Shardlet

I don't think that the way they left their blades had anything to do with not returning to torture. I think that leaving the blades was more in line with the idea (likely originating from Jezrien) that if they were abandoning their positions and status as Heralds, then they should no longer carry the blades that were given to them to empower them in their roles as Heralds.

Welcome Bouskila. I'm honored to have your first post be in a thread I created. As you probably read above, I also agree that burning to get feruchemy would be less than satisfying to me. Granted, we have that quote from Brandon indicating that the default result of burning lerasium is becoming a mistborn, but that it could be done in such a way as to have different result. I read this as potentially, if you knew what you were doing, you could gain feruchemy or some other ability or heal spirit web damage, etc. But, I think that there is likely someway that you could gain feruchemy as a default condition as well. Regarding your speculation, Shadow, Since Sazed ascended fully, in contrast to TLRs partial ascension, I would expect that he gained a greater knowledge than during ascension than TLR did. Add this to Sazed's already greater knowledge than TLR had at the time of his ascension. Additionally, I doubt he had a substantial quantity of lerasium in order to make an alloy. Also, lerasium was something he apparently kept secret. He likely didn't even discuss it with those he gave a bead to to become the original mistborn. He wanted to guarantee his power and dominion. If someone burned two beads, they would have been a crazy powerful mistborn that probably could have rather handily affected metal internal to someone's body. This would have left TLR much more vulnerable to early overthrow while he was still consolidating his power. I suspect that he would have been very hesitant to seek out more lerasium than he had. If he had enough lerasium to make his bracers, then I would have expected him to use the two beads left at the well (Elend's and Hoid's) also.

It has been months since I checked, but I am pretty sure that Theoryland is still being actively updated by Joe, Zas, and I think Windrunner. not sure though.

Signature clearly indicates a devoted Sanderfan. Not my personal style, but each to their own. I love the Syl quotes, but feel that they should have been attributed. Edit: I guess I should read the post first before addressing the signature. Ah well. On to mail-me's signature then: My first question is, of course, "Is Oregon that quiet?" I'm not much for poetry and I generally don't care for spoiler tags in signatures, so it may be best if I end with the above question.

I agree with Moogle. Dalinar glowing while saving Elhokar during the chasmfiend hunt in WoK is the strongest, earliest evidence of the presence of of some vestige of his bond.

The accuracy/pertinance of any of the body foci (e.g., nails, inhalation, etc.) should be held at least suspect inview of the writings in the Ars Arcanum at the end of WoR. The writer indicates that he/she currently believes them to be philosophical associations rather than actual connections.

Seems like it would be fine. Especially since Brandon clearly identifies it within the quote as being not canonized. Certainly a reasonable placeholder, in my book, until a canonical statement is made.

Alas, no. It seemed that those who put together/maintain the Theoryland database were opposed to doing this. So, i did not feel it was appropriate to harvest WoB from that site which was the most complete collection of WoB. Without that resource, it seemed a hollow effort. I think I still have the compilation I made from 17th shard at the time, but it has not been updated since my last post so it is very raw and woefully out of date.

Not directly related to your theory, but the interlude you are referencing is in Way of Kings rather than WoR. Just a formality.

It depends on how you think about it .

I don't mind 1st person narrative, but I greatly prefer the 3rd person style Brandon uses in most of his books (including Mistborn) over any other writing style. But, you have your preferences and I have mine. The only style I will unequivocably call evil and disgusting is first person present tense! Uggh!! I put down Hunger games before I got to the third page. I'll take the movie over the book on that one anyday.

The one I always mispronounced was Shadesmar (Shad-ez-mar). It is actually pronounced Shades-mar, which makes more sense to me anyways since that pronunciation suggests sea of shadows or shades. I used to read it Jazz-nuh.

I have to go with the shorts. They are great and all, but I want more about the world and what's happening. These are just too too short.

