Khyrindor

I just reread Mistborn, and the pace of the book seems perfect to me. Much of the politics helps you understand what's happening, and I don't really find it that boring in Mistborn. I'm also blown away my the amount of foreshadowing going on that you wouldn't be able to pick out unless you've already read the trilogy. There are a few "more exciting" bits scattered throughout, but the story doesn't only revolve around that. It's more about Vin learning about friendship, the skaa's hope. It might help if you listened to the audiobook, as it's more passive and lets you do other things at the same time, also, you don't accidentally skip chapters when the action picks up. Not sure where you are in it, but if it's early on, you'll get into it very soon. As a standalone, it's my second favourite Sanderson book.

Well, we have a WoB that says there's a Shard who's pool is on another planet. It could be Odiums, if his is on Roshar.

Word count is 520k opposed to WoRs 481k (if I recall the numbers correctly)

If you can manage to get your hands on Shadows Beneath, the Writing Excuses Anthology, it includes the first draft (with crossed out sections for revisions) next to the finished work. One of the authors is Brandon, and the others are Dan Wells, Mary-Robinette Kowal, and Howard Taylor. Hope it helps!

Oh, is that lake confirmed to be the pool?

I should reread Secret History I guess, I don't remember it ever being described, only that we know there's a pool there by WoB.

Best part is, Oathbringer is 20% larger than even WoR... So excited. So much book to read

The Black Lake is an actual lake to the east of Luthadel, if you look at the map. Also, do you have a source on the "structure" you talk about? In Secret History: I haven't seen any mention of structure. Presumably they have boats and the like to let travelers on and off, but I highly doubt them having a roadway. Kelsier is chastised for breaking the Pits for the next few hundred years. And he didn't cause a cave-in.

Once he has a body, there isn't anything besides obligation to say back. We know from Secret History that there are other worlds, and we know he's interested in meddling in them. Why would Brandon go through the trouble of setting that up to not have him worldhop at some point. And about knowing where to go, I'm sure he could find out from other people in the know rather easily, if he knows who to talk to.

Well, picking out ten Heralds in an entire planet could be tough. Can you refresh me on what you mean by "between"? I'm not sure I've heard that before.

Unless he died again, of course. I doubt that will happen though, I think Brandon is setting him up to be the main antagonist of the Space Opera Mistborn

We don't know for sure, but I like to think that Braize is actually the Tranquiline Halls (taken over by Odium of course). I am lead to believe this because in the books it always talks about people needing to "take back" the Tranquiline Halls. Also, (AU Spoiler)

Ah I see. Yeah, I'm pretty sure most Worldhoppers use the Cognitive Realm. Cognitive Shadows are explained in some of the WoBs I quoted. Hope I helped!

Yeah, as @Staphylococcus said, there was 16 Shards in the beginning. Ruin and Preservation were both whole until the events of Hero of Ages, when they combined. Brandon has talked about that by saying that the Shards are still two Shards, but at the same time you could talk about it as one Shard, similar to the way you'd say an emperor was the king of two countries. Dominion and Devotion were both whole separate Shards until Odium killed them, and Splintered them (that's the word you're looking for). So, 16 in the beginning is indisputable, anything that happens between Shards, you can assume it's one of them.

You are correct in assuming Adonalsium was a being, or a force. Many people in the cosmere worshipped it as a god (indeed, it's name comes from the Hebrew word Adonai, the name of God). In Cosmere prehistory, Adonalsium was split into sixteen Shards with varying Intents, each attribute coming from a different part of that god's behavior, aspects, or motives. The sixteen people that managed to kill Adonalsium then took up those Shards and thus was born the Cosmere as we know it. We don't know for sure how any of this transpired, but there are theories. We don't know for sure if Adonalsium had a Vessel or not. The leading theory is that if you combined all the Shards, it would lead to the restoration of Adonalsium. In fact, that is one of the big questions in the Cosmere, that certain background characters may be trying to bring about behind the scenes over many years. We don't know for sure if it would happen this way, or if Adonalsium would even be the same being, but there is a lot of evidence to support the theory. The Seventeenth Shard is an in-universe organization that is interested in keeping the Shards separate. They figure that Adonalsium was killed for a reason, and we should let it be. They also seem mostly well-intentioned, as they don't want any planets to be destroyed (which is nice), but they also have a "Prime Directive" type aspect to them, not wanting to get too involved in individual planets' problems. We took the name because it's cool, and something in universe that we don't know much about yet. Hope that helped! Enjoy the Cosmere.

