Shardlet

That is actually how I am familiar with the quote. Lifetime membership to ITS. Fun fact: Pope is the third most quoted single writer.

Minor correction, Weiry. "Act well your part..." is from Alexander Pope rather than Thespis.

Maybe, but it seems he could better learn to use his plate and blade from other Shardbearers.

Check out these posts for our best information on the subject that I know of: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/5854-setting-limits-on-the-size-of-roshar-the-planet-and-roshar-the-continent/?p=93412 http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/5641-rosharan-calendar-and-character-ages/?p=89660 Cheese is our resident Rosharan calendar and time guru also. His info is likely to be the most comprehensive and accurate.

That is correct. I just read it the other day. Someone asks if Kaladin was there when Amaram won his shards and Kaladin answers, 'No. Nobody was.'

That makes more sense. I understand now. Maybe, but it still seems unlikely to me. For this to work, you'd essentially have to have a significant number of spren of the same type(s) as KR spren that were aligned with Odium. There would have to be sufficient numbers of these non-KR surgebinders to make the fight something so significant to be called a desolation. I don't see how so many spren (which are splinters of Cultivation and Honor) would align themselves in such a fashion.

I am still adamantly in the camp that the tower and the crown refers to the Kholin house glyphpair (which can be seen at the start of every Dalinar chapter) and the spear refers to Kaladin and the death chant refers to Kaladin raising up the standard (title) of house Kholin (namely Dalinar).

Since the KR were surgebinders and the KR fought against the voidbringers. It seems highly improbable that surgebinder = voidbringer.

It is unclear whether this blade is included in Dalinar's count. It seems that Amaram would be required to be at the plains if it was generally known that he was a shardbearer. Dalinar (or someone speaking to Dalinar) expresses concern that if a shardbearer was participating in the border conflicts that Jah Keved would start sending shardbearers of their own and that the situation would devolve into a war like has not been seen on Roshar for a long time. I wonder why Amaram is not at the plains by the end of WoK. It seems curious to me why Kaladin gets there first after serving as a slave for a substantial amount of time, yet I would have expected Amaram to leave for the plains after setting command of the home army in order.

So, I am officially not going to be at the signing. Brandon continues to schedule signings which are nearby to me on the day of my daughters' birthdays. In this case we will be on an island and I will not be able to get away to the signing. Oh well. So, Ang and hoser or anyone else who will be going to Seattle, it will be up to you to bring a recorder and to get there early enough to ensure that it gets on Brandon's table early in the signing line. For my recorder will be unable to attend.

And even that is assuming that the Nightwatcher took on the name "the Nightwatcher" rather than it simply being attributed to her. It could also simply be a religious construct and have no actual foundation in truth. I don't see any need for Cultivation (or anyone else in the cosemere) to act in some kind of a grim reaper role or even a final judgement role. Would the Nightwatcher do this for every world in the cosmere? If not, who fulfills this role for the other worlds? Sounds like religion in this case.

Wow, I can't believe I missed this before. But, last night I was reading and noticed that Kaladin's chapter symbol is a spear with a banner attached to it in a haphazard way. I feel a little dumb for not making the connection before, but I think that the symbol and this death cry are directly related to one another. I believe that something happens to Dalinar (and Adolin?) and Kaladin somehow raises the fallen Kholin title (figuratively speaking).

There are no shardbearers guarding the queen. See my previous post. Any other Kholin shardbearers (vassal lighteyes) would be serving in Dalinar's army. I see no indication of any others outside of the Kholins themselves. If Elhokar had a bodyguard, his absence at the hunt, the feasts, and Dalinar's confrontation of Elhokar at the end of WoK is glaringly conspicuous. I would be astounded if there was a shardbearer bodyguard.

I think you have some poor points here Moogle. 1) Dalinar has no idea that Kaladin is a surgebinder. So that doesn't factor into the calculus of Dalinar's decision. 2) Dalinar has seen Sadeas's bridgemen. While bridge four is exceptional most of the rest are wretches, criminals (at least allegedly) and slaves. 3) There are only about 1000 bridgemen almost all of whom are untrained militarily. Not the best exchange for several thousand well-trained and highly disciplined soldiers. Certainly not much of a replenishment. 4) A shardblade is hardly worthless in battle without plate. There are at least a few shardbearers in the Alethi armies who hold only a blade. Truly, this would not be as effective as if they were to all have plate as well. But still far more potent than an ordinary spearman or swordsman. Yes, this was a tremendous sacrifice. Otherwise the message that Dalinar was trying to send would have been a quiet one. Instead, Dalinar sent a message that would be impossible for the Alethi to ignore. He firmly established the value he places on the lives of men and this will destroy any talk or belief that Dalinar's word are hollow. As to Amaram's sacrifice, I don't see any immediate need for him to take the plate and blade. Had Kaladin initially taken the plate and blade, I don't see any indication that Amaram would have moved to prevent him. Likewise, I suspect that Amaram had every intention of allowing Kaladin to take of the plate and blade in the command center. Else, he would have bonded to the blade before entering into the room. Rather than doing it in front of Kaladin. By all appearances, Amaram did not have an immediate need to take the plate and blade. His "sacrifice" was a planned contingency that would be acted on if Kaladin continued to refuse the plate and blade. Doesn't seem to be a sacrifice so much as a decision made which compromised his honor. I don't see any justification for it at all.

While it is very strong evidence, the quote does not firmly establish this.

