Aether

I'll take a dive into the annotations tomorrow. I seem to remember there is more stuff there that hasn't come up yet in this discussion yet. Maybe we can get a clearer picture then.

As you point out, in Brandon's case it is understandable and relatable. Plus he already has an unmatched productivity when it comes to writing - that man is a machine! Now, while I am a huge fan of George R. R. Martin too, the wait between books has become ridiculous, and it is getting difficult to find it excusable. The same, though to a lesser extent, goes for many other authors as well. Brandon has superior credibility and better interaction with his fans - who in turn respect him more. And we love you too, Peter. Don't you forget that .

According to Brandon's annotations, Leras whole intention with the Mist Snapping was to a) give them an edge by letting them get access to potential Allomancers and give a clue to the nature of this by making it an unnatural and ordered percentage of the people exposed to the Mists. According to WoB, there are many unknown alloys of Atium, and presumably there would be Mistings for these as well. However, Leras did not Snap these. In conclusion, there is already a precedent for leaving people out of the Mist Snapping, and it would them be reasonable to assume that he'd leave out the already existing - but unknown - Mistings of the the unattainable metals. In addition, Brandon has stated that Harmony could make modifications (can't remember the word he used right now), but not major changes to the magic system. To be adding two new allomantic metals and their alloys - four new Mistings - to the allomantic table seems like a huge overhaul to me. No, I am almost certain that Cadmium/Bendalloy and Nicrosil/Chromium was already part of the Allomantic table by Harmony's ascension. EDIT: Lol. Writing b ) without the space apparently makes that smiley face. But it is so awesome that I'll leave it.

Woah! I didn't expect to get an answer from one of the Masters themselves! Thanks, Peter!

I really wish I could up-vote you a thousand times. MY FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL!!! (well, mini-series, really...) EDIT: Oh, and in case there was any doubt I got the reference, here.

I am confused about your statement. The visions are slightly edited versions of Tanavast's memories. Who is the original audience you are referring to? I didn't even think of that. You're right, there might be secret sects within the Ardents (now that I'm thinking about it, am I the only one that is getting the impression that the Ghostsbloods themselves might be an Vorin sect?).

Well, Chaos seems like a rather stern and cruel Overlord nice but strict bloke. At least he didn't delete the profile too. Hopefully we'll get to enjoy the vegetable fruits of our work for all eternity.

And we applaud his efforts, despicable though they were! (Also, didn't one of the admins lie to us? One of them said there were more negative ranks!)

You are right, I could have aspired to be a little less cocksure in that last paragraph, as well as in the edit. The nature of Snapping do seem a bit clearer, yes, but what I was referring to was specifically whether or not there are any external signs when a Snapping has taken effect. Can you know if you're now able to burn metals before you actually try to do so? If the answer is no, then there are quite possibly still Seekers Seers in the Alloy of Law era, plus Mistings for all the alloys of Atium, and there almost certainly then would have been Sliders, Pulsers, Leechers and Nicrobursts during the Lord Ruler Era (although Leras apparently didn't make these Mistings part of the ones he made the Mists Snap). EDIT: Thanks, Darnam. Mixed them up a bit there.

It seems more to me that they support the kind of man he has become rather than what his visions want him to do. The Ardent Adolin spoke with made it seem like they 1. cannot speak about the contents of his visions or the effect it has on him, and 2. does not have any additional information about it. If they had any more specific knowledge about the nature of his visions, I think they would have been a bit clearer about it to either Adolin or Dalinar.

Point, but the Death Chant above does seem to indicate that the Visions is a rather recent appearance even now. Not much to go on, I'll give you, but the alternative almost seems too simplistic. Also, the visions are later on (WoR spoiler incoming) The Hierocracy, on the other hand, does not seem to have been aiming to do so.

