#but maybe there's a way? an impossible illogical way accessible only to God?...

[ahopefulbromantic]

wait do you believe in hell as eternal conscious torment? (im curious bc that debate has been a crux of my own journey w faith & christianity)

I believe in hell as eternal disconnection from God or more precisely as defined by the Catechism a "state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed" (CCC 1033). How that would look like i have no idea but i do know that tearing yourself apart from the one and only source of life, love, happiness, fulfilment, goodness, and everything that is good would absolutely be the worst torment imaginable, or rather well, unimaginable. And i do know God would hate to have His beloved children be in this state. I hope with all my heart that hell is completely empty, i wouldn't wish it upon anyone and i mean anyone

Oh and since you mentioned a debate, can you tell me more about it? Cause i'm not sure what you're refering to and i'd love to learn more! God bless you anon and best wishes for your journey with faith!

[tumblunni]

Random game idea that came to mind: clockwork man simulator

I dunno, i just got the general image in my head of a soft homey aesthetic equivelant of that terrible game about the androids. Itd be more like just a life-living game, like stuff like animal crossing or harvest moon. Just fully exploring the perspective of these creatures and the world that created them, rather than BOOM ACTION SETPIECES or whatever

I only have some scattered ideas for it tho, and not really any idea of a main plot or gameplay gimmick or 3 act structure or like.. Anything to take this from idea to game, lol.

SO ITS MISC IDEAS TIME

* more of an olden timey fantasy style instead of sci fi. Youre still an artificial person created to run errands for humans, but youre more of a combination of clockwork and magic. There's still an element of being made of inanimate object parts but there's also some glowy energy core or something. Possibly would be interesting if it was something unusual to use as a power source? Like i dunno, a bell or an acorn or a teacup or one of those rocks with the hole in it that sometimes wash up on beaches. Or just a glowy orb of Generically Defined Energy Substance, which flows through you like aesthetically pleasing glowy veins

* you're a service clockwork homunculus thingy, bought by a disabled person who needs help around the house. PERHAPS A SWEET OLD GRANDMA! Whatever i decide on (IT'LL PROBABLY BE THE GRANDMA), your owner is a kind person who sees you as part of the family and feels guilty using an android as they believe you are absolutely a real person and wish they could set you free. Unfortunately theyre kinda one of the people who needs androids the most, as they dont have any family who can help them. At the same time though, they are very old and quite resigned to nobody caring about them, plus theyre just a good person who'd put your life over their own. So i feel like the plot would literally start with this person trying to set you free and you are just like "i do npt understand the concept, that is not in my programming". Its become kind of a morning routine now to hear "youre free! Get out, dammit!" and have a brisk argument over breakfast that inevitably always ends with you refusing. Grandma's prpbably got so desperate they're resorting to tactics like trying to trick you into getting on the bus out of town or "if you dont leave im gonna hold my breath and i wont stop til i pass out". All inevitabley failing! So they just try and help you understand your sentience and become more independant, encouraging you to take free time every day and go around the town to enjoy yourself. Which is kinda a concept you dont understand yet, so its just like MISSION RECEIVED: WALK IN CIRCLE AROUND PERIMETER OF TOWN. And its kind of a hit and miss experience because the people in this town have never seen an android before- this magic is usually a thing for rich people and this proposed scheme of disability assistance androids is still in its test run. Some people are suspicious or hateful, but there are others who welcome you to the village and brighten up your day. Not just a world of 100% everyone assholes to make a melodramatic point delivered awfully through racist stereotypes.