A point which needs to be tidied up is that during the battle we saw Kaladin in as a part of Amaram's army took place after Gavilar was dead. If I am not mistaken, within the last year. The war of Reckoning has been ongoing for over five years (nearly six). Also, Kaladin spoke of a desire to join in the fighting at the shattered plains. Unless Sadeas was directly involved in prosecuting this ghost war against the Ghostbloods, I don't see how Amaram could have continued in this effort for five years after its progenitor had been killed.

I am still dubious that the Kholins have more than three sets. I still think that the King does not have a set reserved for rental. Here is the quote from pg. 823 of the hardcover: That quote sounds to me that it is the King's personal set otherwise it would not have sounded so exclusive. It would likely have said something like, 'the king had a set available for a large fee'. The quote however says, the king's own Shardplate and Blade. However, your note as to the difference in description between Gavilar's and Elhokar's blade is suggestive. I do wonder what happened to it if it is a different blade. I did also find another quote last night which indicates that there are certainly no Kholin shardbearers currently in Alethkar. It is at location 13558 on my Kindle. This indicates to me that there are no known Shardbearers currently in Alethkar (which raises the question is Amaram currently making his way to the Plains or is it not yet generally known that he is now a Shardbearer). So, nobody in Kholinar with plate and blade protecting the queen and the interests of the king.

You are correct Meg. I mis-remembered. Feverstone keep was the scene I was thinking about. The book say the King's plate and blade. There is no implication that the King has several sets which he rents out. That is where the blades go when dismissed. I have no way of telling which blade is bonded to whom. You are making some assumptions which I think are a bit shaky here, Meg. It is unclear whether or not Elhokar's plate and blade were Gavilar's (potentially -1). I also doubt that Elhokar is hanging on to the plate and blades won from the Parshendi. I think they would have been awarded in short order. There is little advantage to them being in a closet somewhere. With Elhokar's paranoia, it is likely if he had additional plate and blades that he would insist that they were worn by his bodyguards. This suggests to me that the king has only the plate and blade we have seen. However, 20 blades total for Alethkar makes things much more plausible for Kholin's sound power base while controlling three.

Makes sense. It seems that the identity of allomancers was generally hidden so as to keep an ace in the hole. It would make sense to employ such feints. However, on the other hand, there doesn't seem to have been much physical danger at social functions. The weapons used were political, social, and economic. Atium would not be particularly useful in such cases. I think our perception is somewhat skewed since our POV characters were outsiders who needed to be always ready to win a fight. This means that they would have been always armed. The same condition would not necessarily generally apply to the nobility. Back to the first hand, we have the words of the dressmaker in WoA who prepared many features into Vin's ballgowns to facilitate her allomancy. This was due to his prior experience in providing formal wear for noble allomancers.

So, Dalinar think-speaks that Alethkar has about 40 20 shardblades. House Kholin (at the time he thought about this) had three blades (Dalinar's, Adolin's, and Elhokar's). That leaves about 37 divided up between 9 highprindoms. That indicates that at least several highprindoms have a substantial number of shardblades. It does not appear that Sadeas has an appreciable number of blades. Yet Sadeas and Dalinar's highprincedoms are the two most powerful. How did Dalinar and Gavilar subdue the other highprinces with only three shardbearers? Prior to that, power in Alethkar was achieved on the blade of a sword. Surely a number of blades (and plate) would have been won during Dalinar and Gavilar's conquest of Alethkar. What happened to those blades? Why isn't there another highprincedom with substantial military might to rival Dalinar and Sadeas? Obviously not all blades are held by the highprince's family, but why are there then no other shardbearers which fight for house Kholin or Sadeas? I could well imagine that it would be undesirable to commit a man with only a blade to battle. It would be risky without the protection of plate. The blade could easily fall into Parshendi hands. Even so... Note: I know that Amaram who has a blade is subject to Sadeas, but this is a new blade which may not have been in Dalinar's count. Even so, there is no mention of anyone with a blade in Sadeas's forces. Edit: As per Meg's correction, Alethkar has about 20 blades.

Amaram puzzles me in a number of ways. By all appearances he is Sadeas's most renowned general. Now, this comes from Kaladin's perspective who would have been very young when the War of Reckoning was entered into and therefore may mean that Amaram is the most renown of Sadeas's genereals remaining in Alethkar. Nevertheless, why wasn't Amaram at the Shattered plains the whole time? Perhaps there is some friction between Amaram and Sadeas. Thus, Sadeas brings Amaram to the plains only when he must politicaly (owing to Amaram now being a shardbearer). This may also explain why Amaram is not brought to the plains until many many months after becoming a shardbearer.

Careful, Peter said that some of the later art has spoilers for the earlier parts of the book. So, if you don't want to be spoiled don't peruse all the art first.

I want to savor it. The signing I would be going to is two days later than yours. While I will be spending considerable time reading during the evenings of that week, I am not going to break my neck to finish before the signing. (I anticipate getting about halfway through). I want the story for the sake of the story more than anything else. My sharding curiosity is secondary to my desire for the story. I feel that the first time through a book is almost sacred and I don't wish to rob myself of the experience.

Hi dangermond. Welcome to 17S.

As a housekeeping note, I would point out that Arelon rather than Elantris is the geographic basis for AonDor. Other than that, I agree that AonDor would have to be completely rewritten/rediscovered each new place you wanted to use it. Similarly forging would have to be modified, especially the final symbol (which Shai notes that it resembles MaiPon).