Spoilers for all books: As for the Heralds getting to Braize, Kalak thinks about it like they have a choice to go, so I assume it involves your normal, run-of-the-mill worldhopping. Though since Braize is in the same system, I doubt it's very hard for them to get to anyway. There was actually a recent theory saying that Braize and Ashyn might be on the Shadesmar map of the Roashar area. I'm of the opinion that they can get there no problem, since they have physical bodies. Relevant WoBs (spoilers for all):

That kind of sight, to me, is something that all Shards seem to have to some extent, similar to power and such. I couldn't see it being a Shard if it's already exhibited in most of the others. Transcendence I could possibly see as the quadrant that includes Cultivation and Ruin, because like you said, it exhibits both of their Intents with a bigger motive.

What about the hatred of wrongdoing? I would define wrath as hateful anger.

Having gone down this road myself and coming to the same conclusions, I'd like to add some thought to this. -God's Mystery is commonly talked about, and I think it could be a very strong candidate for a group or pair with Enlightenment/Wisdom/Discernment (though I have it listed as Enigma on my list). -Mercy/Grace/Forgiveness is something I would hesitantly put under Absolution. Absolution is used a lot as a Godly action in the Bible. Absolution of sin (forgiveness of sin, or God's Grace). In modern times you'd see the theme of Absolution in a court scene being absolved of Judgement (so, Mercy). I could also see it as an Absolution of oaths or obligation (which makes it a good candidate for an opposite of Honor, Vengeance, and even Odium, so we could easily put it in a group there). I could see it being called simply "Forgiveness" though, as it's more of an attribute than "Absolution" which is more of a direct action. -Patience is a really good one that I thought of recently as well. I find it a lot more likely than a Shard of Indifference, though that may be due to my view of God. Taking an example from the Bible, the Hebrews were enslaved by the Egyptians for 400 years before God decided to act, but that didn't mean he was indifferent to their suffering. He merely had a purpose for it (in this case, the purpose was for them to have grown to a population in the millions, enough for a nation to be born out of it). Patience would exemplify this attribute much better, showing the idea that God has a perfect time for everything. It also makes a perfect opposite to Ambition. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. Another possible title for the Intent of Patience could be Perseverance. -I'd group Wrath into Odium, personally. Odium acts on wrath. -People have put "God testing people" into Tribulation or Trial before. I personally don't like those words for an Intent, but I could see there being a Shard about that idea.

@Yata, are you of the opinion that there is only one per planet then? I'm personally partial to the idea that there's more than one per Shard, because Brandon has described Perpendicularities as large build-ups of Investiture that kind of make the border between the Three Realms more fuzzy. If that's true, then there is probably a Shardpool or something similar for each city of Spren on Roshar, for example, or each place on Sel that is important to a magical location (like Elantris) where there is likely to be huge build-ups of the Dor. Shardpools might be something different, but there must be more Perpendicularities.

Quick question. It seems fairly accepted or assumed within the fandom that each Shard has only one Shardpool. Granted, we've only seen one per Shard thus far, but it seems likely to me that there are a lot more on each planet. I was just wondering if Brandon has confirmed it himself that there's only one per Shard at some point that i just can't find. Thanks.

I believe this is already widely accepted Good catch.

If I recall correctly, the indication was about Hoid, not Frost.

You can normally ask as many as you can squeeze in while he's signing in your books. I'd recommend you take a bunch, and start with your favourites. He'll stop you when you're out of time (or say "last one" or something like that).