The Rooster

It's called an Epicanthic fold, not epidermic. Shin really does cause this theory to need some exceptions or caveats.

damnation, I never even connected that "the element" would refer to the lerasium but that makes a lot of sense.

There are "Lightning Bolts" around the depiction of Nalan in certain chapter headings as well.

I haven't read the whole list but I'm eagerly awaiting 9 more people to get codes to see what the next piece of content will be.

This is what's so cool about these themes in the Brandon's books. It's complicated. Generally in fantasy if a character is atheist.. they're wrong because we know there are Gods. Here we have being with God-like powers but as far as we know they're humans imbued with power. It adds complexity and grey areas that keep me thinking about all of this.. like seriously a lot.

One thing that has been expressed in WoK and has become more and more interesting in light of certain preview chapters is the concept of the Parshendi acting with honor. Despite the assassination of Gavilar (something that at least some of them now regret) they seem to portend themselves with dignity and purposed that frankly outshines many of the human characters in the series so far , excepting the main characters. So right now there are a lot of good threads going around discussing why there are parshmen , what different forms they will take, and how they became "voidbringers" if Jasnah's hypothesis is correct. When asked if humans were native to Roshar Brandon responded RAFO. The rest of this post will focus on the "what if" scenario where the answer to that is "No". So what if originally the Parshendi were the good guys, just dending their territory. Somehow Odium came to Roshar brought humans along somehow and let the inevitable conflict of clandestine expansion ensue. Then He used this conflict to corrupt the Parshendi and put forth his plan of desolation and deicide on Roshar. This would be thousands and thousands of years in the past so it would really be the inciting incident of the whole series, The Arrival of Man on Roshar. The Shin throw another wrinkle into this because Shinovar specifically seems like it was made for humans.. but what if it WAS made and not naturally formed. There's a lot of history in there and a lot of time for weird crap to happen when Shards go to war. I know there's alot of stuff out there that talking about the Desolations and Parshmen so if this specific point has been brought up just light this post on fire. I searched and didn't come up with anything so have at it.

They are extremely well connected and well funded as well. The Larkin is either very old (do we know a life span on these) and a leftover from the old days or it's been purchased. We know thanks to Rysn that they are extremely expensive.

This is getting slippery very fast. I will say the thesis concept for Mistborn (trilogy of trilogies) lends itself to very interesting exploration of how myths and beliefs come about. I love seeing the Alloy of Law world and how it was influenced by the original trilogy events. Many fantasy books explore this but Brandon has real skill at making this progression seem very organic and natural. I've spent many a service thinking of the scripture lesson trying to picture the world then and what really happened.

Shardlet thanks for the example, the Nephi story is a pretty direct parable I wasn't aware of. Sazed's journey specifically was one that I identified with very strongly as well. I was having a crisis of faith while reading the Mistborn Trilogy the first time and I had very strong emotional ties to his story in The Hero of Ages specifically. I do not want to be disrespectful to anyone's beliefs in any way. I thought this would be a pretty safe place to have an open discussion because there's generally a very well-natured community here. I was just looking for some frank and honest opinions, I used the example quote in my original statement as a bit of a Litmus to show how little I know of the LDS Church.

One thing I've always enjoyed about Brandon is a common theme that drives all of his books (especially those in the Cosmere). The idea of exploring divinity; regular people searching for Gods , becoming Gods, interacting with Gods and Gods dying. These themes are very relatable to me as someone who was raised Christian while becoming increasingly agnostic (borderline atheist). I know a lot of 17th Sharders are LDS and I was wondering if some of you think that this belief lends itself towards this subject matter. I remember someone flippantly saying "Mormons believe God is a 7 foot tall blonde dude who physically exists, but on another planet." I know that may sound insensitive but that's a direct quote and I'm writing this to gain a better understanding of LDS beliefs. I assume a big part of his Realmatic structure could have been colored thru the imagination of someone rationalizing Mormonism, it's just how I feel right now based on the limited information I have. I'm game for anyone who would like to discuss this in this open and safe forum , enlighten me, scold me for prejudices , or just tell me I'm way off and I should drop it. I'm well versed in Old/ New Testament Scripture along with Methodist, Lutheran and Eastern European Orthodox theology so don't be afraid to go deep.

I think if you want to talk hardcore GRRM you're better off going to asoiaf.westeros.org . The Brando Sando crowd here is good for deep Cosmere theory but it's pretty staggering how many shy away from adult content in these forums.

I like the cover. But eveyone seems to be glossing over a big piece of lore it has revealed. Kaladin is slightly cross eyed!

Thank the Heralds!

This would be extremely interesting. I think there's no doubt she'd depict Syl. As for his being a KR detector, tho I think It'd be pretty demeaning work for Shallan it would be cool if Kaladin is once again a special case. He has such an up front and obvious bond with Syl because he's Kaladin but other potential KR don't even know they have honorspren following them and causing mischeif.

I think its just battle tactics. If they could drop enough bridges they win a plateau outright. Also they leave everyone else out of bow shot during the bride approach. They'd be fools not to take easy pickings that could give them a legitimate battle advantage. Even if its not honorable I think the real deficit in honor is on Saddeus since he's the one as Essentially offering them up to slaughter.

