Seloun
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I'm not quite sure why you say there are chasmfiend pupae after the highstorm. Is there a quote? We know that chasmfiends (but not chrysalis) are apparently more common to the south end of the Shattered Plains (WoR, 'Heirs', Ch 51): Chasmfiends prowl the southern and eastern sections (WoK, 'The Decoy', Ch 15): We also know that chasmfiends apparently wait for a highstorm while pupating (also WoK, 'The Decoy') and the frequency appears to be weather dependent: So most likely the chasmfiends generally live along the southern/eastern mountains near the Shattered Plains, require something from a highstorm, but also head to the plateaus for pupating. Most likely there is a connection with the highstorm and spren. If we consider the Everstorm analogue, maybe pupating is how the chasmfiends 'swap' their spren like we see the Parshendi do. 'Lifecycle of a Chull' sort of implies this. The other question is why they need to be on a plateau to pupate. I was looking at Eshonai's transformation for a potential analogue, but it doesn't really fit - she does head out to a plateau away from Nalak, but the interlude also implies that this isn't necessary. She's also hiding behind a hill for much of the highstorm. The only thing I can think of right now is that being on a plateau basically guarantees that the region won't be flooded during the highstorm (since the water will run off into the chasms) but it's not clear why the chasmfiends would prefer larger plateaus in that case. It might be coincidental, since there might be a temperature related reason why they don't pupate to the south. It's also worth noting that Shallan mentions (WoR, 'Watching the World Transform', Ch 49): There might be something about the water that prevents pupating. Also, going back to 'Lifecycle of a Chull' - the implication seems to be the chull goes into a final pupating state, and may just die in that state. This seems rather odd. What if the greatshells are part of some kind of spren lifecycle? The whole chull/chasmfiend portion is just to provide...something...to the controlling spren, and the spren are 'taken up' while the greatshell pupate during a highstorm?
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Maybe he's using Adhesion unconsciously. Binding to the air could be responsible for the large impulses. Conceptually kind of like a fly-by-wire system where the Adhesion surge automatically applies low-level stabilization and let him use the Gravitational surge intuitively as the stick and throttle. Of course, that wouldn't explain if we see flying Skybreakers, but then, we haven't seen any yet... Even without Adhesion, he's still an airfoil; if he can somehow redirect airflow, he can potentially get more acceleration that the Gravitational surge can provide. Though Adhesion makes a lot of sense, really; done properly he could probably replicate control surfaces. We don't really have canon examples, but if you need to accelerate along your current velocity vector, you do have to rely on the Gravitational surge, while change of direction is better served by being able to push against the air, which may explain the 'moar lashing' during chases. This also gives an excuse why Kaladin and Szeth always seem to be in motion (versus ground) while in air combat (without the initial velocity relative to the air, they're stuck with just the Gravitational acceleration).
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I'm a bit confused how the highstorms can always move east to west given the size of the continent; does the storm advance at different rates depending on the latitude?
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Seems pretty reasonable. Couple of notes: - Since the original Surge symbols have horizontal symmetry, it's really just that one half of the Surge symbol is inverted vertically. - The color of the void Orders corresponds to the KR order colors. - Some of the void Surges do not have linking lines to their adjacent surges (though this might be simply due to the Order lines having priority). - The two center void Orders do not have a linkage to their correlated void-Surges. This is harder to explain than the previous as artistic license (in the other cases, the lines are over the background 'splash' graphics).
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I figure 'closest to Honor' is satisfied by 'the highest tower in the world'.
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As a caveat, I'm pretty sure the following has no relationship whatsoever to what Sanderson has put in the books. I'm answering this given my current headcanon. If you are 100% certain about the outcomes of your choices and the 'value' (however you define it) of 10 people is greater than the first man, you should clearly choose not to save the first man. The problem with the Trolley problem in general and this problem in particular is that you are never really sure about the actual outcome of your choices. In the example trolley problem, you're probably going to be much more confident about whether or not you can save the first person than you will be about whether or not leaving the person will save the 10 people afterwards (if nothing else, saving the one is something that can be done sooner, and thus has less chance of random factors altering the outcome). Consider that Vorinism disallows predicting the future. If you don't really know if leaving the first will save the ten, then it's pretty clear that at least saving the one you know you can save is the better option. 'Journey before destination', in that case, means you should do the right thing now instead of relying on predicting that doing something else will be a better thing in the future. There's a secondary issue that predicting the future is really, really hard. To the point that having a simple rule that everyone can follow, even if not optimal given infinite computational capability, can be optimal choice when you are computationally (or informationally, or whatever) bound.
