Bloodfalcon

Time travel is an integral part of worldhopping though, right? I assume every world hopper isn't centuries old, they just travel time and space. Chronology doesn't really seem like an issue.

This is maybe the most disappointed I've ever been in a thread. "American hand-egg" fan here.

Some members have been on this site since like, 2010 and have 10x more posts but fewer reputation points than people who joined a month ago. Reputation points were hardly used at all before February.

He's not going to answer thousands of questions though.... not even hundreds. That is the point. And I didn't mean we all vote on a big list, I meant every user give there top three or four, and we vote fore each user's best. It would work like a typical signing. If he gave everyone time to ask their thousands of questions, he wouldn't get through one person. SO it's got to be limited, and If we collected our thoughts, we wouldn't see people posting the same question or asking something we already know. It might be a good tool for us in general to learn what others know. Aside from fairness, Brandon isn't going to sign up for a night of everyone asking every question they can think of. Best to make it inviting for him and not say "here's a wall of text, answer everything you can." Let's be fair to him as well.

For any interested, chapter 86 covers Szeth's reaction to Kaladin's powers. I suppose it is his third reaction to them, but it is when he accepts what he sees.

Taravangian set up the entire Truthless "event" to begin with. So we don't know if the stone shamans are being tricked by him or if they are in league with him, but we know it is a manufactured event either way. I'd say that definitely opens things up the the scenario you described.

2 Things: 1) Spot on, except eventually Szeth starts killing because he wants to. He decides a couple times that "it's not a command this time, I just want to." I think that was either Kaladin or Adolin. I forget. 2) I'm pretty sure Szeth mentions at one point that there is a possible end to his Truthless title. I'll try to find it. Perhaps he was referencing death, but I could swear.... Looks like I have some research to do, but I would like to find those.

Self-sacrifice would be him going against his beliefs and resisting when he is ordered to kill people. He'd be sacrificing the things that he cares about in that scenario - himself and his future. Instead, he preserves himself according to his beliefs and kills tons of people, sacrificing them instead. In a sense he sacrifices his soul for his beliefs, but the actual action occurring is him sacrificing those people for his beliefs. It's delusion to put those men, women, and children outside of the situation and only consider your own conflict of the heart as though there is no value to their lives. In that way, he is the least self-sacrificing character in SA. ...but we know where this road leads...

On Kaladin: He did take quite a step away. Totally possible it is a view from right around that time then. My main point was to say that I don't think it's a retrospective journal, which seemed to be a popular guess for whatever reason. On the Everstorm: Great evidence. I don't think that it disproves what stage of the book they are at, but you are right that it is a word that people could know I suppose, if only a few. The last chunk of WoR (and I assume even the beginning of SA3) was jam packed into just a few days, so whether or not the author had knowledge of something very personal to Kaladin, or knew of the Everstorm - it might just be a matter of news getting back. Kaladin specifically could be a matter of observation over time. Unless you were Syl or the Stormfather, you might not know immediately how Kaladin's attitude had changed in those couple hours/days between him swearing the Ideal and the end of the book. EDIT: This topic is reminding me how difficult it must be as a writer to put yourself into the mind/scene/time of a specific character and write as though you have all of their knowledge. There are so many things to juggle!

When there is nothing controlling your physical or mental actions but you still murder people, you are either completely immoral, a psychopath, or a complete coward. It looks like Szeth understands morality just fine, so I'd say it is one of the other two, and I'm leaning heavily toward coward.

Good catch, but I think that it is actually confirmation that the Everstorm HAS been summoned. They have knowledge of the Everstorm in general, which really nobody did, and it is about to come down on Roshar at the end of the book. It is looming in the sense that it is summooned and on its way, but not yet hitting Roshar in its first real sweep of the land.

I guess I just don't see how this could possibly be anyone reflecting on a period of time. It seems like both are written by someone who just experienced them. The lines in red text show someone who acknowledges the past, speaks in the present tense, speaks with uncertainty about the future, but also speaks with certainty on the future - as much as anyone might speak with certainty about the future. There is a very noticeable difference in knowledge that starts with uncertainty on whether the magic of Surgebinding will be brought back, and continues with known Surgebinding Orders attached to the people that were spoken of previously. So there is obvious progression of knowledge that seems to point directly away from the thought that it is someone looking back on the events of the Stormlight Archive. If that is the case, It's not Dalinar, Szeth, Kaladin, Shallan, etc. They are all experiencing these things, but they don't seem to have the knowledge. We also have confirmation it's not one of the KR, correct? So we've kind of ruled them out to begin with.

