Stark

Mine finally arrived, and I got an RAFO! My questions was: If Lift went to Scadrial and got a Connection medallion, would she be able to access Allomancy if she swallowed metal? Which is not too far-fetched, as she has tried to eat a fair number of non-food items before. And I got a nice big RAFO for that question.

I had mentioned that in the [OB] world Links topic....http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/62395-ob-world-links/#comment-635170 A few people responded showing that some of these are on purpose, others were coincidental. Vasher taking Kalad as one of his names, especially the name of his most warlike myth, seems more than pure coincidence, I agree.

Okay. Least comfortable first. Jasnah and Amaram. She knew Amaram was dung before anyone else. She knew and could not prove anything. SO something happened. Something happened to the point when she is at the height of her power, she gave him the Jasnah equivalent of "slontze, give me a reason to kill you." Her mother tried to set her up with him when they were younger. Something happened in her childhood that left her feeling alienated and wounded by her family. And when she had a chance to stop thieves who were assaulting women in Khabranthian alleys, she murdered them remorselessly. I really, really do not like the picture this is painting. Lift, uplifting scenes, vexing the Stormfather and the butt talk. Awesom. Dalinar Freddy Kruegaring the leaders cool. Odium taking the toys from Dalinar, and showing him how its done, was terrifying. Oathpact. The fused are literally ancient listeners that stayed behind after death, did not go on to the beyond, and went varying shades of insane. Makes sense how highspren bonding humans would be viewed as a betrayal. Also, SH: The letters! SO I figure Harmony, Autonomy are obvious. Ish. The first letter. Could be someone we know, but I'm putting my money on the shard that wants to hide and survive. I loved the Bridge four chapters. Teft made me sad. Rock made me happy, but was likely my least favorite. Sigzil, and the conversation about applying your expectations to others was gratifying. Way to go Bridge Four, awkwardly breaking down gender barriers. Skar. Good man. Rlain. Rlain made me saddest of all. The perpetual outsider. Please Kaladin, listen to him. Be a bit of an Edgedancer now, and hear him. Shallan is giving me mixed feels. She is progressing and regressing in equal manner. I think she bothers me because she reminds me of me a bit, right after I first moved out. So much freedom, no motivation, chafing at parental restrictions when the parents were there, affecting my freedom. I was an idiot. I almost ruined my education by doing what she is doing. So I have empathy for her. But she frustrates the hell out of me at the same time, because I want to shake sense into her as much as I want to shake sense into my younger self. Odium, corrupting the visions. And pointing out that the Heralds and other shards may be entirely useless. That is going to play into the ardents exactly. Because if Odium can control the visions, then they can no longer be trusted. And that busts us back to almost square one. So how much control does he have? Can he only do post-credits scenes? Wow. I'm so glad I caved and got the ebook, my Wellers copy has not yet arrived. And I waited a whole day and then read part 1 again. I feel so far behind!

Nice, Thanks @john203 and @Dunkum!

Are there any spren on Roshar that did not originate from the big three (Honor, Cultivatio and Odium)? Like are there any Autonomy spren running around on Roshar, or spren from other shard? I would potentially rephrase the question to exclude Nightblood, who could be considered an artificial spren.

Are all of the audios from this weeks event going to appear on the Arcanum? Living vicariously through those of you who can make it to these events, and reading/hearing the questions and answers is one of my joys. Super excited to have Arcanum as a resource!

Well, there goes a huge chunk of my theory. I caved and got the ebook today, while waiting for my order from Wellers. So I'm playing catch up. And I'm forcing myself to not skip part 1 and read the whole thing in one linear sweep. Which is not too bad. Until I itch to go into the boards with the tempting titles...

@The One Who Connects I was aware of the WOB - I was speculating as to whether this was an intentional link versus a coincidental one. I admittedly had not even thought of how the glyph Kalad could apply to Kaladin. I know want to read a scene where Zahel and Kaladin share a few beers and talk of the ghosts in their pasts. It would make sense that Vasher would have taken the name Kalad after visiting Roshar and learning of Shardblades and glyphs, realizing that he is eternal as long as he does not get killed or run out of investiture. Crazy theory time - Nalthis is the Tranquiline Halls that the Voidbringers kicked humanity (or at least the Rosharan tribe of humanity) out of. The voidbringers were super human beings of power that ate the souls of men, and the Returned, who literally eat the souls of men, are the basis for the Voidbringer mythos. The first humans on Roshar were Worldhoppers from Nalthis trying to escape the returned. THen Odium came in and messed up the listeners, making them the new Voidbringers. Entirely false. But imagine the reaction if Roshar finds out that Vasher survives on investiture, and on his home planet, that literally means consuming souls. Worth noting: I have not read beyond part 1 yet, so I'm likely missing info.

