Brandon Sanderson: There's always another secret project.

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eke out: Feb 24, 2013

getting around to listening to the most recent livestream and [all cosmere spoilers]

the very first bit about how Shallan's ability to see the future is special, beyond what other lightweavers can do, that it's been seeded in the books since WoR, and that some listeners have probably figured out what's going on -- if her mom isn't Chana, he's purposefully trolling us about it at this point

# ¿ Dec 22, 2023 15:39

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 14:06

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

MildShow posted:

Continuing all Cosmere spoilers - while I still buy the Chana-Shallan theory, my read on what he was alluding to is that it�s because Shallan has two Cryptic bonds. It reminds me of Vin�s ability to pierce copper clouds because of her earring.

this is a very reasonable point i hadn't thought about. after sunlit man it does seem more plausible to believe that there are lingering abilities even from dead spren/broken bonds that can show up (also of course with Kal/Syl and Adolin/Maya, we've also seen there's more like a continuum of "broken bond" and "dead spren" than a binary)

perhaps rather than reaching for some deeper magical reason re: Heralds it's as simple as an additive resonance making her illusions in particular, the thing her order is uniquely best at, stronger than they should be

# ¿ Dec 22, 2023 15:50

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

RC Cola posted:

All cosmere. when does she see the future? I'm blanking on this

it's specifically this question https://wob.coppermind.net/events/526/#e16361

quote:

Q: We�ve seen Shallan�s drawings appear to make people into �better versions of themselves.� But we also see her draw Yalb surviving the shipwreck, and later find out he did. Is she actually seeing the future in which she just happens to inspire people to be better? If so, this would make Wit�s warning to her in Oathbringer more concerning.

Brandon Sanderson
As will all sort of future sight/foretelling in the cosmere, it is not necessarily telling the future so much as seeing possibilities. And Shallan has� we�ll get into this in Book Five. Shallan�s a little extra good at this, for Spiritual mumbo jumbo. (It�s not necessarily just Spiritual mumbo jumbo, 17th Shard.) In this case, we have a very distinct reason why this is happening with Shallan that you might be able to put together. It�s pretty obvious. But you should be able to see these things with Shallan very early in the books. As early as Words of Radiance, I was sticking in little nods to this. She is able to grab glimpses of the Spiritual Realm in ways that even other Lightweavers can�t do. Lightweaving always has a bit of this, right? And this comes back to what�s going on with the Realmatic Theory and Plato�s Theory of the Forms as kind of a foundational text that helped me develop this in my mind. You�re seeing more perfect versions of who you could be. When she�s doing a sketch, she�s sometimes sketching not who you are, but who you could be.

We already knew about how it was kind of a spiritual connection to a potential future that they could be, but I believe this is the first confirmation that there's something here that, explicitly, other Lightweavers can't do -- people speculated it was the specialty of the order or some kind of unique ability they have, rather than something special to Shallan in particular.

eke out fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Dec 22, 2023

# ¿ Dec 22, 2023 15:58

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

Ethiser posted:

We also saw in Rhythm of War that Honor used to place some sort of restriction on what you could do with the honorblades when he was around so it could make sense that the radiant system might have had a similar effect.

more ROW discussion: yeah even if not the same kind of restrictions, the oath system is literally a restriction.

not perfect, since you can probably sincerely swear the oaths while literally being at war with other people who've also sworn the oaths, but it is a baseline of conduct enforced by pieces of the gods giving you powers

eke out fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Dec 30, 2023

# ¿ Dec 30, 2023 15:37

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

Torrannor posted:

Now some Secret Projects spoilers, plus Sixth of the Dusk sequel spoilers, plus Stormlight 5 prologue spoilers:So the fact that there are some people on Roshar that Sigzil still cares about suggest that certain people have attained some form of immortality/longevity. And for me the most obvious method would be if we got a new set of Heralds. Which is very possible, as both Ishar in RoW, and the Stormfather (but maybe Ishar again??) in the SA5 prologue made clear. There's also the Rosharan/Scadrian colonizing conflict in the future, which maybe suggests Dalinar might become Taravodium's champion after all?

I'm more or less still collecting my thoughts, but the amount of meta-knowledge we have to make informed speculation is pretty unusual, imho. But it's fun!

I think the only thing that goes against "new Heralds" as a theory is that it's so clearly spelled out and almost necessary from what we know right now and maybe Brandon zags on us and does something completely different as a surprise.

I am also officially casting my lot and hoping for "Dalinar's the baddy but he's not Taravangian's." I think rather than some uncomfortable long-term indentured servitude, it'd be a lot more fun and interesting for Dalinar to Unite Them and Wield Them With Honor, so to speak, and hold both Honor/Odium himself. This is perhaps just personal preference, but I would not look forward to a long-term plot about how Dalinar Is Forced To Do Evil Things compared to, say, Dalinar being 100% rational and "honorable" and doing things for justifiable reasons and becoming the bad guy anyways.

