Cheese Ninja

Mostly agree, with a few additions. I think they are currently being led by a Herald. This is pretty flimsy, the reasoning behind it is that when Kaladin examines one of their knives, he notes that they are exceptionally well-made, have glyphs on them, and a picture of what he thinks is a Herald, either "Jezerezeh or Nalan.” Also, there's the hive music mind of the Parshendi. Normal Parshmen don't have this. I think it is vital to the system by which they change. Normally, it would make them into Voidbringers, but in the Parshendi's case, I think a Herald hijacked the frequency, and let them develop normally. However, if this control fails, the Parshendi would be turned evil, which is why they are fighting a pointless, costly war against the Alethi. Also, I think Voidbringers is a more all-encompassing term than just Parshmen turned evil.

The post is a month old, and in fact is derived from a video that is from mid-November, but I hadn't seen it mentioned here: Right now it seems Brandon is planning the focus characters for the first five as: I'm a bit surprised by Navani, same as the posts in that thread, but I'm also surprised that Dalinar is currently considered for book 5, when Brandon had indicated a while back that he was divided on the 2nd book being either Shallan or Dalinar, before finally deciding on Shallan.

I don't think Hoid is actually evil, but his plans might be disastrous for some others. When Sazed fixed the world at the end of HoA, he kinda wiped everything off the face of the planet at the same time. If Hoid is planning something like that on a Cosmere-wide scale, there's no surprised the 17th shard wants to track him down. I think it'll be a bit more subtle than that, but what if it was the complete negation of all Shard-based magics? Oh wait, that's not subtle at all. If Hoid takes pieces of all the Shards, using stuff like Lerasium, atium, breaths, and Stormlight, (I think I've seen somewhere that Stormlight isn't the actual magic fuel, so maybe not Stormlight) maybe he can use them as a focus to recreate Adonalsium, and draw off the power of the Shards... Just now I scrolled up and read Commander Spoonface's post, which said much the same thing. I'd say "great minds think alike" but that always struck me as a rather arrogant phrase. In any case, I think we may be on to something.

I've said before that I think Hoid is collecting bits of Shards on each world he visits, and is planning something once he's collected enough of all 16. Lerasium and atium seem like the easiest to collect.

Funny that you mentioned the Shadar Logoth sequence. Originally I didn't have the full Eye of the World book, just the free sample paperback (I doubt many of you have seen that which I speak of, it came out some time after Lord of Chaos, I believe, to trap people into reading the series.) that ends with the chapter right before they enter Shadar Logoth, when they are being chased by Trollocs. Hell of a place to leave off, I don't think I spent too long before getting the full copy either from the bookstore or library and finishing it.

The idea with the double nicrosil is that the twinborn could store the Investiture of ruin and preservation that is inherent in all the people on Scadrial, regardless of whether they are capable of accessing the magic system. In much the same way that all the other feruchemical abilities allow the storage of inherent human traits, nicrosil allows the storage of their connection to the two Shards. Since consuming Lerasium makes someone a Mistborn regardless of their earlier abilities, and Lerasium is to some degree, concentrated Preservation, perhaps if they concentrate Preservation within themselves with Compounding, it will have a similar effect. The main argument against it is that Leraaium, besides being Preservation, also contains a separate element which is solely responsible for granting Allomancy ability. Maybe. It could be a fun twist to give the next trilogy's nicrosil Misting temporary Mistborn abilities, simply by making the character a double Nicrosil in one of the books.

There are a few things I remember reading both in the annotations and the book about a possible sequel: 1. Yesteel would be making more swords like Nightblood, it would have led the destruction of Hallendren if they had gone to war with Idris, since Yesteel would have allied with Idris. 2. We would be told the trick that Returned use to have children. 3. We would learn more about how much thought remains to a Lifeless, and that it was more than any of characters realized, we may even get a Lifeless PoV, possibly Arsteel. We'd probably see Jewel again in that case as well. 4. The method by which Vasher suppresses and avoids using his Divine Breath when awakening things. I guess there's more to than simply trying not to?

Same here, I read the first 6 or 7 books at least 4 or 5 times, so I still remember most of what happened there. Started reading it back when I was 11 or 12. I never actually read the full version of New Spring, so that's another thing I'll have to do. The whole reason I started reading Sanderson was because I heard he was finishing WoT.

When I went to a signing for Towers of Midnight a year ago, I asked him if it was significant that Shalash was in the palace shortly before the events of the prologue. He said we would see other character's viewpoints from that same time. I didn't bother asking a question that I knew would get a RAFO, like if Baxil's Mistress was Shalash or if she was the one destroyed her statue. Between the epigraph about "Daughter of kings and storms gouging out her own eyes.", and the Herald Shash symbol used for Baxil's interlude chapter, plus a bit of time on the forums, those other two things were made pretty clear.

