theofficetroll

So... are we getting an episode on the short stories? I know there's much less far-reaching than the novels and novella, but it would be nice to get something quick about them :-)

I'm excited to get more in the universe! I'm curious where it fits. If it's an alternate world, same world but earlier/ coinciding, or what. I could probably learn some by listening to the first chapter, but I'm not in a place where I can do that.

I typically close signups around November 15th.

Signups are now open for Secret Sazed 2020 :-) If you haven't participated before, this is a secret Santa-style gift exchange for fans of Brandon Sanderson. This will be our 6th year and we typically get around 100 participants from all over the world (but mostly in the US) Most gifts are handmade and we've seen everything from paintings to knitted goods, from sculptures to bookmarks, from an exploding teddybear to a handcrafted journal. There's also an option for store-bought if you're not a crafty sort. If you're interested, fill out the linked form below. If you have questions, there's an FAQ linked to from the form. If that doesn't answer it, feel free to ask here :-) https://bit.ly/SecretSazed2020

I'm not available at that time unfortunately, but I'll be at GenCon demoing for IGA ( indiegamealliance.com ) at booth 253. Do you know if there are any other events or meetups going on? I'm doing something with Alex at Crafty with the board game, but that's it so far :-)

You can absolutely send physical gifts, but I can't guarantee you will receive a physical gift. If there's someone else in your region willing to send physical gifts, I will try to match you up, but it's been a problem in past years.

Providing I have a reasonable number of participants, I will send out the first batch of assignments in the first week of November, giving over a month to create gifts. The second set will be sent after that depending on number of participants and as necessary following that. Last batch will be sent the first week of December, likely.

Third year. Don't think I posted it to the 17th Shard before, I started it for the Tumblr community :-) I posted it on Tumblr and a couple of Facebook groups I'm a member of. Feel free to share it, I'm comfortable with doing a larger community this year.

I run the annual Brandon Sanderson fan gift swap, Secret Sazed. I know it's a little early to be thinking about holiday gift giving, but since most of the people who participate do physical crafts or art, I wanted to get this out early this year. We offer both digital and physical giving and just about anything creative is welcome. If you'd like to participate, use the following form. If you're uncertain on what you want to give, indicate that on the form. You can go back and edit it later :-) http://bit.ly/SecretSazed2017

I got my copy last night and it's PRETTY! They really did a fantastic job on this game. If anyone is in the Pacific Northwest, I'm in Spokane, WA and would love to find more people to play with. I will be bringing it to my regular gamenights (https://www.facebook.com/Spokaneboardgamers/) and will also be trying to get at least one or two specific game nights together. I posted my first impressions from opening the box here: https://snarkspren.tumblr.com/post/164492322990/snarkspren-i-got-something-in-the-mail-yesterday If anyone is local, hit me up :-)

They aren't physical objects, but they have a presence in all three realms. So, what are the limitations of the reach of a perpendicularity? For instance, the Well of Ascension has a physical presence of a small pool of liquid and a cognitive presence of a column of energy. If there is a Shardpool at the point indicated, it might have the same structure in the cognitive realm as that of the Well of Ascension. If so, how far does that column extend?

This might better fit in Theory, but as the book just got released, I figure this is a safer place to put it to avoid spoilers. I was looking at the map and thinking about it. We have a sun-like deity at the top and center with flaming hair and the symbol of a sun. Willing to bet this is Autonomy/ Bavadin. Note that the same symbol of the sun appears in the centre of the map at KraeDa, A sacred site and the space where the fertile lands radiate southward from.I'd be willing to bet that's where we'll find the perpendicularity. As Taldain is tidally locked, the centre of the Dayside continent is always pointed at the sun. Which is worshipped as a god. How far does a perpendicularity reach? All the way to the star? Or perhaps the reverse? All the way from the star? EDIT: Fixed Title

After many years of research, we have finally discovered a new metal called “Rebellium.” It was used by one of the insurgent groups, called The New Hope, which sought to destroy The Lord Ruler early in his reign. The symbol is a this crescent with a nail pinned through its center, the head split twice. The powers it granted were strange indeed. Reports indicate that mistings able to burn it (called Jeh-di) have suggestive mind control powers, not just in emotional control but the ability to implant thoughts. They were also able to Push and Pull all sorts of objects, not just metallic ones. They simply referred to this odd metallic art as “The Force.” Stories also tell of swords made of light wielded by these Jeh-di to great effect. These “lightblades” were able to cut through any object, living or dead, though there was said to be some resistance when cutting through living objects. There was a bloody conflict wherein the Final Empire struck back. This was one time that The Lord Ruler used the Kandra openly in battle. At first The New Hope were unaware of the Kandra and couldn’t understand what this phantom menace was. Once the truth was revealed, they started referring to it as The Kandra War. Some members of The New Hope survived and prospered. One prominent member’s grandson started house Lukiel. Another made a great deal of profit creating roads and canals for faster travel in the Kessel region far to the South. There are partial records of prophecies that the Jeh-di will return and that “The Force” will awaken once more. There is a reference as well to someone or something called “The Sith” getting revenge. Clearly further study is needed to discover how much of this information is purely the fancy of hundreds of years of retelling and how much was true.

