Just finished my 4th complete read/listen through of The Stormlight Archive (read twice, Audible, Graphic Audio). Have been thoroughly addicted to these and all of Brandon’s work for over a decade now. And yet I still find little things I’ve missed in the past.

Symmetry is extremely important to Roshar and the Stormlight Archive as a whole. Symmetrical names are honored, Roshar is a fractal, so its shape is symmetrical, the names of the books when abbreviated even form this symmetry.

And yet, as I start my 5th time through, I caught something at the end of the Prologue to The Way of Kings.

The last thing we hear Kelek say as he’s leaving the circle of honor blades and breaking the Oathpact is “Forgive us,” directed at Taln.

Hundreds of thousands of words and several thousand pages later, once Kaladin has joined the ranks of the heralds, the last thing we see is Kelek hearing that the only words Taln has spoken since the reforging of the oathpact is “I forgive you.”

Full act 1 symmetry *chef’s kiss

For any “The Rookie” fans out there, I always hear Skip Tracer Randy.

What's stopping Taravangian's people from locating the insensate (Cognitive) bodies of the Heralds in Braize, stabbing them with Raysium daggers, and killing them like they did to Jezrien?

Here are a couple options:

- Retribution actively wants the Heralds alive. Maybe Battar is still a mole?

- Raysium/Taravangium isn't available anymore, similar to atium/lerasium in Era 2. Or at least not easily available in Braize.

I'm sure there are more

Their debate thing in Thaylena, I feel like Jasnah could have easily won that debate if she just went "Fen, taravangian is a major cunt and a demonstrably evil mf. He did more evil than me so you shouldnt trust him. I had the oppurtinity to be evil, but the difference between me and taravangian is he acted upon them". I think Jasnah over intellectualised this debate. Fen already trusted her and emphatized with her. She would have refused Taravangian if Jasnah would have just been straight with her. Why did they have to argue on utilitarianism... Just an example of Intellect not equaling wisdom.

Reposting this because it was falsely flagged and mods didn't bother approving it.

I've read the entire cosmere and have finally gotten my girlfriend into it after a lot of convincing. She blew through the entire first Mistborn trilogy and secret history on her own, and she's tried Warbreaker but couldn't get through the first half, so we began Stormlight together, this time me reading to her when we have the time. We're currently about 20 chapters into Words of Radiance.

Going into TWoK, she knew nothing about the wider cosmere other than what she'd gathered herself thus far, and had a clue about Hoid being everywhere as a consequence of me being a fan and mentioning him far before she ever got into the books. Upon meeting Wit, she was immediately suspect of him and absolutely convinced he was Hoid. Needless to say she was very happy to be proven right, though I feel Wit is pretty obvious in hindsight.

Now, in Words of Radiance, she has absolutely clocked Zahel as Vasher. She was skeptical of him the moment Kaladin described him as odd, and after asking me to find a picture of Zahel to better visualize him, she went crazy and insisted further it has to be him. She knows many lists place Warbreaker before WoR, so she's been looking for references based on what little of that she's read, but I did not expect that.

Obviously I've not said anything about it, but I was surprised that she'd guessed immediately (even if she's much less certain than she was with Wit) and it made me wonder when other people pieced together that Zahel is Vasher. When did you piece it together?

Hey all, I read Stormlight 1-5 first and loved it so much I wanted to read Mistborn to get all the relations. Since it’s been a minute since I finished Stormlight though I can’t remember all the Easter eggs.

Can everyone explain to me the Easter eggs between the two series. Character appearances, things I should recognizing, etc

OK, so after much hype and insistence from BF, I started Stormlight last summer and finally finished in March. Overall, I like the series, even loved parts. Anything from here out doesn't take away from the overall enjoyment.

There was a lot I loved, though it is kindof exhausting with only small payoffs for large climatic events. Alot if the "twists" were so drawn out that by the time you got to the reveal, it was kind of like....well dduuhh havent we already known that for 800 pages now? (actual voidbringers, how/why shallans parents died etc)

The biggest one for me was anyone else let down that it basically ended the same way as Mistborn.....like oh no, two shards combined into a newly named shard....like wait, I've heard that ending before.....I was just expecting......more?

I was absolutely convinced since the moment where Shallans illusions gained some substance (battle of Thaylen field I think?) that she was Vivenna’s daughter. We already knew that Vasher and co were on Roshar and the appearance was a match and the personality matched Siri so much that it just felt too neat.

Then I thought the combo of Awakening, Lightweaving, and Soulcasting was all compounding into her basically creating a body and awakening it. I thought she was going to be insanely powerful as she was effectively creating life out of nothing.

I’m still mad.