Those would be good points, if either were correct. But they aren't. Gavilar guessed: Thaidakar, Restares, and Sadeas. Amaram never once mentions Taravangian. What happened is that you combined the names 'Thaidakar' and 'Taravangian' together in your head at some point, because they were both unfamiliar to you and both began with T. I think Restares is a codename. Besides Taravangian, he could be some Alethi lord we've heard of briefly but were not given a chance to attach much importance to, or a Herald, or a yet-to-be introduced character. I've got no clue about Thaidakar.

A double Nicrosil Twinborn. They'd be able to compound Investiture. Which I think should do something cool, even if I'm not sure exactly what that would be. 'Temporary Mistborn + Temporary Full Ferochemist' or 'Extreme Nicrosil ability boosting'? I'd prefer the former, but that almost seems too powerful, if it does work that way, the upper limit for the ability might be even beyond normal Mistborn levels. The latter is harder to find a useful context for, pretty much just the usual nicrosil boosting situations. Or maybe I'm way off track. There should be a bit of Ruin and Preservation any native of Scadrial, so if he/she stored those bits and compounded it to 100x or more, what level could they reach? Would that compounding leave a permanent effect on the double Nicrosil, or would they be unable to tap into those abilities in the first place? The possibilities are interesting.

I regretfully do not. In the case of Brandon I have a large pool of writings and interviews to draw from in constructing a mental image of him. In your case I am limited to forum posts and the knowledge that you are Brandon's friend and assistant. If I detected a shade of frustration (in regards to keeping up with revealed Cosmere info) when I read your response to Brandon's revelation of Taravangian's fluctuating IQ, perhaps I was incorrect and simply projecting the emotions I would feel.

Makes me wonder if the next Mistborn trilogy will really feature a nicrosil misting as we've been told, or a nicrosil twinborn who could compound it. I don't think you need Investiture to exist in any of the realms. So I disagree with your idea of a Passive investiture. After all, there are worlds in the cosmere without shards on them. (I can't remember which Q&A had that.) I agree that Shards invest some of themselves in the humanity living on the worlds with them, which allows the people to access the magic system, if the people then meet the correct conditions for usage. (Breaths, Spirtual DNA, Nahel Bond) The slightly unequal battle between Preservation and Ruin was all because Preservation had put a bit more of himself (his shard) into humanity than Ruin did. I suppose I could call that passive investiture, since not all of humanity was using that bit of Shard to perform allomancy.

That just means that Shalash was there destroying her statue shortly before the events of the prologue. Someone must have removed the wreckage but not been able to put in a replacement statue yet. Brandon said that we would see other characters viewpoints from around that same time.

Restares could be Taravangian. If Amaram was communicating by spanreed, his physical location wouldn't matter. From Amaram's brief comment, Restares seems willing to sacrifice innocents for the sake of the perceived "greater good". Which coincides with Taravangian's views. Edit: Also, I find it odd to see Peter posting in a speculation thread. I imagined that he read them, but tried to only post in mechanics threads. If he let himself post in speculation threads, he might inadvertently give things away...

Brandon has specifically said that the interludes are there to give a feel for the size and varied perspectives of the people living in the world without needing to add new, time-consuming POV characters that would bog the story down. Some of the things they do, say, or see might be important, but they themselves tend not to be, with the exception of Szeth, who is a major character. So far in the interludes we've seen such things as Shinovar and their culture, Spren researchers and notable spren behaviors, and planet-hopping Hoid searchers, and a Herald who goes around destroying depictions of herself. Axies is the only PoV interlude character I think will come back to any significant degree, mainly because there aren't a whole lot of (either type of) Aimians left (I think). In a world full of races with strange skin, hair, and eye colors, the race which can alter their skin at will and has a shadow that goes backward is the strangest. I fully expect an interlude from a Ghostblood who is relegated to a grunt work after failing a number of more major operations recently, such as the simple straightforward deaths of Jasnah and Amaram, and causing the loss of agents such as Kabsal and Helaran.

That was an amazing catch, you have my respect. I had thought that "on a strong day" line was of no significance. For added significance this means that the two explicit curses (Upside vision and no feeling in the hands) and the two likely curses (Dalinar's incapability of remembering or interpreting information about his wife and Taravangian's intelligence) all came about as a result of Nightwatcher messing with their neurons. I sense a theme there. Brandon's background as a one time Biology major has affected his writing in several interesting ways. That's my take at least.