I was doing a reread of Final Empire and found myself surprised at Milev's death. Milev was described as having had his eyes cut out. The explanation the crew gave was that it was part of torturing him, which honestly seems pretty weak. There are a lot better ways to torture someone than removing their eyes. It's possible that there was an attempt at making him a Steel Inquisitor (especially given the amount of blood), but I doubt it. They don't make just any random person a Steel Inquisitor. He might be useful in tracking down Vin, giving him some of the Spikes to make him a good bloodhound to track her down (or the rest of the crew, since he met them), but it doesn't quite seem their style. What struck me immediately was how similar it was to Liss, the assassin on Roshar who gouged the eyes out of her victims to hide the fact that she used a shardblade. It seems unlikely that a shardblade would make its way to Scadrial, but I see no reason it couldn't happen. No real conclusion here, just an oddity I noticed and I am loathe to believe that anything in the books is purely coincidental :-P

The philosophy of black is selfishness, using whatever power is available. Using corpses is unsavory and something that the other colors are less likely to do. Maro wrote some interesting articles about the colors and their philosophies in an interview format. Blue : http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/13 Black : http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/9 Red : http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/15 Green : http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/11 White : http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/7

Knowing Brandon's love of Magic, I would be surprised if this hadn't come up, but as "magic" is pretty common on the fora here I wasn't able to find anything about it. If the Shards were Magic cards what colors would they be? My first thoughts: Preservation : Blue or White - I don't think the philosophy is truly White, but the follow through isn't exactly Blue Ruin : Red or Red/ Black Harmony : White intentions with Blue follow through? Dominion : White or White/ Black Devotion: White Endowment : Blue - pure control Cultivation : Green Odium : Black Honor : White Bavadin's Shard : It's pretty Blue in execution Anyone else want to throw out their opinions and give better options than I did?

From Chicago: Q: Have we seen all four of the genders for the Parshendi? A: Yes Q: So there are more than malen and femalen? A: Well male and female. In my original notes I was trying to decide what to call them but they eventually ended up with a male neuter and female neuter, then male and female. So yes, there are four genders. And if you can't tell, the malen and femalen are both asexual, completely. http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/7267-words-of-brandon-compiled-x-2/?hl=asexual#entry119919 So, we know that there are non-reproducing genders and reproducing genders. I don't recall any reference on whether Dullform/ Slavefom are neuter or not.

I'm still of the opinion that 16 is artificial on Scadrial. There aren't 16 metals. There are 10 known metals with their related alloys (Which Brandon said there could be other unknown alloys. There are at least 15 alloys just for Lerasium). Some day I'll finish writing up my theory on that with full details... Someday. The point is that a lot of the numbers seem artifial and forced. The 16 metals thing was used as a forced hint by Preservation in order to help the solution to be found. There are 10 core Cosmere worlds which will be used in telling the overarcing story, but there are an untold number of Shardworlds (Threnody is an example of a Shardworld which isn't core).

WoB is that a Taldain native (Khriss) would pass for Makabaki. What if Darkness/ Nin is also originally from Taldain? This could explain something about the brightness regarding investiture. Also, we know that White Sand takes place prior to Mistborn, so they've been active for some time and Khriss has been hinted at being more knowledgable about goings on in the cosmere than Hoid. If Khriss/ Khrissala became a herald, why not another Taldain native? Though, I think it's more likely that the heralds each hailed from different Shardworlds. Anyway, those are some late night ramblings from me :-)

If a Taldain native could be mistaken for Makabaki, it's possible that another person thought to be from Makabaki could be from Taldain. What if Nin/ Darkness also hails from Taldain? There are parts of his demeanor and ethos which are similar to a specific group from Taldain.

The grey makes sense as a lack of Investiture, which is Breath on Nalthis and Stormlight on Roshar. As the Shardblade severs the soul (connection to the Spiritual Realm), it makes sense that any Investiture would leave that part of the body. I wonder whether the color thing appears elsewhere in the Cosmere. The Skaa on Scadrial were described as being "grey" a lot and we know that they're physiologically different, but is there a difference in coloration due to a lower level of Investiture? Probably not, but it's a thought (also, there's been so much interbreeding that there isn't as much difference at this point) Those afflicted with the Shaod were described as grey and lifeless. Their sDNA is altered in such a way that Devotion's Investiture is forged onto their soul, but there is a split preventing the Investiture to flow correctly, severing them from their Spiritual aspect. In the Forests when Investiture is drained the body is blackened, which is similar to what Nightblood does to Investiture and also what happens to the eyes of those killed with Shardblades. There is a similar thing on Taldain, but I won't post any details here. Perhaps grey signifies a severing while black indicates a destruction?

I'm increasingly of the opinion that there are only 10 Allomantic metals: the 8 Pulling metals, Atium, and Lerasium. The Pushing metals are all alloys. This also makes sense considering that Brandon said that there are more undiscovered metals and that we know that there are a large number of alloys for Lerasium (it can be alloyed with each of the other metals to create Mistings). The Hemalurgic uses of the metals seem to follow the pattern, with the alloys being subsets of the primary metal. The Feruchemic uses of the metals are a little more obscure, but I'm not sure that they break the pattern.

On the note of the thing Nin hides behind his back, I was originally thinking a Fabrial or something. What if he used Nalthian magic and he was putting away an object he drew color from? If he originated from or has traveled to Nalthis, he could have access to Awakening which we know can return someone from the dead.

But yes, Axies as a Radiant would be interesting. It's been stated that it's possible for other non-humans to Bond with the Spren :-)

I recall that the shadow thing is also true of Spren in Shadesmar (the Cryptics Shallan first encountered, if memory serves), so it may be related to Shadesmar directly. As one fades toward Shadesmar their shadow points toward the Shadesmar sun instead of away from the Rosharian sun. So, it could be a simple fact of living partial in or closer to Shadesmar. I need to reread Lift's Interlude and see if they say anything about her shadow...