It's out there somewhere that Ruin was helping to control placement. The most direct in-text example would be when Marsh spiked what's-his-Bob that was elected King of Luthadel over Elend. However, Ruin was in complete control in that example. There is WoB (either in the annotations or elsewhere) indicating that Ruin was helping to guide the sword that nabbed spook.

Totally agree, Kalyna. I merely was saying that a rithmatist drawing a LoW (for example) is intending to draw a LoW for the purpose of creating a defensive circle. Since that is the only discussed (known?) function of a LoW, then the rithmatist is clearly intending to induce such an effect. Thus, for all intents and purposes, the intent is functionally built-in. If a rithmatist is unaware of the function of a line they are drawing, then the line would have little or no effect.

With most of the lines though, the intent is built-in. A LoW does what it does while a LoF and revocation do what they do. Melody's chalklings would be the exception since they don't operate on express drawn instructions as most rithatist chalklings do.

The book at least suggests that more than intent is involved. Joel's dad was convinced that the quality of the chalk made a difference. That suggests that much more so, the basic material itself (e.g., chalk, charcoal, etc.) certainly makes a difference. It will be interesting if Brandon ever answers 'why chalk?' in the next book(s?).

Yeah, he talked about this a bit on the 6th. He was saying that it would likely be something on the order of a kickstarter kind of thing where you bought different packages where one of the packages would include at least the book and a DRM-free digital copy. He addressed that outside of Amazon, there were major logistical hurdles to 'buy the book, get the ebook too'. He also said Amazon was the last resort because he did not want to give Amazon any more strength that it has.

I can see why some people feel that JK's statement was cowardly. I am not prepared to cast judgement one way or the other because I don't know her motivation for making the statement. And that is essential to any judgement. I merely cited the situation as illustrative of how the statements identifying the sexuality of a character, when such statements are irrelevant to the plot, can distract, and even detract, from the story itself. The question is, how does one write a book in our current social climate where the book has a significant character which is LGBT where their sexuality is pertinent to the plot and avoid the social issues from taking over the story? If an author does this, the book becomes an LGBT book. I cite such outfits as Netflix for evidence of this. Consider that Netflix has a category of programming dedicated to gay/lesbian programming. Some of these programs deal directly with gay/lesbian issues (as one would expect in a category identified as such) while others are stories which simply have LGBT characters in significant roles (i.e., the sexuality is flavor but not subject). These movies are all pigeonholed together. The simple truth is, it is difficult to produce a piece of popular media in our current social climate involving LGBT characters without that work being pigeonholed as LGBT media. Add to that, Brandon Sanderson is LDS (mormon). By the very fact of Brandon's particular religious affiliation, the effect would very likely be exacerbated. As to Drehy/Jasnah, my basic criteria would be how important the character's relationship and sexual preference is to moving the story forward in a smooth fashion. Unless Jasnah and Drehy are put in some situation where some conflict about their sexuality is of benefit to the story being told or that their romantic relationship is an important part of the story, i think it would disrupt the flow because then Brandon would have to devote time and space in the book to address how their society views and deals with these relationships. If such a conflict is beneficial to the story, then go for it. If it is not, then it is disruptive to the story and I would prefer not to have this. Personally, I don't go in for much discussion of romantic relationships of any kind in books unless it is germane to the plot. I shake my head (and sometimes get annoyed) with all the 'shipping' that goes on in fandom. You will find this reflected in the complete absence of any posts from me in shipping discussions. I prefer the meat of the story as opposed to the fluff. However, I do recognize the need to include relationships in books because this is a very real part of the fabric of the world in which these characters live. I hope that someday our social climate settles down so that we no longer have to dance around race and sexual preference and no longer have to fear a fierce lens of scrutiny for whatever is said or produced. For example, you have used the term "queer" in your post above. By all accounts, I as a heterosexual am not allowed to use that term because it is offensive and derisive if I use it (at least to some very vocal individuals). The same goes for racial terms. The fact of the matter is, we cannot have equality or even an earnest and genuiine discussion (collectively, not individually) of equality until we are all using the same lexicon and one side is not allowed to use terminology that the other side is allowed to use, until we stop parsing out every word uttered to hunt out bigotry, and to stop being so quick to be offended (again, I am speaking on a societal basis. You have not done any of these things in your posts).