* i think a good subplot with this disabled grandma would be to show her regaining her independance too. Like she starts off quite fatalistic and used to nobody caring about her, all this mobility aid stuff is new and she feels like its too complicated and she'll never get it, or its too expensive and she doesnt deserve it, or all the nonsense that ableist society drills into people. But with the support of her new friend and access to more tools to help take her life into her own hands, she starts regaining hope again! Like ironically she felt like her previous carers were all the kinds of awful things people expect these androids to be. Robotic, emotionless monsters who dont care about the person's feelings and comfort, and certainly not independance. She suffered from a lot of the same nightmares that androids do too: being forced into a rigid schedule, limited in her options, deprived of basic rights, being told how she's supposed to feel, etc. But to an android that all seems like an inefficient way to do things! My function is healing and human healing efficiency is decreased in this circumstance! I am incapable of ignoring data due to personal bias! Basically imagine MAGIC BAYMAX ok. Anyway this plot would progress with grandma regaining her smile and eventually itd be a super happy day when she's able to get her new wheelchair that she can wheel to the shops on her own without needing someone to push her. Itd be really sweet from the player's perspective to get used to saying goodbye to her every morning and then suddenly you see her wandering around the shops with everyone else and she can become a part of the vibrant town too. Im thinking give her more complex AI than all the other villagers even, like give her a more complicated set of actions and move routes and stuff like SHE IS EVERYWHERE and she is LOVING IT! Life is back where it belongs: in the hands of the person living it! And it also intensifies the message of android slavery not being necessary or moral or good. Like i mean here this lady benefitted from getting an android but literally all she needed was a friend, a healthcare professional who gave a shit, and affordable access to mobility aids. Humans could have done that if they werent lazy assholes! And this android deserves the right to the same uplifting independenceifying experience they helped this grandma have!!

* random idea: all the events you encounter on each daily walk are actually stored in your inventory as items. Memories of experiences, good or bad, become literally experience for you! They each affect stats in different ways because of what you learned from that moment. Maybe bad experiences give you combat abilities and good ones help with your daily life skills and development of personality? And its possible to crack or even shatter a memory, if new experiences end up clashing with it. Usually its just 'oh i learned the more advanced version of this skill through better understanding of why humans do it', but also traumatic memories damaging good ones, and good ones helping ease traumatic ones. And maybe you could solve puzzles and make friendships through using these memory items? Youre faced with a challenge and have to make the connections in your mind to figure out which past experience is relevant here. And becoming more talented at something would help narrow down the choices you get given? And being unskilled would do screwy stuff with the interface like putting the correct option far away near the bottom or mixing up the names and icons of each memory. (Dunno how i'd program that though!)

* Maybe character customization similar to Medabots? The games were so cool and ahead of their time, you get to collect hundreds of different robot base frames and then mix and match the parts to make your own cool aesthetic! Shame it was only used for fighting though, that could be cool in a more social game too! Like go out wearing different fashions to help befriend different people, but its more fun cos its ROBOT FASHIONS! 'hey grandma do u think fred will like this arm or this arm?' She fusses over you all excitedly cos you showing an interest in fashion is a good sign of developing free will! Though you still get stuck in logic loops of 'you should wear what you like best, honey' 'HUMAN OPINION IS OF HIGHER PRIORITY' ...god i think i just made this character so i can ramble Relateable Social Anxiety Moments BUT ROBOTS

* possible ideas for Memory Events you can find around town! Meeting a cute neighbour cat- a fascinating creature you were not programmed to deal with, as you're a hospital android who isnt even meant to leave one single room for your whole life. You get absolutely entranced by the confusing small carpet with legs, and spend all morning interrogating it on why it wishes to rub its face on you. Why is your motor overheating, tiny carpet? Human master, how do you troubleshoot this noise?

* Another idea! You get 'mission: count the steps on the stairs to town' popping out of nowhere, and at first you ignore it because this is an illogical directive that does not come from a human. But it keeps happening every time you go here!! You try finding new ways to get to town crossing through fields or forests or walking directly into the path of a horsedrawn carriage, but ALAS it seems the only efficient path is those curious curious steps! Only then do you finally realise the mystery command is coming from yourself! You're not used to this strange concept of just..wanting to do something, all by yourself. You talk to your human and she says that's 'natural curiosity', 'personality', 'free will'...things that seem impossible to understand. You ask her to take you back to the shop to get this fault fixed, but she says its good and you should try acting on it. But it'll serve no purpose!! BUT AAARGH I HAVE TO KEEP SEEING THOSE STEPS EVERYDAY!! Eventually you do count them and you find it makes you satisfied for no logical reason. And that was the end of that small crisis, but you'll forever be confused by the whole thing! The next week you're like "what if i organized all the blue things with the blue things" and youre intensely frustrated at yourself. Human grandma says this is a "taste for fashion" but you remind her that you do not have a tongue. (And then she gets you the robo parts catalog and you unlock customization. Yay!)

