Timewaster's Guide Archive

Do we know when he sought the Old Magic or when his wife died?  I'm sure the latter happened first, but is there any mention about whether these things happened before or after Gavilar's death.   Not that I think it actually matters, I'm just curious.  All I can find is "many years" ago.

One thing, I don't think the curse and the boon could be the same thing.  I think they are always separate.  This is pretty much our best source of information on the Old Magic so far:

“Doesn’t work that way,” Av said. “It’s not a game, no matter how the stories try to put it. The Nightwatcher doesn’t trick you or twist your words. You ask a boon. She gives what she feels you deserve, then gives you a curse to go along with it. Sometimes related, sometimes not.”

I can't decide if the memory loss is the boon or the curse, but I'm leaning towards curse.  Our other two examples of curses (given by Av, again) are two numb hands and seeing the world upside down.  Our one example of a boon is a bolt of cloth.  Av says that all his family regretted the curse except for his father.  The memory loss seems to fit with the other curses better than the boon.

“You used to be vibrant,” Syl said. “So many looked up to you, Kaladin. Your squad of soldiers. The enemies you fought. The other slaves. Even some lighteyes.”
Lunch would come soon. Then he could sleep until their bridgeleader kicked him awake for afternoon duty.
“I used to watch you fight,” Syl said. “I can barely remember it. My memories of then are fuzzy. Like looking at you through a rainstorm.”

She was actually watching him even before he rejected the shards.

Had the Parshendi known what they were consigning him to by tossing his Oathstone away as they fled Kholinar that night? Szeth had been required to recover it, then stand there beside the road, wondering if he would be discovered and executed—hoping he’d be discovered and executed—until a passing merchant had cared enough to inquire. By then, Szeth had stood only in a loincloth. His honor had forced him to discard the white clothing, as it would have made him easier to recognize. He had to preserve himself so that he could suffer.

Either there's some bond between him and the Oathstone that allows him to find it whenever it's unclaimed, or he was leaving with them, saw them toss it, left them to pick it up, and just stood there.  I'm thinking there's some sort of bond, presumably with more effects than just him being able to find it.

Quote from: guy on September 20, 2010, 07:57:08 PM

that doesnt explain the parshendi, but it is a really good idea, and i have been hoping that all of the heralds are still around, i was actually hoping that the interlude characters were the heralds, or some of them were.

The parshendi are just those parshman that have already been activiated into 'voidbringer' mode. Taln may have given up years ago, but it may have taken years for him to finally manifest on Roshar. I have a theory on another post which pretty much says that the strange things that people are saying when they're about to die are related to Taln's soul trying to get back on Roshar. Notice how alot of the quotes somehow focus on Taln or the heralds. Since these events started happening the same time the parshendi appeared, this might be when Taln finally broke under the torture and tried to escape/return to Roshar.

Parshendi don't seem quite as simple as "parshmen activated into voidbringer' mode", they seem to have too much society and culture, and if their only goal was the destruction of the other races, they aren't going about it in a very effective way.  Really, only one quote seems to focus on Taln, one on the Heralds, and 1 that looks like it might on Heralds or Radiants (you went with Heralds).  I suppose you could credit a few vague ones with them, but it's far from definite. 

Did the Parshendi not start growing armor until after they started battling on the Shattered Plains?  I don't see it mentioned in the books Shallan was reading or by Dalinar when Jasnah asked him to retell the story of their first encounter with the Parshendi, even though they mention their high quality weaponry in both places.

I wonder if Thresh traded Szeth directly to the Parshendi, or if there were more trades between.  How exactly did Szeth know that the end of the world was coming soon back in the Prologue?  These last two things might be unrelated.

Very impressive, wish I had a physical copy of the book to look at these pages, the computer version is a bit tiny.

Is it just me, or does this manner of writing seem a bit impractical? I mean, every line you make has to be duplicated across because of the top/bottom symmetry.  You could actually write twice as fast if you just wrote the top, and since the bottom is just its mirror image, you don't actually need to draw/write it.

One thing I'm a bit confused about throughout this book, in order to recharge gems, is there some technique besides leaving it out in a highstorm?  Like just transfering it from one stone to another using some sort of fabrial? 
There was this bit near the end where they mentioned repairing Dalinar's shardplate on the way back from the Tower:

For now, he wore Adolin’s. They had collected all of the infused gemstones among his twenty-six hundred men and used that Stormlight to recharge and reinforce his armor. It was still scarred with cracks. Healing as much damage as it had sustained would take days, but the Plate was in fighting shape again, if it came to that.

Did they just hold up all the gems a few at a time in the place that the gems fit into the shardplate?  How do the moneychangers do it if there's on highstorm?

There's a small amount of time between letting go of a shardblade and it dematerializing, but it's long enough to cut through something as it's falling.

He cursed, yanking Gallant in a tight turn, but the tail came too quickly. It slammed into Gallant, and in a heartbeat Dalinar found himself rolling, Oathbringer tumbling from his fingers and slicing a gash in the stone ground before puffing to mist.

So, no one has any ideas about the missing statue of Shalash in the prologue?

All I can think of is that maybe Shalash is female, and her statue doesn't fit modern standards in some way (not wearing the glove, etc.). But that's just me grasping at straws.

The whole thing with the statue of Shalash bothered me too, but we never got any hints about it.  Another thing I was bothered by that we get no explanation on:

Tiny, near-invisible spren were floating out of the beast’s body, vanishing into the air. They looked like the tongues of smoke that might come off a candle after being snuff ed. Nobody knew what kind of spren they were; you only saw them around the freshly killed bodies of greatshells.

I posted this in another thread, but figured it bore repeating since it was mentioned in this one.  Seems from this interview, that Taln will a POV character:  http://yetistomper.blogspot.com/2010/09/brandon-sanderson-interview-stompingmad.html

I thought he might be dead, since he was prodded and didn't move, and since the sword didn't disappear (but, as well already mentioned, if it's his Herald's blade, it behaves by different rules.), but I was reading some of Sanderson's online interviews just now.

http://yetistomper.blogspot.com/2010/09/brandon-sanderson-interview-stompingmad.html

At this point I believe you have met every one of the major viewpoint characters for the series. I don’t want it to spiral out of control. I think too many viewpoint characters is a danger to epic fantasy, putting a writer in difficult predicaments for subsequent books--whether to leave some characters out, or whether to show a little bit of each of them without getting any major plot arcs for any of them.

So you’ve seen pretty much everybody. Now, at this point there are several who are major viewpoint characters for the series who we have not had many or any viewpoints from yet--Jasnah is one, a character who shows up in the epilogue is another, and there are a few others--but there are in my mind essentially eight or ten major characters in this series, and it will stick to that.

If Taln was dead, he wouldn't be getting any viewpoint scenes.  And I really don't know why he'd be waving around a normal shardblade instead of his Herald blade.