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Probably the breakout character for me was Lift. Sure, she seems pretty archetypical, but I found her interlude to be a lot of fun and self-contained, with a good deal of relevant action and excellently done mood whiplash. Sort of an encapsulation of what I like best about Sanderson (ultimately uplifting tragicomedy with good action scenes).
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I have some discussion in this on a thread in the WoR spoiler forums, but - As mentioned by others, most of the red lines are just indicating the Order's 'opposite' (those are the lines that go through the exact center. All of the Orders have at least 3 edges connected to other Orders (two adjacent Orders, one opposite). The real mystery are the 'extra' 2 edges shared between Windrunners <=> Edgebringers and Stonewards <=> Lightweavers. However, with those lines, the entire diagram then has a vertical connection for every Order (i.e. all 5 Orders on the top half have a connection to an Order on the bottom half). Note also that the top Orders' Heralds are all male, and the bottom Orders' Heralds are all female. Edit: It's actually not necessary for the vertical lines to exist to have the 'one top, one bottom' pairing (the point-symmetric lines are sufficient for that); the point is that adding the two edges provides a second symmetry.
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I think it's his right arm that's missing, but it's actually pretty tough to figure out. The evidence is pretty ephemeral but I think does demonstrate the conclusion. Minor WoR Spoilers (preview Chapters):
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Yeah, I can't think of anything offhand that would actually contradict the main part of the theory, that the First Ideal was actually the last Ideal and the other Ideals existed before the KR. I think it's pretty much a given that the First Ideal is related to the KR, but AFAIK there's no further information about how the other Ideals were formed. I do think the First Ideal provides (possibly among other things) the ability to heal from Shardblade damage; this might explain why Honorblades don't generally provide that ability (it's something added on at KR founding long after the spren learned to copy Honorblade surges). We'll have to see more individual Ideals, but I have to wonder if the Surgebinders would have really been that out of hand if they'd been bound by the other Ideals to start with. Honorspren are a terrible example since Nohadon specifically singles them out as not being part of the problem, and unfortunately they're the ones we have the most data on. Edgedancers, based on the single Ideal we've seen, also seem pretty 'good'. In fact, all of the Ideals we've seen appear to be pretty altruistic; the only exception are the non-Ideals of the Cryptics. OTOH, even with the First Ideal and the rest it's clear the Orders had some conflicts, so maybe it's not really that crazy to think they'd have had outright warfare without a unifying single Ideal; it's tough to call. Overall though I feel like the evidence for isn't really stronger than the evidence against regarding the Ideals existing before the KR. We can be pretty sure that the First Ideal came with the KR, and Occam's suggests that all of the Ideals did, too. The First Ideal is special, but the very layout of the Ideals structure pretty much ensures that. I can't say I'm convinced, but I don't have any direct counter-arguments.
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Taravangian says: So he believes that the First Ideal has some kind of mechanical effect (otherwise I don't know why he'd distinguish it). Taravangian could certainly be wrong, however. My guess though is that the First Ideal provides the ability to regenerate Shardblade damage, since that's the key attribute Szeth talks about during his meeting with Taravangian. I do agree that Surgebinding almost certainly existed before the First Ideal, but I'm not sure that the other Ideals existed before then either. I figured that what Ishi required of the spren is that they follow _some_ kind of progression, but was willing to leave the specifics to the spren. It's also pretty clear the First Ideal is special, since the KR as a whole follow it, but I figured that the First Ideal is the overriding Ideal, while the individual Ideals are about how the specific Order/KR will attempt to implement the First Ideal. The First Ideal is the Destination, and the Order-specific Ideals/growth is the Journey.
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Axies the Collector and Shadesmar or Spren???