Quick thing I've noticed in the art from Oathbringer. Copied below in spoilers. The Glyph for eternal in the glyphpair naming the Everstorm - that is the glyph Kalad. Wasn't Vasher, a semi-eternal, undying returned, known as Kalad at one point? Specifically, Kalad's Phantom's in reference to the army of Lifeless he created? I though that was neat. I wonder which influenced which, or is this one of the neat little coincidences that occur often in the Cosmere.

Ah yes, the old "Dress a random corpse in my armor, weapons and gear so I can escape my problems undetected while violating all of my people's deeply held beliefs and taboos by manipulating said corpse" plan. I totally see this working. I had hoped Eshonai would live. But I do not see any path to her survival in the physical realm. The spren Ulim's comment about following the Listener ancestors, assuming it was not an outright lie, and assuming he is not following orders millenia out of date, would indicate the potential for listeners to live on after death in the cognitive. But that is a couple og big ifs. I wonder if there is a restriction on how that happens - why they would not pass into the beyond. Or are they just closer to the cognitive realm than humans, and therefore can Hold on better? Or do they never go to the beyond? Does shardblade severing death prevent them from holding on in the cognitive? We will see Eshonai's flashbacks, either through Venli's point of view, or possibly from her cognitive shadow? But I do not think we will see her physically alive. Crazy theory time: We see a ton of butteryfly like life on Roshar - a lot of the life has many different stages that require pupation before a final form, sometimes two or more pupations (Chulls). What if the higher forms of spren, the so-called true spren, are the final form of the listeners after death? This would make the spren's betrayal of the listeners in the past so very relevant and interesting, right? In other news, really, really hoping to find a package from Weller's books when I get home. But not holding my breath either. Meaning this is all based on pre-release info, and not anything from the book itself.

Okay, you win. I know I'll eventually get the ebook, but not at release. I am not overly fond of paying three times for the same item, and between shipping and the donation to ask a question, ebook will be next yearish, once it has had a chance to come down in price. Enjoy!

Does anyone else think about the Radiants, and/or the Lopen, when Big Wreck's "One Good Piece of Me" comes on the Radio? Specifically the lyric: "Every little piece you take from me, I can always regrow" Any other songs that could be loosely interpreted as being affiliated with the Cosmere?

I couldn't even trust myself not to listen to the interlude... So weak. Definitely staying away after this post. I promise.

No. I'm fairly certain the first real death's were those Redshirts guarding Gavilar in Szeth's prologue. You know, the one who got sharded, and the other who was impaled on his own spear, when Szeth gave his Lashing demo? Pretty sure they got permadeath. Man, that sentence sounds full of inuendo when Read aloud. If we are talking first named character real death, then we have Gavilar. If we are talking about the first character we got invested in, and felt bad for the death... Man, there was that sick slave in the beginning, or that nameless Bridgeman who helped Kaladin on his first run. If we are talking invested, named characters, well then we are getting into 17th Shard level of specificity and complexity. Fitting. But you Have Maps. You have Dunny. Ym. And so many others beyond and before just Sadeas. Plus all those poor shardblades...

What really gets me about this is that she survived the fall. She set things up so that some of her people could escape, could get away unchanged, unfused. Then she had the fight and got kicked off the ledge and SURVIVED THE STORMING FALL, only to drown ignobly in the chasm with the rain from both storms. That is just insult to injury. Weighed down by the armor that let her survive. Killed by the thing that kept her alive, Holding on by a blade in the stone. That's just... damnation. damnation! And as for loopholes... Well, she would have lost consciousness at some point, and maybe the blade would have misted on her when that happened, only to reform when she died, but then, she would have ended somewhere else, so maybe the command to not mist was locked before she lost consciousness. Ugh. I don't see a way for her to still be alive. Especially given how annoyed many people, myself included, were after all the survivals in Words of Radiance, and the Retconning of the ending... I think she is gone. That just storming sucks. Dead in a ditch indeed.