* Possible idea for a sad subplot! A new human visits the village and he seems very strange, sometimes seeming kind and other times being angry and standoffish. You think its a simple 'jerk with a heart of gold' story but the truth is a lot stranger! It turns out this stranger is actually an important bishop in disguise, and he has multiple androids acting as body doubles to protect him while he's on the road. Theyre supposed to just be empty husks who only know how to imitate, but they clearly have their own personalities! You're tasked with finding all these runaway androids and returning them to their master for a reward, leading to a goofy lil game of hide and seek with twelve of the same guy. But it starts to get a bit sad because they're all convinced theyre the real one, and whenever they stumble into holes in their memory they freak out. When they all see each other gathered together its an absolute despair explosion and theyre forced to face the truth. And you can help them bond together as brothers and develop their own individual identities, even helping them pick out their own new faces from your set of fashion roboparts. Sadly you cant keep them here for long because itd obviously be suspicious to have exactly twelve new people move into the town right when twelve bots went missing. So you get help from one of grandma's friends to send them off in a stagecoach to another town where they can find employment and start their own life disguised as humans. The asshole bishop obviously doesnt react well to his androids vanishing into the night, but he never thinks of blaming you because after all you're only an android and you could never choose to help others out of all that free will you dont have. He just berates you for being so incompetant as to fail his quest to find them, and you get your reward taken back. Oh no~ i am~ very ashamed~ i will go tell my human that my ocular circuits require recalibrating~ (internally: HAHA YEH FUCK U OLD MAN) Grandma is super proud of you!

And thats all i got so far

[the-colony-roleplay]

Teilo Embry Aisling | Twenty Four;  Survivor

House: Brink Security Class: 1 Status: Uninfected Alignment: New Age Rebels Name Pronunciation: T-eh-lo / Ash-ling

History

The Aisling family was an Ivy league legacy and a name spoken among strangers. Teilo Embry was the proverbial middle child, and with the twins born before him, he had not one, but two quintessential standards to model himself after—more if one counted his father, and his father before him.

Teilo’s father was a prosecutor in criminal law for many years, and the Aislings came from a long line of Yale alumni. Now, Grigor Aisling was also a professor at the university, and his notoriety on campus was regarded with both intimidation and awe. Naturally, Yale is where Teilo’s older brother, Arlo, attended. A high achiever in athletics as well as his studies, Arlo rowed for the Yale Heavyweight Crew and was majoring in Medicine.

Arlo’s twin, Nesta, went North, instead, pursuing her BFA at Concordia, in Montreal. She’d said she’d wanted to go for the art and culture that the famous city was known to have, but Teilo was fairly sure she’d just wanted to avoid having her parents breathing down her neck. He couldn’t blame her for that, he supposed, but getting away from his parents wasn’t the reason he accepted Harvard’s offer, rather than that of Yale. His decision to break away from tradition was more built on a desire to escape his predetermined legacy, rather than his parents themselves. He wanted his accomplishments to be his own, and to avoid any postulation that he was receiving special treatment. 

In fact, he was somewhat sullen to leave his mother’s devoted coddling behind. He even often missed his father’s dry and drawling jokes, his impossible dedication to being the cleverest man in the room. Which happened to be a difficult task ‘round a table of over-achievers. Needless to say, family dinners were less like a meal and more like a round of double jeopardy.

