Xavien

So the KR were certainly acquiring a large number of gems/spheres via the use of charging people using Urithiru to travel. Now this could of been simple greed or trying to prevent people from abusing Urithiru aided travel as the epigraph writer believes but I think it goes along with Josiah's second theory of Urithiru being a type of gem Fort Knox for storm light storage. Sell lesser spheres to accumulate those that hold more stormlight.

I think Jasnah is referring to the direction of the storm. She references the storm and transformation then Wit talks about it hitting Shinovar first. There has never been a west to east storm before this one. As for the missing Parshendi, I thought they were going to meet up with Dalinar at some point and seek asylum. It might still happen later but for now I think they escaped and are hiding out in the mountains. They have to be out in the high storm during a specific point in order to change forms (at least for the old storms) so I would think being under any shelter should prevent the transformation. We know that the Parshendi have forms that do not involve Odium (non red eyed forms) and that they have forgotten many of the forms they did have. Need to find the references and flesh this into a full theory but I think there are forms that they have forgotten from before the time of humans and that Shen will be the one to find them again and give them to the missing Parshendi.

One thing to think about for the second half is even of the current major characters still around, will their stories be the ones to follow 6-10 years from now? Take Kaladin. If he is in the second part of the book who will he be? Very likely he'll have most of his inner conflicts in order, be in a relationship, possibly have children (which could lead to inner conflicts) and be the head honcho for a large number of Windrunners. He would still be a major player but I don't know if that story would take center stage over a more conflicted character who is down in the trenches.

The level of healing needed between the two is vast. When Kaladin and Shallan fell they likely broke almost every bone in their bodies on top of major organ damage plus brain damage. Jasnah had two(?) stab wounds to heal and we've seen cuts heal rather quickly, heck during the duel Kaladin broke both of his legs and his feet and was back up pretty quickly. Jasnah's injuries, while life threatening, did not require that much repair. I think that might be part of the disconnect, there is a different between how life threatening an injury is and how difficult it would be to repair. Having your pinky cut off isn't very life threatening but would be much harder to repair via regrowing than a slit throat which is extremely life threatening.

Kaladin & Shallan both fell 200+ feet and were both healed by Stormlight while unconsious and nobody questions it, so why are we questioning that Jasnah couldn't unconsiously heal a wound to her heart? Kaladin & Shallan's injuries were likely much more severe and widespread. Thanks to Krenn for posting the approximate timeline, it's why doctors don't immediately call time of death when someone's heart stops beating, if they can get it restarted the person can live. I think so long as the access to Stormlight is there then the body can probably heal anything short of decapitation.

I thought it was more that Shallan cannot lie to herself. The entire book she refuses to acknowledge what happened to her as a child and had actively blocked it from her memory. Unblocking and confronting the truth about herself was the ideal, acknowledging her feelings about Pattern were a side effect. This would also be how she can break her oath, by lying to herself.

Pure speculation but I think Adolin's real test is what happens when he loses a duel...and his shards. In another thread people speculated that Adolin can't be a Radiant because he is not "broken" but here we have a guy who lives for shard duels, it's either his Calling or Glory (can't remember which) Take away his shards and who is he? I think that will be his real test. Just 3 more days...

Based off the two we have seen, another way to put it is "your mindset when making a choice in a dire situation." Both Kaladin and Lift have very specific reasons for making the choices they did, even though one of the results of that choice is similar (putting themselves at risk to save another). Kaladin had also been protecting those who couldn't protect themselves for a while, it wasn't until it was internalized/verbalized that it had an effect. The "why" seems more important than the "what." Though to be fair, he hadn't risked his life to the same extent until the Tower. If we hadn't seen Kaladin use a Full Lashing at the rain barrel or Lift make seeds grow to open a window I would almost think that saying the Ideal is what picks your second Surge: the reason for your choice picks the next step on your path. I still think there is some truth to this just not to what Surges you have access to, maybe that is how "evil" Surgebinders are made?

Ah, I forgot the context. I have forced myself to not reread the excerpts (again) before the book release so I won't be tempted to skim them on Tuesday.

What's interesting to me is that the Parshendi thought Kaladin may have had an Honorblade even though every single one of them, including Eshonai, saw him fighting with a spear.

Actually...yes. Planning all the while to say the above.

