 

They burned bright and then disappeared.

 

But sometimes they'd fade to a softer blue.

 

Why would Jasnah bother trying to attract their attention?

 

Shallan ducked back inside the ballroom.

 

That woman wasn't just a White.

 

She was a Shadowhunter.

 

Shallan was horrified to realize that she'd been standing there for a moment, gaping at the woman.

 

It's happening, she thought.

 

This is happening.

 

I have to do something.

 

She spun, and began to weave her satchel around her body.

 

She'd just get it on if she had to make a run for it.

 

That would be bad, of course, but she was quite certain she could hide the satchel in the multitude of people.

 

She saw Jasnah moving toward the balcony as she did so, taking note of the woman's hand.

 

The walkway was down at that end of the ballroom, and Shallan saw Jasnah make a few awkward gestures with her freehand, then gesture toward a corridor on the second floor.

 

Shallan hurried up to her.

 

"Please, my lady," she said, holding her hand out.

 

"I-"

 

Jasnah pressed something into Shallan's palm.

 

She took it, then gasped.

 

It was a knife.

 

Shallan's heart beat loudly in her ears.

 

"What did you give me?"

 

the darkeyed woman demanded, cold eyes taking in Shallan, her hand, and Jasnah.

 

Shallan opened her mouth, then closed it again, mind racing.

 

She'd forgotten about the spren.

 

Jasnah shook her head.

 

"Thank you, Shallan."

 

She gestured toward the stairs.

 

"If you want to be useful, do as she asks."

 

Shallan hesitated.

 

"It's over this way, Lady Jasnah," a deep voice said.

 

It was Dalinar, of course, carrying a walking stick and wearing a noble's evening jacket.

 

"The rest of the ladies are in their rooms or in the main ballroom."

 

"The rest of the ladies?"

 

Shallan whispered, then turned, lifting her skirts.

 

As she rushed out, the walking stick left the ground, appearing to hover in the air, then vanishing.

 

Dalinar reached her and nodded to the woman in white, then stepped around the side of a building and began to climb the exterior of the wall to reach a balcony.

 

Shallan followed.

 

"What are you doing?"

 

Shallan demanded as Dalinar stepped up onto the wall.

 

"We have to jump?"

 

"We don't have time for this," Dalinar said, looking down.

 

"The stormspren are rising, and this isn't our path.

 

We need to go to the doorway."

 

"Dalinar..." Shallan began, but he looked like he was going to give her something, so she trailed after him.

 

She pulled out her satchel and stuffed the knife into it.

 

They waited.

 

The windstormspren continued their terrified dance as the light continued to fail.

 

Nearby, Jushu knelt, his eyes wide, his face flushed.

 

"I'll be coming for you, one day, Shallan," he said to her.

 

"Storms, woman, you don't know how to leave well enough alone.

 

Once I leave this world, then you can start scheming."

 

She hoped it was the right thing to say.

 

"We have to jump, Jushu," Dalinar said, sounding exhausted.

 

"We don't have much time."

 

"You said I could jump," Shallan said.

 

"And I jumped.

 

I fell.

 

That's what we have to do!"

 

He didn't say a word.

 

He just nodded.

 

They moved forward.

 

She glanced back, spying Tyn up on the wall of the city.

 

She gestured, as if giving Shallan permission.

 

Shallan swallowed, then leaped.

 

There was nothing to be done.

 

She cried out as she plunged toward the ground, clutching the knife.

 

The stormspren danced in a shrieking scream, shrapnel from the debris raining around Shallan.

 

Dalinar landed beside her.

 

"Careful, child," he said, steadying her with a hand on her arm.

 

She looked back, fear rushing through her.

 

It was all over.

 

They'd made it to safety, but Jasnah was gone.

 

Tyn was dead.

 

Storms.

 

She'd wanted to be sure.

 

She was so sorry.

 

"We need to go," Dalinar said, then vaulted back up onto the wall.

 

They dashed toward the large doorway, the groundspren swirling in terror above.

 

An emergency bridge was in place-it had run off the backside of a building.

 

Dalinar stepped on it, with Shallan following.

 

She hesitated for a second, then jumped, the wind scrambling her skirts.

 

Dalinar lowered her on a beam, then pulled himself up onto another.

 

The city below was utter chaos.