Seloun replied to rhaiynebow's topic in Stormlight Archive
It's all Aimians. Rysn's interlude in WoR: -
The thought of Jasnah needing permission from Elhokar on anything breaks my brain. I think the converse is more likely: "Lopen. You have stuck my ward on the wall, and this is impressive, but your mother can make my brother eat his vegetables. For this, you may marry my brother."
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I was thinking the same thing regarding the 3x 10 magic systems. Based on the Ars Arcanum though I'm tentatively against thinking the Old Magic fits under that paradigm (it seems pretty unique). I wouldn't be surprised if (modern) fabrials were one of the systems, though; Odium/Honor might fit somehow given that modern fabrials appear to be powered by captured spren.
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Szeth I think is a better fit for Jasnah. Part of this is a meta-argument: Szeth is ~36, and of all of the Radiants (or Radiant candidates) he's the one she'd have the most reason to have deep personal issues with, automatically making it more dramatically likely. I think Jasnah will spend most of Book 3 with Kaladin, but that's mostly a number-of-PoV meta argument. There are at least 3 PoV locations in the next book neglecting Jasnah (Urithiru, Szeth, and Kaladin) plus probably a handful of other locations as e.g. Dalinar or Shallan take short field trips. Having another major PoV is going to be difficult to juggle, and I don't expect (hopefully) that one of the main characters will be Put On A Bus again.
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I have a crazy theory that Yalb is a Herald based on those drawings. I can't really see a connection between Shallan and Shalash (besides perhaps the Order-Herald relationship), so the only major attribute we know of is that Shalash is a Herald. Maybe Shallan draws Heralds when daydreaming. As far as I know she never repeats this in WoR (I spend a fair bit of time looking for an instance) though I haven't investigated WoK in detail. My current working theory is that Jasnah's ability is either navigation or perfect geolocation. She knows exactly which direction to go in the Epilogue, and she's very familiar with the streets in Kharbranth. It's fit pretty well with an 'Elsecaller' to know something about traveling, I think.
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I'm reasonably convinced Nin is really a Herald; it seems to be the explanation with the least number of assumptions necessary. We know Shallash has been going on defacing images of herself for whatever reason; Nin's behavior doesn't seem all that crazy in comparison, and fits with the theme of corrupted justice. He's also very familiar with Szeth's activities, with the Shin, and has a fabrial that replicates Regrowth. He was at Gavilar's assassination talking to someone who referred to an 'Ash' and who might have been aware of Honorblades. He also somehow knew where Szeth was going to fall, or was able to find Szeth very quickly after he fell. If he's not a Herald, he's someone with a huge amount of information about almost everything and is capable of finding Surgebinders. I'm not sure what he could be if he's not a Herald or something pretty close to it. It's possible he's just some random guy that happens to be similar to Herald-level knowledge and capabilities, but from a narrative standpoint that would be weird. Szeth also seems to recognize his appearance; this might be taken as just having seen him before at Gavilar's assassination, but the tone of it seems to imply that Szeth actually recognizes him as the Herald. Unless Nin was pulling everyone's leg, he has a lot of respect for Szeth: It's not really that crazy that he'd give Szeth a powerful weapon if he's being honest in his assessment. From his perspective, Szeth isn't crazy, he's worthy. The comment about beauty is interesting, too, if we go back to discussion Hoid has with Shallan: Finding someone who keeps his word to perfection is what alleviates Nin's pain.
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I actually think the reason Syl can't answer hypotheticals is due to her being a reflection of Kaladin's sense of honor ('are windspren attracted to wind, or do they make it?'); she can't answer them because Kaladin can't answer them. What Kaladin thinks is the right thing to do through pretty much the entire book is made pretty clear; he just doesn't want to admit it because initially he doesn't want to get Moash in trouble, and later because of his desire for vengeance. That said, I do agree that how Elhokar's situation was resolved was somewhat unsatisfying. I'm not really sure you can blame him for the death of Moash's grandparents, but clearly Elhokar is not a very capable authority figure and probably should be replaced by someone more competent. Assassination is too extreme, but it'd be nice if they can find some reasonable resolution besides 'Dalinar makes all the decisions'. Given the depth of that problem, I don't think we'll see a true answer to that, but I imagine we'll see Elhokar grow up a little in the future. The main problem is that Elhokar's deficiencies seem to be hard to distill down a pithy attribute with a simple answer (e.g. Kaladin's main problem is his tendency to stereotype lighteyes); he's got a lot of development to do.