Exclusivity wouldn't mean that you couldn't be watching outsiders though. Just thought of something..... The Ryshadium (sp?) all come from Shinovar and we are told there is something special about them. They may be a Shin device for.... I don't want to say spying, because that sounds like crazy talk, but they could have something to do with Shin knowledge. Either way, based on that line about the Shin being able to recover Szeth's Blade if he falls, I assume they have some abilities we aren't aware of, and it looks like their influence stretches beyond Shinovar.

It seems to me like they are written where they stand - at the end of each book. I'd also like to believe that it could be one of the stone shamans in Shinovar. That area seems to be an exception to much of the way the world works, so perhaps it has been preserved and people have a better knowledge of the past enough to "long for the days before the Last Desolation" (paraphrase). We know that only a portion of the world survives each Desolation - maybe Shinovar was that portion. It would explain the difference in landscape and would allow them to have additional knowledge of things. They also have that whole Truth/Truthless business that is linked to the existence of Surgebinders somehow, and could all tie into the the "magic returning" and "redeem us" lines. Either way, if one of the stone shaman was writing these and they were written at some point right after each book, the line "The Assassin has arrived." could literally mean that Szeth appears in Shinovar and confronts them just after the end of WoR, which I think we suspect. Is there a reason they haven't been suggested?

I mentioned another Q&A when they were announced his WoR tour and was flat out denied by Peter, hahaha. That was a little greedy, but after he has a bit of a break they'd probably consider it. Maybe we start something like that by collecting our thoughts like Reddit does in preparation for AMA's. Vote for the best 30 questions or something so we don't overwhelm him or repeat ourselves. We have that HUGE list of questions, maybe we all list our top 3 and those get whittled down by the rest of the community? You can't put a poll in a comment, can you?

I'm with Moogle. If I had read Elantris first, I might not have read Sanderson's other books. It's just good. Start on Mistborn or Way of Kings. Mistborn might be best, honestly. It's a great series, lots of info, and it will make some aspects of Way of Kings a little less confusing. I would try Mistborn Trilogy -> Warbreaker -> Way of Kings -> Words of Radiance -> Alloy of Law -> Elantris. That's not in order of favorites or anything, just what I think would provide the best understanding as you read.

Very thought provoking. I have seen other users on here, I think @Argent in particular, sound as though they had evidence that only certain types of spren could be manipulated or certain characteristics of them. I wish I knew more, and maybe this is the place to request WoB or some concrete evidence for that. This topic really got me thinking though, so thank you. I think I came to a slightly different question though. If certain forces of nature are just "an agreement between friends" (paraphrasing) according to Syl, and we know that they are based on the beliefs of the people on the planet, could it wipe out just about everything if all of the humans were destroyed? Maybe this is a purpose/goal of the Desolations? To reset the planet, spren, forces of nature, etc. by wiping out those who maintain the cognitive element of things? Not sure if there is a connection there.

There is a fine line between courtesy and catering to paranoia. There are only so many vague titles out there before they all start looking the same, and there are only so many topics I'm actually interested in reading. Your example is perfect here. If someone posted "Thoughts on Adolin" I probably wouldn't read it. I don't read everything on this site like I used to - just the fun/important looking stuff. One that reads "Will Murder Charges Land Adolin in Urithiru Prison?" is much more likely to get my attention. But hey, I come here multiple times a day. Let's not make the site effective for 99 people because it might spoil a plot point for 1 person who is poking their nose into forums about content they haven't read. This community is supposed to be a place to come to talk about the content of the books, not a place to come skirt around details out of "courtesy." Television shows don't delay airing their next episode because someone might not have seen last weeks. It's absurd.

I saw it on Reddit. Upvoting it in both places

I like the topics on there. Between Cosmere and WoR, that's probably the majority of topics on this site recently. The tool becomes almost useless when you take those out. Who is really coming there that hasn't read the books? Honestly? Almost nobody. Let's stop turning every thread into a conversation about changing the topic titles, please.

Considering the Stormfather is who grants permission to certain spren to do things like bonding, it seems like some of that responsibility could fall on Dalinar as well. Maybe not to such an extent, but....

I doubt we can count on Shallan for that, but Elhokar certainly owes Kaladin his trust now, and Dalinar already has it. Kaladin will be gone for a little bit, so it looks like he won't have a chance to cash in on that. I think Dalinar is going to fall into his leadership role fairly naturally and people will begin reporting to him as they return from their own missions.

No, but really, you could probably build an entire series around a group of 4 protagonists who have unique personalities but tell each other everything, understanding communication to be the key to their overall success, even though they are on separate journeys. I'd read it.

This is really interesting and all, but seeing as writing is feminine, I'm going to let you guys handle this one and I'll just sit the bench and watch. Looks awesome though, really.