Like, historical imperial conquest is full of people who claim the best reasons and believe in their moral justification, even when they're monsters, and I want that for Dalinar more than I want him tragically struggling to defy Taravodium or whatever

# ¿ Jan 9, 2024 22:07

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

CapnAndy posted:

I don't find the speculation that combining Odium and Honor would result in War persuasive. By the same logic, combining the shards of Cultivation and Honor would result in Tower, which is nonsensical. War is a much more limited concept than either emotion (which is what Odium really is) or honor.

all cosmere

I do think this is a good point, while the bearer's intent matters and someone might think of that as War and effectively become it, it's hardly necessary. It's easy to imagine something more like the Skybreaker 'Crusade' deal: God's Divine Anger being used with Honor to fight wrongdoing, for instance.

That might, to someone like Dalinar, be something more like "Justice" or something along those lines where he's really not a bad guy -- but it could still result in a lot of war anyways

eke out fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Jan 10, 2024

# ¿ Jan 10, 2024 21:23

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

re: all stormlight

as far as i'm concerned Chana Davar is basically canon until we get enough new SA5 to know otherwise, there's just so much poo poo pointing that way. but i think the Fake Stormfather thing is much shakier, he's always been a crafty liar and it's just further exposing some of that

# ¿ Jan 16, 2024 01:41

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

say what you will about sanderson but his ability to self-critique and realistically address his own flaws is surprisingly strong

# ¿ Feb 10, 2024 01:12

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

eszett engma posted:

Prediction for future books regarding Shallan and her mother: It'll turn out that Chana is Shallan's mother, and Shallan was born to be body snatched by Chana in a way that transfers her mind but leaves behind her ties to Roshar so she can escape before the coming desolation.

i am more suspicious about the opposite direction: did Chana have to break off a chunk of her power, somehow, to have Shallan? Is Shallan more invested than normal humans? Does she have some remnant of her mom's Connection to Honor? etc

i think some of these things could explain the Cryptics' "oh well if more of us have to die to bond her then that's okay" stance. but just the Herald connection alone could be enough for that

# ¿ Feb 13, 2024 22:32

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

Grundulum posted:

Because I also associate RAFO much more strongly with Sanderson than with Jordan.

yeah in addition to being the only one still alive, he gets it from being a big nerd in the early internet robert jordan fandom before he had much personal success

# ¿ Feb 29, 2024 23:41

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

Synesthesian Fetish posted:

Based on RoW: I think they specifically mention that those are "lesser" spren in the same way that Horse are used for work but aren't sentient in the way humans are. The Sibling sees that as enslavement but I think other high spren don't have issues with lesser spren being used that way

also Taravangian's "half-shards" -- shields that can block shardblade blows, etc -- are very clearly literally enslaving spren that could be radiant. not sure what order but however they're made is guaranteed to be bad

# ¿ Mar 8, 2024 20:25

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

NikkolasKing posted:

I thought it was the Thrill or even Odium's influence directly. When Dalinar is nearly killed and he has his (quite frankly awesome) march back to claim his revenge, he is described by others as having red eyes, IIRC.

yeah i also think that, if there's anyone involved, it's this. thrill dalinar in flashbacks is an absolute loving monster and he's definitely doing superhuman things

also we know he's deeply connected to odium during those years because that's like, cultivation's whole gambit in oathbringer, needed to do a full miracle deal to separate Dalinar from his influence for a while and allow him to recover himself

eke out fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Mar 9, 2024

# ¿ Mar 9, 2024 01:13

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

rafikki posted:

shouldn�t polyamory appeal to his Mormonism

i suspect mainline Mormons probably have a lot more opinions about polygamy than most people do, considering it is responsible for a literal schism in their faith and a bunch of radical far-right separatist groups that exist solely to continue patriarchal domination they are denied by the orthodox church

# ¿ Mar 12, 2024 02:14

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

Mordiceius posted:

Ah. Interesting. So a Returned can use any Investiture for life energy but not for application. I wonder if Brandon is going with an idea that "someone that can burn investiture to keep themselves alive will always be able to access it, no matter the origin, but the intelligent application of Investiture is what requires an Identity lock or something like that.

caveat though i think that wob is specifically about vasher alone, who is a very clever and cosmere-savvy immortal wizard that's spent a long time on a planet with another magic system and studied it extensively (including, you know, making an eldritch abomination of a sword while trying to copy shardblades). i don't think it's necessarily easy or common knowledge

eke out fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Mar 20, 2024

# ¿ Mar 20, 2024 00:05

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

socialsecurity posted:

