Brandon Sanderson

Well, what is Brandon doing with the money he got from the Kickstarter (beyond production, salaries, bonuses, etc)? He is backing every Kickstarter in the category publishing!

Edited by Samaldin on Mar 25th 2022 at 11:05:04 AM

Your link is broken.

Huh weird. Should work now.

But Wait, There's More!

Speculation are already running wild. The general consensus seems to be that it is Mistborn related (Kelsier quote and mist effects), but beyond that? Could be anything. Movie/Series anouncement, game anouncement, second edition for the pen&paper adventure game, an expansion for the housewar boardgame, Secret History 2, Brandon lied to us and W&W4 comes out next week, the options are endless?

So turns out it is not Mistborn related, but the prolouge of Stormlight 5. This time from Gavilars perspective and the questions just keep coming (though also finally some answers)

I really need to read Dawnshard and ROW now that its almost halfway to the release of Book 5. I keep meaning to do it. But it just keeps getting put on the backburner.

The physical version of Dawnshard is finally out. So maybe that'll finally motivate me to get caught up.

Also reminder: only a little under 24 hours left on the Kickstarter.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Mar 30th 2022 at 10:34:15 PM

Found a transcript.

Wow. Gavilar was an idiot. A cruel, vain idiot who was being manipulated by something that I'm ninety percent sure was a Voidspren. Though even considering the lies the "Stormfather" was feeding him, he had most of the pieces and resolutely refused to see them put together properly.

Oddly, the one thing he wasn't cruel about was Navani. He actually loved and trusted her, he just thought it was best to make a "clean cut" before he became immortal. I mean, he was still an ass, but at least he wasn't actually abusive.

Or he was still abusive, but had a vaguely sympathetic reason for wanting to drive her away. Like we saw how much that messed her up...

Well, we've come a long way from Good Guy Gavilar who was an inspiration for Dalinar's efforts to become a decent person. It's funny how the only good parts of his "legacy" were the lies he managed to get others to believe about him. Kinda like how Evi managed to get Adolin to grow up right by lying to him about what kind of man his father was truly like.

That said, I'm kinda hyped for Part Five. Part Four was a bit of a disappointment for me (and quite a lot of people, from what I've seen), but it certainly managed to set up quite a lot of interesting things towards the end. Hope we discover exactly who this fake Stormfather was during this book, we already need a spreadsheet to keep count of mysteries.

I remember finishing 4 and going online for discussion and wondering if these people had even read the same book I had. Definitely for 5, I'm gonna wait a day or two to collect my thoughts and also give other commenters a chance to.

Two interesting observation i have seen online regarding the prologue. 1) The "Stormfather" was clearly not acting how he does later, but also showed some reactions speaking against someone Odium aligned. Furthermore they must have some connection to the Heralds, otherwise they wouldnt have none that one of them died, also speaking against a voidspren. The most widespread theory seems to be Ishar is pretending to be the Stormfather and is using his unchecked Bondsmith powers to imitate his abilities (dont know if that works timelinewise with him retrieving his Honorblade).

2) The day Gavilar died was also the same day Shallans mother died and as we now learned a Herald died as well (which also explains the desolation despite Taln not breaking according to Brandon). This give credence to the theory that Shallans mother had been a Herald, specificly Chanarach whose portrait looks rather like Shallan and whose intensely red hair had been mentioned multiple times in the prologue and is also a characteristic attribute of Shallan.

And regarding book4 i enjoyed it, especially everything to do with Raboniel, though i am a sucker for everything explaining the wider cosmere. Though (spoiler end of book4. Actually what is the spoiler policy in this thread?) Mayalaran speaking somehow did not work well for me, despite her revival being one of the aspects i was and still am most looking forward to. Her being summoned in 7 heartbeats somehow worked better for me than that.

Where did this theory that Shallan's mother is Chana come from? I hadn't heard about it before yesterday, and suddenly everyone is acting like it's been around since the beginning.

Also, my initial assumption was that the dying Herald was Taln. Dying on Braize when he gives in to the tortures and being reborn on Roshar. Interesting to note that he never gave up, but instead someone managed to loophole it (possibly accidentally) by killing a Herald on Roshar. Does that mean they're back on Braize now?

