Brandon Sanderson/Cosmere Thread!

@LadyNighteyes Jasnah's hovering because, uh. well, I think she's Soulcasting that golden liquid-y substance behind her (oil? her essence is Tallow, and that governs oil), so she could be, like, stuck to that? I would say that the Shardblade is holding her up because Magic, but she's not touching it. (probably isn't just a Shardblade? I'd hazard a guess it's her spren Ivory.) I got nothin' re: the floating translucent stairs, though. they aren't even attached to anything, they can't be Soulcast... fabrials?? or possibly the artist allowing their imagination to run away with them. :P

and ME TOO!!! I'm hopeful because we got the one POV chapter from her last time... was it the prologue?... plus she was in the epilogue. I mean, I wasn't surprised she showed up there.
edit:

Spoiler: beginning of Words of Radiance

Shallan very conspicuously didn't look at Jasnah's bed/her presumed corpse when she went into Jasnah's cabin to retrieve her trunk. idk, it was phrased in a way that wasn't so much "Shallan avoided looking at the corpse" as it was "Shallan didn't see the corpse AT ALL, HMM, VERY INTERESTING." so I was like "no fucking way is she actually dead," and I was vindicated! haha!!!

her arrival just sort of Puts Her On The Stage, so to speak. she would be an excellent POV character. I wonder if Brandon Sanderson is going to do the Dancing Chronologically Around The Trauma To Save It For The End thing with her again? :P also I want confirmation of my gay Jasnah headcanon, dammit, I'm 100% convinced but the stamp of approval would be nice
edit the second: she was totally checking out that maid/assassin in the prologue, just sayin'. not to mention the whole "doesn't look for the approval of men" thing. I STILL LOVE SHALLAN'S REACTION TO THAT HONESTLY
Shallan: why does she dress pretty then??
me: [steeples fingers] my guy,

 

I would be extremely not surprised by either gay or ace Jasnah being canon, if nothing else because it makes the most sense of the fact that she's 30-something, a princess, and nobody has so much as mentioned the possibility of her marrying for political alliance. (There are explanations for why she could have avoided it other than sexuality- e.g. she'd have less world-saving time if she got married, or it might give her husband enough political influence to destabilize Elhokar further and she doesn't want to risk that- but "she doesn't like dudes" is probably the simplest.)

Spoiler

I'm sure it's Ivory, and according to what the artist said when the images were released, she's filling a break in the wall by soulcasting a wall of metal across it. My guess is she soulcast the steps so she could get above the melee to be able to do that freely. When I made a snarky post about her hovering on Tumblr, somebody linked to Brandon saying that no, the hovering isn't in the book, it's just the artist taking liberties, but I prefer my sibling's suggestion that Kaladin is just offscreen holding her up, probably while rolling his eyes really hard. :::PPP

Oh, and we know Oathbringer's flashbacks are going to be Dalinar, so my bet is the trauma reveal dance this book is going to be around his deal with the Nightwatcher.

 

definitely! when Shallan first said that I thought aroace(/aro, but headcanon-wise I tend to go for the package deal), especially because Shallan followed it up with "well she must do it because it makes her feel good about herself," which is 100% legit and a very feminist thing to say considering prevalent societal attitudes on makeup, etc. (and if it's feminist, I'm down), but then there was the whole checking-out-assassin's-cleavage-thing and yeah. new headcanon! in any case she definitely put her foot down at some point pre-books re: Not Getting Married, Mom(/Various Politicians), and I bet it was priceless. hope that scene's somewhere eventually. :P I'm impressed by the amount of commitment that it would've required, though; I mean, I bet politically speaking she wouldn't have to like or spend time with her husband, so she totally could've married someone who would let her do her thing and then ignored him for the rest of forever, but nah. I guess it's the Principle Of The Thing? or maybe the Heir Production Expectations. anyway, kudos to her, that must've been an epic Dignified Yet Emphatic Shitfit.

Spoiler

cool! that sword does kind of look oily, in like the opalescent sheen-on-top-of-puddle way, but I was a little unsure because I don't see any zircon/zircon-colored-glowing-shit the way Syl and Pattern glow sapphire and garnet when in weapon form. but zircon comes in a lot of colors, lol. I was thinking the yellow kind, but it could be the clear diamond-y kind, which is boring and not tallow-y, dammit, but would fit with the picture. OR maybe the artist is less obsessed with that kind of detail and fudged it a bit. :P

oKAY BUT the thing about the steps is they're not visibly attached to the wall?? like, they go up in a spiral, so they would need some kind of central column, not a flat surface. and the ones near the bottom are fading! that's not how you un-Soulcast things!!! :P and I like your sibling's suggestion too! I feel like Kaladin would be rolling his eyes really hard just seeing Jasnah anyway, but. extra-strong eyerolling? complete with rude gestures?

oh, right, I forgot that! :/ sorry, you said "POV character" and I thought "flashback-POV character," idk. and yeah, definitely! though not so much the Nightwatcher herself as, like, whatever made him go to her in the first place. (though I am super-psyched to learn more about her. Wyndle's her kid! will Lift show up again?? or other Edgedancers??? and anyway she just sounds cool.) I'm p sure myself that the gift Dalinar asked for was to forget his wife, because normally that'd be the bad side effect you'd get dealing with her and Brandon is a devious bastard like that, but why? and what was the curse he got, then?

