Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive

While it kinda made sense in the Mistborn books, where different metals have different mystical properties, here it just seems kinda lame that aluminum can effortlessly block the most powerful magic around.

Also how exactly do you send a letter to a Shard? We know that Hoid's been doing that with a lot of them, and now apparently Taravangian was able to send a letter to Odium somehow. That has me wondering if there's a Cognitive Realm postal service.

edited 19th Nov '17 11:25:06 AM by RavenWilder

Had a shower thought. Dalinar goes to the Nightwatcher and Cultivation makes a boon/curse combo that gives him the strength to defy Odium despite the latter and the Diagram both predicting otherwise. And now Odium's Plan B champion is a guy who went to the Nightwatcher for the ability to save his people and doesn't understand why his boon/curse isn't more helpful against Odium. Methinks Rayse may be getting played again.

Probably. If you can make a living as a lighthouse keeper in another planet's Cognitive Realm, you can most likely make a living running messages.

Taravangian isn't Odium's champion. He's made a deal to work for Odium, but they're quite specific that Odium is looking to avoid the contest-of-champions deal now that his plan to corrupt Dalinar has failed. Apparently, even though Odium agreed to the contest of champions, it can't actually begin until Dalinar and Odium are in the same room together.

Though the idea of Odium being in specific places is interesting. On Scadrial, even while imprisoned in the Well, Ruin seemed to be more-or-less all-seeing and omnipresent. So far, Odium's ability to watch everything that's happening on Roshar seems far more limited, and the implication seems to be that, when he personally oversees the assault on Thaylenah, he's not overseeing all other Voidbringer activity simultaneously.

it makes sense that Ruin would be able to see everything on Scadrial and Odium can´t see everything on Roshar. You have to remember Ruin and Preservation literally created the whole planet, while Odium just moved to the greater Roshar System.

i think we haven´t talked enough about Adolin reviving his Shardblade. By now i would say it´s no longer just a possibility, but more or less certain that it will happen. I´ve also come across an intresting theory that Adolins bond to Mayalaran won´t be the standard bond. Maya lost part of herself when her knight broke his oath, it could be that instead of a Spren filling the cracks in a human soul in this case Adolin will have to fill the cracks in the Spren soul. No idea if Adolin would get surges from that, maybe Maya would get "Adolin-surges" like being fashionable regardless of the situation

As Raven said, he's not Odium's champion, but other than that you might have a point. But it seems like he just got his boon from the Nightwatcher instead of Cultivation herself, so maybe Cultivation looked into the future, realized that Taravangian wasn't going to do anything super important in the grand scheme of things, and left him alone. So less "Odium is getting played" and more "this tool isn't going to be very useful for him."

Expanding on Odium: He's still on Braize, and is just extending himself to Roshar proper. Presumably that's part of why the Oathpact bound the Voidbringers there. Hm, could Braize be the destroyed world that the humans were fleeing from?

What I find interesting is that Odium's precognition and the Diagram's prediction-via-complex-calculations both have a blindspot where Renarin is concerned.

If not for the ruined as fuck world in the same star system, I'd say Braize is #1 contender.

Random thought: ALL Alethi seem to have a Connection with Odium, if the way Navani managed to perceive even vaguely that Dalinar was confronting something instead of just standing around with a burning book means anything. The women are likely less susceptible, since they don't have a lifetime of the Thrill behind them, though.

Anyone else really hoping we get some scenes between Lift and Lopen in the next book?

I basically want to see how everyone deals with having the Assassin in White around now that he's not on a continent-wide regicide spree. And whether Dalinar will tell the others that it was Mr T's idea.

Dalinar could always try claiming that Szeth is a different Shin Surgebinder and count on the we-all-look-alike-to-you factor to keep anyone from being certain of the truth.

edited 19th Nov '17 7:19:49 PM by RavenWilder

Given how many times he barged into Azir to kill their Emperor, I expect they'd know what he looked like to well for that.

Bwahahahahaha.

Okay, brainwave: Dalinar got the power to link the three realms because the Stormfather is now pseudo-Honor by dint of absorbing some portion of Tanavast when he died. Syl is also part of Honor. Is it possible that some fraction Honor's portfolio entered the Ancient Daughter? And if so, what is Kaladin receiving through the nahel bond?

edited 19th Nov '17 8:40:45 PM by Watashiwa

Jokes aside, I think Dalinar has learned his lesson about lying and hiding things from his allies. Not to mention that Szeth killed his brother and tried to kill him. If he's willing to put that aside, who's to disagree? Especially since he's the only Skybreaker who hasn't turned on humanity.

No, the Stormfather didn't become pseudo-Honor (that's basically what he already was), Dalinar briefly Ascended as Honor, just like someone who used the Well of Ascension on Scadrial would become Preservation until the power ran out. Syl definitely didn't gain any extra powers or benefits for Kaladin.

The Stormfather has always been pseudo-Honor (basically the generic, store brand cola to Honor's Classic Coke), he's just moreso now that there's no actual Honor around, and because of their bond that extends to Dalinar, too.

Oh, that makes sense. Probably less powerful though, since Dalinar could't seem to move the planet's orbit or anything.

and The Stormfather was a "normal" godspren before Honor died. Now he's assimilated Tanavast's Cognitive aspect. Syl seemed surprised by what Kaladin did with the storm at the end of part 1, and while it probably is an application of Adhesion related to being near the 4th Ideal, it doesn't quite fit the Full Lashing.

edited 19th Nov '17 9:58:56 PM by Watashiwa

I think it's part of the 2 power interaction. it's been noted before that when you have multiple powers, the interaction between causes the manifestation of a new effect. Given the givens, Hoid would know the most about that in the whole Cosmere, but apparently he's not giving interviews unless you're a cute crazy Veden girl.

We know the primary cognitive aspect of Hnor is in the Stormfather, and that the Spiritual MIGHT be the spren. But as Ruin would put it, where's the Atium? Or rather, where's the physical solid, physical liquid, and physical gas components of Honor?

Isn't that what the highstorm is?

As I understand it, a highstorm is an almost-perpedicularity. In fact, with Cultivation's now taken by the enemy, unless someone makes arrangement with Dalinar, it's probably the only way left in and out of Roshar minor. however, an almost perpendicularity puts it as weaker than a shardpool or the pits of Hathsin (solid and liquid) and implicitly the gas portion isn't strong enough to transition through, else people would be getting in and out of Scadrial on Misty nights.

edited 19th Nov '17 10:16:27 PM by SCMof2814

It's not entirely gaseous; there's plenty of rain and crem in there.

Come to think of it, we're still waiting on an explanation for where crem comes from.

I meant the gas portion on a Shard, as in the Mists in Scadrial.

Given context, i think everyone knows it's some kind of airborne guano. After all, it's explicitly a fertilizer.

edited 19th Nov '17 10:50:19 PM by SCMof2814

edited 20th Nov '17 12:40:10 AM by rikalous

addendum: Adolin isn't broken and thus cannot form a traditional nahel bond. Maya IS broken, any bond Adolin could form a would be one to fill the gaps in her soul.

edited 20th Nov '17 12:58:19 PM by Watashiwa

Er, what point are you countering here?