Lots of WoB talk about Dor with vague hints from later in the series. Dor is special because it is "unkeyed" meaning anyone can use it. It's the leftover "bodies" of Devotion and Dominion after they were shattered by Odium. Retrieving it is difficult due to reasons not super explained thus making it highly valuable.

yeah iirc i believe the explanation is that the cognitive realm where Dominion and Devotion died is like, literally plasma or some other equally fundamentally dangerous poo poo

# ¿ Mar 20, 2024 00:22

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

Synesthesian Fetish posted:

Additional thoughts on Secret Project 5 preview chapters

I'll need to check the text for the original reading of the Sixth of Dusk chapter that he did at a RoW release tour stop because I think he added some additional details but.... the Rosharan (who is DEFINITELY a Skybreaker but could be a Singer or maybe a human and humans have since learned to speak the true tones of Roshar at this point in the future, but the 7 foot tall thing doesn't help narrow it down since Kaladin is nearly 7 feet tall) says things like "fight alongside us, if you wish, to gain status and elevation." and "Choose...Cooperation, slavery, or death.� which seems to point to the theory that by this point Honor and Odium, possibly Cultivation, have merged to form something like Conquest: Perpetual war and expansion, or at least are working together for the same effect. The Rosharan seems to take it as a matter of fact that this war is a part of life and the important things are status and moving up. I would be that if something like that happens it happens at the end of Book 5 and the fallout is explored in the back 5 books.

i mostly agree with this, but i think it's possible that it could be individual civilizations' interpretations of the shards' intents (for each planet) rather than the shard itself being fundamentally changed/combined/etc. otoh it would be fun to have old-fashioned knights radiant fighting a guerilla war against the new Conquest Warlight dudes

similarly i suspect scadrial will be divided. the Ones Above here are all about masks and are probably south scadrian and i think we know that the upcoming "cold war" type mistborn novels are between the north and south. it'd be thematically appropriate if which side of the Harmony/Discord coin you support reflected a geopolitical divide as well

eke out fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Mar 22, 2024

# ¿ Mar 22, 2024 22:10

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

Mordiceius posted:

That's a fantastic breakdown.

I love trying to figure out how these pieces slot together and/or (by design) clash.

Aging -
As for Scadrial - I was looking at the Metallic Arts of Scadrial and saw that Cadmium stores Breath, but turns out that is breath as in air and breathing, not BIoChromatic Breath. Nicrosil specifically stores Investiture. So the only way to reach that Immortality stage as a Scadrain would be if you have the Feurochemical ability to tap Nicrosil. But that doesn't seem like it would be enough on its own because sure, you could store Investiture, but how would you get enough Investiture to store. And, would this even count in the first place? Because I feel like you need to be "holding" that Investiture within yourself. If that Investiture is in your Metalmind, it's not really within you, is it?

Roshar is the big question mark to me. There seems to be no way to "hold" Stormlight over an extended time. Stormlight seems extremely volatile. If it is within a person, it leaves through their mouth and radiates out of their skin. If it is held within a gemstone/fabrial, it is still and imperfect container and leaks over time until it is all gone. I feel like a Rosharan could hold 2000 breath of Stormlight, but they would lose it quickly.

i think this is right and it's a key distinction, whether the magic is actually stored "in you" - as with Breaths - versus systems where the investiture flows through you but doesn't really reside in your body/spirit/whatever for very long.

seems like the tradeoff is that when the magic is in you you start getting a bunch of physical benefits, but the amount you can use is much more finite, while in systems where it flows through you like Stormlight or the Metallic Arts you can wield far more total power but don't get the spillover benefits

eke out fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Mar 28, 2024

# ¿ Mar 28, 2024 21:38

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

CapnAndy posted:

^^^^ tag your own quoting of it, then!

Full Stormlight spoilers: Do we actually know what the gently caress un-corrupted Truthwatchers actually do? Besides regular Lightweaver-style illusions?

doesn't answer your question (i think we really don't know) but those little lore videos have some interesting snippets about where he's heading with the orders we know less about

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kPMfm4u--k

eke out fucked around with this message at 00:02 on Apr 16, 2024

# ¿ Apr 15, 2024 23:58

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

taco_fox posted:

Speaking of lovely grimdark fantasy, I've been listening to Way of Kings Prime on my commute and I'm super glad the final book didn't include the Shallan rape and multiple forced child marriages.

ew, thanks for the warning, cross that one off my list

# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 20:50

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 14:06

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

yeah i frankly don't have a lot of interest in a "i wrote a whole book but i needed to throw it out and rewrite it completely" deal like twok prime

dragonsteel at least will have some hints at what the heck is going on in the rest of his universe he's still cagey about

# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 21:12

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