I am going to bravely stick my nose into this conversation. While I have no problem whatsoever with Jasnah turning out to be homosexual or asexual, I think it would detract from the story if Brandon made a point of expressly identifying this, UNLESS it was pertinent to the plotline of the story. Here's why I think this: I'm sure that we are all aware that this is a major social and political issue right now which unfortunarely intensly divisive. If Brandon included direct information about Jasnah's sexuality and it was not important to or germane to the plot of the story, there would likely be harsh feelings and contentious interactions regardless of what particular sexual preference she had. As evidence of this, I point to J.K. Powling's statement that she always thought of Dumbledore as being gay. Look at the anger and hurt that was generated in the subsequent exchanges. I note that not only did she not even identify Dumbledore as gay in the text, she merely said that she thought of him as such. The result would be that whether Brandon intended it to be such, or not, many of his fans and several in the media would declare that Brandon is making a statement by such an inclusion. The ultimate result being Jasnah's sexuality superceding and overshadowing the story. If her sexuality is not pertinent to, or affect, the plotline, then I would hate to see this happen. Obviously, if her sexuality is important to the story, then I would hope that Brandon would address it wherever her preferences lie. Edit: As a side note, I would point out that Dalinar's relationship with Navani and Shallan's relationship with Adolin and Kaladin by all appearances so far appears to be important to the plot of the story.

I would expect that the store would be handing those out since that is not a standard practice for Brandon's signing events.

Don't count out spiritual damage healing via lerasium yet. I very very strongly suspect that intent plays a huge role in the effect of a lerasium burn. As to the Jasnah topic, I would not be surprised to find out more about Jasnah's history in future books (particularly if she gets a flashback book). He indicated that her sexual preferences would not be fleshed out. I can provide the verbatim as close as I can decipher. But, it may not be for a couple of days yet.

At Seattle he has had the benefit of someone dedicated to taking pictures and he has a pretty good process for keeping the line moving but doing pictures.

So, I went to the Seattle signing and I did not see either hoser or KaraokeAng there. I did see Wetlander. She recorded the entire signing line. I however, only was able to record about 30-45 min. of the line owing to the need to get my 10 year-old home. So far, I did not hear anything of particular happiness and joy in my recording. Perhaps there is a tidbit still to come. Otherwise, we will need to depend upon Wetlander's recording and hope that something turned up there. I was not able to ask much. I did ask whether Vin would be a stronger mistborn than Elend if she blindly burned a bead of lerasium the same size he did. Brandon confirmed that Vin would be stronger and that it is an add on power rather than an overwrite. He also indicated that the same condition applied to hemalurgy [which we already knew from what happened with Zane (mistborn plus Allomantic steel spike)]. Nothing earth-shattering but interesting nonetheless. I did hear him say that Jasnah sexual preference would not be addressed and that the fact that people are speculating would annoy her greatly. He did say that it is perfectly alright to annoy Jasnah in this way. As to the reading, he read from a non-cosmere story (which I don't recall the name of) which anyone should be able to get access to an expanded version of with the Firefight figure card codes that he is handing out. He did mention that everyone is free to share the code with whomever they wish. So, I will finish listening to my recording of it. Wetlander offered to email me her recording of it since she is not particularly active on 17S. So, if there are any gems there, I'm sure we'll get them.

I planned on bringing my recorder and placing it on the table if possible. I do not know if I will be there the whole time. My daughter has school the next day, but it does not start until 10:20 on Wed. I figured I'd play it by ear and see what happened.