Well, I think this is my last post for a little while, I'm going to sign off for the next week or two. I ordered through Weller's Books, and while they are awesome (and really, really pricey) and do their best to get the book to you on release day, well... I'm in Montreal. Sending anything across the border on a deadline is an exercise in futility and frustration. So I expect Oathbringer to arrive this week, but not tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm slightly behind on my re-read. I'm 85% through WoR (Leaving me only Part V, the Avalanche) to complete, and Edgedancer. I think I can finish WoR today, and Edgedancer tomorrow, just in case I am surprised by a timely delivery. So, see you all in a week or two! I'm out for now.

Can you provide a WOB on this? I don't remember any mention of anything weird happening with Lift's shadow, or Shallan's for that matter. And in that case, are the Siah Aimians always partially transitioned into the CR?

Hey all, I am working my way through my reread of The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance in preparation for release day, and I have stumbled upon something I thought might be noteworthy, but could be entirely coincidental. In the Axies interlude of WOK, it is mentioned that one of the many things that separates Axies, and Siah Aimians in general, from the human population is that their shadow extends towards light sources, not away. In Jasnah's prologue for WoR, when she is having what may well be her first interaction with Ivory, she notices her shadows extending toward the light, not away. This causes her no small amount of panic and terminates in her first(?), unintentional trip into Shadesmar. Does this indicate a relation between Siah Aimians and Elsecallers, or is Ivory (who always, so far, appears ink black in the PR) non-verbally trying to teach Jasnah that she has a link to Stormlight by extending himself, disguised as her shadow, towards the gemstones? Or is it somewhere in between?

Good point. The follow up would be, if you can only spike from one person, so one soul per spike, if you spiked anything other than gold out of a Fullborn compounder in such a way that they survived and could heals themselves, including healing the spiritual damage, could you spike them again with the same spike repeatedly and stack their own ability within the spike?

Agreed, completely. I just wanted to point out the potential interpretations of the question and response. Thankfully, for Oathbringer, there was a lot more character space to with which to word a question.

Super honored to find one of my signed book questions on the Arcanum under the general signed books (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/139-general-signed-books-2017/) I want to add some context to the question - there had been extremely limited character space to be able to ask questions. I had intended to ask about whether or not super magnets would be have an effect on metalminds and/or metal reserves in metalborn, from the point of view of security. IE: If part of my security was to say have a checkpoint with an electromagnet (Modern or Sci-Fi era Mistborn) would that have an effect? Do to the space constraint, I asked: "Do powerful magnets affect metalminds or metal reserves in metalborn?" This could be interpreted as intednded, or it could be interpreted as "Would using a magnetically charged metal, like iron as an example, as a metal reserve or a metalmind have an effect on the Allomantic or Feruchemical properties of the metal?" Which is a very different question. I don't know how Brandon interpreted the question, but his answer is vague enough to be able to fit both options.

Spiking. Can I stacks pikes? For example, if I spike Allomantic Pewter out of a Thug, I get a quantity of Allomantic Pewter power equivalent to that thugs power that can be spiked into someone. Provided I spike it into the person soon after creation, so that it does not decay. This spike is now a pewter enhancement. But what if I have five thugs and one spike. Can I spike the pewter out of Thugs A through E on the same spike, to have one spike that grants the approximate Pewter power of A+B+C+D+E as an enhancement? Or does that not work, because the spike takes a piece of the soul, not the power, and souls don't stack like power could?

Do we want to call it a story by an in-book character? Or do we want to call it a Story by Hoid? Because the second case has not happened yet in Oathbringer. And the first two both served to help Kaladin make an important life realization...

I'd love to see the mythical depictions of the Unmade. Shallan had described how Re-Shepnir appeared in stories as a counterpoint to reality, but it would be amazing to see artistic depictions of the mythical versions of the Unmade. And then compare them side by side with the mythical depictions of the Heralds, but you know, just seeing them would be cool too.

So, to link link this back to "No Mating" and Syl's dating advice to Kaladin, does this make Syl a cougarspren? Or, seeing as, per the quote below, is she a bondagespren? I know she's actually an Honorspren, but still - it fits the discussions regarding the spren curiosity about human mating habits and bodily functions....