Deviating back to the dimensions discussion, drawing a straight line that goes coast to coast from Shinovar through the city of Shulin, but not including that jutting sliver of land, is approximately 3200-3300 Alethi "units" I derived this using the scale provided on the map of Alethkar ( http://coppermind.net/w/images/Alethkar.jpg ). From Varikev to Dumadari is ~1100 units. Using the map of Roshar which includes those cities (http://coppermind.net/w/images/Roshar.jpg) you can get an idea of the scale of 1100 units on the larger map. Applying this to the width of Roshar then gives ~3200 units, but due to potential inaccuracies in either map it could be closer to 4000. I feel relatively good on the above, but it all comes down to map accuracy between the two, though simply saying that that width of Roshar is ~3x the distance from Varikev to Dumadari would be another way to put it and only have to worry about the accuracy of one map. The below is speculation based on a single reference. Well, how big is a unit? From a reading of The Way of Kings (Nohadon version) Nohadon is very likely from Kholinar, where we see him talking to Dalinar in a vision. So there is a good chance that the Alethi work in miles. If that is the scale of the Alethkar map, then Roshar has a width of ~3200-4000 miles or ~5000-6200 km. That feels really small, particularly for a supercontinent. 3300 miles is about the distance from LA to NYC so the overall landmass would be less than that of the US. On the other hand that much empty ocean would certainly help high storm creation and such a "short" landmass would mean it would still be going strong by the time it hits the mountains around Shinovar. The Alethi mile could also be longer than ours. I don't have my book on me so not sure how many "mile" reference there are, I just remembered the one and was able to look it up in the wiki.

That's what I love about ebooks as well. However what I don't like about ebooks are how they handle maps & pictures so for WoR I had to go with the hardback.

I always thought blood weakness referred to Renarin being a severe hemophiliac. If that is the case even minor injuries on the battlefield could be life threatening and just practicing with a sword would be difficult as he would also bruise very easily. A simple hit to the head with a wooden practice sword could cause brain bleeding. With shardplate these concerns are greatly diminished, Sadeas was on the ground being pummeled for quite some time by a swarm of Parshendi and came away with only very minor injuries. Not as cool or grand as the above theories I know Edit: Ninja'd. Don't think it would be both hemophilia and epilepsy. Brain bleeding can cause seizures.

Out of curiosity, when Brandon says "RAFO" in an interview or signing is he spelling out the letters "R-A-F-O", saying it as a word "rahfo" or the full sentence "read and find out" ?

In the Feverstone Keep vision (chapter 52) when Dalinar sees the KR abandon their shards there is a lot of talk of fighting, lines, rear defense forces which makes Dalinar think there is a war going on. Specifically a soldier says "They can't have gotten through our lines. Not with the Radiants fighting..." There hasn't been a Desolation since the Oathpact was broken, so who were the KR fighting in a war against? My impression was that instead of fighting huge beasts that require a shardblade the KR were now tied up in political wars over territory/resources, fighting everyday people and they got sick and tired of it. We see a similar transformation in Dalinar as the fighting breaks him down until he finally gets rid of his shards. Kaladin also had a negative reaction to the shardblade he won, he had just seen it slice through his friends like butter without slowing and he didn't want anything to do with it. Shardblades were not meant to fight regular people, so for those who's main ideal is "journey before destination" I think they found the journey they were currently on, involvement in human wars, quite disgusting. Edited for clarity. Also, "journey before destination" is why I don't think Darkness has anything to do with the KR. His mission seems to be about the ends justifying the means which is anathema to the first ideal. Herald is certainly possible, but not KR. Or at least not current KR.

Thanks Shardlet! I remembered seeing discussion about that quote but couldn't remember the exact wording. The idea that Thrill has been corrupted over time makes a lot of sense. It feels like the entire Alethi society has slowly become corrupted to the point where they fight each other just for the sake of fighting each other, with no overriding purpose behind it.

I had a similar thought about Szeth, Kaladin and Stormlight after reading chapter 12. As a corollary to what you said, can Kaladin absorb the Stormlight that Szeth is simply leaking out into the wild? Szeth admits he cannot hold onto it for very long and it just radiates out of him. Would that still have an 'investiture signature' as awesomeness summoned mentioned above? And if it doesn't gain a signature, or if the signature doesn't happen until it is used, could Kaladin suck the Stormlight directly out of Szeth since Szeth can't hold it that well?