 

There were other bridges, set in other places, where archers had attempted to provide cover to the defenders.

 

The structure was much wider than the bridge they stood on, and both of the archers had been knocked off of it.

 

"Go!"

 

Dalinar called.

 

"Go!"

 

"Storms!"

 

Shallan shouted, leaping up with a roar.

 

She hit the back of the wall with a crack, slamming into it.

 

The wind and debris blasted her off of the wall, hurling her away.

 

She landed with a thud on the debris-covered ground below.

 

She groaned, looking back, catching sight of Dalinar.

 

He had jumped and landed with a grunt of effort.

 

She looked down.

 

Tyn was nowhere to be seen.

 

The dead girl's spine showed at the bottom of the pile of debris, her face a bloody smear.

 

"No!"

 

Shallan whispered, choking.

 

"No!"

 

"Shallan," Dalinar said.

 

"Do you see anything else?"

 

"A Shardblade!"

 

she said, speaking through clenched teeth.

 

"Go, go, go!"

 

The floor was slick with blood.

 

She scrambled her way toward it, frantic.

 

She looked down.

 

Kaladin was there, helping the wounded.

 

He'd broken his sword, but he had made his way to her without it.

 

She held her knife out, using it to wedge between a stone and the ground.

 

She was almost free of the debris.

 

Then a figure stepped onto the stones, wearing Shardplate.

 

A human Shardbearer.

 

A Radiant of the Firestone Throne, wearing a breastplate that was sheathed in a nearly solid red Stormlight.

 

When that new Shardbearer touched the ground, it seemed to steam, the Stormlight escaping.

 

"Hold it," he said, looking at her with an intensity she had rarely seen from a man.

 

"Come here."

 

Dalinar cursed, leaping off the bridge, then throwing himself onto the black bridge beside Shallan.

 

She whirled, trying to run-and nearly fell, the debris still pressing in from all sides.

 

The Radiant moved, Shardplate clanging as he came into place.

 

The Soulcaster sat in his right hand.

 

He charged at her, Shardblade raised.

 

He moved so quickly, she barely had time to react.

 

It was like a fire leaping through the air, striking.

 

The roar of the Voidbringer's approach was deafening.

 

"I am Gavilar!"

 

she cried.

 

"You didn't fight back, Gavilar!"

 

The Radiant smiled, fingers glowing red with Stormlight.

 

She turned, realizing what she'd done.

 

Her companions were wounded and dead.

 

The bridge was destroyed, and they were about to be attacked.

 

She had given away their position!

 

And she had given away Kaladin's.

 

"You son of a whoring slontze!"

 

she screamed, raising her hand.

 

"You're not going to kill me, you're going to take everything I have!"

 

The Radiant met her eyes, his, too, glowing.

 

She saw him begin to run the Blade through her.

 

He was so fast, so deadly, so ... Human.

 

She shrieked, Kaladin's glyphs going black.

 

The Stormlight escaping from him was so bright it blinded her.

 

He reached through her and shattered the Blade in her hands.

 

She screamed, scrambling, as he tore at her with the hilt.

 

Dalinar screamed.

 

Kaladin's glyphs turned red, lighting the ground around her.

 

He

 

Stormfather and Nightwatcher, I would assume. Stormfather is Honor's Cognitive Shadow/successor, Nightwatcher is described as Cutlivation's daughter and per WOB is to Cultivation as the Stormfather is to Honor, and the Sibling is depicted as a blending of Honor's and Cultivation's power. They're also all "siblings" in a more poetic sense, as the three Bondsmith spren. 

Quote

Is this a contradiction, or is Tindwyl making a distinction that Wednegon was the last who was thought to have had an actual chance (whereas Urtan and the islands, etc., were massively one-sided)?

Considering the qualification "meaningful," I would assume that this is the case; Wednegon was the last (or one of the last) to be powerful enough to face TLR on something vaguely resembling even footing, while by the time of the later conquests he was powerful enough (with large enough numbers of koloss, allomancers and Inquisitors + conscripts from places he'd already conquered + increasing familiarity with his own abilities should he choose to take the field himself, etc.) that he was able to pretty much steamroller any and and all opposition. 

Considering it was Tindwyl who added the "meaningful," there may be some of her biases creeping in as well; ie Wednegon was one of the last whose resistance to the Final Empire was significant enough to impress her, personally.