Thinking about this is exactly what lead to me posting this. If our records are bad their would be even worse since half of the population who would be priveleged enough to read refuse to due to religous cultural mores. And who put these custom in place? Well after reading the discussion above it was either the Vorin Church or the Sunmaker. When was the end of the Heirocracy? I've always thought it was 500 years before present day in the books. Is there any reference to WHEN the Sunmaker happened? Could be important.

I agree there's alot of room to debate in Odium's overt attention causing this trend. But I think it's pretty clear that the way Vorinism is set up does not lend itself to consistent Tribal knowledge being faithfully passed down among the parishioners. This plays right into Odium's hand as the people of Roshar are unprepared for the Final Desolation. I hope in the future we get to meet some super high ups in the Vorin church it will be interesting to see more of that infastructure.

I have a theory and while I think it might be a little obvious I don't think it's been brought up directly on the forums. Here's the gist. The Vorin church over the past 4500 year has been run and structured for the main purpose of confusing and corrupting knowledge of the Knights Radiant, the Desolations, and the Voidbringers. I also believe that this was due to the influence of Odium as any long term effort to hurt the people of Rhosar's chances to survive the final desolation could potentially be accredited to the Odious one. Furthermore their takeover of the Silver Kingdoms during the Hierocracy preceding the intervention of the SunKing was not folly, but their masterstroke. They were able to destroy practically all books or resources containing any knowledge of the past (except the library of Karbranth of course). Lets take a look at what we know about the church and how it's very structure prohibits the spread of knowledge. Devotaries are the main way by which pious Vorin's show their faith. A Devotary has each devotee devote themselves to ONE noble aspect of the church. The male arts are brute and mostly involve fighting, since the church teaches that the greatest calling a man can fulfill is to be the greatest of warriors and to ascend to the Tranquiline Halls and reclaim them for man. This Devotion caused men to hold no interest in scholarship, lighteyed males had better rule a town/halmet/city/territory get to war or become and ardent, that is what is proper. They have no desire to read or gain knowledge of the past, reading is a shameful activity for a man, better to have a proper lady read to you. Even the amount of reading that Dalinar has pursued caused court gossip, thoough the fact that the book is the Way of Kings doesn't help. The female Devotary arts are mostly art (painting, music, poetry, embroidery) and scholarly pursuits, but a real lady should try to stick to the flowery ones since the most prominent scholars tend to become Heretics like Jasnah Kholin (I'm just riffing here some of this isn't explicitly said but are either implied or are the feelings I get from reading) {Also I don't agree with the sexist nature of this I'm just talking like an Alethi here). What they've done is separate those with Power (Men, Warlords, High Princes) from those with knowledge (Women, Scholars, Artists ) . Now I know a good light eyes couple will always be paired up, but even in this context the females are hiding knowledge in simple messages and texts with footnotes that men don't know about. And what men can read? Ardents can! And through this power they can have a greater influence on history. **Spoiler Spoiler ** The distinction between Vorinism and Old Vorinism is the reverence of the KR and the Heralds. They were venerated once and now are thought of as betrayers. Now the Recreance sure didn't help this, but a huge shift in trends like this needs some kind of push to get things going. Then it needs a stealthy hand to guide it on the right track. This is how Over the years, possibly without the entire churches overt knowledge, they could quietly secret away bits of lore and knowledge until we get to the current model of understanding about the past (not much that's accurate). Now if it is a smaller subset of the church driving this, it could be that during the Sunmaker's destruction of the Heirocracy, this piece of the church would need to completely break off to survive. They wouldn't disappear however they'd become ... The Ghostbloods. Do they have a secret library of old world knowledge? Is it the library of Karbranth? Tune in for WOR and hope we find out! I'm kind of running out of steam now so I'll come back later with some references and the like. But I think this is an interesting topic of pursuit and I hope it sparks some conversation.

I read an interview with Brand Sand and he said out righ tthe only way they'd give him the full color maps on the inside covers was if they'd stay the same for the whole series. It really shows and the book looks fantastic, it looks expensice too. Can't wait to add another beautiful hardcover to my collection in January.

I'm just stoked that it looks like he'll be finishing draft 1 most soon. Peter's mentioned it's looking like January 2014!

Nice, this explains the flame measurement experiment. They exist because they are perceived. Very Schrodinger's Cat (that should have been obvious since that scene plays out like day one of a physical chemistry course)..

Also I don't know if it was Brandon himself or from the text but Parshmen aren't necessarily in a weak form but in the total absence of a form. Its why they are so passive, the form dictates the personality. So they're subservient and probably do the bare minimum to survive including some occasional apathetic procreation I imagine. Hell, maybe there even occasionally ordered to breed by their overlords.

Nice! Realmatics obey the Thermodynaic law of Entropy, I love it!

The true nature of spren is, I think, a very interesting question that could lend itself to alot of the high level theorizing going on right now. Issues like creating and Honorblade or Shardblade, the differences between Honorblades and Shardblades, the bonidng of Syl and Kaladin and now (*spoiler for WOR*) , could all hinge on a better explanation or fundamental understanding of what exactly a spren IS. This post was buried in the forums but I think its an essential conversation. I'm really liking the theory that they are a manifestation in the physical realm of the edit *cognitive* spiritual nature of inanimate concepts and objects. I think it makes alot of sense.

Honestly Aethling, I at first thought this was a bad theory. Now the the more I think about it I could really see Brandon responding "Ahh I was wondering if anyone would ask that" if questioned about it. Making this seemingly totally phisological reaction actually part of shard investeture is totally his bag.