I don't think the "Stormfather" saying things against the Voidspren necessarily disqualifies him from being a Voidspren. Rhythm demonstrated that most of the Voidbringers are exhausted and will do anything to end the war. Raboniel did science, I could see another manipulating humans and the Oathpact. Note that he only began to realize how much he had screwed up with Gavilar when Gavilar talked about his eternal war.

I dont know where the theory that Shallans mother is a herald originally came from, but i remember it at least as far back as 2020 when people were commenting how similar Chanarach portrait looked to the official art of Shallan. In addition to stuff like why Shallan was chosen as a Radiant as a small child and then even a second time later.

The Heralds cant really die on Braize, while they are there they dont have a physical body. Their cognitive (and perheps spiritual) aspect is tortured there. And a Herald dying would mean they are sent back to Braize, where they might be able to hide for some time and then withstand the torture for some time, but once one of them gives in all of them return to Roshar.

Some Fused are tired, but by far not all of them. In fact most of them arent really tired instead they have forgotten what they even fight for, now the war is all they have and they live for it (see the Pursuer). Raboniel and Leshwi are noteable exceptions. The intelligent Voidspren we have seen (who arent Sja Anat) on the other hand arent tired all of the war.

It'd take more than just a Shardblade to kill kill a Herald, wouldn't it? Otherwise why did Moash need that special knife to do the job?

Edited by RavenWilder on Apr 1st 2022 at 12:49:03 PM

Moash used a Raysium knife because Odium wanted to extract Jezerian's soul, but since the Oathpact is messed up after Honor's death, it permanently killed Jezerian instead.

I'm pretty sure a shardblade isn't enough to permanently kill a cognitive shadow otherwise the Fused wouldn't be able to come back.

Edited by lrrose on Apr 1st 2022 at 3:53:37 PM

,To kill kill a Herald you would need something to either sever their Connection to the Oathpact (which according to Brandon is far less broken than the Heralds would like to believe) or outright destroy their Cognitive aspect. Moashs knife was intended to capture Jezrien, but that capture severed his connection to the Oathpact and so he went into the beyond once he had expired like any other invested being. I think the only weapon we have seen capable of outright destroying a cognitive shadow (besides antilight weapons) is Nightblood, which could be considered an arteficial Shardblade.

Okay so i just finished reading Warbreaker, which I started because Nightblood shows up at the end of Words of Radiance.

It led me to the following question: spoilers for Stormlight): I know Kelsier shows up in Stormlight at some point (presumably as a villain), but does that happen in Oathbringer or Rythmn of War? Because I want to read Mistborn before it but I fear checking it out myself to avoid spoiling the plot of future books further.

Spoilers for Stormlight: Kelsier hasn't shown up in person in Stormlight yet (note that I haven't read the prologue for Stormlight 5 that Brandon read from recently). He's Thaidakar, leader of the Ghostbloods, who's been referenced several times starting in Way of Kings but he himself, his identity, and his goals start getting more focus in Rhythm of War with his true identity being heavily implied - later confirmed by Word of God - near the end.

Spoilers for the book 5 prologue, which dropped recently: Kelsier shows up in some form, but it's unclear if it's a remote projection or if he's just changed a lot. The point is, you wouldn't recognize him as Kelsier if you didn't already know who he was.

Okay, I'll read Mistborn after I finish Oathbringer, then.

Quick question that I had just now: so in Oathbringer Shallan runs into Mraize while going on a meeting with Ialai, and the two talk about Ghostblood stuff

But when during Wo R does Shallan reveals herself or the Ghostbloods figure out she and Veil are the same person? I honestly don't remember, I thought she only spoke to them as Veil and they never caught on to that fact.

It came up near the end. It isn't explained exactly how they made the connection, but they did, and Mraize confronted her in Urithiru. It's mentioned a few times that Veil looks like an Alethi version of Shallan, so since the Ghostbloods are well aware of illusion powers they might have just caught on that way. Mraize saw no need for this to be a barrier to them working together, and by Oathbringer he's used to dealing with her different personalities.

Thank you, a fair amount of Wo R just blurs in my mind.

If i remember correctly they figured it out because Shallan had to show her photographic memory while they were fighting at Narak to stop the Everstorm (while she was creating the map that made them find the oathgate). Mraize admits she actually had them fooled for the longest time, but it was extremly unlikely that there would be two unrelated people with such an unique ability (at the time at least), so they managed to connect the dots.

Edited by Samaldin on Apr 24th 2022 at 11:21:51 AM