That thought has crossed my mind, but through what we hear of that time from the Shallan chapters, it doesn't sound like that might have been the case. From what I understood, it seemed like it was a fabrication and that they pretty much said so in letters they sent between members of the Vorin clergy. Also, note the date on the Death Chant cited above. It she died in the same year as the Battle of Tower (the current year is 1173), so she must have had the visions around the same time that Dalinar did (she seem to have started at least a year earlier though). It still might be a rather recent happening. Personally, I think whatever triggered these visions must be at least indirectly related to what started the Death Chants and the return of Nahel Spren.

Yes, but do tell! MOAHR WAYNE, PLZ! EDIT: I think we might very well have hijacked this thread now, Ete'ni...

Sure! If your curious, the full tag would be which I used in a game a while back. I am quite happy with Aether, though, as I now find the full tag to be a bit juvenile, and everyone just referred to me as Aether anyway. So thank you=) And it is not an Brandon based name. It is in the name of one of his unpublished books, Aether of the Night, but I chose it independently of that. EDIT: Added spoiler tags. For fun! MUAHAHAHA!!!! EDIT 2: Added crazy laughter. FOR EVEN MOAHR FUN!!!

Wait, I was the reason you changed it? Sorry, I didn't even know about your (old) name before I created my user profile here. Aether is part of a tag I've been using for a while now in other contexts. I can change it to my full tag to differentiate between us if you want your other name back.

Hey, did you recently change your name tag? Didn't it use to be Ae-something?

I have come to realise that the Mistborn Llama is a Brandon fandom inside joke, but I haven't been able to locate how it originated. Would anyone care to enlighten me? EDIT: I found this though:

I've read the Way of Kings from page 1 to page 1001 two times, at least four more times if you add up all the viewpoint specific read-throughs, and there are individual passages I've read over a dozen times. I've read other Cosmere books only once (not long since I started dipping deeper into Brandon-verse) but I will reread them in the future. I read Stealheart once and that will probably be all. I think I'll read Firefight though.

Actually, I've long thought that Dalinar couldn't have been the only one - just the latest one. I don't know how long this has been going on and how many others might have had visions, but at least one other has:

They should be broken enough, though. They might be able to attract Spren if they can now find a fitting virtue to focus on.

Though are we sure they can do that? He might be referring to legends of what the Dysian Aimians can do.

Ok, time for my list: The Way of Kings: No doubt. The book was a Christmas present from my sister, who had heard me babble about the death of Robert Jordan and how Brandon Sanderson would finish it for him. She recognized the name at a book store right after tWoK came out, and bought the book thinking I would like it. I thought it was a kind gesture, but I didn't really know Brandon apart from his work on tWoT, so I didn'te really know what to think. When I finally opened it a few days before new years, I read it in almost one sitting. The massive world, great character development and huge learning curve drew me in from page one. The Emperors Soul: I read this just two weeks ago. It's short, concise and absolutely brilliant. I liked the look into Forgery, Shai's persona and her growing respect for Gaotona (and visa versa). It ever so slightly annoyed me that we didn't get a map of the Rose Empire, though. The Words of Radiance: I love most of his finished Cosmere books, but I know this one will trump them all - if only because of the squee-factor. Another possible candidate for third place is Sixth of the Dusk, whose preview has me absolutely drawn in. I haven't read Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, The Rithmatist, the Alcatraz books, Legion, Firstborn or Defending Elysium. On another note, which of Brandon's books do you think is his weakest? For me, it is definitely Steelheart. It's good, but doesn't have the depth of his Cosmere books. And honestly, I didn't really like neither David nor Megan all that well. Prof was cool though.

Really? The last book? I found it to be the stronger of the four. The first was just plain bad, the second one wasn't much better but ridiculously pretentious, the third one was OK and the fourth one... I won't give it too high of a praise, but I liked the last half, even if his visit to dragon-isle (or whatnot) was a bit contrived. (seriously, a dragon heart in a human sized armour...?)

Welcome! The best tip I can give you is to not get too overwhelmed by our discussions of minutiae. But if you've been a lurker for a year, then I think you're already past that.