And then there was Brenin—Teilo’s younger brother, and the youngest of the family of four kids. Brenin was easily the quietest of the lot of them, but perhaps not the softest. Three years junior to Teilo, he had his sights set on studying anthropology, perhaps with a minor in linguistics. With each of his siblings, Teilo had a dramatically different relationship. He shared his creative nostalgia side with his sister, his almost boyish sense of humour with Brenin. But it was Arlo he looked up to. Arlo, who would challenge him to the end of days with a guileless battle of wits. Arlo, who inspired Teilo’s work ethic, his commitment to making something of himself.

In the September of his first year at Harvard, the smell of cedarwood and lemongrass greeting him in the main hall like a long-awaited welcome home, he knew this would be the beginning of the best years of his life. Anticipated six long years of sweat, blood and tears and was looking forward to every, agonizing second of it.

Unfortunately, as it would turn out, he was barely fated to half that. After spending two years on his undergraduate studies, he was midway through his first year as a graduate student, when best laid plans became of no consequence. 

On the far East Coast of the states, Harvard and the surrounding areas faced mostly secondary debris falling during D-Day. Damage to the city was palpable and chaotic, of course, but over the years, Harvard and other high profile institutions had become relatively equipped for emergency procedures. Bunkers provided shelter during the worst of the falling, and its high towers were a refuge in waiting out the initial floods of first impact.

But as a campus as huge as Harvard, with so much security and resources all in one place, it quickly became the long-term refuge of survivors within a five mile radius. It also became the second Colony to rise, (at least as far as official documentation was concerned), shortly after Colony 1, at MIT—a facility so equipped with labs and scientific resources that within the first year post D-Day, it became a housing unit for much of what would eventually become the intensive research and study of the new world’s evolutions.

For a few months, there was no way to be sure what had happened to his family, but launching himself into an unpredictable landscape to embark on a blind hunt for them, seemed too illogical and irresponsible for Teilo to justify. It wasn’t that he wasn’t willing to risk himself, but logically and mathematically speaking, keeping where he was, with a connection to some facet of civilization, was his best bet at finding them.

As it would turn out, when contact was reestablished with pockets of survivors in surrounding areas, Teilo found out that his sister, Nesta, was indeed alive, but was having issues finding means of crossing the border and travelling particularly treacherous impact damage, especially by herself. His parents, and his brothers, who were still back in Connecticut, had also survived but were living among other clans. At the time, interstate transportation wasn’t especially plausible, nor was it particularly safe. And so the Aisling family, having at least confirmed each other’s safety, resigned to their continued separation for the time being. With the exception of Arlo, who left New Haven as soon as he could, to try to get to Nesta in Montreal, since she couldn’t get to them.

The thing about residing in Harvard after the apocalypse was that after a few years, for Teilo and other students like him, life arguably wasn’t that different from what it had been before. Or at least, it had an illusion of consistency—a kind of comfort in the known that survivors could cling to for at least some semblance of stability and solace. Of course, everything had changed about the world, how they could navigate through it, and what their places in it were. But as far as their day to day surroundings, the lives of Teilo and his fellow ivy league students, were disrupted on less absolute terms. Unlike people in private residential homes, campus residents were the safest remaining where they were. Of course, only 50-60% of the campus remained safely habitable but that being said, they had access to state of the art security—whatever the depleted resources could still power, that is—and could press on into the darker days with a body of people that had formed long before that fateful day in 2157.

This is how one of the largest Colonies in North America would see its beginning. Harvard’s Colony 2 formed naturally, and its citizens were less like fish washed up on strange shores, but rather bees imprisoned to a hive. They had a tendency to like to look busy, feel busy, be busy. Of course, as a population of high achieving academics, this wasn’t exactly a surprise. And so Teilo was not alone in his restlessness, nor in his desperation to cling to his status as a law student, maybe one day even lawyer—if there was ever again a law to protect.

Teilo Today

When the NWRF rose, they did so out of Colony 1—the first Colony to see the likes of the Reformist regime, and the place that would soon become the home to the NWRF Headquarters. But in the beginning, the NWRF’s influence was slow, patient and mostly unthreatening. It was something being talked about in gossip, but never got enough ground for it to be cause for concern. No one expected it to have the surge in power that it did.