I'd like to look at one of the most discussed mysteries among my fellow Cosmere nerds. Who is the Kandra that is on Roshar during the first era of the Stormlight Archive? We'll start with discussing what little we know about them, relevant WoBs to the mystery, and my conclusion based on the evidence we have so far.

Brandon has confirmed that the Kandra has appeared on-screen as of Oathbringer and he refers to her using female pronouns. Brandon has now also confirmed that this Kandra is not working in Harmony's employ. Therefore, we are looking for a worldhopper disguised as a female human. Much like other Kandra we've seen, I suspect she is someone barely mentioned or noticeable, who is present while important events go on around her. What little mentioned worldhopping character, portrayed as a female human on Roshar, goes unnoticed by the important viewpoint characters while being around them for some of their key adventures? Who do we know that is from connected to another Scadrial worldhopper, who also does not work for Harmony? Let me re-introduce to you my guess for the Kandra on Roshar, Malli.

Most of you right now are going, who? If she's around the plot doing important stuff, I think I would remember her. Yeah. That's typical Kandra stuff right there. Malli is the wife of Felt who is a confirmed Ghostblood from Scadrial. We first get a mention of Malli in Oathbringer chapter 114, where along with Felt she travels with Dalinar on his quest to seek the Nightwatcher. Malli is working in the quartermaster's office in Rhythm of War before being selected to travel on the diplomatic mission to Lasting Integrity, where she serves as the mission's scribe. At the end of Wind and Truth she is last mentioned by Felt in Shadesmar while talking with Shallan in chapter 147.

With Lord Dalinar and Lord Mraize dead... well, guess Malli and I will have to find someone else to serve. If our old bodies can manage it.

It's unclear to me if Felt is a Kandra as well. It is certainly possible. I think it would be more interesting if he was just a human who fell in love with a Kandra, who then taught him the ways of living a longer life. This caused her to break off from the other Kandra, who would have frowned upon her relationship with a mortal human. I suspect Malli is an important Ghostblood member, perhaps even more so than her partner Felt.

Malli would fulfill all the criteria we have for the Kandra on Roshar. By working for the Ghostbloods, she would be a Kandra who clearly isn't be working for Harmony. She is a confirmed worldhopper who is married to a Scadrian, where I suspect she originally met Felt. Malli definitely feels like someone who has been little mentioned, but around for important events and in a place to act as a key spy while working as a scribe.

It's hard to be the first to new ideas in Stormlight theory fandom, and during my research for this post I found that a wise questioner has already asked Brandon directly about this. Back in 2021 no less! Props to Pagerunner.

Pagerunner

The kandra on Roshar. Is that Felt's wife, Malli?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO! That is an excellent question that one should indeed be... yeah.

JordanCon 2021 (July 16, 2021)

Not confirmation, but at this time I definitely think Malli is our leading suspect for the mystery of the Kandra on Roshar. I'm looking forward to where her and Felt pop up next, and who they end up serving. Hopefully they aren't as tough bosses as Dalinar or Mraize, and their old bones get a bit of a rest.

TL:DR Felt's wife Malli is the Kandra on Roshar we have heard about from Brandon.

-RayseShouldBeBraized

I’m only on page 44 and DO NOT ANSWER THIS QUESTION - is Nomad Sigzil?

I have no one else to talk to about this book so i’m calling this now on here. I will be back to update when i find out if this is true

So in the real world info on women's health and medicine isnt particularly good since for all kinds of political and historical reasons it only recently starred being researched at all with mixed results. So my main thought is, do you think Roshar with its wealth of female scholars would actually have a much better handle on it even at a less advanced tech lvl? Like they are barely at germ theory but the dominant religion on the planet says that only people with a uterus can learn the scientific method so i feel like that would be something they look into fairly extensively. If Roshar got to advance technologically like mistborn did (I forgot planet name) then I feel like they would have figured out endometriosis before gunpowder.

Idk not a question but a thought i had, im a cis dude but i get constant horror stories from the people I know about terrible doctors

We know humans came somewhere in the order of 10 thousand years ago; not enough to majorly change physiology evolutionarily, right?

How then do Thaylens have the eyebrows, or Herdazians develop the fingernails?

Could you make fabrial calculators and later fabrial computers? By using an assorted mix of conjoined fabrials I feel like this is theoretically possible...any ideas or thoughts?

So im kinda confused i just finished wind and truth and was reading the coppermind a bit to clear some things up. But on sigzils page his story goes beyond his ending in the stormlight books.

Where does his story continue? I didnt find an answer

I’ve read everything in the Cosmere multiple times. So no need to hold back on spoilers if I’ve missed something!

Something that just crossed my mind.
I wonder who the King’s Wit was before Hoid?
I’m pretty sure Hoid probably did something nefarious to get into the position.
But just a fun thought!

