Aminar

The Cosmere is one of the only reasons I truly truly like Sanderson's writing. He's got brilliant worldbuilding, and is a competent(but only really competent) prolific writer. His best scenes will always be his action scenes, but pitching his work can be difficult without sounding a little obsessed with either magic systems or action scenes. but Pitching that he's writing a 30+ book series that will span a universe eventually. That gets people interested. That's his single best selling point. He's making a grand and Epic story. Something that can and will alter the speculative fiction genre. When I say Competent I mean that so far most of his stories haven't been the most gripping and solid the whole way through. They're fun, and fantastic to debate about, but until Words of Radiance every book he'd written I could have put down part way through and not been overly conflicted. They didn't make me NEED to know what happened. Curious yes, Crack Addict Curious, no. If you can't appreciate what he is doing for the Genre by not just having a shared universe, but building a whole story out of all the disparate pieces, then you're missing the best part of what he's doing.(Until we hit the Modern/Sci-Fi mistborn books. Because Urban Fantasy not on Earth has so so so much potential, although Mistborn really isn't taking full advantage of the idea because of the humancentric nature of the setting.)

That seems overly complicated... It seems much more likely that She's still around. If nothing else Hoid think's she's alive, as evidenced by the comments about Women his age.

Not just that, but Technologically Roshar is a whole lot more modern than you're giving it credit for. It's just a different type of tech(magic.) The Fabrials they have put them at well past the era of Gunpowder. They just haven't discovered that one single thing.(Likely due to the fact that it's not necessarily of the most use in a place where keeping anything dry is questionable at best... They'd have to house the powder with the same carefulness they use on books(Basically bank vaulting the stuff.) That is if they even have access to all the materials needed for Gunpowder. In a primarily crustacean Eco-system they very well might not.

I have a thought process going on, and I'm going to flesh it out as much as I can. Here is a piece of Shallan's art. it's clearly a drawing of Pattern. What's interesting, as I pointed out above is the bottom right watered out note, that suggests she saw something similar in Kharbranth(Or K something, but I'd guess Kharbranth) http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6471-spoilers-interior-art/# Here is a quote from the Way of Kings. "Shallan couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the doors; their exterior was carved in an intricate geometric pattern with circles and lines and glyphs. It was some kind of chart, half on each door. There was no time to study the details, unfortunately, and she passed them by." This is her description of the entrance to the Pallinaeum. I could see the doors being reworked as the solution to the cipher, although admittedly it's a stretch. I couldn't find any other evidence of Shalln seeing a solution to a cipher during her time in kharbranth, but I might have missed it, as I was skimming a Kindle search for words like Pattern. Now, if any characters within the book have seen the pattern cipher other than the people involved, it would have to be Shallan or Jasnah. Szeth may have as well, but I don't think we've ever seen much from him about Taravangian...

I would put it more as any Radiant not already in a political position will be considered an Emmisary from a foreign nation, as the Radiant's are not and should not be part of any one nation, or under the command of any but their own.(Given the responsibility involved in becoming a Radiant.)

Still hoping to See Adolin as a Willshaper or nothing, but I suppose we'll see. Good to know he won't be a Skybreaker.

Maybe both of them, but I doubt it as it isn't physical pressure that draws in stormlight, its a decision. And wven with two collapsed lungs you certainly try to breathe. I know a guy who walked a couple miles with a collapsed lung and several broken vertebrae after he got mauled by a grizzly. He could certainly still breathe.

What Honor describes is seeing probabilities and possibilities which is exactly what I am saying Renarin does. And I am not searching 400000 words of text for a quote three other people have agreed exists. On another topic, Autism is not damage. It is not something Stormlight would be likely to heal, because in manu ways and scenarios it is a benefit. It is a genetic condition based on the development patterns of the nervous system. Poor vision is a slow degradation of the eye. That isn't anywhere near the same thing as Autism. What we have seen is that becoming an Elantrian can allow a severly autistic person to overcome the communicative difficulties that come with Autism. Long term therapy can do this well, but it most certainly did not heal the character's entire nervous system. Even then, there is a full body transformation there. Stormlight appears to return the body to its natural state for the most part. Renarin's natural nervous system is different. Not broken. Brandon knows enough about Autism not to insult every autistic person on the planet by calling them broken.

I figure Cultivation has her own system of things... The Radiants and their Oaths(Note Oaths, which are Honorable to follow.) are still pretty much a thing of Honor. Not to mention all the(all 10) honorblades granting surgebinding are of Honor quite specifically. So if Cultivation offers seeing the future I doubt it would be via the Radiants. Pattern has never struck me as dishonorable. This is getting off topic though. I figure as long as Renarin has oaths to swear he's of Honor and cannot see the future.