Memory always struck me as similar to Thrill: an innate ability related to the roles that the 10 Silver Kingdoms had for the desolations. Thrill to help fight, Memory to remember and rebuild, etc. We just haven't seen others yet though if this is true I expect the Shin's to be related to growing and is why outsiders are not allowed to see the farms. The attitude of the person could also be strongly related instead of just inherited (Kaladin doesn't feel Thrill but appeared to in childhood, Shallan loves to draw from her memory so she has has practice to tap in)

So hours/minutes had already been taken into account when you said "A Roshar year is 1.1 Earth years"? My mistake, when I saw that I was thinking "year = revolution around sun"

Shouldn't that be ~400 days? If the Rosharan year is 1.1 earth years that would be 401.5 days if a year means "one revolution around the sun." If they like things neat they may call it 400. Or did I misread something? The length of the day would also change the age comparison between Earth and Roshar when considering actual time alive. Though over the course of years a minute or two shorter would add up, let's keep hours the same. So: 1 Roshar Year = 400 Days at 20 hours/day = 8030 Hours 1 Earth Year = 365 Days at 24 hours/day = 8760 Hours So even though the year is longer in days, the year itself is shorter in overall time making people on Roshar younger than people of the same "age" on Earth. Length in hours of Rosharan Year is 8030/8760 or .917 Earth years if the exact 1.1 Earth years is used and a year means the same thing. So, if Kaladin is 22 Rosharan years old, he has only been alive as long as a 20 years & 2 months old earthling. And if Dalinar is between 50 & 60 Rosharan, he would be between 45.85 & 55 earth years. If the hour is 1 minute shorter on Roshar the ratio becomes .901. At 2 minutes shorter .886.

It has been a long time since I have read the forums so some of this may be faulty memory. I always thought that the Thrill was related to the Alethi. I remember reading that each of the 10 nations of the silver kingdoms were built around a role that they were to play during the desolation and the recovery. For the Alethi this was fighting, there entire culture is based around battle making the Thrill, a very useful ability to have on the battlefield. If heredity is related to any ability than I think it would be these "nation abilities" for them to play out their role. And if this is related to investiture and the lighteyes/darkeyes it could simply mean that those with lighteyes have a stronger nation ability than the darkeyes. I think we have seen another nation ability already: Memory. The ability to perfectly remember something you glimpse for only an instant and disappears once you commit that Memory to paper? Pretty useful for artists...as well as historians and those tasked with preserving knowledge through a Desolation. Not to mention how useful this would also be for people acting as scouts/spies. No idea if this is the ability of Jah Keved/Valhav, simply don't know enough about that nations values. Not to mention Shallan's red hair is considered rare so she may have gotten the ability from somewhere else in her bloodline. Have we glimpsed any others? The only other group which we seem to have a little knowledge about their national pastime are the Shin who revere farmers in the same way the Alethi revere warriors.

True, but I see it as why we have both Cultivation and Preservation. Both deal with life, growth and creation but in different ways. Endowing is more like gifting and involves something tangible (money, talent, object), I'm thinking of Giving in terms of the giving of ones self. As I said the terms "Giving/Taking" may be overly simplistic and Devotion/Domination sound better but the underlying concept of the shard theme being in relation to the self seems to fit. This may have already been proposed but your comment and thinking of Cultivation/Preservation reminded me of the Mistborn metal wheel: Four sections of four metals each relating around a theme but instead of metals we have shards. Life?: Preservation : Cultivation / Ruin : ?(Neglect) Ideals?: Honor : ? / Odium : ? ?: (Aona) / Endowment : (Skai) / ?(Loss) ?: ? / ? : ? / ? Similar themes on the outside and the opposites on the inside or greater themes on the outsideand a subtheme on the inside (ie Cultivation is a theme of Preservation just as Neglect is a subtheme of Ruin)

I don't think that sacrifice is in itself the right word, more the direction of the sacrifice. I am wondering if the two sides of the coin are service. In mythology/philosophy you have different takes on whether a god exists to serve the people or do the people exist to serve the god? (You can replace "god" with government, power, etc) Devotion and Domination are good/cool sounding words for this. You have the Elantrians on one hand who have great power and use that power to serve others. On the other you have the monks who serve those with power. While writing this these base concepts jumped out at me: Giving and Taking. Very simplistic sounding I know.

I think if any of Adolin's ladies are secret spies it is more random chance than planned: he goes through them too quickly. As Argent said, Taravangian definitely has spies in the plains but setting them up to be next to Adolin would be difficult. If there is any foreshadowing in the women I think it has more to do with Shallan arriving in the Shattered Plains, particularly when you combine it with her quick wit and how she says things that aren't "proper" for a lady.