As an Uninfected, Teilo was hardly affected by these rising rumours, but after the Second Falling, when his best friend Sid became one of the newly Infected, the whispers were hitting closer to home. As the NWRF grew, and their impending government rise became a very real inevitability, Teilo and Sid knew it would soon become a matter of fight or flight. If Teilo had only had himself to worry about, he might have stayed. Tried to reconnect with his family. But with Sid as an Telekinetic, the stakes were higher. Teilo wasn’t willing to risk his best friend’s safety and so together, they chose flight.

They left in the middle of the night, trading stolen resources from Harvard (food, technology, Power chips, Echo Chips) to buy their way onto a Merchant ship heading East across the Atlantic. Their hope was that the Reformists would become a thing of the Americas, but that the status divide wouldn’t manifest the same way in other countries, cultures. Teilo knew better than anyone that American culture had a deeply sutured superiority complex.

Leaving Harvard was more difficult for Teilo than he cared to admit, even to himself. He took nearly everything with him, much to Sid’s dismay. Nearly all of his survived belongings—which was basically everything. That which he did have to part with, he made a gigantic fuss about. Because Teilo had always been nostalgic, and was raised material; he had an immeasurable affinity for his tailored suits, fine leather Oxfords, and cap toe boots. He also had a collection of vintage casette tapes he couldn’t bring himself to part with, and truck loads of hardcover books he’d read and reread a hundred times—many of which he’d written notes in the margins. And then there was his Star Wars paraphernalia, because beyond being a bookworm and a academic addict, he was a bit of a closeted nerd.

And these things of his, they were his identity. They were the meat from whence he came. They reminded him of home, of his mother, of his dreams and ambitions—and they were what made him who he was, and as far as he was concerned, he didn’t give a fuck if the world had ended. So long as he was still here, these things were his and they were allowed to still matter to him. He was still allowed to give a shit about this stuff, even though most people seemed to disagree.

Sid, unfortunately, was both a victim and a reluctant supporter to this. It was one of Teilo’s many frustrating idiosyncrasies, and arguably part of his charm. So despite how inconvenient (to put it lightly) it was to lug around three suitcases, two mailbags and a briefcase on their trip to God knew where, Sid seemed to put up with it, for the most part, for which Teilo appreciated him all the more. Of course, he’d pressured Teilo to leave more behind, and there were times Teilo was sure Sid was finding ways to sell off some of Teilo’s books from under his nose in order to lighten the load, but otherwise he was probably more patient with Teilo than he deserved.

It had been two months of travelling by the time they arrived at Colony 22, and most of that had been aboard the crowded lower decks of Merchant ships, making friends with the rodents and gambling with wastelanders and vagabonds. Unfortunately, for these two Ivy League boys, however, their arrival at Colony 22 was met with the ugly discovery that though they had succeeded in putting thousands of miles between themselves and NWRF Headquarters, the Reformists had beat them to the punch. NWRF Reps were already in place at Colony 22, and in the time it’d taken Teilo and Sid to get there, the purging of the wastelands had begun, something which hadn’t even started when they’d left Harvard.

As a young man who spent so much of his life committed to the law and to justice, Teilo doesn’t feel he can just stand by and watch a corrupt government disregard people’s rights. The law and the state may be in disarray since D-Day, but basic human rights remain in tact. As far as he’s concerned, someone needs to be doing something about protecting those rights—regardless of status. The Radical Movement, however, is not Teilo’s idea of progress. Their actions are impetuous, irrational and impulsive—none of which will earn them any long term success. And the Rebels? Well, they are even more infuriating. Though their hearts are arguably in the right place, Switzerland never saved any lives. The time is now and the conflict is real and Teilo believes that the New Age Rebels need to have a stronger voice, need to step up and take responsibility and contribute to this fight for justice by being active participants, rather passively preaching peace but doing nothing to provoke change.

Teilo still thinks about his family regularly, and does what he can to keep in touch. He feels the most angst about being apart from his mother, and the most guilt about having left Brenin behind. Arlo may have been Teilo’s role model, but Teilo had been Brenin’s. He misses their time together, as infrequent as it had been after he’d gone to Harvard. 