 

I hope so, this has been low-key tormenting me since before I started grad school

 

Well, we don't know Gavilar well enough to know how he would be likely to react (though we do know Jasnah was a daddy's girl), but Navani seems like she'd be reasonable about a concern like "I'm not into men," especially if Jasnah brought up potential succession ugliness that could happen down the line because she's older than Elhokar. Or else, knowing Jasnah, she just went "oh BTW I'm not getting married, ever" in a tone of absolute authority and then left before anyone could question her. :::PPP

Well, yeah, that's what I meant. Both sets of flashbacks so far have been structured around setting up two major events, one of which is at the end of the flashback story chronologically and the other of which is earlier, but revealed later. Kaladin's were how he ended up as a slave and how Tien died, and Shallan's were how her dad died and how her mom died; my suspicion is that for Dalinar the first one is going to be Gavilar's Death Round 4, and the second one is going to be the Nightwatcher. My suspicion is also that we're going to get an entire book of shhhshhhshhh and then the Nightwatcher twist is going to have some identifying information that's a Big Deal, because he loves twists that recontextualize half the book, and probably giggles to himself while going back and writing in foreshadowing dialogue. :::PPP

And yeah, I've seen it pointed out in several places that he never actually says whether it's the curse or the boon. Wouldn't be surprised if it was the boon and the curse is something like that he remembers just enough to make him regret it.

wellllll I mean, he's her kid in the same way Syl is the Stormfather's kid, since spren are sentient concepts. Wyndle is a cultivationspren, so it seems pretty likely that the Nightwatcher is the spren of Cultivation the same way the Stormfather is the spren of Honor.

Have you read the Edgedancer novella? We got a lot of quality Lift there. She is cheated out of a pancake. :::PPP She's definitely going to be a main character long-term, but I won't be surprised if she's not a major player for a while.

 

GOOD DAY EVERYONE GUESS WHO WAS UP UNTIL 6 AM LAST NIGHT FINISHING OATHBRINGER BECAUSE I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN AND IS NOW SCREAMING INTERNALLY

 

God, I need library people to read faster so I can pick up my reserved copy

 

IT'S GOOD. Pacing is way better than the previous two, and Dalinar becomes a waaaaaay more interesting character now that we get backstory. Surgebinders/therapy is still my OTP.

 

* vibrates in anticipation *

 

Wondering: are spren restricted to weapon forms? Could they, for instance, become a shovel or a rolling pin or a cutting board or something equally non-weapon? What constitutes a weapon? Kaladin used a hammer in the fight with Szeth, so it doesn't have to have a cutting edge, presumably.

Maybe this is addressed in Oathbringer at some point, I don't know, I'm only a few chapters in. But I'm just curious about how the whole thing works. (of this is addressed in some side material or appendix and I missed I'll certainly feel silly)

 

It's actually addressed in the Edgedancer novella.

Spoiler: Technically a spoiler, hilarious

Lift summons Wyndle as a shardfork and puts holes straight through her food, plate, and the table underneath, because of course she does.

 

How did I forget? Obviously I should have reread that as well. Lift is, as usual, the best

 

Spoiler: OB spoilers, Saro slightly liveblogs listening

oh noooo

Kaladin meeting parents again, I don't know if I can handle this

 

Lift is ALWAYS the best. Wait until she shows up in OB. I briefly had to put the book down because I was laughing so hard.

 

My reaction to Arcanum Unbounded: What the fuck is this. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT. WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU. THE FUCK IS KELSIER GOING?????

it's like finding out about the deep lore of tes christ

 

In other news Forging is instantly cooler than Allomancy and Feruchemy and Hemalurgy because I Like Chinese Stamps.

 

Yeah, that's kinda the "I just found out a bunch more about the Cosmere meta-narrative" experience.

It is incredibly cool and I want to see more of it.

 

I am only day three of The Emperor's Soul right now. I read through all the Mistborn stories in the collection and also all the setting summaries and postscripts.

 

Sixth of the Dusk and Shadows for Silence are both really good too.

 

Spoiler: OB Liveblog Continues

ADOLIN YOURE DOING SO BAD AT NOT BEING SUSPICIOUS, GOOD LORD

ahaha, Meitantei Adolin. What a position you've got yourself in. Good luck, I can't imagine this going particularly well. I don't know if you're cut out for subterfuge and deception.

Unrelated to above, but Elsecaller has to be one of the cooler titles.

Babyspren! Kal's road trip continues.... I'm interested to see how people continue to react to Kal. Seems too positive to continue, but maybe I'm just too cynical.