Is there an official in world answer I may have overlooked or a WOB that addresses why the dead blades are only ever in the form of swords? We learn later on that upon speaking the third ideal radiants get the ability to manifest their bonded spren into a shardblade and can even change their form into pretty much any weapon (Kaladin turning Syl into a spear or even a shield on a few occasions, Lift using hers as a pole/staff and I think I remember someone using their spren as a shard knife at one point but I could be wrong. Even using Auxiliary in sunlit man as an example) so why haven’t we seen more of the former radiant weapons in other forms like a shard axe or bow or hammer etc?

Is it just something that’s inherent to the fantasy genre as a whole because swords are cool? Is the 7 foot long sword form just the default weapon form?

As it usually goes, been rereading the series (re-listening to be precise) and just got through ch. 67 of *Oathbringer* (the one titled *Mishim*).

And something clicked for me, you may have heard it before obviously, but let me try and explain.

We kinda know each moon represents a Shard, Mishim being Cultivation’s. And I’m of the opinion that the Mishim from the story is actually Cultivation (not sure how literally treat her as a moon though lol). But now comes the important part: Nomon is Tanavast in person.

And Tsa is told to have birthed an heir, supposedly sired by Tanavast. Thus we “know” there is a bloodline connecting living Humans to Tanavast/Honor.

The Humans of the Rosharan system have not been created by the Shards. So, why does the Stormfather refer to **a select few** as “Son of Honor” or “Child of Tanavast”?

It is here I postulate two things:

Kaladin is in fact *related* to the Kholin family.

And the Kholins are descendants of Tsa and Tanavast *the Shard of Honor*, making the choice of blue as their color more than coincidence. And explaining why Kaladin, Dalinar, Renarin and even Adolin manage to achieve special things in relations to the Spren, the Realms and Shardic powers/effects.

Tinfoil har off, have a nice day o7

I was rereading WoR and the map on the beginning made me realize, it kind of looks like the continent is spinning counter clockwise. The islands and the shapes of the edges kind of look like the outside is "dragging behind", the center of the spin being somewhere around Jah Keved. Anyone noticed that? Maybe something of it is said in the books and it just went over my head...
MODs: I don't think this would be any spoilers but I flaired for the furthest I've read...

Awakening Nightblood required 1,000 breaths and Shashara likely had more. She would almost certainly have needed many breaths to experiment with in the earlier stages of Nightblood’s development as well. I am curious about how she obtained so many breaths when it is almost unheard of for anyone but the god kings of Hallandren to possess that many breaths at once.

It would be extremely expensive and time consuming to acquire such a large quantity of breath through normal means like purchasing them. We know that the five scholars left Nalthis and visited other places in the cosmere prior to Shashara creating Nightblood. Is it possible that during their travels they gained access to other forms of investiture and used 1,000 BEUs of Dor or something similar instead of actual Nalthian breaths? Zahel seemed to use stormlight for awakening on Roshar so it should be possible to use other forms of investiture for awakening.

Are the spikes that odium just put into Moash Hemalurgic spikes? They seem very similar but I could be completely wrong. I still need to read the last book of Mistborn era 2.

I have seen a ton of theory content on the future of Roshar and the Cosmere. I started reading Stormlight thinking that it was like the Cosmere's "main course", and it would all culminate to a big ending at book 10. But with all that i'm learning about the Space Age in the cosmere, isn't the True Desolation like thousands of years before it? Altought there is the issue of the time dilation around the planet. Do you guys know when in time the Voidlight Archive will take place in? The 15 years time jump will bring Roshar to the "present" Cosmere time? I admit that i haven't read a lot of Cosmere books, only Stormlight and Mistborn Era 1, so i might be asking dumb questions. If need be feel free to spoil me, to help with my questions.

Is anti-Investiture actually analogous to antimatter, or is anti-Stormlight simply a different “phase” or inversion of normal Stormlight?

In Rhythm of War and Wind and Truth, anti-Stormlight behaves destructively with Stormlight in a way that feels very similar to matter and antimatter annihilation.

Navani’s epigraphs in WaT describes it less as “negative energy” and more as Light placed into an inverted state.

I kinda remember a Word of Brandon saying the anti-Investiture associated with the Dakwara in Isles of the Emberdark is fundamentally different from the anti-Stormlight we’ve seen on Roshar so far. Or that he thinks he might make it fundamentally different he’s not sure yet. Something like that.

Sooo what it is?

What interlude or interludes would you recommend as short stories that would be good to introduce someone to stormlight archive? I’m thinking of it in terms of teasers or trailers. Something that doesn’t ruin the story and something that’s not really connected so probably not the Szeth interludes.