RELATED BIO: Siddhartha Jha

TAKEN

[tanoraqui]

Pre-(Me Reading) Oathbringer Speculation

So…Oarhbringer theories…I’ve been playing spoilers chicken but I think I’ve remained mostly clean, so this is based almost entirely on just WoK and WoR, +Edgedancer. Also I may have looked at who gets POV chapters.

Character Stuff

Dalinar is presently leader of the new would-be Knights Radiant, but based on the attributes associated with their Orders/heralds, that job should be Kaladin’s, with Dalinar more…advising? Which works for both their character arcs:

Kaladin needs to get his head out of his ass, not just ease up on his hatred of lighteyes but also start seeing the larger picture BEFORE he fucks it up, not after (see: swerving with bridge, challenging Amaram.) also, Windrunnere are known for protecting and leadership - so I bet his next vow will be about that. Good opportunity for it as he heads to Kholin, where the darkeyes’ revolution of his dreams seems to be starting. After Elhokar in WoR, he won’t just throw in with the uprising, but you know he’ll want to.

I’ve also seen a spoiler that he may end up, at least briefly, with the Parshendi who fled rather than take Stormform? Pls be kind to them, Kaladin. They need it.

Dalinar, meanwhile, needs to figure out how to let go of power. Shallan (I think it was Shallan) was right: he’s here to gather the new Radiants, not lead them. Not forever, at least. Between the book flap and some stronger spoilers, I know the politics are going international now, as Dalinar tries to rally the whole world, and fucks it up a little - good. I wonder if the second vow of the Bondsmiths is something like, “I will unite people, even if I am not in the lead”? “Even at cost to myself"?

P.S. Gonna find out about Dalinar's wife this book! Gonna find out what deal he made with the Nightwatcher (who is definitely Cultivation-based)! Should learn more about the Old Magic with that, and Cultivation, who frankly I suspect is behind the very warm feeling from that last, golden dream Dalinar had at the end of WoR!

The book flap says Dalinar must “confront the past” and the back says he “seeks the past. That which was abandoned. That which he must not learn. For those secrets will crush him as they did the Knights who came before.” + Amaram’s obsession with Talenal and my mild spoilers-given knowledge that we’re getting a bit more about the Heralds this book, I bet Dalinar isn’t just confronting his own past re: his forgotten wife, but also

a) the fact that 9/10 Heralds, now held as idols, just walked away from their sworn duty

b) the realization of this on the part of the Knights Radiant was the reason for the Recreance. “If the best can’t/won’t do it, why should we?” sort of thing. And so our heroes will have to choose for themselves...

[hint: “Someone has to start...We have to be better than them.”]

Shallan…Her brothers will arrive, which will require her to confront how much she’s changed since she left home, but I think her story this tome will be relatively character development-light, plot/worldbuilding-solving-heavy.

Adolin: The first time I read these books, I said Adolin is poised for an interesting 3rd book, and I stand by that. He CAN'T tell his father what he did; it would put Dalinar and his rule-following honor in an impossible position. But the guilt will stew, and he'll have to deal with the consequences, and incidentally, this is probably the first time in Adolin's life that he's so overshadowed? Not just his cousin the king and his father the Blackthorn, but his father - and fiancée, and ex-bodyguard, and even his baby brother the Knights Radiant? I'd like to see him struggle with that.

I'd also like to see him remain NOT a Knight Radiant, not yet at least, but maybe pick up Talenel'a Honorblade and join in the fun that way. That's probably the best Order For him anyway, the resolute, dependable fighters.

(A part of me is terrified of an endgame where Adolin is Odium's Champion. Foreshadowed by his dueling prowess, and his...periodic tendency towards rashness and rage.)

Less Main Characters:

Szeth!! I'm gonna be honest: all I want out of this book is for some Szeth POV where he's talking with Nightblood and it has the vibe of a buddy cop comedy. All I want. Also, I guess he's going to go judge Shinovar [that sounds so pretentious; good grief, Nale], and I hope for his own sake that he's merciful about it. I think he will be. He doesn't want to kill, even if they were in denial and it resulted in years of torment for him and the world.