The especially fun thing about the Weeping is that we are told there aren't any highstorms during that period, but I can't remember being told either when it happens or how long it goes on for, only that it happens at the same time every year. And no highstorms = no stormlight (once the gems get used or go dull on their own over time) = no soulcasting or surgebinding or shardplate or fabrials or spheres used as lighting And Soulcasting using the emeralds is a big part of how the armies get fed. Sure, they can stockpile some beforehand, but would it be enough?

Can anyone link me to the Q&A where Brandon tells us about Taravangian's fluctuating intelligence as a result of seeking the Nightwatcher? I've seen that mentioned here, but I don't remember ever reading it for myself. When you're talking to authors, it's always nice to know their precise wording. They're like Aes Sedai, they can't tell a direct lie about their work, but if they want to they can phrase it in a way to give you the wrong idea. Not that I think that's the case on this occasion, I'm just curious about what else might be in this Q&A that I haven't considered. Back to the OP. There's some good stuff in there, some incorrect assumptions that have already been pointed. Taravangian: EVIL? Almost all the major villains so far haven't been particularly evil, just following their own, very cruel, but still honorable paths. Taravangian wants to destabilize things first to create a more united whole from the pieces. Sadeas wants to carry on the current Alethi traditions of ruthlessness and individual strength, and looking out for yourself first and foremost, partially because he feels it is best for the nation. Amaram betrayed Kaladin mainly because he felt that if Kaladin wasn't going to take the Plate and Blade, the war effort would be best served if Amaram himself took them up. Szeth kills because he is bound by his oaths, although we aren't truly sure to what degree he's bound and to what degree he's simply avoiding making choices for himself. Length of the Desolations I don't see any real need for the Desolations themselves to be long, as long as the time between is long enough for people to forget the varied ways Parshmen behave. Also, it's possible that they remained cautious enough about Parshmen to keep them away from their own settlements even when Desolations weren't ongoing, before the Last Desolation. Their integration into society has only happened now that it has been 5000 years since the Last Desolation instead of a hundred or a few hundred. Also, after being told that it was the "Last Desolation" they probably were a lot less worried about the Parshmen becoming dangerous again. Ghostbloods I haven't put any thought into their origins myself, so I find the idea that they were founded as a beneficial secret society interesting. We really don't have enough to work with though. Hoid In the reddit interview, Brandon said that Hoid had already lived much longer than any normal human, but that he hadn't experienced firsthand all the years he's been around, and used time dilation techniques to skip the boring stuff. (paraphrased) CrazyRioter, where was Hoid's prophetic ability mentioned? There's another thing I'd like to read for myself.

I don't like it at all, nothing in the book that makes it seem likely, or even possible. There's plenty in the book that works as an argument against it.

At first I wondered if the loss of memories was the boon, but I think it is far more likely that it is the curse. If we look at our other two examples of curses: upside vision and no feeling in the hands, we start seeing a pattern. Specific neurons have been disabled. Due to the lenses of our eyes, images are actually upside down when they hit the light-sensing cells in the back of our eyeballs. The Nightwatcher merely turned off righting mechanism we all have, like she disabled the neurons responsible for transmitting from the hands, and I assume she disabled the neurons responsible for retrieving information of Dalinar's wife or in fact interpreting any information regarding her at all.

There are no highstorms during the time of year with the Weepings, are there? So there's a time when there isn't much stormlight available. That would be when the characters are at the most significant risk. I thought larger gems would hold stormlight better. I know that cut gems hold more than uncut, and I figured that how long it lasts is dependent on the total amount.

When they were talking about the Chasmfiend gemhearts, they mentioned that larger gems have a much smaller chance of cracking/breaking. Since the emerald gemhearts are so huge, they're considered a near-inexhaustible supply of food. When Jasnah cracks her smokestone, Shallan notes that it will probably be sold to jewelers who will then cut several smaller gemstones from it. If you look at the quotes from the "Gem Currency System" thread: there's really not much of the gem in chips (a tiny splinter).

Still expecting a Adolin/Shallan/Renarin love triangle, but I'm hoping for a Shallan/Renarin outcome. And I think Kaladin killed her brother Helaran. Not a big fan of gay pairings, especially from out of the blue like Adolin/Kaladin would be. I got a bit annoyed with the Robin Hobb's 2 Rain Wild books because I felt like the gay characters were just there so that almost every single character could be happily paired up with someone, it felt a bit forced. I'd like Kaladin to work out his own personal philosophical and military issues before he starts worrying about the ladies. But not Shallan or Jasnah.