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Regardless of whether or not you agree with Kaladin's decision to protect Elhokar (I personally lean on 'protect Elhokar' side, but arguments both ways are compelling) the book makes it pretty clear throughout (not just at the end) that not participating in Elhokar's assassination is the right thing to do. There isn't really a lot of back and forth regarding that. Kaladin has made a decision to turn in the conspirators before the four shardbearer scene: He's trying to protect Moash (specifically mentioned slightly before the above passage) but he's already concluded that the assassins are wrong. It's only post-imprisonment that Kaladin ever really considers the conspiracy as a real possibility, and even in 'Bridges' he's second-guessing himself: Shortly after leaving the chasms, Dalinar pulls the trick on Amaram; already by that time Kaladin seems to have decided that the assassination plot is wrong, but that he doesn't think he can do anything about it: The only time Kaladin is actually fully onboard is during the scene where Moash is receiving his shards (which is minutes after Kaladin's release): This is about two chapters from 'Bridges' above, by which he's already regretting it. There's really never a time in the book when Elhokar's assassination is presented as a viable option.
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My guess is that Shallan didn't have the blade until that moment, i.e. she forms it in response to her mother's attempt to kill her. IIRC there's WoB that also indicates that the different orders get their blades at different points along their progression. I have a theory about the Recreance that plays off of this. If the spren are capable of 'farming' bonds somehow (by doing something to break likely candidates) and it turns out they've been doing this to the KR post-Last Desolation (possibly encouraged by Tanavast since, you know, all his Heralds bailed on him), that would be something sufficiently betrayal-worthy for the Recreance.
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Well, the funny thing is that Hoid probably is already wearing a wig or the equivalent, since Wit has black hair while Hoid naturally has white hair. I still want to see him show up to Adolin in a red wig though and ask him something particularly gauche.
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The Silver Kingdoms map is slightly different from the modern map, though I'm not sure if it's just artistic license/difference in resolution. For example above Jah Keved/Rishir there is a chain of 4 islands in the modern map while it's only 3 islands in the Silver Kingdoms map. The upper island sequence is also much more broken up in the modern map (there are two rows of islands on the NE section instead of one). Might be explained by just not showing the smaller islands in the Silver Kingdoms map, however.
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Syl specifically mentions broken people in relation with Radiants: What's somewhat less clear is if all Surgebinders have to be similarly 'broken', though most likely the answer is yes. Pattern also says: Most spren appear to be drawn to an emotion rather than causing the emotion. Based on what Pattern says, it's most likely necessary for an individual to suffer some trauma then cover it up with the appropriate emotion, e.g. Kaladin's bond really forms when, after Tien's death, he deals with it by protecting people who remind him of Tien. However, we know that Kaladin had flashes of combat-brilliance long before that, and that his combat ability seems to be at least partially tied to his bond with Syl. So it's possible that while Surgebinding requires the full bond (through the break), the extra 'gift' can be developed before then. I'm not sure Kaladin could really have been described as 'broken' before Tien's death. If this is the case, Shallan might not really had to have a 'breaking' before her Mother's death. Her mother may have recognized Shallan's Memory ability (much like how Kaladin has flashes of his combat ability pre-breaking) and have known enough to associated with Lightweaver Surgebinding.
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There were two storms, which would likely screw up the pattern. Kaladin also indicates that far away from the warcamps, the flows aren't exactly as he'd expected (part of why he gets lost). There's never been a battle that close to the center of the Shattered Plains before (the furthest is the Tower, which is still less than a day away). Finally, it's noted in TWoK that Parshendi bodies are much less common near the warcamps than expected; I believe Sigzil theorizes that this is due to Parshendi being more dense than humans and thus less prone to wash away. It might be worth noting though that there's at least one other Shard unaccounted for: Teleb's Shardplate. Probably also lost in the chasms, though.