Timewaster's Guide Archive

Yeah, I kind of think they are different too.  I'm just trying to decide where the "Dawnblades" could have gone, if Shardblades are not physically the same thing.  Throughout Roshar's history, it seems that power is almost defined by how many Blades (of whatever type) that you control, so it seems kind of weird for so many to just go missing.  The only other reason for their disappearance that I can think of (other than that the original "Dawnblades" were corrupted and are now the "Shardblades") is that someone amassed so many, that they could hide them or dispose of them in some way to keep their power.

**Mistborn Spoiler**

Its almost like the Atium in the Mistborn series.  It wasn't that there was physically a huge shortage of Atium, it was more that the Lord Ruler had so much of it, that he could act as though there was only a small amount, to control the market.  Something similar could have happened on Roshar, but then the "stockpile" of weapons, or where they were hidden, was lost with time. 

Your theory is really interesting, and the name of the Herald's blades (Honorblades) almost seems to reinforce it.  Honorspren and Honorblades might be related in someway, maybe when the Heralds ditched their blades, they returned to their spren state.  If so, they would definitely be "special", and Syl definitely strikes me as a special spren.  Its quite possible that if you choose to release your shardblade, instead of having it taken from you, then the spren is released back into the world.  Can't wait to see what others might think about this, I miss a lot of the interviews Brandon has, so its quite possible some of these questions have already been asked.

I might be remembering this incorrectly.. but didn't the Lord Ruler have his Feruchemy bands pierced into his arms in some way?  I feel like I remember reading that, and Vin literally ripping them out of his skin.. Its also quite possible that the years its been since I read Mistborn have tainted my memory haha.

I still can't believe that anyone would think AonDor was too powerful... Thats like saying a bow and arrow are too powerful, because you've never seen them before, and don't understand their limitations.  The first time someone got shot at by an arrow, they were probably screaming for fear of their lives... Flying sharp objects?  No thanks!  Not until they saw how the bow worked, how long it took to shoot/reload/aim, the limited number of space to carry arrows (and therefore limited number of arrows), did the person getting shot at realize that it wasn't that big of a deal. 

AonDor is quite similar.  People fear what they do not understand, if I saw fireballs flying at me, I'd scream and run like a maniac.  If I was then given the chance to see how it was created, the time it took to draw the Aon, the time it took to learn how to draw the Aon perfectly (including the multitudes of modifiers), I wouldn't be as shocked. 

Like others have said, AonDor is limited, but it in ways that MANY other magic systems are not limited.  The way the land is shaped is a huge limiting factor, it took them a decade to figure out why their magic suddenly stopped working, and this is from the best AonDor users ever.

Another analogy I feel fitting:  Many video games (games like Starcraft, or Heroes of Newerth) have a HUGE time stamp on them.  They take months, if not years, to master every aspect, and every possible thing you might face.  In fact, many things in real life are like this.  AonDor may have limitless potential, but people do not have limitless memory, or limitless abilities.  Saying "Anything is possible with AonDor" is correct, but what are the chances that anyone, or any 100 people could account for every possible thing you can make with Aons.  Sure its limitless, if you ignore the distance from Elantris, and the shape of the land arguments.

tl;dr - AonDor has limitless potential, but who can use every single thing that AonDor is capable of?

I don't think its really underwater either.. I was just wondering if there might be a reason other than "lets just try this out".  Its really fascinating nonetheless, and I hope we learn a lot more about the environment in addition to all of the other interesting things in the world.

Every being that we've encountered so far, other than humans, seems to be just a play on an ocean creature.  Knowing Brandon's amazing writing skills, there must be some reason that everything seems like it could underwater.  For some reason, when I think about it, I just think about Spongebob and how it doesn't really appear to be underwater (most people in the show are stuck to the ground).  Chulls are like giant crabs, theres flying eels, and even spren could be like a microorganism (or in the case of Syl an intelligent shrimp!).

I'm not hatin' on WoK, I loved pretty much everything about the book, but I'm curious if Brandon has said anything somewhere that I haven't seen.  It seems like something that he did on purpose, but I have no idea.

Also, I talked to my mom about this, who hasn't read the book but enjoys other fantasy series (like WoT), and she said that maybe it really is underwater, with some weird sense of gravity.  While I don't follow her line of thought, I was wondering what other people might have though about this.

Most of it seems relevant, but the 3 peninsula part seems like it might be dated.  I'm guessing he originally had a certain map layout planned, and then totally scrapped it for the current Roshar layout.  Its very interesting nonetheless, I'm excited to see how much of it will end up being true at the end, assuming I can remember this information even exists in the 10+ years it will take him to finish the series.

Sorry, I probably should have posted it there, but I use Brandon's most often, and when I first noticed it was back up I was too excited to think about where to post it haha.  If someone really wants to move it, they can, it doesn't really matter :p