Renarin will hopefully get a little more attention, but I think still no POV? So not much attention. (I WANNA MEET REN’S SPREN SO BAD.) Hopefully he can get a little confidence. 

I suspect his seizures are actually due to his Truthwatcher abiliies somehow - maybe because he’s been resisting them? Or they just always go hand in hand, but will get more manageable? Which pisses me off tbh, bc it’s been so great having Kaladin’s depression and Shallan’s inclination to cope with trauma by wildly disassociating be mostly unrelated to their powers, just part of who they are as people (more related in Shallan, but still it’s like...who she is? And that was a perfectly natural reaction to trauma, and treated as such.) 

But the fact that Lopen’s arm started growing back, and Renarin stopped needing his glasses, says Stormlight heals major, old, and chronic illnesses/injuries/physical problems, which means imo that Sanderson is not treating physical disability with the same grace he gave mental. Maybe the seizures will continue with the visions they probably accompany, and it’s just something Truthwatchers have to deal with - that could be okay. Maybe it’s chronic, and if he loses access to Stormlight, they’ll return? Kaladin’s depression acts a bit like that, which makes sense because that IS due to real physical cause i.e. chemical imbalance, which maybe the Stormlight is fixing temporarily but these kids’ bodies are still set up just a bit wrong, and that’s not something that can be “fixed”...that’d be nice...

(This got away from character-related theories, sorry.)

While I’m on the subject of Representation in Fiction: GIVE SHALLAN SOME FEMALE FRIENDS. ALSO MORE RECURRING FEMALE POV CHARACTERS, CONSIDERING...JUST LOOK AT THAT LIST UP THERE. 1 WOMAN, 3 MEN. C’mooonnn 

Speaking of which: My Wife If Only She'd Have Me, Jasnah Motherfucking Kholin had better come tell her actual mother that she's alive tbh, or at least send word, because Navani being forlorn to the point of illogic is, um, devastating. But also I will gladly die for the snark-filled adventures of Jasnah and Wit, so...

I know she has at least one POV chapter and I'm so excited. Only in one section, though, so alas we won't get much

Let Jasnah Have A Full Character Arc 2k18

Tentative guess that the wall she's soulcasting up on the cover is in Kholinar? Though also, who the hell knows, she and Wit could go anywhere. I ship it, y’all.

Taravangian has a recurring POV this book, which I assume is true recurring and not just, like, one chapter per section. Probably his arc will involve a growing uncertainty, as reality diverges further from the Diagram and unifying the world is harder than he thought, particularly with Dalinar as competition. (Note: Dalinar does need to learn to surrender power, but...not to this guy. He’s doing a LOT of wrong things for right reasons, and a) I disagree with that personally, and more importantly b) the morals of this series disagree with that.)

He believes his intelligence is the Nightmother’s boon and his compassion is the curse, and I bet either he’s got that backwards or they’re BOTH the curse and his desired “capacity” will manifest as, like, being at the right place in the right moment, five books from now.

Venli is worth mentioning, because she has a POV every or nearly every Interlude and I thus expect she’s the Traitor named by archetype on the back of the book. I don’t know how she took stormform before telling Eshonai about it, without anyone else noticing, but she clearly did. And the effect clearly sticks, even once a Listener changes back to another form...

Worldbuilding/Plot Theories:

Quick rundown of assorted factions/secret societies, as I understand:

Galivar: Started receiving same Honor Dream Voicemails as Dalinr, believed ‘em. 

Goals: Return the Listeners’ gods (did he KNOW that meant Odium? I’m guessing not, bc he told Taravangian they needed to save the world.

Resources: 1 trapped Voidspren, acquired ?????

The Diagram: Tipped off to nigh Desolation by Galivar, asked Nightmother for “capacity” to stop it, got seesawing intelligence/empathy.