I'm pretty sure what Shallan saw that looked like Pattern was on the doors of the Palinaeum, which would make sense... Checking out the Pattern section now. I can't make hide nor hare of the pattern on page 481... The example Shallan uses doesn't even seem to fit the code(a function of translation from Alethi perhaps.) That doesn't mean it isn't important though....

The pictures of Pattern included a smudged out note that says "I am almost certain I have seen this somewhere before. It shares some resemblance to----------- I observed in K---------- shat the---------- I wonder if the key isn't some form of Cryptic... We know Taravangian wrote the key on his bedside table. Could Shallan have seen him looking at it during The Way of Kings?

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 281018368 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 378935600 bytes) in Unknown on line 0 Syl says so. And the very tenants of Vorinism, the religion the Radiants were founded under do so. Combine that with Nightform as described in the epigraphs and it's pretty clearly stated that seeing the future is Voidbinding, not surgebinding. In addition Honor says he's not good at seeing the future, that's Cultivation's thing and Surgebinding appears to be pretty much an Honor thing at this point. I think Renarin can predict the future, not see it, and those are vastly different things. I can predict the future. I have on a multitiude of occasions, based on evidence and an understanding of probability. You can too. None of us can SEE the future though. Voidbinding can. Renarin has to calculate and guess, but his order is good at patterns. Much like Taravingian.

There will be 10 Shardworlds someday... That said, the Iriali certainly sound like this isn't their first shardworld. They all have golden eyes and their path sounds unique. But Roshar was the 4th Shardworld Bradon wrote on... Maybe it's just the one after Yolen...

No. Brandon and a vast majority of his readership live in the US. That is more than enough reason for that to be an applicable age to look at. And magical or not it's a strong age in the Brain maturation process that ends around 24. You cannot ignore the significance of the world the writer lives in in books.

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 281018368 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 455993648 bytes) in Unknown on line 0 Exactly my point. The Truthcallers are discussed as having very savantish sounding abilities. I don't think Renarin is anywhere near autistic enough for the Savant trope, but I think he could easily have an affinity towards numbers for the same reason Shallan has an afinity towards drawing. It's pretty clearly stated that Surgebinding does not allow seeing the future. Period. So why would Renarin? Remember when he started scratching numbers into the floor at the end, by the gate. Calculations. And frankly Autistic savants are a thing. Unlike Love triangles between good competent intelligent empathetic people who realize the damage the can cause to the people around them. Yet which one shows up in books more?

Maybe there are multiple Shardpools? Is there a reason they couldn't be set up in the method Rock's myth describes. I don't think the Horneater peaks have much to do with Cultivation. She's described as being Further West. The peaks are West of Alethkar but I wouldn't call them Western on the map by any means.

It's possible Shardblades cut the cognitive, it would explain the interactions with the nervous system(cut the spine to kill.) But we also know they do what they do because they are heavily invested, something that is spiritual in nature. Szeth was most definitley dead. Just not dead long enough for his soul to move on. That one guy from Mistborn's soul hasn't moved on yet and that was centuries ago... Too bad his body got eatwn I suppose. Happyman, do they mention if Bridge 4 starts losing their Tatoos or Slavebrands while holding Stormlight. I don't remember...

I don't think he sees the future. Just has crazy math probability mapping abilities.

I know 0 introverts with families as supportive as Renarins who would be ashamed of talking with their family to the point Renarin your describing. Renarin's family, loss of his mother aside is near ideal. I feel like that gets ignored. Renarin isn't living some insurmountable challenge. He has a damned good life and appreciates it. Appreciate with him instead of making him out to be some kind of terribly suffering damaged wretch. His life is likely better than 90% of the people on this forum.(Money, family, an eccentric reputation, and a minor disorder.

And? For many reasons it's often the start of real adulthood in the US. That makes it a good place to start off a character like Lift's story.

A quick note. Renarin didn't necessarily experience the same things Kaladin's dueling opponent did while touching the blade. Kal heard Syl scream. His opponent heard the Blade's Spren saying something about it's death. Possibly something akin to a broke Aeon, but that's speculative in the extreme. I would guess Renarin only heard screaming, which is a little less traumatic than being accused of murder by an undead Spren.

Hate fueled by love is arguably a more powerful force than love, and losing a family member to someone elses action causes a whole lot of hate. Look at what it did to Shallan's father. It drove him to violent near murderous rage for years. I honestly see that being a source of major conflict coming up.

Except that he can probably bypass Stormlight Healing... Hard to heal being turned to smoke...

Someone killing a sibling is pretty damned insurmountable. I'd have trouble being in the same room as them, let alone liking them. Family is a powerful force and Shallan worked hard for hers... Given her past she might not hate Kaldin by the end of it.

I'd likely give up on the first half of the Stormlight Archive.