Aryanath

My two cents. The Way of Kings was the first Sanderson book I read, because I wanted to start a new fantasy series without particularly thinking about the Cosmere (although I sampled The Emperor's Soul first to take a dip, to see if I liked it). So I entered the series knowing almost nothing about the Cosmere, though I had heard about it. To be honest, that fact made the book more enjoyable that if I had read Sanderson's other books before. I wasn't trying to compare it to his other books, find links to the Cosmere, and see the connections between his characters and wasn't in a position to compare his books with each other. In other words, it was pure experience in a new world and I enjoyed it. I might not have enjoyed it as much if I started with Elantris because many of the same themes appear but everything is better in the Stormlight Archives. But the main point here is that only after absorbing and enjoying Roshar and the story did I begin to think about the things going on the background, the deeper things. Mentions of Odium and Honor got me into the Cosmere because I was curious to understand the structure of the universe and the place of Roshar in it. My interest got me into Mistborn, which I enjoyed a lot both for the story and for the Cosmeric stuff. I might be in the minority for being much more into the philosophical and theoretical points of the Cosmere over the cool factor as in "cool, there's a sword from Warbreaker in WoR!" sort of thing (I have not read Warbreaker).

See that's the thing! Definitely something is not normal here!

I'd assume that most Highprinces need/want heirs to pass on their lands, titles, and shards to after their deaths?

I agree with the above, but the problem can be avoided if he were to just set them up and not create side plots for them, sort of how GRRM mentions but doesn't follow most nobles. I guess what I'm trying to say is that giving Sadeas a son doesn't necessitate creating a new side plot just for that. But I agree, it doesn't take away from the story or anything. I'm relatively new to Sanderson and I like the way he puts so much depth and effort into his worlds and magical systems so this seemed like an omission to that rule.

It would be natural in a warlike society to bring your sons to the battlefield with you. Adolin and Renarin both show up with Dalinar after all. And I don't think that's a special exception.

So I looked throughout the books and couldn't find this information and it puzzled me. Sadeas is 50 years old. He has a wife he's clearly intimate with and maybe he is not beyond mistresses. It would seem as though he would want someone to bequeath his legacy, his conquests, etc. whatever he's planning to after he's gone. So doesn't it strike you odd that he has no kids, no heir? It is just him and his wife. Or am I missing something. It seems like a lot of the other Highprinces don't really have kids either. There seem to be distinct lack of heirs. I don't recall hearing anything about the situation for lighteyes being like the nobility in Mistborn, where they're set up to have fewer kids. But really, I find the lack of children among great families to be a very prominent oddity. Can someone comment on this? Perhaps I've missed something?

On a slightly related note, I've been wondering this for a while, but is it mentioned anywhere why Sadeas doesn't seem to have a child/heir? In fact, other than Dalinar's kids, the other heirs/children of the Highprinces seem to be really in the background....

In my boxed set of Mistborn that I got fairly recently (2 months ago), Sanderson appendixed a chapter from Daniel Abraham's "The Long Prince Quartet" so I guess he thinks Abraham's pretty good to promote him like that.

Since a lot of the terms in the book remind me vaguely of Persian (Farsi/Dari) which has a phonological set that seems to fit in well with the names of a lot of the people/places in the Vorin nations, I use that as the basis of my pronunciation. I realize this might be a bit different than the way Sanderson himself pronounces things. However, I heard him pronounce Shallan one time as Shuh-laan (Persian: شلان if that helps anyone) which sort of got me going in that direction. Oh, I'm not Persian at all, I just have an interest in that language and use it as my default phonological set whenever I read fantasy with names that seem vaguely Middle Eastern. Although as far as I can tell, I don't know if anyone else thought "Middle Eastern languages" when they saw Vorin words.

Thank you!

Hey everyone. I'm new to this forum and this is my first post, though I've been lurking for quite a while. I should probably make an introduction post but I'll dive right into my questions here. (Brief Background: I wanted to try a different sort of fantasy after spending a while with "gritty" series so I began reading Sanderson a few months ago. I started with The Emperor's Soul as a sampler, liked it and then read The Way of Kings, which I really enjoyed. I became especially interested in the Cosmere and that got me to reading Mistborn as well, so here I am). Anyhow I'm almost done with the series (Mistborn) but one thing's been bothering me a bit. Sorry if this was discussed elsewhere. Basically, the HOA and the refilling of the wells are supposed to occur every thousand years, right? At that time, obviously Ruin is going to manipulate things so that he can escape, like he almost did with Alendi and did with Vin. So what happened a 1000 years before Rashek? Why is nothing mentioned about the previous HOA or well then? Or did Ruin only get trapped sometime in the 1000 years before Rashek? But if this has been happening for a while before, it seems odd that nobody else figured out the secrets of the well either to keep Ruin imprisoned or release him before. Thanks.