Goals: Unify world under his rule, with violence and trickery if necessary, to brace against Desolation

Resources: Diagram, Death Rattles, widespread, free-ish agents in unknown locations. Significant members: Taravangian (head), Moash (confused).

Sons of Honor: Worship Heralds?

Goals: Sought return of Voidbringers in order to prompt return of Radiants and more importantly Heralds, who will return and...restore honor and piety and all that jazz?

Resources: Mostly unknown, but some scholarship. Significant members: Restares (head, not yet met), Amaram, currently in custody of Talenal but not his Blade

Ghostbloods: What do these people even want?

Goals: Urithiru; knowledge there probably. Didn’t want Jasnah spreading knowledge of Voidbringers? Or just didn’t want her to beat them to the city?

Resources: Substantial. Significant members: Thaidakar (head, not yet met), Mraize, Masked Woman [Parshendi?], Shallan, Halaran (possibly not fully.) Davars owe them money.

Envisigiants: Nice, useless cult or bigger than Teft knew? Don’t SEEM related to any of the above in goals.

In conclusion: man, fuck if I know. 

Um. I actually feel very lacking in plot or worldbuilding theories right now. I think most of them slipped into the character stuff anyway.

Either “Zahel” LOST his talking murdersword (whom I love), or he GAVE IT AWAY, and either way, honestly, what a dipshit and also where hte fuck is Vivenna and how did they get here?? Worldhopping obviously but there was no sign anyone in Warbreaker (aside from Hoid ofc) knew about that, so...???

I think the Aimians, with their mild shapeshifting, must be related to the Parshendi as well (I did look up the Horneaters.) And the...whatever sort of person Lift met in Edgedancer. I literally am not sure whether it’s spoilers or just background Cosmere lore that humans re not native to this planet, though they’ve been here for millennia, but I bet all the shapeshifting species are native. 

Obvious but worth saying: the Nightmother is to Cultivation as the Stormfather is to Honor, probably? More or less?

Big point of confusion, actually: Honor is dead, but I don’t think Cultivation is? Yet she’s in the same vicinity as Odium, and has been for millennia. Hiding? Hiding really well? Maybe voluntarily mostly broke herself up into spren?

Note: the Nightmother’s boons and curses appear to be mostly cerebral, matters of perception or ability, though sometimes something like a bolt of cloth. This is presumably because she’s operating in mostly the Cognitive Realm. (Lift’s boon, of course, is explicitly a...blending of Realms.) (Or possibly Lift’s Curse? You know, the whole Boon/Curse dichotomy is almost certainly a failure of human perception.)

In WoK, it sounded like Elhokar was being followed by the same sort of pattern-headed Cryptics as Shallan, but then they didn’t like being around Kaladin and that worries me, especially with Amaram (sketchy) being followed by shadows at the end of WoR. I can see Cryptics simply not liking Windrunners tbh, but...there are darker spren around, now.

The reason this Desolation seems to be starting differently than previous ones is probably a combination of the particularly long wait between them +...is it cruel of me to hope it really IS partly Wit’s fault. In interfering. I’m sure he’ll help, but you know he’s going to break something eventually.

No, it’s probably that the Oathpact is weak, on account of just one true Herald left, and Odium is preparing to blow this popstand.

The first 5 books will end with the Desolation REALLY starting, and the gap will cover the new Knights Radiant orders settling into their new roles, people dying all over but it still could be worse, etc.

Series Endgame things: I think both that we’re going to need 10 new Heralds, one per Order, AND that Odium is going o be released back into the greater Cosmere, and I’m not sure how both those things will happen but I swear they will.  

If I know absolutely anything about Brandon Sanderson’s writing habits, someday a man matching Spook’s description is going to appear in a Stormlight Archive book, inevitably speaking Eastern Empire street slang, and let me tell you, I am going to scream aloud. I think we’ll get Spook before Kelsier, though they might arrive together.

Worst comes to worst, I would watch an entire film of everyone else being dead but Odium furiously chasing Kelsier around the universe, playing whack-a-mole because this single asshole just will not stay dead.