Brandon Sanderson

Huh, I hadn't noticed that about Forgery. Chai Shan at least doesn't seem to be region-locked though, does it? I was gonna say that when the inevitable Crisis Crossover materializes it'd be a shame that the Selish wouldn't be able to use their neat almost-as-versatile-as-typical-fantasy-magic AonDor, but then again Surgebinding and Awakening also require resources specific to their worlds (as does Sand Mastery, I'm assuming). The only onea free from this constraint seem to be the Metallic Arts.

And goddamn, you guys are really making me wanna get White Sand.

The one with the psychic birds is also cosmere, and seem to have no geo-locked limitations. Once your bird is psychic, it's psychic.

Which begs the question... what ELSE can you feed the worms to to make them psychic?

That wasn't Sel, though. As far as we know, AonDor and Forgery, both originating on Sel, are the only two systems with geographical components at all, and it's not clear whether Forgery is region-locked to the same extent as AonDor is (or at all, for that matter).

But as to your question, "what else can get powers from psychic worms" is both an extremely interesting and rather terrifying thought.

Maybe that's how the Ryshadium(sp?) horses on Roshar got made., or something. Some kind of horse-specific parasite.

My theory was that it has something to do with the spren. In the second book, the horse groom mentions that the Radiants used to have Ryshadium, and the way she says it makes it sound like they were the only ones who did. Plus the whole choosing their riders thing, and Sadeas is mad because no one can figure out how to breed them.

So yes, I am saying that the Ryshadium are Knights Radiant.

Random thought: what happens when you put the psychic parasites inside a mistwraith? Or a kandra? Would it give an investiture-capable kandra that's not bugfuck nuts?

I could certainly see them being not quite Radiants but not entirely normal, either. Like Lopen, who (so far as we know) hasn't said any of the Ideals, but was still able to hold stormlight. (I want to say that those not-quite-Radiants are called squires, but I can't remember if that was mentioned somewhere in the books, in a Word of Brandon, or invented by someone in the fandom.)

Of course, there's still a pretty major difference between someone who strives to live up to the ideals without actually saying the Words (which is what squires seem to be) and... horses.

edited 1st Aug '16 7:44:34 PM by NativeJovian

Maybe the horses have eaten larval chasmfiends, and have investiture stored inside from essentially having metabolized a lot of gem hearts?

I would guess that either the Knight Radiant picks a horse, or his spren does it for them, and a "half-bond" is formed. So morality might not matter for them quite as much as it would for real Knights. Or maybe they are given intelligence first, and once they're smart enough, then morality does affect the bond. I guess that would explain why there are still Ryshadium after the Recreance. The Knights Radiant betrayed the spren, but the Ryshadium didn't, so the spren continued giving them their little half-bonds. Then the spren realized the Desolation was coming, and knew that they'd need more than smart horses to win.

I dunno, I'm spitballing a lot. I just doubt it's anything as simple as eating the right worm or the right piece of a greatshell, because someone would have figured out how to replicate it by now. Remember in Sixth of the Dusk, the only reason no one figured out the source of the birds' powers was because every single island was its own miniature Death World.

With giant featherless murder chickens!

Don't forget that they're the only nice things on the islands.

I am re-reading Alloy of Law and noticed something. Wax's uncle and sister had their 'accident' together with Edwarn's wife, shortly after Edwarns son succumbed to an illness.

On the first one, I am beginning to suspect Chekovs MIA.

And on the second one, maybe that was the original hook Telsin used.

"Maybe your son wouldn't have died if he had been a Bloodmaker. Instead some waste like Wax's sidekick got that power. What a waste, isn't it?"

I doubt that was when he was recruited. They've been funneling money from the house for years, if the extent of the difficulties Wax had in the first book is any indication. They were planning to disappear because dead people have it easier operating conspiracies. I think the son dying was a genuine accident, since thy explicitly mention the plan was to leave him in charge of the house. If there's any conspiracy involved, it's that Harmony might have set it up to force them to bring Wax back to the city.

edited 3rd Aug '16 4:29:58 PM by SCMof2814

Edwarn has been an intelligent, forward-thinking asshole since Wax was a kid. The exact timeline of his recruitment is unclear, but I'm guessing the recruitment itself was basically just "Hey Uncle, I belong to an organization with extraplanetary technology dedicated to conquering the world. Join us or die."

He'd jump at a chance like that.

Been re-reading Shadows of Self at work by now and again I noticed something.

Paalm is basically a case of Death by Irony. Her entire shtick is getting people emotional enough to break them out of a hold. But while her and Wax are in a standoff at the end, the moment Wax breaks out of that and shoots her with the Spike-bullet is when she says killing Wayne would be a Mercy Kill (as he's Harmony's).

In short, she pressed Wax's Berserk Button.

edited 11th Aug '16 11:28:30 AM by 3of4

We can always just say "she was nuts yo"

Occam's razor and all that—Paalm was just trying to break Wax's spirit as per usual villain shenanigans.

So, probably already mentioned, but with Stormlight Book 3 apparently ~71% done, what plot threads are people most looking forward to playing out? For me, it's the business with Sadeas and the Listener deserters (never found the bodies and all that).

I'm looking forward to seeing how people react to the Knights Radiant 1) being a thing again, and 2) being the last, best hope for humanity rather than the Great Betrayers. The political fallout is going to be ridiculous, and I'm interested to see how everything settles out.

On the subject of political fallout... What's going to be the implications of a new Highstorm going the wrong way 'round? It's going to devastate the Shin, for one thing. The Warcamps are probably gonna be wiped off the map, or nearly so. Cities like Kharbranath are built in lees...

Yeah, Civilization is going to get hit hard.

A lot of the bigger cities have walls to the west too, though. Not as strong as to the east, of course, but they're built in valleys strong enough that cities aren't going to be literally wiped off the map. Hell, for a long time the Alethi warcamps didn't even have an eastern wall, they just relied on the fact that their buildings were stone and strong enough to survive.

It's the small villages that are going to have the major problems. And Shinovar, of course. At least most people know to run inside when the land withdraws for the storm. The Shin will have no idea what's happening.

I'm more thinking of the ones built less in valleys and more under cliffs— that city where Szeth gets recruited by Tarvangian sticks out as one.

Do we know if the High- and Everstorms move at the same rate? That is, will they keep colliding at the Shattered Planes' longitude, or will their collisions start creeping one way or another?

Rule of Drama says they're probably gonna move around, but I haven't seen actual confirmation, no.

I bet it's going to be the deciding factor in at least one major conflict over the 10 books.

edited 19th Aug '16